Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714 -- Fiction
'Barbadoes,' said Barnaby, pointing to a little cloud far away on
the horizon. 'Well; of this job I am wellnigh sick. To-morrow, if
the wind holds, we shall have sailed round the island and shall beat
up for Carlisle Bay. Well, it is lucky for us that we have this
letter of Mr. Penne's. We will go--I know the place well--to the
sign of the Rock and Turtle, kept by old Mother Rosemary, if she
lives still, or, if she be dead, by one of her daughters--she had
fifty daughters, at least, all buxom mulatto girls. There we will
put off these filthy rags, have a wash in a tub of fresh water,
get shaved, and then with smooth chins and clean shirts we will
sit down to a dinner such as the old woman knows how to make, a
potato-pudding and Scots collops with Rhenish wine, and afterwards
a cool cup of beverage, which is nothing in the world but squeezed
limes, with sugar and water, fit for such a womanly stomach as
yours, Doctor. With this, and a pipe of tobacco, and perhaps a song
and (when your Worship hath gone to bed) a dance from one of the
girls--I say, my lad, with this I shall be ready to forget Sedgemoor
and to forgive Judge Jeffreys. When we are tired of Barbadoes, we
will take boat and sail away. I know one island, at least, where
they care nothing for King James. Thither will we go, my lad.'
Well; what we found at our port, and how we fared, was not quite as
Barnaby expected and hoped, as you shall hear. But I must admire
the cunning of the man Penne, who not only took from Alice--poor
child!--all her brother's money, amounting to two hundred and fifty
pounds or thereabouts (which you have read), on the pretext of
bestowing it for the advantage of all, but also received two hundred
guineas from Mr. Boscorel on the same pretence. This made in all
four hundred and fifty pounds. And not one penny--not a single
penny--of this great sum did the man spend upon the purpose for
which it was given him.
You have heard how the merchants and planters came aboard the ships
which put in with servants and slaves, and how these are put up
for sale one at a time. As was the sale described by Alice, just
such was ours: though, I take it, our lads were not so miserable a
company as were those on board her ship. Pale of cheek they looked,
and dejected, and some were sick with various disorders, caused by
the confinement of the prison or the sufferings of the voyage. They
put us up one after the other and we were sold. I forget what I
myself fetched, and, indeed, it matters not, save that many jests
were passed at our expense, and that when one was put up--as Robin,
for instance--who had been a Captain in the rebel army, the salesman
was eloquent in praise of his rich and illustrious family, who would
never endure that this unfortunate man should continue in servitude.
But Barnaby put his tongue in his cheek and laughed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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