CHAPTER IX.
Malta—Dreadful accident by the Explosion of a Magazine in the town, on the Bermola side—Nearly get into a scrape about breaking quarantine—Kind answer of the gallant Admiral Sir Sidney Smith to the complaint—Rejoin the Melpomene—Mutiny in Fribourg’s regiment—Cruise in the Adriatic.
On my arrival at Malta I learnt that the ship was on a cruise, and that she had lost, a short time after I was taken, our gallant first lieutenant, Andrew Thompson, who was killed, with most of his boat’s crew, in boarding,—in the middle of the day, with the barge alone,—a French armed settee, with six long nine-pounders, off Leghorn; but the few survivors—Lieutenant Gascoigne, R.M.; Mr. W. Butler, mid; and a noble fellow, a sergeant of marines, named Milligan, with eight seamen, all that remained out of twenty-five men—gallantly hooked on the boat, and carried the vessel, driving some of her crew overboard, and causing the rest to beg for quarter.
At the prize agent’s I found my chest of clothes, which had been left behind to be forwarded to England, it not being expected I should rejoin the ship. This was a great and unexpected comfort. The delight of a nice new coat, linen, &c., after my poor ragged dress was a treat, which, fully to enjoy, a person should be placed in a similar situation.
I was sent on board the Madras (guard-ship) to wait for a passage to join the Melpomene, when, in August, a dreadful accident happened. I was awakened out of sleep about six in the morning by a tremendous noise, and the bursting of shells. I jumped out of bed, and ran upon deck, thinking we were in action, when a shell fell upon the wharf to which the ship was secured, burst, and killed the gunner of the Madras. An immense cloud of black smoke and dust was hovering in the air, and cries, shrieks, and groans were heard in every direction: a magazine in the centre of the town of Bermola, nearly opposite the dockyard, in which many live shells had been placed by the French during the siege in 1800, had exploded. A party of artillerymen had been sent to take out the fuses, and by some unfortunate accident one shell had gone off, for one or two explosions were heard before the magazine blew up. How the event happened of course not a soul employed was left to tell, and, in addition to a sergeant’s party of artillerymen, nearly 300 of the inhabitants were killed or seriously injured; part of two streets were thrown down, and many more houses were severely shaken.
A short time after this shocking event, a transport was directed to sail for Palermo, and a passage thither was ordered for me to look for my ship. Outside of Malta harbour we were boarded by a boat, bringing a lieutenant and some men from a vessel in quarantine to join their ship also at Palermo. The wind, which had been fair, suddenly changed, and the weather appearing unsettled, the master prudently bore up, and returned into harbour. I thought it very hard to be placed in quarantine, because we had taken the above officer and men out from the lazaretto, therefore the moment the ship dropt anchor, without waiting for the pratique boat to come alongside, I got into a shore boat, and landed in the town of Valette.
Fortunately, as soon as I had landed, the captain of the Madras met me, and instantly sent me back to the transport, saying, if the quarantine officer found me out, I should be sent to prison. The next morning the wind came fair, and we put to sea. Just when we had got clear of the harbour—the pratique office having gained intelligence of my visit to the shore—a boat was sent after the ship to take me out, and place me in the lazaretto; but the wind freshening, we left her astern, and proceeded on our voyage to Palermo, where I expected that nothing more would have been thought of the matter.
From thence I went on board the Thunderer (74), for a passage to Naples, where I was taken very ill with a kind of cholera morbus, which in a few hours reduced me very much, but a good constitution enabled me soon to recover from its attack, although it left me very weak for some time.
On our arrival off Naples we found cruising at the entrance of the bay the gallant Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, who sent for me on board the Pompée (80), and said, “What is this you have been doing? You are a very pretty fellow! This morning a brig came from Malta, bringing a formal complaint against you from the governor for breaking quarantine, and requesting me to send you back there to be tried; but,” added he, in the kindest manner, “never mind, I have answered them, and told them they, not you, were to blame, for had they done their duty you could never have got on shore, and it was entirely owing to their neglect that you transgressed the quarantine laws.” That answer settled the matter, and I never heard anything more of the affair, although, after joining the Melpomene, which I did in the course of a few days, the ship was sent to Malta to refit.
I was quite delighted to get back to my old ship, and be under the command of her dashing gallant young captain, who, had he not been killed afterwards in America, would have now been one of the best officers in the service. Shortly after our arrival at Malta, in September, a most serious mutiny broke out in a foreign regiment in our service, quartered at Fort Recazzoli, called “Fribourg’s,” or the Greek Light Infantry. It was composed of Germans, Swiss, French, Greeks, Istrians, Dalmations, and Albanians. Most of the officers were Germans, and the discipline of the regiment did not suit the ideas of these mercenaries; added to which, some of the Albanians and Dalmatians had been most shamefully cajoled by emissaries, under false promises, into our service. In those countries a kind of clanship prevails, and some of the heads of those clans were told, that if they would enter, with their followers, into this regiment, they would receive the rank of captain. These wild chiefs, thinking it a great thing to be made captain at once in the British service, embarked with their followers, and came to Malta, where, instead of being placed in the situation they expected, they were put into the ranks, and one or two of them made a sergeant or corporal. This, with other causes, created a general disgust, and a secret plan was formed by these wild tribes to rush into the officers’ mess-room, while at dinner, and murder every one of them indiscriminately. Suspecting, however, that their plan had been discovered, they did not wait for dinner time, but about two or three o’clock in the afternoon, rose upon the few officers that were in the fort at the time, killed a captain, the adjutant, and quarter-master, wounded the colonel and major, whose lives were saved by the Germans, and hauling up the drawbridge, demanded terms, which were that the regiment should be disbanded, and themselves sent back to their own country.