London (England) -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
She had none of the common accomplishments of women; she could not sew
or embroider or make things as women used. She could do nothing; she
could not cook or make cordials; she understood no household work of any
kind: she could read, but she had read nothing beyond the plays in which
she had acted; she knew no history or geography or politics; she knew
nothing but what she had learned for her own purposes; the scaffolding,
so to speak, on which the actor builds his playing; the art of fine
dress; and how to wear it; the art of dancing with an admirable grace of
manner and of carriage; the art of courtesy and graciousness, in which
she was a Princess; the art of making herself even more beautiful than
Nature intended; and the art of bringing all men to her feet. Before we
had been a day at sea, the Captain was her servant to command; by the
second day, the mate was her slave; by the third day the sailors
worshipped her. She brought good luck to the ship; every sailor will
tell you that passengers may, and often do, resemble Jonah, who was
pursued by a tempest; Jenny brought fair weather and a balmy breeze
always from the right quarter.
She did not forget our fellow-passengers. When she heard that they were
dying fast she would have gone below to visit them but the Captain
refused his leave; the noisome quarters where they herded together, day
and night, was not a proper place for any decent woman to visit. Let her
send down what she pleased, and they should have it. She sent down from
our stores daily drams of cordial and of rum; if she did not save many
lives she made death less terrible.
The voyage came to an end all too quickly. On a certain day at the
beginning of April we put into port and presently landed on the shores
of the New World. There are certain forms. The bodies of Jenny Halliday
and Pamela St. Giles's--I called the girl Pamela for obvious
reasons--were duly delivered to the officer representing the Governor
and as duly handed over to me as their master for five years. This
proceeding was performed without Jenny's presence or knowledge. I then
found a lodging not far from the Port and sought the merchants to whom I
had letters of introduction and credit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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