The Life of a Celebrated Buccaneer

  CHAPTER V.

  Honour to whom honour is due. In speaking of the Buccaneer and inbriefly sketching his early life, it would not be right to pass by,without some slight comment, a people who occupied an island situatednot many miles from his shores. They were called the Ojabberaways. Theycame of a spirited and highly sensitive race. They were imaginative inthe extreme, quick of temper, and very prone to insult. The smallestslight they would look upon as a grave injury. They were also aquick-witted, clever, and merry people, and fighting was the joy oftheir life. They were not total abstainers.

  Somehow the Ojabberaways and the Buccaneer, though near neighbours, didnot get on very well together. This often happens, more especiallyamongst relations, but the Ojabberaways would not admit that they wereof the same blood as the Buccaneer. They maintained that they came froma far nobler stock. In fact, it would appear from what the peoplethemselves said, though history is silent upon the subject, that theisland was at one time inhabited by one or two kings, who left a progenysufficient to people the whole place, and that consequently, everyOjabberaway had royal blood in his veins. No wonder then that they werehigh-spirited and proud. Now they looked upon the bold Buccaneer as atyrant, whose chief aim in life was to tread under foot, and otherwiseinsult them. Nothing would induce them to believe the contrary. Theysucked it in at their mother's breasts. The origin of their name iswrapped in mystery, but it is probable that it had, in some way, aconnection with the chief produce of their country.

  The Ojabberaways were not a united people. Though for the most part theywere inimical to the rule of the Buccaneer, and groaned under what theyconsidered the chain cast upon them by an alien and an oppressor, therewere many who were comfortable and even happy and contented under hisrule. Between these two sections of the Ojabberaways there was no lovelost. The wild Ojabberaways as they were sometimes called--of coursebehind their backs--looked with peculiar hatred upon what were calledthe loyal Ojabberaways. Speaking of the people generally it may be said,that when you came across one who was a thorough gentleman, no finerspecimen of the class could be found in the world; but nature is not atall times prodigal. There are some flowers that only bloom once in ahundred years.

  For the ordinary occupation of life the people had little or no taste,and in his own country, if you found one Ojabberaway working, you wouldalways find two at least indulging in the luxury of looking on. And atall times an Ojabberaway would give over any labour in which he might beoccupied, to follow a fellow-countryman to his grave, to whom in life hewould not have lent a single sixpence. This respect for the dead istouching; but the Ojabberaways were a sentimental nation.

  They were also a peculiarly constituted people, generous to a fault aslong as they had anything to give; but they, for the most part, livedbeyond their means, for a man with a thousand a year would generallyspend two, and this in time brought them into the usurer's hands andinto difficulties. Then some one had to suffer, and it was generally thetenant of the land and the peasant. The usurer at all times drives ahard bargain, and what bowels he has are not those of compassion. Whatis in his bond he takes care to have. This gave an opening to theagitator, and he took advantage of the state of things to stir upstrife.

  Then the Ojabberaways had peculiarly formed eyes. To the outwardappearance just like other peoples; but inwardly quite differentlyconstructed. An object that would appear to an ordinary individual inone light would impinge upon the retina of an Ojabberaway's eye in sucha manner as to distort some things and magnify others; but most of all agrievance. On the other hand an obligation would appear as small as ifit were looked at through the wrong end of a telescope. They wereextremely romantic and were given occasionally to romancing. In fact, ithas been said by those who like to summarise and put a whole historyalmost into a nutshell, that the lower orders of the Ojabberaways wereliars by nature and beggars by trade. Allowing for that exaggerationwhich is common to all such sayings there is still a residuum of truthleft. Though brave at all times when out of their own country, in ittheir courage generally took refuge behind a bank or a stone wall. Theirfood was simple and their favourite drink was strong; so much so, thatwhen taken in too great quantities, it made them perfectly irresponsiblebeings and extremely dangerous and disagreeable neighbours. Their womenwere the most virtuous in the world and amongst the most lively, and themen, though in their revenge they would have recourse to the assassin'sdagger, would never assail the chastity of a woman, who might walk fromone end of their island to the other without the slightest fear ofmolestation.

  The lower orders of this devil-me-care people were joyful in their rags.They preferred dirt to cleanliness, and as has been already said, truthwith them was not a highly prized virtue, though if they did lie, theydid it more to please than deceive. The Ojabberaways had taken uppatriotism, and made it into a regular trade, and they had cultivated ituntil it had become a most lucrative employment. But with all theirfaults, and Heaven only knows they had many, one could not help likingthem. They had worked for the Buccaneer; they had fought for him, andhad helped him in many of his predatory excursions, and they wereinclined, at the time of which we are speaking, like many anotherpeople, to do a little robbing on their own account; but it must beowned that they were a regular thorn in the Buccaneer's side, and thethorn was working deeper, and deeper, into his flesh every day he lived.It must also be owned that in time past he had not treated themover-well, and retribution was galloping after him in hot haste.