Observing me much astonished, and, perhaps, somewhat frightened, for I thought he must have committed some great and horrible crime, he grasped my hand in his, till I thought the blood came, and said, in a low voice—
‘Young man, I know not your soul, whether it loveth the gauds and the pomps of the world which are but vanity, or whether it would walk in the paths which are narrow and thorny, but which lead upwards. Yet I do believe you to be in spirit true and leal; and wherefore then should I dissemble, that if I am an outcast, it is in a holy and a just cause—ay, and a cause which will triumph, when the blood of the saints which crieth aloud is justified and avenged! Leonard Lindsay, I am one of those who by voice and hand did to death the man Charles Stuart.’
This, then, was one of the regicides whom I had often heard were wandering about the world, being driven from their land by this great and justifiable deed, for so my parents taught me to esteem it, of the putting to death of the king. I would have told my friend somewhat to this effect, but he stopped me, saying, applause or disapprobation were alike to him; that he would help and comfort all his fellow-men, but that he cared not for their opinion on what he had done, always looking for judgment inwards to his own soul, and thence upwards to his God.
Shortly after this we went on deck, and my first glance was astern, where the skiff was still towing, although the waves raised by the sea-breeze ran so gaily, that sometimes as they chased us, the boat, rising on the crest of the following sea, would seem as though she would be hove bodily on deck. The land was now quite close, not more than a mile under the lee, so that we could see a great succession of bays and little headlands with bushes of many sorts, and rich tangled underwood, creeping among and clothing the knolls and banks even to the water’s edge. Over these, high palms bended and waved in the sea-breeze, these seeming to issue from every crevice in the rocks; and sometimes, where a rivulet came down into the sea, the banks thereof being flat and soft, grew great thickets of the mangrove bush, a shrub which rises on bare grey stems out of the water, supporting whole beds of tangled and intertwisting foliage above, thus raising, as it were, a sort of canopy above the water. Between such places and the rocky headlands were often little bays, with narrow strips of white glittering beach, running like crescents from cliff to cliff, the sea breaking in flashing surf upon the shingle, and often sending its spray pelting among the bushes. Never, indeed, had I seen a more glorious coast, one so teeming with beauty and the riches of an overflowing nature. Involuntarily after every long and ardent gaze I turned my eyes upon my skiff, praying within my heart that nought might come to make my adventure miscarry.
As the evening approached, I was so impatient that I disposed of the biscuits, the powder, and the ball about my person, and was for ever going below to the berth to see that the musket was safe. The mariners, however, being excited and joyful, that the end of the voyage was nigh, gave little heed to me, otherwise my continued movements and feverish demeanour could not have but raised suspicion. In those low latitudes there is but little twilight, and half an hour after the sun went down into the sea ahead of us, the stars were shining out through the night. Meantime the sea-breeze had died away, and for an hour or longer we were left heaving upon the glassy swell, the land showing in vast dusky masses which, as it were, cut great spaces out of the firmament twinkling with stars, and the roar of the surf coming heavy and loud over the sea. Presently, after divers faint puffs, which caused the canvas to flap, shaking down on the deck great showers of dew, the land-wind, or terral, arose in its turn, balmy and sweet with the smell of the forests, and our lateen sails being dipped, we glided along, leaning over to seaward. The mid-watch came at last, and it had not been set for more than half an hour, ere the men dropped to sleep, under the lee of the bulwarks, excepting the steersman, and he leaned heavily and drowsily over the tiller. Then I brought on deck the musket and the broc, depositing them in safe places. But the question was how to get on board the skiff so as to elude the notice of the sailor who steered. Having soon devised a plan, I communicated it to Wright, who did not hesitate to put it into execution. Going aft, he stood beside the helmsman, and after some time, looking astern, remarked how the land-wind broke the usual heave of the sea into wild disorderly waves, and then observing that the skiff might be injured by being flung under our counter by the jumble of the water, he took the rope and hauled the boat ahead—the steersman thinking no harm—until he made it fast alongside, and screened from sight by the mainsail. In five minutes after, with a strong gripe of the hand, and a fervent ‘God speed you,’ I swung myself noiselessly aboard, and placed the gun and the broc in the bottom of the boat. Wright, so I must still call him, then undid the rope. My hand was at that moment upon the smooth side of the felucca, which I suddenly felt slip by me; I was adrift! Holding my breath, and my hand still against the planking of the vessel, she glided fast and faster by me, eluding as it were my clutch, when her shape melted away into the run. A minute after and I saw the small dusky hull and white stretching canvas becoming indistinct in the darkness ahead. I was alone, but I was free. For near an hour I remained almost motionless, fearing every moment to hear an alarum-gun fire; but the night continued silent, and then with a good heart I took up my oars, and using two as sculls, rowed towards the coast. The land-breeze blew steadily, so I had to tug long and hard. At last, seeing the dusky bank close ahead, I paused to look for a landing-place, but none could I see. The nature of the coast seemed to have changed, the land hereabout being a long smooth wall of perpendicular rock, sinking sheerly into the sea, which rose and fell at the base, with a loud hissing, pouring, gurgling sound—not like the deep thunder of surf. I therefore set myself to pull eastwardly, in search of a creek or bay. I knew that the moon would presently rise over the land, and in sooth, in about an hour, I noticed the glow of her broad disc peeping over the edge of the cliff ahead of me, and showing it, fringed, as it were, with a line of bushes and brushwood, which curled over the precipice, surmounted now and then by one of the tall, bending palmetto trees. In about an hour I had moonlight sufficient to see pretty distinctly the great limestone ledges along which I was cautiously coasting—pausing on my oars, now and then, to hear the great buzz of insects and the forlorn cries of night-birds which floated from the land. It must have been near three o’clock, when I saw a black-like opening in the wall of cliff, and very cautiously I pulled my boat inwards. For some time I was in great doubt as to whether I had found a creek, but presently I beheld the two portals of rock between which I was, fairly astern of the boat, and saw and heard the white gleam of the surf breaking on the beach. But the former was too high for me to risk a landing, and I would have pulled out to sea again, but seeing another dark shadowy space upon the left, I made for it, hoping it might turn out an oblique channel leading from the main cove. I was not deceived, and presently the boat glided along a sort of dusky canal, with great rocks on either hand, clothed with rich creeping herbage; trees hanging over either ledge, and, as the channel narrowed, meeting, and by their intertwining boughs shutting out the blue sky. Below me the water showed as black as tar, yet sparkling, when the undulations from the outer creek caused it to rise and sink upon the bushy banks. Now and then a flutter of wings would echo in the narrow passage, and the loud shriek of a night-bird would drown the noise. Anon a scrambling, walloping sound, followed by a splash, as of a great animal scuttling from a ledge into the water, would ensue, and again, for a time, there would be deep silence. In about a quarter of an hour, the heave of the sea was no longer felt, owing, as I concluded, to the shallowing of the creek; and then, making fast the skiff to a great protruding branch, which I struck my head against, I rolled myself in a blanket which I found Wright had flung into the boat, and was soon asleep, being thus, as it were, safely anchored to the New World!
CHAPTER III.
I JOIN A BROTHERHOOD OF HUNTERS AND ADVENTURERS ON THE
COAST.
I did not wake until the sun was reasonably high, although but few rays found their way into the curious cove, which by such a lucky chance I had hit. It was, indeed, a sort of natural corridor or aisle: rocks covered with plants and bushes forming great green walls, with tangled trees bending from side to side, and meeting and interlacing above, like a roof, while the floor was limpid water. The air within this natural alcove was of a greenish hue, and the reflection from the water the same. Great numbers of gay-coloured birds fluttered and screamed, rather than sang, amid the boughs; and on almost every projecting stone by the edge of the water stood a great grey crane or heron, watching for the small fish which form its prey. After I had looked my fill, I began to think of breakfast; for, in order to eke out my store, I had gone supperless to bed. So I munched a couple of biscuits, and took a great pull at the sweet, fresh water. There were fruits and vegetables of many kinds growing near, which I feared to meddle with, not knowing their properties. After breakfast, I cast off from my bough, and paddled to and fro in the channel to seek a landing-place. This I was not long in discovering, at the spot where a little runnel of the most transparent water I ever saw in my life came trickling down in a small hollow, or what, in Scotland, we would call a scaur. The sides of the ravine were, it is true, very steep, but they were clothed with matted grass and vegetation, so that I could clamber up without much difficulty. I therefore made my boat fast very carefully, for I knew not what use she might be to me afterwards, and also loaded my gun and hammered the flint, after which I addressed myself to climb to the top of the bank. I found this tolerably hard work; the heat of the sun was excessive, and here there was no sea-breeze to refresh one. Moreover, I did not much like the infinity of creeping and crawling things which, as I made my way upwards, I startled amid the coarse grass and underwood. Great beetles, shining and speckled—writhing creatures, like grey worms, with numberless legs—horrible hairy spiders—and one or two small snakes, all mottled and brindled. Besides, there flew about me, making a tiny buzz, as if they blew small hairy trumpets, hosts of that accursed fly called by the French maranguinnes, and by the English mosquitos, which stung me until I was almost mad,—slapping my face and my hands, and thrashing the air with a leafy branch, but all in vain. At length, after great toil, I stood upon the top of the bank, and felt, to my joy, the cool blast of the strong sea-breeze, which rustled in the bushes, and soon blew away my insect enemies far to leeward. Then, mounting a moderate-sized eminence, I set myself to reconnoitre; and truly I might have deemed that I was in a desert and unpeopled land. Behind me rose great swelling ridges, extending above one another as far as my eye could reach, and all covered with bright green brushwood, with here and there one of the long feathery palm-trees standing up like a steeple over houses. Not many paces in front ran a long fringe, as it were, of waving trees and bushes, marking the extreme edge of the cliff, which sank into the ocean; while beyond this there stretched out the great blue expanse of the sea, speckled here and there with white, as the waves broke, but sailless, and as lonely as the land. The great mountains which we had seen from on board were here invisible, and even the ridges around, as I gazed on them, seemed to move and quiver in the great heat. Notwithstanding pretty humming-birds, less than Jenny Wrens, fluttered about, and there was a mighty chattering, as of armies of parrots and parroquets, which whooped and called to each other from grove to grove.
At first, I felt a kind of sinking at being alone in this great wilderness, but plucking up courage, I set off to trudge along the coast to the eastward. The journey was toilsome in the extreme, for the stunted shrubs were tangled so, that I was ofttimes compelled to cut a passage with my clasp-knife, and the heat made my temples throb and ache strangely. At length, seeing great trees of prodigious size, the skirts of a forest, on my right hand, I made for them, and entering their shade, found better walking, for here was a canopy of leaves which warded off the sun, and also prevented the growth of underwood, the ground being clear, and the air cool, between the vast trunks of these glorious trees. However, I kept upon the edge of the wood, for fear of losing myself, not designing to stray far from the sea. Having marched thus near two hours, I heard a noise, which, as I came nearer, I took to be the yellings of wild animals; so that, somewhat startled, I looked to the priming of my gun, and also gazed around for a tree into which it might be convenient to climb. Meantime, the tumult came nearer, and I imagined it to be of dogs, yet it was rather a savage yelping than the deep bay of hounds. Next I heard a great crashing of branches on the edge of the wood, and making my way there, and mounting a tree, I speedily saw a huge wild boar, as I judged, with great tusks, and his jaws covered with flakes of foam, closely chased by a pack of dogs. These latter were fawn-coloured, with black muzzles; their legs were short, but very brawny; and as I heard no sound or shout of hunters, I concluded, with reason, that the pack before me were descendants of those ferocious bloodhounds brought by the Spaniards into Hispaniola, and other islands, to hunt down the inoffensive Indians, and which, being deserted by their masters, ran wild and multiplied, so that flocks of them assemble, and hunt the cattle and boars for their own support. Meantime, however, the quarry had turned to bay underneath a tree not far from me, and the dogs stood round in a semicircle, yelping at him. At length, one bolder than the rest made a spring, and drove his great jaws, as it seemed to me, into the animal’s flank. This was the signal for a general onset, and, in a moment, the boar, grunting and squeeling hideously, was tumbled on the ground, the ferocious dogs, with jaws and muzzles all blood and froth, tearing and riving its living flesh, so that, in the space of a very few minutes, the creature was not only killed, but well-nigh pulled into morsels. Then the dogs, several of which were hurt, and limped and whined, fell to and ate their fill, after which having gorged themselves to their very throats, they lay down to sleep. Seeing this, I concluded that I could with safety pursue my journey, and accordingly got down from the tree and did so, none of the bloodhounds molesting me.
I walked until the afternoon, still seeing no sign of human life, and then feeling very hungry, and moreover wishing for something more savoury than bread and water, I looked about for game. Many green lizards or guanos were to be seen in the branches, and these the Frenchmen on board the felucca had assured me were good food, but I could not bring my stomach to them, and at length, after several unsuccessful shots, I secured a bird, nearly double the size of our pigeon, on which I determined to dine. Coming to a little rivulet of clear water, with pretty pools, nourishing the most luscious profusion of water-plants, I sat me down, and presently discovered a large duck quackling and nibbling in the herbage. Now, the flesh of a duck I knew, but the bird I had already killed was a stranger to me; so taking a very careful aim at the poor fellow, I fired and sent the bullet—I had no small shot—right through him. But immediately there rose such a loud rustling of wings, and quacking, and screaming, that I was confounded, until, making a few steps in advance, I saw that the rivulet a little above spread into a good-sized weedy pond, which harboured thousands of ducks, and teal, and widgeon, all of which flew away on hearing the report of my piece. Having recovered my game from the water, I set to work, plucked him, and, kindling a fire of dry sticks and leaves, broiled him thereon. The cookery was rough, but I thought the fare capital, only the want of salt annoyed me. Having dined, I jogged on as before, and as evening approached found myself exceedingly fatigued and dispirited at having seen no human being. When the sun went down and the short tropical twilight gave way to night, through which the stars blazed with a fiery lustre, unknown to me until I had crossed the Atlantic, I even began to ponder as to whether I had done well in leaving the ship at all; but speedily shaking off this idle despondency, I wrapped myself up in my blanket, which, in spite of its weight, I had carried strapped tightly on my shoulders, and seasoning my biscuit with a piece of tobacco to chew, made my supper, and slept in the fork of a tree, lying back not uncomfortably among the branches. I awoke once or twice and listened to the low hum and drone of insects, in addition to which a bird, as I judged, uttered from time to time a long mournful cry, sounding like ‘Weep, poor weel,’ which was very melancholy, echoing through that great midnight wilderness. Around me gleamed the little lights of glow-worms, called by the Spaniards Moscas del Fuego. But these extinguished their lamps in the latter part of the night.