A Roving Commission; Or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti

by G. A. Henty

The three vessels kept company until, on the third day after sailing, they overtook the two merchantmen. Nat, supposing that the Isis would now leave them, went on board to thank the captain for the great assistance that he had given him.

"I shall stay with you now, Mr. Glover. The news of the outbreak of war will be known at Jamaica by this time, for the despatches were sent off on the day before we sailed from home, by the Fleetwing, which is the fastest corvette in the service. She was to touch at Antigua and then go straight on to Port Royal. I was to carry the news to Barbados, so that it does not make any difference whether I reach Kingston two hours earlier or later. There is a possibility that the French may have sent ships off even before they declared war with us, and as it is certain that there are several war-ships of theirs out here, one of these might fall in with you before you reach Jamaica. Therefore as my orders are simply to report myself to the admiral at Kingston, I think it is quite in accordance with my duty that I should continue to sail in company with you."

"Thank you, sir. There certainly is at least one French frigate in the bay of Hayti, and if she has received the news she is quite likely to endeavour to pick up some prizes before it is generally known, just as the Spartane picked up those merchantmen, and though possibly we might beat her off, I should very much prefer to be let alone."

"Yes, you have done enough for one trip, and I should much regret were you to be deprived of any of your captures."

The Agile was signalled to prepare to pick up her boat, and Nat was soon on board his own craft again. He ran up to within speaking distance of the Spartane, and shouted to Turnbull that the Isis was going to remain in company with them. Turnbull waved his hand, for although he had not entertained any fear of their being attacked, he felt nervous at his responsibility if a sudden gale should spring up and the temporary rudder be carried away. It was a comfort to him to know that, should this happen, the Isis would doubtless take him in tow, for in anything like a wind the Agile would be of little use. However, the weather continued fine, and in five days after leaving Barbados they entered Kingston harbour. Three hours before, the Isis had spread all sail, and entered, dropping anchor half an hour before the Agile sailed in in charge of the three large ships. The brigantine was heartily cheered by the crews of all the vessels in port, but it was naturally supposed that it was the Isis that had done the principal work in capturing the Spartane. Her captain, however, had rowed to the flag-ship directly they came in port, leaving Mr. Ferguson to see to the Spartane being anchored, and had given him a brief account of the nature of the procession that was approaching three or four miles away.

"He is a most extraordinary young officer," the admiral said. "He first distinguished himself nearly three years ago by rescuing the daughter of a planter in Hayti, who was attacked by a fierce hound, and who would have been killed had he not run up. He was very seriously hurt, but managed to despatch the animal with his dirk. Since that time he has been constantly engaged in different adventures. He was in that desperate fight when the Orpheus broke up a notorious horde of pirates on the mainland, and distinguished himself greatly. He was up country in Hayti when the negroes rose, and he there saved from the blacks a lady and her daughter, the same girl that he had rescued from the dog, and shot eight of the villains, but had one of his ribs broken by a ball. In spite of that, he carried the lady, who was ill with fever, some thirty miles across a rough country down to Cape François in a litter.

"Then I gave him the command of a little cockle-shell of a schooner mounting four guns, carrying only twenty men. Hearing of a planter and his family in the hands of the blacks, he landed the whole of his crew, while expecting himself to be attacked by boats, and rescued the planter, three ladies, and six white men, and got them down on board, although opposed by three hundred negroes. Then he captured the brigantine he now commands, and a valuable prize that she had taken, and you say he has now captured a French thirty-six-gun frigate, after a fight in which she lost in killed and wounded half her crew, and recovered two Indiamen she had picked up on her way out."

They went out on the quarter-deck, where the admiral repeated to his officers the story that he had just heard, and from them it soon circulated round the ship. Some of the crew had just cleaned the guns with which they had returned the salute fired by the Isis as she entered the port on arriving for the first time on the station, but they were scarcely surprised when, as the brigantine approached, the first lieutenant gave the order for ten more blank cartridges to be brought up, and for the crew to prepare to man the yards. But the surprise of those on board the other ships of war and the merchantmen was great when they saw the sailors swarming up the ratlines and running out on the yards.

"It is an unusual thing," the admiral remarked to the captains of the Isis and his own ship, "and possibly contrary to the rules of the service, but I think the occasion excuses it."

The brigantine did not salute as she came into the port, as she was considered to be on the station.