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THE LAST OF THE SAVED.Roshow Bezone Jr.
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THE LAST OF THE SAVED.BY ROSHOW BEZONE JR.
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How the following narrative came into my hands is a matter unnecessary to state. It is an account of the adventures of probably "the last of the saved" from the wreck of the ill fated Central America, being a transcript or statement made by himself. I was born in the great West, and there brought up till I was old enough to enter the United States navy, where I remained until the close of the war with Mexico. Soon after that event I resigned my place in the service, and became a resident of California. It was in making my second visit to the East that I became a passenger aboard of the Central America. I will not attempt any history of what occurred on that unfortunate vessel, since all the facts have been already laid before the public in a variety of forms. When the ship went down, I was drawn down to a great depth, and was almost beginning to despair of ever rising again, when I at last became conscious of a change of direction, and a slow upward movement, which was soon accelerated. About the time that I thought I ought to have reached the surface, I received, as I supposed, a smart blow on the crown of the head. I soon discovered, however, that I had in reality struck my head against the under surface of some floating object, which no doubt came from the wreck. It required two or three more bumps to restore my presence of mind sufficiently to induce me to think of swimming out from under the obstruction. At last I reached the surface, and it was not a moment too soon, for my lungs would not have endured the restraint imposed on them a second longer without consequences of a most serious nature. With a great gulp of relief, I disengaged my mouth and nostrils from the water, threw back my head, and gazed upon the extraordinary sights around me. Hundreds of human beings were struggling in the waves, amidst a confused medley of objects thrown up from the wreck. Many were already in the agonies of death, and some were clutching their stronger companions with the proverbial tenacity of drowning men. Others were grasping at the floating articles, and not unfrequently two or more of them would catch a plank or spar too small to sustain their united weight, and then all would go down into the mighty abyss together. Some would hold up their hands while they were disappearing, and shriek piteously for assistance; while others calmly and silently resigned themselves to their awful doom. The scene was such as no words of mortal man could adequately describe, and I will not pretend to attempt it. The stoutest and best swimmers were all making their way out of the struggling throng, and I was about to follow their example, when I perceived that the object against which my head had struck – a large door or hatch – was already occupied by a gentleman whom I had known very well in California. I therefore relinquished my design of resting upon it, and was swimming after a plank which was floating a few yards off, when the Californian uttered a shrill cry and almost immediately disappeared. From the manner in which he struggled, I saw that some one of the numerous drowning men around him had seized him by the leg and dragged him under. I saw him no more, but I took warning by his fate and determined to get out of the struggling throng as fast as I possibly could. I therefore seized the hatch, and striking out with my legs, pushed it before me, and thus made my escape. Before I could get out of the crowd of desperate, dying men, I was clutched several times with desperate tenacity; but by exerting my strength to the utmost, I always managed to disengage myself, and at last reached a spot where I was secure from any danger of that sort. One by one the struggling wretches disappeared, a great majority of them in the depths of the ocean, but a few floating away until they were out of sight, and I was left alonek – alone on the wide ocean, and the shades of night closing rapidly around me. For the first time in my life I realized the true meaning of loneliness. The thick darkness and the ever restless sea were my only companions, and my heart sank within me with |
a sense of utter desolation, which bordered closely on despair. Rousing myself at length, I strove to look my position fully in the face. My door was thick and strong, and made a tolerably good raft for a single person, though of course it did not prevent me from being continually drenched with water. I had no clothing but my pantaloons and shirt, but there were thick flannels underneath. The water was not very cold, but being continually wet made it very unpleasant, and the air became quite chilly as the night advanced. My first thought was to look for the brig Marine, to which our women and children had been transferred. After I had been about three quarters of an hour in the water I began to catch an occasional glimpse of a light from this or some other vessel, and if I had had any means of locomotion, I might possibly have reached it; but I was entirely at the mercy of the winds and waves, and in less than an hour I lost sight of it altogether. After that I composed myself as well as I could, and waited for daylight with all the patience I could muster, though never before had the night seemed half so long. The tedious monotony of those long hours of darkness was broken only by a single incident worth recalling. I was once hailed by a fellow sufferer who drifted near me, clinging to a broken spar. We conversed a short time, but while he was telling me that it would be impossible for him to hold on much longer, his voice suddenly ceased, and all was still. I felt that it was the silence of death, and that at any moment his fate might be mine. Day dawned at last, and as the shadows vanished from the waters I was relieved of a portion of the still heavier shadow that rested on my soul. I had seen many perish before my eyes, but I was far better prepared to battle with the frowning ocean than most of them. Few of them had been provided with so good a vessel, and there was perhaps not one whose physical powers were capable of an equal degree of endurance. I was in perfect health, and I had been inured from childhood to hardship in almost every form and variety. As the gray light of dawn stole over the sea, I scanned the horizon with intensely eager interest, but nothing was to be seen ndash; nothing but a lowering sky and a dark, turbulent ocean. The day was spent in fruitless examinations of the same monotonous scene. Twice I caught sight of a far distant sail, and once I thought that the vessel was gradually drawing near; but it was merely one of hope's delusions, which left me more hopeless than before. What followed for three weary days and nights I will not dwell upon. It would be but a barren recital of hours and days of suffering, each one differing but little from the last, except that the terrible thirst which I endured became every hour more unendurable, particularly when the tropic sun blazed with unclouded violence, so that his fiery beams seemed an avalanche of burning brands perpetually falling on my naked head till my very brain appeared to be on fire within my skull, which felt as if it were a solid case of red hot iron, ready to burst with the heat engendered vapors which could find no vent. The fourth day the sun was more terrifically hot than ever, and I felt sure that I would either die or go mad before night. For a single draft of cool water I would have sold myself to either alternative. Heaven, to my imagination, was an ocean of ice water, and I would have purchased it willingly with the sacrifice of life or reason either. In short, I was already more than half crazed, and the burning sun was fast completing my mental alienation. But there was at least a partial relief at hand. A short time after the sun reached the meridian it became shrouded in thick masses of vapor. Clouds on clouds, in immense masses, dark as midnight, began to pile themselves up in the horizon, while gleams of forked lightning illuminated their ragged crests, followed more and more speedily by louder and still louder reports from heaven's artillery. The wind, which had quite died away, now burst forth with tenfold violence, and for an hour or more, blew a perfect hurricane. Lashed by the fierce tornado into fury equal to its own, the seething ocean whirled and foamed, and boiled and bubbled, as if it were a huge caldron, with the fires of ten thousand Etnas roaring beneath it. A tiny atom tossed on the surface of this raging sea, my little vessel was safer than a gigantic three decker might have been. There was no possibility of foundering, though there was very great danger of being torn from the planks to which I clung with such desperate energy. And yet, upon the whole, the tempest, with all its fury, was welcome; for it brought with it a delicious coolness, and obscured the fierce sun which |
was driving me frantic. But the glory of it all was the rain, which soon began to descend in torrents. The richest Falernian wine that ever tickled the Latin poet's palate and fancy could never have yielded a tithe of the gratification afforded me by the first delicious drops that fell upon my fevered tongue. I had but one regret – that they did not fall in hogsheads instead of drops. But it was best as it was, and I managed at last to slake my vast immensity of thirst. By various expedients, too, I succeeded in catching and preserving enough for one or two subsequent draughts. Like most violent things, the storm was of short duration, and the sun shone out brightly again before setting. I felt greatly refreshed, and passed a much more comfortable night than I had done of late, though the sea was so rough that it was hardly possible to go to sleep without the certainty of rolling off into the sea. Hunger, too, now began to make demands which had hitherto been kept in abeyance by the superior claims of my raging thirst. My strength, however, kept up wonderfully and my health was good, except some scorbutic symptoms and boils, which were quite painful. The morning of the fifth day was clear but hazy, and as I was examining the horizon with my customary anxiety, the sun rose red and fiery from his ocean bed. As I watched his lurid disk emerging from the waves, I saw right in its centre the hull and hamper of a two masted, fore and aft rigged vessel. It was plainly and beautifully visible for a few moments, traced in dark lines upon the copper hued ground. But what surprised me was, that though but a very light breeze was blowing, not a rag of canvass was anywhere to be seen. She was not lying to, for there was nothing to keep her stationary, and as I had never heard of any craft anchoring in mid ocean, or scudding under bare poles before a three knot breeze, I was a good deal puzzled to know what to make of her. I did not, however, spend much time in speculating upon this phenomenop, for it soon occurred to me that if she continued to make sail in that lubberly fashion, I might some time or other overhaul her. There was a goodly sized splinter almost, but not quite, broken off of my little raft, which I had not seen till the morning after I was wrecked, and which I had never detached from its position, because I had never before met with an opportunity of using it to any advantage, and I thought I could carry it best where it was. I now broke it off, and paddled away with it with all my might, steering for the mysterious schooner. My progress was of course very slow, and as the atmosphere was very thick, I lost sight of my object for a while; but it was not more than ten minutes before I saw it again, lying right under the sun. It was a long pull, and a weary one, and my hands were blistered and my arms were aching before I could see I had materially lessened the distance. Meanwhile, the sailless craft continued to present exactly the same appearance as at first, and before I had accomplished half the job, I became pretty well convinced that there was nobody aboard of her. Her rigging hung neglected and torn in many places, and she was manifestly under no intelligent guidance, her helm being apparently lashed amidships. Towards the last there seemed to be a current favoring me. The slant of the wind, too, was such as gradually to lessen the distance between us. If it had not been for these helps, I do not think I could have reached her before dark. As it was, I hauled alongside somewhere about four in the afternoon. As soon as I was near enough, I hailed, but received no reply. The vessel had certainly been deserted by her crew, but for what reason I could not conjecture. She was not exactly in shipshape condition certainly, but I could see no damage which might not have been easily repaired. At all events, she promised me an asylum much more desirable than the quarters I now occupied. There were several ropes towing over the side, and I had no difficulty in getting aboard. Having reached the deck, I looked curiously around There was no one to be seen, and all was quiet. My first thought was for water, and I soon ascertained there was plenty on deck, such as it was. As I was leaving the water cask, after a colossal draught, my foot struck something which caused me to look down. It was a human skull, and looked as if the flesh had been carefully scraped from it. A little farther aft lay a portion of the skeleton to which it had belonged. The bones were everywhere denuded of the flesh, which had evidently been torn off at no remote period, and they looked as if they might be relics left from the feast of some hungry cannibal, |
or some fearful ogre, who had devoured the schooner's crew. Looking further, I found the remnants of five or six human skeletons scattered here and there upon the deck, and all presenting a similar appearance. I gazed upon them with a mingled feeling of curiosity and awe. Were these ghastly relics all that remained of the men who once tenanted the vessel? If so, what had been their fate? How had they been slain, and wherefor? While pondering these sad queries, I heard a noise below. I could not make out what it was. It was a sound the like of which I had never heard on shipboard before. It proved, however, that I was not the only living tenant of the vessel, and I bethought me of some means of defending myself in case it should become necessary. I could see nothing better than a handspike or an iron belaying pin, and being desirous of putting an end to the very unpleasant state of suspense in which I found myself, I seized a long iron bolt or rod which lay by the mainmast, determined to seek no further. The noise below had been repeated several times, but I did not stop long to speculate upon it. Merely waiting long enough to ascertain its direction, I sprang down the main hatchway. The light was dim, and coming from the bright sunshine above, I was for a moment unable to discern anything. I was peering somewhat anxiously into the darkness, when a tremendous roar directly in the rear, which seemed to shake the very timbers of the vessel, induced me to "wheel about and turn about" with an agility that would have done honor to "Daddy Rice" in his palmiest days. And there, within six feet of me, and in the very act of preparing for a spring, crouched an enormous African lion, grim and gaunt with famine, his mane erect, his tail lashing his sides, and his eyes glowing in the obscurity like a pair of live coals. It was much the largest lion I had ever seen, but you will readily believe that his comparative magnitude was not then the thing that stood uppermost in my thoughts. I believed my self to be lost, and it was, I suppose, merely an impulse of the instinct of self preservation which induced me to drop upon the floor, just as I saw the huge beast rise into the air, aiming apparently at my throat. There was though I had not then noticed it a large bale or package of some kind of goods between me and the lion, and I fell directly behind it. This was doubtless the means of saving my life. The monster flew harmlessly over my head, and I heard him crashing and scratching in the midst of a pile of miscellaneous articles among which he had fallen. I am not a slow moving man at any time, but I do not recollect ever to have "picked myself up" quite so nimbly before or since, as I did on this occasion. Nor did the vis a tergo by which I was influenced ceased to operate after I had regained an upright position. Like a rock from a catapult, I dashed forward with headlong velocity, having barely self guidance enough to lay my course for the nearest place of refuge. I had no time to see what sort of a port I had gotten into until after I had entered it, but it proved to be a better shelter than I could reasonably have expected to meet with in flying from such a four footed tornado. It was a long, strong, iron barred cage, the habitation, no doubt, of the very lion from which I was trying to escape. The door through which I had entered was at one of the ends. It was fastened by a bolt which was somewhat rusty, and before I could move it the lion was upon me. darted at the cage with a wicked snarl, and obliged me to leave the door unfastened, and take refuge in the extreme back part of it, which was made of solid wood, and placed close against a bulkhead. It was only in this way that I could avoid his monstrous paw, which he pushed in between the iron bars as far as he could reach, roaring and lashing his flanks, while he scratched great furrows with his claws in the tough, well-seasoned woodwork in which the bars were fixed. My worst enemy need not have wished me in a more critical predicament. The lion was exceedingly furious with hunger, and would make every possible effort to reach his destined victim. I found that I could in no way contrive to reach the door, which remained unfastened. One touch of one of those huge paws in the right direction would immediately throw it open, and leave me utterly defenceless. Fortunately, the blood thirsty creature (blood thirsty without a metaphor) seemed for the present to think only of making direct plunges at the spot where I sat, without showing any disposition to go to the end where the door was. The prodigious strength of the animal caused the iron bars to bend and rattle and crack with every one of those desperate plunges, so that I could hardly persuade |
myself that he was not coming through. I think no one will doubt my veracity when I say that this sort of music was not quite so agreeable as some I have elsewhere listened to. But even supposing that this could last – that the lion should never think of trying to force the door – what then? Was I to sit there watching him hour after hour, day after day, with knees and chin in contact, till hunger and thirst should finish one or both of us? In such a game as that the lion would have the advantage of me; for he wanted nothing better than to eat me, whereas I should make but a poor business of eating him, even if I had the very best of chances. If I must die, an active death was greatly to be preferred to a passive one. But what could I do? Sometimes my persecutor would remain quiet for a minute or two, and I would try to move stealthily towards the entrance, but before I could advance an inch a savage growl would inform me that my manoeuvre was detected. Having tried this over and over again, and always with the same result, I finally gave it up in despair, and tried my best to think of the unfastened door no more. As I have already stated, the cage was of considerable length, the front and the two ends being stout iron bars, and the back made of solid wood. Against this I was crouching, but a foot or two from the door at the end which I had shut, but which the lion would not allow me to fasten; and, in fact, I was afraid to make any further attempts to do so, lest I should draw his attention to the door, and allow him to discover how easy it was to push it open. Having given this up in despair, I turned my eyes towards the other end of my prison. I then saw that the cage was divided into two parts by a partition made of iron bars, like the front and the two ends. In this partition there was a door, and another on the other side of it, at the extreme end of the cage to my right, corresponding to that on the left which I had passed through and left unfastened. I have been somewhat prolix in the description of this cage, but I am anxious that the reader should fully understand it. The door in the partition was standing ajar; that at the extreme end was shut, but not fastened, apparently, though of this I was not certain. Like the other end door, it opened on the outside, and the bolt was on that side, of course. After noting and speculating on this state of things for a while, a project suggested itself, the feasibility of which I determined to test by an immediate experiment. It was by no means sure to succeed, and its failure involved the certainty of a speedy and terrible death. Still, after mature reflection, I came to the conclusion that it was the best thing I could do, and the only course that afforded any hope of relief from the eminently disagreeable predicament in which I found myself. I was in a "tight place" indeed, and I could not expect to get free again without some hard scratching. Celerity of movement must evidently be the mainspring of my operations, and with safety before, and death behind me, I was not likely to prove a laggard. With a slow, sidelong motion, I gradually approached the partition door, until I was near enough to ascertain, by means of the iron rod, which I still held in my hand, that the bolt which fastened it on the opposite side moved freely. I would have given much for the privilege of passing through and examining the door at the end; but his majesty, the "king of beasts," who followed every motion, never relaxing his vigilance for a single instant, gave me plainly to understand that he would not permit it; for, in order to pass through the partition door, it would be necessary to come so near the front of the cage, as to be within easy striking distance of those terrible paws. Under these circumstances, I was obliged to content myself with a rather unsatisfactory reconnoissance, by means of which I ascertained that the door in the far end was apparently like the other one through which I had passed, with a similar fastening. It was shut, but I could not satisfy myself whether it was bolted or not, or, if so, that the bolt had been shot only a part of the way. Having done all I could in the way of examining my ground, I now prepared myself for the final effort, on which depended liberty and life on the one hand, or death and burial in a wild beast's maw, on the other. My design was, to open the door in the partition with my rod, wide enough to admit my person, and then to throw open the door by which I had entered, and induce the lion to come in after me, taking care, if possible, to have time enough to escape through the door in the partition into the other compartment, and shoot the bolt into its socket be- |
fore my enemy could reach me. Everything, of course, depended upon the celerity of my movements. If I should be quick enough, I might hope to get out of the way in time; if not, not. It was an unfortunate circumstance that the door in the partition opened outwardly from the place where I was, for if it had moved the other way, I could probably have prevented my pursuer from getting through for some time, by merely drawing it to, even without fastening it. There was no help for this, however, so I stretched out my rod cautiously, and pushed the door ( the partition door ) open. This preliminary being settled, I advanced towards the outside door – the one by which I had entered. The lion followed me up, advancing or retreating inch by inch, just as I did. I tried to attract his attention with my right hand, while I opened the door with the rod in my left; but the famished brute would keep himself directly in front of me, snarling and showing his enormous tusks every moment. The end door, as I have stated, swung outwardly, like the others, and I soon found that the monster's muzzle would be inside of it as soon as I could get it open. It was "do or die," however; so, bracing my nerves "hard up," and throwing one foot forward, I stretched out my arm, with the rod in the opposite direction, gave the door a vigorous push, and then ran for my life. Having sprung through the partition door, I wheeled about to shut it, but a single glance behind me made it apparent that there was no time to stop. The terrible brute was within two feet of me. With the energy of desperation, I dashed at the outer door. It yielded to my weight, and I shot through it like an arrow. Here, I must stop – there was no alternative. I checked my headlong speed as quickly as possible, and slamming the door to with one hand, seized the bolt with the other, and strove to force it into the socket. For a moment I gave myself up for lost. I could not move the bolt, which was covered with rust. As I tugged at it with frantic violence, I saw the lion bursting through the door in the partition. The narrowness of that door was the means of saving my life. The beast was a second or two in squeezing through it, and reached the end of the cage where I was, just as the rusty bolt was yielding to my last desperate jerk. As it was, he managed to rip up the back of my hand to the bone. I had no time to note the damage I had received, nor did I even feel the pain, so intent was I upon completing the job, by running round to fasten the door in the other end of the cage. In that I met with less difficulty than I had expected, for though the bolt was quite as rusty as the other one, I had time to make use of my iron rod, and drive it home, before my persecutor could repass the partition door and reach the spot. He was terribly disappointed, and roared and lashed his sides most furiously, even attempting to wrench away the iron bars with his teeth. But they were sound and solid — the bars, I mean and the old fellow, being fairly outwitted, was, to my intense satisfaction, a close prisoner, to be disposed of as I might think best. After a little reflection, I instituted a search throughout the schooner, with the view of finding some means of putting my captured enemy to death. There was nothing aboard for him to eat, except myself, and I though the best thing I could do for him would be to terminate his existence at once. With some difficulty, I succeeded in finding fire arms and ammunition, and sent the troublesome brute to his long home, by putting a musket ball through his heart. Having captured and killed the enemy, I now proceeded to examine my prize. She was a clever sized schooner, and was called, as I ascertained from various sources, the Maritana. Among the effects which I supposed to have been the property of the captain, I found some papers in a very fragmentary condition, which were written in a language meant to be Portuguese, but of which every line was an orthographical problem. Portuguese that was Portuguese, I could read tolerably well, but of the queer-looking hieroglyphics before me I could decipher only a very little. I guess (and I can only guess) that the Maritana was originally from some port on the African coast, but lastly from one of the Cape de Verd islands, and that she was probably bound for some port in Brazil or in Portugal, I cannot say which. Indeed, anything I have to say on the subject is little better than a conjecture, and part of that conjecture is, that the lion and other wild beasts which had certainly been aboard, were destined for a royal menagerie, perhaps in Lisbon, perhaps in Rio de Janeiro. At all events, the captain had been in correspondence with the keeper of such a menag- |
erie. There was a miscellaneous cargo still remaining, but, with the single exception of the monstrous brute I had destroyed, every living thing in the schooner had been put to death, and probably devoured. This melancholy history I could read (geologist like) in the ghastly "organic remains." None of the schooner's boats were absent (unless she had such as were not ordinarily used in such vessels), and there were in different parts of her the bones of at least ten or twelve human beings. There were also the osseous remains of a number of quadrupeds how many, or of what sort, I did not attempt to ascertain. What had brought about this lamentable catastrophe, is not easy to say, though a variety of conjectures might be hazarded on the subject. From certain mute witnesses which I fell in with, I think it not improbable that on some festival day all hands had indulged in a jollification, which was allowed to transcend the bounds of prudence and propriety, and leave most, if not all of those on board in a stupid and helpless condition. In that state of affairs, the great lion, and perhaps other beasts of prey, may have been suffered to escape, possibly in a famished condition, and to commit such havoc as they chose on the defenceless crew. There was a large pen or cage, where bones were strewn over the floor, and it looked as if it had been purposely thrown open. Possibly this might have been done by some frightened survivor of the slaughter, in order to let other beasts loose upon the huge lion, in the hope of their fighting and destroying him, or at least disabling each other. Beside what I have mentioned, however, I found other traces which would seem to indicate that there had been fighting of men with each other, in addition to the havoc evidently produced by wild beasts. In short, the whole thing was a mystery, and one that will hardly be unraveled this side of eternity. I will, therefore, pursue the subject no further, merely remarking, what I forgot to state before, that most of the beasts (possibly all of them) had evidently not been confined in cages, but simply secured by a chain and a collar round the neck. I found in the captain's cabin a chronometer, and some other navigator's instruments – charts, etc., but I saw nothing like a log book. There were plenty of provisions aboard, and if the weather remained tolerably fair, I had no doubt about being able to keep a float till I could effect my release in some way or other. After a good deal of splicing and fixing, I managed to hoist sail enough to keep my craft steady, and to get two old flags flying in an inverted position, as signals of distress one in the main rigging, the other at the mizzen gaff. This being done, and the vessel put before the wind, I proceeded hastily and roughly to form a sort of estimate of my position. I found that the nearest land was the Cape de Verd Islands, but with the wind I had, and in the condition in which I was placed, the best thing I could do was to lay my course for the African coast, in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone. Having come to this resolution, I next set about contriving how to get on more sail; but while I was considering the point, I spied a vessel to windward, which I hoped might render a solution of the problem unnecessary. My signals were observed, and about two hours afterwards, I was lying alongside of her Britannic majesty's transport, Cormorant, filled with troops, and bound for Calcutta. Being rather short of hands, the captain could not spare a crew sufficient to take the schooner into port, but he received me very kindly. |
Source:Roshow Bezone Jr.
Images may be found at the Hathi Trust.
Last updated by Tom Tyler, Denver, CO, USA, January 12, 2025.
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