Honour to whom honour is due. In speaking of the Buccaneer and in
briefly sketching his early life, it would not be right to pass by,
without some slight comment, a people who occupied an island situated
not many miles from his shores. They were called the Ojabberaways. They
came of a spirited and highly sensitive race. They were imaginative in
the extreme, quick of temper, and very prone to insult. The smallest
slight they would look upon as a grave injury. They were also a
quick-witted, clever, and merry people, and fighting was the joy of
their life. They were not total abstainers.
Somehow the Ojabberaways and the Buccaneer, though near neighbours, did
not get on very well together. This often happens, more especially
amongst relations, but the Ojabberaways would not admit that they were
of the same blood as the Buccaneer. They maintained that they came from
a far nobler stock. In fact, it would appear from what the people
themselves said, though history is silent upon the subject, that the
island was at one time inhabited by one or two kings, who left a progeny
sufficient to people the whole place, and that consequently, every
Ojabberaway had royal blood in his veins. No wonder then that they were
high-spirited and proud. Now they looked upon the bold Buccaneer as a
tyrant, whose chief aim in life was to tread under foot, and otherwise
insult them. Nothing would induce them to believe the contrary. They
sucked it in at their mother's breasts. The origin of their name is
wrapped in mystery, but it is probable that it had, in some way, a
connection with the chief produce of their country.
The Ojabberaways were not a united people. Though for the most part they
were inimical to the rule of the Buccaneer, and groaned under what they
considered the chain cast upon them by an alien and an oppressor, there
were many who were comfortable and even happy and contented under his
rule. Between these two sections of the Ojabberaways there was no love
lost. The wild Ojabberaways as they were sometimes called--of course
behind their backs--looked with peculiar hatred upon what were called
the loyal Ojabberaways. Speaking of the people generally it may be said,
that when you came across one who was a thorough gentleman, no finer
specimen of the class could be found in the world; but nature is not at
all times prodigal. There are some flowers that only bloom once in a
hundred years.
For the ordinary occupation of life the people had little or no taste,
and in his own country, if you found one Ojabberaway working, you would
always find two at least indulging in the luxury of looking on. And at
all times an Ojabberaway would give over any labour in which he might be
occupied, to follow a fellow-countryman to his grave, to whom in life he
would not have lent a single sixpence. This respect for the dead is
touching; but the Ojabberaways were a sentimental nation.
They were also a peculiarly constituted people, generous to a fault as
long as they had anything to give; but they, for the most part, lived
beyond their means, for a man with a thousand a year would generally
spend two, and this in time brought them into the usurer's hands and
into difficulties. Then some one had to suffer, and it was generally the
tenant of the land and the peasant. The usurer at all times drives a
hard bargain, and what bowels he has are not those of compassion. What
is in his bond he takes care to have. This gave an opening to the
agitator, and he took advantage of the state of things to stir up
strife.
Then the Ojabberaways had peculiarly formed eyes. To the outward
appearance just like other peoples; but inwardly quite differently
constructed. An object that would appear to an ordinary individual in
one light would impinge upon the retina of an Ojabberaway's eye in such
a manner as to distort some things and magnify others; but most of all a
grievance. On the other hand an obligation would appear as small as if
it were looked at through the wrong end of a telescope. They were
extremely romantic and were given occasionally to romancing. In fact, it
has been said by those who like to summarise and put a whole history
almost into a nutshell, that the lower orders of the Ojabberaways were
liars by nature and beggars by trade. Allowing for that exaggeration
which is common to all such sayings there is still a residuum of truth
left. Though brave at all times when out of their own country, in it
their courage generally took refuge behind a bank or a stone wall. Their
food was simple and their favourite drink was strong; so much so, that
when taken in too great quantities, it made them perfectly irresponsible
beings and extremely dangerous and disagreeable neighbours. Their women
were the most virtuous in the world and amongst the most lively, and the
men, though in their revenge they would have recourse to the assassin's
dagger, would never assail the chastity of a woman, who might walk from
one end of their island to the other without the slightest fear of
molestation.
The lower orders of this devil-me-care people were joyful in their rags.
They preferred dirt to cleanliness, and as has been already said, truth
with them was not a highly prized virtue, though if they did lie, they
did it more to please than deceive. The Ojabberaways had taken up
patriotism, and made it into a regular trade, and they had cultivated it
until it had become a most lucrative employment. But with all their
faults, and Heaven only knows they had many, one could not help liking
them. They had worked for the Buccaneer; they had fought for him, and
had helped him in many of his predatory excursions, and they were
inclined, at the time of which we are speaking, like many another
people, to do a little robbing on their own account; but it must be
owned that they were a regular thorn in the Buccaneer's side, and the
thorn was working deeper, and deeper, into his flesh every day he lived.
It must also be owned that in time past he had not treated them
over-well, and retribution was galloping after him in hot haste.