Caribee

by Christopher Nicole

  ‘I intend to regain possession of my wife and Yarico,' Edward said, speaking very slowly and clearly. 'Alive, if they are yet alive, and I am sure they are. If not, their bodies. I could not live knowing I had condemned them to a living death. Nor am I acting entirely selfishly in this matter. Wapisiane may regard his success of yesterday as vindication of his revenge. The Indians who accompanied him will see it only as a great victory over the white man. Their thoughts will already be turning towards the accomplishment of other triumphs. Unless we show them, and show them quickly, that the white man is not to be trifled with, that he will hit back, twice as hard as he was hit.'

  'Could we show them that,' Philip said. 'But how is it to be done? We assume these savages came from Dominica. Why not St Vincent? Or St Lucia? There are Carib tribes there.'

  Tell them, Tom,' Edward commanded.

  The boy had been silent throughout the meal, watching and listening to the talk. Now he licked his lips. 'People of smoke come to Antigua.'

  'People of smoke?' Anne Warner asked.

  'Major Judge will have heard of them,' Edward said.

  'That I have,' Judge agreed. "They are from Dominica, to be sure, and inhabit the crater of a still active volcano, 'tis said. But how can this boy know that?"

  'Because he speaks their language? Edward said. 'Does that also answer your question, Philip?'

  'So we know they came from Dominica. Is that not an island every bit as large as St Kitts, if not larger, and entirely covered with forest and mountain? Did not you and I, Edward, with a score of men, successfully resist over a thousand Spaniards here in St Kitts? How can you consider leading a force which will necessarily be much smaller into the forests of Dominica?"

  'Because I know the forest and I know the Carib,' Edward said. ‘I know how to fight him, and I know how much he wants to fight me.'

  ‘It will involve meaningless bloodshed,' Judge said. 'On military grounds, Edward, I would have to say that your plan has small chance of success.'

  'Believe us, Edward,' Anne said. 'We honour and respect your desire to go after Aline, but you must see that it is impossible.'

  Edward looked at his father.

  Tom Warner pulled his beard. ‘It is indeed a terrible position in which to find oneself,' he said. 'Supposing you were Governor of St Kitts, Edward. What would you do?"

  ‘I'd call for volunteers.'

  Tom nodded, thoughtfully. 'Then you have my permission to do so.'

  'Sir Thomas,' Anne exclaimed. 'Surely....'

  'Hush, woman. These are men's affairs.'

  ‘I thank you, sir,' Edward said. 'And your own part? For this will be important.'

  Tom sighed. 'You and I have seldom followed the same path, Edward, saving on that first and most important occasion, when we set sail for these islands. And no matter what trials have come upon us in the years between, I have never regretted that momentous step. Nor can I convince myself that I have always been right and you wrong. I know now that the massacre at Blood River was a mistake. In allowing Wapisiane to live, you attempted to assuage your conscience, and I cannot blame you for that. Nor can I ever do less than honour to your spirit which has preserved this colony for me.

  The day you set foot upon Dominica, be sure that I shall be at your side.'

  'Father.' Edward thrust out his hand.

  Philip chewed Ins lip. ' 'Tis certain suicide.'

  Tom did not look at him. 'You shall not accompany us, Philip, no matter how hard you beg. I cannot risk the destruction of my entire family at one blow. You will stay here and care for your stepmother and your stepbrother, and your niece. And care for them well. And you, Harry. I must leave an experienced soldier behind.'

  'Oh, what rubbish you men do talk,' Anne Warner cried angrily. 'What, will the pair of you storm Wapisiane's stronghold? You'll not get a man to follow you. They have more sense. God curse the day you were born, Edward Warner. You have ever been nothing more than a troublemaker. Go on, then, call for your volunteers, and let us have this mad scheme buried within the hour.'

  "Aye,' Tom said. The people are waiting.' He stepped outside, on to the raised porch of the new Government House, from whence he commanded a view down the main street, which began in the square immediately beneath him. Here the entire populace of Sandy Point seemed to have gathered, milling about, jostling, and babbling into the still evening air. Tom clapped his hands, and again, and then seized a stick and struck the gong which stood close to the steps. The reverberations echoed across the rooftops, and the crowd slowly grew silent.

  'You'll all know why we are assembled here,' Tom shouted. 'Our neighbouring colony of Antigua has been attacked by the Carib Indians, and English Harbour destroyed. Women were slaughtered there, as well as children and men. But what is worse, two of the women were carried off by the savages. Mrs Warner, wife of the deputy governor of the colony, and my daughter-in-law, and the Princess Yarico. God alone knows, and I hesitate to suppose, what terrible sufferings have already been inflicted upon these two unfortunate ladies, but our knowledge of the Carib leads us to suppose they may still be alive. As Christian men we cannot remain here in that knowledge, without making some attempt to rescue them.'

  He paused, and the crowd stared at him, although immediately there were whisperings, mostly by the women.

  Tom licked his lips, and held up his hands. 'However, this responsibility we have is of small account when set beside the responsibility we have to our own women and children. Were this expedition to be purely punitive it would not have my backing for an instant. But it must be more than that. As of yesterday we must consider ourselves at war with the Indians. No doubt this is a tragedy some of us long foresaw. We must not shrink from it now. The Indians in Dominica must be made to know that we will not permit them to attack English colonies, no matter how small and isolated, with impunity. That we will visit them with twice the destruction even.' time they dare take the field against us. Believe me, my friends, this is a necessary act, or you may well awake one day to see Sandy Point itself in flames. It has happened before.'

  Again the anxious pause, and again the whisperings.

  ‘It will be dangerous,' Tom shouted. 'Make no mistake about that. But we have the advantage of being led by the fore most Indian fighter in these islands, Captain Edward Warner. I do not have to tell you, lads, that Captain Warner defended this island against the entire might of Spain, with but twenty men at his back, and those unarmed when the campaign started. We can rely upon him. He has lived amongst the Indians, can think like them, anticipate their every move. He will lead us to victory.'

  'And it is his wife we are going to regain,' someone shouted.

  Tom scanned their faces. 'Why, yes,' he agreed. ‘It is his wife. Now, lads, you came here to plant sugar, and grow rich. By the terms of the agreements you signed with me, you are duty bound to take up your arms in defence of St Kitts when I call upon you to do so. Nothing more. But I would ask you to volunteer to accompany my son and myself to Dominica, resting sure hi your minds that this is the surest way of defending this island that we have, and that any other course were to invite the Indians to descend upon us at will. Now, then, who'll be first to volunteer?'

  He stopped, and wiped his brow, and the crowd stared back at him.

  ‘If Captain Warner is so big an Indian fighter,' someone called, ‘How come he got beat in Antigua?'

  'We were attacked in two places at once,' Edward replied. ‘I lacked the men.'

  'And will you not lack the men on this occasion, no matter how many go with you?’ asked someone else.

  'This time we will be attacking, not defending,' Edward said. 'The Indians will not anticipate such an action on our part. No white people save the Spaniards, and then only on occasion, have assaulted the Caribs themselves.'

  'Because it is too difficult,' called a voice. 'And for those of us who are taken, 'tis the stake. Long odds, Captain Warner.'

  'We are not here to argue,' Tom bellowed. 'Who'll volunteer? What
about you Antigua people? Your wives were killed by those savages. Will you not seek to avenge them? Who'll volunteer?’

  To save a French whore and a savage?' Someone muttered.

  'By God, sir, I’ll have your tongue,' shouted one of the French officers who had accompanied de Poincy.

  'Save your anger, monsieur,' Tom called. 'For the Caribs. Will you volunteer?'

  To save a French lady, sir? Why, that I will. And my friend here.'

  Two blades. There's a start,' Tom muttered. 'Now, come my friends. Who'll join our force?’

  'Force?' someone shouted. 'Four madmen? You brought us this distance to grow cane, Sir Thomas. Not to be eaten by savages. Twas that one certain fate you promised would never be mine.'

  'Aye,' someone else agreed.' Tis best we all go home to our beds.'

  The crowd was already breaking up, talking and laughing amongst themselves, while Edward and Tom stared at them in impotent fury.

  'Hold there,' shouted a familiar voice. Tell not lack for support from us, Ted, lad.'

  'Brian Connor,' Edward yelled in delight.

  The same, your honour. I came as soon as I heard the sad news. Tis sorry I am to bring so few, but I could not leave my people without defence.' Connor forced his way up the sheet, clad in helmet and breastplate, and followed by five of the Irishmen.

  'Six men?' Tom asked.

  'Good men,' Edward said, and ran down from the porch. 'Brian.' He clasped his friend's hand. 'By God, but it is good to see you. You know our purpose?'

  To rescue your lady wife, and the princess. Aye. We'll have a share in that, Ted, even if the lass did put an arrow in my thigh, and through poor Paddy O'Reilly. By Christ, it'll be good to get back to campaigning.'

  'With ten men you'll storm Dominica?' Anne Warner asked contemptuously.

  Edward hesitated, glancing from her to the men. 'We'll make our plans in the morning, Brian. And I'll be pleased if you two gentlemen will attend us then as well. For this night you are our guests. But once again, I thank you.'

  He walked back under the sweep of the roof. De Poincy waited. 'A sad business, Mr Warner. But you can expect no more from these people. They are colonists who will, we trust, make good militiamen when the tune comes. Not soldiers playing at colonists.'

  'You'll take a glass with us, monsieur,' Tom said.

  The slaves,' Edward said. 'Would they not fight, if given weapons and promised their freedom?'

  'Mon Dieu,' de Poincy said. 'But the young man has gone mad.'

  ‘Indeed, it sounds so,' Philip agreed. 'Arm the slaves? Promise them their freedom? Where would our lives and indeed our profit be in that event?"

  'The people would not stand for it, Edward,' Tom said. 'And to say truth I do not think it would be possible. Our slaves are not yet reconciled to their fate here, and it would be idle to pretend they would fight for us.'

  'So, then, admit that you are defeated, and abandon this wild scheme,' Anne Warner said. 'Surely you can see it is an impossibility, now, Edward. More, it is a dereliction of duty. While you stand here dreaming, Antigua lies deserted and undefended. Who can say what forces are already descending upon it? And what of those who survived, and who have abandoned their homes? Should you not be preparing to lead them back, suitably reinforced? I have no doubt that you will find volunteers for that purpose. You have been appointed governor. You must accept the responsibilities of that honour.'

  There was a short silence, broken only by the gurgle of the liquid as Tom Warner poured the wine.

  'Your stepmother is right, sir,' de Poincy observed. 'Chivalry is an admirable concept, but as de Camoens has so admirably illustrated, the age is dead, and our gallantry must now be tempered with that due sense of responsibility to others of which Lady Warner spoke.'

  Edward drained his glass and went to the window. By Christ, what do they know, he thought. What do they know of love? What did I know of love, up to yesterday morning? So will she be worth loving, when she is regained? She will have been spared nothing by Wapisiane. And no doubt not by Wapisiane alone. She will have been humiliated a dozen, a hundred times, her body made the receptacle for every insult the Indians can think of. Yet will she still be alive, and living, she will prevent herself from going mad by a single thought, a single hope, that of rescue by her husband, by the one man in all the Caribee Isles, perhaps, capable of accomplishing so much. ‘I have built my life upon the rock which is your determination.' That hope, that dream, that belief, would maintain at once her sanity and her life. To fail such a responsibility would surely be to damn himself forever.

  Tom Warner stood at his shoulder, a full glass in either hand. ‘I'm afraid they are right, boy. We have done all we could. Now it is time to cease being husbands and fathers, and become what we are also, governors and leaders, men of responsibility. I know, and you know, that the task of leading involves some painful decisions. Can we truthfully balance two lives against the probable cost of regaining them? Have we the slightest justification for so doing? Have we. . . .'

  He checked as the rumble of the explosion came rolling up the shallow lull, and even as they stared through the window into the darkness, they saw the next flash and heard the next roar.

  'Cannon, by God,' Philip cried. 'We are assailed.' 'With blank shot?' Edward demanded. 'That is an empty charge.'

  'But who in the name of God....' Tom led them outside, but the first boats were already ashore, and running up the street came a dozen seamen, led by a short, thickset man with a heavy moustache. 'John Painton.'

  'None other, Tom Warner,' Painton shouted. 'And right glad am I to see you still here, old friend. Edward, is that you? By God, boy, I am truly grieved to hear of your trouble.'

  'But how. . . .' Edward squeezed the proffered hand.

  ‘I spoke with the Dandy sloop but this morning, while running south, and put all sail on to get here before your expedition left.'

  'Expedition?'

  Painton frowned. 'You are going after those savages, are you not?'

  'Why, such is my intention, certainly,' Edward said. ‘If it can be done. I will confess I am experiencing some difficulty in recruiting an army.'

  ‘You have one, Ned. And a ship. The Plymouth Belle is yours, and its crew. Why, man, I have seventy fighting men there, who only want to sharpen their cutlasses on some red devil's hide. We'll sail in the morning.'

  'By God,' Tom said. 'You are the answer to a prayer, John.'

  'A prayer,' Edward whispered. He had not thought to pray. But perhaps Aline had been doing that.

  'The answer to a prayer,' Anne Warner said in disgust. 'To a death wish, you mean. You go, Tom Warner. Go and spend your life uselessly. Go and the in some fever-ridden swamp. God curse you, Edward Warner, for bringing your troubles down on our shoulders. God curse you.'

  The Plymouth Belle weighed anchor at dawn. She carried eighty men, every one armed and equipped to the best standards the Warners could manage, and twelve dogs. Her guns were loaded and spare ball was piled on her decks beside each piece. The sky was clear and the breeze was light and from the north east as she slipped out of Great Road and directed herself to the passage between the Islands.

  Almost every inhabitant of the two towns turned out to watch her go, and give her a cheer, even if no doubt the majority of those who stayed behind had little faith in the success of the expedition. Yet eighty men was no mean force. Edward stood on the poop and watched the green land slipping astern, watched the waving flags, the cross of St George and the fleur-de-lis, flapping in the breeze, the skirts of the women and the waving arms of the men.

  His father was beside him. 'Well, boy, do you remember the first morning we stood upon this poop, and watched Guyana dropping below the horizon?'

  'Aye,' Edward said. 'What a long, and uneven, road lay ahead of us.'

  'You have regrets?'

  Edward glanced at him. 'No. I have no regrets, Father. I've done a deal with my life. Not so much as you, perhaps, but then I am somewhat younger.'

/>   Tom Warner pulled his beard. 'Ned, you and I have not had many opportunities of speaking, as men. But these next few days will be a time for manhood, if ever it was needed.'

  'Do you doubt our success?'

  ‘In the field? Rather do I fear it. You are acting here from an obligation. Tis your heritage, your very manhood, drives you on. Not your heart.'

  'My heart is scarcely a relevant matter, at this moment, Father.'

  'But if our expedition is to be truly successful, it wall be most relevant at the end.' He sighed, and pulled his beard some more. ‘It is too easy to give advice. To admonish. I would but say this, and then I am done. This is a mighty undertaking, and although, believe me, I do not doubt its success for one instant, yet am I too aware that it must cost lives, and perhaps make the attainment of peace between ourselves and the Caribs forever impossible. None of these dungs daunt me in the least where the wife of my son is concerned. Yet are they of great importance, not only to us, but to our grandchildren. They can only be tossed away to the accomplishment of some even more important end. That end is the prosperity of you and your family, and through you, your colonists. However Aline conies back to you, Edward, she is the reason for our venture, and your love for her, no less than hers for you, will be the cause of the deaths that will occur. There can be no quibbling with that point. And I will say this in conclusion: However she conies back to you, if you loved her when you married her, three years ago, and when, no doubt, you first made love to her even before that, she will be the same woman now, beneath whatever scars Wapisiane may have inflicted upon her. To forget that for an instant were to make a mockery of this entire expedition. Now I have done.'

  He stumped for the ladder, and Edward turned back to lean on the rail and watch St Kitts dwindle. Now he could see Antigua as well, green on the eastern horizon, just as by looking to the ship's head he could see the peaks of the other islands unfolding, and perhaps, already, even, the greenest of all, the mountains of Dominica. The Caribee Isles. Thomas Warner's grant. This was their dream, to spread over all these green mid fertile islets, to make the Carib ocean into an English lake, to succeed, where the Dons had failed, because the Dons had sought only to wring the wealth from the land mid then return to Seville and Madrid, where the Warners and their people sought new homes. There was the future, and it depended as his father had so truly said, on the quality of the families, on the love of man for woman, of parents for children, on their determination to succeed no matter what the odds opposed to them. Only that way could they found a nation.