On seeing this the whole of the Lascars, instead of coming to his rescue, fled down the fore-hatchway.
I gave the tindal another tap on the head to enforce quietness, and took away his creese.
"Help me to secure this rascal," cried I to our men; "he will be a surety for the other Lascars."
"I have him, sir, hard and fast, as if clenched in the dry nippers of a Jamaica land-crab," said Tom Lambourne; and, in a few seconds, he had the old copper-colored rogue seized by the hands and feet to one of the aftmost guns.
Then we rushed forward to share in the scuffle, which was soon ended; for just as Antonio, on seeing the turn matters had taken by the force of our superior arms, was about to spring overboard, Hislop struck him senseless by a blow from the butt-end of his musket, and flung him, like a bale of wool, upon the top of the Lascars, who crowded about the bottom of the fore-hatchway ladder.
"Ha, porpoise-face!" said he, fiercely, "I have brought you up with a round turn at last!"
One or two Spaniards now fled up the fore-rigging, whence they implored us not to shoot them; but the squat marinero, Benito Ojeda, and all the rest, were driven down the fore-hatch, where they crowded at the foot of the ladder, treading the Lascars under foot, growling and menacing us with their knives and creeses, and threatening to set fire to the ship,—a threat which they were quite capable of fulfilling.
On the deck lay one Lascar dead, and two Lascars and one Spaniard who were wounded in the legs. In his death agony the first had driven three inches of his sharp creese into the deck, when the blade broke off.
Probart was still at the wheel, steering the ship so steadily that not a cloth shivered aloft; but night was coming on, and as she was covered with canvas, to reduce it was necessary, but first the mutinous crew must be crushed. To Probart, as a spectator, the conflict must have presented an exciting scene; for, had we been beaten, his fate as an Englishman would soon have been sealed.
José Estremera, who had long been captain of a Spanish slaver, was inexorable!