“I’ll take care that we are not caught by them, and I hope that we shall get on board before they can reach the ship,” said the first mate.
“Remember, Radburn, the lives of the boat’s crew are committed to your charge, and though I shall be glad to help Captain Bingley, you must turn back rather than risk an encounter in the boat with the pirates.”
“I will do as you order, sir,” answered Uncle Jack, eagerly springing to the falls and singing out for volunteers.
The captain, however, would positively allow only four hands to go, including Ned and Bell, another Englishman, and a Malay. I entreated that I might accompany him, and Blyth volunteered. The captain gave me leave, though Uncle Jack hesitated. Several more of the men came aft.
“It cannot be,” said the captain, “we must keep hands enough to fight the brig.”
While the boat was being lowered, arms were collected; each man stuck a brace of pistols in his belt, and we had muskets, cutlasses, and several pikes. The captain would not allow us to take more, observing justly that they might be required on board the brig. We really had no reason to complain of his readiness to assist out friends. Not a minute had elapsed before we were ready, and getting out the oars away we pulled, the first mate, of course, steering.
We steered slightly to the south as the current was setting north, which of course made the distance longer. I could not help confessing to myself that it was very doubtful whether we should reach the ship before the prahus.
While the mate steered, Blyth and I employed ourselves in loading the arms. Our men pulled as hard as they could bend their backs to the oars. They believed that if we could once gain the ship’s deck, that we should succeed in driving back the pirates as well as we had done on board the brig. We could not tell whether we had been seen from the prahus, but those on board the ship would, we hoped, make out the signal hoisted at the mast-head of the “Lily,” that a boat was coming to their assistance, and that this would encourage them to defend themselves should they be attacked before we could reach them. I had never before felt the intense anxiety I now experienced, and I knew how Uncle Jack must be feeling.
We were now rapidly nearing both the leading prahus and the ship, and we could even distinguish the fighting men on the decks of the former, with their gingalls and muskets or spears in their hands, though we could not make out whether they had any guns in their bows.
Captain Bingley had laughed at our carrying so many guns, and Uncle Jack said that when the “Iris” sailed she had only two six-pounders for firing signals. Whether others had afterwards been shipped he could not tell; even the two small ones it was possible might have been hove overboard to lighten the ship.