LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1713, 16 August 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

BOROUGH-ENGLISH. A Tale or South African Liee. By Copia Fandx. 5.0. L., Author of “Twelve True Tales of the Law.” Chapter II. —( Continued .) The men complained|much The captain was a man who would never face a difficulty or settle any complaint, He was one of those who would rather let a mischief run on till it endangered his ship than disturb the peace of the voyage. Jack Smith went forward, and spoke to the cook, but his only answer was an illtempered menace. Jack then spoke to one of the more intelligent of the crew. ‘When you complain again,’ said Jack, ‘just see that I am handy, will yon ? ’ * Yes, sir,’ said the man, ‘and thank you. Wo thought one of us would go up to the captain in the dog-watch.’ ‘ Very well,’ said Jack. Presently two men came aft, bringing specimens of their victuals, and they asked the captain whether it was possible they could either eat that or work starving P ‘Now, isn’t it hard?’ said the captain ; ‘ I find the men the best of everything, and plenty of it, and then they don’t get it ?’

‘’Tis tho cook’s fault, sir,’ said the men ; ‘ we’ve spoke to him often enough, but he only laughs at us.’ ‘ Well, so have I spoken to him,’ said the captain ; ‘ what more do you want mo to do? Do you want me to put him in irons and go without grub altogether ? Settle it among yourselves.' The men still lingered and looked at Jack, ‘Wo passengers have long suffered under the same grievance,’ said Jack ; ‘ perhaps wo had better settle it in tho same way ?’ ‘ All I know is that I have done all I can do, and speaking is of no use,’ said the captain, ‘Then we’ll settle it among ourselves,’ said Jack, walking forward with the two men. ‘ Now, if you like to arrange the matter, don’t allow mo to stand in the way,’ said he, interrogatively. l Oh ! dear no, sir,’ said they. * There’s none of ns can tackle him, and if you can, we shall all be very much obliged to you.’ 1 D’ye feel at all busy, Mr I’arboil V said Jack, going up to the cook’s galley, --f *No ; what d’ye want P’ - -

Just a word with you about tho cooking ’

Parboil came out on to tho deck. He was a man above the average height, very broad about the loins and hips, with a besotted countenance surmounted by coarse thatchcolored hair descending over his forehead, and his chin and jaws were surrounded by a thick fringe of coarse, yellowish brown beard, and over his grey eyes hung those broad, thick, and spreading eyebrows which are a sure sign of pride and ill-temper. ‘Now I don’t wish you any harm Mr Smith,’ he said; ‘ but if you’ll be good enough to mind your own business, you’ll have leas cause to regret it.’ Here he looked round triumphantly at tho men he had always successfully bullied. ‘ You have cooked the men’s victuals badly,’ said Jack.

* Well, and wbat’s that to do with yon ?’ ‘ You see it endangers the safety of the ship, and, as I m in the ship, it has a good deal to do with me.’

* I’ll tell you what, young man, I think you’re endangering your safety a good bit more by coming forward where you’ve no business, and quarrelling with Joe Parboil.’ ‘ That’s my affair. And then, yon see, yon cook our victuals badly, too, and I and the other passengers don’t like it.’ ‘ Well, I suppose I’m not your servant,' said Parboil.’

‘ Perhaps you’ll speak to the captain, and then I shall have something to say. Did you ever see such a galley as that to cook in ? I never sailed in such a ship.’ * You sea the captain has left mo and the men to settle it,’ said Jack; ‘ and so I thought I would speak to you quietly first.’

‘ Quietly! Yes, I reckon you’d best speak quietly. Most people has to keep' a civil tongne when they talks to Joe Parboil.’

* And if you’ll promise me and these men to cook well till the voyage is over,’ said Jack, looking at him in a lamb-like manner, ‘ I won’t thrash yon as I meant to do.’ ‘Thrash me! Blood and thunder!’said the cook, turning up his sleeves and looking defiantly. •It will take any four of you to thrash Joe Parboil.’

‘ You seem ready,’ said Jack; ‘ so there !’ And he administered a light tap with his hand on the cook’s nose.

Joe Parboil was furious, and hit out right and left at his antagonist, who evaded or parried every blow, and moving forward with remarkable agility from the hips, repaid them all with interest. ‘ I believe, mates,’said one of the crew, speaking with tho deliberation of a man who had been a long while forming his opinions ; ‘ I believe, mates, as how old Joe is now about a catchin’ of it.’

They all burst out laughing, and commenced a running comment on what was going on. But this is not a pugialiatic record, and it is enough to say that presently the oook lost his equilibrium, and was very glad to sit down. He was very much out of breath, and they gave him some fresh water, and he drank some and washed his face and hands with the rest.

Jack waited a reasonable time, but the man did not rise. ‘ 1 shall not touch yon while you’re down, Mr Parboil,’ said he; ‘ but do your duty in that galley in future, or wo shall have to turn you out of it.’ * We’re very much obliged to you, Mr Smith, sir,’ said one of the principal complainants ; ‘you ’ave done it proper.’ ‘You have done us all a service,’ said the captain to Jack as he walked aft ; * he’s wanted that a long time.’ Jack had hoped that no one had seen his doings, but the contest had been chronicled as it bad proceeded by the captain and mate for the benefit of the occupants of the after deck.

‘l’m afraid you are of a very quarrelsome disposition,’ said Dolly, smiling nevertheless.

*lf you’d only give mo the opportunity,’ said Jack, ‘ I’d show yon what a long time I would pass with you without a single cross word.’

Dolly looked sorry she had spoken. ‘ I think, captain,’ said Mr Brokesby, • It would Ise better another time to get a smaller and weaker cook ; it is very dangerous to have a oook whom the others cannot punish.’ The cooking was very good after that, but they had to get the boys to carry the meals aft, for the cook did not like being seen, and some said he had a difficulty in seeing. They ran to the southward of the Capo without sighting It, and then were driven east ward along latitude 33 by chilling winds over troubled seas, and then they took a broad sweep, first north-eastward, and then northward, till at last, in smoother water and wafted by gentle gales, the ship’s head pointed westward. So stood the Zulu Chief on the 90th d y of the voyage. They were looking out for land. They had never sighted any since leaving the channel. They had given a wide berth to Finisterre, they bad kept clear of the Azores, the coast of America had not been reached, and Table Mountain, the Lion’s Head, and the Cape Las Aguilhas had only been thought of to be avoided. *Do you aoo anything 7 ’ said the captain to a man who had gone to the masthead, * Land on the lee bow ! ’ The captain seemed quite content, and presently said he could see it himself. The passengers saw nothing. An hour afterwards there was a alight discoloration of the horizon in the direction towards which the ship pointed. ‘ I suppose you can make it out now, sir,’ said the mate, smiling. ‘ Not much difficulty about that,’ said the captain. ‘ ’Tis hard to mistake the bluff of Natal. ’

Strangely enough, after the first flush of pleasure and mutual congratulation, all the passengers seemed to grow more and more grave, and at last almost sorrowful. It is a common phenomenon at the close of a voyage, and fellow-travellers try to explain it to one another by attributing it to aorrow at the prospect of parting. This is not the real cause; but the explanation is often accepted, and only serves to make the victims more sentimental than before. At all events, old Mr Rokesby looked sober and anxious, and Dolly was silent and tearful, and even Jack Smith’s habitual vivacity seemed to desert him as the setting sun at first brought out into prominence, and then obscured with its glory, the object of their interest.

‘ Shall we make it eight bells V said the captain. ‘ I should fancy it could hardly be short of that time,’ answered old Mr Rokesby innocently, ‘ Just so, sir, and what shall it be ?’ ‘Be V

* I’ve got port, sherry, whiskey, rum, brandy, and claret, in any one of which you may drink tho health of the Zulu Chief. ’ The choice was not long in making. Drinks were handed about, eight bells struck in earnest, and Jack Smith was called upon to ‘ sweat up the haulyards of his guitar,’ and divert the little party who sat under the awning looking out into the gilded west. He obeyed with a reluctance which he had never shown before, and sang to a simple air the following dactyls

SIGHTING THE LAND, Long is onr voyage and slow ; Now summer breezes blow. Making our ship to go Gentle and grand ; Now the gales chill and drear Make her to plunge and rear ; Soon ’twill be over ; we’re Sighting the laud. Lines low and hazy there, On the horizon where Landsmen see nought, howe’er Cunningly scanned. These are our destined shore, Waking, now peril’s o’er, Sorrows unknown before Sighting the land. Shaded with doubts and fears, No more our goal appears Gilded with gay careers, Hopefully planned. Hut a limbo of exile where Fond regrets flourish fair, Memories unheeded ere Sighting the land. Next morning there was no mistake as to the land sighted being the famous bluff. They were In the outer anchorage, and before them towered the magnificent landmark, conspicuous among eight hundred miles of leas noticeable coast, and which stands, as a splendid janitor, to usher In the ship to the worst harbor in the world. Lighters at length approached them, and in the hold of one of these, seated on a badly stowed cargo of packing-cases and portmanteaus, battened down to prevent the influx of the sea, stifling in theuonflned and fetid air, sat old Mr Brokesby and his

daughter, toesed about for a full hour during t'ao heat of a tropical day ; at the end of which time the hatch was removed, the air and light entered, and Jack Smith helped them on deck, for they were ‘ over the bar !’ Such was the fashion in which our emigrants, like others limilarly destined, entered the land for which nature has done so much and man so little since, on Christmas Day, I 1400, Vasco di Gama gave it its present name in honor of the birth of which that day is the anniversary.

Chapter 111. A MAO'SXMCENT 30T7HTBY. ‘Have you any pistols, revolvers, carbines, or guns about you !’ asked a functionary In a white coat and brass buttons the moment Mr Brokesby set foot on shore. ‘ No,’ answered the old gentleman, ‘ I trust snch things are not necessary here 1’ ‘ Not the least,' said the other, ‘ only if you had them you’d have to pay duty on them, ’ So Mr Brokesby took the train to Durban, which was two miles off, put up at an hotel, and forwarded his letters of introduction to Mr Stevens, a sugar planter in the neighborhood.. Jack, promising to call on his fellowpassengera next day, remained' at the land-ing-stage to look abont him. While he was thus employed a tall, stout gentleman, with early hair, came up to him, carrying his hands in his trouser pockets, and a note-book sticking out of the pocket of his jacket. Taking a short pipe out of his mouth, the stranger began ‘Just landed, eh ?—Znln Chief, Jack assented. * Any remarkable occurrence during the voyage ? Passed any wrecks, sprang a leak, seen a sea serpent, been short of water, any mutiny, captain in the D.T.’s, or anything of that sort ? ’ ‘No ; none of those things, said Jaek. ‘ Ha I I see ; voyage totally devoid of interest. What will you take to drink ? ’ They entered the Hyperion, and sat on some'coils of new rope opposite the bar. It was a shipchandler’s store and hotel all in one. ‘Got anything to do?’ said the curlyhaired man. ‘ Nothing at present. Have you any suggestions to offer ? ’ {To be continued.)