by Zugg, Victor
“He’s a Catawba isn’t he?”
“Well yes,” Mason said, “but he, along with two elders, and a small group of his people separated from the main tribe just prior to the start of hostilities. Apparently there was great contention among his people on whether to join the Yemassee. Many believed it would disrupt trade and that the mistreatment by some traders could be worked out without going to war.” Mason motioned to Mato. “He and his small group established a new village much closer to the coast, well away from the fighting.”
Dorothy approached the group. “Mato was the first person we met when we arrived in this area, and from that first day he has gone out of his way to help us.”
“We’ve gone this far with the sale,” Arthur said. “Might as well finish it so you can be off to join your sister in New York.”
Mrs. Stewart stared at Mato for several long seconds. Finally she shook her head. “Fine.”
Jeremy, Lisa, and Mrs. Stewart walked to the house where they would sign the necessary papers while Mason, Nathan, and Tito transferred the chest of silver Spanish dollars from the sloop. “I’m actually relieved to have this out of our hands,” Mason whispered, as he lowered his end of the chest to the floor. They joined the others in the parlor where the signing had just wrapped up.
“All that’s left is to have these recorded,” Arthur said, as he stuffed the documents into a leather satchel. He turned and shook hands with Jeremy, Lisa, and Mason in turn. “The property now belongs to you,” he said, as he stared at Jeremy. He turned and shook hands with Mrs. Stewart. “Thank you. We’ll miss you in these parts.”
Mrs. Stewart gave a weak smile as she perused the interior of the room like she had never seen it before. “I’ll miss it here as well.”
“Is there anything we can help you with?” Mason asked. “We’d be happy to transport you to town on the sloop.”
“No,” she said, as she dipped her chin. “My sister and her husband will be here tomorrow. I should be out of the house the day after.”
“That’s fine,” Mason said. “Do you mind if Jeremy and Lisa stay behind to get acclimated with the property?”
“It’s their property now,” she said.
Mason raised both eyebrows in agreement. “I guess we’ll be off then.”
Lisa remained behind with Mrs. Steward while Jeremy walked everyone to the dock.
“We’ll return to Myrtle Beach and pick up the others,” Mason said, as he lagged behind with Jeremy. “Should be back here in two or three days.”
“What do we do in the mean time?”
“Get to know the place. Let the slaves do what they normally do. We’ll sort that out when we all return.”
Jeremy glanced back at the porch, at Lisa and Mrs. Stewart, and at the sloop and the people watching from the deck. “Why don’t you ask Karen to stay? Lisa and I would appreciate her company. And you’ll be back in a couple of days.”
Mason immediately understood that it wasn’t her company they would appreciate so much, it was her confidence. Mason smiled. “I’ll ask.”
As it turned out, Karen was all too happy to remain behind. It would give her a head start on getting organized. If this was where they would spend the rest of their lives she meant to make the most of it.
The two of them stood embraced on the dock.
“Two days at the most, maybe three,” Mason said. “I’ll be back here as soon as possible.”
“I know,” Karen said. She reached up and pulled his head down to her. Their lips met, in a peck at first, but then deeply for several moments. They finally parted, and with a final wink, Mason hopped in the jolly boat and rowed to the sloop. He watched Jeremy and Lisa join Karen at the dock.
With the anchor up and the sloop pointed in the right direction, John unfurled a portion of the jib as Mason, Tom, and Nathan manned long poles in case they neared shallow water.
Mason gave a final wave to Karen, Jeremy, and Lisa still standing on the dock. He kept Karen in sight until she disappeared around a bend. He would be back as soon as possible. He had never felt so strongly about anything in his life.
After settling up with Bayly and Arthur, Mason rowed them to the canoe landing on the Ashley side of the peninsula. Mason told them he would likely be in Charles Town often since he planned to start hauling cargo up and down the coast. With that they parted, and Mason returned to the sloop. They set sail for Myrtle Beach even though they would arrive after dark. A full moon and cloudless skies were expected that night.
CHAPTER 23
Mason stood at the bow and gazed back at the crew.
Everyone was on deck engaged in everything from minor chores to nothing at all. And everyone was dressed in period clothing. He felt like he was visiting the tourist attraction at Colonial Williamsburg in his own time. It was still hard to believe that somehow they had been transported three hundred years into the past and were actually living as they did in that time. There was, of course, one major difference. They knew the future. Most had only a vague understanding of history, just the main events like the Revolutionary War. But Dorothy knew the details. Such knowledge could be very useful; it could also be very dangerous. Mason didn’t know if it was even possible to change the course of history, but just in case it was, they had to be careful.
Mason watched the sun beginning to set over the stern. He turned to the shoreline in the distance and tried to determine their location in the dimming light.
Dorothy lit the candle lantern and hung it on a peg to the side of the aft cabin door. The dim light sent dancing shadows along the deck.
Mason made his way back to John standing behind the wheel. “What do you think?”
“I wish we had more light,” he said, as he glanced at the sky.
Mason nodded and then joined Dorothy standing at the gunwale. She stared at the shoreline. They both stood silent for several long moments.
“This is a time of transition for Charles Town,” Dorothy said.
“How so?”
“The Lords Proprietors give up their control of the colony. In a few weeks the first royal governor will be appointed: Sir Francis Nicholson. He succeeds James Moore. Nicholson doesn’t actually arrive until May of next year. They’ve already started dismantling the wall to make it easier to transfer goods to and from the town.”
“Pirates?”
“The bad ones have already been rounded up and killed. There’s still a few around, but nothing like it used to be.” She paused a few moments as she stared into space. “This is a good time to own a plantation. The economy here and up and down the coast will swell with trade. If I remember correctly, there’s a slave revolt in thirty-nine, a short battle with the Spanish in forty-two, and a hurricane or two. For the most part, the next major threat, the British and the Revolution, are years away.” She turned to face Mason. “Have you given any more thought to how we got here and our chances of finding a way back?”
“I’ve thought about it.”
Dorothy gazed at his face for several moments and finally turned away.
“One day at a time,” Mason said.
“What about the slaves?”
“All I know is it’s wrong. We can’t be a party to it. But we also need the manpower necessary to operate the plantation. Do you have any thoughts?”
“When the slaves were eventually freed after the Civil War, the vast majority had nowhere to go. They ended up continuing to work as they had. We could simply free Mrs. Stewart’s fifty slaves; most will probably remain where they are. We could offer them their own plots of land.”
“What about some kind of wage?”
“Probably not a good idea,” Dorothy said. “It would lead to thefts and conflicts within the compound.”
“So we free them and ask them to stay in exchange for a plot of land?”
“I don’t know,” Dorothy said, “better living conditions. Like I said, most have nowhere to go.”
Mason smoothed his beard.
“You need to un
derstand,” Dorothy said, “the economy grew, and the area prospered because of the slaves. Blacks greatly outnumber the whites. None of the plantations that exist now would have made it without the slaves.” Dorothy glanced back at the others on deck. “Can you see Nathan or Tito or Tom Green working the fields?”
“No,” Mason said.
“It’s the same for the English that settled here. They just weren’t willing to work that hard, to endure the heat, the bugs, and the diseases which are even more prevalent in the fields.”
“A cooperative,” Mason said.
“What?”
“We form a cooperative with everyone owning a portion that will accumulate value. For the next three years or so a large segment of the proceeds will go to paying the balance. After that, everyone benefits.”
“There are no banks here,” Dorothy said. “Wealth at this time was a matter of property and stuff, not so much a matter of currency. You can’t really hand someone a chair when they are ready to move on. About all you can really offer is a better way of life.”
“Okay,” Mason said. “We offer them a better way of life if they agree to stay.”
“It might work,” Dorothy said.
“How will the other plantation owners feel about us freeing our slaves?”
“They’ll be up in arms,” Dorothy said, “if they know about it.”
“Keeping it quiet will have to be part of the deal,” Mason said.
Dorothy nodded. “That might work for a while.”
Mildred emerged from the aft cabin and approached Mason. “I’ve been watching a light in the distance out of the back window.”
“On shore?” Mason asked.
“No, out on the water,” she said, “a ship’s lantern I suppose.”
Mason, with Dorothy and Mildred, entered the cabin and peered through the single window.
A very dim light, probably in the far distance, was visible. “There are plenty of trading vessels about,” he finally said.
“May be nothing,” Mildred said. “I just thought you should know.”
Mason nodded. “We’ll keep an eye on it.”
With the moon up and everyone back on deck, they each searched the coast. The long, unbroken white-sand curve of the shoreline in the distance put them in the right area. It was just a matter of spotting the inlet.
“I think that’s it,” Tito said, as he pointed.
Mason followed Tito’s gaze and focused. “I think you’re right.”
John turned to starboard putting the ship into the wind.
With instructions not necessary, Mason, Tito, and Nathan immediately lowered the mainsail when it went slack.
John turned the wheel to port and let the jib pull the bow back around in line with the dark area on the shoreline. He let the sloop creep along until it was a hundred yards off shore.
Mason and Nathan furled the jib while Tito and Tom brought the jolly boat alongside. Two hours of rowing and maneuvering put the sloop well inside the inlet where they had anchored before.
“Any idea of the time?” Mason asked, as he glanced at the non-existent watch on his wrist.
“Has to be eleven or so,” John said.
“We might as well sleep here and enter camp in the morning,” Mason said.
◆◆◆
Early the next morning, they used the Jolly boat to ferry everyone except John and Tom to shore. The two of them would remain aboard.
Mason and Tito helped Mato and his braves with their provisions. Negotiations this time had netted them significant goods—mostly camp utensils, more muskets, powder, shot, some cloth, and bags of rice. Mato also picked up an extra axe and shovel. Everything was bound together into bundles. It would take more than one trip to get it all to the village.
Just as everyone going ashore was ashore, Angie and Travis showed up to gather the day’s catch. Angie, especially, was giddy at seeing the ship and the others.
“We thought you had gotten lost at sea,” Angie said.
“Took longer than we expected, but we accomplished a lot,” Dorothy said. “We now own a plantation.”
At the camp, everyone crowded around the arrivals.
Manny extended his hand to Mason. “Glad you’re back.”
“Anything exciting while we were gone?”
“Nope, same old-same old,” he said.
“We own a plantation,” Angie announced. Her face suddenly turned serious. “What does that mean for Travis and me?”
Mason proceeded to describe the plantation in detail, the crops, and the potential for long term survival. Lastly he explained about the fifty slaves, the need for manpower to work the land, and the plan he and Dorothy had discussed to improve the lifestyle for those who agreed to stay after they were freed.
“That’s about all we can do,” Dorothy said. “We now live in a time that is much different from our own. We will try to apply our values as much as possible. But our goal is to survive.”
While the rest of the camp continued to discuss the prospects of living on a plantation, Mason pulled Angie and Travis aside.
“You have my solemn promise that I’ll do everything in my power to ensure no harm comes to you two,” Mason said.
Travis took hold of Angie’s hand. “We’ll do whatever we have to,” he said.
“You may have to play a role at times,” Mason said, “but we’ll survive, maybe even prosper.”
Angie and Travis nodded and walked off together.
Mason walked back to the center of camp and raised his hand to get everyone’s attention. “There’s nothing keeping us here. We have a house and we have the means to subsist. I suggest we pack up what we need or want, load ourselves on the ship, and head out. We can work out the details once were at the plantation.”
“Where’s Jeremy and Lisa?” Manny asked, as he scanned the camp. “And Karen.”
“The three of them remained behind at the plantation. As of today, we are the owners.”
“Well actually Jeremy and Lisa,” Dorothy said. “Their names are on the papers.”
“For appearances,” Mason said. “We all own the property and we all have a place to live. If anyone decides to head out, they’ll always have a place to come back to.”
“Jeremy and Lisa are married,” Dorothy said.
“What?” Gail asked.
“Oh yeah,” Mason said. “I forgot that part. The two of them were getting close anyhow, and we thought a married couple on the deed would look better to the town’s people. So they got married.”
“We’ll explain more about the plantation and work out all the details of who does what later,” Dorothy said. “For now, we should just get moving.”
Everyone except Manny meandered off in various directions.
He stood in the center of camp and slowly turned in a circle. He finally glanced at Mason standing nearby. “I’ve gotten used to this place.”
Mason tightened his lips and nodded. “You’ll get used to the new place. We’re going to need your skills.”
Manny remained quiet as he continued to look around the camp. He finally nodded, turned, and walked off.
CHAPTER 24
By the time Mato, his braves, along with Mason and Manny had finished ferrying the Indian’s goods to their village, it was too late in the day for the survivors to head out. It was just as well. They needed to process some drinking water for the trip.
Late in the day, Angie and Travis made their final visit to the fish trap. Mason tagged along, mainly because he had nothing else to do and it would take his mind off the coming transition. They walked the length of the beach like always.
While Travis and Angie gathered what fish there was and dismantled the trap, Mason checked in with John and Tom. They would remain on the ship for the night. All was well. John had mended a couple of new holes in the mainsail and there were several other minor issues he wanted to tackle before they headed out the next morning.
Mason returned to camp with Travis and Angie, and t
he day’s catch. They roasted the fish for dinner, and everyone sat around the camp’s fire for the last time to eat and talk. Even Nathan seemed like he was in a good mood.
After dinner, Mason carried the leftover fish, wrapped in palm fronds, down to John and Tom. He sat on the deck with them while they ate.
“I like the idea of running cargo up and down the coast,” Mason said. “We can supplement the income from the plantation and get it paid off that much faster.”
“It’s an interesting life these people had,” John said. “Simple. I like simple. I’m not sure I would go back to our time even if we could.”
“It’s a tough life, but satisfying,” Tom said. “And a little smelly.” Tom stared at Mason.
Mason didn’t get his meaning at first until he considered his linen coat and breeches.
Tom cocked his head.
Mason tried to remember the last time he had a bath. It had been a while, just before his encounter with Karen on the boat. He glanced at his clothes again. There were several stains and suddenly he was aware of his own stench. He needed a bath. Mason nodded. “I should probably visit the stream in back of the camp before it gets completely dark.”
Tom raised an eyebrow and nodded.
John smiled. “Wouldn’t hurt.”
As the sun began to set, Mason made his way back to camp. Having left his buckskins on the ship, he retrieved his jeans and t-shirt from the hut, and walked down to the stream.
All the others in camp had already turned in except Dorothy and Manny. They sat around the camp fire talking.
Mason stripped down, waded into the stream and dunked himself under the water. He scrubbed at his hair and beard with his fingers and rinsed. He next grabbed a handful of bottom sand and used its coarseness to scrub every inch of his skin. It wasn’t the same as soap, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances. With a final dunk to remove all the sand, he took a few moments to let the cool water ease the tension from his muscles. This had been home for a while. He thought back over the days since they had arrived. He recalled the plane crash, their quest for food and water, meeting Mato, the huts, the many meals around the campfire, and the people. In his mind’s eye he saw Karen scurrying around camp. He saw her with that frustrated expression on her face, and he saw her laugh. He tried to remember when he first felt the attraction. He saw himself walking up to the gate at the airport. It was then. The first minute they had met. He had no idea what the future held for the survivors, but he intended to spend as much time as possible with Karen.