Old Jack

by William Henry Giles Kingston

“Ah, I know what you are about,” said he. “You wish to escape to the white people, to tell them what we are going to do. I suspected you. That cannot be. You will see that it would be wiser for you not to join them. Come with me to-morrow, and you will see.”

My first plan was thus defeated. Still I hoped that I might meet some of the white crew of the vessel and warn them of their danger. I determined to try.

The next morning the chief and his warriors collected, and all their canoes were launched and paddled off to a point which concealed them from the stranger vessel. The smaller canoes were loaded with fruits and vegetables of all sorts, and about twenty men and boys without arms and in the most peaceable garb, paddled off to her.

On getting up, I found that the chief had appointed two men to attend on me and watch my movements. Everything conspired, therefore, to defeat all my hopes of warning the strangers of the fate intended for them.

I was allowed to proceed to a high hill, whence I could look down on the vessel, which lay in a bay at my feet. I longed to have the wings of a bird, to fly down and tell the crew of the intentions of the savages, whose small canoes now began to flock about her. Several of the chiefs reached her deck, and began offering presents of fruit and vegetables to the officers, and pointing to the shore, as if to indicate that if they would come there they would be received with a hearty welcome. I guessed, from the build of the vessel, that she was not English. At last I saw a boat lowered into the water, and a French flag flying over her stern. Though I had often been engaged in deadly strife with those fighting under that ensign, I was nevertheless anxious to save the lives of those I saw. Yet I could not speak a word of French, and probably they would not have understood my warning even if I could have given them one.

Not only one, but two boats were lowered; and, as far as I could see, no one was armed. What could have thus so speedily enticed them on shore? Looking along the beach, I saw it lined with a number of people, mostly women and children. There were young girls with baskets of fruit, and older women with vegetables, and little boys with sucking pigs and other dainties, and children running about and playing on the sands. As this was not the usual custom of the savages, I guessed too well that it was an artful device of the chief to entrap the unwary strangers. By the time the boats had reached the shore, the women and children gradually drew off, and I saw two bodies of savages stealing down through the woods on either side of them. Oh, how I longed to warn them of their peril! I would, at every risk, have shouted out, but they would not have understood me. I remained spell-bound.

Meantime, three or four of the large canoes stole out from behind the point, and gradually approached the doomed ship, the chiefs in them, when they were perceived, waving their hands in token of amity to those on board. If the party on shore observed them, I do not know; they appeared to have no fear, no suspicion of treachery. The aim of the cunning savages was to get them to separate from each other. The sellers of fruit got in among them, and enticed one on one side, and one on the other; and when this had been accomplished I saw a warrior, with his club concealed under his cloak, glide noiselessly in and attach himself to each of the unsuspecting white men. The large canoes, full of warriors, had likewise been incautiously allowed to get alongside the brig, and soon her decks were crowded with savages, making signs, and laughing, and pretending to traffic with the crew.

On a sudden, a conch-shell was sounded by the chief. Before its hoarse braying had died away, the deadly weapons of the savages had descended with terrific force on the heads of the white men on the shore. Many fell, killed at once; others attempted to run to the boats, but were pursued and quickly dispatched. On board, the plot of the chief seemed to be equally successful. Though some resistance was offered and several shots were fired, all was unavailing—not a white man ultimately escaped; and in a few minutes their bodies were brought on shore in one of the canoes, while the others followed towing the brig, whose cable the savages had cut, that they might the more easily plunder her.

As soon as she was brought close to the shore, a scene of havoc and destruction commenced on board. Some climbed the masts to unrig her, others rushed into the hold to get out the cargo, and numbers hurried to the cabin to carry off the lighter articles which it contained.

The chief, as may be supposed, got the lion’s share; and his house was soon full of fire-arms and other weapons, and clothes, and trinkets, and crockery, and articles of every description. He himself had come on shore, but numbers still remained on board, working away in the hold, and lowering down the rigging from aloft, when there was a loud explosion, and the deck of the vessel, with all on board, was lifted up and blown into the air! Not a human being on board escaped. Fragments of the wreck and mangled bodies came falling thick around, while flames burst out on every side from the hull, the scene of the late atrocity.