Old Mary Read online

were running before the wind for the harbour. The strangevessel, which was a brigantine, was following close astern of our ownschooner--evidently, I thought, my husband is showing her the way intothe lagoon.

  "Just as I was preparing to descend the hill my little companion, thenative boy, Tati, drew my attention to four canoes which, in companywith a boat from Captain Watts' schooner, were approaching the vessels.

  "'Ah,' I thought, 'Watts has seen the vessels from the whaling station,and is going out to meet them.'

  "But presently something occurred which filled me with terror. When theboat and canoes were quite close to the vessels, they both luffed,and fired broadsides into them; the boat and two canoes were evidentlydestroyed, and the two remaining canoes at once turned round and headedfor the shore, the brigantine firing at them with guns which I knew tobe long twenty-fours by the sharp sound they made. In a moment I knewwhat had happened--my husband's ship had been captured by the Frenchprivateer of which Captain Freeman had told us, and the Frenchmen werenow coming to seize our other selves lying anchored in the lagoon.

  "Tati looked at me inquiringly.

  "'Run,' I said, 'run and tell Uasi (for so the natives called CaptainWatts) that the master and his ship have been captured by an enemy, whowill be upon him very quickly, for the boat and two of the canoes he hassent out have been destroyed, and every one in them killed. Tell him Iam coming.'

  "The boy darted away in a moment, and I followed him as quickly as Icould; but Tati reached the harbour and was on board Watts' schoonerquite half an hour before me, and when I went on board I found thevessel was prepared to defend the entrance to the harbour. CaptainWatts had swung her broadside on to the entrance, boarding nettings werealready triced up from stem to stern, and on the schooner's decks werefifty determined natives, in addition to the usual crew of twenty men,all armed with muskets and cutlasses. The four 6-pounders which shecarried, two on each side, were now all on the port side, loaded withgrape-shot, and in fact every preparation had been made to fight theship to the last. Watts met me as soon as I stepped on board, and toldme that before my messenger Tati had arrived to warn him he had heardthe sound of the firing at sea, and at once surmised that something waswrong.

  "'Soon after you left the house, Mrs. Eury, some natives sighted the twovessels to the north-east and I sent the boatswain and four men off inone of the whale-boats, little thinking that I was sending them to theirdeath. Four canoes went with the boat. Just now two of the canoes cameback with half of their number dead or wounded, and the survivors toldme that as soon as they were within musket-shot both the ships openedfire on them, sunk the boat and two of the canoes with grape-shot, andthen began a heavy musketry fire. I fear, madam, that Captain Eury andhis ship----'

  "'Your fears are mine, Watts,' I said, 'but whether my husband is aliveor dead, let us at least try and save this vessel.'

  "'Ay, ay, madam. And if we have to give up the ship, we can beat themoff on shore. There are a hundred or more natives lying hidden at theback of the oil shed, and if the Frenchmen capture this vessel they willcover our retreat ashore. They are all armed with muskets.'

  "We waited anxiously for the two ships to appear; but the wind hadgradually died away until it fell a dead calm. Then a native runnerhailed us from the shore, and said that both vessels had anchored offthe reef, and were manning their boats.

  "'All the better for us,* said Watts grimly;'we'll smash them up quickenough if they try boarding. If they had sailed in, the Frenchman's longguns would have sunk us easily, and our wretched guns could not havedone him much harm.' Then he went round the decks, and saw that the crewand their native allies were all at their proper stations.

  "Presently he saw the boats--five of them--come round the point. Twoof them we recognised as belonging to my husband's vessel, though theywere, of course, manned by Frenchmen. They rowed leisurely in throughthe entrance till they were within musket-shot, and then the foremostone ceased rowing, and hoisted a white flag.

  "'They want us to surrender without a fight,' said Watts, 'or aremeditating some treachery,' and taking a musket from one of the crew helevelled it and fired in defiance. The bullet struck the water withina foot of the boat. The white flag, however, was held up higher by theofficer in the stern. Watts seized a second musket, and this time hisbullet went plump into the crowded boat, and either killed or woundedsome one, for there was a momentary confusion. Then the white flag waslowered, and with loud cheers the five boats made a dash towards us.Telling the gunners to reserve their fire of grape until he gave theword, Watts and the natives now began a heavy musketry fire on theadvancing boats, and although they suffered heavily the Frenchmen cameon most gallantly. Then when the first two boats, which were pullingabreast, were within fifty yards' distance, Watts and a white seamansprang to two of the guns and themselves trained them, just as I hearda native near me cry out that in the bows of each boat he could see aman--my husband and his chief mate, who were both bound. Before I couldutter a warning cry to Watts, both of the guns belched out their volleysof grape, and with awful effect. The boats were literally torn topieces, and their mangled occupants sank under the smooth waters of thelagoon; only two or three seemed to have escaped unwounded, and asthey clung to pieces of wreckage our savage allies, with yells of fury,picked them off with their muskets; for the same native who had seen myhusband bound in the boat had seen him sink.

  "'No quarter to any one of them!' roared Watts when he heard this; 'thecowards lashed Captain Eury and poor Mr. Myson to the bows of the boats,and our own fire has killed them.'

  "He sprang to the third gun, the white seaman to the fourth, and waitedfor the other three boats, which, undaunted by the dreadful slaughter,were dashing on bravely. Again the guns were fired, and again a unitedyell of delight broke from our crew when one of the boats was sweptfrom stern to stern with the deadly grape and filled and sank. The twoothers, however, escaped, and in another moment were alongside, andthe officer in command, followed by his men, sprang at the boardingnettings, and began hacking and slashing at them with their cutlasses,only to be thrust back, dead or dying, by our valiant crew, and the nowblood-maddened natives. Nine or ten of them did succeed in gaining afoothold on the deck, by clambering up the bobstay on to the bowsprit,and led by a mere boy of sixteen, made a determined charge; a nativearmed with a club sprang at the youth and dashed out his brains, thoughat the same moment a Frenchman thrust him through the body with hiscutlass. But the boarding party were simply overwhelmed by numbers, andin less than five minutes every one of those who had reached the deckwere slaughtered with but a loss of three men on our side. Those stillremaining in the boats alongside then tried to draw off, but Watts, whowas now more like a mad animal than a human being, calling to some ofthe crew to help him, himself cut down the boarding netting, and liftingone of the 6-pounders, hurled it bodily into one of the boats, smashinga large hole through it. Then a score of naked natives leapt into theremaining one, and cut and stabbed the crew till not a living soulremained. Some indeed had tried to swim to the shore a few minutesearlier, but these poor wretches were met by canoes, and their brainsbeaten out with clubs. The memory of that awful day of carnage will bewith me if I live to be a hundred.

  "As soon as possible Watts and the carpenter restored some order amongour native allies, who, according to their custom, were beheading andotherwise mutilating the bodies of the enemy. We found that we had lostfour killed and had about thirteen wounded. Of those killed two werewhite men.

  "Then taking with me half a dozen natives, I went off in one of our ownboats to the spot where our grape-shot had sunk the boat in which thenative had said he had seen my husband. The water was only about fourfathoms deep, and we could clearly see numbers of bodies lying on thewhite sandy bottom. One by one they were raised to the surface andexamined, and the fifth one raised was that of my poor husband. His armswere bound behind his back, and his chest and face were shattered bygrape-shot.

  "A wild fury took possession of me, but I could not spe
ak. I could onlypoint to the ship. We went back on board, and my husband's body was laidon deck for the crew to see.

  "I hardly know what I did or said, but I do remember that Watts swore tome that I should be revenged, and in a few minutes I was seated besidehim in one of our own boats with a pistol in my hand, and we, in companywith thirty or forty canoes, were on our way to the ships anchoredoutside.

  "What followed I cannot remember, but Watts told me that I was the firstto spring up the side of the French brigantine, and that the captain,as I fired my pistol at him, struck off my hand with his sword, andwas then himself cut down by the carpenter. There were but nine men onboard, and these were soon disposed of by our men, who gave no quarter.My husband's vessel was in charge of but