The Land of Bondage: A Romance

by John Bloundelle-Burton

Now, when Mr. Kinchella had been brought from England by Mr. Cliborne--his maintenance--to be supplied amongst us--being fifteen thousand pounds of tobacco annually and the frame-house built for the minister--it was not long ere we learnt the true history of Captain O'Rourke. Nay, it was so soon as we began to speak of the St. Amande family, and Mr. Kinchella could not but laugh softly when we related to him the conversation we had had with our visitor.

"The rogue! The adventurer!" he exclaimed. "And acquainted with the judges, too. I' faith, he is. With everyone in the land, I should warrant. Yet, naturally, he might say what he would here; tell his own tale, chaunt his own song. How was he to suppose any poor student of Trinity should ever wander to Virginia who knew his history?"

Then after a little further talk he fell meditating aloud again, saying:

"He may be in truth in the service of Mr. Oglethorpe--a gallant gentleman who served under Prince Eugene, and is, they say, recommended for a Generalship--yet how can he have obtained such service? He has been highwayman, if all told of him is true--perhaps, for that reason he wished not to encounter Mr. Peter Buck--guinea dropper and kidnapper--as with Gerald. Nay, Heaven only knows what he has not been, to say nothing of 'political agent' on both sides. Well. Well. Let us hope he has turned honest at last. Let us hope so."

That an intimacy should spring up between us and Mr. Kinchella was not to be wondered at, nor, indeed, that he also became popular among many other families in the counties before mentioned. For, independently of his own merits, the case of Mr. Roderick St. Amande and our charity and friendliness to him, as well as his base repayment of them, had made much talk in all the country round, not only with the gentry but among others. Even the convicts, we knew, talked about it, as did the bond-servants; and Christian Lamb, my maid, told me that her brother had often seen the late lord who died in such poverty ruffling it in London, where he was well known in gay circles. Indeed, Mr. Kinchella became mightily liked everywhere and was always welcome at the houses of his flock. For, besides his gifts of writing-verses and playing the fiddle and singing agreeably--which, simple accomplishments as they were, proved mighty acceptable in a community like ours, where we found the winter evenings long, and the summer ones, too, for the matter of that--besides all these, I say, and far above them, was his real goodness as well as sound piety. His sermons were easy and flowing, suitable alike to the educated and the simple; he expounded the Word most truthfully, and he never failed to exhort us to remember that we were Christian English folk, although in a new land, and that we owed it as a duty to our ancestors to remain such and to be a credit to the country which had sent us forth. Thus he struck a note that found an echo in all our hearts, since nothing was felt more strongly in Virginia than the sense of loyalty to our old home and home-government. 'Tis true that, in other states farther north, there were to be found those who talked wildly, and as though their minds must be distraught, of forming what they termed an American Union which should cast off the rule of our mother country; but their words were as idle breath and not to be regarded nor considered seriously. King George II. was firmly seated on his throne--as anyone might see who read the beautiful odes and other things written by Mr. Cibber, which were printed in the London news-journals, and, so, occasionally reached us--and all Virginians who went to and fro betwixt here and London spake highly of that great monarch, and of how he received the colonists graciously and spoke them fair.

For the ruse which had been played on Roderick St. Amande and his father, whereby the young lord had been saved from kidnapping and his miserable cousin sent in his place, there was little condemnation, but rather approval amongst our friends and neighbours; and, had it been possible for Mr. Quin to find his way amongst us, it would have been easy for him to establish himself comfortably in our colony.

"Although," said Mr. Kinchella, "that it was a wrong thing to do nobody can deny; yet, when Gerald came and told me of it, I could not find it in my heart to chide him or his friend, Quin, and so I let him go without a word of reproof. Yet now he is gone, too, and I know not where he may be. Sir Chaloner Ogle has the reputation of a fighting sailor, and, once his flag is hoisted at the main topmast-head, he may take his fleet around the world in search of adventure, and poor Gerald with it."

And now have I arrived at the year 1732, when I was twenty-three years of age--the year which was to be, perhaps, the most important in my life, and after which, when I have related all that occurred in it, I shall have but little more to tell.

In the early months of that year nothing happened worthy of record, except that our mastiffs were found poisoned in February in their kennels, as well as were those of Mr. Cliborne. This led us to fear the Indians might be meditating an attack on us, since they dreaded these animals more than anything else, and would, by hook or crook, invariably get them destroyed if possible before making a raid. Their method was for one of them to creep into the settlements and approach the kennels, when the poison could be easily cast in on some tempting pieces of meat. Then, the time of year when the nights were dark and long was that generally selected, as leaving them less open to observation. On such nights as these all the colonists would be huddled round their respective hearths, the convicts and bond-servants having great fires made for them in their outhouses, and the negroes still greater ones in their quarters. Amongst the gentry, too, the cold was also combated as best might be; huge wood fires blazed in every room, while, in the saloons, to add to the warmth and induce forgetfulness of the winter, games of all descriptions, as well as dances, would be indulged in. The Virginia reel shared with "Wooing a Widow," "Grind the Bottle," and "Brother, I am bobbed," the task of passing the long evenings, and those evenings were generally brought to a conclusion by hearty suppers, and, for the gentlemen, plentiful libations of brandy, rum from the West Indies, old Mountain wine imported from England, to which place it was sent from Malaga, tobacco, and so on. While such jollities as these prevailed indoors an Indian might easily creep about the plantations, survey the houses from the outside, and destroy or steal the live-stock.

The poisoning of our hounds led, however, to no further trouble at the time, and so the winter slipt away, and, at last, we burst into the glorious Virginian spring, a season when all Nature awakes and breaks into golden luxuriance. Then the pines begin to put on their fresh green cones and the gum-trees their leaves, the flowers spring forth as though born in a night, the creepers clothe themselves in tender green, and all the woods become gay with the songs of birds--the golden oriole, the mock-bird, and the whip-poor-will. And over and around all is the balmy warmth of a southern spring, the brightness of a southern sun, and the clear, blue atmosphere of a southern sky.