LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 524, 22 February 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE JOHN HARRIS. ' I've been thinkin', sir, you'd like to hear of how we gave chase to a slaver off the east coast of Africa in the year '59.' I nodded assent. I had made the acquaintance of my friend Jack Pembridge on the day I reached Broadstairs, and since then I had walked out several times to Kingsgate to have a chat with him about his life on board a man-o'-war. Jack was a splendid-looking muscular fellow, about six feet high; with handsome blue eyes and tawny mane and whiskers that altogether matched his skin in colour, he looked a perfect embodiment of tropical sunshine. He had taken service in the Preventive Force at Kingsgate for a time, as his wife did not want him to go to sea again. The last time I had seen him I asked him to search his memory for a yarn against my next visit, as I meant to go up and see the life boat, and when he saw me he had greeted me with this sentence. Jack was standing by the life-boat house when I reached him, but he seemed to think this an unfit place for story telling. ' Come round, sir,' he said, 'to the leeside of Neptune's Tower; there's a seat there, snng in the sunshine.' So there was; and, as he had evidently preconcerted this arrangement, he began at once without any preface, except to say in answer to my question that his ship's name at the time was Her Majesty's steamer Spitfire. 'We was cruising about in the Bight—we'd none on us been ashore for three years —for you see, sir, there's a deal of fever on the coast, and it wouldn't do ; general ways, ships takes it turn and turn about to go ashore at St. Helena; but somehow we hadn't done it, and our Cap'n—he was a rare good one—l suppose he guessed we felt it tightish work—tho' I don't think none of us did, for we was all comfortable among ourselves. He used to give us leave—the Cap'fc did—when the country people comei down to the shore —as they do at some o' the places with eggs and cheese and such like—he used to say 'Go ashore, lads, and buy what you like,' and if we brought a cask o' brandy back he never said nothin'; he always locked it up you know,' said Jack, looking as serious as his usual expression of broad good-humour permitted, ' and served it us out in rations extra after supper, and then we used to have singin' and dancin' and. jokin'; bless your heart, sir, we were as jolly It was particular so for me, for you see there was only the Cap'n, the master, and a midshipman—both these last was boys, so—tho' I was only a petty hofficer—cox'en of the longboat—the Cap'n he looked to me for everythink, you know, sir —not but what he was rare and kind to all —but I had a'most all the same as a quarterdeck hofficer. Well, one day we was at Wydar, when a missionary comes aboard and tells the Cap'n if he'll give him forty pound he'll put him in the way of a slaver—for you see, sir, the slavers is mostly taken thro' the reports of the missionaries, sir. Wei), the Cap'n he sent for the hofficers and they talked it over, and it was settled that the missionary—he was a black 'un—should be paid the money if the slaver was taken, and the contrary if it wasn't. So then he told us that she was a brigantine sailing under the 'Merikin colours, and calling herself the John Harris ; she had only lately come in, and he knew she hadn't loaded yet. Next morning wc got orders from the admiral's ship to go to Lagos ; so off we goes, the risk being that the slaver might have taken in her cargo afore we come back, you see, sir. Well, we wasn't long at Lago3— we'd left a boat to watch her—and as soon as we comes back there she was, sure enough, with the 'Merikin flag flying. ' Well, sir, as soon as our Cap'n sec this he tells me to man a boat, and off he goes to hold a parley with tho 'Merikin skipper—only the Cap'n and the midshipman goes on deck, and we stays below in the boat. Presently I looks up and I sees peeping over at me a face I know'd, a mate I'd served with on board the Britannia. 'Hullo, mate,'says I, 'I think I knows your face.' ' I knows yourn,. if you don't know mine,' he says, grinning. ''Your name's Freeman, ain't it?' says I. *' Well, it is, says he—and then he grins at me again. • '' What are you doin' here ?' says I. '' Ohj we'd only got a small cargo,' says hi, ' and we've nearly got rid of it.

*' All ready to take in the live 'un, eh V says I.

'' That's nothing to you nor me,' says he, quite short ' I saw I should get nothing more out of him. Presently the Cap'n comes down and tells us to pull back to the ship. '' I can't make anything out of her, Pembridge,'he whispers; 'she's not loaded yet, at anyrate.' • Well, I felt terribly oneasy, because I feels sure she was after no good; but, as the Cap'n said, we'd no proof to warrant us in taking any proceedings against her. For you see, sir, that was before this 'Merikin war, and the 'Merikins didn't allow no right of search, so if the Cap'n had opened her hatches and she'd turned out no slaver at all, why their government ud brought a haction against our'n and our Cap'n ud ha' lost his commission.

' Well, sir, on and off we went on cruising thereabouts for some weeks, never once losing sight of the John Harris. ' She dropped down to St. Thomas's after bit and filled all her water-casks, but she eemed so quiet and take-it-easy about it, that some of us begun to feel terrible puzzled ; we'd noticed that she'd had a lot o' planks aboard of her, already, to make a slave deck, but she'd sent these all ashore now. You know, sir, if they don't ship the darkie s as soon as old King Dahomey 's got 'em ready, why he claims 'em, and makes the skipper buy 'em all over again. 1 Well, all on a sudden one Saturday evening we missed her—she was gone right clean from under our noses. Well, the Cap'n was terrible vexed, for you see, sir, we thought she'd perhaps taken her cargo in and was off safe enough to Cuba ; so he sends two crew boys ashore to inquire of the missionary what gived us information. Well, sir, the crew boys didn't come back, nor the boat neither— it was plain enough they'd been put in prison to stop their laying informations.

' We was precious wild to think we'd lost her after all, for you see, supposin' she hadn't loaded, we didn't know where Bhe was agoing to take 'em in, so we didn't know were to look for her.

' Well, the next day was Sunday—it was a misty, hazy sort of weather —I was keeping watch while they was at church below, and I just thought I'd get in the cross-trees and have a look out, —and I'm blowed if I didn't ketch sight on her some way down the coast at a place called Ambrosette. Down I goes and whispers to the Cap'n—- ' ' Sir,' says I, ' there's the John Harris.'

'Where?' says he. ' Down at Ambrosette, she's a gettin' 'em in. She won't be there long, sir, says I. ' Well, the Cap'n he cuts church precious short, and up he comes to the cross-trees. ' That's her, sure enough,' says he, after he'd taken a squint at her thro' the glass. ' But he wouldn't have the steam got up at once, because he wanted, you see, to let her ship her cargo. Against it was dusk we was all ready, and then down we steamed at a tremenjious rate. ' Well, we was looking forrard, all on us—it had come on a bit hazy—bending our eyes in one direction and 'specting to ketch sight on her ivery minute, for you see, sir, we'd no suspicions that she was off—when on a sudden one of our crew who'd been ill and was setting for hair on a coil of ropes in the stern, he calls out, 'There she is—there's the John Harris I'

' There she was behind us. Why sir, we'd passed her in the fog, which had just lifted off now, and if that invalid seaman hadn't happened to be looking otherways to what the rest on us was, we'd lost her altogether. 'Well, the Cap'n he calls out, ' Ease her, stop her!' and our ship was soon swung round within hail of the slaver. The fog had cleared off now. You see, sir, in them seas it's never what you may call dark, and we'd soon got near enough to be sure of her.

' But the Cap'n wouldn't meddle with her till daylight. That came soon, and then he hails her: ' What ship's that ?' '' What ship are you ?' came the answer. *' That's enough, sir,' says I, * that shows what she is ; and, lookye;here, sir, the John Harris is painted out now.' ' ' How can you be sure of that ?' says the doctor.

'' Sure, sir ?' says I, * why, I sees the fresh paint.' You see, sir, I always had a credit for sharp sight. 'Well, the Cap'n sends the two officers and the gunner in one boat, and me and a file of marines in another; but I was not to go on board unless Mr Walkinshaw—that was the master's name—signalled to me to do so. However, sir, as we lay alongside in the boat, I was sure we was all right, for I could smell 'em sir—smell 'em through the timbers, as plain Well, after they'd had some palaver with the skipper, Mr Walkinshaw he comes to the side and beckons me up. ' 'lt's all right, Pembridge,' he whispers. "Yes, sir,' says I, 'right enough, she's right full on 'em.' '' Oh, I think not,' he says' looking quite surprised ; ' the skipper shows his papers all right and fair. I don't think there's any in '

*' Well, sir,' says I, ' I've got just upon four pounds in my locker, and I don't mind betting you that, that she's right full on 'em. Why, sir, put your nose down here—can't you smell 'em ?' •No, Pembridge, I can't,' says he, 'no more can the others. What reason have you for suspicion ?' ' I felt terrible wild, but you see, sir, they was hofficers and I was man, and you see they'd been havin' a cigar with the skipper, and he'd been makiug himself pleasant, and those young gents is easy to get over. * Well, sir,' says I, ' when we went aboard at Wydar, she'd got a lot o' crew boys. Where's the crew boys now? Then she's got all her water-casks on deck. Why's that for, but to give room below ? and, most of all, sir, I smell 'em. ' Well, the man I named Freeman was the mate, and he looked black enough at me, for he saw I knowed what I was about; and there was another mate named Thomas—a most hawful character he was to be sure—the hoaths he used when he see me and the officers talkin' together was tremenjious—them 'Merikins is terrible 'andy with hoaths, you know, sir. ' Well, Mr Walkinshaw he says something to the skipper about crew boys, and says Freeman, ' Here they lies, safe enough,' and ha lifts up a sail on deck, and reg'lar shows 'em to us—a heap of darkies all lying huddled together. ' Here they are, sir,' says I, ' now you see W (To h do-ritlmiM.)