The Adventures of Roderick Random
While I was employed in dressing the stump, I asked Jack’s opinion of
the battle, who, shaking his head, frankly told me, he believed we
should do no good: “For why? because, instead of dropping anchor close
under shore, where we should have to deal with one corner of Bocca
Chica only, we had opened the harbour, and exposed ourselves to the
whole fire of the enemy from their shipping and Fort St. Joseph, as
well as from the castle we intended to cannonade; that, besides, we lay
at too great a distance to damage the walls, and three parts in four of
our shot did not take place; for there was scarce anybody on board who
understood the pointing of a gun. Ah! God help us!” continued he, “If
your kinsman, Lieutenant Bowling, had been here, we should have had
other guess work.” By this time, our patients had increased to such a
number, that we did not know which to begin with; and the first mate
plainly told the surgeon, that if he did not get up immediately and
perform his duty, he would complain of his behaviour to the admiral,
and make application for his warrant. This remonstrance effectually
roused Mackshane, who was never deaf to an argument in which he thought
his interest was concerned; he therefore rose up, and in order to
strengthen his resolution, had recourse more than once to a case-bottle
of rum, which he freely communicated to the chaplain, and purser, who
had as much need of such extraordinary inspiration as himself. Being
thus supported, he went to work, and arms and legs were hewed down
without mercy. The fumes of the liquor mounting into the parson’s
brain, conspired, with his former agitation of spirits, to make him
quite delirious; he stripped himself to the skin; and, besmearing his
body with blood, could scarce be withheld from running upon deck in
that condition. Jack Rattlin, scandalised at this deportment,
endeavoured to allay his transports with reason; but finding all he
said ineffectual, and great confusion occasioned by his frolics, he
knocked him down with his right hand, and by threats kept him quiet in
that state of humiliation. But it was not in the power of rum to
elevate the purser, who sat on the floor wringing his hands, and
cursing the hour in which he left his peaceable profession of a brewer
in Rochester, to engage in such a life of terror and disquiet.
While we diverted ourselves at the expense of this poor devil, a shot
happened to take us between wind and water, and (its course being
through the purser’s store room) made a terrible havoc and noise among
the jars and bottles in its way, and disconcerted Mackshane so much,
that he dropped his scalpel, and falling down on his knees, pronounced
his Pater-noster aloud: the purser fell backward, and lay without sense
or motion; and the chaplain grew so outrageous, that Rattlin with one
hand could not keep him under; so that we were obliged to confine him
in the surgeon’s cabin, where he was no doubt guilty of a thousand
extravagancies. Much about this time, my old antagonist, Crampley, came
down, with express orders, as he said, to bring me up to the
quarter-deck, to dress a slight wound the captain had received by a
splinter: his reason for honouring me in particular with this piece of
service, being, that in case I should be killed or disabled by the way,
my death or mutilation would be of less consequence to the ship’s
company than that of the doctor or his first mate. At another time,
perhaps, I might have disputed this order, to which I was not bound to
pay the least regard; but as I thought my reputation depended upon my
compliance, I was resolved to convince my rival that I was no more
afraid than he of exposing myself to danger. With this view I provided
myself with dressings, and followed him immediately to the
quarter-deck, through a most infernal scene of slaughter, fire, smoke,
and uproar. Captain Oakum, who leaned against the mizen-mast, no sooner
saw me approach in my shirt, with the sleeves tucked up to my armpits,
and my hands dyed with blood, than he signified his displeasure by a
frown, and asked why the doctor himself did not come? I told him that
Crampley had singled me out, as if by express command; at which reply
he seemed surprised, and threatened to punish the midshipman for his
presumption, after the engagement. In the meantime, I was sent back to
my station, and ordered to tell Mackshane, that the captain expected
him immediately. I got safe back, and delivered my commission to the
doctor, who flatly refused to quit the post assigned to him by his
instructions; whereupon Morgan, who I believe, was jealous of my
reputation for courage, undertook the affair, and ascended with great
intrepidity. The captain, finding the surgeon obstinate, suffered
himself to be dressed, and swore he would confine Mackshane as soon as
the service should be over.
CHAPTER XXXIII
A breach being made in the walls, our soldiers give the assault, and
take the place without opposition—our sailors at the same time, become
masters of all the other strengths near Bocca Chica, and take
possession of the harbour—the good consequence of this success—we move
nearer the town—find two forts deserted, and the Channel blocked up
with sunk vessels; which however we find means to clear—land our
soldiers at La Quinta—repulse a body of militia—attack the castle of
St. Lazar, and are forced to retreat with great loss—the remains of our
army are re-embarked—an effort of the Admiral to take the town—the
economy of our expedition described
Having cannonaded the fort during the space of four hours, we were all
ordered to slip our cables, and sheer off; but next day the engagement
was renewed, and continued from the morning till the afternoon, when
the enemy’s fire from Bocca Chica slackened, and towards evening was
quite silenced. A breach being made on the other side, by our land
battery, large enough to admit a middle-sized baboon, provided he could
find means to climb up to it, our general proposed to give the assault
that very night, and actually ordered a detachment on that duty.
Providence stood our friend upon this occasion, and put it into the
hearts of the Spaniards to abandon the fort, which might have been
maintained by resolute men till the day of judgment against all the
force we could exert in the attack. And while our soldiers took
possession of the enemy’s ramparts without resistance, the same good
luck attended a body of sailors, who made themselves masters of Fort
St. Joseph, the fascine batteries, and one Spanish man-of-war; the
other three being burnt or sunk by the foe, that they might not fall
into our hands. The taking of these forts, in the strength of which the
Spaniards chiefly confided, made us masters of the outward harbour, and
occasioned great joy among us, as we laid our accounts at finding
little or no opposition from the town: and indeed, if a few great ships
had sailed up immediately, before they had recovered from the confusion
and despair that our unexpected success had produced among them, it is
not impossible that we might have finished the affair to our
satisfaction, without any more bloodshed; but this step our heroes
disdained as a barbarous insult over the enemy’s distress, and gave
them all the respite they could desire, in order to recollect
themselves. In the meantime, Mackshane, taking the advantage of this
general exultation, waited on our captain, and pleaded his own cause so
effectually that he was re-established in his good graces; and as for
Crampley, there was no more notice taken of his behaviour towards me
during the action. But of all the consequences of the victory, none was
more grateful than plenty of fresh water, after we had languished five
weeks on the allowance of a purser’s quart per day for each man in the
Torrid Zone, where the sun was vertical, and the expense of bodily
fluid so great, that a gallon of liquor could scarce supply the waste
of twenty-four hours; especially as our provision consisted of putrid
salt beef, to which the sailors gave the name of Irish horse; salt
pork, of New England, which, though neither fish nor flesh, savoured of
both; bread from the same country, every biscuit whereof, like a piece
of clockwork, moved by its own internal impulse, occasioned by the
myriads of insects that dwelt within it; and butter served out by the
gill, that tasted like train oil thickened with salt. Instead of small
beer, each man was allowed three half-quarterns of brandy or rum, which
were distributed every morning, diluted with a certain quantity of his
water, without either sugar or fruit to render it palatable, for which
reason, this composition was by the sailors not ineptly styled
Necessity. Nor was this limitation of simple element owing to a
scarcity of it on board, for there was at this time water enough in the
ship for a voyage of six months, at the rate of half-a-gallon per day
to each man: but this fast must, I suppose, have been enjoined by way
of penance on the ship’s company for their sins; or rather with a view
to mortify them into a contempt of life, that they might thereby become
more resolute and regardless of danger. How simply then do those people
argue, who ascribe the great mortality among us, to our bad provision
and want of water; and affirm, that a great many valuable lives might
have been saved, if the useless transports had been employed in
fetching fresh stock, turtle, fruit, and other refreshments from
Jamaica and other adjacent islands, for the use of the army and fleet!
seeing it is to be hoped, that those who died went to a better place,
and those who survived were the more easily maintained. After all, a
sufficient number remained to fall before the walls of St. Lazar, where
they behaved like their own country mastiffs, which shut their eyes,
run into the jaws of a bear, and have their heads crushed for their
valour.
But to return to my narration. After having put garrisons into the
forts we had taken, and re-embarked our soldiers and artillery (a piece
of service that detained us more than a week), we ventured up to the
mouth of the inner harbour, guarded by a large fortification on one
side, and a small redoubt on the other, both of which were deserted
before our approach, and the entrance of the harbour blocked up by
several old galleons, and two men-of-war that the enemy had sunk in the
channel. We made shift, however, to open a passage for some ships, that
favoured a second landing of our troops at a place called La Quinta,
not far from the town, where, after a faint resistance from a body of
Spaniards, who opposed their disembarkation, they encamped with a
design of besieging the castle of St. Lazar, which overlooked and
commanded the city. Whether our renowned general had nobody in his army
who knew how to approach it in form, or that he trusted entirely to the
fame of his arms, I shall not determine; but, certain it is, a
resolution was taken in a council of war, to attack the place with
musketry only. This was put in execution, and succeeded accordingly;
the enemy giving them such a hearty reception, that the greatest part
of their detachment took up their everlasting residence on the spot.
Our chief, not relishing this kind of complaisance in the Spaniard’s,
was wise enough to retreat on board with the remains of his army,
which, from eight thousand able men landed on the beach near Bocca
Chica, was now reduced to fifteen hundred fit for service. The sick and
wounded were squeezed into certain vessels, which thence obtained the
name of hospital ships, though methinks they scarce deserved such a
creditable title, seeing few of them could boast of their surgeon,
nurse, or cook; and the space between decks was so confined that the
miserable patients had not room to sit upright in their beds. Their