Authors: James Fenimore Cooper
Smudge and his companions were less on the alert, as soon as they
perceived the ship was going in the proper direction. They probably
believed the danger in a measure over, and they began to yield a
little to their physical sufferings. I called Neb to the wheel, and
leaning over the taffrail, I succeeded in getting Marble to a
cabin-window, without alarming Smudge. I then told the mate to get all
his forces in the forecastle, having observed that the Indians avoided
that part of the vessel, on account of the heavy plunges she
occasionally made, and possibly because they fancied our people were
all aft. As soon as the plan was understood, I strolled forward,
looking up at the sails, and touching a rope, here and there, like one
bent on his ordinary duty. The savage stationed at the fore-scuttle
was as sick as a dog, and with streaming eyes, he was paying the
landsmen's tribute to the sea. The hatch was very strong, and it was
secured simply by its hasp and a bit of iron thrust through it. I had
only to slip my hand down, remove the iron, throw open the hatch, when
the ship's company streamed up on deck, Marble leading.
It was not a moment for explanations. I saw, at a glance, that the
mate and his followers regarded the situation of the ship very
differently from what I did myself. I had now been hours with the
savages, had attained a little of their confidence, and knew how
dependent they were on myself for their final safety; all of which, in
a small degree, disposed me to treat them with some of the lenity I
fancied I had received from them, in my own person. But, Marble and
the crew had been chafing below, like caged lions, the whole time,
and, as I afterwards learned, had actually taken an unanimous vote to
blow themselves up, before they would permit the Indians to retain the
control of the vessel. Then poor Captain Williams was much beloved
forward, and his death remained to be avenged. I would have said a
word in favour of my captors, but the first glance I got at the
flushed face of the mate, told me it would be useless. I turned,
therefore, to the sick savage who had been left as a sentinel over the
fore-scuttle, to prevent his interference. This man was armed with
the pistols that had been taken from me, and he showed a disposition
to use them. I was too quick in my motions, however, falling upon him
so soon as to prevent one who was not expert with the weapons from
using them. We clenched, and fell on the deck together, the Indian
letting the pistols fall to meet my grasp.
As this occurred, I heard the cheers of the seamen; and Marble,
shouting out to "revenge Captain Williams," gave the order to
charge. I soon had my own fellow perfectly at my mercy, and got him so
near the end of the jib downhaul, as to secure him with a turn or two
of that rope. The man made little resistance, after the first onset;
and, catching up the pistols, I left him, to join in what was doing
aft. As I lay on the deck, I heard several plunges into the water, and
then half-a-dozen of most cruelly crushing blows succeeded. Not a
shot was fired by either party, though some of our people, who had
carried all their arms below the night the ship was seized, used their
pikes with savage freedom. By the time I got as far aft as the
main-mast, the vessel was our own. Nearly half the Indians had thrown
themselves into the sea; the remaining dozen had either been knocked
in the head like beeves, or were stuck, like so many porkers. The dead
bodies followed the living into the sea. Old Smudge alone remained, at
the moment of which I have spoken.
The leader of the savages was examining the movements of Neb, at the
moment the shout was raised; and the black, abandoning the wheel,
threw his arms round those of the old man, holding him like a vice. In
this situation he was found by Marble and myself, who approached at
the same instant, one on each side of the quarter-deck.
"Overboard with the blackguard!" called out the excited mate;
"overboard with him, Neb, like a trooper's horse!"
"Hold—" I interrupted, "spare the old wretch, Mr. Marble;—he spared
me."
A request from me would, at any moment, outweigh an order from the
captain, himself, so far as the black was concerned, else Smudge would
certainly have gone into the ocean, like a bundle of straw. Marble had
in him a good deal of the indifference to bodily suffering that is
generated by habit, and, aroused, he was a dangerous, and sometimes a
hard man; but, in the main, he was not cruel; and then he was always
manly. In the short struggle which he had passed, he had actually
dropped his pike, to knock an Indian down with his fist; bundling the
fellow through a port without ceremony, ere he had time to help
himself. But he disdained striking Smudge, with such odds against
him; and he went to the helm, himself, bidding Neb secure the
prisoner. Glad of this little relief to a scene so horrible, I ran
forward, intending to bring my own prisoner aft, and to have the two
confined together, below. But I was too late. One of the
Philadelphians had just got the poor wretch's head and shoulders
through the bow-port, and I was barely in time to see his feet
disappear.
Not a cheer was given for our success. When all was over, the men
stood gazing at each other, stern, frowning, and yet with the aspects
of those who felt they had been, in a manner, disgraced by the
circumstances which led them to the necessity of thus regaining the
command of their own vessel. As for myself, I ran and sprang upon the
taffrail, to look into the ship's wake. A painful sight met me, there!
During the minute or two passed in the brief struggle, the Crisis had
gone steadily ahead, like the earth moving in its orbit, indifferent
to the struggles of the nations that are contending on its bosom. I
could see heads and arms tossing in our track for a hundred fathoms,
those who could not swim struggling to the last to preserve their
existence. Marble, Smudge and Neb, were all looking in the same
direction, at that instant. Under an impulse I could not control, I
ventured to suggest that we might yet tack and save several of the
wretches.
"Let them drown, and be d—d!" was the chief-mate's sententious
answer.
"No—no—Masser Mile," Neb ventured to add, with a remonstrating shake
of the head—"dat will nebber do—no good ebber come of Injin. If you
don't drown him, he sartain drown you."
I saw it was idle to remonstrate; and by this time one dark spot,
after another, began to disappear, as the victims sank in the
ocean. As for Smudge, his eye was riveted on the struggling forms of
his followers, in a manner to show that traces of human feeling are to
be found, in some aspect or other, in every condition of life. I
thought I could detect workings of the countenance of this being,
indurated as his heart had become by a long life of savage ferocity,
which denoted how keenly he felt the sudden destruction that had
alighted on his tribe. He might have had sons and grandsons among
those struggling wretches, on whom he was now gazing for the last
time. If so, his self-command was almost miraculous; for, while I
could see that he felt, and felt intensely, not a sign of weakness
escaped him. As the last head sunk from view, I could see him shudder;
a suppressed groan escaped him; then he turned his face towards the
bulwarks, and stood immovable as one of the pines of his own forests,
for a long time. I asked Marble's permission to release the old man's
arms, and the mate granted it, though not without growling a few
curses on him, and on all who had been concerned in the late
occurrences on board the ship.
There was too much duty to be done, to render all secure, to suffer us
to waste much time in mere sympathy. All the top-mast rigging,
backstays, &c., had to be set up afresh, and gangs were sent about
this duty, forward and aft. The blood was washed from the decks, and a
portion of the crew got along the top-gallant-masts, and pointed
them. The topsails were all close-reefed, the courses hauled up, the
spanker and jib taken in, and the ship hove-to. It wanted but two
hours of sunset when Mr. Marble had got things to his mind. We had
crossed royal-yards, and had everything set that would draw, from the
trucks down. The launch was in the water towing astern; the ship was
then about a mile from the southern passage into the bay, towards
which she was steering with the wind very much as it had been since an
hour after sunrise, though slightly falling. Our guns were loose, and
the crew was at quarters. Even I did not know what the new captain
intended to do, for he had given his orders in the manner of one whose
mind was too immovably made up, to admit of consultation. The larboard
battery was manned, and orders had been given to see the guns on that
side levelled and ready for firing. As the ship brushed past the
island, in entering the bay, the whole of this broadside was delivered
in among its bushes and trees. We heard a few yells, in reply, that
satisfied us the grape had told, and that Marble had not miscalculated
the position of some of his enemies, at least.
When the ship entered the little bay, it was with a moderate and
steady movement, the breeze being greatly broken by the forests. The
main-yard was thrown aback, and I was ordered into the launch, with
its crew armed. A swivel was in the bows of the boat, and I pulled
into the creek, in order to ascertain if there were any signs of the
savages. In entering the creek, the swivel was discharged, according
to orders, and we soon detected proofs that we disturbed a bivouac. I
now kept loading and firing this little piece into the bushes,
supporting it with occasional volleys of musketry, until pretty well
satisfied that we had swept the shore effectually. At the bivouac, I
found the canoes, and our own yawl, and what was some little revenge
for what had happened, I also found a pile of no less than six hundred
skins, which had doubtless been brought to trade with us, if
necessary, in order to blind-our eyes until the favourable moment for
the execution of the conspiracy should offer. I made no scruple about
confiscating these skins, which were taken on board the ship.
I next went to the island, on which I found one man dying with a
grape-shot wound, and evidence that a considerable party had left it,
as soon as they felt our fire. This party had probably gone outside
the island, but it was getting too late to follow. On my return, I met
the ship coming out, Captain Marble being determined not to trust her
inside another night. The wind was getting light, and, the tides
running fiercely in that high latitude, we were glad to make an offing
again while there was still day. The success with the skins greatly
mollified the new captain, who declared to me that, after he had
hanged Smudge in sight of his own shores, he should "feel something
like himself again."
We passed the night under our top-sails, standing off and on, with the
wind steady, but light, at the southward. Next morning, the duty of
the ship went on as usual, until the men had breakfasted, when we
stood again into the bay. This time, we hove-to so as to get one of
the buoys, when we dropped the stream, leaving the top-sails set. We
then hove up the anchor, securing the range of cable that was bent to
it. Both of the anchors, and their ranges of cable, were thus
recovered; the ends of the last being entered at the hawse-holes, and
the pieces spliced. This work may have occupied us four hours; after
which, the stream-anchor was hove up, catted and fished. Marble then
ordered a whip rove at the fore-yard-arm.
I was on the quarter-deck when this command was suddenly given. I
wished to remonstrate, for I had some tolerably accurate notions of
legality, and the rights of persons. Still, I did not like to say
anything; for Captain Marble's eye and manner were not the least in
the trifling mood, at that instant. The whip was soon rove, and the
men stood looking aft, in silent expectation.
"Take that murdering blackguard forward, fasten his arms behind his
back, place him on the third gun, and wait for orders," added our new
captain, sternly.
No one dared hesitate about obeying these orders, though I could see
that one or two of the lads disliked the business.
"Surely," I ventured to say, in a low voice, "you are not in earnest,
Mr. Marble!"
"
Captain
Marble, if you please, Mr. Wallingford. I am now
master of this vessel, and you are her chief-mate. I intend to hang
your friend Smudge, as an example to the rest of the coast. These
woods are full of eyes at this moment; and the sight they'll presently
see, will do more good than forty missionaries, and threescore and ten
years of preaching. Set the fellow up on the gun, men, as I ordered.
This is the way to generalize with an Indian."
In a moment, there stood the hapless wretch, looking about him with an
expression that denoted the consciousness of danger, though it was not
possible he could comprehend the precise mode of his execution. I went
to him, and pressed his hand, pointing upward, as much as to say his
whole trust was now in the Great Spirit. The Indian understood me, for
from that instant he assumed an air of dignified composure, like one
every way prepared to meet his fate. It is not probable, with his
habits, that he saw any peculiar hardship in his own case; for he had,
doubtless, sacrificed many a prisoner under circumstances of less
exasperation than that which his own conduct had provoked.
"Let two of the 'niggers' take a turn with the end of the whip round
the chap's neck," said Marble, too dignified to turn Jack Ketch in
person, and unwilling to set any of the white seamen at so ungracious
an office. The cook, Joe, and another black, soon performed this
revolting duty, from the odium of which a sailor seldom altogether
escapes.
I now perceived Smudge looking upward, seeming to comprehend the
nature of the fate that awaited him. The deeply-seated principle
within him, caused a dark shadow to pass over a countenance already so
gloomy and wrinkled by suffering and exposure; and he turned his look
wistfully towards Marble, at whose command each order in succession
had been obeyed. Our new captain caught that gaze, and I was, for a
single moment, in hope he would relent, and let the wretch go. But
Marble had persuaded himself he was performing a great act of nautical
justice; nor was he aware, himself, how much he was influenced by a
feeling allied to vengeance.