Salute to Adventurers Read online

  CHAPTER VII.

  I BECOME AN UNPOPULAR CHARACTER.

  I did not waste time in getting to work. I had already written to myuncle, telling him my plans, and presently I received his consent. Iarranged that cargoes of such goods as I thought most suitable forVirginian sales should arrive at regular seasons independent of thetobacco harvest. Then I set about equipping a store. On the high landnorth of James Town, by the road to Middle Plantation, I bought someacres of cleared soil, and had built for me a modest dwelling. Besideit stood a large brick building, one half fitted as a tobacco shed,where the leaf could lie for months, if need be, without taking harm,and the other arranged as a merchant's store with roomy cellars andwide garrets. I relinquished the warehouse by the James Town quay, andto my joy I was able to relinquish Mr. Lambie. That timid soul had beenon thorns ever since I mooted my new projects. He implored me to putthem from me; he drew such pictures of the power of the Englishtraders, you would have thought them the prince merchants of Venice; hesaw all his hard-won gentility gone at a blow, and himself an outcastprecluded for ever from great men's recognition. He could not bear it,and though he was loyal to my uncle's firm in his own way, he sought achange. One day he announced that he had been offered a post as stewardto a big planter at Henricus, and when I warmly bade him accept it, hesmiled wanly, and said he had done so a week agone. We parted verycivilly, and I chose as manager my servant, John Faulkner.

  This is not a history of my trading ventures, or I would tell at lengththe steps I took to found a new way of business. I went among theplanters, offering to buy tobacco from the coming harvest, and to payfor it in bonds which could be exchanged for goods at my store. I alsooffered to provide shipment in the autumn for tobacco and other wares,and I fixed the charge for freight--a very moderate one--in advance. Myplan was to clear out my store before the return of the ships, and tohave thereby a large quantity of tobacco mortgaged to me. I hoped thatthus I would win the friendship and custom of the planters, since Ioffered them a more convenient way of sale and higher profits. I hopedby breaking down the English monopoly to induce a continual andwholesome commerce in the land. For this purpose it was necessary toget coin into the people's hands, so, using my uncle's credit, I had aparcel of English money from the New York goldsmiths.

  In a week I found myself the most-talked-of man in the dominion, andsoon I saw the troubles that credit brings. I had picked up a verycorrect notion of the fortunes of most of the planters, and the men whowere most eager to sell to me were just those I could least trust. Somefellow who was near bankrupt from dice and cock-fighting would offer mefive hundred hogsheads, when I knew that his ill-guided estate couldscarce produce half. I was not a merchant out of charity, and I had todecline many offers, and so made many foes. Still, one way and another,I was not long in clearing out my store, and I found myself with somethree times the amount of tobacco in prospect that I had sent home atthe last harvest.

  That was very well, but there was the devil to pay besides. Everywastrel I sent off empty-handed was my enemy; the agents of theEnglishmen looked sourly at me; and many a man who was swindled grosslyby the Bristol buyers saw me as a marauder instead of a benefactor. Forthis I was prepared; but what staggered me was the way that some of thebetter sort of the gentry came to regard me. It was not that they didnot give me their custom; that I did not expect, for gunpowder alonewould change the habits of a Virginian Tory. But my new business seemedto them such a downcome that they passed me by with a cock of the chin.Before they had treated me hospitably, and made me welcome at theirhouses. I had hunted the fox with them--very little to my credit; andshot wildfowl in their company with better success. I had dined withthem, and danced in their halls at Christmas. Then I had been agentleman; now I was a shopkeeper, a creature about the level of aredemptioner. The thing was so childish that it made me angry. It wasright for one of them to sell his tobacco on his own wharf to a tarryskipper who cheated him grossly, but wrong for me to sell kebbucks andlinsey-woolsey at an even bargain. I gave up the puzzle. Some folks'notions of gentility are beyond my wits.

  I had taken to going to the church in James Town, first at Mr. Lambie'sdesire, and then because I liked the sermons. There on a Sunday youwould see the fashion of the neighbourhood, for the planters' ladiesrode in on pillions, and the planters themselves, in gold-embroideredwaistcoats and plush breeches and new-powdered wigs, leaned on thetombstones, and exchanged snuffmulls and gossip. In the old ramshacklegraveyard you would see such a parade of satin bodices and tabbypetticoats and lace headgear as made it blossom like the rose. I wentto church one Sunday in my second summer, and, being late, went up theaisle looking for a place. The men at the seat-ends would not stir toaccommodate me, and I had to find rest in the cock-loft. I thoughtnothing of it, but the close of the service was to enlighten me. As Iwent down the churchyard not a man or woman gave me greeting, and whenI spoke to any I was not answered. These were men with whom I had beenon the friendliest terms; women, too, who only a week before hadchaffered with me at the store. It was clear that the little societyhad marooned me to an isle by myself. I was a leper, unfit forgentlefolks' company, because, forsooth, I had sold goods, which everyone of them did also, and had tried to sell them fair.

  The thing made me very bitter. I sat in my house during the hot noonswhen no one stirred, and black anger filled my heart. I grew as peevishas a slighted girl, and would no doubt have fretted myself into somesignal folly, had not an event occurred which braced my soul again.This was the arrival of the English convoy.

  When I heard that the ships were sighted, I made certain of trouble. Ihad meantime added to my staff two other young men, who, like Faulkner,lived with me at the store. Also I had got four stalwart negro slaveswho slept in a hut in my garden. 'Twas a strong enough force to repel adrunken posse from the plantations, and I had a fancy that it would beneeded in the coming weeks.

  Two days later, going down the street of James Town, I met one of theEnglish skippers, a redfaced, bottle-nosed old ruffian calledBullivant. He was full of apple-jack, and strutted across the way toaccost me.

  "What's this I hear, Sawney?" he cried. "You're setting up as apedlar, and trying to cut in on our trade. Od twist me, but we'll putan end to that, my bully-boy. D'you think the King, God bless him, madethe laws for a red-haired, flea-bitten Sawney to diddle true-bornEnglishmen? What'll the King's Bench say to that, think ye?"

  He was very abusive, but very uncertain on his legs. I saidgood-humouredly that I welcomed process of law, and would defend myaction. He shook his head, and said something about law not beingeverything, and England being a long road off. He had clearly somegreat threat to be delivered of, but just then he sat down so heavilythat he had no breath for anything but curses.

  But the drunkard had given me a notion. I hurried home and gaveinstructions to my men to keep a special guard on the store. Then I setoff in a pinnace to find my three ships, which were now lading up anddown among the creeks.

  That was the beginning of a fortnight's struggle, when every man's handwas against me, and I enjoyed myself surprisingly. I was never at restby land or water. The ships were the least of the business, for thedour Scots seamen were a match for all comers. I made them anchor attwilight in mid-stream for safety's sake, for in that drouthy clime afirebrand might play havoc with them. The worst that happened was thatone moonless night a band of rascals, rigged out as Indian braves, cameyelling down to the quay where some tobacco was waiting to be shipped,and before my men were warned had tipped a couple of hogsheads into thewater. They got no further, for we fell upon them with marling-spikesand hatchets, stripped them of their feathers, and sent them to cooltheir heads in the muddy river. The ring-leader I haled to James Town,and had the pleasure of seeing him grinning through a collar in thecommon stocks.

  Then I hied me back to my store, which was my worst anxiety, I wasfollowed by ill names as I went down the street, and one day in atavern, a young fool drew his shabble on me. But I would quarrel withno man, for tha
t was a luxury beyond a trader. There had been an attackon my tobacco shed by some of the English seamen, and in the mellay oneof my blacks got an ugly wound from a cutlass. It was only a foretaste,and I set my house in order.

  One afternoon John Faulkner brought me word that mischief would beafoot at the darkening. I put each man to his station, and I had thesense to picket them a little distance from the house. The Englishmenwere clumsy conspirators. We watched them arrive, let them pass, andfollowed silently on their heels. Their business was wreckage, and theyfixed a charge of powder by the tobacco shed, laid and lit a fuse, andretired discreetly into the bushes to watch their handiwork.

  Then we fell upon them, and the hindquarters of all bore witness to ourgreeting.

  I caught the fellow who had laid the fuse, tied the whole thing roundhis neck, clapped a pistol to his ear, and marched him before me intothe town. "If you are minded to bolt," I said, "remember you have acharge of gunpowder lobbing below your chin. I have but to flash mypistol into it, and they will be picking the bits of you off the hightrees."

  I took the rascal, his knees knocking under him, straight to theordinary where the English merchants chiefly forgathered. A dozen ofthem sat over a bowl of punch, when the door was opened and I kicked myGuy Fawkes inside. I may have misjudged them, but I thought every eyelooked furtive as they saw my prisoner.

  "Gentlemen," said I, "I restore you your property. This is a penitentthief who desires to make a confession."

  My pistol was at his temple, the powder was round his neck, and he musthave seen a certain resolution in my face. Anyhow, sweating andquaking, he blurted out his story, and when he offered to halt I maderings with the barrel on the flesh of his neck.

  "It is a damned lie," cried one of them, a handsome, over-dressedfellow who had been conspicuous for his public insolence towards me.

  "Nay," said I, "our penitent's tale has the note of truth. One word toyou, gentlemen. I am hospitably inclined, and if any one of you will sofar honour me as to come himself instead of dispatching his servant,his welcome will be the warmer. I bid you good-night and leave you thisfellow in proof of my goodwill. Keep him away from the candle, I prayyou, or you will all go to hell before your time."

  That was the end of my worst troubles, and presently my lading wasfinished and my store replenished. Then came the time for the returnsailing, and the last enterprise of my friends was to go off without mythree vessels. But I got an order from the Governor, delivered readilybut with much profanity, to the commander of the frigates to delay tillthe convoy was complete. I breathed more freely as I saw the last hullsgrow small in the estuary. For now, as I reasoned it out, the plantersmust begin to compare my prices with the Englishmen's, and must come tosee where their advantage lay.

  But I had counted my chickens too soon, and was to be woefullydisappointed. At that time all the coast of America from New England tothe Main was infested by pirate vessels. Some sailed under Englishletters of marque, and preyed only on the shipping of France, with whomwe were at war. Some who had formed themselves into a company calledthe Brethren of the Coast robbed the Spanish treasure-ships andmerchantmen in the south waters, and rarely came north to our partssave to careen or provision. They were mostly English and Welsh, with afew Frenchmen, and though I had little to say for their doings, theyleft British ships in the main unmolested, and were welcomed as agodsend by our coast dwellers, since they smuggled goods to them whichwould have been twice the cost if bought at the convoy markets. Lastly,there were one or two horrid desperadoes who ravaged the seas liketigers. Such an one was the man Cosh, and that Teach, surnamedBlackbeard, of whom we hear too much to-day. But, on the whole, we ofVirginia suffered not at all from these gentlemen of fortune, andpiracy, though the common peril of the seas, entered but little intothe estimation of the merchants.

  Judge, then, of my disgust when I got news a week later that one of myships, the Ayr brig, had straggled from the convoy, and been seized,rifled, and burned to the water by pirates almost in sight of CapeCharles. The loss was grievous, but what angered me was the mystery ofsuch a happening. I knew the brig was a slow sailer, but how in thename of honesty could she be suffered in broad daylight to fall intosuch a fate? I remembered the hostility of the Englishmen, and fearedshe had had foul play. Just after Christmas-tide I expected two shipsto replenish the stock in my store. They arrived safe, but only by theskin of their teeth, for both had been chased from their first entranceinto American waters, and only their big topsails and a favouring windbrought them off. I examined the captains closely on the matter, andthey were positive that their assailant was not Cosh or any one of hiskidney, but a ship of the Brethren, who ordinarily were on the best ofterms with our merchantmen.

  My suspicions now grew into a fever. I had long believed that there wassome connivance between the pirates of the coast and the Englishtraders, and small blame to them for it. 'Twas a sensible way to avoidtrouble, and I for one would rather pay a modest blackmail every monthor two than run the risk of losing a good ship and a twelve-month'scargo. But when it came to using this connivance for private spite, thething was not to be endured.

  In March my doubts became certainties. I had a parcel of gold coincoming to me from New York in one of the coasting vessels--no greatsum, but more than I cared to lose. Presently I had news that the shipwas aground on a sandspit on Accomac, and had been plundered by apirate brigantine. I got a sloop and went down the river, and, sureenough, I found the vessel newly refloated, and the captain, an old NewHampshire fellow, in a great taking. Piracy there had been, but of aqueer kind, for not a farthing's worth had been touched except mypacket of gold. The skipper was honesty itself, and it was plain thatthe pirate who had chased the ship aground and then come aboard toplunder, had done it to do me hurt, and me alone.

  All this made me feel pretty solemn. My uncle was a rich man, but nofirm could afford these repeated losses. I was the most unpopularfigure in Virginia, hated by many, despised by the genteel, whose onlyfriends were my own servants and a few poverty-stricken landward folk.I had found out a good way of trade, but I had set a hornet's nestbuzzing about my ears, and was on the fair way to be extinguished. Thisalliance between my rivals and the Free Companions was the last strawto my burden. If the sea was to be shut to him, then a merchant mightas well put up his shutters.

  It made me solemn, but also most mightily angry. If the stars in theircourses were going to fight against Andrew Garvald, they should findhim ready. I went to the Governor, but he gave me no comfort. Indeed,he laughed at me, and bade me try the same weapon as my adversaries. Ileft him, very wrathful, and after a night's sleep I began to seereason in his words. Clearly the law of Virginia or of England wouldgive me no redress. I was an alien from the genteel world; why should Inot get the benefit of my ungentility? If my rivals went for theirweapons into dark places, I could surely do likewise. A line of Virgilcame into my head, which seemed to me to contain very good counsel:"_Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo_", which means that ifyou cannot get Heaven on your side, you had better try for the Devil.

  But how was I to get into touch with the Devil? And then I rememberedin a flash my meeting with the sea-captain on the Glasgow stairhead andhis promise to help me, I had no notion who he was or how he could aid,but I had a vague memory of his power and briskness. He had looked likethe kind of lad who might conduct me into the wild world of the FreeCompanions.

  I sought Mercer's tavern by the water-side, a melancholy place grown upwith weeds, with a yard of dark trees at the back of it. Old Mercer wasan elder in the little wooden Presbyterian kirk, which I had taken toattending since my quarrels with the gentry. He knew me and greeted mewith his doleful smile, shaking his foolish old beard.

  "What's your errand this e'en, Mr. Garvald?" he said in broad Scots."Will you drink a rummer o' toddy, or try some fine auld usquebaugh Ihae got frae my cousin in Buchan?"

  I sat down on the settle outside the tavern door. "This is my errand. Iwant you to bring me to a man or bri
ng that man to me. His name isNinian Campbell."

  Mercer looked at me dully.

  "There was a lad o' that name was hanged at Inveraray i' '68 forstealin' twae hens and a wether."

  "The man I mean is long and lean, and his head is as red as fire. Hegave me your name, so you must know him."

  His eyes showed no recognition. He repeated the name to himself,mumbling it toothlessly. "It sticks i' my memory," he said, "but whenand where I canna tell. Certes, there's no man o' the name inVirginia."

  I was beginning to think that my memory had played me false, whensuddenly the whole scene in the Saltmarket leaped vividly to my brain.Then I remembered the something else I had been enjoined to say.

  "Ninian Campbell," I went on, "bade me ask for him here, and I was totell you that the lymphads are on the loch and the horn of Diarmaid hassounded."

  In a twinkling his face changed from vacancy to shrewdness and fromsenility to purpose. He glanced uneasily round.

  "For God's sake, speak soft," he whispered. "Come inside, man. We'llsteek the door, and then I'll hear your business."