Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
“Canton.”
“And there, Señor, you exchanged your sealskins for teas and silks, I think you
said?”
“Yes, Silks, mostly.”
“And the balance you took in specie, perhaps?”
Captain Delano, dgeting a little, answered—
“Yes; some silver; not a very great deal, though.”
“Ah—well. May I ask how many men have you, Señor?”
Captain Delano slightly started, but answered—
“About ve-and-twenty, all told.”
“And at present, Señor, all on board, I suppose?”
“All on board, Don Benito,” replied the Captain, now with satisfaction.
“And will be to-night, Señor?”
At this last question, following so many pertinacious ones, for the soul of him
Captain Delano could not but look very earnestly at the questioner, who, instead
of meeting the glance, with every token of craven discomposure dropped his eyes
to the deck; presenting an unworthy contrast to his servant, who, just then, was
kneeling at his feet, adjusting a loose shoe-buckle; his disengaged face meantime,
with humble curiosity, turned openly up into his master’s downcast one.
The Spaniard, still with a guilty shue, repeated his question:
“And—and will be to-night, Señor?”
“Yes, for aught I know,” returned Captain Delano—”but nay,” rallying himself
into fearless truth, “some of them talked of going o on another shing party about
midnight.”
“Your ships generally go—go more or less armed, I believe, Señor?”
“Oh, a six-pounder or two, in case of emergency,” was the intrepidly indierent
reply, “with a small stock of muskets, sealing-spears, and cutlasses, you know.”
As he thus responded, Captain Delano again glanced at Don Benito, but the
latter’s eyes were averted; while abruptly and awkwardly shifting the subject, he
made some peevish allusion to the calm, and then, without apology, once more,
with his attendant, withdrew to the opposite bulwarks, where the whispering was
resumed.
At this moment, and ere Captain Delano could cast a cool thought upon what
had just passed, the young Spanish sailor, before mentioned, was seen descending
from the rigging. In act of stooping over to spring inboard to the deck, his
voluminous, unconned frock, or shirt, of coarse woolen, much spotted with tar,
opened out far down the chest, revealing a soiled under garment of what seemed
the nest linen, edged, about the neck, with a narrow blue ribbon, sadly faded and
worn. At this moment the young sailor’s eye was again xed on the whisperers, and
Captain Delano thought he observed a lurking signicance in it, as if silent signs, of
some Freemason sort, had that instant been interchanged.
This once more impelled his own glance in the direction of Don Benito, and, as
before, he could not but infer that himself formed the subject of the conference. He
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