Mistress of Darkness

by Christopher Nicole

  And here too were a multitude of hurrying, bustling people; white men in the loose and comfortable garments Coke had noted on the dock; their women in muslins, tantalizingly sheer to European eyes, topped by similar broad-brimmed hats and the whole protected by enormous multi-coloured umbrellas carried by attentive Negro slaves; the slaves themselves, mostly wearing white, long gowns for the women, who concealed their heads in massive turbans, and shirts and pants for the men, who, in imitation of their white betters, sported ragged straw hats. There was a hum of conversation and a cackle of laughter in the air, even amongst the blacks. Certainly the fact that the mother country was waging a losing war, that just beyond the horizon a French fleet might be lurking, that not one of the blacks could be sure where his next meal might be discovered, seemed to have very little effect upon their good humour. But perhaps, Coke reflected, they were all inebriated by the unending, all-pervading, ever-penetrating sun, which made it almost obscene to indulge in anything approaching gloom or pessimism.

  And soon enough they were mounted and leaving the city behind, climbing steeply into the hills which surrounded the bay, following another of the white dust roads, built up between steep ditches to carry off the excessive water of the rainy season, now exposed to the heat, now shaded by the enormous spreading trees, cedar and cypress, tamarind and banyan, which loomed at the roadside, watched speculatively by hideous bald-headed crows perched on the lower branches even as they inhaled the endlessly sweet smell of the wild flowers, the orchids and the honeysuckle, which carpeted the ground between the stalwart trunks.

  It was a country which, Coke realized, in one brief morning could catch a hold of the imagination and turn dull care and the apprehension of approaching winter into a meaningless memory. It was a country in which a man would easily learn to live to the utmost, and laugh at his loudest, and perhaps love beyond his capacity. He glanced at his companion, not for the first time, with true curiosity. Matthew Hilton possessed this country, to all intents and purposes. Given the slightest ambition he could bestride it even more than did his cousin, than had his illustrious ancestors dominated Antigua. But the young man rode in a silent, self-possessed anger, a man on a mission, Coke realized, and one which had nothing to do with the fellowship of mankind.

  But now Matt reined, and pointed. 'Hilltop.'

  The road had traversed the side of a steep hill, which rose on their right to shut out the further ranges beyond, and which on their left dropped into a deep valley, mostly wooded, through which there raced a hurrying stream, no doubt seeking the sea, which could occasionally, through the gaps in the trees and the mountains, be discerned away to their left. But on coming round the hill it was discovered that the entire land dipped down to join the canyon, and spread out into a huge bowl of relatively flat country. Coke estimated that it could not be less than ten miles across to the next range. The floor of this valley had been cleared of natural vegetation, and replanted; from a height it suggested an enormous garden, and this, the Methodist missionary realized, was in fact a perfectly accurate description. In the main it was under cane, for the crop was nearly ripe, and it was simple to identify the tall, waving, slender green stalks which provided the wealth of an entire nation. But farther off, and towards the centre of the valley, clustering around the town which lay there, the canefields ended, and there was a large area under corn, and an enormous orchard of fruit trees, while beyond them there was an even larger cleared area, dotted with grazing horses, with a perimeter of deep green grass surrounded by a white railing, and beyond, a tiered stand.

  'My family is fond of racing their horses,' Matt said, and urged his mount forward.

  'And so have created their own race-course?' Coke asked in wonder, and speaking half to himself. 'But where is the hilltop which gives the place its name?'

  For they were descending the side of the hill now; the road led through the centre of the canefields themselves.

  'Why, there isn't one,' Matt said. 'My cousin Robert's father, who founded this place, first saw it and determined to have it, from the hill we have just descended. But he built his house in the centre of the valley itself, where it is never exposed to even the strongest of hurricane winds. You will see it soon enough.'

  Coke removed his hat to scratch his head, and hastily restored it again; the sun seemed to pounce on his scalp like a physical force, and now that they were sheltered from what breeze there was by the mountains surrounding the amphitheatre, it was remarkable how still it was. He could hear a sound of singing, and a moment later discovered he was indeed in the presence of other humans, as they rounded a bend and came upon a gang of men, forty strong, wearing nothing but cotton drawers and wielding sharpened machetes, long knives lacking points but with their cutting edges sharpened to a razor-like perfection, weeding the road, and chanting together with a most delightful cadence.

  The Negroes stopped, to look at the two white men, and then to stand, and touch their foreheads as the horses approached.

  Coke sidled closer to Matt. 'Is there no overseer?'

  ‘I imagine there is. But he is probably sleeping in some piece of shade.'

  'But...' Coke licked his lips. 'Those cutlasses would soon settle a man.'

  'Indeed,' Matt agreed.

  "Then what is to stop them absconding?' Coke asked, speaking more freely as the horses drew clear of the work gang, and the song started up again behind them, the rhythm keeping perfect time with the clatter of the blades.

  'The fear of retribution when they are retaken,' Matt said. 'You have come to the West Indies to preach freedom for the blacks. Dr. Coke, so surely you cannot also be afraid of them? If they are worthy of freedom, then they are worthy of your trust.'

  Coke decided to ignore the sarcasm. 'I was considering the matter from your point of view. It is an opinion held by some authorities on crime that fear of punishment is no deterrent to the average man. Jamaica is a large island. Surely there is somewhere they could hope to gain, where they could live free?'

  'Oh, indeed there is,' Matt agreed. 'Some distance away to the north is what is known as the Cockpit Country, a desolate place of low hills and gullies, ravines and morasses, impenetrable to an organized force, where is situated the kingdom of the Maroons, a nation composed entirely of runaways. But these are slaves who in the main escaped from their Spanish masters, better than a century ago. They do welcome certain new arrivals, but they have to be assured that they are not spies, and life in the Cockpit is extremely hard. And then there is the business of reaching there, with all the resources of the government and the plantocracy, dogs and mounted men, on their heels. And if they are retaken, why they are hanged, and at that are fortunate, as until quite recently it was their fate to be burned alive.'

  'What a sombre picture you do paint, to be sure, Mr. Hilton,' Coke observed. 'Yet I would hear more about these Maroons. Can the government tolerate such an armed force, for I assume they carry weapons, in the midst of their island?'

  'They can do very little about them, save they undertake a full-scale war.'

  'But do they not fear that the Maroons may undertake a full-scale war against them, a war in which no doubt the majority of your slaves would join?'

  . 'They are uneasy neighbours, to be sure, to those who are unwise enough to plant in their vicinity,' Matt agreed. 'But their leaders are as aware of our strength as we are of theirs. They know that, should the provocation be great enough, then we would certainly undertake the expense and toil of an expedition to destroy them, and they have sufficient sense to prefer to remain in isolation, and indeed, to subscribe to a Treaty of Peace between their king and our governor.'

  'My word,' Coke said. Then you do allow that the Negro is capable of good sense, and therefore intelligence.' 'Have I ever denied it?'

  'No,' Coke agreed. 'No, I suppose you have not. I wonder if it would be possible for me to visit these people?'

  'Indeed, sir, you would take your life in your hands were you to do so,' Matt observed. 'They ca
re little for white skins. And I had thought your business was to do with those who still suffer the lash.' He touched his horse with his heels, to increase its speed, and to signify he no longer wished to continue the conversation. Whatever his problems, Coke decided, he was a Hilton to his backbone, in his natural arrogance, his complete confidence in the way of life to which he had been educated, his almost regal bearing.

  He sighed, and urged his own mount onwards. Now they were passing more slave gangs, some composed of women as well as men, who squatted by the roadside, their white skirts tucked up around their thighs, and flicked their cutlasses at the creeping weeds with careless accuracy. Then they were riding by the orchard, and he was looking at trees he had never seen before, laden with a variety of unfamiliar fruit.

  Those are guavas,' Matt said. 'And beyond you'll see mango trees; they are great delicacies.'

  'I'm sure,' Coke agreed. But he was more interested in the approaching houses. The road led by the Negro village, row after row of orderly huts, each with its patch of vegetable garden at the back, almost every one with its dog and its cluster of small black children at the front, watched over by a female. The children were naked, and painfully thin and dirty, for their chief occupation seemed to be rolling in the dust, while the dogs were clearly of the most mongrel variety; but over the entire scene the brilliant sunshine bestowed a kind of aura which entirely negated the possibility of misery.

  Which made the shock of the six triangles just beyond the village gate all the more disturbing; these were presently unoccupied, but beyond them was a row of stocks, and in these were several black men, naked and drooping in the intense heat.

  'Good heavens,' Coke remarked. 'Of what can those poor people have been guilty?'

  'Nothing serious, I am sure,' Matt remarked. 'No doubt stealing or insubordination.'

  'And are they not the fathers of those children back there?' Coke demanded. 'Can a boy grow to manhood with other than hatred and despair in his heart at seeing his own flesh and blood so mistreated?'

  'The stocks are a part of their life, Dr. Coke, as disease and death are a part of ours. Are you an anti-Christian merely because your father has died?'

  'I at least know that he has been taken from me by God, and forever,' Coke said. 'May I ask how long those poor wretches must wait there?'

  'Until the jumper's next visit, I imagine,' Matt said.

  'The jumper?'

  'Whipping a slave is a very delicate matter,' Matt pointed out. 'The culprit must be made to feel the maximum of pain, yet must suffer the minimum of personal injury, or he would be useless for labour. Thus the business is undertaken by professional floggers, called jumpers, who tour the plantations renting out their skill. These men are confined to await their coming.'

  'My God,' Coke remarked. 'To sit there, in discomfort and disgrace, knowing all the while a worse fate awaits you?'

  But Matt was leading the way along a suddenly paved road, between beds of flowers, blooming with freshness despite the heat and the cloudless sky to suggest constant care, and indeed even as the two horsemen rode by, a gang of slaves with bucketsful of water paraded the paths between the flowerbeds, watched as ever by an overseer. And now they were passing the staff village, which could have been taken, Coke realized, straight from Sussex; the cottages were neat and painted, each was surrounded by a flower rather than a vegetable garden, there were sleepy cats and well-fed dogs basking in the sun, raising their heads at the sound of hooves but showing no further interest, while backing the whole was a large run filled with hens clucking and scratching. And at the end of the street there waited a neat little church with a high steeple. Only the absence of chimney-pots suggested that this was a West Indian rather than an English scene.

  And here too there were children, wearing muslin frocks and wide-brimmed hats, playing with their toys in the gardens and overseen by Negro nursemaids in clean cotton gowns and voluminous turbans. Their mothers were not immediately in evidence, but the sound of hooves brought several of them on to their porches; they gave an impression of undress, as not one appeared to indulge herself in a corset, and they also gave an impression of sallowness in their complexions, but that apart they too could have been transported straight from an English home, and were as quick as their compatriots across the sea to gather at their low fences for a gossip on the possible identity of these unannounced visitors. Clearly none of them recognized Matt after his long absence.

  Now the road was leading onwards, past the offices and the store houses, past the huge bulk of the grinding house, dominated by its chimney and its treadwheels, its vats and its rollers, for it was an unwalled structure, the roof being supported by uprights set some twenty feet apart, and it was possible to look right through to the farther side. Obviously this was in an effort to keep it cool during the labour and heat of reducing the cane juice to crystalline sugar. But for the moment the great machinery stood silent, although, as the grinding season was approaching, there were men busy with drums of grease, lubricating every moving part.

  And even the factory faded into insignificance as they approached the Great House. Here the land actually rose a little, but there the suggestion of a hilltop ended, and looking at the packed and walled earth Coke realized that this entire mound, which could hardly be less than an acre in extent, was artificial, and no doubt intended for defence. Equally surprising, and increasing the suggestion of a glacis, there were no flowerbeds on this slope, and no trees, but smoothly cut grass, while the house, on the top of the mound, was four-square and built of stone, resting on a massive loop-holed cellar which protruded some five feet above the level of the ground. On top of this all was splendid elegance and light; deep-set steps gave way to even deeper verandahs, floored with greenheart and reaching, by means of huge jalousied doors, to an interior which even from the saddle Coke could discern was composed of polished woods, cedar and mahogany, which panelled the walls as much as they composed the parquet blocks of the floors, while from the equally splendid ceilings there hung a succession of crystal chandeliers. Yet even this splendour seemed to anticipate the moment of defence; as they reined their horses at the foot of the steps, he saw that, folded flat against the external wall and half hidden by the open jalousies, there were enormously thick double doors of wood strengthened by iron struts, which could be closed to render them impregnable to any assault unsupported by cannon. He looked up at more verandahs, and now at jalousied windows as well, and above even that, at a sloping roof in which huge skylights were partially opened to admit light and air.

  'My word,' he said. ' 'Tis hard to decide whether your home is a fortress or a palace.'

  Matt smiled. 'Why, Dr. Coke, it is both of course. Welcome to Hilltop.'

  And indeed, they were being welcomed. From the open doorway there now issued a perfect army of domestics, maidservants in white and menservants in sky-blue coats and white breeches, and wearing powdered wigs, Coke observed to his amazement, although, in equal surprise, he noted that they wore neither stockings nor shoes, the whiteness of the breeches ending incongruously in their black legs.

  Of these the foremost was a tall, spare man with a remarkably dignified face, who peered at the two dusty horsemen as he might have regarded a beetle crawling upon his polished floor. 'Your business on Hilltop, gentlemen?' he asked, his voice lacking any suggestion of an accent, each word pronounced with careful perfection.

  'Maurice, you old fool,' Matt shouted. 'Have you entirely forgotten me, then?'

  The butler's head came up. 'Master Matthew? Well, praise be. Master Matthew,' he shouted. 'Hey, you there, take the bridles, man. Master Matthew is back. Matilda, you run upstairs and tell Mistress Rebecca that Master Matthew is back. Jonathan, get to the kitchen and prepare some punch. Harry, take horse and find Master Robert, and tell him Master Matthew is back. Man, Master Matthew...' he came running down the steps to assist Matt from the saddle. 'But you looking good, man,' he cried, embracing the young man, while his accent sadly slipped into t
he natural lilt of his people.

  Matt grinned at Coke. 'They cannot hate us all that much, can they, Doctor? Come inside. And Maurice, old fellow, it is good to be back, I'll tell you that.'

  He stamped up the stairs, flicking dust from his boots, Coke at his elbow, to pause in amazement at his first glimpse of the interior. Fortress or palace? But the suggestion of a fortress ended at the iron-bound doors.

  His first impression was one of space, more space indeed than he had ever seen in any house he had ever been in. The entry hall stretched for some sixty feet in front of him, a vast expanse of polished parquet, uncluttered by even a chair, although there were tables along the wall laden with brass ornaments, and a gigantic stand close by the front door, on to which the servants were placing their hats and sticks as they removed them from their keeping.

  Halfway along the hall, on the left-hand wall, there was a wide, deep staircase, leading up to a similarly massive gallery, fronted by carved mahogany balustrades, which looked down on them, and on which a coterie of giggling Negresses, all wearing spotless white, had gathered to shout their young master's name and clap their hands in pleasure. Beyond the gallery were other doors, and no doubt other rooms, but Coke's attention was already recalled to the floor on which he stood, for from the hall itself there opened four enormous archways; that facing him, at the far end beyond the stairs, was curtained in red velvet, and clearly led to the servants' quarters; that on the left gave access to a room scarcely-smaller than the hall, yet filled with a mahogany dining-table capable of seating a regiment, he did not doubt, and surrounded by no less than five dozen chairs upholstered in crimson velvet; in keeping with the general incongruity of the whole building, this vast area was set with but a single place. The walls of this room were surrounded with sideboards laden with a variety of silver and crystal, above which hung paintings of men and women, all of them displaying the remarkably fine Hilton features, interspersed only occasionally with the rounded good looks of the Warners.