Atlantic Monthly Vol. 6, No. 33, July, 1860 by Various

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In about half a year after Calvert's arrival in England, King Charles
the Second was gathered to his fathers, and his brother, the Duke of
York, a worse man, a greater hypocrite, and a more crafty despot,
reigned in his stead.

James the Second was a Roman Catholic, and Calvert, on that score
alone, might have expected some sympathy and favor: he might, at
least, have expected justice. But James was heartless and selfish.
The Proprietary found nothing but cold neglect, and a contemptible
jealousy of the prerogatives and power conferred by his charter.
James himself claimed to be a proprietary on this continent by virtue
of extensive royal grants, and was directly interested with William
Penn in defeating the claims of the Baltimore family to the country
upon the Delaware; he was, therefore, in fact, the secret and
prepossessed enemy of Calvert. Instead of protection from the Crown,
Calvert found proceedings instituted in the King's Bench to annul his
charter, which, but for the abrupt termination of this short,
disgraceful reign in abdication and flight, would have been
consummated under James's own direction. The Revolution of 1688
brought up other influences more hostile still to the Proprietary;
and the Province, which was always sedulous to follow the fashions of
London, was not behindhand on this occasion, but made, also, its
revolution, in imitation of the great one. The end of all was the
utter subversion of the Charter, and a new government of Maryland
under a royal commission. How this was accomplished our historians
are not able to tell. From 1688 to 1692 is one of our dark intervals
of which I have spoken. It begins with a domestic revolution and ends
with the appointment of a Royal Governor, and that is pretty nearly
all we know about it. After this, there was no Proprietary dominion
in Maryland, until it was restored upon the accession of George the
First in 1715, when it reappears in the second Charles Calvert, a
minor, the grandson of the late Proprietary. This gentleman was the
son of Benedict Leonard Calvert, and was educated in the Protestant
faith, which his father had adopted as more consonant with the
prosperity of the family and the hopes of the Province.

Before Lord Baltimore took his departure, he made all necessary
arrangements for the administration of the government during his
absence. The chief authority he invested in his son Benedict Leonard,
to whom I referred just now,--at that time a youth of twelve or
fourteen years of age. My old record contains the commission issued
on this occasion, which is of the most stately and royal breadth of
phrase, and occupies paper enough to make a deed for the route of the
Pacific Railroad. In this document "our dearly beloved son Benedict
Leonard Calvert" is ordained and appointed to be "Lieutenant General,
Chief Captain, Chief Governor and Commander, Chief Admiral both by
sea and land, of our Province of Maryland, and of all our Islands,
Territories, and Dominions whatsoever, and of all and singular our
Castles, Forts, Fortresses, Fortifications, Munitions, Ships, and
Navies in our said Province, Islands, Territories, and Dominions
aforesaid."

I hope to be excused for the particularity of my quotation of this
young gentleman's titles, which I have given at full length only by
way of demonstration of the magnificence of our old Palatine Province
of Maryland, and to excite in the present generation a becoming pride
at having fallen heirs to such a principality; albeit Benedict
Leonard's more recent successors to these princely prerogatives may
have reason to complain of that relentless spirit of democracy which
has shorn them of so many worshipful honors. But we republicans are
philosophical, and can make sacrifices with a good grace.

As it was quite impossible for this young Lieutenant General to go
alone under such a staggering weight of dignities, the same
commission puts him in leading-strings by the appointment of nine
Deputy or Lieutenant Governors who are charged with the execution of
all his duties. The first-named of these deputies is "our dearly
beloved Cousin," Colonel George Talbot, who is associated with "our
well-beloved Counsellor," Thomas Tailler, Colonel Vincent Low,
Colonel Henry Darnall, Colonel William Digges, Colonel William
Stevens, Colonel William Burgess, Major Nicholas Sewall, and John
Darnall, Esquire. These same gentlemen, with Edward Pye and Thomas
Truman, are also commissioned to be of the Privy Council, "for and in
relation to all matters of State."

These appointments being made and other matters disposed of, Charles
Calvert took leave of his beautiful and favorite Maryland, never to
see this fair land again.

CHAPTER VI.

A BORDER CHIEFTAIN.

I have now to pursue the narrative of my story as I find the
necessary material in the old Council Journal. I shall not incumber
this narrative with literal extracts from these proceedings, but give
the substance of what I find there, with such illustration as I have
been able to glean from other sources.

Colonel George Talbot, whom we recognize as the first-named in the
commission of the nine Deputy Governors and of the Privy Council,
seems to have been a special favorite of the Proprietary. He was the
grandson of the first Baron of Baltimore, the Secretary of State of
James the First. His father was an Irish baronet, Sir George Talbot,
of Cartown in Kildare, who had married Grace, one of the younger
sisters of Cecilius, the second Proprietary and father of Charles
Calvert. He was, therefore, as the commission describes him, the
cousin of Lord Baltimore, who had now invested him with a leading
authority in the administration of the government.

He was born in Ireland, and from some facts connected with his
history I infer that he did not emigrate to Maryland until after his
marriage, his wife being an Irish lady.

That he was a man of consideration in the Province, with large
experience in its affairs, is shown by the character of the
employments that were intrusted to him. He had been, for some years
before the departure of Lord Baltimore on his visit to England, a
conspicuous member of his Council. He had, for an equal length of
time, held the post of Surveyor-General, an office of high
responsibility and trust. But his chief employment was of a military
nature, in which his discretion, courage, and conduct were in
constant requisition. He had the chief command, with the title and
commission of Deputy Governor, over the northern border of the
Province, a region continually exposed to the inroads of the fierce
and warlike tribe of the "Sasquesahannocks."

The country lying between the Susquehanna and the Delaware, that
which now coincides with parts of Harford and Cecil Counties in
Maryland and the upper portion of the State of Delaware, was known in
those days as New Ireland, and was chiefly settled by emigrants from
the old kingdom whose name it bore. This region was included within
the range of Talbot's command, and was gradually increasing in
population and in farms and houses scattered over a line of some
seventy or eighty miles from east to west, and slowly encroaching
upon the thick wilderness to the north, where surly savages lurked
and watched the advance of the white man with jealous anger.

The tenants of this tract held their lands under the Proprietary
grants, coupled with a condition, imposed as much by their own
necessities as by the law, to render active service in the defence of
the frontier as a local militia. They were accordingly organized on a
military establishment, and kept in a state of continual preparation
to repel the unwelcome visits of their hostile neighbors.

A dispute between Lord Baltimore and William Penn, founded upon the
claim of the former to a portion of the territory bounding on the
Delaware, had given occasion to border feuds, which had imposed upon
our Proprietary the necessity of building and maintaining a fort on
Christiana Creek, near the present city of Wilmington; and there were
also some few block-houses or smaller fortified strongholds along the
line of settlement towards the Susquehanna.

These forts were garrisoned by a small force of musketeers maintained
by the government. The Province was also at the charge of a regiment
of cavalry, of which Talbot was the Colonel, and parts of which were
assigned to the defence of this frontier.

If we add to these a corps of rangers, who were specially employed in
watching and arresting all trespassers upon the territory of the
Province, it will complete our sketch of the military organization of
the frontier over which Talbot had the chief command. The whole or
any portion of this force could be assembled in a few hours to meet
the emergencies of the time. Signals were established for the muster
of the border. Beacon fires on the hills, the blowing of horns, and
the despatch of runners were familiar to the tenants, and often called
the ploughman away from the furrow to the appointed gathering-place.
Three musket-shots fired in succession from a lonely cabin, at
dead of night, awakened the sleeper in the next homestead; the three
shots, repeated from house to house, across this silent waste of
forest and field, carried the alarm onward; and before break of day a
hundred stout yeomen, armed with cutlass and carbine, were on foot to
check and punish the stealthy foray of the Sasquesahannock against
the barred and bolted dwellings where mothers rocked their children
to sleep, confident in the protection of this organized and effective
system of defence.

In this region Talbot himself held a manor which was called New
Connaught, and here he had his family mansion, and kept hospitality
in rude woodland state, as a man of rank and command, with his
retainers and friends gathered around him. This establishment was
seated on Elk River, and was, doubtless, a fortified position. I
picture to my mind a capacious dwelling-house built of logs from the
surrounding forest; its ample hall furnished with implements of war,
pikes, carbines, and basket-hilled swords, mingled with antlers of
the buck, skins of wild animals, plumage of birds, and other trophies
of the hunter's craft; the large fireplace surrounded with hardy
woodsmen, and the tables furnished with venison, wild fowl, and fish,
the common luxuries of the region, in that prodigal profusion to
which our forefathers were accustomed, and which their descendants
still regard as the essential condition of hearty and honest
housekeeping. This mansion I fancy surrounded by a spacious picketed
rampart, presenting its bristling points to the four quarters of the
compass, and accessible only through a gateway of ponderous timber
studded thick with nails: the whole offering defiance to the grim
savage who might chance to prowl within the frown of its midnight
shadow.

Here Talbot spent the greater portion of the year with his wife and
children. Here he had his yacht or shallop on the river, and often
skimmed this beautiful expanse of water in pursuit of its abundant
game,--those hawks of which tradition preserves the memory his
companions and auxiliaries in this pastime. Here, too, he had his
hounds and other hunting-dogs to beat up the game for which the banks
of Elk River are yet famous.

This sylvan lodge was cheered and refined by the presence of his wife
and children, whose daily household occupations were assisted by
numerous servants chosen from the warm-hearted people who had left
their own Green Isle to find a home in this wilderness.

Amidst such scenes and the duties of her station we may suppose that
Mrs. Talbot, a lady who could not but have relinquished many comforts
in her native land for this rude life of the forest, found sufficient
resource to quell the regrets of many fond memories of the home and
friends she had left behind, and to reconcile her to the fortunes of
her husband, to whom, as we shall see, she was devoted with an ardor
that no hardship or danger could abate.

Being the dispenser of her husband's hospitality,--the bread-giver,
in the old Saxon phrase,--the frequent companion of his pastime, and
the bountiful friend, not only of the families whose cottages threw
up their smoke within view of her dwelling, but of all who came and
went on the occasions of business or pleasure in the common
intercourse of the frontier, we may conceive the sentiment of respect
and attachment she inspired in this insulated district, and the
service she was thus enabled to command.

This is but a fancy picture, it is true, of the home of Talbot,
which, for want of authentic elements of description, I am forced to
draw. It is suggested by the few scattered glimpses we get in the
records of his position and circumstances, and may, I think, be
received at least as near the truth in its general aspect and
characteristic features.

He was undoubtedly a bold, enterprising man,--impetuous, passionate,
and harsh, as the incidents of his story show. He was, most probably,
a soldier trained to the profession, and may have served abroad, as
nearly all gentlemen of that period were accustomed to do. That he
was an ardent and uncompromising partisan of the Proprietary in the
dissensions of the Province seems to be evident. I suppose him, also,
to have been warm-hearted, proud in spirit, and hasty in temper,--a
man to be loved or hated by friend or foe with equal intensity. It is
material to add to this sketch of him, that he was a Roman
Catholic,--as we have record proof that all the Deputy Governors
named in the recent commission were, I believe, without
exception,--and that he was doubtless imbued with the dislike and
indignation which naturally fired the gentlemen of his faith against
those who were supposed to be plotting the overthrow of the Proprietary
government, by exciting religious prejudice against the Baltimore
family.

[To be continued.]

HUNTING A PASS.

A SKETCH OF TROPICAL ADVENTURE.

[Continued.]

CHAPTER II.

On the 18th of April, having collected such information bearing on
our purposes as it was possible to obtain, we left La Union, and
fairly commenced the business of "Hunting a Pass." To reach the
valley of the Goascoran, on the extent and character of which so much
depended, it was necessary to go round the head of the Bay of La
Union. For several miles our route coincided with that of the _camino
real_ to San Miguel, and we rode along it gayly, in high and hopeful
spirits. The morning was clear and bright, the air cool and
exhilarating, and the very sense of existence was itself a luxury. At
the end of four miles we struck off from the high road, at right
angles, into a narrow path, which conducted us over low grounds,
three miles farther, to the Rio Sirama, a small stream, scarcely
twenty feet across, the name of which is often erroneously changed in
the maps for that of Goascoran or Rio San Miguel. Beyond this stream
the path runs over low hills, which, however, subside into plains
near the bay, where the low grounds are covered with water at high
tide. The natives avail themselves of this circumstance, as did the
Indians before them, for the manufacture of salt. They inclose
considerable areas with little dikes of mud, leaving openings for the
entrance of the water, which are closed as the tide falls. The water
thus retained is rapidly evaporated under a tropical sun, leaving the
mud crusted over with salt. This is then scraped up, dissolved in
water, and strained to separate the impurities, and the saturated
brine reduced in earthen pots, set in long ranges of stone and clay.
The pots are constantly replenished, until they are filled with a
solid mass of salt; they are then removed bodily, packed in dry
plantain-leaves, and sent to market on the backs of mules. Sometimes
the pots are broken off, to lighten the load, and great piles of
their fragments--miniature _Monti testacci_--are seen around the
_Salinas_, as these works are called, where they will remain long
after this rude system of salt-manufacture shall be supplanted by a
better, as a puzzle for fledgling antiquaries.

Six miles beyond the Rio Sirama we came to another stream, called the
Siramita or Little Sirama, for the reason, probably, as H. suggested,
that it is four times as large as the Sirama. It flows through a bed
twenty feet deep and upwards of two hundred feet wide, paved with
water-worn stones, ragged with frayed fragments of trees, and
affording abundant evidence that during the season of rains it is a
rough and powerful torrent. Between this stream and the Goascoran
there is a maze of barren hills, relieved by occasional level
reaches, covered with acacias and deciduous trees. Through these the
road winds in easy gradients, and there are numerous passes perfectly
feasible for a railway, in case it should ever be deemed advisable to
carry one around the head of the bay to La Union.

The traveller emerges suddenly from among these hills into the valley
of the Goascoran, and finds the river a broad and gentle stream
flowing at his feet. At the time of our passage, the water at the
ford was nowhere more than two feet deep, with gravelly bottom and
high and firm banks, without traces of overflow. We had now passed
the threshold of the unknown region on which we were venturing, and
although we had a moral conviction that the valley before us afforded
the requisite facilities for the enterprise which we had in hand, yet
it was not without a deep feeling of satisfaction, almost of
exultation, that, on riding to the summit of a bare knoll close by,
we traced the course of the river, in a graceful curve, along the
foot of the green hills on our left, and saw that it soon resumed its
general direction north and south, on the precise line most favorable
for our purposes. In the distance, rising alone in the very centre of
the valley, we discerned the castellated Rock of Goascoran, behind
which, we were told, nestled the village of Goascoran, where we
intended passing the night. We had taken its bearings from the top of
Conchagua, and were glad to find that the intervening country was
level and open, chiefly savanna, or covered with scattered trees.
There was no need of instrumentation here, and so, ordering Dolores
to bring up the baggage as rapidly as possible, we struck across the
plain in a right line, in total disregard of roads or pathways, for
the Rock of Goascoran. A smart gallop of two hours brought us to its
foot, and in a few minutes after we entered the village, and rode
straight to the _Cabildo_, or House of the Municipality, tied our
mules to the columns of the corridor, pushed open the door, and made
ourselves at home.

And here I may mention that the _Cabildo_, throughout Honduras, is
the stranger's refuge. Its door is never locked, and every traveller,
high or low, rich or poor, has a right to enter it unquestioned, and
"make it his hotel" for the time being. Its accommodations, it is
true, are seldom extensive and never sumptuous. They rarely consist
of more than one or two hide-covered chairs, a rickety table, and two
or three long benches placed against the wall, with a _tinaja_ or jar
for water in the corner, and possibly a clay oven or rude contrivance
for cooking under the back corridor. In all the more important
villages, which enjoy the luxury of a local court, the end of the
_Cabildo_ is usually fenced off with wooden bars, as a prison.
Occasionally the traveller finds it occupied by some poor devil of a
prisoner, with his feet confined in stocks, to prevent his digging a
hole through the mud walls or kicking down his prison-bars, who
exhibits his ribs to prove that he is "_muy flaco_," (very thin,) and
solicits, in the name of the Virgin and all the _Santos_, _"algo para
comer"_ (something to eat).

In most of the _cabildos_ there is suspended a rude drum, made by
drawing a raw hide over the end of a section of a hollow tree, which
is primarily used to call together the municipal wisdom of the place,
whenever occasion requires, and secondarily by the traveller, who
beats on it as a signal to the _alguazils_, whose duty it is to
repair at once to the _Cabildo_ and supply the stranger with what he
requires, if obtainable in the town, at the rates there current. Not
an unwise, nor yet an unnecessary regulation this, in a country where
nobody thinks of producing more than is just necessary for his wants,
and, having no need of money, one does not care to sell, lest his
scanty store should run short, and he be compelled to go to work or
purchase from his neighbors.

The people of Goascoran stared at us as we rode through their
streets, but none came near us until after we had vigorously pounded
the magical drum, when the _alguazils_ made their appearance,
followed by all the urchins of the place, and by a crowd of lean and
hungry curs,--the latter evidently in watery-mouthed anticipation of
obtaining from the strangers, what they seldom got at home, a stray
crust or a marrow-bone. We informed our _alguazils_ that we had mules
coming, and wanted _sacate_ for them. To which they responded,--

_"No hay."_ (There is none.)

"Then let us have some maize."

_"Tampoco."_

"What! no maize? What do you make your _tortillas_ of?"

"We have no _tortillas_."

"How, then, do you live?"

"We don't live."

"But we must have something for our animals; they can't be allowed to
starve."

To which our _alguazil_ made no reply, but looked at us vacantly.

"Do you hear? we _must_ have some _sacate_ or some maize for the
animals."

Still no reply,--only the same vacuous look,--now more stolid, if
possible, than before.

I had observed that the _Teniente's_ wrath was rising, and that an
explosion was imminent. But I must confess that I was not a little
startled, when, drawing his bowie-knife from his belt, he strode
slowly up to our impassible friend, and, firmly grasping his right
ear, applied the cold edge of the steel close to his head. The
supplementary _alguazil_ and the rabble of children took to their
heels in affright, followed by the dogs, who seemed to sympathize in
their alarm. But, beyond a slight wincing downwards, and a partial
contraction of his eyes and lips, the object of the _Teniente's_
wrath made no movement, nor uttered a word of expostulation. He
evidently expected to lose his ears, and probably was surprised at
nothing except the pause in the operation. My own apprehensions were
only for an instant; but, had they been more serious than they were,
they must have given way before the extreme ludicrousness of the
group. I burst into a roar of laughter, in which the _Teniente_ could
not resist joining, but which seemed to be incomprehensible to the
_alguazil_, whose face assumed an expression which I can only
describe as that of astonished inanity. I don't think he is quite
certain, to this day, that the incident was not altogether an ugly
dream. At any rate, he lost no time in obeying my order to go
straight to the first _alcalde_ of the village, and tell him that he
was wanted at the _Cabildo_.

Reassured by seeing the _alguazil_ come out alive, the _muchachos_
returned, greatly reinforced, edging up to the open door timidly,
ready to retreat on our slightest movement. We had not long to wait
for the first _alcalde_, of whose approach we were warned by a sudden
scramble of curs and children, who made a broad lane for his passage.
Evidently, our _alcalde_ was a man of might in Goascoran, and he
established an immediate hold on our hearts by stopping on the
corridor and clearing it of its promiscuous occupants by liberal
applications of his official cane. He was a man of fifty, burly in
person, and wore his shirt outside of his trousers, but, altogether,
carried himself with an air of authority. He was prompt in speech,
and, although evidently much surprised to find a party of foreigners
in the _Cabildo_, rapidly followed up his salutation by putting
himself and the town and all the people in it "at the disposition of
our Worships."

I explained to him how it was that he had been sent for, placing due
emphasis on the stupidity of the _alguazil_. He heard me without
interruption, keeping, however, one eye on the _alguazil_, and
handling his cane nervously. By the time I had finished, the cane
fairly quivered; and the delinquent himself, who had scarcely
flinched under the _Teniente's_ knife, was now uneasily stealing away
towards the door. Our _alcalde_ saw the movement, and, with a hurried
bow, and _"Con permiso, Caballeros"_ (With your permission,
gentlemen,) started after the fugitive, who was saluted with _"Que
bestia!"_ (What a beast!) and a staggering blow over his shoulders.
He hurried his pace, but the _alcalde's_ cane followed close, and
with vigorous application, half-way across the _plaza_. And when the
_alcalde_ returned, out of breath, but full of apologies, he received
a welcome such as could be inspired only by a profound faith in his
ability and willingness to secure for us not merely _sacate_ and
maize, but everything else that we might desire. We told him that he
was a model officer and a man after our own hearts, all of which he
listened to with dignified modesty, wiping the perspiration from his
face, meanwhile, with--well, with the tail of his shirt!

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