When the vessel arrived at the mouth of the Aracan river, a canoe
was seen coming out from Akyah--a town situated at the entrance to
the principal of the several channels by which the river makes its
way, through a number of sand banks and islands, into the sea. As
it approached, Stanley recognized his uncle sitting in the stern.
"Well, uncle, how are you?" he called out, as the boat approached
the side.
"What, is it you, Stanley? I am glad, indeed, to see you. I have
watched the papers anxiously, to see if your name appeared among
those who have been killed or have died; not seeing it, I hoped
that you were all right. Of course we heard, from the Madras
regiment that came across from Sembeughewn, that it was all over;
and that all the troops would be shipped off, as soon as they went
down to Rangoon; but I have not seen any papers lately, and so have
not had a chance of learning any news of you. I fancied, though,
that you would be back at Calcutta by this time; and thought that I
might get a letter from you, by this ship."
By this time he was on deck, and after a hearty shaking of hands,
Stanley asked what he was doing here.
"I did not expect to see you until we got to Aracan."
"I have been up there, lad. It is a decaying old place, and the
stream is in many places shallow; so that it would be very
difficult to take up a ship of any size. I foresee, therefore, that
this is going to be the chief port of the province--timber will be
floated down here, and rice brought down in native boats--so I
shall make my headquarters here, as far as this district is
concerned, and put Johnson in charge. I doubt whether, for a time,
we shall do as much trade as we shall higher up the coast; but
everyone expects a great Burmese immigration, and a large trade is
likely to spring up, in time.
"I have not quite determined on my next move, and it is not
improbable that I shall go down in this ship and establish myself,
for a time, at Martaban; and open a trade in Tenasserim. If I
decide on that, I shall only get on shore a portion of my goods,
and take the rest on with me there.
"Now, what are you going to do, Stanley?"
"Just what you think best, uncle. I should have thought that, as I
speak the language, it would be better for me to go on to Martaban;
and for you to work Chittagong, and the district up to Assam."
"Then you are going to stay with me, lad!" his uncle exclaimed, in
a tone of much satisfaction. "I was afraid that you would have got
so fond of soldiering that you would have thrown this over,
altogether."
"Not a bit of it, uncle. I am on three months' leave at present
and, at the end of that time, I shall resign. You know I am a
captain, now--that is to say, that I have got my rank by death
vacancies, though until the Gazette comes out from England, I can
hardly be said to be a pucka captain; and, what is more, the
general himself assured me that, after being mentioned in
despatches two or three times, and at his strong commendation of my
services, I was sure of the brevet rank of major."
His uncle took off his hat, gravely.
"I must apologize to you," he said, "for addressing you as 'lad.' I
had no idea that you were a full-grown captain, still less that you
might soon be a major."
"I don't care a snap for the title, uncle," Stanley said, laughing,
"except that it may be an advantage to me, in places where there
are garrisons; and indeed, generally where there are white
officials."
"A very great advantage, Stanley.
"Well, lad, I have been coining money, since I saw you at Rangoon.
I have been sending a consignment of bullocks down there, every
week; and have done almost as much with the Manipur force. I have
also got the contract regularly, now, for the supply of the troops
at Calcutta. Other trade has, of course, been at a standstill. Now
that everything has quieted down, there will be a perfect rush; and
I have been sorely troubled, in my mind, whether it would be best
to stay up here and take advantage of it, or to be one of the first
to open trade at these new ports. Of course, if you are ready to
take Martaban, that will decide me; and I shall take passage in the
first ship going up to Chittagong. My own boat and the dhow are
both there, and I shall at once work up all the rivers, and set
things going again.
"I have a capital fellow, a native, who is carrying on the cattle
business for me and, at Chittagong, I shall try and get hold of
three or four more trustworthy fellows, to take charge of depots. I
see a big future before us, and that before long. I did well with
those gems of yours--they fetched 3500 pounds, which I used,
besides what you handed over to me--for there was no buying up the
cattle without cash and, as I generally have to wait two months
after they are shipped, before I get paid, ready money was
invaluable and, indeed, I could not have gone into the thing on
anything like the same scale, if it had not been for your money.
The Calcutta people would have helped me, to a certain point; but
they would never have ventured upon such advances as I required.
Your 5000 pounds has doubled itself since I met you at Rangoon. I
calculate that our stores at the different depots are worth 4000
pounds so that, at the present moment, the firm of Pearson & Brooke
have at their command a capital of 14,000 pounds."
A portion of the cargo was landed at Akyah. Stanley went down with
the rest to Martaban, and his uncle sailed for Chittagong. A few
months later, a store was opened at Rangoon. Parsee store-keepers
were sent from Calcutta, by Tom Pearson; and these were placed in
control of the stores there, and at Martaban--Stanley being in
charge of these two stations, and Akyah; and having a native craft
of his own, and a boat for river work similar to that of his uncle.
A year later he received a letter from Harry, saying that his uncle
had died, a month after his return to England; and that he was now
established as one of the pillars of the state.
"As I went through London, on my arrival," he said, "I looked up
your mother at the address you gave me, at Dulwich. I found her
very well, and very comfortable. She was full of your praises and,
as I was equally so, your ears ought to have tingled while we were
together. Of course they wanted to hear all about you, and most of
it was new to them; for you had said nothing of your adventure with
that leopard, and only a few lines about the rescue of your humble
servant; though you had told them that I stood in your way of the
earldom. Your mother said that she was prouder of you than if you
were an earl, only that she would have liked to have you at home. I
told her that you and your uncle were shaking the pagoda tree, and
that you would come home as yellow as a guinea and as rich as a
nabob, in the course of a few years.
"Your sisters are older than I expected to find them. Of course,
you always spoke of them as when you saw them last. They are both
growing into very pretty girls, the elder especially. I made your
mother promise to bring them down to stay with me, for a bit, when
I came into the title; which I knew could not be long, for I had
called that morning on my uncle's solicitors, and they told me that
he was not expected to live many weeks. As it is only a month since
he died, I suppose I ought not to have visitors, just yet; but in a
few weeks I shall go up to town, and bring them down with me. I
cannot help thinking that it is a little selfish for, when they see
this place, they would not be human if they did not feel that it
would have been yours, if it had not been for your getting me out
of the hands of those Burmese.
"I see that you are gazetted captain, this week. I suppose, long
before this, you have settled down to your old work of going up
sluggish streams; and trying to stir up the equally sluggish native
to a sense of the advantages of British goods. At present, I am
quite content to do nothing particular--to ride and drive about,
return calls, and so on--but I expect, before very long, I shall
get restless, and want to be doing something. However, there is the
Continent open to one, and decent hotels to stop at. No fevers
there, and no Burmese brigands."
A month later he had a letter from his mother, which had been
written before that of Harry, but had been sent to Calcutta and
thence to Akyah; and had there lain until his return, two months
later, from a boat journey up to Pegu. She said how kind it was of
his cousin to come in, to give them news of him, the very day he
arrived in London.
"Of course, we were delighted with all that he told us about you;
but it made us anxious to think of your running into so many
dangers. We like him very much. We could not help laughing, because
he seemed quite concerned that you should not have the peerage,
instead of him. He seems likely to come into it soon, for he tells
us that the earl is very ill. He says that we must come down and
pay him a visit, as soon as he is master there; but I don't know
whether that can be. Of course it would be a nice change, and I
believe that it is a very fine place. I said that it would seem
strange our going there, when there are no ladies, and that
bachelors did not generally entertain; but he said that, in the
first place he should have his sisters there, who were about the
same age as my girls; and that as we were his nearest relations,
and you were at present his heir, it would be quite the right and
proper thing for us to come down. He seemed quite in earnest about
it, and I should not be surprised if we go."
Three months later, Stanley heard that the visit had been paid, and
that they had stayed a fortnight there.
"It feels quite funny, settling down here again after being in that
big house, with all those servants and grandeur; not that there is
any grandeur about Harry. He insists, being relations, that we
shall call him by his Christian name. Everything was delightful.
Every afternoon we used to go driving and, of a morning, he
generally rode with the girls. He had a very pretty, gentle horse
for Agnes; and a gray pony, a beauty, for Kate. I have a strong
suspicion that he had bought them both, on purpose. I should not be
surprised--but no, I won't say anything about it."
Stanley puzzled over this sentence, which was followed by:
"His sisters are very nice girls."
"It is evidently something about Harry," he said to himself;
"possibly she has taken the idea into her head that he may fall in
love with Agnes. That, certainly, would be a very nice thing; but I
don't suppose it is anything more than an idea of mother's."
However, four months later he received a letter from Harry,
announcing his engagement.
"I told your mother that she must let me write by the mail, before
she did; as it was only right that I should have the pleasure of
telling you the news, myself. It is splendid, old man; upon my
word, I don't know which I ought to feel most grateful to you--for
saving my life, or for getting me to know your sister. It seems to
me a regular dispensation of Providence. You did everything you
could to prevent yourself from coming into a title; and now your
sister is going to take it, and me. It is quite right that we
should come to be brothers-in-law, for we are quite like brothers,
already.
"We are to be married in the spring. How I wish you could be with
us. Your absence will be the only thing wanting, to make everything
perfect. I do hope you don't mean to stay, grilling out there, many
years. It seems to me monstrous that I should be having estates and
a big income, and all that sort of thing, when I have done nothing
to deserve it; and that you should be toiling in that beastly
climate. If I thought that there was the least chance of your
rushing home, when you get this letter, I declare that I would put
off the marriage for a month or so, so that you should be here in
time; but as I feel sure that you won't do anything of the sort, it
will be of no use for me to make such a noble sacrifice."
Stanley had received the news that he was gazetted brevet-major, a
month after he was promoted to the rank of captain, and two months
before his name appeared as having retired from the army. He
derived, as he expected, much benefit from his connection with the
army in his position at his three receiving ports, as it placed him
on a very pleasant footing with the military and civil officials;
and it rendered his occasional visits to Calcutta and Madras
exceedingly pleasant, for in both towns he found many officers
whose acquaintance he had made, during the expedition. He was
always made an honorary member of the messes and clubs, during his
stays there.
The business grew rapidly. The work of the earlier years had so
well paved the way for larger operations that they were able to
more than hold their own against other traders who, after the
troubles were at an end, sought to establish themselves at various
points on the western coast of the peninsula; and after six more
years of hard and continuous work, the business came to be a very
large and important one.
"I think it more than probable," Stanley wrote to his mother, "that
before very long I shall be returning home. My uncle spoke about
it, the last time that I saw him; and said that we were outgrowing
Calcutta, and ought to establish ourselves in London.
"'We can hold on a bit longer,' he said, 'but we must come to that,
sooner or later and, when it does, you must be the one to go to
England and take charge. I may go home before that for a few
months, but I have no wish or desire to stop there. We have now got
a good staff; and I shall probably fix myself, permanently, at
Calcutta.'"
Two years later Tom Pearson, on his return from England, brought
back a wife with him, and established himself at Calcutta. Stanley
joined him there, three weeks after his return. They had a long
talk together, that evening.
"I see, Stanley," his uncle said, "that things have gone on
improving, since I have been away; and that our turnover last year
was 150,000 pounds, and the profits close upon 15,000 pounds. I
think, now, that it is high time we opened a place in London. We
have almost a monopoly of the teak trade, in Burma; and it would be
much more advantageous for us to make our purchases in England,
instead of here. We should save in carriage and in trans-shipment,
besides the profits that the people here make out of their sales to
us. I have made a great many inquiries, at home, as to the prices
for cash in Manchester and Birmingham; and find that we should get
goods there some fifteen percent cheaper than we pay at Calcutta,
even after putting on the freights. So you see, it is an important
matter. Besides, there would be a better choice of goods, and you
know exactly the sort of thing that we require, and the quantities
that we can get rid of; and would be able, therefore, to send
consignments each month, without waiting for advices from me; and
so we should get the things just as readily as we do now, from
here.
"I will give you the names of some of the firms that I have
visited, and with whom I have already paved the way for opening
extensive transactions. During the eighteen months that I have been
away, you have learned all about the banking business; and will
find no more difficulty in managing, in London, than here. Your
brother-in-law Netherly went with me to the Bank of England, and
introduced me to one of the directors. I told him that we intended
to open a house in London, and that as soon as we did so, we should
open an account with them by paying in 30,000 pounds; and that we
should, of course, require some facilities, but probably not to a
large extent, as our payments for teak there would fairly balance
our exports from England; and that I reckoned our trade to be, as a
minimum, 50,000 pounds, each way.
"The matter was made extremely easy by Netherly saying, to my
astonishment:
"'You can let them draw what they like, Mr. Townshend, for I will
give my personal guarantee, up to 50,000 pounds.'
"I remonstrated, but he would not hear anything said.
"'Ridiculous,' he exclaimed, hotly; 'Stanley is my brother-in-law.
He risked his life for me, and you don't suppose that I should mind
risking 50,000 pounds for him.
"'Not,' he went on, turning to the director, 'that there is any
risk in the matter. I know all about the business they do in India,
and that there is not a shadow of risk in it. I know that my
guarantee will be a mere form but, as it may put them on a better
footing with you, to begin with, I shall be very pleased to do it.'
"Of course, we know that there will be no risk in it. The greater
portion of our business is a ready-money one and although, of late,
we have been dealing more with native local firms instead of
selling direct from our own stores, the amounts are never large
and, so far, we have never lost a penny. Of course, I shall let you
know, by every mail, how things are going on at all our depots; and
you will then be able to form an estimate as to the amount of goods
you will have to despatch to each--sending them direct, of course,
if there happens to be a ship going.
"But all these things, of course, we shall go into, at length,
before you start for England."
"Did you go down to Harry's place?"
"Yes, I stopped there a week. Your sister seems perfectly happy,
and plays the part of queen of the county admirably. The four
youngsters are jolly little things. As to your mother, you will
find very little change in her. I really don't think that she looks
a day older than when we saw her off, at Calcutta, something like
ten years ago. Of course, then she was cut up with her loss; but
quiet and comfort have agreed with her, and the climate is a good
deal less trying than it is out here. At any rate, I should not
take her for a day over forty, and she is something like five years
older than that."
Three months later, Stanley sailed for England. There was the same
argument between him and Meinik that there had been when Stanley
first left Rangoon, but this time it terminated differently.
"You would be out of your element in England, Meinik. Of course, my
life there will be very different from what it is here. I shall go
away from home to business, every morning, and not get back until
perhaps seven o' clock in the evening. As a consequence, there
would be nothing for you to do for me, and we should see very
little of each other. You know I should like to have you with me,
and would do all that I could to make you comfortable; but I am
sure that you would not like the life. Here you have always been on
the move, and there is always something for you to do, and think
of.
"I have spoken to my uncle about you, and he will be glad to
appoint you to the position of purchaser, for our house, of teak
and other native products in these provinces. Besides being buyer,
you would go up the country, and see to the felling and getting the
timber down to the coast, as you have often done before. He knows
how absolutely I trust you, and how much you have done for me, and
he said that he should be very glad to have you in charge of the
buying side of the work, here. Besides, you know you have now a
wife and children and, even if you could make yourself comfortable
in England, they would never be able to do so; and the bitter cold
that we sometimes have, in winter, would try them terribly, and
might even carry them all off."
To these arguments Meinik had reluctantly yielded. He was somewhat
proud of the position that he occupied, as one of some authority in
the establishment of the principal merchants on the coast. He was
fond of his wife and little children; and felt that to be
established among strangers, of different habits and race, would be
very terrible for them. Stanley bought him a nice house at Rangoon
and, as his rate of pay, which had been gradually increased, was
now sufficient to cause him to rank high among the native
population, he himself came to feel that he had done wisely in
accepting Stanley's advice.
The voyage to England was an uneventful one; and to Stanley, after
the active life he had had for ten years, the five months spent at
sea seemed almost interminable.
"I should not have known you, in the least," his mother said, after
the first joyful greetings were over. "How much you have gone
through, since we parted at Calcutta."
"I had a pretty rough time of it for two years, mother, during the
war but, with that exception, my life has been a very pleasant one;
and I have had nothing, whatever, to grumble about.
"This is a pretty house that you have chosen, mother, and the
garden is charming. How I have longed, sometimes, for the sight of
an English garden. Of course I have never seen one before, but I
have heard you talk of them, and thought how delightful the green
grass must be. Of course we had flowers in Burma--plenty of
them--and shrubs; but it was not green, like this. It is charming."
"Yes, it is a pretty house, Stanley. We moved in here five years
ago--thanks to you, dear boy--and it has been a very quiet, happy
time. We have a good many friends now, among our neighbours; and
have quite as much society as I care for.
"I suppose you have not yet decided whether you will live here,
with us," she said, a little anxiously, "or set up an establishment
of your own."
"Of course I shall stay here, mother. I never thought of anything
else. I see that you have some stables. I shall get a couple of
horses, and drive into town, in the mornings. I have got out of the
way of walking, altogether.
"And where is Kate?"
"You will see her presently. She will be here to dinner, with Agnes
and Harry. I sent her off, because I wanted to have you all to
myself, for the first hour. The others came up to town, three days
ago, on purpose to be here when you arrived. Of course, we heard
when your ship called at Plymouth. We had been looking for her, for
your last letter told us the name of the vessel that you were
coming by; so I wrote to them, and they came up at once. They
wanted us to go and dine with them, but I would not hear of it. I
was sure that you would much rather dine quietly, here, than in
state in Portman Square, with three or four footmen behind our
chairs."
"Ever so much better, mother. I suppose I shall hardly know Agnes,
but Harry cannot have altered much; besides, I have seen him four
years later than her."
Harry's greeting was of the heartiest kind. Stanley's sisters felt,
at first, a little strange with this brother of whom they had but a
faint remembrance.
"It does not seem to me, Harry, that your dignities have tamed you
down much."
"No, indeed," Harry laughed. "I find it, sometimes, very difficult
to act up to my position. I never quite feel that I am an earl,
except on the rare occasions when I go to the House of Lords--which
I only do when my vote is wanted, on an important division.
"The gloom of that place is enough to sober anyone. I can assure
you that, when I heard of the fire, I felt absolutely pleased. Of
course, they will build another one, perhaps grander than the last,
and as gloomy but, thank goodness, it must be years before it can
be finished and, until then, we shall have to put up with temporary
premises.
"Your chances of an earldom are getting more and more remote,
Stanley. There are three boys barring the way, already. I had
proposed to myself not to marry--in which case you or a son of
yours would have followed me--but your sister overpersuaded me."
Agnes tossed her head, as she said:
"At any rate, Harry, if you made that resolution, it was not worth
much, as you gave it up at the first opportunity. I was the first
girl you met, when you arrived in England; and I doubt whether you
had seen another, before we came down to stay at Netherly. I had
not been there two days before you began to make love to me."
"The temptation would excuse anything, my dear," Harry laughed.
"Besides, you see, I saw at once that it was but fair and right to
Stanley that, if he could not get the peerage himself, he might
some day have the satisfaction of being uncle to an earl.
"And so you are home for good, old fellow?"
"Yes, and just at present I feel very much at sea as to how to get
to work, as Tom Pearson arranged nothing except as to the banking
account. Everything else he has left to me. I know nothing of
London, and have no idea of the situation where I should look for
offices."
"I will put you up to all that, Stanley. I don't know anything
about it myself, as you may suppose; but if you will go with me to
my solicitors, tomorrow, they will be able to tell you. But I do
know that Leadenhall Street is the centre of the Indian trade, and
it's somewhere about there that you will have to fix yourself.
"Of course, when you have taken a place, you will have to get hold
of some clerks. If you put an advertisement in the paper, you will
get any number of applicants; or possibly my men may, through their
connection with merchants, be able to hear of some to suit you.
Anyhow, I am sure that you will find no difficulty."
Thanks to Harry's introductions, Stanley was established in a
handsome suite of offices, with three clerks, with much greater
ease than he had anticipated. Being thoroughly versed in business,
he was not long before he was at home in his new life.
Three years after his return, he married Harry's youngest sister.
The firm flourished greatly, and became one of the leading houses
in the Eastern trade. At the age of sixty, Stanley retired from
business with a large fortune. He could do this comfortably, as his
eldest son and a nephew had become active partners in the firm. He
still lives, at the age of eighty-six, in a noble mansion near
Staines; and retains all the faculties, even at advanced age.