"Was it?" I asked, glad of Ben's coming now to an actual yarn concerning some of the stirring events of his life; for he had previously only been "beating about the bush," so to speak.

"Yes, sir; and not only a chase that was something to boast of, but a fight as well at the end of it—one of the smartest scrimmages I ever had all the time I was out there. If you don't mind my lighting a pipe, for I allers, sir, can tell a yarn better when I'm smoking, I'll just haul my jaw-tackle aboard and give you a full account of the whole adventure."

"Do," I said.

"There!" exclaimed he with a grunt of satisfaction, carefully filling a briar-root pipe with some dark tobacco, which he produced from out of a little round brass box that he carried in his waistcoat pocket, telling me it was "the right sort," and proceeding to light it—"now, we can go on serenely."

"Fire away!" said I, to encourage him, "I'm all attention."

He did not waste any more time; but at once began his story.

"The Dolphin had run down south with the fag-end of the north-east monsoon, economising her coals as much as possible, as all the men-of- war have to do nowadays, worse luck—sometimes when it's a question between saving a few pounds or sacrificing a ship! We had passed Mazemba island, and had just weathered Cape Delgado, which is some ten degrees south of the equator, when—it was close on sunset at the time, and it grows dark all at once after that, you know, in the tropics—the look-out man sang out, 'sail-ho!' This was just as we were piped down to tea. Bless you, we didn't think no more of going below, I can tell you!"

"I suppose not," I put in, to show I was listening attentively to what he was saying, for he paused at this juncture, as if waiting for me to say something.

"No, sir. Of course, although we were running down under easy sail the engine-fires were ready banked up, so that it didn't take us long to get up steam; and we were soon round like a shot, and retracing our way, right in the face of the wind, after a large dhow which we could see stealing up along-shore and hugging the land. She was what the Arabs called a batilla, and had two large lugs, or lateen sails set, besides a sort of square-cut jib forwards on her high-peaked bowsprit, by the aid of which she was sailing close-hauled, almost in the very teeth of the nor'-easter that was blowing pretty stiffly at the time, making it risky work for a vessel to approach so near a lee-shore as she was doing. However, I suppose her captain thought he would be able to slip by us in the darkness, when he might have got under the shelter of the island we had passed only a short while previously in our downward passage to the Mozambique; and, once he was out of sight of the Dolphin, of course he could have put out to sea again at his leisure, making his way north as soon as the coast seemed clear, and thus escaping us altogether."

"But he reckoned without his host that time, eh?" said I.

"Aye, that he did," responded the ex-man-o'-war's-man, warming up to his subject as he proceeded. "He made a great mistake, did that there Arab slave skipper when he thought he'd hoodwink us aboard the Dolphin this evening I'm a-talking of—a mistake, sir, as I'll soon show you, that cost him not only his vessel, but his life as well!"

"Indeed?" I interposed, beginning to get interested in Ben's yarn now that he had actually got under weigh with it in earnest.

"Yes, that it did," replied Ben Campion, striking another match to relight his pipe, which had gone out in the interval, and puffing away vigorously for a few seconds in order to get it in full blast.—"He was a 'cute chap, though, that skipper," continued Ben presently when he had got the pipe to go to his satisfaction;—"for no sooner had he perceived that we had observed him and were in chase, than he threw off all pretence of attempting to deceive us by passing off as a simple trader. Abandoning his design of beating up to Cape Delgado, he wore the dhow round as sharp as lightning and made off down along the coast, right before the full strength of the monsoon; where, with the wind in his favour, he would have a better chance of getting away from us, those dhows, as I've told you, sometimes walking away from a steam-pinnace as if she were standing still. This time, however, he had no cockle-shell of a pinnace after him, but a smart paddle-steamer, and one, too, that could go along well also before the wind, carrying square sails as did the Dolphin on her foremast and a huge spanker aft. A stern-chase, of course, is a long chase all the world over, as everybody knows, and ours was no exception. Still, all the time we gradually overhauled the dhow; and just about sunset we got within range of a long seven-inch gun, which we carried forwards. This, Mr Shrapnel, our gunner, trained right across the slaver's bows, and at the word of command, 'Fire!' let drive with a bang that shook the steamer right down to her kelson and seemed to stop her way for the moment, sending her back, as it were, with the recoil.

"The gun was well aimed, the shot pitching up the water some fifty yards in front of her, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the dhow a bit, her captain keeping right on with every stitch of his canvas set, the wide lateen sails bellying out to their full, as we could see, and the queer-looking craft burying herself in the foam that she churned up as she dived down into the waves every moment with a plunge, as if she were going headlong down to the bottom, taking in huge seas over her cat-heads; for it was blowing more than half a gale at the time, and even we in our bigger craft found it hard work carrying on as we did with both wind and steam. And I tell you we were going too! Our engines were revolving full speed ahead, and our canvas must have helped us full another five knots, with the wind dead astern as it was, and we running before it, while, to aid us, there was the usual inshore current—that runs down the coast of the Mozambique from Cape Delgado to right opposite Madagascar, where it turns off more in an easterly direction—carrying us along like a mill-race, some rate of three knots more. It made the Dolphin quiver and tremble through every timber as she seemed literally to fly through the water, but it didn't make us approach the dhow any closer, although we held our own. As the wind got up more and more, for it was the tail-end of the north-east monsoon, as I told you, and those blessed monsoons always die out with a brush when they've got to the end of their tether, the slaver appeared to rise bodily out of the water and skim along the surface from the top of one rolling wave on to another—just as you see an albatross does off the Cape of Good Hope when it has taken its first dart downwards after its prey, and has then to pursue it over the sea, the large sheets of the triangular sails of the dhow standing out on either side of her low dark keel in the same way as the pinions of the albatross touch the water in its flight.

"Mr Shrapnel was told to fire another gun; but it had no greater effect than the first one, and our skipper hardly seemed to know what to do; for the dhow was now heading more towards the land, and the Dolphin would soon be in shoal water, as there are lots of reefs about them parts. It would never do, either, to fire right into her, although we were well within range now, as we might probably damage some of the poor slaves aboard, who were no doubt packed as tightly as herrings in a barrel; and yet, it was growing dark, the sun being just on the point of setting over the highlands of the great African continent on our starboard hand. If we didn't do something pretty soon Mr Arab dhow would be able to cry, 'Walker!' and laugh at us for the wild-goose chase he had led us!"

"You must have been pretty anxious as the moments flew by, the sun setting, and the darkness creeping up, without your being able to overhaul her?" I said.

"We were all that," replied Ben, knocking the ashes out of his pipe viciously as if he were giving the slave captain a rap on the head;—"and as we stood grouped around the deck amidships close by the engine-room hatch, fixing on our cutlasses and getting ready for the scrimmage, should luck enable us to have one, I don't know what we said we wouldn't do to the impudent beggars when we got aboard!

"The land was looming well on our beam, some six miles distant, and those breakers visible between us and it. The situation was a 'tight' one, if there ever was such, for it looked uncommon like as if the captain of the dhow intended running ashore and risking her breaking to pieces on the rocks, if he couldn't find an opening in the coast into some lagoon where he could with his light draught beach the craft in safety. He was evidently determined to escape us, run what risk he might!

"I was standing alongside our skipper on the bridge; and I could see that he, too, was bound not to be licked, for he had screwed up his mouth in a way that he had when he had made up his mind to something, and then the admiral himself wouldn't have turned him from it!—He was a bold, courageous officer, was Captain Wilson, and every inch a sailor. Poor chap! he afterwards fell a victim to the fatal coast fever at Zanzibar.

"Well, I could see from the look on his face now, that if the Arab skipper was a determined fellow, and had resolved to circumvent us, why, Captain Wilson was equally determined, too, that he shouldn't, and that it was a case of 'pull baker, pull devil' atween the two!

"'Campion,' say he to me, 'pass the word forra'd for Mr Shrapnel to come here to me for a moment.'

"Of course I did as he told me; and soon the gunner arrives on the bridge, where, as I still stopped, it being my station there for the time, I heard all that was said between the skipper and him.

"'Mr Shrapnel,' says Captain Wilson, 'we'll have to fire at the fellow in earnest now, or else he'll escape us; but I don't want to hurt any of those poor creatures, who are on board against their will. Can't you manage to shoot away a spar so as to cripple his wings a bit, so that we can manage to get alongside before he gets too close inshore?'"

"'I'll try, sir,' says the gunner, turning to go away.

"'Do,' replies our skipper, 'and look sharp about it, too, or else it will be too late. Mind, though, and aim high. I wouldn't have the slaves hurt for anything. As for the Arab crew, we'll give 'em a taste of cold steel when we come across them, and that will be better than all the shot and shell we can send after them now!'

"'Aye, aye, sir,' said Mr, Shrapnel, going forwards again without any delay; and the gun detachment being all ready, our seven-inch spoke out again to the slaver, with more purpose than it had done before.

"The first shot went wide of the mark, and so did the second; but the third carried away her main halliards apparently, for the big sail came down all at once by the run, making the dhow broach-to as it fell over the side to leeward. Our men gave a tremendous cheer at this, but the slaver captain was a smart chap, as you might have noticed before, and would not give in yet; as before you could say 'Jack Robinson,' he had the halliards spliced again, and the sail hoisted, bearing away straight for the land now, and not edging along it as he had previously done. He was evidently determined to destroy the vessel rather than give in.

"'Silence, men!' shouted out Captain Wilson to stop our fellows cheering, which, as you know, sir, is against the rules of the service, although winked at sometimes in the enthusiasm of the moment. 'We haven't got the slaver yet, and it will be time to cheer when we've captured him! Mr Shrapnel,' he added then, as soon as all was quiet, the men being as mum as a mouse fore and aft—'you must send another messenger after, my joker; try if you can't do him a little more damage this time!'

"'Aye, aye, sir,' sang out the gunner; and he set to work again with a will, for the brief time during which the dhow's big main lug had been down had enabled us to get within half a mile of her, and Mr Shrapnel was better able to see what he was shooting at. He was a knowing hand, was the gunner! Watching his opportunity when the Dolphin rose on the top of the heavy rolling swell that set in towards the land, and when the dhow was right down in the hollow of the combers, he pulled the lanyard of the trigger, and with a bang and a belch of flame and smoke a heavy conical shot went rotating through the air, making as much noise as a railroad train as it hurtled forwards at the chase, whose hull was hidden from view, but whose masts seemed quite close to us.

"He didn't require to fire a second shot this time.

"No sooner had the report sounded and the roaring rumbling thunder of the discharge died away in the distance, rolling in towards the coast— the smoke being blown away, too, as quickly by the wind—than we could see the dhow dismasted before us, swaying about in the trough of the sea.

"She was a hopeless wreck, for both her masts had been snapped off short by the shot, and the yards to which the sails had been attached were lying athwart the deck. The Dolphin now ranged up alongside her on the leeward bow, and the captain hailed her to know if she surrendered, when one of the Arabs on board, who must have been the skipper, waved a red handkerchief or cloth of some kind in token of truce. He was a tall, swarthy chap, with a turban instead of a fez, which the others wore, on his head; and the belt round his body, as we could see from looking down on to the deck of the dhow, which was much below the level of our vessel, was filled choke-full with long-barrelled pistols and dirks, and a round-shaped scimitar-like sword without a sheath that seemed as if it could give a fellow a very tidy cut.

"The sea was rough and both the dhow and the Dolphin were rolling about terribly, we dipping our foreyard-arms as we lay-to; but Captain Wilson at once ordered the first cutter to be piped away, with one of the lieutenants in charge; while nothing would suit him also but to have his own gig manned. He said he mistrusted the slaver and would board her also himself, as she had a number of Arab rascals on her deck who would probably show fight.

"The boats were soon in the water, under our lee, the men shinning down into them by the falls, each chap with his cutlass tucked into his waistband; and, in another moment, rounding under the stem of the Dolphin, and getting nearly swamped as we breasted the sea, we made for the dhow, that now lay about half a cable's-length from our vessel, which had drifted a bit astern.

"'Put your backs into the stroke!' sang out Captain Wilson from his gig—for I was in the cutter; and with grim earnestness we stretched out as hard as we could, gripping the water firmly and then pulling with all our strength. It was hard work against such a sea as was then running and in the face of the wind, which was still rising and more gusty than before; but we were soon alongside the chase, both the boats boarding her of course to leeward, although the captain in his gig dashed at the high poop astern, while we in the cutter made for her bows, which lay lower in the water and would thus enable us to get more easily on board.

"Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper's surrender. Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believe that he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as he probably expected—for of course he didn't know that we would not fire the big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold—no sooner had we got alongside than the beggars showed fight.

"I and another chap managed to grab hold of the bowsprit gear to haul ourselves up by into the fo'c'sle of the dhow, when chop came a cut that severed the ropes we had clutched, causing us to let go and drop back again into the bottom of the cutter with a thump that nearly knocked the bottom out of her, while another Arab shoved out the muzzle of a long matchlock right amongst us and fired it off so closely that the charge singed my whiskers. That did one good job, however, for it made us pretty angry, as you might imagine, and the whole cutter's crew tumbled aboard in a way that astonished them, I can tell you. They fought pluckily though, but they were more like mad cats than men, screaming and tearing us with their nails when we had knocked their long knives out of their hands and disarmed them. As for the skipper of the dhow, he was a perfect demon, and would have settled Captain Wilson had it not been for the coxswain of the gig giving him a drive through with his cutlass just as he had got our captain down and, kneeling on his chest, was preparing coolly to cut his throat with the keen curving scimitar that we had seen in his belt. Captain Wilson looked, sir, as pale as a ghost when he got on his feet again; for although he was as brave an officer as ever stepped, it does give a fellow a bit of a turn sometimes to be face to face with death, as he was then, and know that nothing, probably, can save you!

"When we had got the better hand of the slave crew, in which we did not quite get off scot-free, five of our men being killed outright and several wounded with ugly gashes from the sharp knives of the Arabs, we set about opening the hatches to release the slaves, who had all this while been kicking up a thundering row below, yelling and hollering as if they were all being murdered.

"Well, bless you! why, there were no less than three hundred and fifty crammed in the hold fore and aft on the two decks that were underneath the main one, and which had not four feet of space between them; the people, men, women, and children, being packed together so close that you couldn't have got a sheet of paper edgeways between them. As for the smell; well, sir, I think you'd prefer that of a gas main just opened, or the foulest scent you could think of, to what we all smelt in the hold of that there dhow; for it seemed to smother us and make the strongest men aboard turn faint just like a girl does when she cuts her finger and sees the blood.

"After releasing half of them and bringing them up on the upper deck of the dhow, for there was not space to let the whole of them out of the hold at once, we had to rig up the masts of the craft again so that she could make sail, the weather being too ticklish for the Dolphin to take her in tow; although she did so for awhile, just in order to get a little further away from the coast, which was not too pleasant a neighbour with a north-east monsoon blowing and a heavy sea setting in towards the land.

"By the time we had rigged up jury-masts on the dhow it was dark, so, warning the prize-crew that was on board, of which I was one, to keep a sharp look-out and mind that our tow-rope didn't part, Captain Wilson went back to his own vessel—he wouldn't leave us till everything was ship-shape again with the slaver and everybody seemed comfortable-like; taking with him the majority of the Arabs who had been uninjured in the scuffle, and who might have tried perhaps to recapture the dhow from the small lot of men whom our captain was able only to spare to man her. Of course, there was very little chance of their attempting this now that their skipper was dead, the coxswain's thrust with his cutlass having lost the dark gentleman the 'number of his mess'; but still, after the treachery they had already shown, it was best to take all proper precautions to spoil any little game they might try on.

"During the night, the Dolphin kept under easy steam head to sea, only just preventing us from drifting ashore, as our tow-rope was hardly ever taut the whole time, for the wind blew so strongly still from the northward and eastward, the very direction we had to make for to reach Zanzibar with our prize, that it was impossible for the steamer to make any way against it, especially with the dhow in tow. The sea, too, was also very rough, breaking over the frail craft so frequently that we had to pack down all the slaves again below to prevent their being washed overboard.

"Towards morning, the wind gradually lessened, showing signs of shifting, which was to be expected at the season, being near the end of March. The sea, too, calmed down a bit, but there was still a heavy ground-swell, and from all appearances it looked as if there was going to be a squall, the more especially as it began to rain heavily. I had been left by Captain Wilson in charge of the prize-crew, and this change in the weather made me feel somewhat uneasy of the tow-rope breaking from the increased strain there was now on it through the labouring of the dhow; for I thought it would be better for both the Dolphin and ourselves that we should cast loose and each sail on her own account, as at this time of the year the south-west monsoon, which takes the place of the north-eastern 'kizkasi,' as it is cabled, or Indian trade-wind, generally sets in with a violent tornado blowing from off the land.

"Accordingly, as soon as daylight I hailed the steamer to send a boat aboard for me as I wished to speak to the captain. I had something more to tell him, however, than about my fears concerning the weather; for, while I was keeping watch during the night, I had heard some words dropped from the Arab prisoners on the foc's'le which I thought it best for him to know."

"Did you?" I said.

"Yes," said Ben, continuing his story. "While I was at Zanzibar I made it a point to study the lingo of the natives there, and had learned a good many words of the Kisawahili tongue, which is the lingua Franca of the coast; and hearing these half-caste Arabs talking together I listened to what they said, for being a Feringhee in their eyes they did not think I could understand them. Of course I couldn't manage to stumble to everything I heard, some of their words being incomprehensible to me; but I gathered enough to learn that the dhow we had captured was in company with another one equally as large, loaded with slaves, that had got off clear and was now probably making its way towards the Persian Gulf out of reach of the Dolphin.

"This would be good news, I knew, for Captain Wilson; for, although the Arabs believed that this dhow had escaped us, if the Dolphin at once went in pursuit of her in the right direction there was not the slightest doubt of her being able to overhaul her before she reached her destination, which was, I learned through the chatter of the prisoners, first to Mafiyah, as a sort of hiding-place until we should be reported out of the way, and then on to Muscat on the Arabian coast.

"I had no sooner got on board the Dolphin in the dinghy sent for me, than, the skipper confirmed my own opinion as to the importance of the information I had obtained, although he said something which slightly damped my enthusiasm, in giving me a job I had not bargained for.

"'You've done quite right, Campion, my man,' said he, 'in not losing time. I am glad you hailed me when you did, for every hour is precious in getting up with a chase that has got such a good start. I shall take care to mention you in my despatches for your prompt assistance in giving me news of this vessel, as well as for your gallantry in the capture of the Fatima,'—that was the name of the one we had already taken, sir, and now had in tow.

"So far Captain Wilson quite flabbergasted me with his compliments and made me feel as proud as Punch; but his next words lowered me down a peg, I can tell you!

"'I'm sorry, however, I sha'n't be able to take you with me, Campion,' he went on, 'to see the end of this other affair; for now that I have to start off in chase of the other slaver, which will take me off the station, where some of the little Mtpe dhows will be trying to make runs from the mainland, thinking the coast unguarded, I intend leaving the pinnace behind to cruise about the Comoro Islands until I get back with the Dolphin, and, as you are the only responsible man I could trust to take charge of the boat and crew, you must remain here. Pass the word at once for the boatswain to pipe away the pinnace and see that she is properly stowed and provisioned.'

"This was a good deal more than I had bargained for. I thought I should have been allowed to remain as prize-master of the Fatima and sail her up to Zanzibar, as that was what the captain had hinted the night before. However, of course I put the best face I could on the matter, and contented myself with seeing that the water barricoes and stores were properly put on board the pinnace, while all the other men who had not to remain behind with me and the boat were in high glee getting ready for the fresh chase, the news being already whispered about in the messes—hoping that they would have just such another scrimmage again as they had had the day before at the capture of the Fatima.

"Captain Wilson did not 'let the grass grow under his feet,' as the saying goes—though it's rather a queer one for a seaman to use—in carrying out what he had decided on.

"Before the blazing African sun was an hour old, by which time too the rain had stopped falling, the second lieutenant of the Dolphin was transferred to the command of the captured dhow, our 'First Swab' having been wounded, taking with him all the prisoners that had been previously removed to our vessel for safety, although they were now bound securely with ropes and had a guard set over them to prevent their doing mischief, besides some additional hands to navigate the Fatima—which, hoisting her big lugs on the jury-masts we had rigged up the previous evening, and casting off the Dolphin's tow-rope, was soon standing up the coast on her way to Zanzibar, keeping well inshore now, as that course was safest since the wind had changed.

"Hardly had the dhow got well off than the pinnace was lowered into the water alongside the steamer, her crew dropping in one by one, and I, of course, descending last. We had provisions and water on board to last us for six weeks, the usual time that boats are sent away from the vessels to which they belong on the east coast when cruising independently, as they all take it in turn to do; and Captain Wilson told me I was to hover about between Madagascar and the mainland in the Mozambique Channel until we might expect him back, which would be a month at farthest, even making allowances for his being detained at Zanzibar about the condemning of the slave-dhows which we had already captured and the one which he now hoped to get hold of.

"The Dolphin then took us in tow till we were abreast of the Comoro Isles, when she cast us adrift, starting off up the channel full speed and steering north-east and by north, so as to get well out to sea before stretching in to the land towards Mafiyah, where she expected to pick up the slaver; while we, hoisting the sails of the pinnace, and taking it easy under the boat's awning that was spread fore and aft, bore away for Madagascar. Ah! sir, that was the commencement of an unfortunate voyage, for it was months before some of those that formed the pinnace's crew ever met their old shipmates again on board the Dolphin; the majority of those with me in the boat never met the hands we left on board the steamer again at all, nor will they till that great last day of all when the sea gives up its dead!"

"I suppose you refer to that time when you said you were capsized off the coast of Madagascar, eh?" said I, noticing that Ben Campion paused at this point.

"Aye," he replied; "but I'm afraid it'll take a precious long time to reel off the yarn concerning that period of the story!"

"Never mind, please go on," I replied. "Now you've begun and got so far, I'm sure I should like to hear the end of it."

"All right, then," he replied; but, before proceeding, he had to load up a fresh pipe, and while performing this interesting little operation he informed me, en passant, that the Dolphin he afterwards heard had succeeded in capturing the second dhow, and her first prize the Fatima had safely reached Zanzibar; and, consequently, that his prize-money for both seizures was safe, the sum accrueing to him amounting to over L50, being subsequently paid over to him when he rejoined his ship some time afterwards—"and spent, too, long since," as he said.

These little matters, relevant and irrelevant, being thus disposed of, Ben continued his narrative as follows.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE.

IN THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL.

"Where was I, sir?"

"You had just been turned adrift from the ship, I think," said I, "and left to cruise on your own account—wasn't that so?"

"Ah! yes, I remember now, sir. Well, then, when the Dolphin had got well away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in the pinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a course almost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhat took away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know; but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped away northward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set that could draw, going fourteen knots at the least!

"It was a lovely morning that there—the loveliest I ever saw on the African coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, the strong sou'-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from the mainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only those who have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it can be, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it was not long before the Dolphin was hull down on the horizon, the white gleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after. But, for a long time succeeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread out in the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the following wind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue air above as well as reflected in the sea below. Then, too, that disappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on the waste of waters!

"I tell you we did feel a bit melancholy and down in the dumps then, especially as all hands knew the errand on which the old ship had gone and felt that we were out of the fun! However, I did not give the men time to think of this too long; for, acting under the directions given me by the skipper, I steered the pinnace towards the coast to windward of the Comoro Islands, intending after dark to creep up under the lee of Saint Juan, where I'd been told the dhows mostly made for when the coast was clear; and, what with trimming the sails and making taut the sheets, as well as stationing a special look-out in the bows and one in the stern behind me at the helm, I soon managed to turn the men's attention away from the Dolphin, though some of them still seemed chop-fallen, being new to boat cruising and not relishing the work.

"Of course, I knew in what a responsible position I was—almost like that of the captain of a ship; for, I could order the men to do anything I pleased, and if they disobeyed me have them tried for mutiny, while I had the right to attack and capture any native vessels I suspected of having slaves on board—so, soon after noon, when I piped all hands to dinner, I made them a little speech after the grub had been stowed away comfortably, pointing out that their circumstances were considerably better than they themselves appeared to think. In course, I said, our shipmates in the Dolphin had a bit the advantage of us in starting off on another chase, with perhaps the chance of a second scrimmage at the end of it, the same as we had all had together on the previous evening; but then, I says, what we were doing was equally for the good of the service; and, besides, as soon as the steamer had overhauled the slaver she was after she would have to go back to that beastly Zanzibar in the thick of fever time, remaining there probably for weeks, until she got rid of the slaves from the captured dhows, while, on the contrary, we would be down here cruising about on the free open sea and enjoying ourselves!

"We lost nothing by remaining there, I said. If our old ship took the slaver she was now chasing, why, we would share in the prize-money just the same as if we'd been on board her, without running the risk of any hard knocks or having some Arab's dagger cutting daylight into us; and if she didn't succeed in hunting down the dhow, which was more than likely, considering the long start the latter had got, why, then we would be well out of a wild-goose chase.

"In addition to such arguments," continued Ben, who sometimes spoke with a purity of diction that is much more common amongst seamen of the navy of to-day than it was in "the good old days" of our ancestors before education was much in vogue, "I hinted that nobody could say we might not pick up a slave-dhow down there on our own hook quite as good as the other one we could not go after; and if not, well, at all events we would have an easier time of it than if we had been kept on board the ship! There, as they knew, the skipper took jolly good care to serve us out full purser's allowance of drill if there was nothing else stirring; for it was beating to quarters, or small-arm exercise, or manning the big guns, and playing all such fancy tricks with us when he had no better work to keep us employed with between watches. I can tell you, I never saw such a hand as Cap'en Wilson for that. He used to say that the devil always found something for idle hands; and the way he went about remedying this reminded me of the old poetry lines I once heard a Yankee sailor call the 'Philadelphia Catechism'—

"'Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able, And on the seventh,—holystone the decks and scrape the cable!'

"These words of mine had such an effect on the men that I assure you, sir, they grew quite cheerful like, chatting and laughing together as they lolled about on the thwarts under the boat awnings that were spread fore and aft I allowed them to take it easy, with the exception of the hands having charge of the sheets of the sails and those on the look- out, as I don't think discipline is preserved any the better by keeping fellows continually on the stretch when there's nothing particular to do, merely to see them slaving their hearts out.

"Presently, the look-out forward said he thought he saw the white sail of a dhow close in to the island we were beating to windward of; and of course every one immediately must take it for granted that she's a contraband carrying slaves."

"I suppose you didn't undeceive them?" said I.

"Not I," replied Ben. "I was only too glad of the chance. It banished at once all thoughts of the old Dolphin out of their heads better than all my palaver, for all hands were so anxious to come up with the strange craft that they themselves voted for taking to the oars, which I certainly wouldn't have ordered their doing in the terrible afternoon heat, as, while we were having our dinner, the wind had been gradually dying until it was now almost a dead calm, and the sails flapping against the masts, with the boat rocking on the heavy rolling swell that you always meet with out there when the sun is at the meridian."

"I thought you expected a tornado in the early morning?" I here suggested.

"Ah! never you mind about that," said Ben. "We haven't yet done with the east-coast weather, as you'll see presently. Howsomever, as I was saying," he continued, "I told them to take in the sails, being so minded, and rig out the oars. They didn't lose any time about it either, for as soon as I gave the order it was all haul down and furl up; and, getting a good grip of the water, they started pulling like madmen, putting their hearts into every stroke—although the day was so hot and sweltry that a fellow seemed to melt away into perspiration, even lying still in the stern-sheets of the boat, as I was, without moving a muscle.

"The craft which had been sighted by the look-out forward was a small Mtpe dhow well under the lee of the island and creeping along-shore, her light sails and the wider spread of canvas which her lateen rig permitted enabling her to take advantage of the slightest puff of air; while our heavy pinnace, with her small-cut sails hardly raised above the surface of the sea, so as to get the full force of the wind, required a strong breeze to move her at all, although then she had pretty fair speed.

"Now that the men had taken to the oars, however, we began to approach the stranger more rapidly; but she was over five miles off, and a pull of that length under a burning sun is no joke, I can assure you. Stroke after stroke, our plucky seamen kept at it in spite of the heat, one minute appearing to gain and then again to lose distance as a whiff of air would waft the dhow along; so that, it was not until nearly sunset that we got within gunshot, and could hail her to see what she was up to.

"'Now, Adams,' said I to the man in the bows, who had command of the seven-pounder boat-gun we had fixed there, 'I think we may invite the stranger gentleman to have a little chat. Fire away, my man, and make her come to.'

"All was ready, so without more ado he fired, the shot ricochetting across the prow of the Arab craft, which had by this time cleared the island and seemed making for Madagascar, that lay east and by south some three hundred miles off. At all events, the dhow was steering in that direction, with whatever wind there was on her beam, and she paid no attention to us at all apparently.

"Still, she didn't long keep on that course. The first message from our seven-pounder did not bring her to, nor did a second, but when a third went unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could see her come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, which we now sent to show those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, caused her heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender.

"We had a long pull yet to come near her; but on getting alongside we found it had been all labour for nothing. There was not the ghost of a slave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently. She was only a trading dhow with a lot of Banians taking goods from the mainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing. Well, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttled her. I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhaps they might have turned on me for making them toil so when it wasn't necessary; but of course I wasn't to blame, and they knew that.

"Having no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceed on her way, while we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under the lee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation being rather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best to wait for daylight before we did any more cruising.

"On the wind rising again, towards midnight, I anchored the pinnace about a cable's-length off the beach, where we were pretty secure from drifting ashore on account of the tide setting the other way. Towards morning, however, it came on to blow more strongly, and as the boat rocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holding ground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in a manner that promised to make it part if it remained down much longer, the boat's head bobbing down and up every wave with a jerk that must snap our painter in time.

"Setting the mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, we ran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly, as it had done in the early part of the day before, from the south-west. It was of no use trying to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers were too heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across the channel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space of water in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the next twenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the same point of the compass that the wind was now carrying us to. The pinnace being a good sea-boat, we were all right otherwise, that was, unless the gale shifted, when we would be driven back on to the rocky reef which encircled the Comoro Islands, and no doubt go to pieces there.

"'Let her drive,' said I to the men, whom I kept baling out the occasional seas that came in over the weather gunwale. 'As long as she keeps on running like this we can come to no harm, but you mustn't stop baling, for if she once gets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'll all be lost.'

"This made them stick to it, although most of them were tired out with the long pull they had had in the afternoon after the dhow, and when morning broke we were still all right and buoyant, although the tornado showed no appearance of slackening, and we were quite out of sight of land, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rolling that high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on we would have been swamped in an instant.

"All that day we continued driving ahead, for we could not stop, or wear the boat round, or do anything but simply let her go where the wind chose to take her. We could not even lower the mainsail, as if we had done so it might have capsized her, besides which, as long as it held out without being blown away, although it almost made the pinnace bury her nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollers behind from coming too close, just keeping way enough on her to be out of their reach. But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comber that raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft and swamp her!

"By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, we sighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coast from the direction we had been sailing in ever since midnight. The land was right ahead and some distance off yet; but approaching it rapidly as we did, it made us tremble, for unless we could manage to steer inside the reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the same as at Saint Juan, we must be dashed against the cliffs. It was wonderful to think we had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours.

"How we did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to the force of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knots an hour, more or less, there was a strong easterly current in the Mozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must have carried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands. I can't account for it otherwise.

"Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with the pinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she were flying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguish the noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct. We were rushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power could save the boat from being dashed to pieces.

"However, there was a power above watching over us.

"Presently I noticed from the contour of the land that we were near Cape Tangan, which I well knew from a coasting voyage I had made round the island in a cruiser the year before when I came out to join the London, and I recollected that this headland ran out into the sea in a north-westerly point, so that, if we could contrive to get the boat to leeward of the cape, we would soon be in comparatively still water and protected alike from the force of the wind and the rolling waves.

"I sang out to the men therefore to get their oars out ready, and, watching my opportunity when we were just almost abreast of Cape Tangan, I told Adams, who was in the centre of the boat now, to lower away the mainsail, directing the others at the same time to pull with a will, as their lives depended on our rounding the promontory, against which it looked as if we were going to be hurled as we came up to it—it was so terribly near and frowning over us!

"This plan fortunately succeeded, for in another minute, during which I held my breath in suspense, we were round the cape and in still water, although close to a coral reef that girdled the land, which was still some three miles off. We really were safe for the time and dropped our anchor, glad enough at our escape; but I saw that the haven could only be of temporary assistance to us, for should the wind shift more to the northwards we would even be in a worse position than when scudding before the gale, as the reef would then be immediately to leeward of us and the gale in our face.

"It would serve no good, however, to meet evil half-way, so as the men were all dead tired out and exhausted with hunger, having eaten nothing since dinner the day before the storm set in, I ordered the provisions to be served out, telling them after that to lie down and have a good sleep in the bottom of the boat while I remained on the watch till morning, having had less exertion than any of them.

"But the poor fellows did not have half so long a rest as that. Towards midnight—it seemed indeed as if all our misfortunes came at that time— the pinnace dragged her anchor and drifted on to the reef, when I had to rouse all hands to jump out in the darkness and shove her off again before she knocked a hole in her bottom. Then, no sooner were we afloat again than the wind veered round, just as I had fancied it would do, without the slightest warning, to the northward.

"This of course rendered it impossible for us to remain any longer under the lee of the cliff, our anchorage there being now untenable; and, putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not to be in too close proximity to the reef, which was doubly dangerous to us now.

"Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm, until shortly after daybreak; when, the rollers coming rolling in heavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below the surface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water, leaving thirteen of us struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore."

"That must have been awful!" said I sympathisingly.

"It was awful," replied Ben gravely. "I can hardly bear to tell of it now."



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

"The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank down under us," resumed Ben after a lengthened pause, during which he puffed vigorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as to restore his equanimity, "were, the rain awning, a sort of long tarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon got saturated by the sea, making it go to the bottom too; a couple of oars that had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and went adrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and two water barricoes, one of which was empty, while the other contained only about a couple of gallons of the precious fluid which in a short time would be worth more to us than gold—but, I'm anticipating matters.

"Five of the boat's crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thus leaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swim ashore if we could; although I, for one, didn't believe a soul would ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it at all!

"What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfish instinct of self-preservation which makes a man in the instant of danger grasp anything, regardless of what his comrades in distress might be doing, I grappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besides the stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated from the wreck. These I lashed together into a sort of raft with a long woollen comforter, which I had fortunately wound round my neck the night before while keeping watch to protect me from the damp dew, and now took off for the purpose. I was treading water all the time I was doing this, and the sea being very buoyant in the Indian Ocean on account of its extra saltness, I managed to rig up my raft pretty well. Then, when I had finished it to my satisfaction, I looked around me, being too busy to do that before; and, seeing Bellamy, one of the crew who I knew could not swim, holding on to the other oar, and Russell, another chap in the same predicament, clutching tight to the gaskets of one of the barricoes, I helped them both on to my little platform, keeping them and myself afloat as well as I was able by swimming alongside and pushing it; for neither of the poor fellows could aid me—they seemed perfectly helpless.

"By this time the sun was high in the heavens and blazing right down upon our heads with an intensity of heat that almost seemed to shrivel up our hair, making us feel as if a red-hot cinder was laid on top of it. There was not much wind, that having died away soon after daybreak, the tornado having spent all its force and blown itself out; but the sea was still rough, the heavy rolling waves washing over us every now and then as they broke against the raft. Perhaps this moisture was good for us, the rapid evaporation of the water under the burning heat keeping us cool; but, what with the exposure and the fright he had sustained at our sudden upset, poor Russell went clean out of his mind, becoming as mad as a March hare. Although I was trying all I could to keep him on the raft to preserve his life, he thought I was struggling to prevent his holding on; and he commenced fighting with me, clutching hold of my neck and trying to force me under the water. I stood this for some time; when, seeing he only got worse instead of better, and that I had no means of fastening him down to the raft, I thought the best thing I could do for my own safety, as well as to give the other two a chance for their lives, was to trust to my own unaided strength and strike out for the shore, leaving the two on the raft to look after themselves. Before abandoning that frail support, however, I adopted the precaution of taking off every stitch of clothing I had on—my boots I had chucked away when in the boat, preparing even then for the worst. Had I not done this, I'm certain I would never have reached land or be now telling you this tale."

"I'm sure I'm very glad you took the precaution," I observed, "it was a sensible one."

"Yes," said Ben, "there's no use a man attempting to swim any distance with his things on. A fellow can do it in a bath, as a sort of exhibition like; but when he comes to battle for his life against the sea, the only chance he has is when he's stripped; for his clothes suck in the water and weigh him down so as to take all the buoyancy out of him and cripple his efforts to keep afloat—that's my opinion from painful experience.

"Soon after I quitted the raft," continued Ben, proceeding again with his narrative after my interruption, "I saw on looking back that Russell had clutched hold of Bellamy the same as he had done with me. But Bellamy hadn't half my strength, for the other soon got the better of him, and although I tried to swim back against the rollers so as to prevent the mishap, I couldn't make headway in spite of all my efforts, so in a minute or so I saw both tumble off the raft into the sea, and go down locked together in an embrace of death. Poor fellows, the madman had caused both to perish, when, by keeping quiet, they might have been washed safely ashore in time. I tried myself to regain the raft then, it being now vacant and ample enough to support me alone comfortably; but the waves were too much for me, so I had to give up that hope and strike out once more for the shore, although the latter was so far off and low down too in the water that I couldn't even get a glimpse of it now to cheer me up and lead me on. I could only judge the direction of it by the set of the tide and the sun; and although I swam as manfully as I could, the thought occurred to me more than once that I might be making for the open ocean instead of the land after all, and was only prolonging my last agony!

"However, a little way on, the sight of one of my lost shipmates gave me fresh courage, for I had believed up till then, when Bellamy and Russell sank under water, that I was the only one of the pinnace's crew left alive.

"His name was Magellan, one of the smartest topmen of the old Dolphin, and he seemed now to rival the reputation of the fish after which our vessel was named, as he was swimming ahead of me with a proper breast stroke, and going well through the waves. I first saw him as he rose on top of a roller; and he, looking back at the same moment, when turning his head to avoid the wash of the wave, caught sight of me.

"'Hullo, Campion!' he sang out, 'where are you bound for?'

"'For the shore, you lubber,' I retorted jokingly, for seeing him put such fresh life in me that I felt almost inclined to laugh out aloud with joy!

"'Have you got anything to support you in the water?' he asked with surprise.

"'No,' said I, 'nothing but my own carcass and the use of my hands and legs.'

"'The same with me, old ship,' he replied, 'let's see who'll get to land first.'

"'All right!' I cried, 'start away!' and we both of us struck out hard; but he was a far better swimmer than I was, and I soon lost sight of him although I followed in the same track as well as I could steer.

"About noontide, when the sun had got vertical in the sky overhead and blazed down with even greater power than it had done before, I had another cheer up; for, as I rose on the send of the sea I could faintly discover the tops of two trees in the distance standing out amidst the waste of waters. This put additional pluck into me, and made me exert myself to the utmost, as before then I could not see any sign of land at all; but, after swimming on for some time I began to lose heart again and became assailed by all manner of miserable fancies that almost made me despair!

"I thought it was strange that I could not see Magellan, if he were still in front of me, in the same way that I could observe the two trees. He must have gone down at last and got drowned like the others, I said to myself; or else a shark has snapped him up and made an end of him, so that I alone was left out of all the thirteen of the pinnace's crew. What was I reserved for?—a worse fate perhaps than the others— possibly to reach a desolate shore, where I would starve to death in solitude without a single soul to share my misery! The idea of sharks, however, haunted me more than any other thought, for I knew that there were plenty of these sea monsters in the Mozambique Channel, and I dreaded more being caught by one of them than the mere fear of drowning, which now seemed to lose all its terrors, although I still swam on mechanically. Every time a wave broke over me, or when I splashed up the water with my own feet, the haunting horror seized me that the wide capacious maw and gaping saw-like teeth of a shark were ready to close upon me, paralysing my heart nerves, and making my blood run cold right through me. I never wish to pass through such a terrible time again, sir—not for the mere peril I was in from the sea and the long distance of water I had to traverse before I could hope to reach the end, so much as from the thought that my shipmates were all drowned, and the nervous dread I suffered on account of those devils of the deep, although all the while I actually never saw one. This was fortunate for me, as I'm sure only the sight of one in my then state of mind would have taken all the fight out of me and made me an easy prey!

"My fear of the sharks indeed grew so strong upon me that I absolutely tried to drown myself, but I could not keep myself down below the surface of the water long enough to carry out my intention. The attempt, however, did one good thing for me, as, seeing that I could not sink, try as hard as I could, it appeared to me that I wasn't born to be drowned—sailors,—you know, are rather superstitious sometimes—so, thinking this, and assured that I was certain now to get to land, if only the sharks left me alone, I struck again towards the direction of the two trees that I saw every now and then to encourage me as I rose up on the crest of each alternate wave, determined to persevere to the last as long as the breath was left in me.

"Why, sir, it was a swim that beat poor Captain Webb's exploit in crossing the Channel, for the pinnace had gone down soon after daybreak, and I had been swimming ever since, while now the sun was sinking in the west, looking as if it were going to dip in another hour at the most. Yet, I seemed as far off from the land as ever, those two trees that I watched so earnestly, and shaped my course by never appearing to rise out of the water or come nearer to me than two miles off—for, whether the tide had turned or there was a current carrying me along in a parallel direction with the shore, or some other cause, for ever so long a time I never got any closer than that. It was very hard, I thought, with the land so near to me now, and I unable to reach it, strive how I may! Perhaps, I fancied, those trees are a mere fanciful dream like the fairy-like mirage of the desert that tortures poor lost wanderers with pictures of cool lakes and rivers, while they are really in the middle of burning sandy plains. I began to doubt they were real trees at all, for I should have got up to them long since; and so, harassed again with despair, I tried a second time to drown myself, clenching my hands tightly to my side and making no effort to swim—but it was all in vain, I could not keep down. I must have been delirious I think then, and perhaps imagined it all, going out of my senses as poor Russell had done previously, and wandering in my mind, for I can recollect perfectly seeing the faces of people I knew in England—my father and mother and my young wife—beckoning to me and holding out their hands to drag me out of the water, when I knew all the while that I saw them that I was swimming for my life in the Mozambique Channel, and that they were safe at home in the old country! I suppose in my delirium two different trains of thought were running through my head?

"After that, I forget what happened. I must have become insensible, for I don't remember what occurred between. I seemed to wake up to consciousness all at once, and then I found myself lying on a low sandy beach, where I must have been washed up and left by the retreating tide.

"Although the sun had now set—which showed that I must have been unconscious for some time, as the last thing I recollected was its scorching my back, for of course as I was swimming in an easterly direction towards Madagascar, as it sank down the horizon it got behind me,—it was still light; and, looking about me, I perceived that I was on a small island or sand-bank, some distance still off the mainland, from which it was separated by a wide channel of water. I tried to get up on my feet to notice better how wide this channel-way was; but I was so weak from my long immersion in the sea, having stopped all circulation, that I fell back again flat on my back like a dead man. The exertion of trying to rise, however, made me bring up a considerable quantity of sea-water, some two gallons or more, which I must have swallowed when insensible, for I certainly never took down half that quantity while swimming, having carefully avoided letting any get into my mouth for fear of its increasing my thirst; but, however it got into me, the emetic did me good, and I felt much better after thus disgorging it from my inside.

"Resting a bit, stretched out on the sand-bank, I could not help thanking the merciful Providence that had thus preserved my life when I had abandoned myself to despair, and had been powerless to aid myself; and I wondered whether any of my comrades had been saved too, or if I were the sole survivor of the ill-fated boat's crew?

"The evening growing darker my mind was soon brought back to thoughts of action, especially as the tide rising on the beach where I was lying began to lap against my body. Crawling on my hands and knees, for I was still unable to rise to my feet and walk, my limbs being perfectly numb from the thighs downward, I managed to get out of the way of the water for a while; but as it yet continued to rise, and I thought it might possibly cover the whole sand-bank at high tide, I determined to attempt to swim across the intervening channel that lay between the little islet I was on and the main coast—although the latter in the evening gloom seemed more than a mile away, and I felt utterly feeble and worn out. But, I had to do it somehow or other, so I nerved myself up for the task.

"Strange to say, however, the moment I rolled myself into the water again, for I cannot say I walked in, I found I could use my arms and legs again as freely as ever when swimming, albeit so cramped and powerless when I tried to move them ashore; and so, striking out again for the last time with all my remaining strength, I crossed the little channel that separated me from the Madagascar coast in much less time than I had calculated on, the haze having made it appear wider than it really was.

"It was dark, however, when I grounded on the other side, where the land fortunately shelved down into the water gradually—for if there had been any steep bank or cliff to climb I could never have succeeded in surmounting it, the last exertion of swimming the channel having exhausted all my energies. Now, completely prostrated with all I had gone through, as soon as I had crawled up far enough to be out of reach of the tide, I laid down under the trunks of the two trees that had been my beacon guides to safety, and which grew close together out of a clump of sand on the shore, falling asleep at once. I was so utterly worn out that I was not only powerless to proceed any further, but I had no dread of the savage country I was in, or any fear of being attacked by wild beasts!"



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FIVE.

HUNGER AND THIRST.

"When day broke next morning," Ben went on to say, "there I found myself under the shade of the two cocoa-nut palms, as I discovered my beacon trees to be, lying on the warm sandy bed covered over with leaves which I had accidentally selected for my night's couch—being the first comfortable spot I came to on crawling up from the beach. I felt thoroughly rested and restored to my old self, although still somewhat stiff and sore all over, as if somebody had given me a good thrashing— which of course was owing to my long exposure to the waves and the beating about they gave me; but, I was able to stand on my feet now and work my limbs more freely than I could on first landing, which was decidedly a point to the good, as I had thought I was paralysed.

"Looking about me, I noticed that I had managed to fetch a low curving bay or arm of the sea considerably to the south of Cape Tangan, which I could recognise stretching away to the northward. The shore was of fine white sand; and in the background was a dense bush of jungle and forest trees, principally palms and such like tall upright trunks, that had no branches, all their foliage being on the top in a cluster like a lady's parasol.

"My two cocoa-nut trees were evidently the outlying sentinels, or advance-guards of these; for they stood alone on the beach a hundred yards or more in front of the jungle and brushwood, which extended back from the shore in a mass of green that stood well out, in pleasant relief to the gleaming sand, as far away as the eye could reach, clothing the slopes of the high mountains which rose up in the centre of the island running like a backbone or rocky spine all along its length from its extreme nor'-easterly point down far away to the south.

"This forest belt of green encircles the whole coast of Madagascar, I've been told, beginning close almost to the water's edge in some places and extending back inland until the higher levels are reached; and it is of a uniform width of some fifteen miles across, except where, of course, it has been cleared away at the different settlements and colonies at the heads of the various bays with which the coast is indented. I know, at all events, that this jungle seemed endless and impenetrable; for I had quite enough to do with it in the following ten days that I was thus brought face to face with it, as I can tell you!

"As soon as I woke up, the first thought that crossed my mind was, where could I find water? I was so parched with thirst that my tongue seemed glued to the roof of my palate, and I believe it was feeling this that roused me; so, naturally, I turned about, hunting for some brook or streamlet where I could get a drink, as rivers mostly run to the shores of the majority of islands I ever heard of. However, there were none close in sight that I could see from the beach, and all the water there was salt; and, as I argued to myself that all the green jungle must have been produced and kept alive by moisture of some sort, I abandoned the sea-shore as hopeless and directed my steps towards the bush, with the expectation of finding there the object of my quest. I didn't go with any lagging steps either, for by this time my thirst was almost unbearable, becoming the more intense the longer I waited for water.

"I proceeded after getting into the bush to where the ground sloped down into a sort of valley, fancying that such would be the likeliest place for a river; but I had not got very far through the rough thicket, which scratched my exposed skin pretty sorely by the way, when, as I emerged again into the open, I saw before me a group of men in front amongst some detached trees. Two or three were moving about, while the rest were lying on the ground; so, taking them to be natives, and knowing that the Sakalavas who inhabited this part of the coast were, unlike the Hovas, friendly to foreigners, many Hindoo families and Portuguese being settled amongst them, besides a few stray Frenchmen and Americans, I at once made towards the group. Judge of my surprise, however, on coming up to the men, to find that they were none other than Magellan and four others of the pinnace's crew, whom I had supposed to be lost, but who had managed to get ashore safely long before myself!

"Well, what a hand-shaking there was that went round them—why, it was like meeting chaps that had been dead and buried over again! We none of us could say anything for some time, the emotion of seeing each other again being too much, for I was a pretty good favourite with all the hands, and Magellan had told the rest about his having passed me swimming ashore early in the day they all got to land; and then, through my not turning up, of course they all believed I had gone down to Davy Jones! One thing was now certain, however; and that was, that we were the whole number that were saved; for, if you will recollect, five out of the thirteen comprising the crew of the boat had gone down with her when she filled and sank, leaving eight only struggling in the water. Of these remaining eight, six of us were now together on the Madagascar coast, and the other two, Bellamy and Russell, I had myself seen drown when they tumbled off the raft on which I had left them in that last deadly embrace of theirs.

"I was so knocked of a heap at meeting my old shipmates so unexpectedly that I declare to you I forgot all about my raging thirst for the moment; but as soon as the excitement had calmed down and all sorts of questions and answers had been asked and replied to, with much palavering and congratulating of one another, the intense feeling returned to me worse than ever—my tongue being so swollen up that it seemed to fill my mouth!

"'Have you got any water?' says I to Magellan; 'I'm dying with thirst!'

"'Bless you, my hearty!' replied he, 'why didn't you say that afore? But mind now, you must go gingerly. This is all we've got till we find some more, and we've agreed to allowance ourselves. Half a pint is all you can have, shipmate, now, and if you drinks it all you'll get no more to-day. I advise you to rinse your mouth out with it, for that'll make it go further, bo!'

"So saying, Magellan hands me a pannikin into which he had drawn off the quantity of water he had said was the allowance out of the barrico, which I told you contained some when the pinnace was wrecked. It had floated ashore all right, fortunately for us all; and Magellan, picking it up, had had the good sense to economise it for the advantage of the lot. I can't tell you how it felt as I drank it down! Nothing that I ever tasted before or since all the world over ever came up to that drink of water. It was like the nectar as I've read of that the old Greek gods used to drink on Mount Olympus, for it was sweeter than any wine or liquor that ever crossed my lips before I learnt to wear the blue ribbon!

"I took Magellan's advice and drank it sparingly, washing my mouth out to make it go further before I swallowed it and spinning it out as long as I could, giving a great gasp of satisfaction as I drained down the last drop. I never thought such a chap as Magellan would have had the sense to lay hands on the barrico as he did and serve it out on allowance—considering the little amount of water there was, and how all must have been pretty nigh as thirsty as myself; but, I suppose the peril he had been in and the fact of his not seeing any river near taught him caution!

"Now, on seeing me drink, the others wanted the pannikin passed round; but Jem Magellan said 'No,' putting the barrico back under some leaves alongside of where he had been sitting when I came up, which was the reason I hadn't noticed it as I was certain to have done; and I, taking command of the party again, as I was entitled to do as senior petty officer, endorsed his authority, saying that it was for the good of all that some restriction should be placed on the water so as to make it last out till we got more. I daresay, sir, as how you must have thought it strange that Captain Wilson should have put me in charge of the pinnace, instead of a warrant officer or middy?"

"Yes, I must say I have been wondering at that," I replied to Ben's question.

"Well, it seems rather queer," said Ben; "but you must know that when the Dolphin captured the dhow that time, the only officers on board fit for duty that weren't down in the sick bay with fever were the first and second lieutenants, one middy and the boatswain, besides Chips the carpenter, who couldn't be spared from the ship; and in boarding the Fatima, the first swab, as I told you, got an ugly scrape in the leg that prevented him from moving; so when the second lieutenant was put in charge of the dhow to take her up to Zanzibar, I was the only responsible man the captain could think of to send cruising with the pinnace, as the middy was a harum-scarum youngster, who hadn't got thought enough, and neither the boatswain nor Chips could be taken away from their duties without perhaps the ship suffering. Besides, I had a very good character, standing on the books for promotion, with three good-conduct badges; and being at the time well acquainted with the coast and the ways of the slave-dhows I was just the man to be put in charge of the boat as 'jaunty,' as we say in the service."

"All right, I've no doubt the captain selected you as a fit person for so responsible a post," said I. "Fire away with the yarn."

"Very good, sir," said Ben, continuing his narrative now that he had given this explanation. "I was in command of the party anyway, though I must say I wasn't very much like an officer in appearance, for I hadn't a rag of clothing on. Indeed, most of us were in the same condition; for, only Magellan and one other chap had trousers, the remaining three being, like myself, as naked as when they were born! However, that did not trouble us much then, as we were under the shade of the trees, and in those parts of the world the less you have on the more comfortable you are; although, when exposed directly to the sun it soon raises blisters on a bare skin.

"Before doing anything else, as soon as I resumed my proper post as headman of the crew, I thought the best thing was to organise a proper search for water, that being our principal necessity for the moment; and, accordingly, directing the lot to separate, each going a different way so as to properly overhaul the ground, but not keeping too far apart to be out of hail of one another lest we might get lost, we dispersed through the bush—I taking the beach line for my course, and telling the rest to keep the two cocoa-nut trees in sight for a general rendezvous and report progress in an hour's time or thereabouts if they had not found water before. If they found it, of course they were to sing out at once.

"Our courage was pretty well up then, for we had yet only seen the beginning, so to speak, of our trials, and the men went off laughing and skylarking; one calling out as how he'd soon be piping us down to a real good feed, with lashings of grog; and another saying he'd look in and ask the Queen of Madagascar to send down a carriage and fetch us to the palace. Bless you! you know what light-hearted chaps sailors are, even in the midst of danger. As for myself, I was more serious like; for, besides having the responsibility of the whole party on my shoulders and wishing to do the best for all, I couldn't help thinking we were in a very sorry mess altogether. I knew what the coast was, you see; for it was a wide extent of savage country all the way from Cape Tangan to Majunga, with only some little native settlement here and there between, all of which were separated by this endless belt of jungle I've mentioned, and wide lagoons and rivers, in addition to high mountains in many places—that would have been tough climbing at the best of times, without the heavy brushwood and tangled thickets that ran up from their bases to their summits, and the deep crevices and gorges in which they abruptly ended, making one come to a dead stop on the edge of some awful abyss, over which one step further would precipitate you. I knew all this, sir, from my own past acquaintance with the coast, as well as from what I had learned from others who had seen more of it than I had; so, I did not see quite such a satisfactory end to our difficulties as all the rest did, with the exception of Magellan, who had been shipwrecked before, on the coast of China, and knew it wasn't child's play. But, as for the other poor fellows, they had to learn the reality in bitter earnestness. Now that they had succeeded in getting ashore such distance from where the pinnace had sunk under us, they believed they had passed through the worst peril they could possibly have to contend against and that thenceforth all was plain sailing for them. Ah! before that first day of their experiences in Madagascar was over they would have a very different tale to tell, as you'll see.

"So thinking, and, as luck would have it, anticipating exactly what happened, though perhaps this was more owing to the melancholy frame of mind I was in than any pretence of being able to foretell the future, as some folks set up for doing, I went from the little clearing in the bush, where we had been assembled, down to the sea, the glimmer and shimmering of which, from the sun shining on it, could be seen through the openings in the foliage of the trees—first directing my footsteps, being now able to walk easily and well, to the bank at the foot of the twin cocoa-nut trees where I had rested for the night, and from thence to the place where I had crawled ashore; for, I could trace my way without any difficulty by the tracks and marks I had made in the clear white sand, which being above high-water mark had not been washed out by the tide, as would otherwise have been the case.

"From this spot, I followed along the beach the whole curve of the bay, a good two mile or more, to where it ended in a precipitous cliff, without finding the mouth of any stream or river emptying itself into the sea; but I found one thing of some service, for, attached to an oar, which must have formed part of the raft I had made and abandoned to Russell and Bellamy, was the comforter that I had taken off my neck and bound the spars together with. It came in now even handier than ever; as, wrapping it round my loins I converted the old comforter into a sort of petticoat that did duty for my missing 'unmentionables,' as delicate people call them, and I confess I felt more comfortable with this apology on, even though I was in those savage wilds with but my own messmates to see me.

"Only the oar had been cast up by the waves; neither the pork breaker, which had contained one or two junks of meat that might have been useful to us, nor the stern-sheet grating, which I had lashed together with it, being observable anywhere on the strand, so they must have been carried by the current round the cape.

"I retraced my way sadly to our meeting-place; for, as I argued, if I couldn't see the mouth of any river there they wouldn't find one in the bush, as the ground shelved down gradually towards the sea in the neighbourhood, so if there was any water stream, it was bound to find its way there, not being able to run uphill!

"During all this time I could hear our chaps hollering and calling out to each other, sometimes the voices being far away and then again close at hand; but when I had got up to the cocoa-nut trees there they all were once more, with the same story of an unsuccessful search. Diving beneath the brushwood and jungle they had peeped and peered into every likely spot they came across, without finding a trace of water, nor even the empty bed of what had been a stream in the rainy season. It was evident that the valley we were in was too northerly for the rivers that I had heard entered the sea mostly on the west side of the island; and that to come to such we would have to make our way over one of the intervening chains of hilly land lying between.

"The men, however, were too tired to attempt this now, for instead of an hour, we had been nigher three searching through the forest and coast; and, it being close on noontide, from the elevation of the sun, which being in the zenith was right over our heads, I called a halt—all of us lying down under the trees till it should get a bit cooler towards evening. All, too, were so thirsty, and clamouring out so much for water, that I and Magellan had to give in to their entreaties and serve out another half-pint apiece, which we told them would have to last them until noon next day; but still, this second allowance all round made a serious drain on our store, for there being six of us now, and each, including myself, having had half a pint in the pannikin before, that made six pints out of the two and a half gallons the water barrico originally held—nearly a third of the whole quantity. If we went on at that rate, why it would only last for three days, or two more at the outside, when, as I calculated, it would take us a week at least to reach Majunga, that is if we could manage to surmount the mountain ranges that I was aware lay between where we were and that port. I said a word or two to that effect to the men, but they didn't pay much attention to my caution, all being tired out and the majority falling asleep as soon as they drank their allowance, without waiting to see the next served out even, they were so drowsy.

"I tried to keep watch for a bit, but the exertion of walking about had been too much for me too, and I soon followed suit in dropping off with the others, not waking up until it was close on sunset, when the slanting rays of the fiery orb shining right into my eyes roused me and made me turn out, although I took care not to wake the rest.

"I felt thirsty now no longer but hungry as a hunter, and started up to see if I could find anything to eat. I thought there might be cocoa- nuts about, for these when they are old, as you generally only see them in England, contain, instead of juice, or 'milk' as they term it in the tropics, which the nut is filled with when young, a valuable amount of solid matter, which is not only tasty to eat but nourishing as well, being mostly a kind of vegetable fat or oil. However, on looking up at the trees over our sheltering place I could see no cocoa-nuts; while a hunt amongst the bushes disclosed nothing there in the fruit line either. I saw some tamarind trees certainly, but the beans on these were only just sprouting out from the blossom; and although I gathered some of these and chewed them, thinking they might have an acid taste which would alleviate thirst if it did not allay hunger, they were so nasty that I had to spit them out again and wash my mouth out with sea- water to take away their flavour, going down to the shore for this purpose, as well as to see if there was anything eatable there to pick up.

"Presently, Magellan woke up too, and then the others, all suffering like myself from hunger. One chap said he could eat his boots; but then we had all pulled those off when the pinnace was labouring in the sea before she foundered. I told them about my unsuccessful try for cocoa- nuts and fruit, so they were perfectly satisfied that if I failed it would be useless for them to worry themselves by searching; and after a time chatting together and planning out that, next day, we would try to cross the mountains to Majunga, we all settled down to sleep again after the sun had gone down in the west—when night came on suddenly, without any twilight the same as you have here, enveloping the forest and all our surroundings in a darkness so dense that it could almost be felt, no moon rising or any stars peeping out until long after we were snoring, that is, if any at all came out then.

"The next morning, we made a terrible discovery.

"Through some carelessness or other in putting back the bung-stopper of the barrico, or from one of the chaps getting up in the night and 'sucking the monkey' while we were all asleep, every drop of water had disappeared from the vessel, and although we all awoke thirsty, the same as we had done the previous morning, there was nothing left now to quench our drought with.

"The men were so angry over it that they nearly came to blows, Magellan and I having much difficulty in pacifying them; the more especially, as some of them complained that if they had been allowed to have had their fill before going to sleep, at all events the water would have done some good then instead of being wasted, and they would besides not have been so thirsty as they now were, while they also would have been able to hold out longer till they got more.

"Of course this was absurd on their part, although very aggravating; so to stop any more hard words and argufying in the matter, I suggested that as there was nothing to be gained by our remaining any longer in the vicinity of the bay where we had first come ashore, we had better start off at once on our journey to Majunga while we were fresh in the early morning, before the sun got high in the heavens to enervate us with its scorching heat.

"This motion was carried, with one or two dissentients, and we accordingly at once started off due south, as nearly as I could calculate by the position of the sun and sea, making our way through the stiff jungle up the side of the mountain that spurted right across our course in that direction, the way getting steeper and steeper each step that we took forwards, and the jungle thicker and more dense.

"Gracious goodness! what a climb that was! Up and up we struggled and toiled, perspiring all the way and gasping with heat and thirst. We tore all the skin off our arms and legs in forcing ourselves through the prickly patches of jungle, and almost splintered our feet against the rocks and gnarled roots of some of the trees, besides bruising our bodies all over with the repeated falls we had; and, all the while, we were suffering the most unmitigated pangs of hunger and thirst that mortal man could experience when in full strength.

"To add, too, to the misery of the toilsome journey, we could hardly see an inch before us, although the sun took right good care to blaze down right immediately over our heads through the tops of the trees. We could only tell we were ascending from the extra fatigue it entailed in lifting our weary feet in stepping upwards; and although we climbed up several trees that looked taller than the rest near, so that we might better observe our whereabouts, when perchance we might discover some welcome oasis in sight in the midst of this desert of green, not a single yard could we see beyond the tree tops immediately near, which closed in the view completely—the only break apparent being the intense glaring blue of the burning sky just overhead, with its molten coppery disc of a sun darting down fiery rays from the zenith.

"At last, when every man Jack of us felt that he could not proceed a single step beyond if we had any more climbing to do, the ground suddenly began to descend, telling us that we had reached the slope that led into the next valley.

"This put fresh life into us and made us press onwards with renewed vigour, everyone hoping that, as soon as we got to the bottom of the declivity, we would reach one of those rivers which, as I had told the men, emptied themselves from the west coast of Madagascar into the Mozambique Channel—buoying up their drooping energies whenever they appeared to falter on their toilsome way by holding out this dream to them, for I believed in it fully myself.

"It was but a futile hope, however; and one, too, that was doubly disappointing.

"On getting to the lower part of the hill, something was seen shining through the trees, like as the sea had been observed shimmering in the sun on the other side of the mountain, but this now evidently could not be any portion of the Indian Ocean or Mozambique Channel, from the direction we had been proceeding in since the morning?

"No, it could not be the sea.

"It could be nothing else, thought the men, than the much-longed-for river which I had led them shortly to expect to see in sight; so, with a glad cheer they rushed between the trunks and branches of the intervening trees in mad, hot haste to quench their thirst in the cooling stream.

"But oh! the terrible surprise!

"The water was salt and brackish, not fresh. It was a lagoon, or arm of the sea, running up between a gorge of the hills, and not a river after all."



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.

THE CROCODILE'S VICTIM.

"You won't think I'm exaggerating, sir, or that we were unmanly; but I assure you that one and all of us broke down under this disappointment, and cried as if we were a parcel of children. It was like the last straw, you know, that broke the camel's back!

"As soon as we all recovered a bit from the disappointment, I told the men that we must make the best or worst of it, and that it would probably ease their thirst if they bathed in the lagoon. This some of them did, but the majority gave way to despair; and if we had not lugged one chap out he would have drowned himself.

"We had a long rest here, if rest you can call it when fellows felt utterly burnt up with the heat, and so parched with thirst and famished with hunger that their whole inside was all one gnawing crave for food and drink; but it eased us a bit, and Magellan and I held a council of war, as you might say, looking matters in the face and studying our position.

"As near as I could judge from what I had observed when cruising off the coast, we should have to cross three more mountains similar to the one we had just got over, and travel through three more valleys like this in the same way, before arriving within hail of Majunga; for I knew there were three bays between Cape Tangan and the port we were aiming for— Pasanda, Radama, and another whose name I forget. The question was, would we ever get over the distance? If we did not meet with water soon, it would be utterly impossible for us to accomplish the journey; and, as the dry season had now set in, our chance of finding stray rivulets and mountain streams would grow each day less and less—unless, sir, you've ever been in the tropics you can't tell how quickly the appearance of the country alters with the change of the season! A place, one day, may be all foaming down with cataracts and mountain torrents, with a river perhaps lying in your way that you would have to swim through to get over to the other side of it; while, the next time you visit the same locality, even within a week, the mountain torrents and cataracts will have vanished as if by magic, and the river you had to swim over or found impassable will now have dwindled down to a tiny streamlet that a child could paddle in, or else have completely dried up, leaving only a rocky channel in the ground with huge boulders tossed about here and there to show where it had been.

"It was fortunate for us we had the sun to guide us through all this forest waste, as otherwise we could not possibly have steered in any constant direction, but would probably have gone round in a circle like a horse in a mill. As it was, however, even amidst the depth of brushwood and jungle by the side of the salt-water lagoon where we were camping for the time, we could easily distinguish the western point of the compass from the sun circling almost directly towards that quarter after it had passed the meridian, for we were only some fifteen degrees south of the equator; and in the morning, likewise, we had no difficulty in telling when we faced east.

"Under these circumstances, therefore, I advised all hands to get up when they felt a little less tired and trudge on steadily due south, where our only hope of safety lay, as long as the light through the trees enabled us to see where we were going. Once the light became uncertain, it would be better to stop for the night than to wander about and fatigue ourselves unnecessarily, only perhaps to find out when the sun rose again at dawn that we had been merely retracing our previous day's steps to no good.

"It was a hard job to make the poor chaps buckle to their tramp again, and it was as much as Magellan and I could do to get them to start. One of them, Denis Brown, he was a faint-hearted man even on board ship, entreated us to let him lie down there and die where he was; but of course we would not leave him behind, and he had to come on with us whether he liked it or not, Magellan and I forcing him on his legs and dragging him on.

"Our first task was to get round the lagoon, which was so overgrown with reeds and suchlike rank vegetation as grows in swamps that we couldn't tell where it began or ended; but as the sea must lay towards the west, I came to the conclusion that if we skirted the bank in the opposite direction we would soon come to the neck of the water and be able to wade across it. This we did, but it was arduous walking—through mud and slime, with snakes darting out every now and then upon us, and huge crocodiles crawling out of our way, just as we almost set foot on them, which frightened some of the timid ones pretty much, I can tell you!

"At last we managed to get round the lagoon; and then, steering steadily again to the south, this bit of easting having taken us a good deal out of our straight course southwards, we had a second mountain to climb up through tangled brushwood and jungle. This seemed harder work a good deal than the first one, for we were almost tired out when we started on the journey, while our feet were so swollen and blistered with all the walking we had already done, besides being torn to pieces with the stones and jagged bits of tree roots we had trodden on, that we could hardly crawl up, although we grasped hold of the branches of the shrubs and brushwood to drag ourselves up by. When we arrived at the top of this chain of hills—for it was first up and then down most of the way— the sun was just setting; so, down we squatted in the first open place we reached, resting for the night and leaving the descent into the valley for the next morning. Indeed, we were so weary and worn out that if we had known for a certainty that water was within reach of us at the bottom of the hill, although we were so thirsty that we couldn't hardly speak to one another, I don't believe a man of us would have stirred after once lying down to get a drink—we really couldn't have stirred a step!