tender attentions had completely won my heart. With a thrill of
pleasure, covered by maiden modesty, I heard his first declaration of
unalterable love for me. He saw too plainly the power he had over me.
His aunt refused, as usual, her consent to our union; and, after
upbraiding me for seducing the affections of her nephew, locked me up
in my room, while she retained him in the house. Stolen interviews
were the natural consequence. He was all indignation at his aunt for
her unkindness to me; and, if possible, more tender and respectful than
ever. To escape the tyranny I had so long suffered, I unfortunately
agreed to elope with him, and be privately married. I explained to him
the situation in which I was placed, by my father's will--he declared he
loved me for myself alone. I was now completely in the toils; gave my
consent; on the third night left my late father's house in his company,
and set off in a postchaise, which was drawn up at a short distance from
the gate. Next forenoon, we were lawfully married--his aunt taking no
steps to prevent it by following us, but contenting herself by putting
on the appearance of grief for my folly and ingratitude to her, for all
the care and attention she had bestowed upon my education, and the base
return I had made for all her kindness. Can there be a doubt she was
the cause of all? Nay--she was the first to make known to me the prior
history of my husband--the man whom she had first introduced to me, and
to whom she gave every facility to win my unsuspecting heart. She
herself now blushed not to say that he was a reprobate, without
principle, addicted to every vice, and one whom his friends had found
it out of their power to reclaim. With well-feigned tears of regret,
she upbraided herself for having ever allowed him to enter her
house--ascribing her motive to humanity, and a desire to reclaim him
from his errors; and hinting, when she could, that I had defeated her
good intentions, and ruined myself. Alas! how true the latter part has
proved to me! I and my husband wrote to her letter after letter, in
vain. She refused, in the most insulting manner, to allow me a shilling
of my father's fortune. All I obtained was my own personal effects, and
a few of the jewels that had belonged to my mother. Poverty came fast
upon us, and debts increased. My husband had become unkind, and often
absent from me for days--excusing himself by fears for his creditors. In
our extremity, he spoke of emigration to America, describing the country
in glowing colours, and dwelling on the happy prospects he anticipated
from the assistance of some relations he had there. I offered no
objection; for I had now no partiality for one country more than
another--where my husband was, there was my heart and home; and, with a
severe pang, not for their value, but for the sake of her who now was
unconscious of my situation, I parted with the last of my mother's
jewels, to defray the expense of our voyage. My own jewels had been long
since disposed of, to supply our urgent wants. We left Edinburgh, like
guilty creatures, under the cloud of night, for fear of his being
arrested, and proceeded to join the vessel at Aberdeen. I can proceed no
further, lest my heart should burst. My heartless husband had sold me to
the captain, to be disposed of in America--trepanned me north for his
wicked purpose. The rest you know.'
Here her tears could no longer be suppressed; nor could we restrain
ours; yet no one spoke to interrupt her grief. William alone uttered a
few execrations against the aunt and nephew.
The weather continued rough, and the wind contrary, and we suffered much
for a few days from the pitching of the vessel. We were still confined
to the hold by the captain's orders; yet we had no other cause of
complaint, for the mate supplied all our wants in abundance. The
captain, who had continued very ill from the wound in his foot, at
length fevered, and his life was in danger; at his request, the lady
left the hold and waited upon him. He begged forgiveness for the insult
he had offered her; we were all allowed the freedom of the vessel; and
she continued to nurse and watch over him with all that care and
assiduity that belong to women. After a tedious passage of nine weeks,
we arrived off Baltimore, in the State of Maryland; the captain, who
recovered, being still very lame, though able to come upon deck. As soon
as we cast anchor off the mouth of the harbour (for we did not enter) a
message was sent to the town by the captain; and, on the following day,
a regular market was held upon our deck, when we were put up to sale,
and knocked down by an auctioneer to the highest bidder. William and
Peter brought large sums, being expert tradesmen, and their time of
service was short, compared with the rest. The others, like myself, were
fit only for field work, and our time, to make up the sum of forty
pounds, which we averaged, was three years. We all thought the captain
would have given the injured lady her liberty, and a present, for her
care of him; but avarice was his ruling passion, and stifled gratitude.
He had paid her unprincipled husband a large sum for his victim, and was
determined to reimburse himself. All the favour he conferred upon her
was, that he did not dispose of her with the same regardlessness as to
who was the purchaser, but kept her on board several days, while he made
inquiries as to an eligible situation. Those who knew him gave him
little credit for his endeavours, and did not scruple to say that he was
as anxious to drive a good bargain for himself as to find a good master
for her. Whatever was his motive, it turned out very fortunate for her,
as I heard afterwards; for a rich shipowner of the city, whose wife had
died a few months before, satisfied the captain's cupidity, and took
her to his house as a governess to his children, three of whom were
daughters. Before I left Maryland, I heard that she had learned, through
the English papers, which her master regularly got, by one or other of
the many vessels that traded to this port, that her unprincipled husband
had been condemned and executed for robbing his aunt of a large sum of
money, and forging an order upon her banker, not many weeks after we had
left Scotland. Many years afterwards, I learned, in Edinburgh, from
William, who had returned, after a long stay in Baltimore, with a
considerable sum of money, and had commenced builder, that before he
left the city, she had married her master, and was as wealthy and happy
as any lady in the province. But what struck me most forcibly was, the
just retribution that had taken place in her singular fortunes. Her
stepmother was, when he left, actually living an humble dependent upon
her bounty, in Baltimore. It appeared that, after she had succeeded in
forcing her stepdaughter into the fatal marriage with her nephew,
and obtained the object she plotted for--possession of the whole
property--she herself fell a victim to a husband nearly as bad--a
gambler and adventurer, of a most prepossessing figure and address; the
consequence was, that all she possessed was lost by him at play, or
squandered in dissipation. Both had been living in London in extreme
want, when he was detected in swindling transactions to a considerable
amount. Whether guilty or innocent of the fraudulent acts of her
husband, there were many suspicious circumstances which she could not
explain to the satisfaction of a jury, and both were convicted and
banished to the plantations. By good fortune for them, the vessel that
brought them out, bound for Norfolk, in Virginia, had suffered much in
a storm, put into Baltimore in a leaky state, and there landed the
convicts, handing them over to the governor of Maryland. Eliza's
husband, who was in the magistracy of the city, got the list of their
names when they were transferred from the ship to the prison. Several
of them had died on the voyage, from bad fare, confinement, and harsh
treatment; mostly all were sickly, more or less; and Marian was very
ill. From her manners and appearance, Eliza's husband became interested
in her; and, to save her life, had her removed from the hospital in the
jail, to his own house. You may form your own conjectures of the
astonishment of both when they met. Eliza was the most forgiving and
gentle of creatures, as she had shown in her attention to the captain
after his bad usage of her; and, at her request, her husband got from
the governor a grant of their services, during the term the law had
condemned them to serve. The husband ran from the country a few months
after his arrival, and had not been heard of when William came away; but
the wife remained under the protection of her she had attempted to ruin.
To return to myself after this long digression, I and other two of
the young Aberdeen lads were purchased by a farmer, and removed that
afternoon to his home, about twelve miles from Baltimore. A more
pitiable figure, as regards dress, never landed on any shore. I had
still the same remnant of clothes with which I had left Edinburgh; but
now they scarcely held together, and were besmeared with tar; my feet
and legs were clean, but shoes or stockings were a luxury I had been
long unused to. My long yellow hair hung down my back, but covering I
had none for my head. My heart was light and joyous, as was that of my
companions. Our three years of bondage, we thought, would soon pass
away, and the golden period commence. During our ride over the rough
and ill-made road, in a waggon in which our master had brought a load
of tobacco to town, our whole conversation was of our future golden
prospects; but, alas! we were soon awakened from our pleasant
dreams--for, upon our arrival at the farm, which was not until some time
after nightfall, we were placed in a dark out-house, and the door barred
upon us. Our master was a sour-looking, taciturn man, who had scarcely
spoken to us all the way, save to inquire our ages, and what kind of
work we could best perform. For some time we stood close by the door,
unable to speak from surprise and fear. So dark was the place where we
were confined, that we could not see our own hands, even when they
touched our faces. After standing thus, melancholy and terrified, the
bars were withdrawn, and our master entered with a lanthorn and a
basket, in which was abundance of pork and Indian corn, boiled whole,
and still warm, to be eaten as bread. In a surly manner, he ordered us
to take our supper quickly, that we might be ready to turn out in the
morning to work. Young and hungry, we were not long in dispatching our
meal, when, pointing to a quantity of dry grass at one end of our prison
(for I can call it by no other name), he lifted his lanthorn, and left
us to ruminate upon our melancholy situation and dreary prospects under
such a taskmaster. None of us felt inclined to speak; yet it was some
time ere any of us could close our eyes, in consequence of the noise
made by the bull-frogs in a swamp near the farm. If we had not heard
them as we approached the place, and inquired what caused the, to us,
strange sounds, we would have been terribly alarmed. Tired nature at
length prevailed, and I sank asleep. Before sunrise next morning, the
harsh voice of our master, whip in hand, roused us from repose. We
started up, and followed him into the enclosure in front of his barn
and house.
This was an oblong square, enclosed with stout wooden paling, very
thickly set, on the banks of a beautiful stream. At one side were the
buildings, composed entirely of wood--the forest, which extended as far
as the eye could reach, was at no great distance in the rear--everything
around indicated the greatest plenty of all that was necessary for the
enjoyment of life, as far as food could administer to it; there were
several cows and horses, sleek and fat, feeding under a shed; brood
sows, with numerous progenies; and fowls actually swarming around. The
morning was beautiful; the air, filled with a thousand grateful odours
from the fields, imparting to our young minds a buoyancy we had been
strangers to since we had left our own native shores. Our hasty survey
was made in a few minutes, while we stood waiting further orders. Our
master, who had entered another part of the building, returned,
accompanied by two of the most miserable-looking men I had ever
seen--as wretchedly clad as I was myself, with the exception that they
had broad straw-hats upon their heads. Misery and they seemed to have
been long intimates; my heart sank within me at their appearance; both
had wooden clogs, consisting of a cut of about a foot long from the
branch of a tree, chained to their right leg at the ancle; and this they
carried over their arm. In addition, one of them had a stout collar
round his neck, from which projected three iron hooks, about a foot
from his head. We burst into tears, thinking we were to be similarly
equipped, and would have fled, had flight been possible; all the riches
in the world we would have counted a mean reward to the person who would
have transported us from the tyrant's farm-yard to the beautiful hills
and valleys of Scotland. As they came to where we stood gazing through
our tears, three tall, bony, sallow-looking lads, sons of the
proprietor, issued from the principal building, with implements upon
their shoulders, one of which was given to each of us, and we were now
to begin our work. Before we proceeded, our master said to us, in his
harsh manner--
'Mind ye, lads, you are my bound servants for three years, to do my
will--mayhap for more. If you offer to run away, I will catch you again;
and, besides punishment, dress you so--and he pointed with malicious
triumph to his victims--to prevent your running; and, mark me, for every
day you are absent, you serve me two.'
In spite of his threat, I believe there was not one of us who did not
resolve to make his escape from him the first opportunity. Had he
treated us kindly, we would have obeyed him with pleasure, nor thought
of anything but completing our period of service; but humanity was
foreign to his nature, and short-sighted avarice alone possessed all his
thoughts. He had himself been a convict in his youth; but had for many
years been free, and had purchased, when it was yet part of the forest,
the lot of land he now cultivated. All had been the creation of his own
labour, and he was proud of it to excess. When in good humour, which was
seldom the case, his feats against, and escapes from, the Indians, and
praises of his lands, were the only things upon which he was loquacious.
We soon learned that our two companions in misery were government
convicts, and very bad characters; both had been guilty of many crimes,
and were so hardened that nothing but the strictest surveillance and
coercion could keep them in subjection. They were like tigers in chains,
and threatened the most fearful revenge, as soon as the period of their
servitude expired. This they did openly to his face; and not a day
passed without an altercation, or without some punishment being
inflicted upon them, when they would threaten again until they were
tired, and wish that the Indians might give us a hot wakening before
morning, and yield them an opportunity of making tobacco pouches of the
scalps of the master and his sons.
I often wondered how he kept his temper; he seemed to treat them with
scorn--for his cool, calculating mind had so long been familiar with the
perils of his situation, that he heeded them not so long as he conceived
himself secure. To us three youths, who trembled at his voice, he was
not excessively cruel, further than working us almost beyond our
strength. From sunrise to sunset, we were allowed no intervals but a few
minutes to swallow our food, of which we had abundance and to spare.
'Eat well, work well,' he used to say, 'is American fashion.'
I had been with him about six months, and was literally naked; my skin
had become hard and brown as an Indian's; all my clothing consisted of
some pieces of sheep skin I had contrived for winter wear, and a straw
hat of coarse enough manufacture, which I had plaited and made for
myself on the Sabbath-days, to screen me from the intolerable glare
and heat of the sun. Our appearance gave us no concern, for we were
completely excluded from all intercourse with human beings, except
those upon the plantation; and strangers were seldom seen in our
neighbourhood. At the time I speak of, our master had been down to
Baltimore, with a waggon load of produce, consisting of pork and salted
beef, &c. He had made an excellent market, and returned in a fit of good
humour; at our return from labour, he called us three into the house, as
we were passing to our prison, to be locked up for the night. We were
surprised at the invitation, for we had never been within the walls of
the dwelling-house. As soon as we entered, he inquired if we would
purchase any clothing from him, seeing we were so much in want of them.
Scarcely could we believe our ears and eyes, when, opening a box, he
displayed canvas jackets, trousers, and check shirts.
'You surely mean to make sport with us,' said I; 'for you know well that
we have not one farthing among us three to purchase the smallest
necessary.'
'That, I guess, is not of much matter,' he replied, in his quiet, husky
manner, 'if I choose to give you a long credit.'
We at once agreed to his own terms, and I signed a bond for one hundred
dollars, for a pair of coarse canvas trousers, a jacket of the same, two
check shirts, and a good straw hat. My heart misgave me when I saw his
peculiar smile, as he placed my bond in his pocket-book. Pleased as I
was with my finery, I feared I had done wrong, but did not know to what
extent until next morning, when we joined the convicts at labour. As
soon as they saw us in our new dresses, they burst out into a loud
laugh.
'Oh!' said they, 'has the old villain limed his birds already? Poor
greenhorns, you have sold yourselves for years to come. How are you to
redeem the debts you have incurred, and others you must yet incur, but
by new engagements? He has you in his toils.' And they again laughed
aloud.
We resumed our labour with heavy hearts; despondency came upon us, and
we began to droop and pine. At night, when we retired to rest, and,
until overpowered by fatigue and sleep, we talked of nothing but plans
of escape. Numbers were formed and abandoned; to fly to the forests, we
must perish through hunger and fatigue, or wander on, unknowing where to
go; in the direction of the coast, was still more impracticable, for all
the planters were in league with each other, to prevent the escape of
the convicts and palantines, and no one could travel unmolested, without
a certificate of his freedom. Our situation appeared to us truly without
remeid, and bitterly did we lament our cruel fate.
Fortunately for us, we had--more to have something to keep a lingering
hope of escape awake, than with any prospect of success--for several
Sundays employed ourselves in undermining a part of the clay floor under
the dried grass upon which we slept. The hole passed under the logs; and
we had ascertained that it would be opened behind a wild vine that
spread its luxuriance over a great part of the side and roof of our
prison. We did not open it at the outside, but contented ourselves by
pushing a thin piece of a branch through, lest we had been discovered by
the lynx eyes of our master and his sons. For weeks, things had remained
in this state, we resolving to run for it, and again our hearts failing
us, when one night we were aroused out of our sleep by fearful cries,
mixed with the firing of rifles. It was the war-whoop of the Indians,
who had come down on a plundering expedition, and to avenge some old
aggression our master had perpetrated upon them. So well had they
concerted their plans, that the house was surrounded before any one
knew of their being in the neighbourhood. We lay still and trembled, nor
knew what was passing without. Rifle after rifle cracked, amidst the
whooping of the Indians; no one came to release us from our confined
place, and we were afraid to venture out by our hole, lest we should be
perceived by the savages, and murdered; for we had been informed that,
in a case like the present, they gave no quarter to man, woman, or
child. At length, we could both smell and hear the crackling of fire
raging without. In agony we dashed upon the door; it resisted our utmost
effort; even death by the Indians, was preferable to death by fire in
our present situation--it was horrible and astounding--the noise, too,
was dreadful--animals and men, all the inmates of the enclosure, were
uttering their wildest cries, and rushing round it in distraction. The
fire had caught the place we were in. I entered our mine, and, by
convulsive efforts, forced off the little turf and earth we had left. I
crawled out, never rising from my belly, for I could perceive the
Indians, like fiends, running about in all directions, anxiously gazing
upon every object. The glare of the burning buildings cast a deep red
ray of light around, rendering all fearfully distinct--my companions
followed me--fortunately some tall bushes concealed us from the Indians
as we crawled along the ground like serpents. The building we had left
we saw was now burning most furiously; and the yelling continued. Thus
we lay along upon the ground, trembling lest we would be discovered
every moment. The Indians were passing and repassing where we lay,
with their piercing eyes bent upon the smouldering ruins. The roof
fell in, and no one appearing to issue out, they retired towards the
dwelling-house, where the fire of rifles was still kept up, and the
flames making fearful progress. I have been in several battles, both by
sea and land; but no sound ever met my ears so appalling as the shout
that arose when the unfortunate inmates burst forth to force their way
through their foes, or sell their lives as dearly as they could. The
firing almost immediately ceased, and a fearful stillness ensued, almost
as unbearable in our present situation as the former tumult. The ruins
still continued to smoulder, and we feared even to breathe, lest we
should betray ourselves to the Indians.
At length the sun shone forth in all his glory upon the smoking
ruins--our drooping spirits were partly revived, and we crept to the
edge of the bushes, and timidly looked around--no human being was to be
seen, and, after some time, we ventured to rise to our feet. The Indians
appeared to have retired to the forest with their booty, and we ventured
forth. A sight the most appalling soon met our eyes--there, close by
each other, the old man and two of his sons lay mangled and scalped; the
other had been consumed in the house, having doubtless been shot from
without, and unable to leave it with the others. Soon the nearest
proprietors began to ride up to the scene of murder and desolation,
armed to the teeth, but too late to give any assistance. The bodies of
the two convicts were not found; many believed they had either gone off
or been carried off by the Indians. Being heartily sick of America, I
returned to Baltimore, where I did labouring work for a few months,
until I had got myself well clothed; then agreed with the captain of a
Greenock vessel to work my passage to Scotland, where I arrived, after
an absence of two years and three months. Such is an instance of the
nefarious system of which I was a victim."
THE PARSONAGE:
MY FATHER'S FIRESIDE.
After the lapse of about thirty years, I lately paid a visit to what had
once been my father's fireside. It was in the month of October that I
visited the manse of Kirkhall. My father had been minister of that
parish; and I received a kindly welcome from his worthy successor--one
of the warmest-hearted and most learned men in the Church of Scotland,
whom I have long known and esteemed as a brother. I found myself again
seated beside the hearth in the little parlour which was once gladdened
with a mother's smile--which was once cheered with the childish sports
of brothers and sisters--which was hallowed by the prayers and presiding
virtues of an affectionate father. They are all departed to the land of
spirits!
Yet, on looking round me, every object seemed to assure me that they
were still near--for almost everything else was unchanged. On looking
through the window from the elbow-chair in which I sat, the old and
magnificent lime tree, which, in the days of my youth, spread its
branches and foliage in wide luxuriance over the court, and gave
assurance of shade and shelter, was still unscathed. Its sweet-scented
flowers were indeed faded--for the breath of approaching winter had
touched its verdure; but its variegated green and yellow leaves were the
same as when I had seen them, and attempted, with boyish hands, to
imitate, nearly half a century ago. A little farther off, the "decent
church" peered from among the majestic ash, elm, and chestnut trees,
with which it was surrounded--the growth of centuries--casting a deep
and solemn shadow over the place of graves. The humble offices, and the
corn-yard in which I had rejoiced to mingle in rural occupations and
frolic, were near; and nothing was wanted to realize the scenes of my
youth, save the presence of the venerable patriarch and my mother, and
their little ones grouping around their knees, or at the frugal board.
But the illusion was short-lived. A holly tree, in the adjoining
parterre, caught my eye. When I knew it of old, it was a little bush, in
which the goldfinch and the linnet nestled, and were protected under my
juvenile guardianship; but, now it had grown up to a stately tree. I
saw, in the mirror over the mantelpiece, the image of my own visage, in
which there were lines that time and the world's cares imprint on the
smoothest brow and the most blooming cheek. The yellow locks of my
forehead were fled, and the few remaining hairs were beginning to be
silvered with grey. My son, too, rising almost to manhood, stood up
before me, unconscious of the recollections and visions which flitted
through my mind. These things dispelled my reverie; and my wandering
thoughts were recalled to the realities of the passing hour.
It was on a Saturday evening that I thus revisited Kirkhall; and my
melancholy meditations were soon partially dissipated by the cheerful,
but moderate hospitalities of my host; which were truly such as to make
me feel that I was, as it were, among mine own kindred, and at my
_father's fireside_.
What a flood of emotions and remembrances spring forth at the mental
utterance of these words! On retiring from the parlour, I was ushered
into what was, of old, denominated, in the quaint colloquial language of
Scotland, "The Prophet's Cham'er"--that is, the apartment for study,
which was to be found thus distinguished in all the old manses of our
clergy. It was now a bedroom, the library being established in another
apartment; and I laid my head upon the pillow in a chamber which was
consecrated, in my memory, by the recollection that within its walls
good men had often thought of "the ways of God to man," and prepared
their spirits, in the depths of silence and seclusion, for proclaiming
in the sanctuary the glad tidings of salvation.