Part 19 (1/2)
The child sneez'd immediately.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: MEETING-HOUSE, STAR ISLAND.[105]]
Going round the corner of the church, I came upon a coast pilot, peering through his gla.s.s for the smoke of a steamer, cable-freighted, that had been momentarily expected from Halifax for a week. His trim little boat lay in the harbor below us at her moorings. It was, he said, a favorite station from which to intercept inward-bound vessels. The pilot told me, with a quiet chuckle, of a coaster, manned by raw Irish hands, that had attempted in broad day to run into the harbor over the breakwater from Haley's to Cedar island. They did not get in, he said; but it being a full tide and smooth sea, the mole only knocked off the cut-water of their craft.
Behind the meeting-house is the little school-house, in as dire confusion when I saw it as any bad boy could have wished. The windows were shattered, chairs and benches overturned, and a section of rusty stove-pipe hung from the ceiling, while the fragment of a wall map, pressed into service as a window-curtain, was being scanned through the dingy gla.s.s by an urchin with a turn for geography.
East of the church is a row of cottages, the remnant of the fis.h.i.+ng village, serving to show what it was like before modern innovations had swept the moiety of ancient Gosport from the face of the island. Each had a bird-house on the peak of its gable. There was the semblance of regularity in the arrangement of these cottages, the school-house leading the van; but they were nearly or quite all unpainted, these homely abodes of a rude people.
On looking around, you perceived walled inclosures, some of them containing a little earth patched with green gra.s.s, but all thickly studded with boulders. Is it possible, you ask, that such a waste should ever be the cause of heart-burnings, or know the name of bond, mortgage, or warranty? Little did these impoverished islanders dream the day would come when their sterile rocks would be eagerly sought after by the fortunate possessors of abundance.
Star Island formerly afforded pasturage for a few sheep and cows. There is a record of a woman who died at Gosport in 1795, aged ninety. She kept two cows, fed in winter on hay cut by her in summer with a knife among the rocks. The cows were taken from her by the British in 1775, and killed, to the great grief of old Mrs. Pusley. Formerly there was more vegetation here, but at odd times the poor people have gathered and burned for fuel fully half the turf on the island. It is written in the book of records that the soil of the islands is gradually decreasing, and that a time would come when the dead must be buried in the sea or on the main-land.
From the year 1775 until 1820, the few inhabitants who remained on the islands lived in a deplorable condition of ignorance and vice. Some of them had lost their ages for want of a record. Each family was a law to itself. The town organization was abandoned. Even the marriage relation was forgotten, and the restraints and usages of civilized life set at naught. Some of the more debased, about 1790, pulled down and burned the old meeting-house, which had been a prominent landmark for seamen; but, says the record, ”the special judgments of Heaven seem to have followed this piece of wickedness to those immediately concerned in it.” The parsonage-house might have fared as ill, had it not been floated away to Old York by Mr. Tucke's son-in-law.
Rev. Jedediah Morse has entered in the record two marriages solemnized by him during the time he was on the islands, with the following remarks: ”The two couples above mentioned had been published eight or ten years ago (but not married), and cohabited together since, and had each a number of children. ---- had been formerly married to another woman; she had left him, and cohabited with her uncle, by whom she has a number of children. No regular divorce had been obtained. Considering the peculiar deranged state of the people on these islands, and the ignorance of the parties, it was thought expedient, in order as far as possible to prevent future sin, to marry them.”[106]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GRAVES, WITH CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S MONUMENT, STAR ISLAND.]
It is perhaps as well the visitor should be his own guide about the islands, leaving it to chance to direct his footsteps. After an inspection of the more prominent objects, such as may be taken in at a glance from the little church, I wandered at will, encountering at every few steps some new surprise. Some one says, if we seek for pleasure it is pretty sure to elude our pursuit, coming, oftener to us unawares, and the more unexpected the higher the gratification. It was in some such mood I stumbled, to speak literally, on the old burial-place of the islands. I am aware that one does not, as a rule, seek enjoyment in a grave-yard; but I have ever found an unflagging interest in deciphering the tablets of a buried city or hamlet. These stones may be sententious or loquacious, pompous or humble, and sometimes grimly merry.
Our German friends call the church-yard ”G.o.d's Field.” Here are no inscriptions, except on the horizontal slabs of Tucke and Stephens.
There is no difference between the rough stones protruding from the ground and the fragments strewn broadcast about the little house-lots.
So far as this inclosure is concerned, the annals of the hamlet are as a closed book. The instinct which bids you forbear treading on a grave is at fault here. It requires sharp eyes and a close scrutiny to discover that some effort has been made to distinguish this handful of graves by head and foot stones; that some are of greater and some of lesser length; or that the little hollows and hillocks have their secret meaning.
The two shepherds lie at the head of their little fold, in vaults composed of the rude ma.s.ses found ready at hand. For fear their inscriptions might one day be effaced, I transcribed them:
In Memory of THE REV. JOSIAH STEPHENS, A faithful Instructor of Youth, and pious Minister of Jesus Christ.
Supported on this Island by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, who died July 2, 1804.
Aged 64 years.
Likewise of MRS. SUSANNAH STEPHENS, his beloved Wife, who died Dec. 7, 1810.
Aged 54 years.
Underneath are the Remains of THE REV. JOHN TUCKE, A.M.
He graduated at Harvard College, A.D. 1723, Was ordained here July 26, 1732, And died Aug. 12, 1773.
aet. 72.
He was affable and polite in his manner, Amiable in his disposition, Of great piety and integrity, given to hospitality, Diligent and faithful in his pastoral office.
Well learned in History and Geography, as well as General Science, And a careful Physician both to the bodies and the souls of his People.
Erected 1800.
In Memory of the Just.
For two-score years this pious man labored in his stony vineyard. His paris.h.i.+oners agreed to give him a quintal per man of winter fish--their best. They covenanted to carry his wood from the landing home for him.
With this he was content. He was their minister, teacher, physician, and even kept the accounts of a little store in a scrupulously exact way. I have been poring over his old-time chirography, clear-cut and beautiful as copper-plate. There are the good old English names of Ruth, Nabby, and Judy, of Betty, Patsey, and Love. We get a glimpse of their household economy in the porringers, pewter lamps, and pint-pots; the horn combs, thread, tape, and endless rows of pins for women-folk; the knitting-needles that clicked by the fireside in long winter nights, while the lads were away on Jeffrey's Ledge.