Page images
PDF
EPUB

nounced a formidable foe. Carlton, who was a good linguist, began a statement of their having lost their way, when the soldier (for such the new comer was) bade him be silent in an imperious tone, and lifting something that looked like a bugle to his lips, was about to call in a reinforcement. Not a moment was to be lost, and not a moment was lost. The intrepid Carlton plunged directly upon him. So sudden was the onset, that the pistol was dashed from his hands, and the horn or bugle instantly displaced from his mouth. Neither spoke, but a short struggle was heard, like that of two animals fighting for life amongst the crackling leaves. Once or twice a blow resounded amidst the panting and short-breathing of the combatants, whose strife was made doubly terrible by the darkness about them. It was evident that the death of one or the other must conclude the affray. Dacre and the now agitated Sophy awaited the event in frightful anxiety, when suddenly a short cry, a curse, and ɩ rattling of the voice in the throat, announced that the victory was won-and lost! A slight blow ensued, and was itself followed by a sound like the bubbling of blood or water. At last one of the men rose up, with a deep sigh, and staggering to a tree, exclaimed, in English, "He is dead! I could not help it. It was necessary that one should fall or three. He is dead. Let us leave this place at once silently— and quickly quickly!" His companions made no reply, but followed him quickly and silently through the melancholy forest darkness.'

[ocr errors]

Our sexagenarian could get no farther with his

story he would, indeed, have gone on telling every minute and tedious particular of the escape, (for the three people of his story did escape,) but that the time limited for the evening's labor was exhausted, and the old gentleman was obliged to pause.

It is too bad to leave off before the story is concluded,' said I, (desirous of paying the old gentleman a compliment); 'come! we have still ten minutes left before supper. Mr. shall tell us the remainder of his tale in half a dozen sentences, and then we shall go to rest contentedly. Did your party escape, Mr. ? or were they sent back to the prisons of

[ocr errors]

Bitche?' "They escaped,' replied Mr., and are safe enough, I' faith! and two of them are merry enough,

also.'

'I am sorry for that,' retorted I; 'I like that there should be poetical justice in all stories, and your lover deserved rather to be hanged than married.'

'He is not married,' was the answer, ' and he may be hanged. Far more improbable things have occurred in the history of the world.'

'But what became of your heroine? She is really a heroine; for she had a man's courage in her woman's heart.'

[ocr errors]

'Oh!' said Mr. Why, Sir, it was impossible, you see, that she should link herself to such a lump of selfishness as the scoundrel to whom she gave her girl's heart away. Her travels had improved her reason; so she turned off the worthless lover, (if I may profane that pretty word, Sir,) and took an excellent

fellow to her arms, and is as happy as the day is long. I do not know a more beautiful sight, indeed, than to

look at my friend Mrs.

about her'

1829.

Carlton, with all her children

THE PLANTER.

FIFTY

sixtyseventy (any given number of) years ago, the West Indies were not as they are now, in these days of purity. The colonists were not then meek, modest, humane, temperate, independent people, and lovers of liberty. On the contrary, they were at that time boastful, and luxurious; loved scheidam and pine-apple rum; worshipped their superiors in station, and despised everybody below themselves. Thus the newly imported Englishmen held the regular colonists in utter contempt; the colonists (a white race) requited themselves, by contemning the mustees and quadroons; these last, on their parts, heartily despised the half castes; who, in turn, transmitted the scorn on to the heads of the downright blacks. Whom the blacks despised, I never could learn, but probably all the rest: and, in fact, they seem to have had ample cause for so doing, unless the base, beggarly, and cruel vanity imputed to their superiors,' be at once a libel and a fable.

[ocr errors]

Such was the state of things in the Colony of Demerara in the year 17-, when a young Englishman went there, in order to inspect his newly acquired

property. His name was John Vivian. He came of a good family in D—shire; possessed (without being at all handsome) a dark, keen, intelligent countenance; and derived from his maternal uncle large estates in Demerara, and from his father a small farm in his own county, a strong constitution, and a resolute, invincible spirit. Perhaps, he had too much obstinacy of character; perhaps, also, an intrepidity of manner, and carelessness of established forms, which would have been unsuitable to society as now constituted. All this we will not presume to determine. We do not wish to extenuate his faults, of which he had as handsome a share as usually falls to the lot of young gentlemen who are under no control; although not precisely of the same character. In requital for these defects, however, he was a man of firm mind, of a generous spirit, and would face danger, and stand up against oppression, as readily on behalf of others as of himself; and, at the bottom of all, though it had lain. hid from his birth, (like some of those antediluvian fossils which perplex our geologists and antiquaries,) he had a tenderness and delicacy of feeling, which must not be passed by, without, at least, our humble commendation.

[ocr errors]

Exactly eight weeks from the day of his stepping on board the good ship Wager,' at Bristol, Vivian found himself standing on the shore of the river Demerara, and in front of its capital, Stabroek. In that interval, he had been tossed on the wild waters of the Atlantic; had passed from woollens to nankeens, from English cold to tropic heat; and he now stood eyeing the curious groups of the colony, where creatures of every

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »