University of Virginia Library

23. CHAPTER XXIII.
Robin Day escapes against his will from the fort, and finds himself
a third time on board the Jumping Jenny.

I was, in a word, on the point of falling asleep,
the night, though a late November one, being,
in that benignant climate, quite warm and agreeable;
and I had just begun to dream I saw my friend Captain
Dare dancing a waltz with the beautiful Isabel,
in the midst of a splendid assemblage of ladies and
gentlemen, who were all saying “what a handsome
couple they were;” when the rage and envy and
jealousy into which the visionary spectacle threw
me, were suddenly dispelled by a couple of men
jerking me up by the elbows, bidding me, in Spanish,
follow them, and then, without waiting for me
to obey, hurrying me away I knew not whither.

My first idea was that they were soldiers of the
fort, conducting me to some lock-up place for the
night; my next, finding they were hastening me to
the gate of the fort, was that they were messengers
despatched by Colonel Aubrey to invite me again
to his presence; a notion extremely agreeable, as it
convinced me the representations of Captain Dicky,
together with those of the Señorita Isabel, had fully
succeeded in restoring me to his favour.

Nor was this flattering assurance dispelled until I
suddenly found myself upon the shore of the bay,

where were a number of men crowding into a small
boat, and another, nearly empty, rowing with
muffled oars from a shallop, that lay anchored a little
way from the beach. That shallop, my fears told
me, was the Jumping Jenny, and my two unknown
friends, it was plain, were conducting me to her.

I endeavoured to come to a stop, assuring my
conductors “I was not one of the escaping party,
did not choose to run away, and would go back if
if they pleased, to the fort;” upon which they displayed
a brace of glittering knives, and one of them
said, in Spanish, “I might go to the mire, for all he
cared,” (which is a polite way they have in Spanish
of telling you you may go to a much worse place,)
while the other swore a terrible Castilian oath—“he
would eat my soul, if I gave them any further
trouble.” There was no resisting such an oath, two
Spanish knives, a pair of whiskered visages that
looked uncommonly ferocious in the moonlight;
and I therefore yielded, and, with a heavy heart,
stepped into the boat, which, three minutes afterwards,
I exchanged for the deck of the Jumping
Jenny.

“Are you there, lieutenant, d—n my blood?”
cried Captain Brown, whom I had not before seen,
but who now gave me a grin and a squeeze of the
hand.

“Captain Brown,” said I, intending to remonstrate
with him for thus carrying me off against my
will; but was cut short by his saying, in tones too
diabolically emphatic to be resisted, “Hold your
jaw, you—”(But I omit the epithet,)—or I'll fry
you for supper!” and I saw him no more for several
minutes; during which he was busily engaged
restoring order among a great number of men who
crowded the deck, and getting the Jumping Jenny

under way. The latter purpose was effected with
surprising rapidity; and in a moment, as it seemed
to me, the sloop was under full sail, driving with a
favourable wind down the bay.

The moon, which, until this period, was extremely
bright, revealing the objects on shore with
great distinctness, was now suddenly overcast with
clouds—a fortunate circumstance, as it proved; for
presently a great hubbub was heard arising in the
fort, which we were fast leaving behind us; and by
and by several cannons were fired off, the balls of
which came dancing along the water at no great
distance from us, and perhaps would have come still
closer, had the gunners been favoured with a better
light to direct their aim. Rockets were also let off,
and these were presently answered by others that
appeared flying in the air above the fort at the Barrancas,
as it was called; a position a few miles below
Pensacola, and just at the entrance of the bay, which
it was supposed to command.

Upon this, there began to be some confusion and
indications of alarm among my fellow fugitives,
which Captain Brown, who seemed to have assumed
the command of the vessel, attempted to remove
by cursing and swearing; failing in which, he threw
open the hatches, and directed all who were “afraid
of their carcasses,” to descend into the hold; and if
the spirit of his crew was to be determined by the
readiness with which the invitation was accepted, it
was certain three fourths of the company were not
heroes; for just so many of them immediately
vanished from the deck.

My own inclinations, notwithstanding that it
might be supposed my experience in the wars had
robbed me of all faint-heartedness, were also in
favour of a descent into the hold; but a sense of

shame withheld me, not to say that I was conscious
there could be, in reality, little protection from
danger in such a place, on board so small a vessel.
Anxiety, moreover, to ascertain the destination of
the sloop, and the designs of Captain Brown, which
I feared might be none of the most virtuous or
lawful, kept me upon the deck; and I watched the
first opportunity to accost him again, demanding
whither we were bound. “To h—ll!” quoth Captain
Brown; ordering me a second time, in the
most ferocious tones, to hold my tongue, which I
did; for I saw he was in no humour for trifling.
Indeed, he seemed to have been suddenly changed
into another man, and was, withal, so grum, and
crusty, and savage, that I thought it was my best
plan to keep out of his way as much as possible for
the remainder of the night.

I accordingly left the quarter-deck, where I had
previously taken my stand, and went to the bow of
the vessel, where was a group of men, some of them,
as I knew by their voices, the comrades of Skipper
Duck, and others Spaniards, who had their eyes
directed towards the Barrancas fort, which we were
fast approaching, though endeavouring, to pass it
at as great a distance as the width of the channel
would permit. As we drew nigh, they began to fire
upon us, but did us no harm, until, by some mischance,
the Jumping Jenny was run upon a shoal,
where she lay nearly an hour, until the rising of the
tide floated her off; and during that time, the gunners
of the fort, having a stationary object to aim at,
and occasional moonlight to direct them, succeeded in
striking us with several balls, one of which knocked
a great hole into the cabin and killed a man who
had taken refuge there; while another, still more

unfortunately, as Captain Brown, judging by his
execrations, seemed to regard it, carried away the
bowsprit, by which the Jumping Jenny was very
seriously disabled. The mischief was repaired in
some way or other by the exertions of Brown and
the sailors; so that presently, the tide floating us
clear of the shoal, we were able to make way against
the current, to get out of reach of the fort, and finally
to proceed to sea.

As soon as we were beyond the range of the
Barrancas guns, all hands were called up to assist
in further repairs that were found to be needed;
and I had now an opportunity of making my remarks
upon the crew, whose numbers, for there were
nearly forty of us altogether, had previously filled
me with surprise. I had already distinguished the
voices of Duck's crew of British deserters; I now
saw that Duck himself was among them, and apparently
upon pretty good terms with Captain Brown;
and I had some reason to dread the fury of his revengeful
temper; but he was too busy to notice me.
I was next struck with the appearance of twelve or
thirteen negroes, all very likely fellows, whose
awkwardness with their legs and hands proved they
were too little accustomed to salt water to be pirates,
as Colonel Aubrey had been inclined to suspect
them, while their coarse tow-linen garments, resembling
those in which I had seen the negroes so commonly
dressed in Virginia, convinced me that they
were, as I had suspected, slaves whom Duck had
stolen or seduced away from their masters. Besides
these, there were nine or ten Spaniards, most ferocious-looking
fellows, in whom I fancied I recognised
the ball and-chain prisoners, or felons, of the fort;
and my suspicions were correct, for as it afterwards

proved, there was but one honest fellow among them,
if such I may call a soldier who had been an ancient
comrade of Brown, and was easily seduced by him
to desert his post as a sentry at the fort-gate, and
assist in the escape of all the prisoners who were
desirous of deliverance.

Last of all came creeping from the hold, and I
was confounded at the sight of them, my old friends
the Bloody Volunteers; who, as I soon learned from
them, had been imposed upon by Brown, or his
confederates, to believe that the Spanish governor
had ordered them all to be shot at sunrise; that Captain
Dicky sanctioned, or ordered their flight in the
Jumping Jenny; and finally, that the Jumping Jenny
was to carry them round to Mobile; at which American
town, they were assured they would certainly
arrive, at the furthest, in twenty-four hours. I assured
them privately, that two thirds of the story
told them were undoubtedly false; that the governor
could not have ordered them to be shot; nor could
Captain Dicky have sanctioned, or even known of
their escape; and as for the remaining third, I
feared that was as false as the others, and that the
Jumping Jenny was more like to carry us to Barrataria
Bay, among the freebooters, than to an honest
place like Mobile.

The Bloody Volunteers were indignant at the
idea, and Corporal Pigeon, a corageous young fellow,
the only non-commissioned officer (except the Captain,)
who had survived the Indian war, began to
hint that we were twelve of us, who, if we stood
together, might take the question as what port the
Jumping Jenny should sail to, into our own hands,
and to swear, he, for one, would never go to such a
place as Barrataria Bay; when the vessel, coming

into rough water, began to pitch and roll, the Bloody
Volunteers all fell deadly sick, and Corporal Pigeon
declared, with woful qualms, the Jumping Jenny
might carry him to the bottom of the sea—it was
all now indifferent to him.