302

A SECOND CASE OF MURDER.

undoubtedly bound-worked him into a fury. He struck the cooper several violent blows, and at his last one the man rolled over into the lee-scuppers, and in a few minutes was a corpse-the captain, a murderer twice!

"The strange ship was an American one: the master came on board, supplied us with water and some provisions, sent a mate and one or two men to help the brig into port, we being then only 150 miles off Cape Clear, and then the American bore up on her course to New York.

"We arrived at Liverpool without further accident, and the authorities there took charge of the case against the captain. There were sufficient witnesses without me; and beyond having my deposition taken in writing, I was not troubled by the lawyers. The captain, I believe, was transported for life, or confined in a mad-house.

"This cruise had thoroughly sickened me of the African trade, and I might add of the sea likewise. I started off to Belfast: my father had died, and my sisters, having raised all the ready cash they could upon his property, had with an uncle of mine started for Australia, and were supposed to have settled in Port Adelaide. The sea was now my only resource. I shipped in a vessel bound to India, and

LUCAS A SEAMAN, NOLENS VOLENS.

303

you know the rest, sir. I fancy I shall end, if I am lucky, in being a warrant-officer one of these days.”

Such was the tale of the sailor Lucas: the reader will allow it to be a strange one. It happened twenty years ago: yet strange things are still done where the blue sea and silent stars are the sole witnesses; and the skippers of palm oil traders are not the only ones who act upon the Muscovite principle, that "the Heavens are high, and the Czar afar off."

304

THE LOAN OF A LOVE-LETTER.

CHAP. XXII.

Jadee offers the Loan of a Love-Letter.

- A Midshipman's

Scruples. The "Emerald ordered to Pouchou. Enter the River during the Night. Jadee's Suggestions for warding off Musquitoes.

- Jadee foresees Trouble. — A

nautical Superstition of the olden Day. - The Flight.-The Sampan repulsed. - The Chase. — A Prahu captured.— Proceed to Tangong Gaboose.-Starving piratical Fugitives. A Threat of Cannibalism. - The Horrors of Asiatic Warfare. Jamboo's View of the Malays' Position. Reflections.

ABOUT this time, we received from Tonkoo Mahomet Said formal expressions of his gratitude for the kindness shown to his wife and family. From them he had somehow received intelligence direct from Penang. Of the lovely little Baju-Mira I did not again hear; and Jadee proposed that I should send her a letter written by my interpreter. Amused at the idea, I suggested that he should compose one for me, as, by his own acknowledgment, he had been a perfect lady-killer at Singapore. Jadee was not easily abashed where his vanity was involved, and very handsomely placed at my disposal a love-letter which

to me

A MIDSHIPMAN'S SCRUPLES.

305

he was about to address to his Dulcinea at Penang. Before accepting it, however, I thought it as well to make Jamboo translate the document word for word — a measure which soon showed me the impropriety of sending any such billet doux ; although it indulged in the usual amount of poetical allusions to the beauty of the fair one's eyes, nose, lips, teeth, and hair, with graceful compliments about her figure, her walk, and her voice, it wound up with an abrupt proposal of marriage, entering rather freely into the charms of that blessed state of bondage; and as a further inducement to overcome any scruples the young lady might entertain on the score of Jadee's matrimonial inexperience, he assured her that seven wives were already placed on his list, though she should alone be his Penang sultaness.

These were lengths to which I, as a midshipman in the receipt of ten sovereigns a quarter, did not feel justified in going; "alas, for the social wants that sin against the strength of youth!" But Jadee, like an evil spirit, whispered that an anna a day (three half-pence) would equip and support even such a Peri as Baju-Mira, in a style of princely magnificence, only to be read of in the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments." Possibly, recollections of a sternfaced captain, and the "I'll stop your leave, sir,” of

X

306

"EMERALD" ORDERED AWAY.

a ruthless first-lieutenant, kept me from disturbing the peace of mind of the fair Malay, and then other affairs distracted my attention.

April the 2nd found us surrounded by a flying multitude, and a repetition of the wretched scenes enacted at Quedah. The Siamese were finally victorious, and Sauve qui peut! was the cry. Rumours were flying about that the war prahus were going to make a dash out; one or two threatening messages were sent, and it became every moment more certain that the Tonkoos must fly, or fall into Siamese hands. The excitement was intense, and no one knew the minute that the pirates might swoop down upon the little blockading squadron, and make us fight for our very lives.

In the middle of all this, while, youngster-like, I was longing to "flesh my maiden sword," some instructions arrived from Captain Warren to the officer commanding the boats (the present Captain G. Drake), ordering a gun-boat to be detached to watch another river called the "Pouchou," about four miles to the northward. As the junior officer, it fell to my lot to go; and I own I left with the moral conviction that there would be a bloody fray, and the little "Emerald" would be left out of it; a feeling not assuaged by my waggish brother officer