Produced by Ted Garvin, Daniel Mahu, Charlene Taylor and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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JAPHET, IN SEARCH OF A FATHER
BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT
LONDON
J.M. DENT AND CO.
BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND CO.
MDCCCXCVI
Contents
CHAPTER I 1
CHAPTER II 7
CHAPTER III 14
CHAPTER IV 18
CHAPTER V 24
CHAPTER VI 29
CHAPTER VII 37
CHAPTER VIII 41
CHAPTER IX 47
CHAPTER X 53
CHAPTER XI 60
CHAPTER XII 67
CHAPTER XIII 73
CHAPTER XIV 79
CHAPTER XV 84
CHAPTER XVI 91
CHAPTER XVII 98
CHAPTER XVIII 104
CHAPTER XIX 110
CHAPTER XX 113
CHAPTER XXI 118
CHAPTER XXII 123
CHAPTER XXIII 130
CHAPTER XXIV 134
CHAPTER XXV 139
CHAPTER XXVI 144
CHAPTER XXVII 147
CHAPTER XXVIII 152
CHAPTER XXIX 156
CHAPTER XXX 160
CHAPTER XXXI 165
CHAPTER XXXII 169
CHAPTER XXXIII 173
CHAPTER XXXIV 176
CHAPTER XXXV 182
CHAPTER XXXVI 187
CHAPTER XXXVII 192
CHAPTER XXXVIII 196
CHAPTER XXXIX 201
CHAPTER XL 206
CHAPTER XLI 211
CHAPTER XLII 216
CHAPTER XLIII 220
CHAPTER XLIV 224
CHAPTER XLV 229
CHAPTER XLVI 234
CHAPTER XLVII 237
CHAPTER XLVIII 241
CHAPTER XLIX 247
CHAPTER L 251
CHAPTER LI 254
CHAPTER LII 259
CHAPTER LIII 265
CHAPTER LIV 268
CHAPTER LV 273
CHAPTER LVI 279
CHAPTER LVII 285
CHAPTER LVIII 290
CHAPTER LIX 294
CHAPTER LX 299
CHAPTER LXI 305
CHAPTER LXII 310
CHAPTER LXIII 314
CHAPTER LXIV 319
CHAPTER LXV 322
CHAPTER LXVI 327
CHAPTER LXVII 333
CHAPTER LXVIII 338
CHAPTER LXIX 344
CHAPTER LXX 349
CHAPTER LXXI 355
CHAPTER LXXII 362
CHAPTER LXXIII 259
CHAPTER LXXIV 378
CHAPTER LXXV 387
CHAPTER LXXVI 394
CHAPTER LXXVII 400
CHAPTER LXXVIII 408
CHAPTER LXXIX 414
Prefatory Note
In the _Metropolitan Magazine_, where this novel originally appeared
(Sep. 1834-Jan. 1836), Marryat prepared his readers for its reception in
the following words:--
"And having now completed 'Jacob Faithful,' we trust to the satisfaction
of our readers, we will make a few remarks. We commenced writing on our
own profession, and having completed four tales, novels, or whatever you
may please to call them" (viz., Frank Mildmay, The King's Own, Newton
Forster, Peter Simple), "in 'Jacob Faithful' we quitted the _salt_ water
for the _fresh_. From the wherry we shall now step on shore, and in our
next number we shall introduce to our readers 'The Adventures of
_Japhet_, in search of his Father.'"
The promise was faithfully kept, and Japhet, with all his varied
experience, never went to sea. There were indeed few companies on land
to which he did not penetrate. Reared in a foundling hospital, and
apprenticed to a Smithfield apothecary, his good looks, impulsive
self-confidence, and unbounded talent for lying, carried him with éclat
through the professions of quack doctor, juggler, and mountebank,
gentleman about town, tramp, and quaker: to emerge triumphantly at last
as the only son of a wealthy Anglo-Indian general, or "Bengal tiger," as
his friends preferred to call him.
Japhet's "adventures," of course, are shared by a faithful friend and
ally, Timothy Oldmixon, the Sancho to his Quixote, originally an orphan
pauper like himself, composed of two qualities--fun and affection. He
encounters villains, lawyers, kind-hearted peers, "rooks" and "pigeons,"
gipsies, leaders of fashion, fair maidens--enough and to spare. In a
word, Marryat here makes use of well-worn material, and uses it well. He
has constructed a tale of private adventure on the old familiar lines,
in which the local colour--acquired from other books--is admirably laid
on, and the interest sustained to the end. The story is well told,
enlivened by humour, and very respectably constructed.
The reader will find _Japhet_ thoroughly exciting, and will have no
difficulty in believing that, while it was running in the pages of the
_Metropolitan_, "an American vessel meeting an English one in the broad
Atlantic, instead of a demand for water or supplies, ran up the question
to her mast-head, 'Has Japhet found his father yet?'"
_Japhet, in search of a Father_, is here re-printed, with a few
corrections, from the first edition in 3 vols. Saunders & Otley, 1836.
On page 360 a few words, enclosed in square brackets, have been
inserted from the magazine version, as the abbreviated sentence, always
hitherto reproduced from the first edition, is unintelligible.
R.B.J.
* * * * *
Japhet, in Search of a Father
Chapter I
Like most other children, who should be my godfather is decided by
Mammon--So precocious as to make some noise in the world and be
hung a few days after I was born--Cut down in time and produce a
scene of bloodshed--My early propensities fully developed by the
choice of my profession
Those who may be pleased to honour these pages with a perusal, will not
be detained with a long introductory history of my birth, parentage, and
education. The very title implies that, at this period of my memoirs, I
was ignorant of the two first; and it will be necessary for the due
development of my narrative, that I allow them to remain in the same
state of bliss; for in the perusal of a tale, as well as in the
pilgrimage of life, ignorance of the future may truly be considered as
the greatest source of happiness. The little that was known of me at
this time I will however narrate as concisely, and as correctly, as I am
able. It was on the--I really forget the date, and must rise from my
chair, look for a key, open a closet, and then open an iron safe to hunt
over a pile of papers--it will detain you too long--it will be
sufficient to say that it was on _a_ night--but whether the night was
dark or moonlit, or rainy or foggy, or cloudy or fine, or starlight, I
really cannot tell; but it is of no very great consequence. Well, it was
on a night about the hour--there again I'm puzzled, it might have been
ten, or eleven, or twelve, or between any of these hours; nay it might
have been past midnight, and far advancing to the morning, for what I
know to the contrary. The reader must excuse an infant of--there again
I am at a nonplus; but we will assume of some days old--if, when wrapped
up in flannel and in a covered basket, and, moreover, fast asleep at the
time, he does not exactly observe the state of the weather, and the time
by the church clock. I never before was aware of the great importance of
dates in telling a story; but it is now too late to recover these facts,
which have been swept away into oblivion by the broad wing of Time. I
must therefore just tell the little I do know, trusting to the reader's
good nature, and to blanks. It is as follows:--that, at the hour--of
the night--the state of the weather being also--I, an infant of a
certain age--was suspended by somebody or somebodies--at the knocker
of the Foundling Hospital. Having made me fast, the said somebody or
somebodies rang a peal upon the bell which made the old porter start up
in so great a hurry, that, with the back of his hand he hit his better
half a blow on the nose, occasioning a great suffusion of blood from
that organ, and a still greater pouring forth of invectives from the
organ immediately below it.
All this having been effected by the said peal on the bell, the said
somebody or somebodies did incontinently take to their heels, and
disappear long before the old porter could pull his legs through his
nether garments and obey the rude summons. At last the old man swung
open the gate, and the basket swung across his nose; he went in again
for a knife and cut me down, for it was cruel to hang a baby of a few
days old; carried me into the lodge, lighted a candle, and opened the
basket. Thus did I metaphorically first come to light.
When he opened the basket I opened my eyes, and although I did not
observe it, the old woman was standing at the table in very light
attire, sponging her nose over a basin.
"Verily, a pretty babe with black eyes!" exclaimed the old man in a
tremulous voice.
"Black eyes indeed," muttered the old woman. "I shall have two
to-morrow."
"Beautiful black eyes indeed!" continued the old man.
"Terrible black eyes, for sartain," continued the old woman, as she
sponged away.
"Poor thing, it must be cold," murmured the old porter.
"Warrant I catch my death a-cold," muttered the wife.
"But, dear me, here's a paper!" exclaimed the old man.
"Vinegar and brown paper," echoed the old woman.
"Addressed to the governors of the hospital," continued the porter.
"Apply to the dispenser of the hospital," continued his wife.
"And sealed," said he.
"Get it healed," said she.
"The linen is good; it must be the child of no poor people. Who
knows?"--soliloquised the old man.
"My poor nose!" exclaimed the old woman.
"I must take it to the nurses, and the letter I will give to-morrow,"
said the old porter, winding up his portion of this double soliloquy,
and tottering away with the basket and your humble servant across the
courtyard.
"There, it will do now," said the old wife, wiping her face on a towel,
and regaining her bed, in which she was soon joined by her husband, and
they finished their nap without any further interruption during that
night.
The next morning I was reported and examined, and the letter addressed
to the governors was opened and read. It was laconic, but still, as most
things laconic are, very much to the point.
"This child was born in wedlock--he is to be named Japhet. When
circumstances permit, he will be reclaimed."
But there was a postscript by Abraham Newlands, Esq., promising to pay
the bearer, on demand, the sum of fifty pounds. In plainer terms, there
was a bank note to that amount inclosed in the letter. As in general,
the parties who suspend children in baskets, have long before suspended
cash payments, or, at all events, forget to suspend them with the
baskets, my arrival created no little noise, to which I added my share,
until I obtained a share of the breast of a young woman, who, like
Charity, suckled two or three babies at one time.
We have preparatory schools all over the kingdom; for young gentlemen,
from three to five years of age, under ladies, and from four to seven,
under either, or both sexes, as it may happen; but the most preparatory
of all preparatory schools, is certainly the Foundling Hospital, which
takes in its pupils, if they are sent, from one to three days old, or
even hours, if the parents are in such extreme anxiety about their
education. Here it commences with their weaning, when they are
instructed in the mystery of devouring pap; next, they are taught to
walk--and as soon as they can walk--to sit still; to talk--and as soon
as they can talk--to hold their tongues; thus are they instructed and
passed on from one part of the establishment to another, until they
finally are passed out of its gates, to get on in the world, with the
advantages of some education, and the still further advantage of having
no father or mother to provide for, or relatives to pester them with
their necessities. It was so with me: I arrived at the age of fourteen,
and notwithstanding the promise contained in the letter, it appeared
that circumstances did _not_ permit of my being reclaimed. But I had a
great advantage over the other inmates of the hospital; the fifty pounds
sent with me were not added to the funds of the establishment, but
generously employed for my benefit by the governors, who were pleased
with my conduct, and thought highly of my abilities. Instead of being
bound 'prentice to a cordwainer or some other mechanic, by the influence
of the governors, added to the fifty pounds and interest, as a premium,
I was taken by an apothecary, who engaged to bring me up to the
profession. And now, that I am out of the Foundling, we must not travel
quite so fast.
The practitioner who thus took me by the hand was a Mr Phineas Cophagus,
whose house was most conveniently situated for business, one side of
the shop looking upon Smithfield Market, the other presenting a surface
of glass to the principal street leading out of the same market. It was
a _corner_ house, but not in a _corner_. On each side of the shop were
two gin establishments, and next to them were two public-houses and then
two eating-houses, frequented by graziers, butchers, and drovers. Did
the men drink so much as to quarrel in their cups, who was so handy to
plaister up the broken heads as Mr Cophagus? Did a fat grazier eat
himself into an apoplexy, how very convenient was the ready lancet of Mr
Cophagus. Did a bull gore a man, Mr Cophagus appeared with his diachylon
and lint. Did an ox frighten a lady, it was in the back parlour of Mr
Cophagus that she was recovered from her syncope. Market days were a
sure market to my master; and if an overdriven beast knocked down
others, it only helped to set him on his legs. Our windows suffered
occasionally; but whether it were broken heads, or broken limbs, or
broken windows, they were well paid for. Every one suffered but Mr
Phineas Cophagus, who never suffered a patient to escape him. The shop
had the usual allowance of green, yellow, and blue bottles; and in hot
weather, from our vicinity, we were visited by no small proportion of
bluebottle flies. We had a white horse in one window, and a brown horse
in the other, to announce to the drovers that we supplied
horse-medicines. And we had all the patent medicines in the known world,
even to the "all-sufficient medicine for mankind" of Mr Enouy; having
which, I wondered, on my first arrival, why we troubled ourselves about
any others. The shop was large, and at the back part there was a most
capacious iron mortar, with a pestle to correspond. The first floor was
tenanted by Mr Cophagus, who was a bachelor; the second floor was let;
the others were appropriated to the housekeeper, and to those who formed
the establishment. In this well-situated tenement, Mr Cophagus got on
swimmingly. I will therefore, for the present, sink the shop, that my
master may rise in the estimation of the reader, when I describe his
person and his qualifications.
Mr Phineas Cophagus might have been about forty-five years of age when I
first had the honour of an introduction to him in the receiving room of
the Foundling Hospital. He was of the middle height, his face was thin,
his nose very much hooked, his eyes small and peering, with a
good-humoured twinkle in them, his mouth large, and drawn down at one
corner. He was stout in his body, and carried a considerable
protuberance before him, which he was in the habit of patting with his
left hand very complacently; but although stout in his body, his legs
were mere spindles, so that, in his appearance, he reminded you of some
bird of the crane genus. Indeed, I may say, that his whole figure gave
you just such an impression as an orange might do, had it taken to
itself a couple of pieces of tobacco pipes as vehicles of locomotion. He
was dressed in a black coat and waistcoat, white cravat and high collar
to his shirt, blue cotton net pantaloons and Hessian boots, both fitting
so tight, that it appeared as if he was proud of his spindle shanks. His
hat was broad-brimmed and low, and he carried a stout black cane with a
gold top in his right hand, almost always raising the gold top to his
nose when he spoke, just as we see doctors represented at a consultation
in the caricature prints. But if his figure was strange, his language
and manners were still more so. He spoke, as some birds fly, in jerks,
intermixing his words, for he never completed a whole sentence, with
_um--um--_and ending it with "_so on,_" leaving his hearers to supply
the context from the heads of his discourse. Almost always in motion, he
generally changed his position as soon as he had finished speaking,
walking to any other part of the room, with his cane to his nose, and
his head cocked on one side, with a self-sufficient tiptoe gait. When I
was ushered into his presence, he was standing with two of the
governors. "This is the lad," said one of them, "his name is _Japhet_."
"Japhet," replied Mr Cophagus; "um, scriptural--Shem, Ham, _um_--and so
on. Boy reads?"
"Very well, and writes a very good hand. He is a very good boy, Mr
Cophagus."
"Read--write--spell--good, and _so on_. Bring him
up--rudiments--spatula--write labels--um--M.D. one of these days--make a
man of him--and so on," said this strange personage, walking round and
round me with his cane to his nose, and scrutinising my person with his
twinkling eyes. I was dismissed after this examination and approval, and
the next day, dressed in a plain suit of clothes, was delivered by the
porter at the shop of Mr Phineas Cophagus, who was not at home when I
arrived.