Show I 1 ap 1 A R DICK RODNEY RUDIN ey lit 11 to b III ill or the adventures of it opt IT an eton boy 3 Q h 4 in BY jaames GRANT R rk N r it fr CHAPTER XVI conten continued tied most of 0 the houses are built of good stone but have all their windows iron barred without and barricaded barricades barrica ded within for or the population of which our shipmate antonio was nas a striking bp specimen aimen consists of about thirty thousand olive skinned spaniards and double that number of slaves and tres fre mulattoes mul altoes all loose reckless nery fiery and apt to use their knives on trivial occasions ca cris lons there their e was not a ship lying there for england or any other cratl craft by which weston could have sent me home A spanish steam packet was on the eve ot of departing tor for cadiz but being wearied by the monotony ot of my long voyage I 1 was scarcely in a meorl tor for the sea again and wished to spend a little more time 0 on shore instead of leaving with her however Ilo wever I 1 wrote to my family by the spanish mail acquainting them of my safety with alth the strange incident which had so suddenly torn me from them and adding that I 1 would return by Y the first ship bound for or any part ot of england it possible with the eu benle ile which would probably be ba freighted for london after the packet sailed with my letter in her cara capacious cious bags I 1 experienced encee an emotion ambition of greater happiness and contentment than I 1 had ever done since ce leaving home tor for the sorrow which I 1 knew all there must have suffered and would still be suffering hung heavily on my heart As we were returning to the brig which had now been warped alongside the mole when passing through the street which contains the great hospital we heard the sound of trumpets and saw the glittering of lances with long streamers above the heads of a dense crowd of 0 people of all shades of color black yellow and brown and we had to dor doff our hats with due respect as they passed for or in the midst surrounded by a staff of officers apau jetted and their breasts sparkling with medals and crosses and each of them riding with a cocked hat under his left arm came the present captain general of cuba a ma marshal arshal of the spanish army don francisco do de dominguez attended by an escort of mulatto lancers all mou mounted n ted on spanish um es I 1 hr ir f man and al thoai iw ier i er had all the bearing of what he was or I 1 should say Is a grandee of old castile on returning to the eugenie we found antonio the cuban working wor linx among the crew as lustily and as actively as any man on board weston now offered him remuneration for the time that he had been with us wit with a hint that he might ind find a berth elsewhere but our castaway evinced the greatest reluctance to leave the brig and begged that he might be permitted to remain on board as three of our best hands had been sent ashore sick to the hospital so shortsighted short sighted Is man that captain weston despite the dislike of the crew and the advice of marc haslop ordered that the name of antonio be entered on the ships books as foremast man three weeks after our arrival the brig as careened to starboard when ilear clear of all the cargo and had her apper copper scraped and cleaned an op atlon which the constant rains ol of the season greatly retarded there was much in cuba to teed feed an imaginative mind and mine was full of the voyages the daring adventures and the vast discoveries of columbus with the exploits of the buc cancers ca whose haunts were amid obese wild and in those days savage shores 1 I thought of the gaily plumed and barbarously armed caciques maciques caci ques whom columbus had met in their fleet pirogues pl pi rogues or had encountered in the dense forests which clothe the cuban mountains forests old perhaps as the days of tap deluge of the yellow skinned women with their long flowing black hair and with plates of polished gold hanging in their ears and noses of the fierce warriors streaked with sable war paint and armed with cane can e arrows shod with teeth or poisoned son ed fish bones that fell harmless from the spanish coats ot of mall mail of the wild carlas who devoured their prisoners one Es with whom a battle was but a precursor of a feast and of the famous fighting women the terrible amazons of guadaloupe I 1 thought ot cf the story of columbus writing the narrative of his wonderful discoveries ills his perils and adventures on a roll of parchment which he wrapped in oilcloth covered over with wax in a little cask and then cast into the sea with a prayer and the hope that it if lie he and his crew perished this record of their achievements might be cast by the ocean on the shore of SOMO some christian land As I 1 sat by the sounding sea that rolled into the bay of matanzas what would I 1 not have given to have seen tho the waves cast that old cask covered with weeds and barnacles barnacled barn acles at my feet feed I 1 but now the plodding steam dugand tug and the rusty merchant trader ploughed sloughed hed the waters of the bay instead of the glided gilded spanish caravels caravell car avels or the long war of the indian warriors warr iori and where they fought their bloodiest battle ii on the wooded bore or in the green savanna wacie chete the painted cacique bique and the balled castilian Castl llan met hand to hand in mortal strife the smoke of the steam mill grinding corlee corfee or boiling sugar darkened the sky sicy and tho the songs of 0 the n negroes were heard ns they hoed head in the plantations or in gangs of forty trucked mahogany logs each drawn by eight sturdy oxen to the sea and so in a creek ot of the bay the same place where the dutch admiral heyn sank the spanish plate fleet 1 tas nas wont to sit dreamily for or hours with the murmur of the waves in my ears with the buzz of insects and the voice of the mocking birds among the palmettos tos while watching the sails that glided rast past the headlands of the bay on oil their way to the bahama channel or the great gulf of florida this was my favorite resort A wood of cocoanut coco anul anut and other trees shaded the place and made it so dark that I 1 have seen the fireflies fire flies files glance about at noon the cocoas coccas are about the height of dutch poplars and are covered with oblong leaves which when young are of a pale pae red As spring drew on the branches became covered with scarlet and yellow flowers over these the vast corral tree spread its protecting foliage whence the spaniards in their beautiful language name it la madre del cocoa th the smallest of which has at times a thousand lovely scarlet blossoms CHAPTER an evil spirit we sailed from the day cay of matanzas at 2 a m on the ad of april bound tor for the cape of good hope v aich we were fated never to reach the eugenie had been freighted tor for that colony with a rich cargo of molasses sugar coffee and tobacco and arrangements had been made that from cape town she would be chartered for london thus I 1 hail had a fair prospector prospect of seeing nearly a halt half of this terrestrial globe before I 1 re passed my good oil fathers threshold at elsmere I 1 earnestly hoped that w we might encounter no more waterspouts water spouts or tornadoes as they were not at all to my taste but from other causes than phenomena or the war of the elements it was my fortune or rather my misfortune to undergo such pe peril r i I 1 and suffering as were far beyond my conception or anticipation by 8 on the morning of our departure the light on piedras key no Y was vas bearing south by east sinking into the waves astern and going out as we bade a long farewell to the lovely shores of cuba three of our men had bad died of yellow fever in hospital so we sailed from matanzas with ten able bodied hands exclusive ot of three ship boys the captain first and second mates in the waters after the rainy sea son the sky is so cloudless in the forenoon that the heat of the sun becomes almost insupportable thus we were soon glad to resort to the use of wind sails rigged down tile the open skylight to an awning over the quarter deck tor for coolness and to skids tor for the prevention of blisters on the sides of the brig but in the starry night the land wind which comes oft off these fertile isles laden with the rich aroma of their spice growing savannas is beyond description grateful and delicious without any incident worth recording we ran through the sea of ill the windward isles thence along the coast of south america and when we approached pro ached the calm latitudes as that tract ot of the ocean near the equator is named we became sensible of the overpowering increase of heat while the breezes were but fann fanning Dg ones as the sailors term those which under tinder the llie double influence of the air and motion ot of the hull ale aie just sufficient to make the lighter canvas collapse and swell again we were soon aware ot of other annoyances noy ances than mere heat tor for now it seemed as it if there was an evil spirit on board the eugenie Eug enle and that nothing went right within or about her the crew sulked and quarreled among themselves as it if the demon of mischief lurked in the vessel and dally daily something unfortunate occurred ilal hal yards or braces gave way by which the yards were thrown abac kand in one instance the brig nearly lost her mainmast standing and running rigging were found to be mysteriously fretted and even cut as it if by a knife and then tho the crew whispered together of antonio el cubano that horrid dark mysterious fellow whose character none of us could fathom twice our comp compasses asNes went wrong and remained so for days and before the cause was discovered the eugenie had drifted far from her course this varying was inexplicable until haslop Ill slop who set himself to wat watch chani and frequently saw antonio hovering ne near ar the binnacle at night unshipped the compass box and found there A were ere concealed near it an iron marlink ke on one side and a lump of tallow on the other either of which was to affect the magnetic needle after their removal the compass worked as well ag before T the he crew were strictly questioned all vowed total ignorance of the transaction and antonio summoned every saint in the spanish calendar to attest his innocence b but lit none however appeared the crew now felt convinced that in by some emotion 0 of malico mallco or mischief lie he alone was the culprit and if not loud their wrath was deep against him these variations of our compass se set I 1 the busy brain of marc haslop to work and in a day or two he declared that he had discovered a plin plan pl in for preventing the repetition of tricks so dangerous by insulating the needle so as aa to protect the compass from attractions attraction false or dangerous I 1 am uncertain whether vh ether he this experiment but antonio soon went to work another way tor for one day when he was supposed to be busy in the maintop lie he shouted stand from under and ere flis haslop lop who was just beneath could give the usual response let go a heavy the same which had been found in the Lin binnacle pinnacle nacle slipped from the hand of antonio I 1 on to and fell ell crashing through the top grating the iron bar crashed into the deck dealt at the feet of Ill haslop Elop whether this occurred by inadvertence or design we knew not but the scotsman thought the latter that rascally spanish plea picaroon roon will work us some serious mischief before we overhaul our ground tackle or see the cape said weston who was wag enraged ged by this new incident and the bairow n alrow escape of IIi Ili slop for whom he had a great regard kye aye he has a hangdog hang liang dog look about him that I 1 never liked replied the latter ile he seems to be always down by the head somehow we should have left him in ills ski skiff ff just as wo we found him like a bear adrift on a grating or a pig in a washing tub on another occasion he injured will white one of the crew by letting tho the tall fall from the foretop tore top where it usually lay tor for drivins home the fill fid of the mast ills his dreams again became a source ot of annoyance to all in the forecastle bunks and on being closely and severely questioned by captain weston and the men as to whether he had ever killed any one by accident or otherwise after being long badgered he drew his ugly knife from its sharkskin sheath and replied sullenly only a chinaman or so when in california well I 1 wish you would clap a stopper on your mouth when you go 90 to sleep or turn in out of earshot in a topgallant studding sail as tar far off as you choose and the further oft the better said old roberts Robe its ts sulkily after the ravings of the cubano had kept him awake tor for several nights you seem to dream a great deal antonio said weston we ston with a keen glance beneath which the spaniard quailed qu ailed led sl si senor capitano he stammered how flow Is this 1 1 I am very fond of dreams he replied with a bitter smile on his lip and a scowl in his dark eye llave have you pleasant ones 1 I cannot say that they are always so but I 1 should like to procure them shall I 1 tell you yon how to do so shipmate it if you please senor growled the spaniard go to sleep it if you can with that which is better thi than n the formula of prayers which at times you pay out lit like the line running off a log reel and what Is it you mean mio capitano A good conscience replied weston with a peculiar emphasis A black scowl came over the spaniards swarthy visage as he touched the rim of his hat darted a furious glance at his chief accuser the white haired seaman roberts and to end the examination walked forward to be contin continued uLd |