[CHAPTER XIV.]
WALTER AND HENRI LEMAIRE.
To make a quick passage was the great desire of all on board the schooner from various motives, the most prominent of which was to break the fetters of Peterson at the earliest opportunity; but they also burned to show themselves equal to the occasion, and justify the expectations formed of them, well aware that the attention of the whole community, and those whom they loved best, was fixed upon them. Time was also precious, us they could not tell how much time might be occupied in the search and rescue at Martinique, and it was of the greatest importance to get away from there before the hurricane months.
With new rigging and masts, new sails, and plenty of them, a clean bottom, and a wholesale breeze, the gallant little craft, that had been employed on so many errands of mercy, and with which so many pleasant associations were connected, nobly seconded the eager wishes of her young navigators, and sustained her previous reputation.
"Don't them 'ere sails set like a board, and don't she travel, the jade?" shouted Dick, in ecstasy, as Agamenticus grew dim in the distance, and the stars came out one by one; "we shall have to heave to for the wind. That's the time o' day, shipmate," he cried, as a rooster, sticking his head between the slats of a coop, uttered a shrill note of defiance. "Doctor" (cook), "don't kill that chap. We'll keep him to crow when we get the nigger."
It was the intention of Captain Rhines to have taken one of Peterson's boys for cook; but Ben was in the Casco, with Isaac Murch, and the boy next in age had sailed for Berbice, in a Kennebunk ship, the day before Captain Rhines returned from Boston. They, therefore, shipped a black, who, like Peterson, had been a slave, and was formerly owned by Henry Merrithew's father. His name being Neptune, they called him Nep for short.
Captain Griffin (though, for convenience, we shall continue to call him Walter) and Dick were in one watch, Mr. Gates (little Ned) and Sewall Lancaster in the other. It was not a very aristocratic arrangement; for the captain and mate worked ship, and took their tricks at the helm, although Dick and Sewall were very particular in addressing them by their titles; and, when the captain was on deck, Ned was as scrupulous about taking the weather-side of the quarter-deck as though he had been aboard the largest ship.
At daybreak of the ninth day, they made Mount Pelee in the distance, and soon after sighted the north-western part of Martinique, and saw a big rock, and a flat point, with a plantation on it.
"This," said Lancaster, "is Point Precheur, and the rock Pearl Rock."
It was not long before they made the white awnings of the vessels in the harbor of St. Pierre, the principal commercial port of Martinique. This island belongs to France, is about thirty-five miles long, and of irregular shape, rocky, somewhat mountainous, abounding in intricate coves and creeks of difficult navigation, but affording excellent sheltered harbors for vessels both of large and small burdens. The soil is fertile, and water abundant; the population ninety-nine thousand, of whom seventy-eight thousand are negroes. It is subject to earthquakes and hurricanes at certain seasons of the year.
Captain Rhines had given Walter particular directions about taking care of the vessel at St. Pierre, which is an open roadstead. The town is built on the side of a hill which falls off towards the water, forming a circular beach. The shore being bold, vessels moor head and stern, with anchors carried out to the south-east and north-west. Lumber is rafted to the eastern portion of the harbor, where the water is shoaler, and merchandise from the shore is brought off in launches. For special reasons, the boys were in no haste to sell, and went ashore to look at the place.