"There is no gloom on earth, for God above
Chastens in love;
Transmuting sorrows into golden joy
Free from alloy.
His dearest attribute is still to bless,
And man's most welcome hymn is grateful cheerfulness."
Moral Alchemy.
The mode of proceeding now required great caution on the part of Mark
Woolston. His mind was fully made up not to desert his islands, although
this might easily be done, by fitting out the ship for another voyage,
filling her with sandal-wood, and bringing off all who chose to abandon
the place. But Woolston had become infatuated with the climate, which
had all the witchery of a low latitude without any of its lassitude. The
sea-breezes kept the frame invigorated, and the air reasonably cool,
even at the Reef; while, on the Peak, there was scarcely ever a day, in
the warmest months, when one could not labour at noon. In this respect
the climate did not vary essentially from that of Pennsylvania, the
difference existing in the fact that there was no winter in his new
country. Nothing takes such a hold on men as a delicious climate. They
may not be sensible of all its excellencies while in its enjoyment, but
the want of it is immediately felt, and has an influence on all their
pleasures. Even the scenery-hunter submits to this witchery of climate,
which casts a charm over the secondary beauties of nature, as a sweet
and placid temper renders the face of woman more lovely than the colour
of a skin, or the brilliancy of fine eyes. The Alps and the Apennines
furnish a standing proof of the truth of this fact. As respects
grandeur, a startling magnificence, and all that at first takes the
reason, as well as the tastes, by surprise, the first are vastly in
advance of the last; yet, no man of feeling or sentiment, probably ever
dwelt a twelve-month amid each, without becoming more attached to the
last. We wonder at Switzerland, while we get to love Italy. The
difference is entirely owing to climate; for, did the Alps rise in a
lower latitude, they would be absolutely peerless.
But Mark Woolston had no thought of abandoning the crater and the Peak.
Nor did he desire to people them at random, creating a population by any
means, incorporating moral diseases in his body politic by the measures
taken to bring it into existence. On the contrary, it was his wish,
rather, to procure just as much force as might be necessary to security,
so divided in pursuits and qualities as to conduce to comfort and
civilization, and then to trust to the natural increase for the growth
that might be desirable in the end. Such a policy evidently required
caution and prudence. The reader will perceive that governor Woolston
was not influenced by the spirit of trade that is now so active,
preferring happiness to wealth, and morals to power.
Among Woolston's acquaintances, there was a young man of about his own
age, of the name of Pennock, who struck him as a person admirably suited
for his purposes. This Pennock had married very young, and was already
the father of three children. He began to feel the pressure of society,
for he was poor. He was an excellent farmer, accustomed to toil, while
he was also well educated, having been intended for one of the
professions. To Pennock Mark told his story, exhibited his proofs, and
laid bare his whole policy, under a pledge of secresy, offering at the
same time to receive his friend, his wife, children, and two unmarried
sisters, into the colony. After taking time to reflect and to consult,
Pennock accepted the offer as frankly as it had been made. From this
time John Pennock relieved the governor, in a great measure, of the duly
of selecting the remaining emigrants, taking that office on himself.
This allowed Mark to attend to his purchases, and to getting the ship
ready for sea. Two of his own brothers, however, expressed a wish to
join the new community, and Charles and Abraham Woolston were received
in the colony lists. Half-a-dozen more were admitted, by means of direct
application to the governor himself, though the accessions were
principally obtained through the negotiations and measures of Pennock.
All was done with great secrecy, it being Mark's anxious desire, on many
accounts, not to attract public attention to his colony.
The reasons were numerous and sufficient for this wish to remain
unknown. In the first place, the policy of retaining the monopoly of a
trade that must be enormously profitable, was too obvious to need any
arguments to support it. So long as the sandal-wood lasted, so long
would it be in the power of the colonists to coin money; while it was
certain that competitors would rush in, the moment the existence of this
mine of wealth should be known. Then, the governor apprehended the
cupidity and ambition of the old-established governments, when it should
be known that territory was to be acquired. It was scarcely possible for
man to possess any portion of this earth by a title better than that
with which Mark Woolston was invested with his domains. But, what is
right compared to might! Of his native country, so abused in our own
times for its rapacity, and the desire to extend its dominions by any
means, Mark felt no apprehension. Of all the powerful nations of the
present day, America, though not absolutely spotless, has probably the
least to reproach herself with, on the score of lawless and purely
ambitious acquisitions. Even her conquests in open war have been few,
and are not yet determined in character. In the end, it will be found
that little will be taken that Mexico could keep; and had that nation
observed towards this, ordinary justice and faith, in her intercourse
and treaties, that which has so suddenly and vigorously been done, would
never have even been attempted.
It may suit the policy of those who live under the same system, to decry
those who do not; but men are not so blind that they cannot see the sun
at noon-day. One nation makes war because its consul receives the rap of
a fan; and men of a different origin, religion and habits, are coerced
into submission as the consequence. Another nation burns towns, and
destroys their people in thousands, because their governors will not
consent to admit a poisonous drug into their territories: an offence
against the laws of trade that can only be expiated by the ruthless
march of the conqueror. Yet the ruling men of both these communities
affect a great sensibility when the long-slumbering young lion of the
West rouses himself in his lair, after twenty years of forbearance, and
stretches out a paw in resentment for outrages that no other nation,
conscious of his strength, would have endured for as many months,
because, forsooth, he _is_ the young lion of the West. Never mind: by
the time New Zealand and Tahiti are brought under the yoke, the
Californians may be admitted to an equal participation in the rights of
American citizens.
The governor was fully aware of the danger he ran of having claims, of
some sort or other, set up to his islands, if he revealed their
existence; and he took the greatest pains to conceal the fact. The
arrival of the Rancocus was mentioned in the papers, as a matter of
course; but it was in a way to induce the reader to suppose she had met
with her accident in the midst of a naked reef, and principally through
the loss of her men; and that, when a few of the last were regained, the
voyage was successfully resumed and terminated. In that day, the great
discovery had not been made that men were merely incidents of
newspapers; but the world had the folly to believe that newspapers were
incidents of society, and were subject to its rules and interests. Some
respect was paid to private rights, and the reign of gossip had not
commenced.[4]
[Footnote 4: We hold in our possession a curious document, the
publication of which might rebuke this spirit of gossip, and give a
salutary warning to certain managers of the press, who no sooner
hear a rumour than they think themselves justified in embalming it
among the other truths of their daily sheets. The occurrences of
life brought us in collision, legally, with an editor; and we
obtained a verdict against him. Dissatisfied with defeat, as is apt
to be the case, he applied for a new trial. Such an application was
to be sustained by affidavits, and he made his own, as usual. Now,
in this affidavit, our competitor swore distinctly and
unequivocally, to certain alleged facts (we think to the number of
six), every one of which was untrue. Fortunately for the party
implicated, the matter sworn to was purely _ad captandum_ stuff,
and, in a legal sense, not pertinent to the issue. This prevented
it from being perjury in law. Still, it was all untrue, and nothing
was easier than to show it. Now, we do not doubt that the person
thus swearing _believed_ all that he swore to, or he would not have
had the extreme folly to expose himself as he did; but he was so
much in the habit of publishing gossip in his journal, that, when
an occasion arrived, he did not hesitate about swearing to what he
had read in other journals, without taking the trouble to inquire
if it were true! One of these days we may lay all this, along with
much other similar proof of the virtue there is in gossip, so
plainly before the world, that he who runs may read.]
In the last century, however, matters were not carried quite so far as
they are at present. No part of this community, claiming any portion of
respectability, was willing to publish its own sense of inferiority so
openly, as to gossip about its fellow-citizens, for no more direct
admissions of inferiority can be made than this wish to comment on the
subject of any one's private concerns. Consequently Mark and his islands
escaped. There was no necessity for his telling the insurers anything
about the Peak, for instance, and on that part of the subject,
therefore, he wisely held his tongue. Nothing, in short, was said of any
colony at all. The manner in which the crew had been driven away to
leeward, and recovered, was told minutely, and the whole process by
which the ship was saved. The property used, Mark said had been
appropriated to his wants, without going into details, and the main
results being so very satisfactory, the insurers asked no further.
As soon as off the capes, the governor set about a serious investigation
of the state of his affairs. In the way of cargo, a great many articles
had been laid in, which experience told him would be useful. He took
with him such farming tools as Friend Abraham White had not thought of
furnishing to the natives of Fejee, and a few seeds that had been
overlooked by that speculating philanthropist. There were half a dozen
more cows on board, as well as an improved breed of hogs. Mark carried
out, also, a couple of mares, for, while many horses could never be much
needed in his islands, a few would always be exceedingly useful. Oxen
were much wanted, but one of his new colonists had yoked his cows, and
it was thought they might be made useful, in a moderate degree, until
their stouter substitutes could be reared. Carts and wagons were
provided in sufficient numbers. A good stock of iron in bars was laid
in, in addition to that which was wrought into nails, and other useful
articles. Several thousand dollars in coin were also provided, being
principally in small pieces, including copper. But all the emigrants
took more or less specie with them.
A good deal of useful lumber was stowed in the lower hold, though the
mill by this time furnished a pretty good home supply. The magazine was
crammed with ammunition, and the governor had purchased four light
field-guns, two three-pounders and two twelve-pound howitzers, with
their equipments. He had also brought six long, iron twelves, ship-guns,
with their carriages &c. The last he intended for his batteries, the
carronades being too light for steady work, and throwing their shot too
wild for a long range. The last could be mounted on board the different
vessels. The Rancocus, also, had an entire new armament, having left all
her old guns but two behind her. Two hundred muskets were laid in, with
fifty brace of pistols. In a word, as many arms were provided as it was
thought could, in any emergency, become necessary.
But it was the human portion of his cargo that the governor, rightly
enough, deemed to be of the greatest importance. Much care had been
bestowed on the selection, which had given all concerned in it not a
little trouble. Morals were the first interest attended to. No one was
received but those who bore perfectly good characters. The next thing
was to make a proper division among the various trades and pursuits of
life. There were carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers,
&c., or, one of each, and sometimes more. Every 'man was married, the
only exceptions being in the cases of younger brothers and sisters, of
whom about a dozen were admitted along with their relatives. The whole
of the ships' betwixt decks was fitted up for the reception of these
emigrants, who were two hundred and seven in number, besides children.
Of the last there were more than fifty, but they were principally of an
age to allow of their being put into holes and corners.
Mark Woolston was much too sensible a man to fall into any of the
modern absurdities on the subject of equality, and a community of
interests. One or two individuals, even in that day, had wished to
accompany him, who were for forming an association in which all property
should be shared in common, and in which nothing was to be done but that
which was right. Mark had not the least objection in the world to the
last proposition, and would have been glad enough to see it carried out
to the letter, though he differed essentially with the applicants, as to
the mode of achieving so desirable an end. He was of opinion that
civilization could not exist without property, or property without a
direct personal interest in both its accumulation and its preservation.
They, on the other hand, were carried away by the crotchet that
community-labour was better than individual labour, and that a hundred
men would be happier and better off with their individualities
compressed into one, than by leaving them in a hundred subdivisions, as
they had been placed by nature. The theorists might have been right, had
it been in their power to compress a hundred individuals into one, but
it was riot. After all their efforts, they would still remain a hundred
individuals, merely banded together under more restraints, and with less
liberty than are common.
Of all sophisms, that is the broadest which supposes personal liberty is
extended by increasing the power of the community. Individuality is
annihilated in a thousand things, by the community-power that already
exists in this country, where persecution often follows from a man's
thinking and acting differently from his neighbours, though the law
professes to protect him. The reason why this power becomes so very
formidable, and is often so oppressively tyrannical in its exhibition,
is very obvious. In countries where the power is in the hands of the
few, public sympathy often sustains the man who resists its injustice;
but no public sympathy can sustain him who is oppressed by the public
itself. This oppression does not often exhibit itself in the form of
law, but rather in its denial. He, who has a clamour raised against him
by numbers, appeals in vain to numbers for justice, though his claim may
be clear as the sun at noon-day. The divided responsibility of bodies
of men prevents anything like the control of conscience, and the most
ruthless wrongs are committed, equally without reflection and without
remorse.
Mark Woolston had thought too much on the subject, to be the dupe of any
of these visionary theories. Instead of fancying that men never knew
anything previously to the last ten years of the eighteenth century, he
was of the opinion of the wisest man who ever lived, that 'there was
nothing new under the sun.' That 'circumstances might alter cases' he
was willing enough to allow, nor did he intend to govern the crater by
precisely the same laws as he would govern Pennsylvania, or Japan; but
he well understood, nevertheless, that certain great moral truths
existed as the law of the human family, and that they were not to be set
aside by visionaries; and least of all, with impunity.
Everything connected with the colony was strictly practical. The
decision of certain points had unquestionably given the governor
trouble, though he got along with them pretty well, on the whole. A
couple of young lawyers had desired to go, but he had the prudence to
reject them. Law, as a science, is a very useful study, beyond a
question; but the governor, rightly enough, fancied that his people
could do without so much science for a few years longer. Then another
doctor volunteered his services. Mark remembered the quarrels between
his father and his father-in-law, and thought it better to die under one
theory than under two. As regards a clergyman, Mark had greater
difficulty. The question of sect was not as seriously debated half a
century ago as it is to-day; still it was debated. Bristol had a very
ancient society, of the persuasion of the Anglican church, and Mark's
family belonged to it. Bridget, however, was a Presbyterian, and no
small portion of the new colonists were what is called Wet-Quakers; that
is, Friends who are not very particular in their opinions or
observances. Now, religion often caused more feuds than anything else:
still it was impossible to have a priest for every persuasion, and one
ought to suffice for the whole colony. The question was of what sect
should that one clergyman be? So many prejudices were to be consulted,
that the governor was about to abandon the project in despair, when
accident determined the point. Among Heaton's relatives was a young man
of the name of Hornblower, no bad appellation, by the way, for one who
had to sound so many notes of warning, who had received priest's orders
from the hands of the well-known Dr. White, so long the presiding Bishop
of America, and whose constitution imperiously demanded a milder climate
than that in which he then lived. As respects him, it became a question
purely of humanity, the divine being too poor to travel on his own
account, and he was received on board the Rancocus, with his wife, his
sister, and two children, that he might have the benefit of living
within the tropics. The matter was fully explained to the other
emigrants, who could not raise objections if they would, but who really
were not disposed to do so in a case of such obvious motives. A good
portion of them, probably, came to the conclusion that Episcopalian
ministrations were better than none, though, to own the truth, the
liturgy gave a good deal of scandal to a certain portion of their
number. _Reading_ prayers was so profane a thing, that these individuals
could scarcely consent to be present at such a vain ceremony; nor was
the discontent, on this preliminary point, fully disposed of until the
governor once asked the principal objector how he got along with the
Lord's Prayer, which was not only written and printed, but which usually
was committed to memory! Notwithstanding this difficulty, the emigrants
did get along with it without many qualms, and most of them dropped
quietly into the habit of worshipping agreeably to a liturgy, just as if
it were not the terrible profanity that some of them had imagined. In
this way, many of our most intense prejudices get lost in new
communications.
It is not our intention to accompany the Rancocus, day by day, in her
route. She touched at Rio, and sailed again at the end of eight and
forty hours. The passage round the Horn was favourable, and having got
well to the westward, away the ship went for her port. One of the cows
got down, and died before it could be relieved, in a gale off the cape;
but no other accident worth mentioning occurred. A child died with
convulsions, in consequence of teething, a few days later; but this did
not diminish the number on board, as three were born the same week. The
ship had now been at sea one hundred and sixty days, counting the time
passed at Rio, and a general impatience to arrive pervaded the vessel.
If the truth must be said, some of the emigrants began to doubt the
governor's ability to find his islands again, though none doubted of
their existence. The Kannakas, however, declared that they began to
smell home, and it is odd enough, that this declaration, coming as it
did from ignorant men who made it merely on a fanciful suggestion,
obtained more credit with most of the emigrants, than all the governor's
instruments and observations.
One day, a little before noon it was, Mark appeared on deck with his
quadrant, and as he cleaned the glasses of the instrument, he announced
his conviction that the ship would shortly make the group of the crater.
A current had set him further north than he intended to go, but having
hauled up to south-west, he waited only for noon to ascertain his
latitude, to be certain of his position. As the governor maintained a
proper distance from his people, and was not in the habit of
making-unnecessary communications to them, his present frankness told
for so much the more, and it produced a very general excitement in the
ship. All eyes were on the look-out for land, greatly increasing the
chances of its being shortly seen. The observation came at noon, as is
customary, and the governor found he was about thirty miles to the
northward of the group of islands he was seeking. By his calculation, he
was still to the eastward of it, and he hauled up, hoping to fall in
with the land well to windward. After standing on three hours in the
right direction, the look-outs from the cross-trees declared no land was
visible ahead. For one moment the dreadful apprehension of the group's
having sunk under another convulsion of nature crossed Mark's mind, but
he entertained that notion for a minute only. Then came the cry of "sail
ho!" to cheer everybody, and to give them something else to think of.
This was the first vessel the Rancocus had seen since she left Rio. It
was to windward, and appeared to be standing down before the wind. In an
hour's time the two vessels were near enough to each other to enable the
glass to distinguish objects; and the quarter-deck, on board the
Rancocus, were all engaged in looking at the stranger.
"'Tis the Mermaid," said Mark to Betts, "and it's all right. Though what
that craft can be doing here to windward of the islands is more than I
can imagine!"
"Perhaps, sir, they's a cruising arter us," answered Bob. "This is about
the time they ought to be expectin' on us; and who knows but Madam
Woolston and Friend Marthy may not have taken it into their heads to
come out a bit to see arter their lawful husbands?"
The governor smiled at this conceit, but continued his observations in
silence.
"She behaves very strangely, Betts," Mark, at length, said. "Just take a
look at her. She yaws like a galliot in a gale, and takes the whole road
like a drunken man. There can be no one at the helm."
"And how lubberly, sir, her canvas is set! Just look at that
main-taw-sail, sir; one of the sheets isn't home by a fathom, while the
yard is braced in, till it's almost aback!"
The governor walked the deck for five minutes in intense thought, though
occasionally he stopped to look at the brig, now within a league of
them. Then he suddenly called out to Bob, to "see all clear for action,
and to get everything ready to go to quarters."
This order set every one in motion. The women and children were hurried
below, and the men, who had been constantly exercised, now, for five
months, took their stations with the regularity of old seamen. The guns
were cast loose--ten eighteen-pound carronades and two nines, the new
armament--cartridges were got ready, shot placed at hand, and all the
usual dispositions for combat were made. While this was doing, the two
vessels were fast drawing nearer to each other, and were soon within
gun-shot. But, no one on board the Rancocus knew what to make of the
evolutions of the Mermaid. Most of her ordinary square-sails were set,
though not one of them all was sheeted home, or well hoisted. An attempt
had been made to lay the yards square, but one yard-arm was braced in
too far, another not far enough, and nothing like order appeared to have
prevailed at the sail-trimming. But, the of the brig was the most
remarkable. Her general course would seem to be dead before the wind;
but she yawed incessantly, and often so broadly, as to catch some of her
light sails aback. Most vessels take a good deal of room in running down
before the wind, and in a swell; but the Mermaid took a great deal more
than was Common, and could scarce be said to look any way in particular.
All this the governor observed, as the vessels approached nearer and
nearer, as well as the movements of those of the crew who showed
themselves in the rigging.
"Clear away a bow-gun," cried Mark, to Betts--"something dreadful must
have happened; that brig is in possession of the savages, who do not
know how to handle her!"
This announcement produced a stir on board the Rancocus, as may well be
imagined. If the savages had the brig, they probably had the group also;
and what had become of the colonists? The next quarter of an hour was
one of the deepest expectation with all in the ship, and of intense
agony with Mark. Betts was greatly disturbed also; nor would it have
been safe for one of Waally's men to have been within reach of his arm,
just then. Could it be possible that Ooroony had yielded to temptation
and played them false? The governor could hardly believe it; and, as for
Betts, he protested loudly it could not be so.
"Is that bow-gun ready?" demanded the governor.
"Ay, ay, sir; all ready."
"Fire, but elevate well--we will only frighten them, at first. We betide
them, if they resist."
Betts did fire, and to the astonishment of everybody, the brig returned
a broadside! But resistance ceased with this one act of energy, if it
could be so termed. Although five guns were actually fired, and nearly
simultaneously, no aim was even attempted. The shot all flew off at a
tangent from the position of the ship; and no harm was done to any but
the savages themselves, of whom three or four were injured by the
recoils. From the moment the noise and smoke were produced, everything
like order ceased on board the brig, which was filled with savages. The
vessel broached to, and the sails caught aback. All this time, the
Rancocus was steadily drawing nearer, with an intent to board; but,
unwilling to expose his people, most of whom were unpractised in
strife, in a hand-to-hand conflict with ferocious savages, the governor
ordered a gun loaded with grape to be discharged into the brig. This
decided the affair at once. Half a dozen were killed or wounded; some
ran below; a few took refuge in the top; but most, without the slightest
hesitation, jumped overboard. To the surprise of all who saw them, the
men in the water began to swim directly to windward; a circumstance
which indicated that either land or canoes were to be found in that
quarter of the ocean. Seeing the state of things on board the brig, Mark
luffed up under her counter, and laid her aboard. In a minute, he and
twenty chosen men were on her decks; in another, the vessels were again
clear of each other, and the Mermaid under command.
No sooner did the governor discharge his duties as a seaman, than he
passed below. In the cabin he found Mr. Saunders, (or Captain Saunders,
as he was called by the colonists,) bound hand and foot. His steward was
in the same situation, and Bigelow was found, also a prisoner, in the
steerage. These were all the colonists on board, and all but two who had
been on board, when the vessel was taken.
Captain Saunders could tell the governor very little more than he saw
with his own eyes. One fact of importance, however, he could and did
communicate, which was this: Instead of being to windward of the crater,
as Mark supposed, he was to leeward of it; the currents no doubt having
set the ship to the westward faster than had been thought. Rancocus
Island would have been made by sunset, had the ship stood on in the
course she was steering when she made the Mermaid.
But the most important fact was the safety of the females. They were all
at the Peak, where they had lived for the last six months, or ever since
the death of the good Ooroony had again placed Waally in the ascendant.
Ooroony's son was overturned immediately on the decease of the father,
who died a natural death, and Waally disregarded the taboo, which he
persuaded his people could have no sanctity as applied to the whites.
The plunder of these last, with the possession of the treasure of iron
and copper that was to be found in their vessels, had indeed been the
principal bribe with which the turbulent and ambitious chief regained
his power. The war did not break out, however, as soon as Waally had
effected the revolution in his own group. On the contrary, that wily
politician had made so many protestations of friendship after that
event, which he declared to be necessary to the peace of his island; had
collected so much sandal-wood, and permitted it to be transferred to the
crater, where a cargo was already stored; and had otherwise made so many
amicable demonstrations, as completely to deceive the colonists. No one
had anticipated an invasion; but, on the contrary, preparations were
making at the Peak for the reception of Mark, whose return had now been
expected daily for a fortnight.
The Mermaid had brought over a light freight of wood from Betto's group,
and had discharged at the crater. This done, she had sailed with the
intention of going out to cruise for the Rancocus, to carry the news of
the colony, all of which was favourable, with the exception of the death
of Ooroony and the recent events; but was lying in the roads, outside of
everything--the Western Roads, as they were called, or those nearest to
the other group--waiting for the appointed hour of sailing, which was to
be the very morning of the day in which she was fallen in with by the
governor. Her crew consisted only of Captain Saunders, Bigelow, the cook
and steward, and two of the people engaged at Canton--one of whom was a
very good-for-nothing Chinaman. The two last had the look-out, got
drunk, and permitted a fleet of hostile canoes to get alongside in the
dark, being knocked on the head and tossed overboard, as the penalty of
this neglect of duty. The others owed their lives to the circumstance of
being taken in their sleep, when resistance was out of the question. In
the morning, the brig's cable was cut, sail was set, after a fashion,
and an attempt was made to carry the vessel over to Betto's group. It is
very questionable whether she ever could have arrived; but that point
was disposed of by the opportune appearance of the Rancocus.
Saunders could communicate nothing of the subsequent course of the
invaders. He had been kept below the whole time, and did not even know
how many canoes composed the fleet. The gang in possession of the
Mermaid was understood, however, to be but a very small part of Waally's
force present, that chief leading in person. By certain
half-comprehended declarations of his conquerors, Captain Sauriders
understood that the rest had entered the channel, with a view to
penetrate to the crater, where Socrates, Unus and Wattles were
residing with their wives and families, and where no greater force was
left when the Mermaid sailed. The property there, however, was out of
all proportion in value to the force of those whose business it was to
take care of it. In consequence of the Rancocus's removal, several
buildings had been constructed on the Reef, and one house of very
respectable dimensions had been put up on the Summit. It is true, these
houses were not very highly finished; but they were of great value to
persons in the situation of the colonists. Most of the hogs, moreover,
were still rooting and tearing up the thousand-acre prairie; where,
indeed, they roamed very much in a state of nature. Socrates
occasionally carried to them a boat-load of 'truck' from the crater, in
order to keep up amicable relations with them; but they were little
better than so many wild animals, in one sense, though there had not yet
been time materially to change their natures. In the whole, including
young and old, there must have been near two hundred of these animals
altogether, their increase being very rapid. Then, a large amount of the
stores sent from Canton, including most of the iron, was in store at the
crater; all of which would lay at the mercy of Waally's men; for the
resistance to be expected from the three in possession, could not amount
to much.
The governor was prompt enough in his decision, as soon as he understood
the facts of the case. The first thing was to bring the vessels close by
the wind, and to pass as near as possible over the ground where the
swimmers were to be found; for Mark could not bear the idea of
abandoning a hundred of his fellow-creatures in the midst of the ocean,
though they were enemies and savages. By making short stretches, and
tacking two or three times, the colonists found themselves in the midst
of the swimmers; not one in ten of whom would probably ever have
reached the land, but for the humanity of their foe. Alongside of the
Mermaid were three or four canoes; and these were cast adrift at the
right moment, without any parleying. The Indians were quick enough at
understanding the meaning of this, and swam to the canoes from all
sides, though still anxious to get clear of the vessels. On board the
last canoe the governor put all his prisoners, when he deemed himself
happily quit of the whole gang.
There were three known channels by which the Rancocus could be carried
quite up to the crater. Mark chose that which came in from the
northward, both because it was the nearest, and because he could lay his
course in it, without tacking, for most of the way. Acquainted now with
his position, Mark had no difficulty in finding the entrance of this
channel. Furnishing the Mermaid with a dozen hands, she was sent to the
western roads, to intercept Waally's fleet, should it be coming out with
the booty. In about an hour after the Rancocus altered her course, she
made the land; and, just as the sun was setting, she got so close in as
to be able to anchor in the northern roads, where there was not only a
lee, but good holding-ground. Here the ship passed the night, the
governor not liking to venture into the narrow passages in the dark.