Many others as well as Maggot made money by the pilchards at that time.
All round the coast of Cornwall millions of these little fish were
taken, salted, and exported. No fewer than one thousand hogsheads were
taken at St. Ives in the first three seine-nets cast into the sea. In
Mounts Bay, Fowey Bay, Mevagissey, and other fishing grounds, immense
quantities were caught, and the total catch of the county was little if
at all short of thirty thousand hogsheads.
Among others, old Mr Donnithorne was so successful that his broken
fortunes were almost re-established; and a small sum which our friend
Oliver Trembath had ventured to invest in the fishing was more than
quadrupled before the end of the year.
But this was not all. At the next Botallack account-dinner, Mr Cornish
gladdened the hearts of the adventurers by telling them that the lodes
which had been "promising" for such a length of time had at last got the
length of "performance," and that he had now the pleasure of announcing
a large dividend, which he paid there and then.
A considerable share of this fell to old Mr Donnithorne, who, in the
enthusiasm of the occasion, observed confidentially to Captain Dan that
he was convinced "honesty was the best policy after all"--a sentiment
which the captain heartily agreed with, although he failed to detect the
precise connection between it and the old gentleman's sudden influx of
good fortune. But, then, the captain did not drink Botallack punch,
while old Mr Donnithorne did, which may to some extent account for the
difference in their powers of vision.
Captain Dan, however, possessed wonderful powers of vision in reference
to the underground workings of Botallack, which were displayed to
advantage--and to the great gratification of the shareholders--when, at
the request of Mr Cornish, he stood up and gave a detailed and graphic
account of the prospects of the mine; telling them that the appearance
of the lodes in several parts of the mine was very promising indeed, and
that some ground was returning a rich harvest for the labour that had
been bestowed on it; that in the 105, which was driving north by six
men, they had taken down the copper for fourteen fathoms long, nearly
the whole of which had turned out to be worth 100 pounds per fathom;
that a splice had been formed in the lode about two fathoms behind the
present end, which had disordered it, but he was glad to say it was
again improving, and was at that time about fifteen inches wide of rich
copper, and, as far as he could judge, they were going through to the
top part of the "bunch" of copper; that these facts, he thought, were
very satisfactory, but that it was still more gratifying to know that
the lode on the bottom of the 105 was far more valuable than that in the
back; that in the "Crowns," especially in the various levels under the
sea, the lodes were not only "promising," but performing great things,
two men and a boy (he referred to Maggot, Trevarrow, and Zackey here)
having broken an immense quantity of copper during the last quarter,
which was paying splendidly.
At this point, Mr Grenfell, who sat on Mr Cornish's right hand,
exclaimed, "Hear! hear!" and a little bald-headed man, with a red nose
and blue spectacles, near the foot of the table, echoed "Hear!" with
genuine enthusiasm (for he had been bordering on bankruptcy for some
months past), and swigged off a full glass of punch without winking.
Thus encouraged, Captain Dan went on to remark that there were six men
driving in Wheal Hazzard (which statement caused a "stranger" who
chanced to be at the dinner to observe, in an undertone, that he was not
aware they had horses or vehicles of any kind in the mines!), that one
cross-cut was also being driven, and three winzes were sinking, and one
rise--several of which were opening up tin of first-rate quality, while
in the Narrow shaft, Chicornish, Higher Mine, and Wheal Cock, a great
deal to the same effect was being done--all of which we leave to the
imagination of the reader, merely remarking that however
incomprehensible these things may appear to him (or her), they created
feelings of profound joy in the assembled guests, especially in the
breast of the almost bankrupt one with the bald, red, and blue
headpiece.
Mr Cornish afterwards congratulated the adventurers on the success of
the mine, and the splendid prospects which were opening up to them--
prospects which, he had no doubt, would be fully realised ere long. He
referred also to the condition of the miners of the neighbourhood, and
alluded to the fact that the neighbouring mines, Wheal Owles and Levant,
were also in a flourishing condition; a matter, he said, for which they
had reason to be profoundly thankful, for the distress in the district
had been severe and prolonged. The manager's voice deepened at this
point, and he spoke with pathos, for he had a kindly heart, and his
thoughts were at the moment with many a poor miner, in whose little
cottages the effects of gaunt poverty could be traced in scanty
furniture, meagre fare, and careworn brows. He remembered, too, that
only the week before he had seen poor blind John Batten carried to his
grave, and had heard the sobs of the bereaved widow, as she attempted to
tell him how the brave man had forgotten himself to the very last, when
he put his wasted hand on her head, and said, "I'm goin' to leave thee,
Mary, for a time; but cheer up, dear lass, I'll be with Jesus soon, an'
have my sight restored, and look wance more 'pon the faces of the dear
boys, an' 'pon your own sweet face too, dear lass, when we meet again in
heaven."
There was one of the miners and shareholders of Botallack who did not
die, but who lived to enjoy the fruit of his labour and the sunshine of
prosperity. James Penrose recovered--not only his health, but also, in
some degree, his sight. One of his eyes had indeed been entirely
destroyed by the explosion which had so nearly killed him, but the other
was partially restored. A long period elapsed, however, ere he was able
to go about. Then he found his circumstances so much improved that it
was not necessary to resume work underground. Botallack, in which all
his savings had been invested, continued steadily to improve, and from
the income derived from this source alone he was enabled to live without
labouring. But Penrose was not the man to sit down in idleness. Wesley
never had a more earnest follower than this miner of St. Just.
Thenceforth he devoted himself to preaching, teaching, and doing good as
his hand found opportunity, and, being an active man as well as
conscientious, he laboured to the end of his days in the service of his
Lord more energetically than he had ever toiled in the mines.
Penrose and David Trevarrow had always been staunch friends. After the
accident to the former, they became more closely united than before.
Trevarrow did not give up underground work; he possessed no shares in
any of the mines, but, in common with the rest of the mining community,
he benefited by the sunshine of prosperity that became so bright at that
period, and found leisure, when above ground, to join his friend in his
labours of love.
They both agreed to make an earnest effort to convince Maggot and John
Cock of the error of their ways--with what amount of success it is not
easy to state, for these worthies were made of stubborn metal, that
required a furnace of unusually fierce heat to melt it. However, we are
warranted in concluding that some good was done, from the fact that both
of them gave up smuggling, and, in various other ways, showed indication
of an improved state of mind. Maggot especially gave a signal and
unexpected proof of a softened spirit, when, one Sunday morning, as he
was getting ready for chapel, he said to his wife that it was "high time
to send that little chucklehead the baby to Sunday school, for he was no
better than a small heathen!" The "baby," be it observed, was about six
years old at the time when this speech was made, and his _protege_ the
"chet" was a great-grandmother, with innumerable chets of her own. It
is right to add that, in accordance with this opinion of his father, the
baby was carried off to school that very morning by Zackey and Grace,
the first having grown to be a strapping youth, and the other a lovely
girl, for whose sake there were scores of young miners in St. Just who
would gladly have walked ten miles on their bare knees, or dived head
foremost into Wheal Hazzard shaft, or jumped over the cliffs into Zawn
Buzzangein, or done any other insane act or desperate deed, if, by so
doing, they could have caused one thrill of pleasure to pass through her
dear little heart!
It is not necessary, we should think, to say that in the midst of so
much sunshine Oliver Trembath and Rose Ellis thought it advisable to
"make hay." Old Mr Donnithorne and his excellent wife (of whose
goodness and wisdom, by the way, he became more and more convinced every
day of his life) saw no objection whatever to this hay-making--so the
young couple were wed at the Wesleyan Chapel of St. Just--Charlie
Tregarthen, of course, being groomsman--and the only vehicle in the town
was hired to drive them over to Penberth Cove and bliss!
As to George Augustus Clearemout, Esquire--that able managing director,
despite his ducking at St. Just, continued to fill his chair and to
fulfil his destiny in the airy little street in London, where, for many
years, he represented Wheal Dooem, and "did" a too confiding public. In
this work he was ably assisted by Secretary Jack Muddle, who became
quite celebrated as a clear expounder and explainer of veins, lodes,
ores, cross-cuts, shafts, levels, winzes, minerals, metals, and mines--
insomuch that he was regarded by many of the confiding public who
frequented his office as a more thoroughly learned and scientific man
than George Augustus himself. It is interesting, how ever, to have to
record the curious fact that the too confiding public changed their
opinion at last on this head, and came to regard Secretary Jack as a
humbug, and the managing director as a scoundrel. Unfortunately this
change of opinion did not take place until the whole of the too
confiding public (the T.C.P., as Clearemout styled them) had lost large
sums of money, and a few of them become bankrupt. When affairs had
reached this crisis, one of the T.C.P.--an irascible old gentleman,
whose fiery nature seemed to have singed all the hair off his head,
leaving it completely bald--went down to Cornwall in a passion to sift
the thing for himself. There he found the Great Wheal Dooem pump-engine
going full swing, day and night, under the superintendence of one man,
while the vast works underground (on which depended the "enormous"
dividends promised to and expected by the T.C.P.) were carried on by
another man and a boy. On making this discovery the fiery old gentleman
with the denuded head left Cornwall--still in a passion--and exploded in
the face of a meeting of the members of the T.C.P., who immediately
exploded in each other's faces, and appointed an indignation committee
to go and explode, with unexampled fury, in the faces of the managing
director and Secretary Jack. But these knowing gentlemen, being aware
that the explosion was coming, had wisely betaken themselves to the
retirement and seclusion of the Continent.
Without troubling the reader with further particulars, we may say, in
conclusion, that the result was the stoppage of Wheal Dooem mining
operations, and the summary dismissal of the two men and the boy. At
the present day the ruins of that great concern may be seen standing on
the wild sea-cliffs of west Cornwall, solitary, gaunt, and grey, with
the iron "bob" of the pump-engine motionless and pointing up obliquely
to the sky, as if the giant arm of the mine were upraised to protest for
ever against the villainy and the too confiding folly that had left it
standing there--a monument of wasted and misdirected energy--a caution
to all speculators--a deserted mine--in the language of miners, a
"knacked bal."
There are many such "knacked bals" in Cornwall, with their iron "bobs"--
horizontal, depressed, or raised aloft, according to the attitude in
which they expired--holding forth similar firm, silent, and perpetual
protests and cautions. Many Wheal Dooems (which having accomplished
their ends may now be termed Wheal Donems) are to be seen all over the
country on gorse-clad hills and on bold headlands; but, alongside of
these, may be seen their venerable ancestors, still alive and working;
subject, indeed, at times, to fits of depression, when, as their
indomitable and unconquerable managers will tell you, "the price of tin
is low," and subject also to seasons of revival, when they are getting a
"little better price for tin," but still working on with untiring
persistency whether the price of tin be high or low.
Chief among these, our chosen type, Botallack, may be seen bristling on
the grey cliffs of the "far west" with the Atlantic winds and spray
revelling amongst its machinery, and the thunder of its stamps giving
constant token that hundreds of stout-hearted, strong-limbed Cornishmen
are still hewing out tin and copper from its gloomy depths, as they did
in days gone by, and as they will, doubtless, continue to do in time to
come--steadily, sternly, manfully doing their work of sinking and
extending the mine deeper down under the sod and further out under the
sea.