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Updated: May 1, 2025
Captain Helfrich had hitherto taken no notice whatever of me, and he seemed to me so awful a person, that I never expected to be spoken to by him. Now and then the mates ordered me to do some little job or other, to fetch a swab or a marlinespike, or to hold a paint-pot, but they in no other way noticed me.
The bullets were all this time flying thickly about the boats, though we were rapidly increasing our distance from the shore. Several of them had whistled by my ear. Then I heard one strike close to me with a peculiar dead sound. At the same moment a sharp, unearthly cry rung in my ear. It was uttered by Captain Ralph. "Helfrich!" he exclaimed, "they have done for me.
"I should say, from the whiteness of her canvas, and her light upper-rigging, that she belongs to some of those turban-wearing people along the African coast in there, or up the Straits. They are seldom pleasant customers for an unarmed craft to come across." "I had formed the same idea of her," observed Captain Helfrich.
"I suppose, though, we shall have to send her to Halifax, where, as far as I can make out, her owners reside, as well as the merchants who have shipped most of her freight." While the mate was still looking over the papers, Captain Helfrich, who had come on board in another boat, entered the cabin. He was more affected than any of us by the horrid sight which met his eyes.
"That the negroes have come down from the hills, and that we shall all be murdered!" exclaimed the master of the house, who had just hurried in with a rifle in his hand. "Gentlemen, we may defend ourselves, and sell our lives dearly, but that is all I can hope for." "Let us see what can be done," said Captain Helfrich coolly.
It was far from pleasant to see a number of cut-throat-looking fellows parading up and down before us with their hands on the hilts of their long knives, with which they kept playing as if anxious to try their temper in our bodies. Captain Helfrich stood all the time with folded arms leaning against the bulwarks, and all we could do was to imitate his example.
The old brig was soon ready again for sea; but as he was about to sail, Captain Gale was taken so ill that he could not proceed, and another master was sent in his stead. I ought to have mentioned that Captain Helfrich had sold her to some Bristol merchants, and had got a large ship instead, which traded round Cape Horn.
"Captain Helfrich, sir, I beg pardon; but I'm glad to see you looking so well. I'm Jack Williams," I exclaimed, running after him. "That's my name; but I do not remember you, my man," he answered. "I served my apprenticeship with you, and you were very kind to me, sir," I replied; but as I spoke I looked more narrowly in his face, and saw a much younger man than I expected to meet.
A man was stationed at the bowsprit-end, and another at the mast-head, to give notice of any rocks beneath the water which might lie in our course; but Captain Helfrich seemed scarcely to require such information. The little schooner threaded the narrow and intricate passage with unerring accuracy, every instant the rapidity of her progress being increased by the freshening wind.
As they arrived, they formed in front, dancing, and shrieking, and firing off their muskets and blunderbusses in the most irregular fashion, expending a great deal of gunpowder, but doing us no harm. Captain Helfrich was watching them. When some hundreds had been thus collected, he suddenly exclaimed, "Now, my lads, give it them! Don't throw your shots away on the bushes!"
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