AARON TROW
I would wish to declare, at the of this story, that I shall that of which we call Bermuda as the Fortunate Islands of the ancients. Do not let professional take me up, and say that no one has so them, and that the have been to have themselves so westwards. What I to is this—that, had any been by enterprise or of weather, he would not have those so good a name. That the Neapolitan of King Alonzo should have been here, I to be more likely. The Bermoothes is a good name for them. There is no in or out of them without the difficulty, and a patient, slow navigation, which is very heart-rending. That Caliban should have here I can imagine; that Ariel would have been of the place is certain; and that Governor Prospero should have been to his governorship, I to have been only natural. When one the present of the place, one is to any of the have been since his days.
Bermuda, as all the world knows, is a British at which we maintain a establishment. Most of our have been sent upon our hands from our colonies, but here one is still maintained. There is also in the a fortress, though not a looking to the of civilians, as do Malta and Gibraltar. There are also here some six thousand white people and some six thousand black people, eating, drinking, sleeping, and dying.
The is the most of Bermuda to a stranger, but it not to much attention from the regular of the place. There is no the and the Bermudians. The are by them, and the are visited. As to the themselves, of it is not open to them—or should not be open to them—to have with any but the prison authorities.
There have, however, been in which have from their confinement, and their way out among the islands. Poor wretches! As a rule, there is but little for any that can so escape. The whole length of the is but twenty miles, and the is under four. The are, of course, white men, and the orders of Bermuda, among alone a have any of himself, are all negroes; so that such a one would be at once. Their are all marked. Their only of a permanent would be in the of an American ship; but what captain of an American or other ship would himself with an convict? But, nevertheless, men have escaped; and in one instance, I believe, a got away, so that of him no were heard.
For the truth of the I will not by any means vouch. If one were to on the spot one might that the ladies all it, and the old men; that all the men know how much of it is false and how much true; and that the steady, middle-aged, well-to-do are that it is from to end. My readers may range themselves with the ladies, the men, or the steady, well-to-do, middle-aged islanders, as they please.
Some years ago, soon after the prison was on its present footing, three men did from it, and among them a named Aaron Trow. Trow’s in England had not been so villanously as those of many of his fellow-convicts, though the one for which he was had been of a dye: he had man’s blood. At a period of great in a town he had men on to riot, and with his own hand had the who had to do his against him. There had been in the doing of the deed, and no malice; but the deed, let its have been what it might, had sent him to Bermuda, with a against him of penal for life. Had he been then to prison discipline,—even then, with such a against him as that,—he might have his way back, after the of years, to the children, and perhaps, to the wife, that he had left him; but he was to no rules—to no discipline. His was to death with an idea of injury, and he himself against the of his with a that it would be well if he so himself till he might in his fury.
And then a day came in which an attempt was by a large of convicts, under his leadership, to the of the officers of the prison. It is necessary to say that the attempt failed. Such always fail. It failed on this occasion signally, and Trow, with two other men, were to be terribly, and then in for some term of months. Before, however, the day of came, Trow and his two had escaped.
I have not the space to tell how this was effected, the power to the manner. They did from the into the islands, and though two of them were taken after a single day’s at liberty, Aaron Trow had not been yet when a week was over. When a month was over he had not been retaken, and the officers of the prison to say that he had got away from them in a to the States. It was impossible, they said, that he should have in the and not been discovered. It was not that he might have himself, his where it had not yet been found. But he not have on in Bermuda that month’s search. So, at least, said the officers of the prison. There was, however, a report through the that he had been from time to time; that he had from the at night, them with death if they told of his whereabouts; and that all the of the of a had been while the man was bathing, a of dark cloth, in which of clothes, or in one of such a nature, a had been about the near St. George. All this the of the prison to disbelieve, but the opinion was very in the that Aaron Trow was still there.
A vigilant search, however, is a of great labour, and cannot be up for ever. By it was relaxed. The and to the by night, and it was that Aaron Trow was gone, or that he would be to death, or that he would in time be to such of his as must lead to his discovery; and this at last did turn out to be the fact.
There is a of about these which, though it to the of scenery, is in its way. The land itself into little knolls, and the sea up, and thither, in a thousand and inlets; and then, too, when the are in bloom, they give a colour to the landscape. Oleanders to be the roses of Bermuda, and are all the villages of the class through the islands. There are two towns, St. George and Hamilton, and one main high-road, which them; but this high-road is by a ferry, over which every vehicle going from St. George to Hamilton must be conveyed. Most of the in these parts is done by boats, and the look to the sea, with its narrow creeks, as their best from their to their best market. In those days—and those days were not very long since—the of small ships was their trade, and they valued their land mostly for the small cedar-trees with which this was on.
As one goes from St. George to Hamilton the road two seas; that to the right is the ocean; that on the left is an creek, which up through a large of the islands, so that the land on the other of it is near to the traveller. For a of the way there are no houses near the road, and, there is one residence, some way from the road, so that no other house a mile of it by land. By water it might be a mile. This place was called Crump Island, and here lived, and had for many years, an old gentleman, a native of Bermuda, it had been to up and sell it to the ship-builders at Hamilton. In our we shall not have very much to do with old Mr. Bergen, but it will be necessary to say a word or two about his house.
It upon what would have been an in the creek, had not a narrow causeway, for a road, joined it to that larger on which the town of St. George. As the main road the it through some rough, hilly, open ground, which on the right the has been cultivated. The from the here may, perhaps, be a of a mile, and the ground is for the most part with low furze. On the left of the road the land is in patches, and here, some mile or more from the ferry, a path away to Crump Island. The house cannot be from the road, and, indeed, can be at all, from the sea. It lies, perhaps, three from the high road, and the path to it is but little used, as the passage to and from it is by water.
Here, at the time of our story, Mr. Bergen, and here Mr. Bergen’s daughter. Miss Bergen was well at St. George’s as a steady, good girl, who her time in looking after her father’s matters, in his two black maid-servants and the black gardener, and who did her in that of life to which she had been called. She was a comely, well-shaped woman, with a sweet countenance, large in size, and very in demeanour. In her years, when girls into beauty, the had not much of Anastasia Bergen, had the men of St. George been to their under the window of Crump Cottage in order that they might to her voice or the light of her eye; but slowly, as years by, Anastasia Bergen a woman that a man might well love; and a man learned to love her who was well of a woman’s heart. This was Caleb Morton, the Presbyterian minister of St. George; and Caleb Morton had been to Miss Bergen for the last two years past, at the period of Aaron Trow’s from prison.
Caleb Morton was not a native of Bermuda, but had been sent by the of his church from Nova Scotia. He was a tall, man, at this time of some thirty years of age, of a presence which might almost have been called commanding. He was very strong, but of a which did not often give him opportunity to put his strength; and his life had been such that neither he others of what nature might be his courage. The part of his life was in to some of the white people around him, and in teaching as many of the blacks as he to him. His days were very quiet, and had been without until he had met with Anastasia Bergen. It will for us to say that he did meet her, and that now, for two years past, they had been as man and wife.
Old Mr. Bergen, when he of the engagement, was not well pleased at the information. In the place, his was very necessary to him, and the idea of her marrying and going away had as yet to him; and then he was by no means to part with any of his money. It must not be that he had a by his in wood. Few in Bermuda do, as I imagine, fortunes. Of some hundred he was possessed, and these, in the of nature, would go to his when he died; but he had no to hand any of them over to his they did go to her in the of nature. Now, the which Caleb Morton as a Presbyterian was not large, and, therefore, no day had been as yet for his marriage with Anastasia.
But, though the old man had been from the to the match, his had not been active. He had not Mr. Morton his house, or to be in any angry his had a lover. He had an that those who in at leisure,—that love nobody warm if the pot did not boil; and that, as for him, it was as much as he do to keep his own pot at Crump Cottage. In answer to this Anastasia said nothing. She asked him for no money, but still his accounts, managed his household, and looked for days.
