Happy Jack, and Other Tales of the SeaKingston, William Henry Giles
General
Happy Jack, and Other Tales of the Sea
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Sea stories
At length the morning dawned, when it was found that the ship had driven
considerably farther in towards the beach. As daylight broke, people
were seen collecting on the shore; their numbers increased; they were
gesticulating violently. Did they come to render assistance to their
perishing fellow-countrymen? No; led on by the miscreant whites who had
formed the crew of the slave ship, and deceived by their falsehoods,
they had come to attempt the recapture of the ship. The corvette had,
of necessity, stood off-shore for the night. Lieutenant --, hoisting a
signal of distress, prepared to defend the prize to the last. He
examined the shore anxiously. The slaver's crew and their black allies
were bringing boats or canoes to launch, for the purpose of attacking
the ship. Should the wretches succeed, he knew that his life and that
of all his companions would be sacrificed.
At length the corvette was seen working up under all sail. She
approached; her anchor was dropped, and her boats, being lowered, pulled
in towards the wreck. As they got near, the people on shore, balked in
their first project, opened a hot fire of musketry on them. The boats
had not come unarmed. The larger ones were immediately anchored, and,
each having a gun of some weight, opened a hot fire on the beach. This
was more than the slave-dealers had bargained for. They were ready
enough to kill others, but had no fancy to be killed themselves.
Several times the blacks took to flight, but were urged back again by
the white men, till, some of the shot taking effect on them, the beach
was at last cleared.
The wreck was now again boarded. Lieutenant--and his men were found
almost worn out; the hold was full of water, and the ship was giving
signs of breaking up. No time was to be lost. The larger boats
anchored, as before, outside the rollers, and, by means of the smaller
ones, communication by ropes being established, the negroes were, a few
at a time, hauled through the surf. Many were more dead than alive, and
several died before they reached the corvette. Some were brought up by
their companions dead, and many were the heartrending scenes where
fathers and mothers found that they had lost their children, husbands
their wives, or children their parents. Orlo had held out bravely all
the night, but his strength, towards the morning, gave way, and
Lieutenant --, seeing his condition, directed that he should be carried
back to the corvette, which he reached in an almost unconscious state.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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