Kitabı oku: «The Planter's Daughter and her Slave»
Jane Margaret Strickland
The Planter's Daughter and her Slave
Published by Good Press, 2022
EAN 4064066353766
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BY THE AUTHOR OF "EARLY LESSONS,"—"TALES OF A SCHOOL,"— "THE MOOR AND. THE PORTUGUESE,"—"NATIONAL PREJUDICE, OR THE FRENCH PRISONER OF WAR,". &C &C.
VALCOUR INTRODUCING HIS FRIEND GRAMMONT TO HIS SISTER. ANTOINETTE
THE NOBLE EMIGRANTS;
OR,
ADVANTAGES OF INDUSTRY.
FINIS.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "EARLY LESSONS,"—"TALES OF A SCHOOL,"—
"THE MOOR AND THE PORTUGUESE,"—"NATIONAL PREJUDICE,
OR THE FRENCH PRISONER OF WAR," &C &C.
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LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY
DEAN AND MUNDAY, THREADNEEDLE-STREET.
VALCOUR INTRODUCING HIS FRIEND GRAMMONT TO HIS SISTER ANTOINETTE
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THE PLANTER'S DAUGHTER, AND HER SLAVE.
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"Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward Heaven." Proverbs, xxiii. 5.
"Aunt," said Emma Malden, addressing herself to Mrs. Dormer as she came in from her walk, "I have heard sad news to-day, which has quite damped my spirits: the banker, in whose hands Miss Brandon's large fortune was vested, has failed, and, it is said, he will not pay his creditors above a shilling in the pound."
"I am sorry to hear it, my dear niece; for Miss Brandon made an excellent use of her riches; and I am grieved that she has lost the power of doing so much good."
"Ah! she is very unhappy at this moment! dear aunt; doubtless she is," replied the young lady sorrowfully.
"I fancy not," said the aunt. "Miss Brandon has too just a way of thinking, to be unhappy: indeed she has never fixed her mind upon the perishing possessions of this world, but has diligently sought to gain 'that treasure which rust doth not corrupt, neither do thieves break through and steal;' she has always been very temperate in her habits, and moderate in her desires, and even in her dress rather studied an elegant neatness than a fashionable appearance; I doubt not, at this very time in which we are now speaking, she regrets her lost fortune more for the sake of the poor whom she clothed and fed, than for her own."
"You think then, aunt, that Miss Brandon will feel great consolation in her own mind, because she made a good use of her riches when she possessed them? I think so too, for an extravagant person, of course, would feel the change more keenly than one who is like Miss Brandon."
"Undoubtedly, my dear Emma, and I tell you so from the best of all authority, personal experience, for I lost my fortune at an early age, and, from being a great West-Indian heiress, became a portionless girl, without money, and, what was worse, without friends."
"I have heard mamma say, that you were wronged out of a great fortune by your guardian; but, dear aunt, she never told me the particulars," replied Emma, directing an enquiring look at her aunt.
Mrs. Dormer smiled: "Well, my dear, as you are nearly sixteen, an age in which youth needs much counsel and advice, I will relate the history of my early years; because I think my past errors will prove a useful lesson, to warn you from 'setting your heart upon riches, which verily do make themselves wings, and fly away.'
"I was born in Jamaica, and my father was a rich planter of the name of Trevor, (and was, as you know, the elder brother of your grandmother,) and I was his only child, and having lost my mother in my infancy, was regarded by him with the most partial fondness: I was, he said, the sole pledge of his Helen's love; and, as such, should not be contradicted in any thing.
"This injudicious treatment rendered me selfish, violent, and unreasonable; for as the human heart is naturally corrupt, children require controul, and ought to be taught to fear God, and to obey his commandments; indeed, my dear Emma, the sight of so many of my fellow creatures in slavery, tended to weaken every kindly feeling in my bosom, and from witnessing oppression from my very cradle, I easily became tyrannical and unjust."
"My pride and arrogance drove all the young people of my own age from me, and I was almost without any society, except those whites whose poverty obliged them to bear with my caprices. Thus I had a great many dependants, but no friends. I had nearly completed my fifteenth year when my father was attacked with an inflammatory complaint, which, in the course of a few days, brought him to the grave. By his will, my maternal uncle, Mr. Williams, was appointed my sole guardian, with directions to take me to England, for the benefit of education, as mine had been hitherto sadly neglected; and either to consign me to the care of his son's wife, or to my aunt Dormer, a handsome sum being allowed for my board and tuition, to be paid to whichever lady chose to undertake the charge, provided she was agreeable to me."
"My guardian permitted me to take a young negress of the name of Lola to attend upon me during the voyage, and early in the spring we embarked for England. I was very fractious and discontented all the time we were at sea; I saw nothing to admire in the magnificent expanse of water before me, and only viewed it as an object of terror and danger, for I had never been taught
'To look through nature up to nature's God.'
And in fact, although I had been baptised into the Christian church, had as little religion as black Lola herself. I arrived in England in the beginning of a cold and backward April, and my first impressions of this country were very unfavourable. I thought of Jamaica, and her groves of citron, orange, and pimento; her fields of flowering canes; and sighed for the warm breezes of my native isle; disgusted with a land whose trees were bare of leaves, and whose buds were hardly beginning to expand.
Mrs. Williams received me with much politeness and apparent hospitality, but I was not in a humour to be pleased with any thing. I walked to the window, and contemplated the muddy streets with great discontent; for it was very wet weather, and London consequently appeared to great disadvantage. I was greatly fatigued, and retired early to my apartment, but the noise of the carriages would not let me sleep; nor, indeed, for several successive nights, could I obtain the least repose.—I then declared my dislike to a London residence, and wrote to my aunt Dormer to come and take me from Hanover-square immediately, as it was my intention to live with her in the country.
"It happened that my aunt and her family were from home, so that my letter did not reach her till several days after it was written; and before she arrived I became reconciled to the noise, recovered my vivacity, and already had ceased to sigh for the beauties of my native isle and was quite reconciled to a town life.
"I now repented of the rash step I had taken, (for so Mrs. Williams styled it,) and began to dread the arrival of my aunt, for that lady told me that she was a very severe, precise, grave, and unfashionable woman, till I determined to write her a second letter respecting my change of opinion, which I was in the very act of composing when she was unexpectedly announced.
"I rose with some trepidation to receive one the most elegant and intellectual looking women I had ever seen in my life, whose beautiful features resembled those of my lamented father, and who embraced me with an affection I thought almost maternal. Her tone of voice too greatly reminded me of him who was no more; and when she called me 'dear Helen,' I could not restrain my tears.—'You look pale, my dear girl,' remarked my aunt, willing to divert my thoughts from my father to myself: 'but perhaps you have kept late hours in this gay town, so that I hope the country air will soon restore the vanished roses.'
"'I thought, Helen, you had changed your mind, and had determined to remain under my care,' said Mrs. Williams.
"I faltered out an affirmative, and added that, I was certain that I should dislike a country life.
"'You have not yet seen the country, Helen,' and as you seem to form your judgments very hastily, you are liable to make wrong conclusions in consequence,' replied my aunt. 'I certainly do not wish to controul your inclinations; but I do not think my brother's only daughter will refuse me the pleasure of her company during the spring and summer months.'
"This was so reasonable on my aunt's part, that I could not without great rudeness refuse my assent to the arrangement, and I expressed my willingness to accompany her down into the country with a tolerably good grace. She then kissed my cheek, told me she would call upon me the following morning, and then took her leave.
"The next day my aunt came according to promise, and took me a shopping with her. Now I had accompanied Mrs. Williams often on such occasions, and had received much pleasure in seeing the elegant purchases she made. These my aunt made were of a very different description; books, maps, music, and drawing materials; not a riband, or necklace, or toy of any kind! We were passing a bookseller's shop, when she said to me, 'I want a new pocket-bible, for mine is in too small a print for my eyes.—Helen, my love, is your's in repair?'
"'I have not one, aunt,' I replied; 'but I suppose it is of no great consequence, as I am not fond of reading. Indeed, I never had a bible in my life.'
"My aunt regarded me with a mingled look of sorrow and surprise. I felt embarrassed, although I scarcely knew why; yet I thought my being without a bible was the cause of my aunt's gravity. Indeed, my short residence in Hanover-square had convinced me that I was ignorant in many things; and I was in some fear lest I had sinned against what my cousin Williams called 'the etiquettes of society,' and I said to my aunt, 'I hope, madam, I have not offended you, but do you really think I ought to read the bible.'
"'Poor child,' replied my aunt, 'you have been cruelly neglected. Yes, Helen, you ought to study the bible, because it contains the truths of salvation, and teaches us how to serve Him, through whom we live and move and have our being.—You must have heard portions of it read at church, and yet you do not seem sensible of its value.'
"'I believe I have, aunt,' I replied, 'but I paid no attention to what the clergyman said.'
"'Poor child,' said my aunt again, in a tone of deep commiseration; 'but, however, we will talk about these most important things by and bye.' She then took me into the shop and purchased for me a bible and prayer-book, very elegantly bound, and a small selection of authors, which she told me I should find very useful to me. From this place we went to a linen-warehouse, where my aunt bought a bale of coarse blue spotted cotton, a great many yards of flannel; likewise some white neck-handkerchiefs, and many pairs of unbleached hose. I could not help asking my aunt why she made such strange purchases.
"'They are for your cousins,' she replied: 'whenever I come to town, they always commission me to make these purchases for them; indeed they save up their money for that purpose.'
"'Do they really wear these ugly coarse things?' asked I, regarding them at the same time in a very disdainful manner.
"My aunt looked surprised, and then answered with a smile, 'Helen, you will see what they will do with them, by and bye.'
"When I returned home, I consulted Mrs. Williams on this matter; she did not, or could not, throw any light on the subject, merely remarking, 'that my aunt was a very strange woman, and that my cousins dressed like no other young people in their station of life.' I then related the conversation I had had with my aunt about the Bible, and the uneasiness I had suffered on that account. She laughed at my scruples, and assured me 'it was a book she had never opened since she left school;' but added, in a sarcastic tone, 'that she expected to see me return almost as godly as Mrs. Dormer.'
"Oh! Emma, that her sneer had proved true! oh! that my sinful and corrupt heart had learned its danger and known its unworthiness! but, alas! it resembled the 'stony places in which the word becomes unfruitful, and having no depth of earth, perishes as soon as it springs up.'
"The next day, I took leave of my London friends, and accompanied my aunt into Suffolk. The country was like a garden, the fruit trees were in full blossom, and the meadows were enamelled with a thousand flowers, and clothed with the most lovely verdure. I was delighted with my journey, and began to think the country was not quite so disagreeable as I had imagined it to be.
"Late the following evening we arrived at Beech-cottage, and were received by Rosa and Catharine, my aunt's only surviving children, in the most affectionate manner. 'Helen, my dear,' said my aunt, 'these are all that remain to me of a very large family, but I shall consider you in the same light as my own daughters; indeed, you greatly resemble the one I have lost.'
"'I thought, aunt,' I replied, 'that I had a cousin Edward; I am sure you told me that you had a son.'
"My aunt smiled through her tears: yes, Helen, I call my husband's son by a former wife, by that tender name, for I love Edward Dormer as well as if he were indeed my own child: he is still at school, but you will see him about the middle of June.'
"I did not greatly like my cousins, and felt my own inferiority too much to receive much pleasure in their society. Rosa was about my own age, and Catharine one year older, and they were both very elegant and intellectual girls, for their education had not been confined to external accomplishments, and they were not only extremely well-read, but possessed a fund of information, rarely to be found in young females of their age. Their time appeared to me to be passed in an incessant routine of study and work, and their leisure hours were spent in walking, reading to the sick poor, or working for them, though sometimes they used to sketch the surrounding scenery, and finish the drawing when they returned home.
"My aunt, who had educated them herself, now undertook my tuition, and endeavoured to teach me my moral and religious duties, of which then I scarcely knew the name; she also gave me daily lessons in French, music, and drawing, and tried to create in me a taste for literature, and a zest for knowledge; she made me read a portion of Scripture to her every day, and carefully explained to me every thing that appeared difficult to my comprehension in the sacred volume.
"My aunt and cousins always devoted some portion of their time to the instruction of the poor, and by conversing with Lola, my black maid, soon discovered that she was still in a state of pagan darkness, and immediately began to give her daily instructions in the Christian faith. Now I had heard the conversion of the negro race, treated as an impracticable and unnecessary thing, only tending to make them rebellious and discontented, and I protested against Lola being made a Christian with all my might. My aunt, however, talked to me in a severe manner on the subject, and as I had no reasons to oppose to her arguments, I was obliged to submit to her superior judgement, and Lola was soon enrolled in the number of my cousins' scholars. I soon perceived that Lola loved Rosa and Catharine better than she did me, and I treated her very unkindly when I was in private on that very account.
"Though I studied with my aunt every day, she could not persuade me to do any needle-work, and as for making garments for the poor, or baby linen for their children, I rejected the idea with scorn. I was tired of Beech Cottage, where no one flattered me, and where my faults were carefully pointed out to me, and sighed to return to Mrs. Williams, who used to call me 'pretty Helen,' and to assure me 'I should soon, under her care, become a very fashionable and accomplished girl.'
"June added Edward Dormer to our family party, and I hoped that his residence at Beech Cottage would make us a little gay, especially as my aunt told me she always gave a week's holiday on his arrival. The idea of passing a week in idleness appeared to me to open a prospect of pleasure, and I rose the next morning in high spirits, full of pleasing anticipations.
"I was greatly surprised to find that this holiday was not to be passed by my cousins in doing nothing, for the breakfast things were scarcely removed before the articles my aunt had purchased in London, were laid upon the table, and all the children belonging to her school entered the room to be measured for their new dresses.
"'The mystery is out now, Helen,' said my aunt, smiling, and looking at me in a very significant manner; 'the flannel we shall reserve for the Winter, when our children will find it very warm and serviceable.'
"I am ashamed to say, that I considered in my own mind, my cousins were very silly to spend their money in clothing these poor children, and made no reply to my aunt's speech, but spent the whole of the morning in looking on in a sort of listless manner, and in teasing a monkey that Edward Dormer had seen ill-treated in the streets by a showman, and had purchased and brought home with him; but notwithstanding the tricks of Pug, I was very dull. Just before dinner, Edward came in from a walk over his estates, and proposed a sail in a pleasure-boat a friend of his had lately fitted up, and which he said 'was moored under the plantations which overhung the water.' My aunt immediately consented, and all of us anticipated much pleasure in the excursion, and great was my disappointment when the coming up of a heavy tempest put an end to the projected sail.
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