CHAPTER XXVI.
The journey homewards was a sad one, for the spirits of the old sea kingwere entirely broken. The captain of the watch tried all he could tocheer him up. He drew in fancy a pleasing picture of the island homethey had left; of the contentment, prosperity, and happiness thatreigned there, and old Dogvane did not forget to lay on the colours. Asan artist in this line he was extremely good. As they left the domes andminarets of the grand Turk behind them, Dogvane turned to his master andsaid: "I cannot see why so good and great a man as my august master is,should not be content to rest upon the laurels he has already earned."
Flattery is at all times acceptable, and to all people; the onlydifference being that to suit the vulgar appetite you must lay it onthick, while to the refined the touches must be delicate and smooth.Dogvane, seeing the good effect that this kind of physic had upon hismaster, administered a little more. "Now take this Egyptian woman'scase. See what you have done for her. You have tried to put downslavery. You have set your face against the brutal lash. You have triedat least to banish the evil-minded, blood-sucking Pasha, and in doingall this you have spent millions of money, and have sacrificed many ofyour bravest sons. One, even, we immolated at the shrine of the greatgod Necessity. We placed him in a pit even as Joseph was placed in apit; but alas! Joseph was more fortunate; our offering was slain. Thinkyou, sir, that in return for all this you will receive gratitude?"
"Master Dogvane, Egypt has always been of great interest to me, andthrough her lands I consider I have a right-of-way. Thus I have donevery much for her, and if for nothing else, she ought to thank me forputting down that most barbarous of all things, the traffic in humanbeings."
"Sir, look rather for your reward in the righteousness of the cause. Theman--"
"Stay, Master Dogvane; if you are going to give me another sentiment,spare me I beseech you."
"I was merely going to observe, sir, that the man who places thesmallest faith in a woman's constancy, digs a pit for himself, intowhich he is sooner or later sure to fall."
Dogvane, for reasons best known to himself, was decidedly against thisvisit to Egypt. He seemed to be in some doubt as to the reception hewould receive; but all his endeavours to dissuade his master were of noavail. The Buccaneer himself thought that Egypt must needs considerherself under the greatest obligation to him; but the best of men, andeven the wisest, are often deceived, more especially as regardsthemselves. The poor man wanted consolation, and he was ready to goanywhere to obtain it.
There was no greater enemy in the world to the slave-dealer than wasthis great Buccaneer and fighting trader. He was forever going about,trying to put a stop to the degrading traffic, more especially when thewretched victims were black. His ships of war had strict orders to chaseand capture all slavers found on the High Seas. His missionariespreached against the heinous trade. Both watches condemned it, and allthe people of every description of belief, held up their hands in pioushorror at the barter in flesh and blood. All, from the schoolboy justbreeched, to the old man, whose tottering steps were leading him to thegrave, were lovers of freedom, and the sworn enemies of slavery.
But, strange to say, when Jonathan attempted to put down slavery, theBuccaneer's sympathies were on the side of the slave-owner. Strangerstill, though he was forever trying to put down slavery amongst otherpeople, he allowed it to be practised to a very large extent amongst hisown. Of course it was clothed in fine garments of rich words, so thesinfulness of the thing was hidden from his own eyes; but the whole ofhis society was little better than a huge market, where white slaveswere bought and sold every day. Sold by heartless and mercenary mothers,to whom a rich equipage and a good social position was of far moreconsideration than any foolish and antiquated feelings of the heart, allof which are mere matters of sentiment, and weigh as light as air incomparison to the many advantages that gold can buy. It was no uncommonthing to see a fair, and perchance a blushing maiden, sold for a priceto some withered piece of humanity. Their shameless mothers gave theirdaughters as they parted with them the kiss of Judas, and bedewed theirfair young cheeks with the tears of hypocrisy, and then hastened totheir churches to thank their God that they were not as others,doubters, perhaps, and unbelievers.
This inhuman traffic in human souls found its moral in one of theBuccaneer's law courts, the proceedings of which were emptied outamongst the people, and eagerly devoured by them. It must be owned thatthe victims of this trade bore their misfortunes with becomingfortitude. Having been well schooled by their mothers the degradationwas not altogether clear to them, nor the narrow space that divided themfrom their less fortunate and despised sisters.
Like many other highly civilised communities the social atmosphere ofthe Buccaneer's island was largely impregnated with sham. Everything layupon the surface, there was no depth. There was not only a greed formoney, but there was a great greed for excitement, and a passionatedesire on the part of the rich and vulgar nobodies to scramble up into aposition higher than that to which they were either entitled, or fitfor, and not unfrequently people who had the entry into what was calledgood society, let themselves out for a consideration to these upstarts,who would consider it a great condescension to be kicked down-stairs byone of noble birth. It was all this that perhaps gave a colouring to thesayings of those who declared that our bold Buccaneer was about thebiggest humbug and hypocrite that ever walked upon the face of theearth.
Our two travellers occupied themselves with many pious speculations ontheir way to the land of the Pharaohs, for Dogvane for a sailor, waswell up in the Scriptures, and his knowledge of the Old Testament wasconsiderable. They compared the past with the present, and wanderedthrough many flowery fields of thought, until the land they sought cameup out of the sea before them.
The Life of a Celebrated Buccaneer Page 26