Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1892 — CAST UP BY THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

CAST UP BY THE SEA.

BY SIR SAMUEL W. BAKER.

CHAPTER lll.—Continued. *• “This is touch and go!” said father; still on we flew with the gale right-a-beam, and the lugger in her best trim going like a racehorse. ‘Hurrah!’ cried father, ‘Mother Lee has got her lamps trimmed,' and as we approached, the two lights widened apart. 'That’s the mouth of the Cove.’ said father; ‘we are all right if we can see to clear the Iron Rock.” Father had the helm, and not a word was spoken on the deck as we went hissing through the water. The lights were now pretty wide apart, and we knew we were getting close in. ‘Starboard!’ shouted a man at the foremast, as we could just see the white foam surging in a huge breaker over the Iron Rock within a cable’s length of us; in another moment we passed within thirty yards of the breakers, and presently we shot direct into the mouth of the bay bet ween the Iwo tires on the cliffs. We could see the old woman at one fire and a man at the other; directly we had passed, both fires were suddenly put out. We anchored in the bay; father’ ieft two men in the Polly with ordeis to sink the kegs of brandy while we landed in the pinnace with the bales which we have just put away; and glad I Was, mother dear, to see the light at home, and to find you waiting for us. But 1. don't like the work, mother; and I don’t all over yet.” ~ “Well, Ned, Voir shan't ge unless you dike.’’ said Paul; “but there’s no harm in buying and selling fairly. All's honest and above board; and if the Polly’s too long in tne legs for the King's boats, she has a right to earn a penny for a new sets of sails iWe don't rob the government of the duty; if we didn't bring the silks th rough, the Frenchmen would, so the country would lose nothing and we gain.” The conversation was suddenly interrupted. At this moment the windows of the cottage • shook violently at the loud report of a cannon that appeared almost close to the cliff. All sprang to their feet, and looking through the window, ro. ket after rocket whizzed high in the air. Again a vivid flash was followed by the concussion of the gun, and as Paul and Ned rushed out to the terrace. a fearful sight was presented. Brightly illumined by the burning of a blue light, which rendered not only objects on the deck but every rope distinctly visible, the fine revenue cutter lay fixed upon the Iron Rock. A wave rolled completely over her, and at once extinguished the light that had for a few moments exhibited her distress; at the same instant a tremendous crash was heard as her mast fell over the side. Again a flash and heavy report, then once more a blue light burned,and showed the fearful havoc that had been .wrought in a few minutes; dismasted and with her decks confused with the fallen sail and rigging, and her immense boom lying < across the quarter-deck. The crew were attempting to save themselves on the spars. 'Several men clung to the mast; but again the sea broke completely over her, and swept away not only the light, hut the unfortunate tnan that held it. And all was complete darkness; but above the tumult of wind and waves a cry of distress was distinctly heard

Without loss of time, Paul and Ned j had seized two coils of rope from the pottage stores, and were making the best of their way along the edge of the cliff to the projecting point at ; the right of the entrance to the bay i upon which Mother Lee had origin-; *lly lighted the fire. _ -This point was i not far from the Iron Rock, and, should any strong swimmer be able to reach it. he would be able to enter the Cove,or should he miss the mouth he would be dashed to pieces against the perpendicular cliff. Paul thought that the mast with the clinging crew might be driven in this direction; he had therefore taken ropes to haul them up the rock, should it be possible to save them. He had also provided himself with acrowbar to drive into the grocnd, to which he could make fast a rope, should it be necessary for him to descend Ned carried a lantern, but the way was so dangerous along the edge of the cliff that much caution was required in their advance. In the meantime a person was already at the extremity of the Point, exactly opposite to the Iron Rock upon which the cutter lay. Mother Lee, after having extinguished her fire, had remained upon the spot to revel in the calamity that she had expected. As the Polly, guided by the two fires, had scudded through the mouth of the bay beneath her feet, she guessed that the cutter would approach so near in pursuit as to be unable to weather the Iron Rock in so violent a gale on the lee shore. Mother Lee was always in ecstasy' amidst scences of suffering, but, as her husband had been hanged for rriracv and murder, she bore an infern*' hatred to all officers of the Cr»wn, but more especially to those' of the coast-guard, by when he had be hi captured. She now sat crouched lik jan owl among the loose fragments of rock upon the extreme point of the cliff, but could her face have been distinguished, an intense earnestness would have been obeerred as she bent her head on one* Bide, and. with one hand raised to assist her hearing, she strained her jears for any sound that should be •heard beneath. At length she started. There could be no doubt —it was * voice, then another still more dis-

tinct, from the raging sea, two hundred feet below! “Hold on, my lads, never fear! stick your fe et oui when we near the rocks!” ,p" “I can’t hold on much longer. Oh my poor Sarah!’’ exclaimed a despairing voice in reply. At this moment the mast, with six men clinging to it, including the captain of the cutter, was washed against the cliff exactly below the Point upon which the old woman was perched. Fortunately the spar was brought at right angles across the extreme point of the entrance to the bar, so that, could the men only retain their hold in the frighftuljsurf that beat against the perpendicular rock, both the mast and themselves would have a good chance of being washed directly into the mouth of the Cove, in which case they might be saved. ■

“Hold fast, my lads! Never say die!” shouted the same manly voice of encouragement from below', as one end of the mast struck violently against the rock. “Lord help us!” screamed a voice of agonf; “help!” “Hold fast!” was again heard, as the breakers forced the entire length of the mast broadside on against the locks, and jammed the unfortunate men agaidst the cliff. Old Mother Lee had stood up, and she leant over the cliff, listening to the terrible struggle for life. - “Ha! ha!” she chuckled. i ’“Lord help us!” ~ “I’ll help ye! Yer helped, my Stephen, didn’t yer? Hiere’s help for yer! and here!- And here's more help! Curses on yer! here’s more help! Ha! ha! I heard that strike! D’ye iikelt? Heres another!” ~ The old woman, with incredible strength, in a.frenzyoffury, litt&f large blocks of stone from the rocky ground, and showered them at random upon the unfortunate sailors below. A fragment of stone of many pounds’ weight fell upon the head of the gallant captain with a dull crash, and his lifeless body slipped from the mast and disappeared amidst the surf. Another, and then a third, s nee um bed to the pitiless shower of stones which the old hag rolled without intermission from the height. Two men had been crushed to death against the cliff by the mast driven by the surf. Only one remained: several rocks bounded past him, and two had Struck the mast within a few inches of his hands. Just at this moment Paul and Ned arrived, and found Mother Lee in the act of heaving another piece of rock over the edge of the cliff, in her excitement she had neither heard them approach nor had she seen the light, as her attention had been directed below. , ’. ' Startled at the unexpected sight of the bld woman, Paul halted for a ! moment just as she hurled a large , stone over the precipice. At the same time a loud cry of distress from beneath rang upon his ear. Ttehorribietruth flashed upon him as Mother Lee turned round, and he read the deed in the * fearful expresston of her features. “Cursed old fiend!” shouted Paul, as he seized her by the waist, and lifting her like an infant in the air, he swun£ her above his head; and in another moment Mother Lee would . have been flying over the rock into ‘ the boiling surf had not Ned caught | Paul’s arm, and checked his first im- ] pulse of retribution.v Throwing her upon the ground be- ■ hind him, Paul hallooed out. “Who’s below? 1 . “Help me! I’m nearly done, massa!” replied a foreign voice. “Hold on, my good fellow !" shouted i Paul; “I'll be with you directly! ; Don’t give in.” Just at this moment a heavy sea sweeping round the corner turned the mast end on against the Point, and another sea striking it quickly after, it was driven directly into the mouth of the Cove against the face of the cliff. Once more Paul leant over the precipice with the lamp in his hand. "Are you all right?” he shouted. “Nearly done, massa,” was the only reply.

‘‘Hold on for a couple of minutes, and you’re safe. ” cried Paul, at the same time, with a few vigorous strokes, he drove the iron bar deep into a fissure of the rock. Taking a ground turn of the rope wpon the bar, he slipped a noose between Ned’s legs. “Now. Ned, my boy, prove yourself a man; all depends on you; take this spare rope with you while I lower you down, and secure it around the poor fellow’s body. Mind yourself, when you get near the mast, that you don’t get jammed, and halloo to me when you’re all right.” Without a momenta hesitation Ned fell upon his knees and hands, and crawling to the edge of the cliff he grasped the tightened rone. and, as Paul slackened it off rapidly, in a few seconds he was swinging’in the air,descending’quickly to the rescue. The noise of the waves increased as he drew nearer to the water. “I’m coming! Cheer up!” he shouted to the person below, whom he could presently distinguish as a dark object clinging to the cross-trees of the mast; this was so frequently and violently driven against the cliff as to render it impossible for. him to reach the man in distress. Accordingly, when only a few feet auove the water; he' shouted to Paul, “Hold hard!” at the same time he threw an end of the spare coil to the nearly exhausted sailor, and told him to make thfe loop fast by putting owe

leg through it and holding on! Three times he threw the rope without success, but on the forth time it was caught, and in a few instants it was properly secured. “Haul away on the spare yope,” he shouted to Paul. "I’m all right.” Almost immediately, the dark object was raised from the boiling surf and swinging in the air. It for an instant struck against Ned as he continued to ascend. “Hurrah!” shouted Ned, as he patted him on the shoulder as, be dragged quickly up tne cliff —7, by the tremendous strength of Paul's muscles. In the meantime, Paul worked like a machine. “Take care of your hands now!” he shouted, “you’re just at the top! I’ll give you a hand over the cliff!” In another moment Paul had caught him by the wrist, and dragged him in safety to the surface.

“Tank God, massa! tank God!” said the dark object, as it fell and clasped Paul's knees. “Halloo!” exclaimed Paul, as he held the lantern to the face of the new arrival; “a niggerboy, I declare! poor fellow! why he's nearly perished with cold' Here, my lad. give us a hand, and help me to haul up the boy, for you owe your life to Ned, who’s down below.” “Lookout, Ned!” cried Paul, “hold fast! Now haul away, boy!” and in a few minutes Ned arrived safely on the top, and warmly shook the nigger boy by the hand. The young negro was a fine lad of about fourteen, and he immediately grasped the hand that Ned had given him, and pressed it to his thick lips, while he endeavored to express his gratitude in a few sentences rendered almost unintelligible by the excitement. “Nigger boy almost gone —hear good massa call; —then nigger pray to God, and hold fast like de debbel. —Then big stones come down from rock, kill de poor eappen—break his ed,, all smash close to nigger boy.--All de people knocked off de mast by de waves —only nigger stick tight. Oh, my poor cappen! he's gone! only cappen love de nigger boy—he my fader and my moder.” At this painful remembrance the boy burst into a fit of sobbing, and looking over the edge of the dark cliff he wished to descend again in the hope of finding the body of the captain, his late master. ’— i “It's no use," said Ned: “there’s no one left and nothing can be done, j But cheer up. lad,” he continued: “ if the poor captain is dead, my father and mother will be good to you. “Yes.”, said Paul: "come along, boy, and get some dry clothes, we ll do.the best we can for you. Bea , man; it's no use crying over the bad job; but if that isn’t a’cold-blooded < murder I never heard of one. and old Mother Lee should swing for it. If it hadn’t been for you. Ned, I think I should have chucked her over; but I’m glad I didn’t, for she’ll come to a worse end if there is justice in the world.’ They now cautiously picked their i way among the loose stones on the i danger© and soon arrived at j the cottage, 1 ' where Polly Grey was | anxiously waiting for their return. The negro boy was made comfortable and fed and was shortly snoring on some clean straw in the kitchen, i forgetting all his troubles in a sound sleep. —— About two hours before daybreak a party of the coast guard arrived, 1 under the command of Captain Smart: they had heard the guns and seen the signals of distress, but they were too late to see a vestige of the cutter, which had broken up and totally disappeared: not a soul had been saved, with the exception of the negro boy. It was hardly light when they -shored—off from the beach in a skiff and quickly boarded the Polly, that was lying at anchor and rolling heavily in the bay. Her decks had already been washed and every rope was in its place; the strictest search could discern nothing except a sup- ' ply of provisions and water, togethT 1 er with a certain amount of pig-iron ballast.

“You dbn’t often use the trawlnet." said Captain Smart to one of ; the Polly’s men; “your decks are as i clean as a man-of-war.” “D’ye like to see 'em dirty?" ' replied the surly sailor: “cos if! you do, you mustconie along with us ; when we’re fishing.” \ “When’s that? not often, I think. 1 i answered Captain Smart. “We’ll send up to the station and let you know,” said the sulky smug- ' gler, who was by no means pleased i with the visit. “You’ll be safer on board along with us than on the King’s cutter.” “That’s very likely,” said Captain Smart; “how did the cutter manage to get ashore?” v “It don't want much management to get ashore here in a sou’-wester,” replied the dogged sailor; “it don’t want much laming on a dark night to bump on the Iron Rock; even a King's officer knows enough for that.” “ What brought him here?” asked Captain Smart, in the hope of getting some account of the chase. “Well, I suppose it was the same same wind as brought us here. ” continued the ill-tempered fellow; “and sarved her right that she’s broke her bones, for her conduct was what I, call ungenteel. “Yer see, the Polly was waiting for a chance to fish on good bit of ground that we knows of, when kip comes a cutter vVith a fine breeze, and without more ado 1 ] she bangs a shot right into we, that came so close between the captain and me that it knocked the pipe out of my mouth and took his cap off. “ ‘lt’s only the French that has such uncivil manners,’ says the cap-

T - *■ * . * tain; ‘it's a privateer, so we’d better, show’em the Polly’s stern and run for home; preps we’ll meet with a King's ship that’ll be a match for her. "So off we went, and the Polly showed ’em the way; I can tell you. Well, it blowed a gale, to be sure, in a short time, just what the Polly likes and we came in like a duck through night as dark as pitch; but the Polly knows her way. Then yer see it turns out that the cutter wasn’t a Frenchman after all; more s the pity sh e began tai king French; so yer see she got in a mess, and I say sarves her right for her unpoliteness as a King's ship in firing at we, as though the Polly had been a Frenchman!” Having delivered himself of this veracious account. Dick Stone proceeded to fill his short pip 6, that had apparently recovered from the shock of the cannon ball, and, having struck a light, he leant againkt the mast, and shortly became enveloped in a cloud of tobacco smoke: nothing would induce him to utter another word. Joe Smart was rejoiced in his heart that his search had been unsuccessful. Nothing pained him so deeply as the necessity of acting in his official capacity against his old friend Paul; but such stringent orders had been received to keep a watch over the proceedings of Sandy Cove that he had no choice. Returning to the shoro, he left his men and ascended the zigzag path to visit Paul's cottage on the high cliff. The smoke was already issuing from the kitchen chimney as he arrived, and Paul Gray met him at the door. “Ha, Joe!” he said, “you’re up betimes this niorning! JBut I don’t wonder; we had but little sleep ourselves last night.” “Is no one saved?” asked Joe Smart. ’

“ Only a poor little nigger,” replied Paul, "and it was a wonder I that we rescued him.” He then narrated the entire adventure faithfully from the commencement, differing considerably from the account of Dick Stone, on board the lugger. While the two friends were sitting ; together on the bench at the cottage . door, Polly was preparing breakfast; in the mean time, Joe Smart 1 took the opportunity to explain to ■ Paul the severity of the instructions phe had received, and to implore him to consider the position in which not j only he, but also his wife, would be placed should detection lead to their ■ruin. But Paul had his own private opinion concerning smuggling: he had persuaded himself that any tax was an act of oppression, and that the principles of free trade should be supported to the fullest extent; thus no argument of Joe Smart’s had the slightest influence upon his mode of reasoning, and he remained obstinate in his dogmas that every man had a right to supply his wants in the cheapest market, and that any | impost upon foreign goods that had . become the private property oQan ■ Englishman was a direct robbery. , He would not deny that he had dealt iin contraband articles, but, “‘never mind me," he replied to his friend, Joe Smart; “friends or not, if you ever catch the Polly don’t hesitate ! to seize her. if you find smuggled ■ goods on board. I’ll take my chance, ' Joe: you do your duty and I’ll look Rafter mine. But now come in to I breakfast and Polly’ll give you sych a cup of tea as ybu won’t get every day. and, what's more, it never paid the government a penny.” In a few minutes the party were sitting at the table. Polly had prepared a substantial breakfast of fried soles fresh from the bay, while a huge brown loaf and masses of bright yellow butter, with a study joint of cold beef, were ready for the sharp morning appetites.

There was a curious contrast in the fair waving hair and the large blue eyes of young Ned Grey and the black woolly head and the dark eyes of the negro boy, as they sat together at the table; but Tim, as the latter was called, was looking his best, and was no longer the miserable, half drowned object of the prev o s night; i he had washed his black lace with soap till it shone like a well polished ■ boot; he Gwas dressed in a suit of | Ned's clothes, and as he looked at ; the well spread table’s grin of happii hess exposed a long row of snowi white teeth, and for a moment the ■ affectionate but hungry Tim forgot | the loss of the captain of the cutter. Tim was an abbreviation of Tim- ' buctoo. At the time of our story, I the West India Islands were the gems of our colonies, as the labor required for the plantations was supplied by negro slaves imported from the West Coast of Africa. These peo-’’ pie were collected at various stations on the African coast by native dealers, who purchased them for beads, fire arms, cotton cloths,, etc., from the native chiefs, who brought them from the interior. A& the whole of Central, Africa is composed of separate tribes, who are constant!/ at war with each other, the prisoners taken are invariably retained as slaves unless they are sacrificed as offerings to the fetish or god of the victor. A special demand for slaves naturally aggravates the existing anarchy, as every prisoner becomes of additional value; thus man hunting, although a natural institution of Africa, has been extended by the necessities of European.colonists. As the greater portion of the West Coast of Africa was the regular slave market for the supply of the French, English, Portuguese and SpanishAmerican possessions, man-hunting became the all-engrossin<T profession of every petty negro chief; razzias were carried into the very heart of the African continent for the sole purpose of kidnapping slaves, who

were exchanged for the necessaries of the country, and handed from tribe to tribe until they reached the agents of the coast dealer, who kept them like cattle penned in certain stations 'until the arrival of ships that were to carry them to their va rious destinations across the Atlantic. The distances from which these unfortunate people were marched were a'most incredible. They generally arrived in long strings fastened by leathern throngs from neck to neck like a living chain; and, being perfectly igndrant of geography, they had no idea of the countries through which they passed; but upon arrival, few slaves could give any description of the route beyond the simple name of their native places obscured in the wilderness of Africa. The sufferings on the march were frightful. If poor women were footsore, or broke down under the weight of some burden’they were forced to carry, they were first cruelly beaten, and if too weak to proceed they were killed by the blow ..of a club or the thrust of a spear: children who fell ill were thrown into the thick jungle, and left to die or to be devoured by the wild beasts. It was thus that Tim had been captured when about, twelve years old; and, being a wellgrain and powerful boy. He had arrived with a large gang of slaves in sufficiently good condition to fetch a high price at Seirra Leone, from which port he was shipped with many others to Jamaica. In the latter colony he was purchased by a rich sugar-planter, a. kind-hearted, good man, who would neither have harmed an animal nor human being; but uib fortunately it was poor little Tim's lot to be handed to the care of a cruel overseer. - . (to be continued.) <