Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen ElizabethKingsley, Charles
History
Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth
Kingsley, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction
“Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away from us, swearing
revenge (for which we cared little enough), and we rowed up the river
to a place where three streams met, and then up the least of the three,
some four days' journey, till it grew all shoal and swift; and there we
hauled the pinnace upon the sands, and Mr. Oxenham asked the men whether
they were willing to carry the gold and silver over the mountains to the
North Sea. Some of them at first were loath to do it, and I and others
advised that we should leave the plate behind, and take the gold only,
for it would have cost us three or four journeys at the least. But Mr.
Oxenham promised every man 100 pezos of silver over and above his wages,
which made them content enough, and we were all to start the morrow
morning. But, sirs, that night, as God had ordained, came a mishap by
some rash speeches of Mr. Oxenham's, which threw all abroad again; for
when we had carried the treasure about half a league inland, and hidden
it away in a house which we made of boughs, Mr. O. being always full of
that his fair lady, spoke to me and William Penberthy of Marazion, my
good comrade, and a few more, saying, 'That we had no need to return
to England, seeing that we were already in the very garden of Eden, and
wanted for nothing, but could live without labor or toil; and that it
was better, when we got over to the North Sea, to go and seek out some
fair island, and there dwell in joy and pleasure till our lives' end.
And we two,' he said, 'will be king and queen, and you, whom I can
trust, my officers; and for servants we will have the Indians, who, I
warrant, will be more fain to serve honest and merry masters like us
than those Spanish devils,' and much more of the like; which words I
liked well,--my mind, alas! being given altogether to carnal pleasure
and vanity,--as did William Penberthy, my good comrade, on whom I trust
God has had mercy. But the rest, sirs, took the matter all across, and
began murmuring against the captain, saying that poor honest mariners
like them had always the labor and the pain, while he took his delight
with his lady; and that they would have at least one merry night before
they were slain by the Cimaroons, or eaten by panthers and lagartos;
and so got out of the pinnace two great skins of Canary wine, which were
taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves down to drink. Moreover,
there were in the pinnace a great sight of hens, which came from the
same prize, by which Mr. O. set great store, keeping them for the lady
and the little maid; and falling upon these, the men began to blaspheme,
saying, 'What a plague had the captain to fill the boat with dirty live
lumber for that giglet's sake? They had a better right to a good supper
than ever she had, and might fast awhile to cool her hot blood;' and
so cooked and ate those hens, plucking them on board the pinnace, and
letting the feathers fall into the stream. But when William Penberthy,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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