A	»	B	»	C	»	D	»	E
F	»	G	»	H	»	I	»	J
K	»	L	»	M	»	N	»	O
P	»		R	»	S	»		T
U	»		V	»	W	»		Z

Various - "Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 6, April, 1858"

Miles Franklin - "My Brilliant Career"

Henry Theophilus Finck - "Primitive Love and Love Stories"

Jonathan Swift - "The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. III.: Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I."

Layoffs at Random House, Simon & Schuster
Moreover Technologies - Premier purveyor of real-time news and RSS feeds from across the Web

Citigroup Cuts Estimates and Price Target on Amazon.com (AMZN) Due To Flat Online Retail Growth
Ad - Get Info for Book Publishing from 14 search engines in 1.

Farewell To Okada In PortHarcourt
'Yes, Virginia, book publishing is NOT recession proof,' said Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers. 'It's sad day.' At Random House, the country's largest general trade publisher, the man who

The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Crater




The next thing was to select a crew. The three men who had declined
becoming citizens of the colony, Johnson, Edwards, and Bright, all able
seamen, went as a matter of course. Betts would have to go in the
character of mate, though Bigelow might have got along in that
capacity. Betts knew nothing of navigation, while Bigelow might find
his way into port on a pinch. On the other hand, Betts was a prime
seaman--a perfect long-cue, in fact--whereas the most that could be said
of Bigelow, in this respect, was that he was a stout, willing fellow,
and was much better than a raw hand. The governor named Betts as his
first, and Bigelow as his second officer. Brown remained behind, having
charge of the navy in the governor's absence. He had a private interview
with Mark, however, in which he earnestly requested that the governor
would have the goodness "to pick out for him the sort of gal that he
thought would make a fellow a good and virtuous wife, and bring her out
with him, in whatever way he might return." Mark made as fair promises
as the circumstances of the case would allow, and Brown was satisfied.

It was thought prudent to have eight white men on board the ship, Mark
intending to borrow as many more of Ooroony's people, to help pull and
haul. With such a crew, he thought he might get along very well. Wattles
chose to remain with his friend Brown; but Dickinson and Harris, though
ready and willing to return, wished to sail in the ship. Like Brown,
they wanted wives, but chose to select them for themselves. On this
subject Wattles said nothing. We may add here, that Unus and Juno were
united before the ship sailed. They took up land on the Peak, where Unus
erected for himself a very neat cabin. Bridget set the young couple up,
giving the furniture, a pig, some fowls, and other necessaries.

At length the day for sailing arrived. Previously to departing, Mark had
carried the ship through the channel, and she was anchored in a very
good and safe roadstead, outside of everything. The leave-taking took
place on board her. Bridget wept long in her husband's arms, but finally
got so far the command of herself, as to assume an air of encouraging
firmness among the other women. By this time, it was every way so
obvious Mark's presence would be indispensable in America, that his
absence was regarded as a necessity beyond control. Still it was hard to
part for a year, nor was the last embrace entirely free from anguish.
Friend Martha Betts took leave of Friend Robert with a great appearance
of calmness, though she felt the separation keenly. A quiet,
warm-hearted woman, she had made her husband very happy; and Bob was
quite sensible of her worth. But to him the sea was a home, and he
regarded a voyage round the world much as a countryman would look upon a
trip to market. He saw his wife always in the vista created by his
imagination, but she was at the end of the voyage.

At the appointed hour, the Rancocus sailed, Brown and Wattles going down
with her in the Neshamony as far as Betto's group, in order to bring
back the latest intelligence of her proceedings. The governor now got
Ooroony to assemble his priests and chiefs, and to pronounce a taboo on
all intercourse with the whites for one year. At the end of that time,
he promised to return, and to bring with him presents that should render
every one glad to welcome him back. Even Waally was included in these
arrangements; and when Mark finally sailed, it was with a strong hope
that in virtue of the taboo, of Ooroony's power, and of his rival's
sagacity, he might rely on the colony's meeting with no molestation
during his absence. The reader will see that the Peak and Reef would be
in a very defenceless condition, were it not for the schooner. By means
of that vessel, under the management of Brown, assisted by Wattles,
Socrates and Unus, it is true, a fleet of canoes might be beaten off;
but any accident to the Abraham would be very likely to prove fatal to
the colony, in the event of an invasion. Instructions were given to
Heaton to keep the schooner moving about, and particularly to make a
trip as often as once in two months, to Ooroony's country, in order to
look after the state of things there. The pretence was to be
trade--beads, hatchets, and old iron being taken each time, in exchange
for sandal-wood; but the principal object was to keep an eye on the
movements, and to get an insight into the policy, of the savages.

After taking in a very considerable quantity of sandal-wood, and
procuring eight active assistants from Ooroony the Rancocus got under
way for Canton. By the Neshamony, which saw her into the offing, letters
were sent back to the Reef, when the governor squared away for his port.
At the end of fifty days, the ship reached Canton, where speedy and
excellent sale was made of her cargo. So very lucrative did Mark make
this transaction, that, finding himself with assets after filling up
with teas, he thought himself justified in changing his course of
proceeding. A small American brig, which was not deemed fit to double
the capes, and to come-on a stormy coast, was on sale. She could run
several years in a sea as mild as the Pacific, and Mark purchased her
for a song. He put as many useful things on board her as he could find,
including several cows, &c. Dry English cows were not difficult to find,
the ships from Europe often bringing out the animals, and turning them
off when useless. Mark was enabled to purchase six, which, rightly
enough, he thought would prove a great acquisition to the colony. A
plentiful supply of iron was also provided, as was ammunition, arms, and
guns. The whole outlay, including the cost of the vessel, was less than
seven thousand dollars; which sum Mark knew he should receive in
Philadelphia, on account of the personal property of Bridget, and with
which he had made up his mind to replace the proceeds of the
sandal-wood, thus used, did those interested exact it. As for the
vessel, she sailed like a witch, was coppered and copper-fastened, but
was both old and weak. She had quarters, having been used once as a
privateer, and mounted ten sixes. Her burthen was two hundred tons, and
her name the Mermaid. The papers were all American, and in perfect rule.

The governor might not have made this purchase, had it not been for the
circumstance that he met an old acquaintance in Canton, who had got
married in Calcutta to a pretty and very well-mannered English girl--a
step that lost him his berth, however/on board a Philadelphia ship.
Saunders was two or three years Mark's senior, and of an excellent
disposition and diameter. When he heard the history of the colony, he
professed a desire to join it, engaging to pick up a crew of Americans,
who were in his own situation, or had no work on their hands, and to
take the brig to the Reef. "This arrangement was made and carried out;
the Mermaid sailing for the crater" the day before the Rancocus left for
Philadelphia, having Bigelow on board as pilot and first officer; while
Woolston shipped an officer to supply his place. The two vessels met in
the China seas, and passed a week in company, when each steered her
course; the governor quite happy in thinking that he had made this
provision for the good of his people. The arrival of the Mermaid would
be an eventful day in the colony, on every account; and, the
instructions of Saunders forbidding his quitting the islands until the
end of the year, her presence would be a great additional means of
security.

It is unnecessary for us to dwell on the passage of the Rancocus. In due
time she entered the capes of the Delaware, surprising all interested
with her appearance. Friend Abraham White was dead, and the firm
dissolved. But the property had all been transferred, to the insurers by
the payment of the amount underwritten, and Mark made his report at the
office. The teas were sold to great advantage, and the whole matter was
taken fairly into consideration. After deducting the sum paid the firm,
principal and interest, the insurance company resolved to give the ship,
and the balance of the proceeds of the sale, to Captain Woolston, as a
reward for his integrity and prudence. Mark had concealed nothing, but
stated what he had done in reference to the Mermaid, and told his whole
story with great simplicity, and with perfect truth. The result was,
that the young man got, in addition to the ship, which was legally
conveyed to him, some eleven thousand dollars in hard money. Thus was
honesty shown to be the best policy!

It is scarcely necessary to say that his success made Mark Woolston a
great man, in a small way. Not only was he received with open arms by
all of his own blood; but Dr. Yardley now relented, and took him by the
hand. A faithful account was rendered of his stewardship; and Mark
received as much ready money, on account of his wife, as placed somewhat
more than twenty thousand dollars at his disposal. With this money he
set to work, without losing a day, to make arrangements to return to
Bridget and the crater; for he always deemed that his proper abode, in
preference to the Peak. In this feeling, his charming wife coincided;
both probably encouraging a secret interest in the former, in
consequence of the solitary hours that had been passed there by the
young husband, while his anxious partner was far away.



Chapter XX.



"There is no gloom on earth, for God above
Chastens in love;
Transmuting sorrows into golden joy
Free from alloy.
His dearest attribute is still to bless,
And man's most welcome hymn is grateful cheerfulness."

Moral Alchemy.


The mode of proceeding now required great caution on the part of Mark
Woolston. His mind was fully made up not to desert his islands, although
this might easily be done, by fitting out the ship for another voyage,
filling her with sandal-wood, and bringing off all who chose to abandon
the place. But Woolston had become infatuated with the climate, which
had all the witchery of a low latitude without any of its lassitude. The
sea-breezes kept the frame invigorated, and the air reasonably cool,
even at the Reef; while, on the Peak, there was scarcely ever a day, in
the warmest months, when one could not labour at noon. In this respect
the climate did not vary essentially from that of Pennsylvania, the
difference existing in the fact that there was no winter in his new
country. Nothing takes such a hold on men as a delicious climate. They
may not be sensible of all its excellencies while in its enjoyment, but
the want of it is immediately felt, and has an influence on all their
pleasures. Even the scenery-hunter submits to this witchery of climate,
which casts a charm over the secondary beauties of nature, as a sweet
and placid temper renders the face of woman more lovely than the colour
of a skin, or the brilliancy of fine eyes. The Alps and the Apennines
furnish a standing proof of the truth of this fact. As respects
grandeur, a startling magnificence, and all that at first takes the
reason, as well as the tastes, by surprise, the first are vastly in
advance of the last; yet, no man of feeling or sentiment, probably ever
dwelt a twelve-month amid each, without becoming more attached to the
last. We wonder at Switzerland, while we get to love Italy. The
difference is entirely owing to climate; for, did the Alps rise in a
lower latitude, they would be absolutely peerless.

But Mark Woolston had no thought of abandoning the crater and the Peak.
Nor did he desire to people them at random, creating a population by any
means, incorporating moral diseases in his body politic by the measures
taken to bring it into existence. On the contrary, it was his wish,
rather, to procure just as much force as might be necessary to security,
so divided in pursuits and qualities as to conduce to comfort and
civilization, and then to trust to the natural increase for the growth
that might be desirable in the end. Such a policy evidently required
caution and prudence. The reader will perceive that governor Woolston
was not influenced by the spirit of trade that is now so active,
preferring happiness to wealth, and morals to power.

Among Woolston's acquaintances, there was a young man of about his own
age, of the name of Pennock, who struck him as a person admirably suited
for his purposes. This Pennock had married very young, and was already
the father of three children. He began to feel the pressure of society,
for he was poor. He was an excellent farmer, accustomed to toil, while
he was also well educated, having been intended for one of the
professions. To Pennock Mark told his story, exhibited his proofs, and
laid bare his whole policy, under a pledge of secresy, offering at the
same time to receive his friend, his wife, children, and two unmarried
sisters, into the colony. After taking time to reflect and to consult,
Pennock accepted the offer as frankly as it had been made. From this
time John Pennock relieved the governor, in a great measure, of the duly
of selecting the remaining emigrants, taking that office on himself.
This allowed Mark to attend to his purchases, and to getting the ship
ready for sea. Two of his own brothers, however, expressed a wish to
join the new community, and Charles and Abraham Woolston were received
in the colony lists. Half-a-dozen more were admitted, by means of direct
application to the governor himself, though the accessions were
principally obtained through the negotiations and measures of Pennock.
All was done with great secrecy, it being Mark's anxious desire, on many
accounts, not to attract public attention to his colony.

The reasons were numerous and sufficient for this wish to remain
unknown. In the first place, the policy of retaining the monopoly of a
trade that must be enormously profitable, was too obvious to need any
arguments to support it. So long as the sandal-wood lasted, so long
would it be in the power of the colonists to coin money; while it was
certain that competitors would rush in, the moment the existence of this
mine of wealth should be known. Then, the governor apprehended the
cupidity and ambition of the old-established governments, when it should
be known that territory was to be acquired. It was scarcely possible for
man to possess any portion of this earth by a title better than that
with which Mark Woolston was invested with his domains. But, what is
right compared to might! Of his native country, so abused in our own
times for its rapacity, and the desire to extend its dominions by any
means, Mark felt no apprehension. Of all the powerful nations of the
present day, America, though not absolutely spotless, has probably the
least to reproach herself with, on the score of lawless and purely
ambitious acquisitions. Even her conquests in open war have been few,
and are not yet determined in character. In the end, it will be found
that little will be taken that Mexico could keep; and had that nation
observed towards this, ordinary justice and faith, in her intercourse
and treaties, that which has so suddenly and vigorously been done, would
never have even been attempted.

It may suit the policy of those who live under the same system, to decry
those who do not; but men are not so blind that they cannot see the sun
at noon-day. One nation makes war because its consul receives the rap of
a fan; and men of a different origin, religion and habits, are coerced
into submission as the consequence. Another nation burns towns, and
destroys their people in thousands, because their governors will not
consent to admit a poisonous drug into their territories: an offence
against the laws of trade that can only be expiated by the ruthless
march of the conqueror. Yet the ruling men of both these communities
affect a great sensibility when the long-slumbering young lion of the
West rouses himself in his lair, after twenty years of forbearance, and
stretches out a paw in resentment for outrages that no other nation,
conscious of his strength, would have endured for as many months,
because, forsooth, he _is_ the young lion of the West. Never mind: by
the time New Zealand and Tahiti are brought under the yoke, the
Californians may be admitted to an equal participation in the rights of
American citizens.

The governor was fully aware of the danger he ran of having claims, of
some sort or other, set up to his islands, if he revealed their
existence; and he took the greatest pains to conceal the fact. The
arrival of the Rancocus was mentioned in the papers, as a matter of
course; but it was in a way to induce the reader to suppose she had met
with her accident in the midst of a naked reef, and principally through
the loss of her men; and that, when a few of the last were regained, the
voyage was successfully resumed and terminated. In that day, the great
discovery had not been made that men were merely incidents of
newspapers; but the world had the folly to believe that newspapers were
incidents of society, and were subject to its rules and interests. Some
respect was paid to private rights, and the reign of gossip had not
commenced.[4]

[Footnote 4: We hold in our possession a curious document, the
publication of which might rebuke this spirit of gossip, and give a
salutary warning to certain managers of the press, who no sooner
hear a rumour than they think themselves justified in embalming it
among the other truths of their daily sheets. The occurrences of
life brought us in collision, legally, with an editor; and we
obtained a verdict against him. Dissatisfied with defeat, as is apt
to be the case, he applied for a new trial. Such an application was
to be sustained by affidavits, and he made his own, as usual. Now,
in this affidavit, our competitor swore distinctly and
unequivocally, to certain alleged facts (we think to the number of
six), every one of which was untrue. Fortunately for the party
implicated, the matter sworn to was purely _ad captandum_ stuff,
and, in a legal sense, not pertinent to the issue. This prevented
it from being perjury in law. Still, it was all untrue, and nothing
was easier than to show it. Now, we do not doubt that the person
thus swearing _believed_ all that he swore to, or he would not have
had the extreme folly to expose himself as he did; but he was so
much in the habit of publishing gossip in his journal, that, when
an occasion arrived, he did not hesitate about swearing to what he
had read in other journals, without taking the trouble to inquire
if it were true! One of these days we may lay all this, along with
much other similar proof of the virtue there is in gossip, so
plainly before the world, that he who runs may read.]

In the last century, however, matters were not carried quite so far as
they are at present. No part of this community, claiming any portion of
respectability, was willing to publish its own sense of inferiority so
openly, as to gossip about its fellow-citizens, for no more direct
admissions of inferiority can be made than this wish to comment on the
subject of any one's private concerns. Consequently Mark and his islands
escaped. There was no necessity for his telling the insurers anything
about the Peak, for instance, and on that part of the subject,
therefore, he wisely held his tongue. Nothing, in short, was said of any
colony at all. The manner in which the crew had been driven away to
leeward, and recovered, was told minutely, and the whole process by
which the ship was saved. The property used, Mark said had been
appropriated to his wants, without going into details, and the main
results being so very satisfactory, the insurers asked no further.

As soon as off the capes, the governor set about a serious investigation
of the state of his affairs. In the way of cargo, a great many articles
had been laid in, which experience told him would be useful. He took
with him such farming tools as Friend Abraham White had not thought of
furnishing to the natives of Fejee, and a few seeds that had been
overlooked by that speculating philanthropist. There were half a dozen
more cows on board, as well as an improved breed of hogs. Mark carried
out, also, a couple of mares, for, while many horses could never be much
needed in his islands, a few would always be exceedingly useful. Oxen
were much wanted, but one of his new colonists had yoked his cows, and
it was thought they might be made useful, in a moderate degree, until
their stouter substitutes could be reared. Carts and wagons were
provided in sufficient numbers. A good stock of iron in bars was laid
in, in addition to that which was wrought into nails, and other useful
articles. Several thousand dollars in coin were also provided, being
principally in small pieces, including copper. But all the emigrants
took more or less specie with them.

A good deal of useful lumber was stowed in the lower hold, though the
mill by this time furnished a pretty good home supply. The magazine was
crammed with ammunition, and the governor had purchased four light
field-guns, two three-pounders and two twelve-pound howitzers, with
their equipments. He had also brought six long, iron twelves, ship-guns,
with their carriages &c. The last he intended for his batteries, the
carronades being too light for steady work, and throwing their shot too
wild for a long range. The last could be mounted on board the different
vessels. The Rancocus, also, had an entire new armament, having left all
her old guns but two behind her. Two hundred muskets were laid in, with
fifty brace of pistols. In a word, as many arms were provided as it was
thought could, in any emergency, become necessary.

But it was the human portion of his cargo that the governor, rightly
enough, deemed to be of the greatest importance. Much care had been
bestowed on the selection, which had given all concerned in it not a
little trouble. Morals were the first interest attended to. No one was
received but those who bore perfectly good characters. The next thing
was to make a proper division among the various trades and pursuits of
life. There were carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers,
&c., or, one of each, and sometimes more. Every 'man was married, the
only exceptions being in the cases of younger brothers and sisters, of
whom about a dozen were admitted along with their relatives. The whole
of the ships' betwixt decks was fitted up for the reception of these
emigrants, who were two hundred and seven in number, besides children.
Of the last there were more than fifty, but they were principally of an
age to allow of their being put into holes and corners.

Mark Woolston was much too sensible a man to fall into any of the
modern absurdities on the subject of equality, and a community of
interests. One or two individuals, even in that day, had wished to
accompany him, who were for forming an association in which all property
should be shared in common, and in which nothing was to be done but that
which was right. Mark had not the least objection in the world to the
last proposition, and would have been glad enough to see it carried out
to the letter, though he differed essentially with the applicants, as to
the mode of achieving so desirable an end. He was of opinion that
civilization could not exist without property, or property without a
direct personal interest in both its accumulation and its preservation.
They, on the other hand, were carried away by the crotchet that
community-labour was better than individual labour, and that a hundred
men would be happier and better off with their individualities
compressed into one, than by leaving them in a hundred subdivisions, as
they had been placed by nature. The theorists might have been right, had
it been in their power to compress a hundred individuals into one, but
it was riot. After all their efforts, they would still remain a hundred
individuals, merely banded together under more restraints, and with less
liberty than are common.

Of all sophisms, that is the broadest which supposes personal liberty is
extended by increasing the power of the community. Individuality is
annihilated in a thousand things, by the community-power that already
exists in this country, where persecution often follows from a man's
thinking and acting differently from his neighbours, though the law
professes to protect him. The reason why this power becomes so very
formidable, and is often so oppressively tyrannical in its exhibition,
is very obvious. In countries where the power is in the hands of the
few, public sympathy often sustains the man who resists its injustice;
but no public sympathy can sustain him who is oppressed by the public
itself. This oppression does not often exhibit itself in the form of
law, but rather in its denial. He, who has a clamour raised against him
by numbers, appeals in vain to numbers for justice, though his claim may
be clear as the sun at noon-day. The divided responsibility of bodies
of men prevents anything like the control of conscience, and the most
ruthless wrongs are committed, equally without reflection and without
remorse.