The Privateersman

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FIVE.

  IN CROSSING THE BAR AT SENEGAL THE BOAT IS UPSET BY A TORNADO--WE ESCAPEBEING DEVOURED BY SHARKS ONLY TO BE CAPTURED BY THE NATIVES--ARE TAKENINTO THE INTERIOR OF THE COUNTRY, AND BROUGHT BEFORE THE NEGRO KING,FROM WHOSE WRATH WE ARE SAVED BY THE INTERCESSION OF HIS FEMALEATTENDANTS.

  A day or two after we had arrived, the master of another vessel that wasat anchor near to us came on board and borrowed our long-boat and somehands that he might go in it to Senegal. The captain, who was an oldfriend of the party who made the request, agreed to lend it to him, andas accidents are very frequent with boats crossing the bar, on accountof the heavy breakers, the best swimmers were selected for the purpose,and the charge of the boat was given to me. We set off, five men rowingand I at the helm. When we approached the bar, a tornado, which hadbeen for some time threatening, came upon us. The impetuosity of theseblasts is to be matched in no part of the world, and as it came at oncein its full force, we endeavoured, by putting the boat before it, toescape its fury. This compelled us to run to the southward along thecoast. We managed to keep the boat up for a long while, and hoped tohave weathered it, when, being on the bar, and in broken water, a largewave curled over us, filled the boat, and it went down in an instant.

  Our only chance now was to reach the shore by swimming, but it was at adistance, with broken water the whole way; and our great terror was fromthe sharks, which abound on the coast and are extremely ravenous--norwere we without reason for our alarm. Scarcely had the boat gone down,and we were all stretching out for the shore, when one of our menshrieked, having been seized by the sharks, and instantly torn topieces. His blood stained the water all around, and this attracting allthe sharks proved the means of our escape. Never shall I forget thehorrible sensation which I felt as I struggled through the broken water,expecting every minute a limb to be taken off by one of those voraciousanimals. If one foot touched the other, my heart sunk, thinking it wasthe nose of a shark, and that its bite would immediately follow.Agonised with these terrors, we struggled on--now a large wave curlingover us and burying us under water, or now forced by the waves towardsthe beach, rolling us over and over. So battered were we by the surf,that we dived under the waves to escape the blows which we received, andthen rose and struck out again. At last, worn out with exertion, wegained the shore, but our toil was not over.

  The beach was of a sand so light that it crumbled beneath us, and at thereturn of the wave which threw us on shore we were dragged back againand buried in sand and water. We rose to renew our endeavours, butseveral times without success, for we could not obtain a firm footing.At last the Negroes, who had witnessed our accident, and who now camedown in great numbers on the beach, laid hold of us as the sea threw usup, and dragged us beyond the reach of the waves. Worn out with fatiguewe lay on the sand, waiting to ascertain what the savages would do withus; they were not long in letting us know, for they soon began to stripus of every article of clothing on our backs. One of our men attemptedto resist, upon which a Negro drove a spear through his thigh.

  Having divided our apparel, after some consultation, they tied ourhands, and placing us in the midst of a large force, armed with spearsand bows and arrows, they went off with us for the inland part of thecountry. We set off with heavy hearts; taking, as we thought, a lastfarewell of the ocean, and going forwards in great apprehension of thefate that awaited us. The sand was very deep, and the heat of the sunexcessive, for it was then about noon. Without any garments, we weresoon scorched and blistered all over, and in intolerable anguish, aswell as fatigued; but the Negroes compelled us to move on, goading uswith their spears if we slackened our pace, and threatening to run usthrough if we made a halt. We longed for the night, as it would afforda temporary relief to our sufferings. It came at last, and the Negroescollected wood and lighted a fire to keep off the wild beasts, lyinground it in a circle, and placing us in the midst of them. We hoped tohave some rest after what we had gone through, but it was impossible--the night proved even worse than the day. The mosquitoes came down uponus in such swarms, and their bites were so intolerable, that we werealmost frantic. Our hands being tied, we could not beat them off and werolled over and over to get rid of them. This made matters worse, forour whole bodies being covered with raised blisters, from the rays ofthe sun, our rolling over and over broke the blisters, and the sandgetting into the wounds, added to the bites of the mosquitoes, made oursufferings intolerable. We had before prayed for night, we now prayedfor day. Some prayed for death.

  When the sun rose, we set off again, our conductors utterly disregardingour anguish, and goading us on as before. In the forenoon we arrived ata village, where our guards refreshed themselves; a very small quantityof boiled corn was given to each of us, and we continued our journey,passing by several small towns, consisting, as they all do in thatcountry, of huts built of reeds, round in form, and gathered to a pointat top. This day was the same as the preceding. We were pricked withspears if we stumbled or lagged, threatened with death if we had notstrength to go on. At last the evening arrived, and the fires werelighted. The fires were much larger than before, I presume because thewild beasts were more numerous, for we heard them howling in everydirection round us, which we had not done on the night before. Themosquitoes did not annoy us so much, and we obtained some intervals ofbroken rest. At daylight we resumed our journey, as near as we couldjudge by the sun, in a more easterly direction.

  During the first two days we were badly received by the inhabitants ofthe towns, whose people had been kidnapped so often for the slave-trade;they hated the sight of our white faces, for they presumed that we hadcome for that purpose; but as we advanced in the interior, we werebetter treated, and the natives looked upon us with surprise and wonder,considering us as a new race of beings. Some of the women, seeing howutterly exhausted we were with fatigue and hunger, looked withcompassion on us, and brought us plenty of boiled corn and goats' milkto drink. This refreshed us greatly, and we continued our journey inanxious expectation of the fate for which we were reserved.

  On crossing a small river, which appeared to be the boundary of twodifferent states, a multitude of Negroes approached, and seemed disposedto take us from our present masters, but after a conference, they agreedamong themselves, and a party of them joined with those who hadpreviously conducted us. We soon came to the edge of a desert, andthere we halted till the Negroes had filled several calabashes andgourds full of water, and collected a quantity of boiled corn. As soonas this was done, we set off again, and entered the desert. We wereastonished and terrified when we looked around us, not a single vestigeof herbage, not a blade of grass was to be seen--all was one wide wasteof barren sand, so light as to rise in clouds at the least wind, and wesank so deep in walking through it that at last we could hardly drag onefoot after the other. But we were repaid for our fatigue, for when wehalted at night, no fires were lighted, and to our great delight wefound that there were no mosquitoes to annoy us. We fell into a soundsleep, which lasted till morning, and were much refreshed; indeed, somuch so as to enable us to pursue our journey with alacrity.

  In our passage over the desert we saw numbers of elephants' teeth, butno animals. How the teeth came there, unless it were that the elephantswere lost in attempting to cross the desert, I cannot pretend to say.Before we had crossed the desert, our water was expended, and wesuffered dreadfully from thirst, walking as we did during the whole dayunder a vertical sun. The night was equally painful, as we were sotortured with the want of water; but on the following day, when ourstrength was nearly exhausted, and we were debating whether we shouldnot lie down and allow the spears of our conductors to put an end to ourmiseries, we came to the banks of a river which the Negroes hadevidently been anxiously looking for. Here we drank plentifully, andremained all the day to recruit ourselves, for the Negroes were almostas exhausted as we were. The next morning we crossed the river, andplunged into a deep wood: the ground being high, the mosquitoes did notannoy
us so much as they did down on the low marshy land near thesea-coast. During our traverse through the wood we subsisted solelyupon the birds and animals which the Negroes killed with their bows andarrows.

  When we had forced our way through the forest, we found the country, asbefore, interspersed with wicker villages or small hamlets at a fewmiles' distance from each other. Round each village there were smallpatches of Guinea corn, and we frequently came to clusters of huts whichhad been deserted. Between the sea-coast and the desert we hadtraversed we observed that many of the inhabitants had Europeanfire-arms, but now the only weapons to be seen were spears and bows andarrows. As we advanced we were surrounded at every village by thenatives, who looked upon us with surprise and astonishment, examiningus, and evidently considering us a new species. One morning we arrivedat a very large Negro town, and as we approached, our guards began toswell with pride and exultation, and drove us before them among thecrowds of inhabitants, singing songs of triumph, and brandishing theirweapons. Having been driven through a great part of the town, wearrived at a number of huts separated by a high palisade from the rest,and appropriated, as we afterwards found, to the use of the king of thecountry, his wives and attendants. Here we waited outside some time,while our guards went in and acquainted this royal personage with thepresent which they had brought for him.

  We had reason to think that our captors were not his subjects, but hadbeen at variance with him, and had brought us as a present, that theymight make peace with an enemy too strong for them. We were at lastordered to go inside the enclosure, and found ourselves in a large openbuilding, constructed like the others, of reeds and boughs. In thecentre was squatted a ferocious-looking old Negro, attended by fouryoung Negro women. He was raw-boned and lean, and of a very largeframe. A diabolical ferocity was imprinted on his grim countenance, andas he moved his arms and legs he showed that under his loose skin therewas a muscle of extraordinary power. I never had before seen such aliving type of brutal strength and barbarity. On a mat before him wereprovisions of different kinds. Behind him stood several grim savageswho held his weapons, and on each side, at a greater distance, were rowsof Negroes, with their heads bent down and their arms crossed, awaitinghis orders. The chief or king, as well as the four women, had clothesof the blue cotton cloth of the country, that is, one piece wrappedround the loins and descending to the ankles, and another worn overtheir shoulders; but, with few exceptions, all the rest, as well as theinhabitants generally, were quite naked. So were we, as the reader mayrecollect. Round the necks of the women were rows of gold beads, longerby degrees, until the last of the rows hung lower than their bosoms, andboth the king and they had large bracelets of gold round their arms,wrists, and legs. The women, who were young and well-looking, stared atus with eager astonishment, while the old king scowled upon us so as tofreeze our blood. At last, rising from the ground, he took his sabrefrom the man who held it behind him, and walked up among us, who withour heads bowed, and breathless with fear, awaited our impending fate.I happened to be standing the foremost, and grasping my arm with a gripewhich made my heart sink, with his hand which held the sword he bentdown my head still lower than it was. I made sure that he was about tocut off my head, when the women, who had risen from the ground, rancrowding round him, and with mingled entreaties and caresses strove toinduce him not to put his intentions, if such he really had, intoexecution. They prevailed at last; the youngest took away his sword,and then they led him back to his seat, after which the women came to usto gratify their curiosity. They felt our arms and breasts, puttinginnumerable questions to those who brought us thither. They appearedvery much amazed at the length of my hair, for I had worn it tied in along cue. Taking hold of it, they gave it two or three severe pulls, toascertain if it really grew to my head, and finding that it did so, theyexpressed much wonder. When their curiosity was satisfied, they thenappeared to consider our condition, and having obtained the old king'spermission, they brought us a calabash full of cush-cush, that is,Guinea corn boiled into a thick paste. Our hands being still tied, wecould only by shaking our heads express our inability to profit by theirkindness. Understanding what we meant, they immediately cut our thongs,and the youngest of the four perceiving that my arms were benumbed fromhaving been confined so many days, and that I could not use them, showedthe most lively commiseration for my sufferings. She gently chafed mywrists with her hands, and showed every sign of pity in her countenance,as indeed did all the other three. But I was by far the youngest of thewhole party who had been captured, and seemed most to excite their pityand good-will. Shortly afterwards we were all taken into an adjoiningtent or hut, and our bodies were rubbed all over with an oil, whichafter a few days' application left us perfectly healed, and as smooth assilk. So altered was our condition, that those very people who hadguarded us with their spears and threatened us with death, were nowordered to wait upon us, and as the king's wives frequently came to seehow we were treated, we were served with the utmost humility andattention.