The Pirate Slaver Part 18

"I am very much obliged to you for coming aboard, Senor Lobo, for you are the very man that I most desired to see. I require some a.s.sistance of a rather peculiar kind, and I believe that you, above all others, are the one who can best help me to it."

Lobo bowed and smiled, sipped his wine, and a.s.sured us that he was in all things our very obedient, humble servant, and that nothing pleased him so much as to be of a.s.sistance to the man-o'-war gentlemen, who honoured the river by paying it an occasional visit. At the same time-- he pointed out--his friendly relations with those same man-o'-war gentlemen, and the services that he had been so glad to render them from time to time were, if not well known, at least very strongly suspected by the slavers and slave-dealing fraternity generally who used the Congo for their nefarious purposes; and in incurring this suspicion he also incurred a very serious risk, both to property and life, for which he considered that he was justly ent.i.tled to be remunerated on a generous scale.

"Most a.s.suredly," I agreed. "And I may tell you at once, Senor Lobo, that I am prepared to reward you very munificently for the efficient and faithful performance of the service that I require of you; I am prepared, in fact, to offer you no less a reward than _your life_. Ah, you turn pale, I see; and well you may when I inform you that your true character is by this time known to probably every British commander on the coast; you are known as a bare-faced traitor to the cause that you have pretended so zealously to serve, and I don't mind mentioning to you, in confidence, that, if this s.h.i.+p had happened to be the _Barracouta_ instead of the _Felicidad_ you would now in all probability have been dangling from one of that s.h.i.+p's yard-arms, as a wholesome warning and example to all betrayers--Nay, keep your seat, man; there is a sentry outside the door, and you are a prisoner beyond all possibility of escape. But you have no cause for fear on that account, provided that you can prevail upon yourself to act honestly for once. I require a certain service from you, and I promise you that if you render that service faithfully I will set you free at the termination of the adventure, with full liberty to seek safety by flight elsewhere. But until the adventure of which I speak is brought to a favourable conclusion, you are my prisoner; and I give you my word of honour that upon the first attempt to escape which you may be ill-advised enough to make, I will put you in irons and chain you to the deck. If, therefore, you are wise, you will submit to your present predicament with a good grace, rather than tempt a worse one. And now, tell me everything you know with regard to the fate of the crews of the _Sapphire's_ boats."

"The _Sapphire's_ boats?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the now thoroughly terrified wretch. "I swear to Gad, sar, dat I had not'ing to do vid dat! I know not'ing about dem; not'ing whatever! But I can tell you de name of de man who had; ay, and I can put him into your power, if you like; he is a villain, and it would be only doing a good action to betray him to justice. I vill do it, too, if you vill release me at vonce; I vill tell you all about him, vhere he is to be found vhen he visits de river, de name of his cheep, and--and--all dat is necessairey for you to know."

"Yes; no doubt," I answered. "But you will have to purchase your release in some other way, senor; unfortunately for you we know all about Don Fernando de Mendouca, captain of the brigantine _Francesca_ and have every confidence in our ability to get hold of him without your a.s.sistance. And I may tell you that, _up to the present_, no charge has been made against you in connection with the disappearance of the _Sapphire's_ boats; you have therefore nothing to fear from us just now on that score. _Now_, will you tell us what you know about those unfortunate missing men?"

"Yes; yes, I vill, gentlemen; I vill tell you all dat I know; but it is not much," answered Lobo, with evident relief. "I only know dat de scoundrel Mendouca managed to trap de two boats in some vay--how, I know not--and dat he gave dem de choice of being ma.s.sacred, dere and den, or of surrendering and having dheir lives spared. And vhen dhey had surrendered he exchanged dhem to Matadi for slaves--t'ree slaves for every white man--so dat Matadi might have plenty of victims--white victims dhey consider _very_ good--for de annual--de annual--what you call it, eh? festa."

"Festival, I suppose you mean," said I, with an involuntary shudder.

"And, pray, Senor Lobo, do you happen to know the date of this festival?"

"No, I cannot say dat I do; but I t'ink about one week from now," was the answer.

"Then, thank G.o.d, we are still in time!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Now, Senor Lobo, I presume you are acquainted with this chief, Matadi, are you not?

You have probably had dealings with him, eh? Do not be afraid to give a truthful answer, because by so doing you cannot betray anything about yourself that we do not know already. We are fully aware, for instance, that you are a slave-dealer--among other things--and I have very little doubt that, if I chose to land a party, we should find a choice lot of negroes in that barrac.o.o.n of yours in the bush, yonder--you look surprised, but, you see, I know all about you; so your best plan will be to answer my questions truthfully and unreservedly. Now, as to this Matadi, who is he, and what is he?"

"Sair," said Lobo, in great perturbation, "I see dat you know all about me, so I will be perfectly open and frank wid you. I _do_ know Matadi.

He is a very powerful chief, de head of a tribe numbering quite t'ree t'ousand warriors; and his chief town is far up de river--four, five days' journey in a canoe. It lies on de sout' bank of de river 'bout eight miles below de first--what you call?--where de water runs very furious over de rocks, boiling like--like de water in a pot."

"Ah, rapids, you mean, I suppose?" suggested I.

"Yes, yes; rapids; dat is de word," agreed Lobo. "His town is near de first rapids; and he is very powerful, very dangerous, very fierce.

What do you want wid him, senor?"

"I want those white men that he holds in captivity; and I mean to have them, by fair means or foul!" said I. "I will buy them of him, if he is willing to part with them in that way; and if not, I intend to take them from him by force, for have them I _must_ and _will_ And I require your a.s.sistance in this matter, senor, as an interpreter, through whom I can treat with the fellow and carry on the necessary negotiations; and if those negotiations are successful, you will be released on our return here, and allowed thirty days to complete your arrangements for removal elsewhere. But if we fail you will be retained as a prisoner, and taken to Sierra Leone, to be dealt with as your past treacheries deserve.

Now, do you quite understand the position?"

"Yes, senor, I understand," answered Lobo, in great distress. "But, oh, gentlemen, I beg, I pray you, do not take me away from my business; it will all go wrong widout me, and I shall lose hundreds, t'ousands of dollars, _all_ my property will be gone before I can get back! I shall be ruin'!"

"I am sorry to hear that," I remarked; "but even supposing that matters go as badly with you as you seem to fear, that will be better than _hanging_, will it not? And, you see, I _must_ have somebody with me, as interpreter, whose interest it will be that I shall be successful in my mission; and I know of no one whose interests can be made more completely identical with my own than yourself, senor. Therefore I shall take you with me, regardless of consequences. But if you have any a.s.sistants ash.o.r.e to whom you would like to send a very brief message to the effect that you are taking a little business-trip up the river with me for a few days, and that they must do the best they can for you during your absence, I have no objection to your sending it. Otherwise, I will dismiss your boat; for we must not miss this fine sea-breeze, which ought to take us a good many miles up-stream before it dies away."

"Well, gentlemen, if you are quite determined, I must submit," answered Lobo, with a very disconsolate air. "But I protest against being thus carried off against my will; I protest against it as a--an--a--what do you call him?--yes, an outrage--an outrage, gentlemen; and the Portuguese Government will inquire into the matter."

"All right," said I cheerfully; "there can be no objection to that, so far as _we_ are concerned. And now that we have arranged this little matter, shall I dismiss your boat?"

"No, no; not yet, not yet," hastily answered Lobo. "Give me one littl'

piece of paper, if you please, and I will write a few words to Diego, my manager, telling him what to do in my absence."

"No," said I determinedly, "I can permit no written messages; a _verbal_ one, if you like, but nothing more."

"Ver' well," answered Lobo resignedly. "Then I will go up and speak to my boatmen."

"No need for that," said I. "Tell us which of your men you wish to see, and I will send for him to come here."

Poor Lobo made a gesture of impatience, but saw that I had quite determined to afford him no shadow of an opportunity to make any secret communication whatever; so he submitted to the inevitable, and sent for one of his men, to whom he delivered such a message as I suggested, adding a request that a small supply of clothing might be sent off to him at once. This ended the matter, so far as the obtaining of an efficient interpreter was concerned; the clothes were brought off; and shortly after noon we weighed and, with a brisk breeze, stood out of the creek on our way up the river.

For the first twelve miles or so our course was the same as that which we had followed in our memorable expedition to attack Chango Creek; the river being, up to that point, about three miles wide, with a fine deep channel averaging perhaps a quarter of that width up as far as abreast the southern extremity of Monpanga island, where this deep channel terminates, and the average depth of the entire stream dwindles to about six fathoms for the next fourteen miles, the channel at the same time narrowing down to a width varying from about two miles to less than half-a-mile in some parts, notably at the spot where it begins to thread its devious way among the islands that c.u.mber the stream for a length of fully thirty miles, at a distance of about twenty-eight miles from Shark Point.

By carrying a press of sail, and hugging the northern bank, keeping as close to the sh.o.r.e as our little draught of water would permit, thus to a great extent cheating the current, we contrived to get as far as the spot where the above-mentioned chain of islands commences; and there, the wind failing us toward sunset, we came to an anchor close to the southern sh.o.r.e, on a sand-bank, in three fathoms, under the lee of a large island that sheltered us from the rush of the main current; and there we remained all night, a strict anchor-watch of course being kept not only to see that the schooner did not drive from her berth, but also to guard against possible attack on the part of the natives. In this spot, to my inexpressible chagrin, we were compelled to spend the following two days, the wind blowing down the river, when it blew at all, a little variety being infused into the weather by the outburst of a most terrific thunderstorm which brought with it a perfect hurricane of wind and a deluge of rain; after which we again got a fair wind and were able to pursue our way for a time, getting ash.o.r.e occasionally upon unsuspected sand-banks, but always contriving to heave off again, undamaged, thanks to the fact that we were proceeding up-stream against the current instead of down-stream with it. And--not to dwell unduly upon incidents that were exciting enough to us, although the recital of them would prove of but little interest to the reader--in this way we contrived to creep up the river the hundred and twelve miles or so that were necessary to bring us to Matadi's town--having pa.s.sed, and with some difficulty avoided, two whirlpools on the way, reaching our destination about two bells in the afternoon watch on the fifth day after leaving Banana Creek.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

SUCCESS. THE FATE OF THE PIRATE SLAVER.

Matadi's "town" was situate, as Lobo had informed us, on the south bank of the stream, on the sloping side of a hill that rose rather steeply from the water's edge; the scenery of this part of the river being totally different from that of the mouth; the change occurring gradually, but becoming quite decided about the point where the chain of islands is left behind on the traveller's upward way. For whereas on the lower reaches of the Congo--that is to say, for the first forty miles or so from its mouth--the banks of the river are low and flat, and to a great extent mangrove-lined, beyond this point their tendency is to become higher and steeper, in some places, indeed, quite precipitous, until where we now were the ground sloped up from the river margin to a height of fully four hundred feet, for the most part densely covered with bush interspersed here and there with ma.s.ses of n.o.ble forest trees.

Matadi's town was situate, as I have said, upon the sloping hillside that const.i.tuted the south bank of the river, and consisted of some four or five hundred buildings arranged with tolerable regularity on either side of two broad streets or roads that crossed each other at right angles, their point of intersection being a s.p.a.cious square, in the centre of which stood a circular structure with a high-peaked, pointed roof of thatch, that Lobo informed me was the fetish-house. I was greatly surprised at the neatness and skill displayed in the construction of the buildings in this important town; for while they were insignificant in size, as compared with the dwellings of a civilised race, being about the size of a small two-roomed cottage, such as may be found in almost any rural district in England, they were very considerably larger and more carefully and substantially-built than the huts that we had noticed in King Plenty's town, when we made our disastrous attack upon Mendouca and his consorts. There was even a certain attempt at ornamentation discernible in the larger structures, many of which had what I believe is called in England a barge-board, elaborately carved, under the projecting eaves of the roof that formed the verandah, the wooden posts that supported those same projecting eaves being also boldly sculptured. These particulars I noted through my telescope on rounding the bend of the river just beyond the town; and I could not help feeling that a community of savages intellectual enough to find pleasure in the adornment of their houses would be likely to prove very difficult to deal with unless I could contrive to make their inclination coincide with my own wishes.

Our appearance--the _Felicidad_ being probably the first s.h.i.+p that had ever penetrated so far up the river--created a profound sensation in the town, the inhabitants rus.h.i.+ng in and out of their dwellings and about the streets for all the world like an alarmed colony of ants, and finally congregating along the margin of the river to the extent of fully one thousand, most of them being men, every one of whom, so far as I could make out, was armed; the weapons being spears, bows and arrows, and clubs with heavy k.n.o.bs on the end. They seemed to be a fine, powerful race, evidently accustomed to warfare, if one might judge by the readiness with which, at the command of an immensely stout and powerful man--whom Lobo declared to be none other than Matadi himself-- they formed themselves up into compact and orderly squadrons, and I thought, ruefully, that if it became necessary to resort to forcible measures for the release of our countrymen, we were likely to have a pretty bad time.

To attempt to open communications with a thousand armed savages, whose evident purpose in mustering on the river bank immediately in front of their town was to resolutely oppose any attempt at landing on our part, was a rather delicate operation; still, it had to be done, and it was worse than useless to exhibit any sign of trepidation or hesitation. I therefore ordered the gig to be lowered, and with four men, fully armed, at the oars, and Lobo and myself in the stern-sheets, pushed off for the sh.o.r.e. This bold action on our part created a profound sensation upon the savages ma.s.sed upon the sh.o.r.e, the boat being no sooner under way than they raised their spears above their heads, shook them furiously until the blades clashed upon each other with the sound of a falling torrent of water, and emitted a blood-curdling yell that almost drove poor Lobo out of his senses. We had, however--at Lobo's suggestion-- provided ourselves with palm branches, cut on the night before at our previous anchorage, and now, seizing one of these, the Portuguese scrambled forward into the eyes of the boat and stood there, waving the branch violently and pointing it toward the savages. This demonstration had the effect of quelling the tumult, the blacks subsiding into quietude almost instantly, at the command of Matadi; but it was evident that they had no intention of permitting us to land, for at a second command from the chief they advanced, as steadily as a band of civilised troops, across the short intervening s.p.a.ce of greensward between themselves and the water's edge, at which they halted, forming up three deep in a long, compact line along the river margin.

We continued to pull sh.o.r.eward until we were within easy speaking distance; when the boat's bows were turned up-stream, and while the men continued to paddle gently ahead, using just sufficient strength to enable the boat to stem the current and maintain her position abreast the centre of the line of savages, Lobo opened the palaver by informing Matadi that we were there by command of the Great White Queen to procure the release of the white men held by him as prisoners, and that we were fully prepared to pay a handsome ransom for them; it was only for Matadi to name his price, and it should be cheerfully paid.

To this the chief replied by inquiring what white men we referred to; he knew nothing about white men, and indeed had never seen any except ourselves. And he strongly advised us to lose no time in making our way back down the river again, as his soldiers were very angry at our presumption in invading his territory, and he could not answer for it that he would be able to restrain them should they take into their heads to actively resent our intrusion by attacking the s.h.i.+p.

I knew from this reply, which Lobo duly translated to me, that our friend Matadi was an adept in the art--so peculiarly characteristic of the African savage--of lying, and must be dealt with accordingly. So I said to Lobo--

"Tell him that he is mistaken. Say that the circ.u.mstance was doubtless of so trivial a character as to escape the recollection of a great chief like Matadi; but that, nevertheless, we _know_ it to be a fact that about six moons ago some thirty or forty white men were sold to him by one Mendouca, a slave-buyer; and that it is those men we are seeking, our instructions being that we are not to return without them, even should we be obliged to destroy Matadi's town with our thunder and lightning in the process of securing them."

My scarcely-veiled threat to destroy his town was received by Matadi with scornful laughter, the savage declaring in set terms that he did not believe in the power of the white men to produce either lightning or thunder; and as to our accomplis.h.i.+ng the threatened destruction without those means--why, there were a few of his warriors present who would have a word to say upon that matter. Touching the question of the white men said to have been sold to him, Matadi admitted that he now thought he remembered some transaction of the kind, but had not the remotest idea of what had become of them; he would make inquiries, however, and if we would go away, and return again about the same time next moon he would perhaps be able to give us some news of them. But before troubling himself to make any such inquiries he must be propitiated with a present; and he would also like to know what price we were prepared to pay for each white man, should any be found.

"Tell him," said I, "that this is a case of 'no white man, no present'; but that if the white men are found, I will not only buy them of him at so much per head, but also make him a handsome present into the bargain.

Say that the goods to be paid as ransom are aboard the schooner, and that they consist of guns, beads, bra.s.s wire, beautiful printed calicoes, suitable for the adornment of any African king's wives; handsome red coats with resplendent bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and gorgeous worsted epaulettes, admirably calculated to set off Matadi's own kingly figure; and superb blankets, red, blue, green--in fact, all the colours of the rainbow. If he and two or three of his chiefs would like to come aboard and see these magnificent articles, I shall be very pleased to exhibit them."

This speech being translated by Lobo, there ensued a long palaver, the result of which was that Matadi declined to go on board the schooner, but had no objection to come off alongside and inspect them from a distance, provided that we would first return and hoist up our own boat.

The fact evidently was that the fellow, treacherous himself, suspected everybody else of being the same, and was clearly indisposed to put himself in our power, while he was at the same time devoured with curiosity to see the articles of which I had given such a glowing description. Of course, as I wished above all things to excite his cupidity to the point of determining to possess the goods, even at the cost of having to give up the white men, I readily agreed to his proposal; and at once returned to the schooner and ordered the boat to be hoisted to the davits.

It was evident that my endeavour to excite Matadi's curiosity had been completely successful; for no sooner was the gig out of the water than a large canoe was launched, into which Matadi and three or four other negroes--presumably subordinate chiefs--scrambled, when she was at once shoved off and, paddled by twenty natives, brought to within about twenty yards of the schooner, that being considered, I suppose, about the shortest distance within which it would be safe to approach us. I tried to persuade them to come a little nearer, if not actually on board, but Matadi resolutely refused; and as he seemed half inclined to go back again without even waiting to see what I had to show him, I ordered the steward to open the boxes at once, and forthwith proceeded to exhibit my coils of wire, strings of beads, bandana handkerchiefs, rolls of gaudily-coloured prints, old military uniforms, and muskets, and other odds and ends, the exhibition proving so attractive that before its conclusion the canoe had been gradually sheered nearer and nearer to the schooner until she was brought fairly alongside, and they had even consented to accept a rope's-end to hang on by. Matadi badly wanted us to pa.s.s some of the articles down over the side that he might examine them still more minutely, but I would not permit this, thinking it best to still leave some of his curiosity unsatisfied, and at length, after they had been alongside nearly an hour and a half, and had asked for a second and even a third sight of most of the goods, they reluctantly retired, their eyes glistening with cupidity, Matadi promising to inst.i.tute an immediate inquiry as to the whereabouts of the white men, and to let me know the result as soon as possible.

I was very well satisfied with this interview, for I felt convinced that I had so powerfully excited the covetousness of the savages that they would determine to possess the goods that I had shown them at any cost.

And so, as it turned out, I had, although, consequent upon my omission to take into consideration the natural treachery of the savage character, I was wholly mistaken as to the form in which that determination would manifest itself.

It was clear that Matadi still entertained a wholesome, whole-souled distrust of us; for when he landed the troops of warriors were still left drawn up along the river bank, with the evident intention of preventing any attempt on our part to go ash.o.r.e and satisfy our curiosity by an inspection of his town; we therefore accepted the palpable hint thus conveyed, and stuck to the s.h.i.+p, which, I need scarcely say, had been cleared for action and held ready for any emergency from the moment of our arrival abreast the town.

It was by this time growing late in the afternoon, and as I was anxious to obtain possession of my unfortunate countrymen and leave Matadi's rather dangerous neighbourhood before nightfall, we watched the proceedings in the town narrowly and with a great deal of interest. But although we were enabled with the aid of our telescopes to follow Matadi and his little coterie of chiefs to a large building ab.u.t.ting on the square at the intersection of the cross streets, and which we took to be the "palace," we were unable to detect anything of an unusual character in the appearance or movements of the people until close upon sunset, when we observed a small canoe coming off to the schooner--a craft propelled by four paddlers, with a single individual sitting in the stern. This person we presently recognised as one of the chiefs who had accompanied Matadi alongside earlier in the day; and he brought a message to the effect that the king had ascertained that the white men about whom we had inquired were all safe in a village a day's march distant, and that Matadi would send for them on the morrow, unless we were prepared to make him a present of a musket, five strings of beads, a bandana handkerchief, and a roll of printed calico, in which case he would so far discommode himself as to send off a messenger at once.

This was of course very annoying, and I did not at all like the idea of giving these savages anything without a tangible return for it; still, after considering the matter a little, I arrived at the conclusion that to expedite affairs by twelve hours was quite worth the price asked, and the articles were accordingly handed over, not without grave misgivings as to the wisdom of the proceeding. Soon after this it fell dark, the stars sparkled out one after another, lighting up the scene with their soft effulgence, the noises in the town became hushed, save for the occasional barking of a dog here and there, and a deep, solemn hush fell upon us, in which the deep, hoa.r.s.e, tumbling roar of a whirl-pool at no great distance, and the gurgle and rush of the turbid river past the schooner's hull became almost startlingly audible. But as long as we were able to see them the lines of native warriors still stood, silent and motionless, guarding the whole river front of the town. As a matter of precaution, I now ordered the boarding nettings to be triced up all round the s.h.i.+p, the guns to be loaded with grape and canister, the small arms to be prepared for immediate service, a double anchor-watch to be kept, and the men to hold themselves ready for any emergency, after the bustle of which preparations the schooner subsided again into silence and darkness, the men for the most part "p.r.i.c.king for a soft plank" on deck, and coiling themselves away thereon in preference to seeking repose in the stifling forecastle. As for Gowland and myself, we paced the deck contemplatively together until about ten o'clock, discussing the chances of getting away on the morrow, and then, everything seeming perfectly quiet and peaceful, we had our mattresses brought on deck, and stretched ourselves out thereon in the small clear s.p.a.ce between the companion and the wheel.

I had been asleep about two hours, when I was awakened by a light touch, and, starting up, found that it was one of the anchor-watch, who was saying--

"Better go below, sir, I think, because it looks as though it was goin'

to rain. And Bill and me, sir, we thinks as you ought to know that we fancies we've heard the dip o' paddles occasionally round about the s.h.i.+p within the last ten minutes."