For prey and spoils

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Contents

CHAPTER

I. The Sea King’s Home

II. Captured by the Corsairs ....

Chapter I The Sea-kings’ Home

M AYHAP it matters not where I was born, for now it concerns me most where I shall die ; but still, since my tale must have a beginning, let me state that my eyes first opened to the light in an English manor-house, on the right bank of the river Dart, in Devonshire. The fair farm itself had come down through many generations to my father, who, dying when I was an infant, left it to my elder brother, as by right indeed he should have done.

But the estate being poor of soil, though beauteous of aspect withal, fell short of affording support to us all, e’en though there were but *5 few, to wit — my mother, my elder brother, his wife and babe, and myself. Perhaps it were better to say that the chief difficulty lay in providing meet employment for myself as I grew old enough to work with my hands, for my mother, though poor, was yet ambitious that I should do something better than labor on a farm. So it fell out that when, on or near my fifteenth birthday, my mother’s brother, a mariner engaged in trade with the Indies, proposed to take me out with him as a cabin-boy, he found not so much opposition as he had expected. For my dear mother, more thoughtful for my future than I, looked forward to the time when I should return perchance with a fortune, and thus be able to spend the remainder of our days each in the other’s company. Careless was I of the future, yet my uncle’s offer seemed to me like a golden opportunity, and I grasped at it eagerly.

Aside from the promise in it of great adventure, and perchance of profit in the end, there was that in the opportunity which appealed to 16 my romantic nature, for in my veins coursed the blood of the sea-kings of Devon. The sea air had always been my breath and the sea-salt was in the wood we burned on our hearth. And besides, were not all the traditions of Devonshire smacking of the sea, of the great oceans which had been found and crossed by our mariners? Was not the greatest of sea-kings, Sir Francis Drake, a son of old Devon, and Sir John Hawkins ( though I admired not his life so much as that of Drake, the sea-scourge of the Spaniards), and that knight of purest faith, Sir Humphrey Gilbert — yes, and Walter Raleigh and Blake ? And had not my mother once taken me to see the Plymouth Hoe, where Drake, and Howard, and those other commanders who drove the Spanish armada to destruction, whiled away their time of waiting playing at bowls ?

And my grandsire, who died but a few years before this time of which I tell, had himself seen, with his own eyes, despairing Raleigh return from his last American voyage in the “ Destiny,” 17 enter the harbor of Plymouth, and thence depart for London and for the Tower, where he was beheaded. Despairing he was, my grandsire said, yet high-hearted and even gay of demeanor, when he landed at the mole ; as when, later, reproved for his seeming levity, he saith : “ It is my last mirth in this world ; begrudge it not to me ! ”

When I spake of these worthies to my dear mother, and said it seemed more fit to live like them, even to die like Sir Walter, than to burrow in the earth like a mole, she did not say me nay. She smiled, e’en though through her tears, and saith to me : “ Yea, my son, and, perchance, you may remember that my father, your grandsire, also saw that band of noble men and women depart from Devon Port for America in the ‘Mayflower/ and saw them not only, but kissed their hands at the parting. For he himself was always prone to go to that land, America, to which, in the year 1620 , sailed those seekers 1 8 for religious freedom, leaving behind them their most dear homes and friends.”

Sweet voice my sainted mother had, but she was chary of words ; and her beauty was of that sort that made men turn and look at her when she passed. To me it was the beauty of angels ; to me her voice seemed no less than heavenly music; and have I not heard it many, many times in the years that have passed, warning, beseeching when I was sore beset by peril and temptation ? Ah, me, yes ; but in imagination only, and in dreams ; for since I sailed forth from the Dart’s Mouth, in the year 1668 — my mother having yielded her love to her judgment, as she then had light — I have never heard her voice, in sooth, nor looked upon her face. She clung to me, weeping, and strained me to her breast full oft in those last few days we had together ; but, at the end, when my uncle came for me and his men took my sailor’s chest to the pinnace at the shore, she sent me forth most bravely. “ F orget not, love,” she said, “ to always 19 hold thy God and thy mother in remembrance. I believe, with Devons sainted son, that we are as near to heaven by sea as by land.” And thus, with her kiss warm upon my lips, and with the last words of my great namesake, likewise the last I ever heard her speak, I, Humphrey Gilbert, fared forth to seek my fortune in the Indies.

The slopes and terraces of the Port faded from view late in the afternoon, and by nightfall we were far off from shore, making out for the open sea. Nothing occurred to interrupt the steady sailing of our vessel on her course — nothing but occasional squalls and head winds ; for the “ Nancy” was a good ship and staunch, built expressly for the long vovages to and fro between Plymouth and Barbadoes, in the West Indies, to which latter port we were destined. But, while man proposeth, the God of all disposeth, the proverb sayeth, the truth of which we were perforce to prove. For, while we thought we were destined for the Barbadoes, my uncle having already sailed several voyages thither, the fates had in store for us something quite otherwise, as soon will appear.

In the hold of* the “ Nancy” was great store of mixed goods for traffic with the natives of the Leeward Isles ; perchance, we should meet up with them, and in her treasure tank, just off the cabin, where my uncle, the master, the mate and myself had our quarters when below, was the sum of fifty thousand pounds in silver and gold, for the purpose of buying sugar and molasses from the planters of the Barbadoes. It was not generally known to the crew that this treasure was aboard, though all may have surmised it from the very fact of the voyage being made. If, however, any knew of it, they kept close with the information, not bruiting it about.

The crew was composed of Devon men and boys, some going out, like myself, in the hope of mending their fortune, and others being mere sailors who made their bread by seafaring toil. All told, they were about sixteen in number, ineluding four apprentices, or, in plain truth, slaves, who were being transported to the islands under lifelong indentures for some petty crimes they had committed. They may have been under false accusation, or may have done all that was imputed to them; I troubled not myself about them; in which I often thought afterwards I was wrong, for I should have given them of my sympathy, if nothing more. This reflection arose from the fact that not long after I was myself in their condition — a slave, though not owing to any crime I had committed — and then I felt the need and craving for human sympathy, but when too late.

My uncle was kind ; the work I had assigned me was light, and the days passed pleasantly, except that constantly I was thinking of my mother, which thoughts were gladsome in themselves, but also saddening. Nothing occurred to vary the monotony of the voyage for weeks, not even a sail rose against the horizon, until I felt that anything were welcome, even a hurricane, for the sake of a change. This shows the foolishness contained in the heart of a youth of fifteen, for, while my uncle, the master, was content that nothing untoward happened, I was craving some excitement.

“ Nay, nay,” he was wont to say, with a shake of his gray head, “let well enough alone. I want nothing but fair winds — which we have in the main, and fair fortune, which may the good God grant us — to escape the pirates of the Main.”

We were then down near the latitude of the northern West Indies, and in waters which the king of Spain had long claimed as exclusively his own. Near one hundred and eighty years before Don Christopher Columbus had discovered this portion of the world, sailing in vessels furnished by the Spanish crown, and ever since the Spaniards had held that almost all the Western hemisphere belonged to them. The king of France, and after him the king of England, had in effect asked the king of Spain to show them the title-deeds he had received to all these seas, lands and peoples from our common father, Adam. He could not, of course ; so now it was a question of which could seize and hold the most of sea and shore.

As the king of Spain was most strongly intrenched in the places conquered in former times by the Spanish soldiers, and held ever since, there was little to do, my uncle said, but prey upon his commerce. This our brave privateers, like Hawkins, Davis, Drake and Raleigh, had done in the last century ; but we all know the end of Sir Walter, who lost his head because King James would not answer to the Spanish crown for his deeds. It was easier to take off Raleigh’s head than to pay for his privateering, my uncle said, and he was very well informed in state affairs.

After which, finding that the king of Spain grew more exacting as his commerce increased, and that all the heads of all the noblemen in England would not satisfy his thirst for blood, our British merchant mariners took matters into their own hands and worried his Spanish majesty until he fell sick with fear. Not alone English, but Dutch and French seafarers took out letters of marque and privateering against the hated flag of Spain.

“That was all very well, ,, said my uncle, “so long as the privateers confined their attentions to the Jack Spaniards; but of late some of them have in effect run up the black flag, and are doing nothing more nor less than piracy. Even the 4 blood and bones’ of old Britain will not save us, perad venture one of those rascally Frenchmen or Dutchmen gets a squint at us before we make port and swap our gold and silver for freight that is not so easily handled. Methinks it would have been better if I had taken my gold to the Guinea coast, there exchanged it for a cargo of lusty blackamoors, and then have come to the Barbadoes for my sweets. Then there would have been no gold to tempt the pirates, and I fancy we might escape their clutches.”

“ Might escape ! ” I exclaimed. “ Why, is there any doubt — any danger ? ” This conversation occurred one day when we were within four or five days’ sail of the Barbadoes, which we might even then have reached had we not borne a more northerly course for the Leeward Islands.

“ Yes, there is not only doubt of our being able to escape the pirates, but there is danger,” rejoined the bluff old sailor. “ You see, Humphrey, we have n’t a gun aboard, not even a demi culverin, and, though I have a Briton’s distaste for surrender, and would rather fight than run, there is no alternative.”

“ But why do either ? ” I asked, in amazement.

For answer my uncle handed me his telescopic glass, which, treasuring as the apple of his eye, he rarely allowed anyone but himself to use. “ Sweep her down near the horizon in the no’theast,” he whispered, so that none of the crew could overhear him. “ See that fellow hull down in the distance : a frigate, near as I can make 26 out. He has been following us for the last three days, and to-morrow I expect him to catch up. He might have done it two days ago ; but so long as we are going his way, like a hare towards the fox’s den, he won’t overhaul us. If he will give me only two days more, we can make Saint Kitts, and then I ’ll snap my fingers in his face. But he won’t. No ” — in answer to my questioning look — “ he ’s a French privateer, a fast one, and can make better time than our ‘Nancy.’ ”

And the next day, surely as dawn broke, the frigate was within hail, with a Long Tom trained to rake us at a shift of the helm, and fifty or more villainous cutthroats crowded against the lee rail ready to board, should it come to close quarters.

I entertained hard thoughts of my uncle for allowing that French corsair to take us without a fight, as he did ; but time showed that it was not from lack of spirit, but in furtherance of a deep-laid scheme. The mate was ready to take him by the throat, and the crew growled them- 27 selves hoarse ; but of what use ? A few muskets and arquebuses formed our total armament, together with some pistols and cutlasses ; and what were these against that corsair’s grinning row of portholes and grim cannon, let alone his decks swarming with bloodthirsty pirates armed to the teeth ?

Chapter II Captured By Corsairs

W E were going quite slowly, for the morning breeze in those seas is but mild, sometimes dying away altogether soon after the dawn of day, and, in accordance with orders trumpeted from the frigate by a lusty bo’sen, we came up in the wind and held our vessel steady.

“ Send a boat aboard,” shouted the big, be whiskered pirate, speaking in French, which my uncle well understood.

“ Aye, aye, sir,” shouted back our master, also in French. But there was great delay in getting our boat over the side, not only from the manner in which it was secured to the davits, but also owing to the reluctance of our men, who were in 29 sooth sullen and seemed like to mutiny. They were of an independent turn, at best, for some of them knew as well as my uncle how to handle a ship, and had only taken passage under him perforce of poverty, brought on belike by drink, which is the curse of seafarers the world over.

So, albeit they made a great to do about the launching of the boat, with a “yo heave ho,” and a “ hearty, now my hearties/’ and such like, they made such slow progress that the pirate captain became impatient. In sooth, he showed indubitable signs of his wrath by sending a cannon ball skipping but a few yards ahead of our good old “ Nancy’s ” nose ; and the puff of smoke, accompanied by the cataract of water that leaped aboard right merrily, showed what it well behooved our men to do. They needed no second warning, my faith ! but with alacrity tumbled the boat into the water, and themselves eftsoon right after it ; that is, enough of them to man the oars, the which they had no sooner taken up and shipped than our mate, at a word from 3 ° the master, went also over the side and seated himself in the sheets to steer. He had a scowl on his face, as indeed had every man who sat there facing him and awaiting the word to shove off, which was not long delayed.

There were no orders, as between master and mate, for it was well understood that this was to he a clean breast and no favor. Our papers were straight enough, showing our port of departure and port of destination, also our intent, which was to trade with Britons in a British island. But when, the boat having arrived at the frigate’s side, and said papers having been handed up for the pirate chief’s inspection, that fierce man stamped and swore and flourished oft his arms about. Then, holding up said papers so that we on the ship could see the nefarious act, he tore them in twain, and threw them overboard.

My uncle saw it all, for he stood on the poop in plain sight. And sooth, he was a majestic figure of a man, with his six feet four of stature, 31 and his gray beard flowing e’en most to his waist. His face was set and stern, his eyes blazing, but he said no word aloud ; though, being near him, I heard him mutter in his beard : “ By the

king, they shall rue this day and this transaction ! That buccaneer shall hang for this ! ” This might seem but mere bravado to one who knew not my uncle ; and, though I was puzzled to account for his apparent cowardice in giving up our ship without e’en a show of fight, I felt in my soul that he would some time make good his oath, as muttered in his beard to himself ; but at that moment there was that within me which made me almost loathe him for his pusillanimity, as it seemed to me ; though later events showed well what were his motives in allowing our ship to be taken and the pirate chief to insult his majesty the King by thus casting contempt upon official papers with his seal. I fell to trembling with the rage and indignation within me, for it seemed to me far better to die fighting than to suffer indignities at the hands 3 2 of the foreign pirates. I bethought me of my ancestry, and of what Devon’s sons had done to the like of this foreigner ; yea, of what this very man, my mother’s own brother in blood, and of yore a doughty fighter, had himself performed at sea. It may seem incredible to relate, but my uncle Brabazon had himself fought his ship when on fire to the water’s edge, in Blake’s glorious battle with the Spaniards off Teneriffe, in 1657, and brought about the great victory for which his admiral received glory and renown. He was with him, too, when he was borne dying home to Plymouth Port.

But now, to suffer us to be taken, like rafs in a trap, and perchance to jeopardize our lives through lack of bravery ! He had a hand on my shoulder; but as these thoughts surged through me I shook it off as it had been a serpent, and, swinging round in front of him, was about to speak my mind, had I died for it. But, ere I opened my mouth, he looked at me so sternly, yet with such a deep tenderness in his 33 eyes, that I gazed in wonder — wonder at him for his behavior and at myself for my hesitation.

“I know what thou wouldst say, son Hum-, phrey,” thus he began. “ But stay thy impetuous spirit, for thou art wrong, albeit this may seem to thee unaccountable. In the end thou wilt not blame thy uncle for this. More now I cannot say. But wait, have faith in me.”

I had promised my dear mother to be guided by my uncle in all things and to yield him obedience, as I should to my father, were he yet alive ; but it went hard against the grain to abide by my promise. We stood, as it were, measuring each the other’s mettle, and the gaze of neither flinched. Then he spake again : “ Son

Humphrey, thou knowest I would not willingly allow harm to come to my sister’s son, not to make mention of these others entrusted to my keeping. But hist ! here comes the pirates’ boat to search the ship. Go thou below and transfer thy most precious belongings to the dunnage sack, for we may have to move ! ”

He spake lightly, with seeming unconcern ; and, still having faith in him, I obeyed his orders. The few sailors left aboard had already improved their time likewise, and when the rattle of ropes and clatter of cutlasses proclaimed the arrival of visitors on deck every man was ready to depart.

I had lingered over the treasures in the chest that my mother had so lovingly packed for me, fondling the little mementoes that she had slipped in between my clothes, and at the sight of which the tears would come, in spite of me. But the heavy tramp of many feet on deck and the shouts and cursings of the new arrivals hurried me along, and, brushing the tears from my cheeks, I tied the sack’s mouth, cast it beneath my bunk, and hastened up the gangway.

I was somewhat prepared for the sight that met my eyes, but not wholly ; though I had heard tales ofttimes of these “ Brethren of the Sea” from my uncle and others. The dread reality far surpassed all I hah heard or imagined, 35 and I can hardly express my horror and surprise at sight of the ruffian crew that greeted me as my head appeared above the hatch. They were about a dozen in number, all but one bare of foot and half naked, with shaggy, unkempt heads of shock hair, bushy beards tangled and scraggly, coarse features, and some of them bearing livid scars across cheek or brow. Their garbs were most fantastic, consisting, for the body, of a coarse shirt, open at the throat and belted around the waist, either with a broad leathern band or length of rope, into which was stuck a frightful array of knives, pistols and cutlasses. This waist belt kept up the trousers, which, of every kind of cut and fashion, on some were in tatters below the knee and on others mere apologies for raiment. Their hands were broad and brawny, their legs and chests, where exposed, were covered with coarse hair, and grimy from neglect of ablution.

There was one exception, in the person of the leader of this swashbuckler crew — for so I took 3 6 him to be the moment I saw him — who was dressed with care. He was a man of forty years, or thereabouts — slender, of average height, clad in the uniform of a French captain of the line. Had it not been for a sardonic smile that ever played around his neatly chiselled lips, and the sinister flashing of his eyes, black as sloes and with the divel’s light therein, he might eke have passed as handsome. He was girded about like the rest, with pistols thrust into a belt with silver clasps, and on each hip a curving cutlass like to a Moslem cimetar.

He checked the ribald speeches with which his men had greeted (and, I must confess, affrighted) me, and, bowing low, advanced with proffered hand. “And so this is your nephew, Captain Brabazon ? ” he said, half turning his head, but still advancing with his hand outstretched. “ I am glad to make his acquaintance. A fine young man ; he — he will soon learn better manners, I venture to say ! ”

This was said in French, which I understood very well; and I also understood, from the diabolic smile that flickered into his eyes and around his whiskered lips, that my bearing had offended him. For, carried away by the thought that this man was responsible for our capture — our captor, in very fact — and pursued his nefarious calling from choice, I could not bring myself to take his hand. Take the hand of a pirate, and, perchance, a murderer? Never! never ! I would choose to die first ! And die, in sooth, I thought I must, right then and there, for hoarse mutterings went up from the throats of his bodyguard, and several of them drew their cutlasses and made at me. But, though he still smiled, in that awful, divelish way, he waved them back with a gesture of command that they obeyed instanter, then delivered himself of the remark with which, as stated, he finished his speech : “ He will soon learn better manners, I venture to say ! ”

Then he turned to my uncle : “ Captain Brabazon, that is a fine youth, but a bit brusque, 33 don’t you think ? A little polishing might do him good. Suppose we say, for instance, keelhauling ! After one has been keelhauled, as you know, he is a different man entirely. Then, if he survives that, we will put him through his paces by making him walk the plank. Not to make him walk very far, you know, only from the gunwale to the end of the plank, where a misstep sends him into the water, and then — well, then, I suppose, sharks! Wouldst prefer the sharks’ company to mine, young man? Thou hast choice, now. Speak, quickly. Either thou wilt enlist under me on yonder frigate, or overboard thou goest ! ”

I do not know if I were brave or rash. To be brave is to sell one’s life most dearly, daring all things, heeding conscience only and honor. Perhaps I was heeding only stubborn pride, making a punctilio of my detestation of such creatures as these, dead to honor and sordid in sin. No ! If that were rashness merely, then knew I not the germ of honesty ! I looked at my uncle, but not in appeal. My heart sank when I thought upon his seeming baseness; but, in a dazed way, I felt curious to see what he would advise me to do. Not that I would follow his advice were it to kneel to the pirate and crave his pardon. I could well spurn one of my kin for that advice. But, no. He was apparently more distressed than was I. He plucked his beard and clenched his right hand as, with dry lips and husky voice, he said: “Come, Captain Mansvelt, do not jest with the youth. Consider, he is but scant fifteen, and this is his first experience at sea. He hath shown pride, I grant, and stubbornness ; but pardon him.”

Mansvelt! Then this was the most atrocious monster that ever sailed the sea: the Nero of the ocean. His infamies had made him conspicuous even among the men whose crimes had surpassed those of the Spanish conquerors of America. He saw me start, perhaps thought I shuddered, and mistook me for a craven.

“ Ha, hast heard the name before, young man?

Thou knowest, then, from what I have done, what I can, and belike will, do ? No, Captain Brabazon, I am not jesting with the youth. But I will pardon him if he will kneel and kiss my hand. Down, dog, and fawn upon thy master ! ”

I answered not the wretch, nor did I make a move to do as he commanded. My faith ! I could not have done so had the king himself been in his place. Something within me kept me rigid, erect, my gaze fixedly set on his, which now became shifty and uneasy.

“So?” he snarled. “You defy me, Mansvelt, whom to know is either to serve or to detest. Ho, there ! Trice this rascal to the rigging. First hamstring him, and try if his knees will bend ! But, no, stay ” — as several burly ruffians sprang forth to do his bidding — “I have abetter plan. Hold him the while I work it out.”

CHAPTER III M Y condition then seemed forlorn, indeed

but my salvation came from what to many would have appeared an untoward circumstance : to wit, my yielding to a passion that suddenly possessed me. For, when the pirate that was nearest to me laid hands upon my shoulder, he loosened from the chain by which it hung about my neck a portrait of my mother, which burst from the leathern case in which it was contained and fell upon the deck. I had promised her to always carry it about me and to look upon it at least once each day, lest, as she said, I might forget her. It was a miniature, painted by one Van Dyck, a famous Fleming who was once attached to the court of King 43

Charles. I have understood that he was ranked as among the great masters of the world of art, but of that I know not. Only this I know : that he had met my mother when she was a maiden, for she was a friend of his English wife, Mistress Buthven, granddaughter of the Earl of Gowrie, whom the painter married but a few years before his death. Be this as it may, he painted the miniature of my mother on ivory, from very love of her beauty, he most gallantly said to her, and then gave it to her as a gift. Meeting my father soon after, she was married, and, of course, bade farewell to the gay life of courts. It was the most precious of her keepsakes, and she had given it to me more as such than (as she had said in playful jest) to remind me of her existence.