and soon assumed a creditable appearance: preparations were made to re-embark the powder and the guns; and that evening would have seen us a formidable foe. The quarter-deck was scuttled abaft; and, after using all kinds of ingenious methods, the rudder was forced down in its proper place; but both pintles and gudgeons being strained, it moved with considerable stiffness. However, there it was, and we could steer by it, without the eternal shivering of the mizen-topsail, or hauling out the driver to keep the ship's head the right way. It was deemed advisable to have the frigate as light as possible; for which reason a part of the guns, and most of the provisions, with stores, &c., were kept on board the brig. It was proposed to remove the main-deck guns; but this met with vigorous opposition, for there was a French frigate on the coast; and not long before our arrival, our predecessor, the Amelia, had discovered that it was not every English frigate which could make a sure prize of a French ship of equal force, although she was supposed to be half laden with gold-dust. I do not make this remark to throw the least possible blame upon the Amelia; unfortunately, Captain Irby and all his officers were wounded early in the day, and we know how often the loss of rulers damps the ardour of the men, as well as deprives them of the addantage of superior seamanship. I mention it, because it was a caution to us not to be too headstrong, and we were willing to profit by example. I must now beg leave to introduce myself to my readers no longer as a good curly-headed midshipman, "pride in my look, defiance in my eye," strutting the quarter-deck with the proper official step, repeating the commands of my superior, or hastily answering, "Ay, ay, sir;" but as a midshipman's boy,-the servant of the mess, the drudge of all drudges. Life is full of strange vicissitudes; and a man who goes down the stream, always escaping the shoals and rocks of misfortune, has only read the title-page of a great work, the leaves of which are as chequered as a chess-board. Happiness is quite by comparison; no one knows real happiness who has not met with untoward occurrences. Thank God, I have learnt to be contented! It became necessary that some one should do the dirty work, and look after the eating department of our mess; our servant was better employed about assisting at other more important work than feeding youngsters. The lot first fell upon the captain's son; who, although a very nice lad, was by no means likely to come into our views with his father within hail; besides, as it was, he was a parlourboarder, and therefore, in some degree, independent of us. The captain's nephew came next; but he was a weak plant, and not fit to stem the current of adversity; besides, he had been ordered to dine every day in the cabin, which was a much greater calamity than any we could inflict; so that we were contented to leave him to his burgoo and his pride, whilst I was installed in all the honours of the situation. I am quite of Lord Byron's opinion, in Don Juan, that knowledge is gained by such oc currences, and then We know what slavery is, and our disasters but true it is, beyond all contradiction, that there is no ty. rant like an emancipated slave. The kicks, cuffs, and curses, so roughly and so frequently bestowed upon me, have made me cautious, from the experience of my own feeling, of inflicting them upon others. I found, I must confess, that every sentence of Solomon's is not always correct-"A mild answer turneth away wrath" for instance. My first essay at cooking (for every man can make tea who can boil a kettle, although on this point there is a difference of opinion, for Sir H. Davy put the tea in after the water, in defiance of two hundred years' experience,) was a beef-steak pie; for while we remained near the island, we occasionally stumbled upon an unhappy bullock; a jumble of pepper and salt junk made the dish palatable enough; of which I had the strongest evidence, as my masters, I believe I had ten, did not leave one mor sel for their cook, and seemed disposed to rob me of a small portion of the skin of some pork, with as many bris. tles thereon as could be found in a scrubbing-brush, and which did not belong to them but to the boatswain. "Water!" was the universal cry; but we were on short allowance of that; for, when the ship struck, that was started, and what was left was used sparingly: we had no men for extra work. My next specimen was in the shape of a mousee-pie; the tails of the little animals were collected like pigeons' feet: I was cuffed for that. No man living could tell the difference between a mouse and a sparrow-pie blindfolded, and the quadrupeds cur-tailed. My occupations in the berth were no excuse for not keeping watch; and I can safely aver, that no dog who draws a butcher's barrow had more to do, less to eat, and greater temptation, than I had. The heat of the sun had one good effect, it almost entirely deprived us of appetite; and we were on short allowance enough. In a week the squadron arrived. consisting of the Meteor, the Tiger, and a schooner: under their escort we weighed anchor, and put to sea, shaping a course for Sierra Leone. A detail of the sufferings of the boat's crew of the launch would make a man's hair stand an end for a fortnight; they returned to us as the crew of a Charon boat of spectres, mere ghost resurrection of bones. On getting to sea we found the sail answered very well; it had so far sucked into the leaks, that the additional assistance of the chain-pumps, twice a day, kept her free: the ship progressed but slowly, and her wake was as ragged as a splinter. We arrived in safety at Sierra Leone, and came to an anchor off that sink of human wretchedness, misnamed a town. The beautiful fragrance of the limes, on entering the river, with the delightful verdure of the shore, cruelly deceived us as to the painful reality we had such ample time to experience. The wooden huts were distributed in careless irregularity, and the church was not discernible by any outside show: it was a picture of misery, poverty, and meanness; there was no cheering sight, no bustle, no activity; all seemed wretched, naked, and disgusting. Guavas and yams, plantains and limes, could be procured in abundance; and, with the exception of some miserable spruce-beer, pine-apples, and oranges, little else could be procured. On the right of the town was a wood and a swamp; on the left the low bank of the river is fre quently overflowed, and a swamp was inevitable; and behind these splendid structures for human habitation was a swamp day and night mosquitoes buzzed with their ceaseless buzz, excepting when they rested to bite their victim. The alligators appeared the lords of the deep, and floated carelessly, sometimes within a boat-hook's length of the ship, showing their flat heads and scaly backs, which de fied a musket-ball; or when annoyed by the noise, merely sunk tail foremost, to rise at a more respectful distance: the sharks disputed the right to swallow the unfortunate fellow who trusted himself within their element, and added to the comfortable reflection, that starvation and sickness attended us on shore, and death was lurking in the water, if the heated wretch dared to cool himself, or drink by absorption. I have seen many-many places in my life; I have been east and west, north and south, ascended mountains, and dived into mines; but I never knew, nor ever heard mention of so villainous, sickly, and miserable an abode as Sierra Leone. The only harm I wish those who have induced government to father the colony, and be blind to the dirty job is, that they may be condemned to reside there six months even now!-with all the com. forts the splendid town may possess, and in full enjoyment of all the sylvan sports and rural shades which nature affords, or art has made. Our Sunday walks were quite sufficient to make us acquainted with all the luxuries and elegancies of this delightful retreat. We were not deficient in amusement: A tall black, scenes like the following often occurred. with nothing in the world on but a cocked-hat, would strut by us; and now and then a sable dandy, with a long-tailed coat, but deficient in every other part of dress, would stand in naked pride for our admiration. The women exhibited in natural nudity all their glowing charms, and some of the younger of these were beautifully formed; but Love never could nestle on the thick black lips of an African niggar. Some gentleman painted the southern wall of his garden black, to retain the heat and ripen his fruit early in the season; perhaps it is the colour and the sun which places a girl of twelve years old at Sierea Leone in so ripe a point of view. Saving their faces, the best resem. blance to which is, their imitative companions in the woods, the monkeys, the young ladies of Sierra Leone might rival the finest figures of European manufacture. In purchasing one of these animals, you did not buy a pig in a poke; you saw your bargain as bare as Eve, and consequently could not be taken in like the Chinese who buys a wife he has never seen, and finds, instead of a houri of seventeen, a tigress of forty. The rain fell in torrents, succeeded by a sun burning one's skin: in short, I know not where the devil walks-but his direction, or poste restante, is at Sierra Leone. CHAPTER XIII. Hark, he answers-with tornadoes 66 COWPER. It is needless to say one word about the climate of the coast of Africa: we have been taught to regard it as the worst under the sun, and certainly I for one am not going to gainsay it. Society, friendship, and love," resided not in Sierra Leone; the few commission merchants who were sent out to die or to turn a dollar, could hardly constitute society. No men are more bitter enemies than rival houses of the mercantile world; and love with all its soft enchantments, heightened by education and warmed by affection, can hardly be found in an unlettered, barbarous, naked negress. In this climate, and surrounded by such people, we had to repair the Arethusa. To heave her down was impossible, we had not the requisite materials, neither was there a place eligible for such an undertaking. To have attempted to reach the West Indies would have been madness, for although we were sure of a fair wind the whole way, yet we were not secured against a likely accident, such as the sail wearing away, the leak returning in all its force, the rudder failing us, or the mainmast walking over the side. Either of these very probable circumstances would have rendered the attempt extremely hazardous. On the right of the city of Sierra Leone there is a bay called St. George's Bay, and here the rise and fall of water in spring-tides amounts to fourteen or fifteen feet. This place was fixed upon to run the ship on shore in, and, after VOL. I. 12 |