"Come hither, neighbor Sea-coal--God hath blessed you with a good name:
to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read
comes by Nature."
Much Ado about Nothing.
It has already been said, that the hour at which the action of the tale
must re-commence, was early morning. The usual coolness of night, in a
country extensively covered with wood, had passed, and the warmth of a
summer morning, in that low latitude, was causing the streaks of light
vapor, that floated about the meadows, to rise above the trees. The
feathery patches united to form a cloud that sailed away towards the
summit of a distant mountain, which appeared to be a common rendezvous for
all the mists that had been generated by the past hours of darkness.
Though the burnished sky announced his near approach, the sun was not yet
visible. Notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, a man was already
mounting a little ascent in the road, at no great distance from the
southern entrance of the hamlet, and at a point where he could command a
view of all the objects described in the preceding chapter. A musket
thrown across his left shoulder, with the horn and pouch at his sides,
together with the little wallet at his back, proclaimed him one who had
either been engaged in a hunt, or in some short expedition of even a less
peaceable character. His dress was of the usual material and fashion of a
countryman of the age and colony, though a short broadsword, that was
thrust through a wampum belt which girded his body, might have attracted
observation. In all other respects, he had the air of an inhabitant of the
hamlet, who had found occasion to quit his abode on some affair of
pleasure or of duty, that had made no very serious demand on his time.
Whether native or stranger, few ever passed the hillock named, without
pausing to gaze at the quiet loveliness of the cluster of houses that lay
in full view from its summit. The individual mentioned loitered as usual,
but, instead of following the line of the path, his eye rather sought some
object in the direction of the fields. Moving leisurely to the nearest
fence, he threw down the upper rails of a pair of bars, and beckoned to a
horseman, who was picking his way across a broken bit of pasture land, to
enter the highway by the passage he had opened.
"Put the spur smartly into the pacer's flank," said he who had done this
act of civility, observing that the other hesitated to urge his beast
across the irregular and somewhat scattered pile; "my word for it, the
jade goes over them all, without touching with more than three of her four
feet. Fie, doctor! there is never a cow in the Wish-Ton-Wish, but it would
take the leap to be in the first at the milking."
"Softly, Ensign;" returned the timid equestrian, laying the emphasis on
the final syllable of his companion's title, and pronouncing the first as
if it were spelt with the third instead of the second vowel.
"Thy courage is meet for one set apart for deeds of valor, but it would be
a sorrowful day when the ailing of the valley should knock at my door, and
a broken limb be made the apology for want of succor. Thy efforts will
not avail thee, man; for the mare hath had schooling, as well as her
master. I have trained the beast to methodical habits, and she hath come
to have a rooted dislike to all irregularities of movement. So, cease
tugging at the rein, as if thou wouldst compel her to pass the pile in
spite of her teeth, and throw down the upper bar altogether."
"A doctor in these rugged parts should be mounted on one of these ambling
birds of which we read," said the other, removing the obstacle to the
secure passage of his friend; "for truly a journey at night, in the paths
of these clearings, is not always as safe moving as that which is said to
be enjoyed by the settlers nearer sea."
"And where hast found mention of a bird of a size and velocity fit to be
the bearer of the weight of a man?" demanded he who was mounted, with a
vivacity that betrayed some jealousy on the subject of a monopoly of
learning. "I had thought there was never a book in the valley, out of mine
own closet, that dealeth in these abstrusities!"
"Dost think the scriptures are strangers to us? There--thou art now in the
public path, and thy journey is without danger. It is matter of marvel to
many in this settlement, how thou movest about at midnight, amongst
upturned roots of trees, holes, logs and stumps, without falling--"
"I have told thee, Ensign, it is by virtue of much training given to the
beast. Certain am I, that neither whip nor spur would compel the animal to
pass the bounds of discretion. Often have I travelled this bridle-path,
without fear as in truth without danger, when sight was a sense of as
little use as that of smelling."
"I was about to say, falling into thine own hands, which would be a
tumble of little less jeopardy than even that of the wicked spirits."
The medical man affected to laugh at his companion's joke; but,
remembering the dignity suited to one of his calling, he immediately
resumed the discourse with gravity--
"These may be matters of levity, with those who know little of the
hardships that are endured in the practice of the settlements. Here have I
been on yonder mountain, guided by the instinct of my horse--"
"Ha! hath there been a call at the dwelling of my brother Ring?" demanded
the pedestrian, observing, by the direction of the other's eye, the road
he had been travelling.
"Truly, there hath; and at the unseasonable hour that is wont, in a very
unreasonable proportion of the cases of my practice."
"And Reuben numbereth another boy to the four that he could count
yesterday?"
The medical man held up three of his fingers, in a significant manner, as
he nodded assent.
"This putteth Faith something in arrears," returned he who has been called
Ensign, and who was no other than the reader's old acquaintance Eben
Dudley, preferred to that station in the train-band of the valley. "The
heart of my brother Reuben will be gladdened by these tidings, when he
shall return from the scout."
"There will be occasion for thankfulness, since he will find seven beneath
a roof where he left but four!"
"I will close the bargain with the young captain for the mountain lot,
this very day!" muttered Dudley, like one suddenly convinced of the
prudence of a long-debated measure. "Seven pounds of the colony money
is no usurer's price, after all, for a hundred acres of
heavily-timbered land; and they in full view of a settlement where
boys come three at a time!"
The equestrian stopped his horse, and regarding his companion intently and
with a significant air, he answered--
"Thou hast now fallen on the clue of an important mystery, Ensign Dudley.
This continent was created with a design. The fact is apparent by its
riches, its climate, its magnitude, its facilities of navigation, and
chiefly in that it hath been left undiscovered until the advanced
condition of society hath given opportunity and encouragement to men of a
certain degree of merit, to adventure in its behalf. Consider, neighbor,
the wonderful progress it hath already made in the arts and in learning,
in reputation and in resources, and thou wilt agree with me in the
conclusion that all this hath been done with a design."
"'Twould be presuming to doubt it; for he hath indeed a short memory, to
whom it shall be necessary to recall the time when this very valley was
little other than a den for beasts of prey, and this beaten highway, a
deer-track. Dost think that Reuben will be like to raise the whole of the
recent gift?"
"With judgment, and by the blessing of Providence. The mind is active,
Ensign Dudley, when the body is journeying among the forests; and much
have my thoughts been exercised in this matter, whilst thou and others
have been in your slumbers. Here have we the colonies in their first
century, and yet thou knowest to what a pass of improvement they have
arrived. They tell me the Hartford settlement is getting to be apportioned
like the towns of mother England, that there is reason to think the day
may come when the provinces shall have a power, and a convenience of
culture and communication, equalling that which belongeth to some parts of
the venerable island itself!"
"Nay, nay, Doctor Ergot," returned the other with an incredulous smile,
"that is exceeding the bounds of a discretionable expectation."
"Thou wilt remember that I said equalling to _certain_ parts. I think we
may justly imagine, that ere many centuries shall elapse, there may be
millions counted in these regions, and truly that, too, where one seeth
nought, at present, but the savage and the beast."
"I will go with any man, in this question, as far as reason will justify;
but doubtless thou hast read in the books uttered by writers over sea, the
matters concerning the condition of those countries, wherein it is plain
that we may never hope to reach the exalted excellence they enjoy."
"Neighbor Dudley, thou seemest disposed to push an unguarded expression to
extremity. I said equalling _certain_ parts, meaning always, too, in
certain things. Now it is known in philosophy, that the stature of man
hath degenerated, and must degenerate in these regions, in obedience to
established laws of nature; therefore it is meet that allowance should be
made for some deficiency in less material qualities."
"It is like, then, that the better sort of the men over sea are
ill-disposed to quit their country," returned the Ensign, glancing an eye
of some unbelief along the muscular proportions of his own vigorous frame.
"We have no less than three from the old countries in our village, here,
and yet I do not find them men like to have been sought for at the
building of Babel."
"This is settling a knotty and learned point by the evidence of a few
shallow exceptions. I presume to tell you, Ensign Dudley, that the
science, and wisdom, and philosophy of Europe, have been exceeding active
in this matter; and they proved to their own perfect satisfaction, which
is the same thing as disposing of the question without appeal, that man
and beast, plant and tree, hill and dale, lake and pond, sun, air, fire
and water, are all wanting in some of the perfectness of the older
regions. I respect a patriotic sentiment, and can carry the disposition to
applaud the bounties received from the hands of a beneficent Creator as
far as any man; but that which hath been demonstrated by science, or
collected by learning, is placed too far beyond the objections of
light-minded cavillers, to be doubted by graver faculties."
"I shall not contend against things that are proven," returned Dudley, who
was quite as meek in discussion as he was powerful and active in more
physical contests; "since it needs be that the learning of men in the old
countries must have an exceeding excellence, in virtue of its great age.
It would be a visit to remember, should some of its rare advantages be
dispersed in these our own youthful regions!"
"And can it be said that our mental wants have been forgotten--that the
nakedness of the mind hath been suffered to go without its comely
vestment, neighbor Dudley? To me, it seemeth, that therein we have
unwonted reason to rejoice, and that the equilibrium of nature is in a
manner restored by the healing exercises of art. It is unseemly in an
unenlightened province, to insist on qualities that have been discreetly
disproven; but learning is a transferable and communicable gift, and it is
meet to affirm that it is to be found here, in quantities adapted to the
wants of the colony."
"I'll not gainsay it, for having been more of an adventurer in the forest
than one who hath travelled in quest of sights among the settlements along
the sea-shore, it may happen that many things are to be seen there, of
which my poor abilities have formed no opinion."
"And are we utterly unenlightened, even in this distant valley, Ensign?"
returned the leech, leaning over the neck of his horse, and addressing his
companion in a mild and persuasive tone, that he had probably acquired in
his extensive practice among the females of the settlement. "Are we to be
classed with the heathen in knowledge, or to be accounted as the
unnurtured men who are known once to have roamed through these forests in
quest of their game? Without assuming any infallibility of judgment, or
aspiring to any peculiarity of information, it doth not appear to my
defective understanding, Master Dudley, that the progress of the
settlement hath ever been checked for want of necessary foresight, nor
that the growth of reason among us hath ever been stunted from any lack of
mental aliment. Our councils are not barren of wisdom, Ensign, nor hath it
often arrived that abstrusities have been propounded, that some one
intellect, to say no more in our own favor, hath not been known to grapple
with, successfully."
"That there are men, or perhaps I ought to say that there _is a
man_, in the valley, who is equal to many marvels in the way of
enlightened gifts--"
"I knew we should come to peaceable conclusions, Ensign Dudley,"
interrupted the other, rising erect in his saddle, with an air of appeased
dignity; "for I have ever found you a discreet and consequent reasoner,
and one who is never known to resist conviction, when truth is pressed
with understanding. That the men from over sea are not often so well
gifted as some--we will say, for the sake of a convenient illustration, as
thyself, Ensign--is placed beyond the reach of debate, since sight
teacheth us that numberless exceptions may be found to all the more
general and distinctive laws of nature. I think we are not likely to carry
our disagreement further?"
"It is impossible to make head against one so ready with his knowledge,"
returned the other, well content to exist in his own person a striking
exception to the inferiority of his fellows; "though it appeareth to me
that my brother Ring might be chosen, as another instance of a reasonable
stature, a fact that thou mayst see, Doctor, by regarding him as he
approaches through yon meadow. He hath been, like myself, on the scout
among the mountains."
"There are many instances of physical merit among thy connexions, Master
Dudley," returned the complaisant physician; "though it would seem that
thy brother hath not found his companion among them. He is attended by an
ill-grown, and, it may be added, an ill-favored comrade, that I know not."
"Ha! It would seem that Reuben hath fallen on the trail of savages! The
man in company is certainly in paint and blanket. It may be well to pause
at yonder opening, and await their coming."
As this proposition imposed no particular inconvenience, the Doctor
readily assented. The two drew nigh to the place where the men, whom
they saw crossing the fields in the distance, were expected to enter
the highway.
But little time was lost in attendance. Ere many minutes had elapsed,
Reuben Ring, accoutred and armed like the borderer already introduced
in this chapter, arrived at the opening, followed by the stranger
whose appearance had caused so much surprise to those who watched
their approach.
"What now, Sergeant," exclaimed Dudley, when the other was within
ear-shot, speaking a little in the manner of one who had legal right to
propound his questions; "hast fallen on a trail of the savage, and made a
captive? or hath some owl permitted one of its brood to fall from the
nest across thy foot-path?"
"I believe the creature may be accounted a man," returned the successful
Reuben, throwing the breech of his gun to the earth, and leaning on its
long barrel, while he intently regarded the half-painted, vacant, and
extremely equivocal countenance of his captive. "He hath the colors of a
Narragansett about the brow and eyes, and yet he faileth greatly in the
form and movements."
"There are anomalies in the physicals of an Indian, as in those of other
men," interrupted Doctor Ergot, with a meaning glance at Dudley. "The
conclusion of our neighbor Ring may be too hasty, since paint is the fruit
of art, and may be applied to any of our faces, after an established
usage. But the evidences of nature are far less to be distrusted. It hath
come within the province of my studies, to note the differences in
formation which occur in the different families of man; and nothing is
more readily to be known, to an eye skilled in these abstrusities, than
the aboriginal of the tribe Narragansett. Set the man more in a position
of examination, neighbors, and it shall shortly be seen to which race he
belongs. Thou wilt note in this little facility of investigation, Ensign,
a clear evidence of most of the matters that have this morning been
agitated between us. Doth the patient speak English?"
"Therein have I found some difficulty of inquiry," returned Reuben, or as
he should now be, and as he was usually called, Sergeant Ring. "He hath
been spoken to in the language of a Christian, no less than in that of a
heathen, and as yet no reply hath been made, while he obeys commands
uttered in both forms of speech."
"It mattereth not," said Ergot, dismounting and drawing near to his
subject, with a look towards Dudley that should seem to court his
admiration.
"Happily the examination before me leaneth but little on any subtleties
of speech. Let the man be placed in an attitude of ease; one in which
nature may not be fettered by restraint. The conformation of the whole
head is remarkably aboriginal, but the distinction of tribes is not to be
sought in these general delineations. The forehead, as you see, neighbors,
is retreating and narrow, the cheek-bones, as usual, high, and the
olfactory member, as in all of the natives, inclining to Roman."
"Now to me it would seem that the nose of the man hath a marked
upturning at the end," Dudley ventured to remark, as the other ran
volubly over the general and well-known distinctive points of physical
construction in an Indian.
"As an exception! Thou seest, Ensign, by this elevation of the bone, and
the protuberance of the more fleshy parts, that the peculiarity is an
exception. I should rather have said that the nose originally inclined to
the Roman. The departure from regularity has been produced by some
casualty of their warfare, such as a blow from a tomahawk, or the gash of
a knife--ay! here thou seest the scar left by the weapon! It is concealed
by the paint, but remove that, and you will find it hath all the form of a
cicatrice of a corresponding shape. These departures from generalities
have a tendency to confound pretenders; a happy circumstance, in itself,
for the progress of knowledge on fixed principles. Place the subject more
erect, that we may see the natural movement of the muscles. Here is an
evidence of great aquatic habits in the dimensions of the foot, which go
to confirm original conceptions. It is a happy proof, through which,
reasonable and prudent conclusions confirm the quick-sighted glances of
practice. I pronounce the fellow to be a Narragansett."
"Is it then a Narragansett that hath a foot to confound a trail?"
returned Eben Dudley, who had been studying the movements and attitudes of
the captive with quite as much keenness, and with something more of
understanding, than the leech. "Brother Ring, hast ever known an Indian
leave such an out-turning foot-print on the leaves?"
"Ensign, I marvel that a man of thy discretion should dwell on a slight
variety of movement, when a case exists in which the laws of nature may be
traced to their sources. This training for the Indian troubles hath made
thee critical in the position of a foot. I have said that the fellow is a
Narragansett, and what I have uttered hath not been lightly ventured. Here
is the peculiar formation of the foot, which hath been obtained in
infancy, a fullness in the muscles of the breast and shoulders, from
unusual exercise in an element denser than the air, and a nicer
construction in--"
The physician paused, for Dudley had coolly advanced to the captive, and,
raising the thin robe of deer-skin which was thrown over the whole of his
superior members, he exposed the unequivocal skin of a white man. This
would have proved an embarrassing refutation to one accustomed to the
conflict of wits; but monopoly, in certain branches of knowledge, had
produced in favor of Doctor Ergot an acknowledged superiority, that, in
its effects, might be likened to the predominating influence of any other
aristocracy, on those faculties that have been benumbed by its operation.
His opinion changed, which is more than can be said of his countenance,
for, with the readiness of invention which is so often practised in the
felicitous institutions we have named, and by which the reasoning instead
of regulating is adapted to the practice, he exclaimed with uplifted hands
and eyes that bespoke the fullness of his admiration--
"Here have we another proof of the wonderful agency by which the changes
in nature are gradually wrought! Now do we see in this Narragansett--"
"The man is white!" interrupted Dudley, tapping the naked shoulder, which
he still held exposed to view.
"White, but not a tittle the less a Narragansett. Your captive, beyond a
doubt, oweth his existence to Christian parentage, but accident hath
thrown him early among the aboriginals, and all those parts, which were
liable to change, were fast getting to assume the peculiarities of the
tribe. He is one of those beautiful and connecting links in the chain of
knowledge, by which science followeth up its deductions to demonstration."
"I should ill brook coming to harm for doing violence to a subject of the
King," said Reuben Ring, a steady, open-faced yeoman, who thought far less
of the subtleties of his companion, than of discharging his social duties
in a manner fitting the character of a quiet and well-conditioned citizen.
"We have had so much of stirring tidings, latterly, concerning the manner
the savages conduct their warfare, that it behoveth men in place of trust
to be vigilant; for," glancing his eyes towards the ruin of the distant
block-house, "thou knowest, brother Dudley, that we have occasion to be
watchful, in a settlement as deep in the forest as this."
"I will answer for the indemnity, Sergeant Ring," said Dudley, with an air
of dignity. "I take upon myself the keeping of this stranger, and will see
that he be borne, properly and in fitting season, before the authorities.
In the mean time, duty hath caused us to overlook matters of moment in thy
household, which it may be seemly to communicate. Abundance hath not been
neglectful of thy interests, during the scout."
"What!" demanded the husband, with rather more of earnestness than was
generally exhibited by one of habits as restrained as his own; "hath the
woman called upon the neighbors, during my absence?"
Dudley nodded an assent.
"And shall I find another boy beneath my roof?"
Doctor Ergot nodded three times with a gravity that might have suited a
communication even more weighty than the one he made.
"Thy woman rarely doth a good turn by halves, Reuben. Thou wilt find that
she hath made provision for a successor to our good neighbor Ergot, since
a seventh son is born in thy house."
The broad, honest face of the father flushed with joy, and then a feeling
less selfish came over him. He asked, with a slight tremor in the voice,
that was none the less touching for coming from the lips of one so stout
of frame and firm of movement--
"And the woman?--in what manner doth Abundance bear up under the
blessing?"
"Bravely," returned the leech; "go to thy dwelling, Sergeant Ring, and
praise God that there is one to look to its concerns, in thy absence. He
who hath received the gift of seven sons, in five years, need never be a
poor nor a dependent man, in a country like this. Seven farms, added to
that pretty homestead of mountain-land which thou now tillest, will render
thee a patriarch in thine age, and sustain the name of Ring, hundreds of
years hence, when these colonies shall become peopled and powerful, and, I
say it boldly, caring not who may call me one that vaunteth out of reason,
equal to some of your lofty and self-extolled kingdoms of Europe--ay, even
peradventure to the mighty sovereignty of Portugal, itself! I have
enumerated thy future farms at seven, for the allusion of the Ensign to
the virtues of men born with natural propensities to the healing art,
must be taken as pleasant speech, since it is a mere delusion of old
wives' fancy, and it would be particularly unnecessary, here, where every
reasonable situation of this nature is already occupied. Go to thy wife,
Sergeant, and bid her be of good cheer; for she hath done herself, thee,
and thy country, a service, and that without dabbling in pursuits foreign
to her comprehension."
The sturdy yeoman, on whom this rich gift of Providence had been
dispensed, raised his hat, and placing it decently before his face, he
offered up a silent thanksgiving for the favor. Then, transferring his
captive to the keeping of his superior and kinsman, he was soon seen
striding over the fields towards his upland dwelling, with a heavy foot,
though with a light heart.
In the mean time, Dudley and his companion bestowed a more particular
attention on the silent and nearly motionless object of their curiosity.
Though the captive appeared to be of middle age, his eye was unmeaning,
his air timid and uncertain, and his form cringing and ungainly. In all
these particulars, he was seen to differ from the known peculiarities of a
native warrior.
Previously to departing, Reuben Ring had explained, that while traversing
the woods, on that duty of watchfulness to which the state of the colony
and some recent signs had given rise, this wandering person had been
encountered and secured, as seemed necessary to the safety of the
settlement. He had neither sought nor avoided his captor; but when
questioned concerning his tribe, his motive for traversing those hills,
and his future intentions, no satisfactory reply could be extracted. He
had scarcely spoken, and the little that he said was uttered in a jargon
between the language of his interrogator and the dialect of some barbarous
nation. Though there was much in the actual state of the colonies, and in
the circumstances in which this wanderer had been found, to justify his
detention, little had in truth been discovered, to supply a clue either to
any material facts in his history, or to any of his views in being in the
immediate vicinity of the valley.
Guided only by this barren information, Dudley and his companion
endeavored, as they moved towards the hamlet, to entrap their prisoner
into some confession of his object, by putting their questions with a
sagacity not unusual to men in remote and difficult situations, where
necessity and danger are apt to keep alive all the native energies of
the human mind. The answers were little connected and unintelligible,
sometimes seeming to exhibit the finest subtlety of savage cunning, and
at others to possess the mental helplessness of appearing the most
abject fatuity.