Kingsley_Westward_Ho.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
CHAPTER I
HOW MR. OXENIIAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD,
ANE bright summer's afternoon, in the year of grace
1575, a tall and fair boy came lingering along
Bideford quay, in his scholar's gown, with satchel and
slate in hand, watching wistfully the shipping and the
sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottom of the
High Street, he came opposite to one of the many
taverns which looked out upon the river. Outside
the door was gathered a group of sailors, listening
earnestly to some one who stood in the midst. The boy,
all alive for any sea news, must needs go up to them, and
take his place among the sailor lads who were peeping
and whispering under the elbows of the men ; and so
came in for the following speech, delivered in a loud, bold
voice, with a strong Devonshire accent.
" I tell you, as I am a gentleman, I saw it with
these eyes, and so did Salvation Yeo there, through a
window in the lower room ; and we measured the heap,
as I am a christened man, seventy foot long, ten foot
broad, and twelve foot high, of silver bars, and each bar
between a thirty and forty pound weight. And says
Captain Drake : ' There, my lads of Devon, I've brought
you to the mouth of the world's treasure-house.' "
" Why didn't you bring some of they home, then,
Mr. Oxenham ? "
6 WESTWARD HO !
" Why weren't you there to help to carry them ?
We would have brought 'em away, safe enough, and
young Drake and I had broke the door abroad already,
but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint ; and when
we came to look, he had a wound in his leg you might
have laid three fingers in, and his boots were full of blood,
and had been for an hour or more ; but the heart of him
was that, that he never knew it till he dropped, and
then his brother and I got him away to the boats, he
kicking and struggling, and bidding us let him go on
with the fight, though every step he took in the sand
was in a pool of blood ; and so we got off."
He who delivered this harangue was a tall and
sturdy personage, with a florid, black-bearded face, and
bold, restless dark eyes, who leaned, with crossed legs
and arms akimbo, against the wall of the house, and
seemed in the eyes of the schoolboy a very magnifico
some prince or duke at least. On his head was a broad
velvet Spanish hat, in which, instead of a feather, was
fastened with a great gold clasp a whole quesal bird,
whose gorgeous plumage of fretted golden green shone
like one entire precious stone. As he finished his speech,
he took off the said hat, and, looking at the bird in it
" Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as
that before ? That's the bird which the old Indian kings
of Mexico let no one wear but their own selves ; and
therefore I wear it I, John Oxenham of South Tawton
for a sign to all brave lads of Devon that, as the
Spaniards are the masters of the Indians, we're the
masters of the Spaniards." And he replaced his hat.
" Who'll list ? " cried a tall gaunt man who stood
close to him ; " now's your time ! We've got forty
men to Plymouth now, ready to sail the minute we get
back ; and we want a dozen out of you Bideford men,
HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD 7
and just a boy or two, and then we'm off and away, and
make our fortunes."
" Now," said Oxenham, " you won't let the Plymouth
men say that the Bideford men daren't follow them ?
Who'll join ? Don't think you're buying a pig in
a poke. I know the road, and Salvation Yeo here,
too, who was the gunner's mate, as well as I do the
narrow seas, and better. You ask him to show you the
chart of it now, and see if he don't tell you over the
ruttier as well as Drake himself."
On which the gaunt man pulled from under his arm
a great white buffalo horn, covered with rough etchings
of land and sea, and held it up to the admiring ring.
" See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the
place, dra'ed out so natural as ever was life. I got mini
from a Portingal, down to the Azores ; and he'd pricked
mun out, and pricked muii out, wheresoever he'd sailed,
and whatsoever he'd seen. Take mun in your hands
now, Simon Evans, take mun in your hands ; look mun
over, and I'll warrant you'll know the way in five minutes
so well as ever a shark in the seas." And the horn was
passed from hand to hand.
The schoolboy, who had been devouring with eyes
and ears all which passed, and had contrived by this
time to edge himself into the inner ring, now stood face
to face with the hero of the emerald crest, and got as
many peeps as he could at the wonder. But when he
saw the sailors, one after another, having turned it over
a while, come forward and offer to join Mr. Oxenham,
his soul burned within him for a nearer view of that
wondrous horn ; and when the group had somewhat
broken up, and Oxenham was going into the tavern
with his recruits, he asked boldly for a nearer sight of
the marvel, which was granted at once.
8 WESTWARD HO !
And now to his astonished gaze displayed them-
selves cities and harbours, dragons and elephants, whales
which fought with sharks, plate-ships of Spain, islands
with apes and palm-trees, each with its name over-
written, and here and there, " Here is gold ; " and again,
" Much gold and silver."
" I say, will you sell this ? " the boy asked.
" Yea, marry." After much fumbling, he pulled
out a tester (the only one he had), and asked if that
would buy it.
" That ! no, nor twenty of them."
The boy thought over what a good knight-errant
would do in such case, and then answered, " Tell you
what ; I'll fight you for it."
" Thank'ee, sir ! "
" Break the jackanapes's head for him, Yeo," said
Oxenham.
" Call me jackanapes again, and I break yours, sir."
And the boy lifted his fist fiercely.
Oxenham looked at him a minute smilingly. " Tut !
tut ! my man ; hit one of your own size, if you will, and
spare little folk like me ! "
" If I have a boy's age, sir, I have a man's fist. I
shall be fifteen years old this month, and know how to
answer any one who insults me."
Oxenham bade the lad tell him why he was so keen
after the horn.
" Because," said he, looking up boldly, " I want
to go to sea. I want to see the Indies. I want to fight
the Spaniards."
" And you shall," cried Oxenham. " Whose son
are you, my gallant fellow ? "
" Mr. Leigh's, of Burrough Court."
" Bless his soul ! I know him as well as I do the
HOW MR. OXENIIAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD 9
Eddystone, and his kitchen too. Who sups with him
to-night ? "
" Sir Richard Grenvile."
" Dick Grenvile ? I did not know he was in town.
Go home and tell your father John Oxenham will come
and keep him company. There, off with you ! I'll make
all straight with the good gentleman, and you shall have
your venture with me. And as for the horn, let him have
the horn, Yeo, and I'll give you a noble for it."
" Not a penny, noble captain. If young master will
take a poor mariner's gift, there it is, for the sake of his
love to the calling, and Heaven send him luck therein."
And the good fellow, with the impulsive generosity of a
true sailor, thrust the horn into the boy's hands, and
walked away to escape thanks.
Mr. Oxenham swaggered into the tavern, followed
by his new men ; and Amyas Leigh (so the boy was
named) took his way homewards, nursing his precious
horn, trembling between hope and fear, and blushing
with maidenly shame and a half sense of wrong-doing at
having revealed suddenly to a stranger the darling wish
which he had hidden from his father and mother ever
since he was ten years old.
Mr. Oxenham came that evening to supper, as he
had promised ; but as people supped in those days in
much the same manner as they do now, we may drop
the thread of the story for a few hours, and take it up
again after supper is over.
" Come now, Dick Grenvile, do thou talk the good
man round, and I'll warrant myself to talk round the
good wife."
" You have asked his father and mother ; what
is their answer ? "
" Mine is this," said Mr. Leigh : " if it be God's
10 WESTWARD HO !
will that my boy should become hereafter such a mariner
as Sir Richard Grenvile, let him go, and God be with
him ; but let him first bide here at home and be trained,
if God give me grace, to become such a gentleman as Sir
Richard Grenvile."
Sir Richard bowed low, and Mrs. Leigh, catching
up the last word
" There, Mr. Oxenham, you cannot gainsay that,
unless you will be discourteous to his worship. And for
me, though it be a weak woman's reason, yet it is a
mother's : he is my only child. His elder brother is
far away. Ah ! Mr. Oxenham, you have no child, or
you would not ask for mine ! "
" And how do you know that, my sweet madam ? "
said the adventurer, turning first deadly pale and then
glowing red. Her last words had touched him to the
quick in some unexpected place ; and, rising, he cour-
teously laid her hand to his lips and said, " 1 say no more.
Farewell, sweet madam, and God send all men such
wives as you."
" And all wives," said she, smiling, " such husbands
as mine."
" Nay, I will not say that," answered he, with a
half sneer ; and then, " Farewell, friend Leigh. Fare-
well, gallant Dick Grenvile. God send I see thee Lord
High Admiral, when I come home. And yet, why
should I come home ? Will you pray for poor Jack,
gentles ? "
" Tut, tut, man ! good words," 1 said Leigh ; " let
us drink to our merry meeting before you go." Rising,
and putting the tankard of malmsey 2 to his lips, he
passed it to Sir Richard, who rose and, saying, " To the
fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman,"
drank, and put the cup into Oxenham's hand.
HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD 11
The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild.
Whether from the liquor he had drunk during the day,
or whether from Mrs. Leigh's last speech, he had not
been himself for a few minutes. He lifted the cup, and
was in the act to pledge them, when he suddenly dropped
it on the table, and pointed, staring and trembling, up
and down, and round the room, as if following some
fluttering object.
" There ! do you see it ? The bird ! the bird with
the white breast ! "
Each looked at the other ; but Leigh, who was a
quick-witted man, and an old courtier, forced a laugh
instantly, and cried
" Nonsense, brave Jack Oxenham ! Leave white
birds for men who will show the white feather. Mrs.
Leigh waits to pledge you."
Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged
them all round, drinking deeply and fiercely ; and, after
hearty farewells, departed, never hinting again at his
strange exclamation.
" And now come hither to me, my adventurous
godson, and don't look in such doleful dumps," said Sir
Richard, turning to Amy as. " I hear you have broken
all the sailor-boys' heads already."
" Nearly all," said young Amyas, with due modesty.
" But am I not to go to sea ? "
" All things in their time, my boy, and God forbid
that either I or your worthy parents should keep you
from that noble calling which is the safeguard of this
England and her Queen. But you do not wish to live
and die the master of a trawler ? "
" 1 should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr.
Oxenham."
" God grant you become a braver man than he !
12 WESTWARD IIO !
For, as I think, to bo bold against the enemy is common
to the brutes ; but the prerogative of a man is to be bold
against himself."
" How, sir ? "
" To conquer our own fancies, Amy as, and our
ambition, in the sacred name of duty. This it is to be
truly brave, and truly strong ; for he who cannot rule
himself, how can he rule his crew or his fortunes ? Come,
now, I will make you a promise. If you will bide quietly
at home, and learn from your father and mother all which
befits a gentleman and a Christian, as well as a seaman,
the day shall come when you shall sail with Richard
Grenvile himself, or with better men than ho, on a nobler
errand than gold-hunting on the Spanish Main."
And so Amyas Leigh went back to school, and Mr.
Oxenham went his way to Plymouth again, and sailed
for the Spanish Main.
CHAPTER II
HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
Five years are past and gone. It is nine of the
clock on a still, bright November morning, but the bells
of Bideford church are still ringing for the daily service
two hours after the usual time, and, instead of going
soberly according to wont, cannot help breaking forth
every five minutes into a jocund peal, and tumbling
head over heels in ecstasies of joy. Bideford streets are
a very flower-garden of all the colours, swarming with
seamen and burghers, and burghers' wives and daughters,
all in their holiday attire. Garlands are hung across
the streets, and tapestries from every window. The
ships in the pool are dressed in all their flags, and give
tumultuous vent to their feelings by peals of ordnance
HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME 13
of every size. Every stable is crammed with horses ;
and Sir Richard Greiivile's house is like a very tavern,
with eating and drinking, and unsaddling, and running
to and fro of grooms and serving-men. Along the little
churchyard, packed full with women, streams all the
gentle blood of North Devon and on into the church,
where all are placed according to their degrees, or at least
as near as may be. At last there is a silence, and a look-
ing toward the door, and then distant music, flutes and
hautboys, drums and trumpets, which come braying,
and screaming, and thundering merrily up to the very
church doors, arid then cease ; and the churchwardens
and sidesmen bustle down to the entrance, rods in hand,
and there is a general whisper and rustle, not without glad
tears and blessings from many a woman, and from some
men also, as the wonder of the day enters, and the rector
begins, not the morning service, but the good old thanks-
giving after a victory at sea.
And what is it which has thus sent old Bideford wild
with joy ? Why are all eyes fixed, with greedy adini ra-
tion, on those four weather-beaten mariners, decked
out with knots and ribbons by loving hands ; and yet
more on that gigantic figure who walks before them, a
beardless boy, and yet with the frame and stature of a
Hercules, towering, like Saul of old, a head and shoulders
above all the congregation, with his golden locks flowing
down over his shoulders ? And why, as the five go
instinctively up to the altar, and there fall on their knees
before the rails, are all eyes turned to the pew where
the now widowed Mrs. Leigh of Burrough has hid her
face between her hands, and her hood rustics and shakes
to her joyful sobs ? Because there was fellow-feeling
of old in merry England, in county, and in town ; and
these are Devon men, and men of Bideford, whose names
14 WESTWARD HO !
are Amyas Leigh of Burrough, John Staveley, Michael
Heard, and Jonas Marshall of Bideford, and Thomas
Braund of Clovelly ; and they, the first of all English
mariners, have sailed round the world with Francis
Drake, and are come hither to give God thanks.
The prayers being ended, the rector ascends the
pulpit, and begins his sermon on the text :
" The heaven and the heaven of heavens are the
Lord's ; the whole earth hath he given to the children
of men,' 5 deducing therefrom craftily, to the exceeding
pleasure of his hearers, the iniquity of the Spaniards in
dispossessing the Indians, and in arrogating to them-
selves the sovereignty of the tropic seas ; and the justice,
valour, and glory of Mr. Drake and his expedition, as
testified by God's miraculous protection of him and his.
When, the sermon ended, the communion service had
begun, and the bread and the wine were given to those
five mariners, every gallant gentleman who stood near
them knelt and received the elements with them, and
then rose to join with heart and voice in the Te Deum,
which was the closing act of all. No sooner had the
clerk given out the first verse of that great hymn, than
it was taken up by five hundred voices within the church,
in bass and tenor, treble and alto ; the chant was caught
up by the crowd outside, and rang away over roof and
river, up to the woods and down to the marshes, in wave
on wave of harmony. And, as it died away, the shipping
in the river made answer with their thunder, and the
crowd streamed out again toward the Bridge Head,
whither Sir Richard Grenvile and Mr. Salterne, the mayor,
led the five heroes of the day to await the pageant which
had been prepared in honour of them. As they went
by, there were few in the crowd who did not press for-
ward to shake them by the hand ; and not only them,
HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME 15
but their parents and kinsfolk who walked behind, till
Mrs. Leigh, her stately joy quite broken down at last,
could only answer between her sobs, " Go along, good
people and God send you all such sons ! "
" God give me back mine ! " cried an old red-
cloaked dame in the crowd ; and then, struck by some
hidden impulse, she sprang forward, and, catching hold
of young Amyas's sleeve
" Band sir ! dear sir ! For Christ His sake answer
a poor old widow woman ! "
" What is it, dame ? " quoth Amyas gently enough.
" Did you see my son to the Indies ? my son
Salvation ? "
" Salvation ? " replied he, with an air of one who
recollected the name.
" Yes, sure, Salvation Yeo of Clovelly."
Amyas recollected now. It was the name of the
sailor who had given him the horn five years ago.
" My good dame," said he, " the Indies are a very
large place, and your son may be safe and sound enough
there, without my having seen him. I knew one Salva-
tion Yeo. But he must have come with . By-the-
bye, godfather, has Mr. Oxenham come home ? "
There was a dead silence for a moment among the
gentlemen round ; and then Sir Richard said solemnly,
and in a low voice, turning away from the old dame
" Amyas, Mr. Oxenham has not come home ; and,
from the day he sailed, no word has been heard of him
and all his crew."
" Oh, Sir Richard ! and you kept me from sailing
with him ! Had I known this before I went into church,
I had had one mercy more to thank God for."
" Thank Him aU the more in thy life, my child ! "
whispered his mother.
16 WESTWARD HO !
" And no news of him whatsoever ? "
" None, but that the year after he sailed, a ship
belonging to Andrew Barker of Bristol took out of a
Spanish caravel, somewhere off the Honduras, his two
brass guns."
" Yes ! " cried the old woman ; " they brought
home the guns, and never brought home my boy ! "
" They never saw your boy, mother," said Sir
Richard.
" But I've seen him ! I saw him in a dream four
years last Whitsuntide, as plain as I see you now, gentles,
a-lying upon a rock, calling for a drop of water to cool
his tongue. Oh dear me ! " And the old dame wept
bitterly.
" There is a rose noble for you ! " said Mrs. Leigh.
" And there another ! " said Sir Richard. And in
a few minutes four or five gold coins were in her hand.
But the old dame did but look wonderingly at the gold a
moment, and then
" Ah ! dear gentles, God's blessing on you ; but
gold won't buy back childer ! Oh, young gentleman !
make me a promise : if you want God's blessing on you
this day, bring me back my boy, if you find him sailing
on the seas ! Bring him back, and an old widow's bless-
ing be on you ! "
Amyas promised -what else could he do ? and the
group hurried on ; but the lad's heart was heavy in the
midst of joy, with the thought of John Oxenham, as he
walked through the churchyard, and down the short
street which led between the ancient school and the still
more ancient town house to the head of the long bridge,
across which the pageant, having been arranged " east-
the-water," was to defile, and then turn to the right along
the quay.
17
CHAPTER III
THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM
Old Stow House, some four miles beyond the Cornish
border, was Sir Richard Greiivile's home. About eleven
o'clock one bright forenoon, shortly after the home-
coming of Amyas Leigh, Sir Richard and his godson
were pacing up and down the terraced garden, talking
long and earnestly.
" And I may go to Ireland to-morrow ? " enquired
Amyas.
" You shall sail in the Mary for Milford Haven, with
bhese letters to Winter, If the wind serves, you may
bid the master drop down the river to-night, and be off ;
for we must lose no time."
" Winter ? " said Amyas. " He is no friend of
mine, since he left Drake and us so cowardly at the Straits
of Magellan."
" Duty must not wait for private quarrels, even
though they be just ones, lad ; but he will not be your
general. When you come to the Marshal, or the Lord-
Deputy, give either of them this letter, and they will set
you work and hard work too, I warrant."
" I want nothing better."
"Right, lad. Now come in, and take the letters, and
to horse. And if I hear of thee dead there at Smerwick
fort, with all thy wounds in front, I shall weep for thy
mother, lad ; but I shall have never a sigh for thee."
When they went down into the house, the first
person whom they met was the old steward, in search of
his master.
" There is a manner of roog, Sir Richard, a master-
less man, at the door ; a very forward fellow, and must
needs speak with you."
18 WESTWARD HO !
" A masterless man ? He had better not speak to
me, unless he is in love with gaol and gallows."
44 Well, your worship," said the steward, 44 1 expect
that is what he does want, for he swears he will not leave
the gate till he has seen you."
44 Seen me ? Halidame ! he shall see me, here and
at Launceston too, if he likes. Bring him in."
44 Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard, with your
good leave "
44 Hillo, Tony," cried Amyas, 44 who was ever afeard
yet with Sir Richard's good leave ? "
44 What, has the fellow a tail or horns ? "
44 Massy no ; but I be afeard of treason for your
honour : for the fellow is pinked all over in heathen
patterns, and as brown as a filbert ; and a tall roog, a
very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner too, and a mighty
staff with him. Indeed the grooms have no stomach
to handle him, nor the dogs neither, or he had been under
the pump before now, for they that saw him coming up
the hill swear that he had fire coming out of his mouth."
44 Fire out of his mouth ? " said Sir Richard ; 44 the
men are drunk."
44 Pinked all over ? He must be a sailor," said
Amyas. 44 Let me out and see the fellow, and if he needs
putting forth "
44 Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will
go into thy pocket. So go, lad, while I finish my writing."
Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on
his staff, stood a tall, raw-boned, ragged man, 44 pinked
all over," as the steward had said.
44 Hillo, lad ! " quoth Amyas. 44 Before we come
to talk, thou wilt please to lay down that Plymouth
cloak of thine." And he pointed to the cudgel, which
among West-country mariners usually bore that name.
THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM 19
t
" I'll warrant/' said the old steward, " that where
he found his cloak he found a purse not far off."
" But not hose or doublet ; so the magical virtue
of his staff has not helped him much. But put down thy
staff, man, and speak like a Christian, if thou be one."
" I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen ;
and no rogue, though a masterless man, alas ! But I want
nothing, deserving nothing, and only ask to speak with
Sir Richard before I go on my way."
There was something stately and yet humble about
the man's tone and manner which attracted Amyas, and
he asked more gently where he was going and whence he
came.
C(
From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see
my old mother, if indeed she be yet alive, which God
knoweth."
" Clovally man ! why didn't thee say thee was
Clovally man ? " asked all the grooms at once, to whom a
West-countryman was of course a brother. The old
steward asked
" What's thy mother's name, then ? "
" Susan Yeo."
" What ! that lived under the archway ? " asked
a groom.
" Lived ? " said the man.
" Iss, sure ; her died three days since, so we heard,
poor soul."
The man stood quite silent and unmoved for a
minute or two, and then said quietly to himself, in
Spanish, " That which is, is best."
" You speak Spanish ? " asked Amyas, more and
more interested.
" I had need to do so, young sir ; I have been five
years in the Spanish Main, and only set foot on shore two
20 WESTWARD HO !
days ago. And if you will let me have speech of Sir
Richard, I will tell him that at which both the ears of him
that heareth it shall tingle ; and if not, I can but go on
to Mr. Gary of Clovelly, if he be yet alive, and there dis-
burden my soul. But I would sooner have spoken with
one that is a mariner like to myself."
" And you shall," said Amyas. " Steward, we will
have this man in ; for all his rags he is a man of wit."
So in they went, where Sir Richard sat in his library
among books, dispatches, state papers, and warrants.
" Hillo, Amyas, have you bound the wild man
already, and brought him in to swear allegiance ? "
But before Amyas could answer, the man looked
earnestly on him. " Amyas," said he ; " is that your
name, sir
cc
"
Amyas Leigh is my name, at your service, good
fellow."
" Of Burrough by Bideford ? "
" Why, then, what do you know of me ? "
" Oh, sir, sir, young brains and happy ones have short
memories, but old and sad brains too too long ones, often !
Do you mind one that was with Mr. Oxenham, sir ? One,
sir, that gave you a horn, a toy with a chart on it."
" Soul alive ! " cried Amyas, catching him by the
hand ; " and are you he ? The horn ? Why, I have
it still, and will keep it to my dying day too. But where
is Mr. Oxenham ? "
" Yes, my good fellow, where is Mr. Oxenham ? "
asked Sir Richard, rising. " You are somewhat over-
hasty in welcoming your old acquaintance, Amyas, before
we have heard from him whether he can give honest
account of himself and of his captain. And first, who
art thou, and whence ? "
" Well, sir," said the man, " my name is Salvation
THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM 21
Yeo, born in Clovelly Street, in the year 1526, where my
father exercised the mystery of a barber-surgeon, and
a preacher of the people since called Anabaptists, for
which I return humble thanks to God. I was bred to
the sea from my youth, and was with Captain Hawkins
in his three voyages, which he made to Guinea for negro
slaves, and thence to the West Indies.
" I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios,
with Mr. Drake and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we
saw and did your worship, I suppose, knows as well as I ;
and there was, as you've heard maybe, a covenant
between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail the South
Seas together, which they made, your worship, in my
hearing, under the tree over Panama. For when Mr.
Drake came down from the tree, after seeing the sea afar
off, Mr. Oxenham and I went up and saw it too ; and
when we came down, Drake says, ' John, I have made a
vow to God that I will sail that water, if I live and God
gives me grace.' Which he had done, sir, upon his bended
knees, like a godly man as he always was ; and would I
had taken after him ! And Mr. 0. says, c I am with you,
Drake, to live or die ; and I think I know some one there
already, so we shall not be quite among strangers,' and
laughed withal. Well, sirs, that voyage, as you know,
never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in
Ireland ; so Mr. Oxenham, who must be up and doing,
sailed for himself, and I who loved him, God knows, like
a brother (saving the difference in our ranks), helped
him to get the crew together, and went as his gunner.
That was in 1575. As you know, he had a 140- ton ship,
sir, and seventy men out of Plymouth and Fowey and
Dartmouth, and many of them old hands of Drake's,
beside a dozen or so from Bideford that I picked up when
I saw young master here.
22 WESTWARD HO !
" Well, sirs, we came to the shore of New Spain,
near to the old place that's Nombre de Dios ; and
there Mr. Oxenham went ashore into the woods with a
boat's crew, to find the negroes who helped us three
years before. Those are the Cimaroons, gentles, negro
slaves who have fled from their Spanish masters, and
live wild, like the beasts that perish.
CHAPTER IV
MB. OXENHAM' s HISTORY (continued)
" Well, sirs, after three days the captain comes
back, looking heavy enough, and says, * We played our
trick once too often when we played it once. There is
no chance of stopping another mule -train, now. The
Cimaroons say that since our last visit they never move
without plenty of soldiers two hundred shot at least.
Therefore,' he said, ' my gallants, we must either return
empty-handed from this, the very market and treasury
of the whole Indies, or do such a deed as men never did
before, which I shall like all the better for that very
reason.' And we asking his meaning, c Why,' he said,
4 if Drake will not sail the South Seas, we will.' And,
for our confirmation, showed me and the rest the super-
scription of a letter, and said, c How I came by this is
none of your business, but I have had it in my bosom ever
since I left Plymouth ; and I tell you now, what I for-
bore to tell you at first, that the South Seas have been my
mark all along ! Such news have I herein of plate-ships,
and gold-ships, and what not, which will come up from
Quito and Lima this very month : all which, with the
pearls of the Gulf of Panama, and other wealth unspeak-
able, will be ours, if we have but true English hearts
within us.'
MR. OXENHAM'S HISTORY 23
" At which, gentles, we were like madmen for lust
of that gold, and cheerfully undertook a toil incredible :
for first we run our ship aground in a great wood which
grew in the very sea itself, and then took out her masts,
and covered her in boughs, with her four cast pieces of
great ordnance ; and, leaving no man in her, started
for the South Seas across the neck of Panama, with two
small pieces of ordnance and our culverins, and good
store of victuals, and with us six of those negroes for
a guide, and so twelve leagues to a river which runs
into the South Sea.
" And there, having cut wood, we made a pinnace
(and work enough we had at it) of five-and-forty foot in
the keel ; and in her down the stream, and to the Isle
of Pearls in the Gulf of Panama."
" Into the South Sea ? Impossible ! " said Sir
Richard. " Have a care what you say, my man ; for
there is that about you which would make me sorry to
find you out a liar."
" Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir."
" Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have
been beforehand with you."
The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said
" Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot
ask you, for I never was inside it. But what other parts
of the coast do you know ? "
" Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to
Lima ; more is my sorrow, for I was a galley-slave there
for two years and more."
" You know Lima ? "
" I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen,
and the last was February come two years ; and there
I helped lade a great plate-ship the Cacafuogo they
called her."
24 WESTWARD HO !
Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently
to be silent, and then
" And what became of her, my lad ? "
" God knows, who knows all. I broke prison six
weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got safe
into Panama."
" You never heard, then, that she was taken ? "
" Taken, your worships ? Who should take her ? "
" Dost thou not know that Captain Drake took that
Cacafaogo and all her freight in February come two
years ? " cried Sir Richard, springing up.
" Captain Drake in the South Seas ? He saw them,
sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when I was with him,
and I too ; but sailed them, sir sailed them ? "
" Yes, and round the world too," said Amyas, " and
I with him ; and took that very Cacafuogo off Cape San
Francisco, as she came up to Panama."
" Glory to God ! glory to God ! Lord, I thank
thee ! Captain Drake in the South Seas ! The blood
of Thy innocents avenged, Lord ! The spoiler spoiled,
and the proud robbed. Glorv, glory ! Oh, tell me, sir,
did she fight did she fight ? "
" We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and
struck down her mizzen mast, and then boarded sword
in hand, but never had need to strike a blow."
" Oh, sir, tell me, did you get the ship that came up
after her ? "
" What was that ? "
" A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an
old gentleman on board ; Don Francisco de Xararte was
his name, and by token he had a gold falcon hanging
to a chain round his neck, and a green stone in the breast
of it. I saw it as we rowed him aboard. Oh, tell me,
sir did you take that ship ? "
MR. OXIONFTAM'S JJISTOKY 25
" We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her
Majesty has it at tins very hour."
" Then tell me, sir," said he slowly, as if he dreaded
an answer " tell me, sir, and oh ! try and mind was
there a little maid aboard with the old gentleman ? "
" A little maid ? Let me think. No ; I saw
none."
The man settled his features again sadly.
" I thought not. I never saw her come aboard.
Still I hoped, likeI hoped."
" What have you to do with this little maid, then,
good fellow ? " asked Grenvile.
" Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and
finish the story of Mr. Oxenham. To the Island of
Pearls we came we and some of the negroes. We
found many huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also
a fair house, with porches, but no Spaniard therein save
one man. For ten days we lay quiet, letting neither
negro nor Spaniard leave the island, and took good store
of pearls, feeding sumptuously on wild cattle and hogs
until the tenth day, when there came by a small
bark ; her we took, and found her from Quito, and
on board 60,000 pezos of gold, and other store. With
which if we had been content, gentlemen, all had gone
well. And some were willing to go back at once, having
both treasure and pearls in plenty ; but Mr. 0. he waxed
right mad, and swore to slay any one who made that
motion again, assuring us that the Lima ship of which he
had news was far greater and richer, and would make
princes of us all ; which bark came in sight on the six-
teenth day, and was taken without shot or slaughter.
The taking of which bark, I verily believe, was the ruin
of every mother's son of us."
And, being asked why, he answered, " First, because
26 WESTWARD HO !
of the discontent which was bred thereby ; for on board
was found no gold, but only 100,000 pezos of silver."
Sir Richard Grenvile. Thou greedy fellow ! and
was not that enough to stay your stomachs ?
Yeo answered that he would to God it had been,
but that, moreover, the weight of that silver was after-
wards a hindrance to them, and a fresh cause of discon-
tent, as he would afterwards declare.
" In that bark of Lima," continued Yeo, " he took
a young lady, as fair as the sunshine, sir, and seemingly
about two or three and twenty years of age, having with
her a tall young lad of sixteen, and a little girl, a marvel-
lously pretty child, of about six or seven. And the lady
herself was of an excellent beauty, like a whale's tooth
for whiteness, so that all the crew wondered at her, and
could not be satisfied with looking upon her. And,
gentlemen, this was strange, that the lady seemed in
no wise afraid or mournful, and bid her little girl fear
naught, as did also Mr. Oxenham ; but the lad kept a
very sour countenance, and the more when he saw the
lady and Mr. Oxenham speaking together apart.
" Well, sir, after this good luck we were minded to
have gone straight back to the river whence we came,
and so home to England with all speed. But Mr. Oxen-
ham persuaded us to return to the island and get a few
more pearls ; and so went ashore with the lady to that
house, whence for three days he never came forth, and
would have remained longer, but that the men, finding
but few pearls, and being wearied with the watching
and warding so many Spaniards and negroes, came clam-
ouring to him, and swore that they would return or
leave him there with the lady. So all went on board the
pinnace again, every one in ill humour with the captain,
and he with them.
MR. OXENHAM'S HISTORY 27
" Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the
river, and there began our troubles ; for the negroes, as
soon as we were on shore, called on Mr. Oxenham to
fulfil the bargain he had made with them. And now it
came out (what few of us knew till then) that he had
agreed with the Cimaroons that they should have all the
prisoners which were taken, save the gold. And he,
though loath, was about to give up the Spaniards to
them, near forty in all, supposing that they intended to
use them as slaves ; but as we all stood talking, one of
the Spaniards, understanding what was forward, threw
himself on his knees before Mr. Oxenham, and, shriek-
ing like a madman, entreated not to be given up into
their hands, ' for/ said he, ' they never take a Spanish
prisoner but they roast him alive.' We asked the negroes
if this was possible. To which some answered, What
was that to us ? But other said boldly that it was
true enough.
" At this we were like men amazed for very horror ;
and Mr. Oxenham said, ' You incarnate fiends, if you
had taken these fellows for slaves, it had been fair
enough ; for you were once slaves to them, and I doubt
not cruelly used enough : but as for this abomination,'
says he, ' God do so to me, and more also, if I let one of
them come into your murderous hands.' So there was
a great quarrel ; but Mr. Oxenham stoutly bade put
the prisoners on board the ships again, and so let the
prizes go, taking with him only the treasure, and the
lady and the little maid. And so the lad went on to
Panama, God's wrath having gone out against us.
" Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away
from us, swearing revenge (for which we cared little
enough), and we rowed up the river to a place where three
streams met, and then up the least of the three, some
28 WESTWARD HO !
four days' journey, till it grew all shoal and swift ; and
there we hauled the pinnace upon the sands, and Mr.
Oxenham asked the men whether they were willing to
carry the gold and silver over the mountains to the
North Sea, Some of them at first were loath to do it,
and I and others advised that we should leave the plate
behind, and take the gold only, for it would have cost
us three or four journeys at the least. But Mr. Oxen-
ham promised every man 100 pezos of silver over and
above his wages, which made them content enough, and
we were all to start the morrow morning.
" But, sirs, that night, as God had ordained, came
a mishap by some rash speeches of Mr. Oxcnham's,
which threw all abroad again ; for when we had carried
the treasure about half a league inland, and hidden it away
in a house which we made of boughs, Mr. 0., being always
full of that his fair lady, spoke to me and William
Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade, and a few
more, saying, c That we had no need to return to England,
seeing that we were already in the very garden of Eden,
and wanted for nothing, but could live without labour or
toil ; and that it was better, when we got over to the
North Sea, to go and seek out some fair island, and there
dwell in joy and pleasure till our lives' end. And we
two,' he said, ' will be king and queen, arid you, whom I
can trust, my officers ; ' which words I liked well, as did
William Penberthy.
" But the rest, sirs, took the matter all across, and
began murmuring against the captain, saying that poor
honest mariners like them had always the labour and
the pain, while he took his delight ; and that they would
have at least one merry night before they were slain by
the Cimaroons, or eaten by panthers and lagartos ; and
so got out of the pinnace two great skins of Canary wine,
MR. OXENHAM'S HISTORY 29
which were taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves
down to drink. Moreover, there were in the pinnace a
great sight of hens, which came from the same prize ;
and so the men cooked and ate them, plucking them on
board the pinnace, and letting the feathers fall into the
stream.
" But when William Penberthy, my good comrade,
saw the feathers floating away down, he asked them if
they were mad, to lay a trail by which the Spaniards
would surely track them out if they came after them, as
without doubt they would. But they laughed him to
scorn, and said that no Spanish cur dared follow on the
heels of true English mastiffs as they were, and other
boastful speeches.
" Next morning, when the wine was gone out of
them, Mr. 0. asked them whether they would go to the
hills with him, and find those negroes, and persuade them
after all to carry the treasure. To which they agreed
after a while, thinking that so they should save them-
selves labour ; and went off with Mr. Oxenham, leaving
me and Penberthy and four Plymouth men to watch the
lady and the treasure. So he parted with much weeping
and wailing of the lady, and was gone seven days.
" Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by
the pinnace clearing her out, and the little maid with us
gathering of flowers, and William Penberthy fishing on
the bank, about a hundred yards below, when on a
sudden he leaps up and runs towards us, crying, ' Here
come our hens' feathers back again with a vengeance ! '
and so ba.de catcli up the little maid, and run for the
house, for the Spaniards were upon ,us.
" Which was too true : for before we could win the
house, there were full eighty shot at our heels, but could
not overtake us; nevertheless, some of them, stopping,
30 WESTWARD HO !
fixed their calivers and let fly, killing one of the
Plymouth men. The rest of us escaped to the house,
and, catching up the lady, fled forth, not knowing whither
we went ; while the Spaniards, finding the house and
treasure, pursued us no farther.
" For all that day and the next we wandered in
great misery the lady weeping continually, and calling
for Mr. Oxenham most piteously, and the little maid
likewise, till with much ado we found the track of our
comrades, and went up that as best we might ; but at
nightfall, by good hap, we met the whole crew coming
back, and with them two hundred negroes or more, with
bows and arrows.
"Mr. 0. offered us the half of the treasure, if we
would go back with him and rescue it from the Spaniards.
At which the lady wept and wailed much ; but I took
upon myself to comfort her, though I was but a simple
mariner, telling her that it stood upon Mr. Oxenham's
honour. So, after much ado, back they went again I
and Penberthy, and the three Plymouth men which
escaped from the pinnace, keeping the lady as before.
" Well, sirs, we waited five days, having made
houses of boughs as before, without hearing aught ; and
on the sixth we saw coming afar off Mr. Oxenham, and
with him fifteen or twenty men, who seemed very weary
and wounded ; and when we looked for the rest to be
behind them, behold there were no more ; at which,
sirs, as you may well think, our hearts sank within us.
" And Mr. 0., coming nearer, cried out afar off, c All
is lost ! ' and so walked into the camp without a word,
and sat himself down at the foot of a great tree with his
head between his hands.
" The men told me, and I believe truly, how they
found the enemy awaiting them in a little copse of great
MR. OXENHAM'S HISTORY 31
trees, well fortified with barricades of boughs, and having
with them our two falcons, which they had taken out
of the pinnace. And how Mr. Oxenham divided both
the English and the negroes into two bands, that one
might attack the enemy in front, and the other in the
rear, and so set upon them with great fury, and would
have utterly driven them out, but that the negroes, who
had come on with much howling, like very wild beasts,
being suddenly scared with the shot and noise of the
ordnance, turned and fled, leaving the Englishmen alone ;
in which evil strait Mr. O. fought like a very Guy of
Warwick, and I verily believe every man of them like-
wise, for there was none of them who had not his shrewd
scratch to show.
" And, indeed, Mr. Oxenham 5 s party had once
gotten within the barricades ; but the Spaniards, being
sheltered by the tree trunks (and especially by one
mighty tree, borne up two fathoms high upon its own
roots, as it were upon arches), shot at them with such
advantage that they had several slain, and seven more
taken alive, only among the roots of that tree. So,
seeing that they could prevail nothing, having little
but their pikes and swords, they were fain to give
back ; though Mr. Oxenham swore he would not stir a
foot, and, making at the Spanish captain, was borne
down with pikes, and hardly pulled away by some,
who at last, reminding him of his lady, persuaded him
to come away with the rest. Whereon the other party
fled also ; but what had become of them they knew not,
for they took another way. And so they miserably drew
off, having lost in men eleven killed and seven taken
alive, besides five of the rascal negroes who were killed
before they had time to run ; and there was an end of
the matter.
32
CHAPTER V
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SALVATION YEO
" But the next day, gentlemen, in came some five-
and-twenty more, being the wreck of the other party.
We then went forward and over the mountains till we
came to a little river which ran northward, which seemed
to lead into the Northern Sea ; and there Mr. 0. bade
us cut down trees and make canoes, to go down to the
sea ; which we began to do with great labour and little
profit, hewing down trees with our swords, and burning
them out with fire, which, after much labour, we kindled ;
but as we were a-burning out of the first tree and cutting
down of another, a great party of negroes came upon us,
and with much friendly show bade us flee for our lives,
for the Spaniards were upon us in great force.
" And so we were up and away again, hardly able to
drag our legs after us for hunger and weariness and the
broiling heat. And some were taken (God help them !),
and some fled with the negroes, of whom what became
God alone knoweth ; but eight or ten held on with the
captain, among whom was I, and fled downward toward
the sea for one day ; but afterwards, finding by the
noise in the woods that the Spaniards were on the track
of us, we turned up again toward the inland, and, coming
to a cliff, climbed up over it, drawing up the lady and
the little maid with cords of liana (which hang from those
trees as honeysuckle does here, but exceeding stout and
long, even to fifty fathoms) ; and, so breaking the track,
hoped to be out of the way of the enemy.
" By which, nevertheless, we only increased our
misery. For two fell from that cliff, and miserably
broke their bones; and others fell sick of fevers, where
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SALVATION YEO. 33
was no drop of water, but rock of pumice stone as bare
as the back of my hand. For the dear life we must
down again and into the woods, or be burned up alive
upon those rocks.
" So, getting down the slope on the farther side, we
came into the woods once more, and there wandered for
many days, I know not how many, our shoes being gone,
and our clothes all rent off us with brakes and briars.
" And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last
there were none left but Mr. Oxcnham and the lady and
the little maid, together with me and William Penberthy
of Marazion, my good comrade. And Mr. Oxenham
always led the lady, arid Penberthy and I carried the
little maid. And for food we had fruits, such as we could
find, and water we got from the leaves of certain lilies
which grew on the bark of trees, which I found by seeing
the monkeys drink at them ; and the little maid called
them monkey-cups, and asked for them continually,
making me climb for them. And so we wandered on,
and upward into very high mountains, always fearing
lest the Spaniards should track us with dogs, which made
the lady leap up often in her sleep, crying that the blood-
hounds were upon her. And it befell upon a day that
we came into a great wood of ferns, where was very
pleasant shade, cool and green ; and there, gentlemen,
we sat down upon a bank of moss, like folks desperate
and fordone, and every one looked the other in the
face for a long while.
" But on a sudden there was a great cry in the
wood, and coming through the trees on all sides Spanish
arquebusiers, a hundred strong at least, and negroes
with them, who bade us stand, or they would shoot.
William Penberthy leaped up, crying c Treason ! ' and,
running upon the nearest negro, ran him through, and
34 WESTWARD HO !
then another, and then, falling on the Spaniards, fought
manfully till he was borne down with pikes, and so died.
And so we were all taken, and I and Mr. Oxenham bound
with cords ; but the soldiers made a litter for the lady
and child, by commandment of Senor Diego de Trees,
their commander, a very courteous gentleman.
" Well, sirs, we were brought down to the place
where the house of boughs had been by the river-side ;
there we went over in boats, and found waiting for us
certain Spanish gentlemen, and among others one old
and ill-favoured man, grey-bearded and bent, in a suit
of black velvet, who seemed to be a great man among
them. And if you will believe me, Mr. Leigh, that
was none other than the old man with the gold falcon
at his breast, Don Francisco Xararte by name, whom
you found aboard of the Lima ship.
" ' Fool ! ' said the lady to him, c I will waste no
words upon you. Farewell, my love, my life ! and
farewell, sefiors ! May you be more merciful to your
daughters than my parents were to me ! ' And so,
catching a dagger from the girdle of one of the soldiers,
smote herself to the heart, and fell dead before them all.
" At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, c That
was worthy of us both. If you will unbind my hands,
sefiors, I shall be most happy to copy so fair a school-
mistress.'
" But Don Diego shook his head, and said
" ' It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at
liberty to do so ; but, on questioning those of your sailors
whom I have already taken, I cannot hear that you have
any letters of licence, either from the Queen of England
or any other potentate. I am compelled, therefore, to
ask you whether this is so, for it is a matter of life and
death.'
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SALVATION YEO 35
" To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, c That
so it was, but that he was not aware that any potentate's
licence was required to permit a gentleman's meeting
his lady love.' And added that, if he was to be hanged,
as he supposed, the only favour which he asked for was
a long drop. And all the while, gentlemen, he still kept
his eyes fixed on the lady's corpse, till he was led away
with me.
" And now, sirs, what befell me after that matters
little ; for I never saw Captain Oxenham again, nor ever
shall in this life."
" He was hanged, then ? "
" So I heard for certain the next year, and with him
the gunner and sundry more ; but some were given away
for slaves to the Spaniards, and may be alive now, unless,
like me, they have fallen into the cruel clutches of the
Inquisition."
" But how did you get into the Inquisition ? "
" Why, sir, after we were taken, we set forth to go
down the river again ; and the old Don took the little
maid with him in one boat (and bitterly she screeched
at parting from us, and from the poor dead corpse), and
Mr. Oxenham with Don Diego de Trees in another, and
I in a third. And from the Spaniards I learnt that we
were to be taken down to Lima, to the Viceroy ; but that
the old man lived hard by Panama, and was going straight
back to Panama forthwith with the little maid. And
when I heard that, seeing that there was nothing but
death before me, I made up my mind to escape ; and the
very first night, sirs, by God's help I did it, and went
southward away into the forest, avoiding the tracks of
the Cimaroons, till I came to an Indian town. Arid
there, gentlemen, I got more mercy from heathens than
ever I had from Christians ; for when they found that I
36 WESTWARD HO !
was no Spaniard, they fed me and gave me a house
and a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and painted
me all over in patterns, as you see.
" One night, after we were all lain down, came a
noise outside the town, and I, starting up, saw armed
men and calivers shining in the moonlight. What do the
villains but let fly right into the town with their calivers,
and then rush in, sword in hand, killing pell-mell all they
met ; one of which shots, gentlemen, passing through the
doorway, and close by me, struck my poor wife to the
heart, that she never spoke word more. Well, gentle-
men, they dragged me out, and all the young men and
women, and chained us together by the neck ; and so
marched us all off for slaves, leaving the old folk and the
wounded to die at leisure.
" But when morning came, and they knew by my
skin that I was no Indian, and by my speech that I was
no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments,
till I confessed that I was an Englishman, and one of
Oxenham's crew. At that says the leader, ' Then you
shall to Lima, to hang by the side of your captain, the
pirate ; ' by which I first knew that my poor captain was
certainly gone. But, alas for me ! the priest steps in
and claims me for a heretic ; and so, to make short a sad
story, to the Inquisition at Garth agena I went, where
what I suffered, gentlemen, were as disgustful for you to
hear as unmanly for me to complain of.
" I was sentenced to the galleys for seven years ;
and it fell out, by God's mercy, that my next comrade
was an Englishman like myself, a young man of Bristol,
who, as he told me, had been some manner of factor
on board poor Captain Barker's ship, and had been a
preacher among the Anabaptists here in England. See-
ing me altogether despairing and furious, like a wild
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SALVATION YEO 37
beast in a pit, he set before me in secret earnestly the
sweet promises of God in Christ who says, c Come to
me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will refresh you ;
and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow.
cc
After a three or four months, when I had been all
that while in sweet converse with him, there came one
night to the barranco at Lima, where we were kept when
on shore, three of the Holy Office, and carried him off
without a word. They left me aboard the galley for a
few months more (that was a whole voyage to Panama
and back). But when we came back to Lima, the officers
came on board again, and said to me, ' That heretic has
confessed naught against you ; but because you have
been seen talking with him so much, you are adjudged
to the galleys for the rest of your life in perpetual
servitude.'
" Well, gentlemen, when I heard that I must end
my days in that galley, I was for a while like a madman ;
but in a day or two it was revealed to me (I speak the
truth, gentlemen, before Heaven) that now I had been
tried to the uttermost, and that my deliverance was at
hand.
" And all the way up to Panama (that was after we
had laden the Cacafuogo) I cast in my mind how to
escape, and found no way ; but just as I was beginning
to lose heart again, a door was opened by the Lord's
own hand : for (I know not why) we were marched
across from Panama to Nombre which had never hap-
pened before and there put all together into a great
barranco close by the quay-side, shackled, as is the
fashion, to one long bar that ran the whole length of the
house. And the very first night that we were there, I,
looking out of the window, spied, lying close aboard of
38 WESTWARD HO !
the quay, a good-sized caravel well armed and just load-
ing for sea ; and the land breeze blew off very strong,
so that the sailors were laying out a fresh warp to hold
her to the shore. And it came into my mind that if we
were aboard of her we should be at sea in five minutes ;
and, looking at the quay, I saw all the soldiers who had
guarded us scattered about drinking and gambling, and
some going into taverns to refresh themselves after their
journey. That was just at sundown ; and half and hour
after in comes the gaoler, to take a last look at us for the
night, and his keys at his girdle.
" Whereon, sirs (whether by madness, or whether
by the spirit which gave Samson strength to rend the
lion), I rose against him as he passed me, without fore-
thought or treachery of any kind, chained though I was,
caught him by the head, and threw him there and then
against the wall, that he never spoke word after; and
then with his keys freed myself and every soul in that
room, and bid them follow me, vowing to kill any man
who disobeyed my commands. They followed, as men
astounded and leaping out of night into day, and death
into life, and so aboard that caravel and out of the
harbour, with no more hurt than a few chance shots
from the soldiers on the quay.
" Well, sirs, they chose me for captain, and a cer-
tain Genoese for lieutenant, and away to go. I would
fain have gone ashore after all, and back to Panama to
hear news of the little maid ; but that would have been
but a fool's errand. Some wanted to turn pirates ; but
I, and the Genoese too, who was a prudent man though
an evil one, persuaded them to run for England and get
employment in the Netherland wars, assuring them that
there would be no safety on the Spanish Main, when once
our escape got wind. And the more part being of one
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SALVATION YEO 39
mind, for England we sailed, watering at the Barbados
because it was desolate ; and so eastward toward the
Canaries. In which voyage what we endured (being
taken by long calms) by scurvy, calentures, hunger,
and thirst, no tongue can tell.
" And last of all, when we thought ourselves safe,
we were wrecked by south-westers on the coast of Brit-
tany, near to Cape Race, from which but nine souls of
us came ashore with their lives ; and so to Brest, where
I found a Flushinger who carried me to Falmouth. And
so ends my tale, in which if I have said one word more
or less than truth, I can wish myself no worse than to
have it all to undergo a second time."
And his voice, as he finished, sank from very weari-
ness of soul ; while Sir Richard sat opposite him in silence,
his elbows on the table, his cheeks on his doubled fists,
looking him through and through with kindling eyes,
No one spoke for several minutes ; and then
u Amyas, you have heard this story. You believe
it?"
" Every word, sir, or I should not have the heart
of a Christian man. 55
" So do I. Anthony ! "
The butler entered.
" Take this man to the buttery ; clothe him com-
fortably, and feed him with the best ; and bid the knaves
treat him as if he were their own father. 55
But Yeo lingered.
" If I might be so bold as to ask your worship a
favour 55
" Anything in reason, my brave fellow."
" If your worship could put me in the way of another
adventure to the Indies ? "
" My good fellow, there are no adventures to the
40 WESTWARD HO !
Indies forward now ; but if you want to fight Spaniards,
here is a gentleman will show you the way. Amyas,
take him with you to Ireland. If he hae learnt half
the lessons God has set him to learn, he ought to stand
you in good stead."
Yeo looked eagerly at the young giant.
" Will you have me, sir ? There's few matters I
can't turn my hand to ; and maybe you'll be going to
the Indies again some day, eh, and take me with you ?
I'd serve your turn well, though I say it, either for gunner
or for pilot. I know every stone and tree from Nombre
to Panama, and all the ports of both the seas. You'll
never be content, I'll warrant, till you've had another
turn along the gold coasts, will you now ? "
Amyas laughed and nodded, and the bargain was
concluded.
So out went Yeo to eat ; and Amyas, having received
his dispatches, got ready for his journey home.
" Go the short way over the moors, lad. You must
not lose an hour, but be ready to sail the moment the
wind goes about."
CHAPTER VI
A NOTABLE PRISONER
It was the blessed Christmas afternoon. The light
was fading down ; the even-song was done ; and the good
folks of Bideford were trooping home in merry groups.
One lady only, wrapped close in her black muffler, and
followed by her maid, walked swiftly, yet sadly, toward
the long causeway and bridge which led to Northam
town. Sir Richard Grenvile and his wife caught her up
and stopped her courteously.
A NOTABLE PRISONER 41
" You will come home with us, Mrs. Leigh," said
Lady Grenvile, " and spend a pleasant Christmas night ? "
Mrs. Leigh smiled sweetly, and, laying one hand on
Lady Grenvile's arm, pointed with the other to the
westward, and said
" I cannot well spend a merry Christmas night,
ivhile that sound is in my ears."
What was the sound that troubled Mrs. Leigh ? It
tvas dead calm. There was not a breath to stir a blade
}f grass. And yet the air was full of sound a low, deep
"oar which hovered over down and wood, salt-marsh
xnd river, like a roll of a thousand wheels, the tramp of
3iidless armies, or what it was the thunder of a mighty
wrge upon the boulders of the pebble-ridge.
" The ridge is noisy to-night," said Sir Richard.
c There has been wind somewhere."
" There is wind now, where my boy is, God help
trim ! " said Mrs. Leigh ; and all knew that she spoke
bruly. The spirit of the Atlantic storm had sent forward
the token of his coming, in the smooth ground-swell
which was heard inland, two miles away.
" God help my boy ! " said Mrs. Leigh again.
" God is as near him by sea as by land," said good
Sir Richard.
" True, but I am a lone mother, and one that has
no heart just now but to go home and pray."
And so Mrs. Leigh went onward up the lane, and
spent all that night in listening between her prayers to
the thunder of the surge, till it was drowned, long ere
the sun rose, in the thunder of the storm.
And where is Amyas on this afternoon ?
Amyas is sitting bareheaded in a boat's stern in
Smerwick Bay, with the spray whistling through his
curls, as he shouts cheerfully
42 WESTWARD HO !
" Pull, and with a will, my merry men all, and never
mind shipping a sea. Cannon balls are a cargo that
don't spoil by taking salt water."
The short light of the winter day is fading fast.
Along the sand-hills on the shore flash, in the evening
gloom, red sparks which never came from heaven ;
for that fort, now christened by the invaders the Fort
del Oro, where flaunts the hated golden flag of Spain,
holds eight hundred of the foe ; and but three nights
ago Amyas and Yeo, and the rest of Winter's shrewdest
hands, slung four culverins out of the Admiral's main
deck, and floated them ashore, and dragged them up to
the battery among the sand-hills ; and now it shall be
seen whether Spanish and Italian condottieri can hold
their own on British ground against the men of Devon.
Small blame to Amyas if he was thinking, not of his
lonely mother at Burrough Court, but of those quick,
bright flashes on sand-hill and on fort, where Salvation
Yeo was hurling the eighteen-pound shot with deadly
aim, and watching with a cool and bitter smile of tri-
umph the flying of the sand and the crashing of the
gabions. Amyas and his party had been on board, at
the risk of their lives, for a fresh supply of shot ; for
Winter's battery was out of ball, and had been firing
stones for the last four hours, in default of better missiles.
They ran the boat on shore through the surf, where a
cove in the shore made landing possible, and, almost
careless whether she stove or not, scrambled over the
sand-hills with each man his brace of shot slung across
his shoulder ; and Amyas, leaping into the trenches,
shouted cheerfully to Salvation Yeo
" More food for the bulldogs, gunner, and plums
for the Spaniards' Christmas pudding ! "
" Don't speak to a man at his business, Master
A NOTABLE PRISONER 43
Amy as. Five mortal times have I missed ; but I will
have that rag down, as I'm a sinner."
" Down with it then ; nobody wants you to shoot
crooked."
And once again Yeo's eighteen-pounder roared, and
away. Arid, oh glory ! the great yellow flag of Spain,
which streamed in the gale, lifted clean into the air, flag-
staff and all, and then pitched wildly down headfore-
most, far to leeward.
A hurrah from the sailors, answered by the soldiers
of the opposite camp, shook the very cloud above them ;
but ere its echoes had died away, a tall officer leapt upon
the parapet of the fort, with the fallen flag in his hand,
and, rearing it as well as he could upon his lance point,
held it firmly against the gale, while the fallen flagstaff
was raised again within.
In a moment a dozen long-bows were bent at the
daring foeman ; but Amyas behind shouted
" Shame, lads ! Stop, and let the gallant gentle-
man have due courtesy ! "
So they stopped, while Amyas, springing on the
rampart of the battery, took off his hat and bowed to
the flagholder, who, as soon as relieved of his charge,
returned the bow courteously, and descended.
It was by this time all but dark, and the firing began
to slacken on all sides. Salvation and his brother gunners,
having covered up their slaughtering tackle with tar-
paulins, retired for the night, leaving Amyas, who had
volunteered to take the watch till midnight ; and the rest
of the force, having got their scanty supper of biscuit
(for provisions were running very short), lay down under
arms among the sand-hills, and grumbled themselves
to sleep.
On passed the dull hours, till it might be past eleven
' Mr. Oxenham led the lady, and I carried the little maid 'Page 33
A NOTABLE PRISONER 45
o'clock, and all lights were out in the battery and the
shipping, and there was no sound of living thing but the
monotonous tramp of the two sentinels beside him, and
now and then a grunt from the party who slept under
arms some twenty yards to the rear.
So he paced to and fro, looking carefully out now
and then over the strip of sand-hill which lay between
him and the fort ; but all was blank and black, and,
moreover, it began to rain furiously.
Suddenly he seemed to hear a rustle among the
harsh sand-grass. Amyas stopped, crouched down
beside a gun, and laid his ear to the rampart, whereby
he heard clearly, as he thought, the noise of approach-
ing feet. He was rewarded in a minute or two by hear-
ing something gently deposited against the mouth of
the embrasure, which, by the noise, should be a piece
of timber.
" So far, so good," said he to himself ; " when the
scaling ladder is up, the soldier follows, I suppose. I
can only humbly thank them for giving my embrasure
the preference. There he comes ! I hear his feet
scuffling."
He could hear plainly enough some one working
himself into the mouth of the embrasure ; but the plague
was, that it was so dark that he could not see his hand
between him and the sky, much less his foe at two yards
off. However, he made a pretty fair guess as to the where-
abouts, and, rising softly, discharged such a blow down-
wards as would have split a yule log. A volley of sparks
flew up from the hapless Spaniard's armour, and a grunt
issued from within it, which proved that, whether he was
killed or not, the blow had not improved his respiration.
Amyas felt for his head, seized it, dragged him over
the gun, sprang into the embrasure on his knees, felt for
4:6 WESTWARD HO !
the top of the ladder, found it, hove it clean off and out,
with four or five men on it, and then, of course, tumbled
after it ten feet into the sand, roaring like a town bull
to her Majesty's liege subjects in general.
Sailor-fashion, he had no armour on but a light
morion and a cuirass, so he was not too much encumbered
to prevent his springing to his legs instantly, and setting
to work, cutting and f oining right and left at every sound,
for sight there was none ; while the company above,
finding it much too dark to attempt a counter sortie,
opened a smart fire of musketry and arrows on things in
general.
Suddenly the moon clears ; and, with one more
fierce volley, the English sailors, seeing the confusion,
leap down from the embrasures, and to it pell-mell.
Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave
fellows at his heels ; and there are ten breathless, furious
minutes among the sand-hills ; and then the trumpets
blow a recall, and the sailors drop back again by twos
and threes, and are helped up into the embrasures over
many a dead and dying foe ; while the guns of Fort del
Oro open on them, and blaze away for half an hour with-
out reply ; and then all is still once more.
Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains
who were on shore were drying themselves round a peat-
fire on the beach, and talking over the skirmish, when
a friend of Amyas Leigh's asked
" Where is Leigh ? Who has seen him ? I am
sadly afraid he has gone too far, and been slain."
" Slain ? Never less, gentlemen ! " replied the voice
of the very person in question, as he stalked out of the
darkness into the glare of the fire, and shot down from
his shoulders into the midst of the ring, as he might a sack
of corn, a huge, dark body, which was gradually seen to
A NOTABLE PRISONER 47
be a man in rich armour ; who, being so shot down, lay
quietly where he was dropped, with his feet (luckily for
him mailed) in the fire.
" Take the gentleman to my tent," said Winter,
" and let the surgeon see to him. Mr. Leigh, who is he ? "
" An enemy, but whether Spaniard or Italian, I
know not ; but he seemed somebody among them I
thought the captain of a company. He and I cut at each
other twice or thrice at first, and then lost each other ;
and after that I came on him among the sand-hills, try-
ing to rally his men, and swearing like the mouth of the
pit, whereby I guess him a Spaniard. But his men ran ;
so I brought him in."
Next morning, Amyas was called to the Admiral's
tent. " We all owe you thanks for last night's service,
sir," said Winter. " Your prisoner is found to be a gentle-
man of birth and experience, and the leader of the
assault last night. He has already told us more than we
had hoped, for which also we are beholden to you ; and,
indeed, my Lord Grey has been asking for you already."
" I have, young sir," said a quiet and lofty voice ;
and Amyas saw limping from the inner tent the proud
and stately figure of the Deputy, Lord Grey of Wilton.
" I have been asking for you, having heard from
many both of your last night's prowess and of your con-
duct and courage beyond the promise of your years,
displayed in that ever-memorable voyage, which may
well be ranked with the deeds of the ancient Argonauts."
Amyas bowed low, and the Lord-Deputy went on :
" You will needs wish to see your prisoner. You will
find him such a one as you need not be ashamed to
have taken, and as need not be ashamed to have been
taken by you ; but here he is, and will, I doubt not,
answer as much for himself. Know each other better,
48 WESTWARD HO !
gentlemen both ; last night was an ill one for making
acquaintances. Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Soto-
mayor de Soto, know the hidalgo, Amyas Leigh."
As he spoke, the Spaniard came forward, still in his
armour, all save his head, which was bound up in a
handkerchief.
He was an exceedingly tall and graceful personage,
golden-haired and fair-skinned, with hands as small and
white as a woman's ; his lips were delicate, but thin, and
compressed closely at the corners of the mouth ; and his
pale blue eye had a glassy dullness. In spite of his
beauty and his carriage, Amyas shrank from him instinc-
tively ; and yet he could not help holding out his hand
in return, as the Spaniard, holding out his, said languidly,
in most sweet and sonorous Spanish
" I kiss his hands and feet. The senor speaks, I
am told, my native tongue ? "
" I have that honour."
" Then accept in it (for I can better express my-
self therein than in English, though I am not altogether
ignorant of that witty and learned language) the expres-
sion of my pleasure at having fallen into the hands of
one so renowned in war and travel."
Honest Amyas bowed and stammered, a little
thrown off his balance by the unexpected assurance and
cool flattery of his prisoner ; but he said
" If you are satisfied, illustrious senor, I am bound
to be so. Pardon me, sefior ; but by this daylight I
should have seen that armour before."
" I doubt it not, sefior, as having been yourself also
in the forefront of the battle," said the Spaniard, with
a proud smile.
" If I am right, sefior, you are he who yesterday held
up the standard after it was shot down."
A NOTABLE PRISONER 49
"I do not deny that undeserved honour ; and 1
have to thank the courtesy of you and your countrymen
for having permitted me to do so with impunity."
" Ah, I heard of that brave feat," said the Lord-
Deputy. " You should consider yourself, Mr. Leigh,
honoured by being enabled to show courtesy to such a
warrior."
Accordingly, after the surrender of Fort del Oro,
Amyas had Don Guzman duly adjudged to him, as his
prize by right of war. The question was, where to bestow
him till his ransom should arrive ; and as Amyas could
not well deliver the gallant Don into the safe custody
of Mrs. Leigh at Burrough, he was fain to write to Sir
Richard Grenvile and ask his advice, and in the mean-
while keep the Spaniard with him upon parole, which he
frankly gave.
At last came a letter from Sir Richard Grenvile,
complimenting Amyas on his success, bearing a long
and courtly message to Don Guzman (whom Grenvile
had known when he was in the Mediterranean), and
offering to receive him as his own guest at Bideford, till
his ransom should arrive a proposition which the
Spaniard could not but gladly accept ; and one of Winter's
ships, returning to England in the spring of 1581, delivered
duly at the quay of Bideford the body of Don Guzman.
During his residence at Bideford, Don Guzman fell
in love with Rose Salterne, daughter of the Ma}^or, and
called, from her great beauty, the " Rose of Torridge."
She had many suitors. Indeed, both Amyas Leigh and
his elder brother, Frank, who was an accomplished
scholar and courtier, were in love with her ; but their
love was a noble passion, which bound them in closer
brotherhood than ever. Don Guzman was the suitor
whom Rose favoured ; and in 1583, when his ransom
50 WESTWARD HO !
arrived, and also the news of his appointment as Governor
of La Guayra, he persuaded Rose, now that he was free,
to elope with him. They were married by a Roman
Catholic priest on Lundy Island, and then sailed away
in a Portuguese ship, first of all to Lisbon, and thence
to La Guayra. A North Devon woman named Lucy
Passmore, who had the reputation about Bidcford of
being a " white witch," and who had assisted the secret
interviews of the two lovers, went with them, as Rose's
attendant. They were followed by a cousin of Amy as' s
named Eustace Leigh, a young man who had, at one time,
been one of the many suitors of the Rose of Torridge,
but who was now destined for the Jesuit priesthood.
A vessel called the Rose was equipped at the expense,
mainly, of the wealthy Mayor of Bideford. Aboard of this,
Amyas Leigh, as Captain, his brother Frank, and their
close friend, Will Gary, of Clovelly Court, a young
gentleman who was yet another of Rose's admirers, set
sail from Bideford Quay on the fifteenth of November,
1583. They had a crew of a hundred men, and the vessel
was remarkably well provided with weapons of war.
Salvation Yeo went with them as gunner ; and Jack
Brimblecombe, an old schoolfellow of Amy as' s, who had
taken deacon's orders, was appointed ship's chaplain.
The purpose of the expedition was, if possible, to restore
the eloped lady to her sorrow-stricken father.
51
CHAPTER VII
HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS
Land ! land ! land ! Yes, there it was, far away
to the south and west, beside the setting sun, a long blue
bar between the crimson sea and golden sky. Land, at
last, with fresh streams and cooling fruits, and free room
for cramped and scurvy-weakened limbs.
" That should be Barbados, your worship," said
the sailing master, Robert Drew by name, " unless my
reckoning is far out, which, Heaven knows, it has no
right to be, after such a passage, and God be praised."
" Barbados ? I never heard of it."
" Very like, sir ; but Yeo and I were here with
Captain Drake. There is good harbourage to the south
and west of it, I remember."
" And neither Spaniard, cannibal, or other evil
beast," said Yeo " a very garden of the Lord, sir, hid
away in the seas, for an inheritance to those who love
Him."
" What say you, my masters ? " asked Amyas.
" How can we do better than to spend a few days here,
to get our sick round, before we make the Main, and set
to our work ? "
All approved the counsel except Frank, who was
silent.
" Come, fellow-adventurer," said Gary, " we must
have your voice too."
" To my impatience, Will," said he, aside in a low
voice, " there is but one place on earth, and I am all day
longing for wings to fly thither ; but the counsel is right.
I approve it."
So the verdict was announced, and received with
62 WESTWARD HO !
a hearty cheer by the crew ; and long before morning
they had run along the southern shore of the island, and
were feeling their way into the bay where Bridgetown
now stands.
At last the ship stopped ; at last the cable rattled
through the hawsehole ; and then, careless of the chance
of lurking Spaniard or Carib, an instinctive cheer burst
from every throat. Poor fellows ! Amyas had much
ado to prevent them going on shore at once, dark as it
was, by reminding them that it wanted but two hours
of day.
At dawn, the sick were lifted over the side, and
landed boat-load after boat-load on the beach, to stretch
themselves in the shade of the palms ; and in half an
hour the whole crew were scattered on the shore, except
some dozen worthy men, who had volunteered to keep
watch and ward on board till noon.
And now the first instinctive cry of nature was for
fruit ! fruit ! fruit ! The poor lame wretches crawled
from place to place, plucking greedily the violet grapes
of the creeping shore vine, and staining their mouths
and blistering their lips with the prickly pears, in spite
of Yeo's entreaties and warnings against the thorns.
Some of the healthy began hewing down cocoa-nut trees
to get at the nuts, doing little thereby but blunt their
hatchets ; till Yeo and Drew, having mustered half a
dozen reasonable men, went off inland, and returned in
an hour laden with the dainties of that primeval
orchard.
Amyas and his brother wandered on together through
the glorious tropic woods, and then returned to the beach
to find the sick already grown cheerful, and many who
that morning could not stir from their hammocks pacing
up and down, and gaining strength with every step.
HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS 63
" Well done, lads ! " cried Amyas ; " keep a cheer-
ful mind. We will have the music ashore after dinner,
and those that can dance may."
And so those four days were spent ; and the men,
like schoolboys on a holiday, gave themselves up to
simple merriment, not forgetting, however, to wash the
clothes, take in fresh water, and store up a good supply
of such fruits as seemed likely to keep.
Then off again to the westward, unconscious pioneers
of all the wealth, and commerce, and beauty, and science,
which have in later centuries made that lovely isle the
richest gem of all the tropic seas !
CHAPTER VIII
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
They slipped past the southern point of Grenada
in the night, and were at last within that fairy ring of
islands on which Nature had concentrated all her beauty,
and man all his sin. If Barbados had been invested in
the eyes of the newcomers with some strange glory, how
much more the seas on which they now entered, which
smile in almost perpetual calm, untouched by the hurri-
cane that roars past them far to northward !
They ran south-west across the mouth of that great
bay which stretches from the peninsula of Paria to
Cape Codera, Yeo and Drew knew every foot of the
way, and had good reason to know it ; for they, the first
of all English mariners, had tried to trade along this
coast with Hawkins. And now, right ahead, sheer out
of the sea from base to peak, arose higher and higher
the mighty range of the Caraccas Mountains, beside
which all hills which most of the crew had ever seen
seemed petty mounds. Soon the sea became rough
54 WESTWARD HO !
and chopping, though the breeze was fair and gentle ;
and ere they were abreast of the cape, they became aware
of that strong eastward current which, during the winter
months, so often baffles the mariner who wishes to go to
the westward. All night long they struggled through
the billows, with the huge wall of Cape Codera a thousand
feet above their heads to the left, and beyond it again,
bank upon bank of mountain, bathed in the yellow
moonlight.
Westward ho they ran, beneath the highest cliff on
earth, some seven thousand feet of rock, parted from
the sea by a narrow strip of bright green lowland. Here
and there a patch of sugar-cane, or a knot of cocoanut
trees, close to the water's edge, reminded them that they
were in the tropics ; but, above, all was savage, rough,
and bare as an Alpine precipice.
And now the last point is rounded, and they are full
in sight of the spot in quest of which they have sailed
four thousand miles of sea. A low black cliff, crowned
by a wall, a battery at either end. Within, a few narrow
streets of white houses, running parallel with the sea,
upon a strip of flat, which seemed not two hundred yards
in breadth ; and, behind, the mountain wall, covering
the whole in deepest shade. How that wall was ever
ascended to the inland seemed the puzzle ; but Drew,
who had been off the place before, pointed out to them a
narrow path, which wound upwards through a glen,
seemingly sheer perpendicular. That was the road to
the capital, if any man dare try it.
Where was the harbour ? There was none. Only
an open roadstead, wherein lay tossing at anchor five
vessels. The two outer ones were small merchant
caravels. Behind them lay two long, low, ugly-looking
craft, at sight of which Yeo gave a long whew.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA 55
" Galleys, as I'm a sinful saint ! And what's that
big one inside of them, Robert Drew ? She has more
than hawseholes in her black sides, I think."
" We shall open her astern of the galleys in another
minute," said Amyas. " Look out, Gary ; your eyes
are better than mine."
" Six round portholes on the main deck," quoth Will.
" And I can see the brass patararoes glittering on
her poop," quoth Amyas. " Will, we're in for it."
" In for it we are, captain."
" Let us hold a council of war, at all events, Frank,"
said Amyas.
Frank was absorbed in a very different matter. A
half mile to the eastward of the town, two or three
hundred feet up the steep mountain side, stood a large,
low, white house embosomed in trees and gardens. There
was no other house of similar size near no place for one.
And was not that the royal flag of Spain which flaunted
before it ? That must be the governor's house ; that
must be the abode of the Rose of Torridge ! And Frank
stood devouring it with wild eyes, till he had persuaded
himself that he could see a woman's figure walking upon
the terrace in front, and that the figure was none other
than hers whom he sought. Amyas could hardly tear
him away to a council of war.
While this was being held, the sun plunged into the
sea, and all was dark.
At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till mid-
Qight. If the ships of war came out, they were to try
to run in past them, and, desperate as the attempt might
be, attempt their original plan of landing to the west-
ward of the town, taking it in flank, plundering the
government store-houses, which they saw close to the
landing-place, and then fighting their way back to their
56 WESTWARD HO !
boats, and out of the roadstead. Two hours would
suffice, if the armada and the galleys were but once out
of the way.
The night wore on, and there was no sign of stir
among the shipping ; for though they could not see the
vessels themselves, yet their lights (easily distinguished
by their relative height from those in the town above)
remained motionless ; and the men fretted and fumed
for weary hours, at thus seeing a rich prize (for, of course,
the town was paved with gold) within arm's reach, and
yet impossible.
But though a venture on the town was impossible,
yet there was another venture which Frank was un-
willing to let slip. A light which now shone brightly in
one of the windows of the governor's house was the lode-
star to which all his thoughts were turned ; and as he sat
in the cabin with Amyas, Gary, and Jack, he opened his
heart to them.
" And are we, then," asked he mournfully, " to go
without doing the very thing for which we came ? "
" What would you do, then ? "
" Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her,
if Heaven gives me an opportunity, as Heaven, I feel
assured, will give."
" Some one must go with you, Frank," said Amyas,
" if it were only to bring back the boat's crew in case "
And he faltered.
" In case I fall," replied Frank, with a smile. " I
will finish your sentence for you, lad ; I am not afraid
of it, though you may be for me. Yet some one, I fear,
must go. Unhappy me, that I cannot risk my own
worthless life without risking your more precious lives ! "
They drew lots to decide who should go, and the
lot fell upon Amyas Leigh.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYBA 57
Amyas went on deck, and asked for six volunteers.
Whosoever would come, Amyas would double out of
lis own purse any prize-money which might fall to that
nan's share.
The crew was quickly made up ; but ere they pushed
}ff, Amyas called Gary aside.
" If I perish, Will "
" Don't talk of such things, dear old lad."
" I must. Then you are captain. Do nothing
without Yeo and Drew."
Gary pressed Amy as' s hand, and watched the two
brothers down over the side upon their desperate errand.
They reached the pebble beach. There seemed no
iifficulty about finding the path to the house so bright
was the moon, and so careful a survey of the place had
Frank taken. Leaving the men with the boat (Amyas
had taken care that they should be well armed), they
started up the beach, with their swords only. Frank
assured Amyas that they would find a path leading from
the beach up to the house, and he was not mistaken.
They found it easily, for it was made of white shell sand ;
and, following it, struck into a belt of tall thorny cactuses.
Through this the path wound in zigzags up a steep rocky
slope, and ended at a wicket-gate. They tried it, and
Pound it open ; so they went up through it, along a
smooth turf walk, into what seemed a pleasure-garden,
and arrived in front of the house.
It was, as I have said, a long, low house, with bal-
conies along the upper story, and the under part mostly
open to the wind. The light was still burning in the
window.
" Whither now ? " said Amyas, in a tone of des-
perate resignation.
" Thither ! Where else on earth ? " And Frank
58 WESTWARD HO !
pointed to the light, trembling from head to foot, and
pushed on.
" For Heaven's sake ! Look at the negroes on the
barbecu ! "
It was indeed time to stop ; for on the barbecu,
which ran all round the front, lay sleeping full twenty
black figures.
" What will you do now ? You must step over
them to gain an entrance."
" Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the
window. She may see me. She will see me as I step
into the moonlight."
The light above was extinguished.
" Did you see her ? " whispered Frank.
" No."
" I did the shadow of the face and the neck !
Can I be mistaken ? "
There was a few minutes' silence.
" Look ! " then exclaimed Frank. And he caught
Amyas's arm, and clinched it tight.
For round the farther corner of the house a dark-
cloaked figure stole gently, turning a look now and then
upon the sleeping negroes, and came on right towards
them. The shape and the walk were exactly those of
her, to find whom they had crossed the Atlantic.
But what was that behind her ? Her shadow
against the white wall of the house ? Not so. Another
figure, cloaked likewise, but taller far, was following on
her steps. It was a man's.
The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards
of them, when she perceived that she was followed. She
gave a little shriek. The cavalier sprang forward, lifted
his hat courteously, and joined her, bowing low. The
moonlight was full upon his face.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA 59
" It is Eustace, our cousin ! How came he here ? "
" Eustace ! Then that is she after all ! " said Frank,
forgetting everything else in her.
The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking
at a slow pace, so that the brothers could hear every
word.
"What shall we do now ? " said Frank. " We
have no right to be eavesdroppers."
" But we must be, right or none." And Amyas
held him down firmly by the arm.
" But whither are you going, then, my dear
madam ? " they heard Eustace say in a wheedling tone.
" Can you wonder if such strange conduct should cause
at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful husband ?
The inestimable Senor Don Guzman "
" What do you mean by praising him to me in this
fulsome way, sir ? Do you suppose that I do not know
his virtues better than you ? "
" If you do, madam " (this was spoken in a harder
tone), " it were wise for you to try them less severely,
than by wandering down towards the beach on the very
night that you know his most deadly enemies are lying
in wait to slay him, plunder his house, and most probably
to carry you off from him."
" Carry me off ? I will die first ! "
" Who can prove that to him ? Appearances are
at least against you."
" My love to him, and his trust for me, sir ! "
" His trust ? Have you forgotten, madam, what
passed last week, and why he sailed yesterday ? "
The only answer was a burst of tears. Eustace
stood watching her with a terrible eye ; but they could
see his face writhing in the moonlight.
" Oh ! " sobbed she at last. " And if I have been
60 WESTWARD HO !
imprudent, was it not natural to wish to look once more
upon an English ship ? Are you not English as well as
I ? Have you no longing recollections of the dear old
land at home ? "
Eustace was silent, but his face worked more fiercely
than ever.
" How can he ever know it ? "
" Why should he not know it ? "
" Ah ! " she burst out passionately, " why not,
indeed, while you are here you, sir, the sunderer of
loving hearts ? "
Drawing close to her, he whispered in her ear
what, the brothers heard not ; but her answer was a
shriek which rang through the woods, and sent the night-
birds fluttering up from every bough above their heads.
" By Heaven ! " said Amy as, " I can stand this
no longer. Cut that villain's throat I must "
" She is lost, if his dead body is found by her."
" We are lost, if we stay here, then," said Amyas ;
" for those negroes will hurry down at her cry, and then
found we must be."
" Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your
own cries ? The negroes will be here in a moment. I
give you one last chance for life then." And Eustace
shouted in Spanish at the top of his voice, " Help, help,
servants ! Your mistress is being carried off by bandits ! "
"What do you mean, sir?"
" Let your woman's wit supply the rest ; and forget
not him who thus saves you from disgrace."
Whether the brothers heard the last words or not,
I know not ; but, taking for granted that Eustace had
discovered them, they sprang to their feet at once, deter-
mined to make one last appeal, and then to sell their
lives as dearly as they could.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA 61
Eustace started back at the unexpected apparition ;
but a second glance showed him Amyas's mighty bulk,
and he spoke calmly
" You see, madam, I did not call without need.
Welcome, good cousins. My charity, as you perceive,
has found means to outstrip your craft ; while the fair
lady, as was but natural, has been true to her assigna-
tion ! "
Amyas burst through the bushes at him. There
was no time to be lost ; and ere the giant could disen-
tangle himself from the boughs and shrubs, Eustace had
slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's head,
and ran up the alley, shouting for help.
Mad with rage, Amyas gave chase, but in two
minutes more Eustace was safe among the ranks of the
negroes, who came shouting and jabbering down the path.
He rushed back. Frank was just ending some wild
appeal to Rose.
" Your conscience ! your religion "
" No, never ! I can face the chance of death, but
not the loss of him. Go ! For God's sake leave me !"
" You are lost, then, and I have ruined you ! "
" Come off, now or never," cried Amyas, clutching
him by the arm, and dragging him away like a child.
" You forgive me ? " cried he.
" Forgive you ? " And she burst into tears again.
Frank burst into tears also.
" Let me go back and die with her." And he
struggled to turn back.
Amyas looked back too, and saw her standing calmly,
with her hands folded across her breast, awaiting Eustace
and the servants ; and he half turned to go back also.
Both saw how fearfully appearances had put her into
Eustace's power. Had he not a right to suspect that
62 WESTWARD HO !
they were there by her appointment that she was going
to escape with them ? And would not Eustace use his
power ? The thought of the Inquisition crossed their
minds. " Was that the threat which Eustace had
whispered ? " asked he of Frank.
" It was," groaned Frank in answer.
For the first and last time in his life, Amyas Leigh
stood irresolute.
" Back, and stab her to the heart first ! " said Frank,
struggling to escape from him.
See ! the negroes were up with her now past her
away for life ! And once more he dragged his brother
down the hill, and through the wicket, only just in time ;
for the negroes were within ten yards of them.
" Frank," said he sharply, " if you ever hope to
see your mother again, rouse yourself, man, and fight ! "
And, without waiting for an answer, he turned, and
charged uphill upon his pursuers, who saw the long
bright blade, and fled instantly.
Again he hurried Frank down the hill. The path
wound in zigzags, and he feared that the negroes would
come straight over the cliff, and so cut off his retreat ;
but the prickly cactuses were too much for them, and
they were forced to follow by the path, while the brothers
(Frank having somewhat regained his senses) turned
every now and then to menace them. But, once on the
rocky path, stones began to fly fast small ones for-
tunately, and wide and wild for want of light. But
when they reached the pebble-beach ? Both were too
proud to run ; but, if ever Amyas prayed in his life, he
prayed for the last twenty yards before he reached the
water-mark.
" Now, Frank ! down to the boat as hard as you
can run, while I keep the curs back."
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA 63
"
Amyas ! what do you take me for ? My mad-
ness brought you hither ; your devotion shall not bring
me back without you/'
" Together, then ! "
And putting Frank's arm through his, they hurried
down, shouting to their men.
The boat was not fifty yards off ; but fast travel-
ling over the pebbles was impossible, and long ere half
the distance was crossed, the negroes were on the beach,
and the storm burst. A volley of great quartz pebbles
whistled round their heads.
" Come on, Frank, for life's sake ! Men, to the
rescue ! Ah, what was that ? "
The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head !
He sank on Amyas's arm. The giant threw him over
his shoulder, and plunged blindly on himself struck
again and again.
" Fire, men ! Give it the black villains ! "
The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front.
What were those dull thuds which answered from behind ?
Echoes ? No. Over his head the caliver-balls went
screeching. The governor's guard have turned out,
followed them to the beach, fixed their calivers, and are
firing over the negroes' heads, as the savages rush down
upon the hapless brothers.
Amyas is up to his knees in water battered with
stones blinded with blood. The boat is swaying off and
on against the steep pebble-bank : he clutches at it
misses falls headlong rises half choked with water;
but Frank is still in his arms. Another heavy blow a
confused roar of shouts, shots, curses a confused mass
of negroes and English, foam and pebbles and he
recollects no more.
64 WESTWARD HO !
He is lying in the stern-sheets of the boat, stiff,
weak, half blind with blood. He looks up. The moon
is still bright overhead ; but they are away from the
shore now, for the wave-crests are dancing white before
the land breeze, high above the boat's side. The boat
seems strangely empty. Two men are pulling instead
of six ! And what is this lying heavy across his chest ?
He pushes, and is answered by a groan. He puts his
hand down to rise, and is answered by another groan.
" What's this ? "
" All that are left of us," says Simon Evans of
Clovelly.
44 All ? " The bottom of the boat seemed paved
with human bodies. " God ! God ! " moans
Amyas, trying to rise. " And where where is Frank ?
Frank ! "
" Mr. Frank ! " cries Evans. There is no answer.
44 Dead ? " shrieks Amyas. " Look for him for
God's sake, look ! " And, struggling from under his
living load, he peers into each palo and bleeding face.
44 Where is he ? Why don't you speak, forward
there ! "
" Because we have naught to say, sir," answers
Evans, almost surlily.
Frank was not there.
44 Put the boat about ! To the shore ! " roars
Amyas.
" Look over the gunwale, and judge for yourself,
sir ! "
The waves are leaping fierce and high before a
furious land breeze. Return is impossible.
44 Cowards ! villains ! traitors ! hounds ! to have
left him behind."
44 Listen you to me, Captain Amyas Leigh," says
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 65
Simon Evans, resting on his oar, " and hang me for
mutiny, if you will, when we're aboard, if we ever get
there. Isn't it enough to bring us out to death (as you
knew yourself, sir, for you're prudent enough) to please
that poor young gentleman's fancy about a wench, but
you must call coward an honest man that have saved
your life this night, and not one of us but has his wound
to show ? "
Amy as was silent ; the rebuke was just.
" I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this
boat since we got off, we've hove two hundredweight ;
and if the Lord had not fought for us, she'd have been
beat to noggin-staves there on the beach."
" How did I come here, then ? "
" Tom Hart dragged you in out of five feet water,
and then thrust the boat off, and had his brains beat out
for reward. All were knocked down but us two. So
help me God, we thought that you had hove Mr. Frank
on board just as you were knocked down, and saw William
Frost drag him in."
But William Frost was lying senseless in the bottom
of the boat. There was no explanation. After all, none
was needed.
" And I have three wounds from stones, and this
man behind me as many more, besides a shot through
his shoulder. Now, sir, be we cowards ? "
" You have done your duty," said Amyas, and sank
down in the boat, and cried as if his heart would break ;
and then sprang up, and, wounded as he was, took the
oar from Evans's hands. With weary work they made
the ship, but so exhausted that another boat had to be
lowered to get them alongside.
The alarm being now given, it was hardly safe to
remain where they were ; and, after a stormy and sad
66 WESTWARD HO !
argument, it was agreed to weigh anchor and stand off
and on till morning ; for Amy as refused to leave the spot
till he was compelled, though he had no hope (how
could he have ?) that Frank might still be alive.
CHAPTER IX
ONE BROTHER LOST, BUT FOURSCORE GAINED
When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the
tropic night flashed suddenly into the tropic day, Amy&s
was pacing the deck, with dishevelled hair and torn
clothes, his eyes red with rage and weeping, his heart full.
How can I describe it ? Picture it to yourselves, picture
it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a brother ; and
you who have not, thank God that you know nothing
of his agony. Full of impossible projects, he strode and
staggered up and down, as the ship thrashed close-hauled
through the rolling seas.
Amyas presently found that the Rose was pursued
by the three vessels which he had seen yesterday off
Guayra a war-ship and two galleys. When these came
alongside, a fiercely contested sea-fight ensued. The
Rose came off victorious indeed, but so badly damaged,
having received five shot between wind and water, and
one below, that it became necessary to run inshore. The
vessel's head was put toward the land ; but when she
began to slip through the water, the leak increased so
fast that the men were kept hard at work at the pumps
for the rest of the afternoon.
The current at length brought them abreast of the
bay of Higuerote, Right ahead of them to the south, the
shore sank suddenly into a low line of mangrove wood,
backed by primeval forest. As they ran inward, all eyes
ONE BROTHER LOST, BUT FOURSCORE GAINED 67
were strained greedily to find some opening in the man-
grove belt ; but none was to be seen for some time. The
lead was kept going, and every fresh heave announced
shallower water.
" We shall have very shoal work off those man-
groves, Yeo," said Amyas. " I doubt whether we shall
do aught now, unless we find a river's mouth."
" If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, He'll
show us one." So on they went, keeping a south-east
course, and at last an opening in the mangrove belt was
hailed with a cheer from the older hands, though the
majority shrugged their shoulders, as men going open-
eyed to destruction.
Off the mouth they sent in Drew and Gary with a
boat, and watched anxiously for an hour. The boat
returned with a good report of two fathoms of water over
the bar, impenetrable forests for two miles up, the river
sixty yards broad, and no sign of man. The river's banks
were soft and sloping mud, fit for careening.
" Safe quarters, sir," said Yeo privately, " as far
as Spaniards go. I hope in God it may be as safe from
calentures and fevers."
" Beggars must not be choosers," said Amyas. So
in they went.
They towed the ship up about half a mile to a point
where she could not be seen from the seaward, and there
moored her to the mangrove stems. Amyas ordered a
boat out, and went up the river himself to reconnoitre.
He rowed some three miles, till the river narrowed
suddenly, and was all but covered in by the interlacing
boughs of mighty trees. There was no sign that man
had been there since the making of the world.
That night every man of the boat's crew, save
Amyas, was down with raging fever ; before ten the next
68 WESTWARD HO !
morning, five more men were taken, and others sicken-
ing fast.
Amyas called a council of war, or rather a sanitary
commission, in the course of the morning.
" Gentlemen," he said, " we cannot stay here to
die. We must leave the ship and go inland."
It was agreed to go, and by sunset that evening
they had gained a level spot, a full thousand feet above
the sea, backed by an inaccessible cliff, which formed
the upper shoulder of a mighty mountain, defended
below by steep wooded slopes, and needing but the
felling of a few trees to make it impregnable.
Amyas settled the sick under the arched roots of
an enormous cotton wood tree, and made a second journey
to the ship, to bring up hammocks and blankets for
them ; while Yeo's wisdom and courage were of inestim-
able value. He, as pioneer, had found the little brook
up which they forced their way ; he had encouraged
them to climb the cliffs over which it fell, arguing rightly
that on its course they were sure to find some ground fit
for encampment within reach of water ; he had supported
Amyas, when again and again the weary crew entreated
to be dragged no farther, and had gone back again a
dozen times to cheer them upward ; while Gary, who
brought up the rear, bullied and jeered on the stragglers
who sat down and refused to move, drove back at the
sword's point more than one who was beating a retreat,
carried their burdens for them, sang them songs on the
halt in all things approving himself the gallant and
hopeful soul which he had always been ; till Amyas,
beside himself with joy at finding that the two men on
whom he had counted most were utterly worthy of his
trust, went so far as to whisper to them both, in con-
fidence, that very night
ONE BROTHER LOST, BUT FOURSCORE GAINED 69
" Cortes burnt his ships, when he landed. Why
should not we ? "
Yeo leapt upright ; and then sat down again, and
whispered
" Do you say that, captain ? 'Tis from above then
that's certain ; for it's been hanging on my mind, too,
all day."
" There's no hurry," quoth Amy as ; " we must
clear her out first, you know," while Gary sat silent and
musing.
In that mountain nook the party spent some ten
days and more. Several of the sick men died ; the
others mended steadily, by the help of certain herbs which
Yeo administered.
At length, Amy as got his men together, and clearly
and forcibly explained that the only hope now left to
them, either of safety or of treasure, was in making for
the River Orinoco. After some not unnatural hesita-
tion, the Captain's plan was accepted.
" This," said Amy as, " is indeed the proudest day
of my life. I have lost one brother, but I have gained
fourscore. God do so to me and more also, if I do not
deal with you according to the trust which you have
put in me this day ! "
So underneath that giant ceiba tree, those valiant
men, reduced by battle and sickness to some eighty,
swore a great oath, and kept that oath like men to
search for the Golden City for two full years to come,
whatever might befall ; to stand to each other for weal
or woe ; to obey their officers to the death ; to murmur
privately against no man, but bring all complaints to a
council of war ; to use no profane oaths, b^t serve God
daily with prayer ; to take by violence from no man, save
from their natural enemies the Spaniards ; to be civil
70 WESTWARD IIO !
and merciful to all savages, and courteous to all women ;
to bring all booty and all food into the common stock,
and observe to the utmost their faith with the adven-
turers who had fitted out the ship ; and, finally, to march
at sunrise the next morning toward the south, trusting
in God to be their guide.
* * * # * *
The Cross stands upright in the southern sky. It
is the middle of the night. Gary and Yeo glide silently
up the hill and into the camp, and whisper to Amyas that
they have done the deed. The sleepers are awakened,
and the train sets forth.
But what is that glare away to the northward ?
Now through a cloud rises a column of black and lurid
smoke ; the fog clears away right and left around it, and
shows beneath a mighty fire.
The men look at each other with questioning eyes,
each half suspecting, and yet not daring to confess their
own suspicions ; and Amyas whispers to Yeo
" You took care to flood the powder ? "
" Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too. No
use in making a noise to tell the Spaniards our where-
abouts."
Yes ; that glare rises from the good ship Rose,.
Amyas has burnt his ship, and retreat is now impossible.
Forward into the unknown abyss of the New World, and
God be with them as they go I
* Don Guzman was the suitor whom Rose favoured 'Page 49
72
CHAPTER X
AYACANORA
Nearly three years are past and gone since that
little band had knelt at evensong beneath the giant tree
of Guayra years of seeming blank, through which they
are to be tracked only by scattered notes and misspelt
names. Through untrodden hills and forests, over a
space of some eight hundred miles in length by four
hundred in breadth, they had been seeking for the Golden
City, and they had sought in vain. They had sought it
along the wooded banks of the Orinoco, and beyond the
roaring foam-world of Maypures, and on the upper
waters of the mighty Amazon. They had gone up the
streams even into Peru itself. They had seen the virgin
snows of Chimborazo towering white above the thunder-
cloud, and the giant cone of Cotopaxi blackening in its
sullen wrath before the fiery streams rolled down its sides.
Foiled in their search at the back of the Andes, they had
turned eastward once more. Slowly and painfully they
had worked their way northward again, along the eastern
foot of the inland Cordillera, and now they were bivou-
acking, as it seems, upon one of the many feeders of
the Meta.
There they sit at last f our-and-f orty men out of the
eighty-four who left the tree of Guayra. Where are the
rest ?
Drew, the master, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro,
and five brave fellows by him, slain in fight by the poisoned
arrows of the Indians ; two more lie amid the valleys of
the Andes, frozen to death by the fierce slaty hail which
sweeps down from the condor's eyrie ; four more were
drowned at one of the rapids of the Orinoco ; five or six
AYACANORA 73
more wounded men are left behind at another rapid
among friendly Indians, to be recovered when they can
be perhaps never. Fever, snakes, jaguars, alligators,
have thinned their ranks month by month.
Ainyas, Gary, and Brimblecombe took counsel, that
night, with Yeo ; and a plan was matured, desperate
enough. But what cared those brave hearts for that ?
They would cross the Cordillera to Santa Fe de Bogota,
of the wealth whereof both Yeo and Arnyas had often
heard in the Pacific ; try to seize either the town, or some
convoy of gold going from it ; make for the nearest river
(there was said to be a large one which ran northward
thence), build canoes, and try to reach the Northern Sea
once more ; and then, if Heaven prospered them, they
might seize a Spanish ship, and make their way home
to England not, indeed, with the wealth of Manoa, but
with a fair booty of Spanish gold.
They started next morning quite cheerfully, and,
that same day, fell in with a tribe of friendly Indians,
with whom they stayed long enough for Gary to go and
fetch the sick men from the Orinoco.
With this tribe dwelt a wondrously beautiful
maiden, whom they called the " Daughter of the Sun,"
and whom they revered as some divine being. The
Indians had discovered her, some eleven years before,
as they wandered on the mountain spurs beneath the
flaming cone of Cotopaxi ; wondering at the white skin
and delicate beauty of the child, then about seven years
of age, they had led her home with them, and she had
grown up among them, tended with royal honours.
While the Englishmen stayed in the neighbourhood
of her tribe, Ayacanora (for such was her name) became
deeply attached to Amyas Le^gii ; and she was greatly
grieved, when he and his men had to depart.
74 WESTWARD HO !
A fortnight or more afterwards, the adventurers
intercepted a Spanish gold-train which was going down
from Santa Fe toward the Magdalena ; l and so they came
into possession of great riches. In this hour of triumph,
Ayacanora appeared anew upon the scene ; and, as she
insisted on accompanying the English, Amyas allowed
her to do so.
Two canoes were made, and in these the adventurers
journeyed down the River Magdalena to the Caribbean
Sea. In the Bay of Santa Martha, off the shore of New
Granada, 2 they captured, by deep cunning as well as
great courage, a Spanish galleon called The City of the
True Cross, and set sail for England.
On board this vessel was, by a strange chance, the
very woman, Lucy Passmore, who had accompanied
Rose Salterne in her flight from England. Lucy, having
been condemned by the Inquisition to perpetual im-
prisonment, was on her way to Seville to serve that
sentence. Being now, as by some miracle, restored to
freedom, she related to Amyas how both his brother
Frank and Rose had been burnt at the stake at
Carthagena. When Amyas had heard her story, he
vowed to give no quarter to Spaniards, wherever he
should henceforth find them.
On the homeward voyage, Salvation Yeo discovered,
by what Ayacanora told him of her earliest recollections,
that she was none other than the " little maid " of whom
he had been so long in search the daughter of his old
captain, Mr. John Oxenham.
In the evening of the fifteenth of February, 1587,
Amyas was once again at home. Mrs. Leigh not only
gave him a mother's welcome, but received Ayacanora
also with the most motherly kindness, and the maiden
became one of the family.
75
CHAPTER XI
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
In accordance with a solemn promise by which Mrs.
Leigh bound her only surviving son, Amyas remained
at home with her for the next twelvemonth. Then came
the fateful year 1588, and, in July, the Invincible Armada.
Amyas Leigh, as captain of the ship Vengeance, took
part in the running fight up Channel, and so distinguished
himself that he received the great honour of knighthood.
Sir Amyas discovered that his enemy, Don Guzman,
on whom he thirsted to revenge the deaths of his brother
and of Rose, was commandant of soldiery on board a
Spanish galleon called the Santa Catharina. After the
defeat of the Armada, the Vengeance relentlessly pur-
sued this vessel over the North Sea, and on the other side
of Scotland, to the Isle of Man, and down the coast of
Wales, until, at length, arrived the sixteenth day of the
chase.
Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely.
He knew that the Spaniard could not escape ; but he
cursed every moment which lingered between him and
that one great revenge which blackened all his soul. The
men sat sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a wind ;
the sails flapped idly against the masts ; and the ship
rolled in the long troughs of the sea, till her yardarms
almost dipped right and left.
" Take care of those guns. You will have some-
thing loose next," growled Amyas.
" We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will
take care of the wind," said Yeo.
" We shall have plenty before night," said Gary,
" and thunder too."
76 WESTWARD HO !
" So much the better," said Amyas. " It may
roar till it splits the heavens, if it docs but let me get my
work done."
" He's not far off, I warrant," said Gary. " One
lift of the cloud, and we should see him."
" To windward of us, as likely as not," said Amyas.
So the morning wore away, without a sign of living
thing, not even a passing gull ; and the black melan-
choly of the heaven reflected itself in the black melancholy
of Amyas. Was he to lose his prey after all ? The
thought made him shudder with rage and disappointment.
It was intolerable. Anything but that.
" Here she is ! " thundered Amyas from the deck,
while the men were at dinner; and in an instant all were
scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the frantic rolling
of the ship would let them.
Yes. There she was. The cloud had lifted sud-
denly, and to the south a ragged bore of blue sky let a
long stream of sunshine down on her tall masts and
stately hull, as she lay rolling some four or five miles to
the eastward ; but as for land, none was to be seen.
" There she is, and here we are," said Gary ; " but
where is here ? and where is there ? How is the tide,
master ? "
" Running up Channel by this time, sir."
" What matters the tide ? " said Amyas, devouring
the ship with terrible and cold blue eyes. " Can't we
get at her ? "
" Not unless some one jumps out and shoves behind,"
said Gary. " I shall down again and finish that mackerel,
if this roll has not chucked it to the cockroaches."
" Don't jest, Will ! I can't stand it," said Amyas,
in a voice which quivered so much that Gary looked at
him. His whole frame was trembling like an aspen.
HOW AMY AS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA 77
As Gary passed down the hatchway, he looked back.
Amyas had got a hone out of his pocket, and was whet-
ting away again at his sword-edge.
About two Yeo came up to him.
" He is ours safely now, sir. The tide has been run-
ning to the eastward for this two hours."
" Safe as a fox in a trap. Satan himself cannot take
him from us ! "
" But God may," said Brimblecombe, simply.
" Who spoke to you, sir ? If I thought that He
there comes the thunder at last ! "
And as he spoke, an angry growl from the westward
heavens seemed to answer his wild words, and rolled
and loudened nearer and nearer, till right over their
heads it crashed against some cloud-cliff far above, and
all was still.
Each man looked in the other's face ; but Amyas
was unmoved.
" The storm is coming," said he, " and the wind in
it. It will be Eastward ho now, for once, my merry men
all ! "
By this time all eyes were turned to the north-west,
where a black line along the horizon began to define the
boundary of sea and air, till now all dim in mist.
" There comes the breeze ! "
" And there the storm, too ! "
And with that strangely accelerating pace which
some storms seem to possess, the thunder, which had
been growling slow and seldom far away, now rang peal
on peal along the cloudy floor above their heads.
" Here comes the breeze ! Round with the yards,
or we shall be taken aback ! "
The yards creaked round ; the sea grew crisp around
them ; the hot air swept their cheeks, tightened every
78 WESTWARD HO !
rope, filled every sail, bent her over. A cheer burst from
the men as the helm went up, and they staggered away
before the wind, right down upon the Spaniard, who lay
still becalmed.
" There is more behind, Arnyas," said Gary. " Shall
we not shorten sail a little ? "
41 No. Hold on every stitch," said Amyas. " Give
me the helm, man. Boatswain, pipe away to clear for
fight."
It was done, and in ten minutes the men were all
at quarters, while the thunder rolled louder and louder
overhead, and the breeze freshened fast.
" The dog has it now. There he goes ! " said Gary.
Right before the wind. He has no liking to face
us."
" He is running into the jaws of destruction," said
Yeo. " An hour more will send him either right up the
Channel, or smack on shore somewhere."
44 There ! he has put his helm down. I wonder if
he sees land ? "
44 He is like a March hare beat out of his country,"
said Gary, 44 and don't know whither to run next."
Gary was right. In ten minutes more the Spaniard
went away dead down wind, while the Vengeance gained
on him fast. After two hours more the four miles had
diminished to one, while the lightning flashed nearer
and nearer, as the storm came up ; and from the vast
mouth of a black cloud-arch poured so fierce a breeze
that Amyas yielded unwillingly to hints which were
growing into open murmurs, and bade shorten sail.
On they rushed with scarcely lessened speed, the
black arch following fast, curtained by one flat grey
sheet of pouring rain, before which the water was boiling
in a long white line ; while every moment, behind the
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA 79
watery veil, a keen blue spark leapt down into the sea, or
darted zigzag through the rain.
" We shall have it now, and with a vengeance ; this
will try your tackle, master," said Gary.
The functionary answered with a shrug, and turned
up the collar of his rough frock, as the first drops flew
stinging round his ears. Another minute, and the squall
burst full upon them in rain which cut like hail hail
which lashed the sea into froth, and wind which whirled
off the heads of the surges, and swept the waters into
one white seething waste. And above them, and behind
them, and before them, the lightning leapt and ran,
dazzling and blinding, while the deep roar of the thunder
was changed to sharp, ear-piercing cracks.
" Get the arms and ammunition under cover, and
then below with you all," shouted Amyas from the helm.
" And heat the pokers in the galley fire," said Yeo,
" to be ready if the rain puts our linstocks 1 out. I hope
you'll let me stay on deck, sir, in case "
" I must have some one, and who better than you ?
Can you see the chase ? "
No ; she was wrapped in the grey whirlwind. She
might be within half a mile of them, for aught they could
have seen of her.
And now Amyas and his old liegeman were alone.
Neither spoke ; each knew the other's thoughts, and
knew that they were his own. The squall blew fiercer
and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and heavier. Where
was the Spaniard ?
" If he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir ! "
" If he has tried to lay-to, he will not have a sail
left in the bolt-ropes, 2 or perhaps a mast on deck. I
know the stiff-neckedness of those Spanish tubs. Hurrah !
there he is, right on our larboard bow ! "
80 WESTWARD HO !
There she was, indeed, two musket-shots off, stag-
gering away with canvas split and flying.
" He has been trying to hull, sir, and caught a
buffet," said Yeo, rubbing his hands. " What shall we
do now ? "
" Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches,
and try our luck once more. Pah ! how this lightning
dazzles ! "
On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard.
" Call the men up, and to quarters ; the rain will
be over in ten minutes."
Yeo ran forward to the gangway, and sprang back
again with a face white and wild.
" Land right ahead ! Port your helm, sir ! For
the love of God, port your helm ! "
Amyas, with the strength of a bull, jammed the helm
down, while Yeo shouted to the men below.
She swung round. The masts bent like whips ;
crack went the foresail like a cannon. What matter ?
Within two hundred yards of them was the Spaniard ;
in front of her, and above her, a huge dark bank rose
through the dense hail, and mingled with the clouds ; and
at its foot, plainer every moment, pillars and spouts of
leaping foam.
" Lundy ! " said Yeo. " The south end ! I see
the head of the Shutter in the breakers ! Hard a-port
yet, and get her close-hauled as you can, and the Lord
may have mercy on us still ! Look at the Spaniard ! "
Yes, look at the Spaniard !
On their left hand, as they broached-to, the wall of
granite sloped down from the clouds toward an isolated
peak of rock, some two hundred feet in height. Then a
hundred yards of roaring breaker upon a sunken shelf,
across which the race of the tide poured like a cataract ;
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA 81
then, amid a column of salt smoke, the Shutter, like a
huge black fang, rose waiting for its prey ; and, between
the Shutter and the land, the great galleon loomed dimly
through the storm.
He, too, had seen his danger, and tried to broach-to.
But his clumsy mass refused to obey the helm. He
struggled a moment, half hid in foam, fell away again,
and rushed upon his doom.
" Lost ! lost ! lost ! " cried Amyas rnadly, and,
throwing up his hands, let go the tiller. Yeo caught it
just in time.
" Sir ! sir ! what are you at ? We shall clear the
rock yet."
" Yes ! " shouted Amyas in his frenzy ; " but he
will not ! "
Another minute. The galleon gave a sudden jar,
and stopped. Then one long heave and bound, as if to
free himself. And then his bows lighted clean upon
the Shutter.
An awful silence fell on every English soul. They
heard not the roaring of wind and surge ; they saw not
the blinding flashes of the lightning ; but they heard
one long ear-piercing wail to every saint in heaven rise
from five hundred human throats ; they saw the mighty
ship heel over from the wind, and sweep headlong down
the cataract of the race, plunging her yards into the
foam, and showing her whole black side even to her keel,
till she rolled clean over, and vanished for ever and ever.
" Shame ! " cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into
the sea, " to lose my right, my right ! when it was in
my very grasp ! Unmerciful ! "
A crack which rent the sky, and made the granite
ring and quiver ; a bright world of flame, and then a blank
of utter darkness, against which stood out, glowing red-
82 WESTWARD HO !
hot, every mast, and sail, and rock, and Salvation Yeo
as he stood just in front of Amyas, the tiller in his hand.
All red-hot, transfigured into fire ; and behind, the black,
black night.
HS # * H* H *
A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimble-
combe' s voice said softly
" Give him more wine, Will ; his eyes are opening."
" Hey-dey ! " said Amyas faintly, " not past the
Shutter yet ? How long she hangs in the wind ! "
44 We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas," said
Brimblecombe.
" Are you mad ? Cannot I trust my own eyes ? "
There was no answer for a while.
44 We are past the Shutter, indeed," said Gary, very
gently, " and lying in the cove at Lundy."
44 Will you tell me that that is not the Shutter, and
that the Devil's Limekiln, and that the cliff that villain
Spaniard only gone -and that Yeo is not standing here
by me, and Gary there forward, and why, by-the-bye,
where are you, Jack Brimblecombe, who were talking
to me this minute ? "
44 Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh," blub-
bered poor Jack, " put out your hand, and feel where
you are, and pray the Lord to forgive you for your wil-
fulncss ! "
A great trembling fell upon Amyas Leigh. Half
fearfully he put out his hand ; he felt that he was in his
hammock, with the deck beams close above his head.
The vision which had been left upon his eyeballs vanished
like a dream.
44 What is this ? I must be asleep ! What has
happened ? Where am I ? "
44 In your cabin, Amyas," said Gary.
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA 83
" What ? And where is Yeo ? "
" Yco is gone where lie longed to go, and as he longed
to go. The same flash which struck you down struck
him dead."
" Dead ? Lightning ? Any more hurt ? I must
go and see ! Why, what is this ? " and Amyas passed
his hand across his eyes. " It is all dark -dark, as I
live ! " And he passed his hand over his eyes again.
There was another dead silence. Amyas broke it.
" Oh, God ! " shrieked the great proud sea-captain,
" Oh, Cod, I am blind ! blind f blind ! "
They lifted him into their remaining boat, rowed
him ashore, carried him painfully up the hill to the old
castle, and made a bed for him on the floor, in the very
room in which Don Guzman and Hose Salterne had
plighted their troth to each other five wild years before.
Three miserable days were passed within that lonely
tower. Amyas, utterly unnerved by the horror of his
misfortune, and by the over-excitement of the last few
weeks, was incessantly delirious ; while Gary, and Brim-
blecombe, and the men nursed him by turns, as sailors
and wives only can nurse.
On the fourth day his raving ceased, but he was still
too weak to be moved. Toward noon, however, he
called for food, ate a little, and seemed revived.
" Will," he said, after a while, " this room is as
stifling as it is dark. I feel as if I should be a sound man
once more, if I could but get one snuff of the sea-breeze.
Will Gary, Jack Brimblecombe, will you obey a blind
general ? "
" What you will in reason," said they both at once.
" Then lead me out, my masters, and over the down
to the south end. To the point at the south end I must
go ; there is no other place will suit."
84 WESTWARD HO !
And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his hands
for theirs. They set forth, Amyas walking slowly, but
firmly, between his two friends.
" Whither ? " asked Gary.
" To the south end the crag above the Devil's
Limekiln. No other place will suit."
Jack gave a murmur, and half stopped, as a fright-
ful suspicion crossed him.
" That is a dangerous place ! "
" What of that ? " said Amyas, who caught his
meaning in his tone. " Dost think I am going to leap
over cliff ? I have not heart enough for that. On, lads,
and set me safe among the rocks."
So, slowly and painfully, they went on, while Amyas
murmured to himself
" No, no other place will suit ; I can see all thence."
So on they went to the point, where the cyclopean
wall of granite cliff, which forms the western side of
Lundy, ends sheer in a precipice of some three hundred
feet, topped by a pile of snow-white rock, bespangled
with golden lichens.
" Now set me where I can rest among the rocks
without fear of falling for life is sweet still, even without
eyes, friends and leave me to myself a while," said
Amyas.
" You can sit here as in an arm-chair," said Gary,
helping him down to one of those square natural seats so
common in the granite tors.
" Good ; now turn my face to the Shutter. Be sure
and exact. So. Do I face it full ? "
" Full," said Gary.
" Then I need no eyes wherewith to see what is before
me," said he, with a sad smile. " I know every stone
and every headland, and every wave too, I may say, far
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 85
beyond aught that eye can reach. Now go, and leave
me alone with God and with the dead ! "
They retired a little space and watched him. He
never stirred for many minutes ; then leaned his elbows
on his knees, and his head upon his hands, and so was
still again. He remained so long thus, that the pair
became anxious, and went towards him. He was asleep,
and breathing quick and heavily.
" He will take a fever," said Brimblecombe, " if he
sleeps much longer with his head down -in the sunshine."
" We must wake him gently, if we wake him at all."
Arid Gary moved forward to him.
As he did so, Amyas lifted his head, and, turning
it to right and left, felt round him with his sightless eyes.
" You have been asleep, Amyas."
" Have I ? I have not slept back my eyes, then.
Take up this great useless carcass of mine, and lead me
home. I shall buy me a dog when I get to Burrough,
I think, and make him tow me in a string, eh ? So !
Give me your hand. Now, march ! "
His guides heard with surprise this new cheerfulness.
" Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light already,"
said good Jack. " It makes me feel quite upraised
myself, like."
" I have reason to be cheerful, Sir John ; I have
left a heavy load behind me. I have been wilful, and
proud, and a blasphemer, and swollen with cruelty and
pride ; and God lias brought me low for it, and cut me
off from my evil delight. No more Spaniard -hunting
for me now, my masters. God will send no such fools
as I upon His errands."
" You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards ? "
" Not I ; but of hating even the worst of them.
Listen to me, Will and Jack. If that man wronged me,
' " Shame ! " cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea ' Page 81
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA 81
I wronged him likewise. I have been a fiend, when I
thought myself the grandest of men yea, a very aveng-
ing angel out of heaven. But God has shown me my
sin, and we have made up our quarrel for ever."
" Made it up ? "
" Made it up, thank God. But I am weary. Set
me down awhile, and 1 will tell you how it befell."
Wondering, they set him down upon the heather,
while the bees hummed round them in the sun ; and
Amyas felt for a hand of each, and clasped it in his own
hand, and began :
" When you left me there upon the rock, lads, I
looked away and out to sea, to get one last snuff of the
merry sea-breeze, which will never sail me again. And as
I loolvcd, 1 tell you truth, I could see the water and the
sky as plain as ever I saw them, till I thought my sight
was come again. But soon I knew it was not so ; for
I saw more than man could see right over the ocean,
as I live, and away to the Spanish Main. And I saw
all the isles that we ever sailed by ; and La Guayra, and
the house where she lived. And I saw him walking
with her, on the barbecu, and he loved her then. I saw
what I saw ; and he loved her ; and I say he loves her still.
" Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull Rock,
and the Shutter, and the Ledge; I saw them, William
Gary, and the weeds beneath the merry blue sea. And
I saw the grand old galleon, Will ; she has righted with
the sweeping of the tide. She lies in fifteen fathoms, at
the edge of the rocks, upon the sand ; and her men are
all lying around her, asleep until the judgment day."
Gary and Jack looked at him, and then at each other.
His eyes were clear, and bright, and full of meaning ; and
yet they knew that he was blind. His voice was shaping
itself into a song. Was he inspired ? Insane ? What
88 WESTWARD HO !
WHS it ? And they listened with awestruck faces, as
the giant pointed down into the blue depths far below,
and went on :
" And I saw him sitting in his cabin, like a valiant
gentleman of Spain ; and his officers were sitting round
him, with their swords upon the table, at the wine. And
the prawns and the crayfish and the rockling, they swam
in and out above their heads ; but Don Guzman he never
heeded, but sat still, and drank his wine. Then he took
a locket from his bosom ; and I heard him speak, Will,
and he said, c Here's the picture of my fair and true
lady ; drink to her, sefiors all.' Then he spoke to me,
Will, and called me, right up through the oar-weed and
the sea : ' We have had a fair quarrel, senor ; it is time
to be friends once more. My wife and your brother have
forgiven me, so your honour takes no stain.' And I
answered, c We are friends, Don Guzman ; God has
judged our quarrel, and not we.' Then he said, ' I sinned,
and I am punished. 5 And I said, c And, sefior, so am I.'
Then he held out his hand to me, Gary, and I stooped to
take it, and awoke. 5 '
He ceased, and they looked in his face again. It
was exhausted, but clear and gentle, like the face of a
new-born babe. Gradually his head dropped upon his
breast again. He was either swooning or sleeping, and
they had much ado to get him home. There he lay for
eight-and-f orty hours in a quiet doze ; then arose sud-
denly, called for food, ate heartily, and seemed, saving
his ej^esight, as w r hole and sound as ever, and willing
enough to go home. So the next day the Vengeance sailed,
leaving behind a dozen men to seize and keep in the
Queen's name any goods which should be washed up from
the wreck.
89
CHAPTER XII
HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
It was the first of October. The morning was bright
and still ; the skies were dappled modestly from east to
west with soft grey autumn cloud, as if all heaven and
earth were resting after those fearful summer months of
battle and of storm. The Vengeance slid over the bar,
and passed the sleeping sand-hills, and dropped her anchor
off Appledore. A boat pulled off from the ship, and
away to the western end of the strand ; and Gary and
Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led him
slowly up the hill towards his home.
He seemed to know perfectly when they had reached
the gates, opened the lock with his own hands, and went
boldly forward along the gravel path, while Gary and
Brimblecombe followed him trembling ; for they expected
some violent burst of emotion, either from him or his
mother, and the two good fellows' tender hearts were
fluttering like a girl's. Up to the door he went, as if he
had seen it, felt for the entrance, stood therein, and
called quietly, " Mother ! "
In a moment his mother was on his bosom.
Neither spoke for a while she sobbing inwardly,
with tearless eyes, he standing firm and cheerful, with
his great arms clasped around her.
" Mother," he said at last, " I am come home, you
see, because I needs must come. Will you take me in
and look after this useless carcass ? I shall not be so
very troublesome, mother, shall I ? " and he looked
down, and smiled upon her, and kissed her brow.
She answered not a word, but passed her arm gently
round his waist, and led him in.
90 WESTWARD HO !
" Take care of your head, dear child, the doors are
low." And they went in together.
" Will ! Jack ! " called Amyas, turning round ;
but the two good fellows had walked briskly off.
And Amyas was sitting all alone. His mother had
gone out for a few minutes to speak to the seamen who
had brought up Amyas' s luggage, and set them down to
eat and drink ; and Amyas sat in the old bay window,
where he had sat when he was a little tiny boy. There
was a disli of apples on the table : he knew it by their
smell ; the very same old apples which he used to gather
when he was a boy. He put out his hand, and took
them, and felt them over, and played with them, just as
if the twenty years had never been.
At last one of them slipped through his fingers, and
fell on the floor. He stooped and felt for it, but he could
not find it. He turned hastily to search in another
direction, and struck his head sharply against the table.
Was it the pain, or the little disappointment ? Or was
it the sense of his blindness brought home to him ?
Or had he become indeed a child once more ? I know
not ; but so it was, that he stamped on the floor with
pettishness, and then, checking himself, burst into a
violent flood of tears.
A quick rustle passed him, the apple was replaced
in his hand, and Ayacanora's voice sobbed out -
" There ! there it is ! Do not weep ! Oh, do not
weep ! I cannot bear it ! I will get you all you want !
Only let me fetch and carry for you, tend you, feed you,
lead you, like your slave, your dog ! Say that I may be
your slave ! " and, falling on her knees at his feet, she
seized both his hands, and covered them with kisses.
" Yes ! " she cried, " I will be your slave ! I must
be ! You cannot help it ! You cannot escape from me
HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL 91
now ! You cannot go to sea ! You cannot turn your
back upon poor wretched me. I have you safe now !
Safe ! " and she clutched his hands triumphantly. " Ah !
and what a wretch I am, to rejoice in that ! to taunt him
with his blindness ! Oh, forgive me ! I am but a poor
wild girl a wild Indian savage, you know ; but
but " and she burst into tears.
A great spasm shook the body and soul of Amyas
Leigh. He sat quite silent for a minute, and then said
solemnly
" And is this still possible ? Then God have mercy
upon me a sinner ! "
Ayacanora looked up in his face inquiringly ; but
before she could speak again, he had bent down, and,
lifting her as the lion lifts the lamb, pressed her to his
bosom, and covered her face with kisses.
The door opened. There was the rustle of a gown.
Ayacanora sprang from him with a little cry, and stood,
half trembling, half defiant, as if to say, " He is mine
now ; no one dare part him from me ! "
" Who is it ? " asked Amyas.
" Your mother."
" You see that I am bringing forth fruits meet for
repentance, mother," said he, with a smile.
He heard her approach. Then a kiss and a sob
passed between the women, and he felt Ayacanora sink
once more upon his bosom.
" Amyas, my son," said the silver voice of Mrs.
Leigh, " fear not to take her to your heart again, for it
is your mother who has laid her there."
" It is true after all," said Amyas to himself.
" What God has joined together, man cannot put
asunder."