TOLD IN TENERIFFE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1182, 26 October 1894, Page 8

TOLD IN TENERIFFE.

‘ Can you make out that brig’s name V asked my friend, handing me his glass and pointing to a smart-looking vessel just bringing up, with the Spanish colours blowing from her gaff. We were sitting on the erd of the Mole at Santa Cruz, with the many-coloured town behind us, and, away on our right the snowcapped summit of the famous Peak, just visible—a thing of joy only to gaze at on that roasting afternoon. My business in the island was to make inquiiy into the prospects of the cochineal industry on behalf of a Government department; and I was staying at the big hotel over yonder in the Plaza. So was this wandering, west-country, mer-chant-captain, between whom and myself a close intimacy had strangely enough sprung up. A man of facts and figures, methodical to a degree, bred from my youth to statistics, enveloped in dry and stereotyped officialism all my life, a greater contrast could not well be imagined than between the broad-chested, massive giant, with his long beard and tanned faco, and the sallow, under-sized, street-bred Treasury clerk. And nothing pleased me better than to listen to my companion's stories of adventure in faroff lands and seas, told in simple, breezy fashion, that harmonised well with his appearance, and seemed to quarantee their truthfulness. ‘ It’s the Coplas de—de—l can’t make out the rest plainly till she swings a bit,’ I answered. 1 Coplas de Manrique, for a thousand dollars !’ exclaimed my friend. ‘ I thought I knew the cut of that fished fore-topmast. Just think of it. Twelve years ago, and they haven’t ever troubled to get a new spar, but trusted in the saints to make the old one stand. That’ll tell you about Spaniards—come day, go day, God send Sunday; roundy-cum-roundy, Johnny Espagnolo, poco tiempo, and the devil take the hindmost, eh ?’ and he laughed, whilst continuing. ‘Well, they had to go for a new set at the main, for they all flew overboard schoonerrigged that night in the bay. The only wonder is they didn’t stick to my jury-rig into the bargain right through till -How. 1 Good Lord ! that was a night if you like— Manrique, is it ? Ay, I thought I couldn’t, be mistaken. She belonged to Barcelona when I knew her, and I met her promiscuously in the Bay of Biscay. Rummest thing you ever heard of !’ and the captain chuckled and then his face grew grave, as he Said with a sigh : . ‘ Eight as fine lads as ever sailed out of of the west went down in the pocr old .Rose that night. The worst bit of.luck, I think, that ever happened me. ‘ Ay, we ll jog up to the gardens and, get a cool shade, and I’ll tell you how it was. It got into all the newspapers everywhere. But, bless your heart, there s lots of people never’d believe a word of it. And, only that there’s men still, down to Torbay, whq saw me go out round Berry Head in my own ship and come back in yonder one, I might not have the face to tell the yarn even to you, who don't know a buntlino from the main-tack.’

Up past the cobble-paved Calle di Castilla, through the spacious fruit market, assailed on all sides with laughing requests to buy ; past the white church of St. Francis, through the spacious Plaza, with its lamps and chairs, and past the picturesque public-foun-tain, and, at last, we reach the shady precincts of the gardens—the prettiest spot in all Los Islas Canarias.

• Well,’ began the skipper, as we look our seats under a great tecoma, laden with golden blossom,-‘at that time I owned a fine top-sail schooner called the Bose of’ Torre. We ran her to the Western Islands—mostly to St. Michael’s for oranges ; and the trips we made, and the races we had with the rest of the fleet to see who’d get up to London Bridge first, made it a trade full of excitement. Also, it paid well before steam knocked us clean out of it. You see, tho weakest, most wall-sided, puttied-up, coffeepot of a tramp could always get in and out before us. On this particular trip we had bad weather—awful bad right from . the jump. Crossing the bay it came on worse than ever ; and, one dark night, running’ heavy, and a sea like a mountain after her,, the man at the wheel let the Bose broach to —come sideways to wind and sea. The first big lump of water she took swept her decks; as clean as a whistle, the second sent her on her beam-ends, and a minute afterwards sheturned complete turtle. A - ‘ Well, I don’t quite know how I got there ; but, presently, I found myself, choking and spluttering, and hanging on like grim death with the mate to a spare t’gallant yard that we’d had on deck. “ The mate was a Cousin Jack—William Pentreath by name, belonging to Marazion. We were almost touching each other, and, said he, ‘ “ It’s all up wi’ us, skipper ! ‘“Hold on, man. While there’s life there’s hope." . „ , ' • Not that I felt much like it. But it was the only comfort I could think of. ‘ “ Best have it over an* done wi’/ says he, a minute or two after ; and I felt the spar lighten and rise in the water; and, turning, saw that he was gone. And I had a very good mind to follow him, for I was getting cramped and stiff, and it seemed no use to stop there—swished and swashed about—with mouth and eyes full of bitter brine, now rising up to the top of a big comber, then flung down again into a sheet of hissing foam, knowing all the time that, unless a miracle happened, it was only a matter of minutes before keeping Pentreath company. I was just saying a bit of a prayer before letting go when something very much like a miracle did take place. ‘ 0u what I intended should be the la of those tremendous heaving rises (for I had made up my mind that I w r ould not drop off until at the bottom, where everything was dark as a dog’s mouth), I suddenly caught sight of a heavy, thick, black mass looming (rs it seemed) just above my head. Without thinking, I made a clutch at it, and presto ! up I went, clean out of the water. • x got my legs and arms rounc the thing, and clung and clung, and jammed myself into its cold, wet folds j then souse, down I

went again. Plucked up, breathless, as by some I nevertheless crawled, always higher, until I was seated astride a ship's bowsprit, naked and exhausted, but warmed with the triumph of escaped death. ‘ Creeping inboard, I looked around. She was a good-sized brig ; her decks clean-swept, mainmast gone about six feet up ; fore-top- ; sail-yard on the cap, and sail blowing all roads in Irish pennants. The jibboom, also, had snapped, and with the unstowed jib, was trailing jjyerboard. To this I owed my salvation. ‘ Not a soul was .on deck, and lat first thought she was derelict. But, seeing a streak of light through the cuddy door, I opened it, and cautiously crept down the 'companion* > ‘ There, like Johnson’s cows—all of a heap —were the crew on their marrow-bones, praying away like one o’clock before a big ’ picture,, set up at the far end of the cuddy, with capdlea till further orders all flaring and guttering in front of it. ‘ They-were screaming, and bating their breasts, and gammoning to tear their hair in great style-; while outside you could hear the steady roar of the wind and the hollow thudding of the big lumps of water that fell “ inboard and made her Bhivor again. ‘ IVasn’t very long in taking the bearings of the matter, and, rushing amongst them with nothing more on than a marlin-spike, I gave them a bit of my mind. You know I can speak the lingo fairly well—especially the emphatic parts of it. For a minute or two they stared and crossed themselves, and then scuttled on deck. Snatching the thick woollen cloth off the table, I wrapped it “ round me and followed them.

‘lt was blowing five or six gales of wind ail lasheitogether with chain cables. Well, sir, if you’ll believe me, those cowardly wretches, in spite of my roaring and explaining, wouldn’t come near me. As soon as I made for one fellow ho’d go for his life. There were ten of them, all told, and when I’d finished, every man-jack of them was in the foretop. In spite of ray tablecloth, I was perishing with cold, and the brig was making such bad weather of it that I was doablful about'her living through the night. So, seeing I could do nothing single-handed, I returned cuddy and rummaged around, and found a dry suit of clothes, a bottle of

good brandy, a ham, and’ some biscuits. Bern# pretty confident that, after tho narrow

squeak I'd already had, I wasn’t going to be drowned this trip, I made a capital meal. When I went on deck again day was breaking, and the cluster of poor shivering wretches up in the foretop looked forlornly in unison with the ship and weather. ‘ After some palavering, however, I got them down. They told me they bad taken me. for a new sort of a sea-devil, when I first burst in upon them, an idea thoroughly confirmed afterwards, when I pursued them howling through the storm, with my drapery going full and by. * However, after breakfast, the gale moderated a bit, and that day I got her under a sort of jury rig.

‘ ‘Now the Johnnies had someone to boss them they worked well. Skipper and mate, it seemed, had both being struck down and carried overboard by the mainmast when it went. Then Johnny Espagnol, as is the creature’s nature, had given up, and reckoned it time to go to prayers. Ttat they were perfectly justified in so doing my appearance on; board was a guarantee. Thus they argued. ‘The Madonna had sent me. ‘ She was bound from London to Fernando Po; But when I came to look round I determined to take her into the nearest port, Falmouth for choice.

‘ She was making water fast, and with only a light jury rig aft and the foretopmast

badly sprung, I decided to take advantage of a fair wind and run her for all she. was worth back again. And when I’d fished the topmast and bent a new sail and got matters a bit shipshape we made very fair time. And, in place of putting into Falmouth, I took her into Torbay, bringing up in the very spot I’d left with the Rose exactly a fortnight ago.’

‘ The same vessel that we saw cast anchor this afternoon ? ’ I asked.

‘ The very same,’ answered the captain, ‘ and with the very identical splints I put on her lame leg twelve solid years ago, or I’m a Dutchman ! Well, one of the owners came over ; and I must say he behaved liberally. Two hundred pounds and this gold watch, with the Spanish inscription, was my salvage. Also, he offered me command of the Goplas. But I didn’t care about that so declined, with thanks. Come along, suppose we go on board and have a look around.’

The captain of the Coplas de Manrique knows the legend of the “ Man from the Sea,’ who, in answer to the prayers of the perishing ones, was sent by their patron saint to their deliverance. Aud when he hears that my companion is the personage in question, ho figuratively places the ship" at his disposal. ‘ Aha.’ says he, when asked why not a new fore-topmast, * would the Signor have us change the luck ? It is all we have to show in token of the miracle worked by the Madonna, for her own gracious purpose, through a heretic.’ We partake of wine and other refreshments, and cannot get away before dusk, so anxious is the master to hear the story at first hand. The evening mists, great walls of fleecy vapour, are hiding the craggy summits of the green hills *as our boatmen—at last—pull for the shore. Against the dark background, from a dozen vessels, the gaudy Spanish flag glows like a living frame of red and yellow in the rays of the sun, setting behind the black mass of the Gran Canarias opposite. The lofty whitecapped peak has put on its mantle. The bright-hued houses grow dim aud indistinct. Lights, green and red, twinkle at the head of the Mole, quickly followed by others along the whole length of the foreshore. A tender crescent of a moon hangs on the very edge of a big cloud, suddenly grown out of the sky, in which, swan shaped, it swims, the sole blot on all the leagues of starry blueness. It is night in Sta. Cruz de Teneriffe.—J. M. Barrie in the Australasian.