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Redburn. His First Voyage

H >> Herman Melville >> Redburn. His First Voyage




But where, among the tarry docks, and smoky sailor-lanes and by-ways of
a seaport, did I, a battered Yankee boy, encounter this courtly youth?

Several evenings I had noticed him in our street of boarding-houses,
standing in the doorways, and silently regarding the animated scenes
without. His beauty, dress, and manner struck me as so out of place in
such a street, that I could not possibly divine what had transplanted
this delicate exotic from the conservatories of some Regent-street to
the untidy potato-patches of Liverpool.

At last I suddenly encountered him at the sign of the Baltimore Clipper.
He was speaking to one of my shipmates concerning America; and from
something that dropped, I was led to imagine that he contemplated a
voyage to my country. Charmed with his appearance, and all eagerness to
enjoy the society of this incontrovertible son of a gentleman--a kind of
pleasure so long debarred me--I smoothed down the skirts of my jacket,
and at once accosted him; declaring who I was, and that nothing would
afford me greater delight than to be of the least service, in imparting
any information concerning America that he needed.

He glanced from my face to my jacket, and from my jacket to my face, and
at length, with a pleased but somewhat puzzled expression, begged me to
accompany him on a walk.

We rambled about St. George's Pier until nearly midnight; but before we
parted, with uncommon frankness, he told me many strange things
respecting his history.

According to his own account, Harry Bolton was a native of Bury St.
Edmunds, a borough of Suffolk, not very far from London, where he was
early left an orphan, under the charge of an only aunt. Between his aunt
and himself, his mother had divided her fortune; and young Harry thus
fell heir to a portion of about five thousand pounds.

Being of a roving mind, as he approached his majority he grew restless
of the retirement of a country place; especially as he had no profession
or business of any kind to engage his attention.

In vain did Bury, with all its fine old monastic attractions, lure him
to abide on the beautiful banks of her Larke, and under the shadow of
her stately and storied old Saxon tower.

By all my rare old historic associations, breathed Bury; by my
Abbey-gate, that bears to this day the arms of Edward the Confessor; by
my carved roof of the old church of St. Mary's, which escaped the low
rage of the bigoted Puritans; by the royal ashes of Mary Tudor, that
sleep in my midst; by my Norman ruins, and by all the old abbots of
Bury, do not, oh Harry! abandon me. Where will you find shadier walks
than under my lime-trees? where lovelier gardens than those within the
old walls of my monastery, approached through my lordly Gate? Or if, oh
Harry! indifferent to my historic mosses, and caring not for my annual
verdure, thou must needs be lured by other tassels, and wouldst fain,
like the Prodigal, squander thy patrimony, then, go not away from old
Bury to do it. For here, on Angel-Hill, are my coffee and card-rooms,
and billiard saloons, where you may lounge away your mornings, and empty
your glass and your purse as you list.

In vain. Bury was no place for the adventurous Harry, who must needs hie
to London, where in one winter, in the company of gambling sportsmen and
dandies, he lost his last sovereign.

What now was to be done? His friends made interest for him in the
requisite quarters, and Harry was soon embarked for Bombay, as a
midshipman in the East India service; in which office he was known as a
"guinea-pig," a humorous appellation then bestowed upon the middies of
the Company. And considering the perversity of his behavior, his
delicate form, and soft complexion, and that gold guineas had been his
bane, this appellation was not altogether, in poor Harry's case,
inapplicable.

He made one voyage, and returned; another, and returned; and then threw
up his warrant in disgust. A few weeks' dissipation in London, and again
his purse was almost drained; when, like many prodigals, scorning to
return home to his aunt, and amend--though she had often written him the
kindest of letters to that effect--Harry resolved to precipitate himself
upon the New World, and there carve out a fresh fortune. With this
object in view, he packed his trunks, and took the first train for
Liverpool. Arrived in that town, he at once betook himself to the docks,
to examine the American shipping, when a new crotchet entered his brain,
born of his old sea reminiscences. It was to assume duck browsers and
tarpaulin, and gallantly cross the Atlantic as a sailor. There was a
dash of romance in it; a taking abandonment; and scorn of fine coats,
which exactly harmonized with his reckless contempt, at the time, for
all past conventionalities.

Thus determined, he exchanged his trunk for a mahogany chest; sold some
of his superfluities; and moved his quarters to the sign of the Gold
Anchor in Union-street.

After making his acquaintance, and learning his intentions, I was all
anxiety that Harry should accompany me home in the Highlander, a desire
to which he warmly responded.

Nor was I without strong hopes that he would succeed in an application
to the captain; inasmuch as during our stay in the docks, three of our
crew had left us, and their places would remain unsupplied till just
upon the eve of our departure.

And here, it may as well be related, that owing to the heavy charges to
which the American ships long staying in Liverpool are subjected, from
the obligation to continue the wages of their seamen, when they have
little or no work to employ them, and from the necessity of boarding
them ashore, like lords, at their leisure, captains interested in the
ownership of their vessels, are not at all indisposed to let their
sailors abscond, if they please, and thus forfeit their money; for they
well know that, when wanted, a new crew is easily to be procured,
through the crimps of the port.

Though he spake English with fluency, and from his long service in the
vessels of New York, was almost an American to behold, yet Captain Riga
was in fact a Russian by birth, though this was a fact that he strove to
conceal. And though extravagant in his personal expenses, and even
indulging in luxurious habits, costly as Oriental dissipation, yet
Captain Riga was a niggard to others; as, indeed, was evinced in the
magnificent stipend of three dollars, with which he requited my own
valuable services. Therefore, as it was agreed between Harry and me,
that he should offer to ship as a "boy," at the same rate of
compensation with myself, I made no doubt that, incited by the cheapness
of the bargain, Captain Riga would gladly close with him; and thus,
instead of paying sixteen dollars a month to a thorough-going tar, who
would consume all his rations, buy up my young blade of Bury, at the
rate of half a dollar a week; with the cheering prospect, that by the
end of the voyage, his fastidious palate would be the means of leaving
a. handsome balance of salt beef and pork in the harness-cask.

With part of the money obtained by the sale of a few of his velvet
vests, Harry, by my advice, now rigged himself in a Guernsey frock and
man-of-war browsers; and thus equipped, he made his appearance, one fine
morning, on the quarterdeck of the Highlander, gallantly doffing his
virgin tarpaulin before the redoubtable Riga.

No sooner were his wishes made known, than I perceived in the captain's
face that same bland, benevolent, and bewitchingly merry expression,
that had so charmed, but deceived me, when, with Mr. Jones, I had first
accosted him in the cabin.

Alas, Harry! thought I,--as I stood upon the forecastle looking astern
where they stood,--that "gallant, gay deceiver" shall not altogether
cajole you, if Wellingborough can help it. Rather than that should be
the case, indeed, I would forfeit the pleasure of your society across
the Atlantic.

At this interesting interview the captain expressed a sympathetic
concern touching the sad necessities, which he took upon himself to
presume must have driven Harry to sea; he confessed to a warm interest
in his future welfare; and did not hesitate to declare that, in going to
America, under such circumstances, to seek his fortune, he was acting a
manly and spirited part; and that the voyage thither, as a sailor, would
be an invigorating preparative to the landing upon a shore, where he
must battle out his fortune with Fate.

He engaged him at once; but was sorry to say, that he could not provide
him a home on board till the day previous to the sailing of the ship;
and during the interval, he could not honor any drafts upon the strength
of his wages.

However, glad enough to conclude the agreement upon any terms at all, my
young blade of Bury expressed his satisfaction; and full of admiration
at so urbane and gentlemanly a sea-captain, he came forward to receive
my congratulations.

"Harry," said I, "be not deceived by the fascinating Riga--that gay
Lothario of all inexperienced, sea-going youths, from the capital or the
country; he has a Janus-face, Harry; and you will not know him when he
gets you out of sight of land, and mouths his cast-off coats and
browsers. For then he is another personage altogether, and adjusts his
character to the shabbiness of his integuments. No more condolings and
sympathy then; no more blarney; he will hold you a little better than
his boots, and would no more think of addressing you than of invoking
wooden Donald, the figure-head on our bows."

And I further admonished my friend concerning our crew, particularly of
the diabolical Jackson, and warned him to be cautious and wary. I told
him, that unless he was somewhat accustomed to the rigging, and could
furl a royal in a squall, he would be sure to subject himself to a sort
of treatment from the sailors, in the last degree ignominious to any
mortal who had ever crossed his legs under mahogany.

And I played the inquisitor, in cross-questioning Harry respecting the
precise degree in which he was a practical sailor;--whether he had a
giddy head; whether his arms could bear the weight of his body; whether,
with but one hand on a shroud, a hundred feet aloft in a tempest, he
felt he could look right to windward and beard it.

To all this, and much more, Harry rejoined with the most off-hand and
confident air; saying that in his "guinea-pig" days, he had often climbed
the masts and handled the sails in a gentlemanly and amateur way; so he
made no doubt that he would very soon prove an expert tumbler in the
Highlander's rigging.

His levity of manner, and sanguine assurance, coupled with the constant
sight of his most unseamanlike person--more suited to the Queen's
drawing-room than a ship's forecastle-bred many misgivings in my mind.
But after all, every one in this world has his own fate intrusted to
himself; and though we may warn, and forewarn, and give sage advice, and
indulge in many apprehensions touching our friends; yet our friends, for
the most part, will "gang their ain gate;" and the most we can do is, to
hope for the best. Still, I suggested to Harry, whether he had not best
cross the sea as a steerage passenger, since he could procure enough
money for that; but no, he was bent upon going as a sailor.

I now had a comrade in my afternoon strolls, and Sunday excursions; and
as Harry was a generous fellow, he shared with me his purse and his
heart. He sold off several more of his fine vests and browsers, his
silver-keyed flute and enameled guitar; and a portion of the money thus
furnished was pleasantly spent in refreshing ourselves at the road-side
inns in the vicinity of the town.

Reclining side by side in some agreeable nook, we exchanged our
experiences of the past. Harry enlarged upon the fascinations of a
London Me; described the curricle he used to drive in Hyde Park; gave me
the measurement of Madame Vestris' ankle; alluded to his first
introduction at a club to the madcap Marquis of Waterford; told over the
sums he had lost upon the turf on a Derby day; and made various but
enigmatical allusions to a certain Lady Georgiana Theresa, the noble
daughter of an anonymous earl.

Even in conversation, Harry was a prodigal; squandering his aristocratic
narrations with a careless hand; and, perhaps, sometimes spending funds
of reminiscences not his own.

As for me, I had only my poor old uncle the senator to fall back upon;
and I used him upon all emergencies, like the knight in the game of
chess; making him hop about, and stand stiffly up to the encounter,
against all my fine comrade's array of dukes, lords, curricles, and
countesses.

In these long talks of ours, I frequently expressed the earnest desire I
cherished, to make a visit to London; and related how strongly tempted I
had been one Sunday, to walk the whole way, without a penny in my
pocket. To this, Harry rejoined, that nothing would delight him more,
than to show me the capital; and he even meaningly but mysteriously
hinted at the possibility of his doing so, before many days had passed.
But this seemed so idle a thought, that I only imputed it to my friend's
good-natured, rattling disposition, which sometimes prompted him to out
with any thing, that he thought would be agreeable. Besides, would this
fine blade of Bury be seen, by his aristocratic acquaintances, walking
down Oxford-street, say, arm in arm with the sleeve of my
shooting-jacket? The thing was preposterous; and I began to think, that
Harry, after all, was a little bit disposed to impose upon my Yankee
credulity.

Luckily, my Bury blade had no acquaintance in Liverpool, where, indeed,
he was as much in a foreign land, as if he were already on the shores of
Lake Erie; so that he strolled about with me in perfect abandonment;
reckless of the cut of my shooting-jacket; and not caring one whit who
might stare at so singular a couple.

But once, crossing a square, faced on one side by a fashionable hotel,
he made a rapid turn with me round a corner; and never stopped, till the
square was a good block in our rear. The cause of this sudden retreat,
was a remarkably elegant coat and pantaloons, standing upright on the
hotel steps, and containing a young buck, tapping his teeth with an
ivory-headed riding-whip.

"Who was he, Harry?" said I.

"My old chum, Lord Lovely," said Harry, with a careless air, "and Heaven
only knows what brings Lovely from London."

"A lord?" said I starting; "then I must look at him again;" for lords
are very scarce in Liverpool.

Unmindful of my companion's remonstrances, I ran back to the corner; and
slowly promenaded past the upright coat and pantaloons on the steps.

It was not much of a lord to behold; very thin and limber about the
legs, with small feet like a doll's, and a small, glossy head like a
seal's. I had seen just such looking lords standing in sentimental
attitudes in front of Palmo's in Broadway.

However, he and I being mutual friends of Harry's, I thought something
of accosting him, and taking counsel concerning what was best to be done
for the young prodigal's welfare; but upon second thoughts I thought
best not to intrude; especially, as just then my lord Lovely stepped to
the open window of a flashing carriage which drew up; and throwing
himself into an interesting posture, with the sole of one boot
vertically exposed, so as to show the stamp on it--a coronet--fell into a
sparkling conversation with a magnificent white satin hat, surmounted by
a regal marabou feather, inside.

I doubted not, this lady was nothing short of a peeress; and thought it
would be one of the pleasantest and most charming things in the world,
just to seat myself beside her, and order the coachman to take us a
drive into the country.

But, as upon further consideration, I imagined that the peeress might
decline the honor of my company, since I had no formal card of
introduction; I marched on, and rejoined my companion, whom I at once
endeavored to draw out, touching Lord Lovely; but he only made
mysterious answers; and turned off the conversation, by allusions to his
visits to Ickworth in Suffolk, the magnificent seat of the Most Noble
Marquis of Bristol, who had repeatedly assured Harry that he might
consider Ickworth his home.

Now, all these accounts of marquises and Ickworths, and Harry's having
been hand in glove with so many lords and ladies, began to breed some
suspicions concerning the rigid morality of my friend, as a teller of
the truth. But, after all, thought I to myself, who can prove that Harry
has fibbed? Certainly, his manners are polished, he has a mighty easy
address; and there is nothing altogether impossible about his having
consorted with the master of Ickworth, and the daughter of the anonymous
earl. And what right has a poor Yankee, like me, to insinuate the
slightest suspicion against what he says? What little money he has, he
spends freely; he can not be a polite blackleg, for I am no pigeon to
pluck; so that is out of the question;--perish such a thought, concerning
my own bosom friend!

But though I drowned all my suspicions as well as I could, and ever
cherished toward Harry a heart, loving and true; yet, spite of all this,
I never could entirely digest some of his imperial reminiscences of high
life. I was very sorry for this; as at times it made me feel ill at ease
in his company; and made me hold back my whole soul from him; when, in
its loneliness, it was yearning to throw itself into the unbounded bosom
of some immaculate friend.




XLV. HARRY BOLTON KIDNAPS REDBURN, AND CARRIES HIM OFF TO LONDON


It might have been a week after our glimpse of Lord Lovely, that Harry,
who had been expecting a letter, which, he told me, might possibly alter
his plans, one afternoon came bounding on board the ship, and sprang
down the hatchway into the between-decks, where, in perfect solitude, I
was engaged picking oakum; at which business the mate had set me, for
want of any thing better.

"Hey for London, Wellingborough!" he cried. "Off tomorrow! first
train--be there the same night--come! I have money to rig you all out--drop
that hangman's stuff there, and away! Pah! how it smells here! Come; up
you jump!"

I trembled with amazement and delight.

London? it could not be!--and Harry--how kind of him! he was then indeed
what he seemed. But instantly I thought of all the circumstances of the
case, and was eager to know what it was that had induced this sudden
departure.

In reply my friend told me, that he had received a remittance, and had
hopes of recovering a considerable sum, lost in some way that he chose
to conceal.

"But how am I to leave the ship, Harry?" said I; "they will not let me
go, will they? You had better leave me behind, after all; I don't care
very much about going; and besides, I have no money to share the
expenses."

This I said, only pretending indifference, for my heart was jumping all
the time.

"Tut! my Yankee bantam," said Harry; "look here!" and he showed me a
handful of gold.

"But they are yours, and not mine, Harry," said I.

"Yours and mine, my sweet fellow," exclaimed Harry. "Come, sink the
ship, and let's go!"

"But you don't consider, if I quit the ship, they'll be sending a
constable after me, won't they?"

"What! and do you think, then, they value your services so highly? Ha!
ha!-Up, up, Wellingborough: I can't wait."

True enough. I well knew that Captain Riga would not trouble himself
much, if I did take French leave of him. So, without further thought of
the matter, I told Harry to wait a few moments, till the ship's bell
struck four; at which time I used to go to supper, and be free for the
rest of the day.

The bell struck; and off we went. As we hurried across the quay, and
along the dock walls, I asked Harry all about his intentions. He said,
that go to London he must, and to Bury St. Edmunds; but that whether he
should for any time remain at either place, he could not now tell; and
it was by no means impossible, that in less than a week's time we would
be back again in Liverpool, and ready for sea. But all he said was
enveloped in a mystery that I did not much like; and I hardly know
whether I have repeated correctly what he said at the time.

Arrived at the Golden Anchor, where Harry put up, he at once led me to
his room, and began turning over the contents of his chest, to see what
clothing he might have, that would fit me.

Though he was some years my senior, we were about the same size--if any
thing, I was larger than he; so, with a little stretching, a shirt,
vest, and pantaloons were soon found to suit. As for a coat and hat,
those Harry ran out and bought without delay; returning with a loose,
stylish sack-coat, and a sort of foraging cap, very neat, genteel, and
unpretending.

My friend himself soon doffed his Guernsey frock, and stood before me,
arrayed in a perfectly plain suit, which he had bought on purpose that
very morning. I asked him why he had gone to that unnecessary expense,
when he had plenty of other clothes in his chest. But he only winked,
and looked knowing. This, again, I did not like. But I strove to drown
ugly thoughts.

Till quite dark, we sat talking together; when, locking his chest, and
charging his landlady to look after it well, till he called, or sent for
it; Harry seized my arm, and we sallied into the street.

Pursuing our way through crowds of frolicking sailors and fiddlers, we
turned into a street leading to the Exchange. There, under the shadow of
the colonnade, Harry told me to stop, while he left me, and went to
finish his toilet. Wondering what he meant, I stood to one side; and
presently was joined by a stranger in whiskers and mustache.

"It's me" said the stranger; and who was me but Harry, who had thus
metamorphosed himself? I asked him the reason; and in a faltering voice,
which I tried to make humorous, expressed a hope that he was not going
to turn gentleman forger.

He laughed, and assured me that it was only a precaution against being
recognized by his own particular friends in London, that he had adopted
this mode of disguising himself.

"And why afraid of your friends?" asked I, in astonishment, "and we are
not in London yet."

"Pshaw! what a Yankee you are, Wellingborough. Can't you see very
plainly that I have a plan in my head? And this disguise is only for a
short time, you know. But I'll tell you all by and by."

I acquiesced, though not feeling at ease; and we walked on, till we came
to a public house, in the vicinity of the place at which the cars are
taken.

We stopped there that night, and next day were off, whirled along
through boundless landscapes of villages, and meadows, and parks: and
over arching viaducts, and through wonderful tunnels; till, half
delirious with excitement, I found myself dropped down in the evening
among gas-lights, under a great roof in Euston Square.

London at last, and in the West-End!




XLVI. A MYSTERIOUS NIGHT IN LONDON


"No time to lose," said Harry, "come along."

He called a cab: in an undertone mentioned the number of a house in some
street to the driver; we jumped in, and were off.

As we rattled over the boisterous pavements, past splendid squares,
churches, and shops, our cabman turning corners like a skater on the
ice, and all the roar of London in my ears, and no end to the walls of
brick and mortar; I thought New York a hamlet, and Liverpool a
coal-hole, and myself somebody else: so unreal seemed every thing about
me. My head was spinning round like a top, and my eyes ached with much
gazing; particularly about the comers, owing to my darting them so
rapidly, first this side, and then that, so as not to miss any thing;
though, in truth, I missed much.

"Stop," cried Harry, after a long while, putting his head out of the
window, all at once--"stop! do you hear, you deaf man? you have passed
the house--No. 40 I told you--that's it--the high steps there, with the
purple light!"

The cabman being paid, Harry adjusting his whiskers and mustache, and
bidding me assume a lounging look, pushed his hat a little to one side,
and then locking arms, we sauntered into the house; myself feeling not a
little abashed; it was so long since I had been in any courtly society.

It was some semi-public place of opulent entertainment; and far
surpassed any thing of the kind I had ever seen before.

The floor was tesselated with snow-white, and russet-hued marbles; and
echoed to the tread, as if all the Paris catacombs were underneath. I
started with misgivings at that hollow, boding sound, which seemed
sighing with a subterraneous despair, through all the magnificent
spectacle around me; mocking it, where most it glared.

The walk were painted so as to deceive the eye with interminable
colonnades; and groups of columns of the finest Scagliola work of
variegated marbles--emerald-green and gold, St. Pons veined with silver,
Sienna with porphyry--supported a resplendent fresco ceiling, arched like
a bower, and thickly clustering with mimic grapes. Through all the East
of this foliage, you spied in a crimson dawn, Guide's ever youthful
Apollo, driving forth the horses of the sun. From sculptured stalactites
of vine-boughs, here and there pendent hung galaxies of gas lights,
whose vivid glare was softened by pale, cream-colored, porcelain
spheres, shedding over the place a serene, silver flood; as if every
porcelain sphere were a moon; and this superb apartment was the moon-lit
garden of Portia at Belmont; and the gentle lovers, Lorenzo and Jessica,
lurked somewhere among the vines.

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