THE ISLAND OF PROVIDENCE.
It was some time in the month of March, A.D. 1686, that we landed in
Providence. The settlement--from which the Spaniards had now nothing
to fear--then consisted (it is now, I learn, much larger) of no more
than one hundred and fifty people in all, the men being all sailors,
and ready to carry on again the old trade of privateer or pirate, as
you please to call it, when they should be strong enough to buy or
hire a ship and to equip her.
We stayed on the island for two years and a quarter, or thereabouts.
It is one of an archipelago, for the most part, I believe, desert.
The settlement was, as I have said, but a small one, living in
scattered houses; there were plenty of these to spare (which had
belonged to the former settlement), if one only took the trouble
to clear away the creeping plants and cut down the trees which
had grown up round them since the Spaniards came and destroyed
the colony. Such a house, built of wood, with a shingle roof, we
found convenient for us; and after we had cleared the ground round
it and repaired it, we lived in it. Some of the people helped us
to a porker or two and some chickens. They also gave us some salt
beef and maize to start with. That we had little money (only what
was left over from the sale of Alice's ring) made no difference
to us here, because no one had any at all, and at this time there
was neither buying nor selling on the island--a happy condition
of things which will not, I take it, last long. So great is the
fertility of the ground here, and such is the abundance which
prevails, that we very shortly found ourselves provided with all
that we wanted to make life pleasant. Work there was for us, but
easy and pleasant work--such as weeding our patches of vegetables
and fruit in the early mornings; or going to fish; or planting
maize; or attending to our pigs, poultry, and turkeys; and for the
rest of the time, sitting in the shade conversing. It is none too
hot in this place, though one would not in the summer walk abroad
at noon; nor is it ever too cold. All the fruits which flourish
under the tropics grow here, with those also which belong to the
temperate zone. Here are splendid forests, where you can cut the
mahogany-tree, and build your house, if you please, of that lovely
wood. Here we ourselves grew, for our own use, maize, tobacco,
coffee, cocoa, plantains, pines, potatoes, and many other fruits and
vegetables.
Barnaby soon grew tired of this quiet life, and went on board a
schooner bound for New England, promising that we should hear from
him. After two years we did receive a letter from him, as you
shall immediately learn. When he was gone we carried on a quiet
and peaceful life. Books, paper, and pen there were none upon this
island. Nor were there any clothes, so that the raggedness of our
attire (we were dressed in the sailors' clothes our friends the
privateers gave us) became incredible. I made some kind of guitar on
which we played, and in the evening we would have very good playing
and singing together of such pieces and songs as we could remember.
I made verses, too, for amusement, and Alice learned them. We found
our brother-settlers a rough but honest folk, to whom we taught many
arts: how to procure sea-salt, how to make wine from pineapples,
how to cure the tobacco-leaf--things which greatly added to their
comfort; and, seeing that there was no church on the island, we
every Sabbath held a meeting for prayer and exhortation.
Seeing, then, that we had all that man could desire, with perfect
freedom from anxiety, our liberty, a delightful climate, plenty to
eat and drink--ay, and of the very best--and that at home there was
nothing for us but prison again, and to be sent back to the place
whence we had escaped, we ought, every one will acknowledge, to have
felt the greatest contentment and gratitude for this sure and quiet
refuge. We did not. The only contented members of our household were
John Nuthall and the woman Deb, who cheerfully cultivated the garden
and fed the poultry and the pigs (for we had now everything around
us that is wanted to make life pleasant). Yet we were not contented.
I could read the signs of impatience in the face whose changes I had
studied for so long. Other women would have shown their discontent
in ill-temper and a shrewish tongue; Alice showed hers in silence,
sitting apart, and communing with herself. I daresay I also showed
my discontent; for I confess that I now began to long vehemently
for books. Consider, it was more than two years since I had seen a
book! There were no books at all on the island of Providence--not
one book, except a Bible or two, and, perhaps, a Book of Common
Prayer. I longed, therefore, for the smell of leather bindings, the
sight of books on shelves, and the holy company of the wise and the
ingenious. No one, again, could look upon Robin without perceiving
that he was afflicted with a constant yearning for that which he
could not have. What that was I understood very well, although he
never opened his mind unto me.
Now I confess that at this time I was grievously tormented
with the thought that, Alice's marriage having been no true
marriage--because, first, she was betrayed and deceived; and, next,
she had left her husband at the very church porch--there was no
reason in the world why she should not disregard that ceremony
altogether, and contract a marriage after her own heart. I turned
this over in my mind a long while; and, indeed, I am still of the
opinion that there would have been nothing sinful in such an act.
But the law of the country would not so regard it. That is quite
true. If, therefore, I had advised these unhappy lovers in such
a sense they would have been compelled to live for the rest of
their lives on this island, and their offspring would have been
illegitimate. So that, though the letter of the law caused a most
cruel in justice--_summum jus summa injuria_--it was better that it
should be obeyed. In the end, it was a most happy circumstance that
it was so obeyed.
I have presently to relate the means by which this injustice was
removed. As for my own share in it, I shall neither exaggerate nor
shall I extenuate it. I shall not defend it. I will simply set it
down, and leave judgment to a higher Court than the opinion of those
who read these pages. I must, however, acknowledge that, partly in
Barbadoes and partly in Providence, I learned from the negresses,
who possess many secrets and have a wonderful knowledge of plants
and their powers, the simple remedies with which they treat fevers,
agues, rheumatisms, and other common disorders. I say simple,
because they will, with a single cup of liquor boiled with certain
leaves, or with a pinch of some potent powder gotten from a plant,
effect a speedier cure than our longest prescriptions, even though
they contain more than fifty different ingredients. Had I possessed
this knowledge, for example, while we lay in Exeter Jail, not one
prisoner (except the old and feeble) should have died of the fever.
This said, you will understand presently what it was I did.
It was, then, about the month of March, in the year 1688, that a
ship, laden with wine, and bound from New York to Jamaica, put in
at the port of Providence. Her captain carried a letter for me,
and this was the first news of the world that came to us since our
flight.
The letter was from Barnaby. It was short, because Barnaby had never
practised the art of letter-writing; but it was pertinent. First,
he told us that he had made the acquaintance at Boston (I mean the
little town Boston of New England) of his cousins, whom he found to
be substantial merchants (so that here, at least, the man George
Penne lied not), and zealous upholders of the Independent way of
thinking; that these cousins had given him a hearty welcome for
the sake of his father; that he had learned from them, first, that
the Monmouth business was long since concluded, and, so great was
the public indignation against the cruelties of the Bloody Assize,
that no one would again be molested on that account, not even those
who had been sent abroad should they venture to return. He also
said--but this we understood not--that it was thought things would
before long improve.
'And now,' he concluded, 'my cousins, finding that I am well skilled
and have already navigated a ship with credit, have made me captain
of their own vessel, the _Pilgrim_, which sails every year to
Bristol and back again. She will be despatched in the month of
August or September. Come, therefore, by the first ship which will
set you ashore either at New York or at Boston, and I will give you
all a passage home. Afterwards, if you find not a welcome there, you
may come back with me. Here a physician may find practice, Robin may
find a farm, and sister will be safe from B. B.'
At this proposal we pricked up our ears, as you may very well
believe. Finally we resolved to agree to it, promising each other
to protect Alice from her husband, and to go back to Boston with
Barnaby if we found no reason to stay in England. But the woman
Deb, though she wept at leaving her mistress, would not go back to
the place where her past wickedness might be remembered, and John
Nuthall was also unwilling, for the same reason, to return; and,
as this honest couple had now a kindness for each other, I advised
them to marry and remain where they were. There was on the island
no minister of religion, nor any magistrate or form of government
whatever (yet all were honest); therefore I ventured to hear
their vows of fidelity, and prayed with them while I joined their
hands--a form of marriage, to my mind, as binding and as sacred
as any wanting the assistance of a priest. So we handed over to
them all our property (which was already as much theirs as ours),
and left them in that sunny and delightful place. If the man was a
repentant thief, the woman was a repentant magdalen, and so they
were well matched. I hope and believe that, being well resolved
for the future, they will lead a godly and virtuous life, and will
be blessed with children who will never learn the reason why their
parents left their native country.
There is little trade at Providence, but many vessels touch at the
port, because it lies between the English possessions in America
and those in the West Indies. They put in for water, for fruit, and
sometimes, if they are short-handed, for men, most of them in the
place being sailors. Therefore we had not to wait long before a
vessel put in, bound from Jamaica to New York. We bargained with the
captain for a passage, agreeing that he should find us provisions
and wine, and that we would pay him (by means of Barnaby) on our
reaching Boston (which is but a short distance from New York).
Strange to say, though we had been discontented with our lot, when
we sailed away Alice fell to weeping. We had murmured, and our
murmuring was heard. We should now be permitted to live out what
was left to us of life in England, and we should die and be buried
among our own folk. Yet there are times when I remember the sweet
and tranquil life we led in the island of Providence, its soft and
sunny air, the cool sea-breeze, the shade of its orange groves, and
the fruits which grew in such abundance to our hands.