The Maroon Part 19

Volume One, Chapter XX.

THE JEW'S PENN.

While these scenes were transpiring upon the plantation of Mount Welcome, others of a still more exciting nature were being enacted on that which adjoined it--the property of Jacob Jessuron, slave-merchant and penn-keeper.

Besides a "barac.o.o.n" in the Bay, where his slaves were usually exposed for sale, the Jew was owner of a large plantation in the country, on which he habitually resided. It lay contiguous to the estate of the Custos Vaughan--separated from the latter by one of the wooded ridges already mentioned as bounding the valley of Mount Welcome.

Like the latter, it had once been a sugar estate, and an extensive one; but that was before Jessuron became its owner. Now it was in the condition termed _ruinate_. The fields where the golden cane had waved in the tropic breeze were choked up by a tangled "second growth,"

restoring them almost to their primitive wildness. With that quickness characteristic of equatorial vegetation, huge trees had already sprung up, and stood thickly over the ground--logwoods, bread-nuts, cotton, and calabash trees, which, with their pendent parasites, almost usurped dominion over the soil. Here and there, where the fields still remained open, instead of cultivation, there appeared only the wild nursery of nature--glades mottled with flowering weeds, as the Mexican horn-poppy, swallow-worts, West Indian vervains, and small _pa.s.siflorae_.

At intervals, where the underwood permitted them to peep out, might be seen stretches of "dry wall," or stone fence, without mortar or cement, mostly tumbled down, the ruins thickly trellised with creeping plants-- as convolvuli, cereus, and aristolochia; cleome, with the cheerful blossoming _lantana_; and, spreading over all, like the web of a gigantic spider, the yellow leafless stems of the American dodder.

In the midst of this domain, almost reconquered by nature, stood the "great house"--except in size, no longer deserving the appellation. It consisted rather of a _pile_ than a single building--the old "sugar works" having been joined under the same roof with the dwelling--and negro cabins, stables, offices, all inclosed within an immense high wall, that gave to the place the air of a penitentiary or barrack, rather than that of a country mansion. The enclosure was a modern construction--an afterthought--designed for a purpose very different from that of sugar-making.

Garden there was none, though evidence that there _had been_ was seen everywhere around the building, in the trees that still bloomed: some loaded with delicious fruits, others with cl.u.s.tering flowers, shedding their incense on the air. Half wild, grew citrons, and _avocado_ pears, sop and custard apples, mangoes, guavas, and pawpaws; while the crown-like tops of cocoa-palms soared high above the humble denizens of this wild orchard, their recurvant fronds drooping as in sorrow at the desolation that surrounded them.

Close to the buildings stood several huge trees, whose tortuous limbs, now leafless, rendered it easy to identify them. They were the giants of the West Indian forest--the silk-cotton-tree (_Eriodendron anfractuosum_). The limbs of these vegetable monsters--each itself as large as an ordinary tree--were loaded with parasites of many species; among which might be distinguished ragged _cactacae_, with various species of wild pines, from the n.o.ble _vriesia_ to the h.o.a.ry, beard-like "Spanish moss," whose long streaming festoons waved like winding-sheets in the breeze--an appropriate draping for the eyrie of the black vultures (John-Crows) that might at all times be seen seated in solemn silence upon the topmost branches.

In the olden time, this plantation had borne the name of "Happy Valley"; but during the ownership of Jessuron, this designation--perhaps deemed inappropriate--had been generally dropped; and the place was never spoken of by any other name than that of the "Jew's Penn."

Into a "penn" (grazing farm) Jessuron had changed it, and it served well enough for the purpose: many of the old sugar fields, now overgrown by the valuable Guinea gra.s.s, affording excellent pasturage for horses and cattle.

In breeding and rearing the former for the use of the sugar estates, and fattening the latter for the beef markets of the Bay, the industrious Israelite had discovered a road to riches, as short as that he had been travelling in the capacity of slave-dealer; and of late years he had come to regard the latter only as a secondary calling.

In his old age, Jessuron had become ambitious of social distinction; and for this reason, was desirous of sinking the slave-merchant in the more respectable profession of penn-keeper. He had even succeeded so far in his views as to have himself appointed a justice of the peace--an office that in Jamaica, as elsewhere, is more distinctive of wealth than respectability.

In addition to penn-keeper, the Jew was also an extensive spice-cultivator, or rather spice-gatherer: for the indigenous pimento forests that covered the hills upon his estate required no cultivation-- nothing further than to collect the aromatic berries, and cure them on the _barbacoa_.

Though changed from a plantation to a penn, the estate of Jacob Jessuron was not less a scene of active industrial life.

In the fields adjacent to the house, and through the glades of Guinea gra.s.s, horses and half wild cattle might be seen in turns neighing and bellowing, pursued by mounted herdsmen, black and half-naked.

Among the groves of pimento on the hills, gangs of negro wenches could be heard screaming and chattering continually, as they picked the allspice berries from the branches; or, with the filled baskets poised on their heads, marched in long, chanting files towards the _barbacoa_.

Outside the gate-entrance, upon the broad avenue leading to the main road, negro horse-tamers might every day be seen, giving their first lessons to rough colts fresh caught from the pastures; while inside the grand enclosure, fat oxen were being slaughtered to supply the markets of the Bay--huge, gaunt dogs holding carnival over the offal--while black butchers, naked to the waist, their brown arms reeking with red gore, stalked over the ground, brandishing blood-stained blades, and other instruments of their sanguinary calling.

Such scenes might be witnessed diurnally on the estate of Jacob Jessuron; but on the day succeeding that on which the slave-merchant had made his unsuccessful errand to Mount Welcome, a spectacle of a somewhat rarer kind was about to be exhibited at the penn.

The scene chosen for this exhibition was an inner inclosure, or courtyard, contiguous to the dwelling--the great house itself forming one side of this court, and opening upon it by a broad verandah, of a dingy, dilapidated appearance.

_Vis-a-vis_ with the dwelling was another large building which shut in the opposite side of the court--the two being connected by high ma.s.sive walls, that completed the quadrangle. A strong double gate, opening near the centre of one of these walls, was the way out--that is, to the larger enclosure of the cattle-penn.

From the absence of chimneys and windows, as well as from its plain style of architecture, the building that stood opposite the dwelling-house might have been taken for some large granary or barn.

But a peep into its interior at once controverted this idea. Inside could be seen groups of human beings, of all colours, from ebony black to jaundice yellow, in all att.i.tudes--seated, standing, or lying upon the floor--and not a few of them, in pairs, manacled to one another.

Their att.i.tudes were not more various than the expressions upon their faces. Some looked sad and sullen; some glanced fearfully around, as if waking from horrid dreams, and under the belief that they were realities; others wore the vacant stare of idiotcy; while here and there a group--apparently regardless of past, present, or future--chattered in their barbaric language with an air of gaiety that bespoke the most philosophic _insouciance_.

The building that contained them was the barac.o.o.n--the storehouse of the slave-merchant. Its occupants were his stores!

The "stock" had been just replenished by the cargo of the slave-ship, though there were also some old "bales" on hand; and these were in the act of entertaining the new comers, and initiating them into the ways of the place. Their means, of showing hospitality had been limited--as testified by the empty calabashes and clean-sc.r.a.ped wooden platters that lay scattered over the floor. Not a grain of rice, not a spoonful of the pepper-pot, not a slice of plantain, was left. The emptiness of the vessels showed that the rations had been as short as the viands were coa.r.s.e and common.

Outside, in the yard, were many groups, happier to escape from the stifled atmosphere of their crowded quarters; though that was freedom when compared with the 'tween-decks of the _middle pa.s.sage_.

Each group was gathered around some old hand--some compatriot who had preceded them across the great sea--and who, himself initiated into slavery under a western sky, was giving them some notions of what they had to expect. Eager looks of all, from time to time, directed towards the verandah, told that they were awaiting some event of more than ordinary interest.

There were white men in the courtyard--three of them. Two were of dark complexion--so swarth that many of the coloured slaves were as fair-skinned as they. These two men were lounging by the stairway of the verandah--one of them seated upon the steps. Both were sparely clad in check shirts and trousers, having broad-brimmed palmetto hats on their heads, and rough buskins on their feet and ankles.

Each carried a long, rapier-like blade--a _machete_--hanging over his hip in its leathern sheath; while a brace of fierce dogs--looped in cotton-rope leashes, attached to belts worn around their waists-- crouched upon the ground at their feet.

The faces of these men were clean-shaven--a pointed chin-tuft, or "bigote," alone being left; and the hair on the heads of both was close-cropped. Their sharp, angular features were thus fully displayed, denoting a high order of intelligence; which might have produced a pleasing effect, but for the p.r.o.nounced expression of cruelty which accompanied it.

The exclamations that from time to time escaped from their lips, with the few words of conversation that pa.s.sed between them, bespoke them of Spanish race. Their costume--their arms and accoutrements--their comrades, the fierce dogs--plainly proclaimed, their calling, as well as the country from whence they came. They were _cacadores de negros_-- negro-hunters from the Island of Cuba.

The third white man who appeared in the courtyard differed essentially from these--not so much in colour, for he was also of swarth complexion--but in size, costume, and calling. A pair of horse-skin riding-boots reached up to his thighs, on the heels of which appeared heavy spurs, with rowels three inches in diameter. A sort of monkey-jacket of thick cloth--notwithstanding its unsuitableness to the climate--hung down to his hips; under which appeared a waistcoat of scarlet plush, with tarnished metal b.u.t.tons, and a wool comforter of the same flaming colour. Crowning all was a felt hat; which, like the other articles of his dress, gave evidence of exposure to all weathers--sun and rain, storm and tornado.

A thick shock of curling hair, so dark in colour as to pa.s.s for black; a heavy beard, jet-black, and running most of the way around his mouth; amber-coloured eyes, with a sinister, shining light that never seemed to pale; lips of an unnatural redness gleaming through the black beard; and a nose of aquiline oblique, were the points in the personal appearance of this man that most prominently presented themselves.

The effect of this combination was to impress you with the conviction, that the individual in question belonged to the same nationality as the proprietor of the penn. Such was in reality the case: for the bearded man was another of the race of Abraham, and one of its least amiable specimens. His name was Ravener, his calling that of overseer: he was the overseer of Jessuron. The symbol of his profession he carried under his arm--a huge cart-whip. He had it by him at all hours--by night, as by day--for by night, as by day, was he accustomed to make use of it.

And the victims of his long lash were neither oxen nor horses--they were men and _women_!

No sparing use made he of this hideous implement. "Crack, crack!" was it heard from morn to eve; "crack, crack!" from eve to midnight; if need be, from midnight to morning again: for some said that the overseer of Jessuron never slept. "Crack, crack!" did he go through the courtyard, apparently proud of exhibiting his power before the newly-arrived negroes--here and there swinging his long bitter lash among the groups, as if to break up and scatter them in sheer wantonness.

Volume One, Chapter XXI.

A FIERY BAPTISM.

It was about twelve o'clock in the day. Jessuron and his daughter had just stepped forth into the verandah, and taken their stand by the bal.u.s.trade looking down into the court. The countenance of both betrayed a certain degree of solicitude, as if they had come out to be witnesses to some spectacle of more than common interest.

The house-wenches and other domestics, trooping behind them with curious looks, showed that some rare scene was to be enacted.

A small iron furnace, filled with live coals, had been placed in the courtyard, near the bottom of the steps. Three or four sullen-looking men--blacks and mulattoes--stood around it in lounging att.i.tudes. One of these stooped over the furnace, turning in the fire what appeared to be a soldering iron, or some other instrument of a brazier.

It was not that, however, as the spectators well knew. All who beheld it recognised the dreaded _branding iron_: for every one present, the whites and newly-arrived Africans excepted, had, ere now, felt its hot, seething fire in their flesh.

These last had already learnt what was preparing for them; and most of them stood regarding the preparations with looks of silent awe.

Some Coromantees there were among the number, who looked on with reckless indifference, chatting as gaily--and, at intervals, laughing as loudly--as if they awaited the beginning of some merry game. Little cared these courageous sons of Ethiopia--whose sable skins bore scars of many a native fray--little cared they for the scorching of that simple brand.

It was not long before the inhuman spectacle commenced. The entrance of Jessuron and his daughter was the cue to begin; and the bearded overseer, who was master of the ceremonies, had only been waiting till these should make their appearance. The man, from experience, knew that his master always gave his personal superintendence when such a scene was to be enacted. He knew, moreover, that his master's daughter was equally accustomed to a.s.sist at these interesting ceremonies!

"Go on, Mishter Ravener!" cried the Jew, on reaching the front of the verandah. "Theesh first," he added, pointing towards a group of Eboes-- who stood trembling with apprehension in one corner of the yard.

At a sign from the overseer, who was one of the taciturn sort, a number of old negroes--evidently used to the business--laid hands upon the Eboes, and led them up to the furnace.

As the victims were brought near to the fire, and saw the red iron glowing amid the coals, fear became strongly depicted upon their faces, and their frames shook with a convulsive terror. Some of them, the younger ones, screamed aloud, and would have rushed away from the spot, had they not been held in the grasp of the attendants.

Their appeals, made by the most pitiful looks and gestures, were answered only by unfeeling jeers and shouts of laughter, in which the old Jew himself joined--in which, incredible to relate, joined his beautiful daughter! Nor was it a mere smile which appeared on the face of the fair Judith; clear laughter rang from her lips, exhibiting her regular rows of ivory-like teeth--as if some fiend had a.s.sumed the form of an angel!

The Eboes were led forward, and held firmly by the a.s.sistants, while their b.r.e.a.s.t.s were presented to receive the brand. The red-hot iron flashed for a moment in the eyes of each; and then fell with a dull clap upon the clammy skin. Smoke ascended with a hiss, till the court became filled with a smell of roasting flesh! A struggle, some wild cries, and the operation was over. The slave was marked with those indelible initials, to be carried with him to his grave.