“ I have great
comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no
drowning
mark upon him; his complexion is
perfect gallows.”
Tempest.
It has been said that the periagua
was in motion, before our two adventurers succeeded
in stepping on board. The arrival of the Patroon
of Kinderhook and of Alderman Van Beverout was expected,
and the schipper had taken his departure at the precise
moment of the turn in the current, in order to show,
with a sort of pretending independence which has a
peculiar charm for men in his situation, that ‘time
and tide wait for no man.’ Still there
were limits to his decision; for, while he put the
boat in motion, especial care was taken that the circumstance
should not subject a customer so important and constant
as the Alderman, to any serious inconvenience.
When he and his friend had embarked, the painters were
thrown aboard, and the crew of the ferry-boat began
to set their vessel, in earnest, towards the mouth
of the creek. During these movements, a young
negro was seated in the bow of the periagua, with his
legs dangling, one on each side of the cut-water,
forming no bad apology for a figure-head. He
held a conch to his mouth, and with his two glossy
cheeks inflated like those of Eolus, and his dark
glittering eyes expressing the delight he found in
drawing sounds from the shell, he continued to give
forth the signal for departure.
“Put up the conch, thou bawler!”
cried the Alderman, giving the younker a rap on his
naked poll, in passing, with the end of his cane, that
might have disturbed the harmony of one less bent
on clamor. “A thousand windy trumpeters
would be silence itself, compared to such a pair of
lungs! How now Master Schipper, is this your
punctuality, to start before your passengers are ready?”
The undisturbed boatman, without removing
the pipe from his mouth, pointed to the bubbles on
the water which were already floating outward, a certain
evidence that the tide was on the ebb.
“I care nothing for your ins
and outs, your ebbs and floods,” returned the
Alderman, in heat. “There is no better time-piece
than the leg and eye of a punctual man. It is
no more pleasant to go before one is ready, than to
tarry when all business is done. Harkee, Master
Schipper, you are not the only navigator in this bay,
nor is your craft the swiftest that was ever launched.
Have a care; though an acquiescing man by nature, I
know how to encourage an opposition, when the public
good seriously calls for my support.”
To the attack on himself, the schipper
was stoically indifferent, but to impeach the qualities
of the periagua was to attack one who depended solely
on his eloquence for vindication. Removing his
pipe, therefore, he rejoined on the Alderman, with
that sort of freedom, that the sturdy Hollanders never
failed to use to all offenders, regardless alike of
rank or personal qualities.
“Der wind-gall and Aldermen!”
he growled, in the dialect of the country; “I
should be glad to see the boat in York-bay that can
show the Milk-Maid her stern! The Mayor and council-men
had better order the tide to turn when they please;
and then as each man will think of his own pleasure,
a pretty set of whirlpools they will give us in the
harbor!”
The schipper, having delivered himself
of his sentiments, to this effect, resumed his pipe,
like a man who felt he deserved the meed of victory,
whether he were to receive it, or not.
“It is useless to dispute with
an obstinate man,” muttered the Alderman making
his way through vegetable baskets, butter-tubs, and
all the garniture of a market-boat, to the place occupied
by his niece, in the stern-sheets. “Good
morrow to thee Alida dear; early rising will make a
flower-garden of thy cheeks, and the fresh air of the
Lust in Rust will give even thy roses a deeper bloom.”
The mollified burgher then saluted
the cheek whose bloom had been deepened by his remark,
with a warmth that showed he was not without natural
affection; touched his hat, in return for a low bow
that he received from an aged white man-servant; in
a clean but ancient livery; and nodded to a young
negress, whose second-hand finery sufficiently showed
she was a personal attendant of the heiress.
A second glance at Alida de Barberie
was scarcely necessary to betray her mixed descent.
From her Norman father, a Huguenot of the petite noblesse,
she had inherited her raven hair, the large, brilliant
coal-black eyes, in which wildness was singularly
relieved by sweetness, a classical and faultless profile,
and a form which was both taller and more flexible
than commonly fell to the lot of the damsels of Holland.
From her mother, la belle Barberie, as the maiden
was often playfully termed, had received a skin, fair
and spotless as the flower of France, and a bloom which
rivalled the rich tints of an evening sky in her native
land. Some of the em bon point, for which the
sister of the Alderman had been a little remarkable,
had descended also to her fairer daughter. In
Alida, however, this peculiarity did not exceed the
fullness which became her years, rounding her person
and softening the outlines of her form, rather than
diminishing its ease and grace These personal advantages
were embellished by a neat but modest travelling habit,
a little beaver that was shaded by a cluster of drooping
feathers, and a mien that, under the embarrassment
of her situation preserved the happiest medium between
modesty and perfect self-possession.
When Alderman Van Beverout joined
this fair creature, in whose future happiness he was
fully justified in taking the deep interest which he
has betrayed in some of the opening scenes of this
volume, he found her engaged in a courteous discourse
with the young man, who was generally considered as
the one, among the numerous pretenders to her favor,
who was most likely to succeed. Had other cause
been wanting, this sight alone would have been sufficient
to restore his good-humor: and, making a place
for himself, by quietly dispossessing Francois, the
domestic of his niece, the persevering burgher endeavored
to encourage an intercourse, that he had reason to
think must terminate in the result he both meditated
and desired.
In the present effort, however, the
Alderman failed. There is a feeling which universally
pervades landsmen and landswomen, when they first embark
on an element to which they are strangers, that ordinarily
shuts their mouths and renders them meditative.
In the older and more observant travellers, it is
observation and comparison; while with the younger
and more susceptible, it is very apt to take the character
of sentiment. Without stopping to analyze the
cause, or the consequences, in the instance of the
Patroon and la belle Barberie, it will be sufficient
to state, that in spite of all the efforts of the
worthy burgher, who had navigated the sluggish creek
too often to be the subject of any new emotions, his
youthful companions gradually grew silent and thoughtful.
Though a celibite in his own person, Myndert had not
now to learn that the infant god as often does his
mischief through this quiet agency, as in any other
manner. He became, therefore, mute in his turn,
watching the slow movement of the periagua with as
much assiduity as if he saw his own image on the water.
A quarter of an hour of this characteristic,
and it is to be inferred agreeable navigation, brought
the boat to the mouth of the inlet. Here a powerful
effort forced her into the tide’s-way, and she
might be said to put forth on her voyage. But
while the black crew were trimming the sails, and
making the other necessary preparations for departure,
a voice was heard hailing them from the shore, with
an order rather than a request, that they would stay
their movements.
“Hilloa, the periagua!”
it cried. “Haul over your head-sheet, and
jam the tiller down into the lap of that comfortable-looking
old gentleman. Come: bear a hand, my hummers!
or your race-horse of a craft will get the bit into
its mouth, and run away with you.”
This summons produced a pause in the
movements of the crew. After regarding each other,
in surprise and admiration, the watermen drew the
head-sheet over, put the helm a-lee, without however
invading the lap of the Alderman, and the boat became
stationary, at the distance of a few rods from the
shore. While the new passenger was preparing to
come off in a yawl, those who awaited his movements
had leisure to examine his appearance, and to form
their different surmises concerning his character.
It is scarcely necessary to say, that
the stranger was a son of the ocean. He was of
a firmly knit and active frame, standing exactly six
feet in his stockings. The shoulders though square
were compact, the chest full and high, the limbs round,
neat, and muscular, the whole indicating
a form in which strength and activity were apportioned
with the greatest accuracy. A small bullet head
was set firmly on its broad foundation, and it was
thickly covered with a mass of brown hair that was
already a little grizzled. The face was that
of a man of thirty, and it was worthy of the frame,
being manly, bold, decided, and rather handsome; though
it expressed little more than high daring, perfect
coolness, some obstinacy, and a certain degree of
contempt for others, that its owner did not always
take the trouble to conceal. The color was a rich,
deep, and uniform red, such as much exposure is apt
to give to men whose complexions are, by nature,
light and florid.
The dress of the stranger was quite
as remarkable as his person. He wore a short
pea-jacket, cut tight and tastefully; a little, low,
and rakish cap, and full bell-mouthed trowsers, all
in a spotlessly white duck; a material well adapted
to the season and the climate. The first was made
without buttons, affording an apology for the use
of a rich Indian shawl, that belted his body and kept
the garment tight to his frame. Faultlessly clean
linen appeared through the opening above, and a collar,
of the same material, fell over the gay bandanna,
which was thrown, with a single careless turn, around
his throat. The latter was a manufacture then
little known in Europe, and its use was almost entirely
confined to seamen of the long voyage. One of
its ends was suffered to blow about in the wind, but
the other was brought down with care over the chest,
where it was confined, by springing the blade of a
small knife with an ivory handle, in a manner to confine
the silk to the linen: a sort of breast-pin that
is even now much used by mariners. If we add,
that light, canvas slippers, with foul-anchors worked
in worsted upon their insteps, covered his feet, we
shall say all that is necessary of his attire.
The appearance of one, of the air
and dress we have just described, excited a strong
sensation among the blacks who scrubbed the stoops
and pavements. He was closely attended to the
place where he hailed the periagua, by four or five
loungers, who studied his manner and movements with
the admiration that men of their class seldom fail
to bestow on those who bear about them the evidence
of having passed lives of adventure, and perhaps of
hardship and daring. Beckoning to one of these
idlers to follow him, the hero of the India-shawl
stepped into an empty boat, and casting loose its
fast, he sculled the light yawl towards the craft which
was awaiting his arrival. There was, in truth,
something in the reckless air, the decision, and the
manly attitudes of so fine a specimen of a seaman,
that might have attracted notice from those who were
more practised in the world than the little crowd
of admirers he left behind him. With an easy
play of wrist and elbow, he caused the yawl to glide
ahead like some indolent marine animal swimming through
its element, and as he stood, firm as a planted statue,
with a foot on each gunwale, there was much of that
confidence created by his steadiness, that one acquires
by viewing the repeated and successful efforts of
a skilful rope-dancer. When the yawl reached
the side of the periagua, he dropped a small Spanish
coin into the open palm of the negro, and sprang on
the side of the latter, with an exertion of muscle
that sent the little boat he quitted half-way back
towards the shore, leaving the frightened black to
steady himself, in his rocking tenement, in the best
manner he could.
The tread and posture of the stranger,
when he gained the half-deck of the periagua, was
finely nautical, and confident to audacity. He
seemed to analyze the half-maritime character of the
crew and passengers, at a glance, and to feel that
sort of superiority over his companions, which men
of his profession were then a little too wont to entertain
towards those whose ambition could be bounded by terra-firma.
His eye turned upward, at the simple rig and modest
sails of the periagua, while his upper lip curled
with the knowing expression of a critic. Then
kicking the fore-sheet clear of its elect, and suffering
the sail to fill, he stepped from one butter-tub to
another, making a stepping-stone of the lap of a countryman
by the way, and alighted in the stern-sheets in the
midst of the party of Alderman Van Beverout, with
the agility and fearlessness of a feathered Mercury.
With a coolness that did infinite credit to his powers
for commandirg, his next act was to dispossess the
amazed schipper of the helm, taking the tiller into
his own hands, with as much composure as if he were
the every-day occupant of the post. When he saw
that the boat was beginning to move through the water,
he found leisure to bestow some observation on his
fellow-voyagers. The first that met his bold and
reckless eye was Francois, the domestic of Alida.
“If it come to blow in squalls,
Commodore,” observed the intruder, with a gravity
that half deceived the attentive Frenchman, while he
pointed to the bag in which the latter wore his hair,
“you’ll be troubled to carry your broad
pennant. But so experienced an officer has not
put to sea without having a storm-cue in readiness
for foul weather.”
The valet did not, or affected not
to understand the allusion, maintaining an air of
dignified but silent superiority.
“The gentleman is in a foreign
service, and does not understand an English mariner!
The worst that can come, after all, of too much top-hamper,
is to cut away, and let it drift with the scud.
May I make bold to ask, judge, if the courts have
done any thing, of late, concerning the freebooters
among the islands?”
“I have not the honor to bear
Her Majesty’s commission,” coldly returned
Van Staats of Kinderhook, to whom this question had
been hardily put.
“The best navigator is sometimes
puzzled by a hazy observation, and many an old seaman
has taken a fog-bank for solid ground. Since you
are not in the courts, Sir, I wish you joy; for it
is running among shoals to be cruising there, whether
as judge or suitor. One is never fairly snug and
landlocked, while in company of a lawyer, and yet the
devil himself cannot always give the sharks a good
offing. A pretty sheet of water, friends, and
one as snug as rotten cables and foul winds can render
desirable, is this bay of York!”
“You are a mariner of the long
voyage,” returned the Patroon, unwilling that
Alida should not believe him equal to bandying wits
with the stranger.
“Long, or short; Calcutta, or
Cape Cod; dead reckoning, eye-sight, or star-gazing,
all’s one to your real dolphin. The shape
of the coast between Fundy and Horn, is as familiar
to my eye, as an admirer to this pretty young lady;
and as to the other shore, I have run it down oftener
than the Commodore, here, has ever set his pennant,
blow high or blow low. A cruise like this is
a Sunday in my navigation; though I dare say, you
took leave of the wife, blessed the children, overhauled
the will, and sent to ask a good word from the priest,
before you came aboard?”
“Had these ceremonies been observed,
the danger would not have been increased,” said
the young Patroon, anxious to steal a glance at la
belle Barberie, though his timidity caused him, in
truth, to look the other way. “One is never
nearer danger, for being prepared to meet it.”
“True; we must all die, when
the reckoning is out. Hang or drown gibbet
or bullet clears the world of a great deal of rubbish,
or the decks would get to be so littered that the
vessel could not be worked. The last cruise is
the longest of all; and honest papers, with a clean
bill of health, may help a man into port, when he
is past keeping the open sea. How now, schipper!
what lies are floating about the docks this morning?
when did the last Albany-man get his tub down the
river, or whose gelding has been ridden to death in
chase of a witch.”
“The devil’s babes!”
muttered the Alderman; “there is no want of
roisterers to torment such innocents!”
“Have the buccaneers taken to
praying, or does their trade thrive in this heel of
the war?” continued the mariner of the India-shawl,
disregarding the complaint of the burgher. “The
times are getting heavy for men of metal, as may be
seen by the manner in which yon cruiser wears out her
ground-tackle, instead of trying the open sea.
May I spring every spar I carry, but I would have
the boat out and give her an airing, before to-morrow,
if the Queen would condescend to put your humble servant
in charge of the craft! The man lies there, at
his anchors, as if he had a good freight of real Hollands
in his hold, and was waiting for a few bales of beaver-skins
to barter for his strong waters.”
As the stranger coolly expressed this
opinion of Her Majesty’s ship Coquette, he rolled
his glance over the persons of his companions, suffering
it to rest, a moment, with a secret significance, on
the steady eye of the burgher.
“Well ” he
continued, “the sloop answers for a floating
vane to tell which way the tide is running, if she
does nothing better; and that must be a great assistance,
Schipper, in the navigation of one who keeps as bright
a look-out on the manner in which the world whirls
round, as a gentleman of your sagacity!”
“If the news in the creek be
true,” rejoined the unoffended owner of the
periagua, “there will be other business for Captain
Ludlow and the Coquette, before many days!”
“Ah! having eaten all his meat
and bread, the man will be obliged to victual his
ship anew! ’Twere a pity so active a gentleman
should keep a fast, in a brisk tide’s-way.
And when his coppers are once more filled, and the
dinner is fairly eaten, what dost think will be his
next duty?”
“There is a report, among the
boatmen of the South Bay, that something was seen,
yester’night, off the outer side of Long Island!”
“I’ll answer for the truth
of that rumor, for having come up with the evening
flood, I saw it myself.”
“Der duyvel’s luck! and what dost take
it to be?”
“The Atlantic Ocean; if you
doubt my word, I appeal to this well-ballasted old
gentleman, who being a schoolmaster, is able to give
you latitude and longitude for its truth.”
“I am Alderman Van Beverout,”
muttered the object of this new attack, between his
teeth, though apparently but half-disposed to notice
one who set so little bounds to his discourse.
“I beg a thousand pardons!”
returned the strange seaman, with a grave inclination
of his body. “The stolidity of your worship’s
countenance deceived me. It may be, indeed, unreasonable
to expect any Alderman to know the position of the
Atlantic Ocean! And yet, gentlemen, on the honor
of a man who has seen much salt water in his time,
I do assure you the sea, I speak of, is actually there.
If there be any thing on it, or in it, that should
not in reason be so, this worthy commander of the periagua
will let us know the rest.”
“A wood-boat from the inlet
says, the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’ was lately
seen standing along the coast,” returned the
ferry-man, in the tone of one who is certain of delivering
matter of general interest.
“Your true sea-dog, who runs
in and out of inlets, is a man for marvels!”
coolly observed the stranger. ’They know
the color of the sea at night, and are for ever steering
in the wind’s eye in search of adventures.
I wonder, more of them are not kept at making almanacs!
There was a mistake, concerning a thunder-storm, in
the last I bought, and all for the want of proper
science. And pray, friend, who is this ‘Skimmer
of the Seas,’ that is said to be running after
his needle, like a tailor who has found a hole in
his neighbor’s coat?”
“The witches may tell!
I only know that such a rover there is, and that he
is here to-day, and there to-morrow. Some say,
it is only a craft of mist, that skims the top of
the seas, like a sailing water-fowl, and others think
it is the sprite of a vessel that was rifled and burnt
by Kidd, in the Indian Ocean, looking for its gold
and the killed. I saw him once, myself, but the
distance was so great, and his manoeuvres so unnatural,
that I could hardly give a good account of his hull,
or rig.”
“This is matter that don’t
get into the log every watch! Whereaway, or in
what seas, didst meet the thing?”
“’Twas off the Branch.
We were fishing in thick weather, and when the mist
lifted, a little, there was a craft seen standing in-shore,
running like a race-horse; but while we got our anchor,
she had made a league of offing, on the other tack!”
“A certain proof of either her,
or your, activity! But what might have been the
form and shape of your fly-away?”
“Nothing determined. To
one she seemed a full-rigged and booming ship; another
took her for a Bermudian scudder, while to me she had
the look of twenty periaguas built into a single craft.
It is well known, however, that a West-Indiaman went
to sea that night, and, though it is now three years,
no tidings of her, or her crew, have ever come to any
in York. I have never gone upon the banks to
fish since that day, in thick weather.”
“You have done well,”
observed the stranger, “I have seen many wonderful
sights, myself, on the rolling ocean; and he, whose
business it is to lay between wind and water, like
you, my friend, should never trust himself within
reach of one of those devil’s flyers I could
tell you a tale of an affair in the calm latitudes,
under the burning sun, that would be a lesson to all
of over-bold curiosity! Commission and character
are not affairs for your in-shore coaster.”
“We have time to hear it,”
observed the Patroon, whose attention had been excited
by the discourse, and who read in the dark eye of Alida
that she felt an interest in the expected narrative.
But the countenance of the stranger
suddenly grew serious. He shook his head, like
one who had sufficient reasons for his silence; and,
relinquishing the tiller, he quite coolly obliged a
gaping countryman, in the centre of the boat, to yield
his place, where he laid his own athletic form, at
full length, folded his arms on his breast, and shut
his eyes. In less than five minutes, all within
hearing had audible evidence that this extraordinary
son of the ocean was in a sound sleep.