I may briefly narrate. It being the sickly season and very few ships in
port, Maum Buckey's business was somewhat at a stand-still, and with
little difficulty I obtained from her a fortnight's holiday. I might
have spent it with no small pleasure, and even profit, at one of her
up-country plantations, or at the Estate of some other Planter; for I
had friends and to spare among the white Overseers and Bookkeepers; and
although the Gentry--that is to say, the Enriched Adventurers, who
deemed themselves such--were of course too High and Mighty to associate
with one of my Mean Station, I was at no loss for companions among those
of my own degree. So bent upon a frolic, and being by this time a good
Rider and a capital shot, I joined a band of wild young Slips like
myself, to go up the country hunting the miserable Negroes that had
Marooned, as it was called. These Maroons were runaway slaves who had
bid a sudden good-by to bolts and shackles, whips and rods, and shown
their Tyrants a clean pair of heels, finding their covert in the dense
jungles that covered the mountain slopes, where they lived on the wild
animals and birds they could shoot or snare, and sometimes making
descents to the nearest plantations, thence to carry off cattle, ponies,
or pigs, or whatever else they could lay their felonious hands upon.
These were the Blacks again, you will say, with a vengeance, and at many
Thousand Miles' distance from Charlwood Chase: but those poor varlets of
Deerstealers in England never dreamt of taking Human Life, save when
defending their own, in a fair stand-up Fight; whereas the Maroons had
no such scruples, and spared neither age, nor sex, nor Degree--that had
a white skin--in their bloodthirsty frenzy. The Savage Indians in the
American plantations, who will swoop down on some peaceful English
settlement, slaying, scalping, and Burning up men, women, and
children,--with other Horrors and Outrages not to be described in decent
terms,--are just on a par with these black Maroons. Now and again would
be found among them some Household Runaways, or Field Hands born into
slavery on the Plantations,--and these were most useful in acting as
spies or scouts; but as a rule the Head Men and Boldest Villains among
the Maroons were Savage Negroes, just fresh from Africa, on whom the
bonds of servitude had sate but for a short time, and who in the jungle
were as much at Home as though they were in their native wilds again. Of
great stature, of prodigious strength, amazing Agility, and astounding
natural cunning, these creatures were as ferocious as Wild Baboons that
had lived among civilized mankind just long enough to learn the Art of
firing off a Gun and wielding a cutlass, instead of brandishing a
Tree-branch or heaving a Cocoa-nut. They were without Pity; they were
without knowledge that theirs was a cut-throat, nay, a cannibal trade.
The white man had made war on them, and torn them from their Homes,
where they were happy enough in their Dirt and Grease, their War-paint,
and their idolatrous worship of Obeah and Bungey. 'Twas these
Men-monsters that we went to hunt. The Planters themselves were
somewhat chary of dealing with them; for the cruelty which the Maroons
inflicted on those who fell into their power were Awful alone to
contemplate, much more so to Endure; but they were glad enough when any
gang of young Desperadoes of the meaner white sort--which, speaking not
for myself, I am inclined to believe the Meanest and most Despicable of
any sort or condition of Humanity--would volunteer to go on a Maroon
Hunt. We were to have a Handsome Recompense, whether our enterprise
succeeded or failed; but were likewise stimulated to increased exertion
by the covenanted promise of so many dollars--I forget how many now--for
every head of a Maroon that we brought at our saddlebows to the place of
Rendezvous. And so we started one summer morning, some twenty strong,
all young, valiant, and not overscrupulous, armed, I need scarcely say,
to the teeth, and mounted on the rough but fleet ponies of the country.
A train of Negroes on whom we could Depend--that is, by the strict
application of the law of Fear, not Kindness, and who stood in such
Terror of us, and of our ever-ready Thongs, Halters, Pistols, and
Cutlasses, as scarcely to dare call their souls their own--followed us
with Sumpter mules well laden with provisions, kegs of drink, both of
water and ardent, and additional ammunition. I was full of glee at the
prospects of this Foray, vowed that it was a hundred times pleasanter
than making out Maum Buckey's washing-books, and hearing her scold her
laundry-wenches; and longed to prove to my companions that the Prowess I
had shown at twelve--ay, and before that age, when I brained the
Grenadier with the Demijohn--had not degenerated now that I was turned
sixteen, and far away from my own country. So we rode and rode, who but
we, and dined gaily under spreading trees, boasting of the brave deeds
we would do when we had tracked the black Marooning vagabonds to their
lair. At which those Negro servants upon whom we could depend grinned
from ear to ear, and told us in their lingo that they "oped we would
soon Dam black negar tief out, and burn his Fader like canebrake."
"'Tis strange," I thought, "that these creatures have not more
compassion for their fellows whom we are hunting." To be sure, they were
mostly of the Household breed, between whom and the fresh-imported
Negroes held to field-service there is little sympathy. It escaped me to
tell you that we had with us yet more powerful and Trustworthy
auxiliaries than either our arms, our Horses, or our servants; being
none other than nine couples of ferocious Bloodhounds, of a breed now
extinct in Jamaica, and to be found only at this present moment, I
believe, in the island of Cuba. These animals, which were of a terrible
Ferocity and exquisitely keen scent, were kept specially for the purpose
of hunting Maroons,--such are the Engines which Tyrannical Slavery is
compelled to have recourse to,--and were purposely deprived of food
beyond that necessary for their bare sustenance, that they might more
fully relish the Recompense that awaited them when they had hunted down
their prey.
Gaily we went on our Road rejoicing, now by mere bridle-paths, and now
plunging our hardy little steeds right through the bristling underwood,
when there burst upon us one of those terrible Tornadoes, or Tempests of
wind and rain, so common in the Western Indies. The water came down in
great solid sheets, drenching us to the skin in a moment; the sky was
lit up for hundreds of miles round by huge blasts of lurid fire; the
wind tore great branches off trees, and hurled them across the bows of
our saddles, or battered our faces with their soaked leaves or sharp
prickles. The very Dogs were blinded and baffled by this tremendous
protest of nature; and in the very midst of the storm there broke from
an ambuscade a band of Maroons, three times as strong as our own, who
fell upon us like incarnate Demons as they were. Our hounds had found
their scent long before,--just after dinner, indeed,--and we had been
following it for some two hours;--even now it was Reeking close upon us,
but we little deemed how Near. I suppose that those Negro Rascals, whom
we had trusted so implicitly, and on whom we thought that we could
Depend so thoroughly, had Betrayed us. This was the second time in my
short Life that I fallen into an Ambuscade; and Lo! each time the
"Blacks" had been mixed up with my misadventure.
These naked Maroons cared nothing about the Storm, whose torrents ran
off their well-oiled carcasses like water off a Duck's back. There was a
very Devil of a fight. 'Twas every one for himself, and the Tempest for
us all. The Runaways were well armed, and besides could use their teeth
and nails to better advantage than many a doughty Fighting man can use
his weapons, and clawed and tore at us like Wild Beasts. I doubt not we
should have got the worst of it, but that we were Mounted,--and a Man on
horseback is three times a Footman in a Hand-to-Hand encounter; and
again, that our good friends the bloodhounds, that had been scared
somewhat at the outset, recovered their self-possession, and proceeded
each to pin his Maroon, and to rend him to pieces with great
deliberation. In the end, that is to say, after about twenty-seven
minutes' sharp tussling, Dogs, Horses, and Men were victorious; and, as
we surveyed the scene of our Triumph, the storm had spent its fury. The
black clouds cleared away as suddenly as they had darkled upon us; the
Golden Sun came out, and the dreadful scene was lit up in Splendour.
Above, indeed, it was all Beauty and Peace for Nature cannot be long
Angry. The trees all seemed stemmed and sprayed with glistering jewels;
the moisture that rose had the tints of an hundred Rainbows; the long
grass flashed and waved; the many birds in the boughs began to sing
Hymns of Thankfulness and Joy. But below, ah, me! what a Dreadful scene
of blood and Carnage, and Demoniac revenge, there was shown! Of our band
we had lost three Killed; five more were badly Wounded; and there was
not one of us but had some Hurt of greater or lesser seriousness. We had
killed a many of the Maroons; and the two or three that had escaped with
Life, albeit most grievously gashed, were speedily put out of their
misery. Had we been seeking for Runaway house-servants, we might have
taken prisoners; but with a wild African Maroon this is not serviceable.
The only thing that you can do with him, when you catch him, is to kill
him.
The Dead Bodies of our unfortunate companions were laid across the
sumpter mule's back; but when we came to look for our train of
dependable Negroes, we found that all save three had fled. These did so
very strongly protest their Innocence, and plead their abiding by us as
a proof thereof, that I felt half inclined to hold them blameless. There
were those among us, however, who were of a far different opinion, and
were for lighting a fire of branches and Roasting them into confession.
But there was a Scotch gentleman among us by the name of MacSawby, who,
being of a Practical turn (as most of his countrymen are, and, indeed,
Edinborough in Scotland is about the most Practical town that ever I was
in), pointed out that we were all very Tired, and needed Refreshment
and Repose; that the task of Torturing Negroes gave much trouble and
consumed more time ("Aiblins it's douce wark," quoth the Scotch
gentleman); that all the wood about was sopped with wet (and a "Dry
Roast's best," said the Scotch Gentleman); and finally, that the thing
could be much better done at home, where we had proper Engines and
Instruments for inflicting Exquisite Agony, and proper Slaves to
administer the same. So that for the nonce, and for our own Convenience,
we were Merciful, and promised to defer making necessary Inquisition, by
means of Cowhide, Tamarind-bush, and Fire-cane, until our return to the
Rendezvous.
I should tell you that I got a Hurt in my hand from a kind of short
Chopper or Tommyhawk that one of the Savages carried. 'Twas fortunately
my left hand, and seeming but a mere scratch, I thought little or
nothing about it. But at the end of the second day it began to swell and
swell to a most alarming size and tumorous discoloration, the
inflammation extending right up my arm, even to my shoulder. Then it
was agreed on all sides that the blade of the Tommyhawk with which I had
been stricken must have been anointed with some subtle and deadly
Poison, of the which not only the Maroons but the common Household and
Town Negroes have many, preparing them themselves, and obstinately
refusing, whether by hope of Reward or fear of punishment, to reveal the
secret of their components to the Whites. I had to rest at the nearest
Plantation to our battle-field; and the Planter--who had been a captain
in the Chevalier de St. George's service (the old one), that had come
out here, after the troubles of 1715, a Banished man, but had since been
pardoned, and had taken to Planting, and grown Rich--was kind enough to
permit me to be taken into his house and laid in one of his own
Guest-chambers, where I was not only tended by his own Domestics, but
was sometimes favoured with the Attention and sympathy of his angelic
Wife, a young woman of most charming countenance and lively manners,
most cheerful, pious, and Humane, taking great care of her slaves,
physicking them frequently, reading to them little books written by
persons of the Nonconforming persuasion,--a kind of doctrine that I
never could abide,--and never suffering them to be whipped upon a
Sunday. However, I grew worse; whereupon one Mr. Sprague, that set up
for surgeon, but was more like a Boatswain turned landsman than that, or
than a Horse, came to me, and was for cutting off my arm, to prevent
mortification. There were two obstacles in the way of this operation's
performance; the first being that Mr. Sprague had no proper instruments
by him beyond a fleam and a syringe, with which, and with however good a
will, you can scarcely sever a Man's limb from his Body; and the next
that Mr. Sprague was not sober. Love for a young widow had driven him to
drinking, it was said; but I think that it was more the Love of Liquor
to which his bibulous backslidings were owing. 'Twas lucky for me that
he had nor saw nor tourniquet with him. It is true that he departed in
quest of some Carpenter's Tools, which he declared would do the job
quite as well; but, again to my good luck, the carpenter was as Rare a
pottlepot as he; and they two took to boiling rum in a calabash and
drinking of it, and smoking of Tobacco, and playing at Skimming Dish
Hob, Spie the Market, Shove-halfpenny, Brag, Put, and Dilly Dally, and
other games that reminded them of the old country, for days and nights
together so that the old Negro woman that belonged to the carpenter,
seeing them gambling and drinking in the morning just as she had left
them drinking and gambling the overnight, stared with amazement like a
Mouse in a Throwster's mill. And by the time they had finished their
Rouse I was, through Heaven's kindness and the segacity of a Negro nurse
named Cubjack, cured. This woman, it is probable knew the secret of the
Poison from the bitter effects of which I was suffering. At all events,
she took me in hand, and by warm fomentations and bathings, and some
outward applications of herbs and anointed bandages, reduced the
swelling and restored my hand to its proper Form and Hue. At the end of
the week I was quite cured, and able to resume my journey back to
Kingston. I did not fail to express my gratitude to the hospitable
Planter and his Lady, and I gave the Nurse Cubjack half a dollar and a
silver tobacco-stopper that had been presented to me by Maum Buckey.
As a perverse destiny would have it, this Tobacco-stopper, this harmless
trinket, was the very means of my losing my situation, and parting in
anger from my Pumpkin-faced Patroness. Although I was, even at the
present dating, but a raw lad, she took it into her head to be jealous
of me, and all about this silver pipe-stopper. She vowed I had given it
away to some Quadroon lass up country; she would not hearken to my
protests of having bestowed it upon the nurse who had saved my life; and
indeed when, at my instance, inquiries were made, Cubjack's replies did
not in any way bear out my statement. The unhappy creature, who had
probably sold my Tobacco-stopper for a few joes, or been deluded out of
it by the Obeah Man, and was afraid of being flogged if discovery were
made thereof, positively denied that I had given her anything beyond the
half-dollar. You see that these Negroes have no more idea of the
pernicious quality of the Sin of Lying, than has a white European
shopkeeper deluding a Lady into buying of a lustring or a paduasoy; and
see what similar vices there are engendered among savages and Christian
folks by opposite causes.
We had a fearful war of words together, Maum Buckey and myself. She was
a bitter woman when vexed, and called me "beggar buckra," "poor white
trash," "tam lily thief," and the like. Whereat I told her plainly that
I had no liking for her lackered countenance, and that she was a
mahogany-coloured, slave-driving, old curmudgeon, that in England would
be shown about at the fairs for a penny a peep. At the which she
screamed with rage, and threw at me a jug of sangaree. Heavy enough it
was; but the old lady had not so good an Aim as I had when I brained
the Grenadier with the demijohn.
We had little converse after that. There were some wages due, and these
she paid me, telling me that I might "go to de Debble," and that if she
ever saw me again, she hoped it would be to see me hanged. I could have
got Employment, I doubt not, in Jamaica, or in some other of the
islands; but I was for the time sick of the Western Indies, and was
resolved, come what might, to tempt my fortune in Europe. A desire to
return to England first came over me; nor am I ashamed to confess that,
mingled with my wish to see my own country once more, was a Hope that I
might meet the Traitorous Villain Hopwood, and tell him to his teeth
what a false Deceiver I took him to be. You see how bold a lad can be
when he has turned the corner of sixteen; but it was always so with John
Dangerous.
Some difficulty, nay, considerable obstacles, I encountered in obtaining
a ship to carry me to Europe. The vindictive yellow woman, with whom
(through no fault of my own, I declare) I was in disfavour, did so
pursue me with her Animosity as to prejudice one Sea Captain after
another against me; and it was long ere any would consent to treat with
me, even as a Passenger. To those of my own nation did she in particular
speak against me with such virulence, that in sheer despite I abandoned
for the time my intention of going to England, and determined upon
making for some other part of Europe, where I might push my fortune. And
there being in port early in the winter a Holland ship, named the
_Gebrueder_, which was bound for Ostend, I struck a bargain with the
skipper of her, a decent man, whose name was Van Ganderdrom, and
prepared to leave the colony in which I had passed over four years of my
Eventful Life. Some friends who took an interest in me,--the "bright
English lad," as they called me,--and who thought I had been treated by
Maum Buckey with some unnecessary degree of Harshness, made up a purse
of money for me, by which I was enabled to pay my Passage Money in
advance, and lay in a stock of Provisions for the voyage; for, save in
the way of Schnapps, Cheeses, and Herrings, the Holland ships were at
that time but indifferently well Found. When every thing was paid, I
found that I had indeed but a very small Surplus remaining; but there
was no other way, and I bade adieu to the island of Jamaica, as I
thought, for ever.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Vide Stedman's _Surinam_.
[D] _Dean of Myddelton's_ Evidence, Clarkson's Committee.
CHAPTER THE THIRD.
OF WHAT BEFEL ME IN THE LOW COUNTRIES.
I LANDED, after a long and tedious voyage, at the town of Ostend, it
being the Spring time of the year 1729, with Youth, Health, a strong
Frame, and a comely Countenance (as they told me), indeed, but with just
two Guineas in my pouch for all my Fortune. Many a Lord Mayor of London
has begun the World, 'tis said, with a yet more slender Provision (I
wonder what Harpy Hopwood had to begin with?) and Eighteenpence would
seem to be the average of Capital Stock for an Adventurer that is to
heap up Riches. Still I seemed to have made my Start in Life's Voyage a
great many times, and to have been very near ending with it more than
once--witness the Aylesbury Assizes. Thus I felt rather Despondency
than Hope at being come almost to manhood, and but to a beggarly Estate
of Two-and-forty shillings. "But," said I, "courage, Jack Dangerous;
thou hast strong legs and a valorous Stomach; at least thou needst not
starve (bar cutpurses) for two-and-forty days; thou hast a knowledge of
the French tongue," (which I picked up from a Huguenot emigrant from
Languedoc, who was a Barber at Kingston, and taught me for well-nigh
nothing), "and art cunning of Fence. Be the world thine Oyster, as the
Playactor has it, and e'en open it with a Spadapoint." In this not
unwholesome frame of mind I came out of the ship _Gebrueder_, and set
foot on the Port with something like a Defiance of Fortune's scurvy
tricks fermenting within me.
The Shipmaster recommended me to a very cleanly Tavern, by the sign of
the Red Goose, kept in the Ganz-Straet by a widow-woman named Giessens.
'Twas Goose here, Goose there, and Goose every where, so it seemed with
this good Frau; for she served Schiedam at the sign of the Goose, and
she lived in Goose Street. She had herself a long neck and a round body
and flat feet, going waddling and hissing about the house, a-scolding of
her maids, like any Michaelmas matron among the stubble; not to forget
her children, of whom she had a flock, waddling and hissing in their
little way too, and who were all as like goslings as Sherris is like
Sack. Little would have lacked for her to give me hot roast goose to my
dinner, and goose-pie for supper, and some unguent of goose-grease to
anoint my Pate with, had it chanced to be broken; and truly if I had
lived under the sign of the Goose for many days, I might have taken to
waddling and hissing too in my own Generation, and have been in time as
brave a goose as any of them. Here there was a civil enough company of
Seafaring men, Mates, Pilots, Supercargoes, and the like, with some
Holland traders, and, if I mistake not, a few Smugglers that had
contraband dealings in Cambrics, Steenkirks, Strong waters, and Point of
Bruxelles. These last worthies did I carefully avoid; for since my
Boyish Mischances I had imbibed a wholesome fear of hurting the King's
Revenue, or meddling in any way with his Prerogative. "Well out of it,
Jack Dangerous," I said. "Touch not His Majesty's Deer, nor His
Majesty's Customs, and there shall be no sense of a tickling in thy
windpipe when thou passest a post that is like unto the sign of the
Tyburn Tavern." 'Tis astonishing how gingerly a man will walk who has
once been within an ace of dancing upon nothing.
There is a mighty quantity of Sand and good store of Mud at Ostend, and
a very comforting smell of fish; and so the High Dutch gentry, who, poor
souls, know very little about the sea, and see no more salt water from
Life's beginning unto its end than is contained within the compass of a
pickling-tub, do use the place much for Bathing, and brag about their
Dips and Flounderings, crying out, _Die Zee ist mein Lust_, in their
plat Deutsch, as though they had all been born so many Porpoises. I
would walk upon a morning much upon the Ramping-Parts, or Fortifications
of the Town, watching whole caravans of Bathers, both of High and Low
Dutch Gentry, coming to be dipped, borne into the Sea by sturdy Fellows
that carried them like so many Sacks of Coals, and who would Discharge
them into shallows with little more Ceremony than they would use in
shooting such a cargo of Fuel into a cellar. "When my Money is gone,"
thought I, "I may earn a crust by the like labour." But then I bethought
me that I was a Stranger among them; that they might be Jealous of me;
and, indeed, when I imparted my design to the Widow-woman Giessens, who
was beholden to me, she said, for that I had warned her how poor a guest
I was growing, she told me that much interest was needed to obtain one
of these Bather's places--almost as much, forsooth, as is wanted to get
the berth of a Tide-waiter in England,--and these rascals were always
waiting for the tide. Something like a Patent had to be humbly sued for,
and fat fees paid to Syndics and Burgomasters, for the fine Privilege of
sousing the gentry in the Brine. The good woman offered me Credit till I
should find employment, and did so vehemently press a couple of
Guilders upon me to defray my present charges, that I had not the heart
to refuse, although I took care to avise her that my prospects of being
able to repay her were as far off as the Cape of Good Hope.
It chanced one morning that I was walking out of the Town by the side of
the Sea below the fortified parts to the Norrard. 'Twas fine and calm
enough, and there was not so much Swell as to take a Puppy off his
swimming legs; but suddenly I heard a great Outcry and Hubbub, and
perceived, some ten feet from me in the Water the head of a Man
convulsed with Terror, and who was crying out with all his might that he
was Drowning, that he should never see his dear Mamma again, and that
all his Estate would go to the Heir-at-Law, whom, as well as he could,
for screeching and spluttering, he Cursed heartily in the English
tongue. I wondered how he could be in such a Pother, seeing that he was
so close to shore, and that moreover there were those nigh unto him who
could have helped him if they had had a Mind to it. Close upon him was
a Fat gentleman in a clergyman's cassock and a prodigious Fluster, who
kept crying out, "Save him! Save him!" but budged not a foot to come to
his assistance himself; and, but a dozen yards or so, was a Flemish
Fellow, one of the Bathers, who, so far as I could make out from his
shaking his head and crying out, "nicht" and "Geld,"--the rest of his
lingo was Greek to me,--did refuse to save the Gentleman unless he had
more Money given him. For these Bathing-men were a most Mercenary Pack.
In a much shorter time than it has taken me to put this on Paper I had
off coat and vest, kicked off my shoes, and struck into the water. 'Twas
of the shallowest, and I had but to wade towards him who struggled. When
I came anigh him, he must even catch hold of me, clinging like Grim
Death or a Barnacle to the bottom of a Barge, very nearly dragging me
down. But I was happily strong; and so, giving him with my disengaged
arm a sound Cuff under the ear, the better to Preserve his Life, I
seized him by the waist with the other, and so dragged him up high, if
not dry, unto the Sandy Shore. And a pretty sight he looked there,
dripping and Shivering, although the sun shone Brightly, and he well
nigh Blue with Fright.
What do you think the first words were that my Gentleman uttered so soon
as he had got his tongue clear of Salt and Seaweed?
"You villain!" he cries to me, "you have assaulted me. Take witness,
Gentlemen, he hath stricken me under the Ear. I will have him in the
King's Bench for Battery. Mr. Hodge, you saw it; and you leave me this
day week for allowing your Patron to be within an inch of Drowning."
I was always of a Hot Temper, and this cavalier treatment of me after my
Services threw me into a Rage.
"Why, you little half-boiled Shrimp," I bawled out, "I have a mind to
clout your under t'other Ear, that Brothers may not complain of Favour,
and e'en carry you to where I found you."
The Gentleman in the cassock began to break out in excuses, saying that
his Patron would reward me, and that he was glad that an Englishman had
been by to rescue a Person of Quality from such great Peril, when that
Flanders Oaf younger--the extortionate villain--would not stir a finger
to help him unless he had half a guilder over and above his fee.
"Let him dry and dress himself," I said, in Dudgeon; "and if he be not
civil to a Countryman, who is as good as he, I will kick him back to his
Inn, and you too."
"A desperate youth!" murmured the Clergyman, as he handed his Patron a
great bundle of towels; "and very meanly clad."
I walked away a few paces while the gentleman dried and dressed himself.
Had I obeyed the Promptings of Pride, I should have gone on my ways and
left him to his likings; but I was exceedingly Poor, and thought it
Foolish to throw away the chance of receiving what his Generosity might
bestow upon me. The Bathing-Man, who had been already paid his Fee, had
the impudence to come up and ask for more "Geld,"--for minding the
gentleman's clothes, as I gathered from the speech of the clergyman, who
understood Flemish. He was, however, indignantly refused, and, not
relishing, perchance, the likelihood of a scuffle with three Englishmen,
straightway decamped.