Page 59 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

A FIGHT TO A FINISH 59

the monotony and keep up his character for freebooting,
Michelborne chased whatever native craft came within
easy distance of him. He got very little for his pains
because the native crews of the threatened boats, with their
intimate knowledge of the coasts, were able to elude their
pursuers. At last the spell of inglorious marauding ended
in a terrible tragedy which narrowly missed involving the
whole expedition in absolute disaster.
For days the Tiger had been lying helplessly upon the
water, “ a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” Hardly
a breath of wind stirred to moderate the fierce intensity of
the sun which beat with tropical strength upon the decks.
The men were lying idly about in the shade of the high
bulwarks or hanging listlessly over the sides watching
with lack-lustre eyes the adjacent coast of the island of
Bintang, which was shimmering in the blue haze of noon­
day. Suddenly a cry was raised of a sail. Immediately
all was bustle and eager expectancy. The strange craft
was too distant to determine her character, but she was
evidently more than an ordinary junk.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the mysterious ship came
on until she was near enough for those on board the Tiger
to see that her deck was crowded with men. A boat,
heavily armed, was put off from the Tiger and after a
parley the Englishmen were admitted on board the stran­
ger. She proved to be a Japanese vessel. Her crew, at
all events, were of that nation—squat-figured deter­
mined-looking fellows, with the impassive calm of their
race reflected in their features. There were some eighty
or ninety of them, and they were manifestly not all sea­
men. The garb and bearing of many were indicative of
the soldier rather than the sailor. Moreover, they made