The Adventures of Captain Mago

"Lay down your arms!" I shouted in Ionian.

But the man was not daunted. He renewed his effort to cut the rope asunder, an attempt in which he was foiled by receiving a second arrow in his throat.

"Shall we shoot them all?" asked Bichri.

"No; wait a bit!" I said; "they look sturdy fellows, and ought to fetch a good price at Carthage; we may as well do an extra stroke of business."

Again I called to them to lay down their arms and to surrender, but they made no sign of submission. One of them hurled his lance at me, just grazing my shoulder; but another, apparently convinced that the case was desperate, jumped overboard, and as we were a long distance out at sea, was probably drowned.

Fifteen men still remained, and I made Hanno and Chryseis bespeak their attention in their own language, and thus succeeded in bringing them to terms. Hanno, by my instruction, promised them that their lives should be spared, and that they should be conveyed to a land where they might earn good pay as soldiers of a king, and have good treatment besides. After a while they yielded, and laid down their arms, which were immediately hauled up on deck; and then a rope was thrown down, and one by one the men, crestfallen and agitated, climbed on board.

The remainder of our assailants were now flying in complete disorder. Night was coming on, and to them a voyage in the darkness was scarcely less terrible than a second battle. Although some of the boats were quite uninjured, we could see that several of them had sustained so much damage that they could hardly make any progress, and that more than one had been set on fire by the combustibles discharged by the Dagon. From the distant shore we could hear the lamentations of the women bewailing the fate of the drowned and slain.

Hamilcar and Hasdrubal obtained my leave to go in pursuit of the fugitives, and I told off thirty men under Bichri and Chamai to go with them. While they were absent I sent some men to take in tow the two boats that had been abandoned by their crews, and found that they contained a number of dead bodies, the whole of which I had stripped and thrown into the sea. The two ships returned very shortly, bringing three prizes and twenty-two prisoners.

I deferred making any detailed examination of the spoils until the morrow, and tired as we were, I should have been glad of repose for myself and my men; but it was absolutely necessary that we should at once wash the decks, collect the scattered armour, and do something to repair the disorder inevitable after so hard a conflict. The corpses of the Hellenes who had been killed and about twelve of the wounded were thrown overboard. Of our own men, twenty-three had been wounded and eleven killed; the bodies of these were wrapped in cloth and laid side by side on the fore-deck, that they might be committed to the sea in the morning, with the rites and invocations of their religion.

As the Dagon had sustained less injury than any of our ships, I had all the captives, including my own fifteen, sent on board her and fastened securely in the hold.

Our losses were very serious. The Cabiros had eight killed and ten wounded; the Dagon, three killed and seven wounded; making, with the casualties on my own ship, a total of twenty-three dead, and forty wounded. Here was a melancholy proof that we had been matched with no mean opponents; and to confess the truth, their courage and energy were such, that if they had had any practical notion of naval tactics, and if their boats had been more manageable, and their weapons not so ill-adapted for this character of warfare, our chances of success would have been very small.

Both Hamilcar and Gisgo had sustained serious though by no means dangerous wounds. Hanno had a gash across his shoulder, Chamai a lance-cut in the arm, and Himilco a large bruise on the head, but neither of the three was incapacitated from going on with his accustomed duty. Our senior seaman, Hadlai, was among the killed. Jonah had five lance-wounds, which he regarded as mere scratches; and after he had smeared himself all over with ointment, he declared that the day's proceedings had not only given him a tremendous appetite, but had made him desperately thirsty.

It was impossible accurately to estimate the losses of the Hellenes; but they must have amounted to several hundred; thirty-six dead bodies had been found lying on the deck of the Ashtoreth alone, and the Cabiros had thrown overboard thirty-eight more.

We contrived to get some brief repose before morning, but it was still quite early when under a fair east wind we started again on our way to Italy. The eight prizes were all taken in tow, and in order to make our progress more easy I sent a few men into each of them, either to put up a sail or to work them with oars.

Our ships were hung with black in honour of the dead, and the usual invocations were made to the gods of the departed. There were several bullocks amongst the booty we had captured, and I ordered one of them to be hoisted upon each vessel and slain for a sacrifice. On board the Ashtoreth, Hanno recited the prescribed petitions to the goddess, and after the slaughter of our beast, the fat and a portion of the flesh were set apart to be smoked and dried, the rest being allotted to the funeral feast. The children of Israel, meanwhile, after their own fashion, were sacrificing a sheep to their God, El-Adonai. As soon as the sacrifices were finished, I made a distribution of wine; but before this was allowed to be tasted, the trumpets were sounded, and the bodies of the dead solemnly committed to the deep. The black hangings were then removed; and we gathered together for the general repast. Every one's spirits revived under the influence of food and drink. Weariness and wounds were soon forgotten, and the men, one to the other, were cheerfully recounting their own experiences of the fight.

"Hannibal," I said, "you, as captain of the guard, and your men under you, have acquitted yourselves admirably and, according to the covenants of the charter-party, you are entitled to a share of the spoil."

"For my part," said Hannibal, "I am quite ready to give up all further claim if I can only have a new set of armour; my cuirass is terribly battered about, and my helmet has lost both crest and plume. I have no doubt there is a good suit of Lydian armour on board; let me have that and I shall ask no more."

"With all my heart!" I answered: "and in addition I shall give you a flask of fine Sareptan wine."

"Aye, a good thought!" said Himilco; "I, also, shall be only too happy to dispose of my claim for three skins of Berytos."

Chamai maintained that he must be entitled at least to a bracelet and a pair of Syrian earrings. "Give them to Abigail," he said, "and I will cry quits for my share."

"And now, sir scribe," I asked, turning to Hanno, "what shall I do for you? There are sheep, oxen, armour, wines at your command."

"By Ashtoreth!" he answered; "there is nothing I want. Take my portion and distribute it amongst the wounded; they need it more than I."

Struck by this generosity, Hannibal and Chamai shook him heartily by the hand, and Chryseis showed her approval by the most beaming of smiles.

One of the pilots came to me, as a deputation from the crew, and requested that I would sell the whole booty in a lump at the first opportunity, and let them have their shares in money: meanwhile they hoped that I should not object to make them an advance of what they might expect. The fact was that the men knew that Phœnician coin was current at Utica, Carthage and Gades, and reckoned upon going ashore and enjoying themselves at all these ports. I saw no reason for refusing the men what they wanted, and accordingly instructed Hanno to draw up a list of all the plunder, to every article of which I appended the price in shekels which I was willing to pay for it. The priced catalogue was affixed to the mast of each ship for the sailors' inspection, and as it gave universal satisfaction, I paid them the amount to which they were severally entitled that very evening.

Chryseis and Abigail spent the night in administering to the wants of the wounded.

Next morning, I sent for the prisoners. They had some rations served out to them, and were brought from the Dagon to the Ashtoreth, looking downhearted and full of mistrust. I enlisted the services of Hanno as interpreter, and having selected the most intelligent-looking of the group, had him questioned as to his nationality and his home.

"We are Hellenes," he said, "of the tribe of the Phocians. We have no regular home, but we have been in the country round Mount Parnassus. We left our haunts there at the bidding of Apollo, who told us to depart, and to seek for other settlements. With our wives and children we were on our way to join our kinsmen, the Ionians, either in Epirus or in Corcyra. We were hoping there to find a happy and a settled residence."

Great tears stood in his eyes, and his companions in adversity could not suppress their sobs. I assured him that it was far from my wish to aggravate their misery, and that I really pitied them in their misfortune, so that they need not fear any harsh treatment at my hands.

"If we had been meeting you in regular warfare," he continued, "we should have fought on to the very death, and would have borne disaster and defeat without a murmur; but now who shall blame us, if we weep for our wives and dear ones perished in the waves?"

"But why, then, did you attack us?" I inquired.

"Listen, and you shall hear," he answered: "three days ago, we fell in with a great Phœnician ship; it was not alone, but was accompanied by several others. The captain hailed us and asked us to sell him some provisions: regarding the Phœnicians as all divine, we were all most ready to oblige them; we sent them oxen, fruit and corn; my own poor son and many others went besides; but no sooner had they got the supplies on board, than the pirates hoisted sail and made away. We had no remedy; there was no hope of recovering our people or our property; our boats cannot compete with yours in speed. In our fury we swore that we would be avenged, and vowed we would attack the first Phœnicians we should see. You were the first. Now you know all."

"Bodmilcar! by all the gods!" ejaculated Himilco. "It is Bodmilcar that has involved us in this trouble. To him we owe the death of our brave Hadlai, and the loss of all our men! Ten thousand curses on him! Moloch's bitterest curse be on his head!"

Anxious to learn whether this suspicion was well founded, I made inquiry as to what the Phœnician ship was like, and not only ascertained that it was large and round and high, but that the men on board were quite different to the men upon the smaller boats, who had brown faces, and wore dresses of another shape. These boats, too, carried the figure of a goose's head at every prow.

"The Melkarth and the Egyptians beyond a doubt!" I cried.

The Phocian looked astonished at my agitation.

I soon recovered my composure, and asked whether there were any men amongst the captives upon whose courage and discretion he could rely. He informed me that his own brother was one, and that five of the others were his cousins; he added, moreover, that the wife of one of the cousins had been carried off on board the Phœnician ship.

"Call them forward!" I said; and in a few minutes six young men, all apparently strong and active, stood before me.

"You would like to see your son again?"

"My son!" echoed the man. "Restore my son, and you shall be counted divine indeed."

I informed him that the Phœnician who had borne him off was my avowed and mortal enemy. "But serve me with fidelity," I added, "and you may recover your son even yet."

Turning to Hannibal, I ordered him to provide the seven men with kitonets and arms, and to take them into his own force; the remainder I sent to assist the rowers. It would be easy, I knew, to dispose of them all at Utica or Carthage, where there is a constant demand both for oarsmen and for mercenaries.

The seven Phocians kissed my hands, and wept for joy; the remainder went below with lighter hearts than they had brought on board.

CHAPTER IX

THE LAND OF OXEN

On the third morning after the battle we sighted the mountains of Italy,32 and having entered the gulf,33 along the north of which extends the Iapygian Peninsula, we soon came to the mouth of a river that meandered along a fine plain, in which the broad pastures were diversified by groves of pines and oleanders. Inland, about a hundred stadia from the shore, rose a range of grey mountains, partially wooded, and crowned by a ridge of ragged peaks. The anchorage was tolerably good, and as we required fresh water and provender for the cattle, I determined to lay to at once. I had all the animals sent on shore. This was a work of some difficulty; Bichri with a few armed men was put in charge of them, and he was to employ the prisoners to drive them where they could find proper pasturage; my intention in doing this was that the animals should follow the ships along the coast as far as the Sicilian Straits, where, unless I succeeded meanwhile in disposing of them, they should be re-embarked.

"Not much chance of selling them here," said Himilco; "we are in Vitalia, the land of oxen. If we could have brought them some goats now, like those we let the Ionians have, we might have found a market. Of cattle such as these they have more than enough already."

"Probably so," I answered; "but first of all we must find some inhabited spot amidst all this desolation; we must try and meet with some of these Italians or Vitalians, whichever they are called. There must be some Iapygians here too in the south, as well as in the north. Do you know the Iapygian dialect?"

Himilco said that, although he was not acquainted with that dialect, he had some knowledge of the language of the Vitalians, as well as of that which was spoken by the Opsci, the Marsians, the Volscians, the Samnites, the Umbrians, the Sabellians of the eastern coast, and the Latins of the western. He mentioned also that Gisgo was tolerably familiar with the tongue of the Rasennæ, away to the north-west.

The spokesman of my seven Phocian prisoners now approached me somewhat timidly, as if he had something to ask. His name was Aminocles. He began by addressing me:

"King of the Phœnicians!"

I stopped him and told him that my proper appellation was not king but captain.

"Captain of the Phœnicians," he said; "will you please to tell me what country we are in?"

"Italy," I answered; "Italy, the land of herds."

"But in what part of it?" he asked.

"In that part," I replied, "which is inhabited by various tribes of Vitalians; south and north-east dwell the Iapygians; far away to the north are the Rasennæ, who build great cities, and have a king in the fertile vales beyond the mountains."

"We know nothing of them," said Aminocles.

"Patience!" interposed Himilco; "perhaps we can refresh his memory. Phocian, listen to me. Have you ever heard of Opsci?"

"Of Opici? yes," he answered; "our ancestors have left it upon record that long ages back, before we built Dodona, nay, before we settled by the Achelous, while we still were dwelling in the cold regions beyond Thrace, we were in association with a people called the Opici. At that time mainland and islands both were inhabited by Leleges, Pelasgians, giants, dwarfs, and monsters; but the gods slew them all and made way for us. If your Opsci are the same as those Opici, I suppose I ought to have heard of them before."

"It is of no use perplexing the man," I said; "you see he does not understand you."

"Wait a bit," Himilco remonstrated; "perhaps I shall succeed even yet. Tell me, Aminocles, did you ever hear of Tyrsenians?"

"No," said the Phocian.

"Strange!" muttered Himilco to himself. "Again and again I have heard the Hellenes speak of Vitalia, and call the natives Tyrsenians or Tyrrhenians; I must try again. Do you know the Siculians, the Cyclopes, the Lœstrigonians?" he asked aloud.

The man's countenance changed in an instant.

"What! do you mean" – he exclaimed, in a voice agitated with alarm – "that we have come to the land of such people as those?"

"Aye, that we have," said Himilco, with a chuckle of satisfaction; "this is the country of the Lœstrigonians; and down there is the island of the Cyclopes, the Siculians, and all the rest of them. We are going to pay them a visit, when we have steered safely between Scylla and Charybdis."

And he laughed outright when he heard Aminocles, wringing his hands, groan out:

"Oh! better, better far to have perished in the fight than to have come to this land of monsters. Oh!"

We all laughed. The ridiculousness of the fellow's terror was irresistible.

"Silence, simpleton!" I said; "the Lœstrigonians will not hurt you; we shall see plenty of them, but they will not eat you up."

While I was speaking, my attention was directed by the man on watch to a party of about fifty men, who were advancing across the plain. Their attitude was far from confident, and they halted on the edge of a wood, apparently in indecision whether they would come on or retreat. At length I took upon myself to encourage them to come forward, and, according to my custom, went alone towards them, making them every sign of good-will. Presently two of them advanced to meet me. They were stout, thick-set men, square-shouldered, and of middle height; they had light complexions, thick beards, and frizzly hair, that overhung low brows and wide faces. Their legs and arms were quite bare, and their heads uncovered, but they wore a kind of coarse woollen kitonet, with another loose garment thrown crosswise over one shoulder. They were all well armed, having two short copper-headed lances and a poignard; most of them carried knives or swords in their girdles, and about a dozen had slings or bows.

One of the two who had come on in advance shouted in Italian:

"Who are you? and what have you come for?"

Himilco, who had followed me, shouted back in the same language that we were merchants who had come from distant lands, and that we wanted to open a trade with them.

"But are you not Rasennæ? and is it not your design to rob us our cattle?"

"Nothing of the sort," we answered; "we are Phœnicians from the east. Come down to the shore, and you shall see our merchandise."

Both the men retired to their comrades, and appeared to deliberate; but very shortly they returned, and one of them called out:

"You see these two trees on each side of me; these must be our boundary."

And, driving his lance firmly into the ground midway between them, he continued:

"If you advance one step beyond this lance, I take it up, and we declare ourselves your foes."

Himilco repeated his assurance that we had no wish to do them the slightest injury, and they came up close to where we were. The leader told us that they were Sabelline Samnites, and that they wanted to know what payment we were going to make them for the pasturage of our cattle. I made Himilco satisfy them that they should have a proper remuneration.

It was now my turn to erect a barrier. This I did by driving stakes into the earth, and stretching a cord across, beyond which I made the Samnites understand that I should not permit them to pass. They raised no objection to my measure of precaution, but crowded up to inspect our goods, their curiosity meanwhile extending to our ships, ourselves, and our costume. They were rougher in manners than the Hellenes, and more suspicious, and I had some trouble in inducing them to negotiate with us at all; but after a time I succeeded in securing their confidence to a certain degree, and they informed me that they were not an agricultural people, and had no cereals nor vegetables to bring us, but could supply us with any number of sheep and oxen. They subsequently brought several half-wild pigs, which particularly attracted the attention of Chamai and Bichri, neither of whom had seen animals of the kind before. Not understanding the art of making bread, the Samnites ordinarily eat a kind of pulp called "masa;" but, as they had on previous visits of other Phœnicians tasted some loaves, they were now very anxious to be shown how to make them; they made a number of inquiries likewise about our wine, but for this they did not seem to care to the same extent as the Hellenes.

Next morning they came to us again in considerable numbers. I had observed that during the night they had lighted a good many beacon-fires over the land, and naturally conjectured that they were signalling for a gathering of their countrymen, and I accordingly doubled my ordinary guard. I soon found, however, that there was no cause for alarm, and that they had no hostile intentions; on the contrary, they were quite content to follow my injunctions that they should not approach our boundary line in groups of more than fifty; they awaited their turn with the utmost patience, and altogether were far less noisy and demonstrative than we had found the Dorians.

Amongst other things they brought a great quantity of coral, which after rough weather is washed up on their coasts, but which they also procure by diving from frail rafts of their own construction; for although they are very indifferent navigators, they are for the most part excellent swimmers. The most expert coral-divers are the Iapygians, those who dwell amongst the Samnites and the Bretians, as well as the natives of Iapygia proper. Some few of them were to be noticed amongst our Samnite visitors; they were generally tall and wore no beards; they had round heads and brown skins, being in many respects very like the Cydonians: in their manners they were more polished and in their conversation more communicative than the other Italians. They seemed to me to bear a marked resemblance to the Siculians; and I cannot help thinking that the Iapygians, the Siculians, the Cydonians, and the natives discovered by our forefathers in Malta, are the aborigines of their respective countries. Afterwards, from the coast of Asia came the Leleges and the Pelasgians (tribes that bear a strong likeness to the Lydians, Lycians, and Carians), and these settled in Dodanim and the isles, being succeeded by the Hellenes and Italians, who came southward from the confines of Thrace. Of the origin of the Rasennæ I am perfectly ignorant: all I know is that Phœnicians who have visited the mountains whence the rock-crystal is obtained, and which lie north of the Eridanus, at the head of the Iapygian Gulf, have reported that they have fallen in with a people who call themselves Rhœtians, and who speak a language in many respects identical with that spoken by the Rasennæ.

Two days were spent in bartering my cumbersome booty for coral, which could be compactly stored away. As the captured boats were emptied, I had all but two of them broken up. I reserved only the planking, which was sure to be useful, and the masts, which might be of service if we should require extra spars. After the spoil had been all exchanged away, I commenced paying for what I purchased with glass-beads, lance-heads, and sword-blades; the last of these articles were so eagerly coveted, that for four blades, worth about a shekel apiece, I obtained at least four hundred shekels' worth of the finest coral. When I expressed my surprise at the quantity of coral in their possession, they explained that it was the accumulation of a very long time, adding that they had intended disposing of it at one of the emporiums which the Phœnicians had established on the western coast, but that our arrival had saved them the trouble of the journey. They told me that they should have been glad if I could supply them with goats, and stated that those which had been brought over by our countrymen, and purchased by the Marsians and Volscians, were rapidly spreading in the mountains of the north.

The Samnites have no regular towns, but live in small scattered hamlets, consisting generally of a few thatched huts built of boughs of trees cemented with mud. They have very little notion of agriculture, and the Latins of the west coast (especially those of the valley of the Tiber) are far superior husbandmen; the Latins, however, have a city named Alba, occupying a secure position between a mountain and a lake. Along the coast I know only of a single sea-port, and that belongs to the Rasennæ, and is named Populonia. These Rasennæ are no contemptible sailors; that they were bold and unscrupulous pirates, I had long known by hearsay, but here on the Samnite coast I was destined to have a confirmation of the fact from my own experience.