KITTY HEATHCOTE. OR, WHY I WENT TO AFRICA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 75, 17 July 1869, Page 6

KITTY HEATHCOTE. OR, WHY I WENT TO AFRICA.

After a long commission, mostly passed in the fierce heat of the tropics, it was very pleasant to return once more to old England and its cool leafy glades. As soon as the old ship was paid off, I rushed away by the express train, to my -uncle's place in the country. A better example of the ancient Elizabethan manor house than his it would be hard to find. A broad avenue of stately elms led up to the house, with its many gables and steep roofs, its old bell turret and twisted chimneys standing out in all the warmth of honest redbrick against the shade of the rook-haunted trees that sheltered it from the summer sun, and in winter broke the force of the north winds.

And here the reigning deity of the place was my pretty golden-haired cousin, Kitty Heathcote, in the sunshine of whose smiles I, in common with many others, thought it the most supreme happiness io bast — and so perhaps, it was ; but we are sure to find out before long that it was a very dangerous pastime. Kitty was an extremely handsome girl, of about nineteen years of age; very highly accomplished, and of an exceedingly fascinating manner. Her mother having died many years before, she was an heiress in her own right, and consequently became alive to the fact that she was a pearl of great price ; and yet, even the latest of her rejected lovers, of whom the name was legion, could not, in the bitterness of his disappointment, say she was proud or arrogant. All the tenants on the estate, all the poor people in the neighbouring villages, delighted to speak of the goodness, the thougktfuZness, the kind condescension of the old squire's daughter. In fact, the whole country round was ringing with her praises. It was no wonder she had always a crowd of suitors for that pretty little hand, and it was not until, like the other giddy moths that fluttered round that too dazzling flame, I got severely burnt, that I began to perceive that she was nothing less than an incorrigible flirt. Before I acquired this unwelcome piece of knowledge — a lesson, indeed, which I was very loth to learn — I rejoiced in the high place that I was fool enough to think I had taken in her affections. Day by day I felt deeper and more blindly in love, and was on the point of making a formal declaration and proposal when a rival, whom I have since had cause to remember, appeared on the scene. James Trail Witherington, the son of an old friend of my uncle's, came at this time to pay him a visit. He had lately returned from the west coast of Africa, where he was supposed to hold a Q-overnment appointment, and was reported to be very wealthy — two facts hard to reconcile with one another. In. appearance he was a tall, well-made man ; he had a dark, sallow face of the Spanish type, very black hair, and sin-ister-looking eyes. People said he was good-looking. I failed to see it — perhaps because from the moment we met, I felt a dislike for him which eventually grew to absolute hatred. He began by making desperate love to Miss Heathcote, and she appeared to encourage him. At least I thought so. I naturally liked him none the better for this. He regarded me as rather a formidable rival, but even had it not been so, the result was inevitable ; we were destined to hate one another, and we did so to our hearts' content. He was certainly wealthy, but I never could make myself believe in the Grovernment appointment at Benin. Slave-dealer seemed more likely, but I said nothing of my suspicions, which it must be admitted were more founded on prejudice than on any reasonable grounds. Things thus went on for some time very unsatisfactorily, and I resolved to obtain some expression of opinion from my cousin; and- so it happened in a long conversation with Kitty about our Spanish-looking friend, she pronounced his sentence,' and gave me my dismissal as well, in these memorable words : —

"Oh, my dear coz, I haven't the slightest intention of marrying him whatever. I would as soon think of marrying you — and that you know I'm not going to do. But, you only see, I'll lead him such a dance." And away she ran across the lawn, singing and laughing as gaily as if the world ! had no cares, no sorrows, no disap- | pointments. Her light heart little dreamt of the cruelly heavy blow that she had just inflicted — never thought of the painfully-builded fabric of longcherished hopes those words of hers .had crushed — of the heart she had bowed down, if not utterly broken. How long I had sat there alone, staring at the chair she had just left, I cannot tell. This was the first great sorrow, and I bore it badly. Presently, however, there was a feeling of relief, and subsequently actually of exultation — of relief that it was now all over — of exultation in the thought of the bitter draught that my rival, sooner or later, would have to swallow. "Why did fate send that man across my path just at this moment ?

In he came with his insolent sneer and swagger, and contrived to turn the conversation upon Ms favourite subject—rthe incompetence of the Royal Navy and its officers. He never lost an opportunity of abusing the service, but on this occasion his remarks were more than usually disparaging, Itrwas

quite evident that he was bent on a quarrel, and he found in me, for the first time, a reciprocity of sentiment. He became more and more insulting, and eventually offensive. He wished to provoke me to strike him. He succeeded in his object ; I struck him in the face. As I expected, the blow was not returned. A few hurried words about seconds, pistols, the coppice at sunset, and he was gone. So | far he had achieved his purpose ; for the rest, he was a dead shot, which was the only clever thing I knew of him. Seconds were found in two young farmers on the estate, who were instructed in their duties. That evening, the wind chanting a wierd dirge through the forest trees, eddying and scattering the leaves of autumn, we met in the place appointed. With few preliminaries we took up our positions, his black, snake-like eyes gleaming with a more sinister expression than ever, and, at the given signal fired — or rather, he fired, it is said, before the time, and I fell, the pistol dropping from my grasp undischarged. The pullet had pierced my right side, and thinking, from the blood that flowed from mj mouth, that the wound was mortal, my adversary fled. Carried back to the manor house, for some weeks I hovered between life and death, during which time Kitty Heathcote nursed and tended me with more than a sister's care. At length the doctor reported that his patient was out of danger, and my stern old uncle, who throughout had refused to see me, sent a message to the effect that I was to leave his house as soon as I was able to travel.

This edict of the old man's was received with great regret, not only by me but by another as well. Tes, the fickle-hearted Kate had given up her flirtations, and was fickle no longer. That " pity " which is so justly said to be akin to love, had worked the spell, and now she, in her turn, loved with a far greater affection than she had before simulated. Ay, loved — Kitty loved ; and lit was that she loved ! What a heaven there was in the thought! My inexorable uncle had no more terrors for me, my wound no more pain. The only worthy thing in life was to endeavour to deserve her. But that was not to be done by trying to induce her to desert her grey-haired old father in his last days, for the man whom, he was about to drive from his doors. I scorned the thought that could suggest such a course. No ; there was nothing for it but to go afloat again, and abide the chances and changes of a few years. A request to be appointed to a vessel serving on that fatal station, the West Coast of Africa, was only too willingly granted hy the' Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. It may well be deemed a strange choice for one whose highest hopes were just arriving at a climax. Under the circumstances that existed immediately before the occasion of the duel, it would not have been so extraordinary. The coast is the wellknown refuge of the hopeless ; there they can commit suicide honourably. But on the other hand, I trusted to an unusually strong and well-tried constitution to preserve me unscathed from the virulent attacks of the deadly fevers and malaria of the African swamps. Besides, there was a strong, ungovernable motive that impelled me thither. Of this none knew.

After the duel, James Traill "Witherington was never seen again. A bundle of papers was found in his trunk. The old steward for some reason brought them to inc. All scruples at opening them were removed by the suggestion of the obvious unfairness of the duel. An examination at leisure proved conclusively that my suspicions were after all correct. He had been sailing under false colours, and was indeed a slave dealer, the Grovernment appointment being altogether a myth. Some of the papers showed conclusively that not only did he carry on this revolting trade, but that he did so very unfairly ; so much so, indeed, that on two occasions he had narrowly escaped paying with his life the penalty of his injustice. And now, if I could (I thought) but just put % a stop to his slave-dealing propensities, it would prove to him conclusively the fallacy of his ideas concerning the incompetency of Her Britannic Majesty's naval service. At the same time it would be possible to obtain that satisfaction to which he invited me, and of which he, in so cowardly a manner defrauded me. There was my motive. Alter a most painful parting from Kitty, the father still unrelenting, and three months passed away, I found myself in command of a fine despatch gun vessel in the Bight of Benin. No time was lost in endeavouring to find Witherington, but no such person was known. In all his papers the names had been carefully blotted out, but many being in his own handwriting, there was no doubt as to whom they referred. It was, therefore quite possible that he was trading under another name. One Miguel Antonio des Santos, "a noted, slave-dealer, was said to answer the description exactly. From Witherington's appearance and knowledge of the language he might well have passed for a Spaniard. He was Teported to have gone to Cuba, but there was no reliance to be placed on any information as to slavers and slave-dealers. It seemed probable, however, that this was the case, for| during two years naught could be seen j or heard of him, and so I nearly gave | up all hope of meeting him, ]

In the meantime we had- tolerable success in our cruising operations, having captured a very fair number of prizes, but on the whole, nothing occurred worthy of particular notice. Towards the end of our three years' commission, the doctor and I landed with our rifles one day for the enjoyment of a little shooting. We wandered a long way down the coast, from the flats of the old Calabar river to where the usually low coast rises into red sandstone cliffs of some height. From the summit of these cliffs the sharks could be plainly seen rising and falling with the long ground-swell of the ocean. As they basked in the sunlight, their sharp black dorsal fins appearing above the surface, we tried a few shots at them, but with no great success. The sun was getting low, and we were on the point of returning, when there appeared a savage procession coming from inland towards the next cliff to the one on which we were Judging that some Fetish worship or superstitious rites were about to take place, we concealed ourselves behind a rock to watch the proceedings. On J came this wild horde of savages, with much beating of drums and cymbals, howling and shouting, and other horribly discordant sounds. There usually ugly faces were rendered ten times more hideous by a profusion of red and yellow paint, which was also daubed freely over their bodies. Thus they came wildly dancing and leaping along, filling the air with their savage cries, they more resembled a band of fiends than human beings. They were preceeded by four men bearing a long wide plank ; this, on reaching the edge of the cliff, they launched out nearly half it length and left balanced on the brink. The dreadful truth flashed across our minds, for this explained everything. They were about to offer a , human sacrifice to their Fetish. We turned sick and faint as we thought of their horrible custom of making their victim walk to the end of the plank, which, overbalancing, precipitates the miserable wretch with a shriek and a plunge into the sea, to be, whilst yet struggling, devoured by the swarming sharks. And yet we dared not move away from this revolting spectacle. The victim is generally intoxicated with some poisonous decoction of drugs, and at the last moment, being completely stupified, voluntarily walks the plank. It would render the sacrifice inefficacious were hands to be laid upon the victim to push him over. But in this case there seemed to be some difficulty. From the struggling on the verge of the precipice it would seem that the miserable creature had refused to make a sacrifice of himself. Perhaps the drugs had not done their work. Presently we observed them goading the unfortunate being on to his destruction with the sharp points of long arrows. Up to this time we had not been able to catch a sight of the victim ; but now, the crowd opening a little on one side, we saw him, and with one voice exclaimed, " Grood Heaven, it's a European !"

There in that savage crowd he stood bleeding, frantic with the pain of the stabs from the arrow heads, wildly imploring mercy, his cries drowned in theirs, and doing what he could to resist the fearful death that awaited him. One more instant and he would have been over. A steady aim, and with a sharp crack from my rifle a bullet went singing through the air, and found its billet in the head of the chief, smashing in his skull and stretching him lifeless on the ground; the doctor reserved his fire whilst I reloaded. For a moment they seemed to waver, perhaps totally bewildered ; and then utterly terrified, took to their heels, and scampered away with all the speed of superstitious fear. As soon as they were out of sight, we ran to the victim, whom they had entirely forgotten in their headlong flight. He was sitting with his back towards us, gesticulating violently, and talking incoherently. His mind was evidently gone, and he fancied himself already in the sea fighting with the sharks, for he was saying in a thick unnatural Yoice —

| " Keep off, ye ghastly grey sharks — hungry fiends — why will ye glare so ? Tear •me not, ye triple-fanged demons, I never harmed ye. For heaven's sake spare me one moment. What a bitter draught that was ! Aha ! you change — you are black imps now. Curse ye, I fear ye not. Keep but one white devil, that I myself made, away from me, and then I defy ye all. Curse ye, I say." He turned suddenly, and I found myself face to face with my longsought adversary. It was no other than James Traill Witherington. As his staring, blood-shot eyes met mine they dilated fearfully — his whole form was convulsed with a frenzy of a maniac terror. He started back shrieking — " 'Tis he ! 'tis he ! This is the devil I feared ! save me from him. Oh save me." And then in a lower tone, a kind of hoarse whisper, " Keep him off, good sharks ; tell him not that I fired too soon, because I thirsted for his blood. See, there he is, as I left him in the forest, ' Look at the blood how it roars and rushes out of his mouth ! Blood? blood? No, 'tis not} 'tis molten copper ! and," shrieking again, see, he bathes my heart in it ! he pours it down my throat ! Mercy — mercyspare me !" As he said this, he ran backward to. ward.s the edge of the cliff, In vain

we tried to warn him of his danger. The longer we approached him the faster he ran backward, screaming —

" Away — away! keep back, ye fiends — keep hack ! save me from Mm ! Back, I say, back — keep him off !" Thus shrieking, he stepped back over the precipice and disappeared. A dull, heavy splash told us that the shark-infested waters had received hhn, and it was all over. It turned out subsequently that "Witherington, alias Miguel Antonio des Santos, had been carrying on his nefarious policy of kidnapping, instead of fairly buying slaves, and in doing so had himself fallen into the hands of the natives. They were not slow to find out what to do with him. He would make as good a sacrifice to their deity as one of their own men. Although we cheated the Fetish of his victim, we had not robbed Nemesis of hers.

On my return to England, I received a most affectionate letter from my uncle, consenting to my marriage with his daughter, my pretty cousin, Kitty Heathcote; and now, when my wife Kitty reads this, she will know the only secret that I ever kept from her — namely, why I went to the "West Coast.