THE QUADROON.
FOR several days succeeding that upon which Captain Ratlin had avowed
himself to his fair young companion to be engaged in the slave trade
upon the coast of Africa, the "Sea Witch" was occupied in running in
towards the land and exchanging signals with friends on shore, and then
standing off and on to watch a favorable moment for running to an
anchorage, without encountering one of the English or American cruisers
stationed on the coast. During this time the young commander and his
fair passenger found much time for conversation, and she strove with all
that power of persuasion and delicacy of tact peculiar to her sex, to
point out to the adventurous and generous-hearted commander the fearful
responsibility of the course he was pursuing.
Perhaps no other agent would have accomplished so much as she
did--indeed, no other could for a moment have gained his ear, and the
result even to herself was very apparent, very satisfactory. He, all
unconsciously yielded every argument to her, was only too ready and
willing to grant her the fullest accordance in what she asked or argued,
for though he dared not to say so, yet he felt that already he loved the
mild yet eloquent and lovely girl with a devotion that caused all other
interests to fade in importance. It was a novel idea to him to realize
that so fair and gentle a creature could entertain such sufficient
interest in him, a rough sailor, to strive and mould his conduct for
good.
On her part, it would be difficult for us to define the exact state of
feelings which actuated the beautiful girl whom we first introduced to
the reader in India. She felt an interest in the commander of the slaver
that she was afraid to acknowledge not only to her mother, but indeed to
herself. The tones of his voice came over her heart like the memory of
music that we have heard at some distant time, and in some forgotten
place; his eyes betrayed to her the love he dared not speak, and when
she did pause to consider their relation towards each other, she half
shuddered, and said to herself, "Would to heaved this man was a poor
mechanic, anything but a slaver! How can I give my confidence to him,
and yet how can I withhold it, for he wins from me my very thoughts!"
One evening just after sunset, Miss Huntington and her mother had been
tarrying on the quarter deck for a long while, watching the conversation
going on between the ship and the shore by means of flags, and observing
that the "Sea Witch" had run in closer than usual, the mother asked:
"Shall we not land before long, Captain Ratlin? We have been in the
vicinity of the shore so long, that I begin to feel quite impatient."
"To-night, madam, we shall be on shore. I cannot offer you very good
quarters at first, but you shall find conveyance to Sierra Leone
shortly, from whence you can sail for England."
"We have to thank you for much kindness, sir," she continued,
gratefully.
"Nay, madam, necessity and duty to my owners has rendered it imperative
for me to approach the coast cautiously, and hence a delay I could not
avoid."
"You are too honest and manly a spirit, sir," said the mother, frankly,
"to be engaged in such a trade. Ah, sir, why not turn your talents to a
more fitting purpose? The field of commerce is extensive, and such as
you need not look for command."
"Madam, your daughter has already caused me to behold my position in a
very different light from what I did when I cleared my ship from the
last port."
"I rejoice, Captain Ratlin, to hear you say so," was the frank rejoinder
of the mother, as she extended her hand to him, and which he pressed
respectfully.
"She is thus frank and open with me," reasoned the young commander to
himself, "because she has no reason for restraint; but were I to tell
her that I loved her child, that she was already so dear to me that I
would relinquish all things for her, that face, so friendly in its
expression now, would be suffused with disdain and scorn. No, no! such a
fate is not in store for me; a sailor should know but one mistress, and
she should be his ship. But the heart is a stubborn thing. I would not
have believed that ouch a change could come over me."
"Stand by to let go the starboard bow anchor," he shouted, as the vessel
gradually crept shoreward with the oncoming of night, and, assumed the
position in which he desired to place her.
Her sails were gradually furled, and as she drew to her anchorage
ground, a quarter-boat a was lowered from the davits, while the chain
cable rang its loud report as it ran out at the hawser hole, and the
ship swung gradually with the set of the current, leaving her stern
towards the shore. But a few moments elapsed before Capt. Ratlin and his
two passengers, with such articles as they had brought on board, were
skimming over the short space between the ship and the shore, propelled
by a half-dozen stout rowers. It had already been explained to them that
at first it would be necessary to land them and offer them shelter at
Don Leonardo's slave factory, until a mode of conveyance could be
procured for them to reach Sierra Leone, so they were not surprised, but
placing full confidence in Captain Ratlin, were satisfied.
At the house of Don Leonardo, they were hospitably received, and found
the proprietor to be a rough Spaniard, with a dark quadroon daughter,
whose mulatto mother was dead. The household, though primitive, in many
particulars, was yet profusely supplied with every necessity, and even
many luxuries. In the rear of the house was a spacious barracoon, where
the slaves were collected and kept for shipment, and where they were
plentifully supplied with rice and vegetables, with salt meats, and the
means of doing their own cooking. All these things the new corners noted
at once, and indeed were very curious in fully understanding. There
seemed to be little restraint exercised about the place; the slaves were
looked at in the light of prisoners of war, and did not attempt escape.
They seemed to be quite indifferent themselves as to their fate, and
were very happy, with good food to eat, and a plenty of it.
One thing that both Mrs. Huntington and her daughter marked well was the
fact that Don Leonardo greeted Capt. Ratlin as one whom he had met
before, and that Maud, his daughter, also sprang forward to meet him
with unmistakable tokens of delight. On his part, both were cordially
greeted, and they spoke together like people whose time was precious and
whose business required despatch. Mrs. Huntington gathered enough from
their open and undisguised talk to learn, that as there was not a
sufficient number of negroes at the present moment on hand, that the
"Sea Witch," with her light draft of water, must be run up a neighboring
river and be there moored away from the prying eyes of the cruisers on
the coast, until the proper hour should arrive for shipping her freight.
Therefore when Captain Ratlin left them, it was with a promise to return
and join them again within a few hours. He resolved to moor his vessel
under the shelter of the present favoring darkness, to which end he at
once repaired on board.
The two English ladies, both mother and daughter, found much to interest
them in Maud Leonardo. She seemed to be a strange girl, a rough diamond,
with all the tact and ready invention of her mulatto mother, and all
the fire of her Spanish father. They soon learned that this was not
Captain Ratlin's first visit to the coast, and that her father, as well
as herself, considered him the finest seaman and gentleman in the coast
trade. It was impossible not to see with what feeling Maud the Quadroon
dwelt upon the good qualities of him she referred to, declaring that he
was a father to all the people he took away in his ship, and how kind he
was to them; that he always knocked off their shackles at once and made
friends of them by real kindness.
Mrs. Huntington, to say nothing of her daughter, saw something more than
mere honest admiration in the enthusiastic girl's remarks about the
young commander, and the mother shrewdly determined to question her upon
the theme, and to weigh well her answers.
"Captain Ratlin is very friendly to you, I suppose, Maud?" said Mrs.
Huntington.
"He is friendly to father, and that is the same thing," she replied,
simply.
"Has he not brought you presents across the ocean?" continued the
mother.
"One," said Maud, with evident pleasure, rolling back a long sleeve, and
discovering to her new-made friends a rich golden bracelet, set with
pearls, a rare and beautiful ornament.
"This is indeed beautiful," said the mother.
Mrs. Huntington examined the jewel, while her daughter turned
thoughtfully away! She could not be mistaken; she saw at once that this
rude, uncultivated girl loved the commander of the "Sea Witch," nor did
she wonder at such a fact; but yet she found herself musing and asking
within her own mind whether such a being could make him happy as a wife.
She felt that he was worthy of better companionship, and that,
notwithstanding Maud evidently loved him, he could hardly entertain any
peculiar regard for her. Could he have deceived the girl? she thought.
No, deceit was no part of his nature; that she felt sure of, and thus
she mused alone to herself, placing the relationship of the two in all
manner of lights, until she saw him again.
Having moored the "Sea Witch" safely amid the jungle of one of the many
winding rivers that indent the coast of Africa, and sent down her upper
spars to prevent her from being discovered by any exhibition of the
top-hamper above the trees and jungle growth, Captain Ratlin left his
crew under charge of the first officer, Mr. Faulkner, and returned once
more to the seaboard and the establishment of Don Leonardo. Here it
would be necessary for him to remain for a week or more, while the
Spaniard sent his runners inland to the chiefs of the various coast
tribes to forward the prisoners of war to his barracoons. This period of
time was passed in various domestic amusements, in observing the sports
and games of the natives, their habits, and studying their
nationalities--for the slaves in Don Leonardo's barracoons represented a
score of different tribes, each characteristic of its origin.
Mrs. Huntington regarded Captain Ratlin's intercourse with Maud with
much interest, which she did not attempt to disguise, while her daughter
did so under the disguise of indifference, but with the most intense
interest. Not a word, look, or sign between them betrayed the least
token of any understanding or peculiar confidence as existing between
the commander and the Quadroon.
Maud, on her part, began to change somewhat since the first day of the
arrival of the strangers. Then she was as free and unconstrained as
innocence itself--now she seemed to regard the new-comers with a jealous
eye, for she saw the deep feeling evinced by the young commander towards
the fairest of the two; she heard a strange charm in the tone of his
voice when he addressed the daughter, and at such moments Mrs.
Huntington more than once saw her bosom heave quickly, and her eye flash
with a wild and startling fire that made her tremble. This was jealousy,
plain and unmistakable, a fact that no woman would have been at a loss
to understand.
It was not possible that the mother should be blind to the feeling
evinced by Captain Ratlin towards her daughter, and she thought, so long
as this sentiment maintained the respectful and solicitous character
which it now bore, that it would redound to their security and future
safety, as they were in one sense completely in his power. But as it
regarded the idea of her daughter's entertaining any affection for him,
or seriously considering his advances, the idea could not for a moment
enter her head. She did not at ill consider that there was any danger of
her daughter's losing her heart--no, no! Had not she been accustomed to
attention from earliest girlhood, and from the most polished men? She
did not even think it necessary to speak to her upon the subject; she
might be as friendly as she pleased with him under the circumstances.
But the daughter herself, who to her mother's eye was so indifferent,
was at heart deeply and strangely impressed by the frank, chivalrous and
devoted attention of the commander of the slaver. His attention was
characterized by the most unquestioned delicacy and consideration; he
had never uttered the first syllable to her that he might not properly
have used before her mother--indeed, he had not the boldness or
effrontery to urge a suit that he knew was out of the question, and yet
he felt irresistibly drawn towards the English girl, and could not
disguise from her the true sentiments that so plainly filled his inmost
heart; she must have been less than woman not to have read his very
soul, so bared to her scrutiny.
It was the first time that she had ever deceived her mother, because it
was the first time that she had loved. Yes, loved, for though she would
as soon have sacrificed her life as to have acknowledged it, yet she did
love him, and the poor untutored Quadroon girl read the fact that the
mother could not, with all her cultivation and knowledge of the world,
detect. But jealousy is an apt teacher, and the spirit of Maud Leonardo
was now thoroughly aroused; she sighed for revenge, and puzzled her
brain how she might gain the longed-for end.
Captain Ratlin had eyes for only one object, and that was the young and
beautiful English girl. He never gave a thought to Maud; he had never
done so for one moment. As a friend of her father, or rather as a dealer
intimately connected in a business point of view with him, he had given
a present to his daughter, and had endeavored to make himself agreeable
to her at all times, but never for one moment with a serious thought of
any degree of intimacy, save of the most public and ordinary character.
Probably Maud herself would have never thought seriously about the
matter had she not felt how much the English girl surpassed her in
beauty, in accomplishment, and in all that might attract the interest of
one like Captain Ratlin.
Jealousy is a subtle poison, and the Quadroon was feeding upon it
greedily, while its baleful effect was daily becoming more and more
manifest in her behaviour.