“There's a youth in this city, it were a great pity
That he from our lasses should wander awa';
For he's bonny and braw, weel-favoured witha',
And his hair has a natural buckle and a'.
His coat is the hue of his bonnet so blue;
His pocket is white as the new-driven snaw;
His hose they are blue, and his shoon like the slae,
And his clean siller buckles they dazzle us a'.”
BURNS.
We had selected our time well, as respects the hour of departure. It was
young ebb, and the boat floated swiftly down the creek, though the high
banks of the latter would have prevented our feeling any wind, even
if there were a breeze on the river. Our boat was of some size,
sloop-rigged and half-decked; but Neb's vigorous arms made her move
through the water with some rapidity, and, to own the truth, the lad
sprang to his work like a true runaway negro. I was a skilful oarsman
myself, having received many lessons from my father in early boyhood,
and being in almost daily practice for seven mouths in the year. The
excitement of the adventure, its romance, or what for a short time
seemed to me to be romance, and the secret apprehension of being
detected, which I believe accompanies every clandestine undertaking,
soon set me in motion also. I took one of the oars, and, in less than
twenty minutes, the Grace & Lucy, for so the boat was called, emerged
from between two, high, steep banks, and entered on the broader bosom of
the Hudson.
Neb gave a half-suppressed, negro-like cry of exultation, as we shot
out from our cover, and ascertained that there was a pleasant and fair
breeze blowing. In three minutes we had the jib and mainsail on the
boat, the helm was up, the sheet was eased off, and we were gliding
down-stream at the rate of something like five miles an hour. I took the
helm, almost as a matter of course; Rupert being much too indolent to do
anything unnecessarily, while Neb was far too humble to aspire to such
an office while Master Miles was there, willing and ready. In that day,
indeed, it was so much a matter of course for the skipper of a Hudson
river craft to steer, that most of the people who lived on the banks
of the stream imagined that Sir John Jervis, Lord Anson, and the other
great English admirals of whom they had read and heard, usually amused
themselves with that employment, out on the ocean. I remember the hearty
laugh in which my unfortunate father indulged, when Mr. Hardinge once
asked him how he could manage to get any sleep, on account of this
very duty. But we were very green, up at Clawbonny, in most things that
related to the world.
The hour that succeeded was one of the most painful I ever passed in my
life. I recalled my father, his manly frankness, his liberal bequests in
my favour, and his precepts of respect and obedience; all of which, it
now seemed to me, I had openly dishonoured. Then came the image of my
mother, with her love and sufferings, her prayers, and her mild but
earnest exhortations to be good. I thought I could see both these
parents regarding me with sorrowful, though not with reproachful
countenances. They appeared to be soliciting my return, with a species
of silent, but not the less eloquent, warnings of the consequences.
Grace and Lucy, and their sobs, and admonitions, and entreaties to
abandon my scheme, and to write, and not to remain away long, and all
that tender interest had induced two warm-hearted girls to utter at
our parting, came fresh and vividly to my mind. The recollection proved
nearly too much for me. Nor did I forget Mr. Hardinge, and the distress
he would certainly feel, when he discovered that he had not only lost
his ward, but his only son. Then Clawbonny itself, the house, the
orchards, the meadows, the garden, the mill, and all that belonged to
the farm, began to have a double value in my eyes, and to serve as so
many cords attached to my heart-strings, and to remind me that the rover
“Drags at each remove a lengthening chain.'”
I marvelled at Rupert's tranquility. I did not then understand his
character as thoroughly as I subsequently got to know it. All that he
most prized was with him in the boat, in fact, and this lessened his
grief at parting from less beloved objects. Where Rupert was, there was
his paradise. As for Neb, I do believe his head was over his shoulder,
for he affected to sit with his face down-stream, so long as the hills
that lay in the rear of Clawbonny could be at all distinguished. This
must have proceeded from tradition, or instinct, or some latent negro
quality; for I do not think the fellow fancied _he_ was running away. He
knew that his two young masters were; but he was fully aware he was my
property, and no doubt thought, as long as he staid in my company, he
was in the line of his legitimate duty. Then it was _my_ plan that he
should return with the boat, and perhaps these backward glances were no
more than the shadows of coming events, cast, in his case, _behind_.
Rupert was indisposed to converse, for, to tell the truth, he had eaten
a hearty supper, and began to feel drowsy; and I was too much wrapped up
in my own busy thoughts to solicit any communications. I found a sort of
saddened pleasure in setting a watch for the night, therefore, which had
an air of seaman-like duty about it, that in a slight degree revived
my old taste for the profession. It was midnight, and I took the first
watch myself, bidding my two companions to crawl under the half-deck,
and go to sleep. This they both did without any parley, Rupert occupying
an inner place, while Neb lay with his legs exposed to the night air.
The breeze freshened, and for some time I thought it might be necessary
to reef, though we were running dead before the wind. I succeeded in
holding on, however, and I found the Grace & Lucy was doing wonders in
my watch. When I gave Rupert his call at four o'clock, the boat was just
approaching two frowning mountains, where the river was narrowed to
a third or fourth of its former width; and, by the appearance of the
shores, and the dim glimpses I had caught of a village of no great size
on the right bank, I knew we were in what is called Newburgh Bay. This
was the extent of our former journeyings south, all three of us having
once before, and only once, been as low as Fishkill Landing, which lies
opposite to the place that gives this part of the river its name.
Rupert now took the helm, and I went to sleep. The wind still continued
fresh and fair, and I felt no uneasiness on account of the boat. It is
true, there were two parts of the navigation before us of which I had
thought a little seriously, but not sufficiently so to keep me awake.
These were the Race, a passage in the Highlands, and Tappan Sea; both
points on the Hudson of which the navigators of that classical stream
were fond of relating the marvels. The first I knew was formidable only
later in the autumn, and, as for the last, I hoped to enjoy some of its
wonders in the morning. In this very justifiable expectation, I fell
asleep.
Neb did not call me until ten o'clock. I afterwards discovered that
Rupert kept the helm for only an hour, and then, calculating that from
five until nine were four hours, he thought it a pity the negro should
not have his share of the glory of that night. When I was awakened, it
was merely to let me know that it was time to eat something--Neb would
have starved before he would precede his young master in that necessary
occupation--and I found Rupert in a deep and pleasant sleep at my side.
We were in the centre of Tappan, and the Highlands had been passed in
safety. Neb expatiated a little on the difficulties of the navigation,
the river having many windings, besides being bounded by high mountains;
but, after all, he admitted that there was water enough, wind enough,
and a road that was plain enough. From this moment, excitement kept us
wide awake. Everything was new, and everything seemed delightful. The
day was pleasant, the wind continued fair, and nothing occurred to mar
our joy. I had a little map, one neither particularly accurate, nor very
well engraved; and I remember the importance with which, after having
ascertained the fact myself, I pointed out to my two companions the
rocky precipices on the western bank, as New Jersey! Even-Rupert was
struck with this important circumstance. As for Neb, he was actually in
ecstasies, rolling his large black eyes, and showing his white teeth,
until he suddenly closed his truly coral and plump lips, to demand what
New Jersey meant? Of course I gratified this laudable desire to obtain
knowledge, and Neb seemed still more pleased than ever, now he had
ascertained that New Jersey was a State. Travelling was not as much
of an every-day occupation, at that time, as it is now; and it was, in
truth, something for three American lads, all under nineteen, to be able
to say that they had seen a State, other than their own.
Notwithstanding the rapid progress we had made for the first few hours
of our undertaking, the voyage was far from being ended. About noon the
wind came out light from the southward, and, having a flood-tide, we
were compelled to anchor. This made us all uneasy, for, while we were
stationary, we did not seem to be running away. The ebb came again, at
length, however, and then we made sail, and began to turn down with the
tide. It was near sunset before we got a view of the two or three
spires that then piloted strangers to the town. New York was not the
“commercial emporium” in 1796; so high-sounding a title, indeed, scarce
belonging to the simple English of the period, it requiring a very
great collection of half-educated men to venture on so ambitious an
appellation--the only emporium that existed in America, during the
last century, being a slop-shop in Water street, and on the island of
Manhattan. _Commercial_ emporium was a flight of fancy, indeed, that
must have required a whole board of aldermen, and an extra supply of
turtle, to sanction. What is meant by a _literary_ emporium, I leave
those editors who are “native and to the _manor_ born,” to explain.
We first saw the State Prison, which was then new, and a most imposing
edifice, according to our notions, as we drew near the town. Like the
gallows first seen by a traveller in entering a strange country, it was
a pledge of civilization. Neb shook his head, as he gazed at it, with a
moralizing air, and said it had a “wicked look.” For myself, I own I
did not regard it altogether without dread. On Rupert it made less
impression than on any of the three. He was always somewhat obtuse on
the subject of morals.{*]
{Footnote *: It may be well to tell the European who shall happen to
read this book, that in America a “State's Prison” is not for prisoners
of State, but for common rogues: the term coming from the name borne by
the local governments.]
New York, in that day, and on the Hudson side of the town, commenced
a short distance above Duane street. Between Greenwich, as the little
hamlet around the State Prison was called, and the town proper, was an
interval of a mile and a half of open fields, dotted here and there with
country-houses. Much of this space was in broken hills, and a few piles
of lumber lay along the shores. St. John's church had no existence, and
most of the ground in its vicinity was in low swamp. As we glided
along the wharves, we caught sight of the first market I had then ever
seen--such proofs of an advanced civilization not having yet made their
way into the villages of the interior. It was called “The Bear,” from
the circumstance that the first meat ever exposed for sale in it was of
that animal; but the appellation has disappeared before the intellectual
refinement of these later times--the name of the soldier and statesman,
Washington, having fairly supplanted that of the bear! Whether this
great moral improvement was brought about by the Philosophical Society,
or the Historical Society, or “The Merchants,” or the Aldermen of New
York, I have never ascertained. If the latter, one cannot but admire
their disinterested modesty in conferring this notable honour on the
Father of his country, inasmuch as all can see that there never has been
a period when their own board has not possessed distinguished members,
every way qualified to act as god-fathers to the most illustrious
markets of the republic. But Manhattan, in the way of taste, has never
had justice done it. So profound is its admiration for all the higher
qualities, that Franklin and Fulton have each a market to himself, in
addition to this bestowed on Washington. Doubtless there would have
been Newton Market, and Socrates Market, and Solomon Market, but for
the patriotism of the town, which has forbidden it from going out of
the hemisphere, in quest of names to illustrate. Bacon Market
would doubtless have been too equivocal to be tolerated, under any
circumstances. Then Bacon was a rogue, though a philosopher, and markets
are always appropriated to honest people. At all events, I am rejoiced
the reproach of having a market called “The Bear” has been taken away,
as it was tacitly admitting our living near, if not absolutely in, the
woods.
We passed the Albany basin, a large receptacle for North River craft,
that is now in the bosom of the town and built on, and recognized in it
the mast-head of the Wallingford. Neb was shown the place, for he was to
bring the boat round to it, and join the sloop, in readiness to return
in her. We rounded the Battery, then a circular stripe of grass, with
an earthen and wooden breastwork running along the margin of the
water, leaving a narrow promenade on the exterior. This brought us to
White-Hall, since so celebrated for its oarsmen, where we put in for a
haven. I had obtained the address of a better sort of sailor-tavern in
that vicinity, and, securing the boat, we shouldered the bags, got a boy
to guide us, and were soon housed. As it was near night, Rupert and
I ordered supper, and Neb was directed to pull the boat round to the
sloop, and to return to us in the morning; taking care, however, not to
let our lodgings be known.
The next day, I own I thought but little of the girls, Clawbonny, or Mr.
Hardinge. Neb was at my bed-side before I was up, and reported the Grace
& Lucy safe alongside of the Wallingford, and expressed himself ready to
wait on me in my progress in quest of a ship. As this was the moment of
action, little was said, but we all breakfasted, and sallied forth, in
good earnest, on the important business before us. Neb was permitted
to follow, but at such a distance as to prevent his being suspected of
belonging to our party--a gentleman, with a serving-man at his heels,
not being the candidate most likely to succeed in his application for a
berth in the forecastle.
So eager was I to belong to some sea-going craft, that I would not stop
even to look at the wonders of the town, before we took the direction
of the wharves. Rupert was for pursuing a different policy, having an
inherent love of the genteeler gaieties of a town, but I turned a deaf
ear to his hints, and this time I was master. He followed me with some
reluctance, but follow he did, after some remonstrances that bordered
on warmth. Any inexperienced eye that had seen us passing, would have
mistaken us for two well-looking, smart young sailor-boys, who had
just returned from a profitable voyage, and who, well-clad, tidy and
semi-genteel, were strolling along the wharves as _admirateurs_, not to
say critics, of the craft. _Admirateurs_ we were, certainly, or _I_ was,
at least; though knowledge was a point on which we Were sadly deficient.
The trade of America was surprisingly active in 1797. It had been preyed
upon by the two great belligerents of the period, England and France,
it is true; and certain proceedings of the latter nation were about to
bring the relations of the two countries into a very embarrassed state;
but still the shipping interest was wonderfully active, and, as a whole,
singularly successful. Almost every tide brought in or took out ships
for foreign ports, and scarce a week passed that vessels did not arrive
from, or sail for, all the different quarters of the world. An Indiaman,
however, was our object; the voyage being longer, the ships better, and
the achievement greater, than merely to cross the Atlantic and return.
We accordingly proceeded towards the Fly Market, in the vicinity of
which, we had been given to understand, some three or four vessels of
that description were fitting out. This market has since used its wings
to disappear, altogether.
I kept my eyes on every ship we passed. Until the previous day, I had
never seen a square-rigged vessel; and no enthusiast in the arts ever
gloated on a fine picture or statue with greater avidity than my soul
drank in the wonder and beauty of every ship I passed. I had a large,
full-rigged model at Clawbonny; and this I had studied under my father
so thoroughly, as to know the name of every rope in it, and to have some
pretty distinct notions of their uses. This early schooling was now
of great use to me, though I found it a little difficult, at first,
to trace my old acquaintances on the large scale in which they now
presented themselves, and amid the intricate mazes that were drawn
against the skies. The braces, shrouds, stays and halyards, were all
plain enough, and I could point to either, at a moment's notice; but
when it came to the rest of the running rigging, I found it necessary to
look a little, before I could speak with certainty.
Eager as I was to ship, the indulgence of gazing at all I saw was so
attractive, that it was noon before we reached an Indiaman. This was a
pretty little ship of about four hundred tons, that was called the John.
Little I say, for such she would now be thought, though a vessel of her
size was then termed large. The Manhattan, much the largest ship out of
the port, measured but about seven hundred tons; while few even of
the Indiamen went much beyond five hundred. I can see the John at this
moment, near fifty years after I first laid eyes on her, as she then
appeared. She was not bright-sided, but had a narrow, cream-coloured
streak, broken into ports. She was a straight, black-looking craft,
with a handsome billet, low, thin bulwarks, and waistcloths secured
to ridge-ropes. Her larger spars were painted the same colour as her
streak, and her stern had a few ornaments of a similar tint.
We went on board the John, where we found the officers just topping off
with the riggers and stevedores, having stowed all the provisions and
water, and the mere trifle of cargo she carried. The mate, whose name
was Marble, and a well-veined bit of marble he was, his face resembling
a map that had more rivers drawn on it than the land could feed, winked
at the captain and nodded his head towards us as soon as we met his eye.
The latter smiled, but did not speak.
“Walk this way, gentlemen--walk this way, if you please,” said Mr.
Marble, encouragingly, passing a ball of spun-yarn, all the while, to
help a rigger serve a rope. “When did you leave the country?”
This produced a general laugh, even the yellow rascal of a mulatto, who
was passing into the cabin with some crockery, grinning in our faces
at this salutation. I saw it was now or never, and determined not to be
brow-beaten, while I was too truthful to attempt to pass for that I was
not.
“We left home last night, thinking to be in time to find berths in one
of the Indiamen that is to sail this week.”
“Not _this_ week, my son--not till _next_,” said Mr. Marble, jocularly.
“Sunday is _the_ day. We run from Sunday to Sunday--the better day, the
better deed, you know. How did you leave father and mother?”
“I have neither,” I answered, almost choked. “My mother died a few
months since, and my father, Captain Wallingford, has now been dead some
years.”
The master of the John was a man of about fifty, red-faced,
hard-looking, pock-marked, square-rigged, and of an exterior that
promised anything but sentiment. Feeling, however, he did manifest,
the moment I mentioned my father's name. He ceased his employment, came
close to me, gazed earnestly in my face, and even looked kind.
“Are you a son of Captain Miles Wallingford?” he asked in a low
voice--“of Miles Wallingford, from up the river?”
“I am, sir; his only son. He left but two of us, a son and a daughter;
and, though under no necessity to work at all, I wish to make this Miles
Wallingford as good a seaman as the last, and, I hope, as honest a man.”
This was said manfully, and with a spirit that must have pleased; for
I was shaken cordially by the hand, welcomed on board, invited into the
cabin, and asked to take a seat at a table on which the dinner had
just been placed. Rupert, of course, shared in all these favours. Then
followed the explanations. Captain Robbins, of the John, had first gone
to sea with my father, for whom I believe he entertained a profound
respect. He had even served with him once as mate, and talked as if he
felt that he had been under obligations to him. He did not question
me very closely, seeming to think it natural enough that Miles
Wallingford's only son should wish to be a seaman.
As we sat at the table, even, it was agreed that Rupert and I should
join the ship, as green hands, the very next morning, signing the
articles as soon as we went on shore. This was done accordingly, and I
had the felicity of writing Miles Wallingford to the roll d'equipage, to
the tune of eighteen dollars per month--seamen then actually receiving
thirty and thirty-five dollars per month--wages. Rupert was taken also,
though Captain Robbins cut _him_ down to thirteen dollars, saying, in
a jesting way, that a parson's son could hardly be worth as much as the
son of one of the best old ship-masters who ever sailed out of America.
He was a shrewd observer of men and things, this new friend of mine, and
I believe understood “by the cut of his jib” that Rupert was not likely
to make a weather-earing man. The money, however, was not of much
account in our calculations; and lucky enough did I think myself in
finding so good a berth, almost as soon as looked for. We returned to
the tavern and staid that night, taking a formal leave of Neb, who was
to carry the good news home, as soon as the sloop should sail.
In the morning a cart was loaded with our effects, the bill was
discharged, and we left the tavern. I had the precaution not to go
directly alongside the ship. On the contrary, we proceeded to an
opposite part of the town, placing the bags on a wharf resorted to by
craft from New Jersey, as if we intended to go on board one of them. The
cartman took his quarter, and drove off, troubling himself very little
about the future movements of two young sailors. Waiting half an hour,
another cart was called, when we went to the John, and were immediately
installed in her forecastle. Captain Robbins had provided us both with
chests, paid for out of the three months' advance, and in them we found
the slops necessary for so long a voyage. Rupert and I immediately put
on suits of these new clothes, with regular little round tarpaulins,
which so much altered us in appearance, even from those produced by our
Ulster county fittings, that we scarce knew each other.
Rupert now went on deck to lounge and smoke a segar, while I went aloft,
visiting every yard, and touching all three of the trucks, before I
returned from this, my exploring expedition. The captain and mates and
riggers smiled at my movements, and I overheard the former telling his
mate that I was “old Miles over again.” In a word, all parties seemed
pleased with the arrangement that had been made; I had told the officers
aft of my knowledge of the names and uses of most of the ropes; and
never did I feel so proud as when Mr. Marble called out, in a loud
tone--
“D'ye hear there, Miles--away aloft and unreeve them fore-top-gallant
halyards, and send an end down to haul up this new rope, to reeve a
fresh set.”
Away I went, my head buzzing with the complicated order, and yet I had
a very tolerable notion of what was to be done. The unreeving might
have been achieved by any one, and I got through with that without
difficulty; and, the mate himself helping me and directing me from the
deck, the new rope was rove with distinguished success. This was the
first duty I ever did in a ship, and I was prouder of it than of any
that was subsequently performed by the same individual. The whole time
I was thus occupied, Rupert stood lounging against the foot of the
main-stay, smoking his segar like a burgomaster. His turn came next,
however, the captain sending for him to the cabin, where he set him at
work to copy some papers. Rupert wrote a beautiful hand, and he wrote
rapidly. That evening I heard the chief-mate tell the dickey that the
parson's son was likely to turn out a regular “barber's clerk” to the
captain. “The old man,” he added, “makes so many traverses himself on a
bit of paper, that he hardly knows at which end to begin to read it; and
I shouldn't wonder if he just stationed this chap, with a quill behind
his ear, for the v'y'ge.”
For the next two or three days I was delightfully busy, passing half the
time aloft. All the sails were to be bent, and I had my full share in
the performance of this duty. I actually furled the mizen-royal with my
own hands--the ship carrying standing royals--and it was said to be very
respectably done; a little rag-baggish in the bunt, perhaps, but secured
in a way that took the next fellow who touched the gasket five minutes
to cast the sail loose. Then it rained, and sails were to be loosened to
dry. I let everything fall forward with my own hands, and, when we came
to roll up the canvass again, I actually managed all three of the royals
alone; one at a time, of course. My father had taught me to make a
flat-knot, a bowline, a clove-hitch, two half-hitches, and such sort of
things; and I got through with both a long and a short splice tolerably
well. I found all this, and the knowledge I had gained from my
model-ship at home of great use to me; so much so, indeed, as to induce
even that indurated bit of mortality, Marble, to say I “was the ripest
piece of green stuff he had ever fallen in with.”
All this time, Rupert was kept at quill-driving. Once he got leave to
quit the ship--it was the day before we sailed--and I observed he went
ashore in his long-togs, of which each of us had one suit. I stole away
the same afternoon to find the post-office, and worked up-stream as far
as Broadway, not knowing exactly which way to shape my course. In that
day, everybody who was anybody, and unmarried, promenaded the west side
of this street, from the Battery to St. Paul's Church, between the hours
of twelve and half-past two, wind and weather permitting. There I
saw Rupert, in his country guise, nothing remarkable, of a certainty,
strutting about with the best of them, and looking handsome in spite of
his rusticity. It was getting late, and he left the street just as I saw
him. I followed, waiting until we got to a private place before I would
speak to him, however, as I knew he would be mortified to be taken for
the friend of a Jack-tar, in such a scene.
Rupert entered a door, and then reappeared with a letter in his hand.
He, too, had gone to the post-office, and I no longer hesitated about
joining him.
“Is it from Clawbonny?” I asked, eagerly. “If so, from Lucy, doubtless?”
“From Clawbonny--but from Grace,” he answered, with a slight change of
colour. “I desired the poor girl to let me know how things passed off,
after we left them; and as for Lucy, her pot-hooks are so much out of
the way, I never want to see them.”
I felt hurt, offended, that my sister should write to any youngster but
myself. It is true, the letter was to a bosom friend, a co-adventurer,
one almost a child of the same family; and I had come to the office
expecting to get a letter from Rupert's sister, who had promised, while
weeping on the wharf, to do exactly the same thing for me; but there
_is_ a difference between one's sister writing to another young man, and
another young man's sister writing to oneself. I cannot even now explain
it; but that there _is_ a difference I am sure. Without asking to see a
line that Grace had written, I went into the office, and returned in a
minute or two, with an air of injured dignity, holding Lucy's epistle in
my hand.
After all, there was nothing in either letter to excite much
sensibility. Each was written with the simplicity, truth and feeling of
a generous-minded, warm-hearted female friend, of an age not to distrust
her own motives, to a lad who bad no right to view the favour other than
it was, as an evidence of early and intimate friendship. Both epistles
are now before me, and I copy them, as the shortest way of letting the
reader know the effect our disappearance had produced at Clawbonny. That
of Grace was couched in the following terms:
DEAR RUPERT:
Clawbonny was in commotion at nine o'clock this morning, and well it
might be! When your father's anxiety got to be painful, I told him the
whole, and gave him the letters. I am sorry to say, he wept. I wish
never to see such a sight again. The tears of two such silly girls as
Lucy and I, are of little account--but, Rupert, to behold an aged man
we love and respect like him, a minister of the gospel too, in tears! It
was a hard sight to bear. He did not reproach us for our silence, saying
he did not see, after our promises, how we could well do otherwise. I
gave your reasons about “responsibility in the premises;” but I don't
think he understood them. Is it too late to return? The boat that
carried you down can bring you back; and oh! how much rejoiced shall
we all be to see you! Wherever you go, and whatever you do, boys, for I
write as much to one as to the other, and only address to Rupert because
he so earnestly desired it; but wherever you go, and whatever you do,
remember the instructions you have both received in youth, and how much
all of us are interested in your conduct and happiness.
Affectionately, yours,
GRACE WALLINGFORD.
To Mr. Rupert Hardinge.
Lucy had been less guarded, and possibly a little more honest. She wrote
as follows:
DEAR MILES:
I believe I cried for one whole hour after you and Rupert left us, and,
now it is all over, I am vexed at having cried so much about two such
foolish fellows. Grace has told you all about my dear, dear father, who
cried too. I declare, I don't know when I was so frightened! I thought
it _must_ bring you back, as soon as you hear of it. What will be done,
I do not know; but _something_, I am certain Whenever father is in
earnest, he says but little. I know he is in earnest _now_. I believe
Grace and I do nothing but think of you; that is, she of _you_, and I
of Rupert; and a little the other way, too--so now you have the whole
truth. Do not fail, on any account, to write before you go to sea, if
you _do_ go to sea, as I hope and trust you will not.
Good-bye.
LUCY HARDINGE.
To Mr. Miles Wallingford.
P.S. Neb's mother protests, if the boy is not home by Saturday night,
she will go after him. No such disgrace as a runaway ever befel her or
hers, and she says she will not submit to it. But I suppose we shall see
_him_ soon, and with him _letters_.
Now, Neb had taken his leave, but no letter had been trusted to his
care. As often happens, I regretted the mistake when it was too late;
and all that day I thought how disappointed Lucy would be, when she came
to see the negro empty-handed. Rupert and I parted in the street, as he
did not wish to walk with a sailor, while in his own long-togs. He did
not _say_ as much; but I knew him well enough to ascertain it, without
his speaking. I was walking very fast in the direction of the ship,
and had actually reached the wharves, when, in turning a corner, I
came plump upon Mr. Hardinge. My guardian was walking slowly, his face
sorrowful and dejected, and his eyes fastened on every ship he passed,
as if looking for his boys. He saw me, casting a vacant glance over
my person; but I was so much changed by dress, and particularly by the
little tarpaulin, that he did not know me. Anxiety immediately drew his
look towards the vessels, and I passed him unobserved. Mr. Hardinge
was walking _from_, and I _towards_ the John, and of course all my risk
terminated as soon as out of sight.
That evening I had the happiness of being under-way, in a real
full-rigged ship. It is true, it was under very short canvass, and
merely to go into the stream. Taking advantage of a favourable wind and
tide, the John left the wharf under her jib, main-top-mast staysail, and
spanker, and dropped down as low as the Battery, when she sheered into
the other channel and anchored. Here I was, then, fairly at anchor in
the stream, Half a mile from any land but the bottom, and burning to see
the ocean. That afternoon the crew came on board, a motley collection,
of lately drunken seamen, of whom about half were Americans, and the
rest natives of as many different countries as there were men. Mr.
Marble scanned them with a knowing look, and, to my surprise, he told
the captain there was good stuff among them. It seems he was a better
judge than I was myself, for a more unpromising set of wretches, as to
looks, I never saw grouped together. A few, it is true, appeared well
enough; but most of them had the air of having been dragged through--a
place I will not name, though it is that which sailors usually quote
when describing themselves on such occasions. But Jack, after he has
been a week at sea, and Jack coming on board to duty, after a month of
excesses on shore, are very different creatures, morally and physically.
I now began to regret that I had not seen a little of the town. In 1797,
New York could not have had more than fifty thousand inhabitants,
though it was just as much of a paragon then, in the eyes of all good
Americans, as it is today. It is a sound patriotic rule to maintain that
_our_ best is always _the_ best, for it never puts us in the wrong. I
have seen enough of the world since to understand that we get a great
many things wrong-end foremost, in this country of ours; undervaluing
those advantages and excellencies of which we have great reason to be
proud, and boasting of others that, to say the least, are exceedingly
equivocal. But it takes time to learn all this, and I have no intention
of getting ahead of my story, or of my country; the last being a most
suicidal act.
We received the crew of a Saturday afternoon, and half of them turned in
immediately. Rupert and I had a good berth, intending to turn in and out
together, during the voyage; and this made us rather indifferent to
the movements of the rest of our extraordinary associates. The kid, at
supper, annoyed us both a little; the notion of seeing one's food in
a round _trough_, to be tumbled over and cut from by all hands, being
particularly disagreeable to those who have been accustomed to plates,
knives and forks, and such other superfluities. I confess I thought of
Grace's and Lucy's little white hands, and of silver sugrar-toogs, and
of clean plates and glasses, and table-cloths--napkins and silver forks
were then unknown in America, except on the very best tables, and not
always on them, unless on high days and holidays--as we were going
through the unsophisticated manipulations of this first supper.
Forty-seven years have elapsed, and the whole scene is as vivid to my
mind at this moment, as if it occurred last night. I wished myself one
of the long-snouted tribe, several times, in order to be in what is
called “keeping.”
I had the honour of keeping an anchor-watch in company with a grum old
Swede, as we lay in the Hudson. The wind was light, and the ship had a
good berth, so my associate chose a soft plank, told me to give him a
call should anything happen, and lay down to sleep away his two hours in
comfort. Not so with me. I strutted the deck with as much importance as
if the weight of the State lay on my shoulders--paid a visit every five
minutes to the bows, to see that the cable had not parted, and that the
anchor did not “come home”--and then looked aloft, to ascertain that
everything was in its place. Those were a happy two hours!
About ten next morning, being Sunday, and, as Mr. Marble expressed it,
“the better day, the better deed,” the pilot came off, and all hands
were called to “up anchor.” The cook, cabin-boy, Rupert and I, were
entrusted with the duty of “fleeting jig” and breaking down the coils of
the cable, the handspikes requiring heavier hands than ours. The anchor
was got in without any difficulty, however, when Rupert and I were
sent aloft to loose the fore-top-sail. Rupert got into the top via the
lubber's hole, I am sorry to say, and the loosing of the sail on both
yard-arms fell to my duty. A hand was on the fore-yard, and I was next
ordered up to loose the top-gallant-sail. Canvass began to fall and open
all over the ship, the top-sails were mast-headed, and, as I looked down
from the fore-top-mast cross-trees, where I remained to overhaul the
clew-lines, I saw that the ship was falling off, and that her sails
were filling with a stiff north-west breeze. Just as my whole being was
entranced with the rapture of being under-way for Canton, which was then
called the Indies, Rupert called out to me from the top. Ha was pointing
at some object on the water, and, turning, I saw a boat within a hundred
feet of the ship. In her was Mr. Hardinge, who at that moment caught
sight of us. But the ship's sails were now all full, and no one on deck
saw, or at least heeded, the boat. The John glided past it, and, the
last I saw of my venerated guardian, he was standing erect, bare-headed,
holding both arms extended, as if entreating us not to desert him!
Presently the ship fell off so much, that the after-sails hid him from
my view.
I descended into the top, where I found Rupert had shrunk down out of
sight, looking frightened and guilty. As for myself, I got behind the
head of the mast, and fairly sobbed. This lasted a few minutes, when an
order from the mate called us both below. When I reached the deck, the
boat was already a long distance astern, and had evidently given up the
idea of boarding us. I do not know whether I felt the most relieved or
pained by the certainty of this fact.