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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29323-8.txt b/29323-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98d71a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/29323-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9323 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Sailor's Yarns, by Nathaniel Ames + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Old Sailor's Yarns + +Author: Nathaniel Ames + +Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29323] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD SAILOR'S YARNS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Val Wooff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +There is some arcane and inconsistent spelling. The dialect, spelling +and punctuation have been preserved as far as possible. + +Obvious typographical errors have been altered, for example where a word +was duplicated or a letter duplicated around a hyphen. Hyphenations have +been made consistent. + + + + + + AN + + OLD SAILOR'S YARNS. + + BY + + N. AMES. + + AUTHOR OF "MARINER'S SKETCHES," + &c. &c. &c. + + + Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem. + + _Virgil._ + + + NEW YORK: GEORGE DEARBORN, 38 GOLD STREET. + + MDCCCXXXV. + + + * * * * * + + + Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by + GEORGE DEARBORN, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the + United States, for the Southern District of New York. + + + * * * * * + + +WILLIAM VAN NORDEN, PRINT. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + * * * * * + + + MARY BOWLINE. . . . . . . 15 + + OLD CUFF . . . . . . . . . . 53 + + RIVALS . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + + MORTON . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + + PIRATE OF MASAFUERO . . 329 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Mr. Buckingham, noticing the "Nautical Reminiscences" in the New +England Magazine, says, no author ever stopped at the second book; and +he very gravely proceeds to recommend that my number three should savor +more of the style of Goldsmith or Washington Irving. I should have no +objection whatever to writing like either of these distinguished +authors, _if I could_; but as the case is, I must be content to write as +well as I can. The whole article in Mr. B's magazine bore no faint +resemblance to a dose of calomel and jalap, administered in a +table-spoonful of molasses, in which the sweet and the nauseous are so +equally balanced, that the patient is in doubt whether to spit or to +swallow. I was, however, exceedingly flattered with the notice bestowed +upon me by this literary cynic, as he was never before known to speak +well, even moderately, of any author, except natives of Boston, or +professors in Harvard University. + +"Morton" is founded upon an old tradition, now forgotten, but well +known when I first went to sea, of the exploits of some of our +adventurous and somewhat lawless traders in the Pacific. A number of the +crew of one of these smuggling vessels were taken in the act, and, after +a hasty trial, ordered to be sent to the mines. The route to their place +of condemnation and hopeless confinement lay near the coast. A large +party of seamen landed from two or three ships that were in the +neighborhood, waylaid the military escort, knocked most of them on the +head, rescued the prisoners, and got safe off without loss. The story +says nothing of female influence or assistance, but knowing it to be +morally impossible to get through a story without the assistance of a +lady, I pressed one into the service, and took other liberties with the +original, till it became what peradventure the reader will find it. Many +stories are told of the skirmishes, or as sailors call them, +"scrammidges," between our "free-traders" and the guarda-costas in +different parts of the Pacific. In particular, the ship D----, of +Boston, is said to have had a "regular-built fight" with a guarda-costa +of forty-four guns, that retired from the action so miserably mauled, +that it is doubtful to this day whether she ever found her way back into +port. An old sea-dog who was on board the D----, furnished me with many +details of the proceedings of our merchantmen on the coasts of +California, and Mexico, some thirty years since, but most of them have +escaped my memory. + +I have inadvertently, in one or two instances, called the inhabitants +of Mexico, South Americans. The fact is, there is scarcely a perceptible +shade of difference in manners between the Chilians, Peruvians, and +Mexicans; there is none in their language, dress, or religion; and +sailors, who pay but little regard to arbitrary divisions of continents, +are in the habit of calling all the quondam possessions of his Most +Catholic Majesty, that border upon the Pacific, by the general name of +South America, upon the same principle, I presume, that they call the +whole of that ocean the "_South_ Sea," though they may be at that very +moment anchored in Sitka, or cruizing in the chops of Behring's Straits. + +"The Rivals," is built upon a strange story that was quite current among +our men-of-war's-men some years ago, but I am unable to give any further +account of the hero of _their_ story than the reader will find in the +conclusion of mine. There seems to be no doubt that the stranger was +obliged to fly on account of a fatal duel; and sailors, who cannot +conceive of a duel between two gentlemen, as they somewhat ironically +call them, unless there is a woman in the case, have accordingly +attached one to the quarrel that compelled the unfortunate officer to +take shelter on board an American national vessel. + +"Old Cuff" is a sketch from real life. He was a petty officer in the +service at the same time with me, and notwithstanding his rambling life, +was a man of good education and strong mind. His life was a striking +illustration of the truth of the proposition that "there is no romance +like the romance of real life." He proposed to me to take minutes of his +adventures, which were extremely interesting, but before I could +commence operations I was myself made a petty officer, and removed to a +station in a part of the ship where I but seldom saw him, and the ship +was soon after ordered home. + +The reader need be neither a wizard nor a witch to perceive that "Mary +Bowline" is a creation of my own brain, and is of course defective, and +will disappoint. But if it is true that "Bacon, Butler, and Shakspeare +have rendered it impossible for any one after them to be profound, +witty, or sublime," it is equally true that Scott, Irving, and others +have rendered it impossible for any one to be equally entertaining, +interesting, or amusing. I hold, however, to another maxim, that "he is +a benefactor to mankind who furnishes them with innocent materials for +laughter and delight," a maxim that did not come exactly "ex cathedra," +but is full as profound, and correct. If I have been so fortunate as to +contribute to, or become the cause of innocent delight, I shall think +that the "Forecastle Yarns" have not been written in vain. + +It was objected to my two former works that they contained strictures, +and remarks, upon what are commonly called orthodox principles. In the +present volume, I have studiously endeavored to steer my footsteps clear +of the tender toes of every religious sect except the Catholics; whom, +in imitation of the Protestant clergy and laity all around me, I have +handled without mittens whenever I could get a chance. + +I cannot close without repeating that if I have succeeded in helping to +make + + "The wheels of life gae down hill scrievin', + Wi' rattlin' glee,"-- + +I shall feel more gratified than if I had squared the circle, or drawn +up a tariff that, like Shakspeare's barber's chair, should fit all +parties. + + + N. A. + _Providence, October 1, 1833._ + + +P. S. More than a year ago the following pages were written and prepared +for the press, under the title of "Forecastle Yarns," but a gentleman +connected with the New York Mirror took a fancy to that title, and +immediately appropriated it to himself with the most genteel +indifference as to the prior right of another. In consequence, I have +been obliged to adopt a new name. The "Pirate of Masafuero" was written +after the above preface was prepared. "Old Cuff" has already been before +the public in the columns of the first and only number of a new +magazine[1] that expired for want of patronage, and support, having just +survived long enough to give ample proofs that it deserved the +patronage, and support, that were denied it. The very favorable notice +that the Evening Star took of "Old Cuff," is proof positive that it is +much higher than "fair to middling;" and if it is true that "the proof +of the pudding is eating the bag," (and the reader will consider "Old +Cuff" as the bag,) I think it follows that the pudding now set before +him cannot be a bad one. + + _November, 1834._ + + +[Footnote 1: American Spectator and National Magazine.] + + + + + * * * * * + + MARY BOWLINE. + + * * * * * + + + + + MARY BOWLINE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + "Nautaeque, per omne + Audaces mare qui currunt, hac mente laborum + Sese ferre, senes ut in otia tuta recedunt, + Aiunt." + HORACE. + + +Captain Robert Bowline, a retired sea-captain, occupied a snug little +farm in the town of B----, one of the many pleasant villages on the +coast of New England. He had followed the sea for many years, acquired +considerable property, married, and had a family. When he had attained +his forty-fifth year, a relation of his wife died, leaving her heiress +to a very handsome estate, part of which was the farm aforesaid. In +consequence of this event he was easily persuaded by his wife, whom he +tenderly loved, to retire to private life, and leave the "vexed ocean" +to be ploughed by those who had their fortunes to make. They retired to +their farm, when the first act of the old Triton was to pull down the +antique house that had been erected "about the time of the old French +war," and build another more "ship-shape," and congenial to the taste +of a sailor. The dwelling itself was not, indeed, externally different +from any other of the snug-looking and rather handsome two-story houses +of substantial farmers, &c. in New England; but its internal economy was +somewhat nautical, containing numerous "lockers" and "store-rooms." Its +front gate-posts were composed of the two jaw-bones of an enormous +whale; the fence was of a most fanciful Chinese pattern; and directly in +front of the house was erected that never-failing ornament of a sailor's +dwelling, a tall flag-staff, with cap, cross-trees, and topmast, +complete; the last, always being kept "housed," except upon the 4th of +July, 22d of February, &c. At the foot of the flag-staff, "hushed in +grim repose," was an iron six-pounder, mounted upon a ship gun-carriage, +ready for service, whenever any national holyday required its voice. The +house fronted the sea; a most superb view of which it commanded, but was +at the same time screened from its storms in great measure by being +flanked by noble old elms, and a fine orchard, which almost entirely +surrounded it; while in the rear the ground swelled into a thickly +wooded hill of moderate height. The ground in front sloped gently down +to the water's edge, at the distance of half a mile from the house, but +to the left gradually rose into a high point, or headland, terminating +in a rocky cliff that strode far out into the sea, and formed the +harbor. + +The family of the old seaman, at the time he took possession of his +"shore quarters," consisted of himself, wife, and daughter Mary--the +rest of his children having died young. As we have no particular concern +with the events of his life from that period to Mary's twenty-first +year, we shall only observe that during that time he had the misfortune +to lose his wife. + +Mary Bowline was a young lady, confessedly of the greatest beauty in the +little town of B----, and for many miles round; a trifle above the +middle stature, sufficiently so to relieve her figure from the +imputation of shortness; or, as she was a little inclined to be +"fleshy," or "embonpoint," as our refined authors call it, from what is +sometimes called "stubbidness;" her eyes were of deep celestial blue; +her hair, a dark brown, and her complexion, notwithstanding her +continual rambles along the beach in her girlish days, of exquisite +purity. Her education, I grieve to say, had been most shamefully +neglected; her mother, though a most exemplary woman, both as a +Christian and a member of society, had never tied her up in a +fashionable corset to improve her figure, nor sent her to a fashionable +boarding school to improve her mind; the consequence was that she knew +nothing of the piano,--Virgil seems to have had the gift of prophecy +with regard to this part of modern education, when he said or sang, + + "Stridente stipula miserum _disperdere_ carmen,"-- + +and was equally ignorant of that sublime and useful art, working lace; +she had no further idea of dancing than had been beat into her head, or +rather heels, by the saltatory instructions of an itinerant +dancing-master--I ask pardon, "professor"--who, with a bandy-legged dog +at his heels, and a green baize bag under his arm, paid an annual visit +to the town, to instruct its Thetises in the "poetry of motion;" an apt +illustration of the + + "_Bacchum_ in remotis" choreas "rupibus + Vidi docentem + Nymphasque discentes," + +of Horace, with the alteration of a word; said fiddler having "forsworn +thin potations" very soon after the commencement of his capering career. +In the "serene and silent art" she was, however, truly fortunate; the +clergyman of the place, a most amiable and intelligent man, and, to the +credit of his amphibious parishioners, loved and esteemed with the +utmost fervor and unanimity, added to his other accomplishments no mean +skill as a draughtsman; an art, that he had full leisure to practise; +one of his parochial duties, that of visiting the sick, being a mere +shadow; for your fisherman, with his wife and his little ones, is but +seldom on the doctor's list, and when he "files off," generally does it +without beat of drum or flap of banner. He was a constant visiter at the +house of Captain Bowline, whither he was attracted by the fascination +of the seaman's stories of foreign parts. Charmed with the dawning +beauty of the lovely little Mary, he readily undertook to give her +better instruction than she could have obtained at the town school, to +which he added drawing. Her mother had amply instructed her in the more +useful and homely arts of cooking, sewing, knitting, &c. and she had +even taught her to spin; for she lived before the establishment of any, +or many, of those institutions for the increase of illegitimate +children, ignorance, immorality, suicide, seduction, murder, &c.--I mean +cotton factories. The comparatively affluent circumstances of her family +had, however, rendered it unnecessary for her to practise this last +accomplishment. With all these charms in her own person, and right in +her father's strong box, it is not to be wondered at that the lovely +Mary Bowline had suitors in abundance; but the only one that seemed to +have made any impression upon her light heart, was a young seaman by the +name of Kelson, who had now attained his twenty-seventh year. + +Thomas Kelson was the son of poor parents, indeed it would have been +extremely difficult, if not impossible, to have found a family in the +whole town of B---- that could be called wealthy. He had followed the +sea from early life, and had always returned home during the intervals +of his voyages, at which times he had improved his education under the +instructions of the clergyman aforesaid. His acquaintance with Mary had +passed by a very natural transition from intimacy to affection; he was +the constant companion of her rambles, and when she chose an aquatic +excursion his sail-boat was always ready. To her father his company was +always acceptable; the old seaman had none of the pride of "monied +aristrocracy;" he saw no harm in his daughter placing her affections, +and bestowing her hand and fortune, upon a young man who was fast rising +to respectability and wealth, in precisely the same steps by which he +had himself ascended, commencing as cabin-boy and ending as master and +part owner; he lived on a part of the coast that lay entirely out of the +track of "refinement," if indeed she had then begun her march. + +Accordingly things were permitted to go on just as though consent had +been asked and obtained; the young couple walked together, sat together, +and Kelson being "free of the house," talked together upon almost every +subject but love. Was there to be a fishing or sleighing party, or an +excursion into the neighboring woods, Tom Kelson was invariably and by +quiet agreement Mary Bowline's escort; was there a ball, no one, +"louting low with cap in hand," solicited, or thought of soliciting, the +honor of her company; that felicity was always supposed to be reserved +for Tom Kelson; still, with all this constant and close intimacy, the +young seaman had never talked of love, never offered himself as a +husband, and Mary, the gay and light-hearted Mary, had never, as the +New England saying is, "thought a word about it." Had Kelson suddenly +presented himself to her with "Mary, shall we be published next Sunday?" +she would have answered "Yes;" without the slightest hesitation; nor +thought her assent worth the trouble of a blush or a simper; and such, I +believe, will be found the case in most of our country courtships. + +Captain Kelson, for he had attained that title some time previous, had +been on _terra firma_ some months; partly for want of a vessel, but +chiefly in compliance with the earnest entreaties of the lovely Mary, +who was terrified at the thought of his again encountering the frightful +calamity that had so nearly proved fatal to him on his last voyage. On +his return from St. Petersburg with a full cargo, he had experienced a +tremendous gale near the Grand Banks, during which his vessel was struck +by lightning and consumed. After undergoing most dreadful sufferings in +their boats, the exhausted remnant of the crew were most providentially +picked up and brought safe home. In consequence of losing his vessel, +the owners had received him with coldness, as is invariably the case, as +though a deep loaded brig, lying-to in a gale of wind, could dodge a +flash of lightning! I have known many a good seaman kept "lying out" of +a vessel for months, merely because the owners had thought proper to +send him to sea in a _craft_ whose bottom had "dropped out," as the sea +phrase is, as soon as she had encountered bad weather. + +Captain Kelson had accordingly remained on shore from April, till +September; the time when we have thought proper to commence our story; +during which period he contrived to kill time quite agreeably in +fishing, shooting, surveying the harbor, and last but not least, in +paying continual attention to the fair Mary. He had one day made a visit +to Captain Bowline's house, and had accompanied him in a ramble over +part of his farm. During their "cruize," the old sailor had detailed his +plans for the season, and gradually extending his views, announced +certain arrangements and alterations as about to be carried into +execution "when Mary gets married." When Mary gets married! the words +passed like the shock of a galvanic battery through the mind of the +younger seaman; he soon took leave, and as he strolled, unconscious of +the direction his feet were taking without admitting his head into their +counsels, down towards the narrow strip of white sand beach at the foot +of the headland already mentioned, her father's words, the last that he +distinctly heard or recollected, continued to sound in his ears-- + +"When Mary gets married! well, she must get married some time or other, +and who will it be?" he said to himself, suddenly stopping short. "She +seems to prefer me at present, but I know that when I am at sea she +appears to favor Sam Ingraham, or Ben Bass, just as much. Yet why +should she be so anxious to have me stay on shore to avoid an accident +that may not occur again in a century, if I should live so long, unless +she does really prefer me to all others? I will certainly try to find +out the state of her feelings towards me the first opportunity, and if +she refuses me, I will never set foot in B---- again." + +With this chivalrous determination he visited his lovely and all +unconscious mistress the next day, but the fair lady was busy +ironing.--"I shall see her again this evening," thought he, as he turned +slowly towards the town; and see her that evening he did. They rambled +out towards the cape, or promontory, almost invariably the scene of +their summer evening walks; for lovers, after one or two strolls over a +particular portion of ground, regard it as almost sacred; there are a +thousand sweet recollections connected with every step--here they have +paused to admire some particular feature in the prospect--under that +spreading tree they have stood together in silence, busy with their own +peculiar thoughts; and this walk is seldom, if ever, changed--it is +almost like inconstancy to each other to propose a different route. + +They had reached the high bluff, and were seated, as usual, upon a +solitary block of granite, which, had they lived in heathen times, they +might have worshipped as the ancient and much respected god Terminus. +Mary, who had hitherto had the conversation almost entirely to herself, +suddenly noticed her lover's abstraction. + +"Why, what's the matter with you, Thomas?" + +"Nothing; I was only thinking, Mary." + +"'Thinking, Mary!' well, do speak to Mary once in a while. I believe," +she continued, after a pause, and with a faltering voice and feeling of +faintness that she could not account for, "I believe you are in love, +Thomas." She had heard that day that Captain Kelson was making furious +love to a sea-nymph in B----, the daughter of one of the richest +inhabitants. + +"So I am, sweet Mary, most desperately so." + +"I know it, sir; I heard it all this morning; I wish you joy," gasped +the poor girl. + +"Heard of it all! good heavens, Mary, what do you mean? it is you, my +own dearest girl, that I love; who else _could_ you think of?" as he +spoke he held both her hands in his and clasped them earnestly. + +"I heard," faltered poor Mary, "I was told that--that it was--Jane +Wilson, O, Thomas!" and sinking her glowing cheek upon his shoulder, she +burst into tears. + +Kelson, inexpressibly delighted by this unequivocal testimony of her +love, prest her to his bosom, and hastened to explain to her that the +sole object of his seeking an interview with her that evening, was to +make known his affection; that his silence and reserve were owing to the +deep interest he felt in the issue of that interview; that his visits +to Captain Wilson's were solely on business; that he scarcely saw his +daughter Jane at any one of them; and a thousand other things. What a +stupid, asinine creature is a lover, _before_ the ice is broken, and +what an eloquent, inspired animal, _after_ the _explosion_! A lover may +retire to his closet, and spoil a whole ream of paper with "raven +locks," and "eyes' liquid azure," and "sweet girls," &c. Such an epicure +creature as Natty Willis will befoul you a quire of foolscap before +breakfast in that way--but let a stranger see the same lover in presence +of his idol, and he would think that he was then to apologise for an +assault and battery with intent, &c. + +The walk home was the pleasantest they had ever enjoyed--both were too +happy for conversation. They decided, however, before they parted, that +it was altogether unnecessary to communicate to Captain Bowline what had +taken place. "He has understood all along what was the state of your +feelings," said Mary, "and I am sure has always regarded you with +paternal kindness." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + O! a most dainty man! + To see him walk before a lady and bear her fan! + + LOVE'S LABOR LOST. + + +The next day, as the old seaman sat by a front window smoking his pipe +after dinner, he suddenly started up with the exclamation of "Hey! +what--what the devil have we here? Mary, love, hand me the glass--a +mariner adrift on a grating, by the Lord Harry!" + +The object that called forth this animadversion, and broke a delightful +day-dream that Mary was indulging in, now appeared in sight, having +hitherto been hidden by a thick clump of trees, that bounded the ocean +prospect towards the right. It was a small sail-boat, with three men in +her, that, at one moment directly before the wind, and the next, "all +shaking," seemed rapidly approaching an extensive mud flat, that formed +one side of the harbor, and towards which the flowing tide and fresh +breeze seemed to be fast drifting her. + +"There they are, hard and fast! and on their beam ends, too, by the +piper," continued the veteran, and as he witnessed this last +catastrophe, he sprang from his chair, forgetting in his charitable +intention of hurrying to their assistance, that they were more than half +a mile off, and in full view of the town. + +"There is a boat going to them, pa," said Mary, slightly blushing as she +recognised at the mast head of a very handsome, fast sailing boat, a +blue "burger," with a large white M. in it, the work of her own fair +hands. + +"Aye," said the veteran, reseating himself, "aye, there goes Tom Kelson +in your namesake, Mary; they'll get off with a ducking, and it will +serve them right. Yes," continued he, applying the glass to his eye, +"there goes two of them ashore through the mud, like a couple of +pup-seals." + +Kelson managed his boat with great skill, so as to approach the wreck, +on board which still appeared one person half overboard, and apparently +almost exhausted by his violent struggles to disencumber himself from +the wet sail, and by anchoring immediately to windward, and carrying +away cable, reached the boat and rescued the unfortunate man from a +situation that was exceedingly uncomfortable if not dangerous. The other +two, by dint of swimming, wading, and wallowing through the mud, reached +the shore, which was about three hundred yards distant. + +As soon as he had ascertained that the man on board the wreck was +rescued, the old seaman, "on hospitable thoughts intent," hastened to +the village to obtain intelligence and render assistance. It was +evening when he returned to his snug dwelling, and then he was +accompanied by a tall, slight made, very fashionably dressed young man, +whom he introduced to his daughter as Mr. Millinet, of New York. + +Mr. Millinet, or as he usually designated himself, George Frederick +Augustus Millinet, Esq., was a "dry goods merchant," _par excellence_, +in Broadway, who having a little more cash on hand than he had ever +possessed before, made an excursion to New England, with the charitable +intention of civilizing and astonishing the natives. His debut was, +however, rather unfortunate; B---- was his first "land-fall" after +quitting the high road from New York, towards the east. Fancying that a +sail-boat in a sea-way, was as easily managed as a Whitehall skiff, off +the Battery; he had "put to sea," in company with two little amphibious +urchins that he had hired for the occasion, and who desired no better +sport. They immediately perceived the ignorance of their commander, and +began to play tricks upon him, as man-of-war's men do upon an ignorant +and tyrannical midshipman. These pranks had terminated more seriously +than they expected, and, fearful of punishment, they had betaken +themselves to the water and made their escape. + +Mr. Millinet being somewhat annoyed by the sly jokes and grave humor of +mine host, of the hotel, concerning his misfortune, and the giggling of +the waiters and chamber-maids, gladly accepted Captain Bowline's +invitation, and was soon seated at his hospitable and well loaded table, +for the old tar put no great faith in tea and bread and butter for +supper. The knight of the yard-stick had, however, gulped down too much +salt water, and been too seriously frightened to feel much appetite, and +he retired to bed early. The next morning he made his appearance at +breakfast, over which the fair Mary was presiding, and which might have +excited an appetite in the gastric region of the most confirmed +dyspeptic. There were bass and tautaug fresh from the water; oysters in +different forms, broiled, stewed, fried, &c.; a noble ham, into which +the stout seaman plunged his flashing carving-knife, and hewed it in +pieces, as Samuel did Agag, in the valley of Gilgal; there was broiled +ham, beef steaks, mutton chop, eggs, cheese, butter, honey, hot cakes; a +pile of pilot-bread-toast a foot high, ditto untoasted, coffee, tea, and +chocolate. To all this good cheer, their fashionable visiter paid but +small respect, and the old commander, having pressed him to make himself +at home, and help himself, attacked his own breakfast with vigor, +feeling at the same time no small contempt for a man whose stomach could +be so effectually unhinged by a simple capsize, and thorough ducking. +The vender of tape and calico, seemed to feast his eyes, if not his +appetite, by gazing on the lovely countenance of his young hostess; and +after some slight hesitation, commenced talking to her of theatres, and +balls, and assemblies, and fashionable intelligence in general; but +Balaam's ass, if she had marched into the room and commenced an oration +in the original Hebrew, or Chaldee, or Syro-Phoenician, or whatever +might have been _its_ vernacular tongue in which she formerly addressed +her master, could not have been more unintelligible. The old gentleman +made an attempt to drive a conversation, and asked a few questions +relative to foreign politics, the state of navigation, and commerce, in +New York, &c.; but finding his auditor as ignorant as though he had +proposed a case in middle latitude sailing, he dropped him altogether. + +He remained in the family three or four days, during which, his +attentions to Mary were incessant, but managed with such fashionable +tact as not to be annoying. She was exceedingly amused by his consummate +vanity and self-conceit; that seemed to make up the greater part of his +character. His descriptions of society and manners in the commercial +emporium, though not altogether intelligible to his fair auditor, were +new and amusing, and in spite of the contagious effect of her father's +contempt, and the troubled looks of poor Kelson, she could not help +listening to him with complacency. It was evident to every body but Mary +that the retailer of ginghams was most seriously smitten with her, as +much so, that is to say, as his idolatry of himself left him capable of +being with any person. And so it proved, for in less time than she had +any idea that it was possible to go to and return from New York, back +came her Broadway beau. Mary opened her large blue eyes in most +unaffected astonishment, as he came up to the door at which she was +standing, equipped for a walk with Kelson. She made no scruple of +consigning him to her father and continuing her walk. The old man +received him, of course, with politeness, and after a short +conversation, his visiter who seemed much embarrassed, observed that he +was desirous of entering the holy state, and then went on to give an +account of his prospects, expectations, possessions, references, hopes, +fears, anxieties, &c. The seaman listened with attention to the whole +catalogue, mentally exclaiming, "what the d--l does all this mean?" + +"In short, sir," said he of Broadway, "I have seen no young lady who +seems so well calculated to make a man happy as your lovely daughter +Mary; and if you have no objection, I should be happy to be permitted to +pay my addresses to her, if her affections are not already engaged." + +The old sea-dog, who had been rubbing his chin during the latter part of +his visiter's harangue, observed that "his daughter was indeed a fine +girl, and he (Mr. Millinet) had not and could not say any more good of +her than she deserved; that as to her affections being engaged, he did +not pretend to bother his brain about an affair that did not concern +him, trusting that the girl had good sense enough to make a proper +choice; that with regard to paying his addresses to her, he might sheer +alongside as quick as he liked--he would without doubt find her at +quarters and all ready for action; and finally that he, her father, +would not interfere to thwart her wishes in so important an affair as +the choice of a husband, for," (he repeated, with an internal chuckle as +the thought crossed his mind, that his favorite Tom Kelson was beyond a +doubt the man of her choice,) "Mary knew what she was about, and had wit +enough to make a judicious choice." + +This speech, an exceedingly long one for him, was listened to with great +satisfaction by his fashionable guest, who thus armed with the father's +consent, as he regarded it, never dreamed of the possibility of any +difficulty on the daughter's part, and looked upon the whole affair as +settled. + +In the mean time Mary, regardless of her victory over the heart of her +New York visiter, was quietly pursuing her evening walk with Kelson, to +whom she had made known the presence, in the vicinity, of his rival. Her +lover heard the intelligence with a feeling of dissatisfaction that he +could not exactly define--he had unbounded confidence in his Mary's +constancy and love just at that present time, but, like most men, he had +rather a mean opinion of woman's constancy in general, and could not +avoid applying the general rules that he had formed for himself, to most +individuals. He dreaded the effect of an assiduous and sustained attack +upon Mary's inexperienced mind, from a dashing, fashionable lover, who +held out to her acceptance all the charms and glitter of a life of ease, +and splendor, and dissipation. His uneasy sensations were by no means +quieted by his companion's gaiety, who having at once surmised, or +pretended so to have done, the object of the Gothamite's visit, promised +herself much amusement from his wooing. + +On their return to the house, they found the new visiter quietly +installed in the parlor, and waiting their, or rather her, return. In +high glee with the flattering prospect before him, he completely +monopolized Mary's attention, and eventually put to flight the +overpowered and mortified Kelson, who left the house with a heavy heart. +For at least a week Mr. Millinet kept the field; he was Mary's constant +companion, whether sitting quietly at home or walking out; and Kelson, +finding it almost impossible even to speak to her, prudently kept +himself out of the way, well knowing that Mary would soon miss him, if +she had not already, and eagerly seek an interview; nor was he wrong in +his conjecture. Calling at her father's house one Sunday morning, he +found her seated in the parlor waiting for meeting time. In the course +of conversation he asked her jestingly, though with a beating heart, +"what she meant to do with her new lover?" + +"I don't know," said she laughing, "he says that he has my father's +permission to make love to me, and he seems determined that the +permission shall not become a dead letter for want of use." + +"Your father! I had no idea that he had given his consent." + +"My father, Thomas, has given me free permission to do as I please in +the affair of choosing a husband." + +"Certainly," said poor Kelson, construing this last speech into sentence +of death to _his_ love. + +"And I have already acted as I pleased," continued the lovely girl, +holding out her hand to him. + +It was impossible to mistake the meaning of the last words and their +accompanying action, and the delighted seaman certified his full +intelligence and gratitude upon her lips. + +"I believe this fellow, my sweet Mary, has made me almost jealous and +quite foolish; but, seriously, what do you mean to do with him?" + +"Why, the creature can't stay here for ever, and if he offers himself to +me, I shall say 'No,' in as plain English as possible." + +Mr. Millinet soon after made his appearance, and attended Captain +Bowline and his daughter to meeting, to the no small surprise of the +good folks of B----, who, regarding him as the favored lover of Mary +Bowline, could not help expressing their regret that she should have +slighted Captain Kelson, and accepted "that tape-measuring son of a +b----." + +What a pity that sailors, and seafaring people at large, can seldom or +never give vent to their indignation without at the same time attacking +the parentage of the object of their resentment. This is decidedly an +orientalism; and I have observed in another place that sailors resemble +the Orientals in their fondness for tropes and figures. The most +opprobrious epithet that a Persian can make use of, when in a passion, +is to call his antagonist "a dog's uncle." No other degree of canine +consanguinity is considered so degrading. + +The retailer of dry goods dined at the house of Captain Bowline, and +attended the family to church in the afternoon, but excused himself +immediately after the service was over and returned to the town. Kelson +made a visit to the house of the old seaman just at dark, and on +entering the usual sitting-room he found it unlighted, and occupied only +by Dinah, the black girl, who, arrayed in what the old captain called +her "go-ashore bib and tucker," was probably awaiting the arrival of her +woolly-headed suitor. The old gentleman had gone out visiting, as he +usually did on Sunday evenings, and Mary was in a little back parlor, +where she usually sat in her father's absence, and which was the winter +sitting-room of the family. Kelson had been in the house but a very few +minutes when he saw his rival approaching the front gate. With all that +propensity for mischief that characterizes sailors on shore, he +immediately formed, and proceeded to put in execution, a plan for the +torment and vexation of his antagonist of the yard-stick. He promised +the sable handmaid of his Mary a half dollar, if she would personate her +mistress for a few minutes, which he imagined easily enough done in the +dark, and instructing her "to behave prim and lady-like," went in quest +of the boy Jim, whom he stationed in the entry to open the door for Mr. +Millinet, and show him into the front parlor, and then went to the room +where the fair lady herself was sitting. She was just on the point of +coming to the front room with a light, having heard his well-known voice +and step, but he easily engaged her in conversation; and when, at +Millinet's knock, she was rising to see who it was, he as easily +detained her by the assurance, that it was "nobody but her New York +sweetheart." Every thing favored the mischievous plans of the seaman: +Millinet never suspecting that any female but the mistress of the house +would presume to seat herself in the front parlor, and feeling moreover +the darkness and solitude of the room peculiarly favorable to courtship, +seated himself by the side of the supposed Mary, and immediately +commenced making love in pretty "rapid" style. Finding that the lady +answered only in monosyllables, and seemed more than usually affable, he +ventured to take her hand and gently squeeze it. He was at first +somewhat startled at the hardness and roughness of the palm, but soon +recollected that the country ladies in New England were in the habit of +milking their cows, making butter and cheese, &c., and said to himself, +"Never mind, when she is Mrs. Millinet her hard palms shall be well +rubbed with pumice-stone and milk of roses, till they are as soft as any +lady's in Broadway." + +Enraptured by the gentle pressure with which the "black lily" returned +his amorous squeeze of her hand, he ventured to raise it to his lips, +and imprint a kiss upon the short, thick fingers. At this critical and +rapturous moment the door flew open, and the real Mary entered, bearing +a lighted glass mantel-lamp in each hand. With a profound curtesy she +placed her lamps upon the mantel-piece, and gravely asking pardon for +her intrusion, flew into the room which she had just left, and which +immediately echoed with her laughter, lively and joyous, but most +unfashionably loud, hearty, and prolonged. The sable _fair_ one made her +escape at the same time, and received from Kelson double what he had +promised her. Mary, however, as soon as she had recovered her gravity, +joined her new suitor, but all her hospitable attentions were lost upon +the discomfited Broadway merchant, who soon took his leave, overwhelmed +with shame and mortification, nor did he sufficiently recover himself to +renew his visits for two or three days. When he did again visit her +father's house, Mary, who thought the joke carried far enough, treated +him with more than usual attention, by way of apology for her untimely +and mortifying mirth, so that by the expiration of the week he had +entirely recovered his spirits, his self-conceit, his vanity, and his +talkativeness. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + You are now within a foot + Of the extreme verge; for all beneath the moon + Would I not leap upright! + KING LEAR. + + +Shortly after this mad prank of Kelson's, Mr. Millinet invited Mary to +walk out one lovely evening, to which she gladly assented. They took +their way towards the "Whale's Head," a name given by the inhabitants of +B---- to the high bluff already mentioned, that formed the eastern side +of their harbor, from its real or fancied resemblance to the nose, or to +speak more scientifically, "noddle-end," of a whale. A path descended +obliquely from the upper part of the cape down to the beach at its foot. +The whole cape and the land adjacent were comprised in the estate of +Captain Bowline, who kept the paths in good repair, and had been at +considerable pains, when he first took possession of the farm, to render +it perfectly safe and passable, for the convenience of the fishermen, +who were in the habit of digging clams on the narrow beach at the foot +of the hill, and fishing among the sunken rocks at the extreme point. +For the whole length of the path the hill was extremely steep, but not +perpendicular, and covered with short dried grass, which made the +surface so slippery, that it afforded an apt illustration of Virgil's +"facilis descensus Averni;" for though any one might accomplish a +descent safely enough by dint of holding on to the few shrubs and +bushes, and sliding occasionally, no animal but a cat, a goat, or a +monkey, could ascend, if it was to save his life. Near the middle of the +path it was crossed by a deep gap, or ravine, caused by the constant +wearing of a small spring of water that trickled down the face of the +cliff, and which was generally swollen by the melting of the snow, or by +occasional heavy rains. The beach, or rather marsh, at the foot of the +hill, where the little rivulet joined the sea, was so soft and boggy, as +to be utterly impassable. Across this ravine, which was known by the +name of the "Devil's Gap," Captain Bowline had caused a narrow bridge, +of two planks in width, to be built, protected on the outside by a light +railing. On the side next the hill, it was sufficiently guarded by the +crooked branches of a knurly and scrubby oak tree, that grew on the very +edge of the ravine. + +Down this path the fair Mary and her suitor directed their steps. They +wandered along the beach as far as the point, the New Yorker in full +chat and high spirits, and Mary's attention almost entirely occupied by +a distant boat that seemed to be engaged in fishing, and which she +recognised, notwithstanding the distance, to be her namesake, the Mary, +belonging to her lover Kelson. Their walk occupied them till nearly +sunset, when Mary suddenly recollected that the tide was flowing, and +would soon entirely cover the narrow beach that they had just passed. By +dint of walking fast, they reached the foot of the path before the beach +was covered by the tide, and commenced their ascent just as the sun went +down. + +In the mean time, heavy black clouds began to muster in the north-west, +announcing the approach of a thunder shower, and reducing the evening +twilight to less than half its usual duration. Large heavy drops of rain +were soon felt and heard, rattling in the few straggling shrubs and +bushes, accompanied by short gusts of wind. Mr. Millinet, who was +considerably alarmed by these indications of a violent shower, and who +trembled for the safety of his new Broadway hat, and Broadway coat, +hurried on with the most uncourteous and unlover-like disregard of his +fair companion, who was too much accustomed to take care of herself, to +be at all incommoded by his neglect. They reached the "Devil's Gap," and +the lover strode on most rapidly; he was just upon the middle of the +little bridge, when being startled by a sudden bright flash of +lightning, he stumbled, and in the dread of falling off, laid violent +hold upon one of the branches of the scrubby oak on the other side, +recovered himself, and passed on. The oak, that had long since been +partially undermined by the water from the spring, and which Captain +Bowline had determined to remove before it did any damage, gave way +before the violent pull of Millinet. Mary, whose feet were already upon +the planks of the bridge, alarmed by the rattling of the loose earth and +stones that fell from under the roots of the tree, ran hastily back. The +next instant, the tree, with a ton or two of earth attached to its +matted roots, came thundering down, sweeping away with it the bridge, +and a large portion of the path beyond it. In the mean time, short +violent showers, of but four or five seconds in duration, with equally +short and violent gusts of wind, induced the Broadway gallant to +increase his speed; he had indeed heard a loud crash, but it is no more +than bare justice to him to say that he mistook the noise for thunder. + +Poor Mary was thus completely insulated--it was impossible to go back, +for the beach was long since covered by the rising tide--to climb up the +hill was exceedingly difficult, if not absolutely impossible to an +active man--to go forward was of course out of the question--there was +every appearance of a cold, driving October storm of wind and rain, to +which she must necessarily be exposed, with no additional clothing +except a shawl, till the tide had ebbed sufficiently to leave the beach +passible, and then the walk round the point was full three miles. In +this dilemma, far from any human habitation, and exposed to the night +wind, which now began to blow extremely chilly, poor Mary seated herself +upon the bank and wept bitterly. After the lapse of a few minutes, she +became more composed, and most fervently and earnestly commending +herself to Divine protection, she endeavored to shelter herself as much +as possible from the wind; for the rain had now ceased, and the clouds +breaking away towards the south-west, gave indications of a clear, cold, +frosty autumnal night. + +Relief was, however, much nearer than she expected. Her father, alarmed +at her non-appearance, and the threatening looks of the weather, sallied +forth in quest of her. He had gone but a few rods, when he met Mr. +George Frederic Augustus, with his pocket handkerchief tied over his +hat, and his coat buttoned up to the chin, "striking out," as sailors +say, like a man walking against time. + +"Holloa," he shouted, "you Mr. What's-your-name! where the d--l have you +left Mary? a pretty fellow you are to convoy a lady, to bear up before +the wind as soon as the weather looks misty, and leave her to shift for +herself! not but that the girl is a d--d sight better able to take care +of herself than you are to take care of her." All this was said in +perfect good humor, the old tar taking it for granted that his daughter +had "made a harbor," as he expressed it, in one of the neighbor's +houses. + +But the abrupt question had startled Millinet, and he answered with much +confusion and hesitation, "I--really, sir, I thought,--I am sure that +is--I thought she was close behind me--she certainly was a few minutes +since." + +Captain Bowline, muttering an inverted blessing upon his fashionable +guest, pushed on towards the path over the cliff. He was soon joined by +Kelson, who had come in from fishing but a few minutes before, and who, +hearing of Mary's walking out upon the beach, had immediately hastened +to her father's house. He too had seen the hero of Gotham; but that +gentleman, not deeming it wholesome to hold much conversation with men +of so little refinement and fashion as Bowline and Kelson, when +irritated, had made the best of his way towards B----. + +Mary's father and lover accordingly hurried on, stopping at the house of +old Haddock, the fisherman, who lived near the upper end of "Jade's +Walk," as the hill-path was called, where they furnished themselves with +a lantern, a coil of rope, and sundry other articles that they deemed +necessary. Old Haddock and his two "boys," great two-fisted fellows of +twenty and two and twenty years of age, also accompanied them. They soon +arrived at the Devil's Gap, where they beheld the ruin caused by the +fall of the tree. For an instant a thrill of horror ran through the +hearts of two of the beholders; the idea that the object of their search +and solicitude had been swept away by the fall of the bridge, and +crushed in its ruins, or smothered in the mud and water at the foot of +the hill, occurred instantly to both of them. + +From this state of agony and suspense, they were soon relieved by the +silver voice of =Mary= herself, calling from the further side of the gap, +"Here I am, dear father, don't attempt to come to me, the path is all +carried away on this side, and it is impossible for you or any one to +get to me. Wait till the tide has gone down, and I will walk round to +the point." + +The sight of the dear girl in safety only stimulated them to greater +exertions; the old fisherman and one of his boys departed to their house +to procure a long plank, while Kelson and the other young man returned +to the top of the hill, and, by sliding and supporting themselves by the +bushes, safely descended to the spot where stood the lovely wanderer. +She was so overjoyed to see them, and so completely chilled through, +that she could scarcely speak. Kelson immediately stripped off his coat, +and insisted upon wrapping her in it; and the young Triton, following +the brilliant example of one whom he respected so much as Captain +Kelson, doffed his "monkey-jacket," and with hearty but rough kindness +forcibly enveloped her feet and ancles in its fearnought folds. + +In a short time the other two fishermen arrived, bearing on their +shoulders a long plank. An end of a rope was then thrown to Kelson, by +which one end of the plank was hauled across, and firmly bedded in the +bank. Its passage was then rendered secure by double "life-lines" on +each side; and Mary, supported by her lover and the young fisherman, +safely reached the other side, and was pressed, sobbing with joy, to her +fond father's bosom. The whole party then returned towards Captain +Bowline's house, where the old fisherman and his two sons were liberally +rewarded, and treated with a good supper. + +The next morning a messenger arrived from the village, bearing a note +from Mr. George, &c. Millinet, in which he attempted to excuse his +behavior the preceding evening. Mary declined opening it, however, and +contented herself with sending word by the bearer that the writer need +not give himself any further trouble on her account, an answer that was +sufficiently intelligible. But the old commander shouted after the +messenger, "Tell that lubberly _yoho_[2] that if I catch him within a +cable's length of my house, I'll break every d--d bone in his +tailor-built body." + +This threat was duly reported to the crest-fallen vender of pins and +bobbin, who settled his bills, and accomplished his escape, with as +little parade and as much expedition as possible; a movement that excited +full as much conversation as his first appearance and intimacy in +Captain Bowline's family; and while one party were confident that he had +only gone to New York to make preparations for his marriage, and another +were equally sure that Mary had, in nautical parlance, "given him his +walking ticket," the story of the accident and Mary Bowline's narrow +escape at the Devil's Gap came out, with suitable additions and +embellishments, and of course the whole affair wore a different face at +once. Old Haddock, the fisherman, was seized upon one evening in a +ship-chandlery and grocery store, that was the usual Rialto of the +loungers in B----, and rigorously cross-questioned. The man of hooks and +lines hitched up his trowsers, and proceeded to enlighten his audience +as follows:-- + +"Why you see that 'are New York chap and Miss Mary took a stroll down +Jade's Walk as it might be about five o'clock in the arternoon, P. M. as +the newspapers say. Well, they went down Squaw Beach, and so clean away +out as fur as the pint; and when they was coming back, and got to the +furder eend of the walk, the Yorker he kinder shinned up to her, and she +didn't like it, for I knowed all along she meant to have Captain Kelson. +Well, one word brought on another, till finally he conducted himself in +a very promiscuous manner, and she told him to go 'long about his +business, or she'd tell Captain Kelson of his doings. Well, that made +him just about as mad as a hoe, and so when they come to the Devil's Gap +he kinder kicked away one eend of the bridge, and then turned to and +hauled down that 'ere scrub oak that growed clost to the bridge, so's +folk mought think 'twas done by accident; and so there the poor gal was +left by herself till old Captain Bowline and I and my two boys and +Captain Kelson, come there and rigged a kind of trumporary bridge like, +and got her safe over, and that's the whole consarnment of the matter as +far as I know any thing on't." + +This account of the affair, coming from an eye-witness, was considered +authentic, being full as correct as the stories of eye-witnesses +generally are. Mary at first attempted to contradict it, but finding her +efforts fruitless, prudently determined to let the story die a natural +death, which it soon did; a tremendous gale of wind and a shipwreck on +the Whale's Nose having in less than a week most effectually turned the +current of conversation into another channel. + +Mr. Millinet reached New York in safety, and solaced himself for his +defeat in New England by attention to his pretty person, and his pretty +customers, balls, assemblies, and billiards; in process of time made a +fashionable failure, a fashionable marriage, and commenced business +afresh. To the questions of his acquaintance respecting his excursion +"down east," he was shy and reserved; evading all questions on the +subject by declaring that he had passed his time very pleasantly while +he was in New England, but that the people had some very peculiar and +odd notions of things. In process of time the story of his repulse +reached New York with all its embellishments. Some of his friends were +exceedingly shocked at the idea of his having made an attempt upon the +life of a young lady, for such seemed the tenor of the story; but those +who knew him best fully acquitted him of any thing of the kind, inasmuch +as he had not courage sufficient to offer violence to a hen and +chickens. A true version of the story soon after came out, and Mr. +George Frederic was compelled to undergo the ridicule of all his +acquaintance. + +Mary Bowline became Mrs. Thomas Kelson on "Thanksgiving-day-night," as +the New England folks call it, on which joyful occasion the flagstaff +was rigged "all a-tanto," and the colors kept flying from eight o'clock +in the morning till sunset; according to the regulations of the naval +service, and were also hoisted the next day. + +It was a leading article in Mary's consent to the marriage, that her +husband should give up going to sea, which he and her father contended +did not include or contemplate his probably making a coasting "trip," if +business required, and Mary at last consented to admit the exception. +The bridge at the Devil's Gap was substantially repaired, and was often +visited by Mary and her husband; and Jade's Walk was long celebrated as +a favorite evening stroll when the weather permitted, not only with +young lovers, but even with "old married fudges," as young ladies who +are husband-hunting very politely call them. + +[Footnote 2: Yoho, an animal, probably the ourang-outang, in whose +existence sailors are firm believers, and of whose courage, +intelligence, cunning, malicious and mischievous disposition, they tell +wonderful stories. The word seems to be a corruption of Dean Swift's +"Yahoo."] + + + + + * * * * * + + OLD CUFF. + + * * * * * + + + + + OLD CUFF. + + "Qualia multa mari nautæ patiuntur in alto!" + + VIRGIL. + + +What Yankee man-of-war's-man is there, ashore or afloat, who has "helped +Uncle Sam," any time between the beginning of the "long embargo," and +the year 1827, who does not know or has not heard of Old Cuff? His real +patronymic appellation is nobody's business;--perhaps it would puzzle +himself to give any account of it: nor is it worth while to inquire how +the name of Cuff, generally bestowed upon the woolly-headed and +flat-nosed descendants of Ham, should be given to a white man; and as +for the _prænomen_, as the Romans would call it, of "old," it is well +known to all my short-jacketed readers, that it seldom has, in "sea +dic." or nautical language, any reference to antiquity on the part of +the bearer thereof; but is merely a familiar or affectionate +distinction; as the commander of a merchantman, although perhaps under +twenty years of age, is invariably called the "old man," by all hands on +board. + +Old Cuff, when I knew him, was just turned of forty, and was, of course, +of venerable standing; as it is I presume, well known to every body that +a sailor's life does not average much more than forty years, from +exposure, hardships, and privations. Though not stricken in years, +according to the usual signification of the phrase, Old Cuff had +certainly _lived a great deal_, and had seen a great deal, there being +scarcely a habitable corner of the world that he had not visited, or of +the private history and internal economy of which he could not relate +many anecdotes; so that he might, without arrogance or vanity, have +assumed to himself the proposed motto of the Jesuits: + + "Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris!" + +He commenced his career as cook and cabin-boy on board a "horse-jockey;" +one of those vessels which carry horses, mules, and other cattle to the +West Indies; a title bestowed upon them by sailors, who are very much in +the habit of indulging in that figure of speech called by rhetoricians +metonymy; in this instance applying the genuine name of all Connecticut +men, and some Rhode Islanders, to a fore-topsail schooner, or +hermaphrodite brig, as the case might be. He was next, by a sort of +metamorphosis, or rather metastasis, not uncommon with those of "steady +habits," a travelling tin-pedler; and his adventures and hard bargains, +during a visit or two to the western and southern states, might prove +highly entertaining to my readers, had I not seen some twenty or thirty +of them lately going the rounds of the newspapers, which Old Cuff has +often very gravely assured us, in our "quarter watches" in the main-top, +were actually perpetrated by himself. By a transition still easier, and +perhaps more natural, from a tin-pedler he transmuted himself into an +itinerant preacher, and from conscientious motives endeavored to repair +the injury he had done to the pockets of his customers with his +white-oak nutmegs, horn gun-flints, and bass-wood cucumber seeds, by +supplying them with pure unadulterated orthodox Calvinism, fresh from +the Saybrook Platform. Nor did he confine his usefulness to beating the +"drum ecclesiastic;" during the long winters in the country, he "kept +school," as it is somewhat perversely called; whereas, in nine cases out +of ten, it is the school that "keeps" the schoolmaster. + +But "the sow that was washed returned to her wallowing in the mire;" and +in like manner Cuff left off steering the souls of sinners through the +temptations and sorrows of this wicked world, or the infant mind through +the intricacies of a--b ab, and once more betook himself to steering +vessels across the ocean. He went to sea as mate, and shortly after as +master, of a merchantman. He was chiefly employed in the West India +trade. + +It has been said, that all, or nearly all, the Americans taken on board +piratical vessels in the West Indies and parts adjoining, are natives of +New-England; and it is gravely stated as a reason, that in consequence +of the immense trade between that section of the Union and those +islands, and the neighboring parts of the main land, that are the chief +scenes of piratical depredation and resort; the crews of the New-England +vessels trading, and occasionally smuggling, in bye-ports, become +gradually and imperceptibly acquainted with those of piratical vessels +frequenting those bye-ports and obscure harbors, for the purpose of +refitting their vessels or disposing of their plunder; and that these +acquaintances ripen into intimacies, that terminate in a strong cord +with a running noose in the end of it. The deduction is perfectly +logical, and it only remains to substantiate the premises; and these, I +fear, may be proved, in but too many cases, to be based upon too solid a +foundation to be overthrown by all the incredulous writhings of national +pride. Be that as it may, the atrocities of Gibbs and others have +recently proved, that total depravity is approached as nearly by the +natives of New-England as by any of our Christian brethren. + +In process of time the subject of our narrative grew tired of stowing +molasses, feeding horses, or throwing them overboard, and "dodging" from +island to island, and entered the naval service of the United States. +The vessel to which he was attached was stationed in the West Indies, +and had been on her station but a very short time, before that scourge +of no small portion of the western world, the yellow fever, made its +appearance on board. Our navy certainly was not then under so good +regulations as at present. The medical department might perhaps be +almost as good then as it now is, or rather as it was when I was in the +service; the disgracefully penurious compensation allowed our naval +surgeons rendering their station contemptible and degrading in the +estimation of medical men of any pride or ability. Besides this, the +sick at sea can never receive assistance from female attendance; for +although some may deem it altogether imagination, there _is_ something +so soothing to the sick or wounded man in those thousand nameless acts +of kindness that none but woman can think of, and none but woman +perform, that, after one or two visits from the doctor, the patient +feels wonderfully inclined to dispense with his further attendance: nay, +when languishing on that bed from which he is doomed never to rise, his +pillow is softer when arranged by woman's hand; his parched and clammy +lips seem to recover their healthy freshness when woman administers the +cooling draught. When I die, grant, kind Heaven! that the last earthly +sound that murmurs in my "death-deafened" ear may be the kind, soothing, +pitying voice of woman. When this worn-out hulk, strained fore and aft +by exposure and hard service, its upper works crank with vexations and +disappointments, shall be hauled up high and dry upon the lee-side of +death's cove, may the last that "shoves off" from alongside be woman--I +care not whether wife or stranger. + +In addition to the want of proper attention, a sick sailor is invariably +an object of contempt and disgust to his officers: they cannot forbear +regarding with contempt a man who is reduced to mental and bodily +imbecility by a disease that _they_ do not and perhaps never did feel: +his pale, emaciated, and squalid appearance excites disgust. I have made +these remarks to illustrate what, on the authority of Old Cuff, took +place on board the U. S. ship----. + +Owing to the negligence or imbecility, or both, of the medical +department on board, little or no provision was made for the sick. They +lay about on the forecastle or the booms, and the dead were collected, +sewed up in their hammocks, "ballasted," and hove overboard, every +morning before the decks were washed, that is, between day-break and +sunrise. This duty was generally performed by the master-at-arms and +ship's corporal, familiarly called throughout the service "Jack Ketch +and his mate;" but in this particular ship, and for the time being, they +received the more apposite title of ship's "turkey buzzards." I ought to +have mentioned, that in obedience both to naval etiquette and the +superstitious feelings of the sailors, the burial service of the +Episcopal Church was regularly read over the result of the ship's turkey +buzzards' researches above or below deck. + +Old Cuff, who had been on shore with a watering party, where he had made +a pretty heavy libation of new rum, came on board at sunset; but having +a somewhat confused recollection of the "bearings and distances" down +the fore-ladder, he wisely concluded to set up his tabernacle for the +night upon the boom. Long before midnight he perceived the symptoms of +the cruel disorder that had so fearfully thinned the ----'s complement. +His distress increased every moment--he earnestly begged for a draught +of water, but in vain, and before daylight he became insensible. In due +time all hands were called; the resurrection-men commenced their +examination, and receiving no intelligible reply to a sound kick upon +our hero's ribs, the ship's corporal laid hold of him by the heels, and +dragged him into the gangway, where the two functionaries declared him +"dead enough to bury," and forthwith reported progress to that effect to +the lieutenant of the morning watch. "Very well," said the officer. +"Young gentlemen, have a couple of eighteen-pound shot got up; pass the +word, there, for the sail-maker's mate. Boatswain's mate, call all hands +to bury the dead. How many are there?" "Only one, sir." "Very well. Tell +Mr. Quill to bring his prayer-book on deck." + +The corpse was soon inclosed in its canvass coffin, with the shot +attached to the feet. The captain's clerk commenced the funeral service +in a hurried, monotonous tone, and had nearly got to the fatal "we +therefore commit his body to the deep," the signal for launching, when +the ceremony was interrupted, and the officers and crew horrified by a +violent struggle of the supposed defunct, accompanied with angry +ejaculations. + +"What the devil are you about? Let me out, let me out; d--n your eyes, I +ain't dead yet;--cut away your thundering hammock, and I'll let you know +whether I'm dead or not. This is a pretty how-d'ye-do, to be giving a +fellow a sea-toss before his time has come." + +Half a dozen jack-knives were at work in an instant upon the stitches of +the hammock that inclosed the dead-alive--their owners being in their +eagerness utterly regardless of the risk of amputation to which their +haste subjected Old Cuff's nose; who, having burst his cerements and +shaken himself, was conducted below to the doctor. + +Death, however, had not yet done with him. His next cruise was in the +Patriot service. Nothing very particular took place, till being sent +with a party "cutting out," as it is technically termed by seamen--that +is, capturing and bringing out vessels lying at anchor in an enemy's +port, he and several of his party were made prisoners, and, according to +the murderous system of warfare going on between the Spanish royal +forces and the insurgents, ordered to be shot. No great formality was +ever used on these occasions, (the Catholic Church, of course, withheld +her consolations from heretics,) and their preparations were nearly +completed, when several dragoons dashed into the "plaza," bloody with +spurring, fiery red with haste, announcing that the rebels were +advancing in great force from the interior. The intelligence proved to +be correct, but the executing party did not wait to ascertain that fact; +they scampered off instantly, leaving the prisoners bound. The Patriots, +of course, set them at liberty, and Old Cuff was thus rescued a second +time from an "untimely grave." (By the way, I never saw any person, +however old and infirm, who was willing to admit the grave "timely," at +any age.) + +After many wanderings and adventures, he entered another Patriot vessel, +cruising off the mouth of the river Plata. After making some captures, +they were one day suddenly surprised and completely hemmed in by a +Spanish squadron, consisting of a frigate and four or five other smaller +vessels. Finding escape impossible, the commander of the Patriot brig, +an Englishman, determined to defend himself to the last extremity, at +the same time using every exertion to escape, of which the swift sailing +of his vessel held out some hopes. These hopes were, however, +frustrated, in consequence of the brig losing several important spars, +and being soon rendered almost a complete wreck. In this crippled and +unmanageable condition, she drifted upon a small, low, island, at no +great distance, but still kept up a fire from such of her guns as could +be brought to bear, or rather such as she had men enough left to work, +for, by this time, full two thirds of her crew were killed or +wounded.--Finding it impossible to save his vessel, the commander, who +was dreadfully wounded, and fast bleeding to death, recommended to the +wretched survivors of his brave crew to save themselves by swimming. Old +Cuff and eight or ten others, being all who were able or willing to try +their chance, accordingly took to the water, and reached the island +safely, Cuff himself being severely wounded. The island was very low, +scarcely rising six feet from high-water mark, and completely covered +with a species of wild vine, that, finding neither trees nor rocks to +support it, had formed a perfect cover to the whole island, by twisting +and interweaving its branches with each other, so as to form a vegetable +carpet sufficiently firm and close, in nearly all parts, to support the +weight of a man. Between this singular roof and the ground was a space +of two or three feet, and within this space the unhappy seamen secreted +themselves, not with the hope of escaping, but deferring the fate that +they were certain awaited them. Accordingly, the Spaniards, after having +boarded the wreck of the brig, and, according to custom, murdered the +wounded and mangled the dead, landed a large party to complete the +horrid tragedy by murdering the few unfortunate men whom they had seen +swim to the island. These savages ran about the island, which it does +not seem was more than a couple of acres in extent, yelling like wild +beasts, and thrusting their swords and boarding pikes down among the +vines, with the hope of piercing some of the objects of their revenge. +One of them, who appeared to be an officer, stood for some minutes +directly over and upon Old Cuff, and while giving directions to his men, +repeatedly thrust his sword down through the sheltering vines. The +weapon passed once between his arm and body, and once through his +clothes, slightly grazing his side. His agony during these moments was +horrible. To be dragged out, and murdered by inches, or stabbed to death +where he lay, not daring to move, though the pressure of the wretch's +weight who stood upon him was so painful, that he could scarce forbear +crying out. Such seemed his inevitable fate. But he was doomed to +undergo still greater agony. One of the unfortunate men was discovered +and dragged out within a few yards of him. The incarnate demons were a +full hour murdering him, stabbing and hacking him with their pikes and +cutlasses in parts of the body where wounds would be exquisitely painful +but not mortal. The shrieks of the unhappy man were dreadful, the more +so, as every one of his companions expected every moment to share his +fate. The approach of night at length put an end to the dreadful scene, +and the disappointed hell-hounds returned to their ships. + +The next morning, the Spanish squadron sailed round the island, pouring +upon every part of it discharges of grape and canister shot, that proved +fatal to several of the unfortunate men concealed upon it. They also +landed again, and attempted to set fire to the vines and dry grass, but +providentially without much effect. They continued, however, to +blockade the little island for two days longer, when they were +compelled, by bad weather, to stand out to sea. Having ascertained that +the Spanish murderers were gone, the miserable remnant of the brig's +crew ventured from their hiding-places, almost exhausted with hunger, +thirst, and terror. The main land was in possession of the Patriot, or +Buenos Ayrean troops, but was more than two miles distant; and they +consequently had no alternative but to swim to it; which they +accordingly attempted, being extremely apprehensive that the Spaniards +would return. The passage across the straits was long and tedious; and +their hopes of ultimate success for a long time doubtful. When about +half way across, one of their number declared that he was too much +exhausted to go any farther, and after a few words of encouragement from +his companions, suddenly exclaimed, "good bye," and sunk for ever. The +rest, five in number, succeeded in reaching the shore, just at sunset. + +After wandering about a mile, they came to a sort of farm-house, the +mistress of which was employed baking bread. Delirious with hunger, +three of them tore the half-baked bread from the oven, and devoured +large quantities of it. They all died in horrible agonies before +day-break. The other two, more prudent, or having arrived at that point +of starvation, at which pain had ceased, ate nothing but such light food +as was provided for them by the humane Buenos Ayreans. In a few days +they were quite recovered from the effects of such prolonged hunger, and +made the best of their way towards the city of Buenos Ayres. Here Old +Cuff found several Republican officers, by whose influence he obtained a +commission as lieutenant of artillery. But, not altogether liking the +land service in the first place, and having moreover ascertained that +the Republic of Buenos Ayres, like that of the United States of America, +was not willing to vouchsafe any thing but hard knocks, and no pay, to +those who stood by her and supported her, in her fierce struggle for +independence, he very deliberately disrobed himself of his regimentals, +laid aside his epaulets, tore up his commission, and returned in a +merchantman to his native country. Not long after his return, he entered +in the United States service, and it was then, that I first saw him. He +was made captain of the main-top before sailing, and I was, myself, +shortly after, stationed in the main-top likewise. + +On the passage out to the Pacific, and when nearly in the latitude of +Cape Horn, we, that is to say, a midshipman, Old Cuff, and thirteen men, +were all very comfortably asleep in the main-top, the weather being +remarkably mild for that high latitude. It was the middle watch, from +midnight to four in the morning; Cuff was lying athwart-ships, or +cross-wise of the top, and near the fore part of it, where there were no +topsail nor topmast-shrouds to prevent a fall. There was, indeed, a +"life-line" from the first topmast-shroud, on each side, to the +cap-shore amidships, but it was breast high, and of course afforded no +security to a man who was lying down. My head was pillowed upon Old +Cuff's side, the midshipman's head was on my breast, and the rest of my +earthly tabernacle was occupied as a bolster by as many of the quarter +watch as could get near me. About two o'clock, I was suddenly awoke by +the abduction of my living pillow, and the consequent collision of my +head against one of the top burton-blocks. At the same time I heard a +whizzing noise, like a rope running swiftly through a block, but none of +us took much notice of it; the midshipman growled some at my fidgeting +about while fixing another pillow, but the absence of the captain of the +top was not perceived. At seven bells, or half past three, the +midshipman of the quarter deck hailed, "Main-top there! answer your +musters, in the main-top." + +"You had better keep awake in that main-top;" thundered the lieutenant +of the deck, through his trumpet, "you have lost one of your number +already by your sleeping." + +All this was "Hebrew Greek" to us, but in a short time the sentry at the +cabin door "reported" eight bells; the larboard watch was called, the +wheel, look-outs, and tops relieved, and the mystery of the loss of "one +of our number" fully explained. + +"What did you heave Old Cuff out of the top for?" said the first one of +the larboard watch, whose head came through the "lubber's hole." + +"When did Old Cuff, fall from aloft?" said the next that ascended to the +"sky-parlor." + +"Old Cuff is done for," said the third that came up. + +"He has broke his back-bone short off;" said a fourth, with his jacket +over one shoulder. + +"Yes, and four of his ribs to boot;" added a fifth, who was determined +the story should not want particulars. + +"The doctor says he won't live till morning," said a sixth, who had not +yet hove in sight, speaking below the top, as Hamlet senior's ghost does +under the stage. + +By this time, the whole of the alarming intelligence was fairly +expended, the remaining eight, who made up the sum total of the quarter +watch, having no farther particulars of consequence to communicate, the +first six who came up having already broken every bone in poor Old +Cuff's body, and "abridged his doleful days" to boot. By dint of cross +questioning, we made shift to ascertain, that about two o'clock, or four +bells, Old Cuff had rolled away from under my head, and over the top +brim. Fortunately he fell across the fore-topmast studding-sail tack, +which broke two of his ribs and his fall, and thence he had gently +canted over, and alighted upon the quarter-deck hammock-nettings, nearly +knocked overboard the half-asleep main-topman who was perched up there +as a look-out. He recovered, however, in two or three weeks, in spite of +the doctor's prognostication. + +Upon our arrival at Valparaiso, a similar accident happened to him, +that, taken in connexion with the first, formed what newspaper folks +call "a singular coincidence." A considerable portion of the town, or +city, or whatever it may be, of Valparaiso, is built upon and among +several high, rocky, precipitous cliffs, to which sailors, time out of +mind, have given the names of fore, main, and mizen tops. It is, +perhaps, another singular coincidence, that the name "main-royal," that +belongs of right to the highest sail in a ship, is applied to the lowest +part of said respectable sea-port. The "main-top" is the favorite resort +of sailors, but I cannot say much in praise of the moral virtues of the +denizens of said main-top. They do, indeed, enjoy a better prospect and +a purer air than their fellow citizens, whose location is somewhat +nearer the level of the sea, so that their physical elevation gives them +many advantages that serve to compensate them for what they lack through +moral debasement. The part of the main-top that fronts the bay, is a +sheer precipice of two hundred feet; but on another part, it is simply +too steep for any animal but a monkey to make a highway of. Down this +part Old Cuff, who was ashore on liberty, and who likewise had his "beer +aboard," contrived to trundle himself, and was picked up as dead in the +street below. He, however, recovered from this tumble as speedily as he +did from the other, having received but little damage, except some half +dozen cuts and bruises in the countenance, which he held in but light +esteem, being by no means vain of his beauty. I do not recollect that he +met with any more accidents of consequence during the cruise. He +returned to America in the frigate, and I have since been told that he +had received a gunner's warrant, in consideration of his long, and, in +his way, faithful services and many wounds; for I believe he had been +wounded in almost every naval engagement during the last war. + + + + + * * * * * + + THE RIVALS. + + * * * * * + + + THE RIVALS. + + +In the neighborhood of Genoa, there lived some years since an old +gardner, who, by dint of most unwearied industry and great skill in his +vocation, had acquired sufficient property to enable him to purchase the +farm that he had hitherto occupied as a tenant. His name was Pietro +Morelli. He had no family but an only child, his daughter Bianca, at the +time of our story in her nineteenth year, and who assisted her father in +such branches of his occupation as were not inconsistent with her sex. + +Bianca Morelli possessed all that peculiar beauty for which her +countrywomen are celebrated; namely, regular Grecian features, a clear +brunette complexion, a profusion of raven black tresses, and soft, +languishing, and most intelligent black eyes. Her form was tall, +slender, and graceful, while her disposition was amiable and gentle as +her face was lovely. The beautiful Bianca was well known, and admired by +most of the inhabitants of Genoa; and her sweet face and modest +deportment were always, with them, irresistible inducements to purchase +her fruits and flowers, when she accompanied her father to market, or +visited the city alone. + +It so chanced one day, that a party of Austrian officers, who had +recently been quartered in Genoa, rode out to old Morelli's house, to +enjoy what was to them both a luxury and a novelty;--eating fruit fresh +gathered from the trees and vines.--Old Morelli was by no means +ambitious of this honor; he was too firm a friend to his degraded, but +still redeemable country, to desire any intimacy with the military +myrmidons of her Austrian despot; so that, notwithstanding the grave and +correct moral deportment which is said to be the general characteristic +of the Austrian officers, and of which he was aware, he saw their +approach to his humble dwelling with a vague feeling of distrust and +anxiety. + +Among his military visitors was General Baron Plindorf, one of those +"gallant militarists" that abound in all standing armies; whose sole +employment, during the "piping times of peace," and in the course of a +soldier's unsettled and rambling life from quarters to quarters, seems +to be, to abuse the rights of hospitality, by carrying disgrace and +infamy into every domestic circle to which they can by any means obtain +admittance. It ought to be a source of pride to my countrymen, that they +are more of a marrying people than the English or French, and do not +regard women in the same degraded light as a gambler does a pack of +cards, that are to be shuffled and played with for a while, and then +thrown away. Our naval and military officers are rather remarkable for +their readiness to form matrimonial connexions; while on the other hand, +our young men who are educated to the law, physic, or divinity, never +think of "setting up for themselves," till they are "accommodated," as +Bardolph says, with a wife, whom the three learned professions regard as +indispensable as Starkie on Evidence to the first; a pocket case of +instruments, or Dawes' Midwifery, to the second; or a Brown's +Concordance, or Calmet's Dictionary, to the third. + +Such characters as I have alluded to, it would seem, are extremely +common in the British army; and it is to be presumed that they are not +less plentiful in the armies of the European powers; though it does not +appear that the community at large gain wisdom and caution from the +mournful experience of their neighbors, but rather the reverse; for, if +we may believe their own writers, the footsteps of a regiment, moving +about through different country quarters, are marked by more incurable +evils, and more true horrors, than the march of an invading army through +a hostile, and resisting country. It has been said of the Turkish army, +that they are far more formidable to their friends, than to their foes; +if any dependence can be placed in those numerous writings, professing +to be descriptions of English manners, that find their way across the +Atlantic, the same may be said of that portion of the British army that +is on the "home station." + +Baron Plindorf was an unprincipled libertine, cold, selfish, and +unfeeling. He was eminently successful too in his diabolical enterprise, +although there was nothing prepossessing in his person or in his +manners; but he had the reputation of being irresistible, and of course +he was so; for, whatever may be the reason, it is a most lamentable +fact, that to be called a professed rake, and reputed father of some +half dozen illegitimate children, is a man's most irresistible passport, +and powerful recommendation to the good graces and smiles of the fair +sex at large; every woman is instantly eager to call into exercise that +fascinating treachery that ought to doom its possessor to public infamy +and detestation. The next most powerful introduction to female favor, is +to be a widower or a foreigner; though the latter is almost uniformly +"brought to bay," in a few months after marrying in this country, by a +wife and some eight or nine children from "over the water;" the very +next foreigner that comes over _alone_, is snapped up in the same +way--but enough of this. + +He saw and admired Bianca, as Milton's devil saw and admired Paradise, +with the prospective determination of destroying its calm happiness +forever. + +There was one of old Morelli's visitors, how ever, upon whom the lovely +Bianca's beauty, modesty and grace, had made an impression of a far +different kind. This was the young Count Altenberg, acknowledged on all +hands to be the most accomplished gentleman, and most amiable and +estimable young man, in that division of the Grand Duke's army. Frederic +Count Altenberg, was the son of Rudolf, of Altenberg, an officer of high +rank, who had served his country faithfully, but ineffectually, in +opposing the headlong progress of the blood-stained Corsican. The old +Count had, within two years, been gathered to his fathers, and his title +and estates had descended to his only son, then in his twenty-third +year. At an early age Frederic had received a commission as captain of +cavalry, but as every body knows that promotion is slower in the army of +his Tuscan highness than in that of any other European power, he still +remained a captain of cavalry, and probably would do so unto his dying +day. It was his determination, as soon as he returned to Florence, to +resign his commission, and retire to his paternal estates in Germany, +but "diis aliter visum est," the fates had decreed otherwise. An +indulgent and fond father had spared no pains nor expense in educating +this his only child, and that child had amply repaid his care. + +Educated most carefully in the strictest principles of the Christian +religion and morality, generous, brave, and humane, he was, when he +arrived to man's estate, the _beau ideal_ of a man of honor, and a +gentleman. By neither of these terms, do I mean that fashionable +personage whose god is himself, who would seduce his friend's wife or +sister, or strip him of his last farthing at a gaming table, and then +shoot him through the head, by way of making amends; or who scrupulously +discharges all gambling and betting debts; utterly neglecting those of +the poor tradesman, or industrious mechanic, but the "justum et tenacem +propositi virum," of the Roman satirist, the man of strict integrity, +and immoveable principles. Frederic had long since formed a +determination, that as soon as he could clear himself from the army, he +would most seriously incline himself to the search of a wife. Although +considered by his fair-haired countrywomen as lawful game, and moreover +as one who was well worth securing, he had hitherto escaped any very +serious affection of the heart. The beauty of Bianca, so unlike what he +had been accustomed to, had charmed him; her unaffected modesty had +commanded his respect; and when he left her father's house, he +determined that it was absolutely necessary to his comfort, to see her +again. Accordingly the next evening, and the next, and many succeeding +evenings, saw him riding towards old Morelli's cottage; and he had long +been convinced, from what he saw of Bianca, that he had at last found +the woman who only of all her sex could make him happy; which is +precisely what every man thinks when in love for the first time, and +alters his mind in less than a twelvemonth. Nor was the gentle Bianca +insensible to his evident partiality for her society; she detected +herself repeatedly, without being willing to acknowledge it, wishing for +evening--disappointed, if the sky was overcast, or the weather +rainy--fluttering with hope, and joy, and indescribable emotion, at the +sight of every distant cavalier, or at the sound of every horse's hoof +upon the road towards the city. The warm blush, the speaking smile, the +sparkling eyes, of both the lovely Bianca and the young soldier, would +have been sufficient to convince the most casual observer that there +existed the most decided case of a _serious affection of the heart_. Of +course old Morelli's eyes had long before seen and made due report to +his mind, as to what was the true state of his daughter's and the young +nobleman's affection. Ever anxious for Bianca's happiness and welfare, +and still more so now that she had attained that age when female beauty +is both mature and fully developed, while at the same time it has all +the freshness and rosiness of youth, he became exceedingly alarmed and +agitated at the too obvious state of the lover's sentiments. He sought +and soon obtained an opportunity of speaking to him, and Frederic was at +that moment anxious to see the old man, and putting to him that +question, which, whether addressed to the fair one in person, or to her +pa and ma, is always embarrassing; always makes a man look, and feel, +and act, very much like a fool; and when answered in the affirmative, +is not unfrequently the forerunner of most sincere and hearty +repentance. In fact, repentance being so often the consequence of +marriage, (it is gravely asserted by some of the old fathers,) is in our +mind reason why Catholics regard it (that is, the marriage, not the +repentance) a sacrament, "because it produces repentance, which is a +step towards grace." I am so far a Catholic, as to admit most +cheerfully, that it is a holy state, and that there is no text in +scripture more true, than that "it is not good for man to be alone;" +still if I was about entering that holy state, I am sadly afraid that my +feelings would be wholly uninfluenced by any hopes of approaching any +nearer towards a state of grace, not even over the thorny path of the +consequent repentance. + +"Signior Count," began old Morelli, as soon as he had ascertained that +they were alone, "you cannot suppose me ignorant of the cause of your +frequent visits to my poor house, or that as a father I am so +indifferent to my daughter's happiness as to see it without extreme +anxiety." + +"I was about speaking to you on the same subject," said Frederic, +hesitatingly, "I have already told you that it is my fixed determination +to leave the army, and retire to peaceful life on my own estate. But +although my fortune is princely, I feel it would be valueless without +your lovely daughter. Signior Morelli, I love Bianca; I have made no +attempt to conceal it from you; were my intentions dishonorable, do you +not think that I would endeavor to hide them from a father's eye? Do +you take me for the bold, hardened libertine that would trample under +foot a father's hospitality to accomplish his daughter's infamy? You +wrong me, Signior, if you do; but I cannot believe that in your dislike +to my country, you believe all her children base and unprincipled." + +"Nay, my young friend, I believe nothing of that detestable character +can be laid to your charge. But consider for a moment the immense +distance between you. You are an Austrian nobleman of high rank and of +ancient family, and Bianca, on the other hand, can boast of nothing but +her good name and unsullied character." + +"And does not virtue outweigh all worldly titles and distinctions in the +estimation of every rational and virtuous mind? Your lovely daughter's +virtues are far superior to my empty titles or immense wealth. In +accepting me as a husband, she would confer honor, not receive it. She +descends to my level; I do not and cannot rise to hers--the gain, the +honor, the advantage, of such an alliance would be mine." + +"You are an enthusiast, Count; your passion has gotten the better of +your judgment; that you love my daughter _now_ I am perfectly willing to +admit, but that your affection for her will sustain the shock of the +ridicule of your associates, or the contempt and neglect with which your +proud and titled kindred and countrymen will treat such a wife, whom +they regard so infinitely beneath them, I very much doubt. Matches +between people so widely separated by difference of rank, however +arbitrary and absurd those distinctions may be, can never produce aught +but unhappiness." + +The Count was, notwithstanding the reasonableness of old Morelli's +objections, as politely obstinate as young lovers are to old fathers, +when those old fathers condescend to reason with them instead of +resorting to the more usual and summary process of turning them out of +doors, and forbidding their daughters to hold any farther communication +with the dear rejected. In a subsequent conversation with his daughter +he found that both parties were nearly in the same situation; Bianca +with many tears confessing her love for Count Altenberg. There seemed +then but two chances to escape from this state of embarrassment, namely, +either to consent to Frederic's offer of his hand, or to send his +daughter to an aged relative at Padua; which last plan was liable to so +many objections that, after ruminating upon it for two days, he gave it +up, and permitted the lovers to enjoy each other's society, though +without giving a direct consent to their union. + +In the mean time the libertine Plindorf was plotting destruction to the +fair Bianca. He well knew that such a woman was not to be carried by the +usual attacks of flattery and money; which last, whether administered in +the form of rich and dazzling presents, or simply by itself, is almost +uniformly found irresistible by old and young women, according to their +tastes or situations; his plan was therefore necessarily more deeply +laid than any he had heretofore practised. It was accordingly with a +mingled emotion of pleasure and anxiety that he watched the progress of +the attachment between the two lovers. Although he feared that her +attachment might prove too strong to be easily shaken, he still hoped to +be able to involve them in embarrassments, and then, under the guise of +friendship and pretence of assisting them, further his own unprincipled +views. The impetuosity of the young nobleman, and certain circumstances +that he could not foresee, brought the affair to a crisis both +unexpected and disastrous. + +The Baron walked out one afternoon towards old Morelli's cottage, +without any fixed object, for the unequivocal dislike that Bianca always +manifested towards him, had determined him to cease his visits to her +father's house, and make his approaches with the utmost caution. He +approached a retired spot near the house, where the lovers frequently +strolled to enjoy each other's society. Bianca had also wandered there +in the hope of meeting Frederic. She was occupied gathering flowers, and +arranging them in a nosegay, when a rustling among the bushes attracted +her attention. She hastily advanced towards the spot, exclaiming +"Frederic!" when the Baron, the man whom of all others she most hated, +and, for some undefinable reason or other, feared, stood before her. + +"Fairest Bianca!" said Plindorf, advancing, "let me not alarm you, +although I am not the person you seemed to expect; let me hope that the +presence of a friend and well-wisher to both parties is not disagreeable +or terrifying." + +Bianca, exceedingly alarmed at the sudden apparition of one so odious to +her, had sunk down upon a rude seat. The Baron approached, and taking +her passive hand, seated himself by her side. Mistaking the cause of her +quietness, he ventured to press her trembling hand to his lips, and +attempted to pass his arm around her waist. The terrified girl suddenly +sprang from him with a loud shriek, and attempted to fly; the Baron +again caught her hand, and endeavored forcibly to detain her. At that +moment the Count Altenberg suddenly stood before them, his eyes flashing +with rage. + +"Villain," he exclaimed, as soon as his passion would give him +utterance, "deceitful, cowardly scoundrel! take that"--striking him a +violent blow, and at the same time unsheathing his sword. + +The Baron was ready in an instant, but as soon as the Count felt his +weapon clashing against that of his antagonist, he became at once cool +and composed. Not so Plindorf, he dashed at his more youthful opponent +with a fury that had well nigh brought the combat to a speedy and fatal +issue, and compelled Frederic to exert his utmost skill. The peculiar +danger of his situation, and almost certain death or remediless disgrace +that awaited him, even if victorious, for having struck his superior +officer, were present to the mind of the young officer in gloomy and +terrible colors; but it was too late to retract. The fury of the Baron +threw him off his guard--he received a mortal wound, and fell dead. The +unhappy survivor stood for some seconds gazing upon the inanimate form +before him; and as the features, after being convulsed for a little, +settled into the iron stiffness of everlasting sleep, he uttered a deep +sigh, and unconsciously moved away from the spot. At this moment Bianca, +recovering from the stupor into which the terrible scene had thrown her, +earnestly enjoined him to fly. + +"There is no time to be lost," said the agonized girl; "fly at once to +the sea-side--go on board any vessel that is about sailing--in a few +days, I doubt not, this unhappy business will be hushed up." + +"And where shall I fly?" said the Count; "where shall I go from +_him_?"--indicating the slain nobleman by a movement of his hand--"do +you know what I have done? I have in one moment sentenced myself to +death; or, what is worse, to disgraceful and infamous privation of all +my honors and rank." + +"No, no--there is yet time--go immediately on board the American +man-of-war in the harbor--they dare not search for you there." + +With many entreaties and tears, she prevailed upon him to take measures +for his safety; and with a lightened heart saw him, from the windows of +her father's house, reach the water-side uninterrupted; saw him leave +the shore in a little skiff, when the intervention of other objects hid +him from her sight. + +The two officers were missed that evening. The dead body of the +ill-fated Baron was soon discovered; for many had seen him going towards +old Morelli's cottage; but no traces of Count Altenberg have ever been +discovered. Morelli and his daughter underwent a rigid examination; the +former could throw no light upon the mysterious disappearance of +Frederic, but Bianca, the pure-minded Bianca, unreservedly related all +the circumstances. The examining officers forwarded an elaborate and +circumstantial report of the case to Vienna, accompanied by an earnest +petition in behalf of the absent Count. The Emperor laid the affair +before a select council of old and experienced officers, who, after due +deliberation, and weighing the excellence of Altenberg's character +against the depravity of his slain antagonist, suggested the expediency +of pardoning the offender. Proclamation was accordingly made to that +effect, but without success. + +The unhappy Bianca lived to experience, in all its bitterness, that +"hope deferred that maketh the heart sick" and eventually breaks it. +She died in less than two years after the flight of Frederic, a victim +to a disorder that has no place in the catalogue of nosologists, and is +not recognised as a malady; though it is as incurable and consigns +almost as many victims to an untimely grave as consumption, with which +it is very frequently confounded--I mean a broken heart. She was buried, +according to her dying request, in the little arbor that Frederic had +assisted her to erect and adorn, and where she had passed those most +delightful moments in human existence, the days of the first love, and +first courtship, of two young, affectionate, and virtuous beings. +Blessed moments! that occur but once in the dreary threescore years and +ten, and fade away before we have time to enjoy them, and we only become +conscious of their existence from the certainty that they are gone for +ever. + + * * * * * + +Several years ago, and, if I am not much mistaken, just after the peace +of 1815, an officer, in full Austrian uniform, came on board one of our +frigates then lying in the harbor of Genoa. From the richness of his +regimentals, and a cross and ribbon in his button-hole, it was evident +that the stranger was of high ancestral and military rank. + +It so happened that he came on board just at "grog time," (four o'clock) +in the afternoon; and during the interesting moment that sailors are +discussing their whiskey--the whole Holy Alliance, with aids and prime +ministers and protocols, might come on board, and balance Europe, or +upset the scales, just as unto them seemed good, expedient, or politic, +without attracting any attention from these short-jacketed philosophers; +unless indeed some straggler from the upper deck might come below, and +casually inform his messmates, that "there was a whole raft of soger +officers on the quarter-deck;" for be it known to all concerned, that the +word number is seldom or never used by nautical philologists to +designate things numerable, it is always "a _raft_ of women," "a raft of +marines," &c. I could easily go on to show that the word "raft" is a +good phrase, and peculiarly applicable to women and marines; but I must +resist the temptation of convincing the public, that sailors are as +deeply versed in the mysteries of their mother-tongue, as many of those +who stay ashore all their life-times, and make dictionaries. + +The day after the arrival of this military stranger, it was ascertained +by the crew, that there was a supernumerary on board by the name of +Williams; for it is as impossible for the commander and officers of a +man-of-war to keep a secret in the cabin, as it is for twelve "good men +and true," locked up in a jury-room. The new-comer seemed to have free +access to the cabin, and was treated with much respect by the officers, +but it was soon observed, by the seamen, that he never went on shore. In +the course of a few months, he was put on board a homeward-bound ship: +and when the crew of the frigate returned to America, they saw him +again in New York, abandoned to intemperance. + +When on a cruise in the Pacific, the crew of one of the light vessels of +the squadron were transferred to the frigate that I was on board of; +their time of service having expired. Among them was Williams; and from +his shipmates I learned the above particulars. In person, he was about +five feet eight or nine inches high, and extremely well made. With the +rest of the schooner's people, he had been on shore on liberty, where he +had been continually intoxicated; his face was in consequence bloated, +and his eyes bloodshot and swollen. + +I further understood, that he would get drunk whenever he had an +opportunity, and when intoxicated he was completely insane. He was also +subject to fits of temporary derangement, independent of the insanity +produced by excessive drinking, when he was both furious and dangerous; +and it was always necessary, on such occasions, to confine him in irons. +He was also represented as being extremely reserved, and refusing to +answer any questions respecting himself, whether addressed to him by +officers or seamen; that he spoke with fluency all European languages, +on which account, he was extremely useful as an interpreter, both on the +coast of Peru and Chili, and on that of Brazil; that he was a first rate +swordsman, either with the small-sword or sabre, and a dead shot with +pistol or musket. + +During his short stay on board the frigate, he had one of his temporary +fits of insanity, probably induced by excessive intemperance, if +intemperance admits of superlatives, while on shore. He suddenly started +up from a gloomy, stupid reverie, and ran about the decks like a wild +beast, striking and knocking down, every one he met; then all at once +plunging down the main-hatchway, he attempted to get possession of one +of the boarding cutlasses, but fortunately they were well secured in the +racks over the guns, to prevent them from falling down with the motion +of the ship. Before he could make a second and more regular attempt, he +was secured, put in irons, and placed under charge of a sentry. Had he +succeeded in arming himself, he would have made bloody work on the +quarter-deck, towards which it seemed evident he was steering his course; +the uniforms of the officers, and marine guard, probably calling up to +his diseased imagination, and memory, scenes of by-gone days connected +with or the remote cause of his present insanity. The officers seemed to +be so far acquainted with his history, as to feel compassion for his +most wretched situation; for, as he manifested no symptoms of +derangement the next morning, except his usual deep melancholy, he was +discharged from confinement, to the great astonishment of the ship's +company; for though the discipline on board was as mild as it could be +consistent with the preservation of good order, and perfectly free from +that tyranny that but too many of our navy officers think +indispensable, they certainly were not accustomed to seeing such quiet +jail deliveries. + +Williams afterwards re-entered on board the same vessel that he came +from, and I lost sight of him of course, as our frigate was on the point +of quitting the station to return home. He has, in all probability, long +ere this, reached the grave towards which he seemed to be hurrying, with +all the speed of intemperance and insanity combined. + + + + + * * * * * + + MORTON + + * * * * * + + + + + MORTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Bel and the Dragon's chaplains were + More moderate than these by far: + For they, poor knaves, were glad to cheat, + To get their wives and children meat; + But these will not be fobb'd off so, + They must have wealth and power too; + Or else with blood and desolation + They'll tear it out o' th' heart o' th' nation.-- + + HUDIBRAS. + + +Notwithstanding the success of the many daring and lawless adventurers +who visited the Pacific Ocean, or "Great South Sea," as it is called in +the maps and travels of the period, and who reaped many a golden harvest +there, about the time of the first James and Charles of England, the +coasts washed by its waves were but seldom visited, and its waters +seldom ploughed by any other keels than those of discovery ships for +many years. Chili, Peru, Mexico, and California, after having been +definitively ceded to the Spanish crown, constituted an El Dorado, whose +gates could only be opened by a formal declaration of war. Spain was +generally considered by the other European powers to have a double right +to South America, namely, that of discovery and conquest; and after an +ineffectual struggle to wrest the golden prize from the grasp of its +legitimate possessor, England, and the rest of the "high contracting +powers," acquiesced in her possessing it, the more readily because they +wished the same kind of title should be acknowledged in their own case. +Accordingly discovery and conquest have, to this day, been considered as +good and lawful titles, and a sort of deed of conveyance, on the part of +the natives, to their discoverers and conquerors of all and sundry their +lands and landed estates, together with their goods and chattels, when +of any value. + +His Most Catholic Majesty, then, finding his claim to the New World +fully established, set about civilizing his new conquest in good +earnest, and sending out swarms of priests, backed of course by the +military portion of the secular arm, with glory to God on their lips, +and hatred to his creatures in their hearts, with the sword in one hand +and the crucifix in the other, soon convinced the unhappy natives of +their damnable heresies. Their simple religion was destroyed, millions +perished by the sword or the tender mercies of the Holy Inquisition, and +as many more in the mines; and civilization and religion kissed each +other, and rested from their labors of love. + +This was the most received method of converting whole nations at once, +then in vogue--we Protestants of the present day are far more humane; we +only distribute among the newly discovered nations of the earth, rum and +Calvinism, gunpowder and the venereal disease, and with these powerful +agents our missionaries and merchants, have succeeded in causing Dagon +to bow down before them--over all the civilized world. New Holland seems +to be the only uncivilized part of this watery ball, but New Holland +holds out no temptations to the missionary; the inhabitants are a little +too cannibally given, and martyrdom is altogether obsolete; besides, it +is doubted by our soundest theologians whether Christianity was ever +intended for a people so brutal and debased. + +Spain, at the time I refer to, was renowned in arts and in arms; her +commerce extended from the East to the West Indies, and she was for a +time one of the most powerful of the kingdoms of Europe. Her priests, +finding the New World a land overflowing, not exactly with milk and +honey, but with what in all ages and in all countries is considered +infinitely better, gold and silver, and abounding in every thing that +could pamper the pride and gratify the sense, founded churches and +monasteries, while her viceroys built cities and forts, and South +America became the richest jewel in the diadem of His Catholic Majesty. +To secure this jewel entirely to himself seems to have been his chief +anxiety, and accordingly all foreigners were rigidly excluded from its +sea-ports, and although the "Assiento," or contract for supplying the +colonies with African slaves, was enjoyed successively by the English +and French, both of whom successively abused it by smuggling immense +quantities of their respective manufactures into those colonies, the +duty of supplying them with European merchandise was carried on finally +solely by means of register ships, as they were called, Cadiz being the +only European port where they were permitted to load and discharge. + +The whaling ships were only permitted to procure supplies, or "recruit," +as our unctuous brethren of Nantucket call it, at certain fixed and +well-fortified ports. Still even these managed to carry on quite a +respectable business in the smuggling way, especially with the ports of +Mexico and California. + +But a new flea was about getting into Don Diego's ear--the peace of +1783, while it added an infant giant to the catalogue of earthly +"principalities and powers," also liberated from the fetters of +commercial, as well as political restraints, a people active, restless, +daring, prying, and enterprising to the last degree; a people whose +skill in navigation and swift-sailing vessels rendered them absolutely +intangible to an enemy that took occasion to chase them, while their +courage, when they thought proper to "stand to it," as dame Quickly +says, made them dangerous antagonists. This the reader probably +"guesses" must be brother Jonathan, and he guesses about right. The same +spirit of restless curiosity that prompts a cat, when she sets up her +Ebenezer in a new house, to examine every portion of it, from cellar to +garret, seemed to have possessed our grandpas more strongly than it does +us of the present age. + +This national character of ours is owing doubtless to our having been +placed by the hand of Heaven in an immense unexplored region, and was no +doubt much increased by the spirit-stirring scenes of the revolutionary +war, which beheld our "old continentals" one day ferreting out the +long-tailed Hessians from the woods of Saratoga, and another "doing +battle right manfullie" on the plains of South Carolina. + +While they of the land service were pushing their advanced posts to the +foot of the Rocky Mountains, our seamen were carrying our striped +bunting into every portion of the navigable world. Such were the people +whose arrival in the Pacific the Spanish commandantes and viceroys +awaited with no small fear and trembling. They knew vaguely that we had +just come off victorious from a long, fierce, and bloody struggle with +powerful England, and while they consigned us pell-mell to the devil, as +"malditos Americanos," they doubted whether we had the additional claim +to go there upon the strength of being heretics. The captains of the +guarda-costas redoubled their vigilance, and sailed in chase of not a +few albatrosses and whale-spouts, such was the zeal that animated them. + +I should have described these redoubtable crafts, the guarda-costas, +before--they were armed vessels of different classes, varying from light +frigates down to mere gunboats, and were distributed along the coasts to +protect trade, and prevent smuggling. + +When however these formidable strangers did arrive, the readiness with +which they conformed to the numerous, and in most cases vexatious, port +regulations, their quiet behavior on shore, and the many novelties and +luxuries that they freely distributed to the port officers, completely +blinded them to the instinctive disposition to trade that characterizes +my beloved countrymen, especially the New Englanders, who were the first +to carry our flag into the Pacific, as they were also the first to +display it in Europe. + +I have made these long-winded and apparently uncalled-for remarks partly +to show my learning, but chiefly in conformity with the fashion of the +day, that requires that every story, long or short, should be ushered in +by at least one chapter of prefatory remarks. I do not intend to be so +unreasonable; but before this my first chapter is finished, shall give +my readers an idea of my purposed principal scene of operations. + +If then, the reader will turn to the proper map, he will find in about +the latitude of twenty-one north, Cape Corrientes; and not far from this +three islands, called Las Tres Marias; the Three Marys, that is, so +named after the three Marys of the New Testament. + +Geographers, when they make maps, seem to start with the notion that +there must be a certain number of islands, &c. inserted in each map; and +when they have located the larger and more important ones within fifteen +or twenty degrees of latitude and longitude of their proper places, +which is as near as they commonly come to the truth, they proceed to +distribute the remainder according to their own taste. In compliance +with this fashion of theirs, they have laid down upon all modern maps, +especially those that are called the best, and in nearly the latitude +that I have above mentioned, and longitude that I have not, namely, +about one hundred and fifteen west from Greenwich Observatory, a little +island which they call Revalligigedos. I have passed twice over the spot +where this little island with the big name "stays put," in all maps by +them, and have conversed with many whalemen and others, who, taken +collectively, have sailed over every square inch of salt water in that +place, and none of them have seen it. So too, they have studded the +ocean off Cape Horn so thickly with islands, that a landsman wonders how +a ship of any size can manage to squeeze through into the Pacific. I +have passed that cape three times, and have been working to windward off +them some weeks, but although we always kept a bright look-out for ice +islands and strange vessels, we never, to use a vulgar expression, saw +"hide or hair" of these supererogatory islands. + +But to return; in a direction nearly east from the Three Marys, the +reader will find, on most maps, a small river, called by the Spaniards, +in their usual style of bombast, El Rio Grande, or the Great River; +though the identical legs that I now stand upon have waded across it at +low water, and, except cutting my foot with an oyster-shell, there was +nothing very remarkable in the exploit. At the mouth of this mighty +stream is an island on which stands the town of St. Blas. + +The Spaniards, as it is well known, when they discovered America, +christened every cape, bay, mountain, river, island, rock, or shoal +after some saint or other, but the learned are somewhat puzzled to know +who this St. Blas can be. In my poor opinion, the difficulty is easily +enough got over--the word Blas is only a corruption of Blast, and +accordingly we shall find that St. Blast, properly so called, is neither +more nor less than our old friend Æolus, of the heathen mythology, +smuggled into the calendar, who, being the god of blasts and puffs, +might well be canonized under the name of St. Blast, without doing +violence to the tender consciences of the good Catholics. In this way, +according to Dean Swift, Jupiter became Jew Peter, and by a natural +transition, _Saint_ Peter. Whether he is right or not, one thing is +certain, that sundry temples, of which the veritable Jupiter has been +"seized in fee tail," I think lawyers call it, from time immemorial, +have quietly become "St. Peter's churches," to the great edification of +the Christian world, and incredible advancement of religion and piety. + +The island, upon which St. Blas is perched, slopes off gradually to the +eastward, but to the south and west descends in a sheer precipice of two +or three hundred feet in height. The town was taken and retaken several +times during the sanguinary war of the Mexican revolution. The last time +it was in the hands of the royalists, they compelled all the male +inhabitants, and, report says, not a few women and children besides, +that they suspected of favoring the Patriot cause, to leap off this +precipice. Soldiers were stationed at the foot of the cliff, to despatch +those who reached the bottom with any signs of life. This piece of +information I had from a widow who kept a shop in the _Plaza_, and who +also told me, "with weeping tears," that her husband was one of the +number who took the fearful leap. + +Rather on the north-west side, the hill is surmountable by a zig-zag +path, up which a loaded mule can climb with some difficulty. On the +west, or seaward, side, is a strip of flat land, of considerable width, +on which formerly stood the royal arsenal, rope-walks, and warehouses, +the ruins of which were standing in 1822, when I visited the place. On +the western extremity of this level land is a small village, called, as +usual in such cases, the Porte, or landing place. The bay, which is a +fine harbor, sweeps far to the eastward, when the land, trending away to +the southward, with a slight inclination westerly, becomes lost in the +distance. The more immediate, or inner, harbor, is formed by a point of +land opposite the Porte, on the southern extremity of which is a +battery, formerly of considerable dimensions, and strength, but since +suffered to decay, and is much reduced in effectiveness. It was intended +to command the harbor and anchorage; but with Spanish artillerymen, a +mile offing, and reasonably good weather, a ship would be as safe from +its fire, for three months at least, as though she was all the while in +London Docks. + +At the distance of two or three miles from the usual anchorage, and +forming an excellent leading mark for the bay, is Pedro Blanco, or the +White Rock, of two hundred feet height, perfectly precipitous and +inaccessible, and resembling a huge tower, rising abruptly from the sea. + +Taken altogether, the bay of St. Blas forms a very beautiful prospect, +with the Andes in the back ground, which, with their + + "Meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd, + Look from their throne of clouds o'er half the world;" + +its white sand beach, fading gradually away to the south and east, its +town roosting on its barren rock, and indistinctly seen; its low lands +covered with a luxuriant growth of lime and other trees; and lastly, by +way of seasoning, its moschetoes and sand-flies. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + A knight he was, whose very sight would + Entitle him mirror of knighthood. + HUDIBRAS. + + +Tropical climates have certainly one advantage over all others, that is +not to be held in light esteem. They have rainy and dry seasons, that +are exclusively rainy and dry. During six months, or nearly as long, the +windows of heaven stand wide open, by night and by day, and the liquid +blessing descends upon the thirsty earth beneath "in one lot," as +auctioneers say; while on the other hand, the dry season has its great +and manifold advantages and pleasures. With us in the temperate zone, as +geographers call it, I suppose, for want of another name, a man does not +think of riding twenty miles without India rubbers, a great coat, boots, +and an umbrella, to say nothing of an entire change of raiment, if he is +a prudent, cautious old bachelor, or widower; and even then he is as +likely to get a ducking as to have fine weather. + +During a tropical dry season, on the contrary, a journey of two hundred +miles may be safely undertaken, without any of these encumbrances; with +two or three clean shirts, a man may scamper about for months, like a +Roman light-infantryman, "impedimentis relictis," unless he should be so +ill advised as to carry his wife and children with him. + +Throughout the rainy season, many diseases arise, and make great +destruction among those who remain on the sea-coast; those who can +afford it, retreat to the more salubrious mountain regions, while, as +aforesaid, those who stay behind, being generally the poor, the +worthless, and the useless part of the community, fall victims to the +numerous diseases generated by the excessive rains, and the then swampy +condition of the country. This annual purgation of society, is perhaps +another blessing of a tropical country. I know of more than one +community, whose moral, and in some measure physical health, would in my +mere mortal and short sighted notion of the fitness of things, be vastly +benefited by the visitation of an energetic, wide sweeping epidemic. +Human society is very like a grate full of ignited anthracite coal, +those parts of it that have lost their combustibility, and become +worthless, are constantly filtering down through the bottom of the +grate; and so in society, those individuals, who are daily falling from +a state of grace in the eyes of their fellow-worms, either as regards +fashion, or property, or reputation, go to swell the number of the +outcasts from the ranks of "good society;" a convenient phrase that has +recently been invented, and signifies the speaker's own particular +friends and acquaintances, though he and they may be at that very +moment getting out stone on Blackwell's Island. So you see, reader, that +it is fore-ordained, for I am a good deal of a fatalist, that one of the +ingredients of civilized society should be a certain proportion of poor +miserable devils, such as you and I both know. + +It was just at the close of the rainy season, when Nature looked +infinitely better and fresher for having her face washed, though she had +been six months about it; the air seemed purer and more healthful, and +the sky looked clearer and of a richer blue, for the half year's +drenching; it was at this particular time of the year, that we have +thought proper to raise the curtain, and introduce the reader into the +business part of the story. + +It was between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the land breeze +had done blowing, and the usual interregnum of calm, previous to the +commencement of the sea-breeze, had taken place--the broad bay lay like +a huge mirror, varied indeed by the long and regular undulations of the +swell from the main ocean, which, though perhaps sufficient to +discompose a landman's stomach, would not affect that of a sailor, who +would probably testify under oath, that the water was "just as smooth as +a mill-pond." The pelican, that grave and contemplative bird, sat on the +rocks near the water's edge, with his neck coiled up and stowed away in +some recess in his capacious crop, the fish forgetting, or sailed on +lazy wings across the bay, to seek some sequestered spot to doze away +the time, and digest his huge breakfast--the graceful white crane of +Mexico was wading about, flapping her wings, to drive the small fish +into shoaler water, where she might pick them up at her leisure--the +gaudy Spanish ensign, resembling three flannel petticoats, two red and +one yellow, hung lifeless by its staff, as though said petticoats had +just got through a hard day's washing--a soldier, with a paper segar in +his mouth, was lounging backwards and forwards on that part of the +parapet of the battery next the sea, while another, his counterpart, was +"doing military duty" in the same soldierly manner on the quay opposite. + +I may as well explain to the reader now as at a future time, that every +collection of houses in South America, however small, has an open space +in the centre, called the Plaza; and an American Spaniard could no more +conceive of a town or village without such plaza, than he could form one +of Mr. Locke's abstract ideas of a horse, which ceases to be an abstract +idea the moment it becomes invested with a body, head, legs, mane, tail, +saddle, bridle, belly-band, or crupper. + +In the plaza of the Porte before mentioned was a multifarious +assemblage: the barrack for a captain's guard, with the arms of the +guard piled in front of it, formed one side, and the others were bounded +by the quay or different buildings; a detachment of idlers were sunning +themselves, and engaged in relieving each other from certain troublesome +companions, that _invariably_ infest the clothes and hair of all +Spaniards and Russians, from the king to the beggar; jackasses, boys, +and dogs occupied the rest of the square, and were differently engaged. +At this moment a sergeant ran into the square, exclaiming, "el +Commandante!" The military guard fell into their ranks at the tap of the +drum, the idlers and boys took up a strong position in one corner, the +jackasses were cudgelled into a retreat, while the dogs, like the pigs +in New York, being free of the city, provided for themselves. A moment +or two elapsed after these preparations had been made, when a party of +mounted officers dashed into the square at full gallop, as the South +Americans always ride. The guard presented arms, the dogs barked their +congratulations, and the party, having lighted fresh segars, walked down +to the quay, directly opposite which lay an old dismantled Spanish +frigate, and moored alongside her was a schooner, whose formidable +length of main boom, and raking masts, announced her both a clipper and +a Yankee. She was indeed an American schooner, that had been taken +"flagrante delicto," in the very act of smuggling, for which she was +condemned, and her crew sent to the mines. Such was the jealousy of the +"authorities," that they unshipped the rudder, and unrove the running +rigging, for fear she might go to sea of her own accord, and resume her +smuggling voyage without the assistance of human agency. + +The party whom we have left smoking on the wharf, consisted of the +military commandant, or governor, of St. Blas, Don Gaspar de Luna, Don +Diego Pinto, the commander of a guarda-costa of eighteen guns, that lay +in the offing, and which, to the most unpractised eye, bore about the +same resemblance to an English or American man of war of the same class, +as an old, worn-out jackass does to a handsome, high spirited, well +groomed race-horse. The rest of the group was made up of young officers +"of no mark or likelihood," and with whom we have nothing to do, with +the exception of Don Gregorio Nunez, a dashing young cavalry officer, +related to the viceroy, report said his natural son, and report said too +that he was soon to marry the lovely niece of the governor; but the +destinies were altogether of a different way of thinking. His character +may be despatched in a few words--he was a vain coxcomb, his whole soul +lay in his gorgeous uniform, and he had a mortal antipathy to any thing +like duty. + +Don Gaspar de Luna, the redoubted governor of St. Blas and its +"dependencies," bore the rank of colonel in the Spanish army. He had +seen some service, having been present at the memorable siege of +Gibraltar, that excited first the astonishment and then the ridicule of +all Europe--astonishment at the immensity of the armament prepared, and +ridicule on account of its inefficiency, in wasting years before the +place without doing any thing. An advanced party commanded by Don +Gaspar, then a captain, had the good fortune to get soundly thrashed by +a sallying detachment from the garrison; and the king of Spain was so +delighted that _something_ had been done, that he promoted the fortunate +captain to a colonelcy. + +In early life he had been in America with his regiment, where he had +married a native Peruvian woman, by whom he had two daughters. In person +he was about the middling height, and so far resembled an ellipse as +this, that his transverse diameter nearly equalled his conjugate, or, in +plain English, he was about as broad as long. He prided himself not a +little upon being a "Castiliano," or genuine old Spaniard, and +professed, and probably felt, the most implacable hatred to all +heretics, especially English and Americans; but it was evidently an +abstract feeling, for the moment a vessel of either nation arrived, +which happened very often during the dry season, and the commanders +began to make those little presents that they always found it for their +interest to make, his orthodox zeal began, like Bob Acres' courage, "to +ooze away through his fingers." + +Although in the main a kind and indulgent father, his affections were +centred in his niece, of whom we shall have occasion to speak more at +large, whom he preferred to his daughter, and with good reason. He was +fond of punch, such as he used to find in plenty and perfection on board +the strange ships, and which he could drill none of his household into +the art and mystery of making, except his niece; fonder of flattery, and +compliment, and salutes, from the heretical captains; and perhaps +fondest of all of invitations to dine on board such ships as seemed to +hold out hopes of good cheer. When a foreign vessel arrived, one would +think, from his parade and flourish, that he expected an invasion; but +it was all show. He was fond of telling long stories, and of sitting +long over the bottle, foregoing the usual luxury of the _siesta_, or nap +after dinner, to enjoy the greater one of drinking; but, although his +capacious stomach would contain an incredible quantity of wine, no one +could say that he had ever been seen "the worse for liquor." + +The duties of his station were but trifling; for, although St. Blas was +a royal naval depot, the commanders of his majesty's ships almost +invariably preferred Callao, on account of its vicinity to the viceregal +court at Lima. Any other person would have pined to death in such a +remote and solitary corner of the earth, without society and without +employment; but Don Gaspar was one of those peculiarly constituted +individuals, who, having neither the faculty to communicate or receive +new ideas, are as happy and contented in one place as another. He had +come down to the water side at full gallop, and at the imminent risk of +his neck, in consequence of a report, that a large, armed English ship, +that was known to be on the coast trading, was approaching the Bay of +St. Blas. + +The nautical commander, Don Diego Pinto, was a man of upwards of sixty +years of age, who had grown grey in the navy of Spain, without seeing +any service of consequence. He had followed one of the viceroys, to whom +he was recommended, to Peru, and the viceroy thought he had sufficiently +done his duty to his _protégé_ by appointing him to the command of a +guarda-costa of eighteen guns, stationed at St. Blas, and including in +her cruising ground St. Josef, Mazattan, and the entrance to the Gulf of +California. His prey was good, and his duty was light; but all his hopes +of promotion were cut off by being stationed at what was generally +considered the "ultima Thule," the very extremity of the navigable +world. + +The Yankees, to be sure, scorned any such fanciful restrictions, and had +long since penetrated to Nootka Sound and Behring's Straits, "the +hunters of the mighty whale;" but then the Yankees were a very singular +and peculiar race, and nobody in their senses cared to imitate them in +their wild, and sometimes lawless, rambles over the face of the +ocean--lawless, I wish to be understood, no farther than in sometimes +forgetting to inquire, in a strange port, whether there was any +custom-house there or not, and in most ports conceiving it to be the +duty of the collectors of the customs to come on board and secure the +duties, and if said collectors did not bear a hand and attend to their +business, why then Jonathan, who is always in a hurry, was apt to land +his cargo without the knowledge and without the leave of the +custom-house officers. + +Don Diego's hatred to heretics and foreigners, unlike that of the +illustrious governor, was cordial and sincere, and by no means a general +or abstract principle--he hated every individual as heartily as he did +the whole species. He would never accept or even reply to an invitation +from an English or American commander; and in the case of the American +schooner already mentioned, he had treated the crew with such savage +barbarity, that, but for the interference of Don Gaspar, they would have +perished from starvation and ill treatment. He was by no means a +favorite guest at the governor's house; the ladies of the family +detested him, not so much for his cruelty, for they heard but little of +that, but for his morose and churlish disposition, and, perhaps more +than either, on account of the general belief that his wife, a lovely +woman, and much younger than himself, had fallen a victim to his +unkindness and cruelty. + +Women, the dear creatures, have an infinitely larger share of _esprit du +corps_, if I may so call it, or rather a community of feeling, than men. +Nothing will ruin a man's character and good name among the females of +his acquaintance so soon or so effectually as the reputation of ill +treatment or unkindness to his wife, while the men would think but +little or nothing of it. Women think, and feel, and act most correctly +and justly, and in a manner that does them infinite honor, upon this +subject; indeed, I am fully convinced, that on most questions of social +morality, the feelings of women are more pure and right than those of +men. But they have a thousand ingenious methods of making known their +contempt and detestation of the cowardly scoundrel that would raise his +hand against one of their sex, and every method cuts like a two-edged +sword. I have known, and do at this moment know, many men who have +endured the contempt and hatred of their fellow-_men_ with the most +stoical indifference--they went on hated and despised to the grave, but +they made money at every step, and they cared for nothing else; but I +never, in all my life, and in all my wanderings--and I have not +travelled about this watery ball, nor so far through life, with my eyes +and ears shut--I never knew a man who did not wince and writhe under the +hatred and contempt of the other sex. I am not a profound believer in +innate ideas, if they are such ridiculous ones as metaphysicians talk +of--namely, that two and two make four, and such sort of nonsense--but I +do believe in certain innate principles and feelings, that govern our +thoughts and actions as powerfully and irresistibly as instinct impels +the brute creation; and that one of those principles is an innate desire +to please and secure the good opinion of the opposite sex, born with +every man and woman, or at least developed, more or less strongly, in +very early childhood, and that too without any instruction or hint from +others. + +While the party stood on the quay, puffing their segars with all the +gravity and silence that was becoming their rank and birth as officers +of his Catholic Majesty and natives of old Spain, a subaltern officer +approached, and, with abundance of parade and obsequiousness, informed +the governor that there was a ship in the offing, becalmed at that time, +but apparently bound in. The officer proceeded to inform him farther, +that there were two American ships at St. Josef, one at Monteny, and +that a fourth had been seen the day before at sea, standing to the +southward. His excellency, though not particularly indignant at the idea +of his principality being visited by a foreign vessel, thought proper to +appear "brimful of wrath" at the intelligence. + +"Ah! those accursed and heretical wretches! they swarm upon this coast +as thick as sand-flies." + +"And should be destroyed by the same means, by fire," growled his naval +associate; "they should be burnt at their anchors wherever they are +found; for if they have not already been guilty of any violation of the +laws, they very soon will." + +"Signor Pinto," said the more humane and considerate governor, "you are +to recollect that our gracious sovereign is on terms of peace and amity +with this new people, who have lately come into existence, and who seem +to be driven by the devils to wander abroad, instead of passing their +lives peaceably at home. We cannot therefore treat them as enemies; and +even when taken in violation of the laws, they must be heard in their +own defence." + +This grave rebuke rather mortified him of the marine department, and he +was for a few minutes sulky, which the governor perceiving, and not +wishing to offend him, again addressed him. + +"But come, signor, cheer up. I know the sight of that schooner always +makes you feel unpleasantly; you cannot forget how she misled you one +dark night, and well nigh decoyed your ship ashore, by setting adrift a +light in a tub." + +This was but cold comfort to the redoubtable sea-officer, who was by no +means fond of hearing the anecdote of the lantern in a tub repeated or +alluded to; and he was about making an angry answer, when the sight of +the schooner brought to his recollection that he had finally captured +her, and had enjoyed the fiendish pleasure of abusing and maltreating +her crew, and that, to crown his triumph, he had seen them set out for +the mines. Poor man! he did not know, what indeed was a kind of state +secret, that the viceroy, not wishing to embroil his sovereign in an +unpleasant quarrel, or, as he was about returning to old Spain, wishing +to leave behind him a character for clemency and humanity, had ordered +them to be set at liberty, and they had actually embarked at Acapulco on +board an English South Sea whaler. This had taken place a full year +previous; and while the vindictive Spaniard was chuckling over their +fancied sufferings "many a fathom deep" in the damp and unhealthy +galleries of a silver mine, the objects of his hatred were jogging along +comfortably towards London, with a full ship and light hearts. + +In reply to the governor's "quip modest," he merely growled out +something about zeal in discharging his duty, and anxiety to prevent +smuggling, to which the governor replied, + +"There is no danger of these foreigners smuggling, while they are so +strictly watched by his majesty's ships and faithful soldiers. I wish, +signor, you would go out with your ship, and bring this stranger in; I +do not like to see him hovering about in this suspicious manner." + +"It is impossible to go out, now that the sea-breeze is just setting +in," said the naval officer, who had no more idea of working out with a +head wind, than he had of flying, though the bay is open enough for the +channel fleet to beat out in order of battle. + +While this question was in agitation, an officer crossed in a skiff from +the battery, and informed Don Gaspar that the sea-breeze had set in +the offing, and that the stranger had hauled by the wind, and was +standing off shore; further, that she was an American whaleman, that had +probably pursued her huge prey close in shore. Don Gaspar was somewhat +disappointed at this intelligence. + +"I almost wish she had come in," said he, in a low tone, "for, heretics +as they are, and damned to all eternity as they certainly will be, (for +which blessed be the saints,) it cannot be denied that the puncho, or +pontio, which they make, is most refreshing and delicious in this warm +weather." + +But as the Yankee manifested no symptoms of coming in to anchor, and +thereby give him a chance for his glass of punch, he yielded to the +suggestion of Don Gregorio, his aid-de-camp; and having lighted fresh +segars, they mounted their horses, and rode back to San Blas. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A lady + So fair, and fastened to an empery, + Would make the great'st king double. + + CYMBELINE. + + +The family of Don Gaspar de Luna consisted of his wife, whom we have +already noticed as a native of Mexico, and two daughters, Antonia and +Carlota, who were rather pretty for Creole girls, and, like the +generality of Creoles, especially when one half is Spanish, extremely +ignorant and vulgar in their language and manners; the last trait being +somewhat characteristic of the Spanish-American women, if we may believe +travellers, to which I may add my own somewhat limited observation. They +are, however, by way of amends, more civilized and sociable in their +behaviour to strangers, and much more intelligent, than the men. + +The lovely niece of the governor, the orphan daughter of his brother, +made up the list of his family. As we have no great concern with the old +lady and her two daughters, we have mentioned them first, in order to +get them out of our way; but as the fair Isabella will make some figure +in our pages, we can do no less than devote a chapter, or part of a +chapter, to giving some account and description of her, more +particularly as she differs, _toto coelo_, from her cousins, morally, +and, in many respects, physically. + +Isabella de Luna was the daughter of Signor Anastasio de Luna, the only +brother of Don Gaspar. He was an eminent merchant of Cadiz, who, having +found it necessary to go to London on business, had afterwards found it +equally necessary to remain there for some time, to attend to his +mercantile affairs. Here he became acquainted with a Miss Campbell, a +Scotch lady of about thirty years of age, very beautiful, but poor. Her +father had been taken prisoner at the defeat of the Pretender's army at +Culloden, in which army he was an officer, and immediately executed +without a trial, by the blood-thirsty and infamous Duke of Cumberland. +Her mother died of grief a few months afterwards, leaving her an infant, +and the sole surviving member of a proscribed and ruined family. She was +taken, from mere compassion, by a distant relation of her father, and +carefully brought up in the Protestant faith, her parents having been +Catholics. + +When about twenty years old, she accompanied her relation to London, and +had resided there some years, when she was introduced to and captivated +Signor Anastasio, and after a long courtship, and considerable +reluctance on the part of the lady, because the lover was at least +nominally a Catholic, she became his wife. They lived long and happily +together, for whether Anastasio's religious opinions had undergone any +change or not, by associating so many years with Protestants, he never +interfered with his wife's religious creed or devotions, and permitted +her to educate, in the Protestant faith, their only child Isabella. + +I would advise all husbands to do likewise, in some measure; that is, if +the wife thinks proper to perform her devotions in a Pagan temple, a +Mahometan mosque, a Jewish synagogue, or a Christian church, why, let +her, and welcome, unless the husband is particularly anxious to get into +hot water, and commit suicide upon his domestic happiness; for nothing +so effectually disturbs the tranquillity of a family, as open opposition +of religious creeds. Women become religious, in the every-day +acceptation of the word, from any motive rather than a conviction of the +truth or reasonableness of any particular creed. It would be difficult, +perhaps impossible, to define the motive that carries women into the +pale of any particular church. I have heard of an old lady, who was very +anxious to be permitted to carry her knitting-work to meeting, "because +it was such a _steadiment_ to the mind." Perhaps joining the church has +the same effect upon women in general. I have seen so much discomfort in +families from conflicting religious opinions, that I cannot help hoping +that the destinies will so contrive it, that my wife, if they ever mean +to send me one at all, shall be a member of the Episcopal church. There +is about that church, what attaches to no other sect, a sort of +dignified reserve, that never breaks out in four-day meetings, revivals, +or any other similar ebullition of fanaticism and absurdity. + +When Isabella was in her fourteenth year, her father returned to his +native country, taking his family with him, having given up his +mercantile business, and retiring from it very wealthy. The priests, as +might have been expected, were soon around him, like sharks around a +slave-ship, all eager to discover, in his conversation and manners, the +contamination of heresy, with which they took it for granted he was +infected, from having dwelt so long among those obstinate and perverse +heretics, the English; but Anastasio was too well acquainted with human +nature, and with the ways of the world, to be thrown off his guard. He +gave most munificently to the church; and, in spite of all their +attempts to place Isabella in a convent, as a boarder, succeeded in +retaining her under the immediate care of her excellent mother. + +In making this arrangement, he was much assisted by a priest, whom he +had formerly been acquainted with, and whom he now took into his family, +as father confessor. In short, by the judicious management of pretty +large sums of money, that he was able to spare, in less than a year +after his return to Spain, Anastasio de Luna obtained the character of a +good Catholic, who had kept fast the integrity of his faith, during a +long residence among heretics. As for Madame de Luna, after having +delivered her over in trust to the devil, the clergy gave themselves +little or no concern about her; though her liberal charity, and the +mildness and sweetness of her disposition, made her friends of all who +knew her. Many a saint, of the present day, holds his character for +sanctity by as slight a tenure, as Anastasio did his as an orthodox +Catholic; and many a modest, unpretending female, has been, like Madame +de Luna, regarded as an infidel, and a vessel of wrath, for not sounding +a trumpet before her, in the exercise of unassuming virtues. + +In about three years after his return to his native country, Anastasio +died, bequeathing a large sum to the church, not from any violent +partiality to the Catholic faith, but in order to secure peace to his +wife and daughter. His widow intended to return to England; but her +health was failing rapidly, and in a little more than a year after her +husband's death, she followed him to the grave, with her last breath +enjoining upon her daughter never to part with the faith in which she +had been educated, and never to marry a Catholic, unless she was sure of +the purity and goodness of his morals. This might seem illiberal in her; +but there is no accounting for the prejudices of people, especially upon +religious subjects. + +After her mother's death, Isabella had no alternative left, but to take +refuge in the family of her uncle, Don Gaspar, who had already shown +great fondness for her, and who received her with great cordiality and +affection. In this family she was permitted to do much as she pleased; +her gentle and amiable disposition soon won the warmest affections of +her aunt and cousins, and her time passed agreeably, except that she was +sometimes teased by the reverend clergy to enter a convent, and to +"dedicate herself to God;" but as the young lady thought she could serve +God to better purpose out of a convent than in one, she civilly declined +their polite invitations to shut herself in a dungeon. + +The same priest who befriended her father, extended his kindness to the +daughter. He was a very influential clergyman, secretly of very liberal +and enlightened views, on the subject of religion; but, not perceiving +any pressing necessity for giving his body to be burnt, he had thought +best to keep his religious notions to himself. He might very easily have +"gained a martyr's glorious name," if he had only been one of those + + "Stubborn saints, whom all men grant + To be the true church militant;" + +but he was not; and, besides, martyrdom is not near so fashionable as it +was during the time of the Roman emperors, when one saint insisted upon +being crucified heels uppermost; and another, who was very comfortably +broiling on a gridiron, sung out to be turned, when he thought he was +cooked enough on one side. _Our_ clergy are a grave, serious, set of +men, who scorn such mad pranks; they have no idea of suffering +martyrdom, or any thing else, if they can help it. I believe there have +been no martyrs since the commencement of the nineteenth century, except +Mr. Wolff, who was bastinadoed by the Pacha of Egypt, for interfering +with what did not concern him, and some ten or a dozen missionaries, +that would not do something the Cochin-Chinese bid them, and were, in +consequence, made shorter by the head. + +The good priest interposed his good offices, and influence, in +Isabella's behalf, and gave her instructions in such branches of +education as he thought were suited to her sex. But, in about a year +after her mother's death, Don Gaspar received his appointment, as +military commander of St. Blas, which, as I have already observed, was +then a royal depot and arsenal; and, though but seldom visited by +Spanish men-of-war, because there were but very few, besides +guarda-costas, in the Pacific, was a place of considerable importance. +Isabella cheerfully accompanied him to America; for, though neither +giddy, nor thoughtless, all places were alike to her, provided she could +be always surrounded with her uncle's family, with whom she enjoyed +quiet happiness. + +In the priests of Mexico, she saw nothing but ignorance, sensuality, +bigotry, and indolence, nothing calculated to shake her faith as a +Protestant, or cause her to forget her mother's first injunction; while +the foppishness, frivolity, insolence, ignorance, and pride, of the men, +by whom she was surrounded, most effectually protected her from the +remotest thought of disobeying the second. The men, on the other hand, +regarded her with the coolest indifference; accustomed to admire the +black eyes, and hair, and colorless complexions of the Spanish and +native, or Creole, women, varying from a sort of dirty cream color, to a +deep and beautiful copper, Isabella's rather lightish brown hair, blue +eyes, fair complexion, and cheeks rosy with health and cheerfulness, had +no charms for them; and, while her cousins had lovers, or danglers, by +the dozen, Isabella found herself, to her infinite satisfaction, +completely deserted and neglected, by all the starched and pompous fools +that visited her uncle, during a stay of some months in the city of +Mexico. + +She had, on the arrival of the family at St. Blas, contrived to employ +her time in cultivating such female accomplishments as her mother had +instructed her in, and was, at the time we introduce her to the reader's +notice, in her twentieth year. In person, she was about the medium +height of women, or, perhaps, a little below it; and would be called, in +New England, rather a small woman. Her form was exceedingly +well-proportioned and beautiful, although, what may seem incredible, it +had never been cramped, crushed, and distorted, by tight lacing, of +which her mother had a very reasonable horror; and, in consequence, her +movements were free, graceful, and unconfined. + +I know very well that the idea of a lady's form being beautiful, unless +moulded by corsets into the form of a ship's half-minute glass, will be +scouted as absurd and impossible; but to the ridicule that such a +proposition must necessarily excite, I can oppose my own observation, +leaving antiquity, with its faultless statues and sculptures, to shift +for itself. The Hindoo women, of whom I have seen hundreds at once +bathing in the Hoogly, of all ages, from childhood to decrepitude, have +extremely fine forms, when young, that is from twelve to twenty-two or +three, at which period they have all the marks of old age. As they bathe +with only a single thin cotton garment, which, when wet, sticks close to +their bodies, and developes their forms most completely, any body that +visits Calcutta can satisfy himself of the correctness of this fact, and +yet they tolerate no sort of confinement whatever about the person. + +Isabella's face was of an oval form, with an exquisitely delicate and +fair complexion; when her features were at rest, the expression was +quiet and serious, rather bordering upon the pensive, a cast of +countenance that she inherited from her mother; but her smile was +exceedingly attractive, with an air of frankness and innocence +attending it, that made it perfectly fascinating. Her eyes were of a +deep blue, that, in conversation or when any emotion agitated the +tranquillity of their owner, were extremely lively, animated, and +sparkling. Her eyebrows were very delicately traced, slightly curved but +not arched, as poets and others rave about--I never saw a pair that +were, on forehead male or female, except among the Chinese, and _they_, +in consequence, looked like--no matter who--nor can I imagine how arched +brows can be beautiful. + +It was not the fashion, forty years since, for girls to cut off their +hair and sell it to a barber for fifty cents, and then give ten dollars +for a set of artificial curls, nor was it fashionable in Mexico to wear +false hair; if it had been, nature had been so bountiful to Isabella in +that beautiful ornament and pride (it ought to be) of a woman, that she +could save the expense by the arrangement of her own luxuriant tresses. + +Her temper was mild, and by no means easily ruffled; her disposition was +gentle, humane, amiable, and cheerful, though seldom or never breaking +out into extravagant gaiety. Like all young ladies of her age, who have +much unemployed time on their hands, and I believe the same remark will +apply to young men similarly situated, she had experienced a void, a +want of something in the heart, that she felt acutely enough, but could +neither describe nor account for; that peculiar feeling that certainly +is not love, but a symptom of the wish to love and be beloved; it is +that state of the heart when the affections go forth, like Noah's dove, +and finding no object on which to repose, return weary and dejected to +their lonely prison. + +It is an old adage, that "when the devil finds a man idle, he sets him +to work;" when love finds a heart unoccupied, he soon finds it a tenant, +for it always has been, is now, and always will be true, that + + "Love is a fire that burns and sparkles, + In men as nat'rally as in charcoals." + +Isabella, almost without knowing it, and without the faintest suspicion +of the real state of the case, gradually neglected and ceased to take +pleasure in her usual occupations; her books, her music, her needle, and +her flowers, all seemed to be equally tiresome and unpleasant. While in +this unhappy state of ennui and loneliness of feeling, peculiar to the +youthful days, or some portion of them, of both sexes, when the mind, +like Hudibras' sword, + + "Eats into itself, for lack + Of somebody to hew and hack," + +she was thrown into unspeakable grief and consternation, by her uncle +one day proposing to her to receive and encourage the addresses of Don +Gregorio, as her future husband. + +To her passionate tears and entreaties to be spared such a dreadful +calamity, that she declared was infinitely worse than death, the old Don +replied, that it was natural for a girl to be frightened at the idea of +leaving a comfortable home, to become the mistress of a family; that he +only wished to provide for her, and see her well settled in life, that +the proposed husband was handsome, rich, and connected by blood with the +viceroy; and also urged many other reasons "too numerous to mention." To +all which, the weeping and agonized girl replied, as soon as her uncle +was out of breath, and she had an opportunity of speaking, "But, my dear +uncle, you know his character, and why, oh! why, will you sacrifice me, +whom you have always treated with so much affection and kindness, to one +whom every one knows to be a fool and a coward?" + +The Don was somewhat startled by this appeal. He was certainly aware +that Isabella was perfectly right in so calling her proposed lover, who +he knew was both a silly coxcomb and a despicable coward, but it was +altogether past his comprehension how his modest, retiring, gentle +niece, had found out two such very important points in the character of +a man, whom he had noticed she seemed to avoid more than any one who +visited his house. But after a few days, seeing that her dejection was +extreme, that her appetite and animation had failed, and she was sinking +under the weight of her grief, and being likewise severely rated by the +wife of his bosom, in a curtain lecture, he relented, and calling +Isabella to him one morning, with many expressions of fondness, bade her +cheer up, for though he wished to see her well married, he would by no +means force her inclinations, and she should please herself in the +article of matrimony. + +This intelligence soothed and consoled her, and the rosy hue of health +once more revisited her sweet countenance; her eyes once more sparkled +with much of her wonted animation and cheerfulness, but still there was +a shade upon her mind amounting almost to sadness; her uncle had +unmasked his battery, and she felt that she was doomed to much +persecution, on what, under existing circumstances, was to her a most +painful subject. But the destinies, that manage matrimonial affairs +infinitely better than free agents, were busy on her behalf. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Why," said the knight, "did you not tell me, that this water was + from the well of your blessed patron, St. Dunstan?" + + "Ay, truly," said the hermit, "and many a hundred pagans did he + baptize there; but I never heard that he drank any of it. Every + thing should be put to its proper use in this world. St. Dunstan + knew, as well as any one, the prerogatives of a jovial friar." + + IVANHOE. + + +It was nearly six months after the warlike and portentous visit of the +puissant governor to the Porte, when he was roused one morning by +intelligence, that an American whale-ship had arrived in the night, and +was then at anchor just within Pedro Blanco. He immediately commenced, +in his usual style of vaporing and flourish, as though this Yankee ship, +arriving without his knowledge and consent, had compromised the welfare +of the Spanish monarchy. Before his zeal had half done effervescing, a +sergeant brought word that the captain and first officer were at his +usual place of transacting business, or _bureau d'office_, and wished to +see him. This piece of information had by no means a sedative effect. +Here was a heretic, not only stealing into the bay, like a thief in the +night, but carrying his impudence still farther, by insisting upon an +interview, and that too out of business hours, with the representative +of His Most Catholic Majesty, by the grace of God, King of Two Spains +and the Indies. + +However, he very graciously sent word, that he would attend to them in a +few minutes; and having drank his chocolate, he proceeded to his office, +where he found waiting for him a grave elderly man, and a handsome young +one. The American captain could speak no Spanish, but the young man +could fluently, and he immediately proceeded to inform his excellency, +that the parties who had ventured to intrude upon his valuable time, +were Captain Hazard, commander of the American whaling ship Orion, and +himself, Charles Morton, first officer of that ship; that the ship was +filled with oil, and bound home; that they were out of wood, short of +water, and desirous of obtaining fruit, vegetables, fresh and salt +provisions, and live stock, previous to their commencing their long and +tedious passage towards home; and, finally, that trusting to the +well-known kindness and humanity of his Excellency General de Luna, they +had presumed to anchor in the outer harbor, till they had obtained his +permission to move further in shore, and to purchase their supplies. + +The old hero of Gibraltar was delighted: he had heard himself called +general, and "vuestra excellencia" half a dozen times at least; and that +too by a gentleman, whose modest deportment and language convinced him +of his seriousness. He instantly acceded to their request, and would, at +that moment perhaps, have given them his house, if he thought they +could store it away on deck, or get it down the main hatchway. Still it +seemed as if there was something lacking on their part; and he was soon +set at ease. The two Americans communicated for a moment, when the young +man, in polite and set phrase, gave the wished-for, and expected, +invitation to the governor and his family to visit and dine on board the +Orion, the next day at twelve o'clock; for sailors, and some others, +stick to the primitive and convenient habit of dining in the middle of +the day--fashionable people, I believe, don't dine till to-morrow +morning. + +The parties then separated, mutually pleased with each other; the +Americans at having their request so easily and cheerfully granted, and +the old Castilian in high glee with the prospect before him, of a good +dinner, plenty of punch, and plenty of wine. Being gifted with olfactory +powers equal to Job's war-horse, he smelled, not a battle, but a dinner, +afar off, or within thirty divisions of "old Time, the clock-setter's" +dial. + +The Orion was indeed the American whaleman in sight when the governor +visited the waterside, and was then coming in, but just as the +sea-breeze commenced, the look-out at the masthead reported a large +school of sperm whales in the offing. Although the want of vegetables +and fresh provisions did grieve him sore, yet want of oil did grieve him +more; and accordingly, Captain Hazard, whose ship was but little more +than half full, commenced beating out towards his huge game, which led +him away from the land and to the northward; where, in a little more +than five months, he had made up his quantum of oil; and preferring St. +Blas to Monterey, or St. Josef, he made the best of his way thither. + +The governor, having notified his womankind of the whale-catching +captain's invitation, proceeded to hold grave and high communication +with Father Josef, his ghostly counsellor, and the keeper of his +conscience. + +Father Josef was a priest, turned of fifty; and, like most of the +Spanish American clergy, who are turned of fifty, and are of any thing +like fair standing for sanctity, was somewhat rotund about the abdominal +regions, and of an apoplectic appearance; that is, his head was firmly +plunged down, and imbedded between his shoulders, without being plagued +with the intervening isthmus of neck, which is so expensive to modern +fashionable ladies and gentlemen, being considered by one sex as a part +of the body expressly created to hang neck-laces, gold chains, and lace +pelerines upon; and by the other, as intended merely as a place of +lodgment for the stock and shirt-collar. This priest's nose and cheeks +bore a large and bountiful crop of, what are sometimes called, "the +fruits of good living;" indeed, his parochial duties were not of a kind +calculated to mortify the flesh; and as his church was well endowed, and +he received many presents from the wealthy members of his flock, it was +not a matter of wonder, that he enjoyed such creature-comforts as lay in +his way; and the Catholic clergy are generally possessed of a sufficient +degree of modest asurance in taking possession of them. In disposition +he was mild, and good-natured, (fat people generally are;) was much +attached to the governor's family, and possessed great influence over +him. He was, over and above all, a man of considerable learning and +intelligence: spoke English quite passably; and, as a proof of good +taste, we add, that he was the only masculine biped, who visited Don +Gaspar's house, who really understood, and rightly appreciated, +Isabella's beauty of person, and intellectual character. As it was well +known that the governor placed great confidence in him, all who had a +suit to the civil or rather military potentate, in the first place made +interest with the ecclesiastical one; and this was soon perceived and +imitated by the commanders of foreign vessels, from whom he received +many presents. This was the clergyman whom the governor now summoned to +a council. + +"Father," said he, when the priest made his appearance and bestowed his +benediction, "you are doubtless aware of the arrival of an American ship +in this harbor, and that I and my family have been invited on board +to-morrow." + +Father Josef bowed in the affirmative. + +"I am not sure that I am doing right," resumed the Don, "in accepting +such invitations, as it throws me into the society of heretics so +often; and you know we cannot touch pitch without defilement." + +"We cannot indeed handle pitch without being defiled, but in the line of +duty." + +"But duty does not call me there." + +"Nay, but hear me, my son; duty requires that you should see that his +majesty's laws against unlawful trading are not violated." + +"That is very true." + +"And there can be no better opportunity of ascertaining the real +character of these foreigners than by a personal visit." + +"A most just observation, father." + +"Therefore, make yourself easy on the score of its sinfulness, for there +is none in it." + +"I don't see how there can be," said his excellency, who was thinking of +the future punch and dinner. + +"If I can assist you farther--" + +"Oh, true! you will accompany us to-morrow?" + +"Most cheerfully." + +"And now, father, I wish to consult you upon another subject. You know +that it is my wish to marry my niece to Don Gregorio Nunez." + +"You have said something of this before." + +"And she is most obstinately opposed to such a union." + +"I can easily conceive it," said the priest drily. + +"He is rich and well connected." + +"Riches and rank do not charm all women." + +"It is my wish to see her well married." + +"The woman that marries Don Gregorio is not necessarily well married; +besides, I believe you know his character." + +"I think I do." + +"That he is a fool." + +"He is certainly rather weak in intellect." + +"And a coward." + +"I cannot deny it." + +"And a coxcomb." + +"He is certainly very vain of his high birth and of his rank in the +army: young men are apt to be in such cases." + +"You would not consent to his marrying one of your daughters?" + +"No; I have other views for them." + +"And yet you profess to love your niece as affectionately as your +daughters." + +"You know I do, father." + +"And loving her as you profess, you are striving to render that niece +miserable for life by uniting her with one whom you admit to be a fool, +a coward, and a vain fop." + +The old Don, whose intellectuals were none of the brightest, had got +himself, without perceiving it, completely into a _premunire_, by the +Socratic mode of reasoning adopted by his more skilful antagonist, who +at parting once more addressed him:-- + +"Take my advice, Signor de Luna, and leave your niece to herself on this +subject: a young female heart cannot be made, like one of your +soldiers, to march and countermarch at the word of command; it is, +besides, of very frail materials, and, when once injured or broken, can +never be repaired. The happiness of one so dear to you as your niece, +may be destroyed forever, by forcing her into a match she detests; but +it will then be too late to repair your fault, and it will always be to +you a subject of the bitterest regret and unavailing remorse." + +With these words he departed. But the governor, although convinced by +the priest's arguments, and set into profound meditation by his last +words, was one of those people, of whom we see so many at every step we +take through life, who ask advice when they need it, are convinced of +its soundness when given, and yet, though their natural good sense +assents to dispassionate reasoning, return to their old, foolish, +absurd, and ruinous opinions and intentions. + +Don Gaspar, therefore, although convinced that he was a fool, and an +unfeeling relation in attempting to force his niece into a marriage with +such a worthless puppy as he readily admitted the proposed lover was in +every respect, continued to adhere to his original intention, which he +thought best, however, to defer for a time. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + There is as weighty reason + For secresy in love, as treason. + Love is a burglarer, a felon, + That at the window-eye doth steal in + To rob the heart, and with his prey + Steals out again a closer way. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The morning of the day appointed for the visit to the ship Orion rose as +pure, and clear, and beautiful, as though no party of pleasure was +intended, but not more pure, and clear, and beautiful, than the weather +always is during the dry season of tropical climates, which, with the +cool and refreshing sea-breeze, is one of the delights of those climates +that I forgot to particularise in its proper place. With us of the +temperate section of this round world the case is altogether +different--the day appointed a week beforehand for a party of pleasure +being almost invariably rainy, blowy, haily, snowy, drizzly, foggy, +cold, uncomfortable, villainous weather; or else so hot that the mere +act of breathing is too much for feeble human nature--and this, too, +whether the party is made for sailing, riding, rambling about in the +woods, or even for dancing, or tea-drinking, or whist-playing in a warm, +comfortable room. This is, perhaps, one reason why geographers call our +part of the globe the temperate zone; because all our proposed and +anticipated pleasures, that depend in the slightest possible degree upon +the weather, are sure to be tempered and qualified by some unexpected +botheration on the part of the weather. + +The party from the shore accordingly arrived alongside the Orion about +eleven o'clock in the forenoon, without accident by sea or land. The +governor was in high spirits and full regimentals; Madame Governor was +as stately, dignified, and bejewelled, as became a lady of her station +and rank; the two daughters sparkled with gems and fluttered with silks, +thinking of the impression they were to make upon the officers of the +strange ship; the priest, in sacerdotal dignity, and with his weight +giving the boat three streaks heel to starboard, sat hoping some +contingency might take place that would elicit a present from the Yankee +commander; the young officers, but three in number, including, of +course, the military aspirant to the fair Isabella's hand and fortune, +thought of but little or nothing except their pretty persons and dashing +regimentals. + +Isabella, who expected no pleasure from this party of pleasure, but the +reverse, as it would compel her to be for some hours in the company of a +man she had so much reason to detest, sat in the stern sheets, with the +fat clergyman directly in front, and forming an impenetrable rampart +against the impertinent gallantries of the coxcomb Gregorio. She wore +no jewels or ornaments, and from her pensive and serious expression of +countenance, might have passed for an Athenian tribute-maiden whom the +annual ship was about to carry to the den of the Minotaur. + +An arm-chair of capacious and old-fashioned dimensions, its ponderous +wood-work carefully hidden by the American ensign, the _fly_ of which +was to serve as an envelope for the feet and ancles of the ladies, was +strongly slung and lowered into the stern sheets of the governor's state +barge, a _craft_ containing nearly as much timber as a fishing schooner, +and about as burdensome. Mr. Morton, the first officer of the ship, and +a remarkably handsome man, now came over the side into the barge, to +arrange the ladies for their aeronautic excursion, safer than Durant's, +for their car was slung with strong hemp not dependent upon a bag of +inflammable gas. As a matter of course, he tendered his services to the +old lady first, who, though she had been _whipped_ in and out of as many +ships as any English dragoon-horse during the war of the Peninsula, +thought proper to curvet and prance, and show as much skittishness as a +mule embarking at Hartford, or Weathersfield, or Middletown, for a tour +of duty at Surinam or Demerara. She was, however, hoisted in without +accident, and received on deck by Captain Hazard and Mr. Coffin, the +second officer, with much politeness. The two young ladies were the next +in order, and accomplished their flight successfully. Isabella lastly +took her seat in the chair without trepidation or affectation of alarm. +Morton's eyes had already done hommage to her superior beauty; but he +was too busy with the other ladies to notice her any farther than as the +most lovely of the female visitors. He now remarked the pensive +expression of her lovely countenance, and it excited in his heart an +undefinable and uncontrollable interest. We have already said that +Isabella inherited her mother's beauty, which had not one of the usual +characteristics of a Spanish female countenance; and it was this +peculiarity that struck the young seaman forcibly, and probably +increased the interest he felt towards her, and the curiosity to know +something more of her history, as he had only understood vaguely that +she was Don Gaspar's niece. + +There is a peculiar phrase, or rather word, that I have left +unexplained, and concerning which I will now proceed to enlighten the +terrestrial and unenlightened reader. I spoke of whipping the ladies +into the ship. The whip, then, consists of a tail-block on the main +yard-arm, with a sufficient rope rove through it, and a similar purchase +on the collar of the main-stay. One end of each of these ropes is made +fast to a stout arm-chair, covered generally with the ship's ensign, +with the loose part of which the lady wraps her feet. The other ends are +in the hands of careful, steady seamen. The lady, being arranged and +fixed in the chair, with a "breast-rope" from arm to arm, (of the +chair, not of the lady,) is hoisted up by the yard-whip till she has +approached the zenith sufficiently to go clear of the waist +hammock-nettings, when the stay-whip is hauled upon, carrying her in a +horizontal direction over the gangway, when both whips being lowered, +she is disentangled of her "wrappers and twine," and received in the +arms of a lover, a husband, or a brother, as the case may be. Ladies and +gentlemen, whose curiosity on the subject of whips is still unsatisfied, +will find their theory demonstrated and illustrated by a diagram in +"Enfield's Natural Philosophy." + +I have known the somewhat startling nautical command, "Get the whip +ready for the ladies," blanch many a fair cheek with sudden and most +causeless alarm. It cannot be denied that we "gentlemen of the ocean" +have singular names for things; but every thing at sea must have a name, +or there would be no getting along. + +I have only farther to remark on this subject, that horses are +infinitely more tractable in taking on board a ship, than ladies; for +the moment the horse perceives his feet are clear of the ground, he +becomes perfectly quiet and passive; whereas, the lady is always quiet +while a handsome young officer is arranging the flags, &c. about her +feet; but as soon as she is fairly in the air, she begins to scream, and +kick, and bounce about, to the imminent risk of her bones; and just at +the time when common sense and instinct teach the quadruped to keep +perfectly still, women, who have but little common sense in such cases, +and no instinct at all, are the most intractable and restless. + +Morton followed the last lady, namely, Isabella, and, as he stepped over +the gangway, was accosted by his brother officer. + +"What a thundering pretty girl that last one is!" + +"She is the governor's niece," said Morton. + +"You may tell that to the marines," said Coffin; "I'll be shot if +there's as much Spanish blood in her veins as would grease the point of +a sail-needle." + +"They say so ashore," said Morton. + +"I don't care what they say; I'll believe my eyes before the best +Spaniard among them." + +"Who knows," said Morton, "but that infernal soldier, that's buzzing +about her, may one day be the husband of that sweet girl?" + +"There's no knowing," said Coffin, yawning; "but you and I, Charlie, +can't marry all the pretty girls that are like to have fools for +husbands." + +As this conversation went on, the mates had walked aft, and were close +behind Isabella, who stood by the companion-way, while the governor, and +his lady, who was not far behind him in corporeal dimensions, were +accomplishing their descent into the lower regions. + +"That rascally soldier," said Morton, "wants nothing but a tail to make +him a full-rigged monkey, and that lovely girl is about to be sacrificed +to him." + +"Poor girl!" said Coffin; "it's bad enough to marry a sojer, any how; +but to marry such a critter as that is going it a little too fine." + +Poor Isabella, who had heard and properly understood every syllable of +their conversation, was exceedingly affected. She had heard a person, +whose appearance and manners approached her _beau ideal_ of a gentleman, +expressing, in warm and energetic language, the liveliest compassion for +her, and guessing (for she could not imagine how he could know with +certainty) her exact situation, and manifesting an apparently sincere +and hearty interest towards her. Although her uncle had forborne to +trouble her upon that hateful subject, after he had first proposed it, +she knew his disposition too well to regard the reprieve as an +abandonment of his original design. + +As she turned away to conceal her emotion from her cousins, her +streaming eyes encountered those of Morton. The young seaman was shocked +and alarmed at her tears, though he had not the most distant suspicion +that she had understood a word that had been said. Her beauty had first +attracted his notice--it was so un-Spanish, and so nearly resembling +that of New England ladies; the pensive expression of her countenance +had excited a lively interest and curiosity towards her; but her tears, +the evidence of that "secret grief" that the heart, and only the heart, +knoweth, had called up all the sympathies of his heart. + +I believe there are few men, who deserve the name, that are proof +against a woman's tears, and there are few such men, who, when they +perceive a woman, especially a young and beautiful one, oppressed with +grief, anxiety, or distress, do not feel an irresistible impulse to +assist and relieve her. + +It may be objected that I have made my hero fall in love at first sight. +To this I answer that I cannot spare time to lead him step by step +through all the crooks and turns of the bewitching passion; secondly, +love is _not_ like the consumption; people do not go gradually into it +by a beaten road, every foot of which is marked and designated by its +appropriate and peculiar symptoms. "Nemo est repente vitiosus," says +Juvenal--nobody becomes completely depraved all at once; very true, but +folks certainly do, to my certain knowledge, fall in love all at once, +and that is doubtless the reason why they are said to _fall_ in love. +Love is like the Asiatic cholera; a man is suddenly laid flat on his +back, with all the marked and violent symptoms, when he thought all the +while he was in perfect health. "Love," says Corporal Trim, "is exactly +like war in this, that a soldier, though he has escaped three weeks +complete o' Saturday night, may nevertheless be shot through the heart +on Sunday morning." In the third place, a man, who for two or three +years has seen nothing in the female form more attractive than the +copper-colored beauties of Asia, the South Sea Islands, and the whole +western coast of America, or the ebony _fair_ ones of Africa, is most +astonishingly susceptible when once more restored to the society of +ladies of his own complexion, and of more refinement than those we have +mentioned. I have had the ineffable pleasure of testing the truth of +this theory more than a dozen times in my own person. If any gentleman +doubts the fact, I can only advise him to banish himself from female +society, in a man-of-war or whaleman, for three or four years. If he +does not fall in love fifty times a month, when he returns, he is either +more or less than human, and, in either case, I should wish to remain a +stranger to him. + +The whole party were now "under hatches," and examining the wonders of a +whaleman's cabin. Morton had attached himself to Isabella, and, as he +spoke the Spanish language fluently, and, what was more to the purpose, +was impelled by an irresistible feeling to entertain and amuse her, soon +drew her into conversation, and was astonished and delighted with her +good sense. He had visited different parts of South America before, and +had seen enough of the women to perceive that they were excessively +ignorant, superstitious, and vulgar. He was therefore not a little +surprised to perceive in Isabella's conversation marks of a cultivated +and polished understanding. + +The rest of the party had gone into the steerage to examine some of +those curious specimens of whalebone work, in the fabrication of which +whalemen employ so much patience and time, during their long and often +unsuccessful voyages. As Isabella and Morton stood together by the cabin +table, the lady opened a bible that was lying there, and seemed for a +moment or two engaged in reading it. + +"Do you understand that?" said the seaman, still speaking Spanish. + +"Yes," she replied, in English, "my mother was a Scotchwoman, and a +Protestant." + +"Good heavens! then I am afraid--I am sure--that--in short, I believe +that something was said before you came below, that must have been +unpleasant--that, indeed, could not but hurt your feelings." + +Isabella was extremely agitated, and turned away her head. + +"What would I not give," continued he, in a low voice, "what would I not +sacrifice, to be able--to be permitted, to assist you in any way." + +He stopped, scarcely knowing what he said, or hardly knowing whether he +had spoken at all. The poor girl raised her swimming eyes in +supplication. + +"For heaven's sake! drop this subject; if my uncle knew that you had +spoken thus to me, he would carry me back immediately." + +"But tell me, dearest lady, tell me, is there no way in which I can be +of service to you?" + +"No, no, no, leave me; if you have any regard for me, leave me. I thank +you for the interest you have shown for me; but it will avail nothing." + +The tone of extreme dejection, and melancholy, in which she pronounced +these last words, almost drove Morton beside himself. He was completely +bewildered with conflicting emotions--a young and beautiful woman, +lovely in person and in mind, and, what made her irresistible to an +unsophisticated, warm, generous, and feeling heart, in +affliction--affliction that seemed more remediless, because not +understood by one, nor communicated by the other. + +From this situation of mutual embarrassment, they were relieved by the +entrance of one of the young ladies, who came to call her cousin into +the steerage, to see the wonders already alluded to. Luckily, Carlota, +although a good-natured girl, and fond of her cousin Isabella, was not +remarkably keen-sighted, or she must have noticed the agitation and +embarrassment of both parties. + +In the meantime, Mr. Coffin, who had a large share of a particular kind +of shrewdness, had noticed that his friend seemed inclined to enjoy the +society of Isabella uninterrupted; and, to assist that manoeuvre as +much as possible, engaged the young officers with some tremendous tough +fish stories, in which he was ably supported by one of the +boat-steerers, a Portuguese, who spoke Spanish, as a matter of course, +and helped out his officer, when his imperfect knowledge of the +language brought him to a stand still. So he managed to hold them, as +jackasses are held,--by the ears,--till he saw his companion and the +young lady come into the steerage, when he broke off somewhat abruptly, +in the middle of a very tough yarn, leaving the gentlemen of the sword +to guess at the catastrophe. + +As the party stood around a chest, upon which these whalebone toys, and +other curiosities, were displayed, Antonia dropt a bouquet from her +bosom. As Morton picked it up, and returned it to its fair owner, he +made some remark upon the beauty, and fragrance, of the flowers. + +"Are you fond of flowers?" said the young lady. + +"Yes, very." + +"That I can answer for," said Coffin; "he is always, when on shore for +wood, water, or pleasure, in search of rare flowers, and shells. It is +well there are no such things at sea, or we should never have taken a +single whale--and then he paints those he finds so beautifully." + +"What! _he_ paint flowers! a _man_ paint flowers! Santa Maria! who ever +heard of such a thing!" echoed the two young ladies. + +"And why not, my children," said the fat priest, laughing; "do you +ladies think you have an exclusive title, and right, to all the elegant +accomplishments?" + +"I do not doubt," said Coffin, "that Signor Morton would be proud to +show the ladies his drawings. Come, Charlie," he continued, in English, +"you shall not keep your candle under a bushel any longer--you see +you're in for it, and you may as well submit with a good grace." + +So saying, he led the way to the cabin, where the drawings were paraded +upon the table. They were certainly very beautiful; for to a fondness +for the "serene and silent art," Morton added a natural taste for it, +which he had ample leisure to cultivate, during his long voyages. After +admiring them for some time, Madame de Luna gave the artist a cordial +invitation to visit their house, and garden, a mile or two beyond the +town; in the latter, she assured him, he would find some rare and +beautiful subjects for his pencil. Morton was exceedingly gratified by +this kindness, and said, in a low voice, and in English, to Isabella, +but without looking at, or apparently addressing, her, as she stood next +him, "Then I shall have the happiness of seeing you once more." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Love's power's too great to be withstood + By feeble human flesh and blood. + 'Twas he that brought upon his knees + The hect'ring kil-cow Hercules; + Transform'd his leaguer-lion's skin + T' a petticoat, and made him spin; + Seiz'd on his club, and made it dwindle + T' a feeble distaff and a spindle. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The dinner on board the Orion, which was not served up till one o'clock, +by the way, as Captain Hazard wished to be more than usually genteel, +was excellent, and was preceded, and followed, by copious libations of +punch; after which the wine was set on table, and the veterans, that is, +the military, the nautical, and ecclesiastical, part of the company, +proceeded to discuss it, "in manner and form." The governor, as was his +custom on such occasions, told interminable stories of the siege of +Gibraltar, during which, his hopeful nephew elect enjoyed a very +comfortable nap, and even Father Josef nodded occasionally. + +The ladies had made their escape, as soon us dinner was finished; and +Morton, on the watch, like a cat to steal cream, was on the alert, as +soon as he perceived their intentions, and accompanied them on deck. To +his great satisfaction, none of the Spanish officers made any attempt to +leave the table; for, as the old Don had just got fairly under weigh +with one of his campaigning stories, they were afraid to treat him with +so much disrespect, and, of course, hazard their hopes of being invited +to attend him again upon a similar party. Accordingly, Morton had the +pleasure of enjoying the society of the ladies, without interruption, +and found many opportunities of saying a few words to Isabella. In this, +he was again much beholden to the skilful manoeuvring of his messmate, +Coffin, who was already higher in the good graces of the mother and +daughters than Morton, who, though a handsome man, had not so much of +that dashing, off-hand, sort of gallantry as the other; and which goes +an incredible way with most ladies. + +Morton had seen more of the polite world, and was better educated, and +more refined in his manners, than Coffin; but, besides being, at that +time, wholly engrossed and engaged by a particular object, he had that +peculiar kind of modesty, or diffidence, that does a man so much injury +with the other sex; who, though they pretend to prize modesty so highly +among themselves, abominate it as unnatural, absurd, and affected, in +men; while the pert and obsequious fluttering of a fashionable +water-fly, which is always received with a smile, is generally more +prized, and rewarded more bountifully still. There is, however, some +consolation in the thought, that repentance always overtakes, and +punishes, the silly woman who has allowed herself to be so fatally +"pleased with a rattle;" she perceives, after marriage, that she has +given herself irrevocably to a thing "of shreds and patches." + +There is a certain sort of little attentions, that ladies generally +expect from our sex, and a skill and adroitness in showing which makes +no inconsiderable part of a modern gentleman's education. I have known +many young men, who could not write two consecutive sentences, without +coming to an open rupture with orthography, grammar, or common sense, or +all three, if it was to save their well-_stocked_ necks from the halter, +or their souls, (what of that commodity they have,) from Satan's grip, +but who stood very high, and, doubtless, deservedly so, in the +estimation of the fair sex, simply from their skill and precision in +going through a certain routine of little trifling acts of politeness. + +As far as ladies are concerned, politeness appears to consist chiefly in +a man's putting himself to more or less inconvenience, or exposing +himself to danger, on their account. With regard to the last, I do not +know but I could acquit myself to advantage, partly from the peculiar +recklessness that is acquired at sea; and partly because facing danger, +in the protection of the weaker sex, is both the duty of the stronger, +and the stronger generally can do it with less embarrassment, than +perform those innumerable, nameless, attentions, already alluded to. I +cannot say, however, that when walking out with ladies, I have felt +peculiarly desirous of the apparition of a mad bull, a ghost, or the +devil, to give me an opportunity to show my courage; but I think it is +certainly easier to most men to expose themselves to danger, in the +service of a lady, than to perform acceptably, and without awkwardness, +those little acts of politeness, that, in the present state of society, +ladies are somewhat rigorous in exacting. I have passed the very cream +and flower of my life at sea, that is, from nineteen to thirty-two, and +now, "in these latter days," begin to feel myself very much like a fish +out of water. How often have I "sailed into the northward" of a fair +lady's displeasure, for neglecting to assist her into, or out of, a +carriage! never dreaming, "poor ignorant sinner" that I am! that the +ascent up the steps of a coach was attended with any more perils, than +that of the stairs that lead to her bed-room; or that a girl, perhaps +twenty years my junior, glowing in the full bloom of youth, health, and +sprightliness, and with a step as light and elastic as Virgil's Camilla, +required the assistance of such an old weather-beaten beau as myself. +How often have I been pouted at by the ripest, rosiest, lips in the +world, for omitting to wait upon their owner home, on a dark, stormy, +evening, and half a mile out of my way, simply because I preferred the +company I was with, to the half-mile _heat_! I do not know that I have +ever felt very desirous of living my life over again; but I confess I +should like to go back, say, to the age of three or four and twenty, +merely to take a few lessons in the graces, and then "jump the life to +come," as far as where I am now, namely, _thirty or forty_. + +By Mr. Coffin's management, Morton and Isabella were much of the time +together, and both instinctively avoided any allusion to painful +subjects. He described to her the various implements used in the +whale-fishery, gave her a short account of the voyage, and of the +different parts of America, and of the islands in the Pacific, that he +had visited; and, in short, exerted himself to please and entertain her, +and was successful. + +When in the society of those we love, and from whom we are soon to +separate, perhaps forever, how much we can manage to say in a little +time! how earnestly do we strive to render delightful those moments, +perhaps the last that we are ever to pass with those friends! Dr. +Johnson says, the approach of death wonderfully concentrates one's +ideas; so does the approach of the hour of parting. + +Isabella heard herself, for the first time, for many years, addressed in +the language of respectful politeness, and unassuming common sense; the +pictures of refined, polished, and enlightened, society, drawn in the +few excellent English authors her mother had left her, seemed realized +and presented to her eyes, in all the richness of life. She did not +stop to analyse, or try to explain to herself the peculiarly delightful +feelings that occupied her mind; though if she had been left alone for +five minutes, her own good sense would have told her it was love: that +pure, unalloyed, unreflecting, ardent, _first_ love, that, like the +whooping-cough and the measles, we never have but once; though some +patients have it earlier in life, and more severely, than others. + +Ladies will never admit, and never have admitted, from the time the +stone-masons and hod-carriers struck work upon the tower of Babel, (for +want of a circulating medium of speech, that would be taken at par by +all hands, down to the present Anno Domini, 1834, and twenty-second of +October,) that any of their sisterhood ever fell in love "at sight," as +brokers call it, or that her eyes influenced her heart. With regard to +the female, who, in early life, takes up the "trade and mystery" of a +fashionable belle, _ex officio_ a coquet and a flirt, this is in some +measure true; for I have observed, that very beautiful women of that +description, who have had at their feet wealth, and talent, and +eloquence, and virtue, generally "close their concerns" by marrying +sots, fools, gamblers, rakes, or brutes; they seem to choose their +husbands as old maiden ladies do their lap-dogs; which are invariably +the most cross, ugly, ill-tempered, filthy, noisy, little scoundrels, +that the entire canine family can muster. But their practice is at +variance with their profession. It is physically and morally impossible +that women, whose chief strength consists in external appearance and +show, should hold in light esteem external appearance and show in our +sex; and, if they are not guided by their eyes in the choice of their +lovers, I should like to know what the d--l they are guided by; for in a +company of feather-pated girls, the chief object of ridicule is the +personal defects of their male acquaintance. + +Time, that stands still with married men, and sometimes with old +bachelors, flies with lovers; and the sun's "lower limb" was dipping in +the haze, that skirted the western horizon, when the steward came on +deck, and informed the ladies and gentlemen that coffee was ready, and, +accordingly, they descended into the cabin. After this refreshment, +preparations were made for going ashore. Morton and Coffin ran on deck, +to get the whips ready; and the former, calling his own boat's crew aft, +had his boat lowered down from the quarter-davits, and brought to the +gangway, while the governor's bargemen were lighting fresh segars. With +a few words of explanation to the second officer, Morton sprang into his +boat, and, in a few minutes, Isabella and her two cousins were safely +stowed in the stern-sheets. The bowman obeyed the command, "shove off;" +the swift boat, impelled by five strong-limbed seamen, flew like a +swallow across the bay, and reached the landing-place at least ten +minutes before the cumbrous barge of his excellency bounced her broad +nose against the side of the quay, and recoiled, like a battering-ram. + +Morton improved the time he was on the shore with the ladies, by paying +more attention to the governor's daughters than he had done heretofore, +and easily succeeded in entertaining them. They repeated their mother's +invitation to the young seaman to visit their house, declaring they had +never seen any foreign gentleman that spoke such pure Spanish; that the +Americans were much more polite, and respectful, and hospitable, and +obliging, than the English; and concluded, by wondering why, if the +United States were so near Mexico, it should take six months to go from +St. Blas there. To all which Morton made the appropriate replies; and, +when the rest of the party were assembled, assisted the ladies to their +horses, renewing to Isabella, as he adjusted her in the saddle, his +promise to call at her uncle's house the next day. As this promise did +not cause the young lady to "jump out her skin" or saddle, it is highly +probable that she did not perceive any great harm in it; nor did it +occur to her then, or when consulting her pillow at night, that she +violated female propriety, by answering, simply, and somewhat +emphatically, "I hope you will." + +On their ride homeward, the party were loud in their praises of the +entertainment of the day, their eulogies being directed to different +parts of the entertainment according to the different tastes of the +individuals performing the concert; for instance, the young ladies made +honorable mention of the politeness and attention of the "dos pelotos +hermosos," the two handsome mates; the old lady chanted the praises of +the china ware, and table linen, and the knives and forks--all of them +luxuries at that time in South America; the governor eulogized the +punch, and Father Josef the dinner; the young officers were in raptures +with the wine, in which they were joined by the civil and ecclesiastical +dignitaries in grand chorus. Perhaps there never was a party of visitors +that left their entertainer's house, whether riding at anchor in port, +or standing on hammered granite "underpinning" on shore, better pleased +with what they had had, or in better humor or spirits. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again. + I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, + That almost freezes up the heat of life. + + ROMEO AND JULIET. + + +Isabella arose at her usual hour the next morning, and after breakfast +walked into the garden, from a sort of unacknowledged hope and wish that +she might soon be joined by the young American, who had occupied her +thoughts, both sleeping and waking, since she had parted with him on the +beach the evening previous. At the sound of every horse's feet she +started, and her heart beat quicker. But he came not that day, and as +evening approached, her disappointment became almost insupportable; she +tried to frame excuses for him; he had never been to the house; perhaps +he had, by a very natural mistake, gone to her uncle's house in town, +instead of that where she now was, and which was rather more than a mile +from St. Blas, and whither the family came regularly to lodge, though +they spent most of the time at their town residence; perhaps he was +detained on board by his duties; or he might be sick. + +"And why," said the weeping girl to herself, "why should I wish to see +him again? Alas! I have already seen him too often, for my future peace +of mind. He is going home to his parents, his relatives, his friends, +his home, and perhaps to his wife;" and this last thought crossed her +mind with a feeling of peculiar anguish; "but no, when he spoke of his +friends and parents, he said nothing of his wife; but he is going, and +in a few short months he will forget that he has ever seen me, or that +such an unhappy being has ever existed." + +With these painful and self-tormenting reflections she passed the +evening, and much of the night; but youthful hope, that cheers the heart +with flattering and deceitful promises, never sufficiently well defined +to resemble certainty, but always brilliant; hope, whose elasticity +raises the sinking heart, soothed and composed her spirits, and she sank +into sound and refreshing slumbers, to wake to a brighter and more +flattering day; but at the same time, to sink deeper and more +irrevocably into that bewitching, bewildering passion, whose existence +she could not now avoid acknowledging. + +As she was sitting in the garden the next day, she was suddenly startled +by the approach of her two cousins in full chat, and close behind them, +Morton. Isabella seemed rooted to her seat, the light swam before her +eyes, her tongue was paralyzed, and her limbs were unable to raise or +support her. The young seaman approached, and in broken, incoherent, and +unintelligible accents, attempted to express the delight he felt at +once more seeing her. Perhaps, if the two cousins had been out of the +way; he would have acquitted himself better, perhaps not so well. "Iron +sharpeneth iron," saith Solomon; "so doth a man the countenance of his +friend." It may be so in some cases, but I doubt whether any man can +make love so glibly, so off hand, before half a dozen spectators, +especially females, as he can "all alone by himself;" on the other hand, +there is something absolutely awful in being alone with a pretty and +modest woman, and being compelled to "look one another in the face," +like the two bullying kings of Judah and Jerusalem. It is much like +"watching with a corpse," a ceremony derived, I believe, from the +orientals, and still prevalent in good old New England. + +The parties were soon relieved from their embarrassment; the two +cousins, after asking a thousand questions, and only waiting to hear two +hundred and fifty of the answers, bounced off into the house, leaving +the two lovers, for such they were now most decidedly, to the luxury of +their own thoughts and conversation. We have no time, inclination, nor +ability, to describe the steps by which they advanced from mere +acquaintance to the can't-live-without-each-other and hopeless state of +deep and incurable love. + +Perhaps Morton was not grieved or angry when it was declared, after a +thorough survey by Captain Hazard, Coffin, and himself, to be +absolutely necessary to procure a new foremast and bowsprit for the +ship before she sailed--the first being rotten, and the other badly +sprung. As Captain Hazard placed the most implicit confidence in +Morton's capacity to purchase and superintend the making of the +requisite spars, the latter, to his great joy, was requested to take +charge of the shore department. By this arrangement his opportunities of +seeing his beloved Isabella occurred several times each day. + +Though there had been no formal declaration of love between them, they +were each conscious that they loved and were beloved in return; the most +unreserved confidence existed between them, and Morton, who felt most +keenly for Isabella's unpleasant situation, had repeatedly hinted at the +happiness she was sure to enjoy in a more favored country, if she would +leave her uncle's house, and take passage in the Orion for New England. +She affected, at first, not to understand him; but when it became +impossible to avoid perceiving his meaning, she only answered, "No, +no--I cannot--I dare not;" but the answer was always accompanied with a +sigh and a tear; and as from day to day he informed her of the progress +the ship made in her repairs, her negative became fainter and less +resolutely expressed. + +Owing to the necessity of making some repairs in his country residence, +the governor and his family had latterly resided altogether in St. Blas; +and as the puppy Don Gregorio watched with a suspicious and malignant +eye, the frequent visits of Morton, the lovers had generally met at the +house of Dame Juanita, the front of which was occupied as a shop, with a +little parlor back of it, to which Isabella had access by passing out of +the gate in the rear of her uncle's house, without going through the +street. + +With all the glowing eloquence of young love, and hope, and confidence, +Morton detailed to her the thousand and one schemes that his fertile +imagination suggested; Isabella could see but one hideous feature in +them all--the dreadful fate that awaited him if unsuccessful. + +"Listen to me," said he one day to her, as she had been urging to him +the terrible risk he encountered--for she seemed to have no eyes for the +certain immuring in a convent that awaited _her_--"listen to me, dearest +Isabella; the ship is now nearly ready; she will sail in three or four +days at farthest, and will sail at ten or eleven o'clock at night, to +take advantage of the land-breeze. I will have my boat at the quay, and +horses here in town; in the dusk of evening, and with a little disguise, +you will not be recognised; there is no guarda-costa here now, and +before the sun rises we shall be out of sight of land, and beyond the +reach of pursuit." + +She made no reply, but sat pale as marble; the images of her kind and +affectionate aunt and cousins, and even of her much-feared but still +much-loved uncle, floated before her eyes, and seemed reproaching her +with unkindness and ingratitude; while, on the other hand, her fancy +painted her the wife of the man she loved, and without whom she felt +life would be wretched: she saw herself surrounded by enlightened and +polished society, such as her sainted mother had graced before her; she +saw herself moving in a new sphere, and fulfilling new duties: then +imagination placed before her bewildered mind the sinfulness of +deserting the station in which Heaven had placed her. She sighed deeply +as she almost determined to refuse, when a glimpse of her abhorred +lover, Don Gregorio, caused a sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, +and to Morton's repeated entreaties, "speak to me, dear Isabella; say +yes, love," she at length murmured a scarcely audible or articulate +consent. The delighted seaman caught her in his arms, and pressed kiss +after kiss upon the lips of the struggling, blushing girl. + +"Remember, love," said he, as they parted, "be punctual here three +nights hence. I will have horses ready at the end of the street, and +before day dawns you shall be safe." + +There was still one thing to be done, and that was to obtain the consent +of Captain Hazard, who, though an excellent, kind-hearted man in the +main, had some rather old-fashioned notions of propriety, especially in +outward form, and would, as Morton knew full well, have very serious +objections to advance against such a mad scrape; but he trusted to the +fondness of the good old seaman towards him, and his own upright and +honorable intentions, to overthrow all the veteran's scruples. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +On the morning of the day that the above arrangement was made by the +parties concerned, Captain Hazard observed that Morton had despatched +his breakfast very hastily, and was on deck, waiting for his boat's crew +to finish their meal, long before the Captain and Mr. Coffin had shown +any symptoms of pausing in their discussion of salt beef, coffee, and +pilot bread. + +"What can be the matter with Mr. Morton lately?" said the old seaman to +his second officer; "he was never so fond of going ashore anywhere else, +and now here he's off and into his boat, like a struck black-fish." + +"Why, I some expect," said Coffin, "there's a petticoat in the wind." + +"The devil! who?" + +"Well, I rather guess it's that pretty blue-eyed, English-looking girl, +that came on board with old Don Blow-me-down, when he first came in +here." + +"Ah! I recollect her. I thought Morton seemed to take a shine to her." + +"They say she's Don Strombolo's niece." + +"They may tell that to the marines; she don't look no more like the rest +on 'em than the devil looks like a parson." + +"I don't know" said Coffin gravely, "how the devil looks; but they say +he can put on the appearance of an angel of light, and I don't see why +'taint jist as easy for him to put on a black coat, and come the parson +over us poor sinners." + +"Well, well; she's a sweet pretty girl, and looks kind o' as though she +wasn't over and above in good spirits." + +"Well, now; I some guess I know a little something about that." + +"Why how the d---- did _you_ come to make yourself busy?" + +"Why, you see, there's an old woman keeps a _pulparia_[3] close to the +old Don's rookery." + +"Hum! so, Mr. Sam Coffin, when you're cruising for information, you +overhaul the women's papers first and foremost." + +"Why you see, Captain Hazard, if you ask one of these men here a civil +question, all you can get out of the critter is that d--d 'quien sabe,' +and blast the any thing else." + +"Can sarvy! why that sounds like Chinaman's talk; what does it mean?" + +"It means 'who knows,' and that's the way they answer pretty much all +questions." + +"Well, what was't you was going to say about the girl?" + +"Well, the old woman told me the girl's mother was an Englishwoman." + +"I told you she wasn't clear Spanish--and being a girl, so, why she +takes altogether after the mother." + +"And the old woman said furdermore, that her mother wasn't a Catholic; +she was a what-d'ye-call-'em." + +"A Protestant, I s'pose you mean." + +"Yes, yes, a Protestant--that's it. Well, you see, her mother did not +die till this girl, her darter, was nigh upon sixteen years old, and +it's like the old lady eddicated her arter the same religion she was +brought up in herself." + +"Aye, now I begin to see into it all." + +"Well, so you see, as nigh as I can make out, for the old woman wouldn't +talk right out--only kept hinting along like." + +"Hum! a woman generally can _hint_ a d--d sight more than when she +speaks right out." + +"Well, so it seems this Isabella, being half English and whole +Protestant, won't exactly steer by their compass in religious matters." + +"Poor girl! poor innocent little creature!" + +"Well, I got a talking 'long with the old woman, and, arter a good deal +of trouble, I got hold of pretty much the whole history about this 'ere +girl. So she told me, amongst other things, that the girl's uncle +wanted her to marry one of them officers that was aboard that day." + +"Which of them?" + +"That thundering cockroach-legged thief, that was copper-fastened with +gold lace and brass buttons chock up to his ears, with a thundering +great broadsword triced up to his larboard quarter and slung with brass +chains." + +"Ah! I recollect him." + +"And so do I, blast his profile. He cut more capers than the third mate +of a Guineaman over a dead nigger, and went skylarking about decks like +a monkey in a china-shop." + +"I took notice that he looked marline-spikes at Mr. Morton for paying so +much attention to the girl." + +"Aye, that he did; but I worked him a traverse in middle latitude, +sailing on that tack. I got him and the rest on 'em into the steerage, +and Mr. Morton and the girl had a good half hour's discourse to +themselves in the cabin." + +"I should be sorry to have Mr. Morton try to engage the poor girl's +affections; and if I thought he had any improper intentions towards her, +I would go ashore immediately, and speak to the old governor about it." + +"Well now, Captain Hazard, I guess there isn't no danger on that tack. +Mr. Morton may go adrift now and then among the girls, and where's the +man that doesn't? No, no; Charlie Morton isn't none of them sort that +would gain a poor girl's affections only to ruin her. No no; he's too +honorable and noble-spirited for such a rascally action as that." + +"Well, I am of your opinion. So now, Mr. Coffin, we'll set up our +fore-rigging for a full do; for we must sail Wednesday evening, right or +wrong." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +When Morton returned to the ship at night, he hastened to lay before +Captain Hazard the history of his love, and his plans for bringing it to +a successful crisis, declaring that his intentions were strictly +honorable, and that the lady might easily pass upon the crew as a +passenger. The old seaman heard him to an end, as he urged his request +with all the fervor of youthful eloquence and love; and, having +scratched his head for a while, as if to rouse himself, and be convinced +that he was awake, replied: + +"A queer sort of business this altogether, my son; I don't exactly know +what to make of it--what will your father say to your bringing home a +young cow-whale, in addition to your share of the oil?" + +"Make yourself easy on that score, my dear sir; I know my father wishes +to have me quit going to sea, and marry." + +"Yes, but is not a wife, brought into your family in this way, liable to +be looked upon as a sort of contraband article--run goods like?" + +"I am not much afraid of that, on my father's part," said Morton; "and +if," he continued, laughing, "if the grave old ladies of my +acquaintance find fault, I can quiet them in a moment, by quoting the +conduct of the tribe of Benjamin, in a similar situation, by way of +precedent." + +"Ah, Charlie! your scheme, I am afraid, is all top-hamper, and no +ballast; wont the enemy give chase? I am sure that Don--Don--what's his +name, that young officer, more than suspects your good standing in the +young lady's affections: wont he alarm the coast, and put the old folks +up to rowing guard round her, so that you can't communicate? Ay, that he +will." + +"Trust me for that, sir; if I cannot weather upon any Spaniard that ever +went unhanged, either Creole or old Castilian, I'll agree to go to the +mines for life." + +"Don't be too rash, my dear boy; though the Spaniards are only +courageous behind shot-proof walls, and when they number three to one, +they are deceitful as well as cruel; and, if their suspicions are once +excited, they will murder you at once, and her too, poor girl! and think +they are doing God service, because you are both Protestants." + +"I can only repeat, trust to my prudence and management; I have too much +at stake to hazard it lightly." + +"Then remember, Charles, we sail Wednesday evening: it will be +star-light, but not too dark to see your way. I will defer sailing till +eleven o'clock, if that will suit your schemes." + +"It will exactly; or if you sail the moment I return, so much the +better." + +With these words, they separated--Morton, overjoyed at the completion of +his preliminary arrangements, all night, like Peter Pindar's dog, + + "lay winking, + And couldn't sleep for thinking." + +The appointed day at length arrived; but the destinies, who had hitherto +spun the thread of the two lovers' fate as smooth and even as a +whale-line yarn, now began to fill it full of _kinks_. Well did the +ancients represent them as three haggard, blear-eyed, wrinkled, +spiteful, old maids, who would not allow any poor mortal to live or die +comfortably, and who took a malicious pleasure in disturbing "the course +of true love." The inexorable Atropos brandished her scissors, and at +one snip severed the thread asunder. + +Daring the night there had been a tremendous thunder-squall, and the +morning showed huge "double-headed" clouds, mustering in different parts +of the horizon, and, apparently, waiting some signal to bid them +commence operations; others, dark and suspicious looking, but of a less +dense consistence, were seen scampering across the firmament in all +directions, like aids-de-camp before a general engagement; the +land-breeze had been interrupted by the night-squall, and the wind, what +little there was, blew from every point of the compass but the usual +one; the shags, that tenanted the top of Pedro Blanco, seemed unusually +busy, as if anticipating a change of weather; and, in short, every thing +announced that the delightful, salubrious, dry season had come to an +end, and the empire of continual rain, and drizzle, and cloud, and mud, +and putrid fevers, and rheumatism, and every thing disagreeable, had +commenced. Still the day was delightful after ten o'clock, and the +weather as clear as ever. + +Morton had seen these indications of the approach of wet weather with no +small anxiety; he knew full well that the governor and his family would +pass the rainy season at Tepic, a city about ninety miles from the +coast, or at some of the other large towns, in the more elevated and +healthy regions inland. With Captain Hazard's permission, he hastened to +the town, and to Juanita's house, but Isabella was not to be seen. After +waiting for some time, a little girl brought him a short note, simply +saying that she would see him in the evening, but could not before. With +this promise he was obliged to content himself, and rode slowly back to +the Porte. He was punctually on shore again at sunset, and once more +hastened to town, having hired another horse, and directed his boat's +crew not to go away from the quay. Having secured his horses at a +certain place near the zig-zag descent towards the harbor already +mentioned, he passed into the plaza, and was struck with consternation +and despair, at seeing assembled before Don Gaspar's door, horses and +mules in abundance, caparisoned for a journey. In fact, there was +indisputable proof that the family were, in military parlance, on the +route. + +He hastened to the good dame Juanita's, and, in a few minutes, Isabella +entered the room, and, throwing off, in her distress, all unnecessary +reserve, threw herself weeping into his arms. + +"All is over, dear Charles, all is lost--I set out to-night for Tepic, +and we shall never meet again but in heaven." + +"All is _not_ lost, my own Isabella; every thing is in readiness--fly +then with me--while your family are in confusion you will not +immediately be missed, and, before an hour passes, you shall be safe on +board." + +"No, no; I dare not, I cannot." + +To all his entreaties she seemed deaf, positively refusing to consent to +escape with him; but whether from fear of being overtaken, or from +maidenly timidity, it would be, perhaps, difficult to decide. At last, +Morton, who was nearly beside himself with disappointment and vexation, +relapsed into a short and stupified silence. + +"Isabella," said he, at length, and with composure that startled her, +"reflect for one moment upon your situation; you know your uncle's +temper; you know he is not a man that will easily give up any of his +plans--this is your only chance for escape from the fate you dread; do +not then reject it." + +She only answered with tears, and continued to repeat, as if +mechanically, "I dare not; no, no, I cannot." Morton was silent a few +moments, when a sudden ray of hope enlivened his gloomy reverie. + +"Hear me, dearest; there is one, and only one, chance left yet. If your +uncle urges you to marry, entreat him for one year's delay. Before that +time expires, I trust to be here again. Vessels are constantly fitting +out from the United States to this part of the world--if such a thing +can be effected by mere human agency, I will be on board one of them, if +not, I both can and will purchase and fit out a vessel myself. Promise +me then, my love, that you will use all possible means to defer any +matrimonial schemes your uncle may form for at least two years. But I +trust, if my life and health are spared, that, before half that time has +expired, I shall be here, to claim your first promise." + +"I will, I will, dear Charles; I will not deceive you. I know my uncle +loves me, and will grant me that delay. And now we must part; I shall be +missed, and I dare not stay a moment longer. For heaven's sake, keep out +of sight of--you can guess who I mean." + +A parting scene between two lovers had always better be left to the +imagination of the readers; because the author, unless he is gifted with +the power of a Scott, a James, an Edgeworth, or a Sedgwick, is sure to +disappoint the reader, and himself besides. My reader must therefore +draw the picture, and color it, to his or her own peculiar taste, and +fancy an interchange of kisses, locks of hair, rings, crooked sixpences, +garters, or any thing else that constitutes circulating medium or +_stock_ in Love's exchange market. + +The Orion had dropped out to the roads, and, with her anchor a short +stay-peak, her topsails sheeted home but not hoisted, and her whole crew +on deck, waited only for her first officer. Between nine and ten o'clock +the sound of approaching oars was heard, but in a moment the practised +ears of Captain Hazard and his second officer perceived that the +advancing boat pulled very leisurely. + +"Poor Charlie is coming off empty-handed," said Coffin. + +"Yes, I was afraid the bird had flown, or the enemy was alarmed. I am +sorry for it from my very heart, for he will be low spirited all the +passage home." + +"Well, I aint so sure about that--I've always found salt water a sartain +cure for love." + +"I dare say you have, Mr. Coffin; but love is like strong grog, it +operates differently upon different constitutions and dispositions." + +"Well, I s'pose that's pretty nigh the case. A good, stiff glass of +grog, in a cold, rainy night, makes me feel as bright as a new dollar +for a while, but then it soon passes off." + +"I am afraid poor Morton's love is too deep-seated to be worked off by +salt water or absence. But here comes the boat--hail her, Mr. Coffin." + +"Boat ahoy!" + +"O-ri-on." + +"Are you alone, Mr. Morton?" said the captain in a low voice, as that +gentleman came over the side. + +"Yes, sir, but not without hopes another time." + +The two officers then descended to the cabin, and Morton explained the +cause of his failure, and expressed his determination to make another +attempt as soon as possible after his arrival in New England. Captain +Hazard insisted upon his turning in immediately, to recover from the +fatigue and anxiety he had undergone during the day, and to his +remonstrances laughingly observed that he was not in a proper state of +mind to be trusted with the charge of a night-watch, and that Robinson, +the oldest boat-steerer, should take his place. Coffin earnestly +recommended a glass of hot punch, as "composing to the nerves;" but the +patient declined, though he permitted Captain Hazard to qualify a +tumbler of warm wine and water with thirty drops of laudanum. + +The topsails were now hoisted aloft, the topgallant-sails set, and the +anchor weighed; and, with a fresh breeze off the land, the first officer +sound asleep and dreaming of "the girl he left behind him," a press of +sail, and the starboard watch under the charge of Mr. Coffin, spinning +tough yarns on the forecastle and calculating the probable amount of +their voyage, the stout Orion left the Bay of St. Blas at the rate of +eleven geographical miles per hour. + +[Footnote 3: Pulparia, a small shop, generally pronounced +_pulparee_.--_Diabolus Typographicus._] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + _Alexander._--They say he is a very man _per se_, And stands alone. + + _Cressida._--So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no + legs. + TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. + + +Charles Morton, whom we have somewhat abruptly introduced to our +readers, and exhibited for two or three chapters, without much +explanation, was the only surviving child of a wealthy merchant in one +of the sea-ports in the southern part of Massachusetts. He had received +a liberal education, as a collegiate course of studies is at present, +and in many instances most absurdly, called. Morton could, however, lay +a just claim to be called liberally educated. He went to college without +contemplating to pursue either of the three learned professions, but +merely to acquire a more intimate acquaintance with the classics, +history, belles lettres, and mathematics, than it was then supposed he +could obtain elsewhere. People begin to think differently at the present +period, and have a faint sort of notion that a boy can become qualified +for the every day duties of life, or for practice in the three +professions, without having received a diploma from a college, +exclusively controlled in all its attitudes and relations by one +particular sect of religion, or passing four years of "toil and trouble" +in another university, where he is kept wallowing and smothering in the +darkness of metaphysics or the more abstruse and _higher_! branches of +mathematics; both sciences as utterly useless to him in any situation of +life as a knowledge of the precise language that the devil tempted Eve +in, and which some ecclesiastical writers have laboured to prove was +High Dutch. I have been several times to different parts of the East +Indies, and on more than one voyage have kept a reckoning out and home, +assisted in taking lunar observations and those for determining the time +and variation of the compass, and without knowing any more of algebra, +fluxions, or conic sections, than a dog knows about his father. + +After Morton had had the sacred A. B. "tailed on" to his name at a grand +sanhedrim of solemn blacked-gowned fools, sagely called a +_commencement_, because a youngster there _finishes_ his studies, he +felt a strong desire to visit "the round world and them that dwell +therein," and, like many New England youth, not only then but within my +own observation and time, and before the signature of the august +"præses" was dry on his sheep-skin diploma, was entered as an under +graduate in a college of a somewhat different description--the +forecastle of a large brig bound on a trading voyage up the +Mediterranean--a school not one whit inferior to old Harvard itself for +morality, and one where a man, with his eyes and ears open, might +acquire information fifty times more valuable than any that could be +drilled into him at any learned seminary whatever--a knowledge, namely, +of the world and of human nature. + +This habit, if it can be called one, of exchanging the quiet of a +college room for the bustle and privations of a sea-life, is not near so +prevalent now as it was several years since; and yet I have known many +instances, and have repeatedly met, in merchantmen and men of war, men +who have received a collegiate education, and have known one case, on +board of an English line-of-battle ship, the Superb, of a dissenting +minister, a foretopman, who could clear away a foul topsail-clewline, or +explain an obscure passage in Scripture, with equal facility and +address, and was both a smart seaman and a smart preacher: + + "As some rats, of amphibious nature, + Are either for the land or water." + +It is a pity our professional men do not travel more, especially +clergymen, who, though generally learned men, are not deep in the +knowledge of their own species. Of course I do not apply this remark to +the Methodist clergy; as their vagabond life makes them but too well +acquainted with the weaknesses of one portion of the human race, while +the alarming and arbitrary dominion they thereby acquire over the minds, +bodies, and estates of both sexes, is beautifully illustrated in the +trial, not many years since, of a reverend gentleman of oil of tansy +and hay-stack celebrity. + +Morton's first voyage was rather a long one, but it introduced him to +the most interesting portion of the world, the nations bordering upon +the Mediterranean, while his knowledge of the Latin language was of no +small advantage to him in acquiring a knowledge of the Spanish and +Italian--an advantage that he certainly did not think of, when he was +plodding through Virgil and Horace, Cicero and Tacitus. He returned from +his first voyage a thorough practical seaman, and more than tolerably +acquainted with European languages. He rose in his profession, and might +at the time we introduced him have commanded a ship; but a sudden desire +to go at least one whaling voyage seized him, and a whaling he +accordingly went. In person Morton was above the middling height, some +inches above it, in short he had attained the altitude of five feet +eight inches--my own height to a fraction. Like most young men born in +New England, and who choose a seafaring life, his frame had acquired a +robustness and solidity, his countenance a healthy brown, his chest a +depth, and his shoulders a breadth, that are each and all +considered--and with justice--by the present generation, as irrefragable +proofs and marks of vulgarity. But folks thought otherwise thirty years +since, and, however incredible it may appear, there are actually now in +existence a great many painters, sculptors, anatomists, and perhaps as +many as a dozen women, who persist in thinking that a human being looks +much better as God made him, after his own image, than as the tailor +makes him, after no image in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or +in the waters under the earth. Forty years since, ladies did not by +tight lacing crush and obliterate all symptoms of fulness in the front +of the bust, nor did gentlemen stuff and pad their clothes till they +resemble so many wet-nurses in coats and breeches. + +It was the established rule with novel-writers, and that until very +lately, to represent their heroes as tall grenadier-looking fellows, +never _under_ six feet, and as much above as they dared to go, and keep +within credible bounds. "Tall and slightly but elegantly formed," was +the only approved recipe for making a hero. So that a black snake +walking erect upon his tail, provided he had two of them, or an +old-fashioned pair of kitchen tongs, with a face hammered out upon the +knob by the blacksmith, would convey a tolerably correct idea of the +proportions of the Beverleys, and Mortimers, and Hargraves, of a certain +class of novels. Sir Walter Scott, Mr. James, and most of the best +writers, have disbanded this formidable regiment of thread-paper giants, +and we now see courage, manly beauty, talents, wit, and eloquence, +reduced to a peace-establishment size, instead of those long-splice +scoundrels, that used to go striding about our imaginations, like Jack +the giant-killer in his seven-league boots, kicking the shins and +treading on the toes of every common sized idea that came in their way. + +It was also considered indispensably necessary, that the heroine should +be "as long as the moral law," and accordingly we heard of nothing but +"her tall and graceful figure," "her majestic and commanding height," +&c. &c. Let those who prefer tall women take them; for my part, I wish +to have nothing to say to such Anakim in petticoats: conceive the +embarrassment and confusion of a common sized bridegroom compelled, +before a room-full of company, to request his Titan of a bride to be +seated, that he might greet her with the holy kiss of wedded love! On +the other hand, it was by no means unusual to represent the heroine as a +mere pigmy; so that the lovers whose destinies we were interested in, +might be represented by the following lines from an old sea-song, which, +for the benefit of musical readers I beg leave to observe, is generally +"said or sung" to the tune of "The Bold Dragoons:" + + "He looked like a pole-topgallant-mast, + She like a holy-stone." + +Thank Heaven! the taste for this species of writing has "had its day," +and we have something better in the place of it. Bulwer has indeed tried +very hard to compel the public to admire murderers and highwaymen, and +our own dear, darling Cooper, the American Walter Scott, has held up for +admiration and imitation sundry cut-throats, hangmen, pirates, thieves, +squatters, and other scoundrels of different degrees, showing his +partiality and fellow-feeling for the kennel; and, if he had not at +last, as we say at sea, "blown his blast, and given the devil his horn," +would have managed to set the whole female portion of the +romance-reading community to whimpering and blowing their noses over the +sorrows of Tardee and Gibbs--the wholesale pirates and murderers, the +loves of Mina--the poisoner, the _trials_ of Malbone Briggs--the +counterfeiter, or the buffetings in the flesh that Satan was permitted +to bestow upon the old Adam of that god-fearing saint, Ephraim K. Avery. + +The hero of a novel of the by-gone class was always and _ex officio_ a +duellist; and though the best English writers err against morality and +religion in following this absurd track, it may be urged in extenuation +of their offence, that duelling is generally considered in Europe as +part of a gentleman's education and accomplishments, and in this country +to refuse a challenge brands a man with everlasting infamy, though the +crime is held in the most profound speculative abhorrence, and every +state has a whole host of theoretical punishments, never inflicted, for +the violation of its equally theoretical laws, that are daily evaded, +outquibbled, or broken, with impunity. + +Morton's countenance we have taken the liberty to describe elsewhere. +His disposition was naturally cheerful and mild, his temper even, and +not easily provoked. Although somewhat inclined to taciturnity, yet +when drawn out to converse upon any subject he was acquainted with, he +was naturally fluent, and in his language pure and correct. He was a +universal favorite with the youth of both sexes in his native town, and, +during the intervals between his voyages, was always in demand when a +Thanksgiving ball was contemplated, or a sleigh-ride, or a "frolic," as +all such parties of pleasure were and still are called in New England. +At sea he was always beloved, by both officers and seamen, for his +nautical skill and good-nature. Notwithstanding the confinement that his +duties made unavoidable, he had managed to make himself acquainted with +men and manners, and, during the many leisure hours that those engaged +in the whale-fishery always find, he had amused himself with +drawing--for which he possessed a natural talent, reading, and keeping a +sort of memorandum of different occurrences and his reflections upon the +habits of the different nations he visited,--and was, in short, one of +those somewhat rare but still existing prodigies, a well educated, well +informed gentleman with a hard hand and short jacket, many individuals +of which nearly extinct species of animals I have had the singular good +fortune to fall in with during my voyage through life. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo--without his roe, like a dried + herring. O flesh, flesh! how art thou fishified! + + ROMEO AND JULIET. + + +Upon his return to his dear native town, Morton was received by his +father with his usual quiet affection; for old Mr. Morton was one of +that nearly obsolete school of parents, husbands, and members of +society, that do not think their duties in either relation require any +sounding of trumpets, and who are of opinion that those who feel most +deeply and sincerely religion, Christian charity, or human affections, +are generally people who seldom make any parade of either. This sect +seems to be very nearly extinct, or at least their leading principles, I +have been told, are exploded from the creeds of modern saints; but as my +acquaintance with modern saints is, thank God, very limited, I cannot +vouch for the fact. + +It was not long after Morton's return, when the young people of his own +age and standing began to perceive an alteration in his manners, and +that he, who was a leader in their gay parties, was now a moping, +stupid, silent, dull creature, without any of his former animation and +gaiety. The young ladies took it for granted that he was in love; and +as it was evident that he was not in love with any of them, why of +course some nymph in the Pacific had stolen his heart; and as, moreover, +they had no idea of the existence in that remote and unknown quarter of +creation of any females more fascinating than the amphibious and +lascivious damsels of the Sandwich Islands, (to convert whom from the +error of their ways, more missionaries have been sent out, or +volunteered their services, than to all the rest of the "poor ignorant +heathen" put together,) or the ladies of the North West Coast, who smell +too strong of train-oil to comprehend the truths of Christianity, or +rather of Calvanism, which is altogether another affair, and who are in +consequence left in their original and antediluvian darkness. + +Impressed with this idea, and feeling both grieved and mortified that so +excellent a young gentleman as Charles Morton should give himself up to +such an absurd and, in their estimation, unnatural passion, the young +ladies of New Bedford determined to tease him out of it; much upon the +same principle as the Roman emperors endeavored to suppress the +Christian religion by exposing its professors to wild beasts: the wild +beasts grew fat upon Christians, and Christianity grew fat and strong +upon persecution. Perhaps if the diademed tyrants had treated it with +indifference, the effects would have been otherwise. + +Whenever poor Morton was met in company, he was always the object of +ridicule to these lively and well-meaning young ladies. + +"Pray, Charles, do tell us something about this lady-love of yours; +what's her complexion?" + +"How much train-oil does she drink in the course of a day?" said +another. + +"Or how much raw shark serves her for a meal?" asked a third. + +"Does she wear a spritsail-yard through the gristle of her nose?" said a +fourth. + +"Or a brass ring in her under lip?" said a fifth. + +"Is she tattooed on both cheeks, or only on one?" said a sixth. + +Such was the peculiar style of banter to which he was sure to be +subjected, whenever he went into company; and in a short time he +abstained from visits, and devoted his time to perfecting himself in his +nautical studies, and making diligent inquiries after vessels bound +round Cape Horn. If ever you noticed it, madam, a man in love does not +relish jokes at the expense of his idol. "Ne lude cum sacris," +ecclesiastically rendered, signifies, do not make fun of the clergy; but +among lovers it means, do not speak of my love with levity or contempt. +I remember when I was in love for the third or fourth time--I was then +studying trigonometry and navigation--my passion being unable to expend +itself in sonnets to my mistress's eyebrow, I gave way to geometrical +flights of fancy, and took the altitude of every apple-tree and +well-pole in the neighborhood, and made my advances to _her_ upon the +principles of traverse sailing. + +Nor was old Mr. Morton unconscious of the great alteration in his son's +behaviour while at home, so unlike any thing he had ever observed before +in him, and he saw the change with no small pain. + +"The poor boy cannot have fallen in love," said the senior to himself; +"there is nothing more amiable than a copper-colored squaw, beyond Cape +Horn." + +One Saturday evening, the old man, being comfortably installed in his +leather-cushioned arm-chair, with his pipe and pitcher of cider (for +merchants, forty years since, drank cider at a dollar the barrel, +instead of London particular Madeira at five dollars the gallon, and the +consequences were--no matter what), commenced the conversation: + +"Ahem! well, Charles, my son, do you intend going to sea again, or would +you prefer commencing business ashore? You are now at the age when most +young men think of settling down for life. Let's see--you are +five-and-twenty, are you not?" + +"Five-and-twenty next month, father." + +"Aye, true; well, it's strange, now I can never recollect your age +without looking into the bible there. I recollect, now, it was so stormy +that we did not dare to carry you to the meeting-house, and so Parson +Fales christened you in this very room." + +"I wish," said Charles, speaking with difficulty, "I wish, my dear sir, +to make one more voyage round the Cape as soon as possible, and then I +don't care if I never see a ship again." + +"Well, that's strange enough; why, what have you seen in that part of +the world so very enticing?" + +"Enticing, indeed!" said the young man, springing from his chair, and +hurrying across the room in agitation; "something that I must possess, +or die!" + +"Why, what a plague--why, what's got into the boy?" said the old +gentleman, dashing down his pipe; "you haven't got be-devilled after +those island girls, like a young fellow that I knew from Boston, who got +so bewitched after the copper-skinned, amphibious jades, that his father +was finally obliged to locate him there, as a sort of agent." + +"O! no, no, no! she is as white as my own mother, well born, well +educated, and a Protestant," said the son, hurrying his words upon each +other; for he felt that the ice was broken, and saw the old gentleman's +countenance lengthening fast; "oh, father, if you could but see her--if +you but knew her--" + +"Hum," quoth pa, "I dare say that sixty and twenty-five would agree to a +charm on such a subject; but pray, how the deuce came this well born, +well educated, white, protestant damsel in the Pacific, where the devil +himself would never dream of looking for such a phenomenon?" + +"It is a long story," said Charles. + +"If that's the case," said the senior Mr. Morton, "you had better step +down cellar, and draw another mug of cider." + +So saying, he replenished his pipe, and disposed himself in an attitude +of calm resignation. As our readers are already acquainted with the +history of the rise and progress of young Morton's love, we shall say no +more of his narrative than that towards the close of it, his father was +surprised out of his gravity, and ejaculated the word "d--nation!" with +great emphasis, at the same time, flinging his pipe into the fire, and +exclaiming by way of sermon to his short and pithy text, + +"Why the d--l didn't you bring her with you, you foolish boy? +Why, you have no more spunk than a hooked cod-fish! You'll +never see her again, if you make fifty voyages round the cape; +she's in a nunnery by this time, or, what is more likely, +married to that Don What-d'ye-call-him." + +Charles could only repeat his conviction that neither event had taken +place, and his firm reliance upon Isabella's constancy. + +"Fiddle-de-dee! A woman's constancy! I would as soon take Continental +money at par!" was his father's reply. + +Their conversation on this interesting topic was protracted to a late +hour, when they retired, the old gentleman to--sleep as sound as usual, +and Charles to yield himself most unreservedly to the illusions of +sanguine, youthful hope and love--that love that one never has _very_ +severely but once in his life; for love is like a squall at sea; the +inexperienced landsman sees nothing alarming in the aspect of the +heavens, and is both astonished and vexed at the bustle and hurry, the +"thunder of the captain and the shouting;" but when it comes "butt-eend +foremost," he suffers a thousand times more from his fears than the +oldest sailors. After one has become acquainted with the disorder, he +can distinguish its premonitory symptoms, and crush it in the bud, or +let it run on to a matrimonial crisis. For my own part, I can always +ascertain, at its first accession, whether it is about to assume a +chronic form, or pass off with a few acute attacks. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + O for a horse with wings! + + CYMBELINE. + + +Morton's low spirits and anxiety, on his return home, arose entirely +from his having ascertained that there was no vessel then fitting out +for the Pacific, except whalemen; and as their route always depends upon +circumstances, and can never be calculated beforehand with any degree of +certainty, he declined several advantageous offers in them. A few days +after the eclaircissement with his father, he learned to his +inexpressible joy, that there was a ship fitting out at Salem for what +was in those days somewhat facetiously denominated a "trading voyage;" +that is, an exclusively smuggling one. + +To Salem, then, he hastened, furnished with most ample and satisfactory +letters of introduction and recommendation. He waited upon the owners of +the ship, and was by them referred to Captain Slowly, then on board. At +the very first glimpse of this gentleman, he felt convinced that there +was no chance for a situation on board. Captain Slowly was one of those +mahogany-faced, moderate, slow-moving, slow-speaking, slow-eating +people, that one occasionally meets with in New England, who are the +very reverse of Yankee inquisitiveness, and never answer the most +ordinary question, not even "What o'clock is it?" in less than half an +hour; men who, in short, as they never ask any questions themselves, +think it not worth their while to answer any. We have been several times +horrified by such people, and our fingers have always itched to knock +them down. + +"Good morning, Captain Slowly," said our friend Morton. + +The captain, hearing himself addressed, went on very deliberately with +the examination of a jib-sheet block that he held in his hand, turning +it over and over, and spinning the sheave round with his finger, much +after the manner of a monkey, with any object he does not +understand--as, for instance, a nut that he cannot crack--and at last +replied, + +"Morning." + +"I understand," said Morton, almost mad with impatience, "that you are +in want of a first officer; or at least, so says Mr.----." + +Captain Slowly, having cast the stops off a coil of running rigging, the +main-top-gallant clewline, that lay at his feet, and fathomed it from +one end to the other, examining all the chafed places with great +attention, answered with, "Was you wanting to go out in the ship?" + +"Yes sir," said Morton, who saw what kind of a dead-and-alive animal he +had to deal with, and was determined to have an answer from him, if he +beat it out with his fists; and though his heart revolted at the bare +thoughts of passing at least a year in the same ship with such a stupid +creature, yet it seemed to be his only chance for reaching the coast of +Mexico in season; "yes sir, and the owners have directed me to you; they +know that I am very desirous of going out in the ship, and they approve +very much of my recommendations and certificates. My name is Charles +Morton; I am the son of old General Jonathan Morton, of New Bedford; I +was out last voyage with Captain Isaiah Hazard, of Nantucket, in the +whaling ship Orion; I am perfectly well acquainted with the west coast +of South America, from Baldivia to St. Joseph, and up the Gulf of +California; I am about five-and-twenty years of age, and have been three +voyages as mate of a vessel; for further particulars, I beg leave to +refer you to the papers in my pockets; I am somewhat in a hurry, and +should feel very much obliged if you would let me have your answer as +speedily as possible." + +Captain Slowly, who had never heard an oration of one quarter part the +length addressed to himself before, seemed for a few minutes completely +bewildered. At last, after drawing a prodigious long breath, he +ejaculated, "Well, I declare, I never." + +Morton, having waited a reasonable time to give the man a chance to +recover his scattered faculties, at last asked, "Well, Captain Slowly, +what do you think of it? shall we make a bargain?" + +The captain was now completely startled out of his half existent state, +and began to talk and act like a man of middle earth; that is, he began +to ask questions. + +"Well, let's see; you say you was 'long of old Captain Isaiah Hazard?" + +"Yes; are you acquainted with him?" + +"I've heard tell on him. Let's see, where do you belong?" + +"To New Bedford; are you much acquainted down that way?" + +"Some." + +"Perhaps, then, you may know my father, old General Morton?" + +"I've heard tell on him"----A pause, during which Captain Slowly took a +fresh chew of tobacco, and Morton looked at his watch with great +impatience----"Well, let's see; what kind of a time did you have on't +'long with old Captain Hazard?" + +"Very good." + +"Make a pretty good v'y'ge?" + +"Middling: thirty-two hundred barrels." + +"Well, I declare"--another pause--"well, let's see. Calculate to go +round that way again?" + +"Yes; and that's what I have called to see you about: the owners approve +of me, and have sent me down to you, and I wish you would give me an +answer." + +"Well, I expect I'm supplied with both my officers." + +"I thought that was what you was coming to. Good morning, sir." + +"Won't you step down below, and take a little so'thing?" + +"No, I thank you;" and Morton walked away, cursing him by all his gods. + +After satisfying himself that there was no chance for him in Salem, he +returned to Boston. Lounging about the wharves the next day, he was +attracted towards a fine, large, new ship that was setting up her lower +rigging. He drew near, to examine her more closely. Her guns were lying +on the wharf, as were also her boats and spare spars. From the number of +men employed, and the activity with which their operations were carried +on, it was evident that the ship was to be off as soon as possible. +Morton stepped on her deck: an elderly man, with a fine, open, manly +countenance, expressive of great kindness of disposition and goodness of +heart, was superintending the duty. Morton was about to address him, +thinking to himself, "This is no Captain Slowly," when the senior gave +him a nod, accompanied by that peculiar half audible greeting that +passes between two strangers. + +"You have a noble ship here, sir," said Charles, by way of starting the +conversation. + +"Yes, she is--so, nipper all that; Mr. Walker, you're getting that +mainmast all over to starboard--yes, yes; she's a fine ship, that's +certain. Your countenance seems familiar to me, and yet I can't tell +where 'tis I've seen you." + +"I belong to New Bedford; my name is Morton." + +"Morton! what, old Jonathan Morton's son?" + +"The same, sir." + +"Why, d--n it, man, your father and I were old schoolfellows--and are +you old Jonathan Morton's son?" + +"Yes, sir; I have followed the sea ever since I left college, and am now +looking for a voyage." + +"Well, perhaps we can suit you; times are pretty brisk just now, and you +will not be obliged to look long or far--and are you Jonathan Morton's +son?" + +After a short explanatory conversation, a bargain was made. + +"And when will you be ready to commence duty?" + +"I am ready this moment," was the answer of the impetuous young man. + +"No you are not. Don't be in too big a hurry; take your own time;" and +they parted, mutually pleased with each other; Morton treading upon air, +and very much disposed to build castles and other edifices in that +unquiet element. + +Reader, if thou art a sailor, thou canst understand and appreciate the +pleasure mixed with pain that fills and agitates the heart when thou +hast unexpectedly obtained a voyage to thy liking. It is then that ideas +come thick and fast into the mind, treading upon each other's heels, +and climbing over one another's shoulders; the parting with much-loved +friends; the anticipated delights of the voyage, seen through that +bewitching, multiplying, magnifying glass, the imagination; the pride +and delight that fills a seaman's breast as his eyes run over the +beautiful proportions and lofty spars of his future home; all these +feelings are worth, while they last, an imperial crown. But soon comes +the reality, like Beatrice's "Repentance with his bad legs:" bad +provisions, bad water, and not half enough of either; ignorant and +tyrannical officers; a leaky, bad-steering, dull-sailing ship; the +vexatious and harrassing duty of a merchantman, where the men are +deprived of sufficient sleep, for fear that they should "earn their +wages in idleness," and of a sufficient supply of wholesome food, lest +they should "grow fat and lazy." Such is the theory and practice of most +New-England merchants: it was different forty years since, and the +outfit of the good ship Albatross had an eye to the comforts of the crew +as well as the profits of the owners; for merchants then thought that +the two were inseparable--the march of intellect has proved the reverse. + +Although, as I have already taken occasion to observe, Fortune is +peculiarly hostile to lovers, yet she is sometimes "a good wench," and +so she proved herself, at least for a time. The passage of the Albatross +from the cradle of liberty and aristocracy to Valparaiso was unusually +short, considering that vessels outward bound at that period made a +regular practice of stopping at Rio Janeiro, whether in want of supplies +or not. She was singularly fortunate, likewise, in crossing the "horse +latitudes," not being becalmed there much over a week, a period hardly +long enough to call into proper exercise the Christian virtues of +patience and resignation. + +Her passage into the Pacific was shortened by another fortunate +circumstance: Captain Williams was an adventurous as well as a skillful +seaman, and having a steady breeze from the north-east, he ran boldly +through the Straits of Le Maire, and thus shortened his passage perhaps +by a month; for ships have been known to be four months off Cape Horn +beating to the westward, and after all obliged to bear up and run for +Buenos Ayres for supplies. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Behold + The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, + Bounding between the two moist elements, + Like Perseus' horse. + + TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. + + +It was on a fine Sunday morning, in the month of December, 179-, that +the oblique beams of the sun were reflected back by the snow white +canvass of a stately ship of about six hundred tons, that with a fair +wind, a good breeze, and all sail set, was steadily pursuing her course, +somewhat east of north. She was in, or about, the latitude of eighteen +north, and one hundred and fifteen degrees west of Greenwich; +consequently, she was in the Pacific Ocean, and not far from the west +coast of Mexico. The north-east trade-wind, which is generally almost +due east, was sufficiently _free_ to allow her to carry her starboard +studding-sails, under which she flew gracefully and swiftly on her +appointed course. + +The weather, as usual within the limits of either trade-wind, was +extremely beautiful and mild; the heat, that on shore in the same +latitude would have been excessive, was moderated by the refreshing +breeze. Indeed, it has never been my lot to find such lovely weather in +any other part of this round world, as we meet with through the whole +course of the trade winds. The long, regular swell, so peculiar to that +part of the ocean, gave the noble ship a peculiarly easy, rolling +motion, extremely grateful to a seaman, as the regularity and length of +the swell is a certain indication of a continuance of good weather. As +she lifted her huge bows above the foaming, sparkling wave, her bright +copper, polished by dashing so long and so fast through the water, +flashed in the sunbeams like burnished gold; at the same time, her +temporary and partial elevation above the surface, revealed a sharpness +of model below the water's edge, that at once accounted for the graceful +and majestic swiftness of her motion. The whiteness of her canvass, and +her bright-varnished sides, sufficiently indicated her to be a Yankee, +without the trouble of hoisting the "gridiron." + +Her stern "flared" a great deal; that is, its outline formed a very +acute angle with the horizon, which was the fashion of building ships +forty years since. It was ornamented with a great profusion of carved +work, some of which was hieroglyphical, to a degree that would have +puzzled Champollion; but over the centre were two figures in bas-relief, +that could not well be mistaken, inasmuch as the sword and scales +plainly indicated that the one on the starboard side was Justice, while +the cap on the point of a lance "seemed to fructify" that her companion +was no other than Miss Liberty. + +Liberty goes bare-headed now--our rulers, wisely reflecting that she is +upwards of fifty years old, and has arrived at years of discretion, have +ordered her to leave off her child's cap. There are among us those who +think that the stripping will go further, and that, in a short time, she +will be as bare as Eve. + +The noses of both goddesses had been knocked off shortly after they +condescended to mount guard on the stern of the good ship Albatross, in +consequence of coming into frequent collision with the gunwale of the +jolly-boat, as she ascended and descended to and from her station at the +stern davits. At her quarter davits, on each side, hung one of those +light, swift, and somewhat singularly shaped boats, called whale-boats. +Eight iron nine-pounders on each side, thrust their black muzzles +through their respective ports, and gave her, in spite of her +bright-varnished sides, a warlike appearance. + +The upper part of her cut-water was fashioned into a scroll, like the +volute of an Ionic pillar, forming what is called, by naval architects, +a "billet head;" and which, for its neatness and beauty, is very +generally adopted, both in national vessels and merchantmen. Nor was the +bow without its share of hieroglyphics; on one side were displayed a +bee-hive, a bale of cotton, and a crate of crockery; and on the other, a +globe, an anchor, a quadrant, and a chart partly unrolled. + +Her royals were set flying, a technicality that I shall not attempt to +explain; she had no flying-jib, nor any of those pipe-stem spars that +are got aloft only in port, to make a ship look more like the devil than +she otherwise would, and are always sent down and stored away when she +goes to sea. Ships, forty years since, carried no spars aloft but such +as were stout enough to carry sail upon, in fair weather or +foul--sliding-gunter sky-sail masts, and other useless sticks, were as +much unknown to ship-builders and riggers, as railroads and steam-boats. + +Sitting upon the weather hen-coop, attached to the companion, or entrance +to the cabin, with spectacles on nose, and a well-worn bible on his +knees, sat an elderly man, the commander of the ship. He was tall, and +very strongly built; long exposure to the weather, in every variety of +climate, had bronzed his countenance, and given him an older look than +his real years would have done under other circumstances; but at the +same time, long exposure to the weather had hardened his frame, and +strengthened his constitution, points of some importance forty years +since; so that his chances for a long life were much better than those +of a man of forty, especially one of modern date, who had never allowed +"the winds of heaven to visit his face too roughly." His age was, in +short, about sixty. His countenance, notwithstanding the rude and +ungenteel manner with which the winds and the weather had treated it, +was indicative of much good-nature and benevolence of disposition. He +raised his head from time to time, looked aloft at the sails, +occasionally addressed a word or two to the mate of the watch, who was +walking fore and aft the quarter-deck, and then resumed his reading. + +In the weather mizen-shrouds was a remarkably handsome young man, of +four or five and twenty, busily engaged in hanging out to air his +"go-ashore" clothes; a very common Sunday morning occupation at sea, +when the weather is fine. Apparently the sight of his gay garments had +called up a train of ideas of a very varied and checkered hue, to judge +from the different expressions that flitted across his fine manly +countenance, at one moment shaded with anxiety and doubt, at another +bright with hope and joy. In height he was about five feet eight or nine +inches, strongly and compactly built, but far too stout and athletic, +too broad-shouldered and thin-flanked, to pass muster as an exquisite in +Broadway; as his form, though anatomically perfect, a model for a +statuary, and considered very fine by the ladies of his acquaintance +forty years since, would be altogether out of date at the present day. +His countenance, of an oval form, and shaded by rich, curling, chesnut +hair, from exposure to the weather, had acquired that healthy brown +that ladies do not dislike in a young man's face, though they carefully +eschew any thing that will in reality or imagination produce it in their +own lovely physiognomies. + +It may be a mere old bachelor's whim of mine, but it always has appeared +to me that ladies who have had the advantage of mixing much in society, +and seeing something of human nature, are _not_ peculiarly partial to +that effeminate fairness of complexion that many fashionable gentlemen +are so careful to preserve, when they have it by nature, or, when nature +has been unkind, to obtain by artificial means; so that Dogberry's +axiom, that "to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune," is not +altogether absurd. At any rate, I have seen many a "cherry ripe" lip +curled with an expression of irrepressible scorn when the owner of the +lip was accosted by one of these very fair, delicate-skinned gentlemen. +Girls just let out of a boarding-school generally run mad after these +animals; but ladies who have gone through one or two husband-hunting +campaigns, are not to be taken in by such painted butterflies: they very +wisely conclude that a man who takes such a reverend care of his +complexion worships none but himself, and of course he will have no +devotion to spare to his wife. + +But to return to the gentleman we have left dangling in the starboard +mizzen-rigging of the ship Albatross: his countenance was indeed +somewhat tanned, but his forehead was as clear and white as ivory; its +breadth and openness gave an expression of frankness and candor to his +face,--so that, taken altogether, his physiognomy, though not regularly +perfect, was exceedingly prepossessing. + +The second officer, who was walking the deck, being the officer of the +watch, was also a very good-looking young man, with large black +whiskers, and was two or three years younger than his messmate in the +rigging. His frequent stoppages at the caboose-house, to confer with the +cooks, indicated the second mate, who is always, for some reason or +other, a sort of "Betty," or "cot-quean," as Shakspeare calls it, +continually quiddling about the galley, to the annoyance of the doctor, +as the ship's cook is generally called. + +About the after-hatchway were seated the gunner and sailmaker, both +engaged patching old clothes,--while the old carpenter, like the +captain, was reading the bible,--and the armorer was lying flat on his +back, and singing. A very pretty boy of fourteen, an apprentice to the +captain, was playing, or in sea language "skylarking," with a huge +Newfoundland dog. I might as well complete the _rôle d'équipage_ of the +good ship Albatross, by observing that Mr. Jonathan Bolton, M.D., the +surgeon of the ship, and Mr. Elnathan Bangs, the supercargo, were +neither of them on deck. Perhaps they were engaged with their +breakfasts, or their toilets, or their devotions, or their studies, +or--in short they were below. + +Just forward of the mainmast were what a painter would call the deeper +shades of the picture, for there the black cook and his equally sable +adjunct, the cook's mate, held their vaporous and dish-washing levee; +while forth from the cloudy sanctuary occasionally pealed a burst of +obstreporous laughter, that the most unpractised hearer might swear came +from the lungs of a negro, without the trouble of invading their +premises for further evidence. Upon either of these culinary worthies, +to use the somewhat hyperbolical language of sailors, "lampblack would +make a white mark." + +I cannot avoid taking occasion to remark here, that sailors, like the +orientals, are exceedingly addicted to the use of tropes and figures of +speech, to similes and metaphors. In fact, if any gentleman was about +compiling a treatise on elocution, I would recommend to him to pass a +year or two on board one of our men of war, where he would daily hear +specimens of eloquence, known and unknown to exclusively terrestrial +orators, whether in the halls of Congress, at a public dinner-table, or +on a stump. There is the _narratio_, or anecdote, or sometimes the _long +yarn_; the _aprosiopesis_, or sudden pause, very powerful when in good +hands; the _apostrophe_, or addressing an absent person as though he was +present; the _obtestatio_ and _invocatio_, two different modes of +invoking the gods celestial or infernal; and lastly, the _simile_, or +comparison, in which sailors are a thousand times more fruitful than +Homer himself. The steward--who came up with the breakfast-dishes, &c., +or "dog-basket," as it is called by them of the forecastle--was a +thought lighter skinned than the cooks. + +The crew were lounging about the forecastle and weather gangway; some +walking fore and aft, with their hands in their jacket pockets, some +washing or mending their clothes, and some stretched out in the sun, +chatting and laughing in utter disregard and carelessness of what +to-morrow might bring forth, and most literally obeying the divine +command, to "take no thought of what they should eat, or what they +should drink, or wherewithal they should be clothed." + +The crew mustered forty-four in number; for forty years since, ships +that traded to the coast of California, or any part of His Catholic +Majesty's American possessions, or to the North West Coast, calculated +upon a brush, either with the guarda-costas or the savages, before their +voyage was up, and accordingly went well manned and armed. + +A group of ten or a dozen were collected around the fore-hatch, where +one of their number sat reading to them the twenty-seventh and +twenty-eighth chapters of Acts--two favorite chapters with seamen +generally, not that they contain any peculiarly glad tidings of great +joy, but because they give a sort of log-book account of almost the only +nautical transactions of moment recorded in holy writ. + +The reader, like all who are so unfortunate as to be persuaded to read +to a company, was perpetually interrupted by some one of his auditors to +ask a question, or make a comment. He had, however, this advantage over +the ill-starred wight who essays to read to a party of ladies, that he +stopped and asked as many questions, and made as many remarks and +comments, as any of his auditors. + +The reader, after a few verses, describing St. Paul's voyage, came to +the eighth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter: "And hardly passing it, +came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens," &c.; when old Tom +Jones, the boatswain, an old English man-of-war's man, who was lying on +his breast across the weather end of the windlass, interrupted: + +"Now, as to all them places you've been reading about, I never heard of +none on 'em before, except Cyprus, and I've been cruising off there in a +frigate; but your Sea lashes and Pump fill ye (Cilicia and Pamphylia), I +never heard on in all my born days; and as for Fairhaven, why every body +knows that's right acrost the river from New Bedford; though how the +d--l they got there so soon I don't see, unless so be Paul worked a +marricle, and it's like enough he did, to let the rest on 'em know what +kind of a chap they'd got for a shipmate." + +"Nevertheless," continued the reader, at the eleventh verse, "the +centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those +things that were spoken by Paul." + +"Well, now I don't see no great harm in that," said one of the audience; +"Paul was nothing but a kind of Methodist parson, goin' about and +preachin' for his vittles and drink, and whatever folks was a mind to +give him; so 'taint likely he knowed any more about a ship than any +other minister." + +"Yes, but you know he was a saint," said the reader, "and could foretell +the weather, aye, a year aforehand." + +"Could he, faith?" said another, "then I wonder he did not make his +eternal fortin making almanacs." + +"But what is a centurion?" asked a third. + +"Centurion?" said old Jones, "why she's a sixty-four gun ship; I've seen +her often enough at Spithead, but I forget now whether she was in the +first of June[4] or not." + +"Then I 'spose she was convoying the craft that Paul was in," observed +another blue-jacket. + +This knotty point being satisfactorily cleared up, the reader proceeded: +"And when the south wind blew softly, supposing they had obtained their +purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete." + +"Now you see," said the boatswain, "just so sure as you have gentle +breezes from the south'ard, you'll have a thundering Levanter at the +back of 'em." + +"Yes, yes," said a tar, "I know that to my sorrow. I was up the Straits +last v'y'ge, 'way up to Smyrna and Zante, arter reasons,[5] and we +ketch'd one of these thundering Levanters, and was druv 'way to h--ll, +away up the Gulf of Venus (Venice); yes, I've been boxing about the Arch +of the Billy Goat[6] 'most too long, not to know a little so'thin' about +the weather there." + +The reader continued: "But not long after, there arose against it a +tempestuous wind." + +"There," said Jones, "didn't I tell you so? I knowed you'd have a real +sneezer in a varse or two." + +"Called Euroclydon," continued the reader, finishing the verse. + +"What! avast there! overhaul that last word again." + +"A tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," repeated the reader. + +"Well, you may call it a Rock-me-down, but I say the regular-built name +on't is Levanter; but then I s'pose them thunderin' printers puts in any +thing they're a mind to." + +The reading proceeded without much more interruption, except that the +honest tars, who had been up the Mediterranean, were not a little +puzzled by the strange names of places, and could not imagine what part +of the world the saint had got into. + +"About midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; +and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a +little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms." + +"Egad, I should think they was drawin' nigh to some country pretty +thunderin' fast too, when they shoalened their water so quick, from +twenty to fifteen faddom." + +"Then fearing lest they should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four +anchors out of the stern, and wished for day." + +"Four anchors out of the starn!" shouted the boatswain, "what the h--was +that for?" + +"Why, you see," said the reader, "they used to bring up by the head or +starn in them days--it didn't make a ropeyarn's odds which--they didn't +know no better." + +"But four anchors out of the starn," continued the man-of-war's man, +"why, d--it, the very first sea would onhung the rudder, if she was +pitching into it, and knock the whole thunderin' starn-frame into +_smithareens_ in a quarter less no time." + +"Now you see," said one of the audience, "I've a notion that the craft +in them days was built with goose starns, like a Dutch galliot." + +"May be," said another, "she had all her anchors stowed aft, to bring +her down by the starn." + +"But four anchors out of the starn!" murmured the still perplexed Tom +Pipes, "I wonder what old Lord Howe, or Admiral Duncan, would have said, +if they'd heard a first leftenant give out such orders in a gale of +wind." + +"Why, there couldn't have been no sailors aboard the hooker, or they +would have let go one anchor first, and if that didn't bring her up, +then another, and so on; but letting all four anchors go at once right +under foot, is what I call a d--d lubberly piece of business, let who +will do it, whether St. Paul or St. Devil, and I don't believe they +could get insurance on the craft in any insurance office in the United +States." + +"Yes they could, and I'll tell you why; if a ship goes ashore with an +anchor on her bows, the owners can't recover no insurance; but if the +skipper will swear that all his anchors were down, and good cables +clinched to 'em, he can get his insurance." + +"Yes, but there's a thunderin' sight of odds betwixt letting go your +anchors in a ship-shape, sea-man-like manner, and bundling 'em all +overboard at once in such a lubberly way as that you was readin' about." + +The reading proceeded, leaving the law question respecting insurance +"open for discussion" at some more appropriate season. Much indignation +was expressed by the round-jacketed audience at the thirty-second +verse: "Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her +fall off." A vast deal of satire was expended upon "the thunderin' +troops," of all classes, periods, and nations, the whole clinched and +concluded by a remark from the boatswain: + +"Aye, sojers, and pigs, and women, is always in the way, or else always +in mischief, aboard a ship, more 'specially in bad weather." + +The reading afterwards progressed without much interruption, except at +the fortieth verse: "They--hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made +toward shore," and then only to remark, "Aye, she was a schooner, or +else a morfredite brig, and they was goin' to beach her; she'd steered +better if they'd sot the foresail too." + +The eleventh verse of the twenty-eighth chapter gave occasion for +question and explanation. + +"And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had +wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux." + +"Sign!" said Tom Pipes, "what does that mean?" + +"Why, her figure-head, I s'pose," said the _questionee_. + +"Yes, but, d--n my buttons, there's two on 'em." + +"Well, I s'pose they fixed 'em as the Dutchmen does De Ruyter and Von +Tromp, put one on the knight-heads and t'other on the rudder-head." + +"Ay, that indeed." + +The reader went on to the fifteenth verse: + +"And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as +far as Appii-forum, and The Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he +thanked God, and took courage." + +"Took courage?" said old Tom; "I don't know who the d--l wouldn't take +courage with three taverns all in sight at once. I wouldn't wish a +better land-fall if I'd been cast away." + +"That there Happy afore 'em must have been a jovious kind of a place," +observed a seaman, "to judge by the name on't; and then them three +taverns so handy--a fellow might shake a foot, and have a comfortable +glass of somethin' whenever he took a notion." + +All further reading and commentary was suddenly put a stop to, by one of +those occurrences that frequently take place at sea, and cause so much +bustle and hurry as is very apt to frighten passengers. The good ship +Albatross was neither thrown on her beam-ends by a sudden squall, for +squalls are not fashionable in the trade-winds, nor did she strike upon +a rock, for there was none sufficiently near the surface; but still, for +a few minutes every thing seemed to be uppermost, and nothing at hand, +like the contents of a lady's travelling trunk. + +One of the crew, who had been for some time lying on his breast on the +weather cat-head, crooning over some interminable "love-song about +murder," suddenly surceased his singing, raised himself up, and cast an +eager and hurried glance ahead of the ship, shouted "Fish ho!" at the +very top of his lungs, sprang from the cat-head, and ran down the +fore-scuttle. In an instant all was commotion and hurry. Captain Williams +threw down his bible with most anti-christian and unorthodox +carelessness, and hurried to the forecastle, shouting, "A bottle of rum +for the first fish;" the premium always offered formerly, though I +believe it is getting out of date now, and not only the first fish, but +all the fish caught, are seized and confiscated "for the benefit of +those whom it may hereafter concern," namely, the "cabin gentry;" the +claims of the captors being waived, set aside, and overruled. The two +mates soon followed their commander, "armed and equipped," the one with +the graves, (a sort of harpoon for taking smaller fish,) and the other +with a large reel of fish-line and hooks, baited with salt pork--the +commentators on the two last chapters of Acts broke up their conference, +leaving St. Paul and the centurion in comfortable quarters at The Three +Taverns; their reader carefully stowing away his bible in the bows of +the long-boat before he joined the groups of fishermen on and about the +bows--the great dog Pomp, so named after the illustrious Roman, Pompey +the Great, and not after the allegorical personage to whom Will +Shakspeare so earnestly recommends physic, came galloping forward and +ascended the heel of the bowsprit, where he stood whining, and yelping, +and wagging his tail, exceedingly delighted with the animation and +excitement of the scene; and looking up, from time to time, in the faces +of those nearest him, with an expression that said, as plain as mere +expression can speak, "Why the plague don't you catch some of them?" +Even those two privileged idlers, the doctor and supercargo, made shift +to get on deck, yawning and stretching themselves. + +In the mean time, one of the most active seamen, who was perched upon +the jib-boom end, fishing with a bait made of a piece of white duck cut +into a "swallow-tail," hauled up a huge albicore, whose struggles had +well nigh thrown him overboard; but a dozen pair of eager hands were +ready, the fish was safely deposited in a bag, and passed on board, and +the bottle of rum was secured to the legal claimant. The sprit-sail +yard, bowsprit, and cat-heads were crowded with fishermen, and in half +an hour there were nearly seventy fine, large fish flouncing and +fluttering their last on the forecastle of the Albatross. + +The cooks at the galley, who had quietly prepared the usual Sunday +dinner, which, forty years since, was generally the same for cabin or +forecastle, namely, flour pudding, called at sea, "duff," and salt beef; +the cooks did by no means contemplate this addition to the ship's bill +of fare with complacency or delight. They foresaw that there would be +fried fish, and broiled fish, and boiled fish, and fish stews, and fish +chowders, and fish sea-pies; in short, there would be no end to the +cooking of fish, till the fish were all eat up. They were not long kept +in suspense on that subject. Mr. Walker, the second officer, approached +their smoky temple-- + +"Doctor, is the beef for the people in the coppers?" + +"Yes, sar, I put 'em in at three bell." + +"Well, take and out with it, and get your coppers ready to make a +chowder for all hands; and you, Peter, come down in the steerage with +me, and I'll give you some pepper and onions, and the rest of the +combustibles." + +"Yes, Massa Walker, I come ereckly. Dam fish! I wish all fish in 'a +world dead; den 'spose 'a want fish, let 'em eat cod-fish and tatoe." + +With this pious ejaculation, which he took care not to give utterance to +till Mr. Walker was out of hearing, he followed that officer down the +after hatchway, while his helpmate, grasping his tormentors, proceeded +to transfer the half-boiled "salt junk" from the coppers to a tub, and +make preparations for a dinner of a more savory and agreeable +description. + +[Footnote 4: June 1st, 1794, Lord Howe's victory over the French fleet, +off Ushant.] + +[Footnote 5: _Quasi_ raisins.--_Printer's Devil_.] + +[Footnote 6: The sailor probably meant the Ionian _Archipelago_; they +generally mistake the word as it stands in the text.--_P. D._] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + All hands! bring ship to anchor, ahoy! + + BOATSWAIN'S MATE. + + +In the meantime Isabella had suffered her full share of persecution. +Shortly after the family had retired from the coast to the vicinity of +the city of Tepic, where Don Gaspar had an estate, he had urged her to +accept Don Gregorio before their return to St. Blas. The tears and +entreaties of the unhappy girl had, however, so far mollified him that +he consented to put it off some time longer. A severe fit of the gout, +during which Isabella attended him with the most assiduous and +unremitting affection, had also operated as a powerful auxiliary to her +wishes. Pressing her affectionately to his bosom one day, the old +governor declared his unwillingness to part with her; and, "upon this +hint she spake," and easily obtained from him a promise not to trouble +her with any matrimonial schemes till she had completed her +twenty-second year, and even then, if she felt disinclined to the holy +state, she should be at liberty to retire to a convent. As she was not +yet twenty-one, she regarded this reprieve as equivalent to a full +release, and awaited anxiously the return of the dry season. It came at +last, and the family returned to St. Blas. + +Several American ships, whalemen and others, visited the port for +supplies, and for the purpose of a little private speculation, with +which the custom-house was not troubled. Dame Juanita's shop, being +rather the largest in St. Blas, and possessing, moreover, the additional +attraction of her own buxom countenance, and that of a pretty daughter +behind the counter, was visited daily by the mates and crews of these +ships; and of them she inquired, by direction of Isabella, concerning +the officers of the Orion, without success for a long time, till at last +the mate of a trader declared that he knew Mr. Morton very well; that +when he saw him last he was engaged fitting out a ship bound round Cape +Horn; and that she was, in all probability, on the coast at that moment, +and would most probably soon visit San Blas. + +This intelligence operated like a cordial upon Isabella's spirits; her +eyes were constantly directed towards the western horizon; every sail +that appeared, caused the utmost trepidation and eager hope; and when +the distant sail proved to be some coasting vessel, or the guarda-costa, +that was prowling about continually, her disappointment was keen and +painful. Her cousins laughed at the perseverance with which she watched +the harbor; and, fearful of exciting suspicions, she afterwards only +looked out upon the blue expanse of ocean when alone. + +At last, one lovely morning, just after the sea-breeze had commenced +blowing, a white speck was seen in the horizon, that rapidly increased +in size, till in two hours it was plain to all eyes that it was a large +ship, and many thought a man of war. Various were the speculations as to +her object, and still more so as to her nation; for coming directly +before the wind, her colors could not be seen. + +As she approached the anchorage, her light sails were taken in and +furled, with a despatch very unlike the manoeuvres of a merchantman, +and which confirmed the opinion of her being a man-of-war. Presently a +flash of red flame and cloud of thick, white smoke issued from her +starboard bow, followed by a corresponding one from the other side, and +repeated alternately, to the number of twenty-one; but the fourth flash +was distinctly visible to those on shore, before the roar of the first +gun came booming over the water, awakening the thousand echoes that +slumbered in the hills and woods about the city. + +The ship, having now reached her intended berth, slowly emerged from her +"sulphurous canopy," that the light breeze had kept wrapped around her, +like a veil; and, clewing up her topsails, gracefully swept round +towards the westward, as if intending to go out to sea again; and, in +the evolution, a large, bright-colored, new American ensign floated upon +the gentle breeze from her mizen gaff. She remained stationary for an +instant, when the anchor was dropped, and the sails furled; and the +machine, that but half an hour before, + + "Walked the waters like a thing of life," + +now lay upon their bosom a dark, motionless, inanimate mass. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + As an owl that in a barn + Sees a mouse creeping in the corn, + Sits still, and shuts his round blue eyes, + As if he slept, until he spies + The little beast within his reach; + Then starts and seizes on the wretch. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The salute of the Albatross was duly returned from the battery, and the +entire _posse_ of idlers in the port, or little village at the +landing-place, which is rather more than two miles from the town of St. +Blas, were collected at the pier to see what manner of men her +whale-boat contained, as she pulled swiftly in towards the shore. About +half way between the ship and the shore the whale boat was met by that +of the harbor-master; the crew of the former tossed their oars out of +the water, and held them upright in token of respect, while, at the same +time, the officer in the stern-sheets arose and raised his hat. This +respectful behavior was by no means lost upon the military dignitary, +who listened with great affability to the stranger's account of +himself--namely, that he was first officer of the ship Albatross, of +Boston, commanded by Captain Israel Williams; that she had put in for +supplies of wood, water, and fresh provisions; that she was bound to +Canton, and sundry other particulars of minor consequence; Mr. Morton +not deeming himself bound in honor or honesty to inform said +harbor-master that it was the intention of the captain and officers to +smuggle certain cases of silks, cloths, and linen on shore without his, +the said harbor-master's, privity or consent. + +As soon as the strange ship had anchored, Don Gaspar mounted his horse +and galloped through the plaza towards the landing-place, at the +imminent risk of his own neck, and compromising the sublunary welfare of +a swarm of children that were basking in the hot sand in utter defiance +of parental authority and of all passengers, bipedal or quadrupedal. Not +long after he had gone, Isabella threw her veil over her head, and +tripped, with a palpitating heart, towards Dame Juanita's house, which +she entered by a back passage well known to herself, and sat down in the +little room behind the shop. In a moment the good dame made her +appearance, her face literally shining with pleasure. + +"I have seen him, senorita! I have seen him and spoken with him." + +"Seen him! seen whom?" gasped Isabella, but blushing rosy red at the +same time. + +"Ah, senorita, you know whom," said Juanita, "that handsome American +that you used to meet here a year ago nearly." + +As the young lady sat with her back towards the shop-door, and was +besides eagerly drinking in all Juanita's news, she did not perceive +that a man had entered the room. A gentle voice that thrilled to her +heart pronounced her name; she turned, uttered a shriek, and fell +fainting into the arms of Morton. + +Excessive joy did, in ancient times and in one or two instances, prove +fatal; but I suspect that the world has grown more wicked, or the human +heart less susceptible, for I doubt whether there is any body now alive +who has ever experienced a sufficient degree of pleasure at once to do +more than agitate the nerves for a few minutes. + +Isabella soon recovered her senses, partly from the effects of cold +water sprinkled upon her face by the tender-hearted Juanita, and perhaps +there might be something reviving in a soft kiss that the young seaman +could not avoid dropping upon her lips as he supported her in his arms. +I have already intimated my incompetency to describe a parting scene +between two lovers, for reasons then specified: a tender meeting is +liable to the same objections. Such things should always be left to the +reader's imagination; for it is ten chances to one if the author's +description pleases any body, not even himself. + +After the first emotions of meeting had subsided, Isabella informed her +lover of her uncle's promise, and that she was free from all persecution +with regard to Don Gregorio. Morton, on the other hand, communicated to +her all that had passed between his father and himself. "So that you +see, dearest Isabella, if you had consented to go home with me as I +urged, we might at this moment be comfortably seated at my father's +fire-side. In the mean time, Captain Williams knows how I am situated, +and will give the most effective assistance to my plans. We shall +probably be detained here for two or three weeks, and I shall have daily +opportunities of seeing you." + +Time flies with lovers, and they had been nearly an hour in +conversation, when Juanita put them in mind of its lapse, and urged the +danger of Isabella's staying away from her uncle's house any longer. +They separated with a thousand promises to meet again. + +In a day or two, Captain Williams had made arrangements for disposing of +the remnant of his cargo, in a quiet way, to certain merchants who are +always and every where to be found, ready and willing to evade the +exactions of the custom-house. + +One branch of the river empties into the north-eastern, part of the bay, +from which the slope up to the plaza on the summit of the hill is +gradual. The point formed by this branch and the bay is covered with a +thick growth of limes and other trees, through which winds a scrambling +sort of path, passable by mules, and but very seldom used. After winding +through the trees and bushes, and up a steep hill, that farther to the +left, or westward, becomes an abrupt precipice of two hundred feet in +height; it emerges in an obscure and narrow street on the eastern side +of the town. + +The Albatross's launch was sent every night, under the command of one or +other of the mates, with a cargo of goods, which were landed near the +termination of the above-mentioned winding path, and loaded upon mules +that were always ready, concealed among the bushes, to be brought out at +an appointed signal from the boat. It would be difficult to select a +place better adapted for the peculiar purpose; unguarded and +unsuspected, nobody had ever dreamed of any smuggling attempt being made +there. + +This plan of landing cargo had been carried on with equal secrecy and +success for many nights, till nearly all was discharged. In the mean +time, information had been conveyed to the commandant, by some person +who had accidentally seen the boat one night engaged in discharging her +precious freight, and the mules loading on the beach. In consequence of +this intelligence, orders had been issued to the officer commanding the +troops at San Blas, to march a strong party to the place, and secure all +merchandize and persons found there. Part of this behest was executed to +the letter; the remainder Jupiter dispersed into thin air. + +Mr. Morton, with six hands in the jolly-boat, came on shore at the usual +time, bringing all the remainder of the cargo, which was hardly enough +to load two mules. Every thing was landed and loaded upon the mules +without interruption, excepting a small package containing silk +handkerchiefs, when suddenly a low whistle was heard in the bushes. + +"What is that?" said Morton, who held the aforesaid package in his +hands. + +"Santa Maria!" exclaimed the muleteers, springing upon their horses, and +putting them and the mules into rapid motion; "vienen los soldados +malditos," the d--d soldiers are coming; the signal was repeated, and in +an instant soldiers rushed from different parts of the adjacent bushes, +and surrounded the whole party. So sudden and complete was the surprise, +that the seamen, though standing in the edge of the water, were +intercepted and made prisoners. Morton, as soon as he perceived that +flight and resistance were equally out of the question, hailed the two +men in the boat that was lying a few yards from the shore, and ordered +them to make the best of their way to the ship--an order that was +acknowledged by the customary "ay, ay, sir," and obeyed by hoisting +their lug-sail, which, filled by a fresh land-breeze, soon carried them +out of danger. He, with the remaining four men, were made prisoners. +Whether the soldiers were not used to acting against cavalry, or thought +the prisoners of more consequence than the merchandise, is doubtful; the +mules and their drivers got off safe, although several shots were fired +at them as soon as their retreat was perceived. + +Ascertaining that there was nothing more to be got on the field of +battle; for it was indeed one, as one of the sailors, feeling somewhat +restive under the tight grasp that the corporal laid upon his collar, +had bestowed upon that humble candidate for military honors a slap in +the face, that caused him, in the Nantucket dialect, to "blow blood;" +the guard took up their line of march through the wood with their five +prisoners. On their melancholy route towards the town, the commanding +officer of the party, mindful of the politeness and attention with which +he had been treated by Mr. Morton, behaved to his prisoners with great +kindness, and endeavored to console this officer by representing that +nothing had been found that would or could be deemed sufficient to +convict them of any attempt to violate the laws of the province; that +the escape of the mules was a favorable circumstance, as they had +carried off whatever might have otherwise appeared as evidence against +them, whether merchandise or men; which last, with the treachery +peculiar to Spaniards, and more universally inherent in the mixed breed +of the colonies, would compound for their own safety by implicating +their employers; that the governor was a gentleman, and a man of kindly +feelings, and that he would undoubtedly pass over what had occurred that +night without the exercise of any greater severity than perhaps the +imposition of a moderate fine; with sundry other and similar topics of +consolation, suggested by kindness and sympathy. But Morton's mind was +too confused and agitated by the events of the evening, to allow him to +make much reply or to pay much attention to the consolations of the +officer; he longed to reach the guard-house, where, in the solitude and +silence of the prison, he might have time and opportunity to arrange his +ideas, and reflect upon his melancholy and apparently hopeless +situation, and correspond, if permitted, with his commander, and with +one other. + +"But no," he thought, after the lovely image of Isabella had presented +itself to his mind, "no, she will not dare to visit me, or exert herself +in my behalf--and why should she? it would but expose her to suspicion, +and me and these poor fellows to greater rigor." + +He knew but little of the strength of woman's love--her devotedness, her +acuteness, and energy and activity, in contriving and executing plans +for the relief or comfort of her loved one in affliction. His four +companions in misfortune, with all that philosophical indifference to +calamity and danger that characterizes seamen, after expending an +incredible number of strange curses and sea jokes upon their captors, +stretched themselves upon the stone floor of the "caliboza," or prison, +and were soon sound asleep; and Morton himself, fatigued in body and +harrassed and bewildered in mind, soon lost all consciousness of his +unhappy situation in deep and prolonged slumber. + +Having lodged his prisoners in the guard-house and given orders that +they should be treated with all kindness, the officer waited upon the +governor, and reported the proceedings of the night. His excellency +looked rather blank at learning that none of the goods had been secured; +but having complimented the officer upon his vigilance and zeal, he +retired to rest, feeling all the pride and self-gratulation of a little +mind, after having done a very little action. He did indeed feel +somewhat anxious as to the effect the intelligence might have upon the +ladies of his household, who had been projecting another visit to the +American ship, being the fourth that had already taken place; but he +finally determined, as the only course left him, to ensconce himself +behind the intrenchments of his dignity, and to merge the urbane +feelings of the hospitable gentleman in the awful gravity of the dog in +office. Besides, he hoped that his vigilance and severity on the present +occasion would be a sweet savor in the nostrils of his august monarch, +and that promotion would follow as an affair of course; and he dropped +asleep, fancying himself Lieutenant-General Don Gaspar de Luna, Knight +of the most noble order of St. Jago de Compostella, and Governor-General +of the island of Cuba or St. Domingo. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers. + + MERCHANT OF VENICE. + + +The old Don, on rising the next morning, found all his womankind +"overwhelmed with grief" in consequence of the news of the capture and +imprisonment of the American seamen, and prepared to assail him with +prayers, petitions, and tears, as soon as he made his appearance. In +vain he tried to assume the governor, and to look and act dignified; he +had not, either in appearance or manner, or even language, so "much of +the Roman" in him, as a certain other potentate who shall be nameless; +the persevering ladies followed him, and gave him no rest; and perhaps, +by their pertinacity, drove him to declare, in his vexation, that it was +his fixed and settled resolve to inflict upon his prisoners the +extremity of the law's indignation. In fact, the tribulation caused in +the governor's family by the unhappy events of the past night, had +reached to an extravagant and general height; for even the wife of his +bosom remonstrated in no very gentle terms against her lord's severity; +so that his poor excellency found the gubernatorial chair as +uncomfortable a seat as though its cushion had been stuffed with pins. +He made good his retreat as quick as possible to his usual place of +official business, or _bureau d'office_, but there new trials awaited +him; for the very first person he saw there, and evidently waiting for +him, was Captain Williams. + +Isabella, in the mean time, had not yet risen; her sleeping thoughts had +been too delightfully occupied with visions of happiness, and her waking +reveries had so engaged her with day-dreams of prospective felicity, +that she was not conscious of the lapse of time. She had just commenced +dressing, with the assistance of a favorite servant, a native Mexican +girl, when her weeping cousins rushed into the chamber in an agony of +grief. With voices choked and interrupted by sobs and tears, it was some +minutes before they could make their poor cousin comprehend the +melancholy truth, with the gratuitous addition that the prisoners were +to be shot the next morning in the plaza, and directly in front of the +house. Having communicated all they knew, and all they had invented, +they retired to spread the intelligence, to collect more, and to remove +the furniture in the front chamber, for the more convenient witnessing +the execution of the next morning. + +Isabella, when left to herself, neither screamed, nor went into +hysterics or tears; she sat still and motionless in the chair, into +which she had sunk when the dreadful truth was made known to her; she +became deadly pale, her temples throbbed, her breathing seemed +oppressed, the light swam before her eyes, she uttered a convulsive sob, +and, to the terror of her faithful and sympathising attendant, fell +senseless upon the floor. The Indian girl, with great presence of mind, +though sorely frightened, dashed water in her face, loosened her +clothes, and practised all those modes of relief, better understood by +ladies than described by me. The unhappy young lady at length recovered, +and, with the assistance of her attendant, threw herself upon the bed, +and gave way to a flood of tears, to the relief caused by which, and her +subsequent repose, we must for a time leave her. + +Captain Williams saluted the governor, as they met, with a countenance +partaking of anger as well as sorrow; and, without much circumlocution, +proceeded to state his business, and interceded most warmly in behalf of +his men in confinement. But the old Don, before whose mind visions of +promotion and honors were floating, was in no humor to grant petitions +of any kind, much less one, the acceding to which would overthrow all +his air-built castles; and he steadily refused to listen to the +warm-hearted old seaman's arguments, urged with all the fervency of +almost paternal affection for both Mr. Morton and his seamen. Unable to +oppose or refute the arguments of Captain Williams, proving the +innocence of the prisoners, or, at least, the veniality of their +offence, if guilty, and the unreasonable disproportion between the crime +and the punishment; wearied by the perseverance of the petitioner, and +convinced, though unwilling to own it, by his arguments;--convinced, +too, that he was making a very ridiculous figure in the eyes of his +officers and several merchants who were present, he did, as all +obstinate and pig-headed people do when they find themselves in the +wrong, and see that they are making themselves contemptible: that is, he +plunged still deeper into the wrong, by giving the good old seaman a +harsh refusal to his prayer. + +At this unexpected and ungentlemanly rebuff, Captain Williams suddenly +became calm and silent, and, a moment after, left the office. Those who +were present thought they saw in the stern, determined expression of his +countenance grounds for apprehension and alarm; having the most +extravagant opinion of the desperate and daring courage of the +Americans, they looked to see the ensuing night signalized by some +desperate attempt on the part of the seaman, to release his companions +from imprisonment. Their apprehensions were confirmed in a space of time +that seemed impossible to have enabled Captain Williams to reach his +ship, by seeing the Albatross, under jib and spanker, slowly standing to +the westward, and again anchoring full half a mile farther out to sea +than before; not, to be sure, out of reach of the guns of the battery, +but at such a distance as to render it extremely problematical whether +_Spanish_ artillerymen would be able to throw a shot within half a mile +of her, especially in a star-light night. + +This movement of the ship alarmed the governor not a little; for he knew +that the guarda-costa was absent on a cruize, and it was doubtful when +she would return, and that there were but thirty soldiers on duty at the +barracks, the rest having recently been drafted into the interior, to +wage war against certain straggling, light-fingered gentry, known in +that part of the world by the general title of "monteneros," or +highlanders, being analogous in their habits and manners, and confused +ideas of _meum_ and _tuum_, to the highland cattle-stealers of Scotland. +In this dilemma, the governor's heart began to relent--he thought that +he was carrying his severity too far. + +On retiring to his house to dinner, he was met by a message from his +niece, requesting to see him in her chamber, being too unwell to meet +the family at noon. Thither his Excellency ascended with reluctant steps +and slow, like a child called from his play to be whipped and sent to +bed. He found his niece reclining upon a sofa, pale, languid, and +evidently much agitated. She rose to receive him with her accustomed +affection, and the old Don seated himself by her side. + +"Isabella, my love, you appear to be distressed; what is the matter, +child?" + +"Dear uncle, my cousin Antonia tells me dreadful news." + +"Dreadful news! what is it, dearest?" "She tells me," said Isabella, +shuddering and gasping for breath, "that these unfortunate Americans are +to be put to death to-morrow morning." + +"Poh, poh! what nonsense! you know as well as I do that the law gives me +no such power." + +"But, dearest uncle, why should they be punished at all? nothing is +proved against them, nothing is found about them that indicates guilty +intentions," for, notwithstanding her indisposition, she had learned all +the facts of the case from her gossip, Juanita, and the officers that +had called in the course of the forenoon, "I have heard all the +particulars, and confess that I see no reason why they deserve +punishment at all." + +"You know nothing at all about the matter, child. They have been seen, +at other times than last night, landing boxes and bales at the same +place." + +"Are you quite sure that it was not some other persons?" + +The governor paid no attention to this question, which he had never +dreamt of asking his informer. + +"Besides, if these are pardoned, other offenders will plead their +innocence, and refer to the case of these men as a precedent. No, +Isabella, I cannot, I dare not do it; they must abide by the +consequences." + +"Then if their lives are to be spared, what is to be done with them?" + +"I shall write to the Viceroy, and keep them confined till I receive his +instructions as to their future destiny." + +"And that," said the young lady, in a faint voice, "will be worse than +death! O think of it, dear, dear uncle." + +"You take too gloomy a view of the case," said Don Gaspar, kissing the +forehead of the lovely suppliant; "the Viceroy may pardon them, but I +dare not--You plead in vain," continued he, as he saw she was about to +speak; "were they my own sons, they should undergo the sentence of the +law for their misconduct." + +Fearing to excite her uncle's suspicions by too great urgency, Isabella +changed her battery-- + +"At least, let them be used kindly--let them have plenty of good food +and wine." + +"Certainly, dearest little niece," said the governor, delighted to find +the most formidable and irresistible of his female assailants so +lukewarm in the cause of the prisoners, "and you shall be their +provider." + +"Me, uncle? well, I own I should wish to visit the prison occasionally, +to see that they are comfortable." + +"You shall whenever you please," said the Don, rising, and going to +Isabella's writing desk; "there, there is an order, signed by my own +hand, that will admit you whenever you please." So saying, he retired. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not. + + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. + + +A writer, evidently a Frenchman, in the British or some other +Encyclopædia, under the article "Man," draws a very ingenious contrast +between the two sexes, which is correct enough in its general +principles, but exceedingly erroneous in many very important points. +Speaking of the different behavior of men and women, under the pressure +of grief or calamity, he says, "Woman weeps--man remains silent--woman +is in agony when man weeps--she is in despair when man is in agony." + +Mr. Philosopher, you are a goose. It is obvious that you have drawn your +conclusions from your observations of Frenchmen exclusively, who are +theatrical and affected from the cradle to the grave. + +"Woman weeps while man remains silent."--True; she gives vent to her +feelings by weeping, and her full heart is tranquillized by her tears, +which seem not only to relieve and refresh the swollen and burning eyes +of the body, but to render those of the mind more clear and +penetrating. What, for instance, was the language and sentiment of Mary +Queen of Scots, when Rizzio was murdered in her presence? "I will dry up +my tears," said the high-spirited descendant of the Stuarts, "and think +of revenge." Man's remaining silent is not always an evidence of +fortitude or resignation; it may be stupidity and want of feeling, or +gloom and sulkiness; a disposition to find fault with Divine Providence +for visiting him with affliction. + +"Woman is in agony when man weeps." Absurd! her tears have relieved her +agony. Like the elastic and pliable willow, she has yielded to the storm +of grief, and her buoyant spirit rises comparatively uninjured from the +conflict. + +"Woman is in despair when man is in agony." It is said that the +difference between a fool and a madman is, that the fool draws wrong +conclusions from correct principles, and the madman correct conclusions +from erroneous principles. I leave my readers to judge under which +denomination the author quoted comes. There is but one step in his +climax that approaches the truth, and he has drawn a series of wrong +conclusions from that. The concurrent testimony of a host of writers, +both moralists and historians, goes to establish the fact, that, under +the pressure of remediable misfortunes, women have infinitely greater +acuteness and quickness of perception of means of relief--more +promptness, energy, and courage in carrying them into execution, than +men. "Hope the deceiver" retains possession of the heart of woman long, +long after man has hanged, shot, or drowned himself in despair. + +Isabella was certainly almost overcome by the melancholy intelligence, +when first communicated; but weeping and the repose of the morning had +tranquillized her, and the facts that she had ascertained had given her +fresh courage and hopes. Not daring, however, to urge her uncle too far +at that time, as she saw he was out of humor, she was still determined +not by any means to regard one, nor two, nor twenty refusals as +decisive; but, if he could not be "carried by boarding," to blockade him +into compliance. Her uncle's order for her admittance to the prison, she +determined only to use occasionally, and as circumstances pointed out, +for fear of exciting suspicion; but to reserve it as a sort of sheet +anchor for the perfection of a half-formed scheme that was already +agitating her brain. + +Under pretence of merely ascertaining that the prisoners were supplied +with all the comfort that their situation would admit, but in reality to +communicate with her lover, she visited the prison that very day. She +found the prisoner, who was already heart-sick of the confinement, +independently of its probable termination, walking listlessly up and +down the passage leading to the inner prison, which was both spacious +and airy; for, as before observed, his excellency had so far relented as +to direct that the prisoners, during the day, should be permitted to +enjoy the air. His surprise at seeing her was extreme--not that he +doubted she would make an attempt to see him, but he considered it a +hopeless one. She met him with tranquillity, almost cheerfulness. + +"Thank heaven!" he exclaimed mentally, "there is some hope of once more +snuffing fresh air; that sweet girl would never be so composed unless +she had some plan in her mind for my delivery. Isabella, dearest +Isabella, tell me, for heaven's sake, how have you managed to get into +this place, that every one else is so anxious to keep out of? Has the +old Don dismounted from his high horse? He has been polite enough to +make me a morning call, but I am afraid he does not intend to allow me +to return it. However, as long as he permits you to follow his example, +I hope that I shall be enabled to bear the disappointment with becoming +resignation." + +"Hush, hush! how can you talk so giddily, when you know not what may be +your fate?" + +"Why, hanging is not a favorite Spanish punishment, so I suppose he will +honor me so far as to expend a little powder and shot upon me." + +"O, Charles! Charles! be quiet, for heaven's sake. Tell me, what did my +uncle say?" + +"Say? why, he scolded a good deal, said that I had heretofore behaved +very decently, and that he was very sorry to see me here." + +"He has written to the viceroy, to know what he is to do with you. My +uncle, with all his faults, is an angel of mercy, compared with that +cold-blooded, bigoted, cruel man. I have read somewhere that it is +written over the gates of the infernal regions 'Let all who enter here +leave hope behind.' Let all who fall into the hands of that haughty +nobleman, whether innocent or guilty, leave hope behind too. He is +governed entirely by his priests, and the very circumstance of your +being a Protestant, however harmless, and found in his dominions, would +be sufficient to make you an object of hatred and vengeance." + +"Well, all that may be; but recollect my country will not tamely permit +her sons to be dragged to foreign prisons, without knowing wherefore." + +"You cannot suppose that your country will plunge into a war for your +sakes?" + +"No, no, my love; she would be a fool if she did; but there is a set of +fellows called ambassadors, that often do more with their tongues than +ten thousand good fellows can with their bayonets. But tell me, if you +know, where is the ship? what says the good old Captain Williams to the +scrape?" + +"The ship has moved farther out, and he has been on shore twice to-day +to intercede for you, but without effect, though my uncle has so far +relented as to order you all the comforts that you wish." + +"I should be obliged to him, then, for the comfort of walking out of +prison." + +"When the ship moved out of gunshot," continued Isabella, without +noticing what she thought his artificial gaiety, "there was some +apprehension that Captain Williams intended to make some desperate +attempt to release you; but he has been on shore since, and had an +interview with my uncle, and the alarm has subsided." + +"Well done! that is the best thing I have heard this long time--a whole +garrisoned Spanish town thrown into consternation by a single Yankee +merchantman! upon my word, I shall entertain a more exalted opinion than +ever of Spanish courage." + +Isabella permitted him to indulge his national vanity, when she again +urged that his situation was but little short of desperate, unless he +was speedily relieved from it. + +"I know, I know that my head is in the lion's mouth, and how it is to be +got out I know not. If I could see Captain Williams--perhaps a good +round fine paid to his high mightiness might open these doors." + +"I will write to Captain Williams myself," said the young lady, "perhaps +something of that kind might be done. In the mean time, whenever you +have any wine or other provisions, of which I will see that there shall +be no lack, make a point of sharing it with the guard; and, by all +means," she added, in a lower tone, "see that the sentry is never +forgotten." + +"Ha! oho! I see the whole affair--there are never but five men on duty +here at night." "Rash, hot-headed creature! there will be no occasion +for such madness. Even if you should escape from prison, and reach your +ship in safety, which would be next to impossible----" + +"Well, what?" said Morton, observing that she was silent. She raised her +eyes, swimming in tears. + +"I understand you--dear, dear Isabella, do you think I would leave this +country without you? No, never." + +"Then remain perfectly quiet, attempt nothing, do nothing of yourself. +In the mean time," continued she, rising, "do not abandon yourself +either to hope or despair." + +With these words she left the prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + As cannons shoot the higher pitches + The lower we let down their breeches, + I'll make this low, dejected fate + Advance me to a greater height. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +Captain Williams, immediately upon his landing on the morning after the +events related in the last chapter had taken place, was met at the Port +by a woman of rather ordinary appearance, who put a letter into his +hands, and retired without speaking. The letter was written in a woman's +hand, but without signature, and was as follows: + + "SIR:--A friend of Mr. Morton is making every possible exertion to + deliver him and his companions from imprisonment. That friend + entreats that you would do nothing rashly, or that may give cause + of alarm or suspicion to the governor or garrison, or to any of the + inhabitants. If you will call this evening at the shop of dame + Juanita Gomez, in the plaza of San Blas, a person will meet you + there, and explain more fully the friendly intentions of the + writer." + +The honest seaman, after mature deliberation, came to the conclusion +that the writer of this anonymous epistle could be no other than the +fair Isabella, of whom he had heard Morton speak so often; and he +resolved to attend to its directions most strictly. Accordingly, as a +preliminary step, he thought best to reconnoitre the plaza as soon as +possible, that he might make no unpleasant mistakes in the dusk of +evening. + +While at St. Blas, he had another interview with the governor, and +endeavored to ascertain the intentions of that dignitary with regard to +the destination of his prisoners. The governor, however, seemed to +regard that as a state secret, and declined making any but a very +evasive answer. As some amends for his severity, he condescended to give +Captain Williams full permission to visit the prisoners, of which the +veteran immediately availed himself. The kind-hearted old seaman was +deeply affected, as he held Morton in his arms with all the affection of +a fond father-- + +"That ever I should live to see my old school-fellow Jonathan Morton's +son in such a situation, and not be able to help him,"--were the first +words he was able to articulate. Morton endeavored to calm him, by +repeated assurances that he felt no apprehension; that he had no doubt +that a certain friend was busy in projecting a plan for their +deliverance. It was some time before he was sufficiently composed to +converse. + +"Have you tried the old Don with a few doubloons?" asked Morton. + +"No, d--n him, I never thought of that; I can't get a word of common +sense or common civility out of the old mule." + +"I believe if he had taken the boat-load of goods when he took us, that +he would have been more willing to listen to you." + +"Ah, very like; the old fox missed the goose, and he is venting his +malice upon you in stead. But, my dear boy, I don't exactly know how to +go to work to offer a bribe. Damme, I could land thirty men this blessed +night, and pull this old rookery down, and get you all out that way; but +as for bribery, it is a devilish dirty piece of business, to make the +best of it; besides, I tell you, I don't know how; if I did, I would try +it, as dirty as I think it." + +Morton, could not forbear smiling at the old man's unwillingness to +employ a piece of machinery, at the present day so indispensable in our +government throughout all its branches; he assured him that nothing was +more simple; it was only to wait upon the Don in private, and request +his acceptance of either cash or certain valuable merchandize, that +would be attractive in the sight of the governor. "There are my +silver-mounted pistols, and curious East India dagger, and my rifle, +that all might be thrown out as baits to begin with;"--it was all in +vain; the blunt old seaman still persisted that bribery, or any thing +that approximated it, was but a dirty affair after all; and that, +although he would leave no plan untried to effect the liberation of the +prisoners, there was a moral contamination attached to the mode proposed +that he neither could nor would submit to. + +True to his appointment, Captain Williams, soon after sunset, repaired +to dame Juanita's shop, with the location of which he had previously +made himself acquainted. He was introduced by that worthy old lady into +her back parlor, if a little apartment ten feet square, with a clay +floor and no windows, deserves so dignified, or rather so _comfortable_ +a title; and in half an hour a female, closely veiled, entered the room. +Notwithstanding her disguise, the old seaman had tact enough to perceive +that his companion was young and graceful, or in more modern language, +genteel, while the silvery music of her voice, as she addressed him, +convinced him that she could be no otherwise than beautiful. + +"Are you," said the lady, in a hesitating, tremulous voice, "are you the +commander of the American ship in the bay?" + +"I am; and you, senorita, are the lady who wrote me the note that I +received this morning?" + +"Yes, I--that is, I sent you a note requesting to see you." + +"And you are the generous, devoted, and true friend that takes such a +lively interest in the fate of my friend and officer, and his companions +in prison and misfortune?" + +"I am--I am," replied the lady hurriedly. + +"And you are, in short," continued the commander, rising and +respectfully offering his hand, "you are the lady Isabella de Luna?" + +"I cannot deny it," said she in a faint voice. + +"Then, madam, you see before you one who is acquainted with your story. +Nay, never hang your head for shame; Charles Morton is worth any woman's +love. I am here ready with hand, heart, and head, to second any and +every plan that you may propose, to effect his escape." + +The lady remained silent for a few moments, then placing her small hand +in the broad, hard palm of the old seaman, replied, "I know that I can +put the most implicit confidence in you. I have heard from others--why +should I deny it? Mr. Morton has told me often, that, next to his +father, he regards you with affection and esteem as his dearest and +truest friend." + +"And he shall never be deceived in old Israel Williams, I can tell him +that, nor shall you, my dear young lady." + +"I have but little time to spare," said the young lady, with increasing +trepidation, "and my communication must be brief, as my plan is simple. +To-morrow night, at ten o'clock, Captain Williams, let your swiftest +boat be at the place where Mr. Morton and his companions were taken, and +let her wait there until day-break. It may not be in my power to effect +my object to-morrow night; but let not one nor two disappointments deter +you from repeating the experiment. In the mean time, be on shore +to-morrow as though nothing was in agitation; avoid exciting any +suspicions by either words, looks, or actions; and be assured, that, if +the plan for the rescue of the prisoners fails, it must be from some +accident that can neither be foreseen nor prevented." + +The commander of the Albatross having promised to follow all these +directions to the letter, they separated; he to return to his ship with +a joyful heart, and Isabella to reconnoitre the prison previous to +retiring to her uncle's house. + +She passed the guard-house at a slow pace and at such distance as to +avoid observation, but sufficiently near to ascertain that all the +guard, four in number besides the corporal, were wrapped up in their +cloaks and stretched out sound asleep upon the stone floor of the +guard-room, which was lighted by a large clumsy lamp sufficiently to +allow her to see its interior. The sentry at the door, who was slowly +pacing backwards and forwards with a paper segar in his mouth, was the +only one awake. + +As she bent her steps homeward, she perceived some one approaching her, +in the very direction that she was going, with an uncertain, faltering +footstep that denoted considerable intoxication. To avoid him she turned +to the right with the purpose of making a circuit; but, before she had +gone ten yards with that intention, she perceived that the stranger had +quickened his pace and changed his direction, coming directly towards +her. Exceedingly alarmed, she turned short round and ran, and in a +moment perceived that her pursuer was likewise running, and rapidly +gaining upon her. Fear lent her speed, and with the swiftness of a +hunted deer she flew across the plaza towards an open space, terminated +at its further extremity by the precipitous cliff that the town is built +upon, and which we have mentioned more than once. Her intention was to +turn quickly round the corner of a house that stood within four feet of +the edge of the cliff, and gain another street; or, if there were no +other means of escape, to take refuge in the house of a poor widow, one +of her pensioners, and obtain a guide and protector to her uncle's +house. + +Her pursuer was no other than her self-constituted lover, Don Gregorio. +He had dined that day with a party of officers, and had dipped rather +deeper into the bottle than, to tell the truth, he was often guilty of +doing. He suspected that Isabella was in the habit of visiting the +prison; but as she was generally accompanied, in all her rambles, by one +or both her cousins, he had thought nothing more of the circumstance. +But now he was convinced that she was just returning from, or going to, +a nocturnal appointment with the prisoner Morton, who had always been an +object of his hatred, and in an instant his jealousy was in full +operation. + +The cliff, towards which he was now approaching, was undefended by wall, +fence, or barrier of any kind. My readers have doubtless seen something +similar in their lives; that is, a nuisance that has acquired such a +venerable character from its antiquity, that it seems a species of +sacrilege, a sort of violation of municipal privileges, to remove or +repair it. Such, for instance, in city or country, is a gap in the +street or road, large enough to swallow a brace of elephants at once: +the inhabitants become acquainted with its localities; and, wisely +considering that, as it is _every_ body's business, of course it is +_no_ body's business, to repair it, leave it "open for the inspection of +the public" for a twelvemonth at least; and if any unfortunate stranger +tumbles in and breaks his neck, on a dark night, it is ten chances to +one that the jury of inquest return for a verdict, that "the deceased +came to his death in consequence of intoxication," although he may be +the most abstemious water-drinker that ever the sun shone upon. Such +was, ten or eleven years ago, to my certain knowledge, the cliff of San +Blas. + +Maddened with jealousy, and rendered incapable of commanding his +movements by intoxication, the unhappy Don Gregorio was whirled, by the +impetuosity of his own motion, far over the brow of the hideous +precipice. One dismal yell of mortal agony broke the stillness of night, +and the next moment his body was heard far below, crashing among the +bushes and loose stones at the foot of the cliff. Fainting with horror +at the dreadful sight, though ignorant of the person of the victim, +Isabella sank upon the ground, and it was some minutes before she +recovered sufficiently to rise. When, at length, she was somewhat +restored, she turned towards her uncle's house with feeble steps and +slow, frequently stopping to lean against the walls of the houses; she +tottered into the room where the family were assembled, and sank +senseless upon the floor. Her relatives, exceedingly terrified, +administered restoratives, and conveyed her to her own chamber, where, +when she was somewhat composed, she informed her anxious friends that +she had been pursued by an intoxicated person, and was extremely +terrified, and begged to be left to her repose, which she assured them +was all she required. Having obtained all the information they were +likely to, her kind and inquisitive cousins left her, after compelling +her to swallow a composing medicine. She awoke in the morning perfectly +refreshed; the horrid scene that she had witnessed the night before +seeming rather like a terrifying dream than a mournful reality. + +Before she left her chamber, a man, with his jaws standing ajar with +horror, called upon the governor, and requested to speak with him in +private. He then informed his excellency, that as he was rambling +through the woods at the foot of the precipice, he had found the dead +body of an officer, who had evidently fallen from the cliff above; that +it was so frightfully mangled by the fall, that no vestiges of humanity +were recognizable in the countenance, or in the body; but that, from +the peculiar fashion of the regimentals, he was almost sure that it was +his excellency's aid-du-camp, Don Gregorio Nunez. Alarmed by this +intelligence, the governor despatched a servant to that officer's +quarters, who soon returned with the intelligence that he had not been +there since the morning of the preceding day. Further inquiry among his +brother officers informed him that he had left their company the evening +before about ten o'clock: that he had been drinking freely, rather more +freely than usual; and that they had not seen him since. + +Having commanded the attendance of two or three officers and as many +soldiers, the commandante proceeded to the spot, guided by his first +informant, and was convinced, as soon as he saw the crushed and +mutilated mass, that it was no other than his unhappy officer. Having +given orders for transporting the body to town, he returned to his +family, who, although aware, from his abstracted and pensive manner, +that something had happened to discompose him, forbore to ask any +questions--a line of conduct which, by the way, we would most earnestly +recommend to all wives and daughters. Isabella's mind was too much +occupied with her own thoughts to notice the silence and melancholy of +her uncle; she ate nothing, but her aunt and cousins attributed her want +of appetite to the fright of the preceding evening; as her eyes met +their kind and anxious looks, and she thought of her determination to +quit them forever, she could not restrain her tears; but rising hastily +from the table, she took shelter from observation and questioning in her +own chamber. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + ---- I did compound + A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease + The present powers of life; but in short time, + All offices of nature should again + Do their due functions. + + CYMBELINE. + + +Shortly after the sea-breeze had set in--that is, between eleven and +twelve o'clock--a sail was discovered in the western horizon, standing +in for the land; which sail the commander of the Albatross, in a short +time, made out, with the help of his glass, to be the guarda-costa, to +his no small vexation and disappointment. She stood in, however; but +instead of anchoring as usual, in what may be called the outer harbor, +she ran close in to the landing-place, furled her sails, and then, to +Captain Williams's great relief, sent down her fore-yard, stripped it of +the sail and rigging, and launched it overboard. Two boats, full of men, +were soon seen towing it ashore, the spar having been "sprung" in one of +those sudden and violent "flaws" of wind so peculiar to high and +mountainous coasts. + +All this was extremely gratifying to the commander of the American ship; +in the first place the Venganza (for that was the warlike name of this +redoubtable man-of-war), by lying so far up the harbor, was out of the +line between the Albatross and the point where it was intended to send a +boat that night; and secondly, the absence of so indispensable a spar as +the fore-yard would render pursuit impossible. + +Captain Williams went on shore in the afternoon, and met the old Don, +who treated him with great condescension, and even hinted at the +probability of his making another visit to the Albatross, to which hint +the seaman replied as politely as could be expected. It was nearly night +when he once more entered dame Juanita's shop, from which he took the +liberty to despatch a message to Isabella. She appeared in a few +minutes, and hastily assured him that the prospect of success was +bright, and that nothing existed at that time that threatened to defeat +their plans. + +As soon as he returned to his ship, he made preparations for getting +under way as speedily as possible; the bower anchor was hove up, and the +ship rode by a light kedge, there being then but little wind or tide; +the gaskets were cast off the topsails, and their places supplied with +ropeyarns, which would break as soon as the "bunts," or middle of the +sails, were let fall; the chewlines and other running-rigging were +overhauled; and every other plan for making sail upon the ship as +expeditiously and as silently as possible, was adopted. The crew of the +Albatross performed all these different acts of duty with silence and +alacrity. Although their commander had not communicated his plan to +them, they knew by instinct that something bold and daring was to be +attempted that night for the rescue of their favorite officer, and their +four messmates; and their hopes of a brush with the "Don Degos" were +most keenly excited. They were assembled on the forecastle, holding +"high dispute" and conjecture upon the course about to be pursued. + +"Now if I was the old man," said one of the younger seamen, "I tell you +what I would do. I would jest land as many of us as could be spared, +with cutlasses and boarding-pikes"-- + +"And pistols," interrupted another. + +"No; d--n your pistols; they make too much noise; they're all talk and +no cider; besides, they miss fire half the time; and before you get +ready for another shot, Don Dego has his thundering baggonet right in +your g--ts; and then where are you?" + +"Now you may all of you," said an old seaman, "you may all of you just +pipe belay with your jaw-tackle-falls. Captain Williams knows what he's +about, and you'll know before morning what he's up to. You'd better take +a fool's advice, and catch a cat-nap before you're called away. The +boats a'n't histed up, and when did you ever know 'em in the water after +dark since we've been lying here?" So saying, the veteran disappeared +down the fore-ladder. + +"There goes old Jemmy Bush, starn foremost down the fore-scuttle, like +a land-bear going into his hole." + +"Well," said another smart, active young seaman, the favorite of the +crew; "I shall take old Jemmy's advice, and go and get forty winks in my +hammock. If there's more or less of us sent on this expedition, we +sha'n't be called away till ten or eleven o'clock, when all the Degos +are asleep, and there's nothing awake in the town but fleas and cats." + +The proposition for sleeping prevailed, and the groups on the forecastle +began to disappear, when the voice of the second mate was heard: + +"For'ard there!" + +"Sir, sir," answered half a dozen eager voices at once. + +"Who has the anchor watch?" + +"Bill Thompson and Sam Hughes, sir." + +"Go in the boats alongside, and see that they have their full +complement of oars; and see, too, that the masts and sails are on board +all of them." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"Do you hear that, my sons of brass?" said old Jones, the boatswain, +"that looks as if there was going to be wigs on the green before +morning." + +We must now leave the marine department for awhile, in order to attend +to exclusively terrene concerns. As night closed, Morton could not avoid +feeling extreme anxiety; Isabella had not visited the prison since the +day previous, nor had she sent any message. Doubts the most annoying +possessed his mind--at one time he thought she had been detected in her +schemes for his rescue; then that her courage had failed, and she had +abandoned him to his fate; or that her affection for her relatives had +overcome her love for him. He had partially made known to his four +fellow-prisoners his hopes of relief, cautioning them against sleeping, +but enjoining upon them to keep perfectly quiet. + +It was now past nine o'clock; and, with mingled feelings of +disappointment, grief, and anger, he was just resigning all hopes, when +the sentry at the door challenged. The next moment a person dressed in a +long, loose cloak stood before him, whom he immediately recognized as +his loved Isabella. + +"I have brought you some supper and some wine," said the young lady, +addressing him, as usual upon similar occasions, in Spanish; "I ought to +have come before, but it was impossible." + +So saying, she set her basket upon the stone bench, and, in so doing, +whispered Morton: + +"Every thing is ready; be patient, and be guided by me." + +"But how are you about to manage these fellows? it will take all night +to get them drunk, if that is your plan; for your soldiers, it cannot be +denied, are extremely temperate, and will seldom do me the honor to +empty more than a single bottle among the whole five." + +"Hush, hush; I have a surer way than mere wine." + +As she spoke she drew from her bosom a phial, containing a dark liquid. +Morton started back in horror--(he thought he saw, in the composed and +lovely countenance of the beautiful being before him, the cold-blooded, +deliberate, practised assassin--) + +"Good God! Isabella, is it possible? never, never will I owe my life and +liberty to such abominable, such cowardly means!" + +"Dismiss your suspicions," said Isabella, turning pale and trembling; +"they are unworthy of you, and wholly unmerited by me. Not to save +_your_ life, which I value as I do my own, would I commit mur--the crime +that you suspect. This phial contains a simple opiate, not half so +dangerous or disagreeable as the laudanum and camphor of your ship's +medicine chest. The sleep produced by it is speedy and deep, and lasts +four or five hours." + +Observing that Morton still looked distrustingly, she continued, with +streaming eyes-- + +"Dear Charles, if you doubt me still, I will swallow the whole; its +operation will not take place before I reach home, and will only cause +long, deep sleep; but, in that case, your hopes of escape are cut off +_forever_. To-morrow, or the next day, at farthest, you are to be sent +to the capital"--her tears choked her utterance. + +"Dearest Isabella," said Morton, taking her hands in both his, and +pressing them to his bosom, "forgive my cruel suspicions, but I own you +startled me exceedingly." + +"Leave all to my management, and in half an hour all will be well." + +In the mean time the seamen had "boarded" the basket, and spread its +contents upon the stone bench, that did triple duty as a bed, a seat, +and a table, as occasion required. The soldiers roused themselves at the +gurgling sound of the wine, as it was decanted into cups made of the +large end of an ox's horn, scraped thin, and capable of containing a +pint or more. Isabella dexterously poured the contents of the phial into +a cup, which was filled with wine, and Morton, taking it in his hand, +approached the corporal with a nod of invitation. After holding it to +his lips for some time, as if taking a deep draught, he passed it to the +corporal; that officer, touching his cap _à la militaire_, drank and +passed the horn, according to South American custom, to his comrades. +The prisoners and Isabella watched its circulation with most painful +anxiety, and soon had the felicity of beholding it turned bottom upwards +over the mouth of the sentry at the door. Another bottle was opened, and +poured, unobserved by the soldiers, into another cup, which, being +handed to the sailors, was almost immediately passed back again, "a body +without a soul." Another cup, medicated like the first, was prepared, +and the prisoners, apparently busied with their supper, awaited with +trepidation the effect of the medicine. + +After the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, which seemed as many hours +to the prisoners, the corporal betrayed palpable symptoms of somnolency. +He had seated himself with his back to the wall, and his feet towards a +small fire that was kept burning in the middle of the guard-room every +night, to drive away the moschetoes, and had commenced a song, in a low +voice. The first stanza he managed very respectably; but, before he had +half finished the second, both the air and words seemed strangely +deranged; his head sank upon his breast, and he snored repeatedly, +instead of singing; he made an effort to arouse himself, uttered that +ejaculation common to all ranks and both sexes of Spaniards, but which +is too gross to be written, and, stretching himself at full length upon +the floor, was sound asleep in an instant. His three comrades were not +slow in following his example; wrapped in their _ponchos_, or South +American cloaks, they "took ground" around the fire, and were soon +asleep. + +The sentry at the door, after two or three times stumbling over his own +feet, and as often dropping his musket out of his arms from mere +drowsiness, came into the guard-room to light a segar, which he +eventually accomplished at the imminent risk of pitching head foremost +into the fire. He resumed his station at the door, but was too sleepy +to walk on his post; he seated himself on the stone bench, the butt of +his musket resting upon the ground between his feet, and the muzzle +leaning against his shoulder; the lighted segar dropped from his mouth; +he leaned his head against the door-post, extended his feet and legs, +and in a few seconds his nasal organ, in strains like the nocturnal song +of one of our largest bull-frogs, gave notice that he was "absent +without leave" to the land of Nod. + +Isabella now arose, and, motioning to the prisoners to remain quiet, +tripped backwards and forwards through the guard-room, to ascertain that +the soldiers were asleep. Having satisfied herself on this point, she +beckoned to them to follow her. In passing through the guard-room, +Morton as well as his companions felt a strong inclination to possess +themselves of the arms of the guard, which were piled in one corner. +Their fair guide however entreated them to desist; but one of the +seamen, in attempting, to use his own language, to "unship" one of the +bayonets, made so much noise with the muskets, as alarmed himself as +well as the rest; and the whole party sallied out unarmed. + +Near the door they were met by another person, that alarmed the +prisoners exceedingly; but it proved to be Transita, Isabella's Mexican +servant, loaded with two "sizeable" bundles; for the annals of +elopements, from the earliest ages down to the present day, have not +recorded a single instance of a lady's running away from "cruel +parents" or cross husband without the accompaniment of a sufficient +quantity of baggage; nay, I have heard of one young lady who +accomplished a most perilous descent from her chamber window into the +arms of an expecting lover, and returned for her favorite lap-dog, at +the most imminent risk of detection and close imprisonment at the hands +of her "ugly, old, cross papa." + +Transita, like her mistress, was dressed in boy's clothes, a disguise +that so effectually imposed upon the four sailors, that in a whispered +conversation between them it it was decided that the two "young +gentlemen" were the sons of the merchant to whom the cargo had been +sold. Keeping close to the side of the plaza, the whole party advanced +swiftly and silently without meeting a human being, and turned down the +open space where Don Gregorio had met his horrid fate. As the dreadful +scene rose to Isabella's memory, she could not repress a faint +exclamation of horror, and hurried with increased speed down the narrow +pathway on the edge of the cliff, to escape from the hideous +recollection. Just as they were emerging from their narrow and crooked +path into the street that terminated in the blind passage through the +wood, they were startled by the regular, heavy tread of soldiers, +apparently approaching them. It was a small patrol of a corporal and +three men from the barrack at the water side, but who were not connected +with the guard in the plaza. As they drew nigh, the party stood +perfectly still, except that one of the tars drew forth his jack-knife, +and another picked up a moderate-sized stone, observing in a whisper +that if they came too nigh, he would try which was the hardest, a +Spaniard's scull or that "ground nut," as he designated the stone which +he held in his hand. The soldiers, however, passed on without seeing +them, and in a few seconds their footsteps became inaudible. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + "She is won: we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; + They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar. + + MARMION. + + +The liberated seamen once more pushed forward, no longer guided by +Isabella, who had got as far as her knowledge of the place extended, and +were again, in nautical language, "brought up all standing." A priest, +returning from the death-bed of one of his flock, saw them gliding along +silently and in "Indian file." His head being full of good wine, death, +the devil, &c., and the place enjoying moreover the reputation of being +haunted, his imagination magnified and multiplied the seven fugitives +into a legion of devils, with horns, tails, and fiery breath complete. +Under this impression he began to thunder forth a Latin form of +exorcism: "In nomine sanctæ Trinitatis et purissimæ Virginis, exorcizo +vos! Apage, Satana! Vade retro, diabole!" &c. &c. in such abominably bad +Latin, that a devil or a ghost of the least classical taste would have +incontinently fled to the Red Sea, without waiting to hear another +syllable of the formula that sent him thither. The bawling of the priest +awoke several of the neighbors, and sundry night-capped heads were +protruded from the windows of the nearest houses; but the proprietors, +catching a glimpse of the objects of the priest's alarm, and not caring +to play bo-peep with the devil, closed and barred their casements, and +betook them to their beads. + +The party glided on in the same swift, silent pace; but the hindmost +sailor, irritated by the continued vociferation of the priest, and +stumbling at that moment over the carcase of a dog that had given up the +ghost a few hours before, seized it by the hind leg, and flung it at the +holy man with such true aim and force, as brought him to the ground. +Luckily the monk swooned away with terror at this unexpected buffeting +in the flesh from Satan, and his noise was consequently stopped. The +next moment the party plunged into the bushy path, and were instantly +lost to the view of the inhabitants, if indeed any were looking after +them. + +Advancing swiftly along the rough path, and losing their way two or +three times, they at length heard the light dash of the surf upon the +sand-beach; but, to their no small alarm, they also plainly heard, from +time to time, the low hum of voices, though their language was not +distinguishable. Fearing the worst, Morton advanced alone to +reconnoitre, notwithstanding Isabella's earnest entreaties not to be +left alone. Moving slowly and cautiously towards the point whence +proceeded the voices, the soft sand rendering his footsteps inaudible, +he approached as near as he durst, and listened for some minutes with +the most fixed attention, to catch a word that would indicate the +character and nation of the speakers, but in vain; and he was on the +point of returning to his friends in despair, when he plainly +distinguished the exclamation, "d----n my eyes," uttered by some one at +no great distance from where he stood. No Sontag or Malibran ever +warbled a note that contained a hundredth part of the sweetness and +music that was comprised in that simple and unsophisticated ejaculation; +it decided in an instant, and beyond all possibility of doubt, who and +what was the speaker. His joy was inconceivable, and he could scarce +refrain from giving vent to it in a loud shout. Returning immediately, +he communicated the joyful intelligence to his friends; and the whole +party, with light hearts and rapid steps, advanced towards the beach. +Just as they stepped from the shade and covert of the bushes, a pistol, +the bright barrel of which glittered in the star-light, was presented to +Morton's breast; and the holder thereof, in a grum voice, commanded him +to "stand!" + +"Heave to, and let's overhaul your papers," continued the speaker, who +was immediately recognized, by the voice, as Jones, the boatswain of the +Albatross. + +"Hush, hush, don't speak so loud; 'tis I, 'tis Morton--Jones, is that +you, my old boy?" + +"God bless you, Mr. Morton, it is you indeed--I thought 'twas a raft of +them thundering sojers bearing down upon us. I've been lying to, under +the lee of this 'ere bush, for this two hours or more, waiting for you." + +The parleying between their "look-out ship," as they called Jones, and +the strangers, attracted the whole party of the Albatross to the spot; +and Morton, to his surprise, found himself and his companions surrounded +by at least thirty well-armed men. His friend Walker, the second mate of +the ship, advanced, and testifying the sincerest affection, welcomed him +once more to liberty and the company of his shipmates. Kind greetings +and hearty welcomes were given by the seamen, in their blunt, +straight-forward way, and not a few jokes were passed upon the four +liberated tars by their light-hearted messmates. + +"I say, Tom Wentworth, how much _grub_ did the Don Degos allow you? a +rat a-piece, or the hind leg of a jackass among the four of you?" + +"Ay," said another, "and Sundays they had a jackass's head stewed in a +lantern, and stuffed with sogers' coats." + +"Yes," said a third, "and green-hide soup three times a week." + +"Seasoned with brick-dust and pig-weeds," said a fourth, "by way of red +pepper and cabbages." + +"Well, never mind what they've had," said old Tom Jones, interposing, +"one thing's sartain, they ha'n't had any steam, that's jist as clear +as mud." + +"You're idle there, old Tom Pipes; we've had as much good wine as we +could lay our sides to. But howsomever, if you've got any white-eye in +that black betty that you're rousing out of your pea-jacket pocket, I +don't much care if I take a drop." + +"Poor children!" said the boatswain, "they've been kept this whole week +in a snug, warm _caliboose_, and they'll catch cold if they're out in +the night air." + +So saying, he offered his junk-bottle of New England to Morton, who +declined it, and it was then passed to his four fellow-prisoners, who +took a long, deliberate, steady aim at the stars through it in +succession. + +By this time the two whale-boats and yawls, that constituted the +flotilla of the shore party, were hauled as close to the beach as the +shoalness of the water would permit, and the embarkation commenced; +Morton carrying the fair Isabella in his arms, and depositing her in the +stern-sheets of the swiftest of the boats, in which he found ample store +of boat-cloaks and pea-jackets to protect her from the night air and +heavy dews. Her attendant, Transita, was about following her mistress, +when Tom Jones, who had no suspicion that there were more than one +"young gentleman" concerned in effecting the escape of his shipmates, +or about taking passage in the ship, laid his huge hand upon her +shoulder, exclaiming, + +"Halloa! shipmate, where are you bound to, if the wind stands?" + +"What are you about there, Jones?" shouted Morton from the boat, +"she--he, I mean, is to go off with us. Take him through the surf." + +"Ay, ay, sir; come, Mr. She--he, just get upon my shoulders, if you +please; come, bear a hand before it snows--there, stow yourself away in +the starn-sheets--there, that's the time of day--shove her bows off, +Sam, and jump aboard--so, pull round your larboard oars--now give way +together." + +Their oars being all muffled, they glided, silently and swiftly, towards +the offing, edging away a little to the south, or farther side of the +bay, to avoid the possibility of observation from the shore. They had +proceeded swiftly for some minutes, and had passed the point on which +the battery stands without speaking a word, when the silence was broken +by Morton,-- + +"Where is the ship, Jones? do you see any thing of her?" + +The boatswain desisted rowing, and, holding his head down as near the +water as possible, looked long and anxiously to the western horizon. + +"I don't see her," said he, "unless that's her, here on our starboard +bow." + +"No, that's the rock." + +By this time the other boats had come up, and all agreed that nothing +could be seen of the ship. After a brief consultation, it was decided +that their safest plan was to continue rowing to the westward, and that +they would be sure of seeing the ship at day-break; whereas if daylight +found them in the bay, they would most assuredly be seen, and chased by +the boats from the shore. + +Isabella, whom most powerful excitement had supported from the prison to +the point of embarkation, had since then, reclining on the stern-sheets +of the boat, and supported by her lover's arms, been in a state of +stupor and silence; her thoughts were in a complete whirl, almost +amounting to delirium; the kind and soothing voice of Morton she +scarcely heard, and she only awoke to consciousness during the short +deliberation just mentioned. In an agony of terror at the doubt and +uncertainty that she heard expressed around her, she uttered the wildest +exclamations, and struggled with Morton and her attendant, who +endeavored in vain to pacify and sooth her. With unspeakable anguish +Morton witnessed, for half an hour, the confusion of her intellects, +till at length she sunk down exhausted, and wept bitterly. At this +moment a voice from the yawl that had gone ahead, shouted, "There she +is!" + +"Where, where?" asked a dozen eager voices. + +"Right ahead." + +Every eye was instantly turned in that direction, and, to their +unutterable joy, they saw, at the distance of about a mile, the light of +a signal-lantern. Every oar was most vigorously plied, and in a few +minutes the headmost boat was greeted with "Boat ahoy!" from Captain +Williams--"Albatross," was the reply, and the boats dashed up to the lee +gangway and fore-chains. + +Isabella, whose buoyant spirit had recovered its spring when she saw the +danger was over, was assisted up the side by her lover and two or three +of the most careful men. As soon as Morton stepped upon deck, he was +caught in the arms of his commander, who was inarticulate from emotion. +Morton, quietly disengaging himself, presented his fair deliverer. The +old seaman folded her in his arms, and kissing her cheek, drew her arm +under his, and conducted her to the cabin, whither they were followed by +Morton. + +Under the superintendence of the second mate and boatswain the boats +were now hoisted up and secured; the ship wore with her head to the +westward, all sails set, and hot coffee, beef, bread, cheese, &c. +provided liberally for the "shore party;" after which the watch was set, +the deck "relieved" by Captain Williams, and the Albatross, with her +white wings expanded, flew rapidly on her course before a fresh easterly +breeze. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Master, let me take you a button hole lower; do you not see, Pompey + is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? you will lose your + reputation. + + LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST. + + +The rising sun the next day beheld the good ship Albatross, under the +impulse of a very gentle breeze, gliding towards the west; the Andes, +over which the sun was darting his levelled beams, were distinctly +visible. The flapping of the topsails against their masts, the pattering +of the reef-points, and the smoothness of the water, indicated an +approaching calm. + +"Go aloft, one of you," said Morton, who was the officer of the morning +watch, "go aloft, and see if you can make out any sail astern of us +under the land." + +The seaman who obeyed this order, after _roosting_ for fifteen or twenty +minutes on the main royal yard, came down and reported that he could see +nothing; but that the sun shone so brightly on the water that, if any +thing was within the range of sight, the reflection of the sunbeams +would render it invisible. Morton could not repress a vague +apprehension that there was some vessel in chace, though it would have +sorely puzzled him to give his whys and wherefores. After having pointed +his glass for the fiftieth time towards the eastern horizon, without +seeing any thing but smooth water and the dim, blue, cloudy-looking +mountains, the man at the wheel notified him that it was "eight bells," +or eight o'clock. Having gone below to compare the watch in the cabin +with the half-hour glass in the binnacle, he returned to the +quarter-deck and called out, + +"Strike the bell eight--call the watch." + +The bell was struck, and one of the watch on deck, after a preliminary +thumping with the large end of a handspike upon the forecastle, +vociferated down the fore scuttle, + +"All the starboard watch, ahoy! Rouse out there, starbowlines--show a +leg or an arm!" + +This last phrase designates the manner in which "turning out" of a +hammock is accomplished, which hammock, a person unacquainted with such +kind of sleeping accommodations, would never dream contained a live man, +until one or the other of the aforementioned limbs was protruded. In a +few minutes the wheel was relieved, and the crew were clustering around +the galley with their tin pots, joking, and laughing, and shouting +"scaldings!" as they hurried forward with their respective allowances of +hot coffee. + +In the mean time the quarter-deck received an accession of company. Mr. +Walker came up the companion-way, gaping and rubbing his eyes, and +carrying his jacket on his arm. With a short "good morning!" to Morton +he threw his jacket upon the hen-coop, proceeded to the lee gangway, +drew a bucket of water, and commenced his morning's ablutions. Captain +Williams next came on deck, and immediately looked round upon the +weather with a troubled and disappointed air, for it was now almost +quite a calm. Mr. Edwards and Dr. Bolton followed him--not that they had +any business on deck, or cared much about leaving the cabin or their +respective state-rooms oftener than was necessary; but it is not, or was +not, in my sea-going days, esteemed genteel for passengers, or any other +"idlers," to stay below while the steward was occupied with the mystery +of arranging the breakfast-table. Lastly, and to the surprise of the +whole company, Isabella, as lovely as the morning, and dressed in the +proper habiliments of her sex, ascended the companion-ladder. She was +greeted with paternal affection by the veteran commander, and with +sparkling eyes and a silent pressure of the hand by Morton. She received +and replied to their congratulations and compliments with crimsoned +cheeks and downcast eyes. The supercargo and doctor, who had, with most +commendable delicacy, kept out of the way the night before, were now +introduced, and after a few minutes of general conversation, the +steward informed Captain Williams that breakfast was ready. + +The whole party, with the exception of Mr. Walker, who was now in his +turn "officer of the deck," accordingly descended to the cabin, where +they found the table covered with coffee and tea, _minus_ milk; cold +salt beef, cut into slices, of a thickness that would horrify a whole +community of fashionable ladies and gentlemen, allowing that so +exceedingly vulgar an article of "provent" as salt beef did not +previously throw them into hysterics as soon as presented to their eyes, +but which slices seemed to have been cut with the prospective intention +of filling up that vacuum that Nature, as far as I am acquainted with +her, seems to abhor more cordially than any other vacuum whatever; that +void space, I mean, that is apt to be found in a healthy human stomach +after a twelve-hour's fast. There was also a broiled chicken for the +express use and behoof of their fair messmate; fried pork and potatoes; +a large dish of fried fish, the produce of a fishing excursion the +afternoon preceding; another of boiled eggs; a third composed of +pilot-bread, soaked in hot water, toasted, and buttered; biscuit, +butter, and cheese. + +Breakfast proceeded much as sea breakfasts generally do--that is to say, +the company ate heartily: even Isabella, who had sufficient excuse for +low spirits and want of appetite, yielded to the demands of hunger the +most unromantic, and, in vulgar language, "spoilt the looks" of the +broiled fowl before her. The meal was drawing to a close, when the +steward came below with information, that Mr. Walker had seen, from the +main topmast head, with his glass, a square-rigged vessel right astern, +and coming up with a fresh breeze. Captain Williams and Morton exchanged +looks of intelligence, but said nothing; their fair passenger, +fortunately, understood not a word of the steward's intelligence; and +the merchant and doctor were of that happy and enviable description of +men, who, when they sit down to a well-furnished table, seem to adopt, +with a slight variation, the sentiment of the poet, + + "Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone, + And let my '_eating_' hours alone," + +The two seamen, however anxious they might feel, finished their +breakfast very composedly, and went on deck without hurry; Morton +recommending to his fair deliverer to remain below for some time. In +half an hour the chace was distinctly visible from the quarter-deck, and +from the peculiar darkness of the water in that direction, it was +evident that she had a good breeze. It was then that conjectures as to +the character of the stranger were numerous, wild, and contradictory; no +one thought for an instant that it was the Venganza, because they had +seen her the day before with her fore-yard down and sent on shore--the +idea that there might possibly be found a spare spar in the dock-yard +that would answer _pro tem_. never, for an instant, presenting itself +to their minds. A few minutes more, however, convinced them that it was +indeed that "terrible ship with a terrible name;" and orders were +immediately given to prepare for action as silently as possible. These +orders were obeyed with joyous alacrity. A feeling of romantic gratitude +to their lovely passenger was accompanied by a most chivalrous +determination to "do or die" in her defence, and these sentiments +pervaded the whole ship's company. Added to this exciting cause was that +natural propensity to strife that Flora Mac Ivor says all men feel when +placed in opposition to each other, or, as Titus Livius Patavinus hath +it, they were "suopte ingenio feroces." + +The clews of the topsails were lashed to the lower yard-arms; the +topsail-yards slung with iron chains; round, grape, and cannister shot +got up from the hold; the boarding-pikes taken down from the racks and +laid at hand; the arm-chests unlocked, and their murderous contents of +muskets, bayonets, pistols, cutlasses, and tomahawks or pole-axes +produced; powder-horns and flasks, for priming the guns, filled and +placed in readiness; rammers, sponges, and priming-wires distributed to +the guns; preventer braces rove, and stoppers for the rigging sent up +into the tops, or placed in different parts of the deck. The carpenter +got ready his shot-plugs and top-maul; the armorer examined the locks of +the fire-arms; the gunner paraded his wads, and opened the magazine +beneath the cabin floor. Morton, to whom Captain Williams had deputed +the charge of the two females, descended to the steerage, attended by +two or three seamen, and hauled all the spare sails out of the +sail-room, with which he formed a small hollow coil in the cable tier. +These sails, being formed into long hard rolls and placed upon the +cables, formed a rampart that, from its non-elasticity, would more +effectually check the progress of a round shot than a greater thickness +of oak plank. + +Having finished the castle, he could not forbear passing into the cabin +to see its future occupant. Isabella received him with a blush and a +smile. + +"What is the meaning of all this noise and bustle overhead?" said she. + +"There is a strange ship in sight," said Morton, after a pause, "and we +are almost sure that she has hostile intentions towards us." Isabella +became pale as marble. "It is, in short, the man-of-war that was in St. +Blas when we left there." + +"Good God!" said the young lady, clasping her hands in agony, "what will +become of us?" + +"Do not allow yourself to be overcome with causeless alarm; we shall, if +possible, run away; but if not, we must resort to certain arguments to +convince her commander and crew of the impropriety and rudeness of their +interfering in an affair that does not concern them." + +"But if we are taken, what will become of you?" + +"I suspect, dearest Isabella, that you will search in vain through the +Albatross to find a single person, man or boy, that is prepared to +admit the probability, nay, even the possibility, of such a conclusion. +We are nominally inferior, but in reality superior, to our antagonist. +In the mean time, I have been preparing a place of safety for you and +Transita, where it is next to impossible that you should be in the way +of danger." + +"But you," said she, looking at him with tearful eyes. + +"My life, my sweet girl, is in the hands of Him that gave it; and to His +watchful care and boundless goodness I cheerfully and confidingly commit +it." + +"But if you are taken--such a thing is at least possible." + +"Such an event is, as you say, possible. In that case, your Mexican +friends must be content to work their revenge upon my dead body, for I +am determined that the living Charles Morton shall never become an +object for Spanish vengeance to exhaust its ingenuity upon. But I must +leave you for the present. I will come below again in a few minutes, to +conduct you to your citadel." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Some writers make all ladies purloined, + And knights pursuing like a whirlwind; + But those, that write in rhyme, still make + The one verse for the other's sake. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +Morton and his companions had left the prison a few minutes past ten +o'clock. It was nearly one when an officer, who was up and passing +through the plaza for certain good reasons best known to himself, +noticed, as he approached the guard-house, that there was an unusual +degree of stillness about it; no sentry challenged as he drew near, and +indeed there seemed to be none on post. Surprised at this, he entered +the porch, or as it is called in New England, the "_pye_-azza," where he +found the sentry seated, as before described, and snoring most lustily. +Him he attempted to awaken by a very summary process; namely, by +tumbling him from his seat upon the ground; but so stupified was the +fellow with the drugged wine that he had drank, that after uttering +certain unintelligible growlings, he again slept and snored. Passing +into the interior, the officer found the corporal and his "brave +compeers" as sound asleep and as motionless as the enchanted +inhabitants of a fairy castle. After bestowing upon them several sound +and hearty kicks, without producing any vivifying effects, he perceived +that the door of the inner room, or prison, was wide open, and the room +itself as empty as--an author's pockets. On further examination he found +a basket, the remains of food, three or four empty bottles and +drinking-cups, one or two full bottles, and a phial containing a small +quantity of dark-colored liquid, with the qualities of which he did not +think it prudent to make himself acquainted by experiment upon his own +person; not possessing a particle of the philosophical courage and zeal +of Sir Humphrey Davy, who gulped down poisonous gases till it became a +matter of astonishment and mystery to his friends, as well as himself, +how he contrived to find his way back into this world, after having +strolled so far beyond its limits. The phial, however ignorant he was of +the nature of its contents, explained, in connection with the empty +bottles, the cause of the death-like sleep of the guard. + +After deliberating for an extremely short space of time (for when a man +has nobody near to bother him with advice, he makes up his mind with +incredible despatch), he concluded that there would be no danger in +leaving the guard-house just as he found it, for sundry reasons; in the +first place, the present circumstances had probably existed some hours; +secondly, as there was nothing there for the guard to watch over but +the empty bottles, &c. said guard might as well sleep as be awake; +thirdly--but by this time he was almost at his excellency's door, and it +was hardly worth while to follow any farther a line of reasons that +threatened to stretch out to the crack of day, if not of doom. After +abundance of vociferating and thumping, he succeeded in rousing the +governor from his slumbers, and bringing him to the window, night-capped +and night-gowned "proper," as the heralds say. His excellency was +thunderstruck at the intelligence, and in a few minutes his household +was in motion. + +His two daughters had no sooner learned that the prisoners had escaped, +than they hastened to the chamber of their cousin, Isabella, to +communicate the joyful intelligence. To their surprise and consternation +no cousin Isabella was to be found; the chamber was in its usual state, +but it was immediately obvious that the bed had not been pressed that +night by its lovely occupant; one or two of the drawers of a bureau, in +which she had formerly kept sundry articles of clothing, were open and +empty; nor was this all; the doors of a little book-case, that stood +upon a table in one corner of the room, and that formerly contained +thirty or forty volumes, were also open, and every volume was gone. + +This circumstance, which at once convinced the two young ladies that +their cousin was decidedly deranged in mind, should have been mentioned +and explained in its proper place. A fortnight previous to Morton's +capture, Isabella consented to put herself under his protection, and +having so done, retired to her chamber to deliberate upon the how and +the what she should take with her. Her jewels, that had been left her by +her mother, or given her by her uncle and other relatives, were +numerous, costly, and easily portable; but jewels, though they ornament +beauty, do not keep it warm. Her drawers were next opened, and sundry +indispensable articles of dress were selected and set aside; but while +she hesitated between certain elegant and valuable dresses and others +more ordinary, that her natural good sense told her were more +appropriate, her eyes rested upon a volume of Milton opened at the +title-page, on which was written her mother's name by that beloved +parent's hand: "My dear mother's books! how could I think of leaving +them behind, or any thing that was ever hers!" She closed her drawers +after having carelessly thrown aside, for "sea-service," the first +dresses that came to hand--her whole thoughts occupied in devising means +to save what, just at that moment, seemed of vastly superior +consequence. The books, by Morton's advice, were subsequently carried, +two or three at a time, to Juanita's house, and thence by him conveyed +carefully on board the Albatross, and safely deposited in his chest. +Having settled this affair so much to her satisfaction, she used the +same means to transport the greater part of her most valuable clothes to +the same place, till the unfortunate capture of her lover made it +necessary to encumber herself and attendant with the remainder, upon the +night of her elopement and their escape. + +I pride myself not a little in being particular in an affair of such +delicacy. Some writers wake their heroines at dead of night, drag them, +half drest, out of a third story chamber window, lead them through a +thousand perils by flood, fire, and field, till the mere matter-of-fact, +common sense reader is convinced that the poor girls had neither a dry +thread nor a clean one upon their persons; and no "change of raiment" so +much as hinted at. I scorn so ungallant an action as to compel _my_ +heroine to make a voyage nearly round the world, or within thirty +degrees of longitude of it, in such a draggle-tailed and sluttish +condition; so that you see, madam, I have made this digression for the +sole purpose of setting your mind at ease on the score of Isabella's +gowns, frocks, hose, and those other articles of the "inner temple" +whose names I dare not even think of, or whose existence it would be +impolite and indelicate to hint at. + +The alarming fact of his niece's absence the governor fortunately did +not learn till morning, or rather till late in the forenoon, he having +gone towards the guard-house before his daughters visited their cousin's +chamber. When arrived there, Don Gaspar was convinced, by examination of +the phial, that the soldiers were under the influence of a most +powerful opiate; and, furthermore, that the prisoners had obtained that +opiate and the wine that it was administered in, from some person out of +the prison who had access to them; and he immediately vowed vengeance +the most signal and summary against the traitor, offering, at the same +time, a large reward for his, her, or their apprehension. Alas, poor +man! he did not know that the traitor was of his own kith and kin, his +own beloved niece. + +His next movement was to send an officer at full gallop to the Venganza, +or rather to the landing place, commanding her captain to despatch boats +to the American ship in the outer harbor, and search for the fugitives. +Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, who had obtained a spare +fore-yard from the dock-yard, rigged and swayed it aloft the night that +he came in, instantly concluded that the escape had been effected by the +American captain, and that the Albatross had immediately sailed. +Impressed with this idea, he weighed anchor forthwith, and, favored by a +fresh breeze from the land, was convinced by eight o'clock that morning +that his conjecture was right. + +How the governor bore the news of his niece's elopement we have never +been able precisely to discover, but have understood vaguely that he +displayed infinitely more warm and tender feelings than he had +heretofore had credit for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXL. + + There was an ancient sage philosopher + That had read Alexander Ross over, + And swore the world, as he could prove, + Was made of fighting and of love. + Just so romances are, for what else + Is in them all but love and battles? + O' the first of these we've no great matter + To treat of, but a world o' the latter. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The breeze that brought the Venganza within sight, was in a very short +time felt likewise by the Albatross; but it gradually hauled to the +southward, thereby giving the American the advantage of the wind, or +weather-gage. Still it was evident that the Spaniard was the superior +sailer, and that he might, if he chose, soon be alongside; but he seemed +to be aware that preparations had been made by the Yankee commander and +his crew to give him a very warm reception. Accordingly he shortened +sail and tacked, with the hope of getting to windward; but in this he +was foiled by the Albatross tacking also, and, in spite of all the +Spaniard's manoeuvring, retaining the advantage that the wind gave +her. + +The crew of the American were all this time quietly leaning on their +guns, and watching the evolutions of their antagonist; and commenting +upon every movement with as much composure as though their own ship was +lying at anchor in a friendly port, and they were only looking at some +ship beating into harbor. + +"That old rattle-trap of a gardy coaster works tolerably well, only +she's a month of Sundays swinging her head-yards, and getting her +fore-tack down," said one of the seamen. + +"You may well say that," said another, "and the same of his main-yard +and main-tack, and jib-sheet to boot." + +"Well, you can't blame him for not being in a hurry," said the +boatswain, "he knows what he'll get when he hooks on to the old +Albatross. When once we get fairly hold on him, I don't ask but half an +hour to do his business for him: fifteen minutes to knock away some of +his sticks, and send him off flanking, and fifteen minutes more to +secure the guns and clear the decks up; and by that time it will be +eight bells, and then we'll have our dinner and our grog, and be all +ready to make sail on our course again." + +"There she goes again! helm's a-tiller, jib-sheet's a-rope, and round +she comes!" + +"Ready about!" shouted Captain Williams, and the crew flew to their +stations. + +Both vessels were now heading to the westward; the Venganza, by superior +sailing and frequent tacking, had gained considerably to windward; and +it was evident that she would soon be alongside, though to leeward. In +this situation of affairs, Captain Williams, seeing that flight was out +of the question, called all hands aft. + +"Lie aft there all of you, hurry aft there, men, at once," repeated the +boatswain, adding, in a lower tone, "the old man's going to read us a +page out of Hamilton Moore." + +The men being all assembled upon the quarter-deck, Captain Williams +advanced, and thus addressed them: + +"Men, you see that fellow yonder that is following on after us, and know +what he wants. He sails rather better than we do, and I don't see how +we're going to get rid of him; and if we don't want to be plagued with +him any longer, why we must fight him, that's all. I don't suppose that +you will fight any the quicker or better for my making a speech to you, +but I want you should know which leg you stand upon. We are nothing but +a merchantman, and I don't suppose you are bound by the ship's articles +to fight unless you see fit, but whether we fight or not, our fate is +the same; if we are such d--d fools as to let that garlic-eating +scarecrow make a prize of us without firing a gun, we shall be sent to +the mines for life; but if we will only stand by each other, I'll be +bail that we give him something that he can't eat. Now if you are all +agreeable to that, say so, and give three cheers for the honor of the +Yankee flag, and we'll fix his flint for him before the cook's dinner is +ready." + +This pertinent harangue was received with three roaring cheers, which +were distinctly heard by the Spaniards, who were thereby convinced that +the Americans were not the sort of men to be frightened into a +surrender; and they, the Spaniards that is, "smelled the battle" by no +means "afar off," but, on the contrary, rather nearer their noses than +was altogether agreeable. + +By way of commentary to his speech, the Yankee commander called to the +steward to "bring up the case bottle, &c. and the molasses jug," +observing, that; "although he knew that the Albatrosses didn't require +any Dutch courage, the sun was over the fore-yard, and it was grog time +in all Christian countries." + +Jones, who by virtue of his office was always foremost at "splicing the +main-brace," having compounded a tolerably stiff tumbler of blackstrap, +turned to his shipmates, prefacing with the invariable commencement of a +sailor's toast, + +"_Here's hoping_ that every shot we fire will make work for the doctor +or carpenter." + +This pithy "sentiment," as it would be called at the present day, was +received with vast applause; and, having finished their grog, +interspersed with similar toasts, the men quietly returned to their +quarters. + +During this scene Morton descended to the cabin and conducted his fair +charge to her Gibraltar in the steerage. Isabella, weeping bitterly, +clung to him, and Morton's heart, softened by the tears of one whom he +loved so tenderly, seemed divested of all the elasticity of young hope +and courage, and he began to regard the _possibility_ of his being +killed or taken prisoner as a _probability_; but he resisted the +fast-coming weakness, and, pressing her to his bosom, tore himself from +her arms, and hurried upon deck. Isabella was attended and consoled in +her retirement by her faithful servant Transita, her "fidus Achates." + +I hope my fair and also my classical readers will pardon me for giving +the masculine title and name of a hero of antiquity to a lady's maid; +but I could think of no other. History has immortalized Achates as a +single friend, and Pylades and Orestes, and Damon and Pythias, as pairs +of attached and inseparable friends; but, alas! neither ancient nor +modern history has recorded the name of a single female, whose +friendship was sufficiently ardent and pure to become proverbial. Even +the Helena and Hermia of Shakspeare, whose friendship is so touchingly +described by one of them, were not only imaginary creations of the +poet's brain; but, as if to prove the impossibility of friendship +existing between two ladies, he has made them actually pull caps in the +very first act of the play in which they are introduced. + +By this time the Venganza had ranged up within speaking distance, and +hailed: + +"Send the prisoners that you brought from San Blas on board my ship." + +"We have no prisoners here--we are all freemen," was the answer. + +"Send your first officer and the four men that were with him on board +this ship, or I will fire into you." + +"Well, I guess, then, you'll have to fire; for I can't spare either +officer or men," replied Captain Williams drily. + +"I repeat, for the last time, give up those men, or I will fire." + +"Come after them yourself, then," roared back the irritated Yankee, +losing all patience. + +"D--n my buttons!" said Jones, from the midship or "slaughter-house" +gun, "he'd better come aboard starn foremost, then, so's to be all ready +for a run." + +Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, although a brave man, +and one who had "done the state some service," by no means liked the +aspect of affairs. He had had frequent opportunities of seeing the crew +of the Albatross, and knew that, with the exception of Captain Williams, +there was not a man on board over forty years of age; that they were all +stout, active, powerful men, warmly attached to their officers, and +living in perfect harmony with each other; that her guns were of uniform +calibre--namely, nine pounders, and consequently no confusion could +take place respecting cartridges or shot: on the other hand, he was a +Spaniard, the first lieutenant a Portuguese; and the second a Frenchman; +of three different nations, and three different dispositions, they never +agreed: he knew, too, that his crew was composed of a few Spaniards, a +few Portuguese, and the rest Chilians, Peruvians, and Mexicans, negroes, +mulattoes, and Indians, quarrelling and stabbing from morning till +night; that his guns were of all sorts, from twelve to four pounders +inclusive; that, although he numbered eighty on board his ship, thirty +well-armed men from the Albatross would take his ship from him in less +than five minutes, if they were thrown upon his deck during the action. +Under all these circumstances, he felt somewhat loth to commence +operations, till, after considerable time had elapsed since Captain +Williams's last angry reply, he took heart of grace, and opened an +irregular and harmless fire. + +"Thank God! he has spoken at last," said old Jones; "I was afraid he +meant to keep us standing here, like mum-chance in a picture-shop, till +seven bells in the afternoon with our hands in our pockets." + +"Keep fast every thing," shouted the American Captain; "don't fire yet." + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered the captains of the guns with perfect composure. + +"Jemmy Bush," said the boatswain to one of his gun's crew, as he +squinted along its side, "I'll bet you as much as you and I can drink, +the first port we get into, that I hit that fellow's foremast the first +shot." + +"The devil thank you," said the tar; "'tisn't twenty yards from the +muzzle of your gun." + +"Starboard your helm--keep her away a little," said Captain Williams; +"stand by--now's your time--fire!--luff! luff again!" + +"Luff it is, sir," said the helmsman very deliberately. + +The double-shotted broadside of the Albatross was followed by three +thundering cheers. Her fire, although not exactly a raking one, had +crossed the Spaniard's deck very obliquely, and the smoke blowing off +immediately, gave the Americans an opportunity of seeing some of the +effects of their shot. Two of the Venganza's foremost guns had been +dismounted, and all the men stationed at them killed or wounded; there +were huge gaps in her bulwarks; several of her weather fore-shrouds were +shot away; and about ten feet from the deck there appeared upon the side +of her foremast a large hole, caused by two or more shot striking nearly +in the same place, and tearing off large splinters. There was silence +for a few seconds, interrupted only, on board the Albatross, by the +punching and thumping of rammers, as her crew were busily reloading +their guns. + +Mr. Walker, with the doctor and supercargo, all capital shots, +constituted the marines or small-arm men of the ship. The doctor was +not, however, unmindful of his medical duties; for he had prepared a +place between decks, down the fore hatchway, where he had paraded his +medicine-chest, instruments, and dressings; and, leaving them in charge +of the cook, who acted as surgeon's mate _pro tem._, he went on deck +with his rifle, and was seen on the quarter-deck, with a case of pocket +instruments tucked into the bosom of his jacket, loading, and firing, +and bringing down a Spaniard at every discharge; for, like Apollo of +old, who is represented as a good shot as well as a good doctor, he +could send an enemy to his long home with a rifle-ball, or physic a +friend with such success as might thereafter ensue: + + "Mighty he was at both of these, + And styled of war as well as peace." + +It has never been our lot to take part in a naval engagement as an +agent, and we are thankful for it; for we are convinced, upon strong +internal evidence, of our cowardice; but we have been present at sundry +such actions, at a safe distance, as a spectator; and, from what we saw, +we can venture to assure our readers, that, when two ships or fleets are +exchanging their iron salutations, whether at long shot or close +quarters, there is nothing peculiarly interesting to a mere spectator in +the scene. + +Isabella and her attendant had, all this time, remained quiet, but +dreadfully frightened as soon as the firing commenced. Finding, after +the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, that no danger had as yet come +near them, they became more composed; the former most earnestly and +sincerely imploring Divine protection, both for herself and for those +who were exposed to danger for her sake. Still she could not avoid +listening eagerly to every voice that was to be heard in the short +intervals of comparative stillness. + +The action had been now carried on between the two vessels nearly half +an hour, at a distance of about forty yards, when a twelve-pound shot +passed through the Albatross's larboard quarter, and, encountering the +steward's pantry in its progress, made such a fearful jingling with the +crockery ware, tin coffee-pots, and earthen jugs, that, overcome with +extreme terror, both females left their city of refuge, and ran hastily +up the after-hatchway ladder, and presented themselves on the +quarter-deck. Just as they reached the deck, a shower of grape-shot flew +whistling across the ship, one of which, passing through the +hammock-nettings, struck a seaman in the forehead, and scattered his +blood and brains in all directions. He reeled backwards two or three +yards, and fell dead at Isabella's feet. Captain Williams immediately +drew her away from the ghastly spectacle, and gave orders to carry the +body forward on the other side of the deck. He then attempted to prevail +upon her to go below; but she was too much terrified to listen to him, +nor did she seem to understand him. After a minute or two, she became +more composed, and eagerly inquired for Morton. Being informed that he +was on the forecastle and unhurt, and doing his duty like a brave man +and a good seaman, she expressed the most lively gratitude to Heaven, +and permitted Captain Williams to conduct her to the starboard side, +which was farthest from the enemy, and in great measure sheltered from +shot by the long-boat and by the spare spars, &c. stowed amidships. + +By this time the crew of the Venganza, as is often the case with cowards +when driven to desperation, had become perfectly frantic, and also +mutinous. With furious execrations, they compelled Captain Pinto to make +a desperate attempt to board the American ship, and decide the action. +For this purpose the helm of the guarda-costa was put hard down, and she +immediately ran on board the Albatross, her bowsprit passing over that +ship's larboard gangway, and coming in contact with the fore part of her +mainmast, to which it was instantly lashed firmly by Mr. Walker, Jones, +and two or three of the nearest seamen. In this state she was exposed to +a murderous raking fire of grape and cannister shot, from such of the +Albatross's guns as could be brought to bear upon her. Notwithstanding +this, the Spaniards mustered in considerable force upon and about the +heel of the bowsprit and cat-heads, armed with pistols, knives, and +cutlasses. The Americans caught up their ten-foot boarding-pikes, and +presented an impenetrable hedge of steel points; but, although his crew +was fearfully thinned by a well directed discharge of canister-shot and +bags of musket-balls from the two midship guns of the Albatross, Captain +Pinto, at the head of about fifty men, the sole remnant of the original +eighty, persisted in his attempt to board; and five or six of the most +desperate actually "effected a lodgement," as militarists call it, in +the main shrouds, where they were instantaneously transfixed by the long +pikes of the Yankees, and fell shrieking into the water. At this moment +the doctor, who had hitherto been engaged in dressing the hurts of the +few wounded that thought proper to visit him in his temporary cockpit, +hearing the bustle, caught up his rifle, and hastened to the _other_ +field of his usefulness. + +"Here, doctor, doctor!" shouted old Jones as soon as he saw him, "here's +a chance for you! here's the Spanish skipper looking as savage as a +Yankee meat-axe--Gad! if you don't bear a hand, he'll cut his own +throats, for want of some of ours." + +"Where, where?" said the knight of the pillbox, skipping upon a gun. + +"There, that notomy-looking thief with a sword two fathom long in his +fist. Give him a blue pill, doctor; he looks as though he was billy-us." + +The doctor raised his rifle--and Captain Diego Pinto, commander in his +Most Catholic Majesty's navy, slept with his fathers. + +A heavier sea than ordinary, a moment after this, lifted the Albatross, +and forced her ahead: the bowsprit of her antagonist snapped close to +the knight-heads; but, being held by the lashing, the guarda-costa was +towed along, till a blow or two of a pole-axe severed the rope that +connected the two vessels, and she dropped astern. The desperate and +frantic courage of the Spaniards died with their commander; their first +lieutenant had received a slight splinter-wound in the foot at the first +fire of the Albatross, in consequence of which he went below, and had +not been seen on deck since; the second lieutenant's orders were not +attended to; and all was anarchy and confusion on board. A few minutes +after she drifted from the Albatross, her foremast, already badly +crippled and no longer supported by the bowsprit, fell over the larboard +bow, dragging down with it the main topmast. At this the Yankees +cheered. The Albatross soon after wore ship, and stood to the westward. +Upon mustering the crew, it was ascertained that but one man was killed, +and eight more or less wounded; her sails and rigging were much cut up; +and the services of all hands were immediately put in requisition, to +repair damages, and put the ship in condition to proceed on her voyage. + +The first intelligence of the victory was conveyed to Isabella by Morton +himself. As he approached her place of refuge with his head bound up +with a bloody handkerchief, having received a slight wound in the left +temple from a splinter, she uttered a scream of terror, and it was long +before she could be convinced that the wound was trifling. As lady +passengers are of no great use on deck when the ship's sails and rigging +are hanging about her ears, she was conducted once more below. + +In the mean time Jones, as he trudged backwards and forwards, thought he +saw something amiss about the galley, which he entered, and a moment +after backed out, exclaiming, + +"D--n my two-and-twenty top-lights! if this here doesn't beat all my +going down east!" + +"What's the matter, Jones? what are you swearing about now?" + +"Swearing? it's enough to make a minister pull off his wig, and rip +right out in the middle of his sarmont!" + +"Well, what _is_ the matter?" + +"Matter? why d--n my old shoes, Captain Williams, here is one of that +bloody Don Dego's shot gone right through the galley-door, and through +the side of the big copper, and knocked all the beef and hot water +galley-west. By the piper that played before Moses when the children of +Israel danced through the wilderness, I never see such a thing since I +first went to sea, and I've seen shot fired afore to-day. And here's my +two sweet potatoes," he continued, groping in the coppers with the +cook's ladle, "that I popped in just as that fellow come alongside, all +knocked to pieces. Here he is, d--n his eyes!" holding out a +twelve-pound shot in his ladle; "here's the thundering thief that's +spoilt our dinner, Captain Williams, stowed away in the bottom of the +copper, as snug as a flea in a soger's blanket. The curse of the twelve +geese that eat the grass off o' Solomon's grave upon you!" With these +words he threw the shot overboard, and turned to Captain Williams with a +most rueful countenance. + +"Well, Jones, it's devilish unlucky I own, but I guess we can make out a +dinner for to-day, and perhaps the armorer can patch it so that it will +answer till we can get to Canton," + +"I hope so, sir," said Jones, with a deep sigh; "for if we don't have +our reg'lar-cooked grub, we'll all get the scurvy, as sure as the +devil's in London; though for that matter, I've been pretty much all +over Lunnun, and never see nor heard nothin' on him, unless so be he's +in the Tower, or the king's palace, or some one of them thunderin' great +churches; and I've seen about all there was to be seen there, unless it +may be them three places. But in my way of thinking, a ship might a d--d +sight better go to sea without a medicine-chist, than without her proper +cooking-utensils and coppers; because why? if a man don't get his +reg'lar grub, his bowels gets out o' trim, and he gets belly-us, as our +doctor calls it." + +"Well, well, if we can't do any better, we'll burn out the big +pitch-pot, and make a shift with that till we arrive in China." + +"Aye, that indeed, so we can. By the hook-block! how our two snow-balls +of cooks will swear! Well, thank God for every thing but bread, and +that we get o' the baker." So saying, he rolled off towards the +forecastle, to superintend the knotting of one of the fore shrouds, that +had been shot away in the engagement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + But now, t' observe romantic method, + Let bloody steel awhile be sheathed: + And all those harsh and rugged sounds + Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds, + Exchanged to Love's more gentle style, + To let our reader breathe awhile. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The damages done on board the Albatross were all repaired before sunset; +the dead body of the poor fellow that was killed was committed to its +watery tomb with becoming solemnity, and by the next morning the +north-east trade-wind was blowing fresh and steady, and, as it usually +does in both the Atlantic and Pacific, from almost due east. The ship, +with booms rigged out and studding-sails set on both sides, dashed +swiftly towards the west, rolling almost gunwales under at every motion, +and initiating the two females into all the mysteries of sea-sickness. +However, in two or three days the sea, that is always heaviest near the +land, subsided into the long, regular undulation peculiar to the ocean, +properly so called, and Isabella recovered from her sea-sickness, and, +by keeping as much as possible in the open air, and walking the deck +almost constantly, assisted at first by the arm of some one of the +gentlemen, soon got her _sea-legs_ on. + +I would substitute some other phrase, if, by so doing, I could make +myself intelligible; but as the case is, it is impossible to mince the +matter--fashion has not yet, thank God, invaded the "Dictionary of +Sea-Terms;" and ladies, when off soundings, must still be content to +have "legs" like other folks--on shore they may vote it indecent to have +even "ankles," for aught I care. + +Captain Williams, having neither missionaries nor tracts on board, did +not stop at the Sandwich Islands, nor did he even pass within sight of +them; but holding on his course, on the fortieth day after leaving St. +Blas, he saw Cape Espiritu Santo, the southern extremity of the island +of Lugonia, or Lucon, one of the Philippine Islands. Passing through the +Straits of Samar, he changed his course to the northward and westward, +and steered for Macao, where he arrived six days afterwards. + +The passage across the Pacific Ocean afforded the two lovers numerous +moonlight quarter-deck walks. Morton, as first officer, had the first +watch, from eight to twelve, every other night, and on these occasions +was invariably accompanied by his fair bride elect, who, wrapped in a +cloak or great coat, walked the deck leaning upon his arm; or, seated +upon the hen-coop, listened with interest to his descriptions of +American, or, more properly, New England, scenery, manners, and history; +or gazed upon that lovely object, a moon-lit ocean in fine weather. + +There is something peculiarly soothing in this scene--something in the +soft light of the heavens, and in the dark and dimly-seen ocean, that +induces a pleasing melancholy, a pensive tranquillity; the low, gentle +murmuring of the waves calms the mind, tranquillizes its angry passions +and boisterous feelings, and brings on those dreamy reveries that +contemplative people are so fond of indulging. It is then, when the +"grim-visaged" ocean has "smoothed his wrinkled front,"--when the winds +of heaven are hushed to gentle airs, and the cloudless moon looks down +upon the scene, tipping the crests of the lazy waves with silver,--that +the memory and imagination of the wanderer are busy; it is then that the +scenes of childhood and of manhood--the forms of friends, more loved +because sundered from them by thousands of miles of water and land--all +rise before him in original freshness and beauty. + +Isabella also proposed to her lover to accompany him in his middle +watch--that is, from midnight to four in the morning--but I grieve to +say, that she proved worse on these occasions than an old man-of-war's +man, not only "standing two calls," but, in fact, not "turning out" at +all. She made some amends, however, by coming on deck at four o'clock +frequently, to witness that splendid spectacle, sunrise at sea, which is +particularly glorious between the tropics, not only on account of the +extreme purity of the air, but from the shortness of the morning +twilight; the sun rushing so suddenly from his salt water couch, as to +come "within one" of catching the stars napping. + +On arriving at Macao, Isabella was doomed to undergo another separation +from her beloved Morton, whose qualities of head and heart she had had +sufficient opportunities of studying and appreciating during the voyage +from Mexico, and in the daily and familiar intercourse of a +merchant-ship's cabin. As the Chinese eschew the society of foreign +women even more rigorously than the children of Israel did that of +"strange" ones--and, taking this notion of theirs "by and large" in +connection with their laws, and manners, and tastes, we think they are +perfectly right--Isabella was consequently landed at Macao, and placed +in the care of a venerable and highly respectable Portuguese family, and +after having arranged the means of as regular a correspondence as could +be carried on in that country, where there are not quite so many +mail-coaches and post-offices as with us, she saw with tearful eyes the +whale-boat "shove off," containing in its stern-sheets Morton, a Chinese +custom-house mandarin, two Chinese pigs, a hind-quarter of Chinese beef, +a Chinese river pilot, and sundry baskets of Chinese fowls and +vegetables. + +Macao is beautifully situated upon a small island, near the mouth of the +river Tigris, commanding a fine view towards the sea, and was, when I +had the fortune to visit it, very clean and neat in its streets and the +external condition of its houses--a circumstance the more remarkable, as +its inhabitants are Portuguese and Chinese, two of the dirtiest people +on the face of the earth: to these, of course, numerous other nations +and parts of nations may be added; and among them, a very large +proportion of the aristocratic and fastidious English, who prefer +spitting in their pocket-handkerchiefs instead of the fire-place or the +street; all the Spaniards; all the French in their houses, and food, and +furniture; all the Dutch in their persons; all the Russians in every +thing; nearly all the Irish and Scotch; and a very respectable modicum +of my beloved countrymen, the Yankees, together with the greater part of +the natives of the southern states, who, being nursed, brought up, and +associating with negro slaves from the cradle to the grave, _smell_ +dirty, if they are not. + +After an absence of about six weeks, Isabella one morning received a +letter from Canton, informing her that the ship would commence "working" +down the river that day, or, according to the date of the letter, two +days previous, and that she would be off Macao on the second or third +day from said date. Accordingly she made all necessary preparations for +another and much longer voyage, and after dinner walked down to the +water-side, accompanied by her Portuguese friends. They had been on the +look-out for nearly half an hour, when a large ship hove in sight, +evidently from Canton. + +As she approached, steering apparently direct for the town, she suddenly +tacked and stood out to sea, or directly away from it. The party had +already made out with their glasses that the ship was indeed the +Albatross; but poor Isabella, who had seen, on her passage from Mexico, +nothing but fair winds, was exceedingly distressed by this last +unintelligible manoeuvre. Were they actually going away without +her?--the thought was agony. The ship, that was but four miles off when +first seen, was now at least eight, and her hull was fast sinking below +the line of direct vision. Her companions, who had hitherto been +occupied in silently admiring that most splendid effort of human genius, +a ship under full sail, were suddenly startled by an exclamation +betokening extreme anguish from their lovely friend--"They have gone! +they have gone!" sobbed the unhappy girl. The most affectionate +kindness, and the most earnest assurances that the apparently +unaccountable movement of the ship was no more than was absolutely +necessary from the direction of the wind, were equally lost upon +her--she "would not be comforted." In a few minutes the Albatross hove +in stays (you need not hold your fan to your face, madam), and seemed to +approach the shore as rapidly as she had before receded from it. + +"Look up, my dear child," said M. de Silva; "see, your ship is flying +in, and will soon be safely at anchor." + +Isabella raised her head from the shoulder of Madam de Silva, and +applying the glass to her tear-dimmed eye, was convinced of the folly of +her grief. They sat down to watch the gallant ship as she rapidly +approached the "roads." Before the sun was hid behind the hills in the +rear of the town, they had the pleasure of seeing the Albatross commence +reducing her sails; presently the topsails were clewed up, and the jib +hauled down, the ship "rounded to," her anchor let go, and in a moment +the men were seen clustering upon the lower and topsail yards. A minute +or two afterwards Isabella plainly distinguished, by the help of her +glass, the well-known whale-boat sweeping round the ship's stern, and +rowing swiftly towards the shore. A deep blush announced that the glass +had also informed her who was, in midshipman's language, the "sitter," +the person in the stern-sheets, to wit, and she immediately proposed +returning to the house. Morton, on landing, informed her that the ship +would get under weigh the next morning at day-break, and that it would +be most advisable, as the ship could approach no nearer than five miles +to the town when beating out of the bay, to go on board as soon as +possible that evening, to which she, of course, assented, and, having +taken an affectionate leave of her Macao friends, who insisted upon +supplying her with "sea-stores" enough to fit out half a dozen sail of +Liverpool packets, she accompanied Morton to the boat. + +The next morning at day-break she was startled from her slumbers by the +clanking of the windlass-pauls, the voices of the officers, and the +tramp of feet over her head; and, in a few minutes after, the rushing of +the water under the cabin windows, and the "heeling" of the ship, +announced that they were under weigh, and dashing out to sea with a +fresh breeze. The passage home was, like most passages _from_ the East +Indies and China, rather monotonous from the long continuance of fair +winds. Isabella gazed with delight upon the unrivalled scenery of the +Straits of Sunda, where spring, summer, and autumn reign perpetually in +a sort of triumvirate; the same field, nay, in some cases, the same +tree, presenting, at one and the same time, blossoms, green fruit, and +ripe fruit: infancy, maturity, and decay. She saw, too, in the night the +volcano on the Island of Bourbon, afterwards False Cape and Table +Mountain, but not the Flying Dutchman, the weather being unfortunately +too fine to induce him to put to sea. Next came St. Helena, since so +famous as the cage and then the tomb of that most furious and terrible +of wild beasts, a great conqueror. Near the fifth degree of north +latitude, the south-east trade-wind died away, and was succeeded by four +days of light, variable, "baffling" winds, when the north-east trade set +in strong from about east-by-north, its usual point near the equator, +and they once more flew joyously on their north-west course. A few +"regular built" _Mudian_ (i. e. Bermudan) squalls served to vary the +scene, and rendered the strong, steady gale from south-west, that +succeeded them, peculiarly acceptable. + +It was just sunrise one lovely morning, near the last of July, when +Morton, who had the morning watch, directed one of the men to go aloft, +and "take a look round." The seaman had gotten no higher than the +fore-topsail-yard, when he shouted "land ho!" at the very top of his +throat. + +"Where away?" + +"Broad on the larboard bow." + +"What does it look like?" + +"Low, white sand-beach." + +"Cape Cod, by the mortal man that made horn spoons and poop lanterns!" +said Jones, springing into the fore-rigging. + +As the sun climbed higher in the heavens, the liquid blue plain appeared +thickly studded with the white sails of vessels of all descriptions, and +all steering to the westward. There was the majestic ship from India or +Liverpool; brigs from the Mediterranean, from Portugal, South America, +and the West Indies; schooners from the southern states, with flour, and +from Maine, with boards; packet sloops from New York, Philadelphia, &c.; +chebacco-boats from fishing on "Georgis;" and schooner-rigged +pilot-boats, darting about under jib and mainsail, and boarding every +vessel that carried the star-spangled "jack" at her +fore-topgallant-mast head. Nothing could surpass the tranquil life of +the scene: more than a hundred vessels, of all descriptions, were +gradually but rapidly approaching a common focal point, the narrow +entrance of Boston harbor, under the impulse of a fresh breeze from the +south-east, that had not as yet brought forward its accompanying fogs and +haze. The Albatross, her thin masts clothed from trucks to deck with +snow-white canvass, dashed rapidly up the bay, the jack flying at her +fore-royal-mast head, passing the low-decked molasses-loaded brigs from +the West Indies, or the faster sailing topsail-schooners from the +Chesapeake, inquiring the news, and furnishing matter for speculation to +their crews. + +On the passage from China to Boston, Morton expressed some impatience, +particularly during the prevalence of calms or head winds; but Isabella, +like all young ladies similarly situated, was perfectly composed. Why is +it, dear dissemblers, that you always _seem_ to enter the holy state +with either reluctance or lukewarm indifference? when every body, with +half a head, _knows_ that matrimony is the "hoc erat in votis," the +grand object of all your wishes. Strange! that the laws of female +modesty should decree it absolute indelicacy for a girl candidly to show +her preference for a particular individual before the rest of his sex. +Strange! that modern mothers should uniformly caution their daughters +against marrying for love, as the most dangerous rock in their voyage +through life. Solomon could find but four strange things in his day, and +those four I do not care to repeat; if he had lived in these times, he +might find a hundred and fifty connected with a single matrimonial +engagement. + +The Albatross arrived at Long Wharf early in the afternoon; and Morton, +having deposited his dear messmate and watchmate in the house of a +widowed sister of his father, went in search of a messenger to convey a +letter to his father; for, unless I am much misinformed, the mail only +went at that time once a week to New Bedford. + +Though not "so terrible old" as I might be, I recollect when a journey +from Boston to Providence, a distance _then_ of forty-five miles, +occupied three days: namely, the traveller, leaving Boston in the +morning, arrived at Deadham about sunset, and "put up" at the "Gay +tavern," or the "Widow Woodward's;" the second _hitch_ carried him to +Attleborough; and the third evening saw him snugly seated in the +bar-room of the "Old Coffee House," Providence. But a journey to New +York, as it was generally supposed that the traveller must "go down to +the sea in ships" part of the way, that is, through Long Island Sound in +a sloop, was one of the most momentous events of a long life. The +traveller "concluded" upon it in the fall, occupied the entire winter +and the months of March and April in collecting his dues, paying his +debts, setting his house in order, and making his will, before the +weather was settled. + +Two Sundays before starting, a note was "put up" in his parish +meeting-house, "desiring prayers," and early on Monday morning, to be +sure of reaching Providence before the next Sabbath, he took a weeping +farewell of his wife and family, and turned his horse's head towards the +"neck," and his bereaved household betook them to their chambers, +"sorrowing as those that had no hope" of seeing him again. + +Morton's messenger, spurred on by the hopes of high pay, made such +diligence that he actually arrived at Taunton the first night, the +selectmen of which fair town were so indignant at what they conceived +barbarous and unparalleled hard driving, that they talked of prosecuting +the man; but it appearing from the report of a court of inquiry of +ostlers that the horse did not seem distressed by his day's work, but +had fallen to work upon his oats and hay, they "withdrew their motion." + +Old Mr. Morton received the news of his son's arrival with the greatest +joy. He sat out the next day in his own carriage, drawn by two noble bay +horses, and arrived without "let or hindrance" in Boston. He expected to +find Isabella a girl possessed of some considerable beauty, just +sufficient to captivate a seaman who for months had seen no women more +attractive than the squaws of the North-West Coast or South Sea +Islands; and sailors, under such circumstances, are exceedingly +susceptible, _me ipso testi_; he had made up his mind, too, that she +could be no other than ignorant and ill-bred withal. When, then, her +exquisite beauty, her lovely, retiring modesty of manner, free alike +from affectation or sheepishness, her expressive and eloquent features, +all burst upon his view at once, his heart was taken "by storm,"--he +clasped her to his bosom, and felt towards her in an instant as warm +affection as though she was indeed his own child. The banns of matrimony +were published immediately, after the manner of the descendants of the +pilgrim roundheads, and the marriage solemnized as soon as the legal +time had elapsed; and the happy party took up their abode in old Mr. +Morton's house. + +Morton's female friends and acquaintance at first seemed amazingly shy +of the new-comer; but at a "numerous and highly respectable" petticoated +caucus, a forlorn hope, after repeated declensions of the honor, was +chosen to make the first "call." Their report was so very favorable that +the newly-married couple were, in less than a fortnight, rather annoyed +by too much company. + +On the passage from Mexico to China, and thence home, Isabella had, in +vulgar phrase, "taken a liking" to Jones, the boatswain, and formed, +what was probably conceived, at that time, the visionary plan of +breaking him from his intemperate habits. She communicated her scheme to +her husband shortly after their marriage, who most cheerfully coincided +in opinion with her. Jones was accordingly sent for, and regularly +installed in the family. The eloquent representations of Mrs. Morton, +and the promises of her husband and his father, had the wished-for +effect--the old tar consented to "give up grog," and did so, making +exceptions only in favor of the "glorious first of June," the +anniversary of Lord Howe's victory off Ushant, at which Jones was +present, the fourth of July, _'lection_ days, Thanksgiving days, and the +birth of Mrs. Morton's first child. This last event took place, by what +modern editors call a "singular coincidence," upon the first of June +ensuing; and Jones was sorely puzzled how to "keep up" both days, and, +in consequence, got very considerably "corned." It was, however, his +last offence; he gradually adopted the temperate habits of the family, +and continued in them to his death. + +We have no farther particulars to communicate, except that Charles +Morton was taken into partnership by his father, and became wealthy, and +that his wife wrote a long and kind letter to her uncle, which was +forwarded by the captain of an outward-bound whaleman, who delivered it +into his own hands. The old Don did not answer it, however; and +Isabella, in whose heart other affections had taken root, was not, +perhaps, much grieved or indignant at his silence; the affection of her +husband, her children, and her friends, soon obliterated all melancholy +recollections. + + + + + * * * * * + + THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO. + + * * * * * + + + + + THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + _Gonzalo._ Had I a plantation of this isle, my lord, And were the + king of it, what would I do? + + _Sebastian._ 'Scape getting drunk, for want of wine. + + TEMPEST. + + +In the Pacific Ocean, and within two days' sail of the coast of Chili, +lies the little island of Masafuero, or, as the word is generally +divided by the Spaniards who discovered it, Mas-a-fuero--that is, the +farthest--to distinguish it from Juan Fernandez, which lies nearer the +main land, and in sight of Masafuero. Juan Fernandez is well known to +all the reading community as having once been the temporary residence of +Alexander Selkirk, the original, or, as grammarians would call it, the +_root_, of De Foe's bewitching romance of Robinson Crusoe. + +Masafuero is, on the contrary, remarkable for nothing more, that I know +of, than being very difficult of access, and overrun with wild goats. It +is situated in the latitude of thirty-three degrees and forty-five +minutes, south, and eighty degrees and thirty-six minutes, west +longitude; for I love to be particular in all such cases--not that I +suppose my readers care a pin if I had told them it was in the +south-west horn of the new moon; but all authors, when they put pen to +paper, seem actuated by the kind and neighborly spirit of the sagacious +Dogberry--namely, to "bestow all their tediousness" upon their readers; +and I do not know that I have any prescriptive right--I am sure I have +no intention--to depart from so well-worn a track, or to fly in the face +of so many illustrious precedents. + +This island is covered, from the water's edge to the summit, with trees, +and it is only for the sake of wood that it is ever visited by our +whalemen, who fell the trees on the brink of steep cliffs, and tumble +them down, by which process they are broken up into sufficiently short +pieces to render their carriage convenient. There are evident traces of +most tremendous earthquakes visible throughout the island; huge fissures +and rents from the tops of the highest hills to unknown and unexplorable +depths, vast scattered masses of rock that have been shaken down from +the cliffs, and many other similar appearances, announce that the most +terrific convulsions of nature have rendered Masafuero a very unquiet +residence, even to the poor goats, at different times. In its external +appearance, and when seen at some distance, it bears considerable +resemblance to the celebrated Isle of St. Helena, and is, like it, +exceeding precipitous, and has but one approachable, and not always +accessible, landing-place. Of this last trait in its character I can +speak from experience and most feelingly, having visited the island in +the year 1821, in a small brig, with the intention of getting off nine +men, who had been left there some time previous for the purpose of +collecting seal-skins, with which the island abounds, as well as with +goats. Our attempt was rendered fruitless by the violence of the wind, +which, for the time it lasted, exceeded any thing I had ever seen, +except a _typhon_ in the China seas, and _one_ north-wester off +Nantucket shoals. + +Some of the men, whom I afterwards saw, informed me that they had, +during their abode there, planted sundry garden seeds, such as beans, +pumpkin, squash, and onion seeds; but this item of intelligence I look +upon to be somewhat apocryphal; at any rate, I would not recommend to +any one, who may chance to visit said island, to save his stomach for +any pumpkin pies or baked beans he may obtain from it. There is +undoubtedly fertile soil enough for a garden--but then the goats. + +The island also enjoys the reputation of having once been the rendezvous +of a gang of pirates, as a house, that has stood untenanted for any +length of time, is sure to be peopled with ghosts. People seem to think +it a pity that a tenement should remain unoccupied, so, out of sheer +compassion for the proprietor, they stock it with unearthly tenants from +roof to cellar, or like--for, now I am in the humor for comparisons, I +might as well go on--it was like a man who keeps his business to himself +and troubles nobody; his neighbors, knowing nothing about his +occupations and habits, take it for granted that they are both bad and +"contrary to the peace of the commonwealth." + +Masafuero had, however, tolerably strong claims to the title of a "den +of thieves;" for there could be no doubt that, during the stormy times +that took place when South America shook off the Spanish yoke and put on +fifty worse ones--when there was a revolution once a week, and murder +and rapine every hour--many of the human vultures that flocked to the +prey, from Europe and this country, made this little island a place of +deposit for their ill-gotten wealth, and a rendezvous and city of refuge +from the vengeance of some of the short-lived authorities. The +celebrated Benavidas, a sort of "free companion," was, as sailors say, +"in vogue," when I first visited the Pacific in 1821; and as he carried +on business both by land and water, there is no doubt that he +occasionally visited both Masafuero and Juan Fernandez. + +But there were other "land rats and water rats" than Benavidas, who, it +may be interesting to know, died suddenly one day of strangulation, in +consequence of his cravat being tied too tight. Numbers of English and +American seamen, at the first breaking out of the revolution, who +happened to be on the spot, realised large sums by privateering, and by +striking certain sudden and bold strokes, _à la Buccanier_, upon the +rich Spanish towns and richer churches; and as "their sound went out +into all lands," others flocked to the Pacific for the same purpose. But +by this time the first agony was over: the new government, short-lived +and ephemeral as it was, enacted certain wholesome laws, which, as they +did not materially interfere with the political views of the parties +that successively kicked each other down stairs, were generally +permitted to stand. A navy was organised and plunder was legalised; +privateering was placed under restrictions; and, as none of these +butterfly republics were in existence long enough to take any further +steps towards paying their seamen and soldiers than promising to, said +seamen and soldiers very naturally betook themselves to their respective +elements to look for prey. I have often wondered that the problem of our +revolution was not followed by the same corollary. The two nations might +be differently constituted--they were not differently situated. + +Many stories are related of the daring exploits of these freebooters, +both on the water and on the land; but there was generally a shade of +difference in favor of the former, on the score of both courage and +humanity; the "water rats" being almost exclusively English and +Americans, and possessing both qualities by nature so strongly +impressed, that they could never be entirely eradicated or smothered. +The land robbers, on the other hand, were as exclusively native +Chilenos, a mixture generally of Indian and Spaniard--a more detestable +amalgamation the earth does not produce--if the devil was to cross the +breed, it would rather improve it than otherwise. One of the most +formidable, most blood-thirsty, and most successful of these pirates +wound up his affairs not a great while before I arrived in the Pacific, +Jack Ketch being his administrator. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus. + + OTHELLO. + + +James Longford was the eldest son of a merchant in the neighborhood of +New York, who furnished in his own conduct one of those very rare +instances of a mercantile man contented with what he has amassed, and +willing to retire to private life to enjoy it. 'Tis true that merchants +pretend to say, after having heaped up something like a million, that +they continue in business for the sake of the employment of time and +excitement of mind that it affords, and not for the lucre of gain; "sed +non ego credulus illis," or, in plain English, "they may tell that to +the marines, the sailors won't believe them." The thirst for gain +increases with its gratification, as I could quote more Latin to prove; +and not only does gratification increase the appetite, but it seems to +_pucker up_ the heart, and contract the muscles of the hand, for your +very rich man is almost invariably a very close and avaricious one, +except when making public donations to institutions already bursting +with wealth, when they know that their names and sums given will go the +rounds of the public prints under the head of "munificent donations." +How delicious is flattery, even when thrown down one's throat with a +shovel! + +But they are stingy in another way, that brings with it its own +punishment--they starve themselves. I know of several of your half +million folks, not a thousand miles from where I now sit, whose table +does not cost them fifty cents a day, and that too with tolerably +numerous families. I was once ill-advised enough to dine with a +gentleman of this description, in a sister city, in consequence of his +repeated and pressing invitations. We had part of a fore-quarter of very +small mutton boiled, with a small modicum of potatoes; one man could +have eaten the whole. To be sure, I had a glass of "London particular" +Madeira after dinner, if it deserves the name, but as soon as I had done +I made my excuses--"indispensable business--obliged to go out of town, +&c." and fled to an eating-house, where I satisfied what Dan Homer +emphatically calls the "thumos edodes," the madness of appetite, with +something more to the purpose than lean mutton. + +Mr. Longford was "none of them sort;"--he retired from business with +only fifty thousand dollars, but with a clear conscience, adjusted +books, and not a single cent of debt--he never refused his charity to +deserving objects, and never signed a subscription paper for their +relief,--he was never a member of a charitable society, and never +contributed a cent to the Missionary funds, whether for the Valley of +the Mississippi or the Island of Borneo, where there are nothing but +monkeys, or Malays as incapable of being christianized as the monkeys. +Had he lived at the present time, and in this section of the country, he +would have been prayed _for_ and prayed _at_, at least once a day, and +been, besides, occasionally held up in the pulpit as a specimen of total +depravity, and a child of perdition. + +Yet, with all these defects, Mr. George Longford was a sincerely devout +man, and a most firm believer in the Christian religion,--from a +conviction of its truth, not merely because it was the fashion to +believe it, or because his fathers believed it before him,--and a +practical observer of its moral precepts. He read and studied the New +Testament, because it contained a compendium of all his every-day duties +as a rational and accountable being, and as a member of society, not +because it was a magazine of polemical divinity and abstruse doctrines. +The evening of such a man's life is calm and tranquil; his death is +indeed the death of the righteous. + +James was this man's eldest son;--I cannot say, as novel writers +generally do, that "in him were centred the hopes and wishes of his fond +parents,"--for they were not--they looked for support and comfort in +their old age to their other children. James was a refractory and +disobedient child from the very cradle. It is ridiculous to say that all +men are born alike in dispositions and capacities; the great poet of +nature, from whom I have, as usual, taken my text, says no; and I would +sooner have a single line from him than folios of ingenious theories and +metaphysical arguments from the profoundest philosophers. I have not +much faith in innate ideas, but I confess that I have in innate +dispositions, both good and bad. + +James Longford's disposition was most decidedly bad by nature--he was +constantly, even when a mere schoolboy, in mischief, and that, too, of a +kind that marked a malicious and cruel temper. His father in vain +exhausted kindness and severity, in the hope of subduing this most +unhappy temper; but neither the infliction of punishment, that he +deserved twenty times a day, nor the caresses of the tenderest parental +affection, appeared to have the least influence in mollifying his +stubborn and morose disposition--he seemed to be one of those whom St. +Paul characterizes, in that tremendous first chapter of the Epistle to +the Romans, as being "without natural affection." Notwithstanding all +these faults, he had naturally a strong mind and good talents; so that +by the time he had attained his eighteenth year he was, at one and the +same time, one of the most ungovernable and ill-tempered boys and best +scholars in Parson Crabtree's seminary of some fifty in number. + +At this period his father placed him in the counting-room of a wealthy +mercantile house in the city of New-York. Here his good education and +natural quickness soon procured him the favorable notice of his +employers, while his constant and active duties seemed to have +smothered, at least for a time, his malicious temper. Before the +expiration of a year he had acquired the good will and confidence of the +merchants whom he served; but by this time the pleasures and temptations +of the "Commercial Emporium" had begun to attract his inexperienced +eyes, and his disposition seemed to have taken a new turn. + +With all the stubborn wilfulness and unfeeling carelessness of +consequences that characterized his temper, he plunged into all manner +of vicious indulgences; but what seemed to attract him the most +irresistibly, and fix him the most firmly, was a fondness for gambling. +The "time-honored" black-legs of the billiard and roulette tables were, +however, an overmatch for an inexperienced lad of nineteen, and, as +might have been expected, he was soon stripped, thoroughly "cleaned +out." It was then that the idea of replenishing his pockets from the +counting-room trunk first presented itself to his mind, and, without +much hesitation or compunction of conscience, he took small sums from +time to time. + +It is needless to trace his progress more minutely--he finished by +forging a check for a thousand dollars, which forgery was subsequently +detected. + +Precisely the same "dull round" of vice is trodden, at least once a +week, by the same class of young men. The merchants' clerks are +certainly creatures of no imagination, or they would have struck out +some new way of going to the devil; they evidently have not a spark of +what an eminent Irish lawyer called "the poetry of wickedness;" they +uniformly begin with plundering the money drawer, and end with forging +checks. + +Mr. Longford was advised of his son's guilt, and the affair was +compromised by his paying the amount purloined. In utter despair the +afflicted father placed his degenerate son on board an outward-bound +Indiaman, a mode of proceeding often resorted to prematurely, for it +generally does a boy's business if he is viciously inclined--a +merchantman's forecastle is not a school of morality. Sending a +refractory child to sea may be an excellent way of getting rid of him, +but it is at the same time the most expeditious mode of sending him to +the devil. + +There is a great deal of talk about "godly captains;" but I never knew +one that was not an infernal tyrant, and a most accomplished scoundrel. +If you wish to cure a boy of a fondness for the sea, send him a good +long voyage with a godly captain, and I'll be bail that he comes home +as lean as a weazel, and most thoroughly disgusted at the very thoughts +of a ship. If you merely wish to get rid of him, send him to the coast +of Guinea on a trading voyage, or to that Golgotha, New Orleans; a godly +captain, by working him one half to death, and starving him the other, +will put it out of his power to trouble you any more in this world. The +Carmelites and other religious orders were once of opinion that the +devil could be flogged out of the flesh, and for that purpose wore a +couple of fathoms of two-inch rope about their loins: godly captains +think he can be worked out, and so, perhaps, he can; but generally, in +the two places that I have mentioned, he and the vital spark go out +together. + +I do not know whether I ought to regard it as a fortunate or unfortunate +circumstance, that the first captain that I sailed with was a "ripper" +for swearing and drinking. He was a professed infidel, a first-rate +seaman, an excellent scholar, and took more care of the morals of his +crew than many of those who have prayers twice a day; and ten thousand +times more of their health, for he would not permit a man to expose +himself for two minutes to the sun or rain in Batavia, and in +consequence did not lose a man. He watched over my moral and physical +health with a degree of zeal and tenderness that I have never, for an +instant, experienced since, at the hands of those who call themselves my +"friends." Indeed, the severest scolding he ever gave me, and I +expected every moment he would knock me down in the street, was for +walking, one deliciously cool morning, from Weltwreden to Batavia, a +distance of four miles, when I had a carriage and two horses at my +disposal. + +Peace to his ashes! I have lived to see the grave close in succession +over many of the few friends that I ever had. When I wandered about +London streets, barefoot and half-naked, in the dead of a hard winter, +just discharged from a hospital, and scarcely able to drag one foot +after the other, my situation was comparatively enviable. I had no +self-styled "friends" at my elbow, to mock me by talking about my +"talents!" I knew that if I did not "bear a hand," and ship myself off +_somewhere_, I should be taken up on the vagrant act, and sent to +Bridewell. Burns says, + + "The fear o' death's a hangman's whip, + That hauds the wretch in order." + +I should be loth to admit that the fear of Bridewell operated as a +stimulus upon my mind, for it did not often occur to me; but I longed to +enjoy once more + + "the glorious privilege + Of being independent;" + +and he, who is earning an honest livelihood by his own exertions, and +can shave with cold water, is, in my estimation, more truly independent +than he, whose father has bequeathed him half a million. Reader! you may +as well pardon this digression first as last, for it is ten chances to +one that you fall in with a whole fleet of them before you have sailed +through these pages. If I do not moralize as I go along, I shall not +have a chance to do it any where else. + +As the afflicted father returned, with melancholy steps and slow, +towards his quiet home, he could not forbear feeling an emotion of +regret at the thought of having parted with his son in such a manner. +"Had I but placed him," he said to himself, "under the charge of the +commander of one of our men-of-war, he would necessarily have been under +such strict guardianship and discipline that his unfortunate habits +might be entirely broken up; but now I fear that the liberty he will be +allowed, or will take, in a merchant's ship, will be his ruin." + +His home was more gloomy and sad that evening than it had ever been +before; for though satisfied in the main with his own conduct, and +hoping that the voyage would have most beneficial effects upon his son's +behavior and disposition, he regretted most bitterly the necessity of +the measure, and felt the keenest anxiety as to its results. That son +was destined never to return. + +The ship in which he was embarked was driven much farther to the +westward than is usually the case with outward-bound Indiamen, and +encountered one of those tremendous gales of wind, known to seamen by +the local name of _pamperos_, from their blowing off the immense +_pampas_, or plains, that constitute a large portion of the province of +Buenos Ayres, or, as it is now called, the Argentine Republic. The ship +was dismasted, and with difficulty succeeded in reaching the harbor of +Buenos Ayres to refit. + +The city of Buenos Ayres was at that time, and I believe it is not much +better now, a nest and rendezvous of pirates, that, under the cover of +the republican flag, and the assumed character of men-of-war or +privateers, with forged commissions, committed the most barefaced and +abominable acts of piracy. The British cruisers, by capturing and +hanging a good number of them, struck a most wholesome terror into the +rest; but our government, with a fraternal affection for every mean and +insignificant patch of barren sand-beach that called itself a republic, +more worthy the _sans-culotterie_ of the French revolution, than +becoming a great and polished nation, permitted them to sell their +prizes and refit in our ports. Buenos Ayres was then a point towards +which all the scoundrels, and thieves, and murderers, of Europe and the +United States, were radiating as to a common centre. + +Here, as might have been expected, Longford found plenty of congenial +companions to "whet his almost blunted purpose" of vicious propensity +and indulgence. In a drunken quarrel at the gaming-table, knives were +drawn, and Longford stabbed his antagonist-to the heart. Murders are so +exceedingly common in all the Spanish possessions and settlements in +America, that but seldom or never is any inquiry set on foot with regard +to them. The only _judicial_ formality consists in laying the dead +bodies on their backs, with a plate upon the breast of each to receive +the contributions of those who are disposed to assist in defraying the +expenses of burial. But the murdered person, in this case, was a man of +considerable consequence in the Buenos Ayrean government, having the +charge and management of certain public moneys, and in consequence, the +"authorities" thought it worth their while to ask a few questions about +his "taking off." Longford was well aware of these facts, and with +considerable difficulty and danger made his escape to the other side of +the river. + +After remaining concealed for some time, he ventured down to Monte +Video, where he found the English brig Swan, bound round Cape Horn. Her +crew, deluded by the false and extravagant promises of privateering +captains and owners, had all deserted. In this dilemma the captain was +compelled to supply their places with such materials as could be picked +up in the streets of Monte Video, and which were as bad as bad could be. +Indeed, from the lawless state of all South America, it would have been +next to impossible to have procured, "for love or money," twenty good +and orderly seamen, from Darien to Patagonia. Among these vagabonds +Longford recognised many of his gaming-table acquaintances at Buenos +Ayres, who had left that city to get out of the way of certain +impertinent questions that the police had taken the liberty to ask +concerning the murder that has already been mentioned. These fellows had +imbibed a notion that seems to be an easily-besetting one among sailors +who enter on board a ship in the middle of her voyage, namely, that +there is money on board; which notion is but too often followed by an +exceedingly strong inclination to appropriate it to their own use and +behoof. Sailors seem to understand but confusedly the tenth commandment, +which forbids us to covet any thing that is our neighbor's. + +The subject was discussed on the passage, the plan arranged, and the +unsuspecting officers, passengers, and two lads, apprentices to the +captain, murdered and thrown overboard. My readers would be, perhaps, +but little edified by a more circumstantial narrative. There is so +little variation in the details of shipwreck, acts of piracy, obituary +notices, ordinations, commencements, murders, suicides, mammoth turnips, +and Fourth of July celebrations, that printers would find it a great +saving of time, money, and labor, to have regular and approved forms of +each stereotyped, with blank spaces for names and dates. + +This bloody deed was executed near the southern extremity of the then +half province and half republic of Chili; and the murderers, with +considerable difficulty, succeeded in running the ship between the +island of Santa Marie and the main, and anchoring near the town or city +of Aranco, which was then in the hands of Benavidas, above mentioned. + +This sanguinary freebooter was then, under the auspices and with the +assistance of the equally sanguinary royal governor of Chili, Sanchez, +carrying on a most horrid and cruel war of extermination against the +republican inhabitants of the southern part of Chili. Into the hands of +this murderous ruffian and his ragamuffin gang the Swan was delivered; +but the villany of her piratical crew was soon to receive its just +punishment. Benavidas, who suspected them of having kept back no +trifling part of the plunder, with very little privacy and no formality, +shot them all but Longford, whom, for some unaccountable reason or +other, he spared. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + _Orlando._ Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind. + + _Jaques._ Nay then, God be wi' you an you talk in blank verse. + + AS YOU LIKE IT. + + +Our scene must now change somewhat abruptly from the shores of the +Pacific to a very different part of this watery ball. + +Great and manifold are the advantages that an author enjoys over his +readers; for, however anxious those readers may be to arrive at the end +of the story, they must either close the book with a "Pish!" or a +"Pshaw!" or condescend to follow him, and resignedly await his leisure. +He leads them where he pleases and at what pace he pleases; they must +follow him: they are like passengers on board a packet beating into port +with what sailors call "a good working breeze;" at one moment they seem +to have almost reached the anchorage, when suddenly the skipper shouts +"Helm's a-lee," the vessel heaves in stays and makes a long "stretch" +off, till the spires and roofs of the wished-for haven seem fading away +in the hazy distance. + +The celebrated Hugh Peters, one of Cromwell's fanatical preachers, +explaining to his audience why God was forty years leading the children +of Israel through the wilderness, which was not more than forty days' +march across, made a circumflex with his finger upon his pulpit cushion, +and said, "he led them _crinkledum cum crankledum_," I do not intend +that my story shall make more "Virginia fence" than is absolutely +necessary; but that it shall proceed, like a law-suit, "with deliberate +speed." + +In the vicinity of one of those beautiful villages that surround the +great commercial city of Bristol, and upon the banks of the lovely +Severn, stood the residence of a wealthy merchant. There was nothing +about the house or grounds that denoted the occupant or owner to be of a +mercantile turn; for there certainly is, very generally, something about +merchants' houses that is prim and starch--something precise and formal +about them, as though they had been planned according to the "Golden +Rule of Three," and executed with reference to the multiplication table. +It is a most melancholy fact, that the close, confined air of a +counting-room is deadly poison to a taste for the fine arts, and, but +too often, to every thing like liberality of feeling. + +Effingham House was neither planned nor executed upon a grand or a mean +scale; there was nothing extravagant or penurious, vast or contracted, +about it; but it presented a happy combination of the comfortable, the +elegant, and the neat. Such houses are very common indeed throughout New +England; in the _old_ country there is a constant repetition of the +fable of the frog and the ox--the wealthy cit endeavoring to equal the +haughty splendors of the nobleman. + +The villa that we describe fronted upon a large and beautiful lawn, that +gradually sloped towards the river, of which, and the lovely scenery +beyond it, it commanded an enchanting view, and was spotted with noble +oaks and elms, that appeared to have stood ever since the Conquest, or +might, perhaps, have overshadowed the legions of Agricola. A carriage +path, well gravelled and kept perfectly free from dirt and weeds, wound +around among these primeval trees, occasionally emerging from their +shade, as if to give the approaching stranger an opportunity to view +every part of the delightful landscape. + +Along this path a horseman was seen riding, one lovely afternoon in +September. The air of the rider was that of a man to whom the scene was +perfectly familiar, but who seemed busy with thoughts that made him +inattentive to its beauties. His sunburnt countenance, and an +indescribable something in his whole appearance, that the experienced +eye of a member of the same fraternity only could discern, announced +that he was one of those that "followed the seas." + +He alighted, and, giving his horse to a servant, ran up the steps of the +portico. A young lady, who was tending some flowers at a little +distance, hearing his footsteps, sprang towards him with sparkling eyes +and smiling countenance, exclaiming in a voice of most unequivocal +tenderness, "George!" The seaman caught her offered hand, and covered it +with kisses. The lady's cheek, brow, and throat were suffused with the +deepest and most lovely crimson: she gently struggled to release her +captive hand; but, finding that there was just one degree more force +exerted to retain it than she exercised to withdraw it, she prudently +gave up so hopeless a contest, and began very naturally to ask +questions. + +"Why, when did you arrive?--how long have you been gone? Oh! it seems an +age since you left us--and how you are tanned!" + +"I arrived this morning," at length answered the seaman; the mutual +delight of their meeting rendering him, for a time, as inarticulate as +it did her voluble; "and I have been gone six months. Time has stood +still with me, dearest Julia, I assure you; and besides, I have had such +a tedious passage home, that I began at last to think I was never to be +blessed with another fair wind. I need not ask how you have been during +that time," he continued, fixing his eyes upon her lovely countenance +with unutterable affection. + +No woman was ever insensible to a compliment, even an implied one, to +her looks. Julia raised her liquid eyes to his with a blush and a smile +so frank and unreserved, that his six months' absence and tedious +homeward passage he would gladly endure twice ever again to meet. + +There are moments in courtship--that part of it, I mean, where neither +party has as yet whispered love to each other, or bothered the old folks +about their consent; before, in short, it has become an "understood +thing" all over town--there are such moments, when the lady throws off +all reserve, and by a look, a smile, a blush, a half-articulate word, +repays her lover for months, if he is fool enough to court so long, of +prudish and affected shyness, past or future. These moments occur but +seldom, even in the most patriarchal courtships, and it is well that it +is so. Love is a fiery steed, and should always be ridden with a curb +bridle, both before and after marriage. (I am sorry that I cannot think +of a nautical metaphor, or I assure you, reader, that I would never have +gone into the stable to look for one.) The ancients, and their opinion +is decisive, ever held the "semi-reducta Venus" the most beautiful. + +Leaving these turtles to bill and coo over a cup of tea, and to the +enjoyment of a lover's walk along the lovely banks of the Severn, we +will proceed to enlighten the reader as to who and what they are, and to +discuss sundry other equally important topics. + +As the good ship Bristol Trader was lazily rolling along in a southerly +direction, with a light breeze and fine weather, and in the latitude of +about thirty-nine or forty north, she fell in with the wreck of a +schooner, of about eighty or ninety tons burthen, dismasted and +apparently half full of water, in which most unpleasant situation she +did not appear long to have been. The Bristol Trader hove to, and sent +her boat alongside, in hopes of obtaining something valuable from the +wreck, either cargo, or provisions, or rigging--if a wreck yields +nothing else, there is always plenty of fish around it. As the boat +approached, the attention of the crew was attracted by the appearance of +some person on board, who made the most animated and intelligible signs +to them to come alongside. The boat's crew redoubled their exertions, +and, upon coming on board, found a boy of about fourteen years, the only +living human being. The poor little fellow seemed almost exhausted with +fatigue and hunger; but being carried on board the ship and refreshed, +he informed his deliverers that his name was George Allerton--that the +schooner belonged to a port in New England, and was homeward bound from +Fayal with a quantity of wine and fruit--that she had been capsized, in +a sudden and violent squall, three days previous, when all the crew but +himself and one other were swept overboard--that she had righted after +cutting away the masts, but with a great deal of water in the hold, and +that the other man had accidentally fallen overboard, and was drowned. + +It happened that the owner of the ship, Mr. Effingham, was on board. He +was going to Rio de Janeiro, partly on account of his health, but +chiefly to look after and secure a large amount of property belonging to +the firm of which he was senior partner, and which was jeopardised by +certain disturbances in Brazil. Like all passengers on board a ship, he +could find but little or nothing to do to pass away the time, and being +a married man and a father, his sympathies and good feelings were +powerfully excited and strongly attracted towards this "waif of the +sea," their new passenger. The boy, on the other hand, to a very +handsome face added a mild and amiable disposition, and, like all +New-England boys, an education vastly superior to boys of the same age +and standing in Great Britain. George's parents were respectable in some +sort--that is to say, their moral and religious characters were beyond +reproach, but their social reputation was very bad indeed--they were +poor. It has been said by an English traveller, that in all other +countries pleasure, rank, literary renown, &c. are the objects upon +which men place their affections; but, in the United States, the pursuit +of wealth is an imperious duty; and, of course, if a man fails in this +duty, his good name as a member of society soon becomes most deplorably +out at elbows. + +Before the end of the voyage, young Allerton had made himself master of +Mr. Effingham's affections, and being of that happy age when all places +are nearly alike, provided they are comfortable, he readily consented to +remain with his protector, and was accordingly regularly inducted into +the old gentleman's family as a member of it. He was the playmate of Mr. +Effingham's daughter, six years younger than himself, and the companion +of her rambles abroad. The old man wished to take him into his +counting-room as a clerk, but the boy's predilection for the sea +frustrated that scheme, and the senior, after some reflection and +persuasion, yielded to it. Accordingly Master George, having served a +noviciate as apprentice, stepped over the intermediate state of "able +seaman," and became second mate, then first mate, and lastly captain, or +more properly master. During the whole of this time, he was employed in +the West India trade, in which most of the Bristol merchants are engaged +more extensively than in any other. He never came home from a voyage +without bringing some curiosity to little Julia,--as he continued to +call her, even after she had attained her eighteenth year,--and never +failed writing frequently to his parents, and sending them the whole or +a greater part of his wages: a line of conduct that raised him +incredibly in the old gentleman's favor, and made a deep impression upon +the young mind of Julia. + +While George was passing through the different grades of his profession, +the young lady was advancing through the different grades of physical +and intellectual beauty and improvement. The "pretty child" that played +in her father's parlor, the "elegant girl of the boarding-school, had +now become a most lovely and accomplished young lady. She had lost her +mother when young, and the whole force of her filial affection had +centred upon her father. Brought up in unreserved intimacy with her +father's new _protégé_, she always regarded him as a brother, or rather +as her equal. She always anxiously awaited his return from sea, though +she did not, in her more youthful days, exactly understand why. When her +beauty brought wealth and rank to her feet, she could not avoid +comparing their possessors with the nautical absentee. + +"Sir Reginald Bentley is not half so handsome a man as George; Lord +Dormington, although he has travelled over all Europe, and has besides a +seat in the House of Lords, is not, after all, half so well informed as +George; the Honorable Adolphus Fitz William dresses very expensively and +fashionably, but his clothes do not fit him so well as George's; and as +for that wine-swilling brute, Squire Foxley, I would not be condemned to +marry such a man for the world." So she dismissed them all, "cum multis +aliis." + +On the other hand, her father had acquired as much affection for George +as for a son, and treated him as such; though he never dreamed that his +daughter might from his behavior be led one day to select him as a +husband. When his daughter rejected one wealthy or titled suitor after +another, he thought nothing strange of it; Sir Reginald was a gambler, +his lordship a fool, Fitz William a dandy, Foxley a sot, and so of the +rest; he only saw in her rejection of them proofs that she possessed +more good sense and prudence than he was generally willing to admit +that any of her sex possessed. + +About two years before the events mentioned in the beginning of this +chapter, George had sailed on his first voyage as master of the ship +Hebe. He had been gone about five months, and Julia, with a feeling that +she did not pretend to understand or think to analyze, had been day +after day inquiring about him, when one evening her father informed her +that the Hebe had arrived safely in London. The joy that she felt and +expressed in the most lively manner, was damped by the farther +intelligence that he was to return to Barbadoes as soon as possible, +without visiting Effingham House. When she retired to her chamber, she +seated herself by the window, and seriously began to ask herself why she +felt such pleasure at hearing of his safe arrival, and why the +disappointment at not seeing him was so exceedingly painful. Her own +good sense answered the question, after a short reflection. + +"It is, it must be love; I _do_ love him, and that most sincerely;" and +she gave way to a burst of irrepressible but soothing tears. "And why +should I not?" she reasoned, "is he not every thing that heart can +desire--handsome, well educated, and generous? and does not my father +love him as a son? But my father may not consent," she continued, again +weeping, "and I must endeavor to conquer an affection that has been +growing silently but rapidly for years; it is impossible, I know, but I +will make the attempt." + +The old man, too, could not but notice the different effects of the two +items of intelligence he had that evening communicated. "What could ail +Julia when I told her that George was going to sea again without coming +home? the poor girl was ready to cry: he's a fine young fellow, that's +certain, and they've been brought up together like brother and sister; +so I suppose it is natural that she loves him like a brother: I have +half a mind to write to him to scamper across the country, and see us +for a couple of days; but I dare say he's too busy." With these +reflections the merchant dropped asleep, and dreamed of "Africa and +golden joys." + +Upon Captain Allerton's subsequent return, Julia's determination to +avoid him and to stifle her attachment to him vanished, like most +resolutions of the kind that young ladies are in the habit of forming, +and she gave herself up to the illusions of that bewitching passion, +without knowing--and, when enjoying his society, certainly without +thinking--how it would end; and as for her father, he, good easy man, +had done thinking about it altogether: not that his affection for her +was in any wise abated, but his mind was taken up with something else +more engrossing, and, as perhaps he thought, more important, than +watching the actions of two young people. + +After tea, Captain Allerton and Julia took a walk upon the banks of the +river, along a secluded green lane, that had often witnessed similar +rambles. After a long pause, during which each seemed too busy with +their own peculiar train of thinking to regard the silence of the other, +they stopped, as if by mutual consent. + +"And so, Julia, your father, after losing so much money in South +America, is going there, to see if he can grapple any of it up from the +mines of Mexico, or wherever else it has sunk." + +"He is certainly going to South America, but I never knew that he had +lost much money by his speculations there." + +"Nor do I say that he has, but as every body else has, I do not see how +he can have escaped;" and then added, after a short pause, and in an +embarrassed and tremulous voice, "are you, tell me, Julia, are you going +with him?" + +"Me! no, George; what could put such a wild thought into your head?" + +"And what then is to become of you during his absence, that must +necessarily be a long one?" + +"I shall remain with my aunt Selwyn in Bristol, till she returns to +Clifton." + +"Julia, you know that I love you, and you have given me reason to +believe that I am far from indifferent to you; then why not, my dearest +girl, give me the right to protect and provide for you at once, instead +of delegating it to a maiden aunt, who, whatever may be her good +qualities, has, as you know, always regarded me with dislike and +jealousy." + +"I cannot, George, without my father's consent." + +"Your hand, then, goes where he chooses to bestow it, let your +affections be where they will." + +"It is a duty that I owe to him to attend to his wishes, and listen to +his advice." + +"So then, if he advises you to marry the fool Dormington, or the brute +Foxley, you obey unhesitatingly?" + +"George, this is unkind; you are supposing an extreme case." + +"But you say you will obey him; you repeat that it is your duty to +listen to his advice in all cases." + +"I will never marry without his consent, but I will never marry any one +that I dislike." + +"That is intimating, rather obliquely, to be sure, that you may alter +your mind." + +"O George, George," said the weeping girl, "why will you continue to +torment me and yourself with these jealous doubts and suspicions? why +will you not rather ask my father's consent? you know his affection for +you." + +"Yes, propose such a question, and what is the reply? a peremptory +refusal, and an immediate dismissal from his employment. Now that his +mind is so much taken up with his new scheme, such a proceeding would be +little short of madness. Be mine, then, at once." + +"I dare not." + +"But suppose, what is by no means impossible, nay, rather likely to +happen, that he should determine to fix himself in Mexico, or Lima, or +some other South American city, as foreign partner of the house?" + +"I cannot believe such an event possible, but if it should--" she turned +away her head. + +"Do I interpret your silence right, Julia? would you indeed be mine? +speak to me, Julia." She made no other answer than a sigh, but still +kept her head averted. By this time they had reached the house. + +As soon as they were seated in the drawing-room, the lover again urged +her to "make signal of his hope;"--she raised her eyes, swimming in +tears, in which an affirmative was plainly to be read. The entrance of a +servant prevented the happy lover from proceeding to extremities upon +her lips, "according to the statute in such case made and provided;" and +a very excellent statute it is too. Whether the "quashing of +proceedings" by the inopportune appearance of the servant was agreeable +to either party, I leave to wiser heads than mine to determine. + +Many very well-meaning people, who pass for men of sense in every other +respect, are apt, when they feel matrimonially inclined, to think it +indispensably necessary to court the old folks, "hammer and tongs," as +the vulgar saying is, in the first place, and, having obtained their +good graces, to proceed very leisurely in their approaches to the young +lady. This may be a very prudent mode of managing matters, for aught I +know, but to me it savors rather of cold-blooded calculation, than +ardent or even passably warm affection. It is, besides, a gross and +unpardonable insult to the said young lady, whom it places immediately +upon a level with a horse, a pig, a cow, a load of hay, a chest of +drawers, or any other article of trade. It is like a man-of-war going in +to engage an enemy's battery, and heaving to, to "blaze away" at two old +dismantled hulks that are lying high and dry at the harbor's mouth. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _Parolles._ My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched. + + _Lafeu._ Well, what would you have me to do? 'tis too late to pare her + nails now. + + ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. + + There never was yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. + + KING LEAR. + + +Julia Effingham was the only child of a rich merchant, who, like many +others in these latter days, when scheming and speculation have +superseded the good, old-fashioned habits of steady industry and +unmoveable perseverance in the art of acquiring wealth, was dazzled by +the one thousand and one bubbles that the South American revolution set +afloat. He dipped pretty largely into Mexican mines, and was bit; he +undertook to improve the breed of horses in Peru, and was bit; he +attempted to establish steam cotton-factories in Colombia, and was bit; +he bought largely into a Chilian Steam-boat Company, and was bit; till, +finally, he resolved to visit South America himself, "to see," as he +expressed it, "where the devil his fifty thousand pounds had gone to." +He could obtain no tidings of a single farthing on the Atlantic side of +that continent; but he learned one thing most thoroughly and +satisfactorily, as thousands have done besides him, that if he had gone +there in the first place, and seen the nakedness of the land, and the +deplorable and remediless ignorance and superstition of the people, his +fifty thousand pounds would have snugly remained in the three per cents. +and India bonds. He was determined, however, now that he was fairly +afloat, to "go the whole figure," and see the worst, if there was any +thing worse to come. Accordingly he took passage for Valparaiso, where +he found how, why, and wherefore his steam-boat concern had become a +decided take-in; it is not very profitable running a boat of that kind +in a country where wood sells at three cents per pound on the beach, and +where the people have no idea of travelling except in the saddle. + +Chili, then under the directorship of O'Higgins, was the only South +American province that seemed to have changed for the better, by +renouncing its allegiance to "Ferdinand the Beloved." Its ports were +thrown open to foreign commerce; its navy was respectable, for the +ships, the officers, and the seamen were English or Americans; its +inhabitants had become quite civilized and tame, for the murdered +foreigners in the streets of Valparaiso did not average much more than +one or two per night; which, compared with Havana and Buenos Ayres, +gave Chili a preponderance of refinement scarcely credible. Mr. +Effingham was highly delighted with the country; and indeed Chili, +setting aside the inhabitants, for the salubrity and mildness of its +climate, the fertility of its soil, and the variety and delicacy of its +fruits and vegetables, is certainly one of the finest countries in the +world. He found many Englishmen established in various sections of the +country, and the better sort of inhabitants very much disposed to treat +them with kindness and urbanity. + +He had been about eighteen months in St. Jago when he sent for his +daughter, who now constituted the whole of his family; his English +business he knew was safe in the management of his partner, and he sat +himself down with the determination of making a magnificent fortune very +much at his ease. Poor man! he little dreamed that the whole of South +America is as infamous for revolutions as it is for earthquakes. + +Having said thus much concerning the father of Julia Effingham, it is +but fair to give the reader some idea of the lady herself. Indeed, in +strict gallantry, I suspect that I ought to have introduced her first, +but she has already been upon the stage, and "made her obedience," as +sailors call it, to the audience; and, besides, age has claims that +ought to be attended to. + +In person, then, Julia was not remarkably tall, (I don't like tall +women; "a man never ought to look _up_ to his wife for a kiss or for +advice;") her form had all that graceful and delicate roundness and +fullness of outline so irresistibly pleasing to the eye. "Man," says an +elegant writer upon natural history, contrasting the two sexes, "man is +most angular, woman most round." Euclid himself could not have detected +any thing angular in the faultless form of Julia Effingham; nothing +resembling his "Asses' Bridge," or his "Windmill" problems, in the fall +of her shoulders, the bend of her snowy neck, the delicate round of her +chin, the delicious fulness of her ripe lip, the easy turn of her rosy +cheeks, the graceful curve of her brow. Her nose was indeed a straight +Grecian one, but not geometrically straight. + +It must be admitted, by the way, that there are more decidedly _good_ +noses among women than among men. The latter are aquiline, Roman, +parrot, pug, snub, thick, thin, long, short, peaked, bottle--some with a +bump in the middle, some with a cleft, or fissure, and some with a +button, or knob, at the end, like that on a man-of-war's boat-hook. In +short, to describe all the various kinds of noses masculine, it would be +necessary for philologians to create a new batch of adjectives, as the +king of England does occasionally of peers. + +I have already said, or meant to be understood to say, that Miss +Effingham was somewhat inclined to _embonpoint_. I do not pretend to +know the reason of this: perhaps leanness and emaciation were not +considered _genteel_ when she happened to be educated, as they are +unfortunately by too many of my fair countrywomen; perhaps she never +thought much about it; for I have always observed that very beautiful +women, who prefer revolving in the quiet circle of domestic happiness +and usefulness, are seldom or never very anxiously solicitous about +their beauty; and the consequence is, that they _are_ more beautiful, +and stand the attacks of time far better, than those who choose a life +of fashionable display, and court public admiration. Ladies may lace +tight, eat pickles, and drink vinegar, to make them genteel; but it is +free exercise in the open air, and simplicity of diet, provided it is +nutritious, that confer gentility and grace, and preserve beauty. Will +any man, married or single, and in the possession of his senses, say +that he likes the looks of a horse whose ribs are visible and +_countable_ at half a mile's distance? I am confident the answer will +be, no. + +Still there is a wonderful resemblance between a lean woman and a lean +horse, in more points than one; the lady does not, indeed, go upon all +fours, but I can never see a very _genteel_ female, laced into the shape +of an hour-glass, without wishing, from the bottom of my heart, that she +had an extra pair of le--ahem!--ancles, to support her feeble and +tottering frame. + +As I am growing old, and am, moreover, somewhat peculiarly +circumstanced, I suppose that I must put up with such a wife as it +pleases God to send me; but were I ten or fifteen years younger, and +"well to do," I would accept of no descendant of mother Eve, as a +helpmate and partner for life, who did not cut at least two inches on +the ribs. The Turks, who are practical men of taste in these things; the +Chinese, who pretend to the highest antiquity in civilization; the naked +Africans and South Sea Islanders, beyond dispute the most +unsophisticated of all father Adam's children, and who, like Job, +"retain their integrity" pretty stiffly, considering the missionaries, +the "march of intellect," and other untoward circumstances, are all of +them most decidedly in favor of something substantial in wedlock; no man +of taste, in either of these nations, ever dreams of comfort and +happiness in matrimony, unless he clasps to his bosom an armful of wife. +They choose their wives as we do lobsters--the heaviest are the best. + +I am a firm believer in the maxim that mind and matter exert a mutual +influence upon each other, and one of the most obvious deductions from +that datum that occurs to my mind is, that the acidities of the +disposition are not only neutralized but absolutely shut up by the +embonpoint of the body. People blessed with healthy plumpness are +indolent as well as good-natured, and it is a laborious piece of +business for such folks to get in a passion. + +The wealth and fondness of Julia's father, and her own natural good +sense, had made her mistress of all those elegant and fashionable +accomplishments that constitute the education of a lady of fortune; and +she had a grace and sweetness in every thing she did that reminded the +beholder of that exquisitely beautiful line in Ariosto: + + "She walked--she spoke--she sang--and heaven was there." + +This description may not be according to certain received axioms +concerning female beauty; but I never could bear to contemplate a fair +face and graceful form as painters do, who measure woman's loveliness by +certain fixed and arbitrary rules, as surveyors of lumber do boards. +Nothing makes me more fidgetty than to hear a man compare every +beautiful face he sees with a certain standard, even if that standard is +the Venus de Medicis herself; this face is not good, for it is not +exactly oval; that nose is altogether wrong, for it is not Grecian; a +chin is not this, or a mouth is not that, &c. Portrait painters are much +addicted to this kind of criticism; and whenever I find myself in +company with one of these two-foot-rule critics, I make my escape from +him as I would from a plague hospital. + +At the time of our narrative, Julia's father had been absent somewhat +more than two years. He had sent for her to join him at Valparaiso, a +summons that she prepared to obey with no small trepidation. "The course +of true love," which is somewhat notorious for "never running smooth," +seemed at this moment about to encounter a "head sea." Her absence from +England she knew must be a long one, perhaps an eternal one; the +separation from Allerton weighed much heavier upon her spirits than she +was willing to admit, and altogether her prospects of happiness seemed +darkened for ever. + +The same conveyance that brought Julia's letters also brought +instructions to the other partners of the house to fit out two vessels +for the Pacific, one of which was to be entrusted to the command of +Captain Allerton; but Mr. Effingham omitted to designate which of the +two was to be honored by being for some months the floating home of his +fair daughter; either intending it should be left to her option, or +taking it for granted that his partner, well aware of the intimacy of +Allerton's standing in her father's family, would of course place Julia +on board the ship commanded by George. But that partner was a crafty old +fox, who had long since seen the growing affection of the two young +people, and, with all that eagerness to destroy happiness, that they are +past enjoying, that characterizes the majority of old people, decided +that Miss Julia should, for a time, entrust her person and fortunes to +the fatherly care of Captain Burton, a sedate old Cornish man of sixty +years of age, who had no more idea of love than he had of the Chaldee +language. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Should a man full of talk be justified? O that ye would altogether + hold your peace; and it should be your wisdom. + + JOB, CH. XI. 2; XIII. 5. + + +Voyages across the Atlantic are now performed every day by old and young +women and children, and described by them so much more elegantly and +scientifically, and with so much more correct knowledge of the +technicalities necessary for such descriptions, than it is possible that +seafaring men can ever attain, that if one of the latter, in a moment of +mental hallucination, was to undertake to convey an idea of the element +that has been his home for years, he would be hissed off the stage as +another Munchausen. For this reason nautical men, who have laid aside +the marlinspike and taken up the pen, very prudently avoid that portion +of the literary arena, leaving Daddy Neptune's dominions to be explored +and described by landsmen. + +It is in obedience to public opinion in this respect, I suppose, that +our Secretaries of the Navy are almost uniformly chosen from the "mass +of the people," at the greatest possible distance from high-water mark; +men who have never seen a piece of water that they could not jump +across, or a ship, except in the newspaper, till they came to +Washington. "Let the sea make a noise, and the fulness thereof; let the +floods clap their hands" for joy, that the Cooks and the Falconers, the +Ansons and the Byrons, of olden time, are at length banished from the +department of nautical literature, and no _oceanic_ description will be +listened to unless said or sung by a _ci-devant_ midshipman or a +half-boy, half-woman poet, who lies in his berth, and sees, through the +four-inch-plank deadlight of a packet, the full moon rising in the west. +James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.--I give the man his entire name and title, +as he seems to insist upon it upon all occasions--the "American Walter +Scott," is undisputably at the very head of his _trade_ at the present +day for nautical descriptions; his terrestrial admirers have pronounced +him "a practical seaman;" and, of course, the only man in these United +States that can give any, even an approximate idea of the sea, and +"those that go down in ships." I have at my pen's end six or eight very +desperate "cases" of his knowledge of "practical seamanship" and +maritime affairs, which may be found in the "Red Rover" and "Water +Witch" _passim_; but those animals, vulgarly called critics, but more +politely and properly at present, reviewers, whom the New York Mirror +defines to be "great dogs, that go about unchained and growl at every +thing they do not comprehend," these dogs have dragged the lion's hide +partly off, and ascertained, what every man, to whom the Almighty has +vouchsafed an ordinary share of common sense, had all along suspected, +that it covered an ass. James Fenimore Cooper, Esquire's "Letter to his +Countrymen" was an explosion of folly and absurdity that has blown his +name up so high, that there is little or no chance of its coming down +again "this king's reign." Whether he was or was not hired to write it +to support the present administration, as some folks suspect, is not my +affair. I will, therefore, resume the thread of my discourse, which was +only "belayed" for a few minutes, to indulge in the rare pleasure of +grumbling a little at seeing + + "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." + +Julia Effingham was embarked on board the large, burthensome, and not +alarmingly fast sailing brig Avon--John Burton, master; while the ship +under the command of Captain Allerton was called the Hyperion. Both +vessels were nearly of the same tonnage, though there was much +difference in their rates of sailing, the Hyperion having been built as +near the model of a swift American ship as the English naval architect's +conscience would let him, which, however, did not allow him any greater +latitude than such as made a very obvious difference in their appearance +and rate of speed. Miss Effingham was accompanied by her maid, Miss +Dolly, alias Dorothea, Hastings. Nothing material occurred for the first +six weeks of their voyage, by which time they had nearly reached the +equator, except that Allerton improved every opportunity afforded by +light breezes and calms to visit the Avon; which visits Captain Burton, +honest man! supposed were intended for himself. + +But at this period--that is, six weeks after leaving the Lizard Point, +and while the two ships were in that peculiarly disagreeable strip of +salt water that lies between the southern limits of the north-east +trade-wind and the northern edge of the south-east, and is affected by +neither--there came on one night one of those very black and threatening +squalls, that look as though they would blow the ocean out of its bed, +and frequently do not blow at all. Captain Burton, who thought a squall +was a squall all over the world, and who was better acquainted with the +Grand Banks and the Bay of Biscay than with the tropics, took in all +sail, while the Hyperion, with topgallant-sails lowered, ran gallantly +before it, and made upwards of fifty miles before the breeze left her. +The Avon was in her turn shortly after favored with a fine breeze, but +the two ships did not meet again till they had passed Cape Horn. + +In the mean time, Mr. Effingham began to discover that Chili was not +paradise, nor its inhabitants saints; many thefts, robberies, and +frauds, were practised upon him, for which he could obtain no redress +from the contemptible magistrates; an earthquake, that did a great deal +of damage, was followed by a sweeping epidemic, which, as it affected +only the natives, was imputed by the priests to magic art and diabolical +witchcraft on the part of the heretical foreign residents. A riot was +the consequence, and the foreigners were only able to secure their lives +and property by a combination of their numbers, and the most determined +firmness of purpose. In short, the harassed merchant found out at last +that he had blundered into one of those self-styled republics, so many +of which have sprung up and passed away since the commencement of the +nineteenth century, where infant Liberty is nursed by mother Mob. + +These vexatious circumstances, and the prospect of an approaching +revolution, that threatened to be a bloody one, completely changed his +sentiments with regard to all South American governments, and he +bitterly regretted having sent for his daughter to join him. + +It was too late now to remedy that mis-step; but he determined, as soon +as she arrived, to re-embark for England as soon as possible, and in +consequence he lost no time in disposing of his merchandize, and +transmitting his funds to the coast, and thence to the spirit-room of a +British frigate. Having thus "set his house in order," and adjusted his +Chilian books, he left St. Jago, and took up his abode for the time +being in Valparaiso, waiting impatiently for the arrival of the Hyperion +and Avon, that were now daily expected. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Finally, my dear hearers. + + OLD SERMONS. + + +Nothing material occurred to the good brig Avon after parting company, +as aforesaid, with her consort, the Hyperion; a circumstance that I +regret not a little, as it deprives me of my only chance for describing +a storm at sea. They only experienced one tornado, and fifteen gales of +wind, before joining the other ship. The tornado was no great things +after all--the brig ran merrily before it, under a reefed foresail and +close-reefed main-topsail. The crew were all on deck during the whole +night it lasted, in case of their services being required. But the +females below had by far the worst of it--they were "turned in" to +berths that the ship-joiner had built with reference rather to the +accommodation of an able-bodied man, than a delicate young lady; and in +consequence, poor Julia was dashed first against the vessel's side, and +then against the front berth-board, as the brig rolled gunwales under at +every motion, till she began to think with the Frenchman, that she +"should get some sleeps, no, not never." In this dilemma she thought of +taking her maid, Miss Dorothea Hastings, into the berth with her, where +the two females, operating mutually as "checks" to each other, +eventually made out a very passable night's rest. As for the gales of +wind, they were the merest flea-bites in creation, though one of them +borrowed the brig's fore-topmast, and another walked away with her +jib-boom. + +During this period, Benavidas had been taken a second time; and as his +captors did not choose to risk shooting him again, which they had +already practised upon him once without success, they hanged him. His +gang were nearly all killed or taken at the same time, and the prisoners +summarily dealt with. + +Longford and about thirty more made their escape in a small schooner; +and as they well knew that they would experience no other mercy, if +taken, than a high gallows and short halter, they shaped a course for +the island of Masafuero, which they determined to make their +head-quarters, and to commit depredations upon all vessels that passed +which were not too well armed. They effected a landing with some +difficulty, and found, as they expected, considerable quantities of +provisions and stores, that had been deposited among the deep fissures +of the rocks by Benavidas some time previous, when his affairs on the +continent began to assume a smoky appearance. Here the scattered but +desperate remnant of his lawless followers found a temporary respite +from the harassing pursuit of the Chilenos, that resulted every day in +the capture and immediate execution of some of their number. + +The landing-place at Masafuero, with the open ground beyond it, +surrounded on three sides by broken rocks or high mountains, makes a +very beautiful appearance from the offing--anchorage, I believe, there +is none. It is a gentle slope, fronting the northern or sunny side of +the horizon, smooth, and of most delightful verdure. Perhaps it appeared +more lovely to me, who had been groping among the ices of the ant-arctic +circle for five months previous. The men whom we had left to get +seal-skins assured me the soil was very rich and deep, and the herbage +green and luxuriant. Since commencing these chapters, I have been +informed that the island is very frequently visited by our whalemen for +supplies of wood and young goat's flesh, which last is a savory morsel +to men who have been many months tumbling and rolling about on the long +regular swell of the Pacific. The waters that surround the island are +almost literally filled with fine fish, to which sailors have given the +general name of "snappers," and which differ from any fish among us, +more particularly in their propensity to bite as greedily at a bare hook +as a baited one. + +It was here that the pirates lay _perdue_, waiting when the devil, who +always befriends such gentry, should send them a defenceless prey. They +were unable to anchor, as I have already noticed that there was no +anchorage, and were accordingly continually on the move, sometimes +extending their researches fifty or sixty miles to the eastward of Juan +Fernandez, which lies about that distance nearer the main than +Masafuero. + +As they were lying to one morning, off the north-western side of +Fernandez, they were suddenly startled by the unexpected appearance of a +large brig that came out from behind the western extremity of the +island, and edged away towards the northward and eastward under all +sail. It was the first vessel they had seen since they had set up the +piratical business on their own account and risk, except an English +"jackass frigate," that chased them at the rate of one mile to the +schooner's five. The Vincedor, which was the name of the schooner, also +kept away and made sail, but kept yawing about in a manner that excited +the suspicions of the people on board the brig, and it was evident that +the manoeuvre would soon bring the schooner alongside. The brig now +hoisted the English ensign, but continued on her way without deviating +from her course. The schooner also made an attempt to "talk bunting," or +show colors; but she had nothing of the kind on board but some old +ragged signals that formerly belonged to the ill-fated brig Swan; and +one of these was accordingly run up to the end of the main gaff. Captain +Burton, for it was indeed he and the brig Avon, after attentively +examining the stranger, gave it as his opinion that she was a pirate, +and directed his men to stand to their guns. + +In a few minutes the schooner, having closed with the Avon, fired a shot +across her bows, which being unnoticed, another was fired that passed +through her foresail, to which the brig replied with three guns loaded +with grape, that took fatal effect upon the exposed and crowded deck of +the Vincedor. The pirates then kept up a heavy and well-directed fire of +small arms upon the Avon, and Captain Burton, seeing several of his best +men killed and wounded, reluctantly gave orders to haul up the courses +and back the main yard, still keeping his colors flying. + +Longford and about twenty ruffians like himself immediately came on +board; and their first question to Captain Burton was, how he had dared +to fire upon their schooner? + +"Because," said the sturdy old seaman, "I knew you to be pirates, and I +was determined not to surrender this vessel without some resistance." + +During this speech, Longford raised his pistol, and at its conclusion +fired; and the brave old sailor, shot through the body, and mortally +wounded, fell at his feet. This was the signal for a general massacre of +the crew; and while the bloody act was perpetrating, Longford ran down +into the cabin, to secure certain articles of plunder that he did not +choose to share with his partners in crime and blood. + +Before the pirate came alongside the Avon, Captain Burton, suspecting +her real character, had requested Julia to go below for a while, on +pretence that he was going to tack ship, and she would be in the way, as +women always are at sea, of the head-braces and main-boom. As the blunt +old veteran never used much ceremony upon such occasions, she thought no +more about it, but went below as she was bid. The firing, however, had +terrified her exceedingly; and Miss Dorothy Hastings, who was sent out +as a vidette as far as the upper step of the companion-ladder, came +scampering back to the main body with intelligence that the stranger was +a pirate, and immediately proceeded to enumerate the outrages that they +might certainly calculate upon being subjected to. Almost sinking with +terror, Julia listened with a scarce-beating heart to the increased +trampling of feet on deck, the oaths of the pirates, and the report of a +pistol; and when the murderer Longford, splashed with poor Burton's +blood, suddenly appeared before her, she uttered a wild shriek, and sank +senseless upon the cabin floor. + +But vengeance was on its way, and close at hand. While the pirates were +busily engaged in murdering the unhappy crew of the Avon, which they did +not accomplish without considerable loss to themselves, for the gallant +fellows fought most desperately, the Hyperion hove in sight from behind +Fernandez, following the track of her consort. Captain Allerton had +heard the firing, and, suspecting all was not right, had "packed on" a +press of sail, and soon came within short musket-shot of the schooner, +whose hull received eight or ten round shot, but her sweeps and +superiority of sailing on a wind, enabled her to escape. Allerton then +steered for the brig, the disordered state of whose sails, her braces +loose and yards flying about as the wind and sea pleased, convinced him +that the pirates had been on board, and it was with a horrible dread of +what might have taken place that he drew near. When within half a mile +of the Avon, he saw a boat shove off from alongside, that a single look +at his glass convinced him contained none of the brig's crew. Satisfied +that they were part of the schooner's piratical crew, he sent all his +men forward armed with muskets, with orders to give them a volley as +soon as they came near enough to be sure of their mark. This was done, +and the next moment the boat was sunk by the ship passing over her, and +not one of the blood-stained wretches escaped. The Hyperion then +shortened sail, and hove to. + +To return to the Avon's cabin. When Longford saw a lovely young woman +lying insensible before him, when he expected no such person's existence +on board, his better feelings prevailed--he thought of his mother, his +sisters, his home, and the bright prospects he had forever darkened by +his own folly and vice, and he leaned against the bulk-head in bitter +agony. He neither heard nor heeded the repeated calls of one of his +comrades, announcing the rapid approach of the Hyperion, his thoughts +were in a complete whirl, nor was he roused from his gloomy reflections +but by the voices of Allerton and his boat's crew, as they came +alongside. Then he started and ran up the companion-way, but escape was +impossible. He drew a pistol from his belt; but before he could even put +himself in an attitude of defence, he was cloven to the teeth by a blow +of Allerton's cutlass. + +Without stopping to see if there was more of them, George ran instantly +below, and found his Julia still insensible, and Miss Hastings kicking +her heels and screaming, after the most approved recipe for performing +hysterics. Allerton sprinkled the young lady's face with water and +vinegar, and ransacked the medicine-chest for hartshorn and ether, but +without success, till at length he thought of bleeding, at which he was +sufficiently expert when his patients had been sailors. The snow-white, +round arm was instantly bared and bandaged; the vein rose, and was +pierced by the lancet with as much skill as Sangrado himself could have +displayed; but the operator, although he knew how much blood a tough +seaman could afford to lose, was completely at a loss when his patient +was a delicate young lady; and, having, to his joy, witnessed the +success of his phlebotomy in restoring her to life and consciousness, +slacked the bandage and stopped the bleeding. + +For a few minutes Julia's senses seemed completely bewildered; she +stared wildly around, and uttered the most incoherent ravings; when +George, who seemed to retain his presence of mind most wonderfully, +wisely reflecting that human nature was about the same, whether in +breeches or petticoats, poured out a glass of wine, and compelled his +patient to swallow a large share of it. The wine produced the most happy +effects. In a few minutes she looked up in his face with an intelligent +glance, and in a soft voice murmured his name. + +In the mean time it would be unpardonable in us to leave Miss Dorothea +Hastings any longer. Allerton had been followed into the cabin by +several of his men, one of whom, compassionating the situation of the +young woman, who was, in truth, a plump, rosy-cheeked lass, and having +seen cold water thrown into the faces of people in fits, caught up a +gallon pitcher filled with the element, and dashed it into her +countenance. The remedy effectually restored her to consciousness and +herself, by rousing her indignation against the perpetrator of such an +ungallant action. + +A German theorist of the present age has much such a way of curing all +human diseases; that is, he drives one disorder out of the system by +introducing another more powerful--in some cases similar, in others +directly opposite; as for instance, he attacks pulmonary consumption +with insanity, gout with the "seven-years-itch," small-pox with its +partial namesake, pleurisy with inflammatory rheumatism, &c., and so +_vice versa_ in all cases; no doubt the theory is a good one, and so +was that which proposed to keep a horse upon nothing. + +In the course of an hour Julia declared herself sufficiently restored to +accompany George to his own ship, whither she was accordingly removed, +and a cabin fitted up for her accommodation. + +In the process of burying the murdered crew of the Avon, four of her men +were found alive, severely but not dangerously wounded; and a fifth, who +had lowered himself over the bows, and clung to the bob-stays. Six of +the pirates were also found dead on her decks, their brains dashed out +by the handspikes with which the seamen had defended themselves till +shot down in detail. + +By the time all necessary arrangements and changes had been made, it was +dark; and the Avon, with the second officer and six men from the +Hyperion, jogged along in the wake of that ship, which carried a lantern +at her gaff-end for her direction. Miss Dorothy, being comfortably +established in the Hyperion's cabin, complained of "feeling bad +somehow." Her mistress had _turned in_ long before, and was sound asleep +under the influence of a composing medicine, prescribed by her physician +and lover. Perhaps Miss Hastings thought the same medicine might do +_her_ good; perhaps she meant the complaint as a hint to Mr. Brail, the +mate, to have pity upon her. The seaman took the hint, real or +imaginary, and declared he could compound a draught as composing as any +prescribed in the "book of directions," and accordingly mixed a tumbler +of hot grog, well sweetened with loaf-sugar; but he forgot he was not +mixing for himself, and put in the same quantity of pure Antigua as +though the "charge" was intended for his own throat and brain of proof. +Miss Dolly drank the potent mixture, which effectually dispelled the +remains of her hysterical squall; and in a few minutes after retiring to +her berth, she was fast in the arms of Morpheus, if Morpheus ever goes +to sea. + +Our story must now gallop a little. Mr. Effingham was delighted with +George's gallant conduct, though he was too late to save poor Burton and +his men; the cargoes of both vessels were sold, and the old gentleman, +with his daughter, returned to England with Allerton. Shortly after +their arrival, the hall of Effingham House witnessed the performance of +that ceremony, which, in the English prayer-books, "begins with 'dearly +beloved,' and ends with 'amazement;'" but "the bishops, priests, and +deacons, and all other clergy," who were engaged in altering and +adapting the Book of Common Prayer to the Episcopal church in this +country, finding nothing very amazing in matrimony, have omitted the +short sermon that usually closed its performance, and the form, like +most religious forms, now ends modestly with a simple Amen. + +In three days after the murder on board the Avon, the schooner was +driven ashore upon Masafuero in a "norther," a violent gale so called +in that sea, from its uniformly blowing from the northward; and of the +eight on board, seven perished. The wretched survivor, after suffering +every thing but death from starvation, escaped in a whaler to the main, +was recognised, identified as one of Benavidas' gang, and shot before he +had been on shore two hours. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Sailor's Yarns, by Nathaniel Ames + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD SAILOR'S YARNS *** + +***** This file should be named 29323-8.txt or 29323-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/2/29323/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Val Wooff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Ames. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum {visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .left {text-align: left;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i7 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i15 {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i18 {display: block; margin-left: 18em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} + /* Table of contents anchor */ + + .tr {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; + padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px; + }/* transcriber's notes */ + + </style> + </head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Sailor's Yarns, by Nathaniel Ames + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Old Sailor's Yarns + +Author: Nathaniel Ames + +Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29323] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD SAILOR'S YARNS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Val Wooff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:<br /></p> + +<p>There is some arcane and inconsistent spelling. The dialect, spelling +and punctuation have been preserved as far as possible.</p> + +<p>Obvious typographical errors have been altered, for example where a word +was duplicated or a letter duplicated around a hyphen. Hyphenations have +been made consistent.</p> +</div> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h5>AN</h5> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2>OLD SAILOR'S YARNS.</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3>N. AMES.</h3> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "MARINER'S SKETCHES,"</p> +<p class="center">&c. &c. &c.</p> + +<hr style='width: 10%;' /> + +<p class="center">Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Virgil.</i></p> + + +<hr style='width: 10%;' /> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h4>NEW YORK:</h4> + +<h5>GEORGE DEARBORN, 38 GOLD STREET.</h5> + +<p class="center">MDCCCXXXV.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by +<span class="smcap">George Dearborn</span>, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the +United States, for the Southern District of New York.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<p>_______________________<br /> +<span class="smcap">William Van Norden, Print.</span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h3> + +<hr style='width: 10%;' /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<h4><a href="#MARY_BOWLINE">MARY BOWLINE</a></h4> + + +<h4><a href="#OLD_CUFF">OLD CUFF</a></h4> + + +<h4><a href="#THE_RIVALS">THE RIVALS</a></h4> + + +<h4><a href="#MORTON">MORTON</a></h4> + + +<h4><a href="#THE_PIRATE_OF_MASAFUERO">PIRATE OF MASAFUERO</a></h4> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>Mr. Buckingham, noticing the "Nautical Reminiscences" in the New +England Magazine, says, no author ever stopped at the second book; and +he very gravely proceeds to recommend that my number three should savor +more of the style of Goldsmith or Washington Irving. I should have no +objection whatever to writing like either of these distinguished +authors, <i>if I could</i>; but as the case is, I must be content to write as +well as I can. The whole article in Mr. B's magazine bore no faint +resemblance to a dose of calomel and jalap, administered in a +table-spoonful of molasses, in which the sweet and the nauseous are so +equally balanced, that the patient is in doubt whether to spit or to +swallow. I was, however, exceedingly flattered with the notice bestowed +upon me by this literary cynic, as he was never before known to speak +well, even moderately, of any author, except natives of Boston, or +professors in Harvard University.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><p>"Morton" is founded upon an old tradition, now forgotten, but well +known when I first went to sea, of the exploits of some of our +adventurous and somewhat lawless traders in the Pacific. A number of the +crew of one of these smuggling vessels were taken in the act, and, after +a hasty trial, ordered to be sent to the mines. The route to their place +of condemnation and hopeless confinement lay near the coast. A large +party of seamen landed from two or three ships that were in the +neighborhood, waylaid the military escort, knocked most of them on the +head, rescued the prisoners, and got safe off without loss. The story +says nothing of female influence or assistance, but knowing it to be +morally impossible to get through a story without the assistance of a +lady, I pressed one into the service, and took other liberties with the +original, till it became what peradventure the reader will find it. Many +stories are told of the skirmishes, or as sailors call them, +"scrammidges," between our "free-traders" and the guarda-costas in +different parts of the Pacific. In particular, the ship D——, of +Boston, is said to have had a "regular-built fight" with a guarda-costa +of forty-four guns, that retired from the action so miserably mauled, +that it is doubtful to this day whether she ever found her way back into +port. An old sea-dog who was on board the D——, furnished me with many +details of the proceedings of our merchantmen on the coasts of +California, and Mexico, some thirty years since, but most of them have +escaped my memory.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>I have inadvertently, in one or two instances, called the inhabitants +of Mexico, South Americans. The fact is, there is scarcely a perceptible +shade of difference in manners between the Chilians, Peruvians, and +Mexicans; there is none in their language, dress, or religion; and +sailors, who pay but little regard to arbitrary divisions of continents, +are in the habit of calling all the quondam possessions of his Most +Catholic Majesty, that border upon the Pacific, by the general name of +South America, upon the same principle, I presume, that they call the +whole of that ocean the "<i>South</i> Sea," though they may be at that very +moment anchored in Sitka, or cruizing in the chops of Behring's Straits.</p> + +<p>"The Rivals," is built upon a strange story that was quite current among +our men-of-war's-men some years ago, but I am unable to give any further +account of the hero of <i>their</i> story than the reader will find in the +conclusion of mine. There seems to be no doubt that the stranger was +obliged to fly on account of a fatal duel; and sailors, who cannot +conceive of a duel between two gentlemen, as they somewhat ironically +call them, unless there is a woman in the case, have accordingly +attached one to the quarrel that compelled the unfortunate officer to +take shelter on board an American national vessel.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p>"Old Cuff" is a sketch from real life. He was a petty officer in the +service at the same time with me, and notwithstanding his rambling life, +was a man of good education and strong mind. His life was a striking +illustration of the truth of the proposition that "there is no romance +like the romance of real life." He proposed to me to take minutes of his +adventures, which were extremely interesting, but before I could +commence operations I was myself made a petty officer, and removed to a +station in a part of the ship where I but seldom saw him, and the ship +was soon after ordered home.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>The reader need be neither a wizard nor a witch to perceive that "Mary +Bowline" is a creation of my own brain, and is of course defective, and +will disappoint. But if it is true that "Bacon, Butler, and Shakspeare +have rendered it impossible for any one after them to be profound, +witty, or sublime," it is equally true that Scott, Irving, and others +have rendered it impossible for any one to be equally entertaining, +interesting, or amusing. I hold, however, to another maxim, that "he is +a benefactor to mankind who furnishes them with innocent materials for +laughter and delight," a maxim that did not come exactly "ex cathedra," +but is full as profound, and correct. If I have been so fortunate as to +contribute to, or become the cause of innocent delight, I shall think +that the "Forecastle Yarns" have not been written in vain.</p> + +<p>It was objected to my two former works that they contained strictures, +and remarks, upon what are commonly called orthodox principles. In the +present volume, I have studiously endeavored to steer my footsteps clear +of the tender toes of every religious sect except the Catholics; whom, +in imitation of the Protestant clergy and laity all around me, I have +handled without mittens whenever I could get a chance.</p> + +<p>I cannot close without repeating that if I have succeeded in helping to +make</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The wheels of life gae down hill scrievin',<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wi' rattlin' glee,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I shall feel more gratified than if I had squared the circle, or drawn +up a tariff that, like Shakspeare's barber's chair, should fit all +parties.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">N. A.</span> +</p> + +<p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">_Providence, October 1, 1833._</span> +</p> + +<p>P. S. More than a year ago the following pages were written and prepared +for the press, under the title of "Forecastle Yarns," but a gentleman +connected with the New York Mirror took a fancy to that title, and +immediately appropriated it to himself with the most genteel +indifference as to the prior right of another. In consequence, I have +been obliged to adopt a new name. The "Pirate of Masafuero" was written +after the above preface was prepared. "Old Cuff" has already been before +the public in the columns of the first and only number of a new +magazine<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> that expired for want of patronage, and support, having just +survived long enough to give ample proofs that it deserved the +patronage, and support, that were denied it. The very favorable notice +that the Evening Star took of "Old Cuff," is proof positive that it is +much higher than "fair to middling;" and if it is true that "the proof +of the pudding is eating the bag," (and the reader will consider "Old +Cuff" as the bag,) I think it follows that the pudding now set before +him cannot be a bad one.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>November, 1834.</i></span> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> American Spectator and National Magazine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p></div> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2><a name="MARY_BOWLINE" id="MARY_BOWLINE"></a>MARY BOWLINE.</h2><div class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>MARY BOWLINE</h3> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">"Nautaeque, per omne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Audaces mare qui currunt, hac mente laborum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sese ferre, senes ut in otia tuta recedunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aiunt."<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Horace.</span> +</div></div> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p>Captain Robert Bowline, a retired sea-captain, occupied a snug little +farm in the town of B——, one of the many pleasant villages on the +coast of New England. He had followed the sea for many years, acquired +considerable property, married, and had a family. When he had attained +his forty-fifth year, a relation of his wife died, leaving her heiress +to a very handsome estate, part of which was the farm aforesaid. In +consequence of this event he was easily persuaded by his wife, whom he +tenderly loved, to retire to private life, and leave the "vexed ocean" +to be ploughed by those who had their fortunes to make. They retired to +their farm, when the first act of the old Triton was to pull down the +antique house that had been erected "about the time of the old French +war," and build another more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> "ship-shape," and congenial to the taste +of a sailor. The dwelling itself was not, indeed, externally different +from any other of the snug-looking and rather handsome two-story houses +of substantial farmers, &c. in New England; but its internal economy was +somewhat nautical, containing numerous "lockers" and "store-rooms." Its +front gate-posts were composed of the two jaw-bones of an enormous +whale; the fence was of a most fanciful Chinese pattern; and directly in +front of the house was erected that never-failing ornament of a sailor's +dwelling, a tall flag-staff, with cap, cross-trees, and topmast, +complete; the last, always being kept "housed," except upon the 4th of +July, 22d of February, &c. At the foot of the flag-staff, "hushed in +grim repose," was an iron six-pounder, mounted upon a ship gun-carriage, +ready for service, whenever any national holyday required its voice. The +house fronted the sea; a most superb view of which it commanded, but was +at the same time screened from its storms in great measure by being +flanked by noble old elms, and a fine orchard, which almost entirely +surrounded it; while in the rear the ground swelled into a thickly +wooded hill of moderate height. The ground in front sloped gently down +to the water's edge, at the distance of half a mile from the house, but +to the left gradually rose into a high point, or headland, terminating +in a rocky cliff that strode far out into the sea, and formed the +harbor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>The family of the old seaman, at the time he took possession of his +"shore quarters," consisted of himself, wife, and daughter Mary—the +rest of his children having died young. As we have no particular concern +with the events of his life from that period to Mary's twenty-first +year, we shall only observe that during that time he had the misfortune +to lose his wife.</p> + +<p>Mary Bowline was a young lady, confessedly of the greatest beauty in the +little town of B——, and for many miles round; a trifle above the +middle stature, sufficiently so to relieve her figure from the +imputation of shortness; or, as she was a little inclined to be +"fleshy," or "embonpoint," as our refined authors call it, from what is +sometimes called "stubbidness;" her eyes were of deep celestial blue; +her hair, a dark brown, and her complexion, notwithstanding her +continual rambles along the beach in her girlish days, of exquisite +purity. Her education, I grieve to say, had been most shamefully +neglected; her mother, though a most exemplary woman, both as a +Christian and a member of society, had never tied her up in a +fashionable corset to improve her figure, nor sent her to a fashionable +boarding school to improve her mind; the consequence was that she knew +nothing of the piano,—Virgil seems to have had the gift of prophecy +with regard to this part of modern education, when he said or sang,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Stridente stipula miserum <i>disperdere</i> carmen,"—</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +and was equally ignorant of that sublime and useful art, working lace; +she had no further idea of dancing than had been beat into her head, or +rather heels, by the saltatory instructions of an itinerant +dancing-master—I ask pardon, "professor"—who, with a bandy-legged dog +at his heels, and a green baize bag under his arm, paid an annual visit +to the town, to instruct its Thetises in the "poetry of motion;" an apt +illustration of the</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Bacchum</i> in remotis" choreas "rupibus</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Vidi docentem</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nymphasque discentes,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>of Horace, with the alteration of a word; said fiddler having "forsworn +thin potations" very soon after the commencement of his capering career. +In the "serene and silent art" she was, however, truly fortunate; the +clergyman of the place, a most amiable and intelligent man, and, to the +credit of his amphibious parishioners, loved and esteemed with the +utmost fervor and unanimity, added to his other accomplishments no mean +skill as a draughtsman; an art, that he had full leisure to practise; +one of his parochial duties, that of visiting the sick, being a mere +shadow; for your fisherman, with his wife and his little ones, is but +seldom on the doctor's list, and when he "files off," generally does it +without beat of drum or flap of banner. He was a constant visiter at the +house of Captain Bowline, whither he was attracted by the fascination<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +of the seaman's stories of foreign parts. Charmed with the dawning +beauty of the lovely little Mary, he readily undertook to give her +better instruction than she could have obtained at the town school, to +which he added drawing. Her mother had amply instructed her in the more +useful and homely arts of cooking, sewing, knitting, &c. and she had +even taught her to spin; for she lived before the establishment of any, +or many, of those institutions for the increase of illegitimate +children, ignorance, immorality, suicide, seduction, murder, &c.—I mean +cotton factories. The comparatively affluent circumstances of her family +had, however, rendered it unnecessary for her to practise this last +accomplishment. With all these charms in her own person, and right in +her father's strong box, it is not to be wondered at that the lovely +Mary Bowline had suitors in abundance; but the only one that seemed to +have made any impression upon her light heart, was a young seaman by the +name of Kelson, who had now attained his twenty-seventh year.</p> + +<p>Thomas Kelson was the son of poor parents, indeed it would have been +extremely difficult, if not impossible, to have found a family in the +whole town of B—— that could be called wealthy. He had followed the +sea from early life, and had always returned home during the intervals +of his voyages, at which times he had improved his education under the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +instructions of the clergyman aforesaid. His acquaintance with Mary had +passed by a very natural transition from intimacy to affection; he was +the constant companion of her rambles, and when she chose an aquatic +excursion his sail-boat was always ready. To her father his company was +always acceptable; the old seaman had none of the pride of "monied +aristrocracy;" he saw no harm in his daughter placing her affections, +and bestowing her hand and fortune, upon a young man who was fast rising +to respectability and wealth, in precisely the same steps by which he +had himself ascended, commencing as cabin-boy and ending as master and +part owner; he lived on a part of the coast that lay entirely out of the +track of "refinement," if indeed she had then begun her march.</p> + +<p>Accordingly things were permitted to go on just as though consent had +been asked and obtained; the young couple walked together, sat together, +and Kelson being "free of the house," talked together upon almost every +subject but love. Was there to be a fishing or sleighing party, or an +excursion into the neighboring woods, Tom Kelson was invariably and by +quiet agreement Mary Bowline's escort; was there a ball, no one, +"louting low with cap in hand," solicited, or thought of soliciting, the +honor of her company; that felicity was always supposed to be reserved +for Tom Kelson; still, with all this constant and close intimacy, the +young seaman had never talked of love, never offered himself as a +husband, and Mary, the gay and light-hearted Mary, had never, as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +New England saying is, "thought a word about it." Had Kelson suddenly +presented himself to her with "Mary, shall we be published next Sunday?" +she would have answered "Yes;" without the slightest hesitation; nor +thought her assent worth the trouble of a blush or a simper; and such, I +believe, will be found the case in most of our country courtships.</p> + +<p>Captain Kelson, for he had attained that title some time previous, had +been on <i>terra firma</i> some months; partly for want of a vessel, but +chiefly in compliance with the earnest entreaties of the lovely Mary, +who was terrified at the thought of his again encountering the frightful +calamity that had so nearly proved fatal to him on his last voyage. On +his return from St. Petersburg with a full cargo, he had experienced a +tremendous gale near the Grand Banks, during which his vessel was struck +by lightning and consumed. After undergoing most dreadful sufferings in +their boats, the exhausted remnant of the crew were most providentially +picked up and brought safe home. In consequence of losing his vessel, +the owners had received him with coldness, as is invariably the case, as +though a deep loaded brig, lying-to in a gale of wind, could dodge a +flash of lightning! I have known many a good seaman kept "lying out" of +a vessel for months, merely because the owners had thought proper to +send him to sea in a <i>craft</i> whose bottom had "dropped out," as the sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +phrase is, as soon as she had encountered bad weather.</p> + +<p>Captain Kelson had accordingly remained on shore from April, till +September; the time when we have thought proper to commence our story; +during which period he contrived to kill time quite agreeably in +fishing, shooting, surveying the harbor, and last but not least, in +paying continual attention to the fair Mary. He had one day made a visit +to Captain Bowline's house, and had accompanied him in a ramble over +part of his farm. During their "cruize," the old sailor had detailed his +plans for the season, and gradually extending his views, announced +certain arrangements and alterations as about to be carried into +execution "when Mary gets married." When Mary gets married! the words +passed like the shock of a galvanic battery through the mind of the +younger seaman; he soon took leave, and as he strolled, unconscious of +the direction his feet were taking without admitting his head into their +counsels, down towards the narrow strip of white sand beach at the foot +of the headland already mentioned, her father's words, the last that he +distinctly heard or recollected, continued to sound in his ears—</p> + +<p>"When Mary gets married! well, she must get married some time or other, +and who will it be?" he said to himself, suddenly stopping short. "She +seems to prefer me at present, but I know that when I am at sea she +appears to favor Sam Ingraham, or Ben Bass, just as much. Yet why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +should she be so anxious to have me stay on shore to avoid an accident +that may not occur again in a century, if I should live so long, unless +she does really prefer me to all others? I will certainly try to find +out the state of her feelings towards me the first opportunity, and if +she refuses me, I will never set foot in B—— again."</p> + +<p>With this chivalrous determination he visited his lovely and all +unconscious mistress the next day, but the fair lady was busy +ironing.—"I shall see her again this evening," thought he, as he turned +slowly towards the town; and see her that evening he did. They rambled +out towards the cape, or promontory, almost invariably the scene of +their summer evening walks; for lovers, after one or two strolls over a +particular portion of ground, regard it as almost sacred; there are a +thousand sweet recollections connected with every step—here they have +paused to admire some particular feature in the prospect—under that +spreading tree they have stood together in silence, busy with their own +peculiar thoughts; and this walk is seldom, if ever, changed—it is +almost like inconstancy to each other to propose a different route.</p> + +<p>They had reached the high bluff, and were seated, as usual, upon a +solitary block of granite, which, had they lived in heathen times, they +might have worshipped as the ancient and much respected god Terminus. +Mary, who had hitherto had the conversation almost entirely to herself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +suddenly noticed her lover's abstraction.</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the matter with you, Thomas?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing; I was only thinking, Mary."</p> + +<p>"'Thinking, Mary!' well, do speak to Mary once in a while. I believe," +she continued, after a pause, and with a faltering voice and feeling of +faintness that she could not account for, "I believe you are in love, +Thomas." She had heard that day that Captain Kelson was making furious +love to a sea-nymph in B——, the daughter of one of the richest +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>"So I am, sweet Mary, most desperately so."</p> + +<p>"I know it, sir; I heard it all this morning; I wish you joy," gasped +the poor girl.</p> + +<p>"Heard of it all! good heavens, Mary, what do you mean? it is you, my +own dearest girl, that I love; who else <i>could</i> you think of?" as he +spoke he held both her hands in his and clasped them earnestly.</p> + +<p>"I heard," faltered poor Mary, "I was told that—that it was—Jane +Wilson, O, Thomas!" and sinking her glowing cheek upon his shoulder, she +burst into tears.</p> + +<p>Kelson, inexpressibly delighted by this unequivocal testimony of her +love, prest her to his bosom, and hastened to explain to her that the +sole object of his seeking an interview with her that evening, was to +make known his affection; that his silence and reserve were owing to the +deep interest he felt in the issue of that interview; that his visits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +to Captain Wilson's were solely on business; that he scarcely saw his +daughter Jane at any one of them; and a thousand other things. What a +stupid, asinine creature is a lover, <i>before</i> the ice is broken, and +what an eloquent, inspired animal, <i>after</i> the <i>explosion</i>! A lover may +retire to his closet, and spoil a whole ream of paper with "raven +locks," and "eyes' liquid azure," and "sweet girls," &c. Such an epicure +creature as Natty Willis will befoul you a quire of foolscap before +breakfast in that way—but let a stranger see the same lover in presence +of his idol, and he would think that he was then to apologise for an +assault and battery with intent, &c.</p> + +<p>The walk home was the pleasantest they had ever enjoyed—both were too +happy for conversation. They decided, however, before they parted, that +it was altogether unnecessary to communicate to Captain Bowline what had +taken place. "He has understood all along what was the state of your +feelings," said Mary, "and I am sure has always regarded you with +paternal kindness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">O! a most dainty man!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To see him walk before a lady and bear her fan!</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Love's Labor Lost.</span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>The next day, as the old seaman sat by a front window smoking his pipe +after dinner, he suddenly started up with the exclamation of "Hey! +what—what the devil have we here? Mary, love, hand me the glass—a +mariner adrift on a grating, by the Lord Harry!"</p> + +<p>The object that called forth this animadversion, and broke a delightful +day-dream that Mary was indulging in, now appeared in sight, having +hitherto been hidden by a thick clump of trees, that bounded the ocean +prospect towards the right. It was a small sail-boat, with three men in +her, that, at one moment directly before the wind, and the next, "all +shaking," seemed rapidly approaching an extensive mud flat, that formed +one side of the harbor, and towards which the flowing tide and fresh +breeze seemed to be fast drifting her.</p> + +<p>"There they are, hard and fast! and on their beam ends, too, by the +piper," continued the veteran, and as he witnessed this last +catastrophe, he sprang from his chair, forgetting in his charitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +intention of hurrying to their assistance, that they were more than half +a mile off, and in full view of the town.</p> + +<p>"There is a boat going to them, pa," said Mary, slightly blushing as she +recognised at the mast head of a very handsome, fast sailing boat, a +blue "burger," with a large white M. in it, the work of her own fair +hands.</p> + +<p>"Aye," said the veteran, reseating himself, "aye, there goes Tom Kelson +in your namesake, Mary; they'll get off with a ducking, and it will +serve them right. Yes," continued he, applying the glass to his eye, +"there goes two of them ashore through the mud, like a couple of +pup-seals."</p> + +<p>Kelson managed his boat with great skill, so as to approach the wreck, +on board which still appeared one person half overboard, and apparently +almost exhausted by his violent struggles to disencumber himself from +the wet sail, and by anchoring immediately to windward, and carrying +away cable, reached the boat and rescued the unfortunate man from a +situation that was exceedingly uncomfortable if not dangerous. The other +two, by dint of swimming, wading, and wallowing through the mud, reached +the shore, which was about three hundred yards distant.</p> + +<p>As soon as he had ascertained that the man on board the wreck was +rescued, the old seaman, "on hospitable thoughts intent," hastened to +the village to obtain intelligence and render assistance. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +evening when he returned to his snug dwelling, and then he was +accompanied by a tall, slight made, very fashionably dressed young man, +whom he introduced to his daughter as Mr. Millinet, of New York.</p> + +<p>Mr. Millinet, or as he usually designated himself, George Frederick +Augustus Millinet, Esq., was a "dry goods merchant," <i>par excellence</i>, +in Broadway, who having a little more cash on hand than he had ever +possessed before, made an excursion to New England, with the charitable +intention of civilizing and astonishing the natives. His debut was, +however, rather unfortunate; B—— was his first "land-fall" after +quitting the high road from New York, towards the east. Fancying that a +sail-boat in a sea-way, was as easily managed as a Whitehall skiff, off +the Battery; he had "put to sea," in company with two little amphibious +urchins that he had hired for the occasion, and who desired no better +sport. They immediately perceived the ignorance of their commander, and +began to play tricks upon him, as man-of-war's men do upon an ignorant +and tyrannical midshipman. These pranks had terminated more seriously +than they expected, and, fearful of punishment, they had betaken +themselves to the water and made their escape.</p> + +<p>Mr. Millinet being somewhat annoyed by the sly jokes and grave humor of +mine host, of the hotel, concerning his misfortune, and the giggling of +the waiters and chamber-maids, gladly accepted Captain Bowline's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +invitation, and was soon seated at his hospitable and well loaded table, +for the old tar put no great faith in tea and bread and butter for +supper. The knight of the yard-stick had, however, gulped down too much +salt water, and been too seriously frightened to feel much appetite, and +he retired to bed early. The next morning he made his appearance at +breakfast, over which the fair Mary was presiding, and which might have +excited an appetite in the gastric region of the most confirmed +dyspeptic. There were bass and tautaug fresh from the water; oysters in +different forms, broiled, stewed, fried, &c.; a noble ham, into which +the stout seaman plunged his flashing carving-knife, and hewed it in +pieces, as Samuel did Agag, in the valley of Gilgal; there was broiled +ham, beef steaks, mutton chop, eggs, cheese, butter, honey, hot cakes; a +pile of pilot-bread-toast a foot high, ditto untoasted, coffee, tea, and +chocolate. To all this good cheer, their fashionable visiter paid but +small respect, and the old commander, having pressed him to make himself +at home, and help himself, attacked his own breakfast with vigor, +feeling at the same time no small contempt for a man whose stomach could +be so effectually unhinged by a simple capsize, and thorough ducking. +The vender of tape and calico, seemed to feast his eyes, if not his +appetite, by gazing on the lovely countenance of his young hostess; and +after some slight hesitation, commenced talking to her of theatres, and +balls, and assemblies, and fashionable intelligence in general; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +Balaam's ass, if she had marched into the room and commenced an oration +in the original Hebrew, or Chaldee, or Syro-Phœnician, or whatever +might have been <i>its</i> vernacular tongue in which she formerly addressed +her master, could not have been more unintelligible. The old gentleman +made an attempt to drive a conversation, and asked a few questions +relative to foreign politics, the state of navigation, and commerce, in +New York, &c.; but finding his auditor as ignorant as though he had +proposed a case in middle latitude sailing, he dropped him altogether.</p> + +<p>He remained in the family three or four days, during which, his +attentions to Mary were incessant, but managed with such fashionable +tact as not to be annoying. She was exceedingly amused by his consummate +vanity and self-conceit; that seemed to make up the greater part of his +character. His descriptions of society and manners in the commercial +emporium, though not altogether intelligible to his fair auditor, were +new and amusing, and in spite of the contagious effect of her father's +contempt, and the troubled looks of poor Kelson, she could not help +listening to him with complacency. It was evident to every body but Mary +that the retailer of ginghams was most seriously smitten with her, as +much so, that is to say, as his idolatry of himself left him capable of +being with any person. And so it proved, for in less time than she had +any idea that it was possible to go to and return from New York, back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +came her Broadway beau. Mary opened her large blue eyes in most +unaffected astonishment, as he came up to the door at which she was +standing, equipped for a walk with Kelson. She made no scruple of +consigning him to her father and continuing her walk. The old man +received him, of course, with politeness, and after a short +conversation, his visiter who seemed much embarrassed, observed that he +was desirous of entering the holy state, and then went on to give an +account of his prospects, expectations, possessions, references, hopes, +fears, anxieties, &c. The seaman listened with attention to the whole +catalogue, mentally exclaiming, "what the d—l does all this mean?"</p> + +<p>"In short, sir," said he of Broadway, "I have seen no young lady who +seems so well calculated to make a man happy as your lovely daughter +Mary; and if you have no objection, I should be happy to be permitted to +pay my addresses to her, if her affections are not already engaged."</p> + +<p>The old sea-dog, who had been rubbing his chin during the latter part of +his visiter's harangue, observed that "his daughter was indeed a fine +girl, and he (Mr. Millinet) had not and could not say any more good of +her than she deserved; that as to her affections being engaged, he did +not pretend to bother his brain about an affair that did not concern +him, trusting that the girl had good sense enough to make a proper +choice; that with regard to paying his addresses to her, he might sheer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +alongside as quick as he liked—he would without doubt find her at +quarters and all ready for action; and finally that he, her father, +would not interfere to thwart her wishes in so important an affair as +the choice of a husband, for," (he repeated, with an internal chuckle as +the thought crossed his mind, that his favorite Tom Kelson was beyond a +doubt the man of her choice,) "Mary knew what she was about, and had wit +enough to make a judicious choice."</p> + +<p>This speech, an exceedingly long one for him, was listened to with great +satisfaction by his fashionable guest, who thus armed with the father's +consent, as he regarded it, never dreamed of the possibility of any +difficulty on the daughter's part, and looked upon the whole affair as +settled.</p> + +<p>In the mean time Mary, regardless of her victory over the heart of her +New York visiter, was quietly pursuing her evening walk with Kelson, to +whom she had made known the presence, in the vicinity, of his rival. Her +lover heard the intelligence with a feeling of dissatisfaction that he +could not exactly define—he had unbounded confidence in his Mary's +constancy and love just at that present time, but, like most men, he had +rather a mean opinion of woman's constancy in general, and could not +avoid applying the general rules that he had formed for himself, to most +individuals. He dreaded the effect of an assiduous and sustained attack +upon Mary's inexperienced mind, from a dashing, fashionable lover, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +held out to her acceptance all the charms and glitter of a life of ease, +and splendor, and dissipation. His uneasy sensations were by no means +quieted by his companion's gaiety, who having at once surmised, or +pretended so to have done, the object of the Gothamite's visit, promised +herself much amusement from his wooing.</p> + +<p>On their return to the house, they found the new visiter quietly +installed in the parlor, and waiting their, or rather her, return. In +high glee with the flattering prospect before him, he completely +monopolized Mary's attention, and eventually put to flight the +overpowered and mortified Kelson, who left the house with a heavy heart. +For at least a week Mr. Millinet kept the field; he was Mary's constant +companion, whether sitting quietly at home or walking out; and Kelson, +finding it almost impossible even to speak to her, prudently kept +himself out of the way, well knowing that Mary would soon miss him, if +she had not already, and eagerly seek an interview; nor was he wrong in +his conjecture. Calling at her father's house one Sunday morning, he +found her seated in the parlor waiting for meeting time. In the course +of conversation he asked her jestingly, though with a beating heart, +"what she meant to do with her new lover?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said she laughing, "he says that he has my father's +permission to make love to me, and he seems determined that the +permission shall not become a dead letter for want of use."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your father! I had no idea that he had given his consent."</p> + +<p>"My father, Thomas, has given me free permission to do as I please in +the affair of choosing a husband."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said poor Kelson, construing this last speech into sentence +of death to <i>his</i> love.</p> + +<p>"And I have already acted as I pleased," continued the lovely girl, +holding out her hand to him.</p> + +<p>It was impossible to mistake the meaning of the last words and their +accompanying action, and the delighted seaman certified his full +intelligence and gratitude upon her lips.</p> + +<p>"I believe this fellow, my sweet Mary, has made me almost jealous and +quite foolish; but, seriously, what do you mean to do with him?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the creature can't stay here for ever, and if he offers himself to +me, I shall say 'No,' in as plain English as possible."</p> + +<p>Mr. Millinet soon after made his appearance, and attended Captain +Bowline and his daughter to meeting, to the no small surprise of the +good folks of B——, who, regarding him as the favored lover of Mary +Bowline, could not help expressing their regret that she should have +slighted Captain Kelson, and accepted "that tape-measuring son of a +b——."</p> + +<p>What a pity that sailors, and seafaring people at large, can seldom or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +never give vent to their indignation without at the same time attacking +the parentage of the object of their resentment. This is decidedly an +orientalism; and I have observed in another place that sailors resemble +the Orientals in their fondness for tropes and figures. The most +opprobrious epithet that a Persian can make use of, when in a passion, +is to call his antagonist "a dog's uncle." No other degree of canine +consanguinity is considered so degrading.</p> + +<p>The retailer of dry goods dined at the house of Captain Bowline, and +attended the family to church in the afternoon, but excused himself +immediately after the service was over and returned to the town. Kelson +made a visit to the house of the old seaman just at dark, and on +entering the usual sitting-room he found it unlighted, and occupied only +by Dinah, the black girl, who, arrayed in what the old captain called +her "go-ashore bib and tucker," was probably awaiting the arrival of her +woolly-headed suitor. The old gentleman had gone out visiting, as he +usually did on Sunday evenings, and Mary was in a little back parlor, +where she usually sat in her father's absence, and which was the winter +sitting-room of the family. Kelson had been in the house but a very few +minutes when he saw his rival approaching the front gate. With all that +propensity for mischief that characterizes sailors on shore, he +immediately formed, and proceeded to put in execution, a plan for the +torment and vexation of his antagonist of the yard-stick. He promised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +the sable handmaid of his Mary a half dollar, if she would personate her +mistress for a few minutes, which he imagined easily enough done in the +dark, and instructing her "to behave prim and lady-like," went in quest +of the boy Jim, whom he stationed in the entry to open the door for Mr. +Millinet, and show him into the front parlor, and then went to the room +where the fair lady herself was sitting. She was just on the point of +coming to the front room with a light, having heard his well-known voice +and step, but he easily engaged her in conversation; and when, at +Millinet's knock, she was rising to see who it was, he as easily +detained her by the assurance, that it was "nobody but her New York +sweetheart." Every thing favored the mischievous plans of the seaman: +Millinet never suspecting that any female but the mistress of the house +would presume to seat herself in the front parlor, and feeling moreover +the darkness and solitude of the room peculiarly favorable to courtship, +seated himself by the side of the supposed Mary, and immediately +commenced making love in pretty "rapid" style. Finding that the lady +answered only in monosyllables, and seemed more than usually affable, he +ventured to take her hand and gently squeeze it. He was at first +somewhat startled at the hardness and roughness of the palm, but soon +recollected that the country ladies in New England were in the habit of +milking their cows, making butter and cheese, &c., and said to himself, +"Never mind, when she is Mrs. Millinet her hard palms shall be well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +rubbed with pumice-stone and milk of roses, till they are as soft as any +lady's in Broadway."</p> + +<p>Enraptured by the gentle pressure with which the "black lily" returned +his amorous squeeze of her hand, he ventured to raise it to his lips, +and imprint a kiss upon the short, thick fingers. At this critical and +rapturous moment the door flew open, and the real Mary entered, bearing +a lighted glass mantel-lamp in each hand. With a profound curtesy she +placed her lamps upon the mantel-piece, and gravely asking pardon for +her intrusion, flew into the room which she had just left, and which +immediately echoed with her laughter, lively and joyous, but most +unfashionably loud, hearty, and prolonged. The sable <i>fair</i> one made her +escape at the same time, and received from Kelson double what he had +promised her. Mary, however, as soon as she had recovered her gravity, +joined her new suitor, but all her hospitable attentions were lost upon +the discomfited Broadway merchant, who soon took his leave, overwhelmed +with shame and mortification, nor did he sufficiently recover himself to +renew his visits for two or three days. When he did again visit her +father's house, Mary, who thought the joke carried far enough, treated +him with more than usual attention, by way of apology for her untimely +and mortifying mirth, so that by the expiration of the week he had +entirely recovered his spirits, his self-conceit, his vanity, and his +talkativeness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">You are now within a foot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the extreme verge; for all beneath the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would I not leap upright!<br /></span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 15em;">King Lear.</span> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Shortly after this mad prank of Kelson's, Mr. Millinet invited Mary to +walk out one lovely evening, to which she gladly assented. They took +their way towards the "Whale's Head," a name given by the inhabitants of +B—— to the high bluff already mentioned, that formed the eastern side +of their harbor, from its real or fancied resemblance to the nose, or to +speak more scientifically, "noddle-end," of a whale. A path descended +obliquely from the upper part of the cape down to the beach at its foot. +The whole cape and the land adjacent were comprised in the estate of +Captain Bowline, who kept the paths in good repair, and had been at +considerable pains, when he first took possession of the farm, to render +it perfectly safe and passable, for the convenience of the fishermen, +who were in the habit of digging clams on the narrow beach at the foot +of the hill, and fishing among the sunken rocks at the extreme point. +For the whole length of the path the hill was extremely steep, but not +perpendicular, and covered with short dried grass, which made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +surface so slippery, that it afforded an apt illustration of Virgil's +"facilis descensus Averni;" for though any one might accomplish a +descent safely enough by dint of holding on to the few shrubs and +bushes, and sliding occasionally, no animal but a cat, a goat, or a +monkey, could ascend, if it was to save his life. Near the middle of the +path it was crossed by a deep gap, or ravine, caused by the constant +wearing of a small spring of water that trickled down the face of the +cliff, and which was generally swollen by the melting of the snow, or by +occasional heavy rains. The beach, or rather marsh, at the foot of the +hill, where the little rivulet joined the sea, was so soft and boggy, as +to be utterly impassable. Across this ravine, which was known by the +name of the "Devil's Gap," Captain Bowline had caused a narrow bridge, +of two planks in width, to be built, protected on the outside by a light +railing. On the side next the hill, it was sufficiently guarded by the +crooked branches of a knurly and scrubby oak tree, that grew on the very +edge of the ravine.</p> + +<p>Down this path the fair Mary and her suitor directed their steps. They +wandered along the beach as far as the point, the New Yorker in full +chat and high spirits, and Mary's attention almost entirely occupied by +a distant boat that seemed to be engaged in fishing, and which she +recognised, notwithstanding the distance, to be her namesake, the Mary, +belonging to her lover Kelson. Their walk occupied them till nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +sunset, when Mary suddenly recollected that the tide was flowing, and +would soon entirely cover the narrow beach that they had just passed. By +dint of walking fast, they reached the foot of the path before the beach +was covered by the tide, and commenced their ascent just as the sun went +down.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, heavy black clouds began to muster in the north-west, +announcing the approach of a thunder shower, and reducing the evening +twilight to less than half its usual duration. Large heavy drops of rain +were soon felt and heard, rattling in the few straggling shrubs and +bushes, accompanied by short gusts of wind. Mr. Millinet, who was +considerably alarmed by these indications of a violent shower, and who +trembled for the safety of his new Broadway hat, and Broadway coat, +hurried on with the most uncourteous and unlover-like disregard of his +fair companion, who was too much accustomed to take care of herself, to +be at all incommoded by his neglect. They reached the "Devil's Gap," and +the lover strode on most rapidly; he was just upon the middle of the +little bridge, when being startled by a sudden bright flash of +lightning, he stumbled, and in the dread of falling off, laid violent +hold upon one of the branches of the scrubby oak on the other side, +recovered himself, and passed on. The oak, that had long since been +partially undermined by the water from the spring, and which Captain +Bowline had determined to remove before it did any damage, gave way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +before the violent pull of Millinet. Mary, whose feet were already upon +the planks of the bridge, alarmed by the rattling of the loose earth and +stones that fell from under the roots of the tree, ran hastily back. The +next instant, the tree, with a ton or two of earth attached to its +matted roots, came thundering down, sweeping away with it the bridge, +and a large portion of the path beyond it. In the mean time, short +violent showers, of but four or five seconds in duration, with equally +short and violent gusts of wind, induced the Broadway gallant to +increase his speed; he had indeed heard a loud crash, but it is no more +than bare justice to him to say that he mistook the noise for thunder.</p> + +<p>Poor Mary was thus completely insulated—it was impossible to go back, +for the beach was long since covered by the rising tide—to climb up the +hill was exceedingly difficult, if not absolutely impossible to an +active man—to go forward was of course out of the question—there was +every appearance of a cold, driving October storm of wind and rain, to +which she must necessarily be exposed, with no additional clothing +except a shawl, till the tide had ebbed sufficiently to leave the beach +passible, and then the walk round the point was full three miles. In +this dilemma, far from any human habitation, and exposed to the night +wind, which now began to blow extremely chilly, poor Mary seated herself +upon the bank and wept bitterly. After the lapse of a few minutes, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +became more composed, and most fervently and earnestly commending +herself to Divine protection, she endeavored to shelter herself as much +as possible from the wind; for the rain had now ceased, and the clouds +breaking away towards the south-west, gave indications of a clear, cold, +frosty autumnal night.</p> + +<p>Relief was, however, much nearer than she expected. Her father, alarmed +at her non-appearance, and the threatening looks of the weather, sallied +forth in quest of her. He had gone but a few rods, when he met Mr. +George Frederic Augustus, with his pocket handkerchief tied over his +hat, and his coat buttoned up to the chin, "striking out," as sailors +say, like a man walking against time.</p> + +<p>"Holloa," he shouted, "you Mr. What's-your-name! where the d—l have you +left Mary? a pretty fellow you are to convoy a lady, to bear up before +the wind as soon as the weather looks misty, and leave her to shift for +herself! not but that the girl is a d—d sight better able to take care +of herself than you are to take care of her." All this was said in +perfect good humor, the old tar taking it for granted that his daughter +had "made a harbor," as he expressed it, in one of the neighbor's +houses.</p> + +<p>But the abrupt question had startled Millinet, and he answered with much +confusion and hesitation, "I—really, sir, I thought,—I am sure that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +is—I thought she was close behind me—she certainly was a few minutes +since."</p> + +<p>Captain Bowline, muttering an inverted blessing upon his fashionable +guest, pushed on towards the path over the cliff. He was soon joined by +Kelson, who had come in from fishing but a few minutes before, and who, +hearing of Mary's walking out upon the beach, had immediately hastened +to her father's house. He too had seen the hero of Gotham; but that +gentleman, not deeming it wholesome to hold much conversation with men +of so little refinement and fashion as Bowline and Kelson, when +irritated, had made the best of his way towards B——.</p> + +<p>Mary's father and lover accordingly hurried on, stopping at the house of +old Haddock, the fisherman, who lived near the upper end of "Jade's +Walk," as the hill-path was called, where they furnished themselves with +a lantern, a coil of rope, and sundry other articles that they deemed +necessary. Old Haddock and his two "boys," great two-fisted fellows of +twenty and two and twenty years of age, also accompanied them. They soon +arrived at the Devil's Gap, where they beheld the ruin caused by the +fall of the tree. For an instant a thrill of horror ran through the +hearts of two of the beholders; the idea that the object of their search +and solicitude had been swept away by the fall of the bridge, and +crushed in its ruins, or smothered in the mud and water at the foot of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +the hill, occurred instantly to both of them.</p> + +<p>From this state of agony and suspense, they were soon relieved by the +silver voice of +Mary+ herself, calling from the further side of the gap, +"Here I am, dear father, don't attempt to come to me, the path is all +carried away on this side, and it is impossible for you or any one to +get to me. Wait till the tide has gone down, and I will walk round to +the point."</p> + +<p>The sight of the dear girl in safety only stimulated them to greater +exertions; the old fisherman and one of his boys departed to their house +to procure a long plank, while Kelson and the other young man returned +to the top of the hill, and, by sliding and supporting themselves by the +bushes, safely descended to the spot where stood the lovely wanderer. +She was so overjoyed to see them, and so completely chilled through, +that she could scarcely speak. Kelson immediately stripped off his coat, +and insisted upon wrapping her in it; and the young Triton, following +the brilliant example of one whom he respected so much as Captain +Kelson, doffed his "monkey-jacket," and with hearty but rough kindness +forcibly enveloped her feet and ancles in its fearnought folds.</p> + +<p>In a short time the other two fishermen arrived, bearing on their +shoulders a long plank. An end of a rope was then thrown to Kelson, by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +which one end of the plank was hauled across, and firmly bedded in the +bank. Its passage was then rendered secure by double "life-lines" on +each side; and Mary, supported by her lover and the young fisherman, +safely reached the other side, and was pressed, sobbing with joy, to her +fond father's bosom. The whole party then returned towards Captain +Bowline's house, where the old fisherman and his two sons were liberally +rewarded, and treated with a good supper.</p> + +<p>The next morning a messenger arrived from the village, bearing a note +from Mr. George, &c. Millinet, in which he attempted to excuse his +behavior the preceding evening. Mary declined opening it, however, and +contented herself with sending word by the bearer that the writer need +not give himself any further trouble on her account, an answer that was +sufficiently intelligible. But the old commander shouted after the +messenger, "Tell that lubberly <i>yoho</i><a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> that if I catch him within a +cable's length of my house, I'll break every d—d bone in his +tailor-built body."</p> + +<p>This threat was duly reported to the crest-fallen vender of pins and +bobbin, who settled his bills, and accomplished his escape, with as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +little parade and as much expedition as possible; a movement that excited +full as much conversation as his first appearance and intimacy in +Captain Bowline's family; and while one party were confident that he had +only gone to New York to make preparations for his marriage, and another +were equally sure that Mary had, in nautical parlance, "given him his +walking ticket," the story of the accident and Mary Bowline's narrow +escape at the Devil's Gap came out, with suitable additions and +embellishments, and of course the whole affair wore a different face at +once. Old Haddock, the fisherman, was seized upon one evening in a +ship-chandlery and grocery store, that was the usual Rialto of the +loungers in B——, and rigorously cross-questioned. The man of hooks and +lines hitched up his trowsers, and proceeded to enlighten his audience +as follows:—</p> + +<p>"Why you see that 'are New York chap and Miss Mary took a stroll down +Jade's Walk as it might be about five o'clock in the arternoon, P. M. as +the newspapers say. Well, they went down Squaw Beach, and so clean away +out as fur as the pint; and when they was coming back, and got to the +furder eend of the walk, the Yorker he kinder shinned up to her, and she +didn't like it, for I knowed all along she meant to have Captain Kelson. +Well, one word brought on another, till finally he conducted himself in +a very promiscuous manner, and she told him to go 'long about his +business, or she'd tell Captain Kelson of his doings. Well, that made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +him just about as mad as a hoe, and so when they come to the Devil's Gap +he kinder kicked away one eend of the bridge, and then turned to and +hauled down that 'ere scrub oak that growed clost to the bridge, so's +folk mought think 'twas done by accident; and so there the poor gal was +left by herself till old Captain Bowline and I and my two boys and +Captain Kelson, come there and rigged a kind of trumporary bridge like, +and got her safe over, and that's the whole consarnment of the matter as +far as I know any thing on't."</p> + +<p>This account of the affair, coming from an eye-witness, was considered +authentic, being full as correct as the stories of eye-witnesses +generally are. Mary at first attempted to contradict it, but finding her +efforts fruitless, prudently determined to let the story die a natural +death, which it soon did; a tremendous gale of wind and a shipwreck on +the Whale's Nose having in less than a week most effectually turned the +current of conversation into another channel.</p> + +<p>Mr. Millinet reached New York in safety, and solaced himself for his +defeat in New England by attention to his pretty person, and his pretty +customers, balls, assemblies, and billiards; in process of time made a +fashionable failure, a fashionable marriage, and commenced business +afresh. To the questions of his acquaintance respecting his excursion +"down east," he was shy and reserved; evading all questions on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +subject by declaring that he had passed his time very pleasantly while +he was in New England, but that the people had some very peculiar and +odd notions of things. In process of time the story of his repulse +reached New York with all its embellishments. Some of his friends were +exceedingly shocked at the idea of his having made an attempt upon the +life of a young lady, for such seemed the tenor of the story; but those +who knew him best fully acquitted him of any thing of the kind, inasmuch +as he had not courage sufficient to offer violence to a hen and +chickens. A true version of the story soon after came out, and Mr. +George Frederic was compelled to undergo the ridicule of all his +acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Mary Bowline became Mrs. Thomas Kelson on "Thanksgiving-day-night," as +the New England folks call it, on which joyful occasion the flag-staff +was rigged "all a-tanto," and the colors kept flying from eight o'clock +in the morning till sunset; according to the regulations of the naval +service, and were also hoisted the next day.</p> + +<p>It was a leading article in Mary's consent to the marriage, that her +husband should give up going to sea, which he and her father contended +did not include or contemplate his probably making a coasting "trip," if +business required, and Mary at last consented to admit the exception. +The bridge at the Devil's Gap was substantially repaired, and was often +visited by Mary and her husband; and Jade's Walk was long celebrated as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +a favorite evening stroll when the weather permitted, not only with +young lovers, but even with "old married fudges," as young ladies who +are husband-hunting very politely call them. + + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Yoho, an animal, probably the ourang-outang, in whose +existence sailors are firm believers, and of whose courage, +intelligence, cunning, malicious and mischievous disposition, they tell +wonderful stories. The word seems to be a corruption of Dean Swift's +"Yahoo."</p></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2><a name="OLD_CUFF" id="OLD_CUFF"></a>OLD CUFF</h2><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h3>OLD CUFF.</h3><div class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">"Qualia multa mari nautæ patiuntur in alto!"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;" class="smcap">Virgil.</span><br /></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>What Yankee man-of-war's-man is there, ashore or afloat, who has "helped +Uncle Sam," any time between the beginning of the "long embargo," and +the year 1827, who does not know or has not heard of Old Cuff? His real +patronymic appellation is nobody's business;—perhaps it would puzzle +himself to give any account of it: nor is it worth while to inquire how +the name of Cuff, generally bestowed upon the woolly-headed and +flat-nosed descendants of Ham, should be given to a white man; and as +for the <i>prænomen</i>, as the Romans would call it, of "old," it is well +known to all my short-jacketed readers, that it seldom has, in "sea +dic." or nautical language, any reference to antiquity on the part of +the bearer thereof; but is merely a familiar or affectionate +distinction; as the commander of a merchantman, although perhaps under +twenty years of age, is invariably called the "old man," by all hands on +board.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>Old Cuff, when I knew him, was just turned of forty, and was, of course, +of venerable standing; as it is I presume, well known to every body that +a sailor's life does not average much more than forty years, from +exposure, hardships, and privations. Though not stricken in years, +according to the usual signification of the phrase, Old Cuff had +certainly <i>lived a great deal</i>, and had seen a great deal, there being +scarcely a habitable corner of the world that he had not visited, or of +the private history and internal economy of which he could not relate +many anecdotes; so that he might, without arrogance or vanity, have +assumed to himself the proposed motto of the Jesuits:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris!"</p></div> + +<p>He commenced his career as cook and cabin-boy on board a "horse-jockey;" +one of those vessels which carry horses, mules, and other cattle to the +West Indies; a title bestowed upon them by sailors, who are very much in +the habit of indulging in that figure of speech called by rhetoricians +metonymy; in this instance applying the genuine name of all Connecticut +men, and some Rhode Islanders, to a fore-topsail schooner, or +hermaphrodite brig, as the case might be. He was next, by a sort of +metamorphosis, or rather metastasis, not uncommon with those of "steady +habits," a travelling tin-pedler; and his adventures and hard bargains, +during a visit or two to the western and southern states, might prove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +highly entertaining to my readers, had I not seen some twenty or thirty +of them lately going the rounds of the newspapers, which Old Cuff has +often very gravely assured us, in our "quarter watches" in the main-top, +were actually perpetrated by himself. By a transition still easier, and +perhaps more natural, from a tin-pedler he transmuted himself into an +itinerant preacher, and from conscientious motives endeavored to repair +the injury he had done to the pockets of his customers with his +white-oak nutmegs, horn gun-flints, and bass-wood cucumber seeds, by +supplying them with pure unadulterated orthodox Calvinism, fresh from +the Saybrook Platform. Nor did he confine his usefulness to beating the +"drum ecclesiastic;" during the long winters in the country, he "kept +school," as it is somewhat perversely called; whereas, in nine cases out +of ten, it is the school that "keeps" the schoolmaster.</p> + +<p>But "the sow that was washed returned to her wallowing in the mire;" and +in like manner Cuff left off steering the souls of sinners through the +temptations and sorrows of this wicked world, or the infant mind through +the intricacies of a—b ab, and once more betook himself to steering +vessels across the ocean. He went to sea as mate, and shortly after as +master, of a merchantman. He was chiefly employed in the West India +trade.</p> + +<p>It has been said, that all, or nearly all, the Americans taken on board +piratical vessels in the West Indies and parts adjoining, are natives of +New-England; and it is gravely stated as a reason, that in consequence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +of the immense trade between that section of the Union and those +islands, and the neighboring parts of the main land, that are the chief +scenes of piratical depredation and resort; the crews of the New-England +vessels trading, and occasionally smuggling, in bye-ports, become +gradually and imperceptibly acquainted with those of piratical vessels +frequenting those bye-ports and obscure harbors, for the purpose of +refitting their vessels or disposing of their plunder; and that these +acquaintances ripen into intimacies, that terminate in a strong cord +with a running noose in the end of it. The deduction is perfectly +logical, and it only remains to substantiate the premises; and these, I +fear, may be proved, in but too many cases, to be based upon too solid a +foundation to be overthrown by all the incredulous writhings of national +pride. Be that as it may, the atrocities of Gibbs and others have +recently proved, that total depravity is approached as nearly by the +natives of New-England as by any of our Christian brethren.</p> + +<p>In process of time the subject of our narrative grew tired of stowing +molasses, feeding horses, or throwing them overboard, and "dodging" from +island to island, and entered the naval service of the United States. +The vessel to which he was attached was stationed in the West Indies, +and had been on her station but a very short time, before that scourge +of no small portion of the western world, the yellow fever, made its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +appearance on board. Our navy certainly was not then under so good +regulations as at present. The medical department might perhaps be +almost as good then as it now is, or rather as it was when I was in the +service; the disgracefully penurious compensation allowed our naval +surgeons rendering their station contemptible and degrading in the +estimation of medical men of any pride or ability. Besides this, the +sick at sea can never receive assistance from female attendance; for +although some may deem it altogether imagination, there <i>is</i> something +so soothing to the sick or wounded man in those thousand nameless acts +of kindness that none but woman can think of, and none but woman +perform, that, after one or two visits from the doctor, the patient +feels wonderfully inclined to dispense with his further attendance: nay, +when languishing on that bed from which he is doomed never to rise, his +pillow is softer when arranged by woman's hand; his parched and clammy +lips seem to recover their healthy freshness when woman administers the +cooling draught. When I die, grant, kind Heaven! that the last earthly +sound that murmurs in my "death-deafened" ear may be the kind, soothing, +pitying voice of woman. When this worn-out hulk, strained fore and aft +by exposure and hard service, its upper works crank with vexations and +disappointments, shall be hauled up high and dry upon the lee-side of +death's cove, may the last that "shoves off" from alongside be woman—I +care not whether wife or stranger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>In addition to the want of proper attention, a sick sailor is invariably +an object of contempt and disgust to his officers: they cannot forbear +regarding with contempt a man who is reduced to mental and bodily +imbecility by a disease that <i>they</i> do not and perhaps never did feel: +his pale, emaciated, and squalid appearance excites disgust. I have made +these remarks to illustrate what, on the authority of Old Cuff, took +place on board the U. S. ship——.</p> + +<p>Owing to the negligence or imbecility, or both, of the medical +department on board, little or no provision was made for the sick. They +lay about on the forecastle or the booms, and the dead were collected, +sewed up in their hammocks, "ballasted," and hove overboard, every +morning before the decks were washed, that is, between day-break and +sunrise. This duty was generally performed by the master-at-arms and +ship's corporal, familiarly called throughout the service "Jack Ketch +and his mate;" but in this particular ship, and for the time being, they +received the more apposite title of ship's "turkey buzzards." I ought to +have mentioned, that in obedience both to naval etiquette and the +superstitious feelings of the sailors, the burial service of the +Episcopal Church was regularly read over the result of the ship's turkey +buzzards' researches above or below deck.</p> + +<p>Old Cuff, who had been on shore with a watering party, where he had made +a pretty heavy libation of new rum, came on board at sunset; but having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +a somewhat confused recollection of the "bearings and distances" down +the fore-ladder, he wisely concluded to set up his tabernacle for the +night upon the boom. Long before midnight he perceived the symptoms of +the cruel disorder that had so fearfully thinned the ——'s complement. +His distress increased every moment—he earnestly begged for a draught +of water, but in vain, and before daylight he became insensible. In due +time all hands were called; the resurrection-men commenced their +examination, and receiving no intelligible reply to a sound kick upon +our hero's ribs, the ship's corporal laid hold of him by the heels, and +dragged him into the gangway, where the two functionaries declared him +"dead enough to bury," and forthwith reported progress to that effect to +the lieutenant of the morning watch. "Very well," said the officer. +"Young gentlemen, have a couple of eighteen-pound shot got up; pass the +word, there, for the sail-maker's mate. Boatswain's mate, call all hands +to bury the dead. How many are there?" "Only one, sir." "Very well. Tell +Mr. Quill to bring his prayer-book on deck."</p> + +<p>The corpse was soon inclosed in its canvass coffin, with the shot +attached to the feet. The captain's clerk commenced the funeral service +in a hurried, monotonous tone, and had nearly got to the fatal "we +therefore commit his body to the deep," the signal for launching, when +the ceremony was interrupted, and the officers and crew horrified by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +violent struggle of the supposed defunct, accompanied with angry +ejaculations.</p> + +<p>"What the devil are you about? Let me out, let me out; d—n your eyes, I +ain't dead yet;—cut away your thundering hammock, and I'll let you know +whether I'm dead or not. This is a pretty how-d'ye-do, to be giving a +fellow a sea-toss before his time has come."</p> + +<p>Half a dozen jack-knives were at work in an instant upon the stitches of +the hammock that inclosed the dead-alive—their owners being in their +eagerness utterly regardless of the risk of amputation to which their +haste subjected Old Cuff's nose; who, having burst his cerements and +shaken himself, was conducted below to the doctor.</p> + +<p>Death, however, had not yet done with him. His next cruise was in the +Patriot service. Nothing very particular took place, till being sent +with a party "cutting out," as it is technically termed by seamen—that +is, capturing and bringing out vessels lying at anchor in an enemy's +port, he and several of his party were made prisoners, and, according to +the murderous system of warfare going on between the Spanish royal +forces and the insurgents, ordered to be shot. No great formality was +ever used on these occasions, (the Catholic Church, of course, withheld +her consolations from heretics,) and their preparations were nearly +completed, when several dragoons dashed into the "plaza," bloody with +spurring, fiery red with haste, announcing that the rebels were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +advancing in great force from the interior. The intelligence proved to +be correct, but the executing party did not wait to ascertain that fact; +they scampered off instantly, leaving the prisoners bound. The Patriots, +of course, set them at liberty, and Old Cuff was thus rescued a second +time from an "untimely grave." (By the way, I never saw any person, +however old and infirm, who was willing to admit the grave "timely," at +any age.)</p> + +<p>After many wanderings and adventures, he entered another Patriot vessel, +cruising off the mouth of the river Plata. After making some captures, +they were one day suddenly surprised and completely hemmed in by a +Spanish squadron, consisting of a frigate and four or five other smaller +vessels. Finding escape impossible, the commander of the Patriot brig, +an Englishman, determined to defend himself to the last extremity, at +the same time using every exertion to escape, of which the swift sailing +of his vessel held out some hopes. These hopes were, however, +frustrated, in consequence of the brig losing several important spars, +and being soon rendered almost a complete wreck. In this crippled and +unmanageable condition, she drifted upon a small, low, island, at no +great distance, but still kept up a fire from such of her guns as could +be brought to bear, or rather such as she had men enough left to work, +for, by this time, full two thirds of her crew were killed or +wounded.—Finding it impossible to save his vessel, the commander, who +was dreadfully wounded, and fast bleeding to death, recommended to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +wretched survivors of his brave crew to save themselves by swimming. Old +Cuff and eight or ten others, being all who were able or willing to try +their chance, accordingly took to the water, and reached the island +safely, Cuff himself being severely wounded. The island was very low, +scarcely rising six feet from high-water mark, and completely covered +with a species of wild vine, that, finding neither trees nor rocks to +support it, had formed a perfect cover to the whole island, by twisting +and interweaving its branches with each other, so as to form a vegetable +carpet sufficiently firm and close, in nearly all parts, to support the +weight of a man. Between this singular roof and the ground was a space +of two or three feet, and within this space the unhappy seamen secreted +themselves, not with the hope of escaping, but deferring the fate that +they were certain awaited them. Accordingly, the Spaniards, after having +boarded the wreck of the brig, and, according to custom, murdered the +wounded and mangled the dead, landed a large party to complete the +horrid tragedy by murdering the few unfortunate men whom they had seen +swim to the island. These savages ran about the island, which it does +not seem was more than a couple of acres in extent, yelling like wild +beasts, and thrusting their swords and boarding pikes down among the +vines, with the hope of piercing some of the objects of their revenge. +One of them, who appeared to be an officer, stood for some minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +directly over and upon Old Cuff, and while giving directions to his men, +repeatedly thrust his sword down through the sheltering vines. The +weapon passed once between his arm and body, and once through his +clothes, slightly grazing his side. His agony during these moments was +horrible. To be dragged out, and murdered by inches, or stabbed to death +where he lay, not daring to move, though the pressure of the wretch's +weight who stood upon him was so painful, that he could scarce forbear +crying out. Such seemed his inevitable fate. But he was doomed to +undergo still greater agony. One of the unfortunate men was discovered +and dragged out within a few yards of him. The incarnate demons were a +full hour murdering him, stabbing and hacking him with their pikes and +cutlasses in parts of the body where wounds would be exquisitely painful +but not mortal. The shrieks of the unhappy man were dreadful, the more +so, as every one of his companions expected every moment to share his +fate. The approach of night at length put an end to the dreadful scene, +and the disappointed hell-hounds returned to their ships.</p> + +<p>The next morning, the Spanish squadron sailed round the island, pouring +upon every part of it discharges of grape and canister shot, that proved +fatal to several of the unfortunate men concealed upon it. They also +landed again, and attempted to set fire to the vines and dry grass, but +providentially without much effect. They continued, however, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +blockade the little island for two days longer, when they were +compelled, by bad weather, to stand out to sea. Having ascertained that +the Spanish murderers were gone, the miserable remnant of the brig's +crew ventured from their hiding-places, almost exhausted with hunger, +thirst, and terror. The main land was in possession of the Patriot, or +Buenos Ayrean troops, but was more than two miles distant; and they +consequently had no alternative but to swim to it; which they +accordingly attempted, being extremely apprehensive that the Spaniards +would return. The passage across the straits was long and tedious; and +their hopes of ultimate success for a long time doubtful. When about +half way across, one of their number declared that he was too much +exhausted to go any farther, and after a few words of encouragement from +his companions, suddenly exclaimed, "good bye," and sunk for ever. The +rest, five in number, succeeded in reaching the shore, just at sunset.</p> + +<p>After wandering about a mile, they came to a sort of farm-house, the +mistress of which was employed baking bread. Delirious with hunger, +three of them tore the half-baked bread from the oven, and devoured +large quantities of it. They all died in horrible agonies before +day-break. The other two, more prudent, or having arrived at that point +of starvation, at which pain had ceased, ate nothing but such light food +as was provided for them by the humane Buenos Ayreans. In a few days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +they were quite recovered from the effects of such prolonged hunger, and +made the best of their way towards the city of Buenos Ayres. Here Old +Cuff found several Republican officers, by whose influence he obtained a +commission as lieutenant of artillery. But, not altogether liking the +land service in the first place, and having moreover ascertained that +the Republic of Buenos Ayres, like that of the United States of America, +was not willing to vouchsafe any thing but hard knocks, and no pay, to +those who stood by her and supported her, in her fierce struggle for +independence, he very deliberately disrobed himself of his regimentals, +laid aside his epaulets, tore up his commission, and returned in a +merchantman to his native country. Not long after his return, he entered +in the United States service, and it was then, that I first saw him. He +was made captain of the main-top before sailing, and I was, myself, +shortly after, stationed in the main-top likewise.</p> + +<p>On the passage out to the Pacific, and when nearly in the latitude of +Cape Horn, we, that is to say, a midshipman, Old Cuff, and thirteen men, +were all very comfortably asleep in the main-top, the weather being +remarkably mild for that high latitude. It was the middle watch, from +midnight to four in the morning; Cuff was lying athwart-ships, or +cross-wise of the top, and near the fore part of it, where there were no +topsail nor topmast-shrouds to prevent a fall. There was, indeed, a +"life-line" from the first topmast-shroud, on each side, to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +cap-shore amidships, but it was breast high, and of course afforded no +security to a man who was lying down. My head was pillowed upon Old +Cuff's side, the midshipman's head was on my breast, and the rest of my +earthly tabernacle was occupied as a bolster by as many of the quarter +watch as could get near me. About two o'clock, I was suddenly awoke by +the abduction of my living pillow, and the consequent collision of my +head against one of the top burton-blocks. At the same time I heard a +whizzing noise, like a rope running swiftly through a block, but none of +us took much notice of it; the midshipman growled some at my fidgeting +about while fixing another pillow, but the absence of the captain of the +top was not perceived. At seven bells, or half past three, the +midshipman of the quarter deck hailed, "Main-top there! answer your +musters, in the main-top."</p> + +<p>"You had better keep awake in that main-top;" thundered the lieutenant +of the deck, through his trumpet, "you have lost one of your number +already by your sleeping."</p> + +<p>All this was "Hebrew Greek" to us, but in a short time the sentry at the +cabin door "reported" eight bells; the larboard watch was called, the +wheel, look-outs, and tops relieved, and the mystery of the loss of "one +of our number" fully explained.</p> + +<p>"What did you heave Old Cuff out of the top for?" said the first one of +the larboard watch, whose head came through the "lubber's hole."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When did Old Cuff, fall from aloft?" said the next that ascended to the +"sky-parlor."</p> + +<p>"Old Cuff is done for," said the third that came up.</p> + +<p>"He has broke his back-bone short off;" said a fourth, with his jacket +over one shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and four of his ribs to boot;" added a fifth, who was determined +the story should not want particulars.</p> + +<p>"The doctor says he won't live till morning," said a sixth, who had not +yet hove in sight, speaking below the top, as Hamlet senior's ghost does +under the stage.</p> + +<p>By this time, the whole of the alarming intelligence was fairly +expended, the remaining eight, who made up the sum total of the quarter +watch, having no farther particulars of consequence to communicate, the +first six who came up having already broken every bone in poor Old +Cuff's body, and "abridged his doleful days" to boot. By dint of cross +questioning, we made shift to ascertain, that about two o'clock, or four +bells, Old Cuff had rolled away from under my head, and over the top +brim. Fortunately he fell across the fore-topmast studding-sail tack, +which broke two of his ribs and his fall, and thence he had gently +canted over, and alighted upon the quarter-deck hammock-nettings, nearly +knocked overboard the half-asleep main-topman who was perched up there +as a look-out. He recovered, however, in two or three weeks, in spite of +the doctor's prognostication.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>Upon our arrival at Valparaiso, a similar accident happened to him, +that, taken in connexion with the first, formed what newspaper folks +call "a singular coincidence." A considerable portion of the town, or +city, or whatever it may be, of Valparaiso, is built upon and among +several high, rocky, precipitous cliffs, to which sailors, time out of +mind, have given the names of fore, main, and mizen tops. It is, +perhaps, another singular coincidence, that the name "main-royal," that +belongs of right to the highest sail in a ship, is applied to the lowest +part of said respectable sea-port. The "main-top" is the favorite resort +of sailors, but I cannot say much in praise of the moral virtues of the +denizens of said main-top. They do, indeed, enjoy a better prospect and +a purer air than their fellow citizens, whose location is somewhat +nearer the level of the sea, so that their physical elevation gives them +many advantages that serve to compensate them for what they lack through +moral debasement. The part of the main-top that fronts the bay, is a +sheer precipice of two hundred feet; but on another part, it is simply +too steep for any animal but a monkey to make a highway of. Down this +part Old Cuff, who was ashore on liberty, and who likewise had his "beer +aboard," contrived to trundle himself, and was picked up as dead in the +street below. He, however, recovered from this tumble as speedily as he +did from the other, having received but little damage, except some half +dozen cuts and bruises in the countenance, which he held in but light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +esteem, being by no means vain of his beauty. I do not recollect that he +met with any more accidents of consequence during the cruise. He +returned to America in the frigate, and I have since been told that he +had received a gunner's warrant, in consideration of his long, and, in +his way, faithful services and many wounds; for I believe he had been +wounded in almost every naval engagement during the last war.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + + +<p><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="THE_RIVALS" id="THE_RIVALS"></a>THE RIVALS.</h2> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>THE RIVALS.</h3><div class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>In the neighborhood of Genoa, there lived some years since an old +gardner, who, by dint of most unwearied industry and great skill in his +vocation, had acquired sufficient property to enable him to purchase the +farm that he had hitherto occupied as a tenant. His name was Pietro +Morelli. He had no family but an only child, his daughter Bianca, at the +time of our story in her nineteenth year, and who assisted her father in +such branches of his occupation as were not inconsistent with her sex.</p> + +<p>Bianca Morelli possessed all that peculiar beauty for which her +countrywomen are celebrated; namely, regular Grecian features, a clear +brunette complexion, a profusion of raven black tresses, and soft, +languishing, and most intelligent black eyes. Her form was tall, +slender, and graceful, while her disposition was amiable and gentle as +her face was lovely. The beautiful Bianca was well known, and admired by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +most of the inhabitants of Genoa; and her sweet face and modest +deportment were always, with them, irresistible inducements to purchase +her fruits and flowers, when she accompanied her father to market, or +visited the city alone.</p> + +<p>It so chanced one day, that a party of Austrian officers, who had +recently been quartered in Genoa, rode out to old Morelli's house, to +enjoy what was to them both a luxury and a novelty;—eating fruit fresh +gathered from the trees and vines.—Old Morelli was by no means +ambitious of this honor; he was too firm a friend to his degraded, but +still redeemable country, to desire any intimacy with the military +myrmidons of her Austrian despot; so that, notwithstanding the grave and +correct moral deportment which is said to be the general characteristic +of the Austrian officers, and of which he was aware, he saw their +approach to his humble dwelling with a vague feeling of distrust and +anxiety.</p> + +<p>Among his military visitors was General Baron Plindorf, one of those +"gallant militarists" that abound in all standing armies; whose sole +employment, during the "piping times of peace," and in the course of a +soldier's unsettled and rambling life from quarters to quarters, seems +to be, to abuse the rights of hospitality, by carrying disgrace and +infamy into every domestic circle to which they can by any means obtain +admittance. It ought to be a source of pride to my countrymen, that they +are more of a marrying people than the English or French, and do not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +regard women in the same degraded light as a gambler does a pack of +cards, that are to be shuffled and played with for a while, and then +thrown away. Our naval and military officers are rather remarkable for +their readiness to form matrimonial connexions; while on the other hand, +our young men who are educated to the law, physic, or divinity, never +think of "setting up for themselves," till they are "accommodated," as +Bardolph says, with a wife, whom the three learned professions regard as +indispensable as Starkie on Evidence to the first; a pocket case of +instruments, or Dawes' Midwifery, to the second; or a Brown's +Concordance, or Calmet's Dictionary, to the third.</p> + +<p>Such characters as I have alluded to, it would seem, are extremely +common in the British army; and it is to be presumed that they are not +less plentiful in the armies of the European powers; though it does not +appear that the community at large gain wisdom and caution from the +mournful experience of their neighbors, but rather the reverse; for, if +we may believe their own writers, the footsteps of a regiment, moving +about through different country quarters, are marked by more incurable +evils, and more true horrors, than the march of an invading army through +a hostile, and resisting country. It has been said of the Turkish army, +that they are far more formidable to their friends, than to their foes; +if any dependence can be placed in those numerous writings, professing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +to be descriptions of English manners, that find their way across the +Atlantic, the same may be said of that portion of the British army that +is on the "home station."</p> + +<p>Baron Plindorf was an unprincipled libertine, cold, selfish, and +unfeeling. He was eminently successful too in his diabolical enterprise, +although there was nothing prepossessing in his person or in his +manners; but he had the reputation of being irresistible, and of course +he was so; for, whatever may be the reason, it is a most lamentable +fact, that to be called a professed rake, and reputed father of some +half dozen illegitimate children, is a man's most irresistible passport, +and powerful recommendation to the good graces and smiles of the fair +sex at large; every woman is instantly eager to call into exercise that +fascinating treachery that ought to doom its possessor to public infamy +and detestation. The next most powerful introduction to female favor, is +to be a widower or a foreigner; though the latter is almost uniformly +"brought to bay," in a few months after marrying in this country, by a +wife and some eight or nine children from "over the water;" the very +next foreigner that comes over <i>alone</i>, is snapped up in the same +way—but enough of this.</p> + +<p>He saw and admired Bianca, as Milton's devil saw and admired Paradise, +with the prospective determination of destroying its calm happiness +forever.</p> + +<p>There was one of old Morelli's visitors, how ever, upon whom the lovely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +Bianca's beauty, modesty and grace, had made an impression of a far +different kind. This was the young Count Altenberg, acknowledged on all +hands to be the most accomplished gentleman, and most amiable and +estimable young man, in that division of the Grand Duke's army. Frederic +Count Altenberg, was the son of Rudolf, of Altenberg, an officer of high +rank, who had served his country faithfully, but ineffectually, in +opposing the headlong progress of the blood-stained Corsican. The old +Count had, within two years, been gathered to his fathers, and his title +and estates had descended to his only son, then in his twenty-third +year. At an early age Frederic had received a commission as captain of +cavalry, but as every body knows that promotion is slower in the army of +his Tuscan highness than in that of any other European power, he still +remained a captain of cavalry, and probably would do so unto his dying +day. It was his determination, as soon as he returned to Florence, to +resign his commission, and retire to his paternal estates in Germany, +but "diis aliter visum est," the fates had decreed otherwise. An +indulgent and fond father had spared no pains nor expense in educating +this his only child, and that child had amply repaid his care.</p> + +<p>Educated most carefully in the strictest principles of the Christian +religion and morality, generous, brave, and humane, he was, when he +arrived to man's estate, the <i>beau ideal</i> of a man of honor, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +gentleman. By neither of these terms, do I mean that fashionable +personage whose god is himself, who would seduce his friend's wife or +sister, or strip him of his last farthing at a gaming table, and then +shoot him through the head, by way of making amends; or who scrupulously +discharges all gambling and betting debts; utterly neglecting those of +the poor tradesman, or industrious mechanic, but the "justum et tenacem +propositi virum," of the Roman satirist, the man of strict integrity, +and immoveable principles. Frederic had long since formed a +determination, that as soon as he could clear himself from the army, he +would most seriously incline himself to the search of a wife. Although +considered by his fair-haired countrywomen as lawful game, and moreover +as one who was well worth securing, he had hitherto escaped any very +serious affection of the heart. The beauty of Bianca, so unlike what he +had been accustomed to, had charmed him; her unaffected modesty had +commanded his respect; and when he left her father's house, he +determined that it was absolutely necessary to his comfort, to see her +again. Accordingly the next evening, and the next, and many succeeding +evenings, saw him riding towards old Morelli's cottage; and he had long +been convinced, from what he saw of Bianca, that he had at last found +the woman who only of all her sex could make him happy; which is +precisely what every man thinks when in love for the first time, and +alters his mind in less than a twelvemonth. Nor was the gentle Bianca<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +insensible to his evident partiality for her society; she detected +herself repeatedly, without being willing to acknowledge it, wishing for +evening—disappointed, if the sky was overcast, or the weather +rainy—fluttering with hope, and joy, and indescribable emotion, at the +sight of every distant cavalier, or at the sound of every horse's hoof +upon the road towards the city. The warm blush, the speaking smile, the +sparkling eyes, of both the lovely Bianca and the young soldier, would +have been sufficient to convince the most casual observer that there +existed the most decided case of a <i>serious affection of the heart</i>. Of +course old Morelli's eyes had long before seen and made due report to +his mind, as to what was the true state of his daughter's and the young +nobleman's affection. Ever anxious for Bianca's happiness and welfare, +and still more so now that she had attained that age when female beauty +is both mature and fully developed, while at the same time it has all +the freshness and rosiness of youth, he became exceedingly alarmed and +agitated at the too obvious state of the lover's sentiments. He sought +and soon obtained an opportunity of speaking to him, and Frederic was at +that moment anxious to see the old man, and putting to him that +question, which, whether addressed to the fair one in person, or to her +pa and ma, is always embarrassing; always makes a man look, and feel, +and act, very much like a fool; and when answered in the affirmative,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +is not unfrequently the forerunner of most sincere and hearty +repentance. In fact, repentance being so often the consequence of +marriage, (it is gravely asserted by some of the old fathers,) is in our +mind reason why Catholics regard it (that is, the marriage, not the +repentance) a sacrament, "because it produces repentance, which is a +step towards grace." I am so far a Catholic, as to admit most +cheerfully, that it is a holy state, and that there is no text in +scripture more true, than that "it is not good for man to be alone;" +still if I was about entering that holy state, I am sadly afraid that my +feelings would be wholly uninfluenced by any hopes of approaching any +nearer towards a state of grace, not even over the thorny path of the +consequent repentance.</p> + +<p>"Signior Count," began old Morelli, as soon as he had ascertained that +they were alone, "you cannot suppose me ignorant of the cause of your +frequent visits to my poor house, or that as a father I am so +indifferent to my daughter's happiness as to see it without extreme +anxiety."</p> + +<p>"I was about speaking to you on the same subject," said Frederic, +hesitatingly, "I have already told you that it is my fixed determination +to leave the army, and retire to peaceful life on my own estate. But +although my fortune is princely, I feel it would be valueless without +your lovely daughter. Signior Morelli, I love Bianca; I have made no +attempt to conceal it from you; were my intentions dishonorable, do you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +not think that I would endeavor to hide them from a father's eye? Do +you take me for the bold, hardened libertine that would trample under +foot a father's hospitality to accomplish his daughter's infamy? You +wrong me, Signior, if you do; but I cannot believe that in your dislike +to my country, you believe all her children base and unprincipled."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my young friend, I believe nothing of that detestable character +can be laid to your charge. But consider for a moment the immense +distance between you. You are an Austrian nobleman of high rank and of +ancient family, and Bianca, on the other hand, can boast of nothing but +her good name and unsullied character."</p> + +<p>"And does not virtue outweigh all worldly titles and distinctions in the +estimation of every rational and virtuous mind? Your lovely daughter's +virtues are far superior to my empty titles or immense wealth. In +accepting me as a husband, she would confer honor, not receive it. She +descends to my level; I do not and cannot rise to hers—the gain, the +honor, the advantage, of such an alliance would be mine."</p> + +<p>"You are an enthusiast, Count; your passion has gotten the better of +your judgment; that you love my daughter <i>now</i> I am perfectly willing to +admit, but that your affection for her will sustain the shock of the +ridicule of your associates, or the contempt and neglect with which your +proud and titled kindred and countrymen will treat such a wife, whom +they regard so infinitely beneath them, I very much doubt. Matches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +between people so widely separated by difference of rank, however +arbitrary and absurd those distinctions may be, can never produce aught +but unhappiness."</p> + +<p>The Count was, notwithstanding the reasonableness of old Morelli's +objections, as politely obstinate as young lovers are to old fathers, +when those old fathers condescend to reason with them instead of +resorting to the more usual and summary process of turning them out of +doors, and forbidding their daughters to hold any farther communication +with the dear rejected. In a subsequent conversation with his daughter +he found that both parties were nearly in the same situation; Bianca +with many tears confessing her love for Count Altenberg. There seemed +then but two chances to escape from this state of embarrassment, namely, +either to consent to Frederic's offer of his hand, or to send his +daughter to an aged relative at Padua; which last plan was liable to so +many objections that, after ruminating upon it for two days, he gave it +up, and permitted the lovers to enjoy each other's society, though +without giving a direct consent to their union.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the libertine Plindorf was plotting destruction to the +fair Bianca. He well knew that such a woman was not to be carried by the +usual attacks of flattery and money; which last, whether administered in +the form of rich and dazzling presents, or simply by itself, is almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +uniformly found irresistible by old and young women, according to their +tastes or situations; his plan was therefore necessarily more deeply +laid than any he had heretofore practised. It was accordingly with a +mingled emotion of pleasure and anxiety that he watched the progress of +the attachment between the two lovers. Although he feared that her +attachment might prove too strong to be easily shaken, he still hoped to +be able to involve them in embarrassments, and then, under the guise of +friendship and pretence of assisting them, further his own unprincipled +views. The impetuosity of the young nobleman, and certain circumstances +that he could not foresee, brought the affair to a crisis both +unexpected and disastrous.</p> + +<p>The Baron walked out one afternoon towards old Morelli's cottage, +without any fixed object, for the unequivocal dislike that Bianca always +manifested towards him, had determined him to cease his visits to her +father's house, and make his approaches with the utmost caution. He +approached a retired spot near the house, where the lovers frequently +strolled to enjoy each other's society. Bianca had also wandered there +in the hope of meeting Frederic. She was occupied gathering flowers, and +arranging them in a nosegay, when a rustling among the bushes attracted +her attention. She hastily advanced towards the spot, exclaiming +"Frederic!" when the Baron, the man whom of all others she most hated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +and, for some undefinable reason or other, feared, stood before her.</p> + +<p>"Fairest Bianca!" said Plindorf, advancing, "let me not alarm you, +although I am not the person you seemed to expect; let me hope that the +presence of a friend and well-wisher to both parties is not disagreeable +or terrifying."</p> + +<p>Bianca, exceedingly alarmed at the sudden apparition of one so odious to +her, had sunk down upon a rude seat. The Baron approached, and taking +her passive hand, seated himself by her side. Mistaking the cause of her +quietness, he ventured to press her trembling hand to his lips, and +attempted to pass his arm around her waist. The terrified girl suddenly +sprang from him with a loud shriek, and attempted to fly; the Baron +again caught her hand, and endeavored forcibly to detain her. At that +moment the Count Altenberg suddenly stood before them, his eyes flashing +with rage.</p> + +<p>"Villain," he exclaimed, as soon as his passion would give him +utterance, "deceitful, cowardly scoundrel! take that"—striking him a +violent blow, and at the same time unsheathing his sword.</p> + +<p>The Baron was ready in an instant, but as soon as the Count felt his +weapon clashing against that of his antagonist, he became at once cool +and composed. Not so Plindorf, he dashed at his more youthful opponent +with a fury that had well nigh brought the combat to a speedy and fatal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +issue, and compelled Frederic to exert his utmost skill. The peculiar +danger of his situation, and almost certain death or remediless disgrace +that awaited him, even if victorious, for having struck his superior +officer, were present to the mind of the young officer in gloomy and +terrible colors; but it was too late to retract. The fury of the Baron +threw him off his guard—he received a mortal wound, and fell dead. The +unhappy survivor stood for some seconds gazing upon the inanimate form +before him; and as the features, after being convulsed for a little, +settled into the iron stiffness of everlasting sleep, he uttered a deep +sigh, and unconsciously moved away from the spot. At this moment Bianca, +recovering from the stupor into which the terrible scene had thrown her, +earnestly enjoined him to fly.</p> + +<p>"There is no time to be lost," said the agonized girl; "fly at once to +the sea-side—go on board any vessel that is about sailing—in a few +days, I doubt not, this unhappy business will be hushed up."</p> + +<p>"And where shall I fly?" said the Count; "where shall I go from +<i>him</i>?"—indicating the slain nobleman by a movement of his hand—"do +you know what I have done? I have in one moment sentenced myself to +death; or, what is worse, to disgraceful and infamous privation of all +my honors and rank."</p> + +<p>"No, no—there is yet time—go immediately on board the American +man-of-war in the harbor—they dare not search for you there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>With many entreaties and tears, she prevailed upon him to take measures +for his safety; and with a lightened heart saw him, from the windows of +her father's house, reach the water-side uninterrupted; saw him leave +the shore in a little skiff, when the intervention of other objects hid +him from her sight.</p> + +<p>The two officers were missed that evening. The dead body of the +ill-fated Baron was soon discovered; for many had seen him going towards +old Morelli's cottage; but no traces of Count Altenberg have ever been +discovered. Morelli and his daughter underwent a rigid examination; the +former could throw no light upon the mysterious disappearance of +Frederic, but Bianca, the pure-minded Bianca, unreservedly related all +the circumstances. The examining officers forwarded an elaborate and +circumstantial report of the case to Vienna, accompanied by an earnest +petition in behalf of the absent Count. The Emperor laid the affair +before a select council of old and experienced officers, who, after due +deliberation, and weighing the excellence of Altenberg's character +against the depravity of his slain antagonist, suggested the expediency +of pardoning the offender. Proclamation was accordingly made to that +effect, but without success.</p> + +<p>The unhappy Bianca lived to experience, in all its bitterness, that +"hope deferred that maketh the heart sick" and eventually breaks it. +She died in less than two years after the flight of Frederic, a victim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +to a disorder that has no place in the catalogue of nosologists, and is +not recognised as a malady; though it is as incurable and consigns +almost as many victims to an untimely grave as consumption, with which +it is very frequently confounded—I mean a broken heart. She was buried, +according to her dying request, in the little arbor that Frederic had +assisted her to erect and adorn, and where she had passed those most +delightful moments in human existence, the days of the first love, and +first courtship, of two young, affectionate, and virtuous beings. +Blessed moments! that occur but once in the dreary threescore years and +ten, and fade away before we have time to enjoy them, and we only become +conscious of their existence from the certainty that they are gone for +ever.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Several years ago, and, if I am not much mistaken, just after the peace +of 1815, an officer, in full Austrian uniform, came on board one of our +frigates then lying in the harbor of Genoa. From the richness of his +regimentals, and a cross and ribbon in his button-hole, it was evident +that the stranger was of high ancestral and military rank.</p> + +<p>It so happened that he came on board just at "grog time," (four o'clock) +in the afternoon; and during the interesting moment that sailors are +discussing their whiskey—the whole Holy Alliance, with aids and prime +ministers and protocols, might come on board, and balance Europe, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +upset the scales, just as unto them seemed good, expedient, or politic, +without attracting any attention from these short-jacketed philosophers; +unless indeed some straggler from the upper deck might come below, and +casually inform his messmates, that "there was a whole raft of soger +officers on the quarter-deck;" for be it known to all concerned, that the +word number is seldom or never used by nautical philologists to +designate things numerable, it is always "a <i>raft</i> of women," "a raft of +marines," &c. I could easily go on to show that the word "raft" is a +good phrase, and peculiarly applicable to women and marines; but I must +resist the temptation of convincing the public, that sailors are as +deeply versed in the mysteries of their mother-tongue, as many of those +who stay ashore all their life-times, and make dictionaries.</p> + +<p>The day after the arrival of this military stranger, it was ascertained +by the crew, that there was a supernumerary on board by the name of +Williams; for it is as impossible for the commander and officers of a +man-of-war to keep a secret in the cabin, as it is for twelve "good men +and true," locked up in a jury-room. The new-comer seemed to have free +access to the cabin, and was treated with much respect by the officers, +but it was soon observed, by the seamen, that he never went on shore. In +the course of a few months, he was put on board a homeward-bound ship: +and when the crew of the frigate returned to America, they saw him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +again in New York, abandoned to intemperance.</p> + +<p>When on a cruise in the Pacific, the crew of one of the light vessels of +the squadron were transferred to the frigate that I was on board of; +their time of service having expired. Among them was Williams; and from +his shipmates I learned the above particulars. In person, he was about +five feet eight or nine inches high, and extremely well made. With the +rest of the schooner's people, he had been on shore on liberty, where he +had been continually intoxicated; his face was in consequence bloated, +and his eyes bloodshot and swollen.</p> + +<p>I further understood, that he would get drunk whenever he had an +opportunity, and when intoxicated he was completely insane. He was also +subject to fits of temporary derangement, independent of the insanity +produced by excessive drinking, when he was both furious and dangerous; +and it was always necessary, on such occasions, to confine him in irons. +He was also represented as being extremely reserved, and refusing to +answer any questions respecting himself, whether addressed to him by +officers or seamen; that he spoke with fluency all European languages, +on which account, he was extremely useful as an interpreter, both on the +coast of Peru and Chili, and on that of Brazil; that he was a first rate +swordsman, either with the small-sword or sabre, and a dead shot with +pistol or musket.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>During his short stay on board the frigate, he had one of his temporary +fits of insanity, probably induced by excessive intemperance, if +intemperance admits of superlatives, while on shore. He suddenly started +up from a gloomy, stupid reverie, and ran about the decks like a wild +beast, striking and knocking down, every one he met; then all at once +plunging down the main-hatchway, he attempted to get possession of one +of the boarding cutlasses, but fortunately they were well secured in the +racks over the guns, to prevent them from falling down with the motion +of the ship. Before he could make a second and more regular attempt, he +was secured, put in irons, and placed under charge of a sentry. Had he +succeeded in arming himself, he would have made bloody work on the +quarter-deck, towards which it seemed evident he was steering his course; +the uniforms of the officers, and marine guard, probably calling up to +his diseased imagination, and memory, scenes of by-gone days connected +with or the remote cause of his present insanity. The officers seemed to +be so far acquainted with his history, as to feel compassion for his +most wretched situation; for, as he manifested no symptoms of +derangement the next morning, except his usual deep melancholy, he was +discharged from confinement, to the great astonishment of the ship's +company; for though the discipline on board was as mild as it could be +consistent with the preservation of good order, and perfectly free from +that tyranny that but too many of our navy officers think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +indispensable, they certainly were not accustomed to seeing such quiet +jail deliveries.</p> + +<p>Williams afterwards re-entered on board the same vessel that he came +from, and I lost sight of him of course, as our frigate was on the point +of quitting the station to return home. He has, in all probability, long +ere this, reached the grave towards which he seemed to be hurrying, with +all the speed of intemperance and insanity combined. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="MORTON" id="MORTON"></a>MORTON</h2> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<h3>MORTON.</h3><div class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bel and the Dragon's chaplains were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More moderate than these by far:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For they, poor knaves, were glad to cheat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To get their wives and children meat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But these will not be fobb'd off so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They must have wealth and power too;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or else with blood and desolation<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They'll tear it out o' th' heart o' th' nation.—<br /></span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 20em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Notwithstanding the success of the many daring and lawless adventurers +who visited the Pacific Ocean, or "Great South Sea," as it is called in +the maps and travels of the period, and who reaped many a golden harvest +there, about the time of the first James and Charles of England, the +coasts washed by its waves were but seldom visited, and its waters +seldom ploughed by any other keels than those of discovery ships for +many years. Chili, Peru, Mexico, and California, after having been +definitively ceded to the Spanish crown, constituted an El Dorado, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +gates could only be opened by a formal declaration of war. Spain was +generally considered by the other European powers to have a double right +to South America, namely, that of discovery and conquest; and after an +ineffectual struggle to wrest the golden prize from the grasp of its +legitimate possessor, England, and the rest of the "high contracting +powers," acquiesced in her possessing it, the more readily because they +wished the same kind of title should be acknowledged in their own case. +Accordingly discovery and conquest have, to this day, been considered as +good and lawful titles, and a sort of deed of conveyance, on the part of +the natives, to their discoverers and conquerors of all and sundry their +lands and landed estates, together with their goods and chattels, when +of any value.</p> + +<p>His Most Catholic Majesty, then, finding his claim to the New World +fully established, set about civilizing his new conquest in good +earnest, and sending out swarms of priests, backed of course by the +military portion of the secular arm, with glory to God on their lips, +and hatred to his creatures in their hearts, with the sword in one hand +and the crucifix in the other, soon convinced the unhappy natives of +their damnable heresies. Their simple religion was destroyed, millions +perished by the sword or the tender mercies of the Holy Inquisition, and +as many more in the mines; and civilization and religion kissed each +other, and rested from their labors of love.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was the most received method of converting whole nations at once, +then in vogue—we Protestants of the present day are far more humane; we +only distribute among the newly discovered nations of the earth, rum and +Calvinism, gunpowder and the venereal disease, and with these powerful +agents our missionaries and merchants, have succeeded in causing Dagon +to bow down before them—over all the civilized world. New Holland seems +to be the only uncivilized part of this watery ball, but New Holland +holds out no temptations to the missionary; the inhabitants are a little +too cannibally given, and martyrdom is altogether obsolete; besides, it +is doubted by our soundest theologians whether Christianity was ever +intended for a people so brutal and debased.</p> + +<p>Spain, at the time I refer to, was renowned in arts and in arms; her +commerce extended from the East to the West Indies, and she was for a +time one of the most powerful of the kingdoms of Europe. Her priests, +finding the New World a land overflowing, not exactly with milk and +honey, but with what in all ages and in all countries is considered +infinitely better, gold and silver, and abounding in every thing that +could pamper the pride and gratify the sense, founded churches and +monasteries, while her viceroys built cities and forts, and South +America became the richest jewel in the diadem of His Catholic Majesty. +To secure this jewel entirely to himself seems to have been his chief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +anxiety, and accordingly all foreigners were rigidly excluded from its +sea-ports, and although the "Assiento," or contract for supplying the +colonies with African slaves, was enjoyed successively by the English +and French, both of whom successively abused it by smuggling immense +quantities of their respective manufactures into those colonies, the +duty of supplying them with European merchandise was carried on finally +solely by means of register ships, as they were called, Cadiz being the +only European port where they were permitted to load and discharge.</p> + +<p>The whaling ships were only permitted to procure supplies, or "recruit," +as our unctuous brethren of Nantucket call it, at certain fixed and +well-fortified ports. Still even these managed to carry on quite a +respectable business in the smuggling way, especially with the ports of +Mexico and California.</p> + +<p>But a new flea was about getting into Don Diego's ear—the peace of +1783, while it added an infant giant to the catalogue of earthly +"principalities and powers," also liberated from the fetters of +commercial, as well as political restraints, a people active, restless, +daring, prying, and enterprising to the last degree; a people whose +skill in navigation and swift-sailing vessels rendered them absolutely +intangible to an enemy that took occasion to chase them, while their +courage, when they thought proper to "stand to it," as dame Quickly +says, made them dangerous antagonists. This the reader probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +"guesses" must be brother Jonathan, and he guesses about right. The same +spirit of restless curiosity that prompts a cat, when she sets up her +Ebenezer in a new house, to examine every portion of it, from cellar to +garret, seemed to have possessed our grandpas more strongly than it does +us of the present age.</p> + +<p>This national character of ours is owing doubtless to our having been +placed by the hand of Heaven in an immense unexplored region, and was no +doubt much increased by the spirit-stirring scenes of the revolutionary +war, which beheld our "old continentals" one day ferreting out the +long-tailed Hessians from the woods of Saratoga, and another "doing +battle right manfullie" on the plains of South Carolina.</p> + +<p>While they of the land service were pushing their advanced posts to the +foot of the Rocky Mountains, our seamen were carrying our striped +bunting into every portion of the navigable world. Such were the people +whose arrival in the Pacific the Spanish commandantes and viceroys +awaited with no small fear and trembling. They knew vaguely that we had +just come off victorious from a long, fierce, and bloody struggle with +powerful England, and while they consigned us pell-mell to the devil, as +"malditos Americanos," they doubted whether we had the additional claim +to go there upon the strength of being heretics. The captains of the +guarda-costas redoubled their vigilance, and sailed in chase of not a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +few albatrosses and whale-spouts, such was the zeal that animated them.</p> + +<p>I should have described these redoubtable crafts, the guarda-costas, +before—they were armed vessels of different classes, varying from light +frigates down to mere gunboats, and were distributed along the coasts to +protect trade, and prevent smuggling.</p> + +<p>When however these formidable strangers did arrive, the readiness with +which they conformed to the numerous, and in most cases vexatious, port +regulations, their quiet behavior on shore, and the many novelties and +luxuries that they freely distributed to the port officers, completely +blinded them to the instinctive disposition to trade that characterizes +my beloved countrymen, especially the New Englanders, who were the first +to carry our flag into the Pacific, as they were also the first to +display it in Europe.</p> + +<p>I have made these long-winded and apparently uncalled-for remarks partly +to show my learning, but chiefly in conformity with the fashion of the +day, that requires that every story, long or short, should be ushered in +by at least one chapter of prefatory remarks. I do not intend to be so +unreasonable; but before this my first chapter is finished, shall give +my readers an idea of my purposed principal scene of operations.</p> + +<p>If then, the reader will turn to the proper map, he will find in about +the latitude of twenty-one north, Cape Corrientes; and not far from this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +three islands, called Las Tres Marias; the Three Marys, that is, so +named after the three Marys of the New Testament.</p> + +<p>Geographers, when they make maps, seem to start with the notion that +there must be a certain number of islands, &c. inserted in each map; and +when they have located the larger and more important ones within fifteen +or twenty degrees of latitude and longitude of their proper places, +which is as near as they commonly come to the truth, they proceed to +distribute the remainder according to their own taste. In compliance +with this fashion of theirs, they have laid down upon all modern maps, +especially those that are called the best, and in nearly the latitude +that I have above mentioned, and longitude that I have not, namely, +about one hundred and fifteen west from Greenwich Observatory, a little +island which they call Revalligigedos. I have passed twice over the spot +where this little island with the big name "stays put," in all maps by +them, and have conversed with many whalemen and others, who, taken +collectively, have sailed over every square inch of salt water in that +place, and none of them have seen it. So too, they have studded the +ocean off Cape Horn so thickly with islands, that a landsman wonders how +a ship of any size can manage to squeeze through into the Pacific. I +have passed that cape three times, and have been working to windward off +them some weeks, but although we always kept a bright look-out for ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +islands and strange vessels, we never, to use a vulgar expression, saw +"hide or hair" of these supererogatory islands.</p> + +<p>But to return; in a direction nearly east from the Three Marys, the +reader will find, on most maps, a small river, called by the Spaniards, +in their usual style of bombast, El Rio Grande, or the Great River; +though the identical legs that I now stand upon have waded across it at +low water, and, except cutting my foot with an oyster-shell, there was +nothing very remarkable in the exploit. At the mouth of this mighty +stream is an island on which stands the town of St. Blas.</p> + +<p>The Spaniards, as it is well known, when they discovered America, +christened every cape, bay, mountain, river, island, rock, or shoal +after some saint or other, but the learned are somewhat puzzled to know +who this St. Blas can be. In my poor opinion, the difficulty is easily +enough got over—the word Blas is only a corruption of Blast, and +accordingly we shall find that St. Blast, properly so called, is neither +more nor less than our old friend Æolus, of the heathen mythology, +smuggled into the calendar, who, being the god of blasts and puffs, +might well be canonized under the name of St. Blast, without doing +violence to the tender consciences of the good Catholics. In this way, +according to Dean Swift, Jupiter became Jew Peter, and by a natural +transition, <i>Saint</i> Peter. Whether he is right or not, one thing is +certain, that sundry temples, of which the veritable Jupiter has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +"seized in fee tail," I think lawyers call it, from time immemorial, +have quietly become "St. Peter's churches," to the great edification of +the Christian world, and incredible advancement of religion and piety.</p> + +<p>The island, upon which St. Blas is perched, slopes off gradually to the +eastward, but to the south and west descends in a sheer precipice of two +or three hundred feet in height. The town was taken and retaken several +times during the sanguinary war of the Mexican revolution. The last time +it was in the hands of the royalists, they compelled all the male +inhabitants, and, report says, not a few women and children besides, +that they suspected of favoring the Patriot cause, to leap off this +precipice. Soldiers were stationed at the foot of the cliff, to despatch +those who reached the bottom with any signs of life. This piece of +information I had from a widow who kept a shop in the <i>Plaza</i>, and who +also told me, "with weeping tears," that her husband was one of the +number who took the fearful leap.</p> + +<p>Rather on the north-west side, the hill is surmountable by a zig-zag +path, up which a loaded mule can climb with some difficulty. On the +west, or seaward, side, is a strip of flat land, of considerable width, +on which formerly stood the royal arsenal, rope-walks, and warehouses, +the ruins of which were standing in 1822, when I visited the place. On +the western extremity of this level land is a small village, called, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +usual in such cases, the Porte, or landing place. The bay, which is a +fine harbor, sweeps far to the eastward, when the land, trending away to +the southward, with a slight inclination westerly, becomes lost in the +distance. The more immediate, or inner, harbor, is formed by a point of +land opposite the Porte, on the southern extremity of which is a +battery, formerly of considerable dimensions, and strength, but since +suffered to decay, and is much reduced in effectiveness. It was intended +to command the harbor and anchorage; but with Spanish artillerymen, a +mile offing, and reasonably good weather, a ship would be as safe from +its fire, for three months at least, as though she was all the while in +London Docks.</p> + +<p>At the distance of two or three miles from the usual anchorage, and +forming an excellent leading mark for the bay, is Pedro Blanco, or the +White Rock, of two hundred feet height, perfectly precipitous and +inaccessible, and resembling a huge tower, rising abruptly from the sea.</p> + +<p>Taken altogether, the bay of St. Blas forms a very beautiful prospect, +with the Andes in the back ground, which, with their</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look from their throne of clouds o'er half the world;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>its white sand beach, fading gradually away to the south and east, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +town roosting on its barren rock, and indistinctly seen; its low lands +covered with a luxuriant growth of lime and other trees; and lastly, by +way of seasoning, its moschetoes and sand-flies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A knight he was, whose very sight would<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Entitle him mirror of knighthood.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Hudibras.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Tropical climates have certainly one advantage over all others, that is +not to be held in light esteem. They have rainy and dry seasons, that +are exclusively rainy and dry. During six months, or nearly as long, the +windows of heaven stand wide open, by night and by day, and the liquid +blessing descends upon the thirsty earth beneath "in one lot," as +auctioneers say; while on the other hand, the dry season has its great +and manifold advantages and pleasures. With us in the temperate zone, as +geographers call it, I suppose, for want of another name, a man does not +think of riding twenty miles without India rubbers, a great coat, boots, +and an umbrella, to say nothing of an entire change of raiment, if he is +a prudent, cautious old bachelor, or widower; and even then he is as +likely to get a ducking as to have fine weather.</p> + +<p>During a tropical dry season, on the contrary, a journey of two hundred +miles may be safely undertaken, without any of these encumbrances; with +two or three clean shirts, a man may scamper about for months, like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +Roman light-infantryman, "impedimentis relictis," unless he should be so +ill advised as to carry his wife and children with him.</p> + +<p>Throughout the rainy season, many diseases arise, and make great +destruction among those who remain on the sea-coast; those who can +afford it, retreat to the more salubrious mountain regions, while, as +aforesaid, those who stay behind, being generally the poor, the +worthless, and the useless part of the community, fall victims to the +numerous diseases generated by the excessive rains, and the then swampy +condition of the country. This annual purgation of society, is perhaps +another blessing of a tropical country. I know of more than one +community, whose moral, and in some measure physical health, would in my +mere mortal and short sighted notion of the fitness of things, be vastly +benefited by the visitation of an energetic, wide sweeping epidemic. +Human society is very like a grate full of ignited anthracite coal, +those parts of it that have lost their combustibility, and become +worthless, are constantly filtering down through the bottom of the +grate; and so in society, those individuals, who are daily falling from +a state of grace in the eyes of their fellow-worms, either as regards +fashion, or property, or reputation, go to swell the number of the +outcasts from the ranks of "good society;" a convenient phrase that has +recently been invented, and signifies the speaker's own particular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +friends and acquaintances, though he and they may be at that very +moment getting out stone on Blackwell's Island. So you see, reader, that +it is fore-ordained, for I am a good deal of a fatalist, that one of the +ingredients of civilized society should be a certain proportion of poor +miserable devils, such as you and I both know.</p> + +<p>It was just at the close of the rainy season, when Nature looked +infinitely better and fresher for having her face washed, though she had +been six months about it; the air seemed purer and more healthful, and +the sky looked clearer and of a richer blue, for the half year's +drenching; it was at this particular time of the year, that we have +thought proper to raise the curtain, and introduce the reader into the +business part of the story.</p> + +<p>It was between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the land breeze +had done blowing, and the usual interregnum of calm, previous to the +commencement of the sea-breeze, had taken place—the broad bay lay like +a huge mirror, varied indeed by the long and regular undulations of the +swell from the main ocean, which, though perhaps sufficient to +discompose a landman's stomach, would not affect that of a sailor, who +would probably testify under oath, that the water was "just as smooth as +a mill-pond." The pelican, that grave and contemplative bird, sat on the +rocks near the water's edge, with his neck coiled up and stowed away in +some recess in his capacious crop, the fish forgetting, or sailed on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +lazy wings across the bay, to seek some sequestered spot to doze away +the time, and digest his huge breakfast—the graceful white crane of +Mexico was wading about, flapping her wings, to drive the small fish +into shoaler water, where she might pick them up at her leisure—the +gaudy Spanish ensign, resembling three flannel petticoats, two red and +one yellow, hung lifeless by its staff, as though said petticoats had +just got through a hard day's washing—a soldier, with a paper segar in +his mouth, was lounging backwards and forwards on that part of the +parapet of the battery next the sea, while another, his counterpart, was +"doing military duty" in the same soldierly manner on the quay opposite.</p> + +<p>I may as well explain to the reader now as at a future time, that every +collection of houses in South America, however small, has an open space +in the centre, called the Plaza; and an American Spaniard could no more +conceive of a town or village without such plaza, than he could form one +of Mr. Locke's abstract ideas of a horse, which ceases to be an abstract +idea the moment it becomes invested with a body, head, legs, mane, tail, +saddle, bridle, belly-band, or crupper.</p> + +<p>In the plaza of the Porte before mentioned was a multifarious +assemblage: the barrack for a captain's guard, with the arms of the +guard piled in front of it, formed one side, and the others were bounded +by the quay or different buildings; a detachment of idlers were sunning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +themselves, and engaged in relieving each other from certain troublesome +companions, that <i>invariably</i> infest the clothes and hair of all +Spaniards and Russians, from the king to the beggar; jackasses, boys, +and dogs occupied the rest of the square, and were differently engaged. +At this moment a sergeant ran into the square, exclaiming, "el +Commandante!" The military guard fell into their ranks at the tap of the +drum, the idlers and boys took up a strong position in one corner, the +jackasses were cudgelled into a retreat, while the dogs, like the pigs +in New York, being free of the city, provided for themselves. A moment +or two elapsed after these preparations had been made, when a party of +mounted officers dashed into the square at full gallop, as the South +Americans always ride. The guard presented arms, the dogs barked their +congratulations, and the party, having lighted fresh segars, walked down +to the quay, directly opposite which lay an old dismantled Spanish +frigate, and moored alongside her was a schooner, whose formidable +length of main boom, and raking masts, announced her both a clipper and +a Yankee. She was indeed an American schooner, that had been taken +"flagrante delicto," in the very act of smuggling, for which she was +condemned, and her crew sent to the mines. Such was the jealousy of the +"authorities," that they unshipped the rudder, and unrove the running +rigging, for fear she might go to sea of her own accord, and resume her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +smuggling voyage without the assistance of human agency.</p> + +<p>The party whom we have left smoking on the wharf, consisted of the +military commandant, or governor, of St. Blas, Don Gaspar de Luna, Don +Diego Pinto, the commander of a guarda-costa of eighteen guns, that lay +in the offing, and which, to the most unpractised eye, bore about the +same resemblance to an English or American man of war of the same class, +as an old, worn-out jackass does to a handsome, high spirited, well +groomed race-horse. The rest of the group was made up of young officers +"of no mark or likelihood," and with whom we have nothing to do, with +the exception of Don Gregorio Nunez, a dashing young cavalry officer, +related to the viceroy, report said his natural son, and report said too +that he was soon to marry the lovely niece of the governor; but the +destinies were altogether of a different way of thinking. His character +may be despatched in a few words—he was a vain coxcomb, his whole soul +lay in his gorgeous uniform, and he had a mortal antipathy to any thing +like duty.</p> + +<p>Don Gaspar de Luna, the redoubted governor of St. Blas and its +"dependencies," bore the rank of colonel in the Spanish army. He had +seen some service, having been present at the memorable siege of +Gibraltar, that excited first the astonishment and then the ridicule of +all Europe—astonishment at the immensity of the armament prepared, and +ridicule on account of its inefficiency, in wasting years before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +place without doing any thing. An advanced party commanded by Don +Gaspar, then a captain, had the good fortune to get soundly thrashed by +a sallying detachment from the garrison; and the king of Spain was so +delighted that <i>something</i> had been done, that he promoted the fortunate +captain to a colonelcy.</p> + +<p>In early life he had been in America with his regiment, where he had +married a native Peruvian woman, by whom he had two daughters. In person +he was about the middling height, and so far resembled an ellipse as +this, that his transverse diameter nearly equalled his conjugate, or, in +plain English, he was about as broad as long. He prided himself not a +little upon being a "Castiliano," or genuine old Spaniard, and +professed, and probably felt, the most implacable hatred to all +heretics, especially English and Americans; but it was evidently an +abstract feeling, for the moment a vessel of either nation arrived, +which happened very often during the dry season, and the commanders +began to make those little presents that they always found it for their +interest to make, his orthodox zeal began, like Bob Acres' courage, "to +ooze away through his fingers."</p> + +<p>Although in the main a kind and indulgent father, his affections were +centred in his niece, of whom we shall have occasion to speak more at +large, whom he preferred to his daughter, and with good reason. He was +fond of punch, such as he used to find in plenty and perfection on board<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +the strange ships, and which he could drill none of his household into +the art and mystery of making, except his niece; fonder of flattery, and +compliment, and salutes, from the heretical captains; and perhaps +fondest of all of invitations to dine on board such ships as seemed to +hold out hopes of good cheer. When a foreign vessel arrived, one would +think, from his parade and flourish, that he expected an invasion; but +it was all show. He was fond of telling long stories, and of sitting +long over the bottle, foregoing the usual luxury of the <i>siesta</i>, or nap +after dinner, to enjoy the greater one of drinking; but, although his +capacious stomach would contain an incredible quantity of wine, no one +could say that he had ever been seen "the worse for liquor."</p> + +<p>The duties of his station were but trifling; for, although St. Blas was +a royal naval depot, the commanders of his majesty's ships almost +invariably preferred Callao, on account of its vicinity to the viceregal +court at Lima. Any other person would have pined to death in such a +remote and solitary corner of the earth, without society and without +employment; but Don Gaspar was one of those peculiarly constituted +individuals, who, having neither the faculty to communicate or receive +new ideas, are as happy and contented in one place as another. He had +come down to the water side at full gallop, and at the imminent risk of +his neck, in consequence of a report, that a large, armed English ship,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +that was known to be on the coast trading, was approaching the Bay of +St. Blas.</p> + +<p>The nautical commander, Don Diego Pinto, was a man of upwards of sixty +years of age, who had grown grey in the navy of Spain, without seeing +any service of consequence. He had followed one of the viceroys, to whom +he was recommended, to Peru, and the viceroy thought he had sufficiently +done his duty to his <i>protégé</i> by appointing him to the command of a +guarda-costa of eighteen guns, stationed at St. Blas, and including in +her cruising ground St. Josef, Mazattan, and the entrance to the Gulf of +California. His prey was good, and his duty was light; but all his hopes +of promotion were cut off by being stationed at what was generally +considered the "ultima Thule," the very extremity of the navigable +world.</p> + +<p>The Yankees, to be sure, scorned any such fanciful restrictions, and had +long since penetrated to Nootka Sound and Behring's Straits, "the +hunters of the mighty whale;" but then the Yankees were a very singular +and peculiar race, and nobody in their senses cared to imitate them in +their wild, and sometimes lawless, rambles over the face of the +ocean—lawless, I wish to be understood, no farther than in sometimes +forgetting to inquire, in a strange port, whether there was any +custom-house there or not, and in most ports conceiving it to be the +duty of the collectors of the customs to come on board and secure the +duties, and if said collectors did not bear a hand and attend to their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +business, why then Jonathan, who is always in a hurry, was apt to land +his cargo without the knowledge and without the leave of the +custom-house officers.</p> + +<p>Don Diego's hatred to heretics and foreigners, unlike that of the +illustrious governor, was cordial and sincere, and by no means a general +or abstract principle—he hated every individual as heartily as he did +the whole species. He would never accept or even reply to an invitation +from an English or American commander; and in the case of the American +schooner already mentioned, he had treated the crew with such savage +barbarity, that, but for the interference of Don Gaspar, they would have +perished from starvation and ill treatment. He was by no means a +favorite guest at the governor's house; the ladies of the family +detested him, not so much for his cruelty, for they heard but little of +that, but for his morose and churlish disposition, and, perhaps more +than either, on account of the general belief that his wife, a lovely +woman, and much younger than himself, had fallen a victim to his +unkindness and cruelty.</p> + +<p>Women, the dear creatures, have an infinitely larger share of <i>esprit du +corps</i>, if I may so call it, or rather a community of feeling, than men. +Nothing will ruin a man's character and good name among the females of +his acquaintance so soon or so effectually as the reputation of ill +treatment or unkindness to his wife, while the men would think but +little or nothing of it. Women think, and feel, and act most correctly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +and justly, and in a manner that does them infinite honor, upon this +subject; indeed, I am fully convinced, that on most questions of social +morality, the feelings of women are more pure and right than those of +men. But they have a thousand ingenious methods of making known their +contempt and detestation of the cowardly scoundrel that would raise his +hand against one of their sex, and every method cuts like a two-edged +sword. I have known, and do at this moment know, many men who have +endured the contempt and hatred of their fellow-<i>men</i> with the most +stoical indifference—they went on hated and despised to the grave, but +they made money at every step, and they cared for nothing else; but I +never, in all my life, and in all my wanderings—and I have not +travelled about this watery ball, nor so far through life, with my eyes +and ears shut—I never knew a man who did not wince and writhe under the +hatred and contempt of the other sex. I am not a profound believer in +innate ideas, if they are such ridiculous ones as metaphysicians talk +of—namely, that two and two make four, and such sort of nonsense—but I +do believe in certain innate principles and feelings, that govern our +thoughts and actions as powerfully and irresistibly as instinct impels +the brute creation; and that one of those principles is an innate desire +to please and secure the good opinion of the opposite sex, born with +every man and woman, or at least developed, more or less strongly, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +very early childhood, and that too without any instruction or hint from +others.</p> + +<p>While the party stood on the quay, puffing their segars with all the +gravity and silence that was becoming their rank and birth as officers +of his Catholic Majesty and natives of old Spain, a subaltern officer +approached, and, with abundance of parade and obsequiousness, informed +the governor that there was a ship in the offing, becalmed at that time, +but apparently bound in. The officer proceeded to inform him farther, +that there were two American ships at St. Josef, one at Monteny, and +that a fourth had been seen the day before at sea, standing to the +southward. His excellency, though not particularly indignant at the idea +of his principality being visited by a foreign vessel, thought proper to +appear "brimful of wrath" at the intelligence.</p> + +<p>"Ah! those accursed and heretical wretches! they swarm upon this coast +as thick as sand-flies."</p> + +<p>"And should be destroyed by the same means, by fire," growled his naval +associate; "they should be burnt at their anchors wherever they are +found; for if they have not already been guilty of any violation of the +laws, they very soon will."</p> + +<p>"Signor Pinto," said the more humane and considerate governor, "you are +to recollect that our gracious sovereign is on terms of peace and amity +with this new people, who have lately come into existence, and who seem +to be driven by the devils to wander abroad, instead of passing their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +lives peaceably at home. We cannot therefore treat them as enemies; and +even when taken in violation of the laws, they must be heard in their +own defence."</p> + +<p>This grave rebuke rather mortified him of the marine department, and he +was for a few minutes sulky, which the governor perceiving, and not +wishing to offend him, again addressed him.</p> + +<p>"But come, signor, cheer up. I know the sight of that schooner always +makes you feel unpleasantly; you cannot forget how she misled you one +dark night, and well nigh decoyed your ship ashore, by setting adrift a +light in a tub."</p> + +<p>This was but cold comfort to the redoubtable sea-officer, who was by no +means fond of hearing the anecdote of the lantern in a tub repeated or +alluded to; and he was about making an angry answer, when the sight of +the schooner brought to his recollection that he had finally captured +her, and had enjoyed the fiendish pleasure of abusing and maltreating +her crew, and that, to crown his triumph, he had seen them set out for +the mines. Poor man! he did not know, what indeed was a kind of state +secret, that the viceroy, not wishing to embroil his sovereign in an +unpleasant quarrel, or, as he was about returning to old Spain, wishing +to leave behind him a character for clemency and humanity, had ordered +them to be set at liberty, and they had actually embarked at Acapulco on +board an English South Sea whaler. This had taken place a full year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +previous; and while the vindictive Spaniard was chuckling over their +fancied sufferings "many a fathom deep" in the damp and unhealthy +galleries of a silver mine, the objects of his hatred were jogging along +comfortably towards London, with a full ship and light hearts.</p> + +<p>In reply to the governor's "quip modest," he merely growled out +something about zeal in discharging his duty, and anxiety to prevent +smuggling, to which the governor replied,</p> + +<p>"There is no danger of these foreigners smuggling, while they are so +strictly watched by his majesty's ships and faithful soldiers. I wish, +signor, you would go out with your ship, and bring this stranger in; I +do not like to see him hovering about in this suspicious manner."</p> + +<p>"It is impossible to go out, now that the sea-breeze is just setting +in," said the naval officer, who had no more idea of working out with a +head wind, than he had of flying, though the bay is open enough for the +channel fleet to beat out in order of battle."</p> + +<p>While this question was in agitation, an officer crossed in a skiff from +the battery, and informed Don Gaspar that the sea-breeze had set in +the offing, and that the stranger had hauled by the wind, and was +standing off shore; further, that she was an American whaleman, that had +probably pursued her huge prey close in shore. Don Gaspar was somewhat +disappointed at this intelligence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I almost wish she had come in," said he, in a low tone, "for, heretics +as they are, and damned to all eternity as they certainly will be, (for +which blessed be the saints,) it cannot be denied that the puncho, or +pontio, which they make, is most refreshing and delicious in this warm +weather."</p> + +<p>But as the Yankee manifested no symptoms of coming in to anchor, and +thereby give him a chance for his glass of punch, he yielded to the +suggestion of Don Gregorio, his aid-de-camp; and having lighted fresh +segars, they mounted their horses, and rode back to San Blas.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">A lady<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fair, and fastened to an empery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would make the great'st king double.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 15em;">Cymbeline.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The family of Don Gaspar de Luna consisted of his wife, whom we have +already noticed as a native of Mexico, and two daughters, Antonia and +Carlota, who were rather pretty for Creole girls, and, like the +generality of Creoles, especially when one half is Spanish, extremely +ignorant and vulgar in their language and manners; the last trait being +somewhat characteristic of the Spanish-American women, if we may believe +travellers, to which I may add my own somewhat limited observation. They +are, however, by way of amends, more civilized and sociable in their +behaviour to strangers, and much more intelligent, than the men.</p> + +<p>The lovely niece of the governor, the orphan daughter of his brother, +made up the list of his family. As we have no great concern with the old +lady and her two daughters, we have mentioned them first, in order to +get them out of our way; but as the fair Isabella will make some figure +in our pages, we can do no less than devote a chapter, or part of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +chapter, to giving some account and description of her, more +particularly as she differs, <i>toto coelo</i>, from her cousins, morally, +and, in many respects, physically.</p> + +<p>Isabella de Luna was the daughter of Signor Anastasio de Luna, the only +brother of Don Gaspar. He was an eminent merchant of Cadiz, who, having +found it necessary to go to London on business, had afterwards found it +equally necessary to remain there for some time, to attend to his +mercantile affairs. Here he became acquainted with a Miss Campbell, a +Scotch lady of about thirty years of age, very beautiful, but poor. Her +father had been taken prisoner at the defeat of the Pretender's army at +Culloden, in which army he was an officer, and immediately executed +without a trial, by the blood-thirsty and infamous Duke of Cumberland. +Her mother died of grief a few months afterwards, leaving her an infant, +and the sole surviving member of a proscribed and ruined family. She was +taken, from mere compassion, by a distant relation of her father, and +carefully brought up in the Protestant faith, her parents having been +Catholics.</p> + +<p>When about twenty years old, she accompanied her relation to London, and +had resided there some years, when she was introduced to and captivated +Signor Anastasio, and after a long courtship, and considerable +reluctance on the part of the lady, because the lover was at least +nominally a Catholic, she became his wife. They lived long and happily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +together, for whether Anastasio's religious opinions had undergone any +change or not, by associating so many years with Protestants, he never +interfered with his wife's religious creed or devotions, and permitted +her to educate, in the Protestant faith, their only child Isabella.</p> + +<p>I would advise all husbands to do likewise, in some measure; that is, if +the wife thinks proper to perform her devotions in a Pagan temple, a +Mahometan mosque, a Jewish synagogue, or a Christian church, why, let +her, and welcome, unless the husband is particularly anxious to get into +hot water, and commit suicide upon his domestic happiness; for nothing +so effectually disturbs the tranquillity of a family, as open opposition +of religious creeds. Women become religious, in the every-day +acceptation of the word, from any motive rather than a conviction of the +truth or reasonableness of any particular creed. It would be difficult, +perhaps impossible, to define the motive that carries women into the +pale of any particular church. I have heard of an old lady, who was very +anxious to be permitted to carry her knitting-work to meeting, "because +it was such a <i>steadiment</i> to the mind." Perhaps joining the church has +the same effect upon women in general. I have seen so much discomfort in +families from conflicting religious opinions, that I cannot help hoping +that the destinies will so contrive it, that my wife, if they ever mean +to send me one at all, shall be a member of the Episcopal church. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +is about that church, what attaches to no other sect, a sort of +dignified reserve, that never breaks out in four-day meetings, revivals, +or any other similar ebullition of fanaticism and absurdity.</p> + +<p>When Isabella was in her fourteenth year, her father returned to his +native country, taking his family with him, having given up his +mercantile business, and retiring from it very wealthy. The priests, as +might have been expected, were soon around him, like sharks around a +slave-ship, all eager to discover, in his conversation and manners, the +contamination of heresy, with which they took it for granted he was +infected, from having dwelt so long among those obstinate and perverse +heretics, the English; but Anastasio was too well acquainted with human +nature, and with the ways of the world, to be thrown off his guard. He +gave most munificently to the church; and, in spite of all their +attempts to place Isabella in a convent, as a boarder, succeeded in +retaining her under the immediate care of her excellent mother.</p> + +<p>In making this arrangement, he was much assisted by a priest, whom he +had formerly been acquainted with, and whom he now took into his family, +as father confessor. In short, by the judicious management of pretty +large sums of money, that he was able to spare, in less than a year +after his return to Spain, Anastasio de Luna obtained the character of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +good Catholic, who had kept fast the integrity of his faith, during a +long residence among heretics. As for Madame de Luna, after having +delivered her over in trust to the devil, the clergy gave themselves +little or no concern about her; though her liberal charity, and the +mildness and sweetness of her disposition, made her friends of all who +knew her. Many a saint, of the present day, holds his character for +sanctity by as slight a tenure, as Anastasio did his as an orthodox +Catholic; and many a modest, unpretending female, has been, like Madame +de Luna, regarded as an infidel, and a vessel of wrath, for not sounding +a trumpet before her, in the exercise of unassuming virtues.</p> + +<p>In about three years after his return to his native country, Anastasio +died, bequeathing a large sum to the church, not from any violent +partiality to the Catholic faith, but in order to secure peace to his +wife and daughter. His widow intended to return to England; but her +health was failing rapidly, and in a little more than a year after her +husband's death, she followed him to the grave, with her last breath +enjoining upon her daughter never to part with the faith in which she +had been educated, and never to marry a Catholic, unless she was sure of +the purity and goodness of his morals. This might seem illiberal in her; +but there is no accounting for the prejudices of people, especially upon +religious subjects.</p> + +<p>After her mother's death, Isabella had no alternative left, but to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +refuge in the family of her uncle, Don Gaspar, who had already shown +great fondness for her, and who received her with great cordiality and +affection. In this family she was permitted to do much as she pleased; +her gentle and amiable disposition soon won the warmest affections of +her aunt and cousins, and her time passed agreeably, except that she was +sometimes teased by the reverend clergy to enter a convent, and to +"dedicate herself to God;" but as the young lady thought she could serve +God to better purpose out of a convent than in one, she civilly declined +their polite invitations to shut herself in a dungeon.</p> + +<p>The same priest who befriended her father, extended his kindness to the +daughter. He was a very influential clergyman, secretly of very liberal +and enlightened views, on the subject of religion; but, not perceiving +any pressing necessity for giving his body to be burnt, he had thought +best to keep his religious notions to himself. He might very easily have +"gained a martyr's glorious name," if he had only been one of those</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Stubborn saints, whom all men grant<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be the true church militant;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but he was not; and, besides, martyrdom is not near so fashionable as it +was during the time of the Roman emperors, when one saint insisted upon +being crucified heels uppermost; and another, who was very comfortably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +broiling on a gridiron, sung out to be turned, when he thought he was +cooked enough on one side. <i>Our</i> clergy are a grave, serious, set of +men, who scorn such mad pranks; they have no idea of suffering +martyrdom, or any thing else, if they can help it. I believe there have +been no martyrs since the commencement of the nineteenth century, except +Mr. Wolff, who was bastinadoed by the Pacha of Egypt, for interfering +with what did not concern him, and some ten or a dozen missionaries, +that would not do something the Cochin-Chinese bid them, and were, in +consequence, made shorter by the head.</p> + +<p>The good priest interposed his good offices, and influence, in +Isabella's behalf, and gave her instructions in such branches of +education as he thought were suited to her sex. But, in about a year +after her mother's death, Don Gaspar received his appointment, as +military commander of St. Blas, which, as I have already observed, was +then a royal depot and arsenal; and, though but seldom visited by +Spanish men-of-war, because there were but very few, besides +guarda-costas, in the Pacific, was a place of considerable importance. +Isabella cheerfully accompanied him to America; for, though neither +giddy, nor thoughtless, all places were alike to her, provided she could +be always surrounded with her uncle's family, with whom she enjoyed +quiet happiness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the priests of Mexico, she saw nothing but ignorance, sensuality, +bigotry, and indolence, nothing calculated to shake her faith as a +Protestant, or cause her to forget her mother's first injunction; while +the foppishness, frivolity, insolence, ignorance, and pride, of the men, +by whom she was surrounded, most effectually protected her from the +remotest thought of disobeying the second. The men, on the other hand, +regarded her with the coolest indifference; accustomed to admire the +black eyes, and hair, and colorless complexions of the Spanish and +native, or Creole, women, varying from a sort of dirty cream color, to a +deep and beautiful copper, Isabella's rather lightish brown hair, blue +eyes, fair complexion, and cheeks rosy with health and cheerfulness, had +no charms for them; and, while her cousins had lovers, or danglers, by +the dozen, Isabella found herself, to her infinite satisfaction, +completely deserted and neglected, by all the starched and pompous fools +that visited her uncle, during a stay of some months in the city of +Mexico.</p> + +<p>She had, on the arrival of the family at St. Blas, contrived to employ +her time in cultivating such female accomplishments as her mother had +instructed her in, and was, at the time we introduce her to the reader's +notice, in her twentieth year. In person, she was about the medium +height of women, or, perhaps, a little below it; and would be called, in +New England, rather a small woman. Her form was exceedingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +well-proportioned and beautiful, although, what may seem incredible, it +had never been cramped, crushed, and distorted, by tight lacing, of +which her mother had a very reasonable horror; and, in consequence, her +movements were free, graceful, and unconfined.</p> + +<p>I know very well that the idea of a lady's form being beautiful, unless +moulded by corsets into the form of a ship's half-minute glass, will be +scouted as absurd and impossible; but to the ridicule that such a +proposition must necessarily excite, I can oppose my own observation, +leaving antiquity, with its faultless statues and sculptures, to shift +for itself. The Hindoo women, of whom I have seen hundreds at once +bathing in the Hoogly, of all ages, from childhood to decrepitude, have +extremely fine forms, when young, that is from twelve to twenty-two or +three, at which period they have all the marks of old age. As they bathe +with only a single thin cotton garment, which, when wet, sticks close to +their bodies, and developes their forms most completely, any body that +visits Calcutta can satisfy himself of the correctness of this fact, and +yet they tolerate no sort of confinement whatever about the person.</p> + +<p>Isabella's face was of an oval form, with an exquisitely delicate and +fair complexion; when her features were at rest, the expression was +quiet and serious, rather bordering upon the pensive, a cast of +countenance that she inherited from her mother; but her smile was +exceedingly attractive, with an air of frankness and innocence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +attending it, that made it perfectly fascinating. Her eyes were of a +deep blue, that, in conversation or when any emotion agitated the +tranquillity of their owner, were extremely lively, animated, and +sparkling. Her eyebrows were very delicately traced, slightly curved but +not arched, as poets and others rave about—I never saw a pair that +were, on forehead male or female, except among the Chinese, and <i>they</i>, +in consequence, looked like—no matter who—nor can I imagine how arched +brows can be beautiful.</p> + +<p>It was not the fashion, forty years since, for girls to cut off their +hair and sell it to a barber for fifty cents, and then give ten dollars +for a set of artificial curls, nor was it fashionable in Mexico to wear +false hair; if it had been, nature had been so bountiful to Isabella in +that beautiful ornament and pride (it ought to be) of a woman, that she +could save the expense by the arrangement of her own luxuriant tresses.</p> + +<p>Her temper was mild, and by no means easily ruffled; her disposition was +gentle, humane, amiable, and cheerful, though seldom or never breaking +out into extravagant gaiety. Like all young ladies of her age, who have +much unemployed time on their hands, and I believe the same remark will +apply to young men similarly situated, she had experienced a void, a +want of something in the heart, that she felt acutely enough, but could +neither describe nor account for; that peculiar feeling that certainly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +is not love, but a symptom of the wish to love and be beloved; it is +that state of the heart when the affections go forth, like Noah's dove, +and finding no object on which to repose, return weary and dejected to +their lonely prison.</p> + +<p>It is an old adage, that "when the devil finds a man idle, he sets him +to work;" when love finds a heart unoccupied, he soon finds it a tenant, +for it always has been, is now, and always will be true, that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Love is a fire that burns and sparkles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In men as nat'rally as in charcoals."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Isabella, almost without knowing it, and without the faintest suspicion +of the real state of the case, gradually neglected and ceased to take +pleasure in her usual occupations; her books, her music, her needle, and +her flowers, all seemed to be equally tiresome and unpleasant. While in +this unhappy state of ennui and loneliness of feeling, peculiar to the +youthful days, or some portion of them, of both sexes, when the mind, +like Hudibras' sword,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Eats into itself, for lack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of somebody to hew and hack,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>she was thrown into unspeakable grief and consternation, by her uncle +one day proposing to her to receive and encourage the addresses of Don +Gregorio, as her future husband.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>To her passionate tears and entreaties to be spared such a dreadful +calamity, that she declared was infinitely worse than death, the old Don +replied, that it was natural for a girl to be frightened at the idea of +leaving a comfortable home, to become the mistress of a family; that he +only wished to provide for her, and see her well settled in life, that +the proposed husband was handsome, rich, and connected by blood with the +viceroy; and also urged many other reasons "too numerous to mention." To +all which, the weeping and agonized girl replied, as soon as her uncle +was out of breath, and she had an opportunity of speaking, "But, my dear +uncle, you know his character, and why, oh! why, will you sacrifice me, +whom you have always treated with so much affection and kindness, to one +whom every one knows to be a fool and a coward?"</p> + +<p>The Don was somewhat startled by this appeal. He was certainly aware +that Isabella was perfectly right in so calling her proposed lover, who +he knew was both a silly coxcomb and a despicable coward, but it was +altogether past his comprehension how his modest, retiring, gentle +niece, had found out two such very important points in the character of +a man, whom he had noticed she seemed to avoid more than any one who +visited his house. But after a few days, seeing that her dejection was +extreme, that her appetite and animation had failed, and she was sinking +under the weight of her grief, and being likewise severely rated by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +wife of his bosom, in a curtain lecture, he relented, and calling +Isabella to him one morning, with many expressions of fondness, bade her +cheer up, for though he wished to see her well married, he would by no +means force her inclinations, and she should please herself in the +article of matrimony.</p> + +<p>This intelligence soothed and consoled her, and the rosy hue of health +once more revisited her sweet countenance; her eyes once more sparkled +with much of her wonted animation and cheerfulness, but still there was +a shade upon her mind amounting almost to sadness; her uncle had +unmasked his battery, and she felt that she was doomed to much +persecution, on what, under existing circumstances, was to her a most +painful subject. But the destinies, that manage matrimonial affairs +infinitely better than free agents, were busy on her behalf.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Why," said the knight, "did you not tell me, that this water was +from the well of your blessed patron, St. Dunstan?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, truly," said the hermit, "and many a hundred pagans did he +baptize there; but I never heard that he drank any of it. Every +thing should be put to its proper use in this world. St. Dunstan +knew, as well as any one, the prerogatives of a jovial friar."<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 22em;">Ivanhoe.</span><br /><br /></p></div> + + +<p>It was nearly six months after the warlike and portentous visit of the +puissant governor to the Porte, when he was roused one morning by +intelligence, that an American whale-ship had arrived in the night, and +was then at anchor just within Pedro Blanco. He immediately commenced, +in his usual style of vaporing and flourish, as though this Yankee ship, +arriving without his knowledge and consent, had compromised the welfare +of the Spanish monarchy. Before his zeal had half done effervescing, a +sergeant brought word that the captain and first officer were at his +usual place of transacting business, or <i>bureau d'office</i>, and wished to +see him. This piece of information had by no means a sedative effect. +Here was a heretic, not only stealing into the bay, like a thief in the +night, but carrying his impudence still farther, by insisting upon an +interview, and that too out of business hours, with the representative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +of His Most Catholic Majesty, by the grace of God, King of Two Spains +and the Indies.</p> + +<p>However, he very graciously sent word, that he would attend to them in a +few minutes; and having drank his chocolate, he proceeded to his office, +where he found waiting for him a grave elderly man, and a handsome young +one. The American captain could speak no Spanish, but the young man +could fluently, and he immediately proceeded to inform his excellency, +that the parties who had ventured to intrude upon his valuable time, +were Captain Hazard, commander of the American whaling ship Orion, and +himself, Charles Morton, first officer of that ship; that the ship was +filled with oil, and bound home; that they were out of wood, short of +water, and desirous of obtaining fruit, vegetables, fresh and salt +provisions, and live stock, previous to their commencing their long and +tedious passage towards home; and, finally, that trusting to the +well-known kindness and humanity of his Excellency General de Luna, they +had presumed to anchor in the outer harbor, till they had obtained his +permission to move further in shore, and to purchase their supplies.</p> + +<p>The old hero of Gibraltar was delighted: he had heard himself called +general, and "vuestra excellencia" half a dozen times at least; and that +too by a gentleman, whose modest deportment and language convinced him +of his seriousness. He instantly acceded to their request, and would, at +that moment perhaps, have given them his house, if he thought they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +could store it away on deck, or get it down the main hatchway. Still it +seemed as if there was something lacking on their part; and he was soon +set at ease. The two Americans communicated for a moment, when the young +man, in polite and set phrase, gave the wished-for, and expected, +invitation to the governor and his family to visit and dine on board the +Orion, the next day at twelve o'clock; for sailors, and some others, +stick to the primitive and convenient habit of dining in the middle of +the day—fashionable people, I believe, don't dine till to-morrow +morning.</p> + +<p>The parties then separated, mutually pleased with each other; the +Americans at having their request so easily and cheerfully granted, and +the old Castilian in high glee with the prospect before him, of a good +dinner, plenty of punch, and plenty of wine. Being gifted with olfactory +powers equal to Job's war-horse, he smelled, not a battle, but a dinner, +afar off, or within thirty divisions of "old Time, the clock-setter's" +dial.</p> + +<p>The Orion was indeed the American whaleman in sight when the governor +visited the water-side, and was then coming in, but just as the +sea-breeze commenced, the look-out at the masthead reported a large +school of sperm whales in the offing. Although the want of vegetables +and fresh provisions did grieve him sore, yet want of oil did grieve him +more; and accordingly, Captain Hazard, whose ship was but little more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +than half full, commenced beating out towards his huge game, which led +him away from the land and to the northward; where, in a little more +than five months, he had made up his quantum of oil; and preferring St. +Blas to Monterey, or St. Josef, he made the best of his way thither.</p> + +<p>The governor, having notified his womankind of the whale-catching +captain's invitation, proceeded to hold grave and high communication +with Father Josef, his ghostly counsellor, and the keeper of his +conscience.</p> + +<p>Father Josef was a priest, turned of fifty; and, like most of the +Spanish American clergy, who are turned of fifty, and are of any thing +like fair standing for sanctity, was somewhat rotund about the abdominal +regions, and of an apoplectic appearance; that is, his head was firmly +plunged down, and imbedded between his shoulders, without being plagued +with the intervening isthmus of neck, which is so expensive to modern +fashionable ladies and gentlemen, being considered by one sex as a part +of the body expressly created to hang neck-laces, gold chains, and lace +pelerines upon; and by the other, as intended merely as a place of +lodgment for the stock and shirt-collar. This priest's nose and cheeks +bore a large and bountiful crop of, what are sometimes called, "the +fruits of good living;" indeed, his parochial duties were not of a kind +calculated to mortify the flesh; and as his church was well endowed, and +he received many presents from the wealthy members of his flock, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +not a matter of wonder, that he enjoyed such creature-comforts as lay in +his way; and the Catholic clergy are generally possessed of a sufficient +degree of modest asurance in taking possession of them. In disposition +he was mild, and good-natured, (fat people generally are;) was much +attached to the governor's family, and possessed great influence over +him. He was, over and above all, a man of considerable learning and +intelligence: spoke English quite passably; and, as a proof of good +taste, we add, that he was the only masculine biped, who visited Don +Gaspar's house, who really understood, and rightly appreciated, +Isabella's beauty of person, and intellectual character. As it was well +known that the governor placed great confidence in him, all who had a +suit to the civil or rather military potentate, in the first place made +interest with the ecclesiastical one; and this was soon perceived and +imitated by the commanders of foreign vessels, from whom he received +many presents. This was the clergyman whom the governor now summoned to +a council.</p> + +<p>"Father," said he, when the priest made his appearance and bestowed his +benediction, "you are doubtless aware of the arrival of an American ship +in this harbor, and that I and my family have been invited on board +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Father Josef bowed in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure that I am doing right," resumed the Don, "in accepting +such invitations, as it throws me into the society of heretics so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +often; and you know we cannot touch pitch without defilement."</p> + +<p>"We cannot indeed handle pitch without being defiled, but in the line of +duty."</p> + +<p>"But duty does not call me there."</p> + +<p>"Nay, but hear me, my son; duty requires that you should see that his +majesty's laws against unlawful trading are not violated."</p> + +<p>"That is very true."</p> + +<p>"And there can be no better opportunity of ascertaining the real +character of these foreigners than by a personal visit."</p> + +<p>"A most just observation, father."</p> + +<p>"Therefore, make yourself easy on the score of its sinfulness, for there +is none in it."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how there can be," said his excellency, who was thinking of +the future punch and dinner.</p> + +<p>"If I can assist you farther—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, true! you will accompany us to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Most cheerfully."</p> + +<p>"And now, father, I wish to consult you upon another subject. You know +that it is my wish to marry my niece to Don Gregorio Nunez."</p> + +<p>"You have said something of this before."</p> + +<p>"And she is most obstinately opposed to such a union."</p> + +<p>"I can easily conceive it," said the priest drily.</p> + +<p>"He is rich and well connected."</p> + +<p>"Riches and rank do not charm all women."</p> + +<p>"It is my wish to see her well married."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The woman that marries Don Gregorio is not necessarily well married; +besides, I believe you know his character."</p> + +<p>"I think I do."</p> + +<p>"That he is a fool."</p> + +<p>"He is certainly rather weak in intellect."</p> + +<p>"And a coward."</p> + +<p>"I cannot deny it."</p> + +<p>"And a coxcomb."</p> + +<p>"He is certainly very vain of his high birth and of his rank in the +army: young men are apt to be in such cases."</p> + +<p>"You would not consent to his marrying one of your daughters?"</p> + +<p>"No; I have other views for them."</p> + +<p>"And yet you profess to love your niece as affectionately as your +daughters."</p> + +<p>"You know I do, father."</p> + +<p>"And loving her as you profess, you are striving to render that niece +miserable for life by uniting her with one whom you admit to be a fool, +a coward, and a vain fop."</p> + +<p>The old Don, whose intellectuals were none of the brightest, had got +himself, without perceiving it, completely into a <i>premunire</i>, by the +Socratic mode of reasoning adopted by his more skilful antagonist, who +at parting once more addressed him:—</p> + +<p>"Take my advice, Signor de Luna, and leave your niece to herself on this +subject: a young female heart cannot be made, like one of your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +soldiers, to march and countermarch at the word of command; it is, +besides, of very frail materials, and, when once injured or broken, can +never be repaired. The happiness of one so dear to you as your niece, +may be destroyed forever, by forcing her into a match she detests; but +it will then be too late to repair your fault, and it will always be to +you a subject of the bitterest regret and unavailing remorse."</p> + +<p>With these words he departed. But the governor, although convinced by +the priest's arguments, and set into profound meditation by his last +words, was one of those people, of whom we see so many at every step we +take through life, who ask advice when they need it, are convinced of +its soundness when given, and yet, though their natural good sense +assents to dispassionate reasoning, return to their old, foolish, +absurd, and ruinous opinions and intentions.</p> + +<p>Don Gaspar, therefore, although convinced that he was a fool, and an +unfeeling relation in attempting to force his niece into a marriage with +such a worthless puppy as he readily admitted the proposed lover was in +every respect, continued to adhere to his original intention, which he +thought best, however, to defer for a time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is as weighty reason<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For secresy in love, as treason.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love is a burglarer, a felon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That at the window-eye doth steal in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rob the heart, and with his prey<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Steals out again a closer way.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 15em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The morning of the day appointed for the visit to the ship Orion rose as +pure, and clear, and beautiful, as though no party of pleasure was +intended, but not more pure, and clear, and beautiful, than the weather +always is during the dry season of tropical climates, which, with the +cool and refreshing sea-breeze, is one of the delights of those climates +that I forgot to particularise in its proper place. With us of the +temperate section of this round world the case is altogether +different—the day appointed a week beforehand for a party of pleasure +being almost invariably rainy, blowy, haily, snowy, drizzly, foggy, +cold, uncomfortable, villainous weather; or else so hot that the mere +act of breathing is too much for feeble human nature—and this, too, +whether the party is made for sailing, riding, rambling about in the +woods, or even for dancing, or tea-drinking, or whist-playing in a warm, +comfortable room. This is, perhaps, one reason why geographers call our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +part of the globe the temperate zone; because all our proposed and +anticipated pleasures, that depend in the slightest possible degree upon +the weather, are sure to be tempered and qualified by some unexpected +botheration on the part of the weather.</p> + +<p>The party from the shore accordingly arrived alongside the Orion about +eleven o'clock in the forenoon, without accident by sea or land. The +governor was in high spirits and full regimentals; Madame Governor was +as stately, dignified, and bejewelled, as became a lady of her station +and rank; the two daughters sparkled with gems and fluttered with silks, +thinking of the impression they were to make upon the officers of the +strange ship; the priest, in sacerdotal dignity, and with his weight +giving the boat three streaks heel to starboard, sat hoping some +contingency might take place that would elicit a present from the Yankee +commander; the young officers, but three in number, including, of +course, the military aspirant to the fair Isabella's hand and fortune, +thought of but little or nothing except their pretty persons and dashing +regimentals.</p> + +<p>Isabella, who expected no pleasure from this party of pleasure, but the +reverse, as it would compel her to be for some hours in the company of a +man she had so much reason to detest, sat in the stern sheets, with the +fat clergyman directly in front, and forming an impenetrable rampart +against the impertinent gallantries of the coxcomb Gregorio. She wore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +no jewels or ornaments, and from her pensive and serious expression of +countenance, might have passed for an Athenian tribute-maiden whom the +annual ship was about to carry to the den of the Minotaur.</p> + +<p>An arm-chair of capacious and old-fashioned dimensions, its ponderous +wood-work carefully hidden by the American ensign, the <i>fly</i> of which +was to serve as an envelope for the feet and ancles of the ladies, was +strongly slung and lowered into the stern sheets of the governor's state +barge, a <i>craft</i> containing nearly as much timber as a fishing schooner, +and about as burdensome. Mr. Morton, the first officer of the ship, and +a remarkably handsome man, now came over the side into the barge, to +arrange the ladies for their aeronautic excursion, safer than Durant's, +for their car was slung with strong hemp not dependent upon a bag of +inflammable gas. As a matter of course, he tendered his services to the +old lady first, who, though she had been <i>whipped</i> in and out of as many +ships as any English dragoon-horse during the war of the Peninsula, +thought proper to curvet and prance, and show as much skittishness as a +mule embarking at Hartford, or Weathersfield, or Middletown, for a tour +of duty at Surinam or Demerara. She was, however, hoisted in without +accident, and received on deck by Captain Hazard and Mr. Coffin, the +second officer, with much politeness. The two young ladies were the next +in order, and accomplished their flight successfully. Isabella lastly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +took her seat in the chair without trepidation or affectation of alarm. +Morton's eyes had already done hommage to her superior beauty; but he +was too busy with the other ladies to notice her any farther than as the +most lovely of the female visitors. He now remarked the pensive +expression of her lovely countenance, and it excited in his heart an +undefinable and uncontrollable interest. We have already said that +Isabella inherited her mother's beauty, which had not one of the usual +characteristics of a Spanish female countenance; and it was this +peculiarity that struck the young seaman forcibly, and probably +increased the interest he felt towards her, and the curiosity to know +something more of her history, as he had only understood vaguely that +she was Don Gaspar's niece.</p> + +<p>There is a peculiar phrase, or rather word, that I have left +unexplained, and concerning which I will now proceed to enlighten the +terrestrial and unenlightened reader. I spoke of whipping the ladies +into the ship. The whip, then, consists of a tail-block on the main +yard-arm, with a sufficient rope rove through it, and a similar purchase +on the collar of the main-stay. One end of each of these ropes is made +fast to a stout arm-chair, covered generally with the ship's ensign, +with the loose part of which the lady wraps her feet. The other ends are +in the hands of careful, steady seamen. The lady, being arranged and +fixed in the chair, with a "breast-rope" from arm to arm, (of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +chair, not of the lady,) is hoisted up by the yard-whip till she has +approached the zenith sufficiently to go clear of the waist +hammock-nettings, when the stay-whip is hauled upon, carrying her in a +horizontal direction over the gangway, when both whips being lowered, +she is disentangled of her "wrappers and twine," and received in the +arms of a lover, a husband, or a brother, as the case may be. Ladies and +gentlemen, whose curiosity on the subject of whips is still unsatisfied, +will find their theory demonstrated and illustrated by a diagram in +"Enfield's Natural Philosophy."</p> + +<p>I have known the somewhat startling nautical command, "Get the whip +ready for the ladies," blanch many a fair cheek with sudden and most +causeless alarm. It cannot be denied that we "gentlemen of the ocean" +have singular names for things; but every thing at sea must have a name, +or there would be no getting along.</p> + +<p>I have only farther to remark on this subject, that horses are +infinitely more tractable in taking on board a ship, than ladies; for +the moment the horse perceives his feet are clear of the ground, he +becomes perfectly quiet and passive; whereas, the lady is always quiet +while a handsome young officer is arranging the flags, &c. about her +feet; but as soon as she is fairly in the air, she begins to scream, and +kick, and bounce about, to the imminent risk of her bones; and just at +the time when common sense and instinct teach the quadruped to keep +perfectly still, women, who have but little common sense in such cases,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +and no instinct at all, are the most intractable and restless.</p> + +<p>Morton followed the last lady, namely, Isabella, and, as he stepped over +the gangway, was accosted by his brother officer.</p> + +<p>"What a thundering pretty girl that last one is!"</p> + +<p>"She is the governor's niece," said Morton.</p> + +<p>"You may tell that to the marines," said Coffin; "I'll be shot if +there's as much Spanish blood in her veins as would grease the point of +a sail-needle."</p> + +<p>"They say so ashore," said Morton.</p> + +<p>"I don't care what they say; I'll believe my eyes before the best +Spaniard among them."</p> + +<p>"Who knows," said Morton, "but that infernal soldier, that's buzzing +about her, may one day be the husband of that sweet girl?"</p> + +<p>"There's no knowing," said Coffin, yawning; "but you and I, Charlie, +can't marry all the pretty girls that are like to have fools for +husbands."</p> + +<p>As this conversation went on, the mates had walked aft, and were close +behind Isabella, who stood by the companion-way, while the governor, and +his lady, who was not far behind him in corporeal dimensions, were +accomplishing their descent into the lower regions.</p> + +<p>"That rascally soldier," said Morton, "wants nothing but a tail to make +him a full-rigged monkey, and that lovely girl is about to be sacrificed +to him."</p> + +<p>"Poor girl!" said Coffin; "it's bad enough to marry a sojer, any how;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +but to marry such a critter as that is going it a little too fine."</p> + +<p>Poor Isabella, who had heard and properly understood every syllable of +their conversation, was exceedingly affected. She had heard a person, +whose appearance and manners approached her <i>beau ideal</i> of a gentleman, +expressing, in warm and energetic language, the liveliest compassion for +her, and guessing (for she could not imagine how he could know with +certainty) her exact situation, and manifesting an apparently sincere +and hearty interest towards her. Although her uncle had forborne to +trouble her upon that hateful subject, after he had first proposed it, +she knew his disposition too well to regard the reprieve as an +abandonment of his original design.</p> + +<p>As she turned away to conceal her emotion from her cousins, her +streaming eyes encountered those of Morton. The young seaman was shocked +and alarmed at her tears, though he had not the most distant suspicion +that she had understood a word that had been said. Her beauty had first +attracted his notice—it was so un-Spanish, and so nearly resembling +that of New England ladies; the pensive expression of her countenance +had excited a lively interest and curiosity towards her; but her tears, +the evidence of that "secret grief" that the heart, and only the heart, +knoweth, had called up all the sympathies of his heart.</p> + +<p>I believe there are few men, who deserve the name, that are proof +against a woman's tears, and there are few such men, who, when they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +perceive a woman, especially a young and beautiful one, oppressed with +grief, anxiety, or distress, do not feel an irresistible impulse to +assist and relieve her.</p> + +<p>It may be objected that I have made my hero fall in love at first sight. +To this I answer that I cannot spare time to lead him step by step +through all the crooks and turns of the bewitching passion; secondly, +love is <i>not</i> like the consumption; people do not go gradually into it +by a beaten road, every foot of which is marked and designated by its +appropriate and peculiar symptoms. "Nemo est repente vitiosus," says +Juvenal—nobody becomes completely depraved all at once; very true, but +folks certainly do, to my certain knowledge, fall in love all at once, +and that is doubtless the reason why they are said to <i>fall</i> in love. +Love is like the Asiatic cholera; a man is suddenly laid flat on his +back, with all the marked and violent symptoms, when he thought all the +while he was in perfect health. "Love," says Corporal Trim, "is exactly +like war in this, that a soldier, though he has escaped three weeks +complete o' Saturday night, may nevertheless be shot through the heart +on Sunday morning." In the third place, a man, who for two or three +years has seen nothing in the female form more attractive than the +copper-colored beauties of Asia, the South Sea Islands, and the whole +western coast of America, or the ebony <i>fair</i> ones of Africa, is most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +astonishingly susceptible when once more restored to the society of +ladies of his own complexion, and of more refinement than those we have +mentioned. I have had the ineffable pleasure of testing the truth of +this theory more than a dozen times in my own person. If any gentleman +doubts the fact, I can only advise him to banish himself from female +society, in a man-of-war or whaleman, for three or four years. If he +does not fall in love fifty times a month, when he returns, he is either +more or less than human, and, in either case, I should wish to remain a +stranger to him.</p> + +<p>The whole party were now "under hatches," and examining the wonders of a +whaleman's cabin. Morton had attached himself to Isabella, and, as he +spoke the Spanish language fluently, and, what was more to the purpose, +was impelled by an irresistible feeling to entertain and amuse her, soon +drew her into conversation, and was astonished and delighted with her +good sense. He had visited different parts of South America before, and +had seen enough of the women to perceive that they were excessively +ignorant, superstitious, and vulgar. He was therefore not a little +surprised to perceive in Isabella's conversation marks of a cultivated +and polished understanding.</p> + +<p>The rest of the party had gone into the steerage to examine some of +those curious specimens of whalebone work, in the fabrication of which +whalemen employ so much patience and time, during their long and often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +unsuccessful voyages. As Isabella and Morton stood together by the cabin +table, the lady opened a bible that was lying there, and seemed for a +moment or two engaged in reading it.</p> + +<p>"Do you understand that?" said the seaman, still speaking Spanish.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, in English, "my mother was a Scotchwoman, and a +Protestant."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! then I am afraid—I am sure—that—in short, I believe +that something was said before you came below, that must have been +unpleasant—that, indeed, could not but hurt your feelings."</p> + +<p>Isabella was extremely agitated, and turned away her head.</p> + +<p>"What would I not give," continued he, in a low voice, "what would I not +sacrifice, to be able—to be permitted, to assist you in any way."</p> + +<p>He stopped, scarcely knowing what he said, or hardly knowing whether he +had spoken at all. The poor girl raised her swimming eyes in +supplication.</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake! drop this subject; if my uncle knew that you had +spoken thus to me, he would carry me back immediately."</p> + +<p>"But tell me, dearest lady, tell me, is there no way in which I can be +of service to you?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, leave me; if you have any regard for me, leave me. I thank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +you for the interest you have shown for me; but it will avail nothing."</p> + +<p>The tone of extreme dejection, and melancholy, in which she pronounced +these last words, almost drove Morton beside himself. He was completely +bewildered with conflicting emotions—a young and beautiful woman, +lovely in person and in mind, and, what made her irresistible to an +unsophisticated, warm, generous, and feeling heart, in +affliction—affliction that seemed more remediless, because not +understood by one, nor communicated by the other.</p> + +<p>From this situation of mutual embarrassment, they were relieved by the +entrance of one of the young ladies, who came to call her cousin into +the steerage, to see the wonders already alluded to. Luckily, Carlota, +although a good-natured girl, and fond of her cousin Isabella, was not +remarkably keen-sighted, or she must have noticed the agitation and +embarrassment of both parties.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Mr. Coffin, who had a large share of a particular kind +of shrewdness, had noticed that his friend seemed inclined to enjoy the +society of Isabella uninterrupted; and, to assist that manœuvre as +much as possible, engaged the young officers with some tremendous tough +fish stories, in which he was ably supported by one of the +boat-steerers, a Portuguese, who spoke Spanish, as a matter of course, +and helped out his officer, when his imperfect knowledge of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +language brought him to a stand still. So he managed to hold them, as +jackasses are held,—by the ears,—till he saw his companion and the +young lady come into the steerage, when he broke off somewhat abruptly, +in the middle of a very tough yarn, leaving the gentlemen of the sword +to guess at the catastrophe.</p> + +<p>As the party stood around a chest, upon which these whalebone toys, and +other curiosities, were displayed, Antonia dropt a bouquet from her +bosom. As Morton picked it up, and returned it to its fair owner, he +made some remark upon the beauty, and fragrance, of the flowers.</p> + +<p>"Are you fond of flowers?" said the young lady.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very."</p> + +<p>"That I can answer for," said Coffin; "he is always, when on shore for +wood, water, or pleasure, in search of rare flowers, and shells. It is +well there are no such things at sea, or we should never have taken a +single whale—and then he paints those he finds so beautifully."</p> + +<p>"What! <i>he</i> paint flowers! a <i>man</i> paint flowers! Santa Maria! who ever +heard of such a thing!" echoed the two young ladies.</p> + +<p>"And why not, my children," said the fat priest, laughing; "do you +ladies think you have an exclusive title, and right, to all the elegant +accomplishments?"</p> + +<p>"I do not doubt," said Coffin, "that Signor Morton would be proud to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +show the ladies his drawings. Come, Charlie," he continued, in English, +"you shall not keep your candle under a bushel any longer—you see +you're in for it, and you may as well submit with a good grace."</p> + +<p>So saying, he led the way to the cabin, where the drawings were paraded +upon the table. They were certainly very beautiful; for to a fondness +for the "serene and silent art," Morton added a natural taste for it, +which he had ample leisure to cultivate, during his long voyages. After +admiring them for some time, Madame de Luna gave the artist a cordial +invitation to visit their house, and garden, a mile or two beyond the +town; in the latter, she assured him, he would find some rare and +beautiful subjects for his pencil. Morton was exceedingly gratified by +this kindness, and said, in a low voice, and in English, to Isabella, +but without looking at, or apparently addressing, her, as she stood next +him, "Then I shall have the happiness of seeing you once more."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love's power's too great to be withstood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By feeble human flesh and blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas he that brought upon his knees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hect'ring kil-cow Hercules;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Transform'd his leaguer-lion's skin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">T' a petticoat, and made him spin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seiz'd on his club, and made it dwindle<br /></span> +<span class="i0">T' a feeble distaff and a spindle.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The dinner on board the Orion, which was not served up till one o'clock, +by the way, as Captain Hazard wished to be more than usually genteel, +was excellent, and was preceded, and followed, by copious libations of +punch; after which the wine was set on table, and the veterans, that is, +the military, the nautical, and ecclesiastical, part of the company, +proceeded to discuss it, "in manner and form." The governor, as was his +custom on such occasions, told interminable stories of the siege of +Gibraltar, during which, his hopeful nephew elect enjoyed a very +comfortable nap, and even Father Josef nodded occasionally.</p> + +<p>The ladies had made their escape, as soon us dinner was finished; and +Morton, on the watch, like a cat to steal cream, was on the alert, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +soon as he perceived their intentions, and accompanied them on deck. To +his great satisfaction, none of the Spanish officers made any attempt to +leave the table; for, as the old Don had just got fairly under weigh +with one of his campaigning stories, they were afraid to treat him with +so much disrespect, and, of course, hazard their hopes of being invited +to attend him again upon a similar party. Accordingly, Morton had the +pleasure of enjoying the society of the ladies, without interruption, +and found many opportunities of saying a few words to Isabella. In this, +he was again much beholden to the skilful manœuvring of his messmate, +Coffin, who was already higher in the good graces of the mother and +daughters than Morton, who, though a handsome man, had not so much of +that dashing, off-hand, sort of gallantry as the other; and which goes +an incredible way with most ladies.</p> + +<p>Morton had seen more of the polite world, and was better educated, and +more refined in his manners, than Coffin; but, besides being, at that +time, wholly engrossed and engaged by a particular object, he had that +peculiar kind of modesty, or diffidence, that does a man so much injury +with the other sex; who, though they pretend to prize modesty so highly +among themselves, abominate it as unnatural, absurd, and affected, in +men; while the pert and obsequious fluttering of a fashionable +water-fly, which is always received with a smile, is generally more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +prized, and rewarded more bountifully still. There is, however, some +consolation in the thought, that repentance always overtakes, and +punishes, the silly woman who has allowed herself to be so fatally +"pleased with a rattle;" she perceives, after marriage, that she has +given herself irrevocably to a thing "of shreds and patches."</p> + +<p>There is a certain sort of little attentions, that ladies generally +expect from our sex, and a skill and adroitness in showing which makes +no inconsiderable part of a modern gentleman's education. I have known +many young men, who could not write two consecutive sentences, without +coming to an open rupture with orthography, grammar, or common sense, or +all three, if it was to save their well-<i>stocked</i> necks from the halter, +or their souls, (what of that commodity they have,) from Satan's grip, +but who stood very high, and, doubtless, deservedly so, in the +estimation of the fair sex, simply from their skill and precision in +going through a certain routine of little trifling acts of politeness.</p> + +<p>As far as ladies are concerned, politeness appears to consist chiefly in +a man's putting himself to more or less inconvenience, or exposing +himself to danger, on their account. With regard to the last, I do not +know but I could acquit myself to advantage, partly from the peculiar +recklessness that is acquired at sea; and partly because facing danger, +in the protection of the weaker sex, is both the duty of the stronger,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +and the stronger generally can do it with less embarrassment, than +perform those innumerable, nameless, attentions, already alluded to. I +cannot say, however, that when walking out with ladies, I have felt +peculiarly desirous of the apparition of a mad bull, a ghost, or the +devil, to give me an opportunity to show my courage; but I think it is +certainly easier to most men to expose themselves to danger, in the +service of a lady, than to perform acceptably, and without awkwardness, +those little acts of politeness, that, in the present state of society, +ladies are somewhat rigorous in exacting. I have passed the very cream +and flower of my life at sea, that is, from nineteen to thirty-two, and +now, "in these latter days," begin to feel myself very much like a fish +out of water. How often have I "sailed into the northward" of a fair +lady's displeasure, for neglecting to assist her into, or out of, a +carriage! never dreaming, "poor ignorant sinner" that I am! that the +ascent up the steps of a coach was attended with any more perils, than +that of the stairs that lead to her bed-room; or that a girl, perhaps +twenty years my junior, glowing in the full bloom of youth, health, and +sprightliness, and with a step as light and elastic as Virgil's Camilla, +required the assistance of such an old weather-beaten beau as myself. +How often have I been pouted at by the ripest, rosiest, lips in the +world, for omitting to wait upon their owner home, on a dark, stormy, +evening, and half a mile out of my way, simply because I preferred the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +company I was with, to the half-mile <i>heat</i>! I do not know that I have +ever felt very desirous of living my life over again; but I confess I +should like to go back, say, to the age of three or four and twenty, +merely to take a few lessons in the graces, and then "jump the life to +come," as far as where I am now, namely, <i>thirty or forty</i>.</p> + +<p>By Mr. Coffin's management, Morton and Isabella were much of the time +together, and both instinctively avoided any allusion to painful +subjects. He described to her the various implements used in the +whale-fishery, gave her a short account of the voyage, and of the +different parts of America, and of the islands in the Pacific, that he +had visited; and, in short, exerted himself to please and entertain her, +and was successful.</p> + +<p>When in the society of those we love, and from whom we are soon to +separate, perhaps forever, how much we can manage to say in a little +time! how earnestly do we strive to render delightful those moments, +perhaps the last that we are ever to pass with those friends! Dr. +Johnson says, the approach of death wonderfully concentrates one's +ideas; so does the approach of the hour of parting.</p> + +<p>Isabella heard herself, for the first time, for many years, addressed in +the language of respectful politeness, and unassuming common sense; the +pictures of refined, polished, and enlightened, society, drawn in the +few excellent English authors her mother had left her, seemed realized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +and presented to her eyes, in all the richness of life. She did not +stop to analyse, or try to explain to herself the peculiarly delightful +feelings that occupied her mind; though if she had been left alone for +five minutes, her own good sense would have told her it was love: that +pure, unalloyed, unreflecting, ardent, <i>first</i> love, that, like the +whooping-cough and the measles, we never have but once; though some +patients have it earlier in life, and more severely, than others.</p> + +<p>Ladies will never admit, and never have admitted, from the time the +stone-masons and hod-carriers struck work upon the tower of Babel, (for +want of a circulating medium of speech, that would be taken at par by +all hands, down to the present Anno Domini, 1834, and twenty-second of +October,) that any of their sisterhood ever fell in love "at sight," as +brokers call it, or that her eyes influenced her heart. With regard to +the female, who, in early life, takes up the "trade and mystery" of a +fashionable belle, <i>ex officio</i> a coquet and a flirt, this is in some +measure true; for I have observed, that very beautiful women of that +description, who have had at their feet wealth, and talent, and +eloquence, and virtue, generally "close their concerns" by marrying +sots, fools, gamblers, rakes, or brutes; they seem to choose their +husbands as old maiden ladies do their lap-dogs; which are invariably +the most cross, ugly, ill-tempered, filthy, noisy, little scoundrels, +that the entire canine family can muster. But their practice is at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +variance with their profession. It is physically and morally impossible +that women, whose chief strength consists in external appearance and +show, should hold in light esteem external appearance and show in our +sex; and, if they are not guided by their eyes in the choice of their +lovers, I should like to know what the d—l they are guided by; for in a +company of feather-pated girls, the chief object of ridicule is the +personal defects of their male acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Time, that stands still with married men, and sometimes with old +bachelors, flies with lovers; and the sun's "lower limb" was dipping in +the haze, that skirted the western horizon, when the steward came on +deck, and informed the ladies and gentlemen that coffee was ready, and, +accordingly, they descended into the cabin. After this refreshment, +preparations were made for going ashore. Morton and Coffin ran on deck, +to get the whips ready; and the former, calling his own boat's crew aft, +had his boat lowered down from the quarter-davits, and brought to the +gangway, while the governor's bargemen were lighting fresh segars. With +a few words of explanation to the second officer, Morton sprang into his +boat, and, in a few minutes, Isabella and her two cousins were safely +stowed in the stern-sheets. The bowman obeyed the command, "shove off;" +the swift boat, impelled by five strong-limbed seamen, flew like a +swallow across the bay, and reached the landing-place at least ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +minutes before the cumbrous barge of his excellency bounced her broad +nose against the side of the quay, and recoiled, like a battering-ram.</p> + +<p>Morton improved the time he was on the shore with the ladies, by paying +more attention to the governor's daughters than he had done heretofore, +and easily succeeded in entertaining them. They repeated their mother's +invitation to the young seaman to visit their house, declaring they had +never seen any foreign gentleman that spoke such pure Spanish; that the +Americans were much more polite, and respectful, and hospitable, and +obliging, than the English; and concluded, by wondering why, if the +United States were so near Mexico, it should take six months to go from +St. Blas there. To all which Morton made the appropriate replies; and, +when the rest of the party were assembled, assisted the ladies to their +horses, renewing to Isabella, as he adjusted her in the saddle, his +promise to call at her uncle's house the next day. As this promise did +not cause the young lady to "jump out her skin" or saddle, it is highly +probable that she did not perceive any great harm in it; nor did it +occur to her then, or when consulting her pillow at night, that she +violated female propriety, by answering, simply, and somewhat +emphatically, "I hope you will."</p> + +<p>On their ride homeward, the party were loud in their praises of the +entertainment of the day, their eulogies being directed to different +parts of the entertainment according to the different tastes of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +individuals performing the concert; for instance, the young ladies made +honorable mention of the politeness and attention of the "dos pelotos +hermosos," the two handsome mates; the old lady chanted the praises of +the china ware, and table linen, and the knives and forks—all of them +luxuries at that time in South America; the governor eulogized the +punch, and Father Josef the dinner; the young officers were in raptures +with the wine, in which they were joined by the civil and ecclesiastical +dignitaries in grand chorus. Perhaps there never was a party of visitors +that left their entertainer's house, whether riding at anchor in port, +or standing on hammered granite "underpinning" on shore, better pleased +with what they had had, or in better humor or spirits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That almost freezes up the heat of life.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Romeo and Juliet.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Isabella arose at her usual hour the next morning, and after breakfast +walked into the garden, from a sort of unacknowledged hope and wish that +she might soon be joined by the young American, who had occupied her +thoughts, both sleeping and waking, since she had parted with him on the +beach the evening previous. At the sound of every horse's feet she +started, and her heart beat quicker. But he came not that day, and as +evening approached, her disappointment became almost insupportable; she +tried to frame excuses for him; he had never been to the house; perhaps +he had, by a very natural mistake, gone to her uncle's house in town, +instead of that where she now was, and which was rather more than a mile +from St. Blas, and whither the family came regularly to lodge, though +they spent most of the time at their town residence; perhaps he was +detained on board by his duties; or he might be sick.</p> + +<p>"And why," said the weeping girl to herself, "why should I wish to see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +him again? Alas! I have already seen him too often, for my future peace +of mind. He is going home to his parents, his relatives, his friends, +his home, and perhaps to his wife;" and this last thought crossed her +mind with a feeling of peculiar anguish; "but no, when he spoke of his +friends and parents, he said nothing of his wife; but he is going, and +in a few short months he will forget that he has ever seen me, or that +such an unhappy being has ever existed."</p> + +<p>With these painful and self-tormenting reflections she passed the +evening, and much of the night; but youthful hope, that cheers the heart +with flattering and deceitful promises, never sufficiently well defined +to resemble certainty, but always brilliant; hope, whose elasticity +raises the sinking heart, soothed and composed her spirits, and she sank +into sound and refreshing slumbers, to wake to a brighter and more +flattering day; but at the same time, to sink deeper and more +irrevocably into that bewitching, bewildering passion, whose existence +she could not now avoid acknowledging.</p> + +<p>As she was sitting in the garden the next day, she was suddenly startled +by the approach of her two cousins in full chat, and close behind them, +Morton. Isabella seemed rooted to her seat, the light swam before her +eyes, her tongue was paralyzed, and her limbs were unable to raise or +support her. The young seaman approached, and in broken, incoherent, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +unintelligible accents,attempted to express the delight he felt at +once more seeing her. Perhaps, if the two cousins had been out of the +way; he would have acquitted himself better, perhaps not so well. "Iron +sharpeneth iron," saith Solomon; "so doth a man the countenance of his +friend." It may be so in some cases, but I doubt whether any man can +make love so glibly, so off hand, before half a dozen spectators, +especially females, as he can "all alone by himself;" on the other hand, +there is something absolutely awful in being alone with a pretty and +modest woman, and being compelled to "look one another in the face," +like the two bullying kings of Judah and Jerusalem. It is much like +"watching with a corpse," a ceremony derived, I believe, from the +orientals, and still prevalent in good old New England.</p> + +<p>The parties were soon relieved from their embarrassment; the two +cousins, after asking a thousand questions, and only waiting to hear two +hundred and fifty of the answers, bounced off into the house, leaving +the two lovers, for such they were now most decidedly, to the luxury of +their own thoughts and conversation. We have no time, inclination, nor +ability, to describe the steps by which they advanced from mere +acquaintance to the can't-live-without-each-other and hopeless state of +deep and incurable love.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Morton was not grieved or angry when it was declared, after a +thorough survey by Captain Hazard, Coffin, and himself, to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +absolutely necessary to procure a new foremast and bowsprit for the +ship before she sailed—the first being rotten, and the other badly +sprung. As Captain Hazard placed the most implicit confidence in +Morton's capacity to purchase and superintend the making of the +requisite spars, the latter, to his great joy, was requested to take +charge of the shore department. By this arrangement his opportunities of +seeing his beloved Isabella occurred several times each day.</p> + +<p>Though there had been no formal declaration of love between them, they +were each conscious that they loved and were beloved in return; the most +unreserved confidence existed between them, and Morton, who felt most +keenly for Isabella's unpleasant situation, had repeatedly hinted at the +happiness she was sure to enjoy in a more favored country, if she would +leave her uncle's house, and take passage in the Orion for New England. +She affected, at first, not to understand him; but when it became +impossible to avoid perceiving his meaning, she only answered, "No, +no—I cannot—I dare not;" but the answer was always accompanied with a +sigh and a tear; and as from day to day he informed her of the progress +the ship made in her repairs, her negative became fainter and less +resolutely expressed.</p> + +<p>Owing to the necessity of making some repairs in his country residence, +the governor and his family had latterly resided altogether in St. Blas; +and as the puppy Don Gregorio watched with a suspicious and malignant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +eye, the frequent visits of Morton, the lovers had generally met at the +house of Dame Juanita, the front of which was occupied as a shop, with a +little parlor back of it, to which Isabella had access by passing out of +the gate in the rear of her uncle's house, without going through the +street.</p> + +<p>With all the glowing eloquence of young love, and hope, and confidence, +Morton detailed to her the thousand and one schemes that his fertile +imagination suggested; Isabella could see but one hideous feature in +them all—the dreadful fate that awaited him if unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>"Listen to me," said he one day to her, as she had been urging to him +the terrible risk he encountered—for she seemed to have no eyes for the +certain immuring in a convent that awaited <i>her</i>—"listen to me, dearest +Isabella; the ship is now nearly ready; she will sail in three or four +days at farthest, and will sail at ten or eleven o'clock at night, to +take advantage of the land-breeze. I will have my boat at the quay, and +horses here in town; in the dusk of evening, and with a little disguise, +you will not be recognised; there is no guarda-costa here now, and +before the sun rises we shall be out of sight of land, and beyond the +reach of pursuit."</p> + +<p>She made no reply, but sat pale as marble; the images of her kind and +affectionate aunt and cousins, and even of her much-feared but still +much-loved uncle, floated before her eyes, and seemed reproaching her +with unkindness and ingratitude; while, on the other hand, her fancy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +painted her the wife of the man she loved, and without whom she felt +life would be wretched: she saw herself surrounded by enlightened and +polished society, such as her sainted mother had graced before her; she +saw herself moving in a new sphere, and fulfilling new duties: then +imagination placed before her bewildered mind the sinfulness of +deserting the station in which Heaven had placed her. She sighed deeply +as she almost determined to refuse, when a glimpse of her abhorred +lover, Don Gregorio, caused a sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, +and to Morton's repeated entreaties, "speak to me, dear Isabella; say +yes, love," she at length murmured a scarcely audible or articulate +consent. The delighted seaman caught her in his arms, and pressed kiss +after kiss upon the lips of the struggling, blushing girl.</p> + +<p>"Remember, love," said he, as they parted, "be punctual here three +nights hence. I will have horses ready at the end of the street, and +before day dawns you shall be safe."</p> + +<p>There was still one thing to be done, and that was to obtain the consent +of Captain Hazard, who, though an excellent, kind-hearted man in the +main, had some rather old-fashioned notions of propriety, especially in +outward form, and would, as Morton knew full well, have very serious +objections to advance against such a mad scrape; but he trusted to the +fondness of the good old seaman towards him, and his own upright and +honorable intentions, to overthrow all the veteran's scruples.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>On the morning of the day that the above arrangement was made by the +parties concerned, Captain Hazard observed that Morton had despatched +his breakfast very hastily, and was on deck, waiting for his boat's crew +to finish their meal, long before the Captain and Mr. Coffin had shown +any symptoms of pausing in their discussion of salt beef, coffee, and +pilot bread.</p> + +<p>"What can be the matter with Mr. Morton lately?" said the old seaman to +his second officer; "he was never so fond of going ashore anywhere else, +and now here he's off and into his boat, like a struck black-fish."</p> + +<p>"Why, I some expect," said Coffin, "there's a petticoat in the wind."</p> + +<p>"The devil! who?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I rather guess it's that pretty blue-eyed, English-looking girl, +that came on board with old Don Blow-me-down, when he first came in +here."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I recollect her. I thought Morton seemed to take a shine to her."</p> + +<p>"They say she's Don Strombolo's niece."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<p>"They may tell that to the marines; she don't look no more like the rest +on 'em than the devil looks like a parson."</p> + +<p>"I don't know" said Coffin gravely, "how the devil looks; but they say +he can put on the appearance of an angel of light, and I don't see why +'taint jist as easy for him to put on a black coat, and come the parson +over us poor sinners."</p> + +<p>"Well, well; she's a sweet pretty girl, and looks kind o' as though she +wasn't over and above in good spirits."</p> + +<p>"Well, now; I some guess I know a little something about that."</p> + +<p>"Why how the d—— did <i>you</i> come to make yourself busy?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you see, there's an old woman keeps a <i>pulparia</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> close to the +old Don's rookery."</p> + +<p>"Hum! so, Mr. Sam Coffin, when you're cruising for information, you +overhaul the women's papers first and foremost."</p> + +<p>"Why you see, Captain Hazard, if you ask one of these men here a civil +question, all you can get out of the critter is that d—d 'quien sabe,' +and blast the any thing else."</p> + +<p>"Can sarvy! why that sounds like Chinaman's talk; what does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"It means 'who knows,' and that's the way they answer pretty much all +questions."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, what was't you was going to say about the girl?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the old woman told me the girl's mother was an Englishwoman."</p> + +<p>"I told you she wasn't clear Spanish—and being a girl, so, why she +takes altogether after the mother."</p> + +<p>"And the old woman said furdermore, that her mother wasn't a Catholic; +she was a what-d'ye-call-'em."</p> + +<p>"A Protestant, I s'pose you mean."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, a Protestant—that's it. Well, you see, her mother did not +die till this girl, her darter, was nigh upon sixteen years old, and +it's like the old lady eddicated her arter the same religion she was +brought up in herself."</p> + +<p>"Aye, now I begin to see into it all."</p> + +<p>"Well, so you see, as nigh as I can make out, for the old woman wouldn't +talk right out—only kept hinting along like."</p> + +<p>"Hum! a woman generally can <i>hint</i> a d—d sight more than when she +speaks right out."</p> + +<p>"Well, so it seems this Isabella, being half English and whole +Protestant, won't exactly steer by their compass in religious matters."</p> + +<p>"Poor girl! poor innocent little creature!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I got a talking 'long with the old woman, and, arter a good deal +of trouble, I got hold of pretty much the whole history about this 'ere +girl. So she told me, amongst other things, that the girl's uncle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +wanted her to marry one of them officers that was aboard that day."</p> + +<p>"Which of them?"</p> + +<p>"That thundering cockroach-legged thief, that was copper-fastened with +gold lace and brass buttons chock up to his ears, with a thundering +great broadsword triced up to his larboard quarter and slung with brass +chains."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I recollect him."</p> + +<p>"And so do I, blast his profile. He cut more capers than the third mate +of a Guineaman over a dead nigger, and went skylarking about decks like +a monkey in a china-shop."</p> + +<p>"I took notice that he looked marline-spikes at Mr. Morton for paying so +much attention to the girl."</p> + +<p>"Aye, that he did; but I worked him a traverse in middle latitude, +sailing on that tack. I got him and the rest on 'em into the steerage, +and Mr. Morton and the girl had a good half hour's discourse to +themselves in the cabin."</p> + +<p>"I should be sorry to have Mr. Morton try to engage the poor girl's +affections; and if I thought he had any improper intentions towards her, +I would go ashore immediately, and speak to the old governor about it."</p> + +<p>"Well now, Captain Hazard, I guess there isn't no danger on that tack. +Mr. Morton may go adrift now and then among the girls, and where's the +man that doesn't? No, no; Charlie Morton isn't none of them sort that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +would gain a poor girl's affections only to ruin her. No no; he's too +honorable and noble-spirited for such a rascally action as that."</p> + +<p>"Well, I am of your opinion. So now, Mr. Coffin, we'll set up our +fore-rigging for a full do; for we must sail Wednesday evening, right or +wrong."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p> + +<p>When Morton returned to the ship at night, he hastened to lay before +Captain Hazard the history of his love, and his plans for bringing it to +a successful crisis, declaring that his intentions were strictly +honorable, and that the lady might easily pass upon the crew as a +passenger. The old seaman heard him to an end, as he urged his request +with all the fervor of youthful eloquence and love; and, having +scratched his head for a while, as if to rouse himself, and be convinced +that he was awake, replied:</p> + +<p>"A queer sort of business this altogether, my son; I don't exactly know +what to make of it—what will your father say to your bringing home a +young cow-whale, in addition to your share of the oil?"</p> + +<p>"Make yourself easy on that score, my dear sir; I know my father wishes +to have me quit going to sea, and marry."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but is not a wife, brought into your family in this way, liable to +be looked upon as a sort of contraband article—run goods like?</p> + +<p>"I am not much afraid of that, on my father's part," said Morton; "and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +if," he continued, laughing, "if the grave old ladies of my +acquaintance find fault, I can quiet them in a moment, by quoting the +conduct of the tribe of Benjamin, in a similar situation, by way of +precedent."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Charlie! your scheme, I am afraid, is all top-hamper, and no +ballast; wont the enemy give chase? I am sure that Don—Don—what's his +name, that young officer, more than suspects your good standing in the +young lady's affections: wont he alarm the coast, and put the old folks +up to rowing guard round her, so that you can't communicate? Ay, that he +will."</p> + +<p>"Trust me for that, sir; if I cannot weather upon any Spaniard that ever +went unhanged, either Creole or old Castilian, I'll agree to go to the +mines for life."</p> + +<p>"Don't be too rash, my dear boy; though the Spaniards are only +courageous behind shot-proof walls, and when they number three to one, +they are deceitful as well as cruel; and, if their suspicions are once +excited, they will murder you at once, and her too, poor girl! and think +they are doing God service, because you are both Protestants."</p> + +<p>"I can only repeat, trust to my prudence and management; I have too much +at stake to hazard it lightly."</p> + +<p>"Then remember, Charles, we sail Wednesday evening: it will be +star-light, but not too dark to see your way. I will defer sailing till +eleven o'clock, if that will suit your schemes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It will exactly; or if you sail the moment I return, so much the +better."</p> + +<p>With these words, they separated—Morton, overjoyed at the completion of +his preliminary arrangements, all night, like Peter Pindar's dog,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"lay winking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And couldn't sleep for thinking."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The appointed day at length arrived; but the destinies, who had hitherto +spun the thread of the two lovers' fate as smooth and even as a +whale-line yarn, now began to fill it full of <i>kinks</i>. Well did the +ancients represent them as three haggard, blear-eyed, wrinkled, +spiteful, old maids, who would not allow any poor mortal to live or die +comfortably, and who took a malicious pleasure in disturbing "the course +of true love." The inexorable Atropos brandished her scissors, and at +one snip severed the thread asunder.</p> + +<p>Daring the night there had been a tremendous thunder-squall, and the +morning showed huge "double-headed" clouds, mustering in different parts +of the horizon, and, apparently, waiting some signal to bid them +commence operations; others, dark and suspicious looking, but of a less +dense consistence, were seen scampering across the firmament in all +directions, like aids-de-camp before a general engagement; the +land-breeze had been interrupted by the night-squall, and the wind, what +little there was, blew from every point of the compass but the usual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +one; the shags, that tenanted the top of Pedro Blanco, seemed unusually +busy, as if anticipating a change of weather; and, in short, every thing +announced that the delightful, salubrious, dry season had come to an +end, and the empire of continual rain, and drizzle, and cloud, and mud, +and putrid fevers, and rheumatism, and every thing disagreeable, had +commenced. Still the day was delightful after ten o'clock, and the +weather as clear as ever.</p> + +<p>Morton had seen these indications of the approach of wet weather with no +small anxiety; he knew full well that the governor and his family would +pass the rainy season at Tepic, a city about ninety miles from the +coast, or at some of the other large towns, in the more elevated and +healthy regions inland. With Captain Hazard's permission, he hastened to +the town, and to Juanita's house, but Isabella was not to be seen. After +waiting for some time, a little girl brought him a short note, simply +saying that she would see him in the evening, but could not before. With +this promise he was obliged to content himself, and rode slowly back to +the Porte. He was punctually on shore again at sunset, and once more +hastened to town, having hired another horse, and directed his boat's +crew not to go away from the quay. Having secured his horses at a +certain place near the zig-zag descent towards the harbor already +mentioned, he passed into the plaza, and was struck with consternation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +and despair, at seeing assembled before Don Gaspar's door, horses and +mules in abundance, caparisoned for a journey. In fact, there was +indisputable proof that the family were, in military parlance, on the +route.</p> + +<p>He hastened to the good dame Juanita's, and, in a few minutes, Isabella +entered the room, and, throwing off, in her distress, all unnecessary +reserve, threw herself weeping into his arms.</p> + +<p>"All is over, dear Charles, all is lost—I set out to-night for Tepic, +and we shall never meet again but in heaven."</p> + +<p>"All is <i>not</i> lost, my own Isabella; every thing is in readiness—fly +then with me—while your family are in confusion you will not +immediately be missed, and, before an hour passes, you shall be safe on +board."</p> + +<p>"No, no; I dare not, I cannot."</p> + +<p>To all his entreaties she seemed deaf, positively refusing to consent to +escape with him; but whether from fear of being overtaken, or from +maidenly timidity, it would be, perhaps, difficult to decide. At last, +Morton, who was nearly beside himself with disappointment and vexation, +relapsed into a short and stupified silence.</p> + +<p>"Isabella," said he, at length, and with composure that startled her, +"reflect for one moment upon your situation; you know your uncle's +temper; you know he is not a man that will easily give up any of his +plans—this is your only chance for escape from the fate you dread; do +not then reject it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>She only answered with tears, and continued to repeat, as if +mechanically, "I dare not; no, no, I cannot." Morton was silent a few +moments, when a sudden ray of hope enlivened his gloomy reverie.</p> + +<p>"Hear me, dearest; there is one, and only one, chance left yet. If your +uncle urges you to marry, entreat him for one year's delay. Before that +time expires, I trust to be here again. Vessels are constantly fitting +out from the United States to this part of the world—if such a thing +can be effected by mere human agency, I will be on board one of them, if +not, I both can and will purchase and fit out a vessel myself. Promise +me then, my love, that you will use all possible means to defer any +matrimonial schemes your uncle may form for at least two years. But I +trust, if my life and health are spared, that, before half that time has +expired, I shall be here, to claim your first promise."</p> + +<p>"I will, I will, dear Charles; I will not deceive you. I know my uncle +loves me, and will grant me that delay. And now we must part; I shall be +missed, and I dare not stay a moment longer. For heaven's sake, keep out +of sight of—you can guess who I mean."</p> + +<p>A parting scene between two lovers had always better be left to the +imagination of the readers; because the author, unless he is gifted with +the power of a Scott, a James, an Edgeworth, or a Sedgwick, is sure to +disappoint the reader, and himself besides. My reader must therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +draw the picture, and color it, to his or her own peculiar taste, and +fancy an interchange of kisses, locks of hair, rings, crooked sixpences, +garters, or any thing else that constitutes circulating medium or +<i>stock</i> in Love's exchange market.</p> + +<p>The Orion had dropped out to the roads, and, with her anchor a short +stay-peak, her topsails sheeted home but not hoisted, and her whole crew +on deck, waited only for her first officer. Between nine and ten o'clock +the sound of approaching oars was heard, but in a moment the practised +ears of Captain Hazard and his second officer perceived that the +advancing boat pulled very leisurely.</p> + +<p>"Poor Charlie is coming off empty-handed," said Coffin.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was afraid the bird had flown, or the enemy was alarmed. I am +sorry for it from my very heart, for he will be low spirited all the +passage home."</p> + +<p>"Well, I aint so sure about that—I've always found salt water a sartain +cure for love."</p> + +<p>"I dare say you have, Mr. Coffin; but love is like strong grog, it +operates differently upon different constitutions and dispositions."</p> + +<p>"Well, I s'pose that's pretty nigh the case. A good, stiff glass of +grog, in a cold, rainy night, makes me feel as bright as a new dollar +for a while, but then it soon passes off."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid poor Morton's love is too deep-seated to be worked off by +salt water or absence. But here comes the boat—hail her, Mr. Coffin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Boat ahoy!"</p> + +<p>"O-ri-on."</p> + +<p>"Are you alone, Mr. Morton?" said the captain in a low voice, as that +gentleman came over the side.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, but not without hopes another time."</p> + +<p>The two officers then descended to the cabin, and Morton explained the +cause of his failure, and expressed his determination to make another +attempt as soon as possible after his arrival in New England. Captain +Hazard insisted upon his turning in immediately, to recover from the +fatigue and anxiety he had undergone during the day, and to his +remonstrances laughingly observed that he was not in a proper state of +mind to be trusted with the charge of a night-watch, and that Robinson, +the oldest boat-steerer, should take his place. Coffin earnestly +recommended a glass of hot punch, as "composing to the nerves;" but the +patient declined, though he permitted Captain Hazard to qualify a +tumbler of warm wine and water with thirty drops of laudanum.</p> + +<p>The topsails were now hoisted aloft, the topgallant-sails set, and the +anchor weighed; and, with a fresh breeze off the land, the first officer +sound asleep and dreaming of "the girl he left behind him," a press of +sail, and the starboard watch under the charge of Mr. Coffin, spinning +tough yarns on the forecastle and calculating the probable amount of +their voyage, the stout Orion left the Bay of St. Blas at the rate of +eleven geographical miles per hour.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Pulparia, a small shop, generally pronounced +<i>pulparee</i>.—<i>Diabolus Typographicus.</i></p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Alexander.</i>—They say he is a very man <i>per se</i>, And stands alone.</p> + +<p><i>Cressida.</i>—So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no +legs.</p> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 16em;">Troilus and Cressida.</span><br /></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Charles Morton, whom we have somewhat abruptly introduced to our +readers, and exhibited for two or three chapters, without much +explanation, was the only surviving child of a wealthy merchant in one +of the sea-ports in the southern part of Massachusetts. He had received +a liberal education, as a collegiate course of studies is at present, +and in many instances most absurdly, called. Morton could, however, lay +a just claim to be called liberally educated. He went to college without +contemplating to pursue either of the three learned professions, but +merely to acquire a more intimate acquaintance with the classics, +history, belles lettres, and mathematics, than it was then supposed he +could obtain elsewhere. People begin to think differently at the present +period, and have a faint sort of notion that a boy can become qualified +for the every day duties of life, or for practice in the three +professions, without having received a diploma from a college, +exclusively controlled in all its attitudes and relations by one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +particular sect of religion, or passing four years of "toil and trouble" +in another university, where he is kept wallowing and smothering in the +darkness of metaphysics or the more abstruse and <i>higher</i>! branches of +mathematics; both sciences as utterly useless to him in any situation of +life as a knowledge of the precise language that the devil tempted Eve +in, and which some ecclesiastical writers have laboured to prove was +High Dutch. I have been several times to different parts of the East +Indies, and on more than one voyage have kept a reckoning out and home, +assisted in taking lunar observations and those for determining the time +and variation of the compass, and without knowing any more of algebra, +fluxions, or conic sections, than a dog knows about his father.</p> + +<p>After Morton had had the sacred A. B. "tailed on" to his name at a grand +sanhedrim of solemn blacked-gowned fools, sagely called a +<i>commencement</i>, because a youngster there <i>finishes</i> his studies, he +felt a strong desire to visit "the round world and them that dwell +therein," and, like many New England youth, not only then but within my +own observation and time, and before the signature of the august +"præses" was dry on his sheep-skin diploma, was entered as an under +graduate in a college of a somewhat different description—the +forecastle of a large brig bound on a trading voyage up the +Mediterranean—a school not one whit inferior to old Harvard itself for +morality, and one where a man, with his eyes and ears open, might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +acquire information fifty times more valuable than any that could be +drilled into him at any learned seminary whatever—a knowledge, namely, +of the world and of human nature.</p> + +<p>This habit, if it can be called one, of exchanging the quiet of a +college room for the bustle and privations of a sea-life, is not near so +prevalent now as it was several years since; and yet I have known many +instances, and have repeatedly met, in merchantmen and men of war, men +who have received a collegiate education, and have known one case, on +board of an English line-of-battle ship, the Superb, of a dissenting +minister, a foretopman, who could clear away a foul topsail-clewline, or +explain an obscure passage in Scripture, with equal facility and +address, and was both a smart seaman and a smart preacher:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"As some rats, of amphibious nature,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are either for the land or water."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is a pity our professional men do not travel more, especially +clergymen, who, though generally learned men, are not deep in the +knowledge of their own species. Of course I do not apply this remark to +the Methodist clergy; as their vagabond life makes them but too well +acquainted with the weaknesses of one portion of the human race, while +the alarming and arbitrary dominion they thereby acquire over the minds, +bodies, and estates of both sexes, is beautifully illustrated in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +trial, not many years since, of a reverend gentleman of oil of tansy +and hay-stack celebrity.</p> + +<p>Morton's first voyage was rather a long one, but it introduced him to +the most interesting portion of the world, the nations bordering upon +the Mediterranean, while his knowledge of the Latin language was of no +small advantage to him in acquiring a knowledge of the Spanish and +Italian—an advantage that he certainly did not think of, when he was +plodding through Virgil and Horace, Cicero and Tacitus. He returned from +his first voyage a thorough practical seaman, and more than tolerably +acquainted with European languages. He rose in his profession, and might +at the time we introduced him have commanded a ship; but a sudden desire +to go at least one whaling voyage seized him, and a whaling he +accordingly went. In person Morton was above the middling height, some +inches above it, in short he had attained the altitude of five feet +eight inches—my own height to a fraction. Like most young men born in +New England, and who choose a seafaring life, his frame had acquired a +robustness and solidity, his countenance a healthy brown, his chest a +depth, and his shoulders a breadth, that are each and all +considered—and with justice—by the present generation, as irrefragable +proofs and marks of vulgarity. But folks thought otherwise thirty years +since, and, however incredible it may appear, there are actually now in +existence a great many painters, sculptors, anatomists, and perhaps as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +many as a dozen women, who persist in thinking that a human being looks +much better as God made him, after his own image, than as the tailor +makes him, after no image in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or +in the waters under the earth. Forty years since, ladies did not by +tight lacing crush and obliterate all symptoms of fulness in the front +of the bust, nor did gentlemen stuff and pad their clothes till they +resemble so many wet-nurses in coats and breeches.</p> + +<p>It was the established rule with novel-writers, and that until very +lately, to represent their heroes as tall grenadier-looking fellows, +never <i>under</i> six feet, and as much above as they dared to go, and keep +within credible bounds. "Tall and slightly but elegantly formed," was +the only approved recipe for making a hero. So that a black snake +walking erect upon his tail, provided he had two of them, or an +old-fashioned pair of kitchen tongs, with a face hammered out upon the +knob by the blacksmith, would convey a tolerably correct idea of the +proportions of the Beverleys, and Mortimers, and Hargraves, of a certain +class of novels. Sir Walter Scott, Mr. James, and most of the best +writers, have disbanded this formidable regiment of thread-paper giants, +and we now see courage, manly beauty, talents, wit, and eloquence, +reduced to a peace-establishment size, instead of those long-splice +scoundrels, that used to go striding about our imaginations, like Jack +the giant-killer in his seven-league boots, kicking the shins and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +treading on the toes of every common sized idea that came in their way.</p> + +<p>It was also considered indispensably necessary, that the heroine should +be "as long as the moral law," and accordingly we heard of nothing but +"her tall and graceful figure," "her majestic and commanding height," +&c. &c. Let those who prefer tall women take them; for my part, I wish +to have nothing to say to such Anakim in petticoats: conceive the +embarrassment and confusion of a common sized bridegroom compelled, +before a room-full of company, to request his Titan of a bride to be +seated, that he might greet her with the holy kiss of wedded love! On +the other hand, it was by no means unusual to represent the heroine as a +mere pigmy; so that the lovers whose destinies we were interested in, +might be represented by the following lines from an old sea-song, which, +for the benefit of musical readers I beg leave to observe, is generally +"said or sung" to the tune of "The Bold Dragoons:"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He looked like a pole-topgallant-mast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She like a holy-stone."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Thank Heaven! the taste for this species of writing has "had its day," +and we have something better in the place of it. Bulwer has indeed tried +very hard to compel the public to admire murderers and highwaymen, and +our own dear, darling Cooper, the American Walter Scott, has held up for +admiration and imitation sundry cut-throats, hangmen, pirates, thieves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +squatters, and other scoundrels of different degrees, showing his +partiality and fellow-feeling for the kennel; and, if he had not at +last, as we say at sea, "blown his blast, and given the devil his horn," +would have managed to set the whole female portion of the +romance-reading community to whimpering and blowing their noses over the +sorrows of Tardee and Gibbs—the wholesale pirates and murderers, the +loves of Mina—the poisoner, the <i>trials</i> of Malbone Briggs—the +counterfeiter, or the buffetings in the flesh that Satan was permitted +to bestow upon the old Adam of that god-fearing saint, Ephraim K. Avery.</p> + +<p>The hero of a novel of the by-gone class was always and <i>ex officio</i> a +duellist; and though the best English writers err against morality and +religion in following this absurd track, it may be urged in extenuation +of their offence, that duelling is generally considered in Europe as +part of a gentleman's education and accomplishments, and in this country +to refuse a challenge brands a man with everlasting infamy, though the +crime is held in the most profound speculative abhorrence, and every +state has a whole host of theoretical punishments, never inflicted, for +the violation of its equally theoretical laws, that are daily evaded, +outquibbled, or broken, with impunity.</p> + +<p>Morton's countenance we have taken the liberty to describe elsewhere. +His disposition was naturally cheerful and mild, his temper even, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +not easily provoked. Although somewhat inclined to taciturnity, yet +when drawn out to converse upon any subject he was acquainted with, he +was naturally fluent, and in his language pure and correct. He was a +universal favorite with the youth of both sexes in his native town, and, +during the intervals between his voyages, was always in demand when a +Thanksgiving ball was contemplated, or a sleigh-ride, or a "frolic," as +all such parties of pleasure were and still are called in New England. +At sea he was always beloved, by both officers and seamen, for his +nautical skill and good-nature. Notwithstanding the confinement that his +duties made unavoidable, he had managed to make himself acquainted with +men and manners, and, during the many leisure hours that those engaged +in the whale-fishery always find, he had amused himself with +drawing—for which he possessed a natural talent, reading, and keeping a +sort of memorandum of different occurrences and his reflections upon the +habits of the different nations he visited,—and was, in short, one of +those somewhat rare but still existing prodigies, a well educated, well +informed gentleman with a hard hand and short jacket, many individuals +of which nearly extinct species of animals I have had the singular good +fortune to fall in with during my voyage through life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo—without his roe, like a dried +herring. O flesh, flesh! how art thou fishified!</p> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 20em;">Romeo and Juliet.</span><br /></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Upon his return to his dear native town, Morton was received by his +father with his usual quiet affection; for old Mr. Morton was one of +that nearly obsolete school of parents, husbands, and members of +society, that do not think their duties in either relation require any +sounding of trumpets, and who are of opinion that those who feel most +deeply and sincerely religion, Christian charity, or human affections, +are generally people who seldom make any parade of either. This sect +seems to be very nearly extinct, or at least their leading principles, I +have been told, are exploded from the creeds of modern saints; but as my +acquaintance with modern saints is, thank God, very limited, I cannot +vouch for the fact.</p> + +<p>It was not long after Morton's return, when the young people of his own +age and standing began to perceive an alteration in his manners, and +that he, who was a leader in their gay parties, was now a moping, +stupid, silent, dull creature, without any of his former animation and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +gaiety. The young ladies took it for granted that he was in love; and +as it was evident that he was not in love with any of them, why of +course some nymph in the Pacific had stolen his heart; and as, moreover, +they had no idea of the existence in that remote and unknown quarter of +creation of any females more fascinating than the amphibious and +lascivious damsels of the Sandwich Islands, (to convert whom from the +error of their ways, more missionaries have been sent out, or +volunteered their services, than to all the rest of the "poor ignorant +heathen" put together,) or the ladies of the North West Coast, who smell +too strong of train-oil to comprehend the truths of Christianity, or +rather of Calvanism, which is altogether another affair, and who are in +consequence left in their original and antediluvian darkness.</p> + +<p>Impressed with this idea, and feeling both grieved and mortified that so +excellent a young gentleman as Charles Morton should give himself up to +such an absurd and, in their estimation, unnatural passion, the young +ladies of New Bedford determined to tease him out of it; much upon the +same principle as the Roman emperors endeavored to suppress the +Christian religion by exposing its professors to wild beasts: the wild +beasts grew fat upon Christians, and Christianity grew fat and strong +upon persecution. Perhaps if the diademed tyrants had treated it with +indifference, the effects would have been otherwise.</p> + +<p>Whenever poor Morton was met in company, he was always the object of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +ridicule to these lively and well-meaning young ladies.</p> + +<p>"Pray, Charles, do tell us something about this lady-love of yours; +what's her complexion?"</p> + +<p>"How much train-oil does she drink in the course of a day?" said +another.</p> + +<p>"Or how much raw shark serves her for a meal?" asked a third.</p> + +<p>"Does she wear a spritsail-yard through the gristle of her nose?" said a +fourth.</p> + +<p>"Or a brass ring in her under lip?" said a fifth.</p> + +<p>"Is she tattooed on both cheeks, or only on one?" said a sixth.</p> + +<p>Such was the peculiar style of banter to which he was sure to be +subjected, whenever he went into company; and in a short time he +abstained from visits, and devoted his time to perfecting himself in his +nautical studies, and making diligent inquiries after vessels bound +round Cape Horn. If ever you noticed it, madam, a man in love does not +relish jokes at the expense of his idol. "Ne lude cum sacris," +ecclesiastically rendered, signifies, do not make fun of the clergy; but +among lovers it means, do not speak of my love with levity or contempt. +I remember when I was in love for the third or fourth time—I was then +studying trigonometry and navigation—my passion being unable to expend +itself in sonnets to my mistress's eyebrow, I gave way to geometrical +flights of fancy, and took the altitude of every apple-tree and +well-pole in the neighborhood, and made my advances to <i>her</i> upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +principles of traverse sailing.</p> + +<p>Nor was old Mr. Morton unconscious of the great alteration in his son's +behaviour while at home, so unlike any thing he had ever observed before +in him, and he saw the change with no small pain.</p> + +<p>"The poor boy cannot have fallen in love," said the senior to himself; +"there is nothing more amiable than a copper-colored squaw, beyond Cape +Horn."</p> + +<p>One Saturday evening, the old man, being comfortably installed in his +leather-cushioned arm-chair, with his pipe and pitcher of cider (for +merchants, forty years since, drank cider at a dollar the barrel, +instead of London particular Madeira at five dollars the gallon, and the +consequences were—no matter what), commenced the conversation:</p> + +<p>"Ahem! well, Charles, my son, do you intend going to sea again, or would +you prefer commencing business ashore? You are now at the age when most +young men think of settling down for life. Let's see—you are +five-and-twenty, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Five-and-twenty next month, father."</p> + +<p>"Aye, true; well, it's strange, now I can never recollect your age +without looking into the bible there. I recollect, now, it was so stormy +that we did not dare to carry you to the meeting-house, and so Parson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +Fales christened you in this very room."</p> + +<p>"I wish," said Charles, speaking with difficulty, "I wish, my dear sir, +to make one more voyage round the Cape as soon as possible, and then I +don't care if I never see a ship again."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's strange enough; why, what have you seen in that part of +the world so very enticing?"</p> + +<p>"Enticing, indeed!" said the young man, springing from his chair, and +hurrying across the room in agitation; "something that I must possess, +or die!"</p> + +<p>"Why, what a plague—why, what's got into the boy?" said the old +gentleman, dashing down his pipe; "you haven't got be-devilled after +those island girls, like a young fellow that I knew from Boston, who got +so bewitched after the copper-skinned, amphibious jades, that his father +was finally obliged to locate him there, as a sort of agent."</p> + +<p>"O! no, no, no! she is as white as my own mother, well born, well +educated, and a Protestant," said the son, hurrying his words upon each +other; for he felt that the ice was broken, and saw the old gentleman's +countenance lengthening fast; "oh, father, if you could but see her—if +you but knew her—"</p> + +<p>"Hum," quoth pa, "I dare say that sixty and twenty-five would agree to a +charm on such a subject; but pray, how the deuce came this well born,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +well educated, white, protestant damsel in the Pacific, where the devil +himself would never dream of looking for such a phenomenon?"</p> + +<p>"It is a long story," said Charles.</p> + +<p>"If that's the case," said the senior Mr. Morton, "you had better step +down cellar, and draw another mug of cider."</p> + +<p>So saying, he replenished his pipe, and disposed himself in an attitude +of calm resignation. As our readers are already acquainted with the +history of the rise and progress of young Morton's love, we shall say no +more of his narrative than that towards the close of it, his father was +surprised out of his gravity, and ejaculated the word "d—nation!" with +great emphasis, at the same time, flinging his pipe into the fire, and +exclaiming by way of sermon to his short and pithy text,</p> + +<p>"Why the d—l didn't you bring her with you, you foolish boy? Why, you +have no more spunk than a hooked cod-fish! You'll never see her again, if +you make fifty voyages round the cape; she's in a nunnery by this time, +or, what is more likely, married to that Don What-d'ye-call-him."</p> + +<p>Charles could only repeat his conviction that neither event had taken +place, and his firm reliance upon Isabella's constancy.</p> + +<p>"Fiddle-de-dee! A woman's constancy! I would as soon take Continental +money at par!" was his father's reply.</p> + +<p>Their conversation on this interesting topic was protracted to a late +hour, when they retired, the old gentleman to—sleep as sound as usual,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +and Charles to yield himself most unreservedly to the illusions of +sanguine, youthful hope and love—that love that one never has <i>very</i> +severely but once in his life; for love is like a squall at sea; the +inexperienced landsman sees nothing alarming in the aspect of the +heavens, and is both astonished and vexed at the bustle and hurry, the +"thunder of the captain and the shouting;" but when it comes "butt-eend +foremost," he suffers a thousand times more from his fears than the +oldest sailors. After one has become acquainted with the disorder, he +can distinguish its premonitory symptoms, and crush it in the bud, or +let it run on to a matrimonial crisis. For my own part, I can always +ascertain, at its first accession, whether it is about to assume a +chronic form, or pass off with a few acute attacks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>O for a horse with wings!</p> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 15em;">Cymbeline.</span><br /></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Morton's low spirits and anxiety, on his return home, arose entirely +from his having ascertained that there was no vessel then fitting out +for the Pacific, except whalemen; and as their route always depends upon +circumstances, and can never be calculated beforehand with any degree of +certainty, he declined several advantageous offers in them. A few days +after the eclaircissement with his father, he learned to his +inexpressible joy, that there was a ship fitting out at Salem for what +was in those days somewhat facetiously denominated a "trading voyage;" +that is, an exclusively smuggling one.</p> + +<p>To Salem, then, he hastened, furnished with most ample and satisfactory +letters of introduction and recommendation. He waited upon the owners of +the ship, and was by them referred to Captain Slowly, then on board. At +the very first glimpse of this gentleman, he felt convinced that there +was no chance for a situation on board. Captain Slowly was one of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +mahogany-faced, moderate, slow-moving, slow-speaking, slow-eating +people, that one occasionally meets with in New England, who are the +very reverse of Yankee inquisitiveness, and never answer the most +ordinary question, not even "What o'clock is it?" in less than half an +hour; men who, in short, as they never ask any questions themselves, +think it not worth their while to answer any. We have been several times +horrified by such people, and our fingers have always itched to knock +them down.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Captain Slowly," said our friend Morton.</p> + +<p>The captain, hearing himself addressed, went on very deliberately with +the examination of a jib-sheet block that he held in his hand, turning +it over and over, and spinning the sheave round with his finger, much +after the manner of a monkey, with any object he does not +understand—as, for instance, a nut that he cannot crack—and at last +replied,</p> + +<p>"Morning."</p> + +<p>"I understand," said Morton, almost mad with impatience, "that you are +in want of a first officer; or at least, so says Mr.——."</p> + +<p>Captain Slowly, having cast the stops off a coil of running rigging, the +main-top-gallant clewline, that lay at his feet, and fathomed it from +one end to the other, examining all the chafed places with great +attention, answered with, "Was you wanting to go out in the ship?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes sir," said Morton, who saw what kind of a dead-and-alive animal he +had to deal with, and was determined to have an answer from him, if he +beat it out with his fists; and though his heart revolted at the bare +thoughts of passing at least a year in the same ship with such a stupid +creature, yet it seemed to be his only chance for reaching the coast of +Mexico in season; "yes sir, and the owners have directed me to you; they +know that I am very desirous of going out in the ship, and they approve +very much of my recommendations and certificates. My name is Charles +Morton; I am the son of old General Jonathan Morton, of New Bedford; I +was out last voyage with Captain Isaiah Hazard, of Nantucket, in the +whaling ship Orion; I am perfectly well acquainted with the west coast +of South America, from Baldivia to St. Joseph, and up the Gulf of +California; I am about five-and-twenty years of age, and have been three +voyages as mate of a vessel; for further particulars, I beg leave to +refer you to the papers in my pockets; I am somewhat in a hurry, and +should feel very much obliged if you would let me have your answer as +speedily as possible."</p> + +<p>Captain Slowly, who had never heard an oration of one quarter part the +length addressed to himself before, seemed for a few minutes completely +bewildered. At last, after drawing a prodigious long breath, he +ejaculated, "Well, I declare, I never."</p> + +<p>Morton, having waited a reasonable time to give the man a chance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +recover his scattered faculties, at last asked, "Well, Captain Slowly, +what do you think of it? shall we make a bargain?"</p> + +<p>The captain was now completely startled out of his half existent state, +and began to talk and act like a man of middle earth; that is, he began +to ask questions.</p> + +<p>"Well, let's see; you say you was 'long of old Captain Isaiah Hazard?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; are you acquainted with him?"</p> + +<p>"I've heard tell on him. Let's see, where do you belong?"</p> + +<p>"To New Bedford; are you much acquainted down that way?"</p> + +<p>"Some."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, then, you may know my father, old General Morton?"</p> + +<p>"I've heard tell on him"—— A pause, during which Captain Slowly took a +fresh chew of tobacco, and Morton looked at his watch with great +impatience——"Well, let's see; what kind of a time did you have on't +'long with old Captain Hazard?"</p> + +<p>"Very good."</p> + +<p>"Make a pretty good v'y'ge?"</p> + +<p>"Middling: thirty-two hundred barrels."</p> + +<p>"Well, I declare"—another pause—"well, let's see. Calculate to go +round that way again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and that's what I have called to see you about: the owners approve +of me, and have sent me down to you, and I wish you would give me an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +answer."</p> + +<p>"Well, I expect I'm supplied with both my officers."</p> + +<p>"I thought that was what you was coming to. Good morning, sir."</p> + +<p>"Won't you step down below, and take a little so'thing?"</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you;" and Morton walked away, cursing him by all his gods.</p> + +<p>After satisfying himself that there was no chance for him in Salem, he +returned to Boston. Lounging about the wharves the next day, he was +attracted towards a fine, large, new ship that was setting up her lower +rigging. He drew near, to examine her more closely. Her guns were lying +on the wharf, as were also her boats and spare spars. From the number of +men employed, and the activity with which their operations were carried +on, it was evident that the ship was to be off as soon as possible. +Morton stepped on her deck: an elderly man, with a fine, open, manly +countenance, expressive of great kindness of disposition and goodness of +heart, was superintending the duty. Morton was about to address him, +thinking to himself, "This is no Captain Slowly," when the senior gave +him a nod, accompanied by that peculiar half audible greeting that +passes between two strangers.</p> + +<p>"You have a noble ship here, sir," said Charles, by way of starting the +conversation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she is—so, nipper all that; Mr. Walker, you're getting that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +mainmast all over to starboard—yes, yes; she's a fine ship, that's +certain. Your countenance seems familiar to me, and yet I can't tell +where 'tis I've seen you."</p> + +<p>"I belong to New Bedford; my name is Morton."</p> + +<p>"Morton! what, old Jonathan Morton's son?"</p> + +<p>"The same, sir."</p> + +<p>"Why, d—n it, man, your father and I were old schoolfellows—and are +you old Jonathan Morton's son?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I have followed the sea ever since I left college, and am now +looking for a voyage."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps we can suit you; times are pretty brisk just now, and you +will not be obliged to look long or far—and are you Jonathan Morton's +son?"</p> + +<p>After a short explanatory conversation, a bargain was made.</p> + +<p>"And when will you be ready to commence duty?"</p> + +<p>"I am ready this moment," was the answer of the impetuous young man.</p> + +<p>"No you are not. Don't be in too big a hurry; take your own time;" and +they parted, mutually pleased with each other; Morton treading upon air, +and very much disposed to build castles and other edifices in that +unquiet element.</p> + +<p>Reader, if thou art a sailor, thou canst understand and appreciate the +pleasure mixed with pain that fills and agitates the heart when thou +hast unexpectedly obtained a voyage to thy liking. It is then that ideas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +come thick and fast into the mind, treading upon each other's heels, +and climbing over one another's shoulders; the parting with much-loved +friends; the anticipated delights of the voyage, seen through that +bewitching, multiplying, magnifying glass, the imagination; the pride +and delight that fills a seaman's breast as his eyes run over the +beautiful proportions and lofty spars of his future home; all these +feelings are worth, while they last, an imperial crown. But soon comes +the reality, like Beatrice's "Repentance with his bad legs:" bad +provisions, bad water, and not half enough of either; ignorant and +tyrannical officers; a leaky, bad-steering, dull-sailing ship; the +vexatious and harrassing duty of a merchantman, where the men are +deprived of sufficient sleep, for fear that they should "earn their +wages in idleness," and of a sufficient supply of wholesome food, lest +they should "grow fat and lazy." Such is the theory and practice of most +New-England merchants: it was different forty years since, and the +outfit of the good ship Albatross had an eye to the comforts of the crew +as well as the profits of the owners; for merchants then thought that +the two were inseparable—the march of intellect has proved the reverse.</p> + +<p>Although, as I have already taken occasion to observe, Fortune is +peculiarly hostile to lovers, yet she is sometimes "a good wench," and +so she proved herself, at least for a time. The passage of the Albatross +from the cradle of liberty and aristocracy to Valparaiso was unusually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +short, considering that vessels outward bound at that period made a +regular practice of stopping at Rio Janeiro, whether in want of supplies +or not. She was singularly fortunate, likewise, in crossing the "horse +latitudes," not being becalmed there much over a week, a period hardly +long enough to call into proper exercise the Christian virtues of +patience and resignation.</p> + +<p>Her passage into the Pacific was shortened by another fortunate +circumstance: Captain Williams was an adventurous as well as a skillful +seaman, and having a steady breeze from the north-east, he ran boldly +through the Straits of Le Maire, and thus shortened his passage perhaps +by a month; for ships have been known to be four months off Cape Horn +beating to the westward, and after all obliged to bear up and run for +Buenos Ayres for supplies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">Behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bounding between the two moist elements,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like Perseus' horse.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 15em;">Troilus and Cressida.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>It was on a fine Sunday morning, in the month of December, 179-, that +the oblique beams of the sun were reflected back by the snow white +canvass of a stately ship of about six hundred tons, that with a fair +wind, a good breeze, and all sail set, was steadily pursuing her course, +somewhat east of north. She was in, or about, the latitude of eighteen +north, and one hundred and fifteen degrees west of Greenwich; +consequently, she was in the Pacific Ocean, and not far from the west +coast of Mexico. The north-east trade-wind, which is generally almost +due east, was sufficiently <i>free</i> to allow her to carry her starboard +studding-sails, under which she flew gracefully and swiftly on her +appointed course.</p> + +<p>The weather, as usual within the limits of either trade-wind, was +extremely beautiful and mild; the heat, that on shore in the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +latitude would have been excessive, was moderated by the refreshing +breeze. Indeed, it has never been my lot to find such lovely weather in +any other part of this round world, as we meet with through the whole +course of the trade winds. The long, regular swell, so peculiar to that +part of the ocean, gave the noble ship a peculiarly easy, rolling +motion, extremely grateful to a seaman, as the regularity and length of +the swell is a certain indication of a continuance of good weather. As +she lifted her huge bows above the foaming, sparkling wave, her bright +copper, polished by dashing so long and so fast through the water, +flashed in the sunbeams like burnished gold; at the same time, her +temporary and partial elevation above the surface, revealed a sharpness +of model below the water's edge, that at once accounted for the graceful +and majestic swiftness of her motion. The whiteness of her canvass, and +her bright-varnished sides, sufficiently indicated her to be a Yankee, +without the trouble of hoisting the "gridiron."</p> + +<p>Her stern "flared" a great deal; that is, its outline formed a very +acute angle with the horizon, which was the fashion of building ships +forty years since. It was ornamented with a great profusion of carved +work, some of which was hieroglyphical, to a degree that would have +puzzled Champollion; but over the centre were two figures in bas-relief, +that could not well be mistaken, inasmuch as the sword and scales<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +plainly indicated that the one on the starboard side was Justice, while +the cap on the point of a lance "seemed to fructify" that her companion +was no other than Miss Liberty.</p> + +<p>Liberty goes bare-headed now—our rulers, wisely reflecting that she is +upwards of fifty years old, and has arrived at years of discretion, have +ordered her to leave off her child's cap. There are among us those who +think that the stripping will go further, and that, in a short time, she +will be as bare as Eve.</p> + +<p>The noses of both goddesses had been knocked off shortly after they +condescended to mount guard on the stern of the good ship Albatross, in +consequence of coming into frequent collision with the gunwale of the +jolly-boat, as she ascended and descended to and from her station at the +stern davits. At her quarter davits, on each side, hung one of those +light, swift, and somewhat singularly shaped boats, called whale-boats. +Eight iron nine-pounders on each side, thrust their black muzzles +through their respective ports, and gave her, in spite of her +bright-varnished sides, a warlike appearance.</p> + +<p>The upper part of her cut-water was fashioned into a scroll, like the +volute of an Ionic pillar, forming what is called, by naval architects, +a "billet head;" and which, for its neatness and beauty, is very +generally adopted, both in national vessels and merchantmen. Nor was the +bow without its share of hieroglyphics; on one side were displayed a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +bee-hive, a bale of cotton, and a crate of crockery; and on the other, a +globe, an anchor, a quadrant, and a chart partly unrolled.</p> + +<p>Her royals were set flying, a technicality that I shall not attempt to +explain; she had no flying-jib, nor any of those pipe-stem spars that +are got aloft only in port, to make a ship look more like the devil than +she otherwise would, and are always sent down and stored away when she +goes to sea. Ships, forty years since, carried no spars aloft but such +as were stout enough to carry sail upon, in fair weather or +foul—sliding-gunter sky-sail masts, and other useless sticks, were as +much unknown to ship-builders and riggers, as railroads and steam-boats.</p> + +<p>Sitting upon the weather hen-coop, attached to the companion, or entrance +to the cabin, with spectacles on nose, and a well-worn bible on his +knees, sat an elderly man, the commander of the ship. He was tall, and +very strongly built; long exposure to the weather, in every variety of +climate, had bronzed his countenance, and given him an older look than +his real years would have done under other circumstances; but at the +same time, long exposure to the weather had hardened his frame, and +strengthened his constitution, points of some importance forty years +since; so that his chances for a long life were much better than those +of a man of forty, especially one of modern date, who had never allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +"the winds of heaven to visit his face too roughly." His age was, in +short, about sixty. His countenance, notwithstanding the rude and +ungenteel manner with which the winds and the weather had treated it, +was indicative of much good-nature and benevolence of disposition. He +raised his head from time to time, looked aloft at the sails, +occasionally addressed a word or two to the mate of the watch, who was +walking fore and aft the quarter-deck, and then resumed his reading.</p> + +<p>In the weather mizen-shrouds was a remarkably handsome young man, of +four or five and twenty, busily engaged in hanging out to air his +"go-ashore" clothes; a very common Sunday morning occupation at sea, +when the weather is fine. Apparently the sight of his gay garments had +called up a train of ideas of a very varied and checkered hue, to judge +from the different expressions that flitted across his fine manly +countenance, at one moment shaded with anxiety and doubt, at another +bright with hope and joy. In height he was about five feet eight or nine +inches, strongly and compactly built, but far too stout and athletic, +too broad-shouldered and thin-flanked, to pass muster as an exquisite in +Broadway; as his form, though anatomically perfect, a model for a +statuary, and considered very fine by the ladies of his acquaintance +forty years since, would be altogether out of date at the present day. +His countenance, of an oval form, and shaded by rich, curling, chesnut +hair, from exposure to the weather, had acquired that healthy brown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +that ladies do not dislike in a young man's face, though they carefully +eschew any thing that will in reality or imagination produce it in their +own lovely physiognomies.</p> + +<p>It may be a mere old bachelor's whim of mine, but it always has appeared +to me that ladies who have had the advantage of mixing much in society, +and seeing something of human nature, are <i>not</i> peculiarly partial to +that effeminate fairness of complexion that many fashionable gentlemen +are so careful to preserve, when they have it by nature, or, when nature +has been unkind, to obtain by artificial means; so that Dogberry's +axiom, that "to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune," is not +altogether absurd. At any rate, I have seen many a "cherry ripe" lip +curled with an expression of irrepressible scorn when the owner of the +lip was accosted by one of these very fair, delicate-skinned gentlemen. +Girls just let out of a boarding-school generally run mad after these +animals; but ladies who have gone through one or two husband-hunting +campaigns, are not to be taken in by such painted butterflies: they very +wisely conclude that a man who takes such a reverend care of his +complexion worships none but himself, and of course he will have no +devotion to spare to his wife.</p> + +<p>But to return to the gentleman we have left dangling in the starboard +mizzen-rigging of the ship Albatross: his countenance was indeed +somewhat tanned, but his forehead was as clear and white as ivory; its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +breadth and openness gave an expression of frankness and candor to his +face,—so that, taken altogether, his physiognomy, though not regularly +perfect, was exceedingly prepossessing.</p> + +<p>The second officer, who was walking the deck, being the officer of the +watch, was also a very good-looking young man, with large black +whiskers, and was two or three years younger than his messmate in the +rigging. His frequent stoppages at the caboose-house, to confer with the +cooks, indicated the second mate, who is always, for some reason or +other, a sort of "Betty," or "cot-quean," as Shakspeare calls it, +continually quiddling about the galley, to the annoyance of the doctor, +as the ship's cook is generally called.</p> + +<p>About the after-hatchway were seated the gunner and sailmaker, both +engaged patching old clothes,—while the old carpenter, like the +captain, was reading the bible,—and the armorer was lying flat on his +back, and singing. A very pretty boy of fourteen, an apprentice to the +captain, was playing, or in sea language "skylarking," with a huge +Newfoundland dog. I might as well complete the <i>rôle d'équipage</i> of the +good ship Albatross, by observing that Mr. Jonathan Bolton, M.D., the +surgeon of the ship, and Mr. Elnathan Bangs, the supercargo, were +neither of them on deck. Perhaps they were engaged with their +breakfasts, or their toilets, or their devotions, or their studies, +or—in short they were below.</p> + +<p>Just forward of the mainmast were what a painter would call the deeper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +shades of the picture, for there the black cook and his equally sable +adjunct, the cook's mate, held their vaporous and dish-washing levee; +while forth from the cloudy sanctuary occasionally pealed a burst of +obstreporous laughter, that the most unpractised hearer might swear came +from the lungs of a negro, without the trouble of invading their +premises for further evidence. Upon either of these culinary worthies, +to use the somewhat hyperbolical language of sailors, "lampblack would +make a white mark."</p> + +<p>I cannot avoid taking occasion to remark here, that sailors, like the +orientals, are exceedingly addicted to the use of tropes and figures of +speech, to similes and metaphors. In fact, if any gentleman was about +compiling a treatise on elocution, I would recommend to him to pass a +year or two on board one of our men of war, where he would daily hear +specimens of eloquence, known and unknown to exclusively terrestrial +orators, whether in the halls of Congress, at a public dinner-table, or +on a stump. There is the <i>narratio</i>, or anecdote, or sometimes the <i>long +yarn</i>; the <i>aprosiopesis</i>, or sudden pause, very powerful when in good +hands; the <i>apostrophe</i>, or addressing an absent person as though he was +present; the <i>obtestatio</i> and <i>invocatio</i>, two different modes of +invoking the gods celestial or infernal; and lastly, the <i>simile</i>, or +comparison, in which sailors are a thousand times more fruitful than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +Homer himself. The steward—who came up with the breakfast-dishes, &c., +or "dog-basket," as it is called by them of the forecastle—was a +thought lighter skinned than the cooks.</p> + +<p>The crew were lounging about the forecastle and weather gangway; some +walking fore and aft, with their hands in their jacket pockets, some +washing or mending their clothes, and some stretched out in the sun, +chatting and laughing in utter disregard and carelessness of what +to-morrow might bring forth, and most literally obeying the divine +command, to "take no thought of what they should eat, or what they +should drink, or wherewithal they should be clothed."</p> + +<p>The crew mustered forty-four in number; for forty years since, ships +that traded to the coast of California, or any part of His Catholic +Majesty's American possessions, or to the North West Coast, calculated +upon a brush, either with the guarda-costas or the savages, before their +voyage was up, and accordingly went well manned and armed.</p> + +<p>A group of ten or a dozen were collected around the fore-hatch, where +one of their number sat reading to them the twenty-seventh and +twenty-eighth chapters of Acts—two favorite chapters with seamen +generally, not that they contain any peculiarly glad tidings of great +joy, but because they give a sort of log-book account of almost the only +nautical transactions of moment recorded in holy writ.</p> + +<p>The reader, like all who are so unfortunate as to be persuaded to read<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +to a company, was perpetually interrupted by some one of his auditors to +ask a question, or make a comment. He had, however, this advantage over +the ill-starred wight who essays to read to a party of ladies, that he +stopped and asked as many questions, and made as many remarks and +comments, as any of his auditors.</p> + +<p>The reader, after a few verses, describing St. Paul's voyage, came to +the eighth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter: "And hardly passing it, +came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens," &c.; when old Tom +Jones, the boatswain, an old English man-of-war's man, who was lying on +his breast across the weather end of the windlass, interrupted:</p> + +<p>"Now, as to all them places you've been reading about, I never heard of +none on 'em before, except Cyprus, and I've been cruising off there in a +frigate; but your Sea lashes and Pump fill ye (Cilicia and Pamphylia), I +never heard on in all my born days; and as for Fairhaven, why every body +knows that's right acrost the river from New Bedford; though how the +d—l they got there so soon I don't see, unless so be Paul worked a +marricle, and it's like enough he did, to let the rest on 'em know what +kind of a chap they'd got for a shipmate."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless," continued the reader, at the eleventh verse, "the +centurion believed the master<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> and owner of the ship more than those +things that were spoken by Paul."</p> + +<p>"Well, now I don't see no great harm in that," said one of the audience; +"Paul was nothing but a kind of Methodist parson, goin' about and +preachin' for his vittles and drink, and whatever folks was a mind to +give him; so 'taint likely he knowed any more about a ship than any +other minister."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you know he was a saint," said the reader, "and could foretell +the weather, aye, a year aforehand."</p> + +<p>"Could he, faith?" said another, "then I wonder he did not make his +eternal fortin making almanacs."</p> + +<p>"But what is a centurion?" asked a third.</p> + +<p>"Centurion?" said old Jones, "why she's a sixty-four gun ship; I've seen +her often enough at Spithead, but I forget now whether she was in the +first of June<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> or not."</p> + +<p>"Then I 'spose she was convoying the craft that Paul was in," observed +another blue-jacket.</p> + +<p>This knotty point being satisfactorily cleared up, the reader proceeded: +"And when the south wind blew softly, supposing they had obtained their +purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete."</p> + +<p>"Now you see," said the boatswain, "just so sure as you have gentle +breezes from the south'ard, you'll have a thundering Levanter at the +back of 'em."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, yes," said a tar, "I know that to my sorrow. I was up the Straits +last v'y'ge, 'way up to Smyrna and Zante, arter reasons,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and we +ketch'd one of these thundering Levanters, and was druv 'way to h—ll, +away up the Gulf of Venus (Venice); yes, I've been boxing about the Arch +of the Billy Goat<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> 'most too long, not to know a little so'thin' about +the weather there."</p> + +<p>The reader continued: "But not long after, there arose against it a +tempestuous wind."</p> + +<p>"There," said Jones, "didn't I tell you so? I knowed you'd have a real +sneezer in a varse or two."</p> + +<p>"Called Euroclydon," continued the reader, finishing the verse.</p> + +<p>"What! avast there! overhaul that last word again."</p> + +<p>"A tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," repeated the reader.</p> + +<p>"Well, you may call it a Rock-me-down, but I say the regular-built name +on't is Levanter; but then I s'pose them thunderin' printers puts in any +thing they're a mind to."</p> + +<p>The reading proceeded without much more interruption, except that the +honest tars, who had been up the Mediterranean, were not a little +puzzled by the strange names of places, and could not imagine what part +of the world the saint had got into.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>"About midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; +and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a +little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms."</p> + +<p>"Egad, I should think they was drawin' nigh to some country pretty +thunderin' fast too, when they shoalened their water so quick, from +twenty to fifteen faddom."</p> + +<p>"Then fearing lest they should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four +anchors out of the stern, and wished for day."</p> + +<p>"Four anchors out of the starn!" shouted the boatswain, "what the h—was +that for?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you see," said the reader, "they used to bring up by the head or +starn in them days—it didn't make a ropeyarn's odds which—they didn't +know no better."</p> + +<p>"But four anchors out of the starn," continued the man-of-war's man, +"why, d—it, the very first sea would onhung the rudder, if she was +pitching into it, and knock the whole thunderin' starn-frame into +<i>smithareens</i> in a quarter less no time."</p> + +<p>"Now you see," said one of the audience, "I've a notion that the craft +in them days was built with goose starns, like a Dutch galliot."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + +<p>"May be," said another, "she had all her anchors stowed aft, to bring +her down by the starn."</p> + +<p>"But four anchors out of the starn!" murmured the still perplexed Tom +Pipes, "I wonder what old Lord Howe, or Admiral Duncan, would have said, +if they'd heard a first leftenant give out such orders in a gale of +wind."</p> + +<p>"Why, there couldn't have been no sailors aboard the hooker, or they +would have let go one anchor first, and if that didn't bring her up, +then another, and so on; but letting all four anchors go at once right +under foot, is what I call a d—d lubberly piece of business, let who +will do it, whether St. Paul or St. Devil, and I don't believe they +could get insurance on the craft in any insurance office in the United +States."</p> + +<p>"Yes they could, and I'll tell you why; if a ship goes ashore with an +anchor on her bows, the owners can't recover no insurance; but if the +skipper will swear that all his anchors were down, and good cables +clinched to 'em, he can get his insurance."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but there's a thunderin' sight of odds betwixt letting go your +anchors in a ship-shape, sea-man-like manner, and bundling 'em all +overboard at once in such a lubberly way as that you was readin' about."</p> + +<p>The reading proceeded, leaving the law question respecting insurance +"open for discussion" at some more appropriate season. Much indignation +was expressed by the round-jacketed audience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> at the thirty-second +verse: "Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her +fall off." A vast deal of satire was expended upon "the thunderin' +troops," of all classes, periods, and nations, the whole clinched and +concluded by a remark from the boatswain:</p> + +<p>"Aye, sojers, and pigs, and women, is always in the way, or else always +in mischief, aboard a ship, more 'specially in bad weather."</p> + +<p>The reading afterwards progressed without much interruption, except at +the fortieth verse: "They—hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made +toward shore," and then only to remark, "Aye, she was a schooner, or +else a morfredite brig, and they was goin' to beach her; she'd steered +better if they'd sot the foresail too."</p> + +<p>The eleventh verse of the twenty-eighth chapter gave occasion for +question and explanation.</p> + +<p>"And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had +wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux."</p> + +<p>"Sign!" said Tom Pipes, "what does that mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why, her figure-head, I s'pose," said the <i>questionee</i>.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but, d—n my buttons, there's two on 'em."</p> + +<p>"Well, I s'pose they fixed 'em as the Dutchmen does De Ruyter and Von +Tromp, put one on the knight-heads and t'other on the rudder-head."</p> + +<p>"Ay, that indeed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<p>The reader went on to the fifteenth verse:</p> + +<p>"And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as +far as Appii-forum, and The Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he +thanked God, and took courage."</p> + +<p>"Took courage?" said old Tom; "I don't know who the d—l wouldn't take +courage with three taverns all in sight at once. I wouldn't wish a +better land-fall if I'd been cast away."</p> + +<p>"That there Happy afore 'em must have been a jovious kind of a place," +observed a seaman, "to judge by the name on't; and then them three +taverns so handy—a fellow might shake a foot, and have a comfortable +glass of somethin' whenever he took a notion."</p> + +<p>All further reading and commentary was suddenly put a stop to, by one of +those occurrences that frequently take place at sea, and cause so much +bustle and hurry as is very apt to frighten passengers. The good ship +Albatross was neither thrown on her beam-ends by a sudden squall, for +squalls are not fashionable in the trade-winds, nor did she strike upon +a rock, for there was none sufficiently near the surface; but still, for +a few minutes every thing seemed to be uppermost, and nothing at hand, +like the contents of a lady's travelling trunk.</p> + +<p>One of the crew, who had been for some time lying on his breast on the +weather cat-head, crooning over some interminable "love-song about +murder," suddenly surceased his singing, raised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> himself up, and cast an +eager and hurried glance ahead of the ship, shouted "Fish ho!" at the +very top of his lungs, sprang from the cat-head, and ran down the +fore-scuttle. In an instant all was commotion and hurry. Captain Williams +threw down his bible with most anti-christian and unorthodox +carelessness, and hurried to the forecastle, shouting, "A bottle of rum +for the first fish;" the premium always offered formerly, though I +believe it is getting out of date now, and not only the first fish, but +all the fish caught, are seized and confiscated "for the benefit of +those whom it may hereafter concern," namely, the "cabin gentry;" the +claims of the captors being waived, set aside, and overruled. The two +mates soon followed their commander, "armed and equipped," the one with +the graves, (a sort of harpoon for taking smaller fish,) and the other +with a large reel of fish-line and hooks, baited with salt pork—the +commentators on the two last chapters of Acts broke up their conference, +leaving St. Paul and the centurion in comfortable quarters at The Three +Taverns; their reader carefully stowing away his bible in the bows of +the long-boat before he joined the groups of fishermen on and about the +bows—the great dog Pomp, so named after the illustrious Roman, Pompey +the Great, and not after the allegorical personage to whom Will +Shakspeare so earnestly recommends physic, came galloping forward and +ascended the heel of the bowsprit, where he stood whining, and yelping,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +and wagging his tail, exceedingly delighted with the animation and +excitement of the scene; and looking up, from time to time, in the faces +of those nearest him, with an expression that said, as plain as mere +expression can speak, "Why the plague don't you catch some of them?" +Even those two privileged idlers, the doctor and supercargo, made shift +to get on deck, yawning and stretching themselves.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, one of the most active seamen, who was perched upon +the jib-boom end, fishing with a bait made of a piece of white duck cut +into a "swallow-tail," hauled up a huge albicore, whose struggles had +well nigh thrown him overboard; but a dozen pair of eager hands were +ready, the fish was safely deposited in a bag, and passed on board, and +the bottle of rum was secured to the legal claimant. The sprit-sail +yard, bowsprit, and cat-heads were crowded with fishermen, and in half +an hour there were nearly seventy fine, large fish flouncing and +fluttering their last on the forecastle of the Albatross.</p> + +<p>The cooks at the galley, who had quietly prepared the usual Sunday +dinner, which, forty years since, was generally the same for cabin or +forecastle, namely, flour pudding, called at sea, "duff," and salt beef; +the cooks did by no means contemplate this addition to the ship's bill +of fare with complacency or delight. They foresaw that there would be +fried fish, and broiled fish, and boiled fish, and fish stews, and fish +chowders, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> fish sea-pies; in short, there would be no end to the +cooking of fish, till the fish were all eat up. They were not long kept +in suspense on that subject. Mr. Walker, the second officer, approached +their smoky temple—</p> + +<p>"Doctor, is the beef for the people in the coppers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sar, I put 'em in at three bell."</p> + +<p>"Well, take and out with it, and get your coppers ready to make a +chowder for all hands; and you, Peter, come down in the steerage with +me, and I'll give you some pepper and onions, and the rest of the +combustibles."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Massa Walker, I come ereckly. Dam fish! I wish all fish in 'a +world dead; den 'spose 'a want fish, let 'em eat cod-fish and tatoe."</p> + +<p>With this pious ejaculation, which he took care not to give utterance to +till Mr. Walker was out of hearing, he followed that officer down the +after hatchway, while his helpmate, grasping his tormentors, proceeded +to transfer the half-boiled "salt junk" from the coppers to a tub, and +make preparations for a dinner of a more savory and agreeable +description.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> June 1st, 1794, Lord Howe's victory over the French fleet, +off Ushant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Quasi</i> raisins.—<i>Printer's Devil</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The sailor probably meant the Ionian _Archipelago_; they +generally mistake the word as it stands in the text.—<i>P. D.</i></p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>All hands! bring ship to anchor, ahoy!</p> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Boatswain's Mate.</span><br /></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>In the meantime Isabella had suffered her full share of persecution. +Shortly after the family had retired from the coast to the vicinity of +the city of Tepic, where Don Gaspar had an estate, he had urged her to +accept Don Gregorio before their return to St. Blas. The tears and +entreaties of the unhappy girl had, however, so far mollified him that +he consented to put it off some time longer. A severe fit of the gout, +during which Isabella attended him with the most assiduous and +unremitting affection, had also operated as a powerful auxiliary to her +wishes. Pressing her affectionately to his bosom one day, the old +governor declared his unwillingness to part with her; and, "upon this +hint she spake," and easily obtained from him a promise not to trouble +her with any matrimonial schemes till she had completed her +twenty-second year, and even then, if she felt disinclined to the holy +state, she should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> be at liberty to retire to a convent. As she was not +yet twenty-one, she regarded this reprieve as equivalent to a full +release, and awaited anxiously the return of the dry season. It came at +last, and the family returned to St. Blas.</p> + +<p>Several American ships, whalemen and others, visited the port for +supplies, and for the purpose of a little private speculation, with +which the custom-house was not troubled. Dame Juanita's shop, being +rather the largest in St. Blas, and possessing, moreover, the additional +attraction of her own buxom countenance, and that of a pretty daughter +behind the counter, was visited daily by the mates and crews of these +ships; and of them she inquired, by direction of Isabella, concerning +the officers of the Orion, without success for a long time, till at last +the mate of a trader declared that he knew Mr. Morton very well; that +when he saw him last he was engaged fitting out a ship bound round Cape +Horn; and that she was, in all probability, on the coast at that moment, +and would most probably soon visit San Blas.</p> + +<p>This intelligence operated like a cordial upon Isabella's spirits; her +eyes were constantly directed towards the western horizon; every sail +that appeared, caused the utmost trepidation and eager hope; and when +the distant sail proved to be some coasting vessel, or the guarda-costa, +that was prowling about continually, her disappointment was keen and +painful. Her cousins laughed at the perseverance with which she watched +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> harbor; and, fearful of exciting suspicions, she afterwards only +looked out upon the blue expanse of ocean when alone.</p> + +<p>At last, one lovely morning, just after the sea-breeze had commenced +blowing, a white speck was seen in the horizon, that rapidly increased +in size, till in two hours it was plain to all eyes that it was a large +ship, and many thought a man of war. Various were the speculations as to +her object, and still more so as to her nation; for coming directly +before the wind, her colors could not be seen.</p> + +<p>As she approached the anchorage, her light sails were taken in and +furled, with a despatch very unlike the manœuvres of a merchantman, +and which confirmed the opinion of her being a man-of-war. Presently a +flash of red flame and cloud of thick, white smoke issued from her +starboard bow, followed by a corresponding one from the other side, and +repeated alternately, to the number of twenty-one; but the fourth flash +was distinctly visible to those on shore, before the roar of the first +gun came booming over the water, awakening the thousand echoes that +slumbered in the hills and woods about the city.</p> + +<p>The ship, having now reached her intended berth, slowly emerged from her +"sulphurous canopy," that the light breeze had kept wrapped around her, +like a veil; and, clewing up her topsails, gracefully swept round +towards the westward, as if intending to go out to sea again; and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> in +the evolution, a large, bright-colored, new American ensign floated upon +the gentle breeze from her mizen gaff. She remained stationary for an +instant, when the anchor was dropped, and the sails furled; and the +machine, that but half an hour before,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Walked the waters like a thing of life,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>now lay upon their bosom a dark, motionless, inanimate mass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As an owl that in a barn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sees a mouse creeping in the corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sits still, and shuts his round blue eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if he slept, until he spies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little beast within his reach;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then starts and seizes on the wretch.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The salute of the Albatross was duly returned from the battery, and the +entire <i>posse</i> of idlers in the port, or little village at the +landing-place, which is rather more than two miles from the town of St. +Blas, were collected at the pier to see what manner of men her +whale-boat contained, as she pulled swiftly in towards the shore. About +half way between the ship and the shore the whale boat was met by that +of the harbor-master; the crew of the former tossed their oars out of +the water, and held them upright in token of respect, while, at the same +time, the officer in the stern-sheets arose and raised his hat. This +respectful behavior was by no means lost upon the military dignitary, +who listened with great affability to the stranger's account of +himself—namely, that he was first officer of the ship Albatross, of +Boston, commanded by Captain Israel Williams; that she had put in for +supplies of wood, water, and fresh provisions; that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> she was bound to +Canton, and sundry other particulars of minor consequence; Mr. Morton +not deeming himself bound in honor or honesty to inform said +harbor-master that it was the intention of the captain and officers to +smuggle certain cases of silks, cloths, and linen on shore without his, +the said harbor-master's, privity or consent.</p> + +<p>As soon as the strange ship had anchored, Don Gaspar mounted his horse +and galloped through the plaza towards the landing-place, at the +imminent risk of his own neck, and compromising the sublunary welfare of +a swarm of children that were basking in the hot sand in utter defiance +of parental authority and of all passengers, bipedal or quadrupedal. Not +long after he had gone, Isabella threw her veil over her head, and +tripped, with a palpitating heart, towards Dame Juanita's house, which +she entered by a back passage well known to herself, and sat down in the +little room behind the shop. In a moment the good dame made her +appearance, her face literally shining with pleasure.</p> + +<p>"I have seen him, senorita! I have seen him and spoken with him."</p> + +<p>"Seen him! seen whom?" gasped Isabella, but blushing rosy red at the +same time.</p> + +<p>"Ah, senorita, you know whom," said Juanita, "that handsome American +that you used to meet here a year ago nearly."</p> + +<p>As the young lady sat with her back towards the shop-door, and was +besides eagerly drinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> in all Juanita's news, she did not perceive +that a man had entered the room. A gentle voice that thrilled to her +heart pronounced her name; she turned, uttered a shriek, and fell +fainting into the arms of Morton.</p> + +<p>Excessive joy did, in ancient times and in one or two instances, prove +fatal; but I suspect that the world has grown more wicked, or the human +heart less susceptible, for I doubt whether there is any body now alive +who has ever experienced a sufficient degree of pleasure at once to do +more than agitate the nerves for a few minutes.</p> + +<p>Isabella soon recovered her senses, partly from the effects of cold +water sprinkled upon her face by the tender-hearted Juanita, and perhaps +there might be something reviving in a soft kiss that the young seaman +could not avoid dropping upon her lips as he supported her in his arms. +I have already intimated my incompetency to describe a parting scene +between two lovers, for reasons then specified: a tender meeting is +liable to the same objections. Such things should always be left to the +reader's imagination; for it is ten chances to one if the author's +description pleases any body, not even himself.</p> + +<p>After the first emotions of meeting had subsided, Isabella informed her +lover of her uncle's promise, and that she was free from all persecution +with regard to Don Gregorio. Morton, on the other hand, communicated to +her all that had passed between his father and himself. "So that you +see,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> dearest Isabella, if you had consented to go home with me as I +urged, we might at this moment be comfortably seated at my father's +fire-side. In the mean time, Captain Williams knows how I am situated, +and will give the most effective assistance to my plans. We shall +probably be detained here for two or three weeks, and I shall have daily +opportunities of seeing you."</p> + +<p>Time flies with lovers, and they had been nearly an hour in +conversation, when Juanita put them in mind of its lapse, and urged the +danger of Isabella's staying away from her uncle's house any longer. +They separated with a thousand promises to meet again.</p> + +<p>In a day or two, Captain Williams had made arrangements for disposing of +the remnant of his cargo, in a quiet way, to certain merchants who are +always and every where to be found, ready and willing to evade the +exactions of the custom-house.</p> + +<p>One branch of the river empties into the north-eastern, part of the bay, +from which the slope up to the plaza on the summit of the hill is +gradual. The point formed by this branch and the bay is covered with a +thick growth of limes and other trees, through which winds a scrambling +sort of path, passable by mules, and but very seldom used. After winding +through the trees and bushes, and up a steep hill, that farther to the +left, or westward, becomes an abrupt precipice of two hundred feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> in +height; it emerges in an obscure and narrow street on the eastern side +of the town.</p> + +<p>The Albatross's launch was sent every night, under the command of one or +other of the mates, with a cargo of goods, which were landed near the +termination of the above-mentioned winding path, and loaded upon mules +that were always ready, concealed among the bushes, to be brought out at +an appointed signal from the boat. It would be difficult to select a +place better adapted for the peculiar purpose; unguarded and +unsuspected, nobody had ever dreamed of any smuggling attempt being made +there.</p> + +<p>This plan of landing cargo had been carried on with equal secrecy and +success for many nights, till nearly all was discharged. In the mean +time, information had been conveyed to the commandant, by some person +who had accidentally seen the boat one night engaged in discharging her +precious freight, and the mules loading on the beach. In consequence of +this intelligence, orders had been issued to the officer commanding the +troops at San Blas, to march a strong party to the place, and secure all +merchandize and persons found there. Part of this behest was executed to +the letter; the remainder Jupiter dispersed into thin air.</p> + +<p>Mr. Morton, with six hands in the jolly-boat, came on shore at the usual +time, bringing all the remainder of the cargo, which was hardly enough +to load two mules. Every thing was landed and loaded upon the mules +without interruption, excepting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> a small package containing silk +handkerchiefs, when suddenly a low whistle was heard in the bushes.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" said Morton, who held the aforesaid package in his +hands.</p> + +<p>"Santa Maria!" exclaimed the muleteers, springing upon their horses, and +putting them and the mules into rapid motion; "vienen los soldados +malditos," the d—d soldiers are coming; the signal was repeated, and in +an instant soldiers rushed from different parts of the adjacent bushes, +and surrounded the whole party. So sudden and complete was the surprise, +that the seamen, though standing in the edge of the water, were +intercepted and made prisoners. Morton, as soon as he perceived that +flight and resistance were equally out of the question, hailed the two +men in the boat that was lying a few yards from the shore, and ordered +them to make the best of their way to the ship—an order that was +acknowledged by the customary "ay, ay, sir," and obeyed by hoisting +their lug-sail, which, filled by a fresh land-breeze, soon carried them +out of danger. He, with the remaining four men, were made prisoners. +Whether the soldiers were not used to acting against cavalry, or thought +the prisoners of more consequence than the merchandise, is doubtful; the +mules and their drivers got off safe, although several shots were fired +at them as soon as their retreat was perceived.</p> + +<p>Ascertaining that there was nothing more to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> got on the field of +battle; for it was indeed one, as one of the sailors, feeling somewhat +restive under the tight grasp that the corporal laid upon his collar, +had bestowed upon that humble candidate for military honors a slap in +the face, that caused him, in the Nantucket dialect, to "blow blood;" +the guard took up their line of march through the wood with their five +prisoners. On their melancholy route towards the town, the commanding +officer of the party, mindful of the politeness and attention with which +he had been treated by Mr. Morton, behaved to his prisoners with great +kindness, and endeavored to console this officer by representing that +nothing had been found that would or could be deemed sufficient to +convict them of any attempt to violate the laws of the province; that +the escape of the mules was a favorable circumstance, as they had +carried off whatever might have otherwise appeared as evidence against +them, whether merchandise or men; which last, with the treachery +peculiar to Spaniards, and more universally inherent in the mixed breed +of the colonies, would compound for their own safety by implicating +their employers; that the governor was a gentleman, and a man of kindly +feelings, and that he would undoubtedly pass over what had occurred that +night without the exercise of any greater severity than perhaps the +imposition of a moderate fine; with sundry other and similar topics of +consolation, suggested by kindness and sympathy. But Morton's mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> was +too confused and agitated by the events of the evening, to allow him to +make much reply or to pay much attention to the consolations of the +officer; he longed to reach the guard-house, where, in the solitude and +silence of the prison, he might have time and opportunity to arrange his +ideas, and reflect upon his melancholy and apparently hopeless +situation, and correspond, if permitted, with his commander, and with +one other.</p> + +<p>"But no," he thought, after the lovely image of Isabella had presented +itself to his mind, "no, she will not dare to visit me, or exert herself +in my behalf—and why should she? it would but expose her to suspicion, +and me and these poor fellows to greater rigor."</p> + +<p>He knew but little of the strength of woman's love—her devotedness, her +acuteness, and energy and activity, in contriving and executing plans +for the relief or comfort of her loved one in affliction. His four +companions in misfortune, with all that philosophical indifference to +calamity and danger that characterizes seamen, after expending an +incredible number of strange curses and sea jokes upon their captors, +stretched themselves upon the stone floor of the "caliboza," or prison, +and were soon sound asleep; and Morton himself, fatigued in body and +harrassed and bewildered in mind, soon lost all consciousness of his +unhappy situation in deep and prolonged slumber.</p> + +<p>Having lodged his prisoners in the guard-house and given orders that +they should be treated with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> all kindness, the officer waited upon the +governor, and reported the proceedings of the night. His excellency +looked rather blank at learning that none of the goods had been secured; +but having complimented the officer upon his vigilance and zeal, he +retired to rest, feeling all the pride and self-gratulation of a little +mind, after having done a very little action. He did indeed feel +somewhat anxious as to the effect the intelligence might have upon the +ladies of his household, who had been projecting another visit to the +American ship, being the fourth that had already taken place; but he +finally determined, as the only course left him, to ensconce himself +behind the intrenchments of his dignity, and to merge the urbane +feelings of the hospitable gentleman in the awful gravity of the dog in +office. Besides, he hoped that his vigilance and severity on the present +occasion would be a sweet savor in the nostrils of his august monarch, +and that promotion would follow as an affair of course; and he dropped +asleep, fancying himself Lieutenant-General Don Gaspar de Luna, Knight +of the most noble order of St. Jago de Compostella, and Governor-General +of the island of Cuba or St. Domingo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.</span><br /> + + +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Merchant of Venice.</span><br /></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The old Don, on rising the next morning, found all his womankind +"overwhelmed with grief" in consequence of the news of the capture and +imprisonment of the American seamen, and prepared to assail him with +prayers, petitions, and tears, as soon as he made his appearance. In +vain he tried to assume the governor, and to look and act dignified; he +had not, either in appearance or manner, or even language, so "much of +the Roman" in him, as a certain other potentate who shall be nameless; +the persevering ladies followed him, and gave him no rest; and perhaps, +by their pertinacity, drove him to declare, in his vexation, that it was +his fixed and settled resolve to inflict upon his prisoners the +extremity of the law's indignation. In fact, the tribulation caused in +the governor's family by the unhappy events of the past night, had +reached to an extravagant and general height; for even the wife of his +bosom remonstrated in no very gentle terms against her lord's severity; +so that his poor excellency found the gubernatorial chair as +uncomfortable a seat as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> though its cushion had been stuffed with pins. +He made good his retreat as quick as possible to his usual place of +official business, or <i>bureau d'office</i>, but there new trials awaited +him; for the very first person he saw there, and evidently waiting for +him, was Captain Williams.</p> + +<p>Isabella, in the mean time, had not yet risen; her sleeping thoughts had +been too delightfully occupied with visions of happiness, and her waking +reveries had so engaged her with day-dreams of prospective felicity, +that she was not conscious of the lapse of time. She had just commenced +dressing, with the assistance of a favorite servant, a native Mexican +girl, when her weeping cousins rushed into the chamber in an agony of +grief. With voices choked and interrupted by sobs and tears, it was some +minutes before they could make their poor cousin comprehend the +melancholy truth, with the gratuitous addition that the prisoners were +to be shot the next morning in the plaza, and directly in front of the +house. Having communicated all they knew, and all they had invented, +they retired to spread the intelligence, to collect more, and to remove +the furniture in the front chamber, for the more convenient witnessing +the execution of the next morning.</p> + +<p>Isabella, when left to herself, neither screamed, nor went into +hysterics or tears; she sat still and motionless in the chair, into +which she had sunk when the dreadful truth was made known to her; she +became deadly pale, her temples throbbed, her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> breathing seemed +oppressed, the light swam before her eyes, she uttered a convulsive sob, +and, to the terror of her faithful and sympathising attendant, fell +senseless upon the floor. The Indian girl, with great presence of mind, +though sorely frightened, dashed water in her face, loosened her +clothes, and practised all those modes of relief, better understood by +ladies than described by me. The unhappy young lady at length recovered, +and, with the assistance of her attendant, threw herself upon the bed, +and gave way to a flood of tears, to the relief caused by which, and her +subsequent repose, we must for a time leave her.</p> + +<p>Captain Williams saluted the governor, as they met, with a countenance +partaking of anger as well as sorrow; and, without much circumlocution, +proceeded to state his business, and interceded most warmly in behalf of +his men in confinement. But the old Don, before whose mind visions of +promotion and honors were floating, was in no humor to grant petitions +of any kind, much less one, the acceding to which would overthrow all +his air-built castles; and he steadily refused to listen to the +warm-hearted old seaman's arguments, urged with all the fervency of +almost paternal affection for both Mr. Morton and his seamen. Unable to +oppose or refute the arguments of Captain Williams, proving the +innocence of the prisoners, or, at least, the veniality of their +offence, if guilty, and the unreasonable disproportion between the crime +and the punishment;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>wearied by the perseverance of the petitioner, and +convinced, though unwilling to own it, by his arguments;—convinced, +too, that he was making a very ridiculous figure in the eyes of his +officers and several merchants who were present, he did, as all +obstinate and pig-headed people do when they find themselves in the +wrong, and see that they are making themselves contemptible: that is, he +plunged still deeper into the wrong, by giving the good old seaman a +harsh refusal to his prayer.</p> + +<p>At this unexpected and ungentlemanly rebuff, Captain Williams suddenly +became calm and silent, and, a moment after, left the office. Those who +were present thought they saw in the stern, determined expression of his +countenance grounds for apprehension and alarm; having the most +extravagant opinion of the desperate and daring courage of the +Americans, they looked to see the ensuing night signalized by some +desperate attempt on the part of the seaman, to release his companions +from imprisonment. Their apprehensions were confirmed in a space of time +that seemed impossible to have enabled Captain Williams to reach his +ship, by seeing the Albatross, under jib and spanker, slowly standing to +the westward, and again anchoring full half a mile farther out to sea +than before; not, to be sure, out of reach of the guns of the battery, +but at such a distance as to render it extremely problematical whether +<i>Spanish</i> artillerymen would be able to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> throw a shot within half a mile +of her, especially in a star-light night.</p> + +<p>This movement of the ship alarmed the governor not a little; for he knew +that the guarda-costa was absent on a cruize, and it was doubtful when +she would return, and that there were but thirty soldiers on duty at the +barracks, the rest having recently been drafted into the interior, to +wage war against certain straggling, light-fingered gentry, known in +that part of the world by the general title of "monteneros," or +highlanders, being analogous in their habits and manners, and confused +ideas of <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>, to the highland cattle-stealers of Scotland. +In this dilemma, the governor's heart began to relent—he thought that +he was carrying his severity too far.</p> + +<p>On retiring to his house to dinner, he was met by a message from his +niece, requesting to see him in her chamber, being too unwell to meet +the family at noon. Thither his Excellency ascended with reluctant steps +and slow, like a child called from his play to be whipped and sent to +bed. He found his niece reclining upon a sofa, pale, languid, and +evidently much agitated. She rose to receive him with her accustomed +affection, and the old Don seated himself by her side.</p> + +<p>"Isabella, my love, you appear to be distressed; what is the matter, +child?"</p> + +<p>"Dear uncle, my cousin Antonia tells me dreadful news."</p> + +<p>"Dreadful news! what is it, dearest?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> "She tells me," said Isabella, +shuddering and gasping for breath, "that these unfortunate Americans are +to be put to death to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"Poh, poh! what nonsense! you know as well as I do that the law gives me +no such power."</p> + +<p>"But, dearest uncle, why should they be punished at all? nothing is +proved against them, nothing is found about them that indicates guilty +intentions," for, notwithstanding her indisposition, she had learned all +the facts of the case from her gossip, Juanita, and the officers that +had called in the course of the forenoon, "I have heard all the +particulars, and confess that I see no reason why they deserve +punishment at all."</p> + +<p>"You know nothing at all about the matter, child. They have been seen, +at other times than last night, landing boxes and bales at the same +place."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure that it was not some other persons?"</p> + +<p>The governor paid no attention to this question, which he had never +dreamt of asking his informer.</p> + +<p>"Besides, if these are pardoned, other offenders will plead their +innocence, and refer to the case of these men as a precedent. No, +Isabella, I cannot, I dare not do it; they must abide by the +consequences."</p> + +<p>"Then if their lives are to be spared, what is to be done with them?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I shall write to the Viceroy, and keep them confined till I receive his +instructions as to their future destiny."</p> + +<p>"And that," said the young lady, in a faint voice, "will be worse than +death! O think of it, dear, dear uncle."</p> + +<p>"You take too gloomy a view of the case," said Don Gaspar, kissing the +forehead of the lovely suppliant; "the Viceroy may pardon them, but I +dare not—You plead in vain," continued he, as he saw she was about to +speak; "were they my own sons, they should undergo the sentence of the +law for their misconduct."</p> + +<p>Fearing to excite her uncle's suspicions by too great urgency, Isabella +changed her battery—</p> + +<p>"At least, let them be used kindly—let them have plenty of good food +and wine."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, dearest little niece," said the governor, delighted to find +the most formidable and irresistible of his female assailants so +lukewarm in the cause of the prisoners, "and you shall be their +provider."</p> + +<p>"Me, uncle? well, I own I should wish to visit the prison occasionally, +to see that they are comfortable."</p> + +<p>"You shall whenever you please," said the Don, rising, and going to +Isabella's writing desk; "there, there is an order, signed by my own +hand, that will admit you whenever you please." So saying, he retired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Antony and Cleopatra.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>A writer, evidently a Frenchman, in the British or some other +Encyclopædia, under the article "Man," draws a very ingenious contrast +between the two sexes, which is correct enough in its general +principles, but exceedingly erroneous in many very important points. +Speaking of the different behavior of men and women, under the pressure +of grief or calamity, he says, "Woman weeps—man remains silent—woman +is in agony when man weeps—she is in despair when man is in agony."</p> + +<p>Mr. Philosopher, you are a goose. It is obvious that you have drawn your +conclusions from your observations of Frenchmen exclusively, who are +theatrical and affected from the cradle to the grave.</p> + +<p>"Woman weeps while man remains silent."—True; she gives vent to her +feelings by weeping, and her full heart is tranquillized by her tears, +which seem not only to relieve and refresh the swollen and burning eyes +of the body, but to render<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> those of the mind more clear and +penetrating. What, for instance, was the language and sentiment of Mary +Queen of Scots, when Rizzio was murdered in her presence? "I will dry up +my tears," said the high-spirited descendant of the Stuarts, "and think +of revenge." Man's remaining silent is not always an evidence of +fortitude or resignation; it may be stupidity and want of feeling, or +gloom and sulkiness; a disposition to find fault with Divine Providence +for visiting him with affliction.</p> + +<p>"Woman is in agony when man weeps." Absurd! her tears have relieved her +agony. Like the elastic and pliable willow, she has yielded to the storm +of grief, and her buoyant spirit rises comparatively uninjured from the +conflict.</p> + +<p>"Woman is in despair when man is in agony." It is said that the +difference between a fool and a madman is, that the fool draws wrong +conclusions from correct principles, and the madman correct conclusions +from erroneous principles. I leave my readers to judge under which +denomination the author quoted comes. There is but one step in his +climax that approaches the truth, and he has drawn a series of wrong +conclusions from that. The concurrent testimony of a host of writers, +both moralists and historians, goes to establish the fact, that, under +the pressure of remediable misfortunes, women have infinitely greater +acuteness and quickness of perception of means of relief—more +promptness, energy, and courage in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> carrying them into execution, than +men. "Hope the deceiver" retains possession of the heart of woman long, +long after man has hanged, shot, or drowned himself in despair.</p> + +<p>Isabella was certainly almost overcome by the melancholy intelligence, +when first communicated; but weeping and the repose of the morning had +tranquillized her, and the facts that she had ascertained had given her +fresh courage and hopes. Not daring, however, to urge her uncle too far +at that time, as she saw he was out of humor, she was still determined +not by any means to regard one, nor two, nor twenty refusals as +decisive; but, if he could not be "carried by boarding," to blockade him +into compliance. Her uncle's order for her admittance to the prison, she +determined only to use occasionally, and as circumstances pointed out, +for fear of exciting suspicion; but to reserve it as a sort of sheet +anchor for the perfection of a half-formed scheme that was already +agitating her brain.</p> + +<p>Under pretence of merely ascertaining that the prisoners were supplied +with all the comfort that their situation would admit, but in reality to +communicate with her lover, she visited the prison that very day. She +found the prisoner, who was already heart-sick of the confinement, +independently of its probable termination, walking listlessly up and +down the passage leading to the inner prison, which was both spacious +and airy; for, as before observed, his excellency had so far relented as +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> direct that the prisoners, during the day, should be permitted to +enjoy the air. His surprise at seeing her was extreme—not that he +doubted she would make an attempt to see him, but he considered it a +hopeless one. She met him with tranquillity, almost cheerfulness.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven!" he exclaimed mentally, "there is some hope of once more +snuffing fresh air; that sweet girl would never be so composed unless +she had some plan in her mind for my delivery. Isabella, dearest +Isabella, tell me, for heaven's sake, how have you managed to get into +this place, that every one else is so anxious to keep out of? Has the +old Don dismounted from his high horse? He has been polite enough to +make me a morning call, but I am afraid he does not intend to allow me +to return it. However, as long as he permits you to follow his example, +I hope that I shall be enabled to bear the disappointment with becoming +resignation."</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush! how can you talk so giddily, when you know not what may be +your fate?"</p> + +<p>"Why, hanging is not a favorite Spanish punishment, so I suppose he will +honor me so far as to expend a little powder and shot upon me."</p> + +<p>"O, Charles! Charles! be quiet, for heaven's sake. Tell me, what did my +uncle say?"</p> + +<p>"Say? why, he scolded a good deal, said that I had heretofore behaved +very decently, and that he was very sorry to see me here."</p> + +<p>"He has written to the viceroy, to know what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> he is to do with you. My +uncle, with all his faults, is an angel of mercy, compared with that +cold-blooded, bigoted, cruel man. I have read somewhere that it is +written over the gates of the infernal regions 'Let all who enter here +leave hope behind.' Let all who fall into the hands of that haughty +nobleman, whether innocent or guilty, leave hope behind too. He is +governed entirely by his priests, and the very circumstance of your +being a Protestant, however harmless, and found in his dominions, would +be sufficient to make you an object of hatred and vengeance."</p> + +<p>"Well, all that may be; but recollect my country will not tamely permit +her sons to be dragged to foreign prisons, without knowing wherefore."</p> + +<p>"You cannot suppose that your country will plunge into a war for your +sakes?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, my love; she would be a fool if she did; but there is a set of +fellows called ambassadors, that often do more with their tongues than +ten thousand good fellows can with their bayonets. But tell me, if you +know, where is the ship? what says the good old Captain Williams to the +scrape?"</p> + +<p>"The ship has moved farther out, and he has been on shore twice to-day +to intercede for you, but without effect, though my uncle has so far +relented as to order you all the comforts that you wish."</p> + +<p>"I should be obliged to him, then, for the comfort of walking out of +prison."</p> + +<p>"When the ship moved out of gunshot," continued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> Isabella, without +noticing what she thought his artificial gaiety, "there was some +apprehension that Captain Williams intended to make some desperate +attempt to release you; but he has been on shore since, and had an +interview with my uncle, and the alarm has subsided."</p> + +<p>"Well done! that is the best thing I have heard this long time—a whole +garrisoned Spanish town thrown into consternation by a single Yankee +merchantman! upon my word, I shall entertain a more exalted opinion than +ever of Spanish courage."</p> + +<p>Isabella permitted him to indulge his national vanity, when she again +urged that his situation was but little short of desperate, unless he +was speedily relieved from it.</p> + +<p>"I know, I know that my head is in the lion's mouth, and how it is to be +got out I know not. If I could see Captain Williams—perhaps a good +round fine paid to his high mightiness might open these doors."</p> + +<p>"I will write to Captain Williams myself," said the young lady, "perhaps +something of that kind might be done. In the mean time, whenever you +have any wine or other provisions, of which I will see that there shall +be no lack, make a point of sharing it with the guard; and, by all +means," she added, in a lower tone, "see that the sentry is never +forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Ha! oho! I see the whole affair—there are never but five men on duty +here at night."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> "Rash, hot-headed creature! there will be no occasion +for such madness. Even if you should escape from prison, and reach your +ship in safety, which would be next to impossible——"</p> + +<p>"Well, what?" said Morton, observing that she was silent. She raised her +eyes, swimming in tears.</p> + +<p>"I understand you—dear, dear Isabella, do you think I would leave this +country without you? No, never."</p> + +<p>"Then remain perfectly quiet, attempt nothing, do nothing of yourself. +In the mean time," continued she, rising, "do not abandon yourself +either to hope or despair."</p> + +<p>With these words she left the prison.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As cannons shoot the higher pitches<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lower we let down their breeches,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll make this low, dejected fate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Advance me to a greater height.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Captain Williams, immediately upon his landing on the morning after the +events related in the last chapter had taken place, was met at the Port +by a woman of rather ordinary appearance, who put a letter into his +hands, and retired without speaking. The letter was written in a woman's +hand, but without signature, and was as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>:—A friend of Mr. Morton is making every possible exertion to +deliver him and his companions from imprisonment. That friend +entreats that you would do nothing rashly, or that may give cause +of alarm or suspicion to the governor or garrison, or to any of the +inhabitants. If you will call this evening at the shop of dame +Juanita Gomez, in the plaza of San Blas, a person will meet you +there, and explain more fully the friendly intentions of the +writer."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<p>The honest seaman, after mature deliberation, came to the conclusion +that the writer of this anonymous epistle could be no other than the +fair Isabella, of whom he had heard Morton speak so often; and he +resolved to attend to its directions most strictly. Accordingly, as a +preliminary step, he thought best to reconnoitre the plaza as soon as +possible, that he might make no unpleasant mistakes in the dusk of +evening.</p> + +<p>While at St. Blas, he had another interview with the governor, and +endeavored to ascertain the intentions of that dignitary with regard to +the destination of his prisoners. The governor, however, seemed to +regard that as a state secret, and declined making any but a very +evasive answer. As some amends for his severity, he condescended to give +Captain Williams full permission to visit the prisoners, of which the +veteran immediately availed himself. The kind-hearted old seaman was +deeply affected, as he held Morton in his arms with all the affection of +a fond father—</p> + +<p>"That ever I should live to see my old school-fellow Jonathan Morton's +son in such a situation, and not be able to help him,"—were the first +words he was able to articulate. Morton endeavored to calm him, by +repeated assurances that he felt no apprehension; that he had no doubt +that a certain friend was busy in projecting a plan for their +deliverance. It was some time before he was sufficiently composed to +converse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Have you tried the old Don with a few doubloons?" asked Morton.</p> + +<p>"No, d—n him, I never thought of that; I can't get a word of common +sense or common civility out of the old mule."</p> + +<p>"I believe if he had taken the boat-load of goods when he took us, that +he would have been more willing to listen to you."</p> + +<p>"Ah, very like; the old fox missed the goose, and he is venting his +malice upon you in stead. But, my dear boy, I don't exactly know how to +go to work to offer a bribe. Damme, I could land thirty men this blessed +night, and pull this old rookery down, and get you all out that way; but +as for bribery, it is a devilish dirty piece of business, to make the +best of it; besides, I tell you, I don't know how; if I did, I would try +it, as dirty as I think it."</p> + +<p>Morton, could not forbear smiling at the old man's unwillingness to +employ a piece of machinery, at the present day so indispensable in our +government throughout all its branches; he assured him that nothing was +more simple; it was only to wait upon the Don in private, and request +his acceptance of either cash or certain valuable merchandize, that +would be attractive in the sight of the governor. "There are my +silver-mounted pistols, and curious East India dagger, and my rifle, +that all might be thrown out as baits to begin with;"—it was all in +vain; the blunt old seaman still persisted that bribery, or any thing +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> approximated it, was but a dirty affair after all; and that, +although he would leave no plan untried to effect the liberation of the +prisoners, there was a moral contamination attached to the mode proposed +that he neither could nor would submit to.</p> + +<p>True to his appointment, Captain Williams, soon after sunset, repaired +to dame Juanita's shop, with the location of which he had previously +made himself acquainted. He was introduced by that worthy old lady into +her back parlor, if a little apartment ten feet square, with a clay +floor and no windows, deserves so dignified, or rather so <i>comfortable</i> +a title; and in half an hour a female, closely veiled, entered the room. +Notwithstanding her disguise, the old seaman had tact enough to perceive +that his companion was young and graceful, or in more modern language, +genteel, while the silvery music of her voice, as she addressed him, +convinced him that she could be no otherwise than beautiful.</p> + +<p>"Are you," said the lady, in a hesitating, tremulous voice, "are you the +commander of the American ship in the bay?"</p> + +<p>"I am; and you, senorita, are the lady who wrote me the note that I +received this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I—that is, I sent you a note requesting to see you."</p> + +<p>"And you are the generous, devoted, and true friend that takes such a +lively interest in the fate of my friend and officer, and his companions +in prison and misfortune?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am—I am," replied the lady hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"And you are, in short," continued the commander, rising and +respectfully offering his hand, "you are the lady Isabella de Luna?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot deny it," said she in a faint voice.</p> + +<p>"Then, madam, you see before you one who is acquainted with your story. +Nay, never hang your head for shame; Charles Morton is worth any woman's +love. I am here ready with hand, heart, and head, to second any and +every plan that you may propose, to effect his escape."</p> + +<p>The lady remained silent for a few moments, then placing her small hand +in the broad, hard palm of the old seaman, replied, "I know that I can +put the most implicit confidence in you. I have heard from others—why +should I deny it? Mr. Morton has told me often, that, next to his +father, he regards you with affection and esteem as his dearest and +truest friend."</p> + +<p>"And he shall never be deceived in old Israel Williams, I can tell him +that, nor shall you, my dear young lady."</p> + +<p>"I have but little time to spare," said the young lady, with increasing +trepidation, "and my communication must be brief, as my plan is simple. +To-morrow night, at ten o'clock, Captain Williams, let your swiftest +boat be at the place where Mr. Morton and his companions were taken, and +let her wait there until day-break. It may not be in my power to effect +my object to-morrow night; but let not one nor two disappointments deter +you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> from repeating the experiment. In the mean time, be on shore +to-morrow as though nothing was in agitation; avoid exciting any +suspicions by either words, looks, or actions; and be assured, that, if +the plan for the rescue of the prisoners fails, it must be from some +accident that can neither be foreseen nor prevented."</p> + +<p>The commander of the Albatross having promised to follow all these +directions to the letter, they separated; he to return to his ship with +a joyful heart, and Isabella to reconnoitre the prison previous to +retiring to her uncle's house.</p> + +<p>She passed the guard-house at a slow pace and at such distance as to +avoid observation, but sufficiently near to ascertain that all the +guard, four in number besides the corporal, were wrapped up in their +cloaks and stretched out sound asleep upon the stone floor of the +guard-room, which was lighted by a large clumsy lamp sufficiently to +allow her to see its interior. The sentry at the door, who was slowly +pacing backwards and forwards with a paper segar in his mouth, was the +only one awake.</p> + +<p>As she bent her steps homeward, she perceived some one approaching her, +in the very direction that she was going, with an uncertain, faltering +footstep that denoted considerable intoxication. To avoid him she turned +to the right with the purpose of making a circuit; but, before she had +gone ten yards with that intention, she perceived that the stranger had +quickened his pace and changed his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> direction, coming directly towards +her. Exceedingly alarmed, she turned short round and ran, and in a +moment perceived that her pursuer was likewise running, and rapidly +gaining upon her. Fear lent her speed, and with the swiftness of a +hunted deer she flew across the plaza towards an open space, terminated +at its further extremity by the precipitous cliff that the town is built +upon, and which we have mentioned more than once. Her intention was to +turn quickly round the corner of a house that stood within four feet of +the edge of the cliff, and gain another street; or, if there were no +other means of escape, to take refuge in the house of a poor widow, one +of her pensioners, and obtain a guide and protector to her uncle's +house.</p> + +<p>Her pursuer was no other than her self-constituted lover, Don Gregorio. +He had dined that day with a party of officers, and had dipped rather +deeper into the bottle than, to tell the truth, he was often guilty of +doing. He suspected that Isabella was in the habit of visiting the +prison; but as she was generally accompanied, in all her rambles, by one +or both her cousins, he had thought nothing more of the circumstance. +But now he was convinced that she was just returning from, or going to, +a nocturnal appointment with the prisoner Morton, who had always been an +object of his hatred, and in an instant his jealousy was in full +operation.</p> + +<p>The cliff, towards which he was now approaching, was undefended by wall, +fence, or barrier of any kind. My readers have doubtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> seen something +similar in their lives; that is, a nuisance that has acquired such a +venerable character from its antiquity, that it seems a species of +sacrilege, a sort of violation of municipal privileges, to remove or +repair it. Such, for instance, in city or country, is a gap in the +street or road, large enough to swallow a brace of elephants at once: +the inhabitants become acquainted with its localities; and, wisely +considering that, as it is <i>every</i> body's business, of course it is +<i>no</i>body's business, to repair it, leave it "open for the inspection of +the public" for a twelvemonth at least; and if any unfortunate stranger +tumbles in and breaks his neck, on a dark night, it is ten chances to +one that the jury of inquest return for a verdict, that "the deceased +came to his death in consequence of intoxication," although he may be +the most abstemious water-drinker that ever the sun shone upon. Such +was, ten or eleven years ago, to my certain knowledge, the cliff of San +Blas.</p> + +<p>Maddened with jealousy, and rendered incapable of commanding his +movements by intoxication, the unhappy Don Gregorio was whirled, by the +impetuosity of his own motion, far over the brow of the hideous +precipice. One dismal yell of mortal agony broke the stillness of night, +and the next moment his body was heard far below, crashing among the +bushes and loose stones at the foot of the cliff. Fainting with horror +at the dreadful sight, though ignorant of the person of the victim, +Isabella sank upon the ground, and it was some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> minutes before she +recovered sufficiently to rise. When, at length, she was somewhat +restored, she turned towards her uncle's house with feeble steps and +slow, frequently stopping to lean against the walls of the houses; she +tottered into the room where the family were assembled, and sank +senseless upon the floor. Her relatives, exceedingly terrified, +administered restoratives, and conveyed her to her own chamber, where, +when she was somewhat composed, she informed her anxious friends that +she had been pursued by an intoxicated person, and was extremely +terrified, and begged to be left to her repose, which she assured them +was all she required. Having obtained all the information they were +likely to, her kind and inquisitive cousins left her, after compelling +her to swallow a composing medicine. She awoke in the morning perfectly +refreshed; the horrid scene that she had witnessed the night before +seeming rather like a terrifying dream than a mournful reality.</p> + +<p>Before she left her chamber, a man, with his jaws standing ajar with +horror, called upon the governor, and requested to speak with him in +private. He then informed his excellency, that as he was rambling +through the woods at the foot of the precipice, he had found the dead +body of an officer, who had evidently fallen from the cliff above; that +it was so frightfully mangled by the fall, that no vestiges of humanity +were recognizable in the countenance, or in the body; but that, from +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> peculiar fashion of the regimentals, he was almost sure that it was +his excellency's aid-du-camp, Don Gregorio Nunez. Alarmed by this +intelligence, the governor despatched a servant to that officer's +quarters, who soon returned with the intelligence that he had not been +there since the morning of the preceding day. Further inquiry among his +brother officers informed him that he had left their company the evening +before about ten o'clock: that he had been drinking freely, rather more +freely than usual; and that they had not seen him since.</p> + +<p>Having commanded the attendance of two or three officers and as many +soldiers, the commandante proceeded to the spot, guided by his first +informant, and was convinced, as soon as he saw the crushed and +mutilated mass, that it was no other than his unhappy officer. Having +given orders for transporting the body to town, he returned to his +family, who, although aware, from his abstracted and pensive manner, +that something had happened to discompose him, forbore to ask any +questions—a line of conduct which, by the way, we would most earnestly +recommend to all wives and daughters. Isabella's mind was too much +occupied with her own thoughts to notice the silence and melancholy of +her uncle; she ate nothing, but her aunt and cousins attributed her want +of appetite to the fright of the preceding evening; as her eyes met +their kind and anxious looks, and she thought of her determination to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +quit them forever, she could not restrain her tears; but rising hastily +from the table, she took shelter from observation and questioning in her +own chamber.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">—— I did compound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The present powers of life; but in short time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All offices of nature should again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do their due functions.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Cymbeline.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Shortly after the sea-breeze had set in—that is, between eleven and +twelve o'clock—a sail was discovered in the western horizon, standing +in for the land; which sail the commander of the Albatross, in a short +time, made out, with the help of his glass, to be the guarda-costa, to +his no small vexation and disappointment. She stood in, however; but +instead of anchoring as usual, in what may be called the outer harbor, +she ran close in to the landing-place, furled her sails, and then, to +Captain Williams's great relief, sent down her fore-yard, stripped it of +the sail and rigging, and launched it overboard. Two boats, full of men, +were soon seen towing it ashore, the spar having been "sprung" in one of +those sudden and violent "flaws" of wind so peculiar to high and +mountainous coasts.</p> + +<p>All this was extremely gratifying to the commander of the American ship; +in the first place the Venganza (for that was the warlike name of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> this +redoubtable man-of-war), by lying so far up the harbor, was out of the +line between the Albatross and the point where it was intended to send a +boat that night; and secondly, the absence of so indispensable a spar as +the fore-yard would render pursuit impossible.</p> + +<p>Captain Williams went on shore in the afternoon, and met the old Don, +who treated him with great condescension, and even hinted at the +probability of his making another visit to the Albatross, to which hint +the seaman replied as politely as could be expected. It was nearly night +when he once more entered dame Juanita's shop, from which he took the +liberty to despatch a message to Isabella. She appeared in a few +minutes, and hastily assured him that the prospect of success was +bright, and that nothing existed at that time that threatened to defeat +their plans.</p> + +<p>As soon as he returned to his ship, he made preparations for getting +under way as speedily as possible; the bower anchor was hove up, and the +ship rode by a light kedge, there being then but little wind or tide; +the gaskets were cast off the topsails, and their places supplied with +ropeyarns, which would break as soon as the "bunts," or middle of the +sails, were let fall; the chewlines and other running-rigging were +overhauled; and every other plan for making sail upon the ship as +expeditiously and as silently as possible, was adopted. The crew of the +Albatross performed all these different acts of duty with silence and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +alacrity. Although their commander had not communicated his plan to +them, they knew by instinct that something bold and daring was to be +attempted that night for the rescue of their favorite officer, and their +four messmates; and their hopes of a brush with the "Don Degos" were +most keenly excited. They were assembled on the forecastle, holding +"high dispute" and conjecture upon the course about to be pursued.</p> + +<p>"Now if I was the old man," said one of the younger seamen, "I tell you +what I would do. I would jest land as many of us as could be spared, +with cutlasses and boarding-pikes"—</p> + +<p>"And pistols," interrupted another.</p> + +<p>"No; d—n your pistols; they make too much noise; they're all talk and +no cider; besides, they miss fire half the time; and before you get +ready for another shot, Don Dego has his thundering baggonet right in +your g—ts; and then where are you?"</p> + +<p>"Now you may all of you," said an old seaman, "you may all of you just +pipe belay with your jaw-tackle-falls. Captain Williams knows what he's +about, and you'll know before morning what he's up to. You'd better take +a fool's advice, and catch a cat-nap before you're called away. The +boats a'n't histed up, and when did you ever know 'em in the water after +dark since we've been lying here?" So saying, the veteran disappeared +down the fore-ladder.</p> + +<p>"There goes old Jemmy Bush, starn foremost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> down the fore-scuttle, like +a land-bear going into his hole."</p> + +<p>"Well," said another smart, active young seaman, the favorite of the +crew; "I shall take old Jemmy's advice, and go and get forty winks in my +hammock. If there's more or less of us sent on this expedition, we +sha'n't be called away till ten or eleven o'clock, when all the Degos +are asleep, and there's nothing awake in the town but fleas and cats."</p> + +<p>The proposition for sleeping prevailed, and the groups on the forecastle +began to disappear, when the voice of the second mate was heard:</p> + +<p>"For'ard there!"</p> + +<p>"Sir, sir," answered half a dozen eager voices at once.</p> + +<p>"Who has the anchor watch?"</p> + +<p>"Bill Thompson and Sam Hughes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Go in the boats alongside, and see that they have their full +complement of oars; and see, too, that the masts and sails are on board +all of them."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p> + +<p>"Do you hear that, my sons of brass?" said old Jones, the boatswain, +"that looks as if there was going to be wigs on the green before +morning."</p> + +<p>We must now leave the marine department for awhile, in order to attend +to exclusively terrene concerns. As night closed, Morton could not avoid +feeling extreme anxiety; Isabella had not visited the prison since the +day previous, nor had she sent any message. Doubts the most annoying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +possessed his mind—at one time he thought she had been detected in her +schemes for his rescue; then that her courage had failed, and she had +abandoned him to his fate; or that her affection for her relatives had +overcome her love for him. He had partially made known to his four +fellow-prisoners his hopes of relief, cautioning them against sleeping, +but enjoining upon them to keep perfectly quiet.</p> + +<p>It was now past nine o'clock; and, with mingled feelings of +disappointment, grief, and anger, he was just resigning all hopes, when +the sentry at the door challenged. The next moment a person dressed in a +long, loose cloak stood before him, whom he immediately recognized as +his loved Isabella.</p> + +<p>"I have brought you some supper and some wine," said the young lady, +addressing him, as usual upon similar occasions, in Spanish; "I ought to +have come before, but it was impossible."</p> + +<p>So saying, she set her basket upon the stone bench, and, in so doing, +whispered Morton:</p> + +<p>"Every thing is ready; be patient, and be guided by me."</p> + +<p>"But how are you about to manage these fellows? it will take all night +to get them drunk, if that is your plan; for your soldiers, it cannot be +denied, are extremely temperate, and will seldom do me the honor to +empty more than a single bottle among the whole five."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hush, hush; I have a surer way than mere wine."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she drew from her bosom a phial, containing a dark liquid. +Morton started back in horror—(he thought he saw, in the composed and +lovely countenance of the beautiful being before him, the cold-blooded, +deliberate, practised assassin—)</p> + +<p>"Good God! Isabella, is it possible? never, never will I owe my life and +liberty to such abominable, such cowardly means!"</p> + +<p>"Dismiss your suspicions," said Isabella, turning pale and trembling; +"they are unworthy of you, and wholly unmerited by me. Not to save +<i>your</i> life, which I value as I do my own, would I commit mur—the crime +that you suspect. This phial contains a simple opiate, not half so +dangerous or disagreeable as the laudanum and camphor of your ship's +medicine chest. The sleep produced by it is speedy and deep, and lasts +four or five hours."</p> + +<p>Observing that Morton still looked distrustingly, she continued, with +streaming eyes—</p> + +<p>"Dear Charles, if you doubt me still, I will swallow the whole; its +operation will not take place before I reach home, and will only cause +long, deep sleep; but, in that case, your hopes of escape are cut off +<i>forever</i>. To-morrow, or the next day, at farthest, you are to be sent +to the capital"—her tears choked her utterance.</p> + +<p>"Dearest Isabella," said Morton, taking her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> hands in both his, and +pressing them to his bosom, "forgive my cruel suspicions, but I own you +startled me exceedingly."</p> + +<p>"Leave all to my management, and in half an hour all will be well."</p> + +<p>In the mean time the seamen had "boarded" the basket, and spread its +contents upon the stone bench, that did triple duty as a bed, a seat, +and a table, as occasion required. The soldiers roused themselves at the +gurgling sound of the wine, as it was decanted into cups made of the +large end of an ox's horn, scraped thin, and capable of containing a +pint or more. Isabella dexterously poured the contents of the phial into +a cup, which was filled with wine, and Morton, taking it in his hand, +approached the corporal with a nod of invitation. After holding it to +his lips for some time, as if taking a deep draught, he passed it to the +corporal; that officer, touching his cap <i>à la militaire</i>, drank and +passed the horn, according to South American custom, to his comrades. +The prisoners and Isabella watched its circulation with most painful +anxiety, and soon had the felicity of beholding it turned bottom upwards +over the mouth of the sentry at the door. Another bottle was opened, and +poured, unobserved by the soldiers, into another cup, which, being +handed to the sailors, was almost immediately passed back again, "a body +without a soul." Another cup, medicated like the first, was prepared, +and the prisoners, apparently busied with their supper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> awaited with +trepidation the effect of the medicine.</p> + +<p>After the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, which seemed as many hours +to the prisoners, the corporal betrayed palpable symptoms of somnolency. +He had seated himself with his back to the wall, and his feet towards a +small fire that was kept burning in the middle of the guard-room every +night, to drive away the moschetoes, and had commenced a song, in a low +voice. The first stanza he managed very respectably; but, before he had +half finished the second, both the air and words seemed strangely +deranged; his head sank upon his breast, and he snored repeatedly, +instead of singing; he made an effort to arouse himself, uttered that +ejaculation common to all ranks and both sexes of Spaniards, but which +is too gross to be written, and, stretching himself at full length upon +the floor, was sound asleep in an instant. His three comrades were not +slow in following his example; wrapped in their <i>ponchos</i>, or South +American cloaks, they "took ground" around the fire, and were soon +asleep.</p> + +<p>The sentry at the door, after two or three times stumbling over his own +feet, and as often dropping his musket out of his arms from mere +drowsiness, came into the guard-room to light a segar, which he +eventually accomplished at the imminent risk of pitching head foremost +into the fire. He resumed his station at the door, but was too sleepy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +to walk on his post; he seated himself on the stone bench, the butt of +his musket resting upon the ground between his feet, and the muzzle +leaning against his shoulder; the lighted segar dropped from his mouth; +he leaned his head against the door-post, extended his feet and legs, +and in a few seconds his nasal organ, in strains like the nocturnal song +of one of our largest bull-frogs, gave notice that he was "absent +without leave" to the land of Nod.</p> + +<p>Isabella now arose, and, motioning to the prisoners to remain quiet, +tripped backwards and forwards through the guard-room, to ascertain that +the soldiers were asleep. Having satisfied herself on this point, she +beckoned to them to follow her. In passing through the guard-room, +Morton as well as his companions felt a strong inclination to possess +themselves of the arms of the guard, which were piled in one corner. +Their fair guide however entreated them to desist; but one of the +seamen, in attempting, to use his own language, to "unship" one of the +bayonets, made so much noise with the muskets, as alarmed himself as +well as the rest; and the whole party sallied out unarmed.</p> + +<p>Near the door they were met by another person, that alarmed the +prisoners exceedingly; but it proved to be Transita, Isabella's Mexican +servant, loaded with two "sizeable" bundles; for the annals of +elopements, from the earliest ages down to the present day, have not +recorded a single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> instance of a lady's running away from "cruel +parents" or cross husband without the accompaniment of a sufficient +quantity of baggage; nay, I have heard of one young lady who +accomplished a most perilous descent from her chamber window into the +arms of an expecting lover, and returned for her favorite lap-dog, at +the most imminent risk of detection and close imprisonment at the hands +of her "ugly, old, cross papa."</p> + +<p>Transita, like her mistress, was dressed in boy's clothes, a disguise +that so effectually imposed upon the four sailors, that in a whispered +conversation between them it it was decided that the two "young +gentlemen" were the sons of the merchant to whom the cargo had been +sold. Keeping close to the side of the plaza, the whole party advanced +swiftly and silently without meeting a human being, and turned down the +open space where Don Gregorio had met his horrid fate. As the dreadful +scene rose to Isabella's memory, she could not repress a faint +exclamation of horror, and hurried with increased speed down the narrow +pathway on the edge of the cliff, to escape from the hideous +recollection. Just as they were emerging from their narrow and crooked +path into the street that terminated in the blind passage through the +wood, they were startled by the regular, heavy tread of soldiers, +apparently approaching them. It was a small patrol of a corporal and +three men from the barrack at the water side, but who were not connected +with the guard in the plaza. As they drew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> nigh, the party stood +perfectly still, except that one of the tars drew forth his jack-knife, +and another picked up a moderate-sized stone, observing in a whisper +that if they came too nigh, he would try which was the hardest, a +Spaniard's scull or that "ground nut," as he designated the stone which +he held in his hand. The soldiers, however, passed on without seeing +them, and in a few seconds their footsteps became inaudible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She is won: we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Marmion.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The liberated seamen once more pushed forward, no longer guided by +Isabella, who had got as far as her knowledge of the place extended, and +were again, in nautical language, "brought up all standing." A priest, +returning from the death-bed of one of his flock, saw them gliding along +silently and in "Indian file." His head being full of good wine, death, +the devil, &c., and the place enjoying moreover the reputation of being +haunted, his imagination magnified and multiplied the seven fugitives +into a legion of devils, with horns, tails, and fiery breath complete. +Under this impression he began to thunder forth a Latin form of +exorcism: "In nomine sanctæ Trinitatis et purissimæ Virginis, exorcizo +vos! Apage, Satana! Vade retro, diabole!" &c. &c. in such abominably bad +Latin, that a devil or a ghost of the least classical taste would have +incontinently fled to the Red Sea, without waiting to hear another +syllable of the formula that sent him thither. The bawling of the priest +awoke several of the neighbors, and sundry night-capped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> heads were +protruded from the windows of the nearest houses; but the proprietors, +catching a glimpse of the objects of the priest's alarm, and not caring +to play bo-peep with the devil, closed and barred their casements, and +betook them to their beads.</p> + +<p>The party glided on in the same swift, silent pace; but the hindmost +sailor, irritated by the continued vociferation of the priest, and +stumbling at that moment over the carcase of a dog that had given up the +ghost a few hours before, seized it by the hind leg, and flung it at the +holy man with such true aim and force, as brought him to the ground. +Luckily the monk swooned away with terror at this unexpected buffeting +in the flesh from Satan, and his noise was consequently stopped. The +next moment the party plunged into the bushy path, and were instantly +lost to the view of the inhabitants, if indeed any were looking after +them.</p> + +<p>Advancing swiftly along the rough path, and losing their way two or +three times, they at length heard the light dash of the surf upon the +sand-beach; but, to their no small alarm, they also plainly heard, from +time to time, the low hum of voices, though their language was not +distinguishable. Fearing the worst, Morton advanced alone to +reconnoitre, notwithstanding Isabella's earnest entreaties not to be +left alone. Moving slowly and cautiously towards the point whence +proceeded the voices, the soft sand rendering his footsteps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> inaudible, +he approached as near as he durst, and listened for some minutes with +the most fixed attention, to catch a word that would indicate the +character and nation of the speakers, but in vain; and he was on the +point of returning to his friends in despair, when he plainly +distinguished the exclamation, "d—— n my eyes," uttered by some one at +no great distance from where he stood. No Sontag or Malibran ever +warbled a note that contained a hundredth part of the sweetness and +music that was comprised in that simple and unsophisticated ejaculation; +it decided in an instant, and beyond all possibility of doubt, who and +what was the speaker. His joy was inconceivable, and he could scarce +refrain from giving vent to it in a loud shout. Returning immediately, +he communicated the joyful intelligence to his friends; and the whole +party, with light hearts and rapid steps, advanced towards the beach. +Just as they stepped from the shade and covert of the bushes, a pistol, +the bright barrel of which glittered in the star-light, was presented to +Morton's breast; and the holder thereof, in a grum voice, commanded him +to "stand!"</p> + +<p>"Heave to, and let's overhaul your papers," continued the speaker, who +was immediately recognized, by the voice, as Jones, the boatswain of the +Albatross.</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, don't speak so loud; 'tis I, 'tis Morton—Jones, is that +you, my old boy?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p> + +<p>"God bless you, Mr. Morton, it is you indeed—I thought 'twas a raft of +them thundering sojers bearing down upon us. I've been lying to, under +the lee of this 'ere bush, for this two hours or more, waiting for you."</p> + +<p>The parleying between their "look-out ship," as they called Jones, and +the strangers, attracted the whole party of the Albatross to the spot; +and Morton, to his surprise, found himself and his companions surrounded +by at least thirty well-armed men. His friend Walker, the second mate of +the ship, advanced, and testifying the sincerest affection, welcomed him +once more to liberty and the company of his shipmates. Kind greetings +and hearty welcomes were given by the seamen, in their blunt, +straight-forward way, and not a few jokes were passed upon the four +liberated tars by their light-hearted messmates.</p> + +<p>"I say, Tom Wentworth, how much <i>grub</i> did the Don Degos allow you? a +rat a-piece, or the hind leg of a jackass among the four of you?"</p> + +<p>"Ay," said another, "and Sundays they had a jackass's head stewed in a +lantern, and stuffed with sogers' coats."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said a third, "and green-hide soup three times a week."</p> + +<p>"Seasoned with brick-dust and pig-weeds," said a fourth, "by way of red +pepper and cabbages."</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind what they've had," said old Tom Jones, interposing, +"one thing's sartain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> they ha'n't had any steam, that's jist as clear +as mud."</p> + +<p>"You're idle there, old Tom Pipes; we've had as much good wine as we +could lay our sides to. But howsomever, if you've got any white-eye in +that black betty that you're rousing out of your pea-jacket pocket, I +don't much care if I take a drop."</p> + +<p>"Poor children!" said the boatswain, "they've been kept this whole week +in a snug, warm <i>caliboose</i>, and they'll catch cold if they're out in +the night air."</p> + +<p>So saying, he offered his junk-bottle of New England to Morton, who +declined it, and it was then passed to his four fellow-prisoners, who +took a long, deliberate, steady aim at the stars through it in +succession.</p> + +<p>By this time the two whale-boats and yawls, that constituted the +flotilla of the shore party, were hauled as close to the beach as the +shoalness of the water would permit, and the embarkation commenced; +Morton carrying the fair Isabella in his arms, and depositing her in the +stern-sheets of the swiftest of the boats, in which he found ample store +of boat-cloaks and pea-jackets to protect her from the night air and +heavy dews. Her attendant, Transita, was about following her mistress, +when Tom Jones, who had no suspicion that there were more than one +"young gentleman" concerned in effecting the escape of his shipmates,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +or about taking passage in the ship, laid his huge hand upon her +shoulder, exclaiming,</p> + +<p>"Halloa! shipmate, where are you bound to, if the wind stands?"</p> + +<p>"What are you about there, Jones?" shouted Morton from the boat, +"she—he, I mean, is to go off with us. Take him through the surf."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir; come, Mr. She—he, just get upon my shoulders, if you +please; come, bear a hand before it snows—there, stow yourself away in +the starn-sheets—there, that's the time of day—shove her bows off, +Sam, and jump aboard—so, pull round your larboard oars—now give way +together."</p> + +<p>Their oars being all muffled, they glided, silently and swiftly, towards +the offing, edging away a little to the south, or farther side of the +bay, to avoid the possibility of observation from the shore. They had +proceeded swiftly for some minutes, and had passed the point on which +the battery stands without speaking a word, when the silence was broken +by Morton,—</p> + +<p>"Where is the ship, Jones? do you see any thing of her?"</p> + +<p>The boatswain desisted rowing, and, holding his head down as near the +water as possible, looked long and anxiously to the western horizon.</p> + +<p>"I don't see her," said he, "unless that's her, here on our starboard +bow."</p> + +<p>"No, that's the rock."</p> + +<p>By this time the other boats had come up, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> all agreed that nothing +could be seen of the ship. After a brief consultation, it was decided +that their safest plan was to continue rowing to the westward, and that +they would be sure of seeing the ship at day-break; whereas if daylight +found them in the bay, they would most assuredly be seen, and chased by +the boats from the shore.</p> + +<p>Isabella, whom most powerful excitement had supported from the prison to +the point of embarkation, had since then, reclining on the stern-sheets +of the boat, and supported by her lover's arms, been in a state of +stupor and silence; her thoughts were in a complete whirl, almost +amounting to delirium; the kind and soothing voice of Morton she +scarcely heard, and she only awoke to consciousness during the short +deliberation just mentioned. In an agony of terror at the doubt and +uncertainty that she heard expressed around her, she uttered the wildest +exclamations, and struggled with Morton and her attendant, who +endeavored in vain to pacify and sooth her. With unspeakable anguish +Morton witnessed, for half an hour, the confusion of her intellects, +till at length she sunk down exhausted, and wept bitterly. At this +moment a voice from the yawl that had gone ahead, shouted, "There she +is!"</p> + +<p>"Where, where?" asked a dozen eager voices.</p> + +<p>"Right ahead."</p> + +<p>Every eye was instantly turned in that direction, and, to their +unutterable joy, they saw, at the distance of about a mile, the light of +a signal-lantern.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> Every oar was most vigorously plied, and in a few +minutes the headmost boat was greeted with "Boat ahoy!" from Captain +Williams—"Albatross," was the reply, and the boats dashed up to the lee +gangway and fore-chains.</p> + +<p>Isabella, whose buoyant spirit had recovered its spring when she saw the +danger was over, was assisted up the side by her lover and two or three +of the most careful men. As soon as Morton stepped upon deck, he was +caught in the arms of his commander, who was inarticulate from emotion. +Morton, quietly disengaging himself, presented his fair deliverer. The +old seaman folded her in his arms, and kissing her cheek, drew her arm +under his, and conducted her to the cabin, whither they were followed by +Morton.</p> + +<p>Under the superintendence of the second mate and boatswain the boats +were now hoisted up and secured; the ship wore with her head to the +westward, all sails set, and hot coffee, beef, bread, cheese, &c. +provided liberally for the "shore party;" after which the watch was set, +the deck "relieved" by Captain Williams, and the Albatross, with her +white wings expanded, flew rapidly on her course before a fresh easterly +breeze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Master, let me take you a button hole lower; do you not see, Pompey +is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? you will lose your +reputation.<br /><span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Love's Labor's Lost.</span><br /></p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>The rising sun the next day beheld the good ship Albatross, under the +impulse of a very gentle breeze, gliding towards the west; the Andes, +over which the sun was darting his levelled beams, were distinctly +visible. The flapping of the topsails against their masts, the pattering +of the reef-points, and the smoothness of the water, indicated an +approaching calm.</p> + +<p>"Go aloft, one of you," said Morton, who was the officer of the morning +watch, "go aloft, and see if you can make out any sail astern of us +under the land."</p> + +<p>The seaman who obeyed this order, after <i>roosting</i> for fifteen or twenty +minutes on the main royal yard, came down and reported that he could see +nothing; but that the sun shone so brightly on the water that, if any +thing was within the range of sight, the reflection of the sunbeams +would render<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> it invisible. Morton could not repress a vague +apprehension that there was some vessel in chace, though it would have +sorely puzzled him to give his whys and wherefores. After having pointed +his glass for the fiftieth time towards the eastern horizon, without +seeing any thing but smooth water and the dim, blue, cloudy-looking +mountains, the man at the wheel notified him that it was "eight bells," +or eight o'clock. Having gone below to compare the watch in the cabin +with the half-hour glass in the binnacle, he returned to the +quarter-deck and called out,</p> + +<p>"Strike the bell eight—call the watch."</p> + +<p>The bell was struck, and one of the watch on deck, after a preliminary +thumping with the large end of a handspike upon the forecastle, +vociferated down the fore scuttle,</p> + +<p>"All the starboard watch, ahoy! Rouse out there, starbowlines—show a +leg or an arm!"</p> + +<p>This last phrase designates the manner in which "turning out" of a +hammock is accomplished, which hammock, a person unacquainted with such +kind of sleeping accommodations, would never dream contained a live man, +until one or the other of the aforementioned limbs was protruded. In a +few minutes the wheel was relieved, and the crew were clustering around +the galley with their tin pots, joking, and laughing, and shouting +"scaldings!" as they hurried forward with their respective allowances of +hot coffee.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the quarter-deck received an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> accession of company. Mr. +Walker came up the companion-way, gaping and rubbing his eyes, and +carrying his jacket on his arm. With a short "good morning!" to Morton +he threw his jacket upon the hen-coop, proceeded to the lee gangway, +drew a bucket of water, and commenced his morning's ablutions. Captain +Williams next came on deck, and immediately looked round upon the +weather with a troubled and disappointed air, for it was now almost +quite a calm. Mr. Edwards and Dr. Bolton followed him—not that they had +any business on deck, or cared much about leaving the cabin or their +respective state-rooms oftener than was necessary; but it is not, or was +not, in my sea-going days, esteemed genteel for passengers, or any other +"idlers," to stay below while the steward was occupied with the mystery +of arranging the breakfast-table. Lastly, and to the surprise of the +whole company, Isabella, as lovely as the morning, and dressed in the +proper habiliments of her sex, ascended the companion-ladder. She was +greeted with paternal affection by the veteran commander, and with +sparkling eyes and a silent pressure of the hand by Morton. She received +and replied to their congratulations and compliments with crimsoned +cheeks and downcast eyes. The supercargo and doctor, who had, with most +commendable delicacy, kept out of the way the night before, were now +introduced, and after a few minutes of general conversation, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +steward informed Captain Williams that breakfast was ready.</p> + +<p>The whole party, with the exception of Mr. Walker, who was now in his +turn "officer of the deck," accordingly descended to the cabin, where +they found the table covered with coffee and tea, <i>minus</i> milk; cold +salt beef, cut into slices, of a thickness that would horrify a whole +community of fashionable ladies and gentlemen, allowing that so +exceedingly vulgar an article of "provent" as salt beef did not +previously throw them into hysterics as soon as presented to their eyes, +but which slices seemed to have been cut with the prospective intention +of filling up that vacuum that Nature, as far as I am acquainted with +her, seems to abhor more cordially than any other vacuum whatever; that +void space, I mean, that is apt to be found in a healthy human stomach +after a twelve-hour's fast. There was also a broiled chicken for the +express use and behoof of their fair messmate; fried pork and potatoes; +a large dish of fried fish, the produce of a fishing excursion the +afternoon preceding; another of boiled eggs; a third composed of +pilot-bread, soaked in hot water, toasted, and buttered; biscuit, +butter, and cheese.</p> + +<p>Breakfast proceeded much as sea breakfasts generally do—that is to say, +the company ate heartily: even Isabella, who had sufficient excuse for +low spirits and want of appetite, yielded to the demands of hunger the +most unromantic, and, in vulgar language, "spoilt the looks" of the +broiled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> fowl before her. The meal was drawing to a close, when the +steward came below with information, that Mr. Walker had seen, from the +main topmast head, with his glass, a square-rigged vessel right astern, +and coming up with a fresh breeze. Captain Williams and Morton exchanged +looks of intelligence, but said nothing; their fair passenger, +fortunately, understood not a word of the steward's intelligence; and +the merchant and doctor were of that happy and enviable description of +men, who, when they sit down to a well-furnished table, seem to adopt, +with a slight variation, the sentiment of the poet,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let my '<i>eating</i>' hours alone,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The two seamen, however anxious they might feel, finished their +breakfast very composedly, and went on deck without hurry; Morton +recommending to his fair deliverer to remain below for some time. In +half an hour the chace was distinctly visible from the quarter-deck, and +from the peculiar darkness of the water in that direction, it was +evident that she had a good breeze. It was then that conjectures as to +the character of the stranger were numerous, wild, and contradictory; no +one thought for an instant that it was the Venganza, because they had +seen her the day before with her fore-yard down and sent on shore—the +idea that there might possibly be found a spare spar in the dock-yard +that would answer <i>pro tem</i>. never, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> an instant, presenting itself +to their minds. A few minutes more, however, convinced them that it was +indeed that "terrible ship with a terrible name;" and orders were +immediately given to prepare for action as silently as possible. These +orders were obeyed with joyous alacrity. A feeling of romantic gratitude +to their lovely passenger was accompanied by a most chivalrous +determination to "do or die" in her defence, and these sentiments +pervaded the whole ship's company. Added to this exciting cause was that +natural propensity to strife that Flora Mac Ivor says all men feel when +placed in opposition to each other, or, as Titus Livius Patavinus hath +it, they were "suopte ingenio feroces."</p> + +<p>The clews of the topsails were lashed to the lower yard-arms; the +topsail-yards slung with iron chains; round, grape, and cannister shot +got up from the hold; the boarding-pikes taken down from the racks and +laid at hand; the arm-chests unlocked, and their murderous contents of +muskets, bayonets, pistols, cutlasses, and tomahawks or pole-axes +produced; powder-horns and flasks, for priming the guns, filled and +placed in readiness; rammers, sponges, and priming-wires distributed to +the guns; preventer braces rove, and stoppers for the rigging sent up +into the tops, or placed in different parts of the deck. The carpenter +got ready his shot-plugs and top-maul; the armorer examined the locks of +the fire-arms; the gunner paraded his wads, and opened the magazine +beneath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> the cabin floor. Morton, to whom Captain Williams had deputed +the charge of the two females, descended to the steerage, attended by +two or three seamen, and hauled all the spare sails out of the +sail-room, with which he formed a small hollow coil in the cable tier. +These sails, being formed into long hard rolls and placed upon the +cables, formed a rampart that, from its non-elasticity, would more +effectually check the progress of a round shot than a greater thickness +of oak plank.</p> + +<p>Having finished the castle, he could not forbear passing into the cabin +to see its future occupant. Isabella received him with a blush and a +smile.</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of all this noise and bustle overhead?" said she.</p> + +<p>"There is a strange ship in sight," said Morton, after a pause, "and we +are almost sure that she has hostile intentions towards us." Isabella +became pale as marble. "It is, in short, the man-of-war that was in St. +Blas when we left there."</p> + +<p>"Good God!" said the young lady, clasping her hands in agony, "what will +become of us?"</p> + +<p>"Do not allow yourself to be overcome with causeless alarm; we shall, if +possible, run away; but if not, we must resort to certain arguments to +convince her commander and crew of the impropriety and rudeness of their +interfering in an affair that does not concern them."</p> + +<p>"But if we are taken, what will become of you?"</p> + +<p>"I suspect, dearest Isabella, that you will search in vain through the +Albatross to find a single person,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> man or boy, that is prepared to +admit the probability, nay, even the possibility, of such a conclusion. +We are nominally inferior, but in reality superior, to our antagonist. +In the mean time, I have been preparing a place of safety for you and +Transita, where it is next to impossible that you should be in the way +of danger."</p> + +<p>"But you," said she, looking at him with tearful eyes.</p> + +<p>"My life, my sweet girl, is in the hands of Him that gave it; and to His +watchful care and boundless goodness I cheerfully and confidingly commit +it."</p> + +<p>"But if you are taken—such a thing is at least possible."</p> + +<p>"Such an event is, as you say, possible. In that case, your Mexican +friends must be content to work their revenge upon my dead body, for I +am determined that the living Charles Morton shall never become an +object for Spanish vengeance to exhaust its ingenuity upon. But I must +leave you for the present. I will come below again in a few minutes, to +conduct you to your citadel."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XX.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some writers make all ladies purloined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knights pursuing like a whirlwind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But those, that write in rhyme, still make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The one verse for the other's sake.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Morton and his companions had left the prison a few minutes past ten +o'clock. It was nearly one when an officer, who was up and passing +through the plaza for certain good reasons best known to himself, +noticed, as he approached the guard-house, that there was an unusual +degree of stillness about it; no sentry challenged as he drew near, and +indeed there seemed to be none on post. Surprised at this, he entered +the porch, or as it is called in New England, the "<i>pye</i>-azza," where he +found the sentry seated, as before described, and snoring most lustily. +Him he attempted to awaken by a very summary process; namely, by +tumbling him from his seat upon the ground; but so stupified was the +fellow with the drugged wine that he had drank, that after uttering +certain unintelligible growlings, he again slept and snored. Passing +into the interior, the officer found the corporal and his "brave +compeers" as sound asleep and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> motionless as the enchanted +inhabitants of a fairy castle. After bestowing upon them several sound +and hearty kicks, without producing any vivifying effects, he perceived +that the door of the inner room, or prison, was wide open, and the room +itself as empty as—an author's pockets. On further examination he found +a basket, the remains of food, three or four empty bottles and +drinking-cups, one or two full bottles, and a phial containing a small +quantity of dark-colored liquid, with the qualities of which he did not +think it prudent to make himself acquainted by experiment upon his own +person; not possessing a particle of the philosophical courage and zeal +of Sir Humphrey Davy, who gulped down poisonous gases till it became a +matter of astonishment and mystery to his friends, as well as himself, +how he contrived to find his way back into this world, after having +strolled so far beyond its limits. The phial, however ignorant he was of +the nature of its contents, explained, in connection with the empty +bottles, the cause of the death-like sleep of the guard.</p> + +<p>After deliberating for an extremely short space of time (for when a man +has nobody near to bother him with advice, he makes up his mind with +incredible despatch), he concluded that there would be no danger in +leaving the guard-house just as he found it, for sundry reasons; in the +first place, the present circumstances had probably existed some hours; +secondly, as there was nothing there for the guard to watch over but +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> empty bottles, &c. said guard might as well sleep as be awake; +thirdly—but by this time he was almost at his excellency's door, and it +was hardly worth while to follow any farther a line of reasons that +threatened to stretch out to the crack of day, if not of doom. After +abundance of vociferating and thumping, he succeeded in rousing the +governor from his slumbers, and bringing him to the window, night-capped +and night-gowned "proper," as the heralds say. His excellency was +thunderstruck at the intelligence, and in a few minutes his household +was in motion.</p> + +<p>His two daughters had no sooner learned that the prisoners had escaped, +than they hastened to the chamber of their cousin, Isabella, to +communicate the joyful intelligence. To their surprise and consternation +no cousin Isabella was to be found; the chamber was in its usual state, +but it was immediately obvious that the bed had not been pressed that +night by its lovely occupant; one or two of the drawers of a bureau, in +which she had formerly kept sundry articles of clothing, were open and +empty; nor was this all; the doors of a little book-case, that stood +upon a table in one corner of the room, and that formerly contained +thirty or forty volumes, were also open, and every volume was gone.</p> + +<p>This circumstance, which at once convinced the two young ladies that +their cousin was decidedly deranged in mind, should have been mentioned +and explained in its proper place. A fortnight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> previous to Morton's +capture, Isabella consented to put herself under his protection, and +having so done, retired to her chamber to deliberate upon the how and +the what she should take with her. Her jewels, that had been left her by +her mother, or given her by her uncle and other relatives, were +numerous, costly, and easily portable; but jewels, though they ornament +beauty, do not keep it warm. Her drawers were next opened, and sundry +indispensable articles of dress were selected and set aside; but while +she hesitated between certain elegant and valuable dresses and others +more ordinary, that her natural good sense told her were more +appropriate, her eyes rested upon a volume of Milton opened at the +title-page, on which was written her mother's name by that beloved +parent's hand: "My dear mother's books! how could I think of leaving +them behind, or any thing that was ever hers!" She closed her drawers +after having carelessly thrown aside, for "sea-service," the first +dresses that came to hand—her whole thoughts occupied in devising means +to save what, just at that moment, seemed of vastly superior +consequence. The books, by Morton's advice, were subsequently carried, +two or three at a time, to Juanita's house, and thence by him conveyed +carefully on board the Albatross, and safely deposited in his chest. +Having settled this affair so much to her satisfaction, she used the +same means to transport the greater part of her most valuable clothes to +the same place, till the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> unfortunate capture of her lover made it +necessary to encumber herself and attendant with the remainder, upon the +night of her elopement and their escape.</p> + +<p>I pride myself not a little in being particular in an affair of such +delicacy. Some writers wake their heroines at dead of night, drag them, +half drest, out of a third story chamber window, lead them through a +thousand perils by flood, fire, and field, till the mere matter-of-fact, +common sense reader is convinced that the poor girls had neither a dry +thread nor a clean one upon their persons; and no "change of raiment" so +much as hinted at. I scorn so ungallant an action as to compel <i>my</i> +heroine to make a voyage nearly round the world, or within thirty +degrees of longitude of it, in such a draggle-tailed and sluttish +condition; so that you see, madam, I have made this digression for the +sole purpose of setting your mind at ease on the score of Isabella's +gowns, frocks, hose, and those other articles of the "inner temple" +whose names I dare not even think of, or whose existence it would be +impolite and indelicate to hint at.</p> + +<p>The alarming fact of his niece's absence the governor fortunately did +not learn till morning, or rather till late in the forenoon, he having +gone towards the guard-house before his daughters visited their cousin's +chamber. When arrived there, Don Gaspar was convinced, by examination of +the phial, that the soldiers were under the influence of a most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +powerful opiate; and, furthermore, that the prisoners had obtained that +opiate and the wine that it was administered in, from some person out of +the prison who had access to them; and he immediately vowed vengeance +the most signal and summary against the traitor, offering, at the same +time, a large reward for his, her, or their apprehension. Alas, poor +man! he did not know that the traitor was of his own kith and kin, his +own beloved niece.</p> + +<p>His next movement was to send an officer at full gallop to the Venganza, +or rather to the landing place, commanding her captain to despatch boats +to the American ship in the outer harbor, and search for the fugitives. +Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, who had obtained a spare +fore-yard from the dock-yard, rigged and swayed it aloft the night that +he came in, instantly concluded that the escape had been effected by the +American captain, and that the Albatross had immediately sailed. +Impressed with this idea, he weighed anchor forthwith, and, favored by a +fresh breeze from the land, was convinced by eight o'clock that morning +that his conjecture was right.</p> + +<p>How the governor bore the news of his niece's elopement we have never +been able precisely to discover, but have understood vaguely that he +displayed infinitely more warm and tender feelings than he had +heretofore had credit for.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was an ancient sage philosopher<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That had read Alexander Ross over,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swore the world, as he could prove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was made of fighting and of love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just so romances are, for what else<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is in them all but love and battles?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O' the first of these we've no great matter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To treat of, but a world o' the latter.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 20em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p>The breeze that brought the Venganza within sight, was in a very short +time felt likewise by the Albatross; but it gradually hauled to the +southward, thereby giving the American the advantage of the wind, or +weather-gage. Still it was evident that the Spaniard was the superior +sailer, and that he might, if he chose, soon be alongside; but he seemed +to be aware that preparations had been made by the Yankee commander and +his crew to give him a very warm reception. Accordingly he shortened +sail and tacked, with the hope of getting to windward; but in this he +was foiled by the Albatross tacking also, and, in spite of all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +Spaniard's manœuvring, retaining the advantage that the wind gave +her.</p> + +<p>The crew of the American were all this time quietly leaning on their +guns, and watching the evolutions of their antagonist; and commenting +upon every movement with as much composure as though their own ship was +lying at anchor in a friendly port, and they were only looking at some +ship beating into harbor.</p> + +<p>"That old rattle-trap of a gardy coaster works tolerably well, only +she's a month of Sundays swinging her head-yards, and getting her +fore-tack down," said one of the seamen.</p> + +<p>"You may well say that," said another, "and the same of his main-yard +and main-tack, and jib-sheet to boot."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can't blame him for not being in a hurry," said the +boatswain, "he knows what he'll get when he hooks on to the old +Albatross. When once we get fairly hold on him, I don't ask but half an +hour to do his business for him: fifteen minutes to knock away some of +his sticks, and send him off flanking, and fifteen minutes more to +secure the guns and clear the decks up; and by that time it will be +eight bells, and then we'll have our dinner and our grog, and be all +ready to make sail on our course again."</p> + +<p>"There she goes again! helm's a-tiller, jib-sheet's a-rope, and round +she comes!"</p> + +<p>"Ready about!" shouted Captain Williams, and the crew flew to their +stations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + +<p>Both vessels were now heading to the westward; the Venganza, by superior +sailing and frequent tacking, had gained considerably to windward; and +it was evident that she would soon be alongside, though to leeward. In +this situation of affairs, Captain Williams, seeing that flight was out +of the question, called all hands aft.</p> + +<p>"Lie aft there all of you, hurry aft there, men, at once," repeated the +boatswain, adding, in a lower tone, "the old man's going to read us a +page out of Hamilton Moore."</p> + +<p>The men being all assembled upon the quarter-deck, Captain Williams +advanced, and thus addressed them:</p> + +<p>"Men, you see that fellow yonder that is following on after us, and know +what he wants. He sails rather better than we do, and I don't see how +we're going to get rid of him; and if we don't want to be plagued with +him any longer, why we must fight him, that's all. I don't suppose that +you will fight any the quicker or better for my making a speech to you, +but I want you should know which leg you stand upon. We are nothing but +a merchantman, and I don't suppose you are bound by the ship's articles +to fight unless you see fit, but whether we fight or not, our fate is +the same; if we are such d—d fools as to let that garlic-eating +scarecrow make a prize of us without firing a gun, we shall be sent to +the mines for life; but if we will only stand by each other, I'll be +bail that we give him something that he can't eat. Now if you are all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +agreeable to that, say so, and give three cheers for the honor of the +Yankee flag, and we'll fix his flint for him before the cook's dinner is +ready."</p> + +<p>This pertinent harangue was received with three roaring cheers, which +were distinctly heard by the Spaniards, who were thereby convinced that +the Americans were not the sort of men to be frightened into a +surrender; and they, the Spaniards that is, "smelled the battle" by no +means "afar off," but, on the contrary, rather nearer their noses than +was altogether agreeable.</p> + +<p>By way of commentary to his speech, the Yankee commander called to the +steward to "bring up the case bottle, &c. and the molasses jug," +observing, that; "although he knew that the Albatrosses didn't require +any Dutch courage, the sun was over the fore-yard, and it was grog time +in all Christian countries."</p> + +<p>Jones, who by virtue of his office was always foremost at "splicing the +main-brace," having compounded a tolerably stiff tumbler of blackstrap, +turned to his shipmates, prefacing with the invariable commencement of a +sailor's toast,</p> + +<p>"<i>Here's hoping</i> that every shot we fire will make work for the doctor +or carpenter."</p> + +<p>This pithy "sentiment," as it would be called at the present day, was +received with vast applause; and, having finished their grog, +interspersed with similar toasts, the men quietly returned to their +quarters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p> + +<p>During this scene Morton descended to the cabin and conducted his fair +charge to her Gibraltar in the steerage. Isabella, weeping bitterly, +clung to him, and Morton's heart, softened by the tears of one whom he +loved so tenderly, seemed divested of all the elasticity of young hope +and courage, and he began to regard the <i>possibility</i> of his being +killed or taken prisoner as a <i>probability</i>; but he resisted the +fast-coming weakness, and, pressing her to his bosom, tore himself from +her arms, and hurried upon deck. Isabella was attended and consoled in +her retirement by her faithful servant Transita, her "fidus Achates."</p> + +<p>I hope my fair and also my classical readers will pardon me for giving +the masculine title and name of a hero of antiquity to a lady's maid; +but I could think of no other. History has immortalized Achates as a +single friend, and Pylades and Orestes, and Damon and Pythias, as pairs +of attached and inseparable friends; but, alas! neither ancient nor +modern history has recorded the name of a single female, whose +friendship was sufficiently ardent and pure to become proverbial. Even +the Helena and Hermia of Shakspeare, whose friendship is so touchingly +described by one of them, were not only imaginary creations of the +poet's brain; but, as if to prove the impossibility of friendship +existing between two ladies, he has made them actually pull caps in the +very first act of the play in which they are introduced.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p> + +<p>By this time the Venganza had ranged up within speaking distance, and +hailed:</p> + +<p>"Send the prisoners that you brought from San Blas on board my ship."</p> + +<p>"We have no prisoners here—we are all freemen," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"Send your first officer and the four men that were with him on board +this ship, or I will fire into you."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess, then, you'll have to fire; for I can't spare either +officer or men," replied Captain Williams drily.</p> + +<p>"I repeat, for the last time, give up those men, or I will fire."</p> + +<p>"Come after them yourself, then," roared back the irritated Yankee, +losing all patience.</p> + +<p>"D—n my buttons!" said Jones, from the midship or "slaughter-house" +gun, "he'd better come aboard starn foremost, then, so's to be all ready +for a run."</p> + +<p>Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, although a brave man, +and one who had "done the state some service," by no means liked the +aspect of affairs. He had had frequent opportunities of seeing the crew +of the Albatross, and knew that, with the exception of Captain Williams, +there was not a man on board over forty years of age; that they were all +stout, active, powerful men, warmly attached to their officers, and +living in perfect harmony with each other; that her guns were of uniform +calibre—namely, nine pounders,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> and consequently no confusion could +take place respecting cartridges or shot: on the other hand, he was a +Spaniard, the first lieutenant a Portuguese; and the second a Frenchman; +of three different nations, and three different dispositions, they never +agreed: he knew, too, that his crew was composed of a few Spaniards, a +few Portuguese, and the rest Chilians, Peruvians, and Mexicans, negroes, +mulattoes, and Indians, quarrelling and stabbing from morning till +night; that his guns were of all sorts, from twelve to four pounders +inclusive; that, although he numbered eighty on board his ship, thirty +well-armed men from the Albatross would take his ship from him in less +than five minutes, if they were thrown upon his deck during the action. +Under all these circumstances, he felt somewhat loth to commence +operations, till, after considerable time had elapsed since Captain +Williams's last angry reply, he took heart of grace, and opened an +irregular and harmless fire.</p> + +<p>"Thank God! he has spoken at last," said old Jones; "I was afraid he +meant to keep us standing here, like mum-chance in a picture-shop, till +seven bells in the afternoon with our hands in our pockets."</p> + +<p>"Keep fast every thing," shouted the American Captain; "don't fire yet."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered the captains of the guns with perfect composure.</p> + +<p>"Jemmy Bush," said the boatswain to one of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> gun's crew, as he +squinted along its side, "I'll bet you as much as you and I can drink, +the first port we get into, that I hit that fellow's foremast the first +shot."</p> + +<p>"The devil thank you," said the tar; "'tisn't twenty yards from the +muzzle of your gun."</p> + +<p>"Starboard your helm—keep her away a little," said Captain Williams; +"stand by—now's your time—fire!—luff! luff again!"</p> + +<p>"Luff it is, sir," said the helmsman very deliberately.</p> + +<p>The double-shotted broadside of the Albatross was followed by three +thundering cheers. Her fire, although not exactly a raking one, had +crossed the Spaniard's deck very obliquely, and the smoke blowing off +immediately, gave the Americans an opportunity of seeing some of the +effects of their shot. Two of the Venganza's foremost guns had been +dismounted, and all the men stationed at them killed or wounded; there +were huge gaps in her bulwarks; several of her weather fore-shrouds were +shot away; and about ten feet from the deck there appeared upon the side +of her foremast a large hole, caused by two or more shot striking nearly +in the same place, and tearing off large splinters. There was silence +for a few seconds, interrupted only, on board the Albatross, by the +punching and thumping of rammers, as her crew were busily reloading +their guns.</p> + +<p>Mr. Walker, with the doctor and supercargo, all capital shots, +constituted the marines or small-arm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> men of the ship. The doctor was +not, however, unmindful of his medical duties; for he had prepared a +place between decks, down the fore hatchway, where he had paraded his +medicine-chest, instruments, and dressings; and, leaving them in charge +of the cook, who acted as surgeon's mate <i>pro tem.</i>, he went on deck +with his rifle, and was seen on the quarter-deck, with a case of pocket +instruments tucked into the bosom of his jacket, loading, and firing, +and bringing down a Spaniard at every discharge; for, like Apollo of +old, who is represented as a good shot as well as a good doctor, he +could send an enemy to his long home with a rifle-ball, or physic a +friend with such success as might thereafter ensue:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Mighty he was at both of these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And styled of war as well as peace."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It has never been our lot to take part in a naval engagement as an +agent, and we are thankful for it; for we are convinced, upon strong +internal evidence, of our cowardice; but we have been present at sundry +such actions, at a safe distance, as a spectator; and, from what we saw, +we can venture to assure our readers, that, when two ships or fleets are +exchanging their iron salutations, whether at long shot or close +quarters, there is nothing peculiarly interesting to a mere spectator in +the scene.</p> + +<p>Isabella and her attendant had, all this time, remained quiet, but +dreadfully frightened as soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> as the firing commenced. Finding, after +the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, that no danger had as yet come +near them, they became more composed; the former most earnestly and +sincerely imploring Divine protection, both for herself and for those +who were exposed to danger for her sake. Still she could not avoid +listening eagerly to every voice that was to be heard in the short +intervals of comparative stillness.</p> + +<p>The action had been now carried on between the two vessels nearly half +an hour, at a distance of about forty yards, when a twelve-pound shot +passed through the Albatross's larboard quarter, and, encountering the +steward's pantry in its progress, made such a fearful jingling with the +crockery ware, tin coffee-pots, and earthen jugs, that, overcome with +extreme terror, both females left their city of refuge, and ran hastily +up the after-hatchway ladder, and presented themselves on the +quarter-deck. Just as they reached the deck, a shower of grape-shot flew +whistling across the ship, one of which, passing through the +hammock-nettings, struck a seaman in the forehead, and scattered his +blood and brains in all directions. He reeled backwards two or three +yards, and fell dead at Isabella's feet. Captain Williams immediately +drew her away from the ghastly spectacle, and gave orders to carry the +body forward on the other side of the deck. He then attempted to prevail +upon her to go below; but she was too much terrified to listen to him, +nor did she seem to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> understand him. After a minute or two, she became +more composed, and eagerly inquired for Morton. Being informed that he +was on the forecastle and unhurt, and doing his duty like a brave man +and a good seaman, she expressed the most lively gratitude to Heaven, +and permitted Captain Williams to conduct her to the starboard side, +which was farthest from the enemy, and in great measure sheltered from +shot by the long-boat and by the spare spars, &c. stowed amidships.</p> + +<p>By this time the crew of the Venganza, as is often the case with cowards +when driven to desperation, had become perfectly frantic, and also +mutinous. With furious execrations, they compelled Captain Pinto to make +a desperate attempt to board the American ship, and decide the action. +For this purpose the helm of the guarda-costa was put hard down, and she +immediately ran on board the Albatross, her bowsprit passing over that +ship's larboard gangway, and coming in contact with the fore part of her +mainmast, to which it was instantly lashed firmly by Mr. Walker, Jones, +and two or three of the nearest seamen. In this state she was exposed to +a murderous raking fire of grape and cannister shot, from such of the +Albatross's guns as could be brought to bear upon her. Notwithstanding +this, the Spaniards mustered in considerable force upon and about the +heel of the bowsprit and cat-heads, armed with pistols, knives, and +cutlasses. The Americans caught up their ten-foot boarding-pikes, and +presented an impenetrable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> hedge of steel points; but, although his crew +was fearfully thinned by a well directed discharge of canister-shot and +bags of musket-balls from the two midship guns of the Albatross, Captain +Pinto, at the head of about fifty men, the sole remnant of the original +eighty, persisted in his attempt to board; and five or six of the most +desperate actually "effected a lodgement," as militarists call it, in +the main shrouds, where they were instantaneously transfixed by the long +pikes of the Yankees, and fell shrieking into the water. At this moment +the doctor, who had hitherto been engaged in dressing the hurts of the +few wounded that thought proper to visit him in his temporary cockpit, +hearing the bustle, caught up his rifle, and hastened to the <i>other</i> +field of his usefulness.</p> + +<p>"Here, doctor, doctor!" shouted old Jones as soon as he saw him, "here's +a chance for you! here's the Spanish skipper looking as savage as a +Yankee meat-axe—Gad! if you don't bear a hand, he'll cut his own +throats, for want of some of ours."</p> + +<p>"Where, where?" said the knight of the pillbox, skipping upon a gun.</p> + +<p>"There, that notomy-looking thief with a sword two fathom long in his +fist. Give him a blue pill, doctor; he looks as though he was billy-us."</p> + +<p>The doctor raised his rifle—and Captain Diego Pinto, commander in his +Most Catholic Majesty's navy, slept with his fathers.</p> + +<p>A heavier sea than ordinary, a moment after this, lifted the Albatross, +and forced her ahead:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> the bowsprit of her antagonist snapped close to +the knight-heads; but, being held by the lashing, the guarda-costa was +towed along, till a blow or two of a pole-axe severed the rope that +connected the two vessels, and she dropped astern. The desperate and +frantic courage of the Spaniards died with their commander; their first +lieutenant had received a slight splinter-wound in the foot at the first +fire of the Albatross, in consequence of which he went below, and had +not been seen on deck since; the second lieutenant's orders were not +attended to; and all was anarchy and confusion on board. A few minutes +after she drifted from the Albatross, her foremast, already badly +crippled and no longer supported by the bowsprit, fell over the larboard +bow, dragging down with it the main topmast. At this the Yankees +cheered. The Albatross soon after wore ship, and stood to the westward. +Upon mustering the crew, it was ascertained that but one man was killed, +and eight more or less wounded; her sails and rigging were much cut up; +and the services of all hands were immediately put in requisition, to +repair damages, and put the ship in condition to proceed on her voyage.</p> + +<p>The first intelligence of the victory was conveyed to Isabella by Morton +himself. As he approached her place of refuge with his head bound up +with a bloody handkerchief, having received a slight wound in the left +temple from a splinter, she uttered a scream of terror, and it was long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +before she could be convinced that the wound was trifling. As lady +passengers are of no great use on deck when the ship's sails and rigging +are hanging about her ears, she was conducted once more below.</p> + +<p>In the mean time Jones, as he trudged backwards and forwards, thought he +saw something amiss about the galley, which he entered, and a moment +after backed out, exclaiming,</p> + +<p>"D—n my two-and-twenty top-lights! if this here doesn't beat all my +going down east!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Jones? what are you swearing about now?"</p> + +<p>"Swearing? it's enough to make a minister pull off his wig, and rip +right out in the middle of his sarmont!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what <i>is</i> the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Matter? why d—n my old shoes, Captain Williams, here is one of that +bloody Don Dego's shot gone right through the galley-door, and through +the side of the big copper, and knocked all the beef and hot water +galley-west. By the piper that played before Moses when the children of +Israel danced through the wilderness, I never see such a thing since I +first went to sea, and I've seen shot fired afore to-day. And here's my +two sweet potatoes," he continued, groping in the coppers with the +cook's ladle, "that I popped in just as that fellow come alongside, all +knocked to pieces. Here he is, d—n his eyes!" holding out a +twelve-pound shot in his ladle; "here's the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> thundering thief that's +spoilt our dinner, Captain Williams, stowed away in the bottom of the +copper, as snug as a flea in a soger's blanket. The curse of the twelve +geese that eat the grass off o' Solomon's grave upon you!" With these +words he threw the shot overboard, and turned to Captain Williams with a +most rueful countenance.</p> + +<p>"Well, Jones, it's devilish unlucky I own, but I guess we can make out a +dinner for to-day, and perhaps the armorer can patch it so that it will +answer till we can get to Canton,"</p> + +<p>"I hope so, sir," said Jones, with a deep sigh; "for if we don't have +our reg'lar-cooked grub, we'll all get the scurvy, as sure as the +devil's in London; though for that matter, I've been pretty much all +over Lunnun, and never see nor heard nothin' on him, unless so be he's +in the Tower, or the king's palace, or some one of them thunderin' great +churches; and I've seen about all there was to be seen there, unless it +may be them three places. But in my way of thinking, a ship might a d—d +sight better go to sea without a medicine-chist, than without her proper +cooking-utensils and coppers; because why? if a man don't get his +reg'lar grub, his bowels gets out o' trim, and he gets belly-us, as our +doctor calls it."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, if we can't do any better, we'll burn out the big +pitch-pot, and make a shift with that till we arrive in China."</p> + +<p>"Aye, that indeed, so we can. By the hook-block! how our two snow-balls +of cooks will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> swear! Well, thank God for every thing but bread, and +that we get o' the baker." So saying, he rolled off towards the +forecastle, to superintend the knotting of one of the fore shrouds, that +had been shot away in the engagement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now, t' observe romantic method,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let bloody steel awhile be sheathed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all those harsh and rugged sounds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exchanged to Love's more gentle style,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To let our reader breathe awhile.<br /></span> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Hudibras.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>The damages done on board the Albatross were all repaired before sunset; +the dead body of the poor fellow that was killed was committed to its +watery tomb with becoming solemnity, and by the next morning the +north-east trade-wind was blowing fresh and steady, and, as it usually +does in both the Atlantic and Pacific, from almost due east. The ship, +with booms rigged out and studding-sails set on both sides, dashed +swiftly towards the west, rolling almost gunwales under at every motion, +and initiating the two females into all the mysteries of sea-sickness. +However, in two or three days the sea, that is always heaviest near the +land, subsided into the long, regular undulation peculiar to the ocean, +properly so called, and Isabella recovered from her sea-sickness, and, +by keeping as much as possible in the open air, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> walking the deck +almost constantly, assisted at first by the arm of some one of the +gentlemen, soon got her <i>sea-legs</i> on.</p> + +<p>I would substitute some other phrase, if, by so doing, I could make +myself intelligible; but as the case is, it is impossible to mince the +matter—fashion has not yet, thank God, invaded the "Dictionary of +Sea-Terms;" and ladies, when off soundings, must still be content to +have "legs" like other folks—on shore they may vote it indecent to have +even "ankles," for aught I care.</p> + +<p>Captain Williams, having neither missionaries nor tracts on board, did +not stop at the Sandwich Islands, nor did he even pass within sight of +them; but holding on his course, on the fortieth day after leaving St. +Blas, he saw Cape Espiritu Santo, the southern extremity of the island +of Lugonia, or Lucon, one of the Philippine Islands. Passing through the +Straits of Samar, he changed his course to the northward and westward, +and steered for Macao, where he arrived six days afterwards.</p> + +<p>The passage across the Pacific Ocean afforded the two lovers numerous +moonlight quarter-deck walks. Morton, as first officer, had the first +watch, from eight to twelve, every other night, and on these occasions +was invariably accompanied by his fair bride elect, who, wrapped in a +cloak or great coat, walked the deck leaning upon his arm; or, seated +upon the hen-coop, listened with interest to his descriptions of +American, or, more properly, New England, scenery, manners, and history; +or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> gazed upon that lovely object, a moon-lit ocean in fine weather.</p> + +<p>There is something peculiarly soothing in this scene—something in the +soft light of the heavens, and in the dark and dimly-seen ocean, that +induces a pleasing melancholy, a pensive tranquillity; the low, gentle +murmuring of the waves calms the mind, tranquillizes its angry passions +and boisterous feelings, and brings on those dreamy reveries that +contemplative people are so fond of indulging. It is then, when the +"grim-visaged" ocean has "smoothed his wrinkled front,"—when the winds +of heaven are hushed to gentle airs, and the cloudless moon looks down +upon the scene, tipping the crests of the lazy waves with silver,—that +the memory and imagination of the wanderer are busy; it is then that the +scenes of childhood and of manhood—the forms of friends, more loved +because sundered from them by thousands of miles of water and land—all +rise before him in original freshness and beauty.</p> + +<p>Isabella also proposed to her lover to accompany him in his middle +watch—that is, from midnight to four in the morning—but I grieve to +say, that she proved worse on these occasions than an old man-of-war's +man, not only "standing two calls," but, in fact, not "turning out" at +all. She made some amends, however, by coming on deck at four o'clock +frequently, to witness that splendid spectacle, sunrise at sea, which is +particularly glorious between the tropics, not only on account of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +extreme purity of the air, but from the shortness of the morning +twilight; the sun rushing so suddenly from his salt water couch, as to +come "within one" of catching the stars napping.</p> + +<p>On arriving at Macao, Isabella was doomed to undergo another separation +from her beloved Morton, whose qualities of head and heart she had had +sufficient opportunities of studying and appreciating during the voyage +from Mexico, and in the daily and familiar intercourse of a +merchant-ship's cabin. As the Chinese eschew the society of foreign +women even more rigorously than the children of Israel did that of +"strange" ones—and, taking this notion of theirs "by and large" in +connection with their laws, and manners, and tastes, we think they are +perfectly right—Isabella was consequently landed at Macao, and placed +in the care of a venerable and highly respectable Portuguese family, and +after having arranged the means of as regular a correspondence as could +be carried on in that country, where there are not quite so many +mail-coaches and post-offices as with us, she saw with tearful eyes the +whale-boat "shove off," containing in its stern-sheets Morton, a Chinese +custom-house mandarin, two Chinese pigs, a hind-quarter of Chinese beef, +a Chinese river pilot, and sundry baskets of Chinese fowls and +vegetables.</p> + +<p>Macao is beautifully situated upon a small island, near the mouth of the +river Tigris, commanding a fine view towards the sea, and was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> when I +had the fortune to visit it, very clean and neat in its streets and the +external condition of its houses—a circumstance the more remarkable, as +its inhabitants are Portuguese and Chinese, two of the dirtiest people +on the face of the earth: to these, of course, numerous other nations +and parts of nations may be added; and among them, a very large +proportion of the aristocratic and fastidious English, who prefer +spitting in their pocket-handkerchiefs instead of the fire-place or the +street; all the Spaniards; all the French in their houses, and food, and +furniture; all the Dutch in their persons; all the Russians in every +thing; nearly all the Irish and Scotch; and a very respectable modicum +of my beloved countrymen, the Yankees, together with the greater part of +the natives of the southern states, who, being nursed, brought up, and +associating with negro slaves from the cradle to the grave, <i>smell</i> +dirty, if they are not.</p> + +<p>After an absence of about six weeks, Isabella one morning received a +letter from Canton, informing her that the ship would commence "working" +down the river that day, or, according to the date of the letter, two +days previous, and that she would be off Macao on the second or third +day from said date. Accordingly she made all necessary preparations for +another and much longer voyage, and after dinner walked down to the +water-side, accompanied by her Portuguese friends. They had been on the +look-out for nearly half an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> hour, when a large ship hove in sight, +evidently from Canton.</p> + +<p>As she approached, steering apparently direct for the town, she suddenly +tacked and stood out to sea, or directly away from it. The party had +already made out with their glasses that the ship was indeed the +Albatross; but poor Isabella, who had seen, on her passage from Mexico, +nothing but fair winds, was exceedingly distressed by this last +unintelligible manœuvre. Were they actually going away without +her?—the thought was agony. The ship, that was but four miles off when +first seen, was now at least eight, and her hull was fast sinking below +the line of direct vision. Her companions, who had hitherto been +occupied in silently admiring that most splendid effort of human genius, +a ship under full sail, were suddenly startled by an exclamation +betokening extreme anguish from their lovely friend—"They have gone! +they have gone!" sobbed the unhappy girl. The most affectionate +kindness, and the most earnest assurances that the apparently +unaccountable movement of the ship was no more than was absolutely +necessary from the direction of the wind, were equally lost upon +her—she "would not be comforted." In a few minutes the Albatross hove +in stays (you need not hold your fan to your face, madam), and seemed to +approach the shore as rapidly as she had before receded from it.</p> + +<p>"Look up, my dear child," said M. de Silva;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> "see, your ship is flying +in, and will soon be safely at anchor."</p> + +<p>Isabella raised her head from the shoulder of Madam de Silva, and +applying the glass to her tear-dimmed eye, was convinced of the folly of +her grief. They sat down to watch the gallant ship as she rapidly +approached the "roads." Before the sun was hid behind the hills in the +rear of the town, they had the pleasure of seeing the Albatross commence +reducing her sails; presently the topsails were clewed up, and the jib +hauled down, the ship "rounded to," her anchor let go, and in a moment +the men were seen clustering upon the lower and topsail yards. A minute +or two afterwards Isabella plainly distinguished, by the help of her +glass, the well-known whale-boat sweeping round the ship's stern, and +rowing swiftly towards the shore. A deep blush announced that the glass +had also informed her who was, in midshipman's language, the "sitter," +the person in the stern-sheets, to wit, and she immediately proposed +returning to the house. Morton, on landing, informed her that the ship +would get under weigh the next morning at day-break, and that it would +be most advisable, as the ship could approach no nearer than five miles +to the town when beating out of the bay, to go on board as soon as +possible that evening, to which she, of course, assented, and, having +taken an affectionate leave of her Macao friends, who insisted upon +supplying her with "sea-stores" enough to fit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> out half a dozen sail of +Liverpool packets, she accompanied Morton to the boat.</p> + +<p>The next morning at day-break she was startled from her slumbers by the +clanking of the windlass-pauls, the voices of the officers, and the +tramp of feet over her head; and, in a few minutes after, the rushing of +the water under the cabin windows, and the "heeling" of the ship, +announced that they were under weigh, and dashing out to sea with a +fresh breeze. The passage home was, like most passages <i>from</i> the East +Indies and China, rather monotonous from the long continuance of fair +winds. Isabella gazed with delight upon the unrivalled scenery of the +Straits of Sunda, where spring, summer, and autumn reign perpetually in +a sort of triumvirate; the same field, nay, in some cases, the same +tree, presenting, at one and the same time, blossoms, green fruit, and +ripe fruit: infancy, maturity, and decay. She saw, too, in the night the +volcano on the Island of Bourbon, afterwards False Cape and Table +Mountain, but not the Flying Dutchman, the weather being unfortunately +too fine to induce him to put to sea. Next came St. Helena, since so +famous as the cage and then the tomb of that most furious and terrible +of wild beasts, a great conqueror. Near the fifth degree of north +latitude, the south-east trade-wind died away, and was succeeded by four +days of light, variable, "baffling" winds, when the north-east trade set +in strong from about east-by-north, its usual point near the equator, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> they once more flew joyously on their north-west course. A few +"regular built" <i>Mudian</i> (i. e. Bermudan) squalls served to vary the +scene, and rendered the strong, steady gale from south-west, that +succeeded them, peculiarly acceptable.</p> + +<p>It was just sunrise one lovely morning, near the last of July, when +Morton, who had the morning watch, directed one of the men to go aloft, +and "take a look round." The seaman had gotten no higher than the +fore-topsail-yard, when he shouted "land ho!" at the very top of his +throat.</p> + +<p>"Where away?"</p> + +<p>"Broad on the larboard bow."</p> + +<p>"What does it look like?"</p> + +<p>"Low, white sand-beach."</p> + +<p>"Cape Cod, by the mortal man that made horn spoons and poop lanterns!" +said Jones, springing into the fore-rigging.</p> + +<p>As the sun climbed higher in the heavens, the liquid blue plain appeared +thickly studded with the white sails of vessels of all descriptions, and +all steering to the westward. There was the majestic ship from India or +Liverpool; brigs from the Mediterranean, from Portugal, South America, +and the West Indies; schooners from the southern states, with flour, and +from Maine, with boards; packet sloops from New York, Philadelphia, &c.; +chebacco-boats from fishing on "Georgis;" and schooner-rigged +pilot-boats, darting about under jib and mainsail, and boarding every +vessel that carried the star-spangled "jack"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> at her +fore-topgallant-mast head. Nothing could surpass the tranquil life of +the scene: more than a hundred vessels, of all descriptions, were +gradually but rapidly approaching a common focal point, the narrow +entrance of Boston harbor, under the impulse of a fresh breeze from the +south-east, that had not as yet brought forward its accompanying fogs and +haze. The Albatross, her thin masts clothed from trucks to deck with +snow-white canvass, dashed rapidly up the bay, the jack flying at her +fore-royal-mast head, passing the low-decked molasses-loaded brigs from +the West Indies, or the faster sailing topsail-schooners from the +Chesapeake, inquiring the news, and furnishing matter for speculation to +their crews.</p> + +<p>On the passage from China to Boston, Morton expressed some impatience, +particularly during the prevalence of calms or head winds; but Isabella, +like all young ladies similarly situated, was perfectly composed. Why is +it, dear dissemblers, that you always <i>seem</i> to enter the holy state +with either reluctance or lukewarm indifference? when every body, with +half a head, <i>knows</i> that matrimony is the "hoc erat in votis," the +grand object of all your wishes. Strange! that the laws of female +modesty should decree it absolute indelicacy for a girl candidly to show +her preference for a particular individual before the rest of his sex. +Strange! that modern mothers should uniformly caution their daughters +against marrying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> for love, as the most dangerous rock in their voyage +through life. Solomon could find but four strange things in his day, and +those four I do not care to repeat; if he had lived in these times, he +might find a hundred and fifty connected with a single matrimonial +engagement.</p> + +<p>The Albatross arrived at Long Wharf early in the afternoon; and Morton, +having deposited his dear messmate and watchmate in the house of a +widowed sister of his father, went in search of a messenger to convey a +letter to his father; for, unless I am much misinformed, the mail only +went at that time once a week to New Bedford.</p> + +<p>Though not "so terrible old" as I might be, I recollect when a journey +from Boston to Providence, a distance <i>then</i> of forty-five miles, +occupied three days: namely, the traveller, leaving Boston in the +morning, arrived at Deadham about sunset, and "put up" at the "Gay +tavern," or the "Widow Woodward's;" the second <i>hitch</i> carried him to +Attleborough; and the third evening saw him snugly seated in the +bar-room of the "Old Coffee House," Providence. But a journey to New +York, as it was generally supposed that the traveller must "go down to +the sea in ships" part of the way, that is, through Long Island Sound in +a sloop, was one of the most momentous events of a long life. The +traveller "concluded" upon it in the fall, occupied the entire winter +and the months of March and April in collecting his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> dues, paying his +debts, setting his house in order, and making his will, before the +weather was settled.</p> + +<p>Two Sundays before starting, a note was "put up" in his parish +meeting-house, "desiring prayers," and early on Monday morning, to be +sure of reaching Providence before the next Sabbath, he took a weeping +farewell of his wife and family, and turned his horse's head towards the +"neck," and his bereaved household betook them to their chambers, +"sorrowing as those that had no hope" of seeing him again.</p> + +<p>Morton's messenger, spurred on by the hopes of high pay, made such +diligence that he actually arrived at Taunton the first night, the +selectmen of which fair town were so indignant at what they conceived +barbarous and unparalleled hard driving, that they talked of prosecuting +the man; but it appearing from the report of a court of inquiry of +ostlers that the horse did not seem distressed by his day's work, but +had fallen to work upon his oats and hay, they "withdrew their motion."</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Morton received the news of his son's arrival with the greatest +joy. He sat out the next day in his own carriage, drawn by two noble bay +horses, and arrived without "let or hindrance" in Boston. He expected to +find Isabella a girl possessed of some considerable beauty, just +sufficient to captivate a seaman who for months had seen no women more +attractive than the squaws of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> North-West Coast or South Sea +Islands; and sailors, under such circumstances, are exceedingly +susceptible, <i>me ipso testi</i>; he had made up his mind, too, that she +could be no other than ignorant and ill-bred withal. When, then, her +exquisite beauty, her lovely, retiring modesty of manner, free alike +from affectation or sheepishness, her expressive and eloquent features, +all burst upon his view at once, his heart was taken "by storm,"—he +clasped her to his bosom, and felt towards her in an instant as warm +affection as though she was indeed his own child. The banns of matrimony +were published immediately, after the manner of the descendants of the +pilgrim roundheads, and the marriage solemnized as soon as the legal +time had elapsed; and the happy party took up their abode in old Mr. +Morton's house.</p> + +<p>Morton's female friends and acquaintance at first seemed amazingly shy +of the new-comer; but at a "numerous and highly respectable" petticoated +caucus, a forlorn hope, after repeated declensions of the honor, was +chosen to make the first "call." Their report was so very favorable that +the newly-married couple were, in less than a fortnight, rather annoyed +by too much company.</p> + +<p>On the passage from Mexico to China, and thence home, Isabella had, in +vulgar phrase, "taken a liking" to Jones, the boatswain, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> formed, +what was probably conceived, at that time, the visionary plan of +breaking him from his intemperate habits. She communicated her scheme to +her husband shortly after their marriage, who most cheerfully coincided +in opinion with her. Jones was accordingly sent for, and regularly +installed in the family. The eloquent representations of Mrs. Morton, +and the promises of her husband and his father, had the wished-for +effect—the old tar consented to "give up grog," and did so, making +exceptions only in favor of the "glorious first of June," the +anniversary of Lord Howe's victory off Ushant, at which Jones was +present, the fourth of July, <i>'lection</i> days, Thanksgiving days, and the +birth of Mrs. Morton's first child. This last event took place, by what +modern editors call a "singular coincidence," upon the first of June +ensuing; and Jones was sorely puzzled how to "keep up" both days, and, +in consequence, got very considerably "corned." It was, however, his +last offence; he gradually adopted the temperate habits of the family, +and continued in them to his death.</p> + +<p>We have no farther particulars to communicate, except that Charles +Morton was taken into partnership by his father, and became wealthy, and +that his wife wrote a long and kind letter to her uncle, which was +forwarded by the captain of an outward-bound whaleman, who delivered it +into his own hands. The old Don did not answer it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> however; and +Isabella, in whose heart other affections had taken root, was not, +perhaps, much grieved or indignant at his silence; the affection of her +husband, her children, and her friends, soon obliterated all melancholy +recollections.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="THE_PIRATE_OF_MASAFUERO" id="THE_PIRATE_OF_MASAFUERO"></a>THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO.</h2> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO.</h3><div class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></div> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Gonzalo.</i> Had I a plantation of this isle, my lord, And were the +king of it, what would I do?</p> + +<p><i>Sebastian.</i> 'Scape getting drunk, for want of wine.</p> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 25em;">Tempest.</span><br /></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>In the Pacific Ocean, and within two days' sail of the coast of Chili, +lies the little island of Masafuero, or, as the word is generally +divided by the Spaniards who discovered it, Mas-a-fuero—that is, the +farthest—to distinguish it from Juan Fernandez, which lies nearer the +main land, and in sight of Masafuero. Juan Fernandez is well known to +all the reading community as having once been the temporary residence of +Alexander Selkirk, the original, or, as grammarians would call it, the +<i>root</i>, of De Foe's bewitching romance of Robinson Crusoe.</p> + +<p>Masafuero is, on the contrary, remarkable for nothing more, that I know +of, than being very difficult of access, and overrun with wild goats. It +is situated in the latitude of thirty-three degrees and forty-five +minutes, south, and eighty degrees<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> and thirty-six minutes, west +longitude; for I love to be particular in all such cases—not that I +suppose my readers care a pin if I had told them it was in the +south-west horn of the new moon; but all authors, when they put pen to +paper, seem actuated by the kind and neighborly spirit of the sagacious +Dogberry—namely, to "bestow all their tediousness" upon their readers; +and I do not know that I have any prescriptive right—I am sure I have +no intention—to depart from so well-worn a track, or to fly in the face +of so many illustrious precedents.</p> + +<p>This island is covered, from the water's edge to the summit, with trees, +and it is only for the sake of wood that it is ever visited by our +whalemen, who fell the trees on the brink of steep cliffs, and tumble +them down, by which process they are broken up into sufficiently short +pieces to render their carriage convenient. There are evident traces of +most tremendous earthquakes visible throughout the island; huge fissures +and rents from the tops of the highest hills to unknown and unexplorable +depths, vast scattered masses of rock that have been shaken down from +the cliffs, and many other similar appearances, announce that the most +terrific convulsions of nature have rendered Masafuero a very unquiet +residence, even to the poor goats, at different times. In its external +appearance, and when seen at some distance, it bears considerable +resemblance to the celebrated Isle of St. Helena, and is, like it, +exceeding precipitous,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> and has but one approachable, and not always +accessible, landing-place. Of this last trait in its character I can +speak from experience and most feelingly, having visited the island in +the year 1821, in a small brig, with the intention of getting off nine +men, who had been left there some time previous for the purpose of +collecting seal-skins, with which the island abounds, as well as with +goats. Our attempt was rendered fruitless by the violence of the wind, +which, for the time it lasted, exceeded any thing I had ever seen, +except a <i>typhon</i> in the China seas, and <i>one</i> north-wester off +Nantucket shoals.</p> + +<p>Some of the men, whom I afterwards saw, informed me that they had, +during their abode there, planted sundry garden seeds, such as beans, +pumpkin, squash, and onion seeds; but this item of intelligence I look +upon to be somewhat apocryphal; at any rate, I would not recommend to +any one, who may chance to visit said island, to save his stomach for +any pumpkin pies or baked beans he may obtain from it. There is +undoubtedly fertile soil enough for a garden—but then the goats.</p> + +<p>The island also enjoys the reputation of having once been the rendezvous +of a gang of pirates, as a house, that has stood untenanted for any +length of time, is sure to be peopled with ghosts. People seem to think +it a pity that a tenement should remain unoccupied, so, out of sheer +compassion for the proprietor, they stock it with unearthly tenants from +roof to cellar, or like—for, now I am in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> humor for comparisons, I +might as well go on—it was like a man who keeps his business to himself +and troubles nobody; his neighbors, knowing nothing about his +occupations and habits, take it for granted that they are both bad and +"contrary to the peace of the commonwealth."</p> + +<p>Masafuero had, however, tolerably strong claims to the title of a "den +of thieves;" for there could be no doubt that, during the stormy times +that took place when South America shook off the Spanish yoke and put on +fifty worse ones—when there was a revolution once a week, and murder +and rapine every hour—many of the human vultures that flocked to the +prey, from Europe and this country, made this little island a place of +deposit for their ill-gotten wealth, and a rendezvous and city of refuge +from the vengeance of some of the short-lived authorities. The +celebrated Benavidas, a sort of "free companion," was, as sailors say, +"in vogue," when I first visited the Pacific in 1821; and as he carried +on business both by land and water, there is no doubt that he +occasionally visited both Masafuero and Juan Fernandez.</p> + +<p>But there were other "land rats and water rats" than Benavidas, who, it +may be interesting to know, died suddenly one day of strangulation, in +consequence of his cravat being tied too tight. Numbers of English and +American seamen, at the first breaking out of the revolution, who +happened to be on the spot, realised large sums by privateering, and by +striking certain sudden and bold strokes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> <i>à la Buccanier</i>, upon the +rich Spanish towns and richer churches; and as "their sound went out +into all lands," others flocked to the Pacific for the same purpose. But +by this time the first agony was over: the new government, short-lived +and ephemeral as it was, enacted certain wholesome laws, which, as they +did not materially interfere with the political views of the parties +that successively kicked each other down stairs, were generally +permitted to stand. A navy was organised and plunder was legalised; +privateering was placed under restrictions; and, as none of these +butterfly republics were in existence long enough to take any further +steps towards paying their seamen and soldiers than promising to, said +seamen and soldiers very naturally betook themselves to their respective +elements to look for prey. I have often wondered that the problem of our +revolution was not followed by the same corollary. The two nations might +be differently constituted—they were not differently situated.</p> + +<p>Many stories are related of the daring exploits of these freebooters, +both on the water and on the land; but there was generally a shade of +difference in favor of the former, on the score of both courage and +humanity; the "water rats" being almost exclusively English and +Americans, and possessing both qualities by nature so strongly +impressed, that they could never be entirely eradicated or smothered. +The land robbers, on the other hand, were as exclusively native +Chilenos, a mixture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> generally of Indian and Spaniard—a more detestable +amalgamation the earth does not produce—if the devil was to cross the +breed, it would rather improve it than otherwise. One of the most +formidable, most blood-thirsty, and most successful of these pirates +wound up his affairs not a great while before I arrived in the Pacific, +Jack Ketch being his administrator.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 20em;">Othello.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>James Longford was the eldest son of a merchant in the neighborhood of +New York, who furnished in his own conduct one of those very rare +instances of a mercantile man contented with what he has amassed, and +willing to retire to private life to enjoy it. 'Tis true that merchants +pretend to say, after having heaped up something like a million, that +they continue in business for the sake of the employment of time and +excitement of mind that it affords, and not for the lucre of gain; "sed +non ego credulus illis," or, in plain English, "they may tell that to +the marines, the sailors won't believe them." The thirst for gain +increases with its gratification, as I could quote more Latin to prove; +and not only does gratification increase the appetite, but it seems to +<i>pucker up</i> the heart, and contract the muscles of the hand, for your +very rich man is almost invariably a very close and avaricious one, +except when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> making public donations to institutions already bursting +with wealth, when they know that their names and sums given will go the +rounds of the public prints under the head of "munificent donations." +How delicious is flattery, even when thrown down one's throat with a +shovel!</p> + +<p>But they are stingy in another way, that brings with it its own +punishment—they starve themselves. I know of several of your half +million folks, not a thousand miles from where I now sit, whose table +does not cost them fifty cents a day, and that too with tolerably +numerous families. I was once ill-advised enough to dine with a +gentleman of this description, in a sister city, in consequence of his +repeated and pressing invitations. We had part of a fore-quarter of very +small mutton boiled, with a small modicum of potatoes; one man could +have eaten the whole. To be sure, I had a glass of "London particular" +Madeira after dinner, if it deserves the name, but as soon as I had done +I made my excuses—"indispensable business—obliged to go out of town, +&c." and fled to an eating-house, where I satisfied what Dan Homer +emphatically calls the "thumos edodes," the madness of appetite, with +something more to the purpose than lean mutton.</p> + +<p>Mr. Longford was "none of them sort;"—he retired from business with +only fifty thousand dollars, but with a clear conscience, adjusted +books, and not a single cent of debt—he never refused his charity to +deserving objects, and never signed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> a subscription paper for their +relief,—he was never a member of a charitable society, and never +contributed a cent to the Missionary funds, whether for the Valley of +the Mississippi or the Island of Borneo, where there are nothing but +monkeys, or Malays as incapable of being christianized as the monkeys. +Had he lived at the present time, and in this section of the country, he +would have been prayed <i>for</i> and prayed <i>at</i>, at least once a day, and +been, besides, occasionally held up in the pulpit as a specimen of total +depravity, and a child of perdition.</p> + +<p>Yet, with all these defects, Mr. George Longford was a sincerely devout +man, and a most firm believer in the Christian religion,—from a +conviction of its truth, not merely because it was the fashion to +believe it, or because his fathers believed it before him,—and a +practical observer of its moral precepts. He read and studied the New +Testament, because it contained a compendium of all his every-day duties +as a rational and accountable being, and as a member of society, not +because it was a magazine of polemical divinity and abstruse doctrines. +The evening of such a man's life is calm and tranquil; his death is +indeed the death of the righteous.</p> + +<p>James was this man's eldest son;—I cannot say, as novel writers +generally do, that "in him were centred the hopes and wishes of his fond +parents,"—for they were not—they looked for support and comfort in +their old age to their other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> children. James was a refractory and +disobedient child from the very cradle. It is ridiculous to say that all +men are born alike in dispositions and capacities; the great poet of +nature, from whom I have, as usual, taken my text, says no; and I would +sooner have a single line from him than folios of ingenious theories and +metaphysical arguments from the profoundest philosophers. I have not +much faith in innate ideas, but I confess that I have in innate +dispositions, both good and bad.</p> + +<p>James Longford's disposition was most decidedly bad by nature—he was +constantly, even when a mere schoolboy, in mischief, and that, too, of a +kind that marked a malicious and cruel temper. His father in vain +exhausted kindness and severity, in the hope of subduing this most +unhappy temper; but neither the infliction of punishment, that he +deserved twenty times a day, nor the caresses of the tenderest parental +affection, appeared to have the least influence in mollifying his +stubborn and morose disposition—he seemed to be one of those whom St. +Paul characterizes, in that tremendous first chapter of the Epistle to +the Romans, as being "without natural affection." Notwithstanding all +these faults, he had naturally a strong mind and good talents; so that +by the time he had attained his eighteenth year he was, at one and the +same time, one of the most ungovernable and ill-tempered boys and best +scholars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> in Parson Crabtree's seminary of some fifty in number.</p> + +<p>At this period his father placed him in the counting-room of a wealthy +mercantile house in the city of New-York. Here his good education and +natural quickness soon procured him the favorable notice of his +employers, while his constant and active duties seemed to have +smothered, at least for a time, his malicious temper. Before the +expiration of a year he had acquired the good will and confidence of the +merchants whom he served; but by this time the pleasures and temptations +of the "Commercial Emporium" had begun to attract his inexperienced +eyes, and his disposition seemed to have taken a new turn.</p> + +<p>With all the stubborn wilfulness and unfeeling carelessness of +consequences that characterized his temper, he plunged into all manner +of vicious indulgences; but what seemed to attract him the most +irresistibly, and fix him the most firmly, was a fondness for gambling. +The "time-honored" black-legs of the billiard and roulette tables were, +however, an overmatch for an inexperienced lad of nineteen, and, as +might have been expected, he was soon stripped, thoroughly "cleaned +out." It was then that the idea of replenishing his pockets from the +counting-room trunk first presented itself to his mind, and, without +much hesitation or compunction of conscience, he took small sums from +time to time.</p> + +<p>It is needless to trace his progress more minutely—he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> finished by +forging a check for a thousand dollars, which forgery was subsequently +detected.</p> + +<p>Precisely the same "dull round" of vice is trodden, at least once a +week, by the same class of young men. The merchants' clerks are +certainly creatures of no imagination, or they would have struck out +some new way of going to the devil; they evidently have not a spark of +what an eminent Irish lawyer called "the poetry of wickedness;" they +uniformly begin with plundering the money drawer, and end with forging +checks.</p> + +<p>Mr. Longford was advised of his son's guilt, and the affair was +compromised by his paying the amount purloined. In utter despair the +afflicted father placed his degenerate son on board an outward-bound +Indiaman, a mode of proceeding often resorted to prematurely, for it +generally does a boy's business if he is viciously inclined—a +merchantman's forecastle is not a school of morality. Sending a +refractory child to sea may be an excellent way of getting rid of him, +but it is at the same time the most expeditious mode of sending him to +the devil.</p> + +<p>There is a great deal of talk about "godly captains;" but I never knew +one that was not an infernal tyrant, and a most accomplished scoundrel. +If you wish to cure a boy of a fondness for the sea, send him a good +long voyage with a godly captain, and I'll be bail that he comes home +as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> lean as a weazel, and most thoroughly disgusted at the very thoughts +of a ship. If you merely wish to get rid of him, send him to the coast +of Guinea on a trading voyage, or to that Golgotha, New Orleans; a godly +captain, by working him one half to death, and starving him the other, +will put it out of his power to trouble you any more in this world. The +Carmelites and other religious orders were once of opinion that the +devil could be flogged out of the flesh, and for that purpose wore a +couple of fathoms of two-inch rope about their loins: godly captains +think he can be worked out, and so, perhaps, he can; but generally, in +the two places that I have mentioned, he and the vital spark go out +together.</p> + +<p>I do not know whether I ought to regard it as a fortunate or unfortunate +circumstance, that the first captain that I sailed with was a "ripper" +for swearing and drinking. He was a professed infidel, a first-rate +seaman, an excellent scholar, and took more care of the morals of his +crew than many of those who have prayers twice a day; and ten thousand +times more of their health, for he would not permit a man to expose +himself for two minutes to the sun or rain in Batavia, and in +consequence did not lose a man. He watched over my moral and physical +health with a degree of zeal and tenderness that I have never, for an +instant, experienced since, at the hands of those who call themselves my +"friends." Indeed, the severest scolding he ever gave me, and I +expected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> every moment he would knock me down in the street, was for +walking, one deliciously cool morning, from Weltwreden to Batavia, a +distance of four miles, when I had a carriage and two horses at my +disposal.</p> + +<p>Peace to his ashes! I have lived to see the grave close in succession +over many of the few friends that I ever had. When I wandered about +London streets, barefoot and half-naked, in the dead of a hard winter, +just discharged from a hospital, and scarcely able to drag one foot +after the other, my situation was comparatively enviable. I had no +self-styled "friends" at my elbow, to mock me by talking about my +"talents!" I knew that if I did not "bear a hand," and ship myself off +<i>somewhere</i>, I should be taken up on the vagrant act, and sent to +Bridewell. Burns says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The fear o' death's a hangman's whip,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That hauds the wretch in order."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I should be loth to admit that the fear of Bridewell operated as a +stimulus upon my mind, for it did not often occur to me; but I longed to +enjoy once more</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"the glorious privilege<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of being independent;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and he, who is earning an honest livelihood by his own exertions, and +can shave with cold water, is, in my estimation, more truly independent +than he, whose father has bequeathed him half a million. Reader! you may +as well pardon this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> digression first as last, for it is ten chances to +one that you fall in with a whole fleet of them before you have sailed +through these pages. If I do not moralize as I go along, I shall not +have a chance to do it any where else.</p> + +<p>As the afflicted father returned, with melancholy steps and slow, +towards his quiet home, he could not forbear feeling an emotion of +regret at the thought of having parted with his son in such a manner. +"Had I but placed him," he said to himself, "under the charge of the +commander of one of our men-of-war, he would necessarily have been under +such strict guardianship and discipline that his unfortunate habits +might be entirely broken up; but now I fear that the liberty he will be +allowed, or will take, in a merchant's ship, will be his ruin."</p> + +<p>His home was more gloomy and sad that evening than it had ever been +before; for though satisfied in the main with his own conduct, and +hoping that the voyage would have most beneficial effects upon his son's +behavior and disposition, he regretted most bitterly the necessity of +the measure, and felt the keenest anxiety as to its results. That son +was destined never to return.</p> + +<p>The ship in which he was embarked was driven much farther to the +westward than is usually the case with outward-bound Indiamen, and +encountered one of those tremendous gales of wind, known to seamen by +the local name of <i>pamperos</i>, from their blowing off the immense +<i>pampas</i>, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> plains, that constitute a large portion of the province of +Buenos Ayres, or, as it is now called, the Argentine Republic. The ship +was dismasted, and with difficulty succeeded in reaching the harbor of +Buenos Ayres to refit.</p> + +<p>The city of Buenos Ayres was at that time, and I believe it is not much +better now, a nest and rendezvous of pirates, that, under the cover of +the republican flag, and the assumed character of men-of-war or +privateers, with forged commissions, committed the most barefaced and +abominable acts of piracy. The British cruisers, by capturing and +hanging a good number of them, struck a most wholesome terror into the +rest; but our government, with a fraternal affection for every mean and +insignificant patch of barren sand-beach that called itself a republic, +more worthy the <i>sans-culotterie</i> of the French revolution, than +becoming a great and polished nation, permitted them to sell their +prizes and refit in our ports. Buenos Ayres was then a point towards +which all the scoundrels, and thieves, and murderers, of Europe and the +United States, were radiating as to a common centre.</p> + +<p>Here, as might have been expected, Longford found plenty of congenial +companions to "whet his almost blunted purpose" of vicious propensity +and indulgence. In a drunken quarrel at the gaming-table, knives were +drawn, and Longford stabbed his antagonist-to the heart. Murders are so +exceedingly common in all the Spanish possessions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> and settlements in +America, that but seldom or never is any inquiry set on foot with regard +to them. The only <i>judicial</i> formality consists in laying the dead +bodies on their backs, with a plate upon the breast of each to receive +the contributions of those who are disposed to assist in defraying the +expenses of burial. But the murdered person, in this case, was a man of +considerable consequence in the Buenos Ayrean government, having the +charge and management of certain public moneys, and in consequence, the +"authorities" thought it worth their while to ask a few questions about +his "taking off." Longford was well aware of these facts, and with +considerable difficulty and danger made his escape to the other side of +the river.</p> + +<p>After remaining concealed for some time, he ventured down to Monte +Video, where he found the English brig Swan, bound round Cape Horn. Her +crew, deluded by the false and extravagant promises of privateering +captains and owners, had all deserted. In this dilemma the captain was +compelled to supply their places with such materials as could be picked +up in the streets of Monte Video, and which were as bad as bad could be. +Indeed, from the lawless state of all South America, it would have been +next to impossible to have procured, "for love or money," twenty good +and orderly seamen, from Darien to Patagonia. Among these vagabonds +Longford recognised many of his gaming-table acquaintances at Buenos +Ayres, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> had left that city to get out of the way of certain +impertinent questions that the police had taken the liberty to ask +concerning the murder that has already been mentioned. These fellows had +imbibed a notion that seems to be an easily-besetting one among sailors +who enter on board a ship in the middle of her voyage, namely, that +there is money on board; which notion is but too often followed by an +exceedingly strong inclination to appropriate it to their own use and +behoof. Sailors seem to understand but confusedly the tenth commandment, +which forbids us to covet any thing that is our neighbor's.</p> + +<p>The subject was discussed on the passage, the plan arranged, and the +unsuspecting officers, passengers, and two lads, apprentices to the +captain, murdered and thrown overboard. My readers would be, perhaps, +but little edified by a more circumstantial narrative. There is so +little variation in the details of shipwreck, acts of piracy, obituary +notices, ordinations, commencements, murders, suicides, mammoth turnips, +and Fourth of July celebrations, that printers would find it a great +saving of time, money, and labor, to have regular and approved forms of +each stereotyped, with blank spaces for names and dates.</p> + +<p>This bloody deed was executed near the southern extremity of the then +half province and half republic of Chili; and the murderers, with +considerable difficulty, succeeded in running the ship between the +island of Santa Marie and the main,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> and anchoring near the town or city +of Aranco, which was then in the hands of Benavidas, above mentioned.</p> + +<p>This sanguinary freebooter was then, under the auspices and with the +assistance of the equally sanguinary royal governor of Chili, Sanchez, +carrying on a most horrid and cruel war of extermination against the +republican inhabitants of the southern part of Chili. Into the hands of +this murderous ruffian and his ragamuffin gang the Swan was delivered; +but the villany of her piratical crew was soon to receive its just +punishment. Benavidas, who suspected them of having kept back no +trifling part of the plunder, with very little privacy and no formality, +shot them all but Longford, whom, for some unaccountable reason or +other, he spared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Orlando.</i> Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Jaques.</i> Nay then, God be wi' you an you talk in blank verse.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">As You Like It.</span><br /></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Our scene must now change somewhat abruptly from the shores of the +Pacific to a very different part of this watery ball.</p> + +<p>Great and manifold are the advantages that an author enjoys over his +readers; for, however anxious those readers may be to arrive at the end +of the story, they must either close the book with a "Pish!" or a +"Pshaw!" or condescend to follow him, and resignedly await his leisure. +He leads them where he pleases and at what pace he pleases; they must +follow him: they are like passengers on board a packet beating into port +with what sailors call "a good working breeze;" at one moment they seem +to have almost reached the anchorage, when suddenly the skipper shouts +"Helm's a-lee," the vessel heaves in stays and makes a long "stretch" +off, till the spires and roofs of the wished-for haven seem fading away +in the hazy distance.</p> + +<p>The celebrated Hugh Peters, one of Cromwell's fanatical preachers, +explaining to his audience why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> God was forty years leading the children +of Israel through the wilderness, which was not more than forty days' +march across, made a circumflex with his finger upon his pulpit cushion, +and said, "he led them <i>crinkledum cum crankledum</i>," I do not intend +that my story shall make more "Virginia fence" than is absolutely +necessary; but that it shall proceed, like a law-suit, "with deliberate +speed."</p> + +<p>In the vicinity of one of those beautiful villages that surround the +great commercial city of Bristol, and upon the banks of the lovely +Severn, stood the residence of a wealthy merchant. There was nothing +about the house or grounds that denoted the occupant or owner to be of a +mercantile turn; for there certainly is, very generally, something about +merchants' houses that is prim and starch—something precise and formal +about them, as though they had been planned according to the "Golden +Rule of Three," and executed with reference to the multiplication table. +It is a most melancholy fact, that the close, confined air of a +counting-room is deadly poison to a taste for the fine arts, and, but +too often, to every thing like liberality of feeling.</p> + +<p>Effingham House was neither planned nor executed upon a grand or a mean +scale; there was nothing extravagant or penurious, vast or contracted, +about it; but it presented a happy combination of the comfortable, the +elegant, and the neat. Such houses are very common indeed throughout New +England; in the <i>old</i> country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> there is a constant repetition of the +fable of the frog and the ox—the wealthy cit endeavoring to equal the +haughty splendors of the nobleman.</p> + +<p>The villa that we describe fronted upon a large and beautiful lawn, that +gradually sloped towards the river, of which, and the lovely scenery +beyond it, it commanded an enchanting view, and was spotted with noble +oaks and elms, that appeared to have stood ever since the Conquest, or +might, perhaps, have overshadowed the legions of Agricola. A carriage +path, well gravelled and kept perfectly free from dirt and weeds, wound +around among these primeval trees, occasionally emerging from their +shade, as if to give the approaching stranger an opportunity to view +every part of the delightful landscape.</p> + +<p>Along this path a horseman was seen riding, one lovely afternoon in +September. The air of the rider was that of a man to whom the scene was +perfectly familiar, but who seemed busy with thoughts that made him +inattentive to its beauties. His sunburnt countenance, and an +indescribable something in his whole appearance, that the experienced +eye of a member of the same fraternity only could discern, announced +that he was one of those that "followed the seas."</p> + +<p>He alighted, and, giving his horse to a servant, ran up the steps of the +portico. A young lady, who was tending some flowers at a little +distance, hearing his footsteps, sprang towards him with sparkling eyes +and smiling countenance, exclaiming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> in a voice of most unequivocal +tenderness, "George!" The seaman caught her offered hand, and covered it +with kisses. The lady's cheek, brow, and throat were suffused with the +deepest and most lovely crimson: she gently struggled to release her +captive hand; but, finding that there was just one degree more force +exerted to retain it than she exercised to withdraw it, she prudently +gave up so hopeless a contest, and began very naturally to ask +questions.</p> + +<p>"Why, when did you arrive?—how long have you been gone? Oh! it seems an +age since you left us—and how you are tanned!"</p> + +<p>"I arrived this morning," at length answered the seaman; the mutual +delight of their meeting rendering him, for a time, as inarticulate as +it did her voluble; "and I have been gone six months. Time has stood +still with me, dearest Julia, I assure you; and besides, I have had such +a tedious passage home, that I began at last to think I was never to be +blessed with another fair wind. I need not ask how you have been during +that time," he continued, fixing his eyes upon her lovely countenance +with unutterable affection.</p> + +<p>No woman was ever insensible to a compliment, even an implied one, to +her looks. Julia raised her liquid eyes to his with a blush and a smile +so frank and unreserved, that his six months' absence and tedious +homeward passage he would gladly endure twice ever again to meet.</p> + +<p>There are moments in courtship—that part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> it, I mean, where neither +party has as yet whispered love to each other, or bothered the old folks +about their consent; before, in short, it has become an "understood +thing" all over town—there are such moments, when the lady throws off +all reserve, and by a look, a smile, a blush, a half-articulate word, +repays her lover for months, if he is fool enough to court so long, of +prudish and affected shyness, past or future. These moments occur but +seldom, even in the most patriarchal courtships, and it is well that it +is so. Love is a fiery steed, and should always be ridden with a curb +bridle, both before and after marriage. (I am sorry that I cannot think +of a nautical metaphor, or I assure you, reader, that I would never have +gone into the stable to look for one.) The ancients, and their opinion +is decisive, ever held the "semi-reducta Venus" the most beautiful.</p> + +<p>Leaving these turtles to bill and coo over a cup of tea, and to the +enjoyment of a lover's walk along the lovely banks of the Severn, we +will proceed to enlighten the reader as to who and what they are, and to +discuss sundry other equally important topics.</p> + +<p>As the good ship Bristol Trader was lazily rolling along in a southerly +direction, with a light breeze and fine weather, and in the latitude of +about thirty-nine or forty north, she fell in with the wreck of a +schooner, of about eighty or ninety tons burthen, dismasted and +apparently half full of water, in which most unpleasant situation she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> +did not appear long to have been. The Bristol Trader hove to, and sent +her boat alongside, in hopes of obtaining something valuable from the +wreck, either cargo, or provisions, or rigging—if a wreck yields +nothing else, there is always plenty of fish around it. As the boat +approached, the attention of the crew was attracted by the appearance of +some person on board, who made the most animated and intelligible signs +to them to come alongside. The boat's crew redoubled their exertions, +and, upon coming on board, found a boy of about fourteen years, the only +living human being. The poor little fellow seemed almost exhausted with +fatigue and hunger; but being carried on board the ship and refreshed, +he informed his deliverers that his name was George Allerton—that the +schooner belonged to a port in New England, and was homeward bound from +Fayal with a quantity of wine and fruit—that she had been capsized, in +a sudden and violent squall, three days previous, when all the crew but +himself and one other were swept overboard—that she had righted after +cutting away the masts, but with a great deal of water in the hold, and +that the other man had accidentally fallen overboard, and was drowned.</p> + +<p>It happened that the owner of the ship, Mr. Effingham, was on board. He +was going to Rio de Janeiro, partly on account of his health, but +chiefly to look after and secure a large amount of property belonging to +the firm of which he was senior partner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> and which was jeopardised by +certain disturbances in Brazil. Like all passengers on board a ship, he +could find but little or nothing to do to pass away the time, and being +a married man and a father, his sympathies and good feelings were +powerfully excited and strongly attracted towards this "waif of the +sea," their new passenger. The boy, on the other hand, to a very +handsome face added a mild and amiable disposition, and, like all +New-England boys, an education vastly superior to boys of the same age +and standing in Great Britain. George's parents were respectable in some +sort—that is to say, their moral and religious characters were beyond +reproach, but their social reputation was very bad indeed—they were +poor. It has been said by an English traveller, that in all other +countries pleasure, rank, literary renown, &c. are the objects upon +which men place their affections; but, in the United States, the pursuit +of wealth is an imperious duty; and, of course, if a man fails in this +duty, his good name as a member of society soon becomes most deplorably +out at elbows.</p> + +<p>Before the end of the voyage, young Allerton had made himself master of +Mr. Effingham's affections, and being of that happy age when all places +are nearly alike, provided they are comfortable, he readily consented to +remain with his protector, and was accordingly regularly inducted into +the old gentleman's family as a member of it. He was the playmate of Mr. +Effingham's daughter, six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> years younger than himself, and the companion +of her rambles abroad. The old man wished to take him into his +counting-room as a clerk, but the boy's predilection for the sea +frustrated that scheme, and the senior, after some reflection and +persuasion, yielded to it. Accordingly Master George, having served a +noviciate as apprentice, stepped over the intermediate state of "able +seaman," and became second mate, then first mate, and lastly captain, or +more properly master. During the whole of this time, he was employed in +the West India trade, in which most of the Bristol merchants are engaged +more extensively than in any other. He never came home from a voyage +without bringing some curiosity to little Julia,—as he continued to +call her, even after she had attained her eighteenth year,—and never +failed writing frequently to his parents, and sending them the whole or +a greater part of his wages: a line of conduct that raised him +incredibly in the old gentleman's favor, and made a deep impression upon +the young mind of Julia.</p> + +<p>While George was passing through the different grades of his profession, +the young lady was advancing through the different grades of physical +and intellectual beauty and improvement. The "pretty child" that played +in her father's parlor, the "elegant girl of the boarding-school", had +now become a most lovely and accomplished young lady. She had lost her +mother when young, and the whole force of her filial affection had +centred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> upon her father. Brought up in unreserved intimacy with her +father's new <i>protégé</i>, she always regarded him as a brother, or rather +as her equal. She always anxiously awaited his return from sea, though +she did not, in her more youthful days, exactly understand why. When her +beauty brought wealth and rank to her feet, she could not avoid +comparing their possessors with the nautical absentee.</p> + +<p>"Sir Reginald Bentley is not half so handsome a man as George; Lord +Dormington, although he has travelled over all Europe, and has besides a +seat in the House of Lords, is not, after all, half so well informed as +George; the Honorable Adolphus Fitz William dresses very expensively and +fashionably, but his clothes do not fit him so well as George's; and as +for that wine-swilling brute, Squire Foxley, I would not be condemned to +marry such a man for the world." So she dismissed them all, "cum multis +aliis."</p> + +<p>On the other hand, her father had acquired as much affection for George +as for a son, and treated him as such; though he never dreamed that his +daughter might from his behavior be led one day to select him as a +husband. When his daughter rejected one wealthy or titled suitor after +another, he thought nothing strange of it; Sir Reginald was a gambler, +his lordship a fool, Fitz William a dandy, Foxley a sot, and so of the +rest; he only saw in her rejection of them proofs that she possessed +more good sense and prudence than he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> generally willing to admit +that any of her sex possessed.</p> + +<p>About two years before the events mentioned in the beginning of this +chapter, George had sailed on his first voyage as master of the ship +Hebe. He had been gone about five months, and Julia, with a feeling that +she did not pretend to understand or think to analyze, had been day +after day inquiring about him, when one evening her father informed her +that the Hebe had arrived safely in London. The joy that she felt and +expressed in the most lively manner, was damped by the farther +intelligence that he was to return to Barbadoes as soon as possible, +without visiting Effingham House. When she retired to her chamber, she +seated herself by the window, and seriously began to ask herself why she +felt such pleasure at hearing of his safe arrival, and why the +disappointment at not seeing him was so exceedingly painful. Her own +good sense answered the question, after a short reflection.</p> + +<p>"It is, it must be love; I <i>do</i> love him, and that most sincerely;" and +she gave way to a burst of irrepressible but soothing tears. "And why +should I not?" she reasoned, "is he not every thing that heart can +desire—handsome, well educated, and generous? and does not my father +love him as a son? But my father may not consent," she continued, again +weeping, "and I must endeavor to conquer an affection that has been +growing silently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> but rapidly for years; it is impossible, I know, but I +will make the attempt."</p> + +<p>The old man, too, could not but notice the different effects of the two +items of intelligence he had that evening communicated. "What could ail +Julia when I told her that George was going to sea again without coming +home? the poor girl was ready to cry: he's a fine young fellow, that's +certain, and they've been brought up together like brother and sister; +so I suppose it is natural that she loves him like a brother: I have +half a mind to write to him to scamper across the country, and see us +for a couple of days; but I dare say he's too busy." With these +reflections the merchant dropped asleep, and dreamed of "Africa and +golden joys."</p> + +<p>Upon Captain Allerton's subsequent return, Julia's determination to +avoid him and to stifle her attachment to him vanished, like most +resolutions of the kind that young ladies are in the habit of forming, +and she gave herself up to the illusions of that bewitching passion, +without knowing—and, when enjoying his society, certainly without +thinking—how it would end; and as for her father, he, good easy man, +had done thinking about it altogether: not that his affection for her +was in any wise abated, but his mind was taken up with something else +more engrossing, and, as perhaps he thought, more important, than +watching the actions of two young people.</p> + +<p>After tea, Captain Allerton and Julia took a walk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> upon the banks of the +river, along a secluded green lane, that had often witnessed similar +rambles. After a long pause, during which each seemed too busy with +their own peculiar train of thinking to regard the silence of the other, +they stopped, as if by mutual consent.</p> + +<p>"And so, Julia, your father, after losing so much money in South +America, is going there, to see if he can grapple any of it up from the +mines of Mexico, or wherever else it has sunk."</p> + +<p>"He is certainly going to South America, but I never knew that he had +lost much money by his speculations there."</p> + +<p>"Nor do I say that he has, but as every body else has, I do not see how +he can have escaped;" and then added, after a short pause, and in an +embarrassed and tremulous voice, "are you, tell me, Julia, are you going +with him?"</p> + +<p>"Me! no, George; what could put such a wild thought into your head?"</p> + +<p>"And what then is to become of you during his absence, that must +necessarily be a long one?"</p> + +<p>"I shall remain with my aunt Selwyn in Bristol, till she returns to +Clifton."</p> + +<p>"Julia, you know that I love you, and you have given me reason to +believe that I am far from indifferent to you; then why not, my dearest +girl, give me the right to protect and provide for you at once, instead +of delegating it to a maiden aunt, who, whatever may be her good +qualities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> has, as you know, always regarded me with dislike and +jealousy."</p> + +<p>"I cannot, George, without my father's consent."</p> + +<p>"Your hand, then, goes where he chooses to bestow it, let your +affections be where they will."</p> + +<p>"It is a duty that I owe to him to attend to his wishes, and listen to +his advice."</p> + +<p>"So then, if he advises you to marry the fool Dormington, or the brute +Foxley, you obey unhesitatingly?"</p> + +<p>"George, this is unkind; you are supposing an extreme case."</p> + +<p>"But you say you will obey him; you repeat that it is your duty to +listen to his advice in all cases."</p> + +<p>"I will never marry without his consent, but I will never marry any one +that I dislike."</p> + +<p>"That is intimating, rather obliquely, to be sure, that you may alter +your mind."</p> + +<p>"O George, George," said the weeping girl, "why will you continue to +torment me and yourself with these jealous doubts and suspicions? why +will you not rather ask my father's consent? you know his affection for +you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, propose such a question, and what is the reply? a peremptory +refusal, and an immediate dismissal from his employment. Now that his +mind is so much taken up with his new scheme, such a proceeding would be +little short of madness. Be mine, then, at once."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I dare not."</p> + +<p>"But suppose, what is by no means impossible, nay, rather likely to +happen, that he should determine to fix himself in Mexico, or Lima, or +some other South American city, as foreign partner of the house?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot believe such an event possible, but if it should—" she turned +away her head.</p> + +<p>"Do I interpret your silence right, Julia? would you indeed be mine? +speak to me, Julia." She made no other answer than a sigh, but still +kept her head averted. By this time they had reached the house.</p> + +<p>As soon as they were seated in the drawing-room, the lover again urged +her to "make signal of his hope;"—she raised her eyes, swimming in +tears, in which an affirmative was plainly to be read. The entrance of a +servant prevented the happy lover from proceeding to extremities upon +her lips, "according to the statute in such case made and provided;" and +a very excellent statute it is too. Whether the "quashing of +proceedings" by the inopportune appearance of the servant was agreeable +to either party, I leave to wiser heads than mine to determine.</p> + +<p>Many very well-meaning people, who pass for men of sense in every other +respect, are apt, when they feel matrimonially inclined, to think it +indispensably necessary to court the old folks, "hammer and tongs," as +the vulgar saying is, in the first place, and, having obtained their +good graces,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> to proceed very leisurely in their approaches to the young +lady. This may be a very prudent mode of managing matters, for aught I +know, but to me it savors rather of cold-blooded calculation, than +ardent or even passably warm affection. It is, besides, a gross and +unpardonable insult to the said young lady, whom it places immediately +upon a level with a horse, a pig, a cow, a load of hay, a chest of +drawers, or any other article of trade. It is like a man-of-war going in +to engage an enemy's battery, and heaving to, to "blaze away" at two old +dismantled hulks that are lying high and dry at the harbor's mouth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Parolles.</i> My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Lafeu.</i> Well, what would you have me to do? 'tis too late to pare her</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">nails now.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">All's Well That Ends Well.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">There never was yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 25em;">King Lear.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>Julia Effingham was the only child of a rich merchant, who, like many +others in these latter days, when scheming and speculation have +superseded the good, old-fashioned habits of steady industry and +unmoveable perseverance in the art of acquiring wealth, was dazzled by +the one thousand and one bubbles that the South American revolution set +afloat. He dipped pretty largely into Mexican mines, and was bit; he +undertook to improve the breed of horses in Peru, and was bit; he +attempted to establish steam cotton-factories in Colombia, and was bit; +he bought largely into a Chilian Steam-boat Company, and was bit; till, +finally, he resolved to visit South America himself, "to see," as he +expressed it, "where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> devil his fifty thousand pounds had gone to." +He could obtain no tidings of a single farthing on the Atlantic side of +that continent; but he learned one thing most thoroughly and +satisfactorily, as thousands have done besides him, that if he had gone +there in the first place, and seen the nakedness of the land, and the +deplorable and remediless ignorance and superstition of the people, his +fifty thousand pounds would have snugly remained in the three per cents. +and India bonds. He was determined, however, now that he was fairly +afloat, to "go the whole figure," and see the worst, if there was any +thing worse to come. Accordingly he took passage for Valparaiso, where +he found how, why, and wherefore his steam-boat concern had become a +decided take-in; it is not very profitable running a boat of that kind +in a country where wood sells at three cents per pound on the beach, and +where the people have no idea of travelling except in the saddle.</p> + +<p>Chili, then under the directorship of O'Higgins, was the only South +American province that seemed to have changed for the better, by +renouncing its allegiance to "Ferdinand the Beloved." Its ports were +thrown open to foreign commerce; its navy was respectable, for the +ships, the officers, and the seamen were English or Americans; its +inhabitants had become quite civilized and tame, for the murdered +foreigners in the streets of Valparaiso did not average much more than +one or two per night; which, compared with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> Havana and Buenos Ayres, +gave Chili a preponderance of refinement scarcely credible. Mr. +Effingham was highly delighted with the country; and indeed Chili, +setting aside the inhabitants, for the salubrity and mildness of its +climate, the fertility of its soil, and the variety and delicacy of its +fruits and vegetables, is certainly one of the finest countries in the +world. He found many Englishmen established in various sections of the +country, and the better sort of inhabitants very much disposed to treat +them with kindness and urbanity.</p> + +<p>He had been about eighteen months in St. Jago when he sent for his +daughter, who now constituted the whole of his family; his English +business he knew was safe in the management of his partner, and he sat +himself down with the determination of making a magnificent fortune very +much at his ease. Poor man! he little dreamed that the whole of South +America is as infamous for revolutions as it is for earthquakes.</p> + +<p>Having said thus much concerning the father of Julia Effingham, it is +but fair to give the reader some idea of the lady herself. Indeed, in +strict gallantry, I suspect that I ought to have introduced her first, +but she has already been upon the stage, and "made her obedience," as +sailors call it, to the audience; and, besides, age has claims that +ought to be attended to.</p> + +<p>In person, then, Julia was not remarkably tall, (I don't like tall +women; "a man never ought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> look <i>up</i> to his wife for a kiss or for +advice;") her form had all that graceful and delicate roundness and +fullness of outline so irresistibly pleasing to the eye. "Man," says an +elegant writer upon natural history, contrasting the two sexes, "man is +most angular, woman most round." Euclid himself could not have detected +any thing angular in the faultless form of Julia Effingham; nothing +resembling his "Asses' Bridge," or his "Windmill" problems, in the fall +of her shoulders, the bend of her snowy neck, the delicate round of her +chin, the delicious fulness of her ripe lip, the easy turn of her rosy +cheeks, the graceful curve of her brow. Her nose was indeed a straight +Grecian one, but not geometrically straight.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted, by the way, that there are more decidedly <i>good</i> +noses among women than among men. The latter are aquiline, Roman, +parrot, pug, snub, thick, thin, long, short, peaked, bottle—some with a +bump in the middle, some with a cleft, or fissure, and some with a +button, or knob, at the end, like that on a man-of-war's boat-hook. In +short, to describe all the various kinds of noses masculine, it would be +necessary for philologians to create a new batch of adjectives, as the +king of England does occasionally of peers.</p> + +<p>I have already said, or meant to be understood to say, that Miss +Effingham was somewhat inclined to <i>embonpoint</i>. I do not pretend to +know the reason of this: perhaps leanness and emaciation were not +considered <i>genteel</i> when she happened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> to be educated, as they are +unfortunately by too many of my fair countrywomen; perhaps she never +thought much about it; for I have always observed that very beautiful +women, who prefer revolving in the quiet circle of domestic happiness +and usefulness, are seldom or never very anxiously solicitous about +their beauty; and the consequence is, that they <i>are</i> more beautiful, +and stand the attacks of time far better, than those who choose a life +of fashionable display, and court public admiration. Ladies may lace +tight, eat pickles, and drink vinegar, to make them genteel; but it is +free exercise in the open air, and simplicity of diet, provided it is +nutritious, that confer gentility and grace, and preserve beauty. Will +any man, married or single, and in the possession of his senses, say +that he likes the looks of a horse whose ribs are visible and +<i>countable</i> at half a mile's distance? I am confident the answer will +be, no.</p> + +<p>Still there is a wonderful resemblance between a lean woman and a lean +horse, in more points than one; the lady does not, indeed, go upon all +fours, but I can never see a very <i>genteel</i> female, laced into the shape +of an hour-glass, without wishing, from the bottom of my heart, that she +had an extra pair of le—ahem!—ancles, to support her feeble and +tottering frame.</p> + +<p>As I am growing old, and am, moreover, somewhat peculiarly +circumstanced, I suppose that I must put up with such a wife as it +pleases God to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> send me; but were I ten or fifteen years younger, and +"well to do," I would accept of no descendant of mother Eve, as a +helpmate and partner for life, who did not cut at least two inches on +the ribs. The Turks, who are practical men of taste in these things; the +Chinese, who pretend to the highest antiquity in civilization; the naked +Africans and South Sea Islanders, beyond dispute the most +unsophisticated of all father Adam's children, and who, like Job, +"retain their integrity" pretty stiffly, considering the missionaries, +the "march of intellect," and other untoward circumstances, are all of +them most decidedly in favor of something substantial in wedlock; no man +of taste, in either of these nations, ever dreams of comfort and +happiness in matrimony, unless he clasps to his bosom an armful of wife. +They choose their wives as we do lobsters—the heaviest are the best.</p> + +<p>I am a firm believer in the maxim that mind and matter exert a mutual +influence upon each other, and one of the most obvious deductions from +that datum that occurs to my mind is, that the acidities of the +disposition are not only neutralized but absolutely shut up by the +embonpoint of the body. People blessed with healthy plumpness are +indolent as well as good-natured, and it is a laborious piece of +business for such folks to get in a passion.</p> + +<p>The wealth and fondness of Julia's father, and her own natural good +sense, had made her mistress of all those elegant and fashionable +accomplishments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> that constitute the education of a lady of fortune; and +she had a grace and sweetness in every thing she did that reminded the +beholder of that exquisitely beautiful line in Ariosto:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"She walked—she spoke—she sang—and heaven was there."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This description may not be according to certain received axioms +concerning female beauty; but I never could bear to contemplate a fair +face and graceful form as painters do, who measure woman's loveliness by +certain fixed and arbitrary rules, as surveyors of lumber do boards. +Nothing makes me more fidgetty than to hear a man compare every +beautiful face he sees with a certain standard, even if that standard is +the Venus de Medicis herself; this face is not good, for it is not +exactly oval; that nose is altogether wrong, for it is not Grecian; a +chin is not this, or a mouth is not that, &c. Portrait painters are much +addicted to this kind of criticism; and whenever I find myself in +company with one of these two-foot-rule critics, I make my escape from +him as I would from a plague hospital.</p> + +<p>At the time of our narrative, Julia's father had been absent somewhat +more than two years. He had sent for her to join him at Valparaiso, a +summons that she prepared to obey with no small trepidation. "The course +of true love," which is somewhat notorious for "never running smooth," +seemed at this moment about to encounter a "head sea." Her absence from +England she knew must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> be a long one, perhaps an eternal one; the +separation from Allerton weighed much heavier upon her spirits than she +was willing to admit, and altogether her prospects of happiness seemed +darkened for ever.</p> + +<p>The same conveyance that brought Julia's letters also brought +instructions to the other partners of the house to fit out two vessels +for the Pacific, one of which was to be entrusted to the command of +Captain Allerton; but Mr. Effingham omitted to designate which of the +two was to be honored by being for some months the floating home of his +fair daughter; either intending it should be left to her option, or +taking it for granted that his partner, well aware of the intimacy of +Allerton's standing in her father's family, would of course place Julia +on board the ship commanded by George. But that partner was a crafty old +fox, who had long since seen the growing affection of the two young +people, and, with all that eagerness to destroy happiness, that they are +past enjoying, that characterizes the majority of old people, decided +that Miss Julia should, for a time, entrust her person and fortunes to +the fatherly care of Captain Burton, a sedate old Cornish man of sixty +years of age, who had no more idea of love than he had of the Chaldee +language.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p> + + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Should a man full of talk be justified? O that ye would altogether +hold your peace; and it should be your wisdom.<br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;"> Job, Ch. xi. 2; xiii. 5.</span></p></div> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p>Voyages across the Atlantic are now performed every day by old and young +women and children, and described by them so much more elegantly and +scientifically, and with so much more correct knowledge of the +technicalities necessary for such descriptions, than it is possible that +seafaring men can ever attain, that if one of the latter, in a moment of +mental hallucination, was to undertake to convey an idea of the element +that has been his home for years, he would be hissed off the stage as +another Munchausen. For this reason nautical men, who have laid aside +the marlinspike and taken up the pen, very prudently avoid that portion +of the literary arena, leaving Daddy Neptune's dominions to be explored +and described by landsmen.</p> + +<p>It is in obedience to public opinion in this respect,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> I suppose, that +our Secretaries of the Navy are almost uniformly chosen from the "mass +of the people," at the greatest possible distance from high-water mark; +men who have never seen a piece of water that they could not jump +across, or a ship, except in the newspaper, till they came to +Washington. "Let the sea make a noise, and the fulness thereof; let the +floods clap their hands" for joy, that the Cooks and the Falconers, the +Ansons and the Byrons, of olden time, are at length banished from the +department of nautical literature, and no <i>oceanic</i> description will be +listened to unless said or sung by a <i>ci-devant</i> midshipman or a +half-boy, half-woman poet, who lies in his berth, and sees, through the +four-inch-plank deadlight of a packet, the full moon rising in the west. +James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.—I give the man his entire name and title, +as he seems to insist upon it upon all occasions—the "American Walter +Scott," is undisputably at the very head of his <i>trade</i> at the present +day for nautical descriptions; his terrestrial admirers have pronounced +him "a practical seaman;" and, of course, the only man in these United +States that can give any, even an approximate idea of the sea, and +"those that go down in ships." I have at my pen's end six or eight very +desperate "cases" of his knowledge of "practical seamanship" and +maritime affairs, which may be found in the "Red Rover" and "Water +Witch" <i>passim</i>; but those animals, vulgarly called critics, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> more +politely and properly at present, reviewers, whom the New York Mirror +defines to be "great dogs, that go about unchained and growl at every +thing they do not comprehend," these dogs have dragged the lion's hide +partly off, and ascertained, what every man, to whom the Almighty has +vouchsafed an ordinary share of common sense, had all along suspected, +that it covered an ass. James Fenimore Cooper, Esquire's "Letter to his +Countrymen" was an explosion of folly and absurdity that has blown his +name up so high, that there is little or no chance of its coming down +again "this king's reign." Whether he was or was not hired to write it +to support the present administration, as some folks suspect, is not my +affair. I will, therefore, resume the thread of my discourse, which was +only "belayed" for a few minutes, to indulge in the rare pleasure of +grumbling a little at seeing</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Julia Effingham was embarked on board the large, burthensome, and not +alarmingly fast sailing brig Avon—John Burton, master; while the ship +under the command of Captain Allerton was called the Hyperion. Both +vessels were nearly of the same tonnage, though there was much +difference in their rates of sailing, the Hyperion having been built as +near the model of a swift American ship as the English naval architect's +conscience would let him, which, however, did not allow him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> any greater +latitude than such as made a very obvious difference in their appearance +and rate of speed. Miss Effingham was accompanied by her maid, Miss +Dolly, alias Dorothea, Hastings. Nothing material occurred for the first +six weeks of their voyage, by which time they had nearly reached the +equator, except that Allerton improved every opportunity afforded by +light breezes and calms to visit the Avon; which visits Captain Burton, +honest man! supposed were intended for himself.</p> + +<p>But at this period—that is, six weeks after leaving the Lizard Point, +and while the two ships were in that peculiarly disagreeable strip of +salt water that lies between the southern limits of the northeast +trade-wind and the northern edge of the south-east, and is affected by +neither—there came on one night one of those very black and threatening +squalls, that look as though they would blow the ocean out of its bed, +and frequently do not blow at all. Captain Burton, who thought a squall +was a squall all over the world, and who was better acquainted with the +Grand Banks and the Bay of Biscay than with the tropics, took in all +sail, while the Hyperion, with topgallant-sails lowered, ran gallantly +before it, and made upwards of fifty miles before the breeze left her. +The Avon was in her turn shortly after favored with a fine breeze, but +the two ships did not meet again till they had passed Cape Horn.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, Mr. Effingham began to discover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> that Chili was not +paradise, nor its inhabitants saints; many thefts, robberies, and +frauds, were practised upon him, for which he could obtain no redress +from the contemptible magistrates; an earthquake, that did a great deal +of damage, was followed by a sweeping epidemic, which, as it affected +only the natives, was imputed by the priests to magic art and diabolical +witchcraft on the part of the heretical foreign residents. A riot was +the consequence, and the foreigners were only able to secure their lives +and property by a combination of their numbers, and the most determined +firmness of purpose. In short, the harassed merchant found out at last +that he had blundered into one of those self-styled republics, so many +of which have sprung up and passed away since the commencement of the +nineteenth century, where infant Liberty is nursed by mother Mob.</p> + +<p>These vexatious circumstances, and the prospect of an approaching +revolution, that threatened to be a bloody one, completely changed his +sentiments with regard to all South American governments, and he +bitterly regretted having sent for his daughter to join him.</p> + +<p>It was too late now to remedy that mis-step; but he determined, as soon +as she arrived, to re-embark for England as soon as possible, and in +consequence he lost no time in disposing of his merchandize, and +transmitting his funds to the coast, and thence to the spirit-room of a +British frigate. Having thus "set his house in order," and adjusted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> his +Chilian books, he left St. Jago, and took up his abode for the time +being in Valparaiso, waiting impatiently for the arrival of the Hyperion +and Avon, that were now daily expected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Finally, my dear hearers.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 18em;">Old Sermons.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Nothing material occurred to the good brig Avon after parting company, +as aforesaid, with her consort, the Hyperion; a circumstance that I +regret not a little, as it deprives me of my only chance for describing +a storm at sea. They only experienced one tornado, and fifteen gales of +wind, before joining the other ship. The tornado was no great things +after all—the brig ran merrily before it, under a reefed foresail and +close-reefed main-topsail. The crew were all on deck during the whole +night it lasted, in case of their services being required. But the +females below had by far the worst of it—they were "turned in" to +berths that the ship-joiner had built with reference rather to the +accommodation of an able-bodied man, than a delicate young lady; and in +consequence, poor Julia was dashed first against the vessel's side, and +then against the front berth-board, as the brig rolled gunwales under at +every motion, till she began to think with the Frenchman, that she +"should get some sleeps, no, not never." In this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> dilemma she thought of +taking her maid, Miss Dorothea Hastings, into the berth with her, where +the two females, operating mutually as "checks" to each other, +eventually made out a very passable night's rest. As for the gales of +wind, they were the merest flea-bites in creation, though one of them +borrowed the brig's fore-topmast, and another walked away with her +jib-boom.</p> + +<p>During this period, Benavidas had been taken a second time; and as his +captors did not choose to risk shooting him again, which they had +already practised upon him once without success, they hanged him. His +gang were nearly all killed or taken at the same time, and the prisoners +summarily dealt with.</p> + +<p>Longford and about thirty more made their escape in a small schooner; +and as they well knew that they would experience no other mercy, if +taken, than a high gallows and short halter, they shaped a course for +the island of Masafuero, which they determined to make their +head-quarters, and to commit depredations upon all vessels that passed +which were not too well armed. They effected a landing with some +difficulty, and found, as they expected, considerable quantities of +provisions and stores, that had been deposited among the deep fissures +of the rocks by Benavidas some time previous, when his affairs on the +continent began to assume a smoky appearance. Here the scattered but +desperate remnant of his lawless followers found a temporary respite +from the harassing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> pursuit of the Chilenos, that resulted every day in +the capture and immediate execution of some of their number.</p> + +<p>The landing-place at Masafuero, with the open ground beyond it, +surrounded on three sides by broken rocks or high mountains, makes a +very beautiful appearance from the offing—anchorage, I believe, there +is none. It is a gentle slope, fronting the northern or sunny side of +the horizon, smooth, and of most delightful verdure. Perhaps it appeared +more lovely to me, who had been groping among the ices of the ant-arctic +circle for five months previous. The men whom we had left to get +seal-skins assured me the soil was very rich and deep, and the herbage +green and luxuriant. Since commencing these chapters, I have been +informed that the island is very frequently visited by our whalemen for +supplies of wood and young goat's flesh, which last is a savory morsel +to men who have been many months tumbling and rolling about on the long +regular swell of the Pacific. The waters that surround the island are +almost literally filled with fine fish, to which sailors have given the +general name of "snappers," and which differ from any fish among us, +more particularly in their propensity to bite as greedily at a bare hook +as a baited one.</p> + +<p>It was here that the pirates lay <i>perdue</i>, waiting when the devil, who +always befriends such gentry, should send them a defenceless prey. They +were unable to anchor, as I have already noticed that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> there was no +anchorage, and were accordingly continually on the move, sometimes +extending their researches fifty or sixty miles to the eastward of Juan +Fernandez, which lies about that distance nearer the main than +Masafuero.</p> + +<p>As they were lying to one morning, off the north-western side of +Fernandez, they were suddenly startled by the unexpected appearance of a +large brig that came out from behind the western extremity of the +island, and edged away towards the northward and eastward under all +sail. It was the first vessel they had seen since they had set up the +piratical business on their own account and risk, except an English +"jackass frigate," that chased them at the rate of one mile to the +schooner's five. The Vincedor, which was the name of the schooner, also +kept away and made sail, but kept yawing about in a manner that excited +the suspicions of the people on board the brig, and it was evident that +the manœuvre would soon bring the schooner alongside. The brig now +hoisted the English ensign, but continued on her way without deviating +from her course. The schooner also made an attempt to "talk bunting," or +show colors; but she had nothing of the kind on board but some old +ragged signals that formerly belonged to the ill-fated brig Swan; and +one of these was accordingly run up to the end of the main gaff. Captain +Burton, for it was indeed he and the brig Avon, after attentively +examining the stranger, gave it as his opinion that she was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> pirate, +and directed his men to stand to their guns.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the schooner, having closed with the Avon, fired a shot +across her bows, which being unnoticed, another was fired that passed +through her foresail, to which the brig replied with three guns loaded +with grape, that took fatal effect upon the exposed and crowded deck of +the Vincedor. The pirates then kept up a heavy and well-directed fire of +small arms upon the Avon, and Captain Burton, seeing several of his best +men killed and wounded, reluctantly gave orders to haul up the courses +and back the main yard, still keeping his colors flying.</p> + +<p>Longford and about twenty ruffians like himself immediately came on +board; and their first question to Captain Burton was, how he had dared +to fire upon their schooner?</p> + +<p>"Because," said the sturdy old seaman, "I knew you to be pirates, and I +was determined not to surrender this vessel without some resistance."</p> + +<p>During this speech, Longford raised his pistol, and at its conclusion +fired; and the brave old sailor, shot through the body, and mortally +wounded, fell at his feet. This was the signal for a general massacre of +the crew; and while the bloody act was perpetrating, Longford ran down +into the cabin, to secure certain articles of plunder that he did not +choose to share with his partners in crime and blood.</p> + +<p>Before the pirate came alongside the Avon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> Captain Burton, suspecting +her real character, had requested Julia to go below for a while, on +pretence that he was going to tack ship, and she would be in the way, as +women always are at sea, of the head-braces and main-boom. As the blunt +old veteran never used much ceremony upon such occasions, she thought no +more about it, but went below as she was bid. The firing, however, had +terrified her exceedingly; and Miss Dorothy Hastings, who was sent out +as a vidette as far as the upper step of the companion-ladder, came +scampering back to the main body with intelligence that the stranger was +a pirate, and immediately proceeded to enumerate the outrages that they +might certainly calculate upon being subjected to. Almost sinking with +terror, Julia listened with a scarce-beating heart to the increased +trampling of feet on deck, the oaths of the pirates, and the report of a +pistol; and when the murderer Longford, splashed with poor Burton's +blood, suddenly appeared before her, she uttered a wild shriek, and sank +senseless upon the cabin floor.</p> + +<p>But vengeance was on its way, and close at hand. While the pirates were +busily engaged in murdering the unhappy crew of the Avon, which they did +not accomplish without considerable loss to themselves, for the gallant +fellows fought most desperately, the Hyperion hove in sight from behind +Fernandez, following the track of her consort. Captain Allerton had +heard the firing, and, suspecting all was not right, had "packed on" a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> +press of sail, and soon came within short musket-shot of the schooner, +whose hull received eight or ten round shot, but her sweeps and +superiority of sailing on a wind, enabled her to escape. Allerton then +steered for the brig, the disordered state of whose sails, her braces +loose and yards flying about as the wind and sea pleased, convinced him +that the pirates had been on board, and it was with a horrible dread of +what might have taken place that he drew near. When within half a mile +of the Avon, he saw a boat shove off from alongside, that a single look +at his glass convinced him contained none of the brig's crew. Satisfied +that they were part of the schooner's piratical crew, he sent all his +men forward armed with muskets, with orders to give them a volley as +soon as they came near enough to be sure of their mark. This was done, +and the next moment the boat was sunk by the ship passing over her, and +not one of the blood-stained wretches escaped. The Hyperion then +shortened sail, and hove to.</p> + +<p>To return to the Avon's cabin. When Longford saw a lovely young woman +lying insensible before him, when he expected no such person's existence +on board, his better feelings prevailed—he thought of his mother, his +sisters, his home, and the bright prospects he had forever darkened by +his own folly and vice, and he leaned against the bulk-head in bitter +agony. He neither heard nor heeded the repeated calls of one of his +comrades, announcing the rapid approach of the Hyperion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> his thoughts +were in a complete whirl, nor was he roused from his gloomy reflections +but by the voices of Allerton and his boat's crew, as they came +alongside. Then he started and ran up the companion-way, but escape was +impossible. He drew a pistol from his belt; but before he could even put +himself in an attitude of defence, he was cloven to the teeth by a blow +of Allerton's cutlass.</p> + +<p>Without stopping to see if there was more of them, George ran instantly +below, and found his Julia still insensible, and Miss Hastings kicking +her heels and screaming, after the most approved recipe for performing +hysterics. Allerton sprinkled the young lady's face with water and +vinegar, and ransacked the medicine-chest for hartshorn and ether, but +without success, till at length he thought of bleeding, at which he was +sufficiently expert when his patients had been sailors. The snow-white, +round arm was instantly bared and bandaged; the vein rose, and was +pierced by the lancet with as much skill as Sangrado himself could have +displayed; but the operator, although he knew how much blood a tough +seaman could afford to lose, was completely at a loss when his patient +was a delicate young lady; and, having, to his joy, witnessed the +success of his phlebotomy in restoring her to life and consciousness, +slacked the bandage and stopped the bleeding.</p> + +<p>For a few minutes Julia's senses seemed completely bewildered; she +stared wildly around, and uttered the most incoherent ravings; when +George,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> who seemed to retain his presence of mind most wonderfully, +wisely reflecting that human nature was about the same, whether in +breeches or petticoats, poured out a glass of wine, and compelled his +patient to swallow a large share of it. The wine produced the most happy +effects. In a few minutes she looked up in his face with an intelligent +glance, and in a soft voice murmured his name.</p> + +<p>In the mean time it would be unpardonable in us to leave Miss Dorothea +Hastings any longer. Allerton had been followed into the cabin by +several of his men, one of whom, compassionating the situation of the +young woman, who was, in truth, a plump, rosy-cheeked lass, and having +seen cold water thrown into the faces of people in fits, caught up a +gallon pitcher filled with the element, and dashed it into her +countenance. The remedy effectually restored her to consciousness and +herself, by rousing her indignation against the perpetrator of such an +ungallant action.</p> + +<p>A German theorist of the present age has much such a way of curing all +human diseases; that is, he drives one disorder out of the system by +introducing another more powerful—in some cases similar, in others +directly opposite; as for instance, he attacks pulmonary consumption +with insanity, gout with the "seven-years-itch," small-pox with its +partial namesake, pleurisy with inflammatory rheumatism, &c., and so +<i>vice versa</i> in all cases; no doubt the theory is a good one, and so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> +was that which proposed to keep a horse upon nothing.</p> + +<p>In the course of an hour Julia declared herself sufficiently restored to +accompany George to his own ship, whither she was accordingly removed, +and a cabin fitted up for her accommodation.</p> + +<p>In the process of burying the murdered crew of the Avon, four of her men +were found alive, severely but not dangerously wounded; and a fifth, who +had lowered himself over the bows, and clung to the bob-stays. Six of +the pirates were also found dead on her decks, their brains dashed out +by the handspikes with which the seamen had defended themselves till +shot down in detail.</p> + +<p>By the time all necessary arrangements and changes had been made, it was +dark; and the Avon, with the second officer and six men from the +Hyperion, jogged along in the wake of that ship, which carried a lantern +at her gaff-end for her direction. Miss Dorothy, being comfortably +established in the Hyperion's cabin, complained of "feeling bad +somehow." Her mistress had <i>turned in</i> long before, and was sound asleep +under the influence of a composing medicine, prescribed by her physician +and lover. Perhaps Miss Hastings thought the same medicine might do +<i>her</i> good; perhaps she meant the complaint as a hint to Mr. Brail, the +mate, to have pity upon her. The seaman took the hint, real or +imaginary, and declared he could compound a draught as composing as any +prescribed in the "book of directions," and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> accordingly mixed a tumbler +of hot grog, well sweetened with loaf-sugar; but he forgot he was not +mixing for himself, and put in the same quantity of pure Antigua as +though the "charge" was intended for his own throat and brain of proof. +Miss Dolly drank the potent mixture, which effectually dispelled the +remains of her hysterical squall; and in a few minutes after retiring to +her berth, she was fast in the arms of Morpheus, if Morpheus ever goes +to sea.</p> + +<p>Our story must now gallop a little. Mr. Effingham was delighted with +George's gallant conduct, though he was too late to save poor Burton and +his men; the cargoes of both vessels were sold, and the old gentleman, +with his daughter, returned to England with Allerton. Shortly after +their arrival, the hall of Effingham House witnessed the performance of +that ceremony, which, in the English prayer-books, "begins with 'dearly +beloved,' and ends with 'amazement;'" but "the bishops, priests, and +deacons, and all other clergy," who were engaged in altering and +adapting the Book of Common Prayer to the Episcopal church in this +country, finding nothing very amazing in matrimony, have omitted the +short sermon that usually closed its performance, and the form, like +most religious forms, now ends modestly with a simple Amen.</p> + +<p>In three days after the murder on board the Avon, the schooner was +driven ashore upon Masafuero in a "norther," a violent gale so called +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> that sea, from its uniformly blowing from the northward; and of the +eight on board, seven perished. The wretched survivor, after suffering +every thing but death from starvation, escaped in a whaler to the main, +was recognised, identified as one of Benavidas' gang, and shot before he +had been on shore two hours.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Sailor's Yarns, by Nathaniel Ames + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD SAILOR'S YARNS *** + +***** This file should be named 29323-h.htm or 29323-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/2/29323/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Val Wooff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Old Sailor's Yarns + +Author: Nathaniel Ames + +Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29323] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD SAILOR'S YARNS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Val Wooff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +There is some arcane and inconsistent spelling. The dialect, spelling +and punctuation have been preserved as far as possible. + +Obvious typographical errors have been altered, for example where a word +was duplicated or a letter duplicated around a hyphen. Hyphenations have +been made consistent. + + + + + + AN + + OLD SAILOR'S YARNS. + + BY + + N. AMES. + + AUTHOR OF "MARINER'S SKETCHES," + &c. &c. &c. + + + Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem. + + _Virgil._ + + + NEW YORK: GEORGE DEARBORN, 38 GOLD STREET. + + MDCCCXXXV. + + + * * * * * + + + Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by + GEORGE DEARBORN, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the + United States, for the Southern District of New York. + + + * * * * * + + +WILLIAM VAN NORDEN, PRINT. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + * * * * * + + + MARY BOWLINE. . . . . . . 15 + + OLD CUFF . . . . . . . . . . 53 + + RIVALS . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + + MORTON . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + + PIRATE OF MASAFUERO . . 329 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Mr. Buckingham, noticing the "Nautical Reminiscences" in the New +England Magazine, says, no author ever stopped at the second book; and +he very gravely proceeds to recommend that my number three should savor +more of the style of Goldsmith or Washington Irving. I should have no +objection whatever to writing like either of these distinguished +authors, _if I could_; but as the case is, I must be content to write as +well as I can. The whole article in Mr. B's magazine bore no faint +resemblance to a dose of calomel and jalap, administered in a +table-spoonful of molasses, in which the sweet and the nauseous are so +equally balanced, that the patient is in doubt whether to spit or to +swallow. I was, however, exceedingly flattered with the notice bestowed +upon me by this literary cynic, as he was never before known to speak +well, even moderately, of any author, except natives of Boston, or +professors in Harvard University. + +"Morton" is founded upon an old tradition, now forgotten, but well +known when I first went to sea, of the exploits of some of our +adventurous and somewhat lawless traders in the Pacific. A number of the +crew of one of these smuggling vessels were taken in the act, and, after +a hasty trial, ordered to be sent to the mines. The route to their place +of condemnation and hopeless confinement lay near the coast. A large +party of seamen landed from two or three ships that were in the +neighborhood, waylaid the military escort, knocked most of them on the +head, rescued the prisoners, and got safe off without loss. The story +says nothing of female influence or assistance, but knowing it to be +morally impossible to get through a story without the assistance of a +lady, I pressed one into the service, and took other liberties with the +original, till it became what peradventure the reader will find it. Many +stories are told of the skirmishes, or as sailors call them, +"scrammidges," between our "free-traders" and the guarda-costas in +different parts of the Pacific. In particular, the ship D----, of +Boston, is said to have had a "regular-built fight" with a guarda-costa +of forty-four guns, that retired from the action so miserably mauled, +that it is doubtful to this day whether she ever found her way back into +port. An old sea-dog who was on board the D----, furnished me with many +details of the proceedings of our merchantmen on the coasts of +California, and Mexico, some thirty years since, but most of them have +escaped my memory. + +I have inadvertently, in one or two instances, called the inhabitants +of Mexico, South Americans. The fact is, there is scarcely a perceptible +shade of difference in manners between the Chilians, Peruvians, and +Mexicans; there is none in their language, dress, or religion; and +sailors, who pay but little regard to arbitrary divisions of continents, +are in the habit of calling all the quondam possessions of his Most +Catholic Majesty, that border upon the Pacific, by the general name of +South America, upon the same principle, I presume, that they call the +whole of that ocean the "_South_ Sea," though they may be at that very +moment anchored in Sitka, or cruizing in the chops of Behring's Straits. + +"The Rivals," is built upon a strange story that was quite current among +our men-of-war's-men some years ago, but I am unable to give any further +account of the hero of _their_ story than the reader will find in the +conclusion of mine. There seems to be no doubt that the stranger was +obliged to fly on account of a fatal duel; and sailors, who cannot +conceive of a duel between two gentlemen, as they somewhat ironically +call them, unless there is a woman in the case, have accordingly +attached one to the quarrel that compelled the unfortunate officer to +take shelter on board an American national vessel. + +"Old Cuff" is a sketch from real life. He was a petty officer in the +service at the same time with me, and notwithstanding his rambling life, +was a man of good education and strong mind. His life was a striking +illustration of the truth of the proposition that "there is no romance +like the romance of real life." He proposed to me to take minutes of his +adventures, which were extremely interesting, but before I could +commence operations I was myself made a petty officer, and removed to a +station in a part of the ship where I but seldom saw him, and the ship +was soon after ordered home. + +The reader need be neither a wizard nor a witch to perceive that "Mary +Bowline" is a creation of my own brain, and is of course defective, and +will disappoint. But if it is true that "Bacon, Butler, and Shakspeare +have rendered it impossible for any one after them to be profound, +witty, or sublime," it is equally true that Scott, Irving, and others +have rendered it impossible for any one to be equally entertaining, +interesting, or amusing. I hold, however, to another maxim, that "he is +a benefactor to mankind who furnishes them with innocent materials for +laughter and delight," a maxim that did not come exactly "ex cathedra," +but is full as profound, and correct. If I have been so fortunate as to +contribute to, or become the cause of innocent delight, I shall think +that the "Forecastle Yarns" have not been written in vain. + +It was objected to my two former works that they contained strictures, +and remarks, upon what are commonly called orthodox principles. In the +present volume, I have studiously endeavored to steer my footsteps clear +of the tender toes of every religious sect except the Catholics; whom, +in imitation of the Protestant clergy and laity all around me, I have +handled without mittens whenever I could get a chance. + +I cannot close without repeating that if I have succeeded in helping to +make + + "The wheels of life gae down hill scrievin', + Wi' rattlin' glee,"-- + +I shall feel more gratified than if I had squared the circle, or drawn +up a tariff that, like Shakspeare's barber's chair, should fit all +parties. + + + N. A. + _Providence, October 1, 1833._ + + +P. S. More than a year ago the following pages were written and prepared +for the press, under the title of "Forecastle Yarns," but a gentleman +connected with the New York Mirror took a fancy to that title, and +immediately appropriated it to himself with the most genteel +indifference as to the prior right of another. In consequence, I have +been obliged to adopt a new name. The "Pirate of Masafuero" was written +after the above preface was prepared. "Old Cuff" has already been before +the public in the columns of the first and only number of a new +magazine[1] that expired for want of patronage, and support, having just +survived long enough to give ample proofs that it deserved the +patronage, and support, that were denied it. The very favorable notice +that the Evening Star took of "Old Cuff," is proof positive that it is +much higher than "fair to middling;" and if it is true that "the proof +of the pudding is eating the bag," (and the reader will consider "Old +Cuff" as the bag,) I think it follows that the pudding now set before +him cannot be a bad one. + + _November, 1834._ + + +[Footnote 1: American Spectator and National Magazine.] + + + + + * * * * * + + MARY BOWLINE. + + * * * * * + + + + + MARY BOWLINE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + "Nautaeque, per omne + Audaces mare qui currunt, hac mente laborum + Sese ferre, senes ut in otia tuta recedunt, + Aiunt." + HORACE. + + +Captain Robert Bowline, a retired sea-captain, occupied a snug little +farm in the town of B----, one of the many pleasant villages on the +coast of New England. He had followed the sea for many years, acquired +considerable property, married, and had a family. When he had attained +his forty-fifth year, a relation of his wife died, leaving her heiress +to a very handsome estate, part of which was the farm aforesaid. In +consequence of this event he was easily persuaded by his wife, whom he +tenderly loved, to retire to private life, and leave the "vexed ocean" +to be ploughed by those who had their fortunes to make. They retired to +their farm, when the first act of the old Triton was to pull down the +antique house that had been erected "about the time of the old French +war," and build another more "ship-shape," and congenial to the taste +of a sailor. The dwelling itself was not, indeed, externally different +from any other of the snug-looking and rather handsome two-story houses +of substantial farmers, &c. in New England; but its internal economy was +somewhat nautical, containing numerous "lockers" and "store-rooms." Its +front gate-posts were composed of the two jaw-bones of an enormous +whale; the fence was of a most fanciful Chinese pattern; and directly in +front of the house was erected that never-failing ornament of a sailor's +dwelling, a tall flag-staff, with cap, cross-trees, and topmast, +complete; the last, always being kept "housed," except upon the 4th of +July, 22d of February, &c. At the foot of the flag-staff, "hushed in +grim repose," was an iron six-pounder, mounted upon a ship gun-carriage, +ready for service, whenever any national holyday required its voice. The +house fronted the sea; a most superb view of which it commanded, but was +at the same time screened from its storms in great measure by being +flanked by noble old elms, and a fine orchard, which almost entirely +surrounded it; while in the rear the ground swelled into a thickly +wooded hill of moderate height. The ground in front sloped gently down +to the water's edge, at the distance of half a mile from the house, but +to the left gradually rose into a high point, or headland, terminating +in a rocky cliff that strode far out into the sea, and formed the +harbor. + +The family of the old seaman, at the time he took possession of his +"shore quarters," consisted of himself, wife, and daughter Mary--the +rest of his children having died young. As we have no particular concern +with the events of his life from that period to Mary's twenty-first +year, we shall only observe that during that time he had the misfortune +to lose his wife. + +Mary Bowline was a young lady, confessedly of the greatest beauty in the +little town of B----, and for many miles round; a trifle above the +middle stature, sufficiently so to relieve her figure from the +imputation of shortness; or, as she was a little inclined to be +"fleshy," or "embonpoint," as our refined authors call it, from what is +sometimes called "stubbidness;" her eyes were of deep celestial blue; +her hair, a dark brown, and her complexion, notwithstanding her +continual rambles along the beach in her girlish days, of exquisite +purity. Her education, I grieve to say, had been most shamefully +neglected; her mother, though a most exemplary woman, both as a +Christian and a member of society, had never tied her up in a +fashionable corset to improve her figure, nor sent her to a fashionable +boarding school to improve her mind; the consequence was that she knew +nothing of the piano,--Virgil seems to have had the gift of prophecy +with regard to this part of modern education, when he said or sang, + + "Stridente stipula miserum _disperdere_ carmen,"-- + +and was equally ignorant of that sublime and useful art, working lace; +she had no further idea of dancing than had been beat into her head, or +rather heels, by the saltatory instructions of an itinerant +dancing-master--I ask pardon, "professor"--who, with a bandy-legged dog +at his heels, and a green baize bag under his arm, paid an annual visit +to the town, to instruct its Thetises in the "poetry of motion;" an apt +illustration of the + + "_Bacchum_ in remotis" choreas "rupibus + Vidi docentem + Nymphasque discentes," + +of Horace, with the alteration of a word; said fiddler having "forsworn +thin potations" very soon after the commencement of his capering career. +In the "serene and silent art" she was, however, truly fortunate; the +clergyman of the place, a most amiable and intelligent man, and, to the +credit of his amphibious parishioners, loved and esteemed with the +utmost fervor and unanimity, added to his other accomplishments no mean +skill as a draughtsman; an art, that he had full leisure to practise; +one of his parochial duties, that of visiting the sick, being a mere +shadow; for your fisherman, with his wife and his little ones, is but +seldom on the doctor's list, and when he "files off," generally does it +without beat of drum or flap of banner. He was a constant visiter at the +house of Captain Bowline, whither he was attracted by the fascination +of the seaman's stories of foreign parts. Charmed with the dawning +beauty of the lovely little Mary, he readily undertook to give her +better instruction than she could have obtained at the town school, to +which he added drawing. Her mother had amply instructed her in the more +useful and homely arts of cooking, sewing, knitting, &c. and she had +even taught her to spin; for she lived before the establishment of any, +or many, of those institutions for the increase of illegitimate +children, ignorance, immorality, suicide, seduction, murder, &c.--I mean +cotton factories. The comparatively affluent circumstances of her family +had, however, rendered it unnecessary for her to practise this last +accomplishment. With all these charms in her own person, and right in +her father's strong box, it is not to be wondered at that the lovely +Mary Bowline had suitors in abundance; but the only one that seemed to +have made any impression upon her light heart, was a young seaman by the +name of Kelson, who had now attained his twenty-seventh year. + +Thomas Kelson was the son of poor parents, indeed it would have been +extremely difficult, if not impossible, to have found a family in the +whole town of B---- that could be called wealthy. He had followed the +sea from early life, and had always returned home during the intervals +of his voyages, at which times he had improved his education under the +instructions of the clergyman aforesaid. His acquaintance with Mary had +passed by a very natural transition from intimacy to affection; he was +the constant companion of her rambles, and when she chose an aquatic +excursion his sail-boat was always ready. To her father his company was +always acceptable; the old seaman had none of the pride of "monied +aristrocracy;" he saw no harm in his daughter placing her affections, +and bestowing her hand and fortune, upon a young man who was fast rising +to respectability and wealth, in precisely the same steps by which he +had himself ascended, commencing as cabin-boy and ending as master and +part owner; he lived on a part of the coast that lay entirely out of the +track of "refinement," if indeed she had then begun her march. + +Accordingly things were permitted to go on just as though consent had +been asked and obtained; the young couple walked together, sat together, +and Kelson being "free of the house," talked together upon almost every +subject but love. Was there to be a fishing or sleighing party, or an +excursion into the neighboring woods, Tom Kelson was invariably and by +quiet agreement Mary Bowline's escort; was there a ball, no one, +"louting low with cap in hand," solicited, or thought of soliciting, the +honor of her company; that felicity was always supposed to be reserved +for Tom Kelson; still, with all this constant and close intimacy, the +young seaman had never talked of love, never offered himself as a +husband, and Mary, the gay and light-hearted Mary, had never, as the +New England saying is, "thought a word about it." Had Kelson suddenly +presented himself to her with "Mary, shall we be published next Sunday?" +she would have answered "Yes;" without the slightest hesitation; nor +thought her assent worth the trouble of a blush or a simper; and such, I +believe, will be found the case in most of our country courtships. + +Captain Kelson, for he had attained that title some time previous, had +been on _terra firma_ some months; partly for want of a vessel, but +chiefly in compliance with the earnest entreaties of the lovely Mary, +who was terrified at the thought of his again encountering the frightful +calamity that had so nearly proved fatal to him on his last voyage. On +his return from St. Petersburg with a full cargo, he had experienced a +tremendous gale near the Grand Banks, during which his vessel was struck +by lightning and consumed. After undergoing most dreadful sufferings in +their boats, the exhausted remnant of the crew were most providentially +picked up and brought safe home. In consequence of losing his vessel, +the owners had received him with coldness, as is invariably the case, as +though a deep loaded brig, lying-to in a gale of wind, could dodge a +flash of lightning! I have known many a good seaman kept "lying out" of +a vessel for months, merely because the owners had thought proper to +send him to sea in a _craft_ whose bottom had "dropped out," as the sea +phrase is, as soon as she had encountered bad weather. + +Captain Kelson had accordingly remained on shore from April, till +September; the time when we have thought proper to commence our story; +during which period he contrived to kill time quite agreeably in +fishing, shooting, surveying the harbor, and last but not least, in +paying continual attention to the fair Mary. He had one day made a visit +to Captain Bowline's house, and had accompanied him in a ramble over +part of his farm. During their "cruize," the old sailor had detailed his +plans for the season, and gradually extending his views, announced +certain arrangements and alterations as about to be carried into +execution "when Mary gets married." When Mary gets married! the words +passed like the shock of a galvanic battery through the mind of the +younger seaman; he soon took leave, and as he strolled, unconscious of +the direction his feet were taking without admitting his head into their +counsels, down towards the narrow strip of white sand beach at the foot +of the headland already mentioned, her father's words, the last that he +distinctly heard or recollected, continued to sound in his ears-- + +"When Mary gets married! well, she must get married some time or other, +and who will it be?" he said to himself, suddenly stopping short. "She +seems to prefer me at present, but I know that when I am at sea she +appears to favor Sam Ingraham, or Ben Bass, just as much. Yet why +should she be so anxious to have me stay on shore to avoid an accident +that may not occur again in a century, if I should live so long, unless +she does really prefer me to all others? I will certainly try to find +out the state of her feelings towards me the first opportunity, and if +she refuses me, I will never set foot in B---- again." + +With this chivalrous determination he visited his lovely and all +unconscious mistress the next day, but the fair lady was busy +ironing.--"I shall see her again this evening," thought he, as he turned +slowly towards the town; and see her that evening he did. They rambled +out towards the cape, or promontory, almost invariably the scene of +their summer evening walks; for lovers, after one or two strolls over a +particular portion of ground, regard it as almost sacred; there are a +thousand sweet recollections connected with every step--here they have +paused to admire some particular feature in the prospect--under that +spreading tree they have stood together in silence, busy with their own +peculiar thoughts; and this walk is seldom, if ever, changed--it is +almost like inconstancy to each other to propose a different route. + +They had reached the high bluff, and were seated, as usual, upon a +solitary block of granite, which, had they lived in heathen times, they +might have worshipped as the ancient and much respected god Terminus. +Mary, who had hitherto had the conversation almost entirely to herself, +suddenly noticed her lover's abstraction. + +"Why, what's the matter with you, Thomas?" + +"Nothing; I was only thinking, Mary." + +"'Thinking, Mary!' well, do speak to Mary once in a while. I believe," +she continued, after a pause, and with a faltering voice and feeling of +faintness that she could not account for, "I believe you are in love, +Thomas." She had heard that day that Captain Kelson was making furious +love to a sea-nymph in B----, the daughter of one of the richest +inhabitants. + +"So I am, sweet Mary, most desperately so." + +"I know it, sir; I heard it all this morning; I wish you joy," gasped +the poor girl. + +"Heard of it all! good heavens, Mary, what do you mean? it is you, my +own dearest girl, that I love; who else _could_ you think of?" as he +spoke he held both her hands in his and clasped them earnestly. + +"I heard," faltered poor Mary, "I was told that--that it was--Jane +Wilson, O, Thomas!" and sinking her glowing cheek upon his shoulder, she +burst into tears. + +Kelson, inexpressibly delighted by this unequivocal testimony of her +love, prest her to his bosom, and hastened to explain to her that the +sole object of his seeking an interview with her that evening, was to +make known his affection; that his silence and reserve were owing to the +deep interest he felt in the issue of that interview; that his visits +to Captain Wilson's were solely on business; that he scarcely saw his +daughter Jane at any one of them; and a thousand other things. What a +stupid, asinine creature is a lover, _before_ the ice is broken, and +what an eloquent, inspired animal, _after_ the _explosion_! A lover may +retire to his closet, and spoil a whole ream of paper with "raven +locks," and "eyes' liquid azure," and "sweet girls," &c. Such an epicure +creature as Natty Willis will befoul you a quire of foolscap before +breakfast in that way--but let a stranger see the same lover in presence +of his idol, and he would think that he was then to apologise for an +assault and battery with intent, &c. + +The walk home was the pleasantest they had ever enjoyed--both were too +happy for conversation. They decided, however, before they parted, that +it was altogether unnecessary to communicate to Captain Bowline what had +taken place. "He has understood all along what was the state of your +feelings," said Mary, "and I am sure has always regarded you with +paternal kindness." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + O! a most dainty man! + To see him walk before a lady and bear her fan! + + LOVE'S LABOR LOST. + + +The next day, as the old seaman sat by a front window smoking his pipe +after dinner, he suddenly started up with the exclamation of "Hey! +what--what the devil have we here? Mary, love, hand me the glass--a +mariner adrift on a grating, by the Lord Harry!" + +The object that called forth this animadversion, and broke a delightful +day-dream that Mary was indulging in, now appeared in sight, having +hitherto been hidden by a thick clump of trees, that bounded the ocean +prospect towards the right. It was a small sail-boat, with three men in +her, that, at one moment directly before the wind, and the next, "all +shaking," seemed rapidly approaching an extensive mud flat, that formed +one side of the harbor, and towards which the flowing tide and fresh +breeze seemed to be fast drifting her. + +"There they are, hard and fast! and on their beam ends, too, by the +piper," continued the veteran, and as he witnessed this last +catastrophe, he sprang from his chair, forgetting in his charitable +intention of hurrying to their assistance, that they were more than half +a mile off, and in full view of the town. + +"There is a boat going to them, pa," said Mary, slightly blushing as she +recognised at the mast head of a very handsome, fast sailing boat, a +blue "burger," with a large white M. in it, the work of her own fair +hands. + +"Aye," said the veteran, reseating himself, "aye, there goes Tom Kelson +in your namesake, Mary; they'll get off with a ducking, and it will +serve them right. Yes," continued he, applying the glass to his eye, +"there goes two of them ashore through the mud, like a couple of +pup-seals." + +Kelson managed his boat with great skill, so as to approach the wreck, +on board which still appeared one person half overboard, and apparently +almost exhausted by his violent struggles to disencumber himself from +the wet sail, and by anchoring immediately to windward, and carrying +away cable, reached the boat and rescued the unfortunate man from a +situation that was exceedingly uncomfortable if not dangerous. The other +two, by dint of swimming, wading, and wallowing through the mud, reached +the shore, which was about three hundred yards distant. + +As soon as he had ascertained that the man on board the wreck was +rescued, the old seaman, "on hospitable thoughts intent," hastened to +the village to obtain intelligence and render assistance. It was +evening when he returned to his snug dwelling, and then he was +accompanied by a tall, slight made, very fashionably dressed young man, +whom he introduced to his daughter as Mr. Millinet, of New York. + +Mr. Millinet, or as he usually designated himself, George Frederick +Augustus Millinet, Esq., was a "dry goods merchant," _par excellence_, +in Broadway, who having a little more cash on hand than he had ever +possessed before, made an excursion to New England, with the charitable +intention of civilizing and astonishing the natives. His debut was, +however, rather unfortunate; B---- was his first "land-fall" after +quitting the high road from New York, towards the east. Fancying that a +sail-boat in a sea-way, was as easily managed as a Whitehall skiff, off +the Battery; he had "put to sea," in company with two little amphibious +urchins that he had hired for the occasion, and who desired no better +sport. They immediately perceived the ignorance of their commander, and +began to play tricks upon him, as man-of-war's men do upon an ignorant +and tyrannical midshipman. These pranks had terminated more seriously +than they expected, and, fearful of punishment, they had betaken +themselves to the water and made their escape. + +Mr. Millinet being somewhat annoyed by the sly jokes and grave humor of +mine host, of the hotel, concerning his misfortune, and the giggling of +the waiters and chamber-maids, gladly accepted Captain Bowline's +invitation, and was soon seated at his hospitable and well loaded table, +for the old tar put no great faith in tea and bread and butter for +supper. The knight of the yard-stick had, however, gulped down too much +salt water, and been too seriously frightened to feel much appetite, and +he retired to bed early. The next morning he made his appearance at +breakfast, over which the fair Mary was presiding, and which might have +excited an appetite in the gastric region of the most confirmed +dyspeptic. There were bass and tautaug fresh from the water; oysters in +different forms, broiled, stewed, fried, &c.; a noble ham, into which +the stout seaman plunged his flashing carving-knife, and hewed it in +pieces, as Samuel did Agag, in the valley of Gilgal; there was broiled +ham, beef steaks, mutton chop, eggs, cheese, butter, honey, hot cakes; a +pile of pilot-bread-toast a foot high, ditto untoasted, coffee, tea, and +chocolate. To all this good cheer, their fashionable visiter paid but +small respect, and the old commander, having pressed him to make himself +at home, and help himself, attacked his own breakfast with vigor, +feeling at the same time no small contempt for a man whose stomach could +be so effectually unhinged by a simple capsize, and thorough ducking. +The vender of tape and calico, seemed to feast his eyes, if not his +appetite, by gazing on the lovely countenance of his young hostess; and +after some slight hesitation, commenced talking to her of theatres, and +balls, and assemblies, and fashionable intelligence in general; but +Balaam's ass, if she had marched into the room and commenced an oration +in the original Hebrew, or Chaldee, or Syro-Phoenician, or whatever +might have been _its_ vernacular tongue in which she formerly addressed +her master, could not have been more unintelligible. The old gentleman +made an attempt to drive a conversation, and asked a few questions +relative to foreign politics, the state of navigation, and commerce, in +New York, &c.; but finding his auditor as ignorant as though he had +proposed a case in middle latitude sailing, he dropped him altogether. + +He remained in the family three or four days, during which, his +attentions to Mary were incessant, but managed with such fashionable +tact as not to be annoying. She was exceedingly amused by his consummate +vanity and self-conceit; that seemed to make up the greater part of his +character. His descriptions of society and manners in the commercial +emporium, though not altogether intelligible to his fair auditor, were +new and amusing, and in spite of the contagious effect of her father's +contempt, and the troubled looks of poor Kelson, she could not help +listening to him with complacency. It was evident to every body but Mary +that the retailer of ginghams was most seriously smitten with her, as +much so, that is to say, as his idolatry of himself left him capable of +being with any person. And so it proved, for in less time than she had +any idea that it was possible to go to and return from New York, back +came her Broadway beau. Mary opened her large blue eyes in most +unaffected astonishment, as he came up to the door at which she was +standing, equipped for a walk with Kelson. She made no scruple of +consigning him to her father and continuing her walk. The old man +received him, of course, with politeness, and after a short +conversation, his visiter who seemed much embarrassed, observed that he +was desirous of entering the holy state, and then went on to give an +account of his prospects, expectations, possessions, references, hopes, +fears, anxieties, &c. The seaman listened with attention to the whole +catalogue, mentally exclaiming, "what the d--l does all this mean?" + +"In short, sir," said he of Broadway, "I have seen no young lady who +seems so well calculated to make a man happy as your lovely daughter +Mary; and if you have no objection, I should be happy to be permitted to +pay my addresses to her, if her affections are not already engaged." + +The old sea-dog, who had been rubbing his chin during the latter part of +his visiter's harangue, observed that "his daughter was indeed a fine +girl, and he (Mr. Millinet) had not and could not say any more good of +her than she deserved; that as to her affections being engaged, he did +not pretend to bother his brain about an affair that did not concern +him, trusting that the girl had good sense enough to make a proper +choice; that with regard to paying his addresses to her, he might sheer +alongside as quick as he liked--he would without doubt find her at +quarters and all ready for action; and finally that he, her father, +would not interfere to thwart her wishes in so important an affair as +the choice of a husband, for," (he repeated, with an internal chuckle as +the thought crossed his mind, that his favorite Tom Kelson was beyond a +doubt the man of her choice,) "Mary knew what she was about, and had wit +enough to make a judicious choice." + +This speech, an exceedingly long one for him, was listened to with great +satisfaction by his fashionable guest, who thus armed with the father's +consent, as he regarded it, never dreamed of the possibility of any +difficulty on the daughter's part, and looked upon the whole affair as +settled. + +In the mean time Mary, regardless of her victory over the heart of her +New York visiter, was quietly pursuing her evening walk with Kelson, to +whom she had made known the presence, in the vicinity, of his rival. Her +lover heard the intelligence with a feeling of dissatisfaction that he +could not exactly define--he had unbounded confidence in his Mary's +constancy and love just at that present time, but, like most men, he had +rather a mean opinion of woman's constancy in general, and could not +avoid applying the general rules that he had formed for himself, to most +individuals. He dreaded the effect of an assiduous and sustained attack +upon Mary's inexperienced mind, from a dashing, fashionable lover, who +held out to her acceptance all the charms and glitter of a life of ease, +and splendor, and dissipation. His uneasy sensations were by no means +quieted by his companion's gaiety, who having at once surmised, or +pretended so to have done, the object of the Gothamite's visit, promised +herself much amusement from his wooing. + +On their return to the house, they found the new visiter quietly +installed in the parlor, and waiting their, or rather her, return. In +high glee with the flattering prospect before him, he completely +monopolized Mary's attention, and eventually put to flight the +overpowered and mortified Kelson, who left the house with a heavy heart. +For at least a week Mr. Millinet kept the field; he was Mary's constant +companion, whether sitting quietly at home or walking out; and Kelson, +finding it almost impossible even to speak to her, prudently kept +himself out of the way, well knowing that Mary would soon miss him, if +she had not already, and eagerly seek an interview; nor was he wrong in +his conjecture. Calling at her father's house one Sunday morning, he +found her seated in the parlor waiting for meeting time. In the course +of conversation he asked her jestingly, though with a beating heart, +"what she meant to do with her new lover?" + +"I don't know," said she laughing, "he says that he has my father's +permission to make love to me, and he seems determined that the +permission shall not become a dead letter for want of use." + +"Your father! I had no idea that he had given his consent." + +"My father, Thomas, has given me free permission to do as I please in +the affair of choosing a husband." + +"Certainly," said poor Kelson, construing this last speech into sentence +of death to _his_ love. + +"And I have already acted as I pleased," continued the lovely girl, +holding out her hand to him. + +It was impossible to mistake the meaning of the last words and their +accompanying action, and the delighted seaman certified his full +intelligence and gratitude upon her lips. + +"I believe this fellow, my sweet Mary, has made me almost jealous and +quite foolish; but, seriously, what do you mean to do with him?" + +"Why, the creature can't stay here for ever, and if he offers himself to +me, I shall say 'No,' in as plain English as possible." + +Mr. Millinet soon after made his appearance, and attended Captain +Bowline and his daughter to meeting, to the no small surprise of the +good folks of B----, who, regarding him as the favored lover of Mary +Bowline, could not help expressing their regret that she should have +slighted Captain Kelson, and accepted "that tape-measuring son of a +b----." + +What a pity that sailors, and seafaring people at large, can seldom or +never give vent to their indignation without at the same time attacking +the parentage of the object of their resentment. This is decidedly an +orientalism; and I have observed in another place that sailors resemble +the Orientals in their fondness for tropes and figures. The most +opprobrious epithet that a Persian can make use of, when in a passion, +is to call his antagonist "a dog's uncle." No other degree of canine +consanguinity is considered so degrading. + +The retailer of dry goods dined at the house of Captain Bowline, and +attended the family to church in the afternoon, but excused himself +immediately after the service was over and returned to the town. Kelson +made a visit to the house of the old seaman just at dark, and on +entering the usual sitting-room he found it unlighted, and occupied only +by Dinah, the black girl, who, arrayed in what the old captain called +her "go-ashore bib and tucker," was probably awaiting the arrival of her +woolly-headed suitor. The old gentleman had gone out visiting, as he +usually did on Sunday evenings, and Mary was in a little back parlor, +where she usually sat in her father's absence, and which was the winter +sitting-room of the family. Kelson had been in the house but a very few +minutes when he saw his rival approaching the front gate. With all that +propensity for mischief that characterizes sailors on shore, he +immediately formed, and proceeded to put in execution, a plan for the +torment and vexation of his antagonist of the yard-stick. He promised +the sable handmaid of his Mary a half dollar, if she would personate her +mistress for a few minutes, which he imagined easily enough done in the +dark, and instructing her "to behave prim and lady-like," went in quest +of the boy Jim, whom he stationed in the entry to open the door for Mr. +Millinet, and show him into the front parlor, and then went to the room +where the fair lady herself was sitting. She was just on the point of +coming to the front room with a light, having heard his well-known voice +and step, but he easily engaged her in conversation; and when, at +Millinet's knock, she was rising to see who it was, he as easily +detained her by the assurance, that it was "nobody but her New York +sweetheart." Every thing favored the mischievous plans of the seaman: +Millinet never suspecting that any female but the mistress of the house +would presume to seat herself in the front parlor, and feeling moreover +the darkness and solitude of the room peculiarly favorable to courtship, +seated himself by the side of the supposed Mary, and immediately +commenced making love in pretty "rapid" style. Finding that the lady +answered only in monosyllables, and seemed more than usually affable, he +ventured to take her hand and gently squeeze it. He was at first +somewhat startled at the hardness and roughness of the palm, but soon +recollected that the country ladies in New England were in the habit of +milking their cows, making butter and cheese, &c., and said to himself, +"Never mind, when she is Mrs. Millinet her hard palms shall be well +rubbed with pumice-stone and milk of roses, till they are as soft as any +lady's in Broadway." + +Enraptured by the gentle pressure with which the "black lily" returned +his amorous squeeze of her hand, he ventured to raise it to his lips, +and imprint a kiss upon the short, thick fingers. At this critical and +rapturous moment the door flew open, and the real Mary entered, bearing +a lighted glass mantel-lamp in each hand. With a profound curtesy she +placed her lamps upon the mantel-piece, and gravely asking pardon for +her intrusion, flew into the room which she had just left, and which +immediately echoed with her laughter, lively and joyous, but most +unfashionably loud, hearty, and prolonged. The sable _fair_ one made her +escape at the same time, and received from Kelson double what he had +promised her. Mary, however, as soon as she had recovered her gravity, +joined her new suitor, but all her hospitable attentions were lost upon +the discomfited Broadway merchant, who soon took his leave, overwhelmed +with shame and mortification, nor did he sufficiently recover himself to +renew his visits for two or three days. When he did again visit her +father's house, Mary, who thought the joke carried far enough, treated +him with more than usual attention, by way of apology for her untimely +and mortifying mirth, so that by the expiration of the week he had +entirely recovered his spirits, his self-conceit, his vanity, and his +talkativeness. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + You are now within a foot + Of the extreme verge; for all beneath the moon + Would I not leap upright! + KING LEAR. + + +Shortly after this mad prank of Kelson's, Mr. Millinet invited Mary to +walk out one lovely evening, to which she gladly assented. They took +their way towards the "Whale's Head," a name given by the inhabitants of +B---- to the high bluff already mentioned, that formed the eastern side +of their harbor, from its real or fancied resemblance to the nose, or to +speak more scientifically, "noddle-end," of a whale. A path descended +obliquely from the upper part of the cape down to the beach at its foot. +The whole cape and the land adjacent were comprised in the estate of +Captain Bowline, who kept the paths in good repair, and had been at +considerable pains, when he first took possession of the farm, to render +it perfectly safe and passable, for the convenience of the fishermen, +who were in the habit of digging clams on the narrow beach at the foot +of the hill, and fishing among the sunken rocks at the extreme point. +For the whole length of the path the hill was extremely steep, but not +perpendicular, and covered with short dried grass, which made the +surface so slippery, that it afforded an apt illustration of Virgil's +"facilis descensus Averni;" for though any one might accomplish a +descent safely enough by dint of holding on to the few shrubs and +bushes, and sliding occasionally, no animal but a cat, a goat, or a +monkey, could ascend, if it was to save his life. Near the middle of the +path it was crossed by a deep gap, or ravine, caused by the constant +wearing of a small spring of water that trickled down the face of the +cliff, and which was generally swollen by the melting of the snow, or by +occasional heavy rains. The beach, or rather marsh, at the foot of the +hill, where the little rivulet joined the sea, was so soft and boggy, as +to be utterly impassable. Across this ravine, which was known by the +name of the "Devil's Gap," Captain Bowline had caused a narrow bridge, +of two planks in width, to be built, protected on the outside by a light +railing. On the side next the hill, it was sufficiently guarded by the +crooked branches of a knurly and scrubby oak tree, that grew on the very +edge of the ravine. + +Down this path the fair Mary and her suitor directed their steps. They +wandered along the beach as far as the point, the New Yorker in full +chat and high spirits, and Mary's attention almost entirely occupied by +a distant boat that seemed to be engaged in fishing, and which she +recognised, notwithstanding the distance, to be her namesake, the Mary, +belonging to her lover Kelson. Their walk occupied them till nearly +sunset, when Mary suddenly recollected that the tide was flowing, and +would soon entirely cover the narrow beach that they had just passed. By +dint of walking fast, they reached the foot of the path before the beach +was covered by the tide, and commenced their ascent just as the sun went +down. + +In the mean time, heavy black clouds began to muster in the north-west, +announcing the approach of a thunder shower, and reducing the evening +twilight to less than half its usual duration. Large heavy drops of rain +were soon felt and heard, rattling in the few straggling shrubs and +bushes, accompanied by short gusts of wind. Mr. Millinet, who was +considerably alarmed by these indications of a violent shower, and who +trembled for the safety of his new Broadway hat, and Broadway coat, +hurried on with the most uncourteous and unlover-like disregard of his +fair companion, who was too much accustomed to take care of herself, to +be at all incommoded by his neglect. They reached the "Devil's Gap," and +the lover strode on most rapidly; he was just upon the middle of the +little bridge, when being startled by a sudden bright flash of +lightning, he stumbled, and in the dread of falling off, laid violent +hold upon one of the branches of the scrubby oak on the other side, +recovered himself, and passed on. The oak, that had long since been +partially undermined by the water from the spring, and which Captain +Bowline had determined to remove before it did any damage, gave way +before the violent pull of Millinet. Mary, whose feet were already upon +the planks of the bridge, alarmed by the rattling of the loose earth and +stones that fell from under the roots of the tree, ran hastily back. The +next instant, the tree, with a ton or two of earth attached to its +matted roots, came thundering down, sweeping away with it the bridge, +and a large portion of the path beyond it. In the mean time, short +violent showers, of but four or five seconds in duration, with equally +short and violent gusts of wind, induced the Broadway gallant to +increase his speed; he had indeed heard a loud crash, but it is no more +than bare justice to him to say that he mistook the noise for thunder. + +Poor Mary was thus completely insulated--it was impossible to go back, +for the beach was long since covered by the rising tide--to climb up the +hill was exceedingly difficult, if not absolutely impossible to an +active man--to go forward was of course out of the question--there was +every appearance of a cold, driving October storm of wind and rain, to +which she must necessarily be exposed, with no additional clothing +except a shawl, till the tide had ebbed sufficiently to leave the beach +passible, and then the walk round the point was full three miles. In +this dilemma, far from any human habitation, and exposed to the night +wind, which now began to blow extremely chilly, poor Mary seated herself +upon the bank and wept bitterly. After the lapse of a few minutes, she +became more composed, and most fervently and earnestly commending +herself to Divine protection, she endeavored to shelter herself as much +as possible from the wind; for the rain had now ceased, and the clouds +breaking away towards the south-west, gave indications of a clear, cold, +frosty autumnal night. + +Relief was, however, much nearer than she expected. Her father, alarmed +at her non-appearance, and the threatening looks of the weather, sallied +forth in quest of her. He had gone but a few rods, when he met Mr. +George Frederic Augustus, with his pocket handkerchief tied over his +hat, and his coat buttoned up to the chin, "striking out," as sailors +say, like a man walking against time. + +"Holloa," he shouted, "you Mr. What's-your-name! where the d--l have you +left Mary? a pretty fellow you are to convoy a lady, to bear up before +the wind as soon as the weather looks misty, and leave her to shift for +herself! not but that the girl is a d--d sight better able to take care +of herself than you are to take care of her." All this was said in +perfect good humor, the old tar taking it for granted that his daughter +had "made a harbor," as he expressed it, in one of the neighbor's +houses. + +But the abrupt question had startled Millinet, and he answered with much +confusion and hesitation, "I--really, sir, I thought,--I am sure that +is--I thought she was close behind me--she certainly was a few minutes +since." + +Captain Bowline, muttering an inverted blessing upon his fashionable +guest, pushed on towards the path over the cliff. He was soon joined by +Kelson, who had come in from fishing but a few minutes before, and who, +hearing of Mary's walking out upon the beach, had immediately hastened +to her father's house. He too had seen the hero of Gotham; but that +gentleman, not deeming it wholesome to hold much conversation with men +of so little refinement and fashion as Bowline and Kelson, when +irritated, had made the best of his way towards B----. + +Mary's father and lover accordingly hurried on, stopping at the house of +old Haddock, the fisherman, who lived near the upper end of "Jade's +Walk," as the hill-path was called, where they furnished themselves with +a lantern, a coil of rope, and sundry other articles that they deemed +necessary. Old Haddock and his two "boys," great two-fisted fellows of +twenty and two and twenty years of age, also accompanied them. They soon +arrived at the Devil's Gap, where they beheld the ruin caused by the +fall of the tree. For an instant a thrill of horror ran through the +hearts of two of the beholders; the idea that the object of their search +and solicitude had been swept away by the fall of the bridge, and +crushed in its ruins, or smothered in the mud and water at the foot of +the hill, occurred instantly to both of them. + +From this state of agony and suspense, they were soon relieved by the +silver voice of =Mary= herself, calling from the further side of the gap, +"Here I am, dear father, don't attempt to come to me, the path is all +carried away on this side, and it is impossible for you or any one to +get to me. Wait till the tide has gone down, and I will walk round to +the point." + +The sight of the dear girl in safety only stimulated them to greater +exertions; the old fisherman and one of his boys departed to their house +to procure a long plank, while Kelson and the other young man returned +to the top of the hill, and, by sliding and supporting themselves by the +bushes, safely descended to the spot where stood the lovely wanderer. +She was so overjoyed to see them, and so completely chilled through, +that she could scarcely speak. Kelson immediately stripped off his coat, +and insisted upon wrapping her in it; and the young Triton, following +the brilliant example of one whom he respected so much as Captain +Kelson, doffed his "monkey-jacket," and with hearty but rough kindness +forcibly enveloped her feet and ancles in its fearnought folds. + +In a short time the other two fishermen arrived, bearing on their +shoulders a long plank. An end of a rope was then thrown to Kelson, by +which one end of the plank was hauled across, and firmly bedded in the +bank. Its passage was then rendered secure by double "life-lines" on +each side; and Mary, supported by her lover and the young fisherman, +safely reached the other side, and was pressed, sobbing with joy, to her +fond father's bosom. The whole party then returned towards Captain +Bowline's house, where the old fisherman and his two sons were liberally +rewarded, and treated with a good supper. + +The next morning a messenger arrived from the village, bearing a note +from Mr. George, &c. Millinet, in which he attempted to excuse his +behavior the preceding evening. Mary declined opening it, however, and +contented herself with sending word by the bearer that the writer need +not give himself any further trouble on her account, an answer that was +sufficiently intelligible. But the old commander shouted after the +messenger, "Tell that lubberly _yoho_[2] that if I catch him within a +cable's length of my house, I'll break every d--d bone in his +tailor-built body." + +This threat was duly reported to the crest-fallen vender of pins and +bobbin, who settled his bills, and accomplished his escape, with as +little parade and as much expedition as possible; a movement that excited +full as much conversation as his first appearance and intimacy in +Captain Bowline's family; and while one party were confident that he had +only gone to New York to make preparations for his marriage, and another +were equally sure that Mary had, in nautical parlance, "given him his +walking ticket," the story of the accident and Mary Bowline's narrow +escape at the Devil's Gap came out, with suitable additions and +embellishments, and of course the whole affair wore a different face at +once. Old Haddock, the fisherman, was seized upon one evening in a +ship-chandlery and grocery store, that was the usual Rialto of the +loungers in B----, and rigorously cross-questioned. The man of hooks and +lines hitched up his trowsers, and proceeded to enlighten his audience +as follows:-- + +"Why you see that 'are New York chap and Miss Mary took a stroll down +Jade's Walk as it might be about five o'clock in the arternoon, P. M. as +the newspapers say. Well, they went down Squaw Beach, and so clean away +out as fur as the pint; and when they was coming back, and got to the +furder eend of the walk, the Yorker he kinder shinned up to her, and she +didn't like it, for I knowed all along she meant to have Captain Kelson. +Well, one word brought on another, till finally he conducted himself in +a very promiscuous manner, and she told him to go 'long about his +business, or she'd tell Captain Kelson of his doings. Well, that made +him just about as mad as a hoe, and so when they come to the Devil's Gap +he kinder kicked away one eend of the bridge, and then turned to and +hauled down that 'ere scrub oak that growed clost to the bridge, so's +folk mought think 'twas done by accident; and so there the poor gal was +left by herself till old Captain Bowline and I and my two boys and +Captain Kelson, come there and rigged a kind of trumporary bridge like, +and got her safe over, and that's the whole consarnment of the matter as +far as I know any thing on't." + +This account of the affair, coming from an eye-witness, was considered +authentic, being full as correct as the stories of eye-witnesses +generally are. Mary at first attempted to contradict it, but finding her +efforts fruitless, prudently determined to let the story die a natural +death, which it soon did; a tremendous gale of wind and a shipwreck on +the Whale's Nose having in less than a week most effectually turned the +current of conversation into another channel. + +Mr. Millinet reached New York in safety, and solaced himself for his +defeat in New England by attention to his pretty person, and his pretty +customers, balls, assemblies, and billiards; in process of time made a +fashionable failure, a fashionable marriage, and commenced business +afresh. To the questions of his acquaintance respecting his excursion +"down east," he was shy and reserved; evading all questions on the +subject by declaring that he had passed his time very pleasantly while +he was in New England, but that the people had some very peculiar and +odd notions of things. In process of time the story of his repulse +reached New York with all its embellishments. Some of his friends were +exceedingly shocked at the idea of his having made an attempt upon the +life of a young lady, for such seemed the tenor of the story; but those +who knew him best fully acquitted him of any thing of the kind, inasmuch +as he had not courage sufficient to offer violence to a hen and +chickens. A true version of the story soon after came out, and Mr. +George Frederic was compelled to undergo the ridicule of all his +acquaintance. + +Mary Bowline became Mrs. Thomas Kelson on "Thanksgiving-day-night," as +the New England folks call it, on which joyful occasion the flagstaff +was rigged "all a-tanto," and the colors kept flying from eight o'clock +in the morning till sunset; according to the regulations of the naval +service, and were also hoisted the next day. + +It was a leading article in Mary's consent to the marriage, that her +husband should give up going to sea, which he and her father contended +did not include or contemplate his probably making a coasting "trip," if +business required, and Mary at last consented to admit the exception. +The bridge at the Devil's Gap was substantially repaired, and was often +visited by Mary and her husband; and Jade's Walk was long celebrated as +a favorite evening stroll when the weather permitted, not only with +young lovers, but even with "old married fudges," as young ladies who +are husband-hunting very politely call them. + +[Footnote 2: Yoho, an animal, probably the ourang-outang, in whose +existence sailors are firm believers, and of whose courage, +intelligence, cunning, malicious and mischievous disposition, they tell +wonderful stories. The word seems to be a corruption of Dean Swift's +"Yahoo."] + + + + + * * * * * + + OLD CUFF. + + * * * * * + + + + + OLD CUFF. + + "Qualia multa mari nautae patiuntur in alto!" + + VIRGIL. + + +What Yankee man-of-war's-man is there, ashore or afloat, who has "helped +Uncle Sam," any time between the beginning of the "long embargo," and +the year 1827, who does not know or has not heard of Old Cuff? His real +patronymic appellation is nobody's business;--perhaps it would puzzle +himself to give any account of it: nor is it worth while to inquire how +the name of Cuff, generally bestowed upon the woolly-headed and +flat-nosed descendants of Ham, should be given to a white man; and as +for the _praenomen_, as the Romans would call it, of "old," it is well +known to all my short-jacketed readers, that it seldom has, in "sea +dic." or nautical language, any reference to antiquity on the part of +the bearer thereof; but is merely a familiar or affectionate +distinction; as the commander of a merchantman, although perhaps under +twenty years of age, is invariably called the "old man," by all hands on +board. + +Old Cuff, when I knew him, was just turned of forty, and was, of course, +of venerable standing; as it is I presume, well known to every body that +a sailor's life does not average much more than forty years, from +exposure, hardships, and privations. Though not stricken in years, +according to the usual signification of the phrase, Old Cuff had +certainly _lived a great deal_, and had seen a great deal, there being +scarcely a habitable corner of the world that he had not visited, or of +the private history and internal economy of which he could not relate +many anecdotes; so that he might, without arrogance or vanity, have +assumed to himself the proposed motto of the Jesuits: + + "Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris!" + +He commenced his career as cook and cabin-boy on board a "horse-jockey;" +one of those vessels which carry horses, mules, and other cattle to the +West Indies; a title bestowed upon them by sailors, who are very much in +the habit of indulging in that figure of speech called by rhetoricians +metonymy; in this instance applying the genuine name of all Connecticut +men, and some Rhode Islanders, to a fore-topsail schooner, or +hermaphrodite brig, as the case might be. He was next, by a sort of +metamorphosis, or rather metastasis, not uncommon with those of "steady +habits," a travelling tin-pedler; and his adventures and hard bargains, +during a visit or two to the western and southern states, might prove +highly entertaining to my readers, had I not seen some twenty or thirty +of them lately going the rounds of the newspapers, which Old Cuff has +often very gravely assured us, in our "quarter watches" in the main-top, +were actually perpetrated by himself. By a transition still easier, and +perhaps more natural, from a tin-pedler he transmuted himself into an +itinerant preacher, and from conscientious motives endeavored to repair +the injury he had done to the pockets of his customers with his +white-oak nutmegs, horn gun-flints, and bass-wood cucumber seeds, by +supplying them with pure unadulterated orthodox Calvinism, fresh from +the Saybrook Platform. Nor did he confine his usefulness to beating the +"drum ecclesiastic;" during the long winters in the country, he "kept +school," as it is somewhat perversely called; whereas, in nine cases out +of ten, it is the school that "keeps" the schoolmaster. + +But "the sow that was washed returned to her wallowing in the mire;" and +in like manner Cuff left off steering the souls of sinners through the +temptations and sorrows of this wicked world, or the infant mind through +the intricacies of a--b ab, and once more betook himself to steering +vessels across the ocean. He went to sea as mate, and shortly after as +master, of a merchantman. He was chiefly employed in the West India +trade. + +It has been said, that all, or nearly all, the Americans taken on board +piratical vessels in the West Indies and parts adjoining, are natives of +New-England; and it is gravely stated as a reason, that in consequence +of the immense trade between that section of the Union and those +islands, and the neighboring parts of the main land, that are the chief +scenes of piratical depredation and resort; the crews of the New-England +vessels trading, and occasionally smuggling, in bye-ports, become +gradually and imperceptibly acquainted with those of piratical vessels +frequenting those bye-ports and obscure harbors, for the purpose of +refitting their vessels or disposing of their plunder; and that these +acquaintances ripen into intimacies, that terminate in a strong cord +with a running noose in the end of it. The deduction is perfectly +logical, and it only remains to substantiate the premises; and these, I +fear, may be proved, in but too many cases, to be based upon too solid a +foundation to be overthrown by all the incredulous writhings of national +pride. Be that as it may, the atrocities of Gibbs and others have +recently proved, that total depravity is approached as nearly by the +natives of New-England as by any of our Christian brethren. + +In process of time the subject of our narrative grew tired of stowing +molasses, feeding horses, or throwing them overboard, and "dodging" from +island to island, and entered the naval service of the United States. +The vessel to which he was attached was stationed in the West Indies, +and had been on her station but a very short time, before that scourge +of no small portion of the western world, the yellow fever, made its +appearance on board. Our navy certainly was not then under so good +regulations as at present. The medical department might perhaps be +almost as good then as it now is, or rather as it was when I was in the +service; the disgracefully penurious compensation allowed our naval +surgeons rendering their station contemptible and degrading in the +estimation of medical men of any pride or ability. Besides this, the +sick at sea can never receive assistance from female attendance; for +although some may deem it altogether imagination, there _is_ something +so soothing to the sick or wounded man in those thousand nameless acts +of kindness that none but woman can think of, and none but woman +perform, that, after one or two visits from the doctor, the patient +feels wonderfully inclined to dispense with his further attendance: nay, +when languishing on that bed from which he is doomed never to rise, his +pillow is softer when arranged by woman's hand; his parched and clammy +lips seem to recover their healthy freshness when woman administers the +cooling draught. When I die, grant, kind Heaven! that the last earthly +sound that murmurs in my "death-deafened" ear may be the kind, soothing, +pitying voice of woman. When this worn-out hulk, strained fore and aft +by exposure and hard service, its upper works crank with vexations and +disappointments, shall be hauled up high and dry upon the lee-side of +death's cove, may the last that "shoves off" from alongside be woman--I +care not whether wife or stranger. + +In addition to the want of proper attention, a sick sailor is invariably +an object of contempt and disgust to his officers: they cannot forbear +regarding with contempt a man who is reduced to mental and bodily +imbecility by a disease that _they_ do not and perhaps never did feel: +his pale, emaciated, and squalid appearance excites disgust. I have made +these remarks to illustrate what, on the authority of Old Cuff, took +place on board the U. S. ship----. + +Owing to the negligence or imbecility, or both, of the medical +department on board, little or no provision was made for the sick. They +lay about on the forecastle or the booms, and the dead were collected, +sewed up in their hammocks, "ballasted," and hove overboard, every +morning before the decks were washed, that is, between day-break and +sunrise. This duty was generally performed by the master-at-arms and +ship's corporal, familiarly called throughout the service "Jack Ketch +and his mate;" but in this particular ship, and for the time being, they +received the more apposite title of ship's "turkey buzzards." I ought to +have mentioned, that in obedience both to naval etiquette and the +superstitious feelings of the sailors, the burial service of the +Episcopal Church was regularly read over the result of the ship's turkey +buzzards' researches above or below deck. + +Old Cuff, who had been on shore with a watering party, where he had made +a pretty heavy libation of new rum, came on board at sunset; but having +a somewhat confused recollection of the "bearings and distances" down +the fore-ladder, he wisely concluded to set up his tabernacle for the +night upon the boom. Long before midnight he perceived the symptoms of +the cruel disorder that had so fearfully thinned the ----'s complement. +His distress increased every moment--he earnestly begged for a draught +of water, but in vain, and before daylight he became insensible. In due +time all hands were called; the resurrection-men commenced their +examination, and receiving no intelligible reply to a sound kick upon +our hero's ribs, the ship's corporal laid hold of him by the heels, and +dragged him into the gangway, where the two functionaries declared him +"dead enough to bury," and forthwith reported progress to that effect to +the lieutenant of the morning watch. "Very well," said the officer. +"Young gentlemen, have a couple of eighteen-pound shot got up; pass the +word, there, for the sail-maker's mate. Boatswain's mate, call all hands +to bury the dead. How many are there?" "Only one, sir." "Very well. Tell +Mr. Quill to bring his prayer-book on deck." + +The corpse was soon inclosed in its canvass coffin, with the shot +attached to the feet. The captain's clerk commenced the funeral service +in a hurried, monotonous tone, and had nearly got to the fatal "we +therefore commit his body to the deep," the signal for launching, when +the ceremony was interrupted, and the officers and crew horrified by a +violent struggle of the supposed defunct, accompanied with angry +ejaculations. + +"What the devil are you about? Let me out, let me out; d--n your eyes, I +ain't dead yet;--cut away your thundering hammock, and I'll let you know +whether I'm dead or not. This is a pretty how-d'ye-do, to be giving a +fellow a sea-toss before his time has come." + +Half a dozen jack-knives were at work in an instant upon the stitches of +the hammock that inclosed the dead-alive--their owners being in their +eagerness utterly regardless of the risk of amputation to which their +haste subjected Old Cuff's nose; who, having burst his cerements and +shaken himself, was conducted below to the doctor. + +Death, however, had not yet done with him. His next cruise was in the +Patriot service. Nothing very particular took place, till being sent +with a party "cutting out," as it is technically termed by seamen--that +is, capturing and bringing out vessels lying at anchor in an enemy's +port, he and several of his party were made prisoners, and, according to +the murderous system of warfare going on between the Spanish royal +forces and the insurgents, ordered to be shot. No great formality was +ever used on these occasions, (the Catholic Church, of course, withheld +her consolations from heretics,) and their preparations were nearly +completed, when several dragoons dashed into the "plaza," bloody with +spurring, fiery red with haste, announcing that the rebels were +advancing in great force from the interior. The intelligence proved to +be correct, but the executing party did not wait to ascertain that fact; +they scampered off instantly, leaving the prisoners bound. The Patriots, +of course, set them at liberty, and Old Cuff was thus rescued a second +time from an "untimely grave." (By the way, I never saw any person, +however old and infirm, who was willing to admit the grave "timely," at +any age.) + +After many wanderings and adventures, he entered another Patriot vessel, +cruising off the mouth of the river Plata. After making some captures, +they were one day suddenly surprised and completely hemmed in by a +Spanish squadron, consisting of a frigate and four or five other smaller +vessels. Finding escape impossible, the commander of the Patriot brig, +an Englishman, determined to defend himself to the last extremity, at +the same time using every exertion to escape, of which the swift sailing +of his vessel held out some hopes. These hopes were, however, +frustrated, in consequence of the brig losing several important spars, +and being soon rendered almost a complete wreck. In this crippled and +unmanageable condition, she drifted upon a small, low, island, at no +great distance, but still kept up a fire from such of her guns as could +be brought to bear, or rather such as she had men enough left to work, +for, by this time, full two thirds of her crew were killed or +wounded.--Finding it impossible to save his vessel, the commander, who +was dreadfully wounded, and fast bleeding to death, recommended to the +wretched survivors of his brave crew to save themselves by swimming. Old +Cuff and eight or ten others, being all who were able or willing to try +their chance, accordingly took to the water, and reached the island +safely, Cuff himself being severely wounded. The island was very low, +scarcely rising six feet from high-water mark, and completely covered +with a species of wild vine, that, finding neither trees nor rocks to +support it, had formed a perfect cover to the whole island, by twisting +and interweaving its branches with each other, so as to form a vegetable +carpet sufficiently firm and close, in nearly all parts, to support the +weight of a man. Between this singular roof and the ground was a space +of two or three feet, and within this space the unhappy seamen secreted +themselves, not with the hope of escaping, but deferring the fate that +they were certain awaited them. Accordingly, the Spaniards, after having +boarded the wreck of the brig, and, according to custom, murdered the +wounded and mangled the dead, landed a large party to complete the +horrid tragedy by murdering the few unfortunate men whom they had seen +swim to the island. These savages ran about the island, which it does +not seem was more than a couple of acres in extent, yelling like wild +beasts, and thrusting their swords and boarding pikes down among the +vines, with the hope of piercing some of the objects of their revenge. +One of them, who appeared to be an officer, stood for some minutes +directly over and upon Old Cuff, and while giving directions to his men, +repeatedly thrust his sword down through the sheltering vines. The +weapon passed once between his arm and body, and once through his +clothes, slightly grazing his side. His agony during these moments was +horrible. To be dragged out, and murdered by inches, or stabbed to death +where he lay, not daring to move, though the pressure of the wretch's +weight who stood upon him was so painful, that he could scarce forbear +crying out. Such seemed his inevitable fate. But he was doomed to +undergo still greater agony. One of the unfortunate men was discovered +and dragged out within a few yards of him. The incarnate demons were a +full hour murdering him, stabbing and hacking him with their pikes and +cutlasses in parts of the body where wounds would be exquisitely painful +but not mortal. The shrieks of the unhappy man were dreadful, the more +so, as every one of his companions expected every moment to share his +fate. The approach of night at length put an end to the dreadful scene, +and the disappointed hell-hounds returned to their ships. + +The next morning, the Spanish squadron sailed round the island, pouring +upon every part of it discharges of grape and canister shot, that proved +fatal to several of the unfortunate men concealed upon it. They also +landed again, and attempted to set fire to the vines and dry grass, but +providentially without much effect. They continued, however, to +blockade the little island for two days longer, when they were +compelled, by bad weather, to stand out to sea. Having ascertained that +the Spanish murderers were gone, the miserable remnant of the brig's +crew ventured from their hiding-places, almost exhausted with hunger, +thirst, and terror. The main land was in possession of the Patriot, or +Buenos Ayrean troops, but was more than two miles distant; and they +consequently had no alternative but to swim to it; which they +accordingly attempted, being extremely apprehensive that the Spaniards +would return. The passage across the straits was long and tedious; and +their hopes of ultimate success for a long time doubtful. When about +half way across, one of their number declared that he was too much +exhausted to go any farther, and after a few words of encouragement from +his companions, suddenly exclaimed, "good bye," and sunk for ever. The +rest, five in number, succeeded in reaching the shore, just at sunset. + +After wandering about a mile, they came to a sort of farm-house, the +mistress of which was employed baking bread. Delirious with hunger, +three of them tore the half-baked bread from the oven, and devoured +large quantities of it. They all died in horrible agonies before +day-break. The other two, more prudent, or having arrived at that point +of starvation, at which pain had ceased, ate nothing but such light food +as was provided for them by the humane Buenos Ayreans. In a few days +they were quite recovered from the effects of such prolonged hunger, and +made the best of their way towards the city of Buenos Ayres. Here Old +Cuff found several Republican officers, by whose influence he obtained a +commission as lieutenant of artillery. But, not altogether liking the +land service in the first place, and having moreover ascertained that +the Republic of Buenos Ayres, like that of the United States of America, +was not willing to vouchsafe any thing but hard knocks, and no pay, to +those who stood by her and supported her, in her fierce struggle for +independence, he very deliberately disrobed himself of his regimentals, +laid aside his epaulets, tore up his commission, and returned in a +merchantman to his native country. Not long after his return, he entered +in the United States service, and it was then, that I first saw him. He +was made captain of the main-top before sailing, and I was, myself, +shortly after, stationed in the main-top likewise. + +On the passage out to the Pacific, and when nearly in the latitude of +Cape Horn, we, that is to say, a midshipman, Old Cuff, and thirteen men, +were all very comfortably asleep in the main-top, the weather being +remarkably mild for that high latitude. It was the middle watch, from +midnight to four in the morning; Cuff was lying athwart-ships, or +cross-wise of the top, and near the fore part of it, where there were no +topsail nor topmast-shrouds to prevent a fall. There was, indeed, a +"life-line" from the first topmast-shroud, on each side, to the +cap-shore amidships, but it was breast high, and of course afforded no +security to a man who was lying down. My head was pillowed upon Old +Cuff's side, the midshipman's head was on my breast, and the rest of my +earthly tabernacle was occupied as a bolster by as many of the quarter +watch as could get near me. About two o'clock, I was suddenly awoke by +the abduction of my living pillow, and the consequent collision of my +head against one of the top burton-blocks. At the same time I heard a +whizzing noise, like a rope running swiftly through a block, but none of +us took much notice of it; the midshipman growled some at my fidgeting +about while fixing another pillow, but the absence of the captain of the +top was not perceived. At seven bells, or half past three, the +midshipman of the quarter deck hailed, "Main-top there! answer your +musters, in the main-top." + +"You had better keep awake in that main-top;" thundered the lieutenant +of the deck, through his trumpet, "you have lost one of your number +already by your sleeping." + +All this was "Hebrew Greek" to us, but in a short time the sentry at the +cabin door "reported" eight bells; the larboard watch was called, the +wheel, look-outs, and tops relieved, and the mystery of the loss of "one +of our number" fully explained. + +"What did you heave Old Cuff out of the top for?" said the first one of +the larboard watch, whose head came through the "lubber's hole." + +"When did Old Cuff, fall from aloft?" said the next that ascended to the +"sky-parlor." + +"Old Cuff is done for," said the third that came up. + +"He has broke his back-bone short off;" said a fourth, with his jacket +over one shoulder. + +"Yes, and four of his ribs to boot;" added a fifth, who was determined +the story should not want particulars. + +"The doctor says he won't live till morning," said a sixth, who had not +yet hove in sight, speaking below the top, as Hamlet senior's ghost does +under the stage. + +By this time, the whole of the alarming intelligence was fairly +expended, the remaining eight, who made up the sum total of the quarter +watch, having no farther particulars of consequence to communicate, the +first six who came up having already broken every bone in poor Old +Cuff's body, and "abridged his doleful days" to boot. By dint of cross +questioning, we made shift to ascertain, that about two o'clock, or four +bells, Old Cuff had rolled away from under my head, and over the top +brim. Fortunately he fell across the fore-topmast studding-sail tack, +which broke two of his ribs and his fall, and thence he had gently +canted over, and alighted upon the quarter-deck hammock-nettings, nearly +knocked overboard the half-asleep main-topman who was perched up there +as a look-out. He recovered, however, in two or three weeks, in spite of +the doctor's prognostication. + +Upon our arrival at Valparaiso, a similar accident happened to him, +that, taken in connexion with the first, formed what newspaper folks +call "a singular coincidence." A considerable portion of the town, or +city, or whatever it may be, of Valparaiso, is built upon and among +several high, rocky, precipitous cliffs, to which sailors, time out of +mind, have given the names of fore, main, and mizen tops. It is, +perhaps, another singular coincidence, that the name "main-royal," that +belongs of right to the highest sail in a ship, is applied to the lowest +part of said respectable sea-port. The "main-top" is the favorite resort +of sailors, but I cannot say much in praise of the moral virtues of the +denizens of said main-top. They do, indeed, enjoy a better prospect and +a purer air than their fellow citizens, whose location is somewhat +nearer the level of the sea, so that their physical elevation gives them +many advantages that serve to compensate them for what they lack through +moral debasement. The part of the main-top that fronts the bay, is a +sheer precipice of two hundred feet; but on another part, it is simply +too steep for any animal but a monkey to make a highway of. Down this +part Old Cuff, who was ashore on liberty, and who likewise had his "beer +aboard," contrived to trundle himself, and was picked up as dead in the +street below. He, however, recovered from this tumble as speedily as he +did from the other, having received but little damage, except some half +dozen cuts and bruises in the countenance, which he held in but light +esteem, being by no means vain of his beauty. I do not recollect that he +met with any more accidents of consequence during the cruise. He +returned to America in the frigate, and I have since been told that he +had received a gunner's warrant, in consideration of his long, and, in +his way, faithful services and many wounds; for I believe he had been +wounded in almost every naval engagement during the last war. + + + + + * * * * * + + THE RIVALS. + + * * * * * + + + THE RIVALS. + + +In the neighborhood of Genoa, there lived some years since an old +gardner, who, by dint of most unwearied industry and great skill in his +vocation, had acquired sufficient property to enable him to purchase the +farm that he had hitherto occupied as a tenant. His name was Pietro +Morelli. He had no family but an only child, his daughter Bianca, at the +time of our story in her nineteenth year, and who assisted her father in +such branches of his occupation as were not inconsistent with her sex. + +Bianca Morelli possessed all that peculiar beauty for which her +countrywomen are celebrated; namely, regular Grecian features, a clear +brunette complexion, a profusion of raven black tresses, and soft, +languishing, and most intelligent black eyes. Her form was tall, +slender, and graceful, while her disposition was amiable and gentle as +her face was lovely. The beautiful Bianca was well known, and admired by +most of the inhabitants of Genoa; and her sweet face and modest +deportment were always, with them, irresistible inducements to purchase +her fruits and flowers, when she accompanied her father to market, or +visited the city alone. + +It so chanced one day, that a party of Austrian officers, who had +recently been quartered in Genoa, rode out to old Morelli's house, to +enjoy what was to them both a luxury and a novelty;--eating fruit fresh +gathered from the trees and vines.--Old Morelli was by no means +ambitious of this honor; he was too firm a friend to his degraded, but +still redeemable country, to desire any intimacy with the military +myrmidons of her Austrian despot; so that, notwithstanding the grave and +correct moral deportment which is said to be the general characteristic +of the Austrian officers, and of which he was aware, he saw their +approach to his humble dwelling with a vague feeling of distrust and +anxiety. + +Among his military visitors was General Baron Plindorf, one of those +"gallant militarists" that abound in all standing armies; whose sole +employment, during the "piping times of peace," and in the course of a +soldier's unsettled and rambling life from quarters to quarters, seems +to be, to abuse the rights of hospitality, by carrying disgrace and +infamy into every domestic circle to which they can by any means obtain +admittance. It ought to be a source of pride to my countrymen, that they +are more of a marrying people than the English or French, and do not +regard women in the same degraded light as a gambler does a pack of +cards, that are to be shuffled and played with for a while, and then +thrown away. Our naval and military officers are rather remarkable for +their readiness to form matrimonial connexions; while on the other hand, +our young men who are educated to the law, physic, or divinity, never +think of "setting up for themselves," till they are "accommodated," as +Bardolph says, with a wife, whom the three learned professions regard as +indispensable as Starkie on Evidence to the first; a pocket case of +instruments, or Dawes' Midwifery, to the second; or a Brown's +Concordance, or Calmet's Dictionary, to the third. + +Such characters as I have alluded to, it would seem, are extremely +common in the British army; and it is to be presumed that they are not +less plentiful in the armies of the European powers; though it does not +appear that the community at large gain wisdom and caution from the +mournful experience of their neighbors, but rather the reverse; for, if +we may believe their own writers, the footsteps of a regiment, moving +about through different country quarters, are marked by more incurable +evils, and more true horrors, than the march of an invading army through +a hostile, and resisting country. It has been said of the Turkish army, +that they are far more formidable to their friends, than to their foes; +if any dependence can be placed in those numerous writings, professing +to be descriptions of English manners, that find their way across the +Atlantic, the same may be said of that portion of the British army that +is on the "home station." + +Baron Plindorf was an unprincipled libertine, cold, selfish, and +unfeeling. He was eminently successful too in his diabolical enterprise, +although there was nothing prepossessing in his person or in his +manners; but he had the reputation of being irresistible, and of course +he was so; for, whatever may be the reason, it is a most lamentable +fact, that to be called a professed rake, and reputed father of some +half dozen illegitimate children, is a man's most irresistible passport, +and powerful recommendation to the good graces and smiles of the fair +sex at large; every woman is instantly eager to call into exercise that +fascinating treachery that ought to doom its possessor to public infamy +and detestation. The next most powerful introduction to female favor, is +to be a widower or a foreigner; though the latter is almost uniformly +"brought to bay," in a few months after marrying in this country, by a +wife and some eight or nine children from "over the water;" the very +next foreigner that comes over _alone_, is snapped up in the same +way--but enough of this. + +He saw and admired Bianca, as Milton's devil saw and admired Paradise, +with the prospective determination of destroying its calm happiness +forever. + +There was one of old Morelli's visitors, how ever, upon whom the lovely +Bianca's beauty, modesty and grace, had made an impression of a far +different kind. This was the young Count Altenberg, acknowledged on all +hands to be the most accomplished gentleman, and most amiable and +estimable young man, in that division of the Grand Duke's army. Frederic +Count Altenberg, was the son of Rudolf, of Altenberg, an officer of high +rank, who had served his country faithfully, but ineffectually, in +opposing the headlong progress of the blood-stained Corsican. The old +Count had, within two years, been gathered to his fathers, and his title +and estates had descended to his only son, then in his twenty-third +year. At an early age Frederic had received a commission as captain of +cavalry, but as every body knows that promotion is slower in the army of +his Tuscan highness than in that of any other European power, he still +remained a captain of cavalry, and probably would do so unto his dying +day. It was his determination, as soon as he returned to Florence, to +resign his commission, and retire to his paternal estates in Germany, +but "diis aliter visum est," the fates had decreed otherwise. An +indulgent and fond father had spared no pains nor expense in educating +this his only child, and that child had amply repaid his care. + +Educated most carefully in the strictest principles of the Christian +religion and morality, generous, brave, and humane, he was, when he +arrived to man's estate, the _beau ideal_ of a man of honor, and a +gentleman. By neither of these terms, do I mean that fashionable +personage whose god is himself, who would seduce his friend's wife or +sister, or strip him of his last farthing at a gaming table, and then +shoot him through the head, by way of making amends; or who scrupulously +discharges all gambling and betting debts; utterly neglecting those of +the poor tradesman, or industrious mechanic, but the "justum et tenacem +propositi virum," of the Roman satirist, the man of strict integrity, +and immoveable principles. Frederic had long since formed a +determination, that as soon as he could clear himself from the army, he +would most seriously incline himself to the search of a wife. Although +considered by his fair-haired countrywomen as lawful game, and moreover +as one who was well worth securing, he had hitherto escaped any very +serious affection of the heart. The beauty of Bianca, so unlike what he +had been accustomed to, had charmed him; her unaffected modesty had +commanded his respect; and when he left her father's house, he +determined that it was absolutely necessary to his comfort, to see her +again. Accordingly the next evening, and the next, and many succeeding +evenings, saw him riding towards old Morelli's cottage; and he had long +been convinced, from what he saw of Bianca, that he had at last found +the woman who only of all her sex could make him happy; which is +precisely what every man thinks when in love for the first time, and +alters his mind in less than a twelvemonth. Nor was the gentle Bianca +insensible to his evident partiality for her society; she detected +herself repeatedly, without being willing to acknowledge it, wishing for +evening--disappointed, if the sky was overcast, or the weather +rainy--fluttering with hope, and joy, and indescribable emotion, at the +sight of every distant cavalier, or at the sound of every horse's hoof +upon the road towards the city. The warm blush, the speaking smile, the +sparkling eyes, of both the lovely Bianca and the young soldier, would +have been sufficient to convince the most casual observer that there +existed the most decided case of a _serious affection of the heart_. Of +course old Morelli's eyes had long before seen and made due report to +his mind, as to what was the true state of his daughter's and the young +nobleman's affection. Ever anxious for Bianca's happiness and welfare, +and still more so now that she had attained that age when female beauty +is both mature and fully developed, while at the same time it has all +the freshness and rosiness of youth, he became exceedingly alarmed and +agitated at the too obvious state of the lover's sentiments. He sought +and soon obtained an opportunity of speaking to him, and Frederic was at +that moment anxious to see the old man, and putting to him that +question, which, whether addressed to the fair one in person, or to her +pa and ma, is always embarrassing; always makes a man look, and feel, +and act, very much like a fool; and when answered in the affirmative, +is not unfrequently the forerunner of most sincere and hearty +repentance. In fact, repentance being so often the consequence of +marriage, (it is gravely asserted by some of the old fathers,) is in our +mind reason why Catholics regard it (that is, the marriage, not the +repentance) a sacrament, "because it produces repentance, which is a +step towards grace." I am so far a Catholic, as to admit most +cheerfully, that it is a holy state, and that there is no text in +scripture more true, than that "it is not good for man to be alone;" +still if I was about entering that holy state, I am sadly afraid that my +feelings would be wholly uninfluenced by any hopes of approaching any +nearer towards a state of grace, not even over the thorny path of the +consequent repentance. + +"Signior Count," began old Morelli, as soon as he had ascertained that +they were alone, "you cannot suppose me ignorant of the cause of your +frequent visits to my poor house, or that as a father I am so +indifferent to my daughter's happiness as to see it without extreme +anxiety." + +"I was about speaking to you on the same subject," said Frederic, +hesitatingly, "I have already told you that it is my fixed determination +to leave the army, and retire to peaceful life on my own estate. But +although my fortune is princely, I feel it would be valueless without +your lovely daughter. Signior Morelli, I love Bianca; I have made no +attempt to conceal it from you; were my intentions dishonorable, do you +not think that I would endeavor to hide them from a father's eye? Do +you take me for the bold, hardened libertine that would trample under +foot a father's hospitality to accomplish his daughter's infamy? You +wrong me, Signior, if you do; but I cannot believe that in your dislike +to my country, you believe all her children base and unprincipled." + +"Nay, my young friend, I believe nothing of that detestable character +can be laid to your charge. But consider for a moment the immense +distance between you. You are an Austrian nobleman of high rank and of +ancient family, and Bianca, on the other hand, can boast of nothing but +her good name and unsullied character." + +"And does not virtue outweigh all worldly titles and distinctions in the +estimation of every rational and virtuous mind? Your lovely daughter's +virtues are far superior to my empty titles or immense wealth. In +accepting me as a husband, she would confer honor, not receive it. She +descends to my level; I do not and cannot rise to hers--the gain, the +honor, the advantage, of such an alliance would be mine." + +"You are an enthusiast, Count; your passion has gotten the better of +your judgment; that you love my daughter _now_ I am perfectly willing to +admit, but that your affection for her will sustain the shock of the +ridicule of your associates, or the contempt and neglect with which your +proud and titled kindred and countrymen will treat such a wife, whom +they regard so infinitely beneath them, I very much doubt. Matches +between people so widely separated by difference of rank, however +arbitrary and absurd those distinctions may be, can never produce aught +but unhappiness." + +The Count was, notwithstanding the reasonableness of old Morelli's +objections, as politely obstinate as young lovers are to old fathers, +when those old fathers condescend to reason with them instead of +resorting to the more usual and summary process of turning them out of +doors, and forbidding their daughters to hold any farther communication +with the dear rejected. In a subsequent conversation with his daughter +he found that both parties were nearly in the same situation; Bianca +with many tears confessing her love for Count Altenberg. There seemed +then but two chances to escape from this state of embarrassment, namely, +either to consent to Frederic's offer of his hand, or to send his +daughter to an aged relative at Padua; which last plan was liable to so +many objections that, after ruminating upon it for two days, he gave it +up, and permitted the lovers to enjoy each other's society, though +without giving a direct consent to their union. + +In the mean time the libertine Plindorf was plotting destruction to the +fair Bianca. He well knew that such a woman was not to be carried by the +usual attacks of flattery and money; which last, whether administered in +the form of rich and dazzling presents, or simply by itself, is almost +uniformly found irresistible by old and young women, according to their +tastes or situations; his plan was therefore necessarily more deeply +laid than any he had heretofore practised. It was accordingly with a +mingled emotion of pleasure and anxiety that he watched the progress of +the attachment between the two lovers. Although he feared that her +attachment might prove too strong to be easily shaken, he still hoped to +be able to involve them in embarrassments, and then, under the guise of +friendship and pretence of assisting them, further his own unprincipled +views. The impetuosity of the young nobleman, and certain circumstances +that he could not foresee, brought the affair to a crisis both +unexpected and disastrous. + +The Baron walked out one afternoon towards old Morelli's cottage, +without any fixed object, for the unequivocal dislike that Bianca always +manifested towards him, had determined him to cease his visits to her +father's house, and make his approaches with the utmost caution. He +approached a retired spot near the house, where the lovers frequently +strolled to enjoy each other's society. Bianca had also wandered there +in the hope of meeting Frederic. She was occupied gathering flowers, and +arranging them in a nosegay, when a rustling among the bushes attracted +her attention. She hastily advanced towards the spot, exclaiming +"Frederic!" when the Baron, the man whom of all others she most hated, +and, for some undefinable reason or other, feared, stood before her. + +"Fairest Bianca!" said Plindorf, advancing, "let me not alarm you, +although I am not the person you seemed to expect; let me hope that the +presence of a friend and well-wisher to both parties is not disagreeable +or terrifying." + +Bianca, exceedingly alarmed at the sudden apparition of one so odious to +her, had sunk down upon a rude seat. The Baron approached, and taking +her passive hand, seated himself by her side. Mistaking the cause of her +quietness, he ventured to press her trembling hand to his lips, and +attempted to pass his arm around her waist. The terrified girl suddenly +sprang from him with a loud shriek, and attempted to fly; the Baron +again caught her hand, and endeavored forcibly to detain her. At that +moment the Count Altenberg suddenly stood before them, his eyes flashing +with rage. + +"Villain," he exclaimed, as soon as his passion would give him +utterance, "deceitful, cowardly scoundrel! take that"--striking him a +violent blow, and at the same time unsheathing his sword. + +The Baron was ready in an instant, but as soon as the Count felt his +weapon clashing against that of his antagonist, he became at once cool +and composed. Not so Plindorf, he dashed at his more youthful opponent +with a fury that had well nigh brought the combat to a speedy and fatal +issue, and compelled Frederic to exert his utmost skill. The peculiar +danger of his situation, and almost certain death or remediless disgrace +that awaited him, even if victorious, for having struck his superior +officer, were present to the mind of the young officer in gloomy and +terrible colors; but it was too late to retract. The fury of the Baron +threw him off his guard--he received a mortal wound, and fell dead. The +unhappy survivor stood for some seconds gazing upon the inanimate form +before him; and as the features, after being convulsed for a little, +settled into the iron stiffness of everlasting sleep, he uttered a deep +sigh, and unconsciously moved away from the spot. At this moment Bianca, +recovering from the stupor into which the terrible scene had thrown her, +earnestly enjoined him to fly. + +"There is no time to be lost," said the agonized girl; "fly at once to +the sea-side--go on board any vessel that is about sailing--in a few +days, I doubt not, this unhappy business will be hushed up." + +"And where shall I fly?" said the Count; "where shall I go from +_him_?"--indicating the slain nobleman by a movement of his hand--"do +you know what I have done? I have in one moment sentenced myself to +death; or, what is worse, to disgraceful and infamous privation of all +my honors and rank." + +"No, no--there is yet time--go immediately on board the American +man-of-war in the harbor--they dare not search for you there." + +With many entreaties and tears, she prevailed upon him to take measures +for his safety; and with a lightened heart saw him, from the windows of +her father's house, reach the water-side uninterrupted; saw him leave +the shore in a little skiff, when the intervention of other objects hid +him from her sight. + +The two officers were missed that evening. The dead body of the +ill-fated Baron was soon discovered; for many had seen him going towards +old Morelli's cottage; but no traces of Count Altenberg have ever been +discovered. Morelli and his daughter underwent a rigid examination; the +former could throw no light upon the mysterious disappearance of +Frederic, but Bianca, the pure-minded Bianca, unreservedly related all +the circumstances. The examining officers forwarded an elaborate and +circumstantial report of the case to Vienna, accompanied by an earnest +petition in behalf of the absent Count. The Emperor laid the affair +before a select council of old and experienced officers, who, after due +deliberation, and weighing the excellence of Altenberg's character +against the depravity of his slain antagonist, suggested the expediency +of pardoning the offender. Proclamation was accordingly made to that +effect, but without success. + +The unhappy Bianca lived to experience, in all its bitterness, that +"hope deferred that maketh the heart sick" and eventually breaks it. +She died in less than two years after the flight of Frederic, a victim +to a disorder that has no place in the catalogue of nosologists, and is +not recognised as a malady; though it is as incurable and consigns +almost as many victims to an untimely grave as consumption, with which +it is very frequently confounded--I mean a broken heart. She was buried, +according to her dying request, in the little arbor that Frederic had +assisted her to erect and adorn, and where she had passed those most +delightful moments in human existence, the days of the first love, and +first courtship, of two young, affectionate, and virtuous beings. +Blessed moments! that occur but once in the dreary threescore years and +ten, and fade away before we have time to enjoy them, and we only become +conscious of their existence from the certainty that they are gone for +ever. + + * * * * * + +Several years ago, and, if I am not much mistaken, just after the peace +of 1815, an officer, in full Austrian uniform, came on board one of our +frigates then lying in the harbor of Genoa. From the richness of his +regimentals, and a cross and ribbon in his button-hole, it was evident +that the stranger was of high ancestral and military rank. + +It so happened that he came on board just at "grog time," (four o'clock) +in the afternoon; and during the interesting moment that sailors are +discussing their whiskey--the whole Holy Alliance, with aids and prime +ministers and protocols, might come on board, and balance Europe, or +upset the scales, just as unto them seemed good, expedient, or politic, +without attracting any attention from these short-jacketed philosophers; +unless indeed some straggler from the upper deck might come below, and +casually inform his messmates, that "there was a whole raft of soger +officers on the quarter-deck;" for be it known to all concerned, that the +word number is seldom or never used by nautical philologists to +designate things numerable, it is always "a _raft_ of women," "a raft of +marines," &c. I could easily go on to show that the word "raft" is a +good phrase, and peculiarly applicable to women and marines; but I must +resist the temptation of convincing the public, that sailors are as +deeply versed in the mysteries of their mother-tongue, as many of those +who stay ashore all their life-times, and make dictionaries. + +The day after the arrival of this military stranger, it was ascertained +by the crew, that there was a supernumerary on board by the name of +Williams; for it is as impossible for the commander and officers of a +man-of-war to keep a secret in the cabin, as it is for twelve "good men +and true," locked up in a jury-room. The new-comer seemed to have free +access to the cabin, and was treated with much respect by the officers, +but it was soon observed, by the seamen, that he never went on shore. In +the course of a few months, he was put on board a homeward-bound ship: +and when the crew of the frigate returned to America, they saw him +again in New York, abandoned to intemperance. + +When on a cruise in the Pacific, the crew of one of the light vessels of +the squadron were transferred to the frigate that I was on board of; +their time of service having expired. Among them was Williams; and from +his shipmates I learned the above particulars. In person, he was about +five feet eight or nine inches high, and extremely well made. With the +rest of the schooner's people, he had been on shore on liberty, where he +had been continually intoxicated; his face was in consequence bloated, +and his eyes bloodshot and swollen. + +I further understood, that he would get drunk whenever he had an +opportunity, and when intoxicated he was completely insane. He was also +subject to fits of temporary derangement, independent of the insanity +produced by excessive drinking, when he was both furious and dangerous; +and it was always necessary, on such occasions, to confine him in irons. +He was also represented as being extremely reserved, and refusing to +answer any questions respecting himself, whether addressed to him by +officers or seamen; that he spoke with fluency all European languages, +on which account, he was extremely useful as an interpreter, both on the +coast of Peru and Chili, and on that of Brazil; that he was a first rate +swordsman, either with the small-sword or sabre, and a dead shot with +pistol or musket. + +During his short stay on board the frigate, he had one of his temporary +fits of insanity, probably induced by excessive intemperance, if +intemperance admits of superlatives, while on shore. He suddenly started +up from a gloomy, stupid reverie, and ran about the decks like a wild +beast, striking and knocking down, every one he met; then all at once +plunging down the main-hatchway, he attempted to get possession of one +of the boarding cutlasses, but fortunately they were well secured in the +racks over the guns, to prevent them from falling down with the motion +of the ship. Before he could make a second and more regular attempt, he +was secured, put in irons, and placed under charge of a sentry. Had he +succeeded in arming himself, he would have made bloody work on the +quarter-deck, towards which it seemed evident he was steering his course; +the uniforms of the officers, and marine guard, probably calling up to +his diseased imagination, and memory, scenes of by-gone days connected +with or the remote cause of his present insanity. The officers seemed to +be so far acquainted with his history, as to feel compassion for his +most wretched situation; for, as he manifested no symptoms of +derangement the next morning, except his usual deep melancholy, he was +discharged from confinement, to the great astonishment of the ship's +company; for though the discipline on board was as mild as it could be +consistent with the preservation of good order, and perfectly free from +that tyranny that but too many of our navy officers think +indispensable, they certainly were not accustomed to seeing such quiet +jail deliveries. + +Williams afterwards re-entered on board the same vessel that he came +from, and I lost sight of him of course, as our frigate was on the point +of quitting the station to return home. He has, in all probability, long +ere this, reached the grave towards which he seemed to be hurrying, with +all the speed of intemperance and insanity combined. + + + + + * * * * * + + MORTON + + * * * * * + + + + + MORTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Bel and the Dragon's chaplains were + More moderate than these by far: + For they, poor knaves, were glad to cheat, + To get their wives and children meat; + But these will not be fobb'd off so, + They must have wealth and power too; + Or else with blood and desolation + They'll tear it out o' th' heart o' th' nation.-- + + HUDIBRAS. + + +Notwithstanding the success of the many daring and lawless adventurers +who visited the Pacific Ocean, or "Great South Sea," as it is called in +the maps and travels of the period, and who reaped many a golden harvest +there, about the time of the first James and Charles of England, the +coasts washed by its waves were but seldom visited, and its waters +seldom ploughed by any other keels than those of discovery ships for +many years. Chili, Peru, Mexico, and California, after having been +definitively ceded to the Spanish crown, constituted an El Dorado, whose +gates could only be opened by a formal declaration of war. Spain was +generally considered by the other European powers to have a double right +to South America, namely, that of discovery and conquest; and after an +ineffectual struggle to wrest the golden prize from the grasp of its +legitimate possessor, England, and the rest of the "high contracting +powers," acquiesced in her possessing it, the more readily because they +wished the same kind of title should be acknowledged in their own case. +Accordingly discovery and conquest have, to this day, been considered as +good and lawful titles, and a sort of deed of conveyance, on the part of +the natives, to their discoverers and conquerors of all and sundry their +lands and landed estates, together with their goods and chattels, when +of any value. + +His Most Catholic Majesty, then, finding his claim to the New World +fully established, set about civilizing his new conquest in good +earnest, and sending out swarms of priests, backed of course by the +military portion of the secular arm, with glory to God on their lips, +and hatred to his creatures in their hearts, with the sword in one hand +and the crucifix in the other, soon convinced the unhappy natives of +their damnable heresies. Their simple religion was destroyed, millions +perished by the sword or the tender mercies of the Holy Inquisition, and +as many more in the mines; and civilization and religion kissed each +other, and rested from their labors of love. + +This was the most received method of converting whole nations at once, +then in vogue--we Protestants of the present day are far more humane; we +only distribute among the newly discovered nations of the earth, rum and +Calvinism, gunpowder and the venereal disease, and with these powerful +agents our missionaries and merchants, have succeeded in causing Dagon +to bow down before them--over all the civilized world. New Holland seems +to be the only uncivilized part of this watery ball, but New Holland +holds out no temptations to the missionary; the inhabitants are a little +too cannibally given, and martyrdom is altogether obsolete; besides, it +is doubted by our soundest theologians whether Christianity was ever +intended for a people so brutal and debased. + +Spain, at the time I refer to, was renowned in arts and in arms; her +commerce extended from the East to the West Indies, and she was for a +time one of the most powerful of the kingdoms of Europe. Her priests, +finding the New World a land overflowing, not exactly with milk and +honey, but with what in all ages and in all countries is considered +infinitely better, gold and silver, and abounding in every thing that +could pamper the pride and gratify the sense, founded churches and +monasteries, while her viceroys built cities and forts, and South +America became the richest jewel in the diadem of His Catholic Majesty. +To secure this jewel entirely to himself seems to have been his chief +anxiety, and accordingly all foreigners were rigidly excluded from its +sea-ports, and although the "Assiento," or contract for supplying the +colonies with African slaves, was enjoyed successively by the English +and French, both of whom successively abused it by smuggling immense +quantities of their respective manufactures into those colonies, the +duty of supplying them with European merchandise was carried on finally +solely by means of register ships, as they were called, Cadiz being the +only European port where they were permitted to load and discharge. + +The whaling ships were only permitted to procure supplies, or "recruit," +as our unctuous brethren of Nantucket call it, at certain fixed and +well-fortified ports. Still even these managed to carry on quite a +respectable business in the smuggling way, especially with the ports of +Mexico and California. + +But a new flea was about getting into Don Diego's ear--the peace of +1783, while it added an infant giant to the catalogue of earthly +"principalities and powers," also liberated from the fetters of +commercial, as well as political restraints, a people active, restless, +daring, prying, and enterprising to the last degree; a people whose +skill in navigation and swift-sailing vessels rendered them absolutely +intangible to an enemy that took occasion to chase them, while their +courage, when they thought proper to "stand to it," as dame Quickly +says, made them dangerous antagonists. This the reader probably +"guesses" must be brother Jonathan, and he guesses about right. The same +spirit of restless curiosity that prompts a cat, when she sets up her +Ebenezer in a new house, to examine every portion of it, from cellar to +garret, seemed to have possessed our grandpas more strongly than it does +us of the present age. + +This national character of ours is owing doubtless to our having been +placed by the hand of Heaven in an immense unexplored region, and was no +doubt much increased by the spirit-stirring scenes of the revolutionary +war, which beheld our "old continentals" one day ferreting out the +long-tailed Hessians from the woods of Saratoga, and another "doing +battle right manfullie" on the plains of South Carolina. + +While they of the land service were pushing their advanced posts to the +foot of the Rocky Mountains, our seamen were carrying our striped +bunting into every portion of the navigable world. Such were the people +whose arrival in the Pacific the Spanish commandantes and viceroys +awaited with no small fear and trembling. They knew vaguely that we had +just come off victorious from a long, fierce, and bloody struggle with +powerful England, and while they consigned us pell-mell to the devil, as +"malditos Americanos," they doubted whether we had the additional claim +to go there upon the strength of being heretics. The captains of the +guarda-costas redoubled their vigilance, and sailed in chase of not a +few albatrosses and whale-spouts, such was the zeal that animated them. + +I should have described these redoubtable crafts, the guarda-costas, +before--they were armed vessels of different classes, varying from light +frigates down to mere gunboats, and were distributed along the coasts to +protect trade, and prevent smuggling. + +When however these formidable strangers did arrive, the readiness with +which they conformed to the numerous, and in most cases vexatious, port +regulations, their quiet behavior on shore, and the many novelties and +luxuries that they freely distributed to the port officers, completely +blinded them to the instinctive disposition to trade that characterizes +my beloved countrymen, especially the New Englanders, who were the first +to carry our flag into the Pacific, as they were also the first to +display it in Europe. + +I have made these long-winded and apparently uncalled-for remarks partly +to show my learning, but chiefly in conformity with the fashion of the +day, that requires that every story, long or short, should be ushered in +by at least one chapter of prefatory remarks. I do not intend to be so +unreasonable; but before this my first chapter is finished, shall give +my readers an idea of my purposed principal scene of operations. + +If then, the reader will turn to the proper map, he will find in about +the latitude of twenty-one north, Cape Corrientes; and not far from this +three islands, called Las Tres Marias; the Three Marys, that is, so +named after the three Marys of the New Testament. + +Geographers, when they make maps, seem to start with the notion that +there must be a certain number of islands, &c. inserted in each map; and +when they have located the larger and more important ones within fifteen +or twenty degrees of latitude and longitude of their proper places, +which is as near as they commonly come to the truth, they proceed to +distribute the remainder according to their own taste. In compliance +with this fashion of theirs, they have laid down upon all modern maps, +especially those that are called the best, and in nearly the latitude +that I have above mentioned, and longitude that I have not, namely, +about one hundred and fifteen west from Greenwich Observatory, a little +island which they call Revalligigedos. I have passed twice over the spot +where this little island with the big name "stays put," in all maps by +them, and have conversed with many whalemen and others, who, taken +collectively, have sailed over every square inch of salt water in that +place, and none of them have seen it. So too, they have studded the +ocean off Cape Horn so thickly with islands, that a landsman wonders how +a ship of any size can manage to squeeze through into the Pacific. I +have passed that cape three times, and have been working to windward off +them some weeks, but although we always kept a bright look-out for ice +islands and strange vessels, we never, to use a vulgar expression, saw +"hide or hair" of these supererogatory islands. + +But to return; in a direction nearly east from the Three Marys, the +reader will find, on most maps, a small river, called by the Spaniards, +in their usual style of bombast, El Rio Grande, or the Great River; +though the identical legs that I now stand upon have waded across it at +low water, and, except cutting my foot with an oyster-shell, there was +nothing very remarkable in the exploit. At the mouth of this mighty +stream is an island on which stands the town of St. Blas. + +The Spaniards, as it is well known, when they discovered America, +christened every cape, bay, mountain, river, island, rock, or shoal +after some saint or other, but the learned are somewhat puzzled to know +who this St. Blas can be. In my poor opinion, the difficulty is easily +enough got over--the word Blas is only a corruption of Blast, and +accordingly we shall find that St. Blast, properly so called, is neither +more nor less than our old friend AEolus, of the heathen mythology, +smuggled into the calendar, who, being the god of blasts and puffs, +might well be canonized under the name of St. Blast, without doing +violence to the tender consciences of the good Catholics. In this way, +according to Dean Swift, Jupiter became Jew Peter, and by a natural +transition, _Saint_ Peter. Whether he is right or not, one thing is +certain, that sundry temples, of which the veritable Jupiter has been +"seized in fee tail," I think lawyers call it, from time immemorial, +have quietly become "St. Peter's churches," to the great edification of +the Christian world, and incredible advancement of religion and piety. + +The island, upon which St. Blas is perched, slopes off gradually to the +eastward, but to the south and west descends in a sheer precipice of two +or three hundred feet in height. The town was taken and retaken several +times during the sanguinary war of the Mexican revolution. The last time +it was in the hands of the royalists, they compelled all the male +inhabitants, and, report says, not a few women and children besides, +that they suspected of favoring the Patriot cause, to leap off this +precipice. Soldiers were stationed at the foot of the cliff, to despatch +those who reached the bottom with any signs of life. This piece of +information I had from a widow who kept a shop in the _Plaza_, and who +also told me, "with weeping tears," that her husband was one of the +number who took the fearful leap. + +Rather on the north-west side, the hill is surmountable by a zig-zag +path, up which a loaded mule can climb with some difficulty. On the +west, or seaward, side, is a strip of flat land, of considerable width, +on which formerly stood the royal arsenal, rope-walks, and warehouses, +the ruins of which were standing in 1822, when I visited the place. On +the western extremity of this level land is a small village, called, as +usual in such cases, the Porte, or landing place. The bay, which is a +fine harbor, sweeps far to the eastward, when the land, trending away to +the southward, with a slight inclination westerly, becomes lost in the +distance. The more immediate, or inner, harbor, is formed by a point of +land opposite the Porte, on the southern extremity of which is a +battery, formerly of considerable dimensions, and strength, but since +suffered to decay, and is much reduced in effectiveness. It was intended +to command the harbor and anchorage; but with Spanish artillerymen, a +mile offing, and reasonably good weather, a ship would be as safe from +its fire, for three months at least, as though she was all the while in +London Docks. + +At the distance of two or three miles from the usual anchorage, and +forming an excellent leading mark for the bay, is Pedro Blanco, or the +White Rock, of two hundred feet height, perfectly precipitous and +inaccessible, and resembling a huge tower, rising abruptly from the sea. + +Taken altogether, the bay of St. Blas forms a very beautiful prospect, +with the Andes in the back ground, which, with their + + "Meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd, + Look from their throne of clouds o'er half the world;" + +its white sand beach, fading gradually away to the south and east, its +town roosting on its barren rock, and indistinctly seen; its low lands +covered with a luxuriant growth of lime and other trees; and lastly, by +way of seasoning, its moschetoes and sand-flies. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + A knight he was, whose very sight would + Entitle him mirror of knighthood. + HUDIBRAS. + + +Tropical climates have certainly one advantage over all others, that is +not to be held in light esteem. They have rainy and dry seasons, that +are exclusively rainy and dry. During six months, or nearly as long, the +windows of heaven stand wide open, by night and by day, and the liquid +blessing descends upon the thirsty earth beneath "in one lot," as +auctioneers say; while on the other hand, the dry season has its great +and manifold advantages and pleasures. With us in the temperate zone, as +geographers call it, I suppose, for want of another name, a man does not +think of riding twenty miles without India rubbers, a great coat, boots, +and an umbrella, to say nothing of an entire change of raiment, if he is +a prudent, cautious old bachelor, or widower; and even then he is as +likely to get a ducking as to have fine weather. + +During a tropical dry season, on the contrary, a journey of two hundred +miles may be safely undertaken, without any of these encumbrances; with +two or three clean shirts, a man may scamper about for months, like a +Roman light-infantryman, "impedimentis relictis," unless he should be so +ill advised as to carry his wife and children with him. + +Throughout the rainy season, many diseases arise, and make great +destruction among those who remain on the sea-coast; those who can +afford it, retreat to the more salubrious mountain regions, while, as +aforesaid, those who stay behind, being generally the poor, the +worthless, and the useless part of the community, fall victims to the +numerous diseases generated by the excessive rains, and the then swampy +condition of the country. This annual purgation of society, is perhaps +another blessing of a tropical country. I know of more than one +community, whose moral, and in some measure physical health, would in my +mere mortal and short sighted notion of the fitness of things, be vastly +benefited by the visitation of an energetic, wide sweeping epidemic. +Human society is very like a grate full of ignited anthracite coal, +those parts of it that have lost their combustibility, and become +worthless, are constantly filtering down through the bottom of the +grate; and so in society, those individuals, who are daily falling from +a state of grace in the eyes of their fellow-worms, either as regards +fashion, or property, or reputation, go to swell the number of the +outcasts from the ranks of "good society;" a convenient phrase that has +recently been invented, and signifies the speaker's own particular +friends and acquaintances, though he and they may be at that very +moment getting out stone on Blackwell's Island. So you see, reader, that +it is fore-ordained, for I am a good deal of a fatalist, that one of the +ingredients of civilized society should be a certain proportion of poor +miserable devils, such as you and I both know. + +It was just at the close of the rainy season, when Nature looked +infinitely better and fresher for having her face washed, though she had +been six months about it; the air seemed purer and more healthful, and +the sky looked clearer and of a richer blue, for the half year's +drenching; it was at this particular time of the year, that we have +thought proper to raise the curtain, and introduce the reader into the +business part of the story. + +It was between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the land breeze +had done blowing, and the usual interregnum of calm, previous to the +commencement of the sea-breeze, had taken place--the broad bay lay like +a huge mirror, varied indeed by the long and regular undulations of the +swell from the main ocean, which, though perhaps sufficient to +discompose a landman's stomach, would not affect that of a sailor, who +would probably testify under oath, that the water was "just as smooth as +a mill-pond." The pelican, that grave and contemplative bird, sat on the +rocks near the water's edge, with his neck coiled up and stowed away in +some recess in his capacious crop, the fish forgetting, or sailed on +lazy wings across the bay, to seek some sequestered spot to doze away +the time, and digest his huge breakfast--the graceful white crane of +Mexico was wading about, flapping her wings, to drive the small fish +into shoaler water, where she might pick them up at her leisure--the +gaudy Spanish ensign, resembling three flannel petticoats, two red and +one yellow, hung lifeless by its staff, as though said petticoats had +just got through a hard day's washing--a soldier, with a paper segar in +his mouth, was lounging backwards and forwards on that part of the +parapet of the battery next the sea, while another, his counterpart, was +"doing military duty" in the same soldierly manner on the quay opposite. + +I may as well explain to the reader now as at a future time, that every +collection of houses in South America, however small, has an open space +in the centre, called the Plaza; and an American Spaniard could no more +conceive of a town or village without such plaza, than he could form one +of Mr. Locke's abstract ideas of a horse, which ceases to be an abstract +idea the moment it becomes invested with a body, head, legs, mane, tail, +saddle, bridle, belly-band, or crupper. + +In the plaza of the Porte before mentioned was a multifarious +assemblage: the barrack for a captain's guard, with the arms of the +guard piled in front of it, formed one side, and the others were bounded +by the quay or different buildings; a detachment of idlers were sunning +themselves, and engaged in relieving each other from certain troublesome +companions, that _invariably_ infest the clothes and hair of all +Spaniards and Russians, from the king to the beggar; jackasses, boys, +and dogs occupied the rest of the square, and were differently engaged. +At this moment a sergeant ran into the square, exclaiming, "el +Commandante!" The military guard fell into their ranks at the tap of the +drum, the idlers and boys took up a strong position in one corner, the +jackasses were cudgelled into a retreat, while the dogs, like the pigs +in New York, being free of the city, provided for themselves. A moment +or two elapsed after these preparations had been made, when a party of +mounted officers dashed into the square at full gallop, as the South +Americans always ride. The guard presented arms, the dogs barked their +congratulations, and the party, having lighted fresh segars, walked down +to the quay, directly opposite which lay an old dismantled Spanish +frigate, and moored alongside her was a schooner, whose formidable +length of main boom, and raking masts, announced her both a clipper and +a Yankee. She was indeed an American schooner, that had been taken +"flagrante delicto," in the very act of smuggling, for which she was +condemned, and her crew sent to the mines. Such was the jealousy of the +"authorities," that they unshipped the rudder, and unrove the running +rigging, for fear she might go to sea of her own accord, and resume her +smuggling voyage without the assistance of human agency. + +The party whom we have left smoking on the wharf, consisted of the +military commandant, or governor, of St. Blas, Don Gaspar de Luna, Don +Diego Pinto, the commander of a guarda-costa of eighteen guns, that lay +in the offing, and which, to the most unpractised eye, bore about the +same resemblance to an English or American man of war of the same class, +as an old, worn-out jackass does to a handsome, high spirited, well +groomed race-horse. The rest of the group was made up of young officers +"of no mark or likelihood," and with whom we have nothing to do, with +the exception of Don Gregorio Nunez, a dashing young cavalry officer, +related to the viceroy, report said his natural son, and report said too +that he was soon to marry the lovely niece of the governor; but the +destinies were altogether of a different way of thinking. His character +may be despatched in a few words--he was a vain coxcomb, his whole soul +lay in his gorgeous uniform, and he had a mortal antipathy to any thing +like duty. + +Don Gaspar de Luna, the redoubted governor of St. Blas and its +"dependencies," bore the rank of colonel in the Spanish army. He had +seen some service, having been present at the memorable siege of +Gibraltar, that excited first the astonishment and then the ridicule of +all Europe--astonishment at the immensity of the armament prepared, and +ridicule on account of its inefficiency, in wasting years before the +place without doing any thing. An advanced party commanded by Don +Gaspar, then a captain, had the good fortune to get soundly thrashed by +a sallying detachment from the garrison; and the king of Spain was so +delighted that _something_ had been done, that he promoted the fortunate +captain to a colonelcy. + +In early life he had been in America with his regiment, where he had +married a native Peruvian woman, by whom he had two daughters. In person +he was about the middling height, and so far resembled an ellipse as +this, that his transverse diameter nearly equalled his conjugate, or, in +plain English, he was about as broad as long. He prided himself not a +little upon being a "Castiliano," or genuine old Spaniard, and +professed, and probably felt, the most implacable hatred to all +heretics, especially English and Americans; but it was evidently an +abstract feeling, for the moment a vessel of either nation arrived, +which happened very often during the dry season, and the commanders +began to make those little presents that they always found it for their +interest to make, his orthodox zeal began, like Bob Acres' courage, "to +ooze away through his fingers." + +Although in the main a kind and indulgent father, his affections were +centred in his niece, of whom we shall have occasion to speak more at +large, whom he preferred to his daughter, and with good reason. He was +fond of punch, such as he used to find in plenty and perfection on board +the strange ships, and which he could drill none of his household into +the art and mystery of making, except his niece; fonder of flattery, and +compliment, and salutes, from the heretical captains; and perhaps +fondest of all of invitations to dine on board such ships as seemed to +hold out hopes of good cheer. When a foreign vessel arrived, one would +think, from his parade and flourish, that he expected an invasion; but +it was all show. He was fond of telling long stories, and of sitting +long over the bottle, foregoing the usual luxury of the _siesta_, or nap +after dinner, to enjoy the greater one of drinking; but, although his +capacious stomach would contain an incredible quantity of wine, no one +could say that he had ever been seen "the worse for liquor." + +The duties of his station were but trifling; for, although St. Blas was +a royal naval depot, the commanders of his majesty's ships almost +invariably preferred Callao, on account of its vicinity to the viceregal +court at Lima. Any other person would have pined to death in such a +remote and solitary corner of the earth, without society and without +employment; but Don Gaspar was one of those peculiarly constituted +individuals, who, having neither the faculty to communicate or receive +new ideas, are as happy and contented in one place as another. He had +come down to the water side at full gallop, and at the imminent risk of +his neck, in consequence of a report, that a large, armed English ship, +that was known to be on the coast trading, was approaching the Bay of +St. Blas. + +The nautical commander, Don Diego Pinto, was a man of upwards of sixty +years of age, who had grown grey in the navy of Spain, without seeing +any service of consequence. He had followed one of the viceroys, to whom +he was recommended, to Peru, and the viceroy thought he had sufficiently +done his duty to his _protege_ by appointing him to the command of a +guarda-costa of eighteen guns, stationed at St. Blas, and including in +her cruising ground St. Josef, Mazattan, and the entrance to the Gulf of +California. His prey was good, and his duty was light; but all his hopes +of promotion were cut off by being stationed at what was generally +considered the "ultima Thule," the very extremity of the navigable +world. + +The Yankees, to be sure, scorned any such fanciful restrictions, and had +long since penetrated to Nootka Sound and Behring's Straits, "the +hunters of the mighty whale;" but then the Yankees were a very singular +and peculiar race, and nobody in their senses cared to imitate them in +their wild, and sometimes lawless, rambles over the face of the +ocean--lawless, I wish to be understood, no farther than in sometimes +forgetting to inquire, in a strange port, whether there was any +custom-house there or not, and in most ports conceiving it to be the +duty of the collectors of the customs to come on board and secure the +duties, and if said collectors did not bear a hand and attend to their +business, why then Jonathan, who is always in a hurry, was apt to land +his cargo without the knowledge and without the leave of the +custom-house officers. + +Don Diego's hatred to heretics and foreigners, unlike that of the +illustrious governor, was cordial and sincere, and by no means a general +or abstract principle--he hated every individual as heartily as he did +the whole species. He would never accept or even reply to an invitation +from an English or American commander; and in the case of the American +schooner already mentioned, he had treated the crew with such savage +barbarity, that, but for the interference of Don Gaspar, they would have +perished from starvation and ill treatment. He was by no means a +favorite guest at the governor's house; the ladies of the family +detested him, not so much for his cruelty, for they heard but little of +that, but for his morose and churlish disposition, and, perhaps more +than either, on account of the general belief that his wife, a lovely +woman, and much younger than himself, had fallen a victim to his +unkindness and cruelty. + +Women, the dear creatures, have an infinitely larger share of _esprit du +corps_, if I may so call it, or rather a community of feeling, than men. +Nothing will ruin a man's character and good name among the females of +his acquaintance so soon or so effectually as the reputation of ill +treatment or unkindness to his wife, while the men would think but +little or nothing of it. Women think, and feel, and act most correctly +and justly, and in a manner that does them infinite honor, upon this +subject; indeed, I am fully convinced, that on most questions of social +morality, the feelings of women are more pure and right than those of +men. But they have a thousand ingenious methods of making known their +contempt and detestation of the cowardly scoundrel that would raise his +hand against one of their sex, and every method cuts like a two-edged +sword. I have known, and do at this moment know, many men who have +endured the contempt and hatred of their fellow-_men_ with the most +stoical indifference--they went on hated and despised to the grave, but +they made money at every step, and they cared for nothing else; but I +never, in all my life, and in all my wanderings--and I have not +travelled about this watery ball, nor so far through life, with my eyes +and ears shut--I never knew a man who did not wince and writhe under the +hatred and contempt of the other sex. I am not a profound believer in +innate ideas, if they are such ridiculous ones as metaphysicians talk +of--namely, that two and two make four, and such sort of nonsense--but I +do believe in certain innate principles and feelings, that govern our +thoughts and actions as powerfully and irresistibly as instinct impels +the brute creation; and that one of those principles is an innate desire +to please and secure the good opinion of the opposite sex, born with +every man and woman, or at least developed, more or less strongly, in +very early childhood, and that too without any instruction or hint from +others. + +While the party stood on the quay, puffing their segars with all the +gravity and silence that was becoming their rank and birth as officers +of his Catholic Majesty and natives of old Spain, a subaltern officer +approached, and, with abundance of parade and obsequiousness, informed +the governor that there was a ship in the offing, becalmed at that time, +but apparently bound in. The officer proceeded to inform him farther, +that there were two American ships at St. Josef, one at Monteny, and +that a fourth had been seen the day before at sea, standing to the +southward. His excellency, though not particularly indignant at the idea +of his principality being visited by a foreign vessel, thought proper to +appear "brimful of wrath" at the intelligence. + +"Ah! those accursed and heretical wretches! they swarm upon this coast +as thick as sand-flies." + +"And should be destroyed by the same means, by fire," growled his naval +associate; "they should be burnt at their anchors wherever they are +found; for if they have not already been guilty of any violation of the +laws, they very soon will." + +"Signor Pinto," said the more humane and considerate governor, "you are +to recollect that our gracious sovereign is on terms of peace and amity +with this new people, who have lately come into existence, and who seem +to be driven by the devils to wander abroad, instead of passing their +lives peaceably at home. We cannot therefore treat them as enemies; and +even when taken in violation of the laws, they must be heard in their +own defence." + +This grave rebuke rather mortified him of the marine department, and he +was for a few minutes sulky, which the governor perceiving, and not +wishing to offend him, again addressed him. + +"But come, signor, cheer up. I know the sight of that schooner always +makes you feel unpleasantly; you cannot forget how she misled you one +dark night, and well nigh decoyed your ship ashore, by setting adrift a +light in a tub." + +This was but cold comfort to the redoubtable sea-officer, who was by no +means fond of hearing the anecdote of the lantern in a tub repeated or +alluded to; and he was about making an angry answer, when the sight of +the schooner brought to his recollection that he had finally captured +her, and had enjoyed the fiendish pleasure of abusing and maltreating +her crew, and that, to crown his triumph, he had seen them set out for +the mines. Poor man! he did not know, what indeed was a kind of state +secret, that the viceroy, not wishing to embroil his sovereign in an +unpleasant quarrel, or, as he was about returning to old Spain, wishing +to leave behind him a character for clemency and humanity, had ordered +them to be set at liberty, and they had actually embarked at Acapulco on +board an English South Sea whaler. This had taken place a full year +previous; and while the vindictive Spaniard was chuckling over their +fancied sufferings "many a fathom deep" in the damp and unhealthy +galleries of a silver mine, the objects of his hatred were jogging along +comfortably towards London, with a full ship and light hearts. + +In reply to the governor's "quip modest," he merely growled out +something about zeal in discharging his duty, and anxiety to prevent +smuggling, to which the governor replied, + +"There is no danger of these foreigners smuggling, while they are so +strictly watched by his majesty's ships and faithful soldiers. I wish, +signor, you would go out with your ship, and bring this stranger in; I +do not like to see him hovering about in this suspicious manner." + +"It is impossible to go out, now that the sea-breeze is just setting +in," said the naval officer, who had no more idea of working out with a +head wind, than he had of flying, though the bay is open enough for the +channel fleet to beat out in order of battle. + +While this question was in agitation, an officer crossed in a skiff from +the battery, and informed Don Gaspar that the sea-breeze had set in +the offing, and that the stranger had hauled by the wind, and was +standing off shore; further, that she was an American whaleman, that had +probably pursued her huge prey close in shore. Don Gaspar was somewhat +disappointed at this intelligence. + +"I almost wish she had come in," said he, in a low tone, "for, heretics +as they are, and damned to all eternity as they certainly will be, (for +which blessed be the saints,) it cannot be denied that the puncho, or +pontio, which they make, is most refreshing and delicious in this warm +weather." + +But as the Yankee manifested no symptoms of coming in to anchor, and +thereby give him a chance for his glass of punch, he yielded to the +suggestion of Don Gregorio, his aid-de-camp; and having lighted fresh +segars, they mounted their horses, and rode back to San Blas. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A lady + So fair, and fastened to an empery, + Would make the great'st king double. + + CYMBELINE. + + +The family of Don Gaspar de Luna consisted of his wife, whom we have +already noticed as a native of Mexico, and two daughters, Antonia and +Carlota, who were rather pretty for Creole girls, and, like the +generality of Creoles, especially when one half is Spanish, extremely +ignorant and vulgar in their language and manners; the last trait being +somewhat characteristic of the Spanish-American women, if we may believe +travellers, to which I may add my own somewhat limited observation. They +are, however, by way of amends, more civilized and sociable in their +behaviour to strangers, and much more intelligent, than the men. + +The lovely niece of the governor, the orphan daughter of his brother, +made up the list of his family. As we have no great concern with the old +lady and her two daughters, we have mentioned them first, in order to +get them out of our way; but as the fair Isabella will make some figure +in our pages, we can do no less than devote a chapter, or part of a +chapter, to giving some account and description of her, more +particularly as she differs, _toto coelo_, from her cousins, morally, +and, in many respects, physically. + +Isabella de Luna was the daughter of Signor Anastasio de Luna, the only +brother of Don Gaspar. He was an eminent merchant of Cadiz, who, having +found it necessary to go to London on business, had afterwards found it +equally necessary to remain there for some time, to attend to his +mercantile affairs. Here he became acquainted with a Miss Campbell, a +Scotch lady of about thirty years of age, very beautiful, but poor. Her +father had been taken prisoner at the defeat of the Pretender's army at +Culloden, in which army he was an officer, and immediately executed +without a trial, by the blood-thirsty and infamous Duke of Cumberland. +Her mother died of grief a few months afterwards, leaving her an infant, +and the sole surviving member of a proscribed and ruined family. She was +taken, from mere compassion, by a distant relation of her father, and +carefully brought up in the Protestant faith, her parents having been +Catholics. + +When about twenty years old, she accompanied her relation to London, and +had resided there some years, when she was introduced to and captivated +Signor Anastasio, and after a long courtship, and considerable +reluctance on the part of the lady, because the lover was at least +nominally a Catholic, she became his wife. They lived long and happily +together, for whether Anastasio's religious opinions had undergone any +change or not, by associating so many years with Protestants, he never +interfered with his wife's religious creed or devotions, and permitted +her to educate, in the Protestant faith, their only child Isabella. + +I would advise all husbands to do likewise, in some measure; that is, if +the wife thinks proper to perform her devotions in a Pagan temple, a +Mahometan mosque, a Jewish synagogue, or a Christian church, why, let +her, and welcome, unless the husband is particularly anxious to get into +hot water, and commit suicide upon his domestic happiness; for nothing +so effectually disturbs the tranquillity of a family, as open opposition +of religious creeds. Women become religious, in the every-day +acceptation of the word, from any motive rather than a conviction of the +truth or reasonableness of any particular creed. It would be difficult, +perhaps impossible, to define the motive that carries women into the +pale of any particular church. I have heard of an old lady, who was very +anxious to be permitted to carry her knitting-work to meeting, "because +it was such a _steadiment_ to the mind." Perhaps joining the church has +the same effect upon women in general. I have seen so much discomfort in +families from conflicting religious opinions, that I cannot help hoping +that the destinies will so contrive it, that my wife, if they ever mean +to send me one at all, shall be a member of the Episcopal church. There +is about that church, what attaches to no other sect, a sort of +dignified reserve, that never breaks out in four-day meetings, revivals, +or any other similar ebullition of fanaticism and absurdity. + +When Isabella was in her fourteenth year, her father returned to his +native country, taking his family with him, having given up his +mercantile business, and retiring from it very wealthy. The priests, as +might have been expected, were soon around him, like sharks around a +slave-ship, all eager to discover, in his conversation and manners, the +contamination of heresy, with which they took it for granted he was +infected, from having dwelt so long among those obstinate and perverse +heretics, the English; but Anastasio was too well acquainted with human +nature, and with the ways of the world, to be thrown off his guard. He +gave most munificently to the church; and, in spite of all their +attempts to place Isabella in a convent, as a boarder, succeeded in +retaining her under the immediate care of her excellent mother. + +In making this arrangement, he was much assisted by a priest, whom he +had formerly been acquainted with, and whom he now took into his family, +as father confessor. In short, by the judicious management of pretty +large sums of money, that he was able to spare, in less than a year +after his return to Spain, Anastasio de Luna obtained the character of a +good Catholic, who had kept fast the integrity of his faith, during a +long residence among heretics. As for Madame de Luna, after having +delivered her over in trust to the devil, the clergy gave themselves +little or no concern about her; though her liberal charity, and the +mildness and sweetness of her disposition, made her friends of all who +knew her. Many a saint, of the present day, holds his character for +sanctity by as slight a tenure, as Anastasio did his as an orthodox +Catholic; and many a modest, unpretending female, has been, like Madame +de Luna, regarded as an infidel, and a vessel of wrath, for not sounding +a trumpet before her, in the exercise of unassuming virtues. + +In about three years after his return to his native country, Anastasio +died, bequeathing a large sum to the church, not from any violent +partiality to the Catholic faith, but in order to secure peace to his +wife and daughter. His widow intended to return to England; but her +health was failing rapidly, and in a little more than a year after her +husband's death, she followed him to the grave, with her last breath +enjoining upon her daughter never to part with the faith in which she +had been educated, and never to marry a Catholic, unless she was sure of +the purity and goodness of his morals. This might seem illiberal in her; +but there is no accounting for the prejudices of people, especially upon +religious subjects. + +After her mother's death, Isabella had no alternative left, but to take +refuge in the family of her uncle, Don Gaspar, who had already shown +great fondness for her, and who received her with great cordiality and +affection. In this family she was permitted to do much as she pleased; +her gentle and amiable disposition soon won the warmest affections of +her aunt and cousins, and her time passed agreeably, except that she was +sometimes teased by the reverend clergy to enter a convent, and to +"dedicate herself to God;" but as the young lady thought she could serve +God to better purpose out of a convent than in one, she civilly declined +their polite invitations to shut herself in a dungeon. + +The same priest who befriended her father, extended his kindness to the +daughter. He was a very influential clergyman, secretly of very liberal +and enlightened views, on the subject of religion; but, not perceiving +any pressing necessity for giving his body to be burnt, he had thought +best to keep his religious notions to himself. He might very easily have +"gained a martyr's glorious name," if he had only been one of those + + "Stubborn saints, whom all men grant + To be the true church militant;" + +but he was not; and, besides, martyrdom is not near so fashionable as it +was during the time of the Roman emperors, when one saint insisted upon +being crucified heels uppermost; and another, who was very comfortably +broiling on a gridiron, sung out to be turned, when he thought he was +cooked enough on one side. _Our_ clergy are a grave, serious, set of +men, who scorn such mad pranks; they have no idea of suffering +martyrdom, or any thing else, if they can help it. I believe there have +been no martyrs since the commencement of the nineteenth century, except +Mr. Wolff, who was bastinadoed by the Pacha of Egypt, for interfering +with what did not concern him, and some ten or a dozen missionaries, +that would not do something the Cochin-Chinese bid them, and were, in +consequence, made shorter by the head. + +The good priest interposed his good offices, and influence, in +Isabella's behalf, and gave her instructions in such branches of +education as he thought were suited to her sex. But, in about a year +after her mother's death, Don Gaspar received his appointment, as +military commander of St. Blas, which, as I have already observed, was +then a royal depot and arsenal; and, though but seldom visited by +Spanish men-of-war, because there were but very few, besides +guarda-costas, in the Pacific, was a place of considerable importance. +Isabella cheerfully accompanied him to America; for, though neither +giddy, nor thoughtless, all places were alike to her, provided she could +be always surrounded with her uncle's family, with whom she enjoyed +quiet happiness. + +In the priests of Mexico, she saw nothing but ignorance, sensuality, +bigotry, and indolence, nothing calculated to shake her faith as a +Protestant, or cause her to forget her mother's first injunction; while +the foppishness, frivolity, insolence, ignorance, and pride, of the men, +by whom she was surrounded, most effectually protected her from the +remotest thought of disobeying the second. The men, on the other hand, +regarded her with the coolest indifference; accustomed to admire the +black eyes, and hair, and colorless complexions of the Spanish and +native, or Creole, women, varying from a sort of dirty cream color, to a +deep and beautiful copper, Isabella's rather lightish brown hair, blue +eyes, fair complexion, and cheeks rosy with health and cheerfulness, had +no charms for them; and, while her cousins had lovers, or danglers, by +the dozen, Isabella found herself, to her infinite satisfaction, +completely deserted and neglected, by all the starched and pompous fools +that visited her uncle, during a stay of some months in the city of +Mexico. + +She had, on the arrival of the family at St. Blas, contrived to employ +her time in cultivating such female accomplishments as her mother had +instructed her in, and was, at the time we introduce her to the reader's +notice, in her twentieth year. In person, she was about the medium +height of women, or, perhaps, a little below it; and would be called, in +New England, rather a small woman. Her form was exceedingly +well-proportioned and beautiful, although, what may seem incredible, it +had never been cramped, crushed, and distorted, by tight lacing, of +which her mother had a very reasonable horror; and, in consequence, her +movements were free, graceful, and unconfined. + +I know very well that the idea of a lady's form being beautiful, unless +moulded by corsets into the form of a ship's half-minute glass, will be +scouted as absurd and impossible; but to the ridicule that such a +proposition must necessarily excite, I can oppose my own observation, +leaving antiquity, with its faultless statues and sculptures, to shift +for itself. The Hindoo women, of whom I have seen hundreds at once +bathing in the Hoogly, of all ages, from childhood to decrepitude, have +extremely fine forms, when young, that is from twelve to twenty-two or +three, at which period they have all the marks of old age. As they bathe +with only a single thin cotton garment, which, when wet, sticks close to +their bodies, and developes their forms most completely, any body that +visits Calcutta can satisfy himself of the correctness of this fact, and +yet they tolerate no sort of confinement whatever about the person. + +Isabella's face was of an oval form, with an exquisitely delicate and +fair complexion; when her features were at rest, the expression was +quiet and serious, rather bordering upon the pensive, a cast of +countenance that she inherited from her mother; but her smile was +exceedingly attractive, with an air of frankness and innocence +attending it, that made it perfectly fascinating. Her eyes were of a +deep blue, that, in conversation or when any emotion agitated the +tranquillity of their owner, were extremely lively, animated, and +sparkling. Her eyebrows were very delicately traced, slightly curved but +not arched, as poets and others rave about--I never saw a pair that +were, on forehead male or female, except among the Chinese, and _they_, +in consequence, looked like--no matter who--nor can I imagine how arched +brows can be beautiful. + +It was not the fashion, forty years since, for girls to cut off their +hair and sell it to a barber for fifty cents, and then give ten dollars +for a set of artificial curls, nor was it fashionable in Mexico to wear +false hair; if it had been, nature had been so bountiful to Isabella in +that beautiful ornament and pride (it ought to be) of a woman, that she +could save the expense by the arrangement of her own luxuriant tresses. + +Her temper was mild, and by no means easily ruffled; her disposition was +gentle, humane, amiable, and cheerful, though seldom or never breaking +out into extravagant gaiety. Like all young ladies of her age, who have +much unemployed time on their hands, and I believe the same remark will +apply to young men similarly situated, she had experienced a void, a +want of something in the heart, that she felt acutely enough, but could +neither describe nor account for; that peculiar feeling that certainly +is not love, but a symptom of the wish to love and be beloved; it is +that state of the heart when the affections go forth, like Noah's dove, +and finding no object on which to repose, return weary and dejected to +their lonely prison. + +It is an old adage, that "when the devil finds a man idle, he sets him +to work;" when love finds a heart unoccupied, he soon finds it a tenant, +for it always has been, is now, and always will be true, that + + "Love is a fire that burns and sparkles, + In men as nat'rally as in charcoals." + +Isabella, almost without knowing it, and without the faintest suspicion +of the real state of the case, gradually neglected and ceased to take +pleasure in her usual occupations; her books, her music, her needle, and +her flowers, all seemed to be equally tiresome and unpleasant. While in +this unhappy state of ennui and loneliness of feeling, peculiar to the +youthful days, or some portion of them, of both sexes, when the mind, +like Hudibras' sword, + + "Eats into itself, for lack + Of somebody to hew and hack," + +she was thrown into unspeakable grief and consternation, by her uncle +one day proposing to her to receive and encourage the addresses of Don +Gregorio, as her future husband. + +To her passionate tears and entreaties to be spared such a dreadful +calamity, that she declared was infinitely worse than death, the old Don +replied, that it was natural for a girl to be frightened at the idea of +leaving a comfortable home, to become the mistress of a family; that he +only wished to provide for her, and see her well settled in life, that +the proposed husband was handsome, rich, and connected by blood with the +viceroy; and also urged many other reasons "too numerous to mention." To +all which, the weeping and agonized girl replied, as soon as her uncle +was out of breath, and she had an opportunity of speaking, "But, my dear +uncle, you know his character, and why, oh! why, will you sacrifice me, +whom you have always treated with so much affection and kindness, to one +whom every one knows to be a fool and a coward?" + +The Don was somewhat startled by this appeal. He was certainly aware +that Isabella was perfectly right in so calling her proposed lover, who +he knew was both a silly coxcomb and a despicable coward, but it was +altogether past his comprehension how his modest, retiring, gentle +niece, had found out two such very important points in the character of +a man, whom he had noticed she seemed to avoid more than any one who +visited his house. But after a few days, seeing that her dejection was +extreme, that her appetite and animation had failed, and she was sinking +under the weight of her grief, and being likewise severely rated by the +wife of his bosom, in a curtain lecture, he relented, and calling +Isabella to him one morning, with many expressions of fondness, bade her +cheer up, for though he wished to see her well married, he would by no +means force her inclinations, and she should please herself in the +article of matrimony. + +This intelligence soothed and consoled her, and the rosy hue of health +once more revisited her sweet countenance; her eyes once more sparkled +with much of her wonted animation and cheerfulness, but still there was +a shade upon her mind amounting almost to sadness; her uncle had +unmasked his battery, and she felt that she was doomed to much +persecution, on what, under existing circumstances, was to her a most +painful subject. But the destinies, that manage matrimonial affairs +infinitely better than free agents, were busy on her behalf. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Why," said the knight, "did you not tell me, that this water was + from the well of your blessed patron, St. Dunstan?" + + "Ay, truly," said the hermit, "and many a hundred pagans did he + baptize there; but I never heard that he drank any of it. Every + thing should be put to its proper use in this world. St. Dunstan + knew, as well as any one, the prerogatives of a jovial friar." + + IVANHOE. + + +It was nearly six months after the warlike and portentous visit of the +puissant governor to the Porte, when he was roused one morning by +intelligence, that an American whale-ship had arrived in the night, and +was then at anchor just within Pedro Blanco. He immediately commenced, +in his usual style of vaporing and flourish, as though this Yankee ship, +arriving without his knowledge and consent, had compromised the welfare +of the Spanish monarchy. Before his zeal had half done effervescing, a +sergeant brought word that the captain and first officer were at his +usual place of transacting business, or _bureau d'office_, and wished to +see him. This piece of information had by no means a sedative effect. +Here was a heretic, not only stealing into the bay, like a thief in the +night, but carrying his impudence still farther, by insisting upon an +interview, and that too out of business hours, with the representative +of His Most Catholic Majesty, by the grace of God, King of Two Spains +and the Indies. + +However, he very graciously sent word, that he would attend to them in a +few minutes; and having drank his chocolate, he proceeded to his office, +where he found waiting for him a grave elderly man, and a handsome young +one. The American captain could speak no Spanish, but the young man +could fluently, and he immediately proceeded to inform his excellency, +that the parties who had ventured to intrude upon his valuable time, +were Captain Hazard, commander of the American whaling ship Orion, and +himself, Charles Morton, first officer of that ship; that the ship was +filled with oil, and bound home; that they were out of wood, short of +water, and desirous of obtaining fruit, vegetables, fresh and salt +provisions, and live stock, previous to their commencing their long and +tedious passage towards home; and, finally, that trusting to the +well-known kindness and humanity of his Excellency General de Luna, they +had presumed to anchor in the outer harbor, till they had obtained his +permission to move further in shore, and to purchase their supplies. + +The old hero of Gibraltar was delighted: he had heard himself called +general, and "vuestra excellencia" half a dozen times at least; and that +too by a gentleman, whose modest deportment and language convinced him +of his seriousness. He instantly acceded to their request, and would, at +that moment perhaps, have given them his house, if he thought they +could store it away on deck, or get it down the main hatchway. Still it +seemed as if there was something lacking on their part; and he was soon +set at ease. The two Americans communicated for a moment, when the young +man, in polite and set phrase, gave the wished-for, and expected, +invitation to the governor and his family to visit and dine on board the +Orion, the next day at twelve o'clock; for sailors, and some others, +stick to the primitive and convenient habit of dining in the middle of +the day--fashionable people, I believe, don't dine till to-morrow +morning. + +The parties then separated, mutually pleased with each other; the +Americans at having their request so easily and cheerfully granted, and +the old Castilian in high glee with the prospect before him, of a good +dinner, plenty of punch, and plenty of wine. Being gifted with olfactory +powers equal to Job's war-horse, he smelled, not a battle, but a dinner, +afar off, or within thirty divisions of "old Time, the clock-setter's" +dial. + +The Orion was indeed the American whaleman in sight when the governor +visited the waterside, and was then coming in, but just as the +sea-breeze commenced, the look-out at the masthead reported a large +school of sperm whales in the offing. Although the want of vegetables +and fresh provisions did grieve him sore, yet want of oil did grieve him +more; and accordingly, Captain Hazard, whose ship was but little more +than half full, commenced beating out towards his huge game, which led +him away from the land and to the northward; where, in a little more +than five months, he had made up his quantum of oil; and preferring St. +Blas to Monterey, or St. Josef, he made the best of his way thither. + +The governor, having notified his womankind of the whale-catching +captain's invitation, proceeded to hold grave and high communication +with Father Josef, his ghostly counsellor, and the keeper of his +conscience. + +Father Josef was a priest, turned of fifty; and, like most of the +Spanish American clergy, who are turned of fifty, and are of any thing +like fair standing for sanctity, was somewhat rotund about the abdominal +regions, and of an apoplectic appearance; that is, his head was firmly +plunged down, and imbedded between his shoulders, without being plagued +with the intervening isthmus of neck, which is so expensive to modern +fashionable ladies and gentlemen, being considered by one sex as a part +of the body expressly created to hang neck-laces, gold chains, and lace +pelerines upon; and by the other, as intended merely as a place of +lodgment for the stock and shirt-collar. This priest's nose and cheeks +bore a large and bountiful crop of, what are sometimes called, "the +fruits of good living;" indeed, his parochial duties were not of a kind +calculated to mortify the flesh; and as his church was well endowed, and +he received many presents from the wealthy members of his flock, it was +not a matter of wonder, that he enjoyed such creature-comforts as lay in +his way; and the Catholic clergy are generally possessed of a sufficient +degree of modest asurance in taking possession of them. In disposition +he was mild, and good-natured, (fat people generally are;) was much +attached to the governor's family, and possessed great influence over +him. He was, over and above all, a man of considerable learning and +intelligence: spoke English quite passably; and, as a proof of good +taste, we add, that he was the only masculine biped, who visited Don +Gaspar's house, who really understood, and rightly appreciated, +Isabella's beauty of person, and intellectual character. As it was well +known that the governor placed great confidence in him, all who had a +suit to the civil or rather military potentate, in the first place made +interest with the ecclesiastical one; and this was soon perceived and +imitated by the commanders of foreign vessels, from whom he received +many presents. This was the clergyman whom the governor now summoned to +a council. + +"Father," said he, when the priest made his appearance and bestowed his +benediction, "you are doubtless aware of the arrival of an American ship +in this harbor, and that I and my family have been invited on board +to-morrow." + +Father Josef bowed in the affirmative. + +"I am not sure that I am doing right," resumed the Don, "in accepting +such invitations, as it throws me into the society of heretics so +often; and you know we cannot touch pitch without defilement." + +"We cannot indeed handle pitch without being defiled, but in the line of +duty." + +"But duty does not call me there." + +"Nay, but hear me, my son; duty requires that you should see that his +majesty's laws against unlawful trading are not violated." + +"That is very true." + +"And there can be no better opportunity of ascertaining the real +character of these foreigners than by a personal visit." + +"A most just observation, father." + +"Therefore, make yourself easy on the score of its sinfulness, for there +is none in it." + +"I don't see how there can be," said his excellency, who was thinking of +the future punch and dinner. + +"If I can assist you farther--" + +"Oh, true! you will accompany us to-morrow?" + +"Most cheerfully." + +"And now, father, I wish to consult you upon another subject. You know +that it is my wish to marry my niece to Don Gregorio Nunez." + +"You have said something of this before." + +"And she is most obstinately opposed to such a union." + +"I can easily conceive it," said the priest drily. + +"He is rich and well connected." + +"Riches and rank do not charm all women." + +"It is my wish to see her well married." + +"The woman that marries Don Gregorio is not necessarily well married; +besides, I believe you know his character." + +"I think I do." + +"That he is a fool." + +"He is certainly rather weak in intellect." + +"And a coward." + +"I cannot deny it." + +"And a coxcomb." + +"He is certainly very vain of his high birth and of his rank in the +army: young men are apt to be in such cases." + +"You would not consent to his marrying one of your daughters?" + +"No; I have other views for them." + +"And yet you profess to love your niece as affectionately as your +daughters." + +"You know I do, father." + +"And loving her as you profess, you are striving to render that niece +miserable for life by uniting her with one whom you admit to be a fool, +a coward, and a vain fop." + +The old Don, whose intellectuals were none of the brightest, had got +himself, without perceiving it, completely into a _premunire_, by the +Socratic mode of reasoning adopted by his more skilful antagonist, who +at parting once more addressed him:-- + +"Take my advice, Signor de Luna, and leave your niece to herself on this +subject: a young female heart cannot be made, like one of your +soldiers, to march and countermarch at the word of command; it is, +besides, of very frail materials, and, when once injured or broken, can +never be repaired. The happiness of one so dear to you as your niece, +may be destroyed forever, by forcing her into a match she detests; but +it will then be too late to repair your fault, and it will always be to +you a subject of the bitterest regret and unavailing remorse." + +With these words he departed. But the governor, although convinced by +the priest's arguments, and set into profound meditation by his last +words, was one of those people, of whom we see so many at every step we +take through life, who ask advice when they need it, are convinced of +its soundness when given, and yet, though their natural good sense +assents to dispassionate reasoning, return to their old, foolish, +absurd, and ruinous opinions and intentions. + +Don Gaspar, therefore, although convinced that he was a fool, and an +unfeeling relation in attempting to force his niece into a marriage with +such a worthless puppy as he readily admitted the proposed lover was in +every respect, continued to adhere to his original intention, which he +thought best, however, to defer for a time. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + There is as weighty reason + For secresy in love, as treason. + Love is a burglarer, a felon, + That at the window-eye doth steal in + To rob the heart, and with his prey + Steals out again a closer way. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The morning of the day appointed for the visit to the ship Orion rose as +pure, and clear, and beautiful, as though no party of pleasure was +intended, but not more pure, and clear, and beautiful, than the weather +always is during the dry season of tropical climates, which, with the +cool and refreshing sea-breeze, is one of the delights of those climates +that I forgot to particularise in its proper place. With us of the +temperate section of this round world the case is altogether +different--the day appointed a week beforehand for a party of pleasure +being almost invariably rainy, blowy, haily, snowy, drizzly, foggy, +cold, uncomfortable, villainous weather; or else so hot that the mere +act of breathing is too much for feeble human nature--and this, too, +whether the party is made for sailing, riding, rambling about in the +woods, or even for dancing, or tea-drinking, or whist-playing in a warm, +comfortable room. This is, perhaps, one reason why geographers call our +part of the globe the temperate zone; because all our proposed and +anticipated pleasures, that depend in the slightest possible degree upon +the weather, are sure to be tempered and qualified by some unexpected +botheration on the part of the weather. + +The party from the shore accordingly arrived alongside the Orion about +eleven o'clock in the forenoon, without accident by sea or land. The +governor was in high spirits and full regimentals; Madame Governor was +as stately, dignified, and bejewelled, as became a lady of her station +and rank; the two daughters sparkled with gems and fluttered with silks, +thinking of the impression they were to make upon the officers of the +strange ship; the priest, in sacerdotal dignity, and with his weight +giving the boat three streaks heel to starboard, sat hoping some +contingency might take place that would elicit a present from the Yankee +commander; the young officers, but three in number, including, of +course, the military aspirant to the fair Isabella's hand and fortune, +thought of but little or nothing except their pretty persons and dashing +regimentals. + +Isabella, who expected no pleasure from this party of pleasure, but the +reverse, as it would compel her to be for some hours in the company of a +man she had so much reason to detest, sat in the stern sheets, with the +fat clergyman directly in front, and forming an impenetrable rampart +against the impertinent gallantries of the coxcomb Gregorio. She wore +no jewels or ornaments, and from her pensive and serious expression of +countenance, might have passed for an Athenian tribute-maiden whom the +annual ship was about to carry to the den of the Minotaur. + +An arm-chair of capacious and old-fashioned dimensions, its ponderous +wood-work carefully hidden by the American ensign, the _fly_ of which +was to serve as an envelope for the feet and ancles of the ladies, was +strongly slung and lowered into the stern sheets of the governor's state +barge, a _craft_ containing nearly as much timber as a fishing schooner, +and about as burdensome. Mr. Morton, the first officer of the ship, and +a remarkably handsome man, now came over the side into the barge, to +arrange the ladies for their aeronautic excursion, safer than Durant's, +for their car was slung with strong hemp not dependent upon a bag of +inflammable gas. As a matter of course, he tendered his services to the +old lady first, who, though she had been _whipped_ in and out of as many +ships as any English dragoon-horse during the war of the Peninsula, +thought proper to curvet and prance, and show as much skittishness as a +mule embarking at Hartford, or Weathersfield, or Middletown, for a tour +of duty at Surinam or Demerara. She was, however, hoisted in without +accident, and received on deck by Captain Hazard and Mr. Coffin, the +second officer, with much politeness. The two young ladies were the next +in order, and accomplished their flight successfully. Isabella lastly +took her seat in the chair without trepidation or affectation of alarm. +Morton's eyes had already done hommage to her superior beauty; but he +was too busy with the other ladies to notice her any farther than as the +most lovely of the female visitors. He now remarked the pensive +expression of her lovely countenance, and it excited in his heart an +undefinable and uncontrollable interest. We have already said that +Isabella inherited her mother's beauty, which had not one of the usual +characteristics of a Spanish female countenance; and it was this +peculiarity that struck the young seaman forcibly, and probably +increased the interest he felt towards her, and the curiosity to know +something more of her history, as he had only understood vaguely that +she was Don Gaspar's niece. + +There is a peculiar phrase, or rather word, that I have left +unexplained, and concerning which I will now proceed to enlighten the +terrestrial and unenlightened reader. I spoke of whipping the ladies +into the ship. The whip, then, consists of a tail-block on the main +yard-arm, with a sufficient rope rove through it, and a similar purchase +on the collar of the main-stay. One end of each of these ropes is made +fast to a stout arm-chair, covered generally with the ship's ensign, +with the loose part of which the lady wraps her feet. The other ends are +in the hands of careful, steady seamen. The lady, being arranged and +fixed in the chair, with a "breast-rope" from arm to arm, (of the +chair, not of the lady,) is hoisted up by the yard-whip till she has +approached the zenith sufficiently to go clear of the waist +hammock-nettings, when the stay-whip is hauled upon, carrying her in a +horizontal direction over the gangway, when both whips being lowered, +she is disentangled of her "wrappers and twine," and received in the +arms of a lover, a husband, or a brother, as the case may be. Ladies and +gentlemen, whose curiosity on the subject of whips is still unsatisfied, +will find their theory demonstrated and illustrated by a diagram in +"Enfield's Natural Philosophy." + +I have known the somewhat startling nautical command, "Get the whip +ready for the ladies," blanch many a fair cheek with sudden and most +causeless alarm. It cannot be denied that we "gentlemen of the ocean" +have singular names for things; but every thing at sea must have a name, +or there would be no getting along. + +I have only farther to remark on this subject, that horses are +infinitely more tractable in taking on board a ship, than ladies; for +the moment the horse perceives his feet are clear of the ground, he +becomes perfectly quiet and passive; whereas, the lady is always quiet +while a handsome young officer is arranging the flags, &c. about her +feet; but as soon as she is fairly in the air, she begins to scream, and +kick, and bounce about, to the imminent risk of her bones; and just at +the time when common sense and instinct teach the quadruped to keep +perfectly still, women, who have but little common sense in such cases, +and no instinct at all, are the most intractable and restless. + +Morton followed the last lady, namely, Isabella, and, as he stepped over +the gangway, was accosted by his brother officer. + +"What a thundering pretty girl that last one is!" + +"She is the governor's niece," said Morton. + +"You may tell that to the marines," said Coffin; "I'll be shot if +there's as much Spanish blood in her veins as would grease the point of +a sail-needle." + +"They say so ashore," said Morton. + +"I don't care what they say; I'll believe my eyes before the best +Spaniard among them." + +"Who knows," said Morton, "but that infernal soldier, that's buzzing +about her, may one day be the husband of that sweet girl?" + +"There's no knowing," said Coffin, yawning; "but you and I, Charlie, +can't marry all the pretty girls that are like to have fools for +husbands." + +As this conversation went on, the mates had walked aft, and were close +behind Isabella, who stood by the companion-way, while the governor, and +his lady, who was not far behind him in corporeal dimensions, were +accomplishing their descent into the lower regions. + +"That rascally soldier," said Morton, "wants nothing but a tail to make +him a full-rigged monkey, and that lovely girl is about to be sacrificed +to him." + +"Poor girl!" said Coffin; "it's bad enough to marry a sojer, any how; +but to marry such a critter as that is going it a little too fine." + +Poor Isabella, who had heard and properly understood every syllable of +their conversation, was exceedingly affected. She had heard a person, +whose appearance and manners approached her _beau ideal_ of a gentleman, +expressing, in warm and energetic language, the liveliest compassion for +her, and guessing (for she could not imagine how he could know with +certainty) her exact situation, and manifesting an apparently sincere +and hearty interest towards her. Although her uncle had forborne to +trouble her upon that hateful subject, after he had first proposed it, +she knew his disposition too well to regard the reprieve as an +abandonment of his original design. + +As she turned away to conceal her emotion from her cousins, her +streaming eyes encountered those of Morton. The young seaman was shocked +and alarmed at her tears, though he had not the most distant suspicion +that she had understood a word that had been said. Her beauty had first +attracted his notice--it was so un-Spanish, and so nearly resembling +that of New England ladies; the pensive expression of her countenance +had excited a lively interest and curiosity towards her; but her tears, +the evidence of that "secret grief" that the heart, and only the heart, +knoweth, had called up all the sympathies of his heart. + +I believe there are few men, who deserve the name, that are proof +against a woman's tears, and there are few such men, who, when they +perceive a woman, especially a young and beautiful one, oppressed with +grief, anxiety, or distress, do not feel an irresistible impulse to +assist and relieve her. + +It may be objected that I have made my hero fall in love at first sight. +To this I answer that I cannot spare time to lead him step by step +through all the crooks and turns of the bewitching passion; secondly, +love is _not_ like the consumption; people do not go gradually into it +by a beaten road, every foot of which is marked and designated by its +appropriate and peculiar symptoms. "Nemo est repente vitiosus," says +Juvenal--nobody becomes completely depraved all at once; very true, but +folks certainly do, to my certain knowledge, fall in love all at once, +and that is doubtless the reason why they are said to _fall_ in love. +Love is like the Asiatic cholera; a man is suddenly laid flat on his +back, with all the marked and violent symptoms, when he thought all the +while he was in perfect health. "Love," says Corporal Trim, "is exactly +like war in this, that a soldier, though he has escaped three weeks +complete o' Saturday night, may nevertheless be shot through the heart +on Sunday morning." In the third place, a man, who for two or three +years has seen nothing in the female form more attractive than the +copper-colored beauties of Asia, the South Sea Islands, and the whole +western coast of America, or the ebony _fair_ ones of Africa, is most +astonishingly susceptible when once more restored to the society of +ladies of his own complexion, and of more refinement than those we have +mentioned. I have had the ineffable pleasure of testing the truth of +this theory more than a dozen times in my own person. If any gentleman +doubts the fact, I can only advise him to banish himself from female +society, in a man-of-war or whaleman, for three or four years. If he +does not fall in love fifty times a month, when he returns, he is either +more or less than human, and, in either case, I should wish to remain a +stranger to him. + +The whole party were now "under hatches," and examining the wonders of a +whaleman's cabin. Morton had attached himself to Isabella, and, as he +spoke the Spanish language fluently, and, what was more to the purpose, +was impelled by an irresistible feeling to entertain and amuse her, soon +drew her into conversation, and was astonished and delighted with her +good sense. He had visited different parts of South America before, and +had seen enough of the women to perceive that they were excessively +ignorant, superstitious, and vulgar. He was therefore not a little +surprised to perceive in Isabella's conversation marks of a cultivated +and polished understanding. + +The rest of the party had gone into the steerage to examine some of +those curious specimens of whalebone work, in the fabrication of which +whalemen employ so much patience and time, during their long and often +unsuccessful voyages. As Isabella and Morton stood together by the cabin +table, the lady opened a bible that was lying there, and seemed for a +moment or two engaged in reading it. + +"Do you understand that?" said the seaman, still speaking Spanish. + +"Yes," she replied, in English, "my mother was a Scotchwoman, and a +Protestant." + +"Good heavens! then I am afraid--I am sure--that--in short, I believe +that something was said before you came below, that must have been +unpleasant--that, indeed, could not but hurt your feelings." + +Isabella was extremely agitated, and turned away her head. + +"What would I not give," continued he, in a low voice, "what would I not +sacrifice, to be able--to be permitted, to assist you in any way." + +He stopped, scarcely knowing what he said, or hardly knowing whether he +had spoken at all. The poor girl raised her swimming eyes in +supplication. + +"For heaven's sake! drop this subject; if my uncle knew that you had +spoken thus to me, he would carry me back immediately." + +"But tell me, dearest lady, tell me, is there no way in which I can be +of service to you?" + +"No, no, no, leave me; if you have any regard for me, leave me. I thank +you for the interest you have shown for me; but it will avail nothing." + +The tone of extreme dejection, and melancholy, in which she pronounced +these last words, almost drove Morton beside himself. He was completely +bewildered with conflicting emotions--a young and beautiful woman, +lovely in person and in mind, and, what made her irresistible to an +unsophisticated, warm, generous, and feeling heart, in +affliction--affliction that seemed more remediless, because not +understood by one, nor communicated by the other. + +From this situation of mutual embarrassment, they were relieved by the +entrance of one of the young ladies, who came to call her cousin into +the steerage, to see the wonders already alluded to. Luckily, Carlota, +although a good-natured girl, and fond of her cousin Isabella, was not +remarkably keen-sighted, or she must have noticed the agitation and +embarrassment of both parties. + +In the meantime, Mr. Coffin, who had a large share of a particular kind +of shrewdness, had noticed that his friend seemed inclined to enjoy the +society of Isabella uninterrupted; and, to assist that manoeuvre as +much as possible, engaged the young officers with some tremendous tough +fish stories, in which he was ably supported by one of the +boat-steerers, a Portuguese, who spoke Spanish, as a matter of course, +and helped out his officer, when his imperfect knowledge of the +language brought him to a stand still. So he managed to hold them, as +jackasses are held,--by the ears,--till he saw his companion and the +young lady come into the steerage, when he broke off somewhat abruptly, +in the middle of a very tough yarn, leaving the gentlemen of the sword +to guess at the catastrophe. + +As the party stood around a chest, upon which these whalebone toys, and +other curiosities, were displayed, Antonia dropt a bouquet from her +bosom. As Morton picked it up, and returned it to its fair owner, he +made some remark upon the beauty, and fragrance, of the flowers. + +"Are you fond of flowers?" said the young lady. + +"Yes, very." + +"That I can answer for," said Coffin; "he is always, when on shore for +wood, water, or pleasure, in search of rare flowers, and shells. It is +well there are no such things at sea, or we should never have taken a +single whale--and then he paints those he finds so beautifully." + +"What! _he_ paint flowers! a _man_ paint flowers! Santa Maria! who ever +heard of such a thing!" echoed the two young ladies. + +"And why not, my children," said the fat priest, laughing; "do you +ladies think you have an exclusive title, and right, to all the elegant +accomplishments?" + +"I do not doubt," said Coffin, "that Signor Morton would be proud to +show the ladies his drawings. Come, Charlie," he continued, in English, +"you shall not keep your candle under a bushel any longer--you see +you're in for it, and you may as well submit with a good grace." + +So saying, he led the way to the cabin, where the drawings were paraded +upon the table. They were certainly very beautiful; for to a fondness +for the "serene and silent art," Morton added a natural taste for it, +which he had ample leisure to cultivate, during his long voyages. After +admiring them for some time, Madame de Luna gave the artist a cordial +invitation to visit their house, and garden, a mile or two beyond the +town; in the latter, she assured him, he would find some rare and +beautiful subjects for his pencil. Morton was exceedingly gratified by +this kindness, and said, in a low voice, and in English, to Isabella, +but without looking at, or apparently addressing, her, as she stood next +him, "Then I shall have the happiness of seeing you once more." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Love's power's too great to be withstood + By feeble human flesh and blood. + 'Twas he that brought upon his knees + The hect'ring kil-cow Hercules; + Transform'd his leaguer-lion's skin + T' a petticoat, and made him spin; + Seiz'd on his club, and made it dwindle + T' a feeble distaff and a spindle. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The dinner on board the Orion, which was not served up till one o'clock, +by the way, as Captain Hazard wished to be more than usually genteel, +was excellent, and was preceded, and followed, by copious libations of +punch; after which the wine was set on table, and the veterans, that is, +the military, the nautical, and ecclesiastical, part of the company, +proceeded to discuss it, "in manner and form." The governor, as was his +custom on such occasions, told interminable stories of the siege of +Gibraltar, during which, his hopeful nephew elect enjoyed a very +comfortable nap, and even Father Josef nodded occasionally. + +The ladies had made their escape, as soon us dinner was finished; and +Morton, on the watch, like a cat to steal cream, was on the alert, as +soon as he perceived their intentions, and accompanied them on deck. To +his great satisfaction, none of the Spanish officers made any attempt to +leave the table; for, as the old Don had just got fairly under weigh +with one of his campaigning stories, they were afraid to treat him with +so much disrespect, and, of course, hazard their hopes of being invited +to attend him again upon a similar party. Accordingly, Morton had the +pleasure of enjoying the society of the ladies, without interruption, +and found many opportunities of saying a few words to Isabella. In this, +he was again much beholden to the skilful manoeuvring of his messmate, +Coffin, who was already higher in the good graces of the mother and +daughters than Morton, who, though a handsome man, had not so much of +that dashing, off-hand, sort of gallantry as the other; and which goes +an incredible way with most ladies. + +Morton had seen more of the polite world, and was better educated, and +more refined in his manners, than Coffin; but, besides being, at that +time, wholly engrossed and engaged by a particular object, he had that +peculiar kind of modesty, or diffidence, that does a man so much injury +with the other sex; who, though they pretend to prize modesty so highly +among themselves, abominate it as unnatural, absurd, and affected, in +men; while the pert and obsequious fluttering of a fashionable +water-fly, which is always received with a smile, is generally more +prized, and rewarded more bountifully still. There is, however, some +consolation in the thought, that repentance always overtakes, and +punishes, the silly woman who has allowed herself to be so fatally +"pleased with a rattle;" she perceives, after marriage, that she has +given herself irrevocably to a thing "of shreds and patches." + +There is a certain sort of little attentions, that ladies generally +expect from our sex, and a skill and adroitness in showing which makes +no inconsiderable part of a modern gentleman's education. I have known +many young men, who could not write two consecutive sentences, without +coming to an open rupture with orthography, grammar, or common sense, or +all three, if it was to save their well-_stocked_ necks from the halter, +or their souls, (what of that commodity they have,) from Satan's grip, +but who stood very high, and, doubtless, deservedly so, in the +estimation of the fair sex, simply from their skill and precision in +going through a certain routine of little trifling acts of politeness. + +As far as ladies are concerned, politeness appears to consist chiefly in +a man's putting himself to more or less inconvenience, or exposing +himself to danger, on their account. With regard to the last, I do not +know but I could acquit myself to advantage, partly from the peculiar +recklessness that is acquired at sea; and partly because facing danger, +in the protection of the weaker sex, is both the duty of the stronger, +and the stronger generally can do it with less embarrassment, than +perform those innumerable, nameless, attentions, already alluded to. I +cannot say, however, that when walking out with ladies, I have felt +peculiarly desirous of the apparition of a mad bull, a ghost, or the +devil, to give me an opportunity to show my courage; but I think it is +certainly easier to most men to expose themselves to danger, in the +service of a lady, than to perform acceptably, and without awkwardness, +those little acts of politeness, that, in the present state of society, +ladies are somewhat rigorous in exacting. I have passed the very cream +and flower of my life at sea, that is, from nineteen to thirty-two, and +now, "in these latter days," begin to feel myself very much like a fish +out of water. How often have I "sailed into the northward" of a fair +lady's displeasure, for neglecting to assist her into, or out of, a +carriage! never dreaming, "poor ignorant sinner" that I am! that the +ascent up the steps of a coach was attended with any more perils, than +that of the stairs that lead to her bed-room; or that a girl, perhaps +twenty years my junior, glowing in the full bloom of youth, health, and +sprightliness, and with a step as light and elastic as Virgil's Camilla, +required the assistance of such an old weather-beaten beau as myself. +How often have I been pouted at by the ripest, rosiest, lips in the +world, for omitting to wait upon their owner home, on a dark, stormy, +evening, and half a mile out of my way, simply because I preferred the +company I was with, to the half-mile _heat_! I do not know that I have +ever felt very desirous of living my life over again; but I confess I +should like to go back, say, to the age of three or four and twenty, +merely to take a few lessons in the graces, and then "jump the life to +come," as far as where I am now, namely, _thirty or forty_. + +By Mr. Coffin's management, Morton and Isabella were much of the time +together, and both instinctively avoided any allusion to painful +subjects. He described to her the various implements used in the +whale-fishery, gave her a short account of the voyage, and of the +different parts of America, and of the islands in the Pacific, that he +had visited; and, in short, exerted himself to please and entertain her, +and was successful. + +When in the society of those we love, and from whom we are soon to +separate, perhaps forever, how much we can manage to say in a little +time! how earnestly do we strive to render delightful those moments, +perhaps the last that we are ever to pass with those friends! Dr. +Johnson says, the approach of death wonderfully concentrates one's +ideas; so does the approach of the hour of parting. + +Isabella heard herself, for the first time, for many years, addressed in +the language of respectful politeness, and unassuming common sense; the +pictures of refined, polished, and enlightened, society, drawn in the +few excellent English authors her mother had left her, seemed realized +and presented to her eyes, in all the richness of life. She did not +stop to analyse, or try to explain to herself the peculiarly delightful +feelings that occupied her mind; though if she had been left alone for +five minutes, her own good sense would have told her it was love: that +pure, unalloyed, unreflecting, ardent, _first_ love, that, like the +whooping-cough and the measles, we never have but once; though some +patients have it earlier in life, and more severely, than others. + +Ladies will never admit, and never have admitted, from the time the +stone-masons and hod-carriers struck work upon the tower of Babel, (for +want of a circulating medium of speech, that would be taken at par by +all hands, down to the present Anno Domini, 1834, and twenty-second of +October,) that any of their sisterhood ever fell in love "at sight," as +brokers call it, or that her eyes influenced her heart. With regard to +the female, who, in early life, takes up the "trade and mystery" of a +fashionable belle, _ex officio_ a coquet and a flirt, this is in some +measure true; for I have observed, that very beautiful women of that +description, who have had at their feet wealth, and talent, and +eloquence, and virtue, generally "close their concerns" by marrying +sots, fools, gamblers, rakes, or brutes; they seem to choose their +husbands as old maiden ladies do their lap-dogs; which are invariably +the most cross, ugly, ill-tempered, filthy, noisy, little scoundrels, +that the entire canine family can muster. But their practice is at +variance with their profession. It is physically and morally impossible +that women, whose chief strength consists in external appearance and +show, should hold in light esteem external appearance and show in our +sex; and, if they are not guided by their eyes in the choice of their +lovers, I should like to know what the d--l they are guided by; for in a +company of feather-pated girls, the chief object of ridicule is the +personal defects of their male acquaintance. + +Time, that stands still with married men, and sometimes with old +bachelors, flies with lovers; and the sun's "lower limb" was dipping in +the haze, that skirted the western horizon, when the steward came on +deck, and informed the ladies and gentlemen that coffee was ready, and, +accordingly, they descended into the cabin. After this refreshment, +preparations were made for going ashore. Morton and Coffin ran on deck, +to get the whips ready; and the former, calling his own boat's crew aft, +had his boat lowered down from the quarter-davits, and brought to the +gangway, while the governor's bargemen were lighting fresh segars. With +a few words of explanation to the second officer, Morton sprang into his +boat, and, in a few minutes, Isabella and her two cousins were safely +stowed in the stern-sheets. The bowman obeyed the command, "shove off;" +the swift boat, impelled by five strong-limbed seamen, flew like a +swallow across the bay, and reached the landing-place at least ten +minutes before the cumbrous barge of his excellency bounced her broad +nose against the side of the quay, and recoiled, like a battering-ram. + +Morton improved the time he was on the shore with the ladies, by paying +more attention to the governor's daughters than he had done heretofore, +and easily succeeded in entertaining them. They repeated their mother's +invitation to the young seaman to visit their house, declaring they had +never seen any foreign gentleman that spoke such pure Spanish; that the +Americans were much more polite, and respectful, and hospitable, and +obliging, than the English; and concluded, by wondering why, if the +United States were so near Mexico, it should take six months to go from +St. Blas there. To all which Morton made the appropriate replies; and, +when the rest of the party were assembled, assisted the ladies to their +horses, renewing to Isabella, as he adjusted her in the saddle, his +promise to call at her uncle's house the next day. As this promise did +not cause the young lady to "jump out her skin" or saddle, it is highly +probable that she did not perceive any great harm in it; nor did it +occur to her then, or when consulting her pillow at night, that she +violated female propriety, by answering, simply, and somewhat +emphatically, "I hope you will." + +On their ride homeward, the party were loud in their praises of the +entertainment of the day, their eulogies being directed to different +parts of the entertainment according to the different tastes of the +individuals performing the concert; for instance, the young ladies made +honorable mention of the politeness and attention of the "dos pelotos +hermosos," the two handsome mates; the old lady chanted the praises of +the china ware, and table linen, and the knives and forks--all of them +luxuries at that time in South America; the governor eulogized the +punch, and Father Josef the dinner; the young officers were in raptures +with the wine, in which they were joined by the civil and ecclesiastical +dignitaries in grand chorus. Perhaps there never was a party of visitors +that left their entertainer's house, whether riding at anchor in port, +or standing on hammered granite "underpinning" on shore, better pleased +with what they had had, or in better humor or spirits. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again. + I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, + That almost freezes up the heat of life. + + ROMEO AND JULIET. + + +Isabella arose at her usual hour the next morning, and after breakfast +walked into the garden, from a sort of unacknowledged hope and wish that +she might soon be joined by the young American, who had occupied her +thoughts, both sleeping and waking, since she had parted with him on the +beach the evening previous. At the sound of every horse's feet she +started, and her heart beat quicker. But he came not that day, and as +evening approached, her disappointment became almost insupportable; she +tried to frame excuses for him; he had never been to the house; perhaps +he had, by a very natural mistake, gone to her uncle's house in town, +instead of that where she now was, and which was rather more than a mile +from St. Blas, and whither the family came regularly to lodge, though +they spent most of the time at their town residence; perhaps he was +detained on board by his duties; or he might be sick. + +"And why," said the weeping girl to herself, "why should I wish to see +him again? Alas! I have already seen him too often, for my future peace +of mind. He is going home to his parents, his relatives, his friends, +his home, and perhaps to his wife;" and this last thought crossed her +mind with a feeling of peculiar anguish; "but no, when he spoke of his +friends and parents, he said nothing of his wife; but he is going, and +in a few short months he will forget that he has ever seen me, or that +such an unhappy being has ever existed." + +With these painful and self-tormenting reflections she passed the +evening, and much of the night; but youthful hope, that cheers the heart +with flattering and deceitful promises, never sufficiently well defined +to resemble certainty, but always brilliant; hope, whose elasticity +raises the sinking heart, soothed and composed her spirits, and she sank +into sound and refreshing slumbers, to wake to a brighter and more +flattering day; but at the same time, to sink deeper and more +irrevocably into that bewitching, bewildering passion, whose existence +she could not now avoid acknowledging. + +As she was sitting in the garden the next day, she was suddenly startled +by the approach of her two cousins in full chat, and close behind them, +Morton. Isabella seemed rooted to her seat, the light swam before her +eyes, her tongue was paralyzed, and her limbs were unable to raise or +support her. The young seaman approached, and in broken, incoherent, and +unintelligible accents, attempted to express the delight he felt at +once more seeing her. Perhaps, if the two cousins had been out of the +way; he would have acquitted himself better, perhaps not so well. "Iron +sharpeneth iron," saith Solomon; "so doth a man the countenance of his +friend." It may be so in some cases, but I doubt whether any man can +make love so glibly, so off hand, before half a dozen spectators, +especially females, as he can "all alone by himself;" on the other hand, +there is something absolutely awful in being alone with a pretty and +modest woman, and being compelled to "look one another in the face," +like the two bullying kings of Judah and Jerusalem. It is much like +"watching with a corpse," a ceremony derived, I believe, from the +orientals, and still prevalent in good old New England. + +The parties were soon relieved from their embarrassment; the two +cousins, after asking a thousand questions, and only waiting to hear two +hundred and fifty of the answers, bounced off into the house, leaving +the two lovers, for such they were now most decidedly, to the luxury of +their own thoughts and conversation. We have no time, inclination, nor +ability, to describe the steps by which they advanced from mere +acquaintance to the can't-live-without-each-other and hopeless state of +deep and incurable love. + +Perhaps Morton was not grieved or angry when it was declared, after a +thorough survey by Captain Hazard, Coffin, and himself, to be +absolutely necessary to procure a new foremast and bowsprit for the +ship before she sailed--the first being rotten, and the other badly +sprung. As Captain Hazard placed the most implicit confidence in +Morton's capacity to purchase and superintend the making of the +requisite spars, the latter, to his great joy, was requested to take +charge of the shore department. By this arrangement his opportunities of +seeing his beloved Isabella occurred several times each day. + +Though there had been no formal declaration of love between them, they +were each conscious that they loved and were beloved in return; the most +unreserved confidence existed between them, and Morton, who felt most +keenly for Isabella's unpleasant situation, had repeatedly hinted at the +happiness she was sure to enjoy in a more favored country, if she would +leave her uncle's house, and take passage in the Orion for New England. +She affected, at first, not to understand him; but when it became +impossible to avoid perceiving his meaning, she only answered, "No, +no--I cannot--I dare not;" but the answer was always accompanied with a +sigh and a tear; and as from day to day he informed her of the progress +the ship made in her repairs, her negative became fainter and less +resolutely expressed. + +Owing to the necessity of making some repairs in his country residence, +the governor and his family had latterly resided altogether in St. Blas; +and as the puppy Don Gregorio watched with a suspicious and malignant +eye, the frequent visits of Morton, the lovers had generally met at the +house of Dame Juanita, the front of which was occupied as a shop, with a +little parlor back of it, to which Isabella had access by passing out of +the gate in the rear of her uncle's house, without going through the +street. + +With all the glowing eloquence of young love, and hope, and confidence, +Morton detailed to her the thousand and one schemes that his fertile +imagination suggested; Isabella could see but one hideous feature in +them all--the dreadful fate that awaited him if unsuccessful. + +"Listen to me," said he one day to her, as she had been urging to him +the terrible risk he encountered--for she seemed to have no eyes for the +certain immuring in a convent that awaited _her_--"listen to me, dearest +Isabella; the ship is now nearly ready; she will sail in three or four +days at farthest, and will sail at ten or eleven o'clock at night, to +take advantage of the land-breeze. I will have my boat at the quay, and +horses here in town; in the dusk of evening, and with a little disguise, +you will not be recognised; there is no guarda-costa here now, and +before the sun rises we shall be out of sight of land, and beyond the +reach of pursuit." + +She made no reply, but sat pale as marble; the images of her kind and +affectionate aunt and cousins, and even of her much-feared but still +much-loved uncle, floated before her eyes, and seemed reproaching her +with unkindness and ingratitude; while, on the other hand, her fancy +painted her the wife of the man she loved, and without whom she felt +life would be wretched: she saw herself surrounded by enlightened and +polished society, such as her sainted mother had graced before her; she +saw herself moving in a new sphere, and fulfilling new duties: then +imagination placed before her bewildered mind the sinfulness of +deserting the station in which Heaven had placed her. She sighed deeply +as she almost determined to refuse, when a glimpse of her abhorred +lover, Don Gregorio, caused a sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, +and to Morton's repeated entreaties, "speak to me, dear Isabella; say +yes, love," she at length murmured a scarcely audible or articulate +consent. The delighted seaman caught her in his arms, and pressed kiss +after kiss upon the lips of the struggling, blushing girl. + +"Remember, love," said he, as they parted, "be punctual here three +nights hence. I will have horses ready at the end of the street, and +before day dawns you shall be safe." + +There was still one thing to be done, and that was to obtain the consent +of Captain Hazard, who, though an excellent, kind-hearted man in the +main, had some rather old-fashioned notions of propriety, especially in +outward form, and would, as Morton knew full well, have very serious +objections to advance against such a mad scrape; but he trusted to the +fondness of the good old seaman towards him, and his own upright and +honorable intentions, to overthrow all the veteran's scruples. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +On the morning of the day that the above arrangement was made by the +parties concerned, Captain Hazard observed that Morton had despatched +his breakfast very hastily, and was on deck, waiting for his boat's crew +to finish their meal, long before the Captain and Mr. Coffin had shown +any symptoms of pausing in their discussion of salt beef, coffee, and +pilot bread. + +"What can be the matter with Mr. Morton lately?" said the old seaman to +his second officer; "he was never so fond of going ashore anywhere else, +and now here he's off and into his boat, like a struck black-fish." + +"Why, I some expect," said Coffin, "there's a petticoat in the wind." + +"The devil! who?" + +"Well, I rather guess it's that pretty blue-eyed, English-looking girl, +that came on board with old Don Blow-me-down, when he first came in +here." + +"Ah! I recollect her. I thought Morton seemed to take a shine to her." + +"They say she's Don Strombolo's niece." + +"They may tell that to the marines; she don't look no more like the rest +on 'em than the devil looks like a parson." + +"I don't know" said Coffin gravely, "how the devil looks; but they say +he can put on the appearance of an angel of light, and I don't see why +'taint jist as easy for him to put on a black coat, and come the parson +over us poor sinners." + +"Well, well; she's a sweet pretty girl, and looks kind o' as though she +wasn't over and above in good spirits." + +"Well, now; I some guess I know a little something about that." + +"Why how the d---- did _you_ come to make yourself busy?" + +"Why, you see, there's an old woman keeps a _pulparia_[3] close to the +old Don's rookery." + +"Hum! so, Mr. Sam Coffin, when you're cruising for information, you +overhaul the women's papers first and foremost." + +"Why you see, Captain Hazard, if you ask one of these men here a civil +question, all you can get out of the critter is that d--d 'quien sabe,' +and blast the any thing else." + +"Can sarvy! why that sounds like Chinaman's talk; what does it mean?" + +"It means 'who knows,' and that's the way they answer pretty much all +questions." + +"Well, what was't you was going to say about the girl?" + +"Well, the old woman told me the girl's mother was an Englishwoman." + +"I told you she wasn't clear Spanish--and being a girl, so, why she +takes altogether after the mother." + +"And the old woman said furdermore, that her mother wasn't a Catholic; +she was a what-d'ye-call-'em." + +"A Protestant, I s'pose you mean." + +"Yes, yes, a Protestant--that's it. Well, you see, her mother did not +die till this girl, her darter, was nigh upon sixteen years old, and +it's like the old lady eddicated her arter the same religion she was +brought up in herself." + +"Aye, now I begin to see into it all." + +"Well, so you see, as nigh as I can make out, for the old woman wouldn't +talk right out--only kept hinting along like." + +"Hum! a woman generally can _hint_ a d--d sight more than when she +speaks right out." + +"Well, so it seems this Isabella, being half English and whole +Protestant, won't exactly steer by their compass in religious matters." + +"Poor girl! poor innocent little creature!" + +"Well, I got a talking 'long with the old woman, and, arter a good deal +of trouble, I got hold of pretty much the whole history about this 'ere +girl. So she told me, amongst other things, that the girl's uncle +wanted her to marry one of them officers that was aboard that day." + +"Which of them?" + +"That thundering cockroach-legged thief, that was copper-fastened with +gold lace and brass buttons chock up to his ears, with a thundering +great broadsword triced up to his larboard quarter and slung with brass +chains." + +"Ah! I recollect him." + +"And so do I, blast his profile. He cut more capers than the third mate +of a Guineaman over a dead nigger, and went skylarking about decks like +a monkey in a china-shop." + +"I took notice that he looked marline-spikes at Mr. Morton for paying so +much attention to the girl." + +"Aye, that he did; but I worked him a traverse in middle latitude, +sailing on that tack. I got him and the rest on 'em into the steerage, +and Mr. Morton and the girl had a good half hour's discourse to +themselves in the cabin." + +"I should be sorry to have Mr. Morton try to engage the poor girl's +affections; and if I thought he had any improper intentions towards her, +I would go ashore immediately, and speak to the old governor about it." + +"Well now, Captain Hazard, I guess there isn't no danger on that tack. +Mr. Morton may go adrift now and then among the girls, and where's the +man that doesn't? No, no; Charlie Morton isn't none of them sort that +would gain a poor girl's affections only to ruin her. No no; he's too +honorable and noble-spirited for such a rascally action as that." + +"Well, I am of your opinion. So now, Mr. Coffin, we'll set up our +fore-rigging for a full do; for we must sail Wednesday evening, right or +wrong." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +When Morton returned to the ship at night, he hastened to lay before +Captain Hazard the history of his love, and his plans for bringing it to +a successful crisis, declaring that his intentions were strictly +honorable, and that the lady might easily pass upon the crew as a +passenger. The old seaman heard him to an end, as he urged his request +with all the fervor of youthful eloquence and love; and, having +scratched his head for a while, as if to rouse himself, and be convinced +that he was awake, replied: + +"A queer sort of business this altogether, my son; I don't exactly know +what to make of it--what will your father say to your bringing home a +young cow-whale, in addition to your share of the oil?" + +"Make yourself easy on that score, my dear sir; I know my father wishes +to have me quit going to sea, and marry." + +"Yes, but is not a wife, brought into your family in this way, liable to +be looked upon as a sort of contraband article--run goods like?" + +"I am not much afraid of that, on my father's part," said Morton; "and +if," he continued, laughing, "if the grave old ladies of my +acquaintance find fault, I can quiet them in a moment, by quoting the +conduct of the tribe of Benjamin, in a similar situation, by way of +precedent." + +"Ah, Charlie! your scheme, I am afraid, is all top-hamper, and no +ballast; wont the enemy give chase? I am sure that Don--Don--what's his +name, that young officer, more than suspects your good standing in the +young lady's affections: wont he alarm the coast, and put the old folks +up to rowing guard round her, so that you can't communicate? Ay, that he +will." + +"Trust me for that, sir; if I cannot weather upon any Spaniard that ever +went unhanged, either Creole or old Castilian, I'll agree to go to the +mines for life." + +"Don't be too rash, my dear boy; though the Spaniards are only +courageous behind shot-proof walls, and when they number three to one, +they are deceitful as well as cruel; and, if their suspicions are once +excited, they will murder you at once, and her too, poor girl! and think +they are doing God service, because you are both Protestants." + +"I can only repeat, trust to my prudence and management; I have too much +at stake to hazard it lightly." + +"Then remember, Charles, we sail Wednesday evening: it will be +star-light, but not too dark to see your way. I will defer sailing till +eleven o'clock, if that will suit your schemes." + +"It will exactly; or if you sail the moment I return, so much the +better." + +With these words, they separated--Morton, overjoyed at the completion of +his preliminary arrangements, all night, like Peter Pindar's dog, + + "lay winking, + And couldn't sleep for thinking." + +The appointed day at length arrived; but the destinies, who had hitherto +spun the thread of the two lovers' fate as smooth and even as a +whale-line yarn, now began to fill it full of _kinks_. Well did the +ancients represent them as three haggard, blear-eyed, wrinkled, +spiteful, old maids, who would not allow any poor mortal to live or die +comfortably, and who took a malicious pleasure in disturbing "the course +of true love." The inexorable Atropos brandished her scissors, and at +one snip severed the thread asunder. + +Daring the night there had been a tremendous thunder-squall, and the +morning showed huge "double-headed" clouds, mustering in different parts +of the horizon, and, apparently, waiting some signal to bid them +commence operations; others, dark and suspicious looking, but of a less +dense consistence, were seen scampering across the firmament in all +directions, like aids-de-camp before a general engagement; the +land-breeze had been interrupted by the night-squall, and the wind, what +little there was, blew from every point of the compass but the usual +one; the shags, that tenanted the top of Pedro Blanco, seemed unusually +busy, as if anticipating a change of weather; and, in short, every thing +announced that the delightful, salubrious, dry season had come to an +end, and the empire of continual rain, and drizzle, and cloud, and mud, +and putrid fevers, and rheumatism, and every thing disagreeable, had +commenced. Still the day was delightful after ten o'clock, and the +weather as clear as ever. + +Morton had seen these indications of the approach of wet weather with no +small anxiety; he knew full well that the governor and his family would +pass the rainy season at Tepic, a city about ninety miles from the +coast, or at some of the other large towns, in the more elevated and +healthy regions inland. With Captain Hazard's permission, he hastened to +the town, and to Juanita's house, but Isabella was not to be seen. After +waiting for some time, a little girl brought him a short note, simply +saying that she would see him in the evening, but could not before. With +this promise he was obliged to content himself, and rode slowly back to +the Porte. He was punctually on shore again at sunset, and once more +hastened to town, having hired another horse, and directed his boat's +crew not to go away from the quay. Having secured his horses at a +certain place near the zig-zag descent towards the harbor already +mentioned, he passed into the plaza, and was struck with consternation +and despair, at seeing assembled before Don Gaspar's door, horses and +mules in abundance, caparisoned for a journey. In fact, there was +indisputable proof that the family were, in military parlance, on the +route. + +He hastened to the good dame Juanita's, and, in a few minutes, Isabella +entered the room, and, throwing off, in her distress, all unnecessary +reserve, threw herself weeping into his arms. + +"All is over, dear Charles, all is lost--I set out to-night for Tepic, +and we shall never meet again but in heaven." + +"All is _not_ lost, my own Isabella; every thing is in readiness--fly +then with me--while your family are in confusion you will not +immediately be missed, and, before an hour passes, you shall be safe on +board." + +"No, no; I dare not, I cannot." + +To all his entreaties she seemed deaf, positively refusing to consent to +escape with him; but whether from fear of being overtaken, or from +maidenly timidity, it would be, perhaps, difficult to decide. At last, +Morton, who was nearly beside himself with disappointment and vexation, +relapsed into a short and stupified silence. + +"Isabella," said he, at length, and with composure that startled her, +"reflect for one moment upon your situation; you know your uncle's +temper; you know he is not a man that will easily give up any of his +plans--this is your only chance for escape from the fate you dread; do +not then reject it." + +She only answered with tears, and continued to repeat, as if +mechanically, "I dare not; no, no, I cannot." Morton was silent a few +moments, when a sudden ray of hope enlivened his gloomy reverie. + +"Hear me, dearest; there is one, and only one, chance left yet. If your +uncle urges you to marry, entreat him for one year's delay. Before that +time expires, I trust to be here again. Vessels are constantly fitting +out from the United States to this part of the world--if such a thing +can be effected by mere human agency, I will be on board one of them, if +not, I both can and will purchase and fit out a vessel myself. Promise +me then, my love, that you will use all possible means to defer any +matrimonial schemes your uncle may form for at least two years. But I +trust, if my life and health are spared, that, before half that time has +expired, I shall be here, to claim your first promise." + +"I will, I will, dear Charles; I will not deceive you. I know my uncle +loves me, and will grant me that delay. And now we must part; I shall be +missed, and I dare not stay a moment longer. For heaven's sake, keep out +of sight of--you can guess who I mean." + +A parting scene between two lovers had always better be left to the +imagination of the readers; because the author, unless he is gifted with +the power of a Scott, a James, an Edgeworth, or a Sedgwick, is sure to +disappoint the reader, and himself besides. My reader must therefore +draw the picture, and color it, to his or her own peculiar taste, and +fancy an interchange of kisses, locks of hair, rings, crooked sixpences, +garters, or any thing else that constitutes circulating medium or +_stock_ in Love's exchange market. + +The Orion had dropped out to the roads, and, with her anchor a short +stay-peak, her topsails sheeted home but not hoisted, and her whole crew +on deck, waited only for her first officer. Between nine and ten o'clock +the sound of approaching oars was heard, but in a moment the practised +ears of Captain Hazard and his second officer perceived that the +advancing boat pulled very leisurely. + +"Poor Charlie is coming off empty-handed," said Coffin. + +"Yes, I was afraid the bird had flown, or the enemy was alarmed. I am +sorry for it from my very heart, for he will be low spirited all the +passage home." + +"Well, I aint so sure about that--I've always found salt water a sartain +cure for love." + +"I dare say you have, Mr. Coffin; but love is like strong grog, it +operates differently upon different constitutions and dispositions." + +"Well, I s'pose that's pretty nigh the case. A good, stiff glass of +grog, in a cold, rainy night, makes me feel as bright as a new dollar +for a while, but then it soon passes off." + +"I am afraid poor Morton's love is too deep-seated to be worked off by +salt water or absence. But here comes the boat--hail her, Mr. Coffin." + +"Boat ahoy!" + +"O-ri-on." + +"Are you alone, Mr. Morton?" said the captain in a low voice, as that +gentleman came over the side. + +"Yes, sir, but not without hopes another time." + +The two officers then descended to the cabin, and Morton explained the +cause of his failure, and expressed his determination to make another +attempt as soon as possible after his arrival in New England. Captain +Hazard insisted upon his turning in immediately, to recover from the +fatigue and anxiety he had undergone during the day, and to his +remonstrances laughingly observed that he was not in a proper state of +mind to be trusted with the charge of a night-watch, and that Robinson, +the oldest boat-steerer, should take his place. Coffin earnestly +recommended a glass of hot punch, as "composing to the nerves;" but the +patient declined, though he permitted Captain Hazard to qualify a +tumbler of warm wine and water with thirty drops of laudanum. + +The topsails were now hoisted aloft, the topgallant-sails set, and the +anchor weighed; and, with a fresh breeze off the land, the first officer +sound asleep and dreaming of "the girl he left behind him," a press of +sail, and the starboard watch under the charge of Mr. Coffin, spinning +tough yarns on the forecastle and calculating the probable amount of +their voyage, the stout Orion left the Bay of St. Blas at the rate of +eleven geographical miles per hour. + +[Footnote 3: Pulparia, a small shop, generally pronounced +_pulparee_.--_Diabolus Typographicus._] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + _Alexander._--They say he is a very man _per se_, And stands alone. + + _Cressida._--So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no + legs. + TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. + + +Charles Morton, whom we have somewhat abruptly introduced to our +readers, and exhibited for two or three chapters, without much +explanation, was the only surviving child of a wealthy merchant in one +of the sea-ports in the southern part of Massachusetts. He had received +a liberal education, as a collegiate course of studies is at present, +and in many instances most absurdly, called. Morton could, however, lay +a just claim to be called liberally educated. He went to college without +contemplating to pursue either of the three learned professions, but +merely to acquire a more intimate acquaintance with the classics, +history, belles lettres, and mathematics, than it was then supposed he +could obtain elsewhere. People begin to think differently at the present +period, and have a faint sort of notion that a boy can become qualified +for the every day duties of life, or for practice in the three +professions, without having received a diploma from a college, +exclusively controlled in all its attitudes and relations by one +particular sect of religion, or passing four years of "toil and trouble" +in another university, where he is kept wallowing and smothering in the +darkness of metaphysics or the more abstruse and _higher_! branches of +mathematics; both sciences as utterly useless to him in any situation of +life as a knowledge of the precise language that the devil tempted Eve +in, and which some ecclesiastical writers have laboured to prove was +High Dutch. I have been several times to different parts of the East +Indies, and on more than one voyage have kept a reckoning out and home, +assisted in taking lunar observations and those for determining the time +and variation of the compass, and without knowing any more of algebra, +fluxions, or conic sections, than a dog knows about his father. + +After Morton had had the sacred A. B. "tailed on" to his name at a grand +sanhedrim of solemn blacked-gowned fools, sagely called a +_commencement_, because a youngster there _finishes_ his studies, he +felt a strong desire to visit "the round world and them that dwell +therein," and, like many New England youth, not only then but within my +own observation and time, and before the signature of the august +"praeses" was dry on his sheep-skin diploma, was entered as an under +graduate in a college of a somewhat different description--the +forecastle of a large brig bound on a trading voyage up the +Mediterranean--a school not one whit inferior to old Harvard itself for +morality, and one where a man, with his eyes and ears open, might +acquire information fifty times more valuable than any that could be +drilled into him at any learned seminary whatever--a knowledge, namely, +of the world and of human nature. + +This habit, if it can be called one, of exchanging the quiet of a +college room for the bustle and privations of a sea-life, is not near so +prevalent now as it was several years since; and yet I have known many +instances, and have repeatedly met, in merchantmen and men of war, men +who have received a collegiate education, and have known one case, on +board of an English line-of-battle ship, the Superb, of a dissenting +minister, a foretopman, who could clear away a foul topsail-clewline, or +explain an obscure passage in Scripture, with equal facility and +address, and was both a smart seaman and a smart preacher: + + "As some rats, of amphibious nature, + Are either for the land or water." + +It is a pity our professional men do not travel more, especially +clergymen, who, though generally learned men, are not deep in the +knowledge of their own species. Of course I do not apply this remark to +the Methodist clergy; as their vagabond life makes them but too well +acquainted with the weaknesses of one portion of the human race, while +the alarming and arbitrary dominion they thereby acquire over the minds, +bodies, and estates of both sexes, is beautifully illustrated in the +trial, not many years since, of a reverend gentleman of oil of tansy +and hay-stack celebrity. + +Morton's first voyage was rather a long one, but it introduced him to +the most interesting portion of the world, the nations bordering upon +the Mediterranean, while his knowledge of the Latin language was of no +small advantage to him in acquiring a knowledge of the Spanish and +Italian--an advantage that he certainly did not think of, when he was +plodding through Virgil and Horace, Cicero and Tacitus. He returned from +his first voyage a thorough practical seaman, and more than tolerably +acquainted with European languages. He rose in his profession, and might +at the time we introduced him have commanded a ship; but a sudden desire +to go at least one whaling voyage seized him, and a whaling he +accordingly went. In person Morton was above the middling height, some +inches above it, in short he had attained the altitude of five feet +eight inches--my own height to a fraction. Like most young men born in +New England, and who choose a seafaring life, his frame had acquired a +robustness and solidity, his countenance a healthy brown, his chest a +depth, and his shoulders a breadth, that are each and all +considered--and with justice--by the present generation, as irrefragable +proofs and marks of vulgarity. But folks thought otherwise thirty years +since, and, however incredible it may appear, there are actually now in +existence a great many painters, sculptors, anatomists, and perhaps as +many as a dozen women, who persist in thinking that a human being looks +much better as God made him, after his own image, than as the tailor +makes him, after no image in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or +in the waters under the earth. Forty years since, ladies did not by +tight lacing crush and obliterate all symptoms of fulness in the front +of the bust, nor did gentlemen stuff and pad their clothes till they +resemble so many wet-nurses in coats and breeches. + +It was the established rule with novel-writers, and that until very +lately, to represent their heroes as tall grenadier-looking fellows, +never _under_ six feet, and as much above as they dared to go, and keep +within credible bounds. "Tall and slightly but elegantly formed," was +the only approved recipe for making a hero. So that a black snake +walking erect upon his tail, provided he had two of them, or an +old-fashioned pair of kitchen tongs, with a face hammered out upon the +knob by the blacksmith, would convey a tolerably correct idea of the +proportions of the Beverleys, and Mortimers, and Hargraves, of a certain +class of novels. Sir Walter Scott, Mr. James, and most of the best +writers, have disbanded this formidable regiment of thread-paper giants, +and we now see courage, manly beauty, talents, wit, and eloquence, +reduced to a peace-establishment size, instead of those long-splice +scoundrels, that used to go striding about our imaginations, like Jack +the giant-killer in his seven-league boots, kicking the shins and +treading on the toes of every common sized idea that came in their way. + +It was also considered indispensably necessary, that the heroine should +be "as long as the moral law," and accordingly we heard of nothing but +"her tall and graceful figure," "her majestic and commanding height," +&c. &c. Let those who prefer tall women take them; for my part, I wish +to have nothing to say to such Anakim in petticoats: conceive the +embarrassment and confusion of a common sized bridegroom compelled, +before a room-full of company, to request his Titan of a bride to be +seated, that he might greet her with the holy kiss of wedded love! On +the other hand, it was by no means unusual to represent the heroine as a +mere pigmy; so that the lovers whose destinies we were interested in, +might be represented by the following lines from an old sea-song, which, +for the benefit of musical readers I beg leave to observe, is generally +"said or sung" to the tune of "The Bold Dragoons:" + + "He looked like a pole-topgallant-mast, + She like a holy-stone." + +Thank Heaven! the taste for this species of writing has "had its day," +and we have something better in the place of it. Bulwer has indeed tried +very hard to compel the public to admire murderers and highwaymen, and +our own dear, darling Cooper, the American Walter Scott, has held up for +admiration and imitation sundry cut-throats, hangmen, pirates, thieves, +squatters, and other scoundrels of different degrees, showing his +partiality and fellow-feeling for the kennel; and, if he had not at +last, as we say at sea, "blown his blast, and given the devil his horn," +would have managed to set the whole female portion of the +romance-reading community to whimpering and blowing their noses over the +sorrows of Tardee and Gibbs--the wholesale pirates and murderers, the +loves of Mina--the poisoner, the _trials_ of Malbone Briggs--the +counterfeiter, or the buffetings in the flesh that Satan was permitted +to bestow upon the old Adam of that god-fearing saint, Ephraim K. Avery. + +The hero of a novel of the by-gone class was always and _ex officio_ a +duellist; and though the best English writers err against morality and +religion in following this absurd track, it may be urged in extenuation +of their offence, that duelling is generally considered in Europe as +part of a gentleman's education and accomplishments, and in this country +to refuse a challenge brands a man with everlasting infamy, though the +crime is held in the most profound speculative abhorrence, and every +state has a whole host of theoretical punishments, never inflicted, for +the violation of its equally theoretical laws, that are daily evaded, +outquibbled, or broken, with impunity. + +Morton's countenance we have taken the liberty to describe elsewhere. +His disposition was naturally cheerful and mild, his temper even, and +not easily provoked. Although somewhat inclined to taciturnity, yet +when drawn out to converse upon any subject he was acquainted with, he +was naturally fluent, and in his language pure and correct. He was a +universal favorite with the youth of both sexes in his native town, and, +during the intervals between his voyages, was always in demand when a +Thanksgiving ball was contemplated, or a sleigh-ride, or a "frolic," as +all such parties of pleasure were and still are called in New England. +At sea he was always beloved, by both officers and seamen, for his +nautical skill and good-nature. Notwithstanding the confinement that his +duties made unavoidable, he had managed to make himself acquainted with +men and manners, and, during the many leisure hours that those engaged +in the whale-fishery always find, he had amused himself with +drawing--for which he possessed a natural talent, reading, and keeping a +sort of memorandum of different occurrences and his reflections upon the +habits of the different nations he visited,--and was, in short, one of +those somewhat rare but still existing prodigies, a well educated, well +informed gentleman with a hard hand and short jacket, many individuals +of which nearly extinct species of animals I have had the singular good +fortune to fall in with during my voyage through life. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo--without his roe, like a dried + herring. O flesh, flesh! how art thou fishified! + + ROMEO AND JULIET. + + +Upon his return to his dear native town, Morton was received by his +father with his usual quiet affection; for old Mr. Morton was one of +that nearly obsolete school of parents, husbands, and members of +society, that do not think their duties in either relation require any +sounding of trumpets, and who are of opinion that those who feel most +deeply and sincerely religion, Christian charity, or human affections, +are generally people who seldom make any parade of either. This sect +seems to be very nearly extinct, or at least their leading principles, I +have been told, are exploded from the creeds of modern saints; but as my +acquaintance with modern saints is, thank God, very limited, I cannot +vouch for the fact. + +It was not long after Morton's return, when the young people of his own +age and standing began to perceive an alteration in his manners, and +that he, who was a leader in their gay parties, was now a moping, +stupid, silent, dull creature, without any of his former animation and +gaiety. The young ladies took it for granted that he was in love; and +as it was evident that he was not in love with any of them, why of +course some nymph in the Pacific had stolen his heart; and as, moreover, +they had no idea of the existence in that remote and unknown quarter of +creation of any females more fascinating than the amphibious and +lascivious damsels of the Sandwich Islands, (to convert whom from the +error of their ways, more missionaries have been sent out, or +volunteered their services, than to all the rest of the "poor ignorant +heathen" put together,) or the ladies of the North West Coast, who smell +too strong of train-oil to comprehend the truths of Christianity, or +rather of Calvanism, which is altogether another affair, and who are in +consequence left in their original and antediluvian darkness. + +Impressed with this idea, and feeling both grieved and mortified that so +excellent a young gentleman as Charles Morton should give himself up to +such an absurd and, in their estimation, unnatural passion, the young +ladies of New Bedford determined to tease him out of it; much upon the +same principle as the Roman emperors endeavored to suppress the +Christian religion by exposing its professors to wild beasts: the wild +beasts grew fat upon Christians, and Christianity grew fat and strong +upon persecution. Perhaps if the diademed tyrants had treated it with +indifference, the effects would have been otherwise. + +Whenever poor Morton was met in company, he was always the object of +ridicule to these lively and well-meaning young ladies. + +"Pray, Charles, do tell us something about this lady-love of yours; +what's her complexion?" + +"How much train-oil does she drink in the course of a day?" said +another. + +"Or how much raw shark serves her for a meal?" asked a third. + +"Does she wear a spritsail-yard through the gristle of her nose?" said a +fourth. + +"Or a brass ring in her under lip?" said a fifth. + +"Is she tattooed on both cheeks, or only on one?" said a sixth. + +Such was the peculiar style of banter to which he was sure to be +subjected, whenever he went into company; and in a short time he +abstained from visits, and devoted his time to perfecting himself in his +nautical studies, and making diligent inquiries after vessels bound +round Cape Horn. If ever you noticed it, madam, a man in love does not +relish jokes at the expense of his idol. "Ne lude cum sacris," +ecclesiastically rendered, signifies, do not make fun of the clergy; but +among lovers it means, do not speak of my love with levity or contempt. +I remember when I was in love for the third or fourth time--I was then +studying trigonometry and navigation--my passion being unable to expend +itself in sonnets to my mistress's eyebrow, I gave way to geometrical +flights of fancy, and took the altitude of every apple-tree and +well-pole in the neighborhood, and made my advances to _her_ upon the +principles of traverse sailing. + +Nor was old Mr. Morton unconscious of the great alteration in his son's +behaviour while at home, so unlike any thing he had ever observed before +in him, and he saw the change with no small pain. + +"The poor boy cannot have fallen in love," said the senior to himself; +"there is nothing more amiable than a copper-colored squaw, beyond Cape +Horn." + +One Saturday evening, the old man, being comfortably installed in his +leather-cushioned arm-chair, with his pipe and pitcher of cider (for +merchants, forty years since, drank cider at a dollar the barrel, +instead of London particular Madeira at five dollars the gallon, and the +consequences were--no matter what), commenced the conversation: + +"Ahem! well, Charles, my son, do you intend going to sea again, or would +you prefer commencing business ashore? You are now at the age when most +young men think of settling down for life. Let's see--you are +five-and-twenty, are you not?" + +"Five-and-twenty next month, father." + +"Aye, true; well, it's strange, now I can never recollect your age +without looking into the bible there. I recollect, now, it was so stormy +that we did not dare to carry you to the meeting-house, and so Parson +Fales christened you in this very room." + +"I wish," said Charles, speaking with difficulty, "I wish, my dear sir, +to make one more voyage round the Cape as soon as possible, and then I +don't care if I never see a ship again." + +"Well, that's strange enough; why, what have you seen in that part of +the world so very enticing?" + +"Enticing, indeed!" said the young man, springing from his chair, and +hurrying across the room in agitation; "something that I must possess, +or die!" + +"Why, what a plague--why, what's got into the boy?" said the old +gentleman, dashing down his pipe; "you haven't got be-devilled after +those island girls, like a young fellow that I knew from Boston, who got +so bewitched after the copper-skinned, amphibious jades, that his father +was finally obliged to locate him there, as a sort of agent." + +"O! no, no, no! she is as white as my own mother, well born, well +educated, and a Protestant," said the son, hurrying his words upon each +other; for he felt that the ice was broken, and saw the old gentleman's +countenance lengthening fast; "oh, father, if you could but see her--if +you but knew her--" + +"Hum," quoth pa, "I dare say that sixty and twenty-five would agree to a +charm on such a subject; but pray, how the deuce came this well born, +well educated, white, protestant damsel in the Pacific, where the devil +himself would never dream of looking for such a phenomenon?" + +"It is a long story," said Charles. + +"If that's the case," said the senior Mr. Morton, "you had better step +down cellar, and draw another mug of cider." + +So saying, he replenished his pipe, and disposed himself in an attitude +of calm resignation. As our readers are already acquainted with the +history of the rise and progress of young Morton's love, we shall say no +more of his narrative than that towards the close of it, his father was +surprised out of his gravity, and ejaculated the word "d--nation!" with +great emphasis, at the same time, flinging his pipe into the fire, and +exclaiming by way of sermon to his short and pithy text, + +"Why the d--l didn't you bring her with you, you foolish boy? +Why, you have no more spunk than a hooked cod-fish! You'll +never see her again, if you make fifty voyages round the cape; +she's in a nunnery by this time, or, what is more likely, +married to that Don What-d'ye-call-him." + +Charles could only repeat his conviction that neither event had taken +place, and his firm reliance upon Isabella's constancy. + +"Fiddle-de-dee! A woman's constancy! I would as soon take Continental +money at par!" was his father's reply. + +Their conversation on this interesting topic was protracted to a late +hour, when they retired, the old gentleman to--sleep as sound as usual, +and Charles to yield himself most unreservedly to the illusions of +sanguine, youthful hope and love--that love that one never has _very_ +severely but once in his life; for love is like a squall at sea; the +inexperienced landsman sees nothing alarming in the aspect of the +heavens, and is both astonished and vexed at the bustle and hurry, the +"thunder of the captain and the shouting;" but when it comes "butt-eend +foremost," he suffers a thousand times more from his fears than the +oldest sailors. After one has become acquainted with the disorder, he +can distinguish its premonitory symptoms, and crush it in the bud, or +let it run on to a matrimonial crisis. For my own part, I can always +ascertain, at its first accession, whether it is about to assume a +chronic form, or pass off with a few acute attacks. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + O for a horse with wings! + + CYMBELINE. + + +Morton's low spirits and anxiety, on his return home, arose entirely +from his having ascertained that there was no vessel then fitting out +for the Pacific, except whalemen; and as their route always depends upon +circumstances, and can never be calculated beforehand with any degree of +certainty, he declined several advantageous offers in them. A few days +after the eclaircissement with his father, he learned to his +inexpressible joy, that there was a ship fitting out at Salem for what +was in those days somewhat facetiously denominated a "trading voyage;" +that is, an exclusively smuggling one. + +To Salem, then, he hastened, furnished with most ample and satisfactory +letters of introduction and recommendation. He waited upon the owners of +the ship, and was by them referred to Captain Slowly, then on board. At +the very first glimpse of this gentleman, he felt convinced that there +was no chance for a situation on board. Captain Slowly was one of those +mahogany-faced, moderate, slow-moving, slow-speaking, slow-eating +people, that one occasionally meets with in New England, who are the +very reverse of Yankee inquisitiveness, and never answer the most +ordinary question, not even "What o'clock is it?" in less than half an +hour; men who, in short, as they never ask any questions themselves, +think it not worth their while to answer any. We have been several times +horrified by such people, and our fingers have always itched to knock +them down. + +"Good morning, Captain Slowly," said our friend Morton. + +The captain, hearing himself addressed, went on very deliberately with +the examination of a jib-sheet block that he held in his hand, turning +it over and over, and spinning the sheave round with his finger, much +after the manner of a monkey, with any object he does not +understand--as, for instance, a nut that he cannot crack--and at last +replied, + +"Morning." + +"I understand," said Morton, almost mad with impatience, "that you are +in want of a first officer; or at least, so says Mr.----." + +Captain Slowly, having cast the stops off a coil of running rigging, the +main-top-gallant clewline, that lay at his feet, and fathomed it from +one end to the other, examining all the chafed places with great +attention, answered with, "Was you wanting to go out in the ship?" + +"Yes sir," said Morton, who saw what kind of a dead-and-alive animal he +had to deal with, and was determined to have an answer from him, if he +beat it out with his fists; and though his heart revolted at the bare +thoughts of passing at least a year in the same ship with such a stupid +creature, yet it seemed to be his only chance for reaching the coast of +Mexico in season; "yes sir, and the owners have directed me to you; they +know that I am very desirous of going out in the ship, and they approve +very much of my recommendations and certificates. My name is Charles +Morton; I am the son of old General Jonathan Morton, of New Bedford; I +was out last voyage with Captain Isaiah Hazard, of Nantucket, in the +whaling ship Orion; I am perfectly well acquainted with the west coast +of South America, from Baldivia to St. Joseph, and up the Gulf of +California; I am about five-and-twenty years of age, and have been three +voyages as mate of a vessel; for further particulars, I beg leave to +refer you to the papers in my pockets; I am somewhat in a hurry, and +should feel very much obliged if you would let me have your answer as +speedily as possible." + +Captain Slowly, who had never heard an oration of one quarter part the +length addressed to himself before, seemed for a few minutes completely +bewildered. At last, after drawing a prodigious long breath, he +ejaculated, "Well, I declare, I never." + +Morton, having waited a reasonable time to give the man a chance to +recover his scattered faculties, at last asked, "Well, Captain Slowly, +what do you think of it? shall we make a bargain?" + +The captain was now completely startled out of his half existent state, +and began to talk and act like a man of middle earth; that is, he began +to ask questions. + +"Well, let's see; you say you was 'long of old Captain Isaiah Hazard?" + +"Yes; are you acquainted with him?" + +"I've heard tell on him. Let's see, where do you belong?" + +"To New Bedford; are you much acquainted down that way?" + +"Some." + +"Perhaps, then, you may know my father, old General Morton?" + +"I've heard tell on him"----A pause, during which Captain Slowly took a +fresh chew of tobacco, and Morton looked at his watch with great +impatience----"Well, let's see; what kind of a time did you have on't +'long with old Captain Hazard?" + +"Very good." + +"Make a pretty good v'y'ge?" + +"Middling: thirty-two hundred barrels." + +"Well, I declare"--another pause--"well, let's see. Calculate to go +round that way again?" + +"Yes; and that's what I have called to see you about: the owners approve +of me, and have sent me down to you, and I wish you would give me an +answer." + +"Well, I expect I'm supplied with both my officers." + +"I thought that was what you was coming to. Good morning, sir." + +"Won't you step down below, and take a little so'thing?" + +"No, I thank you;" and Morton walked away, cursing him by all his gods. + +After satisfying himself that there was no chance for him in Salem, he +returned to Boston. Lounging about the wharves the next day, he was +attracted towards a fine, large, new ship that was setting up her lower +rigging. He drew near, to examine her more closely. Her guns were lying +on the wharf, as were also her boats and spare spars. From the number of +men employed, and the activity with which their operations were carried +on, it was evident that the ship was to be off as soon as possible. +Morton stepped on her deck: an elderly man, with a fine, open, manly +countenance, expressive of great kindness of disposition and goodness of +heart, was superintending the duty. Morton was about to address him, +thinking to himself, "This is no Captain Slowly," when the senior gave +him a nod, accompanied by that peculiar half audible greeting that +passes between two strangers. + +"You have a noble ship here, sir," said Charles, by way of starting the +conversation. + +"Yes, she is--so, nipper all that; Mr. Walker, you're getting that +mainmast all over to starboard--yes, yes; she's a fine ship, that's +certain. Your countenance seems familiar to me, and yet I can't tell +where 'tis I've seen you." + +"I belong to New Bedford; my name is Morton." + +"Morton! what, old Jonathan Morton's son?" + +"The same, sir." + +"Why, d--n it, man, your father and I were old schoolfellows--and are +you old Jonathan Morton's son?" + +"Yes, sir; I have followed the sea ever since I left college, and am now +looking for a voyage." + +"Well, perhaps we can suit you; times are pretty brisk just now, and you +will not be obliged to look long or far--and are you Jonathan Morton's +son?" + +After a short explanatory conversation, a bargain was made. + +"And when will you be ready to commence duty?" + +"I am ready this moment," was the answer of the impetuous young man. + +"No you are not. Don't be in too big a hurry; take your own time;" and +they parted, mutually pleased with each other; Morton treading upon air, +and very much disposed to build castles and other edifices in that +unquiet element. + +Reader, if thou art a sailor, thou canst understand and appreciate the +pleasure mixed with pain that fills and agitates the heart when thou +hast unexpectedly obtained a voyage to thy liking. It is then that ideas +come thick and fast into the mind, treading upon each other's heels, +and climbing over one another's shoulders; the parting with much-loved +friends; the anticipated delights of the voyage, seen through that +bewitching, multiplying, magnifying glass, the imagination; the pride +and delight that fills a seaman's breast as his eyes run over the +beautiful proportions and lofty spars of his future home; all these +feelings are worth, while they last, an imperial crown. But soon comes +the reality, like Beatrice's "Repentance with his bad legs:" bad +provisions, bad water, and not half enough of either; ignorant and +tyrannical officers; a leaky, bad-steering, dull-sailing ship; the +vexatious and harrassing duty of a merchantman, where the men are +deprived of sufficient sleep, for fear that they should "earn their +wages in idleness," and of a sufficient supply of wholesome food, lest +they should "grow fat and lazy." Such is the theory and practice of most +New-England merchants: it was different forty years since, and the +outfit of the good ship Albatross had an eye to the comforts of the crew +as well as the profits of the owners; for merchants then thought that +the two were inseparable--the march of intellect has proved the reverse. + +Although, as I have already taken occasion to observe, Fortune is +peculiarly hostile to lovers, yet she is sometimes "a good wench," and +so she proved herself, at least for a time. The passage of the Albatross +from the cradle of liberty and aristocracy to Valparaiso was unusually +short, considering that vessels outward bound at that period made a +regular practice of stopping at Rio Janeiro, whether in want of supplies +or not. She was singularly fortunate, likewise, in crossing the "horse +latitudes," not being becalmed there much over a week, a period hardly +long enough to call into proper exercise the Christian virtues of +patience and resignation. + +Her passage into the Pacific was shortened by another fortunate +circumstance: Captain Williams was an adventurous as well as a skillful +seaman, and having a steady breeze from the north-east, he ran boldly +through the Straits of Le Maire, and thus shortened his passage perhaps +by a month; for ships have been known to be four months off Cape Horn +beating to the westward, and after all obliged to bear up and run for +Buenos Ayres for supplies. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Behold + The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, + Bounding between the two moist elements, + Like Perseus' horse. + + TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. + + +It was on a fine Sunday morning, in the month of December, 179-, that +the oblique beams of the sun were reflected back by the snow white +canvass of a stately ship of about six hundred tons, that with a fair +wind, a good breeze, and all sail set, was steadily pursuing her course, +somewhat east of north. She was in, or about, the latitude of eighteen +north, and one hundred and fifteen degrees west of Greenwich; +consequently, she was in the Pacific Ocean, and not far from the west +coast of Mexico. The north-east trade-wind, which is generally almost +due east, was sufficiently _free_ to allow her to carry her starboard +studding-sails, under which she flew gracefully and swiftly on her +appointed course. + +The weather, as usual within the limits of either trade-wind, was +extremely beautiful and mild; the heat, that on shore in the same +latitude would have been excessive, was moderated by the refreshing +breeze. Indeed, it has never been my lot to find such lovely weather in +any other part of this round world, as we meet with through the whole +course of the trade winds. The long, regular swell, so peculiar to that +part of the ocean, gave the noble ship a peculiarly easy, rolling +motion, extremely grateful to a seaman, as the regularity and length of +the swell is a certain indication of a continuance of good weather. As +she lifted her huge bows above the foaming, sparkling wave, her bright +copper, polished by dashing so long and so fast through the water, +flashed in the sunbeams like burnished gold; at the same time, her +temporary and partial elevation above the surface, revealed a sharpness +of model below the water's edge, that at once accounted for the graceful +and majestic swiftness of her motion. The whiteness of her canvass, and +her bright-varnished sides, sufficiently indicated her to be a Yankee, +without the trouble of hoisting the "gridiron." + +Her stern "flared" a great deal; that is, its outline formed a very +acute angle with the horizon, which was the fashion of building ships +forty years since. It was ornamented with a great profusion of carved +work, some of which was hieroglyphical, to a degree that would have +puzzled Champollion; but over the centre were two figures in bas-relief, +that could not well be mistaken, inasmuch as the sword and scales +plainly indicated that the one on the starboard side was Justice, while +the cap on the point of a lance "seemed to fructify" that her companion +was no other than Miss Liberty. + +Liberty goes bare-headed now--our rulers, wisely reflecting that she is +upwards of fifty years old, and has arrived at years of discretion, have +ordered her to leave off her child's cap. There are among us those who +think that the stripping will go further, and that, in a short time, she +will be as bare as Eve. + +The noses of both goddesses had been knocked off shortly after they +condescended to mount guard on the stern of the good ship Albatross, in +consequence of coming into frequent collision with the gunwale of the +jolly-boat, as she ascended and descended to and from her station at the +stern davits. At her quarter davits, on each side, hung one of those +light, swift, and somewhat singularly shaped boats, called whale-boats. +Eight iron nine-pounders on each side, thrust their black muzzles +through their respective ports, and gave her, in spite of her +bright-varnished sides, a warlike appearance. + +The upper part of her cut-water was fashioned into a scroll, like the +volute of an Ionic pillar, forming what is called, by naval architects, +a "billet head;" and which, for its neatness and beauty, is very +generally adopted, both in national vessels and merchantmen. Nor was the +bow without its share of hieroglyphics; on one side were displayed a +bee-hive, a bale of cotton, and a crate of crockery; and on the other, a +globe, an anchor, a quadrant, and a chart partly unrolled. + +Her royals were set flying, a technicality that I shall not attempt to +explain; she had no flying-jib, nor any of those pipe-stem spars that +are got aloft only in port, to make a ship look more like the devil than +she otherwise would, and are always sent down and stored away when she +goes to sea. Ships, forty years since, carried no spars aloft but such +as were stout enough to carry sail upon, in fair weather or +foul--sliding-gunter sky-sail masts, and other useless sticks, were as +much unknown to ship-builders and riggers, as railroads and steam-boats. + +Sitting upon the weather hen-coop, attached to the companion, or entrance +to the cabin, with spectacles on nose, and a well-worn bible on his +knees, sat an elderly man, the commander of the ship. He was tall, and +very strongly built; long exposure to the weather, in every variety of +climate, had bronzed his countenance, and given him an older look than +his real years would have done under other circumstances; but at the +same time, long exposure to the weather had hardened his frame, and +strengthened his constitution, points of some importance forty years +since; so that his chances for a long life were much better than those +of a man of forty, especially one of modern date, who had never allowed +"the winds of heaven to visit his face too roughly." His age was, in +short, about sixty. His countenance, notwithstanding the rude and +ungenteel manner with which the winds and the weather had treated it, +was indicative of much good-nature and benevolence of disposition. He +raised his head from time to time, looked aloft at the sails, +occasionally addressed a word or two to the mate of the watch, who was +walking fore and aft the quarter-deck, and then resumed his reading. + +In the weather mizen-shrouds was a remarkably handsome young man, of +four or five and twenty, busily engaged in hanging out to air his +"go-ashore" clothes; a very common Sunday morning occupation at sea, +when the weather is fine. Apparently the sight of his gay garments had +called up a train of ideas of a very varied and checkered hue, to judge +from the different expressions that flitted across his fine manly +countenance, at one moment shaded with anxiety and doubt, at another +bright with hope and joy. In height he was about five feet eight or nine +inches, strongly and compactly built, but far too stout and athletic, +too broad-shouldered and thin-flanked, to pass muster as an exquisite in +Broadway; as his form, though anatomically perfect, a model for a +statuary, and considered very fine by the ladies of his acquaintance +forty years since, would be altogether out of date at the present day. +His countenance, of an oval form, and shaded by rich, curling, chesnut +hair, from exposure to the weather, had acquired that healthy brown +that ladies do not dislike in a young man's face, though they carefully +eschew any thing that will in reality or imagination produce it in their +own lovely physiognomies. + +It may be a mere old bachelor's whim of mine, but it always has appeared +to me that ladies who have had the advantage of mixing much in society, +and seeing something of human nature, are _not_ peculiarly partial to +that effeminate fairness of complexion that many fashionable gentlemen +are so careful to preserve, when they have it by nature, or, when nature +has been unkind, to obtain by artificial means; so that Dogberry's +axiom, that "to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune," is not +altogether absurd. At any rate, I have seen many a "cherry ripe" lip +curled with an expression of irrepressible scorn when the owner of the +lip was accosted by one of these very fair, delicate-skinned gentlemen. +Girls just let out of a boarding-school generally run mad after these +animals; but ladies who have gone through one or two husband-hunting +campaigns, are not to be taken in by such painted butterflies: they very +wisely conclude that a man who takes such a reverend care of his +complexion worships none but himself, and of course he will have no +devotion to spare to his wife. + +But to return to the gentleman we have left dangling in the starboard +mizzen-rigging of the ship Albatross: his countenance was indeed +somewhat tanned, but his forehead was as clear and white as ivory; its +breadth and openness gave an expression of frankness and candor to his +face,--so that, taken altogether, his physiognomy, though not regularly +perfect, was exceedingly prepossessing. + +The second officer, who was walking the deck, being the officer of the +watch, was also a very good-looking young man, with large black +whiskers, and was two or three years younger than his messmate in the +rigging. His frequent stoppages at the caboose-house, to confer with the +cooks, indicated the second mate, who is always, for some reason or +other, a sort of "Betty," or "cot-quean," as Shakspeare calls it, +continually quiddling about the galley, to the annoyance of the doctor, +as the ship's cook is generally called. + +About the after-hatchway were seated the gunner and sailmaker, both +engaged patching old clothes,--while the old carpenter, like the +captain, was reading the bible,--and the armorer was lying flat on his +back, and singing. A very pretty boy of fourteen, an apprentice to the +captain, was playing, or in sea language "skylarking," with a huge +Newfoundland dog. I might as well complete the _role d'equipage_ of the +good ship Albatross, by observing that Mr. Jonathan Bolton, M.D., the +surgeon of the ship, and Mr. Elnathan Bangs, the supercargo, were +neither of them on deck. Perhaps they were engaged with their +breakfasts, or their toilets, or their devotions, or their studies, +or--in short they were below. + +Just forward of the mainmast were what a painter would call the deeper +shades of the picture, for there the black cook and his equally sable +adjunct, the cook's mate, held their vaporous and dish-washing levee; +while forth from the cloudy sanctuary occasionally pealed a burst of +obstreporous laughter, that the most unpractised hearer might swear came +from the lungs of a negro, without the trouble of invading their +premises for further evidence. Upon either of these culinary worthies, +to use the somewhat hyperbolical language of sailors, "lampblack would +make a white mark." + +I cannot avoid taking occasion to remark here, that sailors, like the +orientals, are exceedingly addicted to the use of tropes and figures of +speech, to similes and metaphors. In fact, if any gentleman was about +compiling a treatise on elocution, I would recommend to him to pass a +year or two on board one of our men of war, where he would daily hear +specimens of eloquence, known and unknown to exclusively terrestrial +orators, whether in the halls of Congress, at a public dinner-table, or +on a stump. There is the _narratio_, or anecdote, or sometimes the _long +yarn_; the _aprosiopesis_, or sudden pause, very powerful when in good +hands; the _apostrophe_, or addressing an absent person as though he was +present; the _obtestatio_ and _invocatio_, two different modes of +invoking the gods celestial or infernal; and lastly, the _simile_, or +comparison, in which sailors are a thousand times more fruitful than +Homer himself. The steward--who came up with the breakfast-dishes, &c., +or "dog-basket," as it is called by them of the forecastle--was a +thought lighter skinned than the cooks. + +The crew were lounging about the forecastle and weather gangway; some +walking fore and aft, with their hands in their jacket pockets, some +washing or mending their clothes, and some stretched out in the sun, +chatting and laughing in utter disregard and carelessness of what +to-morrow might bring forth, and most literally obeying the divine +command, to "take no thought of what they should eat, or what they +should drink, or wherewithal they should be clothed." + +The crew mustered forty-four in number; for forty years since, ships +that traded to the coast of California, or any part of His Catholic +Majesty's American possessions, or to the North West Coast, calculated +upon a brush, either with the guarda-costas or the savages, before their +voyage was up, and accordingly went well manned and armed. + +A group of ten or a dozen were collected around the fore-hatch, where +one of their number sat reading to them the twenty-seventh and +twenty-eighth chapters of Acts--two favorite chapters with seamen +generally, not that they contain any peculiarly glad tidings of great +joy, but because they give a sort of log-book account of almost the only +nautical transactions of moment recorded in holy writ. + +The reader, like all who are so unfortunate as to be persuaded to read +to a company, was perpetually interrupted by some one of his auditors to +ask a question, or make a comment. He had, however, this advantage over +the ill-starred wight who essays to read to a party of ladies, that he +stopped and asked as many questions, and made as many remarks and +comments, as any of his auditors. + +The reader, after a few verses, describing St. Paul's voyage, came to +the eighth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter: "And hardly passing it, +came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens," &c.; when old Tom +Jones, the boatswain, an old English man-of-war's man, who was lying on +his breast across the weather end of the windlass, interrupted: + +"Now, as to all them places you've been reading about, I never heard of +none on 'em before, except Cyprus, and I've been cruising off there in a +frigate; but your Sea lashes and Pump fill ye (Cilicia and Pamphylia), I +never heard on in all my born days; and as for Fairhaven, why every body +knows that's right acrost the river from New Bedford; though how the +d--l they got there so soon I don't see, unless so be Paul worked a +marricle, and it's like enough he did, to let the rest on 'em know what +kind of a chap they'd got for a shipmate." + +"Nevertheless," continued the reader, at the eleventh verse, "the +centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those +things that were spoken by Paul." + +"Well, now I don't see no great harm in that," said one of the audience; +"Paul was nothing but a kind of Methodist parson, goin' about and +preachin' for his vittles and drink, and whatever folks was a mind to +give him; so 'taint likely he knowed any more about a ship than any +other minister." + +"Yes, but you know he was a saint," said the reader, "and could foretell +the weather, aye, a year aforehand." + +"Could he, faith?" said another, "then I wonder he did not make his +eternal fortin making almanacs." + +"But what is a centurion?" asked a third. + +"Centurion?" said old Jones, "why she's a sixty-four gun ship; I've seen +her often enough at Spithead, but I forget now whether she was in the +first of June[4] or not." + +"Then I 'spose she was convoying the craft that Paul was in," observed +another blue-jacket. + +This knotty point being satisfactorily cleared up, the reader proceeded: +"And when the south wind blew softly, supposing they had obtained their +purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete." + +"Now you see," said the boatswain, "just so sure as you have gentle +breezes from the south'ard, you'll have a thundering Levanter at the +back of 'em." + +"Yes, yes," said a tar, "I know that to my sorrow. I was up the Straits +last v'y'ge, 'way up to Smyrna and Zante, arter reasons,[5] and we +ketch'd one of these thundering Levanters, and was druv 'way to h--ll, +away up the Gulf of Venus (Venice); yes, I've been boxing about the Arch +of the Billy Goat[6] 'most too long, not to know a little so'thin' about +the weather there." + +The reader continued: "But not long after, there arose against it a +tempestuous wind." + +"There," said Jones, "didn't I tell you so? I knowed you'd have a real +sneezer in a varse or two." + +"Called Euroclydon," continued the reader, finishing the verse. + +"What! avast there! overhaul that last word again." + +"A tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," repeated the reader. + +"Well, you may call it a Rock-me-down, but I say the regular-built name +on't is Levanter; but then I s'pose them thunderin' printers puts in any +thing they're a mind to." + +The reading proceeded without much more interruption, except that the +honest tars, who had been up the Mediterranean, were not a little +puzzled by the strange names of places, and could not imagine what part +of the world the saint had got into. + +"About midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; +and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a +little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms." + +"Egad, I should think they was drawin' nigh to some country pretty +thunderin' fast too, when they shoalened their water so quick, from +twenty to fifteen faddom." + +"Then fearing lest they should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four +anchors out of the stern, and wished for day." + +"Four anchors out of the starn!" shouted the boatswain, "what the h--was +that for?" + +"Why, you see," said the reader, "they used to bring up by the head or +starn in them days--it didn't make a ropeyarn's odds which--they didn't +know no better." + +"But four anchors out of the starn," continued the man-of-war's man, +"why, d--it, the very first sea would onhung the rudder, if she was +pitching into it, and knock the whole thunderin' starn-frame into +_smithareens_ in a quarter less no time." + +"Now you see," said one of the audience, "I've a notion that the craft +in them days was built with goose starns, like a Dutch galliot." + +"May be," said another, "she had all her anchors stowed aft, to bring +her down by the starn." + +"But four anchors out of the starn!" murmured the still perplexed Tom +Pipes, "I wonder what old Lord Howe, or Admiral Duncan, would have said, +if they'd heard a first leftenant give out such orders in a gale of +wind." + +"Why, there couldn't have been no sailors aboard the hooker, or they +would have let go one anchor first, and if that didn't bring her up, +then another, and so on; but letting all four anchors go at once right +under foot, is what I call a d--d lubberly piece of business, let who +will do it, whether St. Paul or St. Devil, and I don't believe they +could get insurance on the craft in any insurance office in the United +States." + +"Yes they could, and I'll tell you why; if a ship goes ashore with an +anchor on her bows, the owners can't recover no insurance; but if the +skipper will swear that all his anchors were down, and good cables +clinched to 'em, he can get his insurance." + +"Yes, but there's a thunderin' sight of odds betwixt letting go your +anchors in a ship-shape, sea-man-like manner, and bundling 'em all +overboard at once in such a lubberly way as that you was readin' about." + +The reading proceeded, leaving the law question respecting insurance +"open for discussion" at some more appropriate season. Much indignation +was expressed by the round-jacketed audience at the thirty-second +verse: "Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her +fall off." A vast deal of satire was expended upon "the thunderin' +troops," of all classes, periods, and nations, the whole clinched and +concluded by a remark from the boatswain: + +"Aye, sojers, and pigs, and women, is always in the way, or else always +in mischief, aboard a ship, more 'specially in bad weather." + +The reading afterwards progressed without much interruption, except at +the fortieth verse: "They--hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made +toward shore," and then only to remark, "Aye, she was a schooner, or +else a morfredite brig, and they was goin' to beach her; she'd steered +better if they'd sot the foresail too." + +The eleventh verse of the twenty-eighth chapter gave occasion for +question and explanation. + +"And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had +wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux." + +"Sign!" said Tom Pipes, "what does that mean?" + +"Why, her figure-head, I s'pose," said the _questionee_. + +"Yes, but, d--n my buttons, there's two on 'em." + +"Well, I s'pose they fixed 'em as the Dutchmen does De Ruyter and Von +Tromp, put one on the knight-heads and t'other on the rudder-head." + +"Ay, that indeed." + +The reader went on to the fifteenth verse: + +"And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as +far as Appii-forum, and The Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he +thanked God, and took courage." + +"Took courage?" said old Tom; "I don't know who the d--l wouldn't take +courage with three taverns all in sight at once. I wouldn't wish a +better land-fall if I'd been cast away." + +"That there Happy afore 'em must have been a jovious kind of a place," +observed a seaman, "to judge by the name on't; and then them three +taverns so handy--a fellow might shake a foot, and have a comfortable +glass of somethin' whenever he took a notion." + +All further reading and commentary was suddenly put a stop to, by one of +those occurrences that frequently take place at sea, and cause so much +bustle and hurry as is very apt to frighten passengers. The good ship +Albatross was neither thrown on her beam-ends by a sudden squall, for +squalls are not fashionable in the trade-winds, nor did she strike upon +a rock, for there was none sufficiently near the surface; but still, for +a few minutes every thing seemed to be uppermost, and nothing at hand, +like the contents of a lady's travelling trunk. + +One of the crew, who had been for some time lying on his breast on the +weather cat-head, crooning over some interminable "love-song about +murder," suddenly surceased his singing, raised himself up, and cast an +eager and hurried glance ahead of the ship, shouted "Fish ho!" at the +very top of his lungs, sprang from the cat-head, and ran down the +fore-scuttle. In an instant all was commotion and hurry. Captain Williams +threw down his bible with most anti-christian and unorthodox +carelessness, and hurried to the forecastle, shouting, "A bottle of rum +for the first fish;" the premium always offered formerly, though I +believe it is getting out of date now, and not only the first fish, but +all the fish caught, are seized and confiscated "for the benefit of +those whom it may hereafter concern," namely, the "cabin gentry;" the +claims of the captors being waived, set aside, and overruled. The two +mates soon followed their commander, "armed and equipped," the one with +the graves, (a sort of harpoon for taking smaller fish,) and the other +with a large reel of fish-line and hooks, baited with salt pork--the +commentators on the two last chapters of Acts broke up their conference, +leaving St. Paul and the centurion in comfortable quarters at The Three +Taverns; their reader carefully stowing away his bible in the bows of +the long-boat before he joined the groups of fishermen on and about the +bows--the great dog Pomp, so named after the illustrious Roman, Pompey +the Great, and not after the allegorical personage to whom Will +Shakspeare so earnestly recommends physic, came galloping forward and +ascended the heel of the bowsprit, where he stood whining, and yelping, +and wagging his tail, exceedingly delighted with the animation and +excitement of the scene; and looking up, from time to time, in the faces +of those nearest him, with an expression that said, as plain as mere +expression can speak, "Why the plague don't you catch some of them?" +Even those two privileged idlers, the doctor and supercargo, made shift +to get on deck, yawning and stretching themselves. + +In the mean time, one of the most active seamen, who was perched upon +the jib-boom end, fishing with a bait made of a piece of white duck cut +into a "swallow-tail," hauled up a huge albicore, whose struggles had +well nigh thrown him overboard; but a dozen pair of eager hands were +ready, the fish was safely deposited in a bag, and passed on board, and +the bottle of rum was secured to the legal claimant. The sprit-sail +yard, bowsprit, and cat-heads were crowded with fishermen, and in half +an hour there were nearly seventy fine, large fish flouncing and +fluttering their last on the forecastle of the Albatross. + +The cooks at the galley, who had quietly prepared the usual Sunday +dinner, which, forty years since, was generally the same for cabin or +forecastle, namely, flour pudding, called at sea, "duff," and salt beef; +the cooks did by no means contemplate this addition to the ship's bill +of fare with complacency or delight. They foresaw that there would be +fried fish, and broiled fish, and boiled fish, and fish stews, and fish +chowders, and fish sea-pies; in short, there would be no end to the +cooking of fish, till the fish were all eat up. They were not long kept +in suspense on that subject. Mr. Walker, the second officer, approached +their smoky temple-- + +"Doctor, is the beef for the people in the coppers?" + +"Yes, sar, I put 'em in at three bell." + +"Well, take and out with it, and get your coppers ready to make a +chowder for all hands; and you, Peter, come down in the steerage with +me, and I'll give you some pepper and onions, and the rest of the +combustibles." + +"Yes, Massa Walker, I come ereckly. Dam fish! I wish all fish in 'a +world dead; den 'spose 'a want fish, let 'em eat cod-fish and tatoe." + +With this pious ejaculation, which he took care not to give utterance to +till Mr. Walker was out of hearing, he followed that officer down the +after hatchway, while his helpmate, grasping his tormentors, proceeded +to transfer the half-boiled "salt junk" from the coppers to a tub, and +make preparations for a dinner of a more savory and agreeable +description. + +[Footnote 4: June 1st, 1794, Lord Howe's victory over the French fleet, +off Ushant.] + +[Footnote 5: _Quasi_ raisins.--_Printer's Devil_.] + +[Footnote 6: The sailor probably meant the Ionian _Archipelago_; they +generally mistake the word as it stands in the text.--_P. D._] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + All hands! bring ship to anchor, ahoy! + + BOATSWAIN'S MATE. + + +In the meantime Isabella had suffered her full share of persecution. +Shortly after the family had retired from the coast to the vicinity of +the city of Tepic, where Don Gaspar had an estate, he had urged her to +accept Don Gregorio before their return to St. Blas. The tears and +entreaties of the unhappy girl had, however, so far mollified him that +he consented to put it off some time longer. A severe fit of the gout, +during which Isabella attended him with the most assiduous and +unremitting affection, had also operated as a powerful auxiliary to her +wishes. Pressing her affectionately to his bosom one day, the old +governor declared his unwillingness to part with her; and, "upon this +hint she spake," and easily obtained from him a promise not to trouble +her with any matrimonial schemes till she had completed her +twenty-second year, and even then, if she felt disinclined to the holy +state, she should be at liberty to retire to a convent. As she was not +yet twenty-one, she regarded this reprieve as equivalent to a full +release, and awaited anxiously the return of the dry season. It came at +last, and the family returned to St. Blas. + +Several American ships, whalemen and others, visited the port for +supplies, and for the purpose of a little private speculation, with +which the custom-house was not troubled. Dame Juanita's shop, being +rather the largest in St. Blas, and possessing, moreover, the additional +attraction of her own buxom countenance, and that of a pretty daughter +behind the counter, was visited daily by the mates and crews of these +ships; and of them she inquired, by direction of Isabella, concerning +the officers of the Orion, without success for a long time, till at last +the mate of a trader declared that he knew Mr. Morton very well; that +when he saw him last he was engaged fitting out a ship bound round Cape +Horn; and that she was, in all probability, on the coast at that moment, +and would most probably soon visit San Blas. + +This intelligence operated like a cordial upon Isabella's spirits; her +eyes were constantly directed towards the western horizon; every sail +that appeared, caused the utmost trepidation and eager hope; and when +the distant sail proved to be some coasting vessel, or the guarda-costa, +that was prowling about continually, her disappointment was keen and +painful. Her cousins laughed at the perseverance with which she watched +the harbor; and, fearful of exciting suspicions, she afterwards only +looked out upon the blue expanse of ocean when alone. + +At last, one lovely morning, just after the sea-breeze had commenced +blowing, a white speck was seen in the horizon, that rapidly increased +in size, till in two hours it was plain to all eyes that it was a large +ship, and many thought a man of war. Various were the speculations as to +her object, and still more so as to her nation; for coming directly +before the wind, her colors could not be seen. + +As she approached the anchorage, her light sails were taken in and +furled, with a despatch very unlike the manoeuvres of a merchantman, +and which confirmed the opinion of her being a man-of-war. Presently a +flash of red flame and cloud of thick, white smoke issued from her +starboard bow, followed by a corresponding one from the other side, and +repeated alternately, to the number of twenty-one; but the fourth flash +was distinctly visible to those on shore, before the roar of the first +gun came booming over the water, awakening the thousand echoes that +slumbered in the hills and woods about the city. + +The ship, having now reached her intended berth, slowly emerged from her +"sulphurous canopy," that the light breeze had kept wrapped around her, +like a veil; and, clewing up her topsails, gracefully swept round +towards the westward, as if intending to go out to sea again; and, in +the evolution, a large, bright-colored, new American ensign floated upon +the gentle breeze from her mizen gaff. She remained stationary for an +instant, when the anchor was dropped, and the sails furled; and the +machine, that but half an hour before, + + "Walked the waters like a thing of life," + +now lay upon their bosom a dark, motionless, inanimate mass. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + As an owl that in a barn + Sees a mouse creeping in the corn, + Sits still, and shuts his round blue eyes, + As if he slept, until he spies + The little beast within his reach; + Then starts and seizes on the wretch. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The salute of the Albatross was duly returned from the battery, and the +entire _posse_ of idlers in the port, or little village at the +landing-place, which is rather more than two miles from the town of St. +Blas, were collected at the pier to see what manner of men her +whale-boat contained, as she pulled swiftly in towards the shore. About +half way between the ship and the shore the whale boat was met by that +of the harbor-master; the crew of the former tossed their oars out of +the water, and held them upright in token of respect, while, at the same +time, the officer in the stern-sheets arose and raised his hat. This +respectful behavior was by no means lost upon the military dignitary, +who listened with great affability to the stranger's account of +himself--namely, that he was first officer of the ship Albatross, of +Boston, commanded by Captain Israel Williams; that she had put in for +supplies of wood, water, and fresh provisions; that she was bound to +Canton, and sundry other particulars of minor consequence; Mr. Morton +not deeming himself bound in honor or honesty to inform said +harbor-master that it was the intention of the captain and officers to +smuggle certain cases of silks, cloths, and linen on shore without his, +the said harbor-master's, privity or consent. + +As soon as the strange ship had anchored, Don Gaspar mounted his horse +and galloped through the plaza towards the landing-place, at the +imminent risk of his own neck, and compromising the sublunary welfare of +a swarm of children that were basking in the hot sand in utter defiance +of parental authority and of all passengers, bipedal or quadrupedal. Not +long after he had gone, Isabella threw her veil over her head, and +tripped, with a palpitating heart, towards Dame Juanita's house, which +she entered by a back passage well known to herself, and sat down in the +little room behind the shop. In a moment the good dame made her +appearance, her face literally shining with pleasure. + +"I have seen him, senorita! I have seen him and spoken with him." + +"Seen him! seen whom?" gasped Isabella, but blushing rosy red at the +same time. + +"Ah, senorita, you know whom," said Juanita, "that handsome American +that you used to meet here a year ago nearly." + +As the young lady sat with her back towards the shop-door, and was +besides eagerly drinking in all Juanita's news, she did not perceive +that a man had entered the room. A gentle voice that thrilled to her +heart pronounced her name; she turned, uttered a shriek, and fell +fainting into the arms of Morton. + +Excessive joy did, in ancient times and in one or two instances, prove +fatal; but I suspect that the world has grown more wicked, or the human +heart less susceptible, for I doubt whether there is any body now alive +who has ever experienced a sufficient degree of pleasure at once to do +more than agitate the nerves for a few minutes. + +Isabella soon recovered her senses, partly from the effects of cold +water sprinkled upon her face by the tender-hearted Juanita, and perhaps +there might be something reviving in a soft kiss that the young seaman +could not avoid dropping upon her lips as he supported her in his arms. +I have already intimated my incompetency to describe a parting scene +between two lovers, for reasons then specified: a tender meeting is +liable to the same objections. Such things should always be left to the +reader's imagination; for it is ten chances to one if the author's +description pleases any body, not even himself. + +After the first emotions of meeting had subsided, Isabella informed her +lover of her uncle's promise, and that she was free from all persecution +with regard to Don Gregorio. Morton, on the other hand, communicated to +her all that had passed between his father and himself. "So that you +see, dearest Isabella, if you had consented to go home with me as I +urged, we might at this moment be comfortably seated at my father's +fire-side. In the mean time, Captain Williams knows how I am situated, +and will give the most effective assistance to my plans. We shall +probably be detained here for two or three weeks, and I shall have daily +opportunities of seeing you." + +Time flies with lovers, and they had been nearly an hour in +conversation, when Juanita put them in mind of its lapse, and urged the +danger of Isabella's staying away from her uncle's house any longer. +They separated with a thousand promises to meet again. + +In a day or two, Captain Williams had made arrangements for disposing of +the remnant of his cargo, in a quiet way, to certain merchants who are +always and every where to be found, ready and willing to evade the +exactions of the custom-house. + +One branch of the river empties into the north-eastern, part of the bay, +from which the slope up to the plaza on the summit of the hill is +gradual. The point formed by this branch and the bay is covered with a +thick growth of limes and other trees, through which winds a scrambling +sort of path, passable by mules, and but very seldom used. After winding +through the trees and bushes, and up a steep hill, that farther to the +left, or westward, becomes an abrupt precipice of two hundred feet in +height; it emerges in an obscure and narrow street on the eastern side +of the town. + +The Albatross's launch was sent every night, under the command of one or +other of the mates, with a cargo of goods, which were landed near the +termination of the above-mentioned winding path, and loaded upon mules +that were always ready, concealed among the bushes, to be brought out at +an appointed signal from the boat. It would be difficult to select a +place better adapted for the peculiar purpose; unguarded and +unsuspected, nobody had ever dreamed of any smuggling attempt being made +there. + +This plan of landing cargo had been carried on with equal secrecy and +success for many nights, till nearly all was discharged. In the mean +time, information had been conveyed to the commandant, by some person +who had accidentally seen the boat one night engaged in discharging her +precious freight, and the mules loading on the beach. In consequence of +this intelligence, orders had been issued to the officer commanding the +troops at San Blas, to march a strong party to the place, and secure all +merchandize and persons found there. Part of this behest was executed to +the letter; the remainder Jupiter dispersed into thin air. + +Mr. Morton, with six hands in the jolly-boat, came on shore at the usual +time, bringing all the remainder of the cargo, which was hardly enough +to load two mules. Every thing was landed and loaded upon the mules +without interruption, excepting a small package containing silk +handkerchiefs, when suddenly a low whistle was heard in the bushes. + +"What is that?" said Morton, who held the aforesaid package in his +hands. + +"Santa Maria!" exclaimed the muleteers, springing upon their horses, and +putting them and the mules into rapid motion; "vienen los soldados +malditos," the d--d soldiers are coming; the signal was repeated, and in +an instant soldiers rushed from different parts of the adjacent bushes, +and surrounded the whole party. So sudden and complete was the surprise, +that the seamen, though standing in the edge of the water, were +intercepted and made prisoners. Morton, as soon as he perceived that +flight and resistance were equally out of the question, hailed the two +men in the boat that was lying a few yards from the shore, and ordered +them to make the best of their way to the ship--an order that was +acknowledged by the customary "ay, ay, sir," and obeyed by hoisting +their lug-sail, which, filled by a fresh land-breeze, soon carried them +out of danger. He, with the remaining four men, were made prisoners. +Whether the soldiers were not used to acting against cavalry, or thought +the prisoners of more consequence than the merchandise, is doubtful; the +mules and their drivers got off safe, although several shots were fired +at them as soon as their retreat was perceived. + +Ascertaining that there was nothing more to be got on the field of +battle; for it was indeed one, as one of the sailors, feeling somewhat +restive under the tight grasp that the corporal laid upon his collar, +had bestowed upon that humble candidate for military honors a slap in +the face, that caused him, in the Nantucket dialect, to "blow blood;" +the guard took up their line of march through the wood with their five +prisoners. On their melancholy route towards the town, the commanding +officer of the party, mindful of the politeness and attention with which +he had been treated by Mr. Morton, behaved to his prisoners with great +kindness, and endeavored to console this officer by representing that +nothing had been found that would or could be deemed sufficient to +convict them of any attempt to violate the laws of the province; that +the escape of the mules was a favorable circumstance, as they had +carried off whatever might have otherwise appeared as evidence against +them, whether merchandise or men; which last, with the treachery +peculiar to Spaniards, and more universally inherent in the mixed breed +of the colonies, would compound for their own safety by implicating +their employers; that the governor was a gentleman, and a man of kindly +feelings, and that he would undoubtedly pass over what had occurred that +night without the exercise of any greater severity than perhaps the +imposition of a moderate fine; with sundry other and similar topics of +consolation, suggested by kindness and sympathy. But Morton's mind was +too confused and agitated by the events of the evening, to allow him to +make much reply or to pay much attention to the consolations of the +officer; he longed to reach the guard-house, where, in the solitude and +silence of the prison, he might have time and opportunity to arrange his +ideas, and reflect upon his melancholy and apparently hopeless +situation, and correspond, if permitted, with his commander, and with +one other. + +"But no," he thought, after the lovely image of Isabella had presented +itself to his mind, "no, she will not dare to visit me, or exert herself +in my behalf--and why should she? it would but expose her to suspicion, +and me and these poor fellows to greater rigor." + +He knew but little of the strength of woman's love--her devotedness, her +acuteness, and energy and activity, in contriving and executing plans +for the relief or comfort of her loved one in affliction. His four +companions in misfortune, with all that philosophical indifference to +calamity and danger that characterizes seamen, after expending an +incredible number of strange curses and sea jokes upon their captors, +stretched themselves upon the stone floor of the "caliboza," or prison, +and were soon sound asleep; and Morton himself, fatigued in body and +harrassed and bewildered in mind, soon lost all consciousness of his +unhappy situation in deep and prolonged slumber. + +Having lodged his prisoners in the guard-house and given orders that +they should be treated with all kindness, the officer waited upon the +governor, and reported the proceedings of the night. His excellency +looked rather blank at learning that none of the goods had been secured; +but having complimented the officer upon his vigilance and zeal, he +retired to rest, feeling all the pride and self-gratulation of a little +mind, after having done a very little action. He did indeed feel +somewhat anxious as to the effect the intelligence might have upon the +ladies of his household, who had been projecting another visit to the +American ship, being the fourth that had already taken place; but he +finally determined, as the only course left him, to ensconce himself +behind the intrenchments of his dignity, and to merge the urbane +feelings of the hospitable gentleman in the awful gravity of the dog in +office. Besides, he hoped that his vigilance and severity on the present +occasion would be a sweet savor in the nostrils of his august monarch, +and that promotion would follow as an affair of course; and he dropped +asleep, fancying himself Lieutenant-General Don Gaspar de Luna, Knight +of the most noble order of St. Jago de Compostella, and Governor-General +of the island of Cuba or St. Domingo. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers. + + MERCHANT OF VENICE. + + +The old Don, on rising the next morning, found all his womankind +"overwhelmed with grief" in consequence of the news of the capture and +imprisonment of the American seamen, and prepared to assail him with +prayers, petitions, and tears, as soon as he made his appearance. In +vain he tried to assume the governor, and to look and act dignified; he +had not, either in appearance or manner, or even language, so "much of +the Roman" in him, as a certain other potentate who shall be nameless; +the persevering ladies followed him, and gave him no rest; and perhaps, +by their pertinacity, drove him to declare, in his vexation, that it was +his fixed and settled resolve to inflict upon his prisoners the +extremity of the law's indignation. In fact, the tribulation caused in +the governor's family by the unhappy events of the past night, had +reached to an extravagant and general height; for even the wife of his +bosom remonstrated in no very gentle terms against her lord's severity; +so that his poor excellency found the gubernatorial chair as +uncomfortable a seat as though its cushion had been stuffed with pins. +He made good his retreat as quick as possible to his usual place of +official business, or _bureau d'office_, but there new trials awaited +him; for the very first person he saw there, and evidently waiting for +him, was Captain Williams. + +Isabella, in the mean time, had not yet risen; her sleeping thoughts had +been too delightfully occupied with visions of happiness, and her waking +reveries had so engaged her with day-dreams of prospective felicity, +that she was not conscious of the lapse of time. She had just commenced +dressing, with the assistance of a favorite servant, a native Mexican +girl, when her weeping cousins rushed into the chamber in an agony of +grief. With voices choked and interrupted by sobs and tears, it was some +minutes before they could make their poor cousin comprehend the +melancholy truth, with the gratuitous addition that the prisoners were +to be shot the next morning in the plaza, and directly in front of the +house. Having communicated all they knew, and all they had invented, +they retired to spread the intelligence, to collect more, and to remove +the furniture in the front chamber, for the more convenient witnessing +the execution of the next morning. + +Isabella, when left to herself, neither screamed, nor went into +hysterics or tears; she sat still and motionless in the chair, into +which she had sunk when the dreadful truth was made known to her; she +became deadly pale, her temples throbbed, her breathing seemed +oppressed, the light swam before her eyes, she uttered a convulsive sob, +and, to the terror of her faithful and sympathising attendant, fell +senseless upon the floor. The Indian girl, with great presence of mind, +though sorely frightened, dashed water in her face, loosened her +clothes, and practised all those modes of relief, better understood by +ladies than described by me. The unhappy young lady at length recovered, +and, with the assistance of her attendant, threw herself upon the bed, +and gave way to a flood of tears, to the relief caused by which, and her +subsequent repose, we must for a time leave her. + +Captain Williams saluted the governor, as they met, with a countenance +partaking of anger as well as sorrow; and, without much circumlocution, +proceeded to state his business, and interceded most warmly in behalf of +his men in confinement. But the old Don, before whose mind visions of +promotion and honors were floating, was in no humor to grant petitions +of any kind, much less one, the acceding to which would overthrow all +his air-built castles; and he steadily refused to listen to the +warm-hearted old seaman's arguments, urged with all the fervency of +almost paternal affection for both Mr. Morton and his seamen. Unable to +oppose or refute the arguments of Captain Williams, proving the +innocence of the prisoners, or, at least, the veniality of their +offence, if guilty, and the unreasonable disproportion between the crime +and the punishment; wearied by the perseverance of the petitioner, and +convinced, though unwilling to own it, by his arguments;--convinced, +too, that he was making a very ridiculous figure in the eyes of his +officers and several merchants who were present, he did, as all +obstinate and pig-headed people do when they find themselves in the +wrong, and see that they are making themselves contemptible: that is, he +plunged still deeper into the wrong, by giving the good old seaman a +harsh refusal to his prayer. + +At this unexpected and ungentlemanly rebuff, Captain Williams suddenly +became calm and silent, and, a moment after, left the office. Those who +were present thought they saw in the stern, determined expression of his +countenance grounds for apprehension and alarm; having the most +extravagant opinion of the desperate and daring courage of the +Americans, they looked to see the ensuing night signalized by some +desperate attempt on the part of the seaman, to release his companions +from imprisonment. Their apprehensions were confirmed in a space of time +that seemed impossible to have enabled Captain Williams to reach his +ship, by seeing the Albatross, under jib and spanker, slowly standing to +the westward, and again anchoring full half a mile farther out to sea +than before; not, to be sure, out of reach of the guns of the battery, +but at such a distance as to render it extremely problematical whether +_Spanish_ artillerymen would be able to throw a shot within half a mile +of her, especially in a star-light night. + +This movement of the ship alarmed the governor not a little; for he knew +that the guarda-costa was absent on a cruize, and it was doubtful when +she would return, and that there were but thirty soldiers on duty at the +barracks, the rest having recently been drafted into the interior, to +wage war against certain straggling, light-fingered gentry, known in +that part of the world by the general title of "monteneros," or +highlanders, being analogous in their habits and manners, and confused +ideas of _meum_ and _tuum_, to the highland cattle-stealers of Scotland. +In this dilemma, the governor's heart began to relent--he thought that +he was carrying his severity too far. + +On retiring to his house to dinner, he was met by a message from his +niece, requesting to see him in her chamber, being too unwell to meet +the family at noon. Thither his Excellency ascended with reluctant steps +and slow, like a child called from his play to be whipped and sent to +bed. He found his niece reclining upon a sofa, pale, languid, and +evidently much agitated. She rose to receive him with her accustomed +affection, and the old Don seated himself by her side. + +"Isabella, my love, you appear to be distressed; what is the matter, +child?" + +"Dear uncle, my cousin Antonia tells me dreadful news." + +"Dreadful news! what is it, dearest?" "She tells me," said Isabella, +shuddering and gasping for breath, "that these unfortunate Americans are +to be put to death to-morrow morning." + +"Poh, poh! what nonsense! you know as well as I do that the law gives me +no such power." + +"But, dearest uncle, why should they be punished at all? nothing is +proved against them, nothing is found about them that indicates guilty +intentions," for, notwithstanding her indisposition, she had learned all +the facts of the case from her gossip, Juanita, and the officers that +had called in the course of the forenoon, "I have heard all the +particulars, and confess that I see no reason why they deserve +punishment at all." + +"You know nothing at all about the matter, child. They have been seen, +at other times than last night, landing boxes and bales at the same +place." + +"Are you quite sure that it was not some other persons?" + +The governor paid no attention to this question, which he had never +dreamt of asking his informer. + +"Besides, if these are pardoned, other offenders will plead their +innocence, and refer to the case of these men as a precedent. No, +Isabella, I cannot, I dare not do it; they must abide by the +consequences." + +"Then if their lives are to be spared, what is to be done with them?" + +"I shall write to the Viceroy, and keep them confined till I receive his +instructions as to their future destiny." + +"And that," said the young lady, in a faint voice, "will be worse than +death! O think of it, dear, dear uncle." + +"You take too gloomy a view of the case," said Don Gaspar, kissing the +forehead of the lovely suppliant; "the Viceroy may pardon them, but I +dare not--You plead in vain," continued he, as he saw she was about to +speak; "were they my own sons, they should undergo the sentence of the +law for their misconduct." + +Fearing to excite her uncle's suspicions by too great urgency, Isabella +changed her battery-- + +"At least, let them be used kindly--let them have plenty of good food +and wine." + +"Certainly, dearest little niece," said the governor, delighted to find +the most formidable and irresistible of his female assailants so +lukewarm in the cause of the prisoners, "and you shall be their +provider." + +"Me, uncle? well, I own I should wish to visit the prison occasionally, +to see that they are comfortable." + +"You shall whenever you please," said the Don, rising, and going to +Isabella's writing desk; "there, there is an order, signed by my own +hand, that will admit you whenever you please." So saying, he retired. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not. + + ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. + + +A writer, evidently a Frenchman, in the British or some other +Encyclopaedia, under the article "Man," draws a very ingenious contrast +between the two sexes, which is correct enough in its general +principles, but exceedingly erroneous in many very important points. +Speaking of the different behavior of men and women, under the pressure +of grief or calamity, he says, "Woman weeps--man remains silent--woman +is in agony when man weeps--she is in despair when man is in agony." + +Mr. Philosopher, you are a goose. It is obvious that you have drawn your +conclusions from your observations of Frenchmen exclusively, who are +theatrical and affected from the cradle to the grave. + +"Woman weeps while man remains silent."--True; she gives vent to her +feelings by weeping, and her full heart is tranquillized by her tears, +which seem not only to relieve and refresh the swollen and burning eyes +of the body, but to render those of the mind more clear and +penetrating. What, for instance, was the language and sentiment of Mary +Queen of Scots, when Rizzio was murdered in her presence? "I will dry up +my tears," said the high-spirited descendant of the Stuarts, "and think +of revenge." Man's remaining silent is not always an evidence of +fortitude or resignation; it may be stupidity and want of feeling, or +gloom and sulkiness; a disposition to find fault with Divine Providence +for visiting him with affliction. + +"Woman is in agony when man weeps." Absurd! her tears have relieved her +agony. Like the elastic and pliable willow, she has yielded to the storm +of grief, and her buoyant spirit rises comparatively uninjured from the +conflict. + +"Woman is in despair when man is in agony." It is said that the +difference between a fool and a madman is, that the fool draws wrong +conclusions from correct principles, and the madman correct conclusions +from erroneous principles. I leave my readers to judge under which +denomination the author quoted comes. There is but one step in his +climax that approaches the truth, and he has drawn a series of wrong +conclusions from that. The concurrent testimony of a host of writers, +both moralists and historians, goes to establish the fact, that, under +the pressure of remediable misfortunes, women have infinitely greater +acuteness and quickness of perception of means of relief--more +promptness, energy, and courage in carrying them into execution, than +men. "Hope the deceiver" retains possession of the heart of woman long, +long after man has hanged, shot, or drowned himself in despair. + +Isabella was certainly almost overcome by the melancholy intelligence, +when first communicated; but weeping and the repose of the morning had +tranquillized her, and the facts that she had ascertained had given her +fresh courage and hopes. Not daring, however, to urge her uncle too far +at that time, as she saw he was out of humor, she was still determined +not by any means to regard one, nor two, nor twenty refusals as +decisive; but, if he could not be "carried by boarding," to blockade him +into compliance. Her uncle's order for her admittance to the prison, she +determined only to use occasionally, and as circumstances pointed out, +for fear of exciting suspicion; but to reserve it as a sort of sheet +anchor for the perfection of a half-formed scheme that was already +agitating her brain. + +Under pretence of merely ascertaining that the prisoners were supplied +with all the comfort that their situation would admit, but in reality to +communicate with her lover, she visited the prison that very day. She +found the prisoner, who was already heart-sick of the confinement, +independently of its probable termination, walking listlessly up and +down the passage leading to the inner prison, which was both spacious +and airy; for, as before observed, his excellency had so far relented as +to direct that the prisoners, during the day, should be permitted to +enjoy the air. His surprise at seeing her was extreme--not that he +doubted she would make an attempt to see him, but he considered it a +hopeless one. She met him with tranquillity, almost cheerfulness. + +"Thank heaven!" he exclaimed mentally, "there is some hope of once more +snuffing fresh air; that sweet girl would never be so composed unless +she had some plan in her mind for my delivery. Isabella, dearest +Isabella, tell me, for heaven's sake, how have you managed to get into +this place, that every one else is so anxious to keep out of? Has the +old Don dismounted from his high horse? He has been polite enough to +make me a morning call, but I am afraid he does not intend to allow me +to return it. However, as long as he permits you to follow his example, +I hope that I shall be enabled to bear the disappointment with becoming +resignation." + +"Hush, hush! how can you talk so giddily, when you know not what may be +your fate?" + +"Why, hanging is not a favorite Spanish punishment, so I suppose he will +honor me so far as to expend a little powder and shot upon me." + +"O, Charles! Charles! be quiet, for heaven's sake. Tell me, what did my +uncle say?" + +"Say? why, he scolded a good deal, said that I had heretofore behaved +very decently, and that he was very sorry to see me here." + +"He has written to the viceroy, to know what he is to do with you. My +uncle, with all his faults, is an angel of mercy, compared with that +cold-blooded, bigoted, cruel man. I have read somewhere that it is +written over the gates of the infernal regions 'Let all who enter here +leave hope behind.' Let all who fall into the hands of that haughty +nobleman, whether innocent or guilty, leave hope behind too. He is +governed entirely by his priests, and the very circumstance of your +being a Protestant, however harmless, and found in his dominions, would +be sufficient to make you an object of hatred and vengeance." + +"Well, all that may be; but recollect my country will not tamely permit +her sons to be dragged to foreign prisons, without knowing wherefore." + +"You cannot suppose that your country will plunge into a war for your +sakes?" + +"No, no, my love; she would be a fool if she did; but there is a set of +fellows called ambassadors, that often do more with their tongues than +ten thousand good fellows can with their bayonets. But tell me, if you +know, where is the ship? what says the good old Captain Williams to the +scrape?" + +"The ship has moved farther out, and he has been on shore twice to-day +to intercede for you, but without effect, though my uncle has so far +relented as to order you all the comforts that you wish." + +"I should be obliged to him, then, for the comfort of walking out of +prison." + +"When the ship moved out of gunshot," continued Isabella, without +noticing what she thought his artificial gaiety, "there was some +apprehension that Captain Williams intended to make some desperate +attempt to release you; but he has been on shore since, and had an +interview with my uncle, and the alarm has subsided." + +"Well done! that is the best thing I have heard this long time--a whole +garrisoned Spanish town thrown into consternation by a single Yankee +merchantman! upon my word, I shall entertain a more exalted opinion than +ever of Spanish courage." + +Isabella permitted him to indulge his national vanity, when she again +urged that his situation was but little short of desperate, unless he +was speedily relieved from it. + +"I know, I know that my head is in the lion's mouth, and how it is to be +got out I know not. If I could see Captain Williams--perhaps a good +round fine paid to his high mightiness might open these doors." + +"I will write to Captain Williams myself," said the young lady, "perhaps +something of that kind might be done. In the mean time, whenever you +have any wine or other provisions, of which I will see that there shall +be no lack, make a point of sharing it with the guard; and, by all +means," she added, in a lower tone, "see that the sentry is never +forgotten." + +"Ha! oho! I see the whole affair--there are never but five men on duty +here at night." "Rash, hot-headed creature! there will be no occasion +for such madness. Even if you should escape from prison, and reach your +ship in safety, which would be next to impossible----" + +"Well, what?" said Morton, observing that she was silent. She raised her +eyes, swimming in tears. + +"I understand you--dear, dear Isabella, do you think I would leave this +country without you? No, never." + +"Then remain perfectly quiet, attempt nothing, do nothing of yourself. +In the mean time," continued she, rising, "do not abandon yourself +either to hope or despair." + +With these words she left the prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + As cannons shoot the higher pitches + The lower we let down their breeches, + I'll make this low, dejected fate + Advance me to a greater height. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +Captain Williams, immediately upon his landing on the morning after the +events related in the last chapter had taken place, was met at the Port +by a woman of rather ordinary appearance, who put a letter into his +hands, and retired without speaking. The letter was written in a woman's +hand, but without signature, and was as follows: + + "SIR:--A friend of Mr. Morton is making every possible exertion to + deliver him and his companions from imprisonment. That friend + entreats that you would do nothing rashly, or that may give cause + of alarm or suspicion to the governor or garrison, or to any of the + inhabitants. If you will call this evening at the shop of dame + Juanita Gomez, in the plaza of San Blas, a person will meet you + there, and explain more fully the friendly intentions of the + writer." + +The honest seaman, after mature deliberation, came to the conclusion +that the writer of this anonymous epistle could be no other than the +fair Isabella, of whom he had heard Morton speak so often; and he +resolved to attend to its directions most strictly. Accordingly, as a +preliminary step, he thought best to reconnoitre the plaza as soon as +possible, that he might make no unpleasant mistakes in the dusk of +evening. + +While at St. Blas, he had another interview with the governor, and +endeavored to ascertain the intentions of that dignitary with regard to +the destination of his prisoners. The governor, however, seemed to +regard that as a state secret, and declined making any but a very +evasive answer. As some amends for his severity, he condescended to give +Captain Williams full permission to visit the prisoners, of which the +veteran immediately availed himself. The kind-hearted old seaman was +deeply affected, as he held Morton in his arms with all the affection of +a fond father-- + +"That ever I should live to see my old school-fellow Jonathan Morton's +son in such a situation, and not be able to help him,"--were the first +words he was able to articulate. Morton endeavored to calm him, by +repeated assurances that he felt no apprehension; that he had no doubt +that a certain friend was busy in projecting a plan for their +deliverance. It was some time before he was sufficiently composed to +converse. + +"Have you tried the old Don with a few doubloons?" asked Morton. + +"No, d--n him, I never thought of that; I can't get a word of common +sense or common civility out of the old mule." + +"I believe if he had taken the boat-load of goods when he took us, that +he would have been more willing to listen to you." + +"Ah, very like; the old fox missed the goose, and he is venting his +malice upon you in stead. But, my dear boy, I don't exactly know how to +go to work to offer a bribe. Damme, I could land thirty men this blessed +night, and pull this old rookery down, and get you all out that way; but +as for bribery, it is a devilish dirty piece of business, to make the +best of it; besides, I tell you, I don't know how; if I did, I would try +it, as dirty as I think it." + +Morton, could not forbear smiling at the old man's unwillingness to +employ a piece of machinery, at the present day so indispensable in our +government throughout all its branches; he assured him that nothing was +more simple; it was only to wait upon the Don in private, and request +his acceptance of either cash or certain valuable merchandize, that +would be attractive in the sight of the governor. "There are my +silver-mounted pistols, and curious East India dagger, and my rifle, +that all might be thrown out as baits to begin with;"--it was all in +vain; the blunt old seaman still persisted that bribery, or any thing +that approximated it, was but a dirty affair after all; and that, +although he would leave no plan untried to effect the liberation of the +prisoners, there was a moral contamination attached to the mode proposed +that he neither could nor would submit to. + +True to his appointment, Captain Williams, soon after sunset, repaired +to dame Juanita's shop, with the location of which he had previously +made himself acquainted. He was introduced by that worthy old lady into +her back parlor, if a little apartment ten feet square, with a clay +floor and no windows, deserves so dignified, or rather so _comfortable_ +a title; and in half an hour a female, closely veiled, entered the room. +Notwithstanding her disguise, the old seaman had tact enough to perceive +that his companion was young and graceful, or in more modern language, +genteel, while the silvery music of her voice, as she addressed him, +convinced him that she could be no otherwise than beautiful. + +"Are you," said the lady, in a hesitating, tremulous voice, "are you the +commander of the American ship in the bay?" + +"I am; and you, senorita, are the lady who wrote me the note that I +received this morning?" + +"Yes, I--that is, I sent you a note requesting to see you." + +"And you are the generous, devoted, and true friend that takes such a +lively interest in the fate of my friend and officer, and his companions +in prison and misfortune?" + +"I am--I am," replied the lady hurriedly. + +"And you are, in short," continued the commander, rising and +respectfully offering his hand, "you are the lady Isabella de Luna?" + +"I cannot deny it," said she in a faint voice. + +"Then, madam, you see before you one who is acquainted with your story. +Nay, never hang your head for shame; Charles Morton is worth any woman's +love. I am here ready with hand, heart, and head, to second any and +every plan that you may propose, to effect his escape." + +The lady remained silent for a few moments, then placing her small hand +in the broad, hard palm of the old seaman, replied, "I know that I can +put the most implicit confidence in you. I have heard from others--why +should I deny it? Mr. Morton has told me often, that, next to his +father, he regards you with affection and esteem as his dearest and +truest friend." + +"And he shall never be deceived in old Israel Williams, I can tell him +that, nor shall you, my dear young lady." + +"I have but little time to spare," said the young lady, with increasing +trepidation, "and my communication must be brief, as my plan is simple. +To-morrow night, at ten o'clock, Captain Williams, let your swiftest +boat be at the place where Mr. Morton and his companions were taken, and +let her wait there until day-break. It may not be in my power to effect +my object to-morrow night; but let not one nor two disappointments deter +you from repeating the experiment. In the mean time, be on shore +to-morrow as though nothing was in agitation; avoid exciting any +suspicions by either words, looks, or actions; and be assured, that, if +the plan for the rescue of the prisoners fails, it must be from some +accident that can neither be foreseen nor prevented." + +The commander of the Albatross having promised to follow all these +directions to the letter, they separated; he to return to his ship with +a joyful heart, and Isabella to reconnoitre the prison previous to +retiring to her uncle's house. + +She passed the guard-house at a slow pace and at such distance as to +avoid observation, but sufficiently near to ascertain that all the +guard, four in number besides the corporal, were wrapped up in their +cloaks and stretched out sound asleep upon the stone floor of the +guard-room, which was lighted by a large clumsy lamp sufficiently to +allow her to see its interior. The sentry at the door, who was slowly +pacing backwards and forwards with a paper segar in his mouth, was the +only one awake. + +As she bent her steps homeward, she perceived some one approaching her, +in the very direction that she was going, with an uncertain, faltering +footstep that denoted considerable intoxication. To avoid him she turned +to the right with the purpose of making a circuit; but, before she had +gone ten yards with that intention, she perceived that the stranger had +quickened his pace and changed his direction, coming directly towards +her. Exceedingly alarmed, she turned short round and ran, and in a +moment perceived that her pursuer was likewise running, and rapidly +gaining upon her. Fear lent her speed, and with the swiftness of a +hunted deer she flew across the plaza towards an open space, terminated +at its further extremity by the precipitous cliff that the town is built +upon, and which we have mentioned more than once. Her intention was to +turn quickly round the corner of a house that stood within four feet of +the edge of the cliff, and gain another street; or, if there were no +other means of escape, to take refuge in the house of a poor widow, one +of her pensioners, and obtain a guide and protector to her uncle's +house. + +Her pursuer was no other than her self-constituted lover, Don Gregorio. +He had dined that day with a party of officers, and had dipped rather +deeper into the bottle than, to tell the truth, he was often guilty of +doing. He suspected that Isabella was in the habit of visiting the +prison; but as she was generally accompanied, in all her rambles, by one +or both her cousins, he had thought nothing more of the circumstance. +But now he was convinced that she was just returning from, or going to, +a nocturnal appointment with the prisoner Morton, who had always been an +object of his hatred, and in an instant his jealousy was in full +operation. + +The cliff, towards which he was now approaching, was undefended by wall, +fence, or barrier of any kind. My readers have doubtless seen something +similar in their lives; that is, a nuisance that has acquired such a +venerable character from its antiquity, that it seems a species of +sacrilege, a sort of violation of municipal privileges, to remove or +repair it. Such, for instance, in city or country, is a gap in the +street or road, large enough to swallow a brace of elephants at once: +the inhabitants become acquainted with its localities; and, wisely +considering that, as it is _every_ body's business, of course it is +_no_ body's business, to repair it, leave it "open for the inspection of +the public" for a twelvemonth at least; and if any unfortunate stranger +tumbles in and breaks his neck, on a dark night, it is ten chances to +one that the jury of inquest return for a verdict, that "the deceased +came to his death in consequence of intoxication," although he may be +the most abstemious water-drinker that ever the sun shone upon. Such +was, ten or eleven years ago, to my certain knowledge, the cliff of San +Blas. + +Maddened with jealousy, and rendered incapable of commanding his +movements by intoxication, the unhappy Don Gregorio was whirled, by the +impetuosity of his own motion, far over the brow of the hideous +precipice. One dismal yell of mortal agony broke the stillness of night, +and the next moment his body was heard far below, crashing among the +bushes and loose stones at the foot of the cliff. Fainting with horror +at the dreadful sight, though ignorant of the person of the victim, +Isabella sank upon the ground, and it was some minutes before she +recovered sufficiently to rise. When, at length, she was somewhat +restored, she turned towards her uncle's house with feeble steps and +slow, frequently stopping to lean against the walls of the houses; she +tottered into the room where the family were assembled, and sank +senseless upon the floor. Her relatives, exceedingly terrified, +administered restoratives, and conveyed her to her own chamber, where, +when she was somewhat composed, she informed her anxious friends that +she had been pursued by an intoxicated person, and was extremely +terrified, and begged to be left to her repose, which she assured them +was all she required. Having obtained all the information they were +likely to, her kind and inquisitive cousins left her, after compelling +her to swallow a composing medicine. She awoke in the morning perfectly +refreshed; the horrid scene that she had witnessed the night before +seeming rather like a terrifying dream than a mournful reality. + +Before she left her chamber, a man, with his jaws standing ajar with +horror, called upon the governor, and requested to speak with him in +private. He then informed his excellency, that as he was rambling +through the woods at the foot of the precipice, he had found the dead +body of an officer, who had evidently fallen from the cliff above; that +it was so frightfully mangled by the fall, that no vestiges of humanity +were recognizable in the countenance, or in the body; but that, from +the peculiar fashion of the regimentals, he was almost sure that it was +his excellency's aid-du-camp, Don Gregorio Nunez. Alarmed by this +intelligence, the governor despatched a servant to that officer's +quarters, who soon returned with the intelligence that he had not been +there since the morning of the preceding day. Further inquiry among his +brother officers informed him that he had left their company the evening +before about ten o'clock: that he had been drinking freely, rather more +freely than usual; and that they had not seen him since. + +Having commanded the attendance of two or three officers and as many +soldiers, the commandante proceeded to the spot, guided by his first +informant, and was convinced, as soon as he saw the crushed and +mutilated mass, that it was no other than his unhappy officer. Having +given orders for transporting the body to town, he returned to his +family, who, although aware, from his abstracted and pensive manner, +that something had happened to discompose him, forbore to ask any +questions--a line of conduct which, by the way, we would most earnestly +recommend to all wives and daughters. Isabella's mind was too much +occupied with her own thoughts to notice the silence and melancholy of +her uncle; she ate nothing, but her aunt and cousins attributed her want +of appetite to the fright of the preceding evening; as her eyes met +their kind and anxious looks, and she thought of her determination to +quit them forever, she could not restrain her tears; but rising hastily +from the table, she took shelter from observation and questioning in her +own chamber. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + ---- I did compound + A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease + The present powers of life; but in short time, + All offices of nature should again + Do their due functions. + + CYMBELINE. + + +Shortly after the sea-breeze had set in--that is, between eleven and +twelve o'clock--a sail was discovered in the western horizon, standing +in for the land; which sail the commander of the Albatross, in a short +time, made out, with the help of his glass, to be the guarda-costa, to +his no small vexation and disappointment. She stood in, however; but +instead of anchoring as usual, in what may be called the outer harbor, +she ran close in to the landing-place, furled her sails, and then, to +Captain Williams's great relief, sent down her fore-yard, stripped it of +the sail and rigging, and launched it overboard. Two boats, full of men, +were soon seen towing it ashore, the spar having been "sprung" in one of +those sudden and violent "flaws" of wind so peculiar to high and +mountainous coasts. + +All this was extremely gratifying to the commander of the American ship; +in the first place the Venganza (for that was the warlike name of this +redoubtable man-of-war), by lying so far up the harbor, was out of the +line between the Albatross and the point where it was intended to send a +boat that night; and secondly, the absence of so indispensable a spar as +the fore-yard would render pursuit impossible. + +Captain Williams went on shore in the afternoon, and met the old Don, +who treated him with great condescension, and even hinted at the +probability of his making another visit to the Albatross, to which hint +the seaman replied as politely as could be expected. It was nearly night +when he once more entered dame Juanita's shop, from which he took the +liberty to despatch a message to Isabella. She appeared in a few +minutes, and hastily assured him that the prospect of success was +bright, and that nothing existed at that time that threatened to defeat +their plans. + +As soon as he returned to his ship, he made preparations for getting +under way as speedily as possible; the bower anchor was hove up, and the +ship rode by a light kedge, there being then but little wind or tide; +the gaskets were cast off the topsails, and their places supplied with +ropeyarns, which would break as soon as the "bunts," or middle of the +sails, were let fall; the chewlines and other running-rigging were +overhauled; and every other plan for making sail upon the ship as +expeditiously and as silently as possible, was adopted. The crew of the +Albatross performed all these different acts of duty with silence and +alacrity. Although their commander had not communicated his plan to +them, they knew by instinct that something bold and daring was to be +attempted that night for the rescue of their favorite officer, and their +four messmates; and their hopes of a brush with the "Don Degos" were +most keenly excited. They were assembled on the forecastle, holding +"high dispute" and conjecture upon the course about to be pursued. + +"Now if I was the old man," said one of the younger seamen, "I tell you +what I would do. I would jest land as many of us as could be spared, +with cutlasses and boarding-pikes"-- + +"And pistols," interrupted another. + +"No; d--n your pistols; they make too much noise; they're all talk and +no cider; besides, they miss fire half the time; and before you get +ready for another shot, Don Dego has his thundering baggonet right in +your g--ts; and then where are you?" + +"Now you may all of you," said an old seaman, "you may all of you just +pipe belay with your jaw-tackle-falls. Captain Williams knows what he's +about, and you'll know before morning what he's up to. You'd better take +a fool's advice, and catch a cat-nap before you're called away. The +boats a'n't histed up, and when did you ever know 'em in the water after +dark since we've been lying here?" So saying, the veteran disappeared +down the fore-ladder. + +"There goes old Jemmy Bush, starn foremost down the fore-scuttle, like +a land-bear going into his hole." + +"Well," said another smart, active young seaman, the favorite of the +crew; "I shall take old Jemmy's advice, and go and get forty winks in my +hammock. If there's more or less of us sent on this expedition, we +sha'n't be called away till ten or eleven o'clock, when all the Degos +are asleep, and there's nothing awake in the town but fleas and cats." + +The proposition for sleeping prevailed, and the groups on the forecastle +began to disappear, when the voice of the second mate was heard: + +"For'ard there!" + +"Sir, sir," answered half a dozen eager voices at once. + +"Who has the anchor watch?" + +"Bill Thompson and Sam Hughes, sir." + +"Go in the boats alongside, and see that they have their full +complement of oars; and see, too, that the masts and sails are on board +all of them." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"Do you hear that, my sons of brass?" said old Jones, the boatswain, +"that looks as if there was going to be wigs on the green before +morning." + +We must now leave the marine department for awhile, in order to attend +to exclusively terrene concerns. As night closed, Morton could not avoid +feeling extreme anxiety; Isabella had not visited the prison since the +day previous, nor had she sent any message. Doubts the most annoying +possessed his mind--at one time he thought she had been detected in her +schemes for his rescue; then that her courage had failed, and she had +abandoned him to his fate; or that her affection for her relatives had +overcome her love for him. He had partially made known to his four +fellow-prisoners his hopes of relief, cautioning them against sleeping, +but enjoining upon them to keep perfectly quiet. + +It was now past nine o'clock; and, with mingled feelings of +disappointment, grief, and anger, he was just resigning all hopes, when +the sentry at the door challenged. The next moment a person dressed in a +long, loose cloak stood before him, whom he immediately recognized as +his loved Isabella. + +"I have brought you some supper and some wine," said the young lady, +addressing him, as usual upon similar occasions, in Spanish; "I ought to +have come before, but it was impossible." + +So saying, she set her basket upon the stone bench, and, in so doing, +whispered Morton: + +"Every thing is ready; be patient, and be guided by me." + +"But how are you about to manage these fellows? it will take all night +to get them drunk, if that is your plan; for your soldiers, it cannot be +denied, are extremely temperate, and will seldom do me the honor to +empty more than a single bottle among the whole five." + +"Hush, hush; I have a surer way than mere wine." + +As she spoke she drew from her bosom a phial, containing a dark liquid. +Morton started back in horror--(he thought he saw, in the composed and +lovely countenance of the beautiful being before him, the cold-blooded, +deliberate, practised assassin--) + +"Good God! Isabella, is it possible? never, never will I owe my life and +liberty to such abominable, such cowardly means!" + +"Dismiss your suspicions," said Isabella, turning pale and trembling; +"they are unworthy of you, and wholly unmerited by me. Not to save +_your_ life, which I value as I do my own, would I commit mur--the crime +that you suspect. This phial contains a simple opiate, not half so +dangerous or disagreeable as the laudanum and camphor of your ship's +medicine chest. The sleep produced by it is speedy and deep, and lasts +four or five hours." + +Observing that Morton still looked distrustingly, she continued, with +streaming eyes-- + +"Dear Charles, if you doubt me still, I will swallow the whole; its +operation will not take place before I reach home, and will only cause +long, deep sleep; but, in that case, your hopes of escape are cut off +_forever_. To-morrow, or the next day, at farthest, you are to be sent +to the capital"--her tears choked her utterance. + +"Dearest Isabella," said Morton, taking her hands in both his, and +pressing them to his bosom, "forgive my cruel suspicions, but I own you +startled me exceedingly." + +"Leave all to my management, and in half an hour all will be well." + +In the mean time the seamen had "boarded" the basket, and spread its +contents upon the stone bench, that did triple duty as a bed, a seat, +and a table, as occasion required. The soldiers roused themselves at the +gurgling sound of the wine, as it was decanted into cups made of the +large end of an ox's horn, scraped thin, and capable of containing a +pint or more. Isabella dexterously poured the contents of the phial into +a cup, which was filled with wine, and Morton, taking it in his hand, +approached the corporal with a nod of invitation. After holding it to +his lips for some time, as if taking a deep draught, he passed it to the +corporal; that officer, touching his cap _a la militaire_, drank and +passed the horn, according to South American custom, to his comrades. +The prisoners and Isabella watched its circulation with most painful +anxiety, and soon had the felicity of beholding it turned bottom upwards +over the mouth of the sentry at the door. Another bottle was opened, and +poured, unobserved by the soldiers, into another cup, which, being +handed to the sailors, was almost immediately passed back again, "a body +without a soul." Another cup, medicated like the first, was prepared, +and the prisoners, apparently busied with their supper, awaited with +trepidation the effect of the medicine. + +After the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, which seemed as many hours +to the prisoners, the corporal betrayed palpable symptoms of somnolency. +He had seated himself with his back to the wall, and his feet towards a +small fire that was kept burning in the middle of the guard-room every +night, to drive away the moschetoes, and had commenced a song, in a low +voice. The first stanza he managed very respectably; but, before he had +half finished the second, both the air and words seemed strangely +deranged; his head sank upon his breast, and he snored repeatedly, +instead of singing; he made an effort to arouse himself, uttered that +ejaculation common to all ranks and both sexes of Spaniards, but which +is too gross to be written, and, stretching himself at full length upon +the floor, was sound asleep in an instant. His three comrades were not +slow in following his example; wrapped in their _ponchos_, or South +American cloaks, they "took ground" around the fire, and were soon +asleep. + +The sentry at the door, after two or three times stumbling over his own +feet, and as often dropping his musket out of his arms from mere +drowsiness, came into the guard-room to light a segar, which he +eventually accomplished at the imminent risk of pitching head foremost +into the fire. He resumed his station at the door, but was too sleepy +to walk on his post; he seated himself on the stone bench, the butt of +his musket resting upon the ground between his feet, and the muzzle +leaning against his shoulder; the lighted segar dropped from his mouth; +he leaned his head against the door-post, extended his feet and legs, +and in a few seconds his nasal organ, in strains like the nocturnal song +of one of our largest bull-frogs, gave notice that he was "absent +without leave" to the land of Nod. + +Isabella now arose, and, motioning to the prisoners to remain quiet, +tripped backwards and forwards through the guard-room, to ascertain that +the soldiers were asleep. Having satisfied herself on this point, she +beckoned to them to follow her. In passing through the guard-room, +Morton as well as his companions felt a strong inclination to possess +themselves of the arms of the guard, which were piled in one corner. +Their fair guide however entreated them to desist; but one of the +seamen, in attempting, to use his own language, to "unship" one of the +bayonets, made so much noise with the muskets, as alarmed himself as +well as the rest; and the whole party sallied out unarmed. + +Near the door they were met by another person, that alarmed the +prisoners exceedingly; but it proved to be Transita, Isabella's Mexican +servant, loaded with two "sizeable" bundles; for the annals of +elopements, from the earliest ages down to the present day, have not +recorded a single instance of a lady's running away from "cruel +parents" or cross husband without the accompaniment of a sufficient +quantity of baggage; nay, I have heard of one young lady who +accomplished a most perilous descent from her chamber window into the +arms of an expecting lover, and returned for her favorite lap-dog, at +the most imminent risk of detection and close imprisonment at the hands +of her "ugly, old, cross papa." + +Transita, like her mistress, was dressed in boy's clothes, a disguise +that so effectually imposed upon the four sailors, that in a whispered +conversation between them it it was decided that the two "young +gentlemen" were the sons of the merchant to whom the cargo had been +sold. Keeping close to the side of the plaza, the whole party advanced +swiftly and silently without meeting a human being, and turned down the +open space where Don Gregorio had met his horrid fate. As the dreadful +scene rose to Isabella's memory, she could not repress a faint +exclamation of horror, and hurried with increased speed down the narrow +pathway on the edge of the cliff, to escape from the hideous +recollection. Just as they were emerging from their narrow and crooked +path into the street that terminated in the blind passage through the +wood, they were startled by the regular, heavy tread of soldiers, +apparently approaching them. It was a small patrol of a corporal and +three men from the barrack at the water side, but who were not connected +with the guard in the plaza. As they drew nigh, the party stood +perfectly still, except that one of the tars drew forth his jack-knife, +and another picked up a moderate-sized stone, observing in a whisper +that if they came too nigh, he would try which was the hardest, a +Spaniard's scull or that "ground nut," as he designated the stone which +he held in his hand. The soldiers, however, passed on without seeing +them, and in a few seconds their footsteps became inaudible. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + "She is won: we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; + They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar. + + MARMION. + + +The liberated seamen once more pushed forward, no longer guided by +Isabella, who had got as far as her knowledge of the place extended, and +were again, in nautical language, "brought up all standing." A priest, +returning from the death-bed of one of his flock, saw them gliding along +silently and in "Indian file." His head being full of good wine, death, +the devil, &c., and the place enjoying moreover the reputation of being +haunted, his imagination magnified and multiplied the seven fugitives +into a legion of devils, with horns, tails, and fiery breath complete. +Under this impression he began to thunder forth a Latin form of +exorcism: "In nomine sanctae Trinitatis et purissimae Virginis, exorcizo +vos! Apage, Satana! Vade retro, diabole!" &c. &c. in such abominably bad +Latin, that a devil or a ghost of the least classical taste would have +incontinently fled to the Red Sea, without waiting to hear another +syllable of the formula that sent him thither. The bawling of the priest +awoke several of the neighbors, and sundry night-capped heads were +protruded from the windows of the nearest houses; but the proprietors, +catching a glimpse of the objects of the priest's alarm, and not caring +to play bo-peep with the devil, closed and barred their casements, and +betook them to their beads. + +The party glided on in the same swift, silent pace; but the hindmost +sailor, irritated by the continued vociferation of the priest, and +stumbling at that moment over the carcase of a dog that had given up the +ghost a few hours before, seized it by the hind leg, and flung it at the +holy man with such true aim and force, as brought him to the ground. +Luckily the monk swooned away with terror at this unexpected buffeting +in the flesh from Satan, and his noise was consequently stopped. The +next moment the party plunged into the bushy path, and were instantly +lost to the view of the inhabitants, if indeed any were looking after +them. + +Advancing swiftly along the rough path, and losing their way two or +three times, they at length heard the light dash of the surf upon the +sand-beach; but, to their no small alarm, they also plainly heard, from +time to time, the low hum of voices, though their language was not +distinguishable. Fearing the worst, Morton advanced alone to +reconnoitre, notwithstanding Isabella's earnest entreaties not to be +left alone. Moving slowly and cautiously towards the point whence +proceeded the voices, the soft sand rendering his footsteps inaudible, +he approached as near as he durst, and listened for some minutes with +the most fixed attention, to catch a word that would indicate the +character and nation of the speakers, but in vain; and he was on the +point of returning to his friends in despair, when he plainly +distinguished the exclamation, "d----n my eyes," uttered by some one at +no great distance from where he stood. No Sontag or Malibran ever +warbled a note that contained a hundredth part of the sweetness and +music that was comprised in that simple and unsophisticated ejaculation; +it decided in an instant, and beyond all possibility of doubt, who and +what was the speaker. His joy was inconceivable, and he could scarce +refrain from giving vent to it in a loud shout. Returning immediately, +he communicated the joyful intelligence to his friends; and the whole +party, with light hearts and rapid steps, advanced towards the beach. +Just as they stepped from the shade and covert of the bushes, a pistol, +the bright barrel of which glittered in the star-light, was presented to +Morton's breast; and the holder thereof, in a grum voice, commanded him +to "stand!" + +"Heave to, and let's overhaul your papers," continued the speaker, who +was immediately recognized, by the voice, as Jones, the boatswain of the +Albatross. + +"Hush, hush, don't speak so loud; 'tis I, 'tis Morton--Jones, is that +you, my old boy?" + +"God bless you, Mr. Morton, it is you indeed--I thought 'twas a raft of +them thundering sojers bearing down upon us. I've been lying to, under +the lee of this 'ere bush, for this two hours or more, waiting for you." + +The parleying between their "look-out ship," as they called Jones, and +the strangers, attracted the whole party of the Albatross to the spot; +and Morton, to his surprise, found himself and his companions surrounded +by at least thirty well-armed men. His friend Walker, the second mate of +the ship, advanced, and testifying the sincerest affection, welcomed him +once more to liberty and the company of his shipmates. Kind greetings +and hearty welcomes were given by the seamen, in their blunt, +straight-forward way, and not a few jokes were passed upon the four +liberated tars by their light-hearted messmates. + +"I say, Tom Wentworth, how much _grub_ did the Don Degos allow you? a +rat a-piece, or the hind leg of a jackass among the four of you?" + +"Ay," said another, "and Sundays they had a jackass's head stewed in a +lantern, and stuffed with sogers' coats." + +"Yes," said a third, "and green-hide soup three times a week." + +"Seasoned with brick-dust and pig-weeds," said a fourth, "by way of red +pepper and cabbages." + +"Well, never mind what they've had," said old Tom Jones, interposing, +"one thing's sartain, they ha'n't had any steam, that's jist as clear +as mud." + +"You're idle there, old Tom Pipes; we've had as much good wine as we +could lay our sides to. But howsomever, if you've got any white-eye in +that black betty that you're rousing out of your pea-jacket pocket, I +don't much care if I take a drop." + +"Poor children!" said the boatswain, "they've been kept this whole week +in a snug, warm _caliboose_, and they'll catch cold if they're out in +the night air." + +So saying, he offered his junk-bottle of New England to Morton, who +declined it, and it was then passed to his four fellow-prisoners, who +took a long, deliberate, steady aim at the stars through it in +succession. + +By this time the two whale-boats and yawls, that constituted the +flotilla of the shore party, were hauled as close to the beach as the +shoalness of the water would permit, and the embarkation commenced; +Morton carrying the fair Isabella in his arms, and depositing her in the +stern-sheets of the swiftest of the boats, in which he found ample store +of boat-cloaks and pea-jackets to protect her from the night air and +heavy dews. Her attendant, Transita, was about following her mistress, +when Tom Jones, who had no suspicion that there were more than one +"young gentleman" concerned in effecting the escape of his shipmates, +or about taking passage in the ship, laid his huge hand upon her +shoulder, exclaiming, + +"Halloa! shipmate, where are you bound to, if the wind stands?" + +"What are you about there, Jones?" shouted Morton from the boat, +"she--he, I mean, is to go off with us. Take him through the surf." + +"Ay, ay, sir; come, Mr. She--he, just get upon my shoulders, if you +please; come, bear a hand before it snows--there, stow yourself away in +the starn-sheets--there, that's the time of day--shove her bows off, +Sam, and jump aboard--so, pull round your larboard oars--now give way +together." + +Their oars being all muffled, they glided, silently and swiftly, towards +the offing, edging away a little to the south, or farther side of the +bay, to avoid the possibility of observation from the shore. They had +proceeded swiftly for some minutes, and had passed the point on which +the battery stands without speaking a word, when the silence was broken +by Morton,-- + +"Where is the ship, Jones? do you see any thing of her?" + +The boatswain desisted rowing, and, holding his head down as near the +water as possible, looked long and anxiously to the western horizon. + +"I don't see her," said he, "unless that's her, here on our starboard +bow." + +"No, that's the rock." + +By this time the other boats had come up, and all agreed that nothing +could be seen of the ship. After a brief consultation, it was decided +that their safest plan was to continue rowing to the westward, and that +they would be sure of seeing the ship at day-break; whereas if daylight +found them in the bay, they would most assuredly be seen, and chased by +the boats from the shore. + +Isabella, whom most powerful excitement had supported from the prison to +the point of embarkation, had since then, reclining on the stern-sheets +of the boat, and supported by her lover's arms, been in a state of +stupor and silence; her thoughts were in a complete whirl, almost +amounting to delirium; the kind and soothing voice of Morton she +scarcely heard, and she only awoke to consciousness during the short +deliberation just mentioned. In an agony of terror at the doubt and +uncertainty that she heard expressed around her, she uttered the wildest +exclamations, and struggled with Morton and her attendant, who +endeavored in vain to pacify and sooth her. With unspeakable anguish +Morton witnessed, for half an hour, the confusion of her intellects, +till at length she sunk down exhausted, and wept bitterly. At this +moment a voice from the yawl that had gone ahead, shouted, "There she +is!" + +"Where, where?" asked a dozen eager voices. + +"Right ahead." + +Every eye was instantly turned in that direction, and, to their +unutterable joy, they saw, at the distance of about a mile, the light of +a signal-lantern. Every oar was most vigorously plied, and in a few +minutes the headmost boat was greeted with "Boat ahoy!" from Captain +Williams--"Albatross," was the reply, and the boats dashed up to the lee +gangway and fore-chains. + +Isabella, whose buoyant spirit had recovered its spring when she saw the +danger was over, was assisted up the side by her lover and two or three +of the most careful men. As soon as Morton stepped upon deck, he was +caught in the arms of his commander, who was inarticulate from emotion. +Morton, quietly disengaging himself, presented his fair deliverer. The +old seaman folded her in his arms, and kissing her cheek, drew her arm +under his, and conducted her to the cabin, whither they were followed by +Morton. + +Under the superintendence of the second mate and boatswain the boats +were now hoisted up and secured; the ship wore with her head to the +westward, all sails set, and hot coffee, beef, bread, cheese, &c. +provided liberally for the "shore party;" after which the watch was set, +the deck "relieved" by Captain Williams, and the Albatross, with her +white wings expanded, flew rapidly on her course before a fresh easterly +breeze. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Master, let me take you a button hole lower; do you not see, Pompey + is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? you will lose your + reputation. + + LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST. + + +The rising sun the next day beheld the good ship Albatross, under the +impulse of a very gentle breeze, gliding towards the west; the Andes, +over which the sun was darting his levelled beams, were distinctly +visible. The flapping of the topsails against their masts, the pattering +of the reef-points, and the smoothness of the water, indicated an +approaching calm. + +"Go aloft, one of you," said Morton, who was the officer of the morning +watch, "go aloft, and see if you can make out any sail astern of us +under the land." + +The seaman who obeyed this order, after _roosting_ for fifteen or twenty +minutes on the main royal yard, came down and reported that he could see +nothing; but that the sun shone so brightly on the water that, if any +thing was within the range of sight, the reflection of the sunbeams +would render it invisible. Morton could not repress a vague +apprehension that there was some vessel in chace, though it would have +sorely puzzled him to give his whys and wherefores. After having pointed +his glass for the fiftieth time towards the eastern horizon, without +seeing any thing but smooth water and the dim, blue, cloudy-looking +mountains, the man at the wheel notified him that it was "eight bells," +or eight o'clock. Having gone below to compare the watch in the cabin +with the half-hour glass in the binnacle, he returned to the +quarter-deck and called out, + +"Strike the bell eight--call the watch." + +The bell was struck, and one of the watch on deck, after a preliminary +thumping with the large end of a handspike upon the forecastle, +vociferated down the fore scuttle, + +"All the starboard watch, ahoy! Rouse out there, starbowlines--show a +leg or an arm!" + +This last phrase designates the manner in which "turning out" of a +hammock is accomplished, which hammock, a person unacquainted with such +kind of sleeping accommodations, would never dream contained a live man, +until one or the other of the aforementioned limbs was protruded. In a +few minutes the wheel was relieved, and the crew were clustering around +the galley with their tin pots, joking, and laughing, and shouting +"scaldings!" as they hurried forward with their respective allowances of +hot coffee. + +In the mean time the quarter-deck received an accession of company. Mr. +Walker came up the companion-way, gaping and rubbing his eyes, and +carrying his jacket on his arm. With a short "good morning!" to Morton +he threw his jacket upon the hen-coop, proceeded to the lee gangway, +drew a bucket of water, and commenced his morning's ablutions. Captain +Williams next came on deck, and immediately looked round upon the +weather with a troubled and disappointed air, for it was now almost +quite a calm. Mr. Edwards and Dr. Bolton followed him--not that they had +any business on deck, or cared much about leaving the cabin or their +respective state-rooms oftener than was necessary; but it is not, or was +not, in my sea-going days, esteemed genteel for passengers, or any other +"idlers," to stay below while the steward was occupied with the mystery +of arranging the breakfast-table. Lastly, and to the surprise of the +whole company, Isabella, as lovely as the morning, and dressed in the +proper habiliments of her sex, ascended the companion-ladder. She was +greeted with paternal affection by the veteran commander, and with +sparkling eyes and a silent pressure of the hand by Morton. She received +and replied to their congratulations and compliments with crimsoned +cheeks and downcast eyes. The supercargo and doctor, who had, with most +commendable delicacy, kept out of the way the night before, were now +introduced, and after a few minutes of general conversation, the +steward informed Captain Williams that breakfast was ready. + +The whole party, with the exception of Mr. Walker, who was now in his +turn "officer of the deck," accordingly descended to the cabin, where +they found the table covered with coffee and tea, _minus_ milk; cold +salt beef, cut into slices, of a thickness that would horrify a whole +community of fashionable ladies and gentlemen, allowing that so +exceedingly vulgar an article of "provent" as salt beef did not +previously throw them into hysterics as soon as presented to their eyes, +but which slices seemed to have been cut with the prospective intention +of filling up that vacuum that Nature, as far as I am acquainted with +her, seems to abhor more cordially than any other vacuum whatever; that +void space, I mean, that is apt to be found in a healthy human stomach +after a twelve-hour's fast. There was also a broiled chicken for the +express use and behoof of their fair messmate; fried pork and potatoes; +a large dish of fried fish, the produce of a fishing excursion the +afternoon preceding; another of boiled eggs; a third composed of +pilot-bread, soaked in hot water, toasted, and buttered; biscuit, +butter, and cheese. + +Breakfast proceeded much as sea breakfasts generally do--that is to say, +the company ate heartily: even Isabella, who had sufficient excuse for +low spirits and want of appetite, yielded to the demands of hunger the +most unromantic, and, in vulgar language, "spoilt the looks" of the +broiled fowl before her. The meal was drawing to a close, when the +steward came below with information, that Mr. Walker had seen, from the +main topmast head, with his glass, a square-rigged vessel right astern, +and coming up with a fresh breeze. Captain Williams and Morton exchanged +looks of intelligence, but said nothing; their fair passenger, +fortunately, understood not a word of the steward's intelligence; and +the merchant and doctor were of that happy and enviable description of +men, who, when they sit down to a well-furnished table, seem to adopt, +with a slight variation, the sentiment of the poet, + + "Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone, + And let my '_eating_' hours alone," + +The two seamen, however anxious they might feel, finished their +breakfast very composedly, and went on deck without hurry; Morton +recommending to his fair deliverer to remain below for some time. In +half an hour the chace was distinctly visible from the quarter-deck, and +from the peculiar darkness of the water in that direction, it was +evident that she had a good breeze. It was then that conjectures as to +the character of the stranger were numerous, wild, and contradictory; no +one thought for an instant that it was the Venganza, because they had +seen her the day before with her fore-yard down and sent on shore--the +idea that there might possibly be found a spare spar in the dock-yard +that would answer _pro tem_. never, for an instant, presenting itself +to their minds. A few minutes more, however, convinced them that it was +indeed that "terrible ship with a terrible name;" and orders were +immediately given to prepare for action as silently as possible. These +orders were obeyed with joyous alacrity. A feeling of romantic gratitude +to their lovely passenger was accompanied by a most chivalrous +determination to "do or die" in her defence, and these sentiments +pervaded the whole ship's company. Added to this exciting cause was that +natural propensity to strife that Flora Mac Ivor says all men feel when +placed in opposition to each other, or, as Titus Livius Patavinus hath +it, they were "suopte ingenio feroces." + +The clews of the topsails were lashed to the lower yard-arms; the +topsail-yards slung with iron chains; round, grape, and cannister shot +got up from the hold; the boarding-pikes taken down from the racks and +laid at hand; the arm-chests unlocked, and their murderous contents of +muskets, bayonets, pistols, cutlasses, and tomahawks or pole-axes +produced; powder-horns and flasks, for priming the guns, filled and +placed in readiness; rammers, sponges, and priming-wires distributed to +the guns; preventer braces rove, and stoppers for the rigging sent up +into the tops, or placed in different parts of the deck. The carpenter +got ready his shot-plugs and top-maul; the armorer examined the locks of +the fire-arms; the gunner paraded his wads, and opened the magazine +beneath the cabin floor. Morton, to whom Captain Williams had deputed +the charge of the two females, descended to the steerage, attended by +two or three seamen, and hauled all the spare sails out of the +sail-room, with which he formed a small hollow coil in the cable tier. +These sails, being formed into long hard rolls and placed upon the +cables, formed a rampart that, from its non-elasticity, would more +effectually check the progress of a round shot than a greater thickness +of oak plank. + +Having finished the castle, he could not forbear passing into the cabin +to see its future occupant. Isabella received him with a blush and a +smile. + +"What is the meaning of all this noise and bustle overhead?" said she. + +"There is a strange ship in sight," said Morton, after a pause, "and we +are almost sure that she has hostile intentions towards us." Isabella +became pale as marble. "It is, in short, the man-of-war that was in St. +Blas when we left there." + +"Good God!" said the young lady, clasping her hands in agony, "what will +become of us?" + +"Do not allow yourself to be overcome with causeless alarm; we shall, if +possible, run away; but if not, we must resort to certain arguments to +convince her commander and crew of the impropriety and rudeness of their +interfering in an affair that does not concern them." + +"But if we are taken, what will become of you?" + +"I suspect, dearest Isabella, that you will search in vain through the +Albatross to find a single person, man or boy, that is prepared to +admit the probability, nay, even the possibility, of such a conclusion. +We are nominally inferior, but in reality superior, to our antagonist. +In the mean time, I have been preparing a place of safety for you and +Transita, where it is next to impossible that you should be in the way +of danger." + +"But you," said she, looking at him with tearful eyes. + +"My life, my sweet girl, is in the hands of Him that gave it; and to His +watchful care and boundless goodness I cheerfully and confidingly commit +it." + +"But if you are taken--such a thing is at least possible." + +"Such an event is, as you say, possible. In that case, your Mexican +friends must be content to work their revenge upon my dead body, for I +am determined that the living Charles Morton shall never become an +object for Spanish vengeance to exhaust its ingenuity upon. But I must +leave you for the present. I will come below again in a few minutes, to +conduct you to your citadel." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Some writers make all ladies purloined, + And knights pursuing like a whirlwind; + But those, that write in rhyme, still make + The one verse for the other's sake. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +Morton and his companions had left the prison a few minutes past ten +o'clock. It was nearly one when an officer, who was up and passing +through the plaza for certain good reasons best known to himself, +noticed, as he approached the guard-house, that there was an unusual +degree of stillness about it; no sentry challenged as he drew near, and +indeed there seemed to be none on post. Surprised at this, he entered +the porch, or as it is called in New England, the "_pye_-azza," where he +found the sentry seated, as before described, and snoring most lustily. +Him he attempted to awaken by a very summary process; namely, by +tumbling him from his seat upon the ground; but so stupified was the +fellow with the drugged wine that he had drank, that after uttering +certain unintelligible growlings, he again slept and snored. Passing +into the interior, the officer found the corporal and his "brave +compeers" as sound asleep and as motionless as the enchanted +inhabitants of a fairy castle. After bestowing upon them several sound +and hearty kicks, without producing any vivifying effects, he perceived +that the door of the inner room, or prison, was wide open, and the room +itself as empty as--an author's pockets. On further examination he found +a basket, the remains of food, three or four empty bottles and +drinking-cups, one or two full bottles, and a phial containing a small +quantity of dark-colored liquid, with the qualities of which he did not +think it prudent to make himself acquainted by experiment upon his own +person; not possessing a particle of the philosophical courage and zeal +of Sir Humphrey Davy, who gulped down poisonous gases till it became a +matter of astonishment and mystery to his friends, as well as himself, +how he contrived to find his way back into this world, after having +strolled so far beyond its limits. The phial, however ignorant he was of +the nature of its contents, explained, in connection with the empty +bottles, the cause of the death-like sleep of the guard. + +After deliberating for an extremely short space of time (for when a man +has nobody near to bother him with advice, he makes up his mind with +incredible despatch), he concluded that there would be no danger in +leaving the guard-house just as he found it, for sundry reasons; in the +first place, the present circumstances had probably existed some hours; +secondly, as there was nothing there for the guard to watch over but +the empty bottles, &c. said guard might as well sleep as be awake; +thirdly--but by this time he was almost at his excellency's door, and it +was hardly worth while to follow any farther a line of reasons that +threatened to stretch out to the crack of day, if not of doom. After +abundance of vociferating and thumping, he succeeded in rousing the +governor from his slumbers, and bringing him to the window, night-capped +and night-gowned "proper," as the heralds say. His excellency was +thunderstruck at the intelligence, and in a few minutes his household +was in motion. + +His two daughters had no sooner learned that the prisoners had escaped, +than they hastened to the chamber of their cousin, Isabella, to +communicate the joyful intelligence. To their surprise and consternation +no cousin Isabella was to be found; the chamber was in its usual state, +but it was immediately obvious that the bed had not been pressed that +night by its lovely occupant; one or two of the drawers of a bureau, in +which she had formerly kept sundry articles of clothing, were open and +empty; nor was this all; the doors of a little book-case, that stood +upon a table in one corner of the room, and that formerly contained +thirty or forty volumes, were also open, and every volume was gone. + +This circumstance, which at once convinced the two young ladies that +their cousin was decidedly deranged in mind, should have been mentioned +and explained in its proper place. A fortnight previous to Morton's +capture, Isabella consented to put herself under his protection, and +having so done, retired to her chamber to deliberate upon the how and +the what she should take with her. Her jewels, that had been left her by +her mother, or given her by her uncle and other relatives, were +numerous, costly, and easily portable; but jewels, though they ornament +beauty, do not keep it warm. Her drawers were next opened, and sundry +indispensable articles of dress were selected and set aside; but while +she hesitated between certain elegant and valuable dresses and others +more ordinary, that her natural good sense told her were more +appropriate, her eyes rested upon a volume of Milton opened at the +title-page, on which was written her mother's name by that beloved +parent's hand: "My dear mother's books! how could I think of leaving +them behind, or any thing that was ever hers!" She closed her drawers +after having carelessly thrown aside, for "sea-service," the first +dresses that came to hand--her whole thoughts occupied in devising means +to save what, just at that moment, seemed of vastly superior +consequence. The books, by Morton's advice, were subsequently carried, +two or three at a time, to Juanita's house, and thence by him conveyed +carefully on board the Albatross, and safely deposited in his chest. +Having settled this affair so much to her satisfaction, she used the +same means to transport the greater part of her most valuable clothes to +the same place, till the unfortunate capture of her lover made it +necessary to encumber herself and attendant with the remainder, upon the +night of her elopement and their escape. + +I pride myself not a little in being particular in an affair of such +delicacy. Some writers wake their heroines at dead of night, drag them, +half drest, out of a third story chamber window, lead them through a +thousand perils by flood, fire, and field, till the mere matter-of-fact, +common sense reader is convinced that the poor girls had neither a dry +thread nor a clean one upon their persons; and no "change of raiment" so +much as hinted at. I scorn so ungallant an action as to compel _my_ +heroine to make a voyage nearly round the world, or within thirty +degrees of longitude of it, in such a draggle-tailed and sluttish +condition; so that you see, madam, I have made this digression for the +sole purpose of setting your mind at ease on the score of Isabella's +gowns, frocks, hose, and those other articles of the "inner temple" +whose names I dare not even think of, or whose existence it would be +impolite and indelicate to hint at. + +The alarming fact of his niece's absence the governor fortunately did +not learn till morning, or rather till late in the forenoon, he having +gone towards the guard-house before his daughters visited their cousin's +chamber. When arrived there, Don Gaspar was convinced, by examination of +the phial, that the soldiers were under the influence of a most +powerful opiate; and, furthermore, that the prisoners had obtained that +opiate and the wine that it was administered in, from some person out of +the prison who had access to them; and he immediately vowed vengeance +the most signal and summary against the traitor, offering, at the same +time, a large reward for his, her, or their apprehension. Alas, poor +man! he did not know that the traitor was of his own kith and kin, his +own beloved niece. + +His next movement was to send an officer at full gallop to the Venganza, +or rather to the landing place, commanding her captain to despatch boats +to the American ship in the outer harbor, and search for the fugitives. +Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, who had obtained a spare +fore-yard from the dock-yard, rigged and swayed it aloft the night that +he came in, instantly concluded that the escape had been effected by the +American captain, and that the Albatross had immediately sailed. +Impressed with this idea, he weighed anchor forthwith, and, favored by a +fresh breeze from the land, was convinced by eight o'clock that morning +that his conjecture was right. + +How the governor bore the news of his niece's elopement we have never +been able precisely to discover, but have understood vaguely that he +displayed infinitely more warm and tender feelings than he had +heretofore had credit for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXL. + + There was an ancient sage philosopher + That had read Alexander Ross over, + And swore the world, as he could prove, + Was made of fighting and of love. + Just so romances are, for what else + Is in them all but love and battles? + O' the first of these we've no great matter + To treat of, but a world o' the latter. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The breeze that brought the Venganza within sight, was in a very short +time felt likewise by the Albatross; but it gradually hauled to the +southward, thereby giving the American the advantage of the wind, or +weather-gage. Still it was evident that the Spaniard was the superior +sailer, and that he might, if he chose, soon be alongside; but he seemed +to be aware that preparations had been made by the Yankee commander and +his crew to give him a very warm reception. Accordingly he shortened +sail and tacked, with the hope of getting to windward; but in this he +was foiled by the Albatross tacking also, and, in spite of all the +Spaniard's manoeuvring, retaining the advantage that the wind gave +her. + +The crew of the American were all this time quietly leaning on their +guns, and watching the evolutions of their antagonist; and commenting +upon every movement with as much composure as though their own ship was +lying at anchor in a friendly port, and they were only looking at some +ship beating into harbor. + +"That old rattle-trap of a gardy coaster works tolerably well, only +she's a month of Sundays swinging her head-yards, and getting her +fore-tack down," said one of the seamen. + +"You may well say that," said another, "and the same of his main-yard +and main-tack, and jib-sheet to boot." + +"Well, you can't blame him for not being in a hurry," said the +boatswain, "he knows what he'll get when he hooks on to the old +Albatross. When once we get fairly hold on him, I don't ask but half an +hour to do his business for him: fifteen minutes to knock away some of +his sticks, and send him off flanking, and fifteen minutes more to +secure the guns and clear the decks up; and by that time it will be +eight bells, and then we'll have our dinner and our grog, and be all +ready to make sail on our course again." + +"There she goes again! helm's a-tiller, jib-sheet's a-rope, and round +she comes!" + +"Ready about!" shouted Captain Williams, and the crew flew to their +stations. + +Both vessels were now heading to the westward; the Venganza, by superior +sailing and frequent tacking, had gained considerably to windward; and +it was evident that she would soon be alongside, though to leeward. In +this situation of affairs, Captain Williams, seeing that flight was out +of the question, called all hands aft. + +"Lie aft there all of you, hurry aft there, men, at once," repeated the +boatswain, adding, in a lower tone, "the old man's going to read us a +page out of Hamilton Moore." + +The men being all assembled upon the quarter-deck, Captain Williams +advanced, and thus addressed them: + +"Men, you see that fellow yonder that is following on after us, and know +what he wants. He sails rather better than we do, and I don't see how +we're going to get rid of him; and if we don't want to be plagued with +him any longer, why we must fight him, that's all. I don't suppose that +you will fight any the quicker or better for my making a speech to you, +but I want you should know which leg you stand upon. We are nothing but +a merchantman, and I don't suppose you are bound by the ship's articles +to fight unless you see fit, but whether we fight or not, our fate is +the same; if we are such d--d fools as to let that garlic-eating +scarecrow make a prize of us without firing a gun, we shall be sent to +the mines for life; but if we will only stand by each other, I'll be +bail that we give him something that he can't eat. Now if you are all +agreeable to that, say so, and give three cheers for the honor of the +Yankee flag, and we'll fix his flint for him before the cook's dinner is +ready." + +This pertinent harangue was received with three roaring cheers, which +were distinctly heard by the Spaniards, who were thereby convinced that +the Americans were not the sort of men to be frightened into a +surrender; and they, the Spaniards that is, "smelled the battle" by no +means "afar off," but, on the contrary, rather nearer their noses than +was altogether agreeable. + +By way of commentary to his speech, the Yankee commander called to the +steward to "bring up the case bottle, &c. and the molasses jug," +observing, that; "although he knew that the Albatrosses didn't require +any Dutch courage, the sun was over the fore-yard, and it was grog time +in all Christian countries." + +Jones, who by virtue of his office was always foremost at "splicing the +main-brace," having compounded a tolerably stiff tumbler of blackstrap, +turned to his shipmates, prefacing with the invariable commencement of a +sailor's toast, + +"_Here's hoping_ that every shot we fire will make work for the doctor +or carpenter." + +This pithy "sentiment," as it would be called at the present day, was +received with vast applause; and, having finished their grog, +interspersed with similar toasts, the men quietly returned to their +quarters. + +During this scene Morton descended to the cabin and conducted his fair +charge to her Gibraltar in the steerage. Isabella, weeping bitterly, +clung to him, and Morton's heart, softened by the tears of one whom he +loved so tenderly, seemed divested of all the elasticity of young hope +and courage, and he began to regard the _possibility_ of his being +killed or taken prisoner as a _probability_; but he resisted the +fast-coming weakness, and, pressing her to his bosom, tore himself from +her arms, and hurried upon deck. Isabella was attended and consoled in +her retirement by her faithful servant Transita, her "fidus Achates." + +I hope my fair and also my classical readers will pardon me for giving +the masculine title and name of a hero of antiquity to a lady's maid; +but I could think of no other. History has immortalized Achates as a +single friend, and Pylades and Orestes, and Damon and Pythias, as pairs +of attached and inseparable friends; but, alas! neither ancient nor +modern history has recorded the name of a single female, whose +friendship was sufficiently ardent and pure to become proverbial. Even +the Helena and Hermia of Shakspeare, whose friendship is so touchingly +described by one of them, were not only imaginary creations of the +poet's brain; but, as if to prove the impossibility of friendship +existing between two ladies, he has made them actually pull caps in the +very first act of the play in which they are introduced. + +By this time the Venganza had ranged up within speaking distance, and +hailed: + +"Send the prisoners that you brought from San Blas on board my ship." + +"We have no prisoners here--we are all freemen," was the answer. + +"Send your first officer and the four men that were with him on board +this ship, or I will fire into you." + +"Well, I guess, then, you'll have to fire; for I can't spare either +officer or men," replied Captain Williams drily. + +"I repeat, for the last time, give up those men, or I will fire." + +"Come after them yourself, then," roared back the irritated Yankee, +losing all patience. + +"D--n my buttons!" said Jones, from the midship or "slaughter-house" +gun, "he'd better come aboard starn foremost, then, so's to be all ready +for a run." + +Don Diego Pinto, the commander of the Venganza, although a brave man, +and one who had "done the state some service," by no means liked the +aspect of affairs. He had had frequent opportunities of seeing the crew +of the Albatross, and knew that, with the exception of Captain Williams, +there was not a man on board over forty years of age; that they were all +stout, active, powerful men, warmly attached to their officers, and +living in perfect harmony with each other; that her guns were of uniform +calibre--namely, nine pounders, and consequently no confusion could +take place respecting cartridges or shot: on the other hand, he was a +Spaniard, the first lieutenant a Portuguese; and the second a Frenchman; +of three different nations, and three different dispositions, they never +agreed: he knew, too, that his crew was composed of a few Spaniards, a +few Portuguese, and the rest Chilians, Peruvians, and Mexicans, negroes, +mulattoes, and Indians, quarrelling and stabbing from morning till +night; that his guns were of all sorts, from twelve to four pounders +inclusive; that, although he numbered eighty on board his ship, thirty +well-armed men from the Albatross would take his ship from him in less +than five minutes, if they were thrown upon his deck during the action. +Under all these circumstances, he felt somewhat loth to commence +operations, till, after considerable time had elapsed since Captain +Williams's last angry reply, he took heart of grace, and opened an +irregular and harmless fire. + +"Thank God! he has spoken at last," said old Jones; "I was afraid he +meant to keep us standing here, like mum-chance in a picture-shop, till +seven bells in the afternoon with our hands in our pockets." + +"Keep fast every thing," shouted the American Captain; "don't fire yet." + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered the captains of the guns with perfect composure. + +"Jemmy Bush," said the boatswain to one of his gun's crew, as he +squinted along its side, "I'll bet you as much as you and I can drink, +the first port we get into, that I hit that fellow's foremast the first +shot." + +"The devil thank you," said the tar; "'tisn't twenty yards from the +muzzle of your gun." + +"Starboard your helm--keep her away a little," said Captain Williams; +"stand by--now's your time--fire!--luff! luff again!" + +"Luff it is, sir," said the helmsman very deliberately. + +The double-shotted broadside of the Albatross was followed by three +thundering cheers. Her fire, although not exactly a raking one, had +crossed the Spaniard's deck very obliquely, and the smoke blowing off +immediately, gave the Americans an opportunity of seeing some of the +effects of their shot. Two of the Venganza's foremost guns had been +dismounted, and all the men stationed at them killed or wounded; there +were huge gaps in her bulwarks; several of her weather fore-shrouds were +shot away; and about ten feet from the deck there appeared upon the side +of her foremast a large hole, caused by two or more shot striking nearly +in the same place, and tearing off large splinters. There was silence +for a few seconds, interrupted only, on board the Albatross, by the +punching and thumping of rammers, as her crew were busily reloading +their guns. + +Mr. Walker, with the doctor and supercargo, all capital shots, +constituted the marines or small-arm men of the ship. The doctor was +not, however, unmindful of his medical duties; for he had prepared a +place between decks, down the fore hatchway, where he had paraded his +medicine-chest, instruments, and dressings; and, leaving them in charge +of the cook, who acted as surgeon's mate _pro tem._, he went on deck +with his rifle, and was seen on the quarter-deck, with a case of pocket +instruments tucked into the bosom of his jacket, loading, and firing, +and bringing down a Spaniard at every discharge; for, like Apollo of +old, who is represented as a good shot as well as a good doctor, he +could send an enemy to his long home with a rifle-ball, or physic a +friend with such success as might thereafter ensue: + + "Mighty he was at both of these, + And styled of war as well as peace." + +It has never been our lot to take part in a naval engagement as an +agent, and we are thankful for it; for we are convinced, upon strong +internal evidence, of our cowardice; but we have been present at sundry +such actions, at a safe distance, as a spectator; and, from what we saw, +we can venture to assure our readers, that, when two ships or fleets are +exchanging their iron salutations, whether at long shot or close +quarters, there is nothing peculiarly interesting to a mere spectator in +the scene. + +Isabella and her attendant had, all this time, remained quiet, but +dreadfully frightened as soon as the firing commenced. Finding, after +the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, that no danger had as yet come +near them, they became more composed; the former most earnestly and +sincerely imploring Divine protection, both for herself and for those +who were exposed to danger for her sake. Still she could not avoid +listening eagerly to every voice that was to be heard in the short +intervals of comparative stillness. + +The action had been now carried on between the two vessels nearly half +an hour, at a distance of about forty yards, when a twelve-pound shot +passed through the Albatross's larboard quarter, and, encountering the +steward's pantry in its progress, made such a fearful jingling with the +crockery ware, tin coffee-pots, and earthen jugs, that, overcome with +extreme terror, both females left their city of refuge, and ran hastily +up the after-hatchway ladder, and presented themselves on the +quarter-deck. Just as they reached the deck, a shower of grape-shot flew +whistling across the ship, one of which, passing through the +hammock-nettings, struck a seaman in the forehead, and scattered his +blood and brains in all directions. He reeled backwards two or three +yards, and fell dead at Isabella's feet. Captain Williams immediately +drew her away from the ghastly spectacle, and gave orders to carry the +body forward on the other side of the deck. He then attempted to prevail +upon her to go below; but she was too much terrified to listen to him, +nor did she seem to understand him. After a minute or two, she became +more composed, and eagerly inquired for Morton. Being informed that he +was on the forecastle and unhurt, and doing his duty like a brave man +and a good seaman, she expressed the most lively gratitude to Heaven, +and permitted Captain Williams to conduct her to the starboard side, +which was farthest from the enemy, and in great measure sheltered from +shot by the long-boat and by the spare spars, &c. stowed amidships. + +By this time the crew of the Venganza, as is often the case with cowards +when driven to desperation, had become perfectly frantic, and also +mutinous. With furious execrations, they compelled Captain Pinto to make +a desperate attempt to board the American ship, and decide the action. +For this purpose the helm of the guarda-costa was put hard down, and she +immediately ran on board the Albatross, her bowsprit passing over that +ship's larboard gangway, and coming in contact with the fore part of her +mainmast, to which it was instantly lashed firmly by Mr. Walker, Jones, +and two or three of the nearest seamen. In this state she was exposed to +a murderous raking fire of grape and cannister shot, from such of the +Albatross's guns as could be brought to bear upon her. Notwithstanding +this, the Spaniards mustered in considerable force upon and about the +heel of the bowsprit and cat-heads, armed with pistols, knives, and +cutlasses. The Americans caught up their ten-foot boarding-pikes, and +presented an impenetrable hedge of steel points; but, although his crew +was fearfully thinned by a well directed discharge of canister-shot and +bags of musket-balls from the two midship guns of the Albatross, Captain +Pinto, at the head of about fifty men, the sole remnant of the original +eighty, persisted in his attempt to board; and five or six of the most +desperate actually "effected a lodgement," as militarists call it, in +the main shrouds, where they were instantaneously transfixed by the long +pikes of the Yankees, and fell shrieking into the water. At this moment +the doctor, who had hitherto been engaged in dressing the hurts of the +few wounded that thought proper to visit him in his temporary cockpit, +hearing the bustle, caught up his rifle, and hastened to the _other_ +field of his usefulness. + +"Here, doctor, doctor!" shouted old Jones as soon as he saw him, "here's +a chance for you! here's the Spanish skipper looking as savage as a +Yankee meat-axe--Gad! if you don't bear a hand, he'll cut his own +throats, for want of some of ours." + +"Where, where?" said the knight of the pillbox, skipping upon a gun. + +"There, that notomy-looking thief with a sword two fathom long in his +fist. Give him a blue pill, doctor; he looks as though he was billy-us." + +The doctor raised his rifle--and Captain Diego Pinto, commander in his +Most Catholic Majesty's navy, slept with his fathers. + +A heavier sea than ordinary, a moment after this, lifted the Albatross, +and forced her ahead: the bowsprit of her antagonist snapped close to +the knight-heads; but, being held by the lashing, the guarda-costa was +towed along, till a blow or two of a pole-axe severed the rope that +connected the two vessels, and she dropped astern. The desperate and +frantic courage of the Spaniards died with their commander; their first +lieutenant had received a slight splinter-wound in the foot at the first +fire of the Albatross, in consequence of which he went below, and had +not been seen on deck since; the second lieutenant's orders were not +attended to; and all was anarchy and confusion on board. A few minutes +after she drifted from the Albatross, her foremast, already badly +crippled and no longer supported by the bowsprit, fell over the larboard +bow, dragging down with it the main topmast. At this the Yankees +cheered. The Albatross soon after wore ship, and stood to the westward. +Upon mustering the crew, it was ascertained that but one man was killed, +and eight more or less wounded; her sails and rigging were much cut up; +and the services of all hands were immediately put in requisition, to +repair damages, and put the ship in condition to proceed on her voyage. + +The first intelligence of the victory was conveyed to Isabella by Morton +himself. As he approached her place of refuge with his head bound up +with a bloody handkerchief, having received a slight wound in the left +temple from a splinter, she uttered a scream of terror, and it was long +before she could be convinced that the wound was trifling. As lady +passengers are of no great use on deck when the ship's sails and rigging +are hanging about her ears, she was conducted once more below. + +In the mean time Jones, as he trudged backwards and forwards, thought he +saw something amiss about the galley, which he entered, and a moment +after backed out, exclaiming, + +"D--n my two-and-twenty top-lights! if this here doesn't beat all my +going down east!" + +"What's the matter, Jones? what are you swearing about now?" + +"Swearing? it's enough to make a minister pull off his wig, and rip +right out in the middle of his sarmont!" + +"Well, what _is_ the matter?" + +"Matter? why d--n my old shoes, Captain Williams, here is one of that +bloody Don Dego's shot gone right through the galley-door, and through +the side of the big copper, and knocked all the beef and hot water +galley-west. By the piper that played before Moses when the children of +Israel danced through the wilderness, I never see such a thing since I +first went to sea, and I've seen shot fired afore to-day. And here's my +two sweet potatoes," he continued, groping in the coppers with the +cook's ladle, "that I popped in just as that fellow come alongside, all +knocked to pieces. Here he is, d--n his eyes!" holding out a +twelve-pound shot in his ladle; "here's the thundering thief that's +spoilt our dinner, Captain Williams, stowed away in the bottom of the +copper, as snug as a flea in a soger's blanket. The curse of the twelve +geese that eat the grass off o' Solomon's grave upon you!" With these +words he threw the shot overboard, and turned to Captain Williams with a +most rueful countenance. + +"Well, Jones, it's devilish unlucky I own, but I guess we can make out a +dinner for to-day, and perhaps the armorer can patch it so that it will +answer till we can get to Canton," + +"I hope so, sir," said Jones, with a deep sigh; "for if we don't have +our reg'lar-cooked grub, we'll all get the scurvy, as sure as the +devil's in London; though for that matter, I've been pretty much all +over Lunnun, and never see nor heard nothin' on him, unless so be he's +in the Tower, or the king's palace, or some one of them thunderin' great +churches; and I've seen about all there was to be seen there, unless it +may be them three places. But in my way of thinking, a ship might a d--d +sight better go to sea without a medicine-chist, than without her proper +cooking-utensils and coppers; because why? if a man don't get his +reg'lar grub, his bowels gets out o' trim, and he gets belly-us, as our +doctor calls it." + +"Well, well, if we can't do any better, we'll burn out the big +pitch-pot, and make a shift with that till we arrive in China." + +"Aye, that indeed, so we can. By the hook-block! how our two snow-balls +of cooks will swear! Well, thank God for every thing but bread, and +that we get o' the baker." So saying, he rolled off towards the +forecastle, to superintend the knotting of one of the fore shrouds, that +had been shot away in the engagement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + But now, t' observe romantic method, + Let bloody steel awhile be sheathed: + And all those harsh and rugged sounds + Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds, + Exchanged to Love's more gentle style, + To let our reader breathe awhile. + + HUDIBRAS. + + +The damages done on board the Albatross were all repaired before sunset; +the dead body of the poor fellow that was killed was committed to its +watery tomb with becoming solemnity, and by the next morning the +north-east trade-wind was blowing fresh and steady, and, as it usually +does in both the Atlantic and Pacific, from almost due east. The ship, +with booms rigged out and studding-sails set on both sides, dashed +swiftly towards the west, rolling almost gunwales under at every motion, +and initiating the two females into all the mysteries of sea-sickness. +However, in two or three days the sea, that is always heaviest near the +land, subsided into the long, regular undulation peculiar to the ocean, +properly so called, and Isabella recovered from her sea-sickness, and, +by keeping as much as possible in the open air, and walking the deck +almost constantly, assisted at first by the arm of some one of the +gentlemen, soon got her _sea-legs_ on. + +I would substitute some other phrase, if, by so doing, I could make +myself intelligible; but as the case is, it is impossible to mince the +matter--fashion has not yet, thank God, invaded the "Dictionary of +Sea-Terms;" and ladies, when off soundings, must still be content to +have "legs" like other folks--on shore they may vote it indecent to have +even "ankles," for aught I care. + +Captain Williams, having neither missionaries nor tracts on board, did +not stop at the Sandwich Islands, nor did he even pass within sight of +them; but holding on his course, on the fortieth day after leaving St. +Blas, he saw Cape Espiritu Santo, the southern extremity of the island +of Lugonia, or Lucon, one of the Philippine Islands. Passing through the +Straits of Samar, he changed his course to the northward and westward, +and steered for Macao, where he arrived six days afterwards. + +The passage across the Pacific Ocean afforded the two lovers numerous +moonlight quarter-deck walks. Morton, as first officer, had the first +watch, from eight to twelve, every other night, and on these occasions +was invariably accompanied by his fair bride elect, who, wrapped in a +cloak or great coat, walked the deck leaning upon his arm; or, seated +upon the hen-coop, listened with interest to his descriptions of +American, or, more properly, New England, scenery, manners, and history; +or gazed upon that lovely object, a moon-lit ocean in fine weather. + +There is something peculiarly soothing in this scene--something in the +soft light of the heavens, and in the dark and dimly-seen ocean, that +induces a pleasing melancholy, a pensive tranquillity; the low, gentle +murmuring of the waves calms the mind, tranquillizes its angry passions +and boisterous feelings, and brings on those dreamy reveries that +contemplative people are so fond of indulging. It is then, when the +"grim-visaged" ocean has "smoothed his wrinkled front,"--when the winds +of heaven are hushed to gentle airs, and the cloudless moon looks down +upon the scene, tipping the crests of the lazy waves with silver,--that +the memory and imagination of the wanderer are busy; it is then that the +scenes of childhood and of manhood--the forms of friends, more loved +because sundered from them by thousands of miles of water and land--all +rise before him in original freshness and beauty. + +Isabella also proposed to her lover to accompany him in his middle +watch--that is, from midnight to four in the morning--but I grieve to +say, that she proved worse on these occasions than an old man-of-war's +man, not only "standing two calls," but, in fact, not "turning out" at +all. She made some amends, however, by coming on deck at four o'clock +frequently, to witness that splendid spectacle, sunrise at sea, which is +particularly glorious between the tropics, not only on account of the +extreme purity of the air, but from the shortness of the morning +twilight; the sun rushing so suddenly from his salt water couch, as to +come "within one" of catching the stars napping. + +On arriving at Macao, Isabella was doomed to undergo another separation +from her beloved Morton, whose qualities of head and heart she had had +sufficient opportunities of studying and appreciating during the voyage +from Mexico, and in the daily and familiar intercourse of a +merchant-ship's cabin. As the Chinese eschew the society of foreign +women even more rigorously than the children of Israel did that of +"strange" ones--and, taking this notion of theirs "by and large" in +connection with their laws, and manners, and tastes, we think they are +perfectly right--Isabella was consequently landed at Macao, and placed +in the care of a venerable and highly respectable Portuguese family, and +after having arranged the means of as regular a correspondence as could +be carried on in that country, where there are not quite so many +mail-coaches and post-offices as with us, she saw with tearful eyes the +whale-boat "shove off," containing in its stern-sheets Morton, a Chinese +custom-house mandarin, two Chinese pigs, a hind-quarter of Chinese beef, +a Chinese river pilot, and sundry baskets of Chinese fowls and +vegetables. + +Macao is beautifully situated upon a small island, near the mouth of the +river Tigris, commanding a fine view towards the sea, and was, when I +had the fortune to visit it, very clean and neat in its streets and the +external condition of its houses--a circumstance the more remarkable, as +its inhabitants are Portuguese and Chinese, two of the dirtiest people +on the face of the earth: to these, of course, numerous other nations +and parts of nations may be added; and among them, a very large +proportion of the aristocratic and fastidious English, who prefer +spitting in their pocket-handkerchiefs instead of the fire-place or the +street; all the Spaniards; all the French in their houses, and food, and +furniture; all the Dutch in their persons; all the Russians in every +thing; nearly all the Irish and Scotch; and a very respectable modicum +of my beloved countrymen, the Yankees, together with the greater part of +the natives of the southern states, who, being nursed, brought up, and +associating with negro slaves from the cradle to the grave, _smell_ +dirty, if they are not. + +After an absence of about six weeks, Isabella one morning received a +letter from Canton, informing her that the ship would commence "working" +down the river that day, or, according to the date of the letter, two +days previous, and that she would be off Macao on the second or third +day from said date. Accordingly she made all necessary preparations for +another and much longer voyage, and after dinner walked down to the +water-side, accompanied by her Portuguese friends. They had been on the +look-out for nearly half an hour, when a large ship hove in sight, +evidently from Canton. + +As she approached, steering apparently direct for the town, she suddenly +tacked and stood out to sea, or directly away from it. The party had +already made out with their glasses that the ship was indeed the +Albatross; but poor Isabella, who had seen, on her passage from Mexico, +nothing but fair winds, was exceedingly distressed by this last +unintelligible manoeuvre. Were they actually going away without +her?--the thought was agony. The ship, that was but four miles off when +first seen, was now at least eight, and her hull was fast sinking below +the line of direct vision. Her companions, who had hitherto been +occupied in silently admiring that most splendid effort of human genius, +a ship under full sail, were suddenly startled by an exclamation +betokening extreme anguish from their lovely friend--"They have gone! +they have gone!" sobbed the unhappy girl. The most affectionate +kindness, and the most earnest assurances that the apparently +unaccountable movement of the ship was no more than was absolutely +necessary from the direction of the wind, were equally lost upon +her--she "would not be comforted." In a few minutes the Albatross hove +in stays (you need not hold your fan to your face, madam), and seemed to +approach the shore as rapidly as she had before receded from it. + +"Look up, my dear child," said M. de Silva; "see, your ship is flying +in, and will soon be safely at anchor." + +Isabella raised her head from the shoulder of Madam de Silva, and +applying the glass to her tear-dimmed eye, was convinced of the folly of +her grief. They sat down to watch the gallant ship as she rapidly +approached the "roads." Before the sun was hid behind the hills in the +rear of the town, they had the pleasure of seeing the Albatross commence +reducing her sails; presently the topsails were clewed up, and the jib +hauled down, the ship "rounded to," her anchor let go, and in a moment +the men were seen clustering upon the lower and topsail yards. A minute +or two afterwards Isabella plainly distinguished, by the help of her +glass, the well-known whale-boat sweeping round the ship's stern, and +rowing swiftly towards the shore. A deep blush announced that the glass +had also informed her who was, in midshipman's language, the "sitter," +the person in the stern-sheets, to wit, and she immediately proposed +returning to the house. Morton, on landing, informed her that the ship +would get under weigh the next morning at day-break, and that it would +be most advisable, as the ship could approach no nearer than five miles +to the town when beating out of the bay, to go on board as soon as +possible that evening, to which she, of course, assented, and, having +taken an affectionate leave of her Macao friends, who insisted upon +supplying her with "sea-stores" enough to fit out half a dozen sail of +Liverpool packets, she accompanied Morton to the boat. + +The next morning at day-break she was startled from her slumbers by the +clanking of the windlass-pauls, the voices of the officers, and the +tramp of feet over her head; and, in a few minutes after, the rushing of +the water under the cabin windows, and the "heeling" of the ship, +announced that they were under weigh, and dashing out to sea with a +fresh breeze. The passage home was, like most passages _from_ the East +Indies and China, rather monotonous from the long continuance of fair +winds. Isabella gazed with delight upon the unrivalled scenery of the +Straits of Sunda, where spring, summer, and autumn reign perpetually in +a sort of triumvirate; the same field, nay, in some cases, the same +tree, presenting, at one and the same time, blossoms, green fruit, and +ripe fruit: infancy, maturity, and decay. She saw, too, in the night the +volcano on the Island of Bourbon, afterwards False Cape and Table +Mountain, but not the Flying Dutchman, the weather being unfortunately +too fine to induce him to put to sea. Next came St. Helena, since so +famous as the cage and then the tomb of that most furious and terrible +of wild beasts, a great conqueror. Near the fifth degree of north +latitude, the south-east trade-wind died away, and was succeeded by four +days of light, variable, "baffling" winds, when the north-east trade set +in strong from about east-by-north, its usual point near the equator, +and they once more flew joyously on their north-west course. A few +"regular built" _Mudian_ (i. e. Bermudan) squalls served to vary the +scene, and rendered the strong, steady gale from south-west, that +succeeded them, peculiarly acceptable. + +It was just sunrise one lovely morning, near the last of July, when +Morton, who had the morning watch, directed one of the men to go aloft, +and "take a look round." The seaman had gotten no higher than the +fore-topsail-yard, when he shouted "land ho!" at the very top of his +throat. + +"Where away?" + +"Broad on the larboard bow." + +"What does it look like?" + +"Low, white sand-beach." + +"Cape Cod, by the mortal man that made horn spoons and poop lanterns!" +said Jones, springing into the fore-rigging. + +As the sun climbed higher in the heavens, the liquid blue plain appeared +thickly studded with the white sails of vessels of all descriptions, and +all steering to the westward. There was the majestic ship from India or +Liverpool; brigs from the Mediterranean, from Portugal, South America, +and the West Indies; schooners from the southern states, with flour, and +from Maine, with boards; packet sloops from New York, Philadelphia, &c.; +chebacco-boats from fishing on "Georgis;" and schooner-rigged +pilot-boats, darting about under jib and mainsail, and boarding every +vessel that carried the star-spangled "jack" at her +fore-topgallant-mast head. Nothing could surpass the tranquil life of +the scene: more than a hundred vessels, of all descriptions, were +gradually but rapidly approaching a common focal point, the narrow +entrance of Boston harbor, under the impulse of a fresh breeze from the +south-east, that had not as yet brought forward its accompanying fogs and +haze. The Albatross, her thin masts clothed from trucks to deck with +snow-white canvass, dashed rapidly up the bay, the jack flying at her +fore-royal-mast head, passing the low-decked molasses-loaded brigs from +the West Indies, or the faster sailing topsail-schooners from the +Chesapeake, inquiring the news, and furnishing matter for speculation to +their crews. + +On the passage from China to Boston, Morton expressed some impatience, +particularly during the prevalence of calms or head winds; but Isabella, +like all young ladies similarly situated, was perfectly composed. Why is +it, dear dissemblers, that you always _seem_ to enter the holy state +with either reluctance or lukewarm indifference? when every body, with +half a head, _knows_ that matrimony is the "hoc erat in votis," the +grand object of all your wishes. Strange! that the laws of female +modesty should decree it absolute indelicacy for a girl candidly to show +her preference for a particular individual before the rest of his sex. +Strange! that modern mothers should uniformly caution their daughters +against marrying for love, as the most dangerous rock in their voyage +through life. Solomon could find but four strange things in his day, and +those four I do not care to repeat; if he had lived in these times, he +might find a hundred and fifty connected with a single matrimonial +engagement. + +The Albatross arrived at Long Wharf early in the afternoon; and Morton, +having deposited his dear messmate and watchmate in the house of a +widowed sister of his father, went in search of a messenger to convey a +letter to his father; for, unless I am much misinformed, the mail only +went at that time once a week to New Bedford. + +Though not "so terrible old" as I might be, I recollect when a journey +from Boston to Providence, a distance _then_ of forty-five miles, +occupied three days: namely, the traveller, leaving Boston in the +morning, arrived at Deadham about sunset, and "put up" at the "Gay +tavern," or the "Widow Woodward's;" the second _hitch_ carried him to +Attleborough; and the third evening saw him snugly seated in the +bar-room of the "Old Coffee House," Providence. But a journey to New +York, as it was generally supposed that the traveller must "go down to +the sea in ships" part of the way, that is, through Long Island Sound in +a sloop, was one of the most momentous events of a long life. The +traveller "concluded" upon it in the fall, occupied the entire winter +and the months of March and April in collecting his dues, paying his +debts, setting his house in order, and making his will, before the +weather was settled. + +Two Sundays before starting, a note was "put up" in his parish +meeting-house, "desiring prayers," and early on Monday morning, to be +sure of reaching Providence before the next Sabbath, he took a weeping +farewell of his wife and family, and turned his horse's head towards the +"neck," and his bereaved household betook them to their chambers, +"sorrowing as those that had no hope" of seeing him again. + +Morton's messenger, spurred on by the hopes of high pay, made such +diligence that he actually arrived at Taunton the first night, the +selectmen of which fair town were so indignant at what they conceived +barbarous and unparalleled hard driving, that they talked of prosecuting +the man; but it appearing from the report of a court of inquiry of +ostlers that the horse did not seem distressed by his day's work, but +had fallen to work upon his oats and hay, they "withdrew their motion." + +Old Mr. Morton received the news of his son's arrival with the greatest +joy. He sat out the next day in his own carriage, drawn by two noble bay +horses, and arrived without "let or hindrance" in Boston. He expected to +find Isabella a girl possessed of some considerable beauty, just +sufficient to captivate a seaman who for months had seen no women more +attractive than the squaws of the North-West Coast or South Sea +Islands; and sailors, under such circumstances, are exceedingly +susceptible, _me ipso testi_; he had made up his mind, too, that she +could be no other than ignorant and ill-bred withal. When, then, her +exquisite beauty, her lovely, retiring modesty of manner, free alike +from affectation or sheepishness, her expressive and eloquent features, +all burst upon his view at once, his heart was taken "by storm,"--he +clasped her to his bosom, and felt towards her in an instant as warm +affection as though she was indeed his own child. The banns of matrimony +were published immediately, after the manner of the descendants of the +pilgrim roundheads, and the marriage solemnized as soon as the legal +time had elapsed; and the happy party took up their abode in old Mr. +Morton's house. + +Morton's female friends and acquaintance at first seemed amazingly shy +of the new-comer; but at a "numerous and highly respectable" petticoated +caucus, a forlorn hope, after repeated declensions of the honor, was +chosen to make the first "call." Their report was so very favorable that +the newly-married couple were, in less than a fortnight, rather annoyed +by too much company. + +On the passage from Mexico to China, and thence home, Isabella had, in +vulgar phrase, "taken a liking" to Jones, the boatswain, and formed, +what was probably conceived, at that time, the visionary plan of +breaking him from his intemperate habits. She communicated her scheme to +her husband shortly after their marriage, who most cheerfully coincided +in opinion with her. Jones was accordingly sent for, and regularly +installed in the family. The eloquent representations of Mrs. Morton, +and the promises of her husband and his father, had the wished-for +effect--the old tar consented to "give up grog," and did so, making +exceptions only in favor of the "glorious first of June," the +anniversary of Lord Howe's victory off Ushant, at which Jones was +present, the fourth of July, _'lection_ days, Thanksgiving days, and the +birth of Mrs. Morton's first child. This last event took place, by what +modern editors call a "singular coincidence," upon the first of June +ensuing; and Jones was sorely puzzled how to "keep up" both days, and, +in consequence, got very considerably "corned." It was, however, his +last offence; he gradually adopted the temperate habits of the family, +and continued in them to his death. + +We have no farther particulars to communicate, except that Charles +Morton was taken into partnership by his father, and became wealthy, and +that his wife wrote a long and kind letter to her uncle, which was +forwarded by the captain of an outward-bound whaleman, who delivered it +into his own hands. The old Don did not answer it, however; and +Isabella, in whose heart other affections had taken root, was not, +perhaps, much grieved or indignant at his silence; the affection of her +husband, her children, and her friends, soon obliterated all melancholy +recollections. + + + + + * * * * * + + THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO. + + * * * * * + + + + + THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + _Gonzalo._ Had I a plantation of this isle, my lord, And were the + king of it, what would I do? + + _Sebastian._ 'Scape getting drunk, for want of wine. + + TEMPEST. + + +In the Pacific Ocean, and within two days' sail of the coast of Chili, +lies the little island of Masafuero, or, as the word is generally +divided by the Spaniards who discovered it, Mas-a-fuero--that is, the +farthest--to distinguish it from Juan Fernandez, which lies nearer the +main land, and in sight of Masafuero. Juan Fernandez is well known to +all the reading community as having once been the temporary residence of +Alexander Selkirk, the original, or, as grammarians would call it, the +_root_, of De Foe's bewitching romance of Robinson Crusoe. + +Masafuero is, on the contrary, remarkable for nothing more, that I know +of, than being very difficult of access, and overrun with wild goats. It +is situated in the latitude of thirty-three degrees and forty-five +minutes, south, and eighty degrees and thirty-six minutes, west +longitude; for I love to be particular in all such cases--not that I +suppose my readers care a pin if I had told them it was in the +south-west horn of the new moon; but all authors, when they put pen to +paper, seem actuated by the kind and neighborly spirit of the sagacious +Dogberry--namely, to "bestow all their tediousness" upon their readers; +and I do not know that I have any prescriptive right--I am sure I have +no intention--to depart from so well-worn a track, or to fly in the face +of so many illustrious precedents. + +This island is covered, from the water's edge to the summit, with trees, +and it is only for the sake of wood that it is ever visited by our +whalemen, who fell the trees on the brink of steep cliffs, and tumble +them down, by which process they are broken up into sufficiently short +pieces to render their carriage convenient. There are evident traces of +most tremendous earthquakes visible throughout the island; huge fissures +and rents from the tops of the highest hills to unknown and unexplorable +depths, vast scattered masses of rock that have been shaken down from +the cliffs, and many other similar appearances, announce that the most +terrific convulsions of nature have rendered Masafuero a very unquiet +residence, even to the poor goats, at different times. In its external +appearance, and when seen at some distance, it bears considerable +resemblance to the celebrated Isle of St. Helena, and is, like it, +exceeding precipitous, and has but one approachable, and not always +accessible, landing-place. Of this last trait in its character I can +speak from experience and most feelingly, having visited the island in +the year 1821, in a small brig, with the intention of getting off nine +men, who had been left there some time previous for the purpose of +collecting seal-skins, with which the island abounds, as well as with +goats. Our attempt was rendered fruitless by the violence of the wind, +which, for the time it lasted, exceeded any thing I had ever seen, +except a _typhon_ in the China seas, and _one_ north-wester off +Nantucket shoals. + +Some of the men, whom I afterwards saw, informed me that they had, +during their abode there, planted sundry garden seeds, such as beans, +pumpkin, squash, and onion seeds; but this item of intelligence I look +upon to be somewhat apocryphal; at any rate, I would not recommend to +any one, who may chance to visit said island, to save his stomach for +any pumpkin pies or baked beans he may obtain from it. There is +undoubtedly fertile soil enough for a garden--but then the goats. + +The island also enjoys the reputation of having once been the rendezvous +of a gang of pirates, as a house, that has stood untenanted for any +length of time, is sure to be peopled with ghosts. People seem to think +it a pity that a tenement should remain unoccupied, so, out of sheer +compassion for the proprietor, they stock it with unearthly tenants from +roof to cellar, or like--for, now I am in the humor for comparisons, I +might as well go on--it was like a man who keeps his business to himself +and troubles nobody; his neighbors, knowing nothing about his +occupations and habits, take it for granted that they are both bad and +"contrary to the peace of the commonwealth." + +Masafuero had, however, tolerably strong claims to the title of a "den +of thieves;" for there could be no doubt that, during the stormy times +that took place when South America shook off the Spanish yoke and put on +fifty worse ones--when there was a revolution once a week, and murder +and rapine every hour--many of the human vultures that flocked to the +prey, from Europe and this country, made this little island a place of +deposit for their ill-gotten wealth, and a rendezvous and city of refuge +from the vengeance of some of the short-lived authorities. The +celebrated Benavidas, a sort of "free companion," was, as sailors say, +"in vogue," when I first visited the Pacific in 1821; and as he carried +on business both by land and water, there is no doubt that he +occasionally visited both Masafuero and Juan Fernandez. + +But there were other "land rats and water rats" than Benavidas, who, it +may be interesting to know, died suddenly one day of strangulation, in +consequence of his cravat being tied too tight. Numbers of English and +American seamen, at the first breaking out of the revolution, who +happened to be on the spot, realised large sums by privateering, and by +striking certain sudden and bold strokes, _a la Buccanier_, upon the +rich Spanish towns and richer churches; and as "their sound went out +into all lands," others flocked to the Pacific for the same purpose. But +by this time the first agony was over: the new government, short-lived +and ephemeral as it was, enacted certain wholesome laws, which, as they +did not materially interfere with the political views of the parties +that successively kicked each other down stairs, were generally +permitted to stand. A navy was organised and plunder was legalised; +privateering was placed under restrictions; and, as none of these +butterfly republics were in existence long enough to take any further +steps towards paying their seamen and soldiers than promising to, said +seamen and soldiers very naturally betook themselves to their respective +elements to look for prey. I have often wondered that the problem of our +revolution was not followed by the same corollary. The two nations might +be differently constituted--they were not differently situated. + +Many stories are related of the daring exploits of these freebooters, +both on the water and on the land; but there was generally a shade of +difference in favor of the former, on the score of both courage and +humanity; the "water rats" being almost exclusively English and +Americans, and possessing both qualities by nature so strongly +impressed, that they could never be entirely eradicated or smothered. +The land robbers, on the other hand, were as exclusively native +Chilenos, a mixture generally of Indian and Spaniard--a more detestable +amalgamation the earth does not produce--if the devil was to cross the +breed, it would rather improve it than otherwise. One of the most +formidable, most blood-thirsty, and most successful of these pirates +wound up his affairs not a great while before I arrived in the Pacific, +Jack Ketch being his administrator. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus. + + OTHELLO. + + +James Longford was the eldest son of a merchant in the neighborhood of +New York, who furnished in his own conduct one of those very rare +instances of a mercantile man contented with what he has amassed, and +willing to retire to private life to enjoy it. 'Tis true that merchants +pretend to say, after having heaped up something like a million, that +they continue in business for the sake of the employment of time and +excitement of mind that it affords, and not for the lucre of gain; "sed +non ego credulus illis," or, in plain English, "they may tell that to +the marines, the sailors won't believe them." The thirst for gain +increases with its gratification, as I could quote more Latin to prove; +and not only does gratification increase the appetite, but it seems to +_pucker up_ the heart, and contract the muscles of the hand, for your +very rich man is almost invariably a very close and avaricious one, +except when making public donations to institutions already bursting +with wealth, when they know that their names and sums given will go the +rounds of the public prints under the head of "munificent donations." +How delicious is flattery, even when thrown down one's throat with a +shovel! + +But they are stingy in another way, that brings with it its own +punishment--they starve themselves. I know of several of your half +million folks, not a thousand miles from where I now sit, whose table +does not cost them fifty cents a day, and that too with tolerably +numerous families. I was once ill-advised enough to dine with a +gentleman of this description, in a sister city, in consequence of his +repeated and pressing invitations. We had part of a fore-quarter of very +small mutton boiled, with a small modicum of potatoes; one man could +have eaten the whole. To be sure, I had a glass of "London particular" +Madeira after dinner, if it deserves the name, but as soon as I had done +I made my excuses--"indispensable business--obliged to go out of town, +&c." and fled to an eating-house, where I satisfied what Dan Homer +emphatically calls the "thumos edodes," the madness of appetite, with +something more to the purpose than lean mutton. + +Mr. Longford was "none of them sort;"--he retired from business with +only fifty thousand dollars, but with a clear conscience, adjusted +books, and not a single cent of debt--he never refused his charity to +deserving objects, and never signed a subscription paper for their +relief,--he was never a member of a charitable society, and never +contributed a cent to the Missionary funds, whether for the Valley of +the Mississippi or the Island of Borneo, where there are nothing but +monkeys, or Malays as incapable of being christianized as the monkeys. +Had he lived at the present time, and in this section of the country, he +would have been prayed _for_ and prayed _at_, at least once a day, and +been, besides, occasionally held up in the pulpit as a specimen of total +depravity, and a child of perdition. + +Yet, with all these defects, Mr. George Longford was a sincerely devout +man, and a most firm believer in the Christian religion,--from a +conviction of its truth, not merely because it was the fashion to +believe it, or because his fathers believed it before him,--and a +practical observer of its moral precepts. He read and studied the New +Testament, because it contained a compendium of all his every-day duties +as a rational and accountable being, and as a member of society, not +because it was a magazine of polemical divinity and abstruse doctrines. +The evening of such a man's life is calm and tranquil; his death is +indeed the death of the righteous. + +James was this man's eldest son;--I cannot say, as novel writers +generally do, that "in him were centred the hopes and wishes of his fond +parents,"--for they were not--they looked for support and comfort in +their old age to their other children. James was a refractory and +disobedient child from the very cradle. It is ridiculous to say that all +men are born alike in dispositions and capacities; the great poet of +nature, from whom I have, as usual, taken my text, says no; and I would +sooner have a single line from him than folios of ingenious theories and +metaphysical arguments from the profoundest philosophers. I have not +much faith in innate ideas, but I confess that I have in innate +dispositions, both good and bad. + +James Longford's disposition was most decidedly bad by nature--he was +constantly, even when a mere schoolboy, in mischief, and that, too, of a +kind that marked a malicious and cruel temper. His father in vain +exhausted kindness and severity, in the hope of subduing this most +unhappy temper; but neither the infliction of punishment, that he +deserved twenty times a day, nor the caresses of the tenderest parental +affection, appeared to have the least influence in mollifying his +stubborn and morose disposition--he seemed to be one of those whom St. +Paul characterizes, in that tremendous first chapter of the Epistle to +the Romans, as being "without natural affection." Notwithstanding all +these faults, he had naturally a strong mind and good talents; so that +by the time he had attained his eighteenth year he was, at one and the +same time, one of the most ungovernable and ill-tempered boys and best +scholars in Parson Crabtree's seminary of some fifty in number. + +At this period his father placed him in the counting-room of a wealthy +mercantile house in the city of New-York. Here his good education and +natural quickness soon procured him the favorable notice of his +employers, while his constant and active duties seemed to have +smothered, at least for a time, his malicious temper. Before the +expiration of a year he had acquired the good will and confidence of the +merchants whom he served; but by this time the pleasures and temptations +of the "Commercial Emporium" had begun to attract his inexperienced +eyes, and his disposition seemed to have taken a new turn. + +With all the stubborn wilfulness and unfeeling carelessness of +consequences that characterized his temper, he plunged into all manner +of vicious indulgences; but what seemed to attract him the most +irresistibly, and fix him the most firmly, was a fondness for gambling. +The "time-honored" black-legs of the billiard and roulette tables were, +however, an overmatch for an inexperienced lad of nineteen, and, as +might have been expected, he was soon stripped, thoroughly "cleaned +out." It was then that the idea of replenishing his pockets from the +counting-room trunk first presented itself to his mind, and, without +much hesitation or compunction of conscience, he took small sums from +time to time. + +It is needless to trace his progress more minutely--he finished by +forging a check for a thousand dollars, which forgery was subsequently +detected. + +Precisely the same "dull round" of vice is trodden, at least once a +week, by the same class of young men. The merchants' clerks are +certainly creatures of no imagination, or they would have struck out +some new way of going to the devil; they evidently have not a spark of +what an eminent Irish lawyer called "the poetry of wickedness;" they +uniformly begin with plundering the money drawer, and end with forging +checks. + +Mr. Longford was advised of his son's guilt, and the affair was +compromised by his paying the amount purloined. In utter despair the +afflicted father placed his degenerate son on board an outward-bound +Indiaman, a mode of proceeding often resorted to prematurely, for it +generally does a boy's business if he is viciously inclined--a +merchantman's forecastle is not a school of morality. Sending a +refractory child to sea may be an excellent way of getting rid of him, +but it is at the same time the most expeditious mode of sending him to +the devil. + +There is a great deal of talk about "godly captains;" but I never knew +one that was not an infernal tyrant, and a most accomplished scoundrel. +If you wish to cure a boy of a fondness for the sea, send him a good +long voyage with a godly captain, and I'll be bail that he comes home +as lean as a weazel, and most thoroughly disgusted at the very thoughts +of a ship. If you merely wish to get rid of him, send him to the coast +of Guinea on a trading voyage, or to that Golgotha, New Orleans; a godly +captain, by working him one half to death, and starving him the other, +will put it out of his power to trouble you any more in this world. The +Carmelites and other religious orders were once of opinion that the +devil could be flogged out of the flesh, and for that purpose wore a +couple of fathoms of two-inch rope about their loins: godly captains +think he can be worked out, and so, perhaps, he can; but generally, in +the two places that I have mentioned, he and the vital spark go out +together. + +I do not know whether I ought to regard it as a fortunate or unfortunate +circumstance, that the first captain that I sailed with was a "ripper" +for swearing and drinking. He was a professed infidel, a first-rate +seaman, an excellent scholar, and took more care of the morals of his +crew than many of those who have prayers twice a day; and ten thousand +times more of their health, for he would not permit a man to expose +himself for two minutes to the sun or rain in Batavia, and in +consequence did not lose a man. He watched over my moral and physical +health with a degree of zeal and tenderness that I have never, for an +instant, experienced since, at the hands of those who call themselves my +"friends." Indeed, the severest scolding he ever gave me, and I +expected every moment he would knock me down in the street, was for +walking, one deliciously cool morning, from Weltwreden to Batavia, a +distance of four miles, when I had a carriage and two horses at my +disposal. + +Peace to his ashes! I have lived to see the grave close in succession +over many of the few friends that I ever had. When I wandered about +London streets, barefoot and half-naked, in the dead of a hard winter, +just discharged from a hospital, and scarcely able to drag one foot +after the other, my situation was comparatively enviable. I had no +self-styled "friends" at my elbow, to mock me by talking about my +"talents!" I knew that if I did not "bear a hand," and ship myself off +_somewhere_, I should be taken up on the vagrant act, and sent to +Bridewell. Burns says, + + "The fear o' death's a hangman's whip, + That hauds the wretch in order." + +I should be loth to admit that the fear of Bridewell operated as a +stimulus upon my mind, for it did not often occur to me; but I longed to +enjoy once more + + "the glorious privilege + Of being independent;" + +and he, who is earning an honest livelihood by his own exertions, and +can shave with cold water, is, in my estimation, more truly independent +than he, whose father has bequeathed him half a million. Reader! you may +as well pardon this digression first as last, for it is ten chances to +one that you fall in with a whole fleet of them before you have sailed +through these pages. If I do not moralize as I go along, I shall not +have a chance to do it any where else. + +As the afflicted father returned, with melancholy steps and slow, +towards his quiet home, he could not forbear feeling an emotion of +regret at the thought of having parted with his son in such a manner. +"Had I but placed him," he said to himself, "under the charge of the +commander of one of our men-of-war, he would necessarily have been under +such strict guardianship and discipline that his unfortunate habits +might be entirely broken up; but now I fear that the liberty he will be +allowed, or will take, in a merchant's ship, will be his ruin." + +His home was more gloomy and sad that evening than it had ever been +before; for though satisfied in the main with his own conduct, and +hoping that the voyage would have most beneficial effects upon his son's +behavior and disposition, he regretted most bitterly the necessity of +the measure, and felt the keenest anxiety as to its results. That son +was destined never to return. + +The ship in which he was embarked was driven much farther to the +westward than is usually the case with outward-bound Indiamen, and +encountered one of those tremendous gales of wind, known to seamen by +the local name of _pamperos_, from their blowing off the immense +_pampas_, or plains, that constitute a large portion of the province of +Buenos Ayres, or, as it is now called, the Argentine Republic. The ship +was dismasted, and with difficulty succeeded in reaching the harbor of +Buenos Ayres to refit. + +The city of Buenos Ayres was at that time, and I believe it is not much +better now, a nest and rendezvous of pirates, that, under the cover of +the republican flag, and the assumed character of men-of-war or +privateers, with forged commissions, committed the most barefaced and +abominable acts of piracy. The British cruisers, by capturing and +hanging a good number of them, struck a most wholesome terror into the +rest; but our government, with a fraternal affection for every mean and +insignificant patch of barren sand-beach that called itself a republic, +more worthy the _sans-culotterie_ of the French revolution, than +becoming a great and polished nation, permitted them to sell their +prizes and refit in our ports. Buenos Ayres was then a point towards +which all the scoundrels, and thieves, and murderers, of Europe and the +United States, were radiating as to a common centre. + +Here, as might have been expected, Longford found plenty of congenial +companions to "whet his almost blunted purpose" of vicious propensity +and indulgence. In a drunken quarrel at the gaming-table, knives were +drawn, and Longford stabbed his antagonist-to the heart. Murders are so +exceedingly common in all the Spanish possessions and settlements in +America, that but seldom or never is any inquiry set on foot with regard +to them. The only _judicial_ formality consists in laying the dead +bodies on their backs, with a plate upon the breast of each to receive +the contributions of those who are disposed to assist in defraying the +expenses of burial. But the murdered person, in this case, was a man of +considerable consequence in the Buenos Ayrean government, having the +charge and management of certain public moneys, and in consequence, the +"authorities" thought it worth their while to ask a few questions about +his "taking off." Longford was well aware of these facts, and with +considerable difficulty and danger made his escape to the other side of +the river. + +After remaining concealed for some time, he ventured down to Monte +Video, where he found the English brig Swan, bound round Cape Horn. Her +crew, deluded by the false and extravagant promises of privateering +captains and owners, had all deserted. In this dilemma the captain was +compelled to supply their places with such materials as could be picked +up in the streets of Monte Video, and which were as bad as bad could be. +Indeed, from the lawless state of all South America, it would have been +next to impossible to have procured, "for love or money," twenty good +and orderly seamen, from Darien to Patagonia. Among these vagabonds +Longford recognised many of his gaming-table acquaintances at Buenos +Ayres, who had left that city to get out of the way of certain +impertinent questions that the police had taken the liberty to ask +concerning the murder that has already been mentioned. These fellows had +imbibed a notion that seems to be an easily-besetting one among sailors +who enter on board a ship in the middle of her voyage, namely, that +there is money on board; which notion is but too often followed by an +exceedingly strong inclination to appropriate it to their own use and +behoof. Sailors seem to understand but confusedly the tenth commandment, +which forbids us to covet any thing that is our neighbor's. + +The subject was discussed on the passage, the plan arranged, and the +unsuspecting officers, passengers, and two lads, apprentices to the +captain, murdered and thrown overboard. My readers would be, perhaps, +but little edified by a more circumstantial narrative. There is so +little variation in the details of shipwreck, acts of piracy, obituary +notices, ordinations, commencements, murders, suicides, mammoth turnips, +and Fourth of July celebrations, that printers would find it a great +saving of time, money, and labor, to have regular and approved forms of +each stereotyped, with blank spaces for names and dates. + +This bloody deed was executed near the southern extremity of the then +half province and half republic of Chili; and the murderers, with +considerable difficulty, succeeded in running the ship between the +island of Santa Marie and the main, and anchoring near the town or city +of Aranco, which was then in the hands of Benavidas, above mentioned. + +This sanguinary freebooter was then, under the auspices and with the +assistance of the equally sanguinary royal governor of Chili, Sanchez, +carrying on a most horrid and cruel war of extermination against the +republican inhabitants of the southern part of Chili. Into the hands of +this murderous ruffian and his ragamuffin gang the Swan was delivered; +but the villany of her piratical crew was soon to receive its just +punishment. Benavidas, who suspected them of having kept back no +trifling part of the plunder, with very little privacy and no formality, +shot them all but Longford, whom, for some unaccountable reason or +other, he spared. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + _Orlando._ Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind. + + _Jaques._ Nay then, God be wi' you an you talk in blank verse. + + AS YOU LIKE IT. + + +Our scene must now change somewhat abruptly from the shores of the +Pacific to a very different part of this watery ball. + +Great and manifold are the advantages that an author enjoys over his +readers; for, however anxious those readers may be to arrive at the end +of the story, they must either close the book with a "Pish!" or a +"Pshaw!" or condescend to follow him, and resignedly await his leisure. +He leads them where he pleases and at what pace he pleases; they must +follow him: they are like passengers on board a packet beating into port +with what sailors call "a good working breeze;" at one moment they seem +to have almost reached the anchorage, when suddenly the skipper shouts +"Helm's a-lee," the vessel heaves in stays and makes a long "stretch" +off, till the spires and roofs of the wished-for haven seem fading away +in the hazy distance. + +The celebrated Hugh Peters, one of Cromwell's fanatical preachers, +explaining to his audience why God was forty years leading the children +of Israel through the wilderness, which was not more than forty days' +march across, made a circumflex with his finger upon his pulpit cushion, +and said, "he led them _crinkledum cum crankledum_," I do not intend +that my story shall make more "Virginia fence" than is absolutely +necessary; but that it shall proceed, like a law-suit, "with deliberate +speed." + +In the vicinity of one of those beautiful villages that surround the +great commercial city of Bristol, and upon the banks of the lovely +Severn, stood the residence of a wealthy merchant. There was nothing +about the house or grounds that denoted the occupant or owner to be of a +mercantile turn; for there certainly is, very generally, something about +merchants' houses that is prim and starch--something precise and formal +about them, as though they had been planned according to the "Golden +Rule of Three," and executed with reference to the multiplication table. +It is a most melancholy fact, that the close, confined air of a +counting-room is deadly poison to a taste for the fine arts, and, but +too often, to every thing like liberality of feeling. + +Effingham House was neither planned nor executed upon a grand or a mean +scale; there was nothing extravagant or penurious, vast or contracted, +about it; but it presented a happy combination of the comfortable, the +elegant, and the neat. Such houses are very common indeed throughout New +England; in the _old_ country there is a constant repetition of the +fable of the frog and the ox--the wealthy cit endeavoring to equal the +haughty splendors of the nobleman. + +The villa that we describe fronted upon a large and beautiful lawn, that +gradually sloped towards the river, of which, and the lovely scenery +beyond it, it commanded an enchanting view, and was spotted with noble +oaks and elms, that appeared to have stood ever since the Conquest, or +might, perhaps, have overshadowed the legions of Agricola. A carriage +path, well gravelled and kept perfectly free from dirt and weeds, wound +around among these primeval trees, occasionally emerging from their +shade, as if to give the approaching stranger an opportunity to view +every part of the delightful landscape. + +Along this path a horseman was seen riding, one lovely afternoon in +September. The air of the rider was that of a man to whom the scene was +perfectly familiar, but who seemed busy with thoughts that made him +inattentive to its beauties. His sunburnt countenance, and an +indescribable something in his whole appearance, that the experienced +eye of a member of the same fraternity only could discern, announced +that he was one of those that "followed the seas." + +He alighted, and, giving his horse to a servant, ran up the steps of the +portico. A young lady, who was tending some flowers at a little +distance, hearing his footsteps, sprang towards him with sparkling eyes +and smiling countenance, exclaiming in a voice of most unequivocal +tenderness, "George!" The seaman caught her offered hand, and covered it +with kisses. The lady's cheek, brow, and throat were suffused with the +deepest and most lovely crimson: she gently struggled to release her +captive hand; but, finding that there was just one degree more force +exerted to retain it than she exercised to withdraw it, she prudently +gave up so hopeless a contest, and began very naturally to ask +questions. + +"Why, when did you arrive?--how long have you been gone? Oh! it seems an +age since you left us--and how you are tanned!" + +"I arrived this morning," at length answered the seaman; the mutual +delight of their meeting rendering him, for a time, as inarticulate as +it did her voluble; "and I have been gone six months. Time has stood +still with me, dearest Julia, I assure you; and besides, I have had such +a tedious passage home, that I began at last to think I was never to be +blessed with another fair wind. I need not ask how you have been during +that time," he continued, fixing his eyes upon her lovely countenance +with unutterable affection. + +No woman was ever insensible to a compliment, even an implied one, to +her looks. Julia raised her liquid eyes to his with a blush and a smile +so frank and unreserved, that his six months' absence and tedious +homeward passage he would gladly endure twice ever again to meet. + +There are moments in courtship--that part of it, I mean, where neither +party has as yet whispered love to each other, or bothered the old folks +about their consent; before, in short, it has become an "understood +thing" all over town--there are such moments, when the lady throws off +all reserve, and by a look, a smile, a blush, a half-articulate word, +repays her lover for months, if he is fool enough to court so long, of +prudish and affected shyness, past or future. These moments occur but +seldom, even in the most patriarchal courtships, and it is well that it +is so. Love is a fiery steed, and should always be ridden with a curb +bridle, both before and after marriage. (I am sorry that I cannot think +of a nautical metaphor, or I assure you, reader, that I would never have +gone into the stable to look for one.) The ancients, and their opinion +is decisive, ever held the "semi-reducta Venus" the most beautiful. + +Leaving these turtles to bill and coo over a cup of tea, and to the +enjoyment of a lover's walk along the lovely banks of the Severn, we +will proceed to enlighten the reader as to who and what they are, and to +discuss sundry other equally important topics. + +As the good ship Bristol Trader was lazily rolling along in a southerly +direction, with a light breeze and fine weather, and in the latitude of +about thirty-nine or forty north, she fell in with the wreck of a +schooner, of about eighty or ninety tons burthen, dismasted and +apparently half full of water, in which most unpleasant situation she +did not appear long to have been. The Bristol Trader hove to, and sent +her boat alongside, in hopes of obtaining something valuable from the +wreck, either cargo, or provisions, or rigging--if a wreck yields +nothing else, there is always plenty of fish around it. As the boat +approached, the attention of the crew was attracted by the appearance of +some person on board, who made the most animated and intelligible signs +to them to come alongside. The boat's crew redoubled their exertions, +and, upon coming on board, found a boy of about fourteen years, the only +living human being. The poor little fellow seemed almost exhausted with +fatigue and hunger; but being carried on board the ship and refreshed, +he informed his deliverers that his name was George Allerton--that the +schooner belonged to a port in New England, and was homeward bound from +Fayal with a quantity of wine and fruit--that she had been capsized, in +a sudden and violent squall, three days previous, when all the crew but +himself and one other were swept overboard--that she had righted after +cutting away the masts, but with a great deal of water in the hold, and +that the other man had accidentally fallen overboard, and was drowned. + +It happened that the owner of the ship, Mr. Effingham, was on board. He +was going to Rio de Janeiro, partly on account of his health, but +chiefly to look after and secure a large amount of property belonging to +the firm of which he was senior partner, and which was jeopardised by +certain disturbances in Brazil. Like all passengers on board a ship, he +could find but little or nothing to do to pass away the time, and being +a married man and a father, his sympathies and good feelings were +powerfully excited and strongly attracted towards this "waif of the +sea," their new passenger. The boy, on the other hand, to a very +handsome face added a mild and amiable disposition, and, like all +New-England boys, an education vastly superior to boys of the same age +and standing in Great Britain. George's parents were respectable in some +sort--that is to say, their moral and religious characters were beyond +reproach, but their social reputation was very bad indeed--they were +poor. It has been said by an English traveller, that in all other +countries pleasure, rank, literary renown, &c. are the objects upon +which men place their affections; but, in the United States, the pursuit +of wealth is an imperious duty; and, of course, if a man fails in this +duty, his good name as a member of society soon becomes most deplorably +out at elbows. + +Before the end of the voyage, young Allerton had made himself master of +Mr. Effingham's affections, and being of that happy age when all places +are nearly alike, provided they are comfortable, he readily consented to +remain with his protector, and was accordingly regularly inducted into +the old gentleman's family as a member of it. He was the playmate of Mr. +Effingham's daughter, six years younger than himself, and the companion +of her rambles abroad. The old man wished to take him into his +counting-room as a clerk, but the boy's predilection for the sea +frustrated that scheme, and the senior, after some reflection and +persuasion, yielded to it. Accordingly Master George, having served a +noviciate as apprentice, stepped over the intermediate state of "able +seaman," and became second mate, then first mate, and lastly captain, or +more properly master. During the whole of this time, he was employed in +the West India trade, in which most of the Bristol merchants are engaged +more extensively than in any other. He never came home from a voyage +without bringing some curiosity to little Julia,--as he continued to +call her, even after she had attained her eighteenth year,--and never +failed writing frequently to his parents, and sending them the whole or +a greater part of his wages: a line of conduct that raised him +incredibly in the old gentleman's favor, and made a deep impression upon +the young mind of Julia. + +While George was passing through the different grades of his profession, +the young lady was advancing through the different grades of physical +and intellectual beauty and improvement. The "pretty child" that played +in her father's parlor, the "elegant girl of the boarding-school, had +now become a most lovely and accomplished young lady. She had lost her +mother when young, and the whole force of her filial affection had +centred upon her father. Brought up in unreserved intimacy with her +father's new _protege_, she always regarded him as a brother, or rather +as her equal. She always anxiously awaited his return from sea, though +she did not, in her more youthful days, exactly understand why. When her +beauty brought wealth and rank to her feet, she could not avoid +comparing their possessors with the nautical absentee. + +"Sir Reginald Bentley is not half so handsome a man as George; Lord +Dormington, although he has travelled over all Europe, and has besides a +seat in the House of Lords, is not, after all, half so well informed as +George; the Honorable Adolphus Fitz William dresses very expensively and +fashionably, but his clothes do not fit him so well as George's; and as +for that wine-swilling brute, Squire Foxley, I would not be condemned to +marry such a man for the world." So she dismissed them all, "cum multis +aliis." + +On the other hand, her father had acquired as much affection for George +as for a son, and treated him as such; though he never dreamed that his +daughter might from his behavior be led one day to select him as a +husband. When his daughter rejected one wealthy or titled suitor after +another, he thought nothing strange of it; Sir Reginald was a gambler, +his lordship a fool, Fitz William a dandy, Foxley a sot, and so of the +rest; he only saw in her rejection of them proofs that she possessed +more good sense and prudence than he was generally willing to admit +that any of her sex possessed. + +About two years before the events mentioned in the beginning of this +chapter, George had sailed on his first voyage as master of the ship +Hebe. He had been gone about five months, and Julia, with a feeling that +she did not pretend to understand or think to analyze, had been day +after day inquiring about him, when one evening her father informed her +that the Hebe had arrived safely in London. The joy that she felt and +expressed in the most lively manner, was damped by the farther +intelligence that he was to return to Barbadoes as soon as possible, +without visiting Effingham House. When she retired to her chamber, she +seated herself by the window, and seriously began to ask herself why she +felt such pleasure at hearing of his safe arrival, and why the +disappointment at not seeing him was so exceedingly painful. Her own +good sense answered the question, after a short reflection. + +"It is, it must be love; I _do_ love him, and that most sincerely;" and +she gave way to a burst of irrepressible but soothing tears. "And why +should I not?" she reasoned, "is he not every thing that heart can +desire--handsome, well educated, and generous? and does not my father +love him as a son? But my father may not consent," she continued, again +weeping, "and I must endeavor to conquer an affection that has been +growing silently but rapidly for years; it is impossible, I know, but I +will make the attempt." + +The old man, too, could not but notice the different effects of the two +items of intelligence he had that evening communicated. "What could ail +Julia when I told her that George was going to sea again without coming +home? the poor girl was ready to cry: he's a fine young fellow, that's +certain, and they've been brought up together like brother and sister; +so I suppose it is natural that she loves him like a brother: I have +half a mind to write to him to scamper across the country, and see us +for a couple of days; but I dare say he's too busy." With these +reflections the merchant dropped asleep, and dreamed of "Africa and +golden joys." + +Upon Captain Allerton's subsequent return, Julia's determination to +avoid him and to stifle her attachment to him vanished, like most +resolutions of the kind that young ladies are in the habit of forming, +and she gave herself up to the illusions of that bewitching passion, +without knowing--and, when enjoying his society, certainly without +thinking--how it would end; and as for her father, he, good easy man, +had done thinking about it altogether: not that his affection for her +was in any wise abated, but his mind was taken up with something else +more engrossing, and, as perhaps he thought, more important, than +watching the actions of two young people. + +After tea, Captain Allerton and Julia took a walk upon the banks of the +river, along a secluded green lane, that had often witnessed similar +rambles. After a long pause, during which each seemed too busy with +their own peculiar train of thinking to regard the silence of the other, +they stopped, as if by mutual consent. + +"And so, Julia, your father, after losing so much money in South +America, is going there, to see if he can grapple any of it up from the +mines of Mexico, or wherever else it has sunk." + +"He is certainly going to South America, but I never knew that he had +lost much money by his speculations there." + +"Nor do I say that he has, but as every body else has, I do not see how +he can have escaped;" and then added, after a short pause, and in an +embarrassed and tremulous voice, "are you, tell me, Julia, are you going +with him?" + +"Me! no, George; what could put such a wild thought into your head?" + +"And what then is to become of you during his absence, that must +necessarily be a long one?" + +"I shall remain with my aunt Selwyn in Bristol, till she returns to +Clifton." + +"Julia, you know that I love you, and you have given me reason to +believe that I am far from indifferent to you; then why not, my dearest +girl, give me the right to protect and provide for you at once, instead +of delegating it to a maiden aunt, who, whatever may be her good +qualities, has, as you know, always regarded me with dislike and +jealousy." + +"I cannot, George, without my father's consent." + +"Your hand, then, goes where he chooses to bestow it, let your +affections be where they will." + +"It is a duty that I owe to him to attend to his wishes, and listen to +his advice." + +"So then, if he advises you to marry the fool Dormington, or the brute +Foxley, you obey unhesitatingly?" + +"George, this is unkind; you are supposing an extreme case." + +"But you say you will obey him; you repeat that it is your duty to +listen to his advice in all cases." + +"I will never marry without his consent, but I will never marry any one +that I dislike." + +"That is intimating, rather obliquely, to be sure, that you may alter +your mind." + +"O George, George," said the weeping girl, "why will you continue to +torment me and yourself with these jealous doubts and suspicions? why +will you not rather ask my father's consent? you know his affection for +you." + +"Yes, propose such a question, and what is the reply? a peremptory +refusal, and an immediate dismissal from his employment. Now that his +mind is so much taken up with his new scheme, such a proceeding would be +little short of madness. Be mine, then, at once." + +"I dare not." + +"But suppose, what is by no means impossible, nay, rather likely to +happen, that he should determine to fix himself in Mexico, or Lima, or +some other South American city, as foreign partner of the house?" + +"I cannot believe such an event possible, but if it should--" she turned +away her head. + +"Do I interpret your silence right, Julia? would you indeed be mine? +speak to me, Julia." She made no other answer than a sigh, but still +kept her head averted. By this time they had reached the house. + +As soon as they were seated in the drawing-room, the lover again urged +her to "make signal of his hope;"--she raised her eyes, swimming in +tears, in which an affirmative was plainly to be read. The entrance of a +servant prevented the happy lover from proceeding to extremities upon +her lips, "according to the statute in such case made and provided;" and +a very excellent statute it is too. Whether the "quashing of +proceedings" by the inopportune appearance of the servant was agreeable +to either party, I leave to wiser heads than mine to determine. + +Many very well-meaning people, who pass for men of sense in every other +respect, are apt, when they feel matrimonially inclined, to think it +indispensably necessary to court the old folks, "hammer and tongs," as +the vulgar saying is, in the first place, and, having obtained their +good graces, to proceed very leisurely in their approaches to the young +lady. This may be a very prudent mode of managing matters, for aught I +know, but to me it savors rather of cold-blooded calculation, than +ardent or even passably warm affection. It is, besides, a gross and +unpardonable insult to the said young lady, whom it places immediately +upon a level with a horse, a pig, a cow, a load of hay, a chest of +drawers, or any other article of trade. It is like a man-of-war going in +to engage an enemy's battery, and heaving to, to "blaze away" at two old +dismantled hulks that are lying high and dry at the harbor's mouth. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + _Parolles._ My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched. + + _Lafeu._ Well, what would you have me to do? 'tis too late to pare her + nails now. + + ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. + + There never was yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. + + KING LEAR. + + +Julia Effingham was the only child of a rich merchant, who, like many +others in these latter days, when scheming and speculation have +superseded the good, old-fashioned habits of steady industry and +unmoveable perseverance in the art of acquiring wealth, was dazzled by +the one thousand and one bubbles that the South American revolution set +afloat. He dipped pretty largely into Mexican mines, and was bit; he +undertook to improve the breed of horses in Peru, and was bit; he +attempted to establish steam cotton-factories in Colombia, and was bit; +he bought largely into a Chilian Steam-boat Company, and was bit; till, +finally, he resolved to visit South America himself, "to see," as he +expressed it, "where the devil his fifty thousand pounds had gone to." +He could obtain no tidings of a single farthing on the Atlantic side of +that continent; but he learned one thing most thoroughly and +satisfactorily, as thousands have done besides him, that if he had gone +there in the first place, and seen the nakedness of the land, and the +deplorable and remediless ignorance and superstition of the people, his +fifty thousand pounds would have snugly remained in the three per cents. +and India bonds. He was determined, however, now that he was fairly +afloat, to "go the whole figure," and see the worst, if there was any +thing worse to come. Accordingly he took passage for Valparaiso, where +he found how, why, and wherefore his steam-boat concern had become a +decided take-in; it is not very profitable running a boat of that kind +in a country where wood sells at three cents per pound on the beach, and +where the people have no idea of travelling except in the saddle. + +Chili, then under the directorship of O'Higgins, was the only South +American province that seemed to have changed for the better, by +renouncing its allegiance to "Ferdinand the Beloved." Its ports were +thrown open to foreign commerce; its navy was respectable, for the +ships, the officers, and the seamen were English or Americans; its +inhabitants had become quite civilized and tame, for the murdered +foreigners in the streets of Valparaiso did not average much more than +one or two per night; which, compared with Havana and Buenos Ayres, +gave Chili a preponderance of refinement scarcely credible. Mr. +Effingham was highly delighted with the country; and indeed Chili, +setting aside the inhabitants, for the salubrity and mildness of its +climate, the fertility of its soil, and the variety and delicacy of its +fruits and vegetables, is certainly one of the finest countries in the +world. He found many Englishmen established in various sections of the +country, and the better sort of inhabitants very much disposed to treat +them with kindness and urbanity. + +He had been about eighteen months in St. Jago when he sent for his +daughter, who now constituted the whole of his family; his English +business he knew was safe in the management of his partner, and he sat +himself down with the determination of making a magnificent fortune very +much at his ease. Poor man! he little dreamed that the whole of South +America is as infamous for revolutions as it is for earthquakes. + +Having said thus much concerning the father of Julia Effingham, it is +but fair to give the reader some idea of the lady herself. Indeed, in +strict gallantry, I suspect that I ought to have introduced her first, +but she has already been upon the stage, and "made her obedience," as +sailors call it, to the audience; and, besides, age has claims that +ought to be attended to. + +In person, then, Julia was not remarkably tall, (I don't like tall +women; "a man never ought to look _up_ to his wife for a kiss or for +advice;") her form had all that graceful and delicate roundness and +fullness of outline so irresistibly pleasing to the eye. "Man," says an +elegant writer upon natural history, contrasting the two sexes, "man is +most angular, woman most round." Euclid himself could not have detected +any thing angular in the faultless form of Julia Effingham; nothing +resembling his "Asses' Bridge," or his "Windmill" problems, in the fall +of her shoulders, the bend of her snowy neck, the delicate round of her +chin, the delicious fulness of her ripe lip, the easy turn of her rosy +cheeks, the graceful curve of her brow. Her nose was indeed a straight +Grecian one, but not geometrically straight. + +It must be admitted, by the way, that there are more decidedly _good_ +noses among women than among men. The latter are aquiline, Roman, +parrot, pug, snub, thick, thin, long, short, peaked, bottle--some with a +bump in the middle, some with a cleft, or fissure, and some with a +button, or knob, at the end, like that on a man-of-war's boat-hook. In +short, to describe all the various kinds of noses masculine, it would be +necessary for philologians to create a new batch of adjectives, as the +king of England does occasionally of peers. + +I have already said, or meant to be understood to say, that Miss +Effingham was somewhat inclined to _embonpoint_. I do not pretend to +know the reason of this: perhaps leanness and emaciation were not +considered _genteel_ when she happened to be educated, as they are +unfortunately by too many of my fair countrywomen; perhaps she never +thought much about it; for I have always observed that very beautiful +women, who prefer revolving in the quiet circle of domestic happiness +and usefulness, are seldom or never very anxiously solicitous about +their beauty; and the consequence is, that they _are_ more beautiful, +and stand the attacks of time far better, than those who choose a life +of fashionable display, and court public admiration. Ladies may lace +tight, eat pickles, and drink vinegar, to make them genteel; but it is +free exercise in the open air, and simplicity of diet, provided it is +nutritious, that confer gentility and grace, and preserve beauty. Will +any man, married or single, and in the possession of his senses, say +that he likes the looks of a horse whose ribs are visible and +_countable_ at half a mile's distance? I am confident the answer will +be, no. + +Still there is a wonderful resemblance between a lean woman and a lean +horse, in more points than one; the lady does not, indeed, go upon all +fours, but I can never see a very _genteel_ female, laced into the shape +of an hour-glass, without wishing, from the bottom of my heart, that she +had an extra pair of le--ahem!--ancles, to support her feeble and +tottering frame. + +As I am growing old, and am, moreover, somewhat peculiarly +circumstanced, I suppose that I must put up with such a wife as it +pleases God to send me; but were I ten or fifteen years younger, and +"well to do," I would accept of no descendant of mother Eve, as a +helpmate and partner for life, who did not cut at least two inches on +the ribs. The Turks, who are practical men of taste in these things; the +Chinese, who pretend to the highest antiquity in civilization; the naked +Africans and South Sea Islanders, beyond dispute the most +unsophisticated of all father Adam's children, and who, like Job, +"retain their integrity" pretty stiffly, considering the missionaries, +the "march of intellect," and other untoward circumstances, are all of +them most decidedly in favor of something substantial in wedlock; no man +of taste, in either of these nations, ever dreams of comfort and +happiness in matrimony, unless he clasps to his bosom an armful of wife. +They choose their wives as we do lobsters--the heaviest are the best. + +I am a firm believer in the maxim that mind and matter exert a mutual +influence upon each other, and one of the most obvious deductions from +that datum that occurs to my mind is, that the acidities of the +disposition are not only neutralized but absolutely shut up by the +embonpoint of the body. People blessed with healthy plumpness are +indolent as well as good-natured, and it is a laborious piece of +business for such folks to get in a passion. + +The wealth and fondness of Julia's father, and her own natural good +sense, had made her mistress of all those elegant and fashionable +accomplishments that constitute the education of a lady of fortune; and +she had a grace and sweetness in every thing she did that reminded the +beholder of that exquisitely beautiful line in Ariosto: + + "She walked--she spoke--she sang--and heaven was there." + +This description may not be according to certain received axioms +concerning female beauty; but I never could bear to contemplate a fair +face and graceful form as painters do, who measure woman's loveliness by +certain fixed and arbitrary rules, as surveyors of lumber do boards. +Nothing makes me more fidgetty than to hear a man compare every +beautiful face he sees with a certain standard, even if that standard is +the Venus de Medicis herself; this face is not good, for it is not +exactly oval; that nose is altogether wrong, for it is not Grecian; a +chin is not this, or a mouth is not that, &c. Portrait painters are much +addicted to this kind of criticism; and whenever I find myself in +company with one of these two-foot-rule critics, I make my escape from +him as I would from a plague hospital. + +At the time of our narrative, Julia's father had been absent somewhat +more than two years. He had sent for her to join him at Valparaiso, a +summons that she prepared to obey with no small trepidation. "The course +of true love," which is somewhat notorious for "never running smooth," +seemed at this moment about to encounter a "head sea." Her absence from +England she knew must be a long one, perhaps an eternal one; the +separation from Allerton weighed much heavier upon her spirits than she +was willing to admit, and altogether her prospects of happiness seemed +darkened for ever. + +The same conveyance that brought Julia's letters also brought +instructions to the other partners of the house to fit out two vessels +for the Pacific, one of which was to be entrusted to the command of +Captain Allerton; but Mr. Effingham omitted to designate which of the +two was to be honored by being for some months the floating home of his +fair daughter; either intending it should be left to her option, or +taking it for granted that his partner, well aware of the intimacy of +Allerton's standing in her father's family, would of course place Julia +on board the ship commanded by George. But that partner was a crafty old +fox, who had long since seen the growing affection of the two young +people, and, with all that eagerness to destroy happiness, that they are +past enjoying, that characterizes the majority of old people, decided +that Miss Julia should, for a time, entrust her person and fortunes to +the fatherly care of Captain Burton, a sedate old Cornish man of sixty +years of age, who had no more idea of love than he had of the Chaldee +language. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Should a man full of talk be justified? O that ye would altogether + hold your peace; and it should be your wisdom. + + JOB, CH. XI. 2; XIII. 5. + + +Voyages across the Atlantic are now performed every day by old and young +women and children, and described by them so much more elegantly and +scientifically, and with so much more correct knowledge of the +technicalities necessary for such descriptions, than it is possible that +seafaring men can ever attain, that if one of the latter, in a moment of +mental hallucination, was to undertake to convey an idea of the element +that has been his home for years, he would be hissed off the stage as +another Munchausen. For this reason nautical men, who have laid aside +the marlinspike and taken up the pen, very prudently avoid that portion +of the literary arena, leaving Daddy Neptune's dominions to be explored +and described by landsmen. + +It is in obedience to public opinion in this respect, I suppose, that +our Secretaries of the Navy are almost uniformly chosen from the "mass +of the people," at the greatest possible distance from high-water mark; +men who have never seen a piece of water that they could not jump +across, or a ship, except in the newspaper, till they came to +Washington. "Let the sea make a noise, and the fulness thereof; let the +floods clap their hands" for joy, that the Cooks and the Falconers, the +Ansons and the Byrons, of olden time, are at length banished from the +department of nautical literature, and no _oceanic_ description will be +listened to unless said or sung by a _ci-devant_ midshipman or a +half-boy, half-woman poet, who lies in his berth, and sees, through the +four-inch-plank deadlight of a packet, the full moon rising in the west. +James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.--I give the man his entire name and title, +as he seems to insist upon it upon all occasions--the "American Walter +Scott," is undisputably at the very head of his _trade_ at the present +day for nautical descriptions; his terrestrial admirers have pronounced +him "a practical seaman;" and, of course, the only man in these United +States that can give any, even an approximate idea of the sea, and +"those that go down in ships." I have at my pen's end six or eight very +desperate "cases" of his knowledge of "practical seamanship" and +maritime affairs, which may be found in the "Red Rover" and "Water +Witch" _passim_; but those animals, vulgarly called critics, but more +politely and properly at present, reviewers, whom the New York Mirror +defines to be "great dogs, that go about unchained and growl at every +thing they do not comprehend," these dogs have dragged the lion's hide +partly off, and ascertained, what every man, to whom the Almighty has +vouchsafed an ordinary share of common sense, had all along suspected, +that it covered an ass. James Fenimore Cooper, Esquire's "Letter to his +Countrymen" was an explosion of folly and absurdity that has blown his +name up so high, that there is little or no chance of its coming down +again "this king's reign." Whether he was or was not hired to write it +to support the present administration, as some folks suspect, is not my +affair. I will, therefore, resume the thread of my discourse, which was +only "belayed" for a few minutes, to indulge in the rare pleasure of +grumbling a little at seeing + + "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." + +Julia Effingham was embarked on board the large, burthensome, and not +alarmingly fast sailing brig Avon--John Burton, master; while the ship +under the command of Captain Allerton was called the Hyperion. Both +vessels were nearly of the same tonnage, though there was much +difference in their rates of sailing, the Hyperion having been built as +near the model of a swift American ship as the English naval architect's +conscience would let him, which, however, did not allow him any greater +latitude than such as made a very obvious difference in their appearance +and rate of speed. Miss Effingham was accompanied by her maid, Miss +Dolly, alias Dorothea, Hastings. Nothing material occurred for the first +six weeks of their voyage, by which time they had nearly reached the +equator, except that Allerton improved every opportunity afforded by +light breezes and calms to visit the Avon; which visits Captain Burton, +honest man! supposed were intended for himself. + +But at this period--that is, six weeks after leaving the Lizard Point, +and while the two ships were in that peculiarly disagreeable strip of +salt water that lies between the southern limits of the north-east +trade-wind and the northern edge of the south-east, and is affected by +neither--there came on one night one of those very black and threatening +squalls, that look as though they would blow the ocean out of its bed, +and frequently do not blow at all. Captain Burton, who thought a squall +was a squall all over the world, and who was better acquainted with the +Grand Banks and the Bay of Biscay than with the tropics, took in all +sail, while the Hyperion, with topgallant-sails lowered, ran gallantly +before it, and made upwards of fifty miles before the breeze left her. +The Avon was in her turn shortly after favored with a fine breeze, but +the two ships did not meet again till they had passed Cape Horn. + +In the mean time, Mr. Effingham began to discover that Chili was not +paradise, nor its inhabitants saints; many thefts, robberies, and +frauds, were practised upon him, for which he could obtain no redress +from the contemptible magistrates; an earthquake, that did a great deal +of damage, was followed by a sweeping epidemic, which, as it affected +only the natives, was imputed by the priests to magic art and diabolical +witchcraft on the part of the heretical foreign residents. A riot was +the consequence, and the foreigners were only able to secure their lives +and property by a combination of their numbers, and the most determined +firmness of purpose. In short, the harassed merchant found out at last +that he had blundered into one of those self-styled republics, so many +of which have sprung up and passed away since the commencement of the +nineteenth century, where infant Liberty is nursed by mother Mob. + +These vexatious circumstances, and the prospect of an approaching +revolution, that threatened to be a bloody one, completely changed his +sentiments with regard to all South American governments, and he +bitterly regretted having sent for his daughter to join him. + +It was too late now to remedy that mis-step; but he determined, as soon +as she arrived, to re-embark for England as soon as possible, and in +consequence he lost no time in disposing of his merchandize, and +transmitting his funds to the coast, and thence to the spirit-room of a +British frigate. Having thus "set his house in order," and adjusted his +Chilian books, he left St. Jago, and took up his abode for the time +being in Valparaiso, waiting impatiently for the arrival of the Hyperion +and Avon, that were now daily expected. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Finally, my dear hearers. + + OLD SERMONS. + + +Nothing material occurred to the good brig Avon after parting company, +as aforesaid, with her consort, the Hyperion; a circumstance that I +regret not a little, as it deprives me of my only chance for describing +a storm at sea. They only experienced one tornado, and fifteen gales of +wind, before joining the other ship. The tornado was no great things +after all--the brig ran merrily before it, under a reefed foresail and +close-reefed main-topsail. The crew were all on deck during the whole +night it lasted, in case of their services being required. But the +females below had by far the worst of it--they were "turned in" to +berths that the ship-joiner had built with reference rather to the +accommodation of an able-bodied man, than a delicate young lady; and in +consequence, poor Julia was dashed first against the vessel's side, and +then against the front berth-board, as the brig rolled gunwales under at +every motion, till she began to think with the Frenchman, that she +"should get some sleeps, no, not never." In this dilemma she thought of +taking her maid, Miss Dorothea Hastings, into the berth with her, where +the two females, operating mutually as "checks" to each other, +eventually made out a very passable night's rest. As for the gales of +wind, they were the merest flea-bites in creation, though one of them +borrowed the brig's fore-topmast, and another walked away with her +jib-boom. + +During this period, Benavidas had been taken a second time; and as his +captors did not choose to risk shooting him again, which they had +already practised upon him once without success, they hanged him. His +gang were nearly all killed or taken at the same time, and the prisoners +summarily dealt with. + +Longford and about thirty more made their escape in a small schooner; +and as they well knew that they would experience no other mercy, if +taken, than a high gallows and short halter, they shaped a course for +the island of Masafuero, which they determined to make their +head-quarters, and to commit depredations upon all vessels that passed +which were not too well armed. They effected a landing with some +difficulty, and found, as they expected, considerable quantities of +provisions and stores, that had been deposited among the deep fissures +of the rocks by Benavidas some time previous, when his affairs on the +continent began to assume a smoky appearance. Here the scattered but +desperate remnant of his lawless followers found a temporary respite +from the harassing pursuit of the Chilenos, that resulted every day in +the capture and immediate execution of some of their number. + +The landing-place at Masafuero, with the open ground beyond it, +surrounded on three sides by broken rocks or high mountains, makes a +very beautiful appearance from the offing--anchorage, I believe, there +is none. It is a gentle slope, fronting the northern or sunny side of +the horizon, smooth, and of most delightful verdure. Perhaps it appeared +more lovely to me, who had been groping among the ices of the ant-arctic +circle for five months previous. The men whom we had left to get +seal-skins assured me the soil was very rich and deep, and the herbage +green and luxuriant. Since commencing these chapters, I have been +informed that the island is very frequently visited by our whalemen for +supplies of wood and young goat's flesh, which last is a savory morsel +to men who have been many months tumbling and rolling about on the long +regular swell of the Pacific. The waters that surround the island are +almost literally filled with fine fish, to which sailors have given the +general name of "snappers," and which differ from any fish among us, +more particularly in their propensity to bite as greedily at a bare hook +as a baited one. + +It was here that the pirates lay _perdue_, waiting when the devil, who +always befriends such gentry, should send them a defenceless prey. They +were unable to anchor, as I have already noticed that there was no +anchorage, and were accordingly continually on the move, sometimes +extending their researches fifty or sixty miles to the eastward of Juan +Fernandez, which lies about that distance nearer the main than +Masafuero. + +As they were lying to one morning, off the north-western side of +Fernandez, they were suddenly startled by the unexpected appearance of a +large brig that came out from behind the western extremity of the +island, and edged away towards the northward and eastward under all +sail. It was the first vessel they had seen since they had set up the +piratical business on their own account and risk, except an English +"jackass frigate," that chased them at the rate of one mile to the +schooner's five. The Vincedor, which was the name of the schooner, also +kept away and made sail, but kept yawing about in a manner that excited +the suspicions of the people on board the brig, and it was evident that +the manoeuvre would soon bring the schooner alongside. The brig now +hoisted the English ensign, but continued on her way without deviating +from her course. The schooner also made an attempt to "talk bunting," or +show colors; but she had nothing of the kind on board but some old +ragged signals that formerly belonged to the ill-fated brig Swan; and +one of these was accordingly run up to the end of the main gaff. Captain +Burton, for it was indeed he and the brig Avon, after attentively +examining the stranger, gave it as his opinion that she was a pirate, +and directed his men to stand to their guns. + +In a few minutes the schooner, having closed with the Avon, fired a shot +across her bows, which being unnoticed, another was fired that passed +through her foresail, to which the brig replied with three guns loaded +with grape, that took fatal effect upon the exposed and crowded deck of +the Vincedor. The pirates then kept up a heavy and well-directed fire of +small arms upon the Avon, and Captain Burton, seeing several of his best +men killed and wounded, reluctantly gave orders to haul up the courses +and back the main yard, still keeping his colors flying. + +Longford and about twenty ruffians like himself immediately came on +board; and their first question to Captain Burton was, how he had dared +to fire upon their schooner? + +"Because," said the sturdy old seaman, "I knew you to be pirates, and I +was determined not to surrender this vessel without some resistance." + +During this speech, Longford raised his pistol, and at its conclusion +fired; and the brave old sailor, shot through the body, and mortally +wounded, fell at his feet. This was the signal for a general massacre of +the crew; and while the bloody act was perpetrating, Longford ran down +into the cabin, to secure certain articles of plunder that he did not +choose to share with his partners in crime and blood. + +Before the pirate came alongside the Avon, Captain Burton, suspecting +her real character, had requested Julia to go below for a while, on +pretence that he was going to tack ship, and she would be in the way, as +women always are at sea, of the head-braces and main-boom. As the blunt +old veteran never used much ceremony upon such occasions, she thought no +more about it, but went below as she was bid. The firing, however, had +terrified her exceedingly; and Miss Dorothy Hastings, who was sent out +as a vidette as far as the upper step of the companion-ladder, came +scampering back to the main body with intelligence that the stranger was +a pirate, and immediately proceeded to enumerate the outrages that they +might certainly calculate upon being subjected to. Almost sinking with +terror, Julia listened with a scarce-beating heart to the increased +trampling of feet on deck, the oaths of the pirates, and the report of a +pistol; and when the murderer Longford, splashed with poor Burton's +blood, suddenly appeared before her, she uttered a wild shriek, and sank +senseless upon the cabin floor. + +But vengeance was on its way, and close at hand. While the pirates were +busily engaged in murdering the unhappy crew of the Avon, which they did +not accomplish without considerable loss to themselves, for the gallant +fellows fought most desperately, the Hyperion hove in sight from behind +Fernandez, following the track of her consort. Captain Allerton had +heard the firing, and, suspecting all was not right, had "packed on" a +press of sail, and soon came within short musket-shot of the schooner, +whose hull received eight or ten round shot, but her sweeps and +superiority of sailing on a wind, enabled her to escape. Allerton then +steered for the brig, the disordered state of whose sails, her braces +loose and yards flying about as the wind and sea pleased, convinced him +that the pirates had been on board, and it was with a horrible dread of +what might have taken place that he drew near. When within half a mile +of the Avon, he saw a boat shove off from alongside, that a single look +at his glass convinced him contained none of the brig's crew. Satisfied +that they were part of the schooner's piratical crew, he sent all his +men forward armed with muskets, with orders to give them a volley as +soon as they came near enough to be sure of their mark. This was done, +and the next moment the boat was sunk by the ship passing over her, and +not one of the blood-stained wretches escaped. The Hyperion then +shortened sail, and hove to. + +To return to the Avon's cabin. When Longford saw a lovely young woman +lying insensible before him, when he expected no such person's existence +on board, his better feelings prevailed--he thought of his mother, his +sisters, his home, and the bright prospects he had forever darkened by +his own folly and vice, and he leaned against the bulk-head in bitter +agony. He neither heard nor heeded the repeated calls of one of his +comrades, announcing the rapid approach of the Hyperion, his thoughts +were in a complete whirl, nor was he roused from his gloomy reflections +but by the voices of Allerton and his boat's crew, as they came +alongside. Then he started and ran up the companion-way, but escape was +impossible. He drew a pistol from his belt; but before he could even put +himself in an attitude of defence, he was cloven to the teeth by a blow +of Allerton's cutlass. + +Without stopping to see if there was more of them, George ran instantly +below, and found his Julia still insensible, and Miss Hastings kicking +her heels and screaming, after the most approved recipe for performing +hysterics. Allerton sprinkled the young lady's face with water and +vinegar, and ransacked the medicine-chest for hartshorn and ether, but +without success, till at length he thought of bleeding, at which he was +sufficiently expert when his patients had been sailors. The snow-white, +round arm was instantly bared and bandaged; the vein rose, and was +pierced by the lancet with as much skill as Sangrado himself could have +displayed; but the operator, although he knew how much blood a tough +seaman could afford to lose, was completely at a loss when his patient +was a delicate young lady; and, having, to his joy, witnessed the +success of his phlebotomy in restoring her to life and consciousness, +slacked the bandage and stopped the bleeding. + +For a few minutes Julia's senses seemed completely bewildered; she +stared wildly around, and uttered the most incoherent ravings; when +George, who seemed to retain his presence of mind most wonderfully, +wisely reflecting that human nature was about the same, whether in +breeches or petticoats, poured out a glass of wine, and compelled his +patient to swallow a large share of it. The wine produced the most happy +effects. In a few minutes she looked up in his face with an intelligent +glance, and in a soft voice murmured his name. + +In the mean time it would be unpardonable in us to leave Miss Dorothea +Hastings any longer. Allerton had been followed into the cabin by +several of his men, one of whom, compassionating the situation of the +young woman, who was, in truth, a plump, rosy-cheeked lass, and having +seen cold water thrown into the faces of people in fits, caught up a +gallon pitcher filled with the element, and dashed it into her +countenance. The remedy effectually restored her to consciousness and +herself, by rousing her indignation against the perpetrator of such an +ungallant action. + +A German theorist of the present age has much such a way of curing all +human diseases; that is, he drives one disorder out of the system by +introducing another more powerful--in some cases similar, in others +directly opposite; as for instance, he attacks pulmonary consumption +with insanity, gout with the "seven-years-itch," small-pox with its +partial namesake, pleurisy with inflammatory rheumatism, &c., and so +_vice versa_ in all cases; no doubt the theory is a good one, and so +was that which proposed to keep a horse upon nothing. + +In the course of an hour Julia declared herself sufficiently restored to +accompany George to his own ship, whither she was accordingly removed, +and a cabin fitted up for her accommodation. + +In the process of burying the murdered crew of the Avon, four of her men +were found alive, severely but not dangerously wounded; and a fifth, who +had lowered himself over the bows, and clung to the bob-stays. Six of +the pirates were also found dead on her decks, their brains dashed out +by the handspikes with which the seamen had defended themselves till +shot down in detail. + +By the time all necessary arrangements and changes had been made, it was +dark; and the Avon, with the second officer and six men from the +Hyperion, jogged along in the wake of that ship, which carried a lantern +at her gaff-end for her direction. Miss Dorothy, being comfortably +established in the Hyperion's cabin, complained of "feeling bad +somehow." Her mistress had _turned in_ long before, and was sound asleep +under the influence of a composing medicine, prescribed by her physician +and lover. Perhaps Miss Hastings thought the same medicine might do +_her_ good; perhaps she meant the complaint as a hint to Mr. Brail, the +mate, to have pity upon her. The seaman took the hint, real or +imaginary, and declared he could compound a draught as composing as any +prescribed in the "book of directions," and accordingly mixed a tumbler +of hot grog, well sweetened with loaf-sugar; but he forgot he was not +mixing for himself, and put in the same quantity of pure Antigua as +though the "charge" was intended for his own throat and brain of proof. +Miss Dolly drank the potent mixture, which effectually dispelled the +remains of her hysterical squall; and in a few minutes after retiring to +her berth, she was fast in the arms of Morpheus, if Morpheus ever goes +to sea. + +Our story must now gallop a little. Mr. Effingham was delighted with +George's gallant conduct, though he was too late to save poor Burton and +his men; the cargoes of both vessels were sold, and the old gentleman, +with his daughter, returned to England with Allerton. Shortly after +their arrival, the hall of Effingham House witnessed the performance of +that ceremony, which, in the English prayer-books, "begins with 'dearly +beloved,' and ends with 'amazement;'" but "the bishops, priests, and +deacons, and all other clergy," who were engaged in altering and +adapting the Book of Common Prayer to the Episcopal church in this +country, finding nothing very amazing in matrimony, have omitted the +short sermon that usually closed its performance, and the form, like +most religious forms, now ends modestly with a simple Amen. + +In three days after the murder on board the Avon, the schooner was +driven ashore upon Masafuero in a "norther," a violent gale so called +in that sea, from its uniformly blowing from the northward; and of the +eight on board, seven perished. The wretched survivor, after suffering +every thing but death from starvation, escaped in a whaler to the main, +was recognised, identified as one of Benavidas' gang, and shot before he +had been on shore two hours. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Sailor's Yarns, by Nathaniel Ames + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD SAILOR'S YARNS *** + +***** This file should be named 29323.txt or 29323.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/2/29323/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Val Wooff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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