Part 4

When the song concluded their hearts seemed filled with a mutual sympathy which neither could express; and Master Porphyry throwing his arm round the young musician, and bringing Zabra's arm round his own waist, drew him to another part of the vessel without either exchanging a word. In this attitude, the youthful pair would have formed an admirable study for a painter. The tall and manly form of the merchant's son, his clear complexion and noble countenance creating a perfect contrast to the symmetrical, yet delicate, figure of his companion, and the soft voluptuous character of his more dark but not less beautiful features.

While these proceedings were going on, a scene of a very different description was being acted in a low, dark, narrow cabin in a secluded part of the ship. By the light of a small lamp that swung from the roof, the diminutive form of Log the captain's clerk, with his little conceited physiognomy, might be observed perched upon a high stool engaged in writing, while the more burly figure, but not more prepossessing countenance, of Scrumpydike, lay extended on some packages near his feet.

"Scrunch me, if this ar'n't the most miserable sort o' life, I ever knowed," remarked the latter, as he rested his chin upon his hands and supported himself upon his elbows.

"Sad!" responded Log, who thinking that to speak much would lessen his consequence, seldom allowed any thing beyond a monosyllable to escape him, to which by repetitions and some slight additions he attempted to give as much importance as if they contained volumes of meaning. "Sad, sad, very sad, very sad upon my word, Mister Scrumpydike."

"There's nothin' doin'," continued the other. "I feel as queer as a dog wi' his tail cut off, cause there's no 'portunity to do nothin'."

"Nothing, nothing, decidedly, actually, positively nothing, Mister Scrumpydike," replied the little man.

"It's a tarnation hard case that a fellow's obligated to be honest against his will," remarked the sailor despondingly.

"Hard, hard, very hard, very hard indeed, uncommonly hard, Mister Scrumpydike," said the other, appearing to sympathise exceedingly in so extraordinary a cause of complaint.

"But what's most cruel in this here unnat'ral state o' things is, that there's sich lots o' beautiful prigging for any chap as is a mind to make his-self handy," added his companion in the same pathetic tone.

"Cruel, cruel, most cruel, most unjustly, most unnaturally, most deplorably cruel, Mister Scrumpydike," responded Log.

"Well, I only knows I shan't be able to stand this here molloncolly sort o' fun much longer. May I be bolted by a shark if I ar'n't a getting into the most 'bominable reg'lar habits as can be. You wouldn't s'pose it possible, but I ar'n't 'propriated nothin' o' nobodies since I've been aboard this here craft. I ar'n't the same sort o' cretur I was afore. I ar'n't, indeed. I resists temptation, and commits lots o' other 'straordinary impossibilities. I does without divarsion:--I ar'n't killed a fellow cretur for ever so long. And worser nor all, some o' the bugaboos here act'ly thinks I ar'n't no greater a villain than themselves, ar'n't it horrid?"

"Terrible, terrible, horribly terrible, upon my word, very horribly terrible, Mister Scrumpydike."

Here the dialogue was interrupted by a knocking at the door which made Scrumpydike jump upon his legs, and Log twist himself round upon his stool, each looking, in a considerable degree, alarmed and anxious. Presently the door opened cautiously, and Captain Compass entered the cabin. His sallow complexion, high cheek bones, prominent nose, thick lips, and restless grey eyes were surrounded by a thick mass of coarse black hair, that spread from each side of his narrow forehead, down his cheeks and under his chin, in a formidable pair of whiskers. His figure was spare of flesh, but in the gauntness of body, length of arm, and sinewy leg, there was evidently more than ordinary strength. His appearance was not likely to excite for him much regard, but there was a careless freedom in his manner, a frank boldness in his conversation, and a pungent satire in his wit, that had made him an agreeable companion to the merchant's son.

"All right, Scrumpy?" inquired Compass in a whisper, after closing the door carefully after him.

"All right, cap'ain," replied Scrumpydike.

"Right, right, very right, perfectly right, right as a trivet, Captain Compass," added Log.

"Scrunch me, if we shan't all be served with sauce we don't like, unless we keep a smart look out ahead," observed the captain as he flung himself upon a bale of goods.

"Why, what's in the wind now, cap'ain?" inquired Scrumpydike, with some earnestness, while little Log remained silent with alarm.

"May I be peeled to shreds in a hurricane, if that dark looking son of a savage, who came on board the day we sailed, doesn't suspect the game we are playing," continued the captain.

"No!" exclaimed the other, as an expression of anxiety became visible in his hard rough features; and the captain's clerk trembled on his stool as if he was shaken by an ague.

"I was palavering young Porphyry as smooth as a rat's tail, after he had been pretty well blown up with the long-winded sentences of that tedious old porpoise Fortyfolios, and was going it at a smacking rate about the pleasure of liberty and the enjoyments of a life of enterprise, the sort of discourse, I have found out, he'll suck in as a fish drinks water, when happening to turn my daylights a little a starboard, I beheld that black thief Zabra watching me like a snake, and when I met the full stare of his great goggling eyes they seemed to have the power of piercing through and through right into the hold where all my secrets are ballasted, so I, having a sudden fear that he was up to the course I was steering, lost the helm of my discourse, and anchored in shallow water, with a muddy bottom, in no time."

"Pooh!" responded Scrumpydike: "is that all? Leave him to me, and I'll thank ye for the job."

"No, that mustn't be: we must avoid every thing likely to create the least suspicion," replied the captain.

"I'll take care o' that," said the other: "I'll watch my 'portunity when he's a hanging over the side o' the ship, as he does o' nights when there ar'n't a human near enough to catch a glimpse o' his 'bominable carcass, and then with my 'safe and sure' here," continued the fellow as he drew a long knife a little way from its concealment in his vest, "I'll make a sweep into his bread-room, and afore he can ax what it's for, I'll heave him into a berth where he'll lie snug as a wet blanket can make him."

"It wo'n't do, I tell you," remarked his associate.

"Nobody needn't know nothin' about it," added Scrumpydike.

"There is too much risk and not sufficient advantage to be gained by it," said the captain. "Ah!" he continued, after a pause--"if I only had some of the old hands now, scrunch me, if I wouldn't put matters to rights, after a fashion the fellows here don't dream of."

"Wouldn't we? Breakers ahead! wouldn't we?" cried the other with exultation. "But they've all cut their cables and gone adrift. There's nothin' but misfortunes in this here world. It's a hard case for a fellow who's sociably inclined to see his mates, as fine a set o' villains as ever escaped hanging, partin' company without cuttin' each other's throats or doin' any thing in a friendly way." A melancholy pause succeeded this sentence.--"It was an ugly business that at Cape Danger, warn't it, Mister Log?" at last asked the scoundrel of the little man upon the stool.

"Ugly, ugly, very ugly, I may say uncommonly, deplorably, ferociously ugly, Mister Scrumpydike," replied the captain's clerk.

"Well, it's no use lamenting the catastrophe now," observed the captain. "All we've got to do is to get a new ship and a fresh set of hands. The ship we've as good as got, but she can be of no use without a crew of the right sort. To get such a set of fellows together will take some time. We must either pick them up where we can, or try and make the present crew adopt our views. This will be rather a ticklish business, and requires very careful management, for the slightest knowledge of our intentions among those not inclined to join us will wreck the whole concern. Now, Scrumpy, you've got jawing tackle that will stand in any weather."

"Ay, ay, cap'ain," cried the fellow with a grin: "may I be washed to rags in a waterspout if I couldn't bamboozle the devil's grandmother."

"Well, you must sound these fellows, but do it cautiously--and try if the inducement of plenty of plunder and a free life will be likely to lead them to assist us in our bold undertaking. As for the boy Zabra, although there appears something very mysterious about him, and he looks as sharp as a sword-fish, I don't think it possible he can find me out. Scorch my body to a cinder! but it would be a hard case if, after having baffled so many big vessels, I should be sunk by such a bit of a craft as that. However, I mus'n't stay here any longer or my absence may create inquiry," observed the speaker as he proceeded to the door; then looking at his associates said, "Remember what you have heard, and steer your course accordingly," and with the same caution with which he entered left the cabin.

"Well, ar'n't this enough to make a fellow ready to jump down his own throat wi' vexation?" remarked Scrumpydike to his companion. "Here, I was jest 'gratulating myself that spiflicating that young blackamoor would be a tolerable bit o' a pastime to cheer up the dulness o' this here molloncholy life, when he turns round upon me and says it ar'n't to be at no price! I'd rather live in a whale's belly up to my nose in blubber than endure this uncomfortable state o' feeling. Scrunch me if I wouldn't. Don't you think now, Master Log, it's as bad a state o' existence as is possible for a human to know on?"

"Bad, bad, shocking bad, particularly shocking bad, upon my word very particularly shocking bad, Mister Scrumpydike," replied the commiserating captain's clerk; and immediately afterwards the dissatisfied villain walked away to join his unsuspicious messmates.

CHAP. III.

A PHILANTHROPIST.

A few days after the circumstances that have been related, Oriel Porphyry, being alone, broke open the packet that had been given him by his father, and on perusal found it to contain the following communication:--

"It is time, my dear Oriel, that you should know something of your father's history; that being made acquainted with the steps by which he has acquired his reputation, you may seek the same path to honour with a certainty that it cannot mislead; and the moment is equally opportune for you to learn the true state of your country, which you cannot know unless you can have the account from one who is neither desirous of deceiving himself nor his associates, that when you are called upon to take your place on the grand stage of the world, as you will be aware what portion of the drama has preceded your appearance, you may understand the tendency of the whole so well, as to be able to play your part with power, with truth, with a just conception of the character, to the satisfaction of yourself, and with the admiration of your audience. I have observed, with considerable anxiety, that you possess a disposition that does not conform itself readily to the spirit of the times. You are impatient of restraint--you are anxious for enterprise--you are yearning for distinction;--not that distinction which rewards the exertions of the truly great, the just, the good, the benevolent--which is the loving admiration of their fellow-creatures, and comes in the delightful shape of blessings, and good wishes, and the sight of social happiness--but the vain splendour of a false renown, such as is often acquired by adventurers, impostors, conquerors, and tyrants, and is made visible in the shrieks of wounded men, in the adulation of slaves, in tears and curses, blood and flame, in the blast of trumpets and the clang of chains. Your eyes are enamoured of the glory with which the mighty invest themselves: to excite the wonder of the fearful and the foolish, and assist in their subjection--thrones and sceptres, robes of state, gaudy ceremonies, and idle distinctions, dazzle your senses--you would wish them yours, seek for them, fight for them, die for them: having obtained them, your sole gratification would exist in exhibiting yourself surrounded by these delusive honours, or in conferring some of minor importance upon such of your followers as may make themselves most useful or agreeable: dying in seeking their possession, you would render up your everlasting soul, to mingle with the bright source from which it sprung, with the sole consolation that you will be talked of by a multitude you could not enslave.

"The only unerring way of judging of the value of a thing is by the happiness it produces. The degree of happiness that results to the acquirer of this glory, of which you are so desirous, must indeed be small, when we take into consideration the danger with which it is obtained, the fear of losing it, and the struggles to maintain its possession, which are its common accompaniments; and still less is the quantity of happiness it creates among those at whose expense it must exist--for there is no happiness in thraldom--in the debasement of human nature to an idol--in the march of conquering hordes destroying as they go--or in the bitter anguish of noble minds struggling in vain to emancipate themselves from the tyranny under which they groan. The only real happiness consists in the practice of benevolence, and the only real glory is the admiration it excites. I have enjoyed a more than ordinary share of happiness, because I have taken advantage of opportunities for benefiting my fellow-creatures that were presented to me in more than ordinary abundance, and I have acquired an unusual degree of reputation for a private individual, in consequence of making the most profitable use of these abundant opportunities for doing good.

"It was in the middle of the last reign, when the late emperor, after ascending the steps of military greatness to a throne, was pursuing an uninterrupted career of conquest throughout the vast continent of this immense portion of the globe, when I, a youth like yourself, but with far different feelings, left the mansion of my father, (who had lately been ennobled, as it is called, for his services in the wars,) to escape from a way of life it was desired I, being his eldest son, should follow--a way of slaughter and tyranny, of blood, and shame, and guilt, which was disgustingly repugnant to my disposition,--and disguised, and under a fictitious name, seeking some more honourable occupation, I was so fortunate as to enter into the service of the wealthiest merchant in the city of Columbus. I became useful to him--he praised my industry and integrity--I was admired by his daughter--she loved me for the praises to which she had been a frequent and not unwilling listener. He was generous and noble in his nature--she simple, modest, and kind. She was your mother, Oriel, and after having been enriched with her beauty and excellence, I became possessed of all the store of treasure, which had gone on accumulating as it passed from father to son through several generations of princely merchants.

"I had always done whatever trifling good the little power I had allowed me to accomplish, and the sweetest gratifications I enjoyed arose from these actions, and had always longed for the arrival of that time when my sphere of usefulness might be equal to my desires; therefore when, by the demise of my adopted father, I found myself the uncontrollable master of funds almost exhaustless, to render the benefits I wished them to produce as ample as possible, I studied every way which great knowledge and extraordinary means could create to increase them, that without diminishing my source of good I might have a liberal, a continual, and increasing fund from which to realise my benevolent intentions. With this object in view, and with the experience I had acquired by many years of close application, I brought into operation all my resources--my ships, continually increasing in number, traversed every known sea, laden with the most desirable produce--and my agents, always becoming more numerous, penetrated into every habitable region, and opened new sources of traffic and fresh accumulations of wealth. The consequence was, that I was enabled to live a life of the most active benevolence. I purchased happiness by diffusing it around me. I founded hospitals for the sick and asylums for the poor. I endeavoured to lessen the growth of crime by increasing the means of intelligence, and I attempted to strengthen the example of virtue by adding to the recreative power of its advantages. I rewarded genius, I enriched worth, I assisted industry, I fostered skill. I made disappointment forget her name, and allowed misfortune to become a stranger in the places where I was known.

"But at this period, in what state of feeling lived the emperor--he whose state you would envy, and whose pride you would covet? He was getting into the winter of his days, but the fire that burnt within him was not to be subdued by its frost. His soul was like a volcano in a region of snow. He was disturbed by the restless turmoil of his own thoughts, that made his couch of down a bed of rock, his robe of sovereignty a perpetual blister, and the acclamations of a fickle multitude a piercing discord. In vain, when he found that all his conquests had been achieved, and he consolidated them into one immense empire, comprising the two Americas, over which he ruled alone and absolute, he tried to calm the fever of his desires by building palaces and churches, erecting triumphal arches and towering pillars--creating convenient highways, majestic bridges, noble aqueducts, immense canals, and unrivalled docks:--in vain he strived to have forests grow in the place of weeds, and sought to have gardens of roses in deserts of sand--he encouraged agriculture--he promoted manufactures--he protected commerce--science was ennobled in his halls, and learning dwelt in comfort in his colleges:--in vain he established institutions, originated titles, conferred honours, and distributed wealth--the fire that slumbered in his breast was not to be thus extinguished. He was miserable for want of opportunities for action. His busy inclinations allowed him no repose. There was no peace for his soul.

"The happiness I enjoyed became known to him--became familiar to all--for with the true spirit of philanthropy, which knows no distinction of creed or country, I endeavoured to confer my benefits wherever they were most required; and the loving admiration with which I found my name regarded in every part of the globe, and the abundant pleasures I saw arise from my own exertions wherever they could be applied, created in me a degree of happiness almost impossible to be exceeded. He became aware of my extraordinary wealth, and was told of the beneficial effects it was producing. The emperor sent me word that a certain distinction waited my acceptance--with a proper humility I declined the favour. Surprised at the refusal, and desirous of tempting me into obligation, he caused it to be intimated to me that a higher honour would, if desired, be granted--this, in the same manner, and with as little consideration, I also refused. His astonishment increased, and his inclination to shackle me with the trappings of his own grandeur grew more intense. I was told that the highest honours to which a subject could aspire might at a wish be mine; and I need scarcely add that the offer met with the same result as its predecessors. No, my son! as Oriel Porphyry I had acquired almost boundless riches, and had lived in a state of happiness which left no desire ungratified--as Oriel Porphyry I had obtained an influence over the hearts of my fellow-men, compared to which the power of conquerors was an idle boast--and as Oriel Porphyry I had created for myself a renown beside which the glory of an emperor sunk into insignificance. What could be to me the baubles he sought to confer--the sounding titles--or the pompous privileges? They could not extend my usefulness a hair's breadth--they could not add to my enjoyments the fraction of a grain.

"To say that the emperor was not offended by my repeated refusals would be to give a more charitable interpretation to his feelings than would be true; but my behaviour seemed to him something so extraordinary--something so opposed to the spirit of his experience--and something so utterly incomprehensible to his notions of human nature--that he sent for me to be satisfied by his own eyes that there existed in the world what he considered so remarkable a phenomenon. He endeavoured to persuade me into a conviction that I did wrong, in not accepting the advantages, as he was pleased to call them, I might obtain; and I replied by describing the advantages that more justly deserved the name I already possessed. I asked if he could give me any thing of real value that was not at my disposal, and enumerated every good I was enabled to bestow. He reflected, and the more he reflected, the more he seemed to wonder. I do not remember the whole of our conversation, but it was of sufficient interest to him to desire my visit to be repeated.

"I saw the emperor frequently at his continual requests, and the more I conversed with him the more he appeared gratified with my conversation. I expressed my opinions fearlessly, and my boldness he excused--I censured his government with freedom, and he listened without offence. I suggested some valuable improvements, and my ideas were immediately adopted; but our acquaintance did not end there. He was continually entreating me to occupy a place in his council, from which I endeavoured to be excused; but on reflection, seeing that it might confer upon me opportunities I could not otherwise possess, for giving a more liberal character to the government, by which means I might improve the condition of the people, I at last consented, on the understanding that it should confer on me no rank, no privileges, and no emoluments. I knew that my country had once been a republic, and under that title had for centuries enjoyed an unexampled degree of prosperity; but though I would have preferred a government of a similar character, more perfect in its influence, and more simple in its organisation, as a change in the state of things could not evidently be made, without creating a degree of confusion, strife, hatred, and unhappiness, the thought of which I could not endure, it was my aim so to work and improve the machinery of the state, that the public wants should be as completely satisfied as it was possible for them to be. It matters little under what name a nation is governed,--a monarchy, an oligarchy, and a republic are but different names for the same thing; and a president, a doge, and an emperor, are only different titles for the same office: they may all represent a state of tyranny in the country, and their chiefs may become the most despotic rulers of the people. The true value of a thing, as I have previously said, is the quantity of happiness it can be made to produce; and every system of government may, by proper administration, be made productive of the greatest degree of happiness to the governed.