If the crew of the Perseverance thought their young captain somewhat dilatory, they soon had reason to modify that opinion, since he turned them out at three o'clock the next morning to raft one of the frames ashore, and raise it on the beach.
A large crowd of buyers came to look at it, and among the first Lemaire. All were anxious to buy, not merely the frames, but the hardware, some edge-tools that were in the vessel, and, in short, the whole cargo; but Lemaire outbid the rest, and made a bargain with Walter to go to his plantation at Vauclin, and there exchange his frames and other cargo for coffee, indigo, tortoise-shell, and cloves, at certain prices agreed upon between them. Walter, for the sake of going to the spot where Peterson was, would have closed with the planter at almost any price; but the rates now agreed upon left him a very large profit. The frame on the beach was taken down, and put on board of one of the drogers that had discharged her cargo of sugar, and she immediately made sail for the plantation.
That night, when the crew of the Perseverance assembled in the cuddy,—for, like all pink sterns, she had her accommodations forward, and the salt-room aft,—Walter told them that in two days, during which time Lemaire would get through with his business, they were to set sail for his plantation. The announcement gave rise to a most animated discussion as to the course to be pursued after they arrived there. It was much nearer morning than midnight when they turned in.
French and Spanish vessels are all well modelled, and, in general, sail well. The West India drogers, being constantly obliged to work out in creeks and coves, and contend with head winds, are generally fast vessels; but although, during the war of Independence, the Americans had been brought by necessity to build sharp vessels to prey upon British commerce, and escape from their men-of-war, the great majority of the American vessels employed in the West India trade were of the old English model, built after the fashion of the colonial period. Beauty and speed were sacrificed to capacity, and the vessel that could carry the most lumber and molasses, with the least tonnage on the custom-house books, was considered the best, since in that trade, at that period, capacity was more profitable than speed. But the inventive genius of the people, always equal to the situation, was manifested in their fishermen. In respect to this class of vessels, always on a lee shore, and navigating among shoals and breakers, where both life and property depended upon their weatherly qualities, speed paid. Thus it came to pass that occasionally, in the winter, after the fishing season was over, an Ipswich chebacco boat or Marblehead pink-stern would take a cargo of onions, codfish, or small lumber, and go to the West Indies, when those who confounded her with the common lumber drogers, and supposed they could sail two feet to her one, caught a Tartar. It was so in the present instance. Lemaire prided himself upon the sailing qualities of his droger, and thought nothing on the coast could hold way with her.
He came alongside of the Perseverance, the morning of the day appointed, and said,—
"Captain, I shall be ready in about two hours. I must go ashore again. You had better get your anchor and make sail."
"But I don't know the way."
"No matter; you can be jogging along the coast. I'll overtake you, and then you can follow me."
"Very well," was the reply.
It was a good working breeze, the wind for a portion of the way nearly ahead—a direction well adapted to show the weatherly qualities of a vessel.