the harbour lies somewhere beyond that low rocky point which forms the western extremity of the island? But if so, why not steer directly for it?”
“The entrance to the harbour is exactly in line with our jib-boom-end just now,” explained Johnson in high good-humour; “but I guess you would never know it unless you was told; would you, colonel?”
“That indeed I should not,” answered Lance; “and even now I scarcely know how to believe you.”
Lance might well say so, for the whole coast-line in front of them presented an apparently unbroken face of rocky cliffs of various heights, from about thirty to two hundred feet, backed by grassy slopes thickly dotted with dense clumps of trees of various kinds, many of which glowed with the most brilliant tints from the flowers with which they were loaded. Immediately ahead, where Johnson had said the entrance to the harbour lay, a great irregular mass of low jagged rocks projected slightly beyond the general face-line of the cliffs, and behind it was a gap which had the appearance of being caused by the projecting mass of rock having at some remote period broken away and slipped into the sea. The brig, however, continued to stand on boldly, and when she had arrived within about three cables’-lengths of the shore, it became apparent that the large mass of rock ahead, or rather on the lee bow by this time, the brig having luffed a trifle, was entirely detached from the island, leaving a narrow channel of water between it and the cliffs behind it. But it was not until the brig had actually borne away to enter this channel that the entrance to the harbour revealed itself. Then indeed it was seen that the cliff behind, instead of preserving an unbroken face, curved inwards in the form of a cove, the eastern and western arms of which consisted of two projecting reefs jutting out toward the mass of rock in front of them, which in its turn now revealed its true shape, which was that of a crescent, the horns of which overlapped the two projecting reefs forming the eastern and western sides of the harbour-entrance, and acted as a perfect natural breakwater, effectually protecting the harbour itself in all weathers.
Winding her way through the short narrow channel between the rock and the cliffs, the brig hauled sharply round the western point and shot into the cove or harbour itself, which consisted of an irregularly-shaped expanse of water some two hundred acres in extent. At the entrance the rocks on both sides sloped steeply down into the deep blue water; but further in they were fringed along their bases by a beautiful white sandy beach which widened as it approached the bottom of the bay, the land on each side sloping more gradually down to the water, and finally spreading out, where the water ceased, into a broad and lovely valley which stretched inland some three miles, rising gradually as it receded until it became lost among a group of hills which formed the background of the picture.
At anchor in the bay were three hulks, no doubt the three prizes spoken of by Johnson as destined to be broken up for the building of the new craft; and on the grassy plateau at the bottom of the bay and close to the beach stood two large buildings and some half a dozen smaller ones, all constructed of wood. Behind these, a plot of ground, some two acres in extent, was fenced in to form a garden, and a very fruitful one it proved too, if one might judge by the luxuriant growth apparent in its various products. Corn of two or three kinds waved on the eastern slopes, half a dozen head of cattle and perhaps a couple of dozen sheep grazed on the opposite side of the valley; cocoa-nuts reared their tall slender stems and waved their feathery branches by hundreds, and behind them again as the ground sloped gently upward it became more and more densely covered with palm, banana, and plantain groves thickly interspersed with various trees, some of considerable size and dense foliage, among which brilliant orchids and gaudy parasites of the gayest hues entwined themselves to the very summits.
A light gig shot alongside the brig as her anchor was let go, and a tall swarthy man with the unmistakable classic features of a Greek stepped on board. He would have been a strikingly handsome man but for the expression of cunning and cruelty which glittered in his keen black eyes.
“Well, capitan,” said he to Johnson as he joined the pirate skipper, “so you have returned once more, and with a full hold, I hope. The people began to think you were gone for good, you have been away so long time.”
“Yes,” returned Johnson, “back again, Alec, like a bad penny; and we’ve not brought so very much with us, either; but the little we have ’ll be useful, I daresay. The brig don’t seem to sail so well as she used to, and we fell in with over half a dozen fine craft that we couldn’t get near. They just walked away from us like we was at anchor. We’ve come in now to give the old hooker an overhaul—she wants it badly enough—and then I think I shall try my luck further to the east’ard, away on t’other side of the Cape altogether. But if we haven’t brought a whole ship-load of plunder, I guess we’ve brought what’s most as good. We picked up boat-load of shipwrecked people, and among ’em there’s one—that tall soldier-looking chap over there on the larboard side of the skylight—who says he can fortify the place for us, and build us out of these old hulks a craft that ’ll beat anything we’re likely to meet, ’cepting perhaps steamers.”