“I took Magellan’s advice and drank it sparingly, washing my mouth out to make it go further before I swallowed it and spinning it out as long as I could, giving a great gasp of satisfaction as I drained down the last drop. I never thought such a chap as Magellan would have had the sense to lay hands on the barrico as he did and serve it out on allowance—considering the little amount of water there was, and how all must have been pretty nigh as thirsty as myself; but, I suppose the peril he had been in and the fact of his not seeing any river near taught him caution!
“Now, on seeing me drink, the others wanted the pannikin passed round; but Jem Magellan said ‘No,’ putting the barrico back under some leaves alongside of where he had been sitting when I came up, which was the reason I hadn’t noticed it as I was certain to have done; and I, taking command of the party again, as I was entitled to do as senior petty officer, endorsed his authority, saying that it was for the good of all that some restriction should be placed on the water so as to make it last out till we got more. I daresay, sir, as how you must have thought it strange that Captain Wilson should have put me in charge of the pinnace, instead of a warrant officer or middy?”
“Yes, I must say I have been wondering at that,” I replied to Ben’s question.
“Well, it seems rather queer,” said Ben; “but you must know that when the Dolphin captured the dhow that time, the only officers on board fit for duty that weren’t down in the sick bay with fever were the first and second lieutenants, one middy and the boatswain, besides Chips the carpenter, who couldn’t be spared from the ship; and in boarding the Fatima, the first swab, as I told you, got an ugly scrape in the leg that prevented him from moving; so when the second lieutenant was put in charge of the dhow to take her up to Zanzibar, I was the only responsible man the captain could think of to send cruising with the pinnace, as the middy was a harum-scarum youngster, who hadn’t got thought enough, and neither the boatswain nor Chips could be taken away from their duties without perhaps the ship suffering. Besides, I had a very good character, standing on the books for promotion, with three good-conduct badges; and being at the time well acquainted with the coast and the ways of the slave-dhows I was just the man to be put in charge of the boat as ‘jaunty,’ as we say in the service.”
“All right, I’ve no doubt the captain selected you as a fit person for so responsible a post,” said I. “Fire away with the yarn.”
“Very good, sir,” said Ben, continuing his narrative now that he had given this explanation. “I was in command of the party anyway, though I must say I wasn’t very much like an officer in appearance, for I hadn’t a rag of clothing on. Indeed, most of us were in the same condition; for, only Magellan and one other chap had trousers, the remaining three being, like myself, as naked as when they were born! However, that did not trouble us much then, as we were under the shade of the trees, and in those parts of the world the less you have on the more comfortable you are; although, when exposed directly to the sun it soon raises blisters on a bare skin.
“Before doing anything else, as soon as I resumed my proper post as headman of the crew, I thought the best thing was to organise a proper search for water, that being our principal necessity for the moment; and, accordingly, directing the lot to separate, each going a different way so as to properly overhaul the ground, but not keeping too far apart to be out of hail of one another lest we might get lost, we dispersed through the bush—I taking the beach line for my course, and telling the rest to keep the two cocoa-nut trees in sight for a general rendezvous and report progress in an hour’s time or thereabouts if they had not found water before. If they found it, of course they were to sing out at once.
“Our courage was pretty well up then, for we had yet only seen the beginning, so to speak, of our trials, and the men went off laughing and skylarking; one calling out as how he’d soon be piping us down to a real good feed, with lashings of grog; and another saying he’d look in and ask the Queen of Madagascar to send down a carriage and fetch us to the palace. Bless you! you know what light-hearted chaps sailors are, even in the midst of danger. As for myself, I was more serious like; for, besides having the responsibility of the whole party on my shoulders and wishing to do the best for all, I couldn’t help thinking we were in a very sorry mess altogether. I knew what the coast was, you see; for it was a wide extent of savage country all the way from Cape Tangan to Majunga, with only some little native settlement here and there between, all of which were separated by this endless belt of jungle I’ve mentioned, and wide lagoons and rivers, in addition to high mountains in many places—that would have been tough climbing at the best of times, without the heavy brushwood and tangled thickets that ran up from their bases to their summits, and the deep crevices and gorges in which they abruptly ended, making one come to a dead stop on the edge of some awful abyss, over which one step further would precipitate you. I knew all this, sir, from my own past acquaintance with the coast, as well as from what I had learned from others who had seen more of it than I had; so, I did not see quite such a satisfactory end to our difficulties as all the rest did, with the exception of Magellan, who had been shipwrecked before, on the coast of China, and knew it wasn’t child’s play. But, as for the other poor fellows, they had to learn the reality in bitter earnestness. Now that they had succeeded in getting ashore such distance from where the pinnace had sunk under us, they believed they had passed through the worst peril they could possibly have to contend against and that thenceforth all was plain sailing for them. Ah! before that first day of their experiences in Madagascar was over they would have a very different tale to tell, as you’ll see.
“So thinking, and, as luck would have it, anticipating exactly what happened, though perhaps this was more owing to the melancholy frame of mind I was in than any pretence of being able to foretell the future, as some folks set up for doing, I went from the little clearing in the bush, where we had been assembled, down to the sea, the glimmer and shimmering of which, from the sun shining on it, could be seen through the openings in the foliage of the trees—first directing my footsteps, being now able to walk easily and well, to the bank at the foot of the twin cocoa-nut trees where I had rested for the night, and from thence to the place where I had crawled ashore; for, I could trace my way without any difficulty by the tracks and marks I had made in the clear white sand, which being above high-water mark had not been washed out by the tide, as would otherwise have been the case.
“From this spot, I followed along the beach the whole curve of the bay, a good two mile or more, to where it ended in a precipitous cliff, without finding the mouth of any stream or river emptying itself into the sea; but I found one thing of some service, for, attached to an oar, which must have formed part of the raft I had made and abandoned to Russell and Bellamy, was the comforter that I had taken off my neck and bound the spars together with. It came in now even handier than ever; as, wrapping it round my loins I converted the old comforter into a sort of petticoat that did duty for my missing ‘unmentionables,’ as delicate people call them, and I confess I felt more comfortable with this apology on, even though I was in those savage wilds with but my own messmates to see me.