Authors: James Fenimore Cooper
My heart beat violently as I got upon the thwart, but there lay my
hazy object, now never dipping at all. I shouted "land ho!" Marble
jumped up on a thwart, too and no longer disputed my word. It was
land, he admitted, and it must be the island of Bourbon, which we had
passed to the northward, and must soon have given a hopelessly wide
berth. We went to the oars again with renewed life, and soon made the
boat spin. All that day we kept rowing, until about five in the
afternoon, when we found ourselves within a few leagues of the island
of Bourbon, where we were met by a fresh breeze from the southward,
and were compelled to make sail. The wind was dead on end, and we made
stretches under the lee of the island, going about as we found the sea
getting to be too heavy for us, as was invariably the case whenever we
got too far east or west. In a word, a lee was fast becoming
necessary. By ten, we were within a mile of the shore, but saw no
place where we thought it safe to attempt a landing in the dark; a
long, heavy sea setting in round both sides of the island, though the
water did not break much where we remained. At length the wind got to
be so heavy, that we could not carry even our sail double-reefed, and
we kept two oars pulling lightly in, relieving each other every
hour. By daylight it blew tremendously, and glad enough were we to
find a little cove where it was possible to get ashore. I had then
never felt so grateful to Providence as I did when I got my feet on
terra-firma
.
We remained on the island a week, hoping to see the launch and her
crew; but neither appeared. Then we got a passage to the Isle of
France, on arriving at which place we found the late gale was
considered to have been very serious. There was no American consul in
the island, at that time; and Mr. Marble, totally without credit or
means, found it impossible to obtain a craft of any sort to go to the
wreck in. We were without money, too, and, a homeward-bound Calcutta
vessel coming in, we joined her to work our passages home, Mr. Marble
as dickey, and the rest of us in the forecastle. This vessel was
called the Tigris, and belonged to Philadelphia. She was considered
one of the best ships out of America, and her master had a high
reputation for seamanship and activity. He was a little man of the
name of Digges, and was under thirty at the time I first knew him. He
took us on board purely out of a national feeling, for his ship was
strong-handed without us, having thirty-two souls, all told, when he
received us five. We afterwards learned that letters sent after the
ship had induced Captain Digges to get five additional hands in
Calcutta, in order to be able to meet the picaroons that were then
beginning to plunder American vessels, even on their own coast, under
the pretence of their having violated certain regulations made by the
two great belligerents of the day, in Europe. This was just the
commencement of the
quasi
war which broke out a few weeks later
with France.
Of all these hostile symptoms, however, I then knew little and cared
less. Even Mr. Marble had never heard of them and we five joined the
Tigris merely to get passages home, without entertaining second
thoughts of running any risk, further than the ordinary dangers of the
seas.
The Tigris sailed the day we joined her, which was the third after we
reached Mauritius, and just fifteen days after we had left the
wreck. We went to sea with the wind at the southward, and had a good
run off the island, making more than a hundred miles that afternoon
and in the course of the night. Next morning, early, I had the watch,
and an order was given to set top-gallant studding-sails. Rupert and I
had got into the same watch on board this vessel, and we both went
aloft to reeve the gear. I had taken up the end of the halyards, and
had reeved them, and had overhauled the end down, when, in raising my
head, I saw two small lug-sails on the ocean, broad on our
weather-bow, which I recognised in an instant for those of the John's
launch. I cannot express the feeling that came over me at that sight.
I yelled, rather than shouted, "Sail ho!" and then, pushing in, I
caught hold of a royal-backstay, and was on deck in an instant. I
believe I made frantic gestures to windward, for Mr. Marble, who had
the watch, had to shake me sharply before I could let the fact be
known.
As soon as Marble comprehended me, and got the bearings of the boat,
he hauled down all the studding-sails, braced sharp up on a wind, set
the mainsail, and then sent down a report to Captain Digges for
orders. Our new commander was a humane man, and having been told our
whole story, he did not hesitate about confirming all that had been
done. As the people in the launch had made out the ship some time
before I saw the boat, the latter was running down upon us, and, in
about an hour, the tiny sails were descried from the deck. In less
than an hour after this, our mainyard swung round, throwing the
topsail aback, and the well-known launch of the John rounded-to close
under our lee; a rope was thrown, and the boat was hauled alongside.
Everybody in the Tigris was shocked when we came to get a look at the
condition of the strangers. One man, a powerful negro, lay dead in the
bottom of the boat; the body having been kept for a dreadful
alternative, in the event of his companions falling in with no other
relief. Three more of the men were nearly gone, and had to be whipped
on board as so many lifeless bales of goods. Captain Robbins and Kite,
both athletic, active men, resembled spectres, their eyes standing out
of their heads as if thrust from their sockets by some internal foe;
and when we spoke to them, they all seemed unable to answer. It was
not fasting, or want of food, that had reduced them to this state, so
much as want of water. It is true, they had no more bread left than
would keep body and soul together for a few hours longer; but of water
they had tasted not a drop for seventy odd hours! It appeared that,
during the gale, they had been compelled to empty the breakers to
lighten the boat, reserving only one for their immediate wants. By
some mistake, the one reserved was nearly half-empty at the time; and
Captain Robbins believed himself then so near Bourbon, as not to go on
an allowance until it was too late. In this condition had they been
searching for the island quite ten days, passing it, but never hitting
it. The winds had not favoured them, and, the last few days, the
weather had been such as to admit of no observation. Consequently,
they had been as much out of their reckoning in their latitude, as in
their longitude.
A gleam of intelligence, and I thought of pleasure, shot athwart the
countenance of Captain Robbins, as I helped him over the Tigris's
side. He saw I was safe. He tottered as he walked, and leaned heavily
on me for support. I was about to lead him aft, but his eye caught
sight of a scuttlebutt, and the tin-pot on its head. Thither he went,
and stretched out a trembling hand to the vessel. I gave him the pot
as it was, with about a wine-glass of water in it This he swallowed at
a gulp, and then tottered forward for more. By this time Captain
Digges joined us, and gave the proper directions how to proceed. All
the sufferers had water in small quantities given them, and it is
wonderful with what expressions of delight they received the grateful
beverage. As soon as they understood the necessity of keeping it as
long as possible in their mouths, and on their tongues, before
swallowing it, a little did them a great deal of good. After this, we
gave them some coffee, the breakfast being ready, and then a little
ship's biscuit soaked in wine. By such means every man was saved,
though it was near a month before all were themselves again. As for
Captain Robbins and Kite, they were enabled to attend to duty by the
end of a week, though nothing more was exacted of them than they chose
to perform.
"The yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up."
Macbeth.
Poor Captain Robbins! No sooner did he regain his bodily strength,
than he began to endure the pain of mind that was inseparable from the
loss of his ship. Marble, who, now that he had fallen to the humbler
condition of a second-mate, was more than usually disposed to be
communicative with me, gave me to understand that our old superior had
at first sounded Captain Digges on the subject of proceeding to the
wreck, in order to ascertain what could be saved; but the latter had
soon convinced him that a first-rate Philadelphia Indiaman had
something else to do besides turning wrecker. After a pretty broad
hint to this effect, the John, and all that was in her, were abandoned
to their fate. Marble, however, was of opinion that the gale in which
the launch came so near being lost, must have broken the ship entirely
to pieces, giving her fragments to the ocean. We never heard of her
fate, or recovered a single article that belonged to her.
Many were the discussions between Captain Robbins and his two mates,
touching the error in reckoning that had led them so far from their
course. In that day, navigation was by no means as simple a thing as
it has since become. It is true, lunars were usually attempted in
India and China ships; but this was not an every-day affair, like the
present morning and afternoon observations to obtain the time, and, by
means of the chronometer, the longitude. Then we had so recently got
clear of the islands, as to have no great need of any extraordinary
head-work; and the "bloody currents" had acted their pleasure with us
for eight or ten days before the loss of the ship. Marble was a very
good navigator, one of the best I ever sailed with, in spite of the
plainness of his exterior, and his rough deportment; and, all things
considered, he treated his old commander with great delicacy,
promising to do all he could, when he got home, to clear the matter
up. As for Kite, he knew but little, and had the discretion to say but
little. This moderation rendered our passage all the more agreeable.
The Tigris was a very fast ship, besides being well-found. She was a
little larger than the John, and mounted twelve guns, nine-pounders.
In consequence of the additions made to her crew, one way and another,
she now mustered nearer fifty than forty souls on board. Captain
Digges had certain martial tastes, and, long before we were up with
the Cape, he had us all quartered and exercised at the guns. He, too,
had had an affair with some proas, and he loved to converse of the
threshing he had given the rascals. I thought he envied us our
exploit, though this might have been mere imagination on my part, for
he was liberal enough in his commendations. The private intelligence
he had received of the relations between France and America, quickened
his natural impulses; and, by the time we reached St. Helena, the ship
might have been said to be in good fighting order for a merchantman.
We touched at this last-mentioned island for supplies, but obtained no
news of any interest. Those who supplied the ship could tell us
nothing but the names of the Indiamen who had gone out and home for
the last twelvemonth, and the prices of fresh meat and vegetables.
Napoleon civilized them, seventeen years later.
We had a good run from St. Helena to the calm latitudes, but these
last proved calmer than common. We worried through them after a while,
however, and then did very well until we got in the latitude of the
Windward Islands. Marble one day remarked to me that Captain Digges
was standing closer to the French island of Guadaloupe than was at all
necessary or prudent, if he believed in his own reports of the danger
there existed to American commerce, in this quarter of the ocean.
I have lived long enough, and have seen too much of men and things, to
fancy my country and countrymen right in all their transactions,
merely because newspapers, members of congress, and fourth of July
orators, are pleased to affirm the doctrine. No one can go much to sea
without reading with great distrust many of the accounts, in the
journals of the day, of the grievous wrongs done the commerce of
America by the authorities of this or that port, the seizure of such a
ship, or the imprisonment of some particular set of officers and
men. As a rule, it is safer to assume that the afflicted parties
deserve all that has happened to them, than to believe them
immaculate; and, quite likely, much more, too. The habit of receiving
such appeals to their sympathies, renders the good people of the
republic peculiarly liable to impositions of this nature; and the
mother who encourages those of her children who fetch and carry, will
be certain to have her ears filled with complaints and tattle.
Nevertheless, it is a fact beyond all dispute, that the commerce of
the country was terribly depredated on by nearly all the European
belligerents, between the commencement of the war of the French
revolution and its close. So enormous were the robberies thus
committed on the widely extended trade of this nation, under one
pretence or another, as to give a colouring of retributive justice, if
not of moral right, to the recent failures of certain States among us
to pay their debts. Providence singularly avenges all wrongs by its
unerring course; and I doubt not, if the facts could be sifted to the
bottom, it would be found the devil was not permitted to do his work,
in either case, without using materials supplied by the sufferers, in
some direct or indirect manner, themselves. Of all the depredations on
American trade just mentioned, those of the great sister republic, at
the close of the last century, were among the most grievous, and were
of a character so atrocious and bold, that I confess it militates
somewhat against my theory to admit that France owns very little of
the "suspended debt;" but I account for this last circumstance by the
reparation she in part made, by the treaty of 1831. With England it is
different. She drove us into a war by the effects of her orders in
council and paper blockades, and compelled us to expend a hundred
millions to set matters right. I should like to see the books
balanced, not by the devil, who equally instigated the robberies on
the high seas, and the "suspension" or "repudiation" of the State
debts; but by the great Accountant who keeps a record of all our deeds
of this nature, whether it be to make money by means of cruising
ships, or cruising scrip. It is true, these rovers encountered very
differently-looking victims, in the first place; but it is a somewhat
trite remark, that the aggregate of human beings is pretty much the
same in all situations. There were widows and orphans as much
connected with the condemnation of prizes, as with the prices of
condemned stock; and I do not see that fraud is any worse when carried
on by scriveners and clerks with quills behind their ears, than when
carried on by gentlemen wearing cocked hats, and carrying swords by
their sides. On the whole, I am far from certain that the
account-current of honesty is not slightly—honesty very
slightly
leavens either transaction—in favour of the non-paying States, as men
do sometimes borrow with good intentions, and fail, from inability, to
pay; whereas, in the whole course of my experience, I never knew a
captor of a ship who intended to give back any of the prize-money, if
he could help it. But, to return to my adventures.