A TRUE THOUGH TOUGH YARN, ABOUT PATTYGONEY AND OTHER MATTERS. BY TYRONE POWER. "Ye gentlemen of England, who sit at home at ease, A FEW years back it was my hard fortune to be penned, for four months, on board a transport taken up to convey to glory and the liver-complaint, some two hundred soldiers, and thirteen officers, being detachments of four different regiments, serving in his majesty's Indian territories. In this "glory-box," as the soldiers not unaptly christened the ship, after getting a devil of a clawing in a gale of wind in the Western ocean, we hauled in for the "Cape de Verds," where, by keeping the soldiers on constant fatigue duty, for I verily think, if left to themselves, the villains would have preferred sinking to pumping, we at length happily arrived, dropping our anchor in the harbor of St. Jago, and here we discovered we were likely to quarter for some time, the ship requiring a complete overhauling. Having seduced a comrade to join me, I got through two days, by rattling over the island, after my Tartar fashion, much to the astonishment of the Portuguese of all colors, who I fancy set us down for mad, and not without some reason, when it is considered that we were pelting up and down their arid sand-hills, with the thermometer at one hundred. When this course was over, we had nothing left for it but to stay frizzling and playing whist to the accompaniment of the carpenter's hammer, on board our prison-ship, or to pass the day in social chat, with a very agreeable pirate crew, who occupied a cage-like den, adjoining the guard-house, and employed themselves in making cigars for the use of their visitors, handing them through the grating, with a hospitality and benevolence of manner quite enchanting. These were not any of your "youngerson-like" pirates, all bloody and bilious, and looking as if their dinners disagreed with them; but gay, lively, good-humored looking robbers, such as it would be quite a pleasure to have one's throat cut by-chaps that would hand a man over the ship's side, to walk the plank, with a hearty squeeze of the fist, and give him a cigar to light himself to the bottom by. This was certainly the pleasantest society of the city of St. Jago, and I fancy the most exclusive; the gentlemen were perfectly unembarrassed about their fate, feeling pretty confident that before the Portuguese authorities would decide on their condemnation, they would be once more at large, rocking on their ocean-mother's breast. Their schooner had been run ashore on the island of May, by a British sloop of war, and there they left her, well knowing that it was more their interest to surrender to the Portuguese government, than to his Britannic majesty's sloop. The governor's schooner had, a few days after our arrival, gone down to wait for, and bring up the captain of this gentle crew, who was reported as badly wounded; and this captain I felt a vast curiosity to become acquainted with, having learnt that he was a countryman, through a servant of mine, who had made a confidential acquaintance with the soi-disant Spanish cook of the crew, a fellow with a red head, a Celtic phiz, and a Munster brogue as rich as buttermilk. In the harbor was an American ship bound down to this same island for salt, so by way of killing time, and satisfying our curiosity, two of us resolved to take a passage in her, and come back in the governor's schooner, which was to return in about six days. Accordingly, on board we went; and on a fine moonlight night, or rather morning, stood with the land breeze on our beam, out of the harbor of St. Jago. Our first mate was an Englishman, with whom I had, on several occasions, whilst roaming about the town, held sundry palavers: his name was Tibbs, and a more thoroughgoing tar, of the old school, I have seldom encountered. He abominated steam, and all recent inventions connected with his profession; although a sober man, he had a positive love for grog, and a superlative contempt for the temperance society; the which, looking at it as of American origin, was, as Mr. Tibbs said, "a fashion he could by no means understand; seeing that the people were no fools, that rum was both good and plenty in the states besides very drinkable whiskey, and noways dear. withal." He was, like most old sailors, a bit of a grumbler, and, as I soon discovered, no great lover of America, or American ships, although he frankly admitted, that they were clipping boats, well found, and capitally provisioned; good living being a first-rate consideration with all tars, who are greater gourmands in their way, than the uninitiated imagine. The merits of American sailors, also, he admitted with equal frankness; yet still, after all this, it was pretty plain he had no absolute love for his present mess. I at once saw by his manner there was some mystery lurking in Mr. Tibbs's mind, and this I inwardly resolved, if possible, to fathom before we parted. On our second night out, coming upon deck during the first watch, I found my ancient friend more than usually wroth, muttering all sorts of expletives against yankee ships and yankee crews: as in this mood he paced by my side, I ventured to observe, that it struck me as odd to find him hanging on so long in a service he disliked; since, if I rightly understood him, he had been in it for six years at the least. "Well!" said the old boy, turning short round on me, thrusting his hands deep into the pockets of his pea-jacket, and pausing for full half a minute, during which he chewed "the cud of sweet and bitter fancies," and his huge quid of Cavendish together -"well, now that is reason too, Mr. Thompson, and yet after all, you'd say my logic about the matter is none so bad, if you know'd how the land lays-seeing that I can't help myself no how." "Not help yourself, Mr. Tibbs ?" I exclaimed, purposely throwing a little quiet surprise into my query. “Why, how is that? I should have thought that a thorough-going seaman like you might sail under any flag he chose to lift his hat to." "Not if I was to be hanged for it, can I get clear of the stars and stripes of these yankees, any more than if my only shirt was made out of a bit o' their buntin'. By jingo, I begin to think sometimes that I'm clinched to it for life." Again we resumed our walk, and a pause occurred, which I was fearful to break with any direct question, knowing well that no yarn is half so good as that which is yielded voluntarily from the fullfraught bosom. I felt I'd got him on the right tack, and considered it best to give him his own way. Having surveyed the clouds awhile, and consulted the dog-vane, he crossed the deck, hailing the watch, with "Step along here, some of ye, and square away the yards-let go the buntlines afore; come aft." The sleepy "Ay, ay, sir," was succeeded by the tramp of the watch, lazily straggling along the waste, and handling the rigging, until the yards |