The old town of Portsmouth appeared to slip past our larboard quarter, and presently the ship was lifting to the gentle swell, as, close-hauled, we headed towards the English Channel.
Thus commenced the three years' cruise of my first ship, His Majesty's ship Gannet, and I soon accustomed myself to the routine, showing a keen interest in the duties of a midshipman; and ere long I could vie with my messmates in the most hazardous tasks that fell to their lot.
The Gannet first sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean Sea, for the purpose of keeping an eye on the Algerine rovers, who had again begun, in spite of the sharp lesson taught them by Admiral Blake, to molest peaceful traders. From the Mediterranean we sailed across the Atlantic to the Indies, to make our headquarters the town of Port Royal in Jamaica, an island that Penn and Venables had seized from the Spaniards some five years before.
[CHAPTER VI--Of the Finding of Pedro Alvarez, and of the Strange Tale that he Told]
On arriving at Port Royal Captain Poynings decided that the Gannet should be refitted. Accordingly preparations were made to overhaul the ship thoroughly ere she joined her consorts in a cruise amongst the Antilles for the purpose of destroying those hornets' nests of buccaneers that made the Caribbean Sea a terror to law-abiding seamen.
Our task was rendered doubly difficult, first by the oppressive heat, and secondly by the fact that, like the Mediterranean, these waters are practically tideless, so that the difference between the rise and fall can be measured by the span of a man's hand.
On this account it is impossible for a vessel to be left high and dry, so the operation of cleaning her hull below the waterline is performed by "careening", or allowing her to lie on one bilge, so that the other side is raised above the water.
All heavy gear, including the guns, was taken ashore, the manual work being performed by gangs of negro slaves, who toiled and groaned under the lash of their relentless taskmasters.
To me the sight was a terrible one, unaccustomed as I was to scenes of cruelty, and I unburdened myself to the master.
"Heart alive, lad!" he replied with a careless laugh, "they are but niggers, and know naught else of life but to toil. Treat them kindly, and they'll take care to work still less. And, mark my words, lad, if ever it comes to pass that these blackamoors are freed, as Master Penn would persuade us to do, then these islands are doomed. Never a stroke will they do save under compulsion---- There, look at that!"