STARN: Scots Teaching and Resource Network
Journal of a Lady of Quality
Antigua and St. Christopher - part 2
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We were treated with great hospitality at this place, but have nothing of the gentility of the neighbouring Islands. I slept or rather lay two nights under the hill, which seemed to threaten me every moment from its Neighbourhood, and the Musquatoes [mosquitos] too are very hearty and strong, so that we had enough of amusement to keep us from sleep, and were not a little pleased to get aboard the Rebecca again. We purchased excellent claret for less than two shillings a bottle, and Portuguese wines of different kinds very cheap. Robt too, who never forgets the table, made several purchases of pickles and sweet meats extremely fine and very cheap. I assure you that by his care and the alertness of a cook that has not yet reached fourteen years old, we live very much at our case upon four or five good things and well dressed every day, besides a desert of fruits. The Captain does every thing to oblige us and render his vessel agreeable to his passengers, and tho' the sea is quite calm, he makes the ship lie to while we are at meals, so that we eat without the least inconvenience from the motion of the ship; a very agreeable circumstance I do assure you. But these are considerations, that you people who live at home in case never can properly understand.
As we had not been suffered to provide or put on board any thing for ourselves, I was curious to know what our Sea Store consisted of, and begged the Capt to let me look thro' the Ship, as I had no opportunity of doing so on my former Voyage. This was immediately agreed to, and both Miss Rutherfurd and I were surprised at the neatness of every thing we saw. But what pleased us above all the others was the care that was taken to secure the live-stock in such a way as to keep them safe even in the worst weather, the want of which we had severely suffered for in the Jamaica Packet. This is a place paled in between decks in which were geese,....
139
....pigs, Turkeys, and sheep. The water too was placed as cool as possible, and that to be used in the cabin was prepared by a filtering stone, such as I formerly described in the Islands. You will think me very attentive to such circumstances; but nothing is of more consequence at Sea both to pleasure and to health.
We had a sheep killed yesterday, and have had a Scotch dinner under the Tropick in the middle of the Atlantick. We cat haggis, sheep-head, barley-broth and blood puddings. As both our Capt and Mate are Scots, tho' long from home, they swore they had not seen such an excellent dinner since they left their native land. We have never yet had a breeze sufficient to curl the Sea, and I really wonder how we move along. Our sails hang like a Lady's loose gown in the most languishing manner, and our poor Capt sighs ready to break his heart at the slow advance he makes to the port that contains his wishes. However he tried to amuse himself. He and my brother are just now gone in the boat a shooting. I see them from where I am writing, it is really pretty to see the little vessel moving on the smooth surface of that vast ocean, a perfect world of water. They are just returned and have been very successful; but the greatest entertainment they have had, was painting the Ship on the outside. Our mate who is really a man of taste, hath ornamented her with many festoons of flowers and various figures very neatly. But only think of the softness of our sailing, when he can row round her for hours and hold the pots of paint in one hand, while he uses the brush with the other.
Our life is so uniformly calm, and placid, that we are glad to meet any thing, that has the air of an Adventure to vary the Scene, and which yesterday afforded Jack Rutherfurd, (who is continually on the look out, and to say the truth, has more observations than we have all,) the sight of somewhat floating on the water, but at such a distance that he could only see it was very long, and from that concluded it might....
140
....be a boat belonging to some Vessel. All the glasses were presently out, and as every body observed it, various conjectures were formed. In a moment it was a wreck, it was a whale, it was an island. For my part I liked the wreck best, as it was likely to afford most entertainment. The Captain however ended all disputes by sending off the boat, which soon returned loaded with fishes, and brought us certain advice that it was a tree of immense size, blown off the American coast, and which had lain on the water, till covered over with barnacles, and round which fishes of all kinds crouded, so that they had only to put over their hands and bring them into the boat. All hands were now pressing to go. The Capt, my brother and the Rutherfurds got presently into the boat, and the Captain ordered the ship to bear down to it, that we might share in the sport. The expedition had almost proved a fatal one however, for two of our youthful sailors landing on Log-island, as they named it, tumbled over, and were very near becoming the prey of a Shark, which lurked hard by it. They were fortunately saved, and more attempts were made to land. They brought on board no a surprising quantity of fish, but all flat, of the turbot and flounder kind, and some, I am sure, are the same with our Soles. We have many alive in tubs filled with Sea water; a great number are salted and hung amongst the shrouds by the lads for their own use. We had at first some little objection to eating them, as the fishes of these seas are at a certain season unwholesome, and some are even poison; but this is owing to their being near Copper Islands, which is not the present case. A dollar was put in the kettle with them; it came out pure, and all was safe, and our voting cook and Robt dress them nicely, and they are truly good.
Last night the air changed, and tho' the wind did not in the least increase, yet it became very chilly on deck, and this morning is so cold, that we are not able to leave the Cabin. I plainly find we are out of the warm climates, and fast....
141
....approaching the coast of America. I am sick at heart, my spirits fail me, but I will not give way to resentment. We are now actually on the American coast, and it is so cold that I am not able to go on deck, tho' the Capt invites me to view the woods, as he assures me, they are in sight. I can hardly hold the pen, I left June and found December.
At last America is in my view; a dreary Waste of white barren sand, and melancholy, nodding pines. In the course of many miles, no cheerful cottage has blest my eyes. All seems dreary, savage and desert; and was it for this that such sums of money, such streams of British blood have been lavished away? Oh, thou dear land, how dearly hast thou purchased this habitation for bears and wolves. Dearly has it been purchased, and at a price far dearer still will it be kept. My heart dies within me, while I view it, and I am glad of an interruption by the arrival of a pilot-boat, the master of which appears a worthy inhabitant of the woods before us. "Pray, Sir," said I to him, "does any body live hereabouts?" "Hereabouts," returned he in a surly tone, "don't you see how thick it is settled." He then pointed with his finger to a vast distance, and after some time, I really did observe a spot that seemed to be cut amongst the woods, and fancied that I saw something that resembled smoke. On this acknowledgment, he answered with a sort of triumph, "Ay, ay, I told you so, that there is Snow's plantation, and look ye there; don't you see another! Why sure you are blind, it is not above five miles off." I confessed I was short-sighted at least, for I really did not see it, and as he was now attending the casting the lead and reckoning our soundings, I troubled him with no more questions, but retired to the Cabin, not much elated with what I had seen.*....
* Miss Schaw and her party had now entered the Cape Fear River and were approaching the town of Brunswick, after a voyage of twenty-four days. When the captain pointed out Snow's plantation, they must have been in the river channel, nearly opposite Fort Johnston, for the plantation lay about half way between Brunswick and the fort, on the northern side of Snow's Creek, Sturgeon's Point, the terminus of the road running north on that side of the river. It is shown on Jeffrey's map in The American Atlas and on Collet's map printed in 1770. Its owner is referred to in the following entry from the Brunswick records of date 1766. "As Robert Snow and his now wife find it impossible to live together with that harmony which the married state requires and have therefore for their mutual case agreed to relax as far as they can that obligation which they cannot totally dissolve," they enter into a formal indenture as to the division of the property (Brunswick County Records, Book A, Wills, Conveyances, and Inventories, pp. 67, 69). Snow was a church warden of St. Philip's; hence a separation rather than a divorce.
142
....We are now opposite to the fort* which guards this coast, and the Capt has gone to it to show his credentials and pay certain fees which constitute the salary of an officer, who is called Governor.# In figure and size this fort resembles a Leith timber-bush, but does not appear quite so tremendous, tho' I see guns peeping thro' the sticks. If these are our fortresses and castles, no wonder the Natives rebel; for I will be bound to take this fort with a regimt of black-guard Edinburgh boys without any artillery, but their own pop-guns. I now write on shore, but will finish my journal of the Rebecca, before I say any thing of my present situation here.
I told you the Capt had gone to the fort, but forgot to tell you there is an old sloop of war that lies here,+ which, like....
*The fort, of which Miss Schaw speaks with so little respect, was Fort Johnston, eleven miles from the mouth of the river. It was built of "tapia," consisting of equal parts of lime, raw oyster shells, sand, and water, forming a paste or "batter," as the negroes called it, which was poured into boxes, much as liquid concrete or cement is poured today. The fort was constructed In 1740 and rebuilt in 1764, with a wall of tapia and a lower battery and fosse (North Carolina Records, VI, 1028, 1099, 3183). Governor Tryon, in commenting on its condition in 1766, said: "The proportions observed in the construction are as miserable as are the materials with which it is built. There is so great a proportion of sand that every gun fired brings down some of the parapet. I think the fort a disgrace to the ordnance his Majesty has placed in it" (ib., VII, 246). Compare Dobbs's statements, 1754 (ib., V, 158), 1756 (ib., V- 595), 1761 ("Answers to Queries," ib., VI, 614-615).
# The reference here is not to the governor of the province but to the governor of the fort, at this time Captain John Collet. Captain Seater on passing the fort would have to pay five shillings, a perquisite that went to the officer in command, "for giving the masters of vessels their product bill" (North Carolina Records, VII, 249).
+ The Cruizer.
143
....the log before commemorated, has lain till all covered over with barnacles. From this vessel an officer came alongst with our Captain to view our men.* But as we had in fact but one man, # we had hid him with great care under the bed of our state-room, and stuffed round him all the dirty linens which were not few, so that the situation of Sir John Falstaff in his buck-basket was airy, when compared to that of this poor Sailor, and which was rendered unsupportable by the politeness of the officer, who absolutely refused to enter our apartment, but sat down in the cabin with us, and seemed so much pleased with his company that he showed not the least design to leave us. He drank enough to render him very loquacious, and we not only had the history of Carolina, but of himself, and the very officers aboard the sloop, on which he dwelt so long, that I made not the least doubt, but the poor devil under the bed would be smothered, and was ready to die myself with apprehension. At last we found the only way to get quit of him was to go with him, leaving Robert+ to deliver the poor prisoner, who, I dare Swear, will not soon wish for the honour of being hid in a Lady's bed-chamber. Adieu, yours by sea and land.
* Evidently the lieutenant from the Cruizer was on the hunt for deserters or else was engaged in impressing men for the royal navy.
# This is the last mention of Alexander's Indian servant, Robert. Where he was from this time until Alexander sailed for England in July we do not know. Probably he returned to England with his master.
+ He had deserted from the Sloop.
CHAPTER III
Residence in North Carolina
Brunswick*
We got safe on shore, and tho' quite dark landed from the boat with little trouble, and proceeded thro' rows of tar and pitch to the house of a mercht, to whom we had been recommended.# He received us in a hall, which tho' not very orderly, had a cheerful look, to which a large carron stove+ filled with Scotch coals not a little contributed.....
*Except for the ruins of St. Philip's Church and a few disinterred fragments, the town of Brunswick has today entirely disappeared and the site is included within the boundaries of Orton plantation.
# One of the most agreeable incidents connected with the editing of Miss Schaw's journal has been the discovery of the exact entries of the arrival of the Jamaica Packet and the Rebecca, in an old Brunswick customs book of entrances and clearances kept by William Dry, the collector. book, containing the entrances from 1773 to July, 1775, and the clearances from 1763 to 1775 was discovered by Mr. James Sprunt of Wilmington, "in the ruins of a house, said to have been the residence of Nathaniel Rice," and is now in his possession. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Sprunt for the privilege of examining this sadly mutilated but invaluable manuscript.. The entries are as follows:
"January 31, 1775, Jamaica Packet, Thomas Smith Captain, Brig, 80 tons, no guns, 8 men, built in Mass. 1772, registered Kirkaldy, 22 Oct. 1774, George Parker owner, ballast from Antigua, {signed} Thos. Smith."
"February 14, 1775, Rebecca, Hugh Seater, brig, 50 tons, no guns, 6 men, built in Mass. 1764, registered Basseterre, 29 Dec. 1774, Richard Quince owner, ballast, from St.Kitts." This entry is not signed, but one later, of July 2, 1775, when the Rebecca returned from another voyage to St.Kitts, bringing sugar and rum, is signed "Hugh Seater."
+A Carron stove was one made at the Carron Iron Works on the Carron River in Stirlingshire, Scotland. The works were started in 1760 and are described be the traveller Pennant, who visited them in 1769, as the "greatest of their kind in Europe," employing 1200 men (Hume Brown, Surveys of Scottish History, p.113). The name "Carronade" for a piece of ordnance comes from the same source.
145
....The night was bitterly cold, and we gathered round the hearth with great satisfaction, and the Master of the house gave us a hospitable welcome. This place is called Brunswick, and tho' the best port in the province, the town is very poor- a few scattered houses on the edge of the woods, without street or regularity. These are inhabited by merchants, of whom Mr Quense [Quince]* our host is the first in consequence. He is deeply engaged in the new system of politicks, in which they are all more or less, tho' Mr Dry, the collector of the customs, is the most zealous and talks treason by the hour. The arrival to day of my brother Bob and Mr Murray of Philiphaugh gives us great pleasure. Bob is really a handsome fellow. I did not know how much I was complimented, when told I was like him. Mr Rutherfurd is some hundred miles up the country, so it will be several weeks before he hears his children are arrived, which is no small disappointment to them.
We have found our Captain with his Vessel here before us. Mrs Miller is up at my brothers. It turns out that the Capt left St Kitts in a drunken fit, in which he fancied he was affronted by the Capt of the king's yacht. As to Mary, I will take her innocence for granted, for fear it turn out otherwise; in which case I would be much at a loss, for what can I do with a poor creature in this strange land, I must and will take care of her, tho' God knows, her conflict does not encourage....
* Richard Quince would naturally be Miss Schaw's first host, as he was the owner of the Rebecca, the vessel upon which she had just arrived.
146
....me. The Captain knows his fate is in my brothers hand, who, I make no doubt, will forgive him, and meet with as ungrateful a return as possible.
Schawfield March 22d 1775
We have been these three or four days here, but this is the first time it has been in my power to write, but I have now sat down to bring up my Journal from leaving Brunswick;* which we did last Friday, under the care of a Mr Eagle, a young Gentleman just returned from England and who owns a very considerable estate in this province. The two brothers were to follow and be up with us in a few miles, which however they did not. We were in a Phaeton and four belonging to my brother, and as the roads are entirely level, drove on at good speed, our guide keeping by us and several Negro servants attending on horse back. During the first few miles, I was charmed with the woods. The wild fruit trees are in full blossom; the ground under them covered with verdure and intermixed with flowers of various kinds made a pleasing Scene. But by and by it begins to grow dark, and as the idea of being benighted in the wilds of America was not a pleasing circumstance to an European female, I begged the servant to drive faster, but was told it would make little difference, as we must be many hours dark, before we could get clear of the woods, nor were our fears decreased by the stories Mr Eagle told us of the wolves and bears that inhabited that part of the country.
Terrified at last almost to Agony, we begged to be carried....
*Miss Schaw, according to the chronology of the narrative remained at Brunswick from February 14 to March 17, and it is therefore strange that she should have given us no account of her life there. Possibly portions of the narrative have been lost. All we know of the month's experience is that during that time Miss Schaw was without a "dish of tea," a fact that may have political significance in view of the anti-British attitude of the provincial group which lived at Brunswick.
147
....to some house to wait for day-light, but we had drove at least two miles in that situation before Mr Eagle recollected that a poor man had a very poor plantation at no great distance, if we could put up with it and venture to go off the road amongst the trees. This was not an agreeable proposition; however it was agreed to, and we soon found ourselves lost in the most impenetrable darkness, from which we could neither see sky, nor distinguish a single object. We had not gone far in this frightful state, when we found the carriage stopt by trees fallen across the road, and were forced to dismount and proceed thro' this dreary scene on foot. All I had ever heard of lions, bears, tigers and wolves now rushed on my memory, and I secretly wished I had been made a feast to the fishes rather than to those monsters of the woods. With these thoughts in my head, I happened to slip my foot, and down I went and made no doubt I was sinking into the centre of the earth. It was not quite so deep however, for with little trouble Mr Eagle got me safe up, and in a few minutes we came to an opening that showed us the sky and stars, which was a happy sight in our circumstances.