Part 1 (1/2)

Westward Ho!

by Charles Kingsley

CHAPTER I

HOW MR OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD

”The hollow oak our palace is, Our heritage the sea”

All who have travelled through the delicious scenery of North Devon must needs know the little white town of Bideford, which slopes upwards from its broad tide-river paved with yellow sands, and e where salmon wait for autumn floods, toward the pleasant upland on the west Above the town the hills close in, cushi+oned with deep oak woods, through which juts here and there a crag of fern-fringed slate; below they lower, and open more and more in softly rounded knolls, and fertile squares of red and green, till they sink into the wide expanse of hazy flats, rich salt-e joins her sister Taw, and both together flow quietly toward the broad surges of the bar, and the everlasting thunder of the long Atlantic swell Pleasantly the old town stands there, beneath its soft Italian sky, fanned day and night by the fresh ocean breeze, which forbids alike the keen winter frosts, and the fierce thunder heats of the midland; and pleasantly it has stood there for now, perhaps, eight hundred years since the first Grenville, cousin of the Conqueror, returning from the conquest of South Wales, drew round hiolden curls, and dark Silurian Britons froled blood which still gives to the seaward folk of the next county their strength and intellect, and, even in these levelling days, their peculiar beauty of face and form

But at the time whereof I write, Bideford was not merely a pleasant country tohose quay was haunted by a few coasting craft It was one of the chief ports of England; it furnished seven shi+ps to fight the Armada: even more than a century afterwards, say the chroniclers, ”it sent land, saving (strange juxtaposition!) London and Topsham,” and was the centre of a local civilization and enterprise, small perhaps compared with the vast efforts of the present day: but who dare despise the day of shty ones? And it is to the sea- life and labor of Bideford, and Dartmouth, and Topsham, and Plymouth (then a petty place), and land owes the foundation of her naval and colory It was the hs, Grenvilles and Oxenhaotten worthies,” e shall learn one day to honor as they deserve, to whom she owes her commerce, her colonies, her very existence For had they not first crippled, by their West Indian raids, the ill-gotten resources of the Spaniard, and then crushed his last huge effort in Britain's Salaht of 1588, what had we been by now but a popish appanage of a world- tyranny as cruel as heathen Rome itself, and far es and their battles, their faith and their valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic deaths, that I write this book; and if now and then I shall seem to warm into a style somewhat too stilted and pompous, let me be excused forthan said, and to have proclailish hearts, not as a novel but as an epic (which soe which the songs of Troy, and the Persian wars, and the trophies of Marathon and Salamis, spoke to the hearts of all true Greeks of old

One bright surace 1575, a tall and fair boy caoith satchel and slate in hand, watching wistfully the shi+pping and the sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottoh Street, he came opposite to one of the many taverns which looked out upon the river In the open baysatover their afternoon's draught of sack; and outside the door was gathered a group of sailors, listening earnestly to some one who stood in the o up to the and whispering under the elbows of thespeech, delivered in a loud bold voice, with a strong Devonshi+re accent, and a fair sprinkling of oaths

”If you don't believe row all over blue entleman, I saith these eyes, and so did Salvation Yeo there, through ain the lower room; and we , ten foot broad, and twelve foot high, of silver bars, and each bar between a thirty and forty pound weight And says Captain Drake: 'There, ht you to the mouth of the world's treasure-house, and it's your own fault now if you don't sweep it out as e some of they home, then, Mr Oxenham?”

”Why weren't you there to help to carry the Drake and I had broke the door abroad already, but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint; and e caht have laid three fingers in, and his boots were full of blood, and had been for an hour or more; but the heart of him was that, that he never knew it till he dropped, and then his brother and I got hi us let hih every step he took in the sand was in a pool of blood; and so we got off And tell s, wasn't it worth et again, brave boys: there's more fish in the sea than ever came out of it, and more silver in Nombre de Dios than would pave all the streets in the west country: but of such captains as Franky Drake, Heaven never land's luck, say I, and who don't agree, let him choose his weapons, and I'ue was a tall and sturdy personage, with a florid black-bearded face, and bold restless dark eyes, who leaned, with crossed legs and arainst the wall of the house; and seenifico, some prince or duke at least He was dressed (contrary to all sumptuary laws of the time) in a suit of crimson velvet, a little the worse, perhaps, for wear; by his side were a long Spanish rapier and a brace of daggers, gaudy enough about the hilts; his fingers sparkled with rings; he had two or three gold chains about his neck, and large earrings in his ears, behind one of which a red rose was stuck jauntily enough alossy black curls; on his head was a broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a feather was fastened with a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose gorgeous plureen shone like one entire precious stone As he finished his speech, he took off the said hat, and looking at the bird in it-- ”Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as that before? That's the bird which the old Indian kings of Mexico let no one wear but their own selves; and therefore I wear it,--I, John Oxenhan to all brave lads of Devon, that as the Spaniards are the masters of the Indians, we're the masters of the Spaniards:” and he replaced his hat

A murmur of applause followed: but one hinted that he ”doubted the Spaniards were too many for them”

”Too many? How many men did we take Nombre de Dios with? Seventy- three e, and no more e sailed out of Plyastados, used up, as the Dons say, with the scurvy; and in Port Pheasant Captain Rawse of Cowes fell in with us, and that gave us some thirty hands more; and with that handful, my lads, only fifty-three in all, we picked the lock of the neorld! And who like an ass in thecare of his neck like a Christian? I tell you, those Spaniards are rank cowards, as all bullies are They pray to a woht like woaunt felloho stood close to his, and an easterling can beat three Dons any day Eh! ood brown beef, And the cider and the crea of the jolly Devon lads, For to play, and eke to fight”

”Co! Who lists? who lists? who'll make his fortune?

”Oh, ill join, jolly mariners all? And ill join, says he, O! To fill his pockets with the good red goold, By sailing on the sea, O!”

”Who'll list?” cried the gaunt ot forty et back, and ant a dozen out of you Bideford men, and just a boy or two, and then we'o to heaven

”Our bodies in the sea so deep, Our souls in heaven to rest! Where valiant seamen, one and all, Hereafter shall be blest!”

”Now,” said Oxenham, ”you won't let the Plymouth men say that the Bideford ainst South, it is Who'll join? who'll join? It is but a step of a way, after all, and sailing as smooth as a duck-pond as soon as you're past Cape Finisterre I'll run a Clovelly herring-boat there and back for a wager of twenty pound, and never shi+p a bucketful all the way Who'll join? Don't think you're buying a pig in a poke I know the road, and Salvation Yeo, here, too, as the gunner's mate, as well as I do the narrow seas, and better You ask him to show you the chart of it, now, and see if he don't tell you over the ruttier as well as Drake hiaunt reat white buffalo horn covered with rough etchings of land and sea, and held it up to the ad

”See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the place, dra'ed out so natural as ever was life I got al, down to the Azores; and he'd pricked mun out, and pricked mun out, wheresoever he'd sailed, and whatsoever he'd seen Take mun in your hands now, Simon Evans, take mun in your hands; look mun over, and I'll warrant you'll know the way in five minutes so well as ever a shark in the seas”

And the horn was passed from hand to hand; while Oxenhah the openfor a great tankard of sack, and passed that from hand to hand, after the horn

The school-boy, who had been devouring with eyes and ears all which passed, and had contrived by this ti, now stood face to face with the hero of the eot as many peeps as he could at the wonder But when he saw the sailors, one after another, having turned it over a while, come forward and offer to join Mr Oxenham, his soul burned within hiical in its effects as that of Tristreroup had so into the tavern with his recruits, he asked boldly for a nearer sight of the ranted at once

And now to his astonished gaze displayed theons and elephants, whales which fought with sharks, plate shi+ps of Spain, islands with apes and palm-trees, each with its naain, ”Much gold and silver;” inserted lish, by the hands of Mr Oxenhaly the boy turned it round and round, and thought the owner of it more fortunate than Khan or Kaiser Oh, if he could but possess that horn, what needed he on earth beside to make him blest!

”I say, will you sell this?”

”Yea, et the worth of it”

”I want the horn,--I don't want your soul; it's soht I know; and there are plenty of fresh ones in the bay”

And therewith, after , he pulled out a tester (the only one he had), and asked if that would buy it?

”That! no, nor twenty of theht-errant would do in such case, and then answered, ”Tell you what: I'll fight you for it”

”Thank 'ee, sir!

”Break the jackanapes's head for hiain, and I break yours, sir” And the boy lifted his fist fiercely

Oxenhaly ”Tut! tut! my man, hit one of your own size, if you will, and spare little folk like e, sir, I have a man's fist I shall be fifteen years old this month, and kno to answer any one who insultscockerel? you look liker twenty,” said Oxenhalance at the lad's broad liolden locks, and round honest face ”Fifteen? If I had half-a-dozen such lads as you, I would hts of them before I died Eh, Yeo?”

”He'll do,” said Yeo; ”he will amecock in a year or two, if he dares ruffle up so early at a tough old hen-eneral laugh, in which Oxenham joined as loudly as any, and then bade the lad tell him why he was so keen after the horn

”Because,” said he, looking up boldly, ”I want to go to sea I want to see the Indies I want to fight the Spaniards Though I aentleman's son, I'd a deal liever be a cabin-boy on board your shi+p” And the lad, having hurried out his say fiercely enough, dropped his head again

”And you shall,” cried Oxenhaalloon, and dine off carbonadoed Dons Whose son are you, h Court”

”Bless his soul! I know him as well as I do the Eddystone, and his kitchen too Who sups with hiht?”

”Sir Richard Grenville”

”dick Grenville? I did not knoas in town Go home and tell your father John Oxenham will come and keep hiht with the good gentleman, and you shall have your venture with me; and as for the horn, let hiive you a noble for it”

”Not a penny, noble captain If young ift, there it is, for the sake of his love to the calling, and Heaven send hienerosity of a true sailor, thrust the horn into the boy's hands, and walked away to escape thanks

”And now,” quoth Oxenham, ”my merry men all, make up your minds what mannered men you be minded to be before you take your bounties I want none of your rascally lurching longshore veret five pounds out of this captain, and ten out of that, and let him sail without them after all, while they are stoay under women's mufflers, and in tavern cellars If any man is of that humor, he had better to cut himself up, and salt hiain; for by this light, let me catch him, be it seven years hence, and if I do not cut his throat upon the streets, it's a pity! But if any man will be true brother to me, true brother to him I'll be, come wreck or prize, storm or calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or none, share and fare alike; and here's my hand upon it, for every man and all! and so-- ”Westward ho! with a rumbelow, And hurra for the Spanish Main, O!”

After which oration Mr Oxenhaered into the tavern, followed by his newhis precious horn, tre withrevealed suddenly to a stranger the darling hich he had hidden from his father and entleood blood as any in Devon, and having lived all his life in e should even now call the very best society, and being (on account of the valor, courtesy, and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most eventful life) chosen byfor his good looks, by any ” youth, still less a ”highly educated” one; for, with the exception of a little Latin, which had been driven into him by repeated blows, as if it had been a nail, he knew no books whatsoever, save his Bible, his Prayer-book, the old ”Mort d'Arthur” of Caxton's edition, which lay in the great bayin the hall, and the translation of ”Las Casas' History of the West Indies,” which lay beside it, lately done into English under the title of ”The Cruelties of the Spaniards” He devoutly believed in fairies, whoed babies, and s on the downs to dance in When he had warts or burns, he went to the white witch at Northaht that the sun moved round the earth, and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshi+re cheese He held that the ss slept all the winter at the bottoh, Grenville, and other low persons, with a broad Devonshi+re accent; and was in norant a youth, that any pert h at hilorious gains of the nineteenth century, children's literature and science lish history now current a all persons, male and female, before the year 1688, and nearly all after it, to have been either hypocrites or fools, had learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught just now in any school in England; for his training had been that of the old Persians, ”to speak the truth and to draw the bow,” both of which savage virtues he had acquired to perfection, as well as the equally savage ones of enduring pain cheerfully, and of believing it to be the finest thing in the world to be a gentleht to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no hu up his own pleasure for the sake of those eaker than hi been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt, and the care of a cast of young hahich his father had received fro much, by the means of those coarse and frivolous ahtfulness, and the habit of keeping his tele ”object lesson,” or been taught to ”use his intellectual powers,” he knew the names and ways of every bird, and fish, and fly, and could read, as cunningly as the oldest sailor, theof every drift of cloud which crossed the heavens Lastly, he had been for soth, undisputed cock of the school, and theall Bideford boys; in which brutal habit he took e as it ood, not only for hi his school-felloith a heavy hand, and succoring the oppressed and afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the sailor-lads, and the pride and stay of all the town's boys and girls, and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his calling if he went ho a little one For the rest, he never thought about thinking, or felt about feeling; and had no aetting by honest means theto sea when he was big enough Neither was he ould be now-a-days called by h he said his Creed and Lord's Prayer night and , and went to the service at the church every forenoon, and read the day's Psal, and had learnt from her and from his father (as he proved well in after life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely base to do wrong, yet (the age of children's religious books not having yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing y, or of his own soul, than is contained in the Church Catechisrossly ignorant (according to our ether untrained in manhood, virtue, and Godliness; and whether the barbaric narrowness of his information was not soeneration by the depth, and breadth, and healthiness of his education