Ram; being the tale of one Ramillies Anstruther, 1704-55 ..

by Taylor, Winchcombe

  "Now, sir, I'll thank you to apologize for knocking me down."

  "I apologize," he mumbled, relieved to find only a smear on his fingers. "But damn them what comes between me and my property."

  "Capting—Capting Anstruther!" came a gasp from behind. Ram turned and saw the "Property," face bloody and one arm pressed hard against his side. "Don't you know me, y'r honor?"

  "Who are ye?" Ram tried to recognize the blurred, anguished voice.

  " 'Ilary, y'r honor—'Ilary Brahwn! Cor, you know me, sir!"

  "Ye sod, how dare ye know a gent like the captain!" Travis bellowed virtuously. "I'll bur}' ye in a dunghill for such insolence!"

  "Hold!" Ram intervened. "I do know him. He once did me a service."

  "More'n he ever did me! Paid five pund sterling to the ship's master for him and never had a day's worth out of him this three years."

  Ram turned to O'Brien. "Rum's illegal as a trade article, but it's not barred as medicine. I feel cursedly ill myself, and I doubt not all of you gentlemen ail also." There was a gust of laughter, and O'Brien bent below his counter for noggins. When the others drank, Ram handed his to Hilary.

  "What the—?" Travis began, shocked.

  "I said we all ailed." Ram smiled coldly. "I'd say Brown's worse off than any of us. Drink up, Hilary."

  A sob broke from the battered cockney as he obeyed, and part of the raw spirit spilled down his bruised chin.

  Ram was wondering what he could do for him. "I know the rogue's of small use," he told Travis, "but surely you wouldn't want to murder him! Is he your property for life?"

  "Seven years I paid for. Dung! Too soft to plow a field or handle me hawses proper or keep camp."

  " 'Tain't so, s'welp me!" Hilary protested in Ram's ear. " 'E broke me arm once, and now 'e's stove in me ribs."

  "Newgate scum," Ram agreed with Travis, ignoring him. "So doubtless you'd be willing to be rid of him—for a consideration."

  "We-ell, now. Cap, he ain't so bad I'd want to be rid of him—not for nothing. He's me pack-hawse man and he knows the Uchee tongue a bit, and he can cook up food vittles and—"

  "Yet you were ready to kill him, when we so unluckily became embroiled." Ram's thrust brought a laugh from the others.

  "Fifteen pund—gold," Travis said hastily. "Couldn't let him go for less."

  "Done!" It was a stiff price, but Ram remembered how Hilary had

  bandaged his wounds with a scrap of shirt tail. He counted out fourteen guineas and six shilHngs. "You've his indentures with you?"

  "Kin git 'em in a minute," Travis agreed dehghtedly. The coins were worth £120 Carohna currency.

  "0-oh, Capting!" Hilary's gasp was ecstatic.

  "Another round, gentlemen?" Ram invited. "Mr. Travis, I start at dawn, so I'll thank ye to have those indentures to me beforehand." He saluted the traders and left, with his new servant limping behind.

  Aboard the piragua, Peg-Leg turned surgeon. Three of Hilary's ribs were cracked, and ugly bruises were appearing where Travis had narrowly missed his groin; his face was a mess and his nose broken. But as the craft dropped downriver, he burst into quavering song, for, with Ram now owning his time, he had been transported into Paradise.

  Back at Savannah, Ram found a supply piragua about to leave for Fort Argyle, so sent Rob and Hilary home in it. He himself went on to Charles Town with Peg-Leg, to report to Governor Johnson upon the western defenses. But Johnson had just died and Lieutenant Governor Broughton was away upcountr)' and not expected back for some days.

  So Ram returned to his tavern. There he was hailed by Pilot Simon Parks, who was supping with two friends, Under Bailiff Savage and Captain Caleb Davis, a sea trader.

  "How's your stock, sir?" Parks queried. "Ye've as fine horses and cows as any Ah've seen in America. Ye must 'ave a ready sale for 'em."

  "Haven't tried yet. But I do have some young stuff ready."

  "What's your mind on price. Captain?" Davis asked. "I know where they'll pay double what they do here for good English horseflesh. Consider it, sir. No man should turn down a handsome profit."

  Ram agreed. "Where are your friends?"

  "St. Augustine. I trade down there reg'lar. Last voyage, they asked me to keep me eye out for good stock."

  "So! Don't they have good animals of their own?"

  "Not laike yours, sir," Parks contributed. "Run to seed, Ah'd say. Needs good Yorkshire stoof to grade 'em oop. Right, Mr. Savage?"

  "I'd think so, though I'm no great judge." The official had an Irish accent. He turned to Ram. "Have ye never been there, sir? 'Tis said

  the Dons are grand friends, if they hke ye; though I've small way of knowing mesilf, being occupied here with me duties."

  "Lookee, sir—" Davis began, but broke off with a groan. "Crave pardon! Rotten with disease, from voyaging southward years agone." Ram saw then that the seaman's arms and legs were puffed horribly. "But I'll trade your stock for ye any time, and I won't charge ye but a modest fee for the shipping and handling."

  "Agreed." Ram was delighted. "I've two fine stallions and a brood mare. But I'd want to go and do the selling myself."

  "If ye so wish. Where can I squint at the animals?"

  "Why not at Shoreacres? We could load them straight aboard. There's three fathoms by my jetty at full tide."

  "I've a run to make to Bermuda first, so say about two nionths and I'll partake of your hospitality, sir." Davis turned fretfully to Savage. "Bear a hand to git me aloft, will ye, John? Stairs is mortal hard when ye've a hogshead o' water in yer legs."

  But Savage relegated the work to Parks and turned back to Ram. "How fares it in Augusta, sir? Are the nations peaceful or do the French incite 'em? We hear so little of the truth here."

  "All was well when I left."

  "How go our fortifyings, sir?" the other pursued. " 'Tis said Captain Mackay's built strongly."

  Ram's reply was curt: "The captain's there to keep order for both Carolina and Georgia. Many traders want to debauch the Indians with rum, so some such authority is necessary."

  "What matter if the brutes drink thimselves stupid? Our rangers keep them in control; there's no harm they can do the settlements. At least," Savage smiled, "that's the feeling of our merchants, I'm told."

  Ram rose. "Were you here in the last Indian war? I hear some bands, drunk on rum, slaughtered planters and their families near this very town. I've a distant plantation of my own and folk I've no wish to find scalped. Servant, sir."

  Grand news came from Dalesview, A letter from Sue enclosed a looo-guinea draft and said there would be more whenever he needed it, for the mines were at last bringing in handsome profits.

  "Now we can go home!" Lucinda cried excitedly. "When can we sail?"

  "Not while I'm still Mr. Oglethorpe's deputy," he protested. Besides, he had use for this money; he must repay Joseph the overdue loan on the plate, and there were still improvements to be made.

  Lucinda sulked and prayed for Oglethorpe's return. Yet that Christmas she drove herself to exhaustion to make the feast a success. The yule log was dragged in, mistletoe from the scrub oaks hung from the door frames—causing much kissing and laughter—the long table was beautifully decorated and groaning with venison, wild turkeys, fowls, rounds of beef, pasties and pies. And there was wine and great tankards of ale.

  The most colorful guests were Hillispilli and Toonahowi, long since back from London, The wanior had largely reverted to his original state and wore a fine broadcloth coat with only his loincloth below; yet he was so gravely courteous that even Lucinda was impressed. Not so the boy, who lisped, "Eged!" and "Stap me!" like a London beau. He still wore the suit in which he'd been presented to King George, though now it was stained and torn.

  Early in the new year, Davis arrived in his sloop. The three horses were got aboard and also a fine young bull. Davis spent the daylight hours in a chair by the wheel. He often took the wheel while passing through the narrow passages of the inland way, which he knew thoroughly. He told Ram
that Sapelo was actually two islands, the northeastern being where Blackbeard the pirate had careened his ship and where he was supposed to have buried his treasure.

  "If he did, 'tain't there now. Went over every foot when I was young. Dug up a skeleton with a ball in the skull, but no doubloons. They was good days, when a man did what he listed. Too civilized now. King's officers always prying into a man's affairs. Might as well be in London now as Charles Town. Savannah's getting as bad, with port officers nosing into what's in your hold."

  He indicated sites on islands where Spanish missions and forts had been. "But now all they want is to hold Augustine. Suppose we took their treasure galleons in the Bahama Channel? Ruination of Spain." He laughed gustily. "Aye, we'd ruin 'em sure if Frankie Drake still lived. Even Blackbeard would, but the Virginians vowed he didn't reckernize our own flag when he saw it, so they sent Lieutenant Maynard to teach him manners by lopping off his head."

  When he saw Ram's smile, he bellowed anew. "Nay, sir, I weren't

  one of his crew. But pirates is human hke the rest of us. I've knowed some. Daring, they was. But we've grown soft, what with parsons and books and such idle refinements."

  Next day, off St. Augustine's bar, he took the vessel over as competently as if he were the port pilot. A guarda costa boat came out, and he jabbered Spanish with its crew. Ram listened, but pretended ignorance of the language.

  After docking, Davis was carried ashore by slaves to the house of Roger Latham, an English merchant with a Spanish wife. Upon hearing of the stock, Latham proposed they be unloaded at once and taken to his own pens on the west side of the town.

  "I'd best go with them," Ram said. "The bull's been unruly at sea and I'd not risk him breaking free to do damage." Actually, he wanted to examine the town, especially to see Fort San Marco on the north side, which was Spain's defiance to British America. But he made his reconnaissance brief and returned to the sloop just as Latham's Yamasee slave, Pablo, was goading the bull down the gangplank.

  Remembering in time not to speak in Spanish, Ram angrily bade a seaman tell the Indian to desist. "If the brute's maddened he'll be dangerous," he warned. "Gently, or he'll break free."

  When told, Pablo nodded impassively and, instead, pulled on the bull's nose rope. Like most Indian slaves, he moved with a curious shuffling gait, his heel tendons having been cut through to prevent his running away.

  Ram went with the animals through the town to Latham's pens outside the west wall. This last was merely a ditch-protected cactus-studded bank, with a few stone bastions along its length. Easy to overrun by determined troops, he decided, though the fort might be as hard to take as any European citadel.

  After three days, he sold a stallion to a Don Gregorio Camacho, who owned a hacienda northwest of the town. Upon the pretext that the animal was still nervous from the voyage, he insisted on delivering it himself, and rode out with a mounted slave as guide and leading the mare to return upon. Don Gregorio received him cordially and paid his high price. Ram took another route back in order to see more of the country. Westward the ground was marshy beyond the short St. Sebastian River which made St. Augustine virtually an island. Northeast was a decaying fort which the slave called Moosa. A good

  place to hold, Ram thought, if ever we attack from the landward side.

  Still feigning ignorance of Spanish, he let one of the Latham's pretty daughters teach him a few words, which he carefully mispronounced. Everyone, therefore, talked before him without restraint, and he found how traitorously garrulous Davis was about the English colonies' defenses; he even volunteered to buy the Spaniards all the muskets and powder they wanted in Charles Town itself.

  The other stallion and the mare were sold, but not the bull. Au-gustinians, it seemed, thought of cattle as a source only of meat and leather, so saw no reason to improve the breed. Most herds, they said, lived wild in the bush; let them remain so. Knowing his animal's value, therefore, Ram was quite content to take it home again. He was now ready to leave whenever Davis was ready. Although as a foreigner he had not been allowed to enter the fort, he felt he had learned enough about its strength.

  But on the morning of sailing day, Don Gregorio sent word that he was so satisfied with the stallion he wished to have the bull also, and would ride in to buy it by noon,

  "Didn't I say they'd take all ye had?" Davis chuckled, "Tide don't turn till four, so there's ample time to make the sale."

  But when Camacho hadn't arrived by two, he became irritable. "Dealt with the Dons half me life. Manana, that's their motto. Fair enough traders, but slothful. We can miss the tide, but 'twill mean my costs run on and I'll have to charge ye demurrage,"

  "Bid them drive the brute down to the water front," Ram decided.

  Pablo began leading the bull back through the town. But then Don Gregorio clattered up, waving and shouting. He had, he admitted lugubriously, used his spurs too hard on the stallion, so had been thrown. Only after a long chase had he been able to catch him and finish the trip. Would Senor Anstruther accept his apologies and inform him of the fine bull's price?

  Amused, Ram named a figure. Don Gregorio politely named one lower. So the bargaining began, with Interpreter Davis becoming more impatient. Aware of this, Ram at last gave way and the sale was consummated by his receiving a large bag of silver reals.

  A group of street idlers, mainly slaves, had stopped to listen and to admire the bull's sleek blackness. One Negro began indicating its finer points with his long staff. But Pablo shouted angrily and knocked

  the staff aside—causing its point to scrape across the creature's eyes. There came a bellow as the beast tore free and, the rope trailing, charged down the street, sideswiping Don Gregorio's mount as it passed. The stallion reared, and once more the Spaniard took a bad toss.

  Instantly Ram replaced him in the saddle and raced after the runaway. The street gave upon the plaza just opposite the church, toward which the now-frantic bovine lumbered as if seeking sanctuary.

  Coming down the church steps was a woman, leading a small child.

  Forgetting his role, Ram yelled in Spanish for her to turn back. She faltered, caught up the child, then froze, terrified. Level with the bull now, he bent low, tr}'ing to grab the trailing rope. But the woman, screaming, had flung herself to the ground, shielding the child with her body.

  In desperation he launched himself from the horse onto the bull, locking his arms around its neck. His impact swerved it and, though his legs dragged, he held on. Help came panting up: Pablo caught the rope and, many volunteers pulling and shoving, at last turned the heaving brute back whence it had come.

  Breathless and shaken, Ram went to the woman, who was sitting up and hugging the child. She was a Negress, clearly a nurse, for her charge was European. In broken Spanish he asked if either was hurt; but, saying no, she called upon the saints to preserve and bless him. Relieved, he patted the wide-eyed tot, took the stallion from an onlooker and remounted. Waving and smiling, he rode back into the street, where he met Davis and the limping Don Gregorio, to whom he returned the horse and bade farewell. Then he went toward the sloop.

  Thus he failed to see a woman rush from the governor's mansion toward the child, but halt to stare after him incredulously. He was too far off to hear her cry, "John! John!"

  As no harm had come to Juan, Brian was puzzled. Usually, Erinne had perfect control of herself, yet she seemed dazed and had gone to her room, begging to be left alone. He had complied, especially as he still had business to complete with the governor. But a few details now remained and tomorrow he could sail back to the Havana.

  "If the French agree to stir up the tribes, the English will be far

  loo engaged to annoy us," he told Don Francisco, studying a large-scale map. "But by all means have your agents buy up all the arms the Carolina merchants will sell. It will mean so much less for their own troops when the time comes. No doubt Davis will do this for you, for he'd sell his very soul for money."

  Governor Francisco d
el Moral Sanchez sighed enviously. "What a relief you're in Cuba, Baron, weaving your net, and with money to do it. Alas, how I've pleaded for only enough to pay a few bribes—yet one would think I'd asked for the wealth of Peru itself! All that's saved our treasure galleons thus far is that the same winds that blow them out into the Atlantic prevent the English warships from leaving Charles Town harbor. But with a port, say, at Sansimona, they could lie in wait and overtake the galleons before they reach the open sea. I only pray the heretics are too stupid to do it."

  'They're not stupid—would to God they were." Brian sipped his wine. "Why does Oglethorpe waste his time over a few debtors in the wilderness? Most of the trustees wish merely to help the unfortunate, but he and a few others must have more sinister motives."

  "But surely Oglethorpe's family is devoted to your King James! I hear a sister is even maid of honor to our own Queen in Madrid. How then is it possible he should scheme against us?"

  "Who can tell? History has shown many such. Could he be aspiring to carve an empire for himself and grow so powerful he could treat as an equal with Spain, France or even England itself? We know he's adroit in drawing the Indians to him. Perhaps he hopes to weld them into a great confederation."

  "Could he be bought?" del Moral wondered. "Not with money, since I understand he has wealth, but with honors and titles?"

  "He's already heir to his brother's barony, and certainly King James would raise him to even a dukedom to oblige His Catholic Majesty of Spain. But so far he seems contented with a mere gentleman's rank. No, since we can't fathom his real purpose, we must regard him as a dangerous enemy," Brian paused. "Already he's giving lands to half-pay officers; two arrived lately—Pinkerton and Pennifeather. And another's his close friend and my personal enemy. It's he who's here at this moment with Davis—a Captain Anstruther."

  "I'll have him arrested. We can accuse him of being a spy."

  "He doubtless is, but we can't afford another blunder like the one