John Corwell, Sailor And Miner; and, Poisonous Fish

by Louis Becke

  II

  One evening, three weeks later--so vigorously had the carpenter's matesfrom the old frigate _Sirius_ got through their work--the _Ceres_ wasready for sea. She was to sail on the following morning, and Corwell,having just returned from the shore, where he had been to say goodbyeto the kind-hearted Governor, was pacing the deck with his wife, hissmiling face and eager tones showing that he was well pleased.

  He had reason to be pleased, for unusual luck had attended him. Notonly had his ship been thoroughly and efficiently repaired, but he hadreplaced six of his untrustworthy Malays by four good, sturdy Britishseamen, one of whom he had appointed mate. These men had arrived atSydney Cove in a transport a few days after his interview with theGovernor; the transport had been condemned, and Corwell, much to hisdelight, found that out of her crew of thirty, four were willing to comewith him on what he cautiously described as a "voyage of venture to theSouth Seas." All of them had served in the navy, and the captain of thetransport and his officers gave them excellent characters for sobrietyand seamanship. Out of the sixty or seventy pounds which still remainedto him he had given them a substantial advance, and the cheerful mannerin which they turned to and helped the carpenters from the frigateconvinced him that he had secured decent, reliable men, to whom hethought he could reveal the real object of his voyage later on.

  *****

  Two years before Cornell had been mate of a "country" ship employedin trading between Calcutta and the Moluccas. The Ternate agent of theowners of the ship was an Englishman named Leighton, a widower with onedaughter, whose mother had died when the girl was fifteen. With thisman the young officer struck up a friendship, and before six months hadpassed he was the acknowledged suitor of Mary Leighton, with whom hehad fallen in love at first sight, and who quickly responded to hisaffection. She was then twenty-two years of age, tall and fair,with dark hazel eyes, like her English mother, and possessed of suchindomitable spirit and courage that her father often laughingly declaredit was she, and not he, who really managed the business which hecontrolled.

  And she really did much to help him; she knew his weak, vacillating, andspeculative nature would long since have left them penniless had henot yielded to her advice and protests on many occasions, Generousand extravagantly hospitable, he spent his money lavishly, and hadsquandered two or three fortunes in wild business ventures in the IndianSeas instead of saving one. Latterly, however, he had been more careful,and when Corwell had made his acquaintance he had two vessels--abarque and a brig--both of which were very profitably engaged in theManila-China trade, and he was now sanguine or mending his brokenfortunes.

  Isolated as were father and daughter from the advantages of constantintercourse with European society, the duty of educating the girl wasa task of love to her remaining parent, who, before he entered "JohnCompany's" service, had travelled much in Europe. Yet, devoted as he wasto her, and looking forward with some dread to the coming loneliness oflife which would be his when she married, he cheerfully gave his consentto her union with John Cornell, for whom he had conceived a strongliking, and who, he knew, would make her a good husband.

  They were married at Batavia, to which port they were accompanied by Mr.Leighton, who, during the voyage, had pressed Corwell to leave his thenemployment and join him in a venture which had occupied his mind for thepast year. This was to despatch either the barque or brig, laden withtrade goods, to the Society Islands in the South Pacific, to barter forcoconut oil and pearl shell.

  Leighton was certain that there was a fortune awaiting the man whoentered upon the venture, and his arguments so convinced the young manthat he consented.

  On arrival at Batavia they found there the officers and crew of ashipwrecked English vessel, and one of the former eagerly took Corwell'splace as chief mate, his captain offering no objection. A few weeksafter Mr. Leighton hired the _Ceres_ to take himself, his daughter, andher husband back to Ternate, eager to begin the work of fitting out oneof his vessels for the voyage that was to bring them fortune. He, it wasarranged, was to remain at Ternate, Mary was to sail with her husband tothe South Seas.

  But a terrible shock awaited them. As the _Ceres_ sailed up to heranchorage before Mr. Leighton's house, his Chinese clerk came on boardwith the news that the barque had foundered in a typhoon, and the brighad been plundered and burnt by pirates within a few miles of Canton.The unfortunate man gave one last appealing look at his daughter andthen fell on the deck at her feet He never spoke again, and died in afew hours. When his affairs came to be settled up, it was found that,after paying his debts, there was less than four hundred pounds left--asum little more than that which Corwell had managed to save out of hisown wages.

  "Never mind, Jack," said Mary. "'Tis little enough, but yet 'tis enough.And, Jack, let us go away from here. I should not care now to meet anyof the people father knew in his prosperity."

  Cornell kissed his wife, and then they at once discussed the future.Half an hour later he had bought the _Ceres_ from her captain (who wasalso the owner), paid him his money and taken possession. Before theweek was out he had bought all the trade goods he could afford to payfor, shipped a crew of Malays and Chinese, and, with Mary by his side,watched Ternate sink astern as the _Ceres_ began her long voyage to theSouth Seas.

  After a three weeks' voyage along the northern and eastern shores of NewGuinea the _Ceres_ came to an anchor in the harbour which Cornell haddescribed to the Governor. The rest of his story, up to the time of hisarrival in Sydney Cove, the reader knows. *****

  Steadily northward under cloudless skies the high-pooped, bluff-bowedlittle vessel had sailed, favoured by leading winds nearly all the way,for four-and-twenty days, when, on the morning of the twenty-fifth,Corwell, who had been up aloft scanning the blue loom of a lofty islandwhich lay right ahead, descended to the deck with a smiling face.

  "That is not only the island itself, Mary, but with this breeze we havea clear run for the big village in the bay; I can see the spur on thesouthern side quite clearly."

  "I'm so glad, Jack, dear. And how you have worried and fumed for thepast three days!"

  "I feared we had got too far to the westward, my girl," he said. Thentelling the mate to keep away a couple of points, he went below to poreover the plan of the harbour, a copy of which had been taken by theGovernor, As he studied it his wife's fingers passed lovingly throughand through his curly locks. He looked up, put his arm around her waist,and swung her to a seat on his knees.

  "I think, Mary, I can tell the men now."

  "I'm sure you can! The sooner you take them into your confidence thebetter."

  Corwell nodded. During the voyage he had watched the mate and threewhite seamen keenly, and was thoroughly satisfied with them. Theremainder of the crew--three Manila men and two Penang Malays--did theirduty well enough, but both he and his wife knew from long experiencethat such people were not to be trusted when their avarice was aroused.He resolved, therefore, to rely entirely upon his white crew and thenatives of the island to help him in obtaining the gold. Yet, as hecould not possibly keep the operations a secret from the five menhe distrusted, he decided, as a safeguard against their possible anddangerous ill-will, to promise them double wages from the day he foundthat gold was to be obtained in payable quantities. As for the mate andthree other white men, they should have one-fifth of all the gold wonbetween them, he keeping the remaining four-fifths for himself and wife.

  He put his head up the companion-way and called to the man whom he hadappointed mate.

  "Come below, Mallett, and bring Totten, Harris, and Sam with you."

  Wondering what was the matter the four men came into the cabin. As soonas they were standing together at the head of the little table, thecaptain's wife went quietly on deck to see that none of the colouredcrew came aft to listen.

  "Now, men," said Corwell, "I have something important to tell you. Ibelieve I can trust you."

  Then in as few words as possible he told them the object of thevoyage and his intentions towards them.
At first they seemed somewhatincredulous, but when they were shown some of the gold their doubtsvanished, and they one and all swore to be honest and true to him and toobey him faithfully whether afloat or ashore, in fair or evil fortune.

  From his scanty store of liquor the captain took a bottle of rum, andthey drank to their future success; then Corwell shook each man's handand sent him on deck.

  Just before dusk the _Ceres_ ran in and dropped her clumsy,wooden-stocked anchor in the crystal-clear water, a few cables' lengthaway from the village. As the natives recognised her a chorus ofwelcoming shouts and cries pealed from the shore from five hundreddusky-hued throats.