Salute to Adventurers

ith a kerchief over his face in some shady veranda. There was no vice in the creature, but there was mighty little sense. He lived in awe of the great and rich, and a nod from a big planter would

tter than an old wife, and as timid as a hare forbye. When I spoke of fighting the English merchants, he held up his hands as if I had uttered blasphemy. So, being determined to find out for myself the trut

eat pork and hominy with a rough fellow who was carving a farm out of the forest; and the next I would sit in a fine panelled hall and listen to gentlefolks' speech, and dine off damask and silver. I could not tire of the green forests, or the marshes alive with wild fowl, or the noble orchards and gardens, or even the salty dunes of the Chesapeake shore. My one complaint

poor were ground down by bitter poverty. There was little corn in the land, tobacco being the sole means of payment, and this meant no trade in the common meaning of the word. The place was slowly bleeding to death, and I had a mind to try and stanch its wounds.

ling common Virginian mocking-birds as the "best English mocking-birds". My uncle had sent out a quantity of Ayrshire cheeses, mutton hams, pickled salmon, Dunfermline linens, Paisley dimity, Alloa worsted, sweet ale from Tranent, Kilmarnock cowls, and a lot of fine feather-beds from the Clydeside. There was nothing common or trashy in the whole consignment; but the planters preferred some gewgaws from Cheapside or some worthless London furs which they could have bettered any day by taking a gun and hunting their own woods. When my own business was over, I would look on at some of the

*

not many months before with a great repute for ill-temper and harsh dealing; but I liked the look of his hard-set face and soldierly bearing, and I never mind ch

and saddle-bags, and glared at me from beneath lowering brows. The man was sore harassed by the King's

it is some merchants' squabble, you can save

ear arrived in the country, but that I had been using my

fool, His Majesty's Attorney. My politics are not

I came to y

of the colony, for from what I had learned I judged that wo

t falls, it will soon be the turn of Maryland and next of Virginia. England's possessions in the West are indivisible, and what threatens one endangers all. But think you our Virginians can see it? When I presented my scheme for setting forts along the northern line, I could no

rned with the peril in the West; but I held my peace on that subje

sty and the English laws are chiefly to blame. When the Hollanders were suffered to trade here, they paid five shillings on every anker of brandy they brought hither, and ten

nd it's a damned disgrace.

oint Comfort outward bound," I said. "T

y greasy member would be on his feet in Parliament in defence of what he called English rights. Then there

curiously, screw

. Garvald, what

the others," I said; "

nstead of

have heard that hawks should not pick out hawks'

ishman, and I think the country is suffering worse. I have a notion that things can be remedied. If you ca

of my scheme, and he heard

brazen Scots

ughed, for his face a

a strong monopoly buttressed by the whole stupidity and idleness of Virginia? You'll be stripped of your last farthing, and y

hat, provided I keep within the law, His Ma

s to your enterprise." He filled me a great silver tankard o

*

and Powhatan and Pamunkey. They were civil enough fellows, following their own ways, and not molesting their scanty white neighbours, for the country was wide enough for all. But so far as I could learn, these clanlets of the Algonquin house were no more comparable to the fighting tribes of the West t

flaming scarlet and saffron as I rode west through the forests to his house on the South Fork River. There, b

a to my side. Profits interested him little, for he grew his patch of corn and pumpkins, and hunted the

asing that night you and me first

ried, all el

e mark of it," and he showed a long scar on his forehead. "He went off with my best axe, a gill of brandy, and a good coat. He was looking for my gun, too, but that was in a hid

e go, think

e'er-do-weel. Belike the Indians have g

hazy shapes of the western mountains. The man was twenty years my elder, but my youth was of no avail against his iron strength. Though I was hard and spare from my travels in the summer heat, 'twas al

o a place which sent him on his knees

you of that

atch in the grass, some br

old camp,

Nothing more? Us

but they ga

he Matabaw tribe, and one was a maker of arrows. They were not hunting, and they were in a mighty hurry. Ju

a speed which well-nigh

he told me where h

ran in a tunnel into the scrub. They were Matabaws from the pattern of their moccasins. They were in a hurry, for they did not wait to scatter the ashes and clear up the plac

w how long back this h

left. Besides, the smoke had blown south, for the grass smelt of it that side. Now the wind w

rvel is what they've been doing in the Tidewate

for something. He picked up some kind of a trail, which we followed through the long afternoon. Then he found something, which

ound stone whorl. "He's a careless lad, and he'll

azed me that the savages should come scouting into the Tidewater itself. He

of James Town. And it wasna there when I had passed the same place the day before. The Tidewater thinks

his own river. I had left my musket behind, for this heavy travel made me crave t

the animal was ill-placed. We broiled a steak for our midday meal, and presently clam

e what you can do, you that were so ready with y

me to have to shoot with a strange weapon, and I thought too lightly of the

ws high, and you did not warn me.

d that presently it would come out in the meadow. I was right, and

d the steepness of the hill, and pulled the trigger. The shot might have been better, for I had aimed for the shoulder, and hit the n

ct. "That's braw shooting," he said.

coming to this land, and I came here to await it. I've had some sudden calls from the red gentry, but they havena got me yet, and they'll no get me before my time. I'm in the Lord's hands, and He has a job for Simon Frew.