CHAPTER LXXVII.
A PARTY OF ROVERS - LITTLE LOO AND THE DOCTOR
WHILE IN Partoowye, we fell in with a band of six veteran rovers,
prowling about the village and harbour, who had just come overland
from another part of the island.
A few weeks previous, they had been paid off, at Papeetee, from a
whaling vessel, on board of which they had, six months before,
shipped for a single cruise; that is to say, to be discharged at the
next port. Their cruise was a famous one; and each man stepped upon
the beach at Tahiti jingling his dollars in a sock.
Weary at last of the shore, and having some money left, they clubbed,
and purchased a sail-boat; proposing a visit to a certain uninhabited
island, concerning which they had heard strange and golden stories.
Of course, they never could think of going to sea without a
medicine-chest filled with flasks of spirits, and a small cask of the
same in the hold in case the chest should give out.
Away they sailed; hoisted a flag of their own, and gave three times
three, as they staggered out of the bay of Papeetee with a strong
breeze, and under all the "muslin" they could carry.
Evening coming on, and feeling in high spirits and no ways disposed to
sleep, they concluded to make a night of it; which they did; all
hands getting tipsy, and the two masts going over the side about
midnight, to the tune of
"Sailing down, sailing down, On the coast of Barbaree."
Fortunately, one worthy could stand by holding on to the tiller; and
the rest managed to crawl about, and hack away the lanyards of the
rigging, so as to break clear from the fallen spars. While thus
employed, two sailors got tranquilly over the side, and went plumb to
the bottom, under the erroneous impression that they were stepping
upon an imaginary wharf to get at their work better.
After this, it blew quite a gale; and the commodore, at the helm,
instinctively kept the boat before the wind; and by so doing, ran
over for the opposite island of Imeeo. Crossing the channel, by
almost a miracle they went straight through an opening in the reef,
and shot upon a ledge of coral, where the waters were tolerably
smooth. Here they lay until morning, when the natives came off to
them in their canoes. By the help of the islanders, the schooner was
hove over on her beam-ends; when, finding the bottom knocked to
pieces, the adventurers sold the boat for a trifle to the chief of
the district, and went ashore, rolling before them their precious cask
of spirits.
