One or two other bits of arms and ornaments were found about the deck;
and the captain, on examining them, gave it as his opinion that the
pirate was one of those craft which had long been known under the name
of Salee Rovers. At one time the greater number of vessels fitted out
by the Moors to plunder on the high seas hailed from that port. Before
the captain left the vessel, every part of her was examined, but not a
trace of a living being could be found. Still, too clearly to be
mistaken did she tell her own dreadful tale. The log-book showed that,
three days before, she had been in a dead calm since sunrise, and that a
strange sail was in sight. Little did her crew dream of the woe that
stranger was to work them!
We were allowed to go on board the _Rainbow_ to get our chests, and to
wish our shipmates good-bye; and then I bade farewell to my old captain,
and the craft I had learned to love as a seaman only can,--the vessel
within whose wide timbers I had spent many a happy day, and which had
carried me in safety across many a wide sea.
We found nearly everything we required on board the _Dolphin_. It took
some time, however, to get her to rights, to wash out the stains of
blood, and to put the cabin in order, and to remove all remnants of the
horrid deed which had been enacted there. It was some time, however,
before Mr Gale could prevail on himself to take possession of the
cabin. At last all the necessary arrangements on board the _Dolphin_
were made, and Captain Helfrich ordering Mr Gale to proceed on his
voyage, bore away to the north-east, while we kept to the westward of
north. I felt very strange as I found myself on board a new vessel, and
saw the old one, in which I had served for so many years, sailing away
from us. I should have felt very forlorn and melancholy if Peter had
not been with me. I was also very much attached to Mr Gale, and was
very glad that he was now my captain.
The Irish, I have observed, generally possess a considerable amount of
imagination, and I conclude that I inherited no small share of that
quality from my poor mother. I remember that the first night I passed
on board the _Dolphin_, I fancied in my sleep that I saw again the whole
of the scene of horror which had so short a time before been enacted
there. Several times I jumped up, thinking that the rovers were coming
on board, and that I had to fight for my life. Then I fancied that I
heard the cries and the groans of the poor fellows who had slept where I
was sleeping, and had met their death close to where I lay; and I looked
out and saw them writhing and struggling in the hands of their barbarous
murderers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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