The Adventures of Roderick Random
wounds and stumps, being neglected, contracted filth and putrefaction,
and millions of maggots were hatched amidst the corruption of their
sores. This inhuman disregard was imputed to the scarcity of surgeons;
though it is well known that every great ship in the fleet could have
spared one at least for this duty, an expedient which would have been
more than sufficient to remove this shocking inconvenience. But perhaps
our general was too much of a gentleman to ask a favour of this kind
from his fellow chief, who, on the other hand, would not derogate so
much from his own dignity, as to offer such assistance unasked; for, I
may venture to affirm, that by this time the Demon of Discord, with her
sooty wings, had breathed her influence upon our councils; and it might
be said of these great men (I hope they will pardon the comparison) as
of Cesar and Pompey, the one could not brook a superior, and the other
was impatient of an equal; so that, between the pride of one and
insolence of another, the enterprise miscarried, according to the
proverb, “Between two stools the backside falls to the ground.” Not
that I would be thought to liken any public concern to that opprobrious
part of the human body, though I might with truth assert, if I durst
use such a vulgar idiom, that the nation did hang on arse at its
disappointment on this occasion; neither would I presume to compare the
capacity of our heroic leaders to any such wooden convenience as a
joint-stool or a close-stool; but only to signify by this simile, the
mistake the people committed in trusting to the union of two
instruments that were never joined.
A day or two after the attempt on St. Lazar, the admiral ordered one of
the Spanish men-of-war we had taken to be mounted with sixteen guns,
and manned with detachments from our great ships, in order to batter
the town; accordingly, she was towed into the inner harbour in the
night, and moored within half a mile of the walls, against which she
began to fire at daybreak; and continued about six hours exposed to the
opposition of at least thirty pieces of cannon, which at length obliged
our men to set her on fire, and get off as well as they could in their
boats. This piece of conduct afforded matter of speculation to all the
wits, either in the army or navy, who were at last fain to acknowledge
it a stroke of policy above their comprehension. Some entertained such
an irreverent opinion of the admiral’s understanding, as to think he
expected the town would surrender to his floating battery of sixteen
guns: others imagined his sole intention was to try the enemy’s
strength, by which he should be able to compute the number of great
ships that would be necessary to force the town to a capitulation. But
this last conjecture soon appeared groundless, inasmuch as no ships of
any kind whatever were afterwards employed on that service. A third
sort swore, that no other cause could be assigned for this undertaking
than that which induced Don Quixote to attack the windmill. A fourth
class (and that the most numerous, though, without doubt, composed of
the sanguine and malicious), plainly taxed this commander with want of
honesty as well as sense; and alleged that he ought to have sacrificed
private pique to the interest of his country; that, where the lives of
so many brave fellow-citizens were concerned, he ought to have
concurred with the general without being solicited or even desired,
towards their preservation and advantage, that, if his arguments could
not dissuade him from a desperate enterprise, it was his duty to have
rendered it as practicable as possible, without running extreme hazard;
that this could have been done, with a good prospect of success, by
ordering five or six large ships to batter the town, while the land
forces stormed the castle; by these means a considerable diversion
would have been made in favour of those troops, who, in their march to
the assault and in the retreat, suffered much more from the town than
from the castle! that the inhabitants, seeing themselves vigorously
attacked on all hands, would have been divided, distracted, and
confused, and in all probability, unable to resist the assailants. But
all these suggestions surely proceeded from ignorance or malevolence,
or else the admiral would not have found it such an easy matter, at his
return to England, to justify his conduct to a ministry at once so
upright and discerning. True it is, that those who undertook to
vindicate him on the spot, asserted, that there was not water enough
for our great ships near the town: though this was a little
unfortunately urged, because there happened to be pilots in the fleet
perfectly well acquainted with the soundings of the harbour, who
affirmed there was water enough for five eighty-gun ships to lie
abreast almost up to the very walls. The disappointments we suffered
occasioned a universal dejection, which was not at all alleviated by
the objects that daily and hourly entertained our eyes, nor by the
prospect of what must have inevitably happened, had we remained much
longer in this place. Such was the economy in some ships that, rather
than be at the trouble of interring the dead, their commanders ordered
their men to throw their bodies overboard, many without either ballast
or winding-sheet; so that numbers of human carcases floated in the
harbour, until they were devoured by sharks and carrion crows, which
afforded no agreeable spectacle to those who survived. At the same time
the wet season began, during which a deluge of rain falls, from the
rising to the setting sun, without intermission, and that no sooner
ceases than it begins to thunder, and lighten with such continued
flashing, that one can see to read a very small print by the
illumination.
CHAPTER XXXIV
An epidemic Fever rages among us—we abandon our Conquests—I am seized
with Distemper—write a Petition to the Captain, which is rejected—I am
in danger of Suffocation through the Malice of Crampley, and relieved
by a Serjeant—my Fever increases—the Chaplain wants to confess me—I
obtain a favourable Crisis—Morgan’s Affection for me proved—the
Behaviour of Mackshane and Crampley towards me—Captain Oakum is removed
into another Ship with his beloved Doctor—our new Captain described—An
Adventure of Morgan
The change of the atmosphere, occasioned by this phenomenon, conspired,
with the stench that surrounded us, the heat of the climate, our own
constitutions, impoverished by bad provisions, and our despair, to
introduce the bilious fever among us, which raged with such violence,
that three-fourths of those whom it invaded died in a deplorable
manner; the colour of their skin being, by the extreme putrefaction of
the juices, changed into that of soot.
Our conductors, finding things in this situation, perceived it was high
to relinquish our conquests, and this we did, after having rendered
their artillery useless, and blown up their walls with gunpowder. Just
as we sailed from Bocca Chica, on our return to Jamaica, I found myself
threatened with the symptoms of this terrible distemper; and knowing
very well that I stood no chance for my life, if I should be obliged to
be in the cockpit, which by this time was grown intolerable, even to
people in health, by reason of the heat and unwholesome smell of
decayed provision, I wrote a petition to the captain, representing my
case, and humbly imploring his permission to be among the soldiers in
the middle deck, for the benefit of the air: but I might have spared
myself the trouble; for this humane commander refused my request, and
ordered me to continue in the place allotted for the surgeon’s mates,
or else be contented to be in the hospital, which, by the by, was three
degrees more offensive and more suffocating than our own berth below.
Another, in my condition, perhaps, would have submitted to his fate,
and died in a pet; but I could not brook the thought of perishing so
pitifully, after I had weathered so many gales of hard fortune: I
therefore, without minding Oakum’s injunction, prevailed upon the
soldiers (whose good-will I had acquired) to admit my hammock among
them; and actually congratulated myself upon my comfortable situation;
which Crampley no sooner understood, than he signified to the captain
my contempt of his orders, and was invested with power to turn me down
again into my proper habitation.
This barbarous piece of revenge incensed me so much against the author,
that I vowed, with bitter imprecations, to call him to a severe
account, if ever it should be in my power; and the agitation of my
spirits increased my fever to a violent degree. While I lay gasping for
breath in this infernal abode, I was visited by a sergeant, the bones
of whose nose I had reduced and set to rights, after they had been
demolished by a splinter during our last engagement; he, being informed
of my condition, offered me the use of his berth in the middle deck,
which was enclosed with canvas, and well aired by a port-hole that
remained open within it. I embraced this proposal with joy, and was
immediately conducted to the place, where I was treated, while my
illness lasted, with the utmost tenderness and care by this grateful
halberdier, who had no other bed for himself than a hencoop during the
whole passage. Here I lay and enjoyed the breeze, notwithstanding which
my malady gained ground, and at length my life was despaired of, though
I never lost hopes of recovery, even when I had the mortification to
see, from my cabin-window, six or seven thrown overboard every day, who
died of the same distemper. This confidence, I am persuaded, conduced a
great deal to the preservation of my life, especially when joined to
another resolution I took at the beginning, namely, to refuse all
medicine, which I could not help thinking co-operated with the disease,
and, instead of resisting putrefaction, promoted a total degeneracy of
the vital fluid. When my friend Morgan, therefore, brought his
diaphoretic bolases, I put them into my mouth, ’tis true, but without
any intention of swallowing them: and, when he went away, spit them
out, and washed my mouth with water-gruel. I seemingly complied in this
matter, that I might not affront the blood of Caractacus, by a refusal
which might have intimated a diffidence of his physical capacity, for
he acted as my physician; Doctor Mackshane never once inquiring about
me, or even knowing where I was. When my distemper was at the height,
Morgan thought my case desperate, and, after having applied a blister
to the nape of my neck, squeezed my hand, bidding me, with a woful
countenance, recommend myself to Cot and my Reteemer; then, taking his
leave, desired the chaplain to come and administer some spiritual
consolation to me; but, before he arrived, I made shift to rid myself
of the troublesome application the Welshman had bestowed on my back.
The person, having felt my pulse, inquired into the nature of my
complaints, hemmed a little, and began thus: “Mr. Random, God out of
his infinite mercy has been pleased to visit you with a dreadful
distemper, the issue of which no man knows. You may be permitted to
recover and live many days on the face of the earth; and, which is more
probable, you may be taken away, and cut off in the flower of your
youth. It is incumbent on you, therefore, to prepare for the great
change, by repenting sincerely of your sins; of this there cannot be a
greater sign, than an ingenuous confession, which I conjure you to make
without hesitation or mental reservation; and, when I am convinced of
your sincerity, I will then give you such comfort as the situation of
your soul will admit of. Without doubt, you have been guilty of
numberless transgressions to which youth is subject, as swearing,