The Adventures of Roderick Random
him to repair with me to the cockpit, which I no sooner entered, than
the idea of my departed friend presented itself to my remembrance, and
filled my eyes with tears. We discharged from our mess the boy who had
acted so perfidiously, notwithstanding his tears, intreaties, and of
penitence for what he had done; but not before he had confessed that
the surgeon had bribed him to give evidence against us, with a pair of
stockings and a couple of old check shirts, of which his servant had
since plundered him.
The keys of our chests and lockers being sent to us by the doctor, we
detained the messenger until we had examined the contents; and my
fellow-mate, finding all his Cheshire cheese consumed to a crust, his
brandy exhausted, and his onions gone, was seized with a fit of choler,
which he discharged on Mackshane’s man in oaths and execrations,
threatening to prosecute him as a thief. The fellow swore in his turn,
that he never had the keys in his possession till that time, when he
received them from his master with orders to deliver them to us. “As
Cot is my judge,” cried Morgan, “and my salfation, and my witness;
whosoever has pilfered my provisions is a lousy, peggarly, rascally
knave! and by the soul of my grandsire, I will impeach, and accuse, and
indict him, of a roppery, if I did but know who he is.” Had this
misfortune happened at sea, where we could not repair the loss, in all
probability this descendant of Caractacus would have lost his wits
entirely; but, when I observed how easy it would be to remedy this
paltry mischance, he became more calm, and reconciled himself to the
occasion.
A little while after this transport the surgeon came into the birth,
under pretence of taking something out of the medicine chest, and, with
a smiling aspect, wished us joy of our deliverance, which, he said, he
had been at great pains to obtain of the captain, who was very justly
incensed at our behaviour; but he, the doctor, had passed his word for
our future conduct, and he hoped we should give him no cause to repent
of his kindness. He expected, no doubt, an acknowledgment from us for
this pretended piece of service, as well as a general amnesty of what
was past; but he had to do with people who were not quite so apt to
forgive injuries as he imagined, or to forget that, if our deliverance
was owing to his mediation, our calamity was occasioned by his malice;
I therefore sat silent, while my companion answered, “Ay, ay, ’tis no
matter, Cot knows the heart; there is a time for all things, as the
wise man saith; there is a time for throwing away stones, and to gather
them up.” He seemed to be disconcerted at this reply, and went away in
a pet, muttering something about “Ingratitude,” and “Fellows,” of which
we did not think fit to take any notice.
Our fleet, having joined another that waited for us, lay at anchor
about a month in the harbour of Port Royal in Jamaica, during which
time something of consequence was certainly transacted; notwithstanding
the insinuations of some, who affirmed we had no business at all in
that place; that, in order to take the advantage of the season proper
for our enterprise, the West India squadron, which had previous notice
of our coming, ought to have joined us at the west end of Hispaniola,
with necessary stores and refreshments, from whence we could have
sailed directly for Carthagena, before the enemy could put themselves
in a good posture of defence, or, indeed, have an inkling of our
design. Be this as it will, we sailed from Jamaica, and, in ten days or
a fortnight, beat up against the wind as far as the Isle of Vache, with
an intention, as was said, to attack the French fleet, then supposed to
be lying near that place; but before we arrived, they had sailed for
Europe, having first dispatched an advice-boat to Carthagena, with an
account of our being in those seas, as also of our strength and
destination. We loitered here some days longer, taking in wood and
brackish water, in the use whereof, however, our admiral seemed to
consult the health of the men, by restricting each to a quart a day.
At length we set sail, and arrived in a bay to the windward of
Carthagena, where we came to an anchor, and lay at our ease ten days
longer. Here, again, certain malicious people took occasion to blame
the conduct of their superiors, by saying, that in so doing they not
only unprofitably wasted time, which was very precious, considering the
approach of the rainy season, but also allowed the Spaniards to
recollect themselves from a terror occasioned by the approach of an
English fleet, at least three times as numerous as ever appeared in
that part of the world before. But if I might be allowed to give my
opinion of the matter, I would ascribe this delay to the generosity of
our chiefs, who scorned to take any advantage that fortune might give
them even over an enemy. At last, however, we weighed, and anchored
again somewhat nearer the harbour’s mouth, where we made shift to land
our marines, who encamped on the beach, in despite of the enemy’s shot,
which knocked a good many of them on the head. This piece of conduct,
in choosing a camp under the walls of an enemy’s fortification, which I
believe never happened before, was practised, I presume, with a view of
accustoming the soldiers to stand fire, who were not as yet much used
to discipline, most of them having been taken from the plough-tail a
few months before. This expedient, again, has furnished matter for
censure against the ministry, for sending a few raw recruits on such an
important enterprise, while so many veteran regiments lay inactive at
home. But surely our governors had their reasons for so doing, which
possibly may be disclosed with other secrets of the deep. Perhaps they
were loth to risk their best troops on such desperate service, or the
colonel and the field officers of the old corps, who, generally
speaking, enjoyed their commissions as sinecures or pensions, for some
domestic services rendered to the court, refused to embark in such a
dangerous and precarious undertaking; for which refusal, no doubt, they
are to be much commended.
CHAPTER XXXII
Our Land Forces being disembarked, erect a fascine battery—our ship is
ordered, with four more, to batter the port of Bocca Chica—Mackshane’s
cowardice—the Chaplain’s frenzy—honest Rattlin loses one hand—his
heroism and reflections on the battle—Crampley’s behaviour to me during
the heat of the Fight
Our forces being landed and stationed as I have already mentioned, set
about erecting a fascine battery to cannonade the principal fort of the
enemy; and in something more than three weeks, it was ready to open.
That we might do the Spaniards as much honour as possible, it was
determined, in a council of war, that five of our largest ships should
attack the fort on one side, while the battery, strengthened by two
mortars and twenty-four cohorns, should ply it on the other.
Accordingly, the signal for our ship to engage, among others, was
hoisted, we being advertised, the night before, to make everything
clear for that purpose; and, in so doing, a difference happened between
Captain Oakum and his well-beloved cousin and counsellor Mackshane,
which had well nigh terminated in an open rupture. The doctor, who had
imagined there was no more danger of being hurt by the enemy’s shot in
the cockpit than in the centre of the earth, was lately informed that a
surgeon’s mate had been killed in that part of the ship by a
cannon-ball from two small redoubts that were destroyed before the
disembarkation of our soldiers; and therefore insisted upon having a
platform raised for the convenience of the sick and wounded in the
after-hold, where he deemed himself more secure than on the deck above.
The captain, offended at this extraordinary proposal, accused him of
pusillanimity, and told him, there was no room in the hold for such an
occasion: or, if there was, he could not expect to be indulged more
than the rest of the surgeons of the navy, who used the cockpit for
that purpose. Fear rendering Mackshane obstinate, he persisted in his
demand, and showed his instructions, by which it was authorised; the
captain swore these instructions were dictated by a parcel of lazy
poltroons who were never at sea; nevertheless he was obliged to comply,
and sent for the carpenter to give him orders about it. But, before any
such measure could be taken, our signal was thrown out, and the doctor
compelled to trust his carcass in the cockpit, where Morgan and I were
busy in putting our instruments and dressings in order.
Our ship, with others destined for this service, immediately weighed,
and in less than half-an-hour came to an anchor before the castle of
Bocca Chica, with a spring upon our cable, and the cannonading (which
indeed was dreadful) began. The surgeon, after having crossed himself,
fell flat on the deck; and the chaplain and purser, who were stationed
with us in quality of assistants, followed his example, while the
Welshman and I sat upon a chest looking at one another with great
discomposure, scarce able to refrain from the like prostration. And
that the reader may know it was not a common occasion that alarmed us
thus, I must inform him of the particulars of this dreadful din that
astonished us. The fire of the Spaniards proceeded from eighty-four
great guns, besides a mortar and small arms, in Bocca Chica; thirty-six
in Fort St. Joseph; twenty in two fascine batteries, and four
men-of-war, mounting sixty-four guns each. This was answered by our
land-battery mounted with twenty-one cannon, two mortars, and
twenty-four cohorns, and five great ships of seventy or eighty guns,
that fired without intermission.
We had not been many minutes engaged, when one of the sailors brought
another on his back to the cockpit, where he tossed him down like a bag
of oats, and pulling out his pouch, put a large chew of tobacco in his
mouth without speaking a word. Morgan immediately examined the
condition of the wounded man, and cried out, “As I shall answer now,
the man is as dead as my great grandfather.” “Dead,” said his comrade;
“he may be dead now, for aught I know, but I’ll be d—d if he was not
alive when I took him up.” So saying, he was about to return to his
quarters, when I bade him carry the body along with him, and throw it
overboard. “D—n the body!” said he, “I think ’tis fair enough if I take
care of my own.” My fellow mate, snatching up the amputation knife,
pursued him half-way up the cock-pit ladder, crying, “You lousy rascal,
is this the churchyard, or the charnel-house, or the sepulchre, or the
golgotha, of the ship?”—but was stopped in his career by one calling,
“Yo he, avast there—scaldings!” “Scaldings!” answered Morgan; “Cot
knows ’tis hot enough indeed: who are you?” “Here’s one!” replied the
voice; and I immediately knew it to be that of my honest friend Jack
Rattlin, who coming towards me, told me, with great deliberation, he
was come to be docked at last, and discovered the remains of one hand,
which had been shattered to pieces with a grape shot. I lamented with
unfeigned sorrow his misfortune, which he bore with heroic courage,
observing, that every shot had its commission: “It was well it did not
take him in the head! or if it had, what then? he should have died
bravely, fighting for his king and country. Death was a debt which
every man owed, and must pay; and that now was as well as another
time.” I was much pleased and edified with the maxims of this
sea-philosopher, who endured the amputation of his left hand without
shrinking, the operation being performed (at his request) by me, after
Mackshane, who was with difficulty prevailed to lift his head from the
deck, had declared there was a necessity for his losing the limb.