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AFLOAT AND ASHORE
ceed. I have no idea he thought of himself, apart from his wife:
for a finer, more manly resolute fellow, never existed, as he
subsequently proved, to the fullest extent.
It seemed to me that the two Cape May men had a sort of
desperate reluctance to give up the hope of reaching the land.
We were a strong boat’s crew, and we had a capital, though a
light boat; yet all would not do. About midnight, after pulling
desperately for three hours, my strength was quite gone, and I
had to give up the oar. Captain Robbins confessed himself in a
very little better state, and, it being impossible for the boatmen
to do more than keep the boat stationary, and that only for a
little time longer, there remained no expedient but to keep off
before the wind, in the hope of still falling in with the ship.
We knew that the Tigris was on the starboard tack when we
left her, and, as she would certainly endeavour to keep as close
in with the land as possible, there was a remaining chance that
she had wore ship to keep off Henlopen, and might be heading up about north-north-east, and laying athwart the mouth
of the bay. This left us just a chance – a ray of hope; and it had
now become absolutely necessary to endeavour to profit by it.
The two Cape May men pulled the boat round, and kept
her just ahead of the seas, as far as it was in their power; very
light touches of the oars sufficing for this, where it could be
done at all. Occasionally, however, one of those chasing waves
would come after us, at a racer’s speed, invariably breaking at
such instants, and frequently half-filling the boat. This gave
us new employment, Rupert and myself being kept quite half
the time bailing. No occupation, notwithstanding the danger,
could prevent me from looking about the cauldron of angry
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
waters, in quest of the ship. Fifty times did I fancy I saw her,
and as often did the delusive idea end in disappointment. The
waste of dark waters, relieved by the gleaming of the combing
seas, alone met the senses. The wind blew directly down the
estuary, and, in crossing its mouth, we found too much swell to
receive it on our beam, and were soon compelled, most reluctantly though it was, to keep dead away to prevent swamping.
This painful state of expectation may have lasted half an hour,
the boat sometimes seeming ready to fly out of the water, as it
drifted before the gale, when Rupert unexpectedly called out
that he saw the ship!
There she was, sure enough, with her head to the northward and eastward, struggling along through the raging waters, under her fore and main-top-sails, close-reefed, and reefed
courses, evidently clinging to the land as close as she could,
both to hold her own and to make good weather. It was barely
light enough to ascertain these facts, though the ship was not
a cable’s length from us when first discovered. Unfortunately,
she was dead to leeward of us, and was drawing ahead so fast
as to leave the probability she would forereach upon us, unless
we took to all our oars. This was done as soon as possible, and
away we went, at a rapid rate, aiming to shoot directly beneath
the Tigris’s lee-quarter, so as to round-to under shelter of her
hull, there to receive a rope.
We pulled like giants. Three several times the water slapped
into us, rendering the boat more and more heavy; but Captain
Bobbins told us to pull on, every moment being precious. As I
did not look round – could not well, indeed – I saw no more of
the ship until I got a sudden glimpse of her dark hull, within a
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AFLOAT AND ASHORE
hundred feet of us, surging ahead in the manner in which vessels at sea seem to take sudden starts that carry them forward
at twice their former apparent speed. Captain Robbins had begun to hail, the instant he thought himself near enough, or
at the distance of a hundred yards; but what was the human
voice amid the music of the winds striking the various cords,
and I may add chords, in the mazes of a square-rigged vessel’s
hamper, accompanied by the base of the roaring ocean! Heavens! what a feeling of despair was that, when the novel thought
suggested itself almost simultaneously to our minds, that we
should not make ourselves heard! I say simultaneously, for at
the same instant the whole five of us set up a common, desperate shout to alarm those who were so near us, and who might
easily save us from the most dreadful of all deaths – starvation
at sea. I presume the fearful manner in which we struggled at
the oars diminished the effect of our voices, while the effort
to raise a noise lessened our power with the oars. We were
already to leeward of the ship, though nearly in her wake, and
our only chance now was to over take her. The captain called
out to us to pull for life or death, and pull we did. So frantic
were our efforts, that I really think we should have succeeded,
had not a sea come on board us, and filled us to the thwarts.
There remained no alternative but to keep dead away, and to
bail for our lives.
I confess I felt scalding tears gush down my cheeks, as I
gazed at the dark mass of the ship just before it was swallowed
up in the gloom. This soon occurred, and then, I make no
doubt, every man in the boat considered himself as hopelessly
lost. We continued to bail, notwithstanding; and, using hats,
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
gourds, pots and pails, soon cleared the boat, though it was
done with no other seeming object than to avert immediate
death. I heard one of the Cape May men pray. The name of his
wife mingled with his petitions to God. As for poor Captain
Robbins, who had so recently been in another scene of equal
danger in a boat, he remained silent, seemingly submissive to
the decrees of Providence.
In this state we must have drifted a league dead before
the wind, the Cape May men keeping their eyes on the light,
which was just sinking below the horizon, while the rest of us
were gazing seaward in ominous expectation of what awaited
us in that direction, when the hail of “Boat ahoy!” sounded like
the last trumpet in our ears. A schooner was passing our track,
keeping a little off, and got so near as to allow us to be seen,
though, owing to a remark about the light which drew all eyes
to windward, not a soul of us saw her. It was too late to avert the
blow, for the hail had hardly reached us, when the schooner’s
cut-water came down upon our little craft, and buried it in the
sea as if it had been lead. At such moments men do not think,
but act. I caught at a bob-stay, and missed it. As I went down
into the water, my hand fell upon some object to which I clung,
and, the schooner rising at the next instant, I was grasped by
the hair by one of the vessel’s men. I had hold of one of the
Cape May men’s legs. Released from my weight, this man was
soon in the vessel’s head, and he helped to save me. When we
got in-board, and mustered our party it was found that all had
been saved but Captain Robbins. The schooner wore round,
and actually passed over the wreck of the boat a second time;
but our old commander was never heard of more!
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CHAPTER VII
“Oh! forget not the hour, when through forest and vale
We returned with our chief to his dear native halls!
Through the woody Sierra there sigh’d not a gale,
And the moonbeam was bright on his battlement walls;
And nature lay sleeping in calmness and light,
Round the house of the truants, that rose on our sight.”
Mrs. Hemans.
We had fallen on board an eastern coaster, called the Martha Wallis, bound from James’ River to Boston, intending to
cross the shoals. Her watch had seen us, because the coasters
generally keep better look-outs than Indiamen; the latter, accustomed to good offings, having a trick of letting their people
go to sleep in the night-watches. I made a calculation of the
turns on board the Tigris, and knew it was Mr. Marble’s watch
when we passed the ship; and I make no question he was, at
that very moment, nodding on the hencoops – a sort of trick
he had. I cannot even now understand, however, why the man
at the wheel did not hear the outcry we made. To me it appeared loud enough to reach the land.
Sailors ordinarily receive wrecked mariners kindly. Our
treatment on board the Martha Wallis was all I could have
desired, and the captain promised to put us on board the first
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
coaster she should fall in with, bound to New York. He was
as good as his word, though not until more than a week had
elapsed. It fell calm as soon as the north-wester blew its pipe
out, and we did not get into the Vineyard Sound for nine days.
Here we met a craft the skipper knew, and, being a regular
Boston and New York coaster, we were put on board her, with
a recommendation to good treatment The people of the Lovely
Lass received us just as we had been received on board the Martha Wallis; all hands of us living aft, and eating codfish, good
beef and pork, with duff (dough) and molasses, almost ad libi-
tum. From this last vessel we learned all the latest news of the
French war, and how things were going on in the country. The
fourth day after we were put on board this craft, Rupert and
I landed near Peck’s Slip, New York, with nothing on earth
in our possession, but just in what we stood. This, however,
gave us but little concern – I had abundance at home, and
Rupert was certain of being free from want, both through me
and through his father.
I had never parted with the gold given me by Lucy, however.
When we got into the boat to land at the cape, I had put on the
belt in which I kept this little treasure, and it was still round
my body. I had kept it as a sort of memorial of the dear girl who
had given it to me; but I now saw the means of making it useful, without disposing of it altogether. I knew that the wisest
course, in all difficulties, was to go at once to head-quarters. I
asked the address of the firm that owned, or rather had owned
the John, and proceeded to the counting-house forthwith. I
told my story, but found that Kite had been before me. It seems
that the Tigris got a fair wind, three days after the blow, that
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AFLOAT AND ASHORE
carried her up to the very wharves of Philadelphia, when most
of the John’s people had come on to New York without delay. By communications with the shore at the cape, the pilot
had learned that his boat had never returned, and our loss
was supposed to have inevitably occurred. The accounts of all
this were in the papers, and I began to fear that the distressing
tidings might have reached Clawbonny. Indeed, there were
little obituary notices of Rupert and myself in the journals,
inserted by some hand piously employed, I should think, by
Mr. Kite. We were tenderly treated, considering our escapade;
and my fortune and prospects were dwelt on with some touches of eloquence that might have been spared.
In that day, however, a newspaper was a very different
thing from what it has since become. Then, journals were created merely to meet the demand, and news was given as it actually occurred; whereas, now, the competition has produced
a change that any one can appreciate, when it is remembered
to what a competition in news must infallibly lead. In that day,
our own journals had not taken to imitating the worst features of the English newspapers – talents and education are
not yet cheap enough in America to enable them to imitate
the best – and the citizen was supposed to have some rights,
as put in opposition to the press. The public sense of right had
not become blunted by familiarity with abuses, and the miserable and craven apology was never heard for not enforcing
the laws, that nobody cares for what the newspapers say. Owing to these causes, I escaped a thousand lies about myself, my
history, my disposition, character and acts. Still, I was in print;
and I confess it half-frightened me to see my death announced
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
in such obvious letters, although I had physical evidence of
being alive and well.
The owners questioned me closely about the manner in
which the John was lost, and expressed themselves satisfied
with my answers. I then produced my half-joes, and asked to
borrow something less than their amount on their security.
To the latter part of the proposition, however, these gentlemen would not listen, forcing a check for a hundred dollars
on me, desiring that the money might be paid at my own convenience. Knowing I had Clawbonny, and a very comfortable
income under my lee, I made no scruples about accepting the
sum, and took my leave.
Rupert and I had now the means of equipping ourselves
neatly, though always in sailor guise. After this was done, we
proceeded to the Albany basin, in order to ascertain whether
the Wallingford were down or not. At the basin we learned
that the sloop had gone out that very forenoon, having on
board a black with his young master’s effects; a lad who was
said to have been out to Canton with young Mr. Wallingford,
and who was now on his way home, to report all the sad occurrences to the family in Ulster. This, then, was Neb, who
had got thus far back in charge of our chests, and was about to
return to slavery.
We had been in hopes that we might possibly reach Clawbonny before the tidings of our loss. This intelligence was
likely to defeat the expectation; but, luckily, one of the fastest sloops on the river, a Hudson packet, was on the point of
sailing, and, though the wind held well to the northward, her
master thought he should be able to turn up with the tides,
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AFLOAT AND ASHORE
as high as our creek, in the course of the next eight-and-forty
hours. This was quite as much as the Wallingford could do,
I felt well persuaded; and, making a bargain to be landed on
the western shore, Rupert and I put our things on board this
packet, and were under way in half an hour’s time.
So strong was my own anxiety, I could not keep off the deck
until we had anchored on account of the flood; and much did
I envy Rupert, who had coolly turned in as soon as it was dark,
and went to sleep. When the anchor was down, I endeavoured
to imitate his example. On turning out next morning, I found
the vessel in Newburgh Bay, with a fair wind. About twelve
o’clock I could see the mouth of the creek, and the Wallingford fairly entering it, her sails disappearing behind the trees,
just as I caught sight of them. As no other craft of her size ever
went up to that landing, I could not be mistaken in the vessel.
By getting ashore half a mile above the creek, there was a
farm-road that would lead to the house by a cut so short, as
nearly to bring us there as soon as Neb could possibly arrive
with his dire, but false intelligence. The place was pointed out
to the captain, who had extracted our secret from us, and who
good-naturedly consented to do all we asked of him. I do think
he would have gone into the creek itself, had it been required.
But we were landed, with our bag of clothes – one answered
very well for both – at the place I have mentioned, and, taking
turn about to shoulder the wardrobe, away we went, as fast
as legs could carry us. Even Rupert seemed to feel on this occasion, and I do think he had a good deal of contrition, as he
must have recollected the pain he had occasioned his excellent father, and dear, good sister.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
Clawbonny never looked more beautiful than when I first
cast eyes on it, that afternoon. There lay the house in the secure retirement of its smiling vale, the orchards just beginning
to lose their blossoms; the broad, rich meadows, with the grass
waving in the south wind, resembling velvet; the fields of corn
of all sorts; and the cattle, as they stood ruminating, or enjoying their existence in motionless self-indulgence beneath the
shade of trees, seemed to speak of abundance and considerate treatment. Everything denoted peace, plenty and happiness. Yet this place, with all its blessings and security, had I
wilfully deserted to encounter pirates in the Straits of Sunda,
shipwreck on the shores of Madagascar, jeopardy in an open
boat off the Isle of France, and a miraculous preservation from
a horrible death on my own coast!
At no great distance from the house was a dense grove, in
which Rupert and I had, with our own hands, constructed a
rude summer-house, fit to be enjoyed on just such an afternoon as this on which we had returned. When distant from
it only two hundred yards, we saw the girls enter the wood,
evidently taking the direction of the seat. At the same moment
I caught a glimpse of Neb moving up the road from the landing at a snail’s pace, as if the poor fellow dreaded to encounter
the task before him. After a moment’s consultation, we determined to proceed at once to the grove, and thus anticipate the
account of Neb, who must pass so near the summer-house as
to be seen and recognised. We met with more obstacles than
we had foreseen or remembered, and when we got to a thicket
close in the rear of the bench, we found that the black was already in the presence of his two “young mistresses.”
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