OCCIDENTAL VAGARIES.
Early on the Monday, we accordingly started on our journey, and that
evening arrived at very comfortable quarters in St Ann's bay.
We did not get under weigh next morning until the sun was high--it was
nearly ten in the forenoon, as we had only to go the length of Prickly
Pear cottage that day, a property belonging to a crony of mine uncle's,
at which we had promised to dine and spend the night on our way to St
Thomas in the Vale, where we were to call a halt, to attend some
military dinner or another at Bogwalk tavern.
The beauty of St Ann's, the principal grazing parish of Jamaica,
surpassed any notion I had previously formed of it;--the whole district
being a sea of gently undulating hill and valley, covered with the most
luxuriant waving Guinea grass--across which the racking cloudlets,
borne on the wings of the fresh and invigorating breeze, chased each
other cheerily as if it had been one vast hay field, ready for the
scythe--thickly interspersed with groves of pimento and fruit-trees,
whose picturesque situations no _capability_ man could possibly
improve. The herds of cattle that browsed all round us, whether as to
breed or condition, would have done credit to the first grazing county
in England. Lord Althorp should go and take a squint at St Ann's--I
daresay the worthies there might make him custos.
At length, as it drew on to three in the afternoon, we saw the cottage
glittering in all the West India glory of green blinds and white paint,
through the grove of fruit-trees in the centre of which it was placed.
It was a long low one-story house, raised about ten feet off the ground
on brick pillars, under which gamboled half-a-dozen goats, and
surrounded by a cool and airy piazza, while the neighbouring thickets
were peppered with a whole cluster of small white-washed buildings,
comprising kitchen, gard-du-mange, houses for the domestics, pigsties,
and poultry-yard.
We dismounted at one end of the piazza, where a door, kept gaping ajar
by a large stone on the floor, to which access was had by a flight of
steps, seemed to invite us to walk in. We ascended the stair and
entered. The dark mirrorlike floors, the fragrant odour of the fresh
gathered bitter oranges which had been just used in polishing them, the
green shade of the trees that overshadowed the building, tossing their
branches, and rushing and twittering in the sea breeze--the beautiful
flowers that crept in at every open blind and crevice--(a knot in the
weather boarding could not drop out but in would pop a rose, or a bud
of double jessamine, as if trying to escape the ardent gaze of the
sun)--the twilight of the rooms, and the glorious view of the
everlasting ocean in the distance (with a tiny white winglet of a sail
sliding along here and there), crisped with blue waves, as if the water
had reflected the mackerel sky that glowed over all, until both were
blended out at sea beneath a silvery haze--were indescribably luxurious
and refreshing--their sweet and cooling influences more strongly felt,
from the contrast they afforded to the heat and dust of the lowland
road we had just left. Oh! I could--curse it--_there's_ a
mackaw--there _is a_ mackaw--a bird I detest and abominate--so my
poetry is all blown to the moon in a jiffy. I would rather sit and
listen to the music of the setting of a saw, while enjoying the luxury
of a sick headach.--But let me whistle back my fancy again, and get on
with my story.
Several ladies' work-tables, with the work lying on them, tumbled as it
were in haste, and chairs disarranged, showed that our approach had not
been observed until we were close aboard, and that the fair members of
the family had that moment fled, in order to make themselves
presentable; indeed this was vouched for by the laughing, and
_fistling_, and _keckling_ we heard in a room, whose window opened into
the piazza.
Presently a tidily-dressed brown waiting-maiden, with flowers on her
gown the size of the crown of my hat, and of the gaudiest colours,
popped her head in at the door, and after showing her white teeth,
disappeared. She had very evidently been sent to reconnoitre, and I
could not avoid overhearing her say in the inner room aforesaid, close
to the open window of which our party were clustered, "Oh, nyung
missis--dere are old massa Frenche--one tall town-looking buccra, wid
big hook nose like one parrot bill--one leetler fat one, hab red face,
and one fonny coat, all tick over wid small silk barrel, and broider
wid black silk lace--And--oh, I forgot--one small slip of a boy, dat
roll side to side so"--here she seemed to be suiting the action to the
word--"like de sailor negro."
Now this was _me_, your honour.
At this moment we heard a noise, as if some one had been scraping the
mud off his shoes at the back part of the house, and giving various
orders at the same time in a loud voice to the servants; then a heavy
step through the lofty hall, and enter a tall, sallow, yellow-snake of
a man, in wide white jane trowsers and waistcoat,--the perspiration
streaming down his face, and dripping from the point of his sun-peeled
nose, while the collar of his shirt and his neckcloth were also very
sudorous. He wore a threadbare blue coat, the buttons all covered with
verdigris, and a hat--which he kept on, by the way--worn white at the
edges, with the pasteboard frame of it visible where the silk nap had
been rubbed.
"Ah, Frenche," quoth mine host, for it was no other, "how are you, my
dear fellow? Paul, call your missis--and, Mr Twig, I am so glad to see
you. Boys, get second breakfast--we have kept it back on purpose."
"Twang," thought I.
"Frenche, my lad, introduce me--your nephew, I presume?"
I bowed, and was shaken furiously by the hand.
"I should have known him, I declare; so like you, my old cock."
"Gammon again," thought I.
"And, Twig, I say, you must introduce me to"--Here he indicated Don
Felix, and prepared to "pull his foot," as the negroes say, in that
direction also--in other words, to make his bow to Monsieur Flamingo,
who was accordingly made known to him in due form, and had his fingers
nearly wrung off, as mine had been. Don Felix, so soon as he was
released, took an opportunity of catching my eye, shaking them aside,
and blowing the tips as if they had been burned.
The ladies now appeared--our hostess, really a splendid woman, and her
daughter, fresh off the irons from a fashionable English
boarding-school, a very pretty girl, but suffering under prickly heat
(a sort of a what-do-ye-call-um, a kind of Jamaica imitation, but
deucedly like 'tother thing in Scotland notwithstanding); and the
plague of freckles--ods bobs, how I do hate freckles!--where was
I--oh--so our lunch, or second breakfast, was really a very pleasant
one. From that time until dinner, we talked, and read, and played
bagatelle, and amongst other means employed to kill time, Miss
Cornstick was set to play on the piano. She was, I make no doubt, a
first-rate performer, and _spanged_ her fingers from the keys as if
they had been red hot iron, and tossed her head about as she sung, and
cast her eyes towards the roof as if she had seen something rather
surprising there.
"That's what I call singing with animation, at all events; oh, how I
wish the pedals were mine enemies," whispered Don Felix.
"Ah, how missie _do_ sing--how him do play on de pinano--wery
extonishing fine," quoth the brown ladies' maid _sotto voce_, behind
the open door of the anteroom, but loud enough for me to overhear.
However, allow for some few trifling peculiarities of this kind, and we
had every reason to be exceedingly pleased with our entertainment; for
we had a capital dinner, and some superb Madeira, and the evening
passed over delightfully on the whole.
When we came to retire, I was shown to my sleeping apartment, a small
room partitioned off from the end of the piazza; that is, altogether
_without_ the brick shell of the house itself.
I had proceeded in disrobing, and was about putting out the candle,
when I heard a "cheep, cheep," overhead, as of a mouse in the paws of
pussy. I looked up, and lo! an owl, perched on what seemed a shelf,
that ran along the wall overhead, with mousey sure enough in his beak.
"Hillo," said I, "Master Owl, this will never do; you must make
yourself scarce, my boy," and I seized a fishing-rod that happened to
stand in the corner of the room--"there, take that, your owlship," and
I made a blow at him with the but-end, but missed; however it had the
effect of startling him off his perch, and with a loud _squake_, he
took wing round the room. The first consequence of his vagary was the
extinction of the light, whereby he got the weather-gage of me
regularly, for although he could not see _in the light_, he saw
beautifully _in the darkness_, and avoided my haphazard blows most
scientifically. At length, amongst other feats of skill, and evidences
of composure, I fractured the _monkey_, or earthen water-jar that
garnished my toilet table, and finally capsized over the steps at the
bedside, to the great loss of the skin on my shinbone, and the large
effusion of my patience.
"Why, Jinker, Jinker!" I could hear a door open.
"Why, Jinker," said a man's voice,--"what noise is that in the piazza,
in the name of wonder?"
_Snore--snort--yawn_. "Can't tell, massa," replied the negro domestic,
who was thus roused from his lair in the piazza, "but I will go see de
sound, what it is, massa."
"You will," thought I, as I heard him groping and grumbling all
about--"What naise is dat?--my fader--what a knock my nose take again
dat post him--mi say, what naise dat is?" quoth Quashie, more than half
asleep--"Nobody hanswer? Me say de tird time, what naise, eh?"
I had gathered myself into bed the best way I could, but the owl
continued his gyrations round and round the room, and here gave another
_screech_. "Ha," said Jinker, "creech howl, massa--creech howl."
"Screech owl!" rejoined Mr Cornstick, for it was he who had spoken;
"how the deuce can a screech owl upset chairs, smash the crockery, and
make such an infernal to do as that? Get a light, sir."
All this while I was like to choke with laughter. "Jinker," said I,
"bring a light here, and don't alarm the family. Tell Mr Cornstick it
is only an owl that has got, I can't tell how, into my room--nothing
more." I heard Mr Cornstick laugh at this, and say a word of comfort
to Mrs Cornstick, as I supposed, and she again began to console a _wee
skirling_ Cornstick, that I concluded was their bedfellow, and then
shut the door.
Creak--another door opened--"Diana!" said Miss Cornstick, in great
alarm--"Good gracious! what is _all_ that, Diana?"
"Noting, misses, but one fight between de leetle sailor buccra and one
howl."
"So, here's a mess! The whole Cornstick family--men, women, and
children--set alive and kicking in the dead of night, by me and my
uninvited visitor!"
Presently Jinker appeared with a lighted candle, but by this time the
owl was nowhere to be seen.
"How him get away, massa? I no see him."
No more did I. We continued our search.
"Him cannot possib have creep troo de keyhole."
"I should rather think not," said I; "but there he was, perched up in
that corner, when I first saw him. He was sitting on that very shelf.
Where the deuce can the creature have stowed himself?"
"Shelf!" said the negro; "shelf! What shelf, massa?"
"That one there; isn't it a shelf?"
"Shelf! O no, massa, it is de gutter dat lead de rain from de roof of
de house dat come along here under de eaves of de shingle, you know,
and den pour him into one larsh barrel outside; but tap"----Here Jinker
got on the table, to inspect the lay of the land more perfectly. "Ah,
I see; he hab come in and go out troo de guttering, sure enough"--(a
square uncovered trough). "He must have nest hereabout, massa."
"But how shall we _keep_ him out," said I, "now since he is out?"
"Tap, I shall show you. Give me up one on dem towel, please, massa. I
will tuff him into de hole till daybroke."
"Indeed, but you shall not do _that_ thing; none of your stopping the
gutter. Why, only suppose it should rain in the night, Snowball--eh?
Would it not overflow, my beauty? You don't want to drown me, do you?"
"Massa, no fear of dat--none at all; de moon clear and hard as one
bone; and de star, dem twinkle sharp and bright as one piece broken
glass when de sun shine on him. No, no, all dry, dry--no rain before
morning. Rain! dere shan't be no rain for one mont."
"But I am not inclined to take your word for this, my lad; so"----
"Bery well, massa; bery good--massa know betterest; so, since massa
want howl for bedfellow, Jinker can't help it--only massa had better
put someting over him face to cover him nose, or him yeye--basin will
do--oh, howl love piece of de nose of one nyung buccra bery mosh."
Come, thought I, sleeping with a basin on one's face is too absurd
after all; but better even that than be drowned--"So, friend
Jinker,"--I was now resolved--"since _that_ is your name, _stop_ the
hole you _shall not_; therefore, jink out of the room, will ye, for I
am very drowsy."
I fell asleep, but the notion of this said conduit leading through my
room haunted me. At one moment I dreamed I heard the rain beating on
the roof of the house, and against the blinds; and the next the
rushing, and rippling, and gurgling of the water along the hollow
wooden pipe; then I was wafted by the _sound_--there's a poetical image
for you--to the falls of Niagara, and was standing in the cave of
Eolus, with the strong damp gusts of cold wind eddying and whirling
around me, as if it would have lifted me off my feet on the wings of my
shirt--for mind I had no other garment on--below the Great Horseshoe
fall, with the screen of living waters falling, green and
foam-streaked, like a sheet of flowing-glass, past my eyes, down down,
down--and boiling away into the Devil's Pot under foot. Anon the
sparkling veil of water was bent towards me, until it touched the tip
of my nose, and I turned to escape; but the basin on my face prevented
my seeing. But this again soon became transparent, as if the coarse
delf had been metamorphosed into clear crystal, and down thundered the
cascade again--for it had ceased for a moment, you must know--sprinkled
this time with draggle-winged owls, as thick as Bonaparte's coronation
robe with bees. I was choked, suffocated, and all the rest of it.
"Murder! Murder!--I am drowned--I am drowned--for ever and entirely
drowned!" and in an agony of fear I struggled to escape, but in
vain--in vain--
"The waters gather'd o'er me!"
when enter friend Jinker--"Massa, massa, who hurt you? Who kill you?
Who _ravage_ you?"
Bash; something wet, and cold, and feathery flew against my face--"Oh,
gemini, what is this next! Lights--lights--lights--my kingdom for a
farthing-candle!"
"Will massa only be pleased to sit down on de bed and be quiet one
moment?" said my sable friend.
I did so; and beginning to breathe--for the falls of Niagara had now
ceased--I rubbed my eyes, and lo! the blessed sun shone brightly
through the lattice just opened by Jinker, and out flew the owl with a
loud screech, more happy to escape than I was to get quit of him
apparently; and flying as a drunken man walks, zig-zag, up and down,
against trees and bushes, until it landed in a pimento-tree about
pistol-shot from the house, where he gave a wild "Hoo, hoo, hoo," as if
he had said, "Thank my stars, I have found rest to the sole of my foot
at last."
But such a scene as the room presented! Notwithstanding friend
Jinker's prognostication, there _had been_ a heavy shower, and the bed
was deluged with dirty water--the green matter from the shingles
discolouring all the sheets--while from the flooded floor the water was
soaking through the seams, and drip dripping on the dry ground below,
like a shower-bath.--"Now, dat howl! him do it all, massa," quoth
Jinker, "sure as can be."
"Don't you think the rain had somewhat to do with it too, Jinker?" But
Jinker was deaf as a post.
"Here, you see, when you trike at him, he drap mouse--dere him lie dead
on de table; so he come back when you sleep, and no doubt after de rain
begin, for see de fedder tick on de nail in de gutter, and de howl must
hab been tick in de hole, and choke de water back, and"----
Here Quashie caught a glimpse of my disconsolate physiognomy, all
drenched and forlorn. It was too much for him; so, forgetting all his
manners, he burst into a long and loud laugh. However, no serious
damage was done; and at breakfast there was not a little fun at my
expense.
* * * * *
It turned out that our entertainer, and his wife and daughter, were
bound on a visit this forenoon to some neighbour; so, as our roads lay
together so far, we all started after breakfast in company. I was a
good deal amused at the change in the outward _wo_man of my _ladies
maid_, the handsome brown girl in the gay gown already mentioned, who
now appeared stripped of her plumes, without stockings or shoes, in her
Osnaburg chemise, and coarse blue woollen petticoat--the latter garment
shortened, like the tunic of her namesake Diana, by a handkerchief tied
tightly round her waist, just over the hips, exhibiting the turn of her
lower spars to considerably above the knee--with a large bandbox on her
head covered with oilskin, and a good cudgel in her hand. I asked Mr
Cornstick how far they were going. He answered it was a ride of
fifteen miles, and, in the same breath, he called out to the brown
damsel, "Say we shall be there by second breakfast time, Diana."
"Yes, massa."
"Mind we don't get there before you."
"No fear of dat, massa," said the silvan goddess, smiling, as she
struck off through the woods at a pace that would have pleased Captain
Barclay exceedingly. It appeared that she was to take a short cut
across the hills.
"How can that girl _trust_ her naked limbs in such a brake?" said I.
"Why not, don't you see she is a _chased_ goddess?" said Don Felix.
"Now, Flamingo, I verily believe you will peck at a grain of
mustard-seed next," quoth friend Twig.
We started; Mrs Cornstick on a stout pony, with the head servant, Mark
Antony, by name, but as ugly a flat-nosed _nigger_ as Christian could
desire to clap eyes on by _nature_, holding on by its tail. Then came
Miss Cornstick on _her_ palfrey, with a similar pendant, but her page
was a fine handsome mulatto boy; while we brought up the rear--the
whole cavalcade being closed by the mounted servants. By and by, the
road being good, although mountainous, we spanked along at a smart
rate, and it was then that the two fellows pinned to the ladies'
tails--the tails of their ponies, I beg pardon--showed their paces in a
most absurd fashion, making great flying strides at every step, so as
to keep time with the canter of the quadrupeds. They looked like two
dancing-masters gone mad. I thought of Cutty Sark clutching the tail
of Tam O'Shanter's grey mare Meg.
"Do you see that humming-bird?" said Jacob Twig, who was giving me a
cast in his curricle--Flamingo having changed into my uncle's gig.
Crack--he knocked it down on the wing with his whip, as it hovered over
some flowers on the roadside. "That's what I call a good shot now."
"Ah, but a very cruel one," said I.
"Sorry for it--shan't do it again, Mr Brail."
"Safe in that," thought I.
On coming to a cross-road, the Cornsticks struck off to the left, and,
saying good-by, we stood on our course.
Nothing particular occurred until we were descending the hill into St
Thomas in the Vale. The sun was shining brightly without a cloud. The
jocund breeze was rushing through the trees, and dashing their masses
of foliage hither and thither; turning up the silvery undersides of the
leaves at one moment, and then changing their hues into all shades of
green the next. The birds were glancing and chirping amongst the
branches. The sleek cattle were browsing lazily and contentedly on the
slope of the hill; and the merry negro gangs were shouting and laughing
at their work--but the vulture was soaring over all in pride of place;
eagle-like, far up in the clear blue firmament, as if the abominable
bird had been the genius of the yellow fever, hovering above the fair
face of nature, ready to stoop and blast it.
The sky gradually darkened--all cloudless as it was--for there was not
a shred of vapour floating in its pure depths so big as the hand of the
servant of the prophet. The gloom increased--not that kind of twilight
that precedes the falling of the night--but a sort of lurid purple hue
that began mysteriously to pervade the whole atmosphere, as if we had
been looking forth on the landscape through a piece of glass stained
with smoke.
"Heyday," said Felix, "what's the matter? I see no clouds, yet the sun
is overcast. It increases;"--the oxen on the hill sides turned and
looked over their shoulders with a puzzled look, as if they did not
know what to make of it, no more than ourselves--"Can't be time to go
home to take our night spell in that weary mill yet, surely?"
The large carrion crows rapidly declined in their flight, narrowing
their sweeping circles gradually, until they pirouetted down, and
settled, with outstretched wings, on the crags above us; startling
forth half a dozen bats, and a slow sailing owl, the latter fluttering
about as if scarcely awake, and then floating away steadily amongst the
bushes, as if he had said--"Come, it must be the _gloaming_ after
all--so here goes for mousey."
The negroes suddenly intermitted the chipping and tinkling of their
hoes, and the gabbling of their tongues, as they leant on the shanks of
the former, and looked up. "Heigh, wurra can be come over de daylight,
and no shell blow yet?"[1]
[1] The gangs are turned in at dinner-time by the sounding of a conch
shell.
We now perceived the chirping of insects and reptiles that usually
prevails, during the hours of night in the West Indies, begin to breeze
up. First a lizard would send forth a solitary whistle, as much as to
say, "It can't be night yet surely?" Then, from the opposite side of
the way, another would respond, with a low startled "_wheetle
wheetle_," which might be interpreted, "Indeed but it is though;" and
on this, as if there had been no longer any doubt about the matter, the
usual concert of crickets, beetles, lizards, and tree toads, buzzed
away as regularly as if it had indeed been evening in very truth.
"An eclipse of the sun," said I, and sure enough so it was; for in half
an hour it gradually lightened again, and every thing became once more
as bright and cheery, and everyday-like as before.
We arrived at Bogwalk tavern to dinner, where we found a grand party of
the officers of the regiment of foot militia, and also of the troop.
The general commanding the district had reviewed them that morning, and
was to have dined with them, but for some reason or another he had to
return to Spanish Town immediately after the review. It was a
formidable thing meeting so many red coats and gay laced blue jackets;
and, of course, I was much gratified to learn, that the brown company
fired remarkably well--how steadily the grenadiers passed in
review--and how soldier-like Captain M'----, who commanded the light
horse, had given the word of command.
"How thoroughly your horse is broke now, Mac.," said a tall man, with a
nose like a powder-horn--"steady as a rock, and such courage!"
"Courage!" rejoined Captain Mac., "he would charge up to the mouth of a
cannon."
"Ay," whispered Flamingo to me, "if a bag of corn were hung on the
muzzle."
We started early, as the night fell, and arrived in Spanish Town the
same evening; and next day were comfortably domiciled in Squire
Flamingo's mansion in Kingston.
It was the race week, and the town had gathered all the fashion of the
island--nothing could be gayer.
Our friend Twig had several running horses, and altogether the
bare-legged black jockeys, with the stirrup-irons held between their
toes, parrot fashion, and the slight thorough-bred things they rode,
acquitted themselves extremely well; besides, we had matches amongst
the officers of the garrison, and theatricals, and pig races, and I
don't know what all.
Speaking of theatricals, if you will wait a moment I will tell you of
an amusing playhouse row that I happened to witness, and wherein my
friend Flamingo and myself bore conspicuous parts _by mistake_.
It happened to be an amateur performance, and we had just seated
ourselves in the second row of a buccra box, near the stage.
I was admiring the neatness of the house, which was great for a
provincial theatre any where, and the comical appearance the division
of castes produced, as thus:--The pit seemed to be almost exclusively
filled with the children of Israel, as peculiar in their national
features here as everywhere else; the dress boxes contained the other
white inhabitants and their families; the second tier the brown
_ladies_, who seemed more intent on catching the eyes of the young
buccras _below_, than attending to the civil things the males of their
own shade were pouring into their ears _above_; the gallery was
tenanted by Bungo himself, in all his glory of black face, blubber
lips, white eyes, and ivory teeth. This black parterre being powdered
here and there with a sprinkling of white sailors, like snowdrops in a
bed of purple anemones; Jack being, as usual on such occasions, pretty
well drunk.
A very nice-looking fresh complexioned little man was sitting on the
same bench along with us on the right hand--that is, next the
stage--and a young stray Hebrew, having eschewed the pit, sat on our
left--we were thus between them--a post of no small danger, as it
turned out. There had been some wrangling between these parties before
we entered, for no sooner had Flamingo and I taken our seats, than
Moses said _across us_, but, as it afterwards appeared, intending to
address the _gentleman already mentioned_, "If you say that again, sir,
I will pull your nose."
Thereupon, up rose the _short_ ruddy man, and up rose the _long_ Don
Felix, each appropriating the insult to himself; but Flam, who never
dreamed that any nose could be spoken of when his own kidney potato was
in company, was first, and levelled little Moses in an instant. This
was the signal for the sea of Jews in the pit to toss its billows; and,
like a great cauldron, to popple and hiss, until it boiled over into
the boxes, in a roaring torrent, that speedily overthrew both Don
Felix, the little ruddy man, and _I Benjie_, who had neither part nor
portion in the quarrel, _into the bargain_; and such a pommelling I
never got before or since.
Whatever Moses's creed might have been, he spared not my _bacon_ that
blessed night, as my poor ribs witnessed for many a long day.
In the midst of the uproar, a magistrate--a most excellent and sedate
personage--planted his back against the pillar, immediately behind me,
where a cohort of parrot bills had already turned the flank of the
brave little red man, and were threatening my own rear, left uncovered
by the destruction of both of my coat skirts. Here he shouted at the
top of his pipe to "keep the peace;" but one of the assailants, a
powerful bluebeard, speedily gagged _him_, by passing his arm round his
neck, and pinning him to the post, as if he had been a culprit
undergoing the Spanish punishment of the _garrote_.
At length the row became so serious and _national_, that the whole
house was likely to side with one or other of the parties; the manager,
therefore, fearing for the safety of his theatre, sent for the chief
magistrate in town (not the mayor, who was absent), and he fortunately
made his appearance very promptly, with a party of police; the row on
this was fast subsiding, until a very ludicrous incident made it breeze
up again with twofold violence, like flax steeped in turpentine cast on
a smouldering fire. For the last ten minutes Don Felix had
disappeared, having been literally trodden down, after a fall on
missing his blow at the Goliah who led the assault; and when the storm
abated, and he could screw himself from under the benches where he had
been forced, the first thing he did, in his haste and confusion, was
_to throttle the very man of authority himself_; taking him for one of
the enemy. The tumult again increased on this, and we now ran some
chance of being extinguished altogether; for a gigantic black-whiskered
Israelite had upheaved a stick, which threatened to prove the thickness
of my skull, had there been any doubt about it, when I was saved by the
timely succour afforded by a powerful sailor-looking chap, who had
fought his way towards us, clearing a path right and left amongst our
enemies, like a walking windmill.
"Foul, foul--stick against fist--fair play is a jewel," sung out the
windmill, whom, it flashed on me at the moment, I had seen before, and
suiting the action to the word, he seized him of the black whisker and
parrot nose, neck and croup, and pitched him down bodily into the
thickest of the troubled waters of the pit, as if he had been a
juvenile branch of the grunter family--not pig upon pork, however, but
Jew upon Jew, where he floundered on the sea of heads for a minute,
like a harpooned whale come to the surface to breathe, and then sank,
to have his ribs very sufficiently kneaded by the knees and feet of his
rebellious compatriots.
Having accomplished this feat, the sailor, as if desirous of escaping
observation, slid out of the _mêlée_, and I lost sight of him.
The fight continued, but the police were by this time masters; and
fortunately we were taken into custody, and bailed by our friends.
Next day we escaped with a fine.
At breakfast Twig was comforting us. "Poo, poo--never mind--it was all
a mistake--all a mistake, you know."
"Yes," quoth Don Felix, "but my ribs are not the less sore; no mistake
there I assure you."
"And the skirts of my coat," said I.
But to return to the races. On one occasion, a certain Captain Jack
Straw, master of one of the London ships, and the collector of the
customs, were two of Flamingo's guests at dinner, and a match was made
between them, to come off next morning.
It was given out to be a trial of bottom, as they were to ride six
times round the race course. Now the latter was a measured mile; a
six-mile heat, thought I, in such a climate, and the owners to ride!
However, there was nothing more said about it, and I had forgotten it,
until Mr Flamingo took me out in his Stanhope at daybreak the next
morning to see the racers sweated; and there, the first thing that met
our eyes was old Straw sure enough, with his hat tied under his chin by
a red bandana, and his trowsers shuffled up to his knees, ambling along
mighty fussily, on a great chestnut mare, as unlike a race-horse, as
one could well fancy an individual of the same species to be; for
although he _appeared_ to be cantering along, the pace was so sluggish,
that we passed him easily in a trot. Those who have seen Ducrow in the
Tailor riding to Brentford, caprioling on the stage as if he were going
fifteen knots an hour, while he never shoots a single fathom a-head,
will form a good idea of our friend's appearance and style of
locomotion.
"Well, Jack," cried Flamingo, "how come you on? who wins?"
Here the collector came rattling up astern, deucedly well mounted,
standing in his stirrups, his long nose poked between his horse's ears,
and riding, regular jockey fashion, without his coat, a handkerchief
tied round his head, and his whip crossed in his teeth, and sawing away
with his hands.
As he passed the old sailor, he pulled up--
"Now, Jack, do give in, and don't boil me to jelly; you see I have done
four rounds of the course, while you have not completed two. You must
be aware you have no chance; so give in, and come and breakfast with
me--do, that's a good fellow."
"Give in!" roared Jack, "give in, indeed! That's a good one--why, the
old mare's bottom is only beginning to tell--give in, Master
Collector!--No, no--besides, I see your horse is blown--there, mind he
don't bolt; give in, indeed!"
And thereupon he made a devil of a splutter; heels, arms, and head all
in a fidget, and away shot his antagonist once more, leaving Jack
puffing and bobbing on his asthmatic mare, up and down, up and down, in
a regular hobby-horsical fashion, as like his own heavy-sterned ship
digging through a head sea on a bowline, as could well be imagined.
However, the collector _did_ win, which honest Jack had foreseen all
along, although the six-mile gallop had put him into a rare fever; but
bearing no malice, as he said, after handsomely paying the stakes, he
went and breakfasted, according to invitation, with his conqueror.
That day at dinner we met both the equestrians, when Jack told us with
great glee, as one does a good joke, that his mate had run three pipes
of Cognac and twenty dozen of claret, during the time the coast _was
clear_, but that he had satisfied his conscience by sending a case of
the latter to the _friend_ he had so cleverly kept in play, with his
compliments, "not to ride races of six-mile heats again, before
breakfast."
As we rode up to the course next evening, at four o'clock, as usual, we
were somewhat late, and found the rope drawn across the ingress at the
bottom of the race ground. The bugle to saddle had sounded some time
before; so we had to pull up where we were, in order to see the horses
pass. We were standing with our horses' heads close to the ropes, when
an overseer of some neighbouring estate rode up, pretty well primed,
and, to our great surprise, charged the rope, which he did not appear
to see. He was only trotting his mule, however, and there was no haste
or violence about him; but when the rope checked the animal, he gave a
drunken pitch, but all as quiet as could be, and toppled over its head
quite gently, as if he had been a sack, into the ride, where, after
making one or two sprawling movements with his feet, he lay still, with
the beast looking at him from the other side of the rope, and poking
down its head, and snorting and snoking at him. The next bugle
sounded, the horses were away, and some of the lookers-on had just time
to drag the poor fellow off the course by the legs, when they passed us
like a whirlwind.
"Tree to one on Moses," cried one sable amateur, for if we had not
altogether the _style_ of Newmarket, it was from no want of _Blacklegs_.
"Six to one on Blue Peter," quoth another ragged neger.
"Five to one on Mammy Taws."
"Slap Bang against de field." And all was anxiety about the race; but
no one took any notice of the poor overseer, who lay still and
motionless on the side of the dry ditch that surrounds the course.
At length, seeing the poor creature broiling in the hot sun, we
dismounted to help him up.
"Massa," said a negro, taking his arm, "he must be well dronk dis
buccra. See how him hand drop again when I lift him--supple like one
new-kill snake."
"Supple enough," said Dr ----, who now rode up, and felt his pulse
first, and then his neck. "Poor fellow! supple as he is now, he will
be soon stark and stiff enough. His neck is broken--_that's all_."
"Neck broken!" said Flamingo and I in a breath, much shocked.
"Yes, and dead as Julius Cæsar. But, pray, did you notice if the White
Jacket and Black Cap came in?"
_The man had, in very truth, actually broken his neck_.
Several evenings after this, I was engaged with a fishing party, in a
canoe, near the top of the harbour, at a cove where the prizes of the
squadron were usually moored, previous to their being sold. It was a
very fine evening, and the sun was setting gloriously in the west--as
where else should he have set? Our sport had been very good, and we
were thinking of taking up the grapnel.
"I say, Brail," said Flamingo, "let us go and inspect the Morne
Fortunee there." This was a French privateer, one of the captured
vessels, that lay about a cable's length from where we were.
"Come along, then--there, string the fish, Twister. Up anchor, boys,
and pull for that brig."
As we approached, we saw a man get into a small skiff that lay
alongside, with two black fellows in it, rather hurriedly, and pull for
the shore.
The last rays of the evening sun shone brightly on him, as he passed
us, and I had a good squint at his face. He gave me a piercing look
also, and then suddenly turned away.
"Eh! no, it can't be--by Mercury, but it is though! Why, there _is_
the fellow that saved my _bacon_ from the Jew at the theatre, I
declare. And more than that, when I piece several floating notions
together--why, Don Felix, there goes, as large as life, the Master
Wilson of Montego bay."
"You don't say so?" quoth Flamingo. "Stop, we have four fellows in the
boat besides ourselves and the servant, and here is my gun. And Quacco
there is an old soldier. Boys, give way after that boat--one dollar,
if you beat him."
"Hurrah! hurrah for massa!" And away we shot after the skiff, which,
as yet, was proceeding very leisurely, so that we rapidly gained on it.
As we came up within pistol-shot, the chase lay on his oars, and the
person steering looked steadily at us. I was not so sure of him now.
He had a deep scar down his left cheek, which the other had not.
"Do you want any thing with me, gentlemen?" This simple question
fairly posed us.
"No--not--that is--pull the starboard oars." The last sentence I spoke
to the negroes in a whisper, and the effect of the fulfilment of the
order was to bring the bow of the canoe within a couple of yards of the
broadside of the skiff. The stranger, at this suspicious movement,
made a sign to his men, who stretched out with the thews of gladiators.
This broke the ice.
"After him, my lads," cried Flamingo.
We were now within a quarter of a mile of the narrow neck of sand that
divides the harbour from the sea, here about fifty yards broad, and not
above three feet high; so that, although the skiff was evidently
heading us, yet we had every prospect of being up in time to seize the
crew before they could haul her across, and launch her through the surf
on the sea-face of the bank.
"There he is ashore. Murder, how handily the black fellows walk off
with the skiff, as if it were paper."
As Don Felix spoke, we also took the ground, and he and I jumped out,
and pushed after the strangers. When we got within ten yards of them,
the party of whom I had suspicions turned resolutely, and made a step
towards us.
"I do not know to what circumstance I am indebted for the pleasure of
your company, gentlemen," said he quite calmly. "Will you please to
make known your desire?"
Here Flamingo, Quacco, and one of the canoe-men made as if they would
pass him, and get between him and the beach, where his people were in
the very act of launching the skiff through the surf. When he saw
this, he smiled bitterly, and drew his belt tighter, but all with the
utmost coolness. He then, as if setting about some necessary labour,
walked up to Quacco, by far the most powerful of our party, and seizing
him by the throat, dashed him to one side, and a black fellow to the
other, as if they had been children; he then deliberately walked into
the water up to his waist, clambered into the skiff, and before we
could count twenty, he was pulling right out to sea, without once
looking behind him.
"Heave to, or I'll fire at you, by Jupiter!" roared Don Felix.
The stranger still did not deign to look round, occupying himself in
bailing out the water that the skiff had taken in the shove through the
surf.
Flamingo repeated the threat, levelling his fowling-piece; at which our
friend slowly held up a bright-barrelled article, that he took from the
bottom of the boat, more like a swivel than a blunderbuss. At sight of
this, Don Felix dropped his gun as if the barrel had burned his
fingers, whipped both hands under the skirts of his coat, wheeling
round on one leg at the same time, and drawing himself up to his full
height, and grinning and shutting his eyes, and slewing his head on one
side, as if he had been trying to present the smallest possible surface
to the pelting of a hail shower. The stranger, at this, slowly
replaced the weapon, and in a twinkling was out of gun-shot, pulling
towards a schooner lying becalmed outside of the keys.
"I say, Brail, did you see that glancing affair in his hand? Was it a
carronade, think you, or a long eighteen-pounder? Why, it might have
doodled our whole party as regularly as Rory Macgregor did his own
ducks."
On returning, we went on board the prize brig, from which we had
startled our friend, and found the arm-chest on the poop broken open,
and the contents scattered all about the deck, as if the party had been
picking and choosing.
"So, so, I see what our honest man has been after," said I.
There was no prize-keeper on board; and, knowing this, the visit of the
skiff had unquestionably been for the purpose of purloining arms.
* * * * *
"Jackson," said a gentleman at dinner, at the house where I dined that
day, "any further accounts from windward?"
"No; there are two schooners, the Humming Bird and Sparkle, on the
look-out; but no tidings of the infernal little felucca."
"Felucca! felucca!" said I, looking across the table at Don Felix.
"Pardon me, sir, what felucca were you speaking of?"
"Why, that is more than I can tell you, sir; but she has plundered
three London ships off Morant bay within this last week; one of them
belonging to me, and in my case the captain and crew were most cruelly
treated; but now, when two men-of-war schooners are cruising for her,
she has vanished like a spectre."
"Yes," said another of the party; "and the John Shand was boarded
yesterday evening by the same vessel off Yallahs, and robbed of a
chronometer; but the boarding officer, by way of _amende_, I suppose,
politely handed the captain the _Kingston papers of the morning_."
"Ho, ho, Master Wilson," thought I.
* * * * *
"Cockadoodle doo--doo--doo!" Never was there such a place as Kingston
for the crowing of cocks. In other countries cocks sleep at night and
crow in the morning, like respectable birds; but here, confound them,
they crow through the whole livelong night; and, towards daydawn, it is
one continuous stream of cock-crowing all over the town.
* * * * *
Some days after the transaction already related, Messrs Flamingo and
Twig carried me to dine at the Court-House with the officers on duty
with the militia Christmas guard. It was an artillery company, in
which Don Felix held a commission, that had the guard, the captain of
which was a very kind, but roughspun genius. However, his senior
lieutenant, Jessamy by name, was a perfect contrast to him, and a
deuced handsome fellow; so he made up for it. Quite a Frenchman in his
manners and dress, but, so far as I could judge, with what is vulgarly
called a "bee in his bonnet." Nevertheless, he was an excellent young
man at bottom, although his nonsense, which was rather entertaining at
first, became a little _de trop_ when the bottle began to
circulate;--for instance, he insisted, after dinner, on showing us the
last Parisian step, and then began to jabber French, for display, as it
were,--finishing off by asking me _who made my coat_. Now, I cannot
endure people noticing one's externals; so I stared, and gave him no
answer at first; but he pinned me to the wall,--so I mentioned my
tailor's name--Stultz.
"Ah! the only man in England who can _cut_; but the German _Schneiders_
who take root in Paris eclipse him entirely. Ah! the German
_exactitude_ and Parisian taste combined! Nothing like it, Mr
Brail--nothing like it, my dear sir. There, what think you of that
fit?" jumping up and showing his back, to which his garment clung like
a sign at a shop-door.
I applauded amazingly, as he wriggled himself this way and that.
"Hillo! what's that?" said the captain.
"The tocsin, the tocsin--the fire-bell, as I am a gentleman," quoth his
gay sub. And sure enough the church bell was clanging away at a
furious rate, and the fire-engines began to lumber and rattle past;
while the buz in the streets, and the tramp of people running along the
brick-paved piazzas below, told plainly enough that a fire had actually
broken out somewhere.
"Guard, turn out--guard, turn out!" roared mine host, full of military
ardour. And the sudden tap of the drum was followed by a bustle, and
heavy trampling, and the clatter and clash of muskets from the guard
room, showing that the command had been obeyed with great alacrity.
We had been boozing in the Grand-Jury Room, which was connected with
the piazza in front of the Court-House, or temporary guard-house, by a
long wooden gangway, so that we had to pass the principal entrance to
the latter, before descending to the street, where the men were
mustering. It seemed that the jovial train-bands had been making as
good use of their time as we had been doing; for the long table before
the bench, where in term-time the lawyers used to congregate, was
profusely covered with cold meats, glasses, and wine-decanters.
We were a good deal surprised to see a large earthen pipkin, about five
feet high, used to hold water, that had been taken from the drip, or
filter-stone frame, where it usually stood in a corner, now planted in
the middle of the floor, with (of all things in the world) a red,
drunken face sticking out of it, crowned with a hat and feather. This
was one of the invincibles, who had been made drunk, and then thrust
into it by his comrades; and he must have found his quarters somewhat
of the dampest, for the vessel was more than half full, as we could
hear, from the splashing of the culprit's limbs. In his struggles,
presently he upset it, and rolled about on the floor, with the water
gushing and gurgling out at his neck; while he kept shouting that they
had changed the liquor on him.
There could be no fault found with the zeal and promptitude with which
the gallant bombardiers _fell_ in; but I am sorry to say that more than
one of them very speedily _fell_ out, or rather tumbled out; for I
cannot speak so favourably of their steadiness under arms as I could
wish. It was no doubt a time of profound quietness and peace, so that
some relaxation of the rules and articles of war was allowable; for the
negroes were thinking of nothing but fun and dancing, and those
Christmas guards were more a matter of form, or to air the young
officers' gay uniforms, than any thing else. Our gallant captain
himself was not quite so staid in his carriage at this time as the
Archbishop of Canterbury usually is in the House of Lords, as his mode
of carrying on speedily evinced; first, of all absurdities in the
world, he chose to open the campaign by making a speech to his men,
concluding with "England expects every man to do his duty."--"Now,
men--let us proceed to _buzziness_" (what a mouthful he took of the
word, to be sure). "Shoulder arms." Up went the firelocks to the
shoulders of the tipsy heroes, very _promiscuously_, as Jonathan says.
He then gave the word to "fix bayonets." Now, to those who understand
the setting of a squadron in the field, to obey _this_ was a physical
impossibility to _men_ who were standing with their muskets
_shouldered_, whatever it might have been to _monkeys_.
The captain, _hearing_ there was something wrong, from the clatter of
men and muskets, for it was pitch dark, called out--"Are all your
bayonets fixed?"
"The devil a one of them," said a drunken voice; "nor can be, unless
you send for a ladder--or, and _it would be the cheapest plan
probably_, tell us to order arms again."
Of the two alternatives, the last was chosen; the muskets were ordered,
and the bayonets at length fixed; but all this, and the difficulty of
getting the squad under weigh in any thing like tolerable marching
order, took up time; and, from the dying away of the uproar in the
distance, it seemed to me that before we got through with our
manoeuvres the fire might be out, and the necessity for the display of
so much skill and courage have passed over.
"Double quick time--march;--now scull along, ye devils, or the fire
will be out," sung out the captain; and away we raced in single file.
The negroes are always most active on occasions of this kind, and as
every householder is obliged to have a certain number of leathern fire
buckets always in readiness hung in some accessible place, _pro bono
publico_, with his name painted on them, they had as usual armed
themselves with them on the present occasion; so we soon came to a
double line of black fellows, extending from the scene of the fire to a
public well, down one file of which the empty buckets were being
handed, while the full ones circulated upwards to the fire engines by
the other.
The poor fellows were so busy and zealous that they did not immediately
make an opening for the head of our gay column. But we were not to be
stopped by trifles; so--"Charge bayonets, men, and clear your own way,"
sung out the captain. The leading file did so; but, as the devil would
have it, so did the files in the rear, whereby every man gave his file
leader a most sufficing progue. A general stumble and grumble took
place upon this.
"Mind your bayonet, sir."
"My eye! you have stuck me in the shoulder."
"Murder! you have piqued me, I don't know where."
At length down tumbled the brave bombardier who was leading the forlorn
hope; and away went the others helter-skelter on the top of him;
Quashie giving a sly dash of his bucket over the sprawling mass of
fallen militaires every now and then, just to cool their ardour.
However, they soon gathered themselves up again, and Flamingo, who was
the junior lieutenant, now brought up the rear, with me, Benjie,
alongside of him. He was quite sober, so far as appearances went, but
determined to have some fun, I could see. The fire had been in a
narrow lane at the top of the town, and was by this time got under, as
I expected. Notwithstanding, away we tramped, and were advancing up
the lane, when we saw the glare of flambeaux, and heard all the
confusion and uproar usually attendant on a fire. There was an engine
planted right in front of us, at a crossing, that was still playing on
the house that had been burning. It was directed by a drunken Irish
carpenter, who saw us well enough, I am persuaded; for the moment he
thought he had the Spartan band within the play of his pipe, he let
fly; and drenched every man and officer as they came up--all but
Flamingo, who had drawn me into a doorway until the shower blew over.
"Stop, sir; stop your infernal machine," roared the captain.
Whiz--whiz--whiz--splash--splash--splutter, was the only answer.
"Advance and storm the battery, men;" and, drawing his sword, he led
them to the attack, like a hero as he was; receiving the fire (water, I
mean) of the engine full in his face, in all its force and fury, as he
advanced, which knocked off his hat, and nearly choked him.
At length the engine was captured, when the fellow in charge made a
thousand apologies. "May the devil burn me," said he, "if I did not
take the sparkle of the officers' gorgets, and the flash of the
bayonets, for a new outbreak of the fire."
However, there was now no use for any farther military demonstration;
so we countermarched, like a string of water-rats, to the Court-House,
to console ourselves with hot negus and deviled biscuit. A blind man
could have traced the party by the watery trail they left on the dry
sandy street.
After this we spent a most jovial fortnight, but the time of our
departure at length arrived. Poor Jessamy, the gay artilleryman above
spoken of, was one of a party at our farewell dinner at Flamingo's, two
evenings before we intended to start on our return home. He appeared
out of spirits, and left the first of the whole company. Next day, it
seemed, he had taken an early dinner alone, and ridden out no one could
tell where. In the evening he did not return to his lodgings; but
still no alarm was taken. On the morrow, however, when he did not make
his appearance at his place of business, his friends became alarmed;
especially as it was found that one of the pistols in his pistol-case
had been taken away.
My uncle was very desirous of postponing his departure until the poor
young fellow had been accounted for, as he was a favourite of his; but
matters at home pressed, and we were obliged to return. Accordingly,
we left our kind friends in Kingston next day at early dawn, on a most
beautiful, clear, cool morning in January. No one who has not
luxuriated in it, can comprehend the delights of a West India climate
at this season. Except at high noon, the air was purity itself. Our
road home lay through the Liguania, or rather Saint George's mountains,
as we had a short visit to pay in the latter parish to an old friend of
Mr Frenche.
It was about nine in the morning; we had breakfasted at the Hope
tavern, and proceeded three or four miles on our homeward journey, when
a Kingston gentleman of our acquaintance, accompanied by an overseer of
one of the neighbouring estates, overtook us, but did not pull up,
merely giving us a salute as he rode quickly past us.
"Our friend is in a hurry this morning," said mine uncle.
We rode on, and shortly after saw the same horsemen coming back again,
with an addition to their party of another equestrian.
"Pray, Mr Frenche," said the Kingston gentleman, "did you see a
saddle-horse without a rider as you came along?"'
"Yes I did. I saw a good-looking bay cob down on the hill side, close
to the gully there; but I thought his owner could not be far off, so I
paid little regard to it."
"God bless me! it must be poor Jessamy's horse; where can he be?"
"Is it known what has become of Mr Jessamy?" said I.
"We can't tell, we can't tell; but he has been traced in this
direction, and it must have been his horse you saw; he has not been
heard of since the day before yesterday at dinner-time."
We knew this; but still had hoped he would have been accounted for by
this time. My uncle was a good deal moved at this, for the poor young
fellow was well known to him, as already hinted.
"I will turn back with you," said he, "and point out whereabouts the
horse was seen. But I hope your fears will prove groundless after all."
The gentleman shook his head mournfully, and, after retrograding about
a mile, we again caught sight of the animal we were in search of,
eating his grass composedly below us, on the brink of the rocky
mountain stream.
Close by, in a nook or angle of the mountain, and right below us, was a
clump of noble trees, surrounding an old ruinous building, and
clustered round a wild cotton one, beneath whose shadow the loftiest
English oak would have shrunk to a bush. Embraced by two of the huge
armlike limbs of the leafy monarch, and blending its branches
gracefully, as if clinging for support, grew a wide-spreading
star-apple; its leaves, of the colour of the purple beech, undulating
gently in the sea-breeze, upturned their silvery undersides to the sun,
contrasting beautifully with the oak-like foliage of the cotton-tree.
Half a dozen turkey buzzards, the Jamaica vulture, were clustered in
the star apple-tree, with a single bird perched as a sentry on the
topmost branch of the giant to which it clung; while several more were
soaring high overhead, diminished in the depths of the blue heaven to
minute specks, as if they scented the prey afar off.
The ruin we saw had been an old Spanish chapel, and a number of the
fruit-trees had no doubt been planted by the former possessors of the
land. Never was there a more beautiful spot; so sequestered, no sound
being heard in the vicinity but the rushing of the breeze through the
highest branches of the trees; for every thing slept motionless and
still down below in the cool checkering shadow and sleepy sunlight
where we were--the gurgling of the stream, that sparkled past in
starlike flashes, and the melancholy lowing of the kine on the hillside
above. When the Kingston gentleman first saw the "John Crows," as they
are called, he exchanged glances with my uncle, as much as to say, "Ah!
my worst fears are about being realized." We rode down the precipitous
bank by a narrow path--so narrow indeed, that the bushes through which
we had to thrust ourselves met over our saddle-bows--and soon arrived
in the rocky bed of the stream, where the rotten and projecting bank of
the dry mould that composed the consecrated nook, overhung us, as we
scrambled, rattling and sliding amongst the slippery and smooth rolled
stones of the gully; while we were nearly unhorsed every now and then
by the bare roots projecting from the bank, where it had been
undermined when the stream had been swollen.
We had to dismount, and the first thing we saw on scrambling up the
bank was a pair of vultures,[2] who jumped away, with outspread wings,
a couple of yards from the edge of it, the moment we put our heads up,
holding their beaks close to the short green sward, and hissing like
geese.
[2] Nothing can be conceived more hideous than the whole aspect of
these abominable birds. They are of the size of a large turkey, but
much stronger, and of a sooty brown. Their feathers are never sleek or
trimmed, but generally staring, like those of a fowl in the pip, and
not unfrequently covered with filth and blood, so that their approach
is made known by an appeal to more senses than one. The neck and head
are entirely naked of feathers, and covered with a dingy red and
wrinkled skin. They are your only West India scavengers, and are
protected by a penalty of fifteen dollars for every one that is
intentionally killed.
As we advanced, they retired into the small thicket, and we followed
them. I never can forget the scene that here opened on our view.
The fruit-trees, amongst which I noticed the orange, lemon, lime, and
shaddock, intermingled with the kennip, custard-apple, bread-fruit, and
mango, relieved at intervals by a stately and minaret-looking palm,
formed a circle about fifty feet in diameter; the open space being
covered, with the exception hereafter mentioned, with short emerald
green grass; in the very centre of this area stood the ruin,
overshadowed by the two trees already described. It was scarcely
distinguishable from a heap of green foliage, so completely was it
overrun with the wild yam and wild fig-tree; the latter lacing and
interlacing over the grey stones with its ligneous fret-work; in some
places the meshes composed of boughs as thick as a man's arm, in others
as minute as those of a small seine, all the links where the fibres
crossed having grown into each other.
We continued our approach, following the two turkey buzzards, who at
length made a stand under the star-apple tree, where the grass was long
and rank, as if it had grown over a grave, hissing and stretching out
their wings, nearly seven feet from tip to tip, and apparently
determined to give battle, as if they had now retreated to their prey.
Seeing us determined, however, they gave a sort of hop, or short
flight, and gently lifted themselves on to a branch of the tree above,
about four feet from the ground, where they remained observing us, and
uttering hoarse, discordant croaks, sounding as if they had been gorged
to the throat with carrion already, and shaking their heads, and
snorting as if their nostrils had been choked with rotten flesh;
polluting the air at the same time with a horrible stench, and casting
wistful glances down into the tuft of rank grass beneath.
This state of suspense was horrible, so with one accord we drove the
obscene creatures from their perch, and stepping forward, looked into
the rank tuft. Heaven and earth! what a sight was _there_--Stretched
on the ground, embedded in the quill-like guinea-grass that bristled up
all around him, lay poor Jessamy on his face; his clothes soaked and
soiled by the rain of the two preceding nights, and the vile poaching
of the vultures now congregated in the tree above, which appeared to
have been circling round and round him, from the filth and dirt, and
trodden appearance of the herbage; but as yet deterred from making an
attack. The majesty of the human form, all dim and mangled though it
was, like a faint, but sacred halo, had quelled the fierceness of their
nature, and the body of the suicide was still unbroken, even after the
lapse of two days, except by the shattering of the pistol-shot fired by
his own sacrilegious hands. Had it been the carcass of an ox, twelve
hours could not have run by, before the naked skeleton would have been
bleaching in the sun and wind.
There was a broken halter hanging from the branch above him.
"I cannot look at him," said my uncle, shrinking back in disgust; and
as he spoke, the John Crows dropped down again, and began to move
warily about the body, but still afraid to attack it.
Finding that we were not retreating, however, the creatures flew up
into the tree once more; and our eyes following them, we saw at least a
score clustered immediately overhead, all ready, no doubt, to devour
the carcass, so soon as those below should give the signal.
It seemed probable that he had tied his horse to the branch above where
he lay, and that the animal had subsequently, when impelled by hunger,
broken the halter. He had laid his hat on the sward close beside him,
with his watch and silk handkerchief in it, and drawn off his gloves,
which were placed, seemingly with some care, on the edge of it. He had
then apparently knelt, shot himself through the head, and fallen on his
face across the pistol. As we approached, the buzz of flies that rose
up!--and the incipient decomposition that appeared on the hands! We
waited to see the body turned--but the ghastly and shattered
forehead--the hair clotted in black gore--the brains fermenting through
the eyes--the mask of festering and putrifying and crawling matter that
was left on the ground, with the print of the features in
it--Horrible--most horrible!
An inquest was held that afternoon, when the poor fellow was put into a
shell in his clothes, and buried where he lay;--in consecrated ground,
as I have already related. Some unfortunate speculations in business,
working on a very sensitive nature, had turned his brain, and in a
godless hour he had made away with himself. But two days before I had
seen him full of fun and gaiety, although possibly the excitement was
not natural, and now!----Alas, poor Jessamy, we had at least the
melancholy satisfaction of shielding your defaced remains from the
awe-inspiring surse pronounced against the Israelites, if they should
fall away after the sinfulness of the Heathen--"And thy carcass shall
be meat unto the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth,
and no man shall fray them awa."
But time and tide wait for no man; so we had to leave the sad scene,
and proceed on our journey.
* * * * *
"I say, uncle," after we had talked ourselves _out_ on the melancholy
affair, "when shall we come into the road?"
"Road--road? why, if you go _off_ the road, Benjie, you will drop some
five hundred feet, or so, down that precipice, that's all."
"Oh, I see--so this _is the_ road; why, I thought we were strolling
along some short cut of sheep paths and river courses. Road, indeed!"
We held on, making easy stages of it from one friend's house to
another, until, on the evening of the fifth day from the time we left
Kingston, we were once more safe and snug under our own roof at
Ballywindle.