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CHAPTER 1 ANew World
This chapter concentrates on the contact between Indians and early European explorers and settlers in the Americas. It
begins by examining the sophisticated Native American cultures in South and North America before European contact.
Another major theme is the European expansion pioneered by the Portuguese and Spanish and propelled by the search
for African gold and a direct sea route to Asia. Portuguese contact with African societies, the voyages of Columbus, and
the Spanish conquest of Mexico and South America are discussed, with critical analysis of the demographic
consequences of those contacts. Other aspects of Spanish colonization—including justifications for conquest, economic
matters, and Spanish-Indian relations—are also considered. The next section focuses on the French and Dutch empires
in North America. The relatively few French who lived in New France (French Canada) consisted mainly of fur traders,
indentured servants, and Jesuit missionaries. The French drew Indians into the Atlantic economy and into conflict with
European powers. The Dutch, mainly interested in trade, established friendly commercial and diplomatic relations with the
Iroquois but conflicted with other Indians over land in New Netherland. Voices of Freedom primary source documents
within this chapter include an excerpt from History of the Indies, by a Spanish priest named Bartolome De Las Casas
(1528), and a portion of the “Declaration of Josephe” (1681), the deposition of a Native American who witnessed the
Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico. Both documents reveal Spanish and Native American interaction and conflict.
7.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction
A.Since the voyages of Columbus, the interconnection of cultures and peoples has taken place on a global scale.
II. The First Americans
A. The Settling of the Americas
1. “Indians” settled the New World between 15,000 and 60,000 years ago, before the glaciers melted and
submerged the land bridge between Asia and North America.
B. Indian Societies of the Americas
1. North and South American societies built roads, trade networks, and irrigation systems.
2. Societies from Mexico and areas south were grander in scale and organization than those north of Mexico.
a. North American Indians lacked the technologies Europeans had mastered, such as metal tools and
machines, gunpowder, and the scientific knowledge necessary for long-distance navigation.
C. Mound Builders of the Mississippi River Valley
1. Built approximately 3,500 years ago along the Mississippi River in modern-day Louisiana, a community known
today as Poverty Point was a trading center for the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys.
2. Near present-day St. Louis, the city known as Cahokia, which flourished with a population of 10,000 to 30,000
around 1200 CE, featured large human-built mounds.
D. Western Indians
1. Hopi and Zuni ancestors settled around present-day Arizona and New Mexico, built large planned towns with
multiple-family dwellings, and traded with peoples as far away as Mississippi and central Mexico.
2. Indians in the Pacific Northwest lived primarily by fishing and gathering, whereas on the Great Plains, the
Indians hunted buffalo or lived in agricultural communities.
E. Indians of Eastern North America
1. Indian tribes living in the eastern part of North America sustained themselves with a diet of corn, squash, and
beans and supplemented it by fishing and hunting.
2. Native Americans believed sacred spirits could be found in living and inanimate things such as animals, plants,
trees, water, and wind. This idea is known as animism.
3. Tribes frequently warred with one another; however, there were also many loose alliances.
4. Indians saw themselves as one group among many; the sheer diversity seen by the Europeans upon their
arrival was remarkable.
F. Native American Religion
1. Religious ceremonies were often directly related to farming and hunting.
2. Those who were believed to hold special spiritual powers held positions of respect and authority.
3. Indian religion did not pose a sharp distinction between the natural and the supernatural.
G. Land and Property
1. The idea of owning private property was foreign to Indians.
2. Indians believed land was a common resource, not an economic commodity.
3. Wealth mattered little in Indian societies and generosity was far more important.
H. Gender Relations
8.
1. Women couldengage in premarital sex and choose to divorce their husbands, and most Indian societies were
matrilineal.
2. Because men were often away on hunts, women attended to the agricultural duties as well as the household
duties.
I. European Views of the Indians
1. Europeans felt that Indians lacked genuine religion.
2. Europeans claimed that Indians did not “use” the land and thus had no claim to it.
3. Europeans viewed Indian men as weak and Indian women as mistreated.
III. Indian Freedom, European Freedom
A. Indian Freedom
1. Europeans concluded that the notion of freedom was alien to Indian societies.
2. Europeans concluded that Indians were barbaric because they were too free.
3. European understanding of freedom was based on ideas of personal independence and the ownership of
private property—ideas foreign to Indians.
B. Christian Liberty
1. Europeans believed that to embrace Christ was to provide freedom from sin.
2. “Christian liberty” had no connection to later ideas of religious tolerance.
3. In the premodern world, religion permeated every aspect of people’s lives.
4. A person’s religion was closely tied to his or her economic, political, and social position.
C. Freedom and Authority
1. Europeans claimed that obedience to law was another definition of freedom; law was liberty’s salvation.
2. Under English law, women held very few rights and were submissive to their husbands.
D. Liberty and Liberties
1. Liberty came from knowing one’s place in a hierarchical society and fulfilling duties appropriate to one’s rank.
2. Numerous modern civil liberties (such as freedom of worship and of the press) did not exist.
IV. The Expansion of Europe
A. Chinese and Portuguese Navigation
1. Chinese admiral Zheng He led seven naval expeditions into the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433, even
exploring East Africa on the sixth voyage.
2. Caravel, compass, and quadrant made travel along the African coast possible for the Portuguese in the early
fifteenth century.
B. Portugal and West Africa
1. Africa was a wealthy continent, and the search for African gold drove the early explorers.
2. The Portuguese established trading posts, “factories,” along the western coast of Africa.
3. Portugal began colonizing Atlantic islands and established sugar plantations worked by slaves.
C. Freedom and Slavery in Africa
1. Slavery was already one form of labor in Africa before the Europeans came.
2. Europeans traded textiles and guns for African slaves; this greatly disrupted African society.
3. By the time Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1498, Portugal had established a vast trading empire.
D. The Voyages of Columbus
1. Both commercial trade and religious conversions motivated Columbus.
9.
2. Christopher Columbus,an Italian, got financial support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.
3. In the same year, 1492, the king and queen completed the Reconquista, ordering all Muslims and Jews to
convert to Catholicism or leave the country.
V. Contact
A. Columbus in the New World
1. Columbus landed on Hispaniola in 1492, and colonization began the next year.
2. Nicolas de Ovando established a permanent base in Hispaniola in 1502.
3. Amerigo Vespucci sailed along the coast of South America between 1498 and 1502, and the New World came
to be called America.
B. Exploration and Conquest
1. News could now travel quickly, especially with the invention of Johann Gutenberg’s movable-type printing
press in the early 1400s.
2. John Cabot had traveled to Newfoundland in 1497, and soon many Europeans were exploring the New World.
3. Vasco Núñez de Balboa trekked across Panama and was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
Ferdinand Magellan led an expedition to sail around the world.
4. Two Spanish conquistadores, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, led devastating expeditions against the
Aztec and Inca civilizations, respectively, in the early 1500s.
C. The Demographic Disaster
1. The Columbian Exchange transferred not only plants and animals but also diseases, such as smallpox and
influenza.
2. The native populations were significantly depleted through wars, enslavement, forced conversion to
Christianity, and disease.
VI. The Spanish Empire
A. Governing Spanish America
1. Spain established a stable government modeled after Spanish home rule and absolutism.
a. Power flowed from the king to the Council of the Indies to viceroys to local officials.
2. The Catholic Church played a significant role in the administration of Spanish colonies.
B. Colonists in Spanish America
1. Gold and silver mining was the primary economy in Spanish America.
a. Mines were worked by Indians.
b. Many Spaniards came to the New World for easier social mobility.
C. Colonists and Indians
1. Indian inhabitants always outnumbered European colonists and their descendants in Spanish America.
a. Peninsulares were people of European birth.
2. Spanish America evolved into a hybrid culture—part Indian, part Spanish, and, in places, part African.
a. Mestizos were persons of mixed Indian and Spanish origin.
D. Justifications for Conquest
1. To justify their claims to land that belonged to someone else, the Spanish relied on cultural superiority,
missionary zeal, and violence.
E. Spreading the Faith
1. A missionary element existed from the Church’s long holy war against Islam and was renewed with the
10.
Protestant Reformation inthe sixteenth century.
2. National glory and religious mission went hand in hand, with the primary aim of the Spaniards being to
transform the Indians into obedient Catholic subjects of the crown.
3. Not only diseases contributed to massive deaths but also brutal conditions of forced labor.
a. Many Spanish colonialists saw no contradiction between serving God and enriching themselves.
b. The souls to be saved could also be a labor force in the gold and silver mines.
F. Las Casas’s Complaint
1. Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about the injustices of Spanish rule toward the Indians.
2. Las Casas insisted that Indians were rational beings and Spain had no grounds to deprive them of land or
liberty.
3. He believed that “the entire human race is one,” but favored African slavery.
4. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature)
a. Las Casas, History of the Indies (1528)
b. His book helped to establish the Black Legend that Spain was a uniquely brutal colonizing power.
G. Reforming the Empire
1. Las Casas’s writings encouraged the 1542 New Laws, which forbade Indian enslavement.
2. In 1550, Spain abolished the encomienda system and replaced it with the repartimiento system.
H. Exploring North America
1. In what would become the future United States, Spain established the first permanent colony on the island of
Puerto Rico (1508).
a. Juan Ponce de León, the leader of the colony, found gold.
b. Most other later European settlements did not have gold.
2. Large Spanish expeditions traveled through Florida, the Gulf of Mexico region, and the Southwest (1520s–
1540s).
3. These expeditions, particularly Hernando de Soto’s, brutalized Indians and spread deadly diseases.
I. Spanish Florida
1. Florida, the first present-day U.S. continental area colonized by Spain, had forts as early as the 1560s to protect
Spanish treasure fleets from pirates.
a. St. Augustine was colonized in 1565.
b. In 1566, the Spanish traveled far north to establish Santa Elena in present-day South Carolina.
2. Spanish missionaries sought to convert Indians, without much success.
3. As late as 1763, Spanish Florida had only 4,000 inhabitants of European descent.
J. Spain in the Southwest
1. In 1598, Juan de Oñate led settlers into present-day New Mexico.
2. Oñate destroyed Acoma, a centuries-old Indian city, in response to an attack.
K. The Pueblo Revolt
1. In 1680, Pueblo Indians, led by Popé, rebelled against the Spanish colonists in present-day New Mexico for
forcing the Indians to convert to Christianity.
2. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature)
a. The “Declaration of Josephe” (1681) is the deposition of a Native American who witnessed the Pueblo
Revolt in New Mexico.
11.
VII. The Frenchand Dutch Empires
A. French and Dutch settlements became more dependent than the English on Native Americans as trading and
military allies, providing Indians with more power and freedom in dealing with these settlements.
B. French Colonization
1. The French were hoping to find gold and the Northwest Passage to the Pacific but found only what they
considered a barrier: a large North American continent.
2. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, and others explored and claimed the entire Mississippi Valley
for France.
3. Relatively few French colonists arrived in New France; most were engagés (indentured servants) who returned
home when their contracts expired. The white population in 1700 was only 19,000.
C. New France and the Indians
1. With few settlers, France needed friendly relations with the Indians.
2. The Jesuits converted Indians but did not try to change much of the Indian culture and allowed them to retain
some of their traditional religious practices.
3. The French prided themselves on adopting a more humane policy toward the Indians than Spain, yet their
contact still brought disease and their fur trading depleted the native animal population.
4. On the upper Great Lakes, relative equality existed between the French and Indians.
a. The métis were children of Indian women and French men.
b. It was more common for the French to adopt Indian ways than for Indians to become like the French.
D. The Dutch Empire
1. In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and claimed the area for the Netherlands.
2. Dutch traders established Fort Orange (near modern Albany) in 1614, and the Dutch West India Company
settled colonists on Manhattan Island in 1626.
3. The Netherlands dominated international commerce in the early seventeenth century.
E. Dutch Freedom
1. The Dutch prided themselves on their devotion to liberty; freedoms of the press and of private religious
practice were unique to the Dutch.
2. Amsterdam was a refuge for many persecuted Protestants and Jews.
F. Freedom in New Netherland
1. New Netherland was a military post. It was not governed democratically, but the citizens possessed rights.
2. Slaves had “half-freedom” in that they were given land to support their families.
3. Women had more rights and independence in New Netherland than in other European colonies; they could go
to court, borrow money, and own property.
G. The Dutch and Religious Toleration
1. New Netherland was a remarkably diverse colony; eighteen different languages were spoken in New
Amsterdam.
2. The Dutch were more tolerant in religious matters than other European countries, but they still had an official
religion, the Dutch Reformed Church.
3. Governor Petrus Stuyvesant denied open practice of other religious faiths.
4. No one in New Netherland was forced to attend the Dutch Reformed Church or executed for different religious
beliefs.
H. Settling New Netherland
12.
1. Cheap livestockand free land after six years of labor were promised in an attempt to attract settlers.
2. A plan was adopted to offer large estates to patroons, shareholders who agreed to transport tenants for
agricultural labor.
I. New Netherland and the Indians
1. The Dutch came to trade, not to conquer, and were determined to treat the Indians more humanely, although
conflict was not completely avoided.
2. Dutch authorities recognized Indian sovereignty over the land and forbade settlement until it had been
purchased.
J. Borderlands and Empire in Early America
1. A borderland is a “meeting place of peoples where geographical and cultural borders are not clearly defined.”
2. Boundaries between empires, and between colonists and native peoples, constantly shifted.
a. In some areas, the Indians were weakened.
b. At the edges, European power was unstable, and no set pattern of cultural interactions emerged.
3. Indians often wielded power and pitted Europeans against each other.
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Compare the following precontact societies: Aztec, Inca, Cahokia, and the ancestors of the Hopi and Zuni. What
similarities and differences defined the development and culture of these indigenous peoples?
• How did Indians and Europeans conceive of and practice religion?
• The Europeans’ understanding of freedom based on ownership of private property had little meaning to most Indian
societies. What values were far more important than individual autonomy to most Indian communities, and why?
• Evaluate “Gold, God, and Glory” as reasons for the European conquest of the Americas. Did one factor outweigh
another in motivating the Europeans? How did Europeans justify the conquest?
• The European conquest of the New World enhanced interaction among cultures on a global scale. Discuss this
interaction and how it affected both the Europeans and the Indians. Be sure to discuss the demographic
consequences for indigenous populations.
• Bartolomé de Las Casas became a voice of freedom for the Indians in Spanish America. Explain what experiences
motivated him to speak out. What kind of influence did his actions exert on the Spanish, Indians, and African
slaves? In what sense was his understanding of freedom limited by his background and origins?
• Compare the Spanish colonies with the French and Dutch colonies. Think about factors such as economies,
freedoms, religion, government structure, and intermarriage. How did the French and Dutch learn from Spanish
experiences in the Americas?
• Imagine you are an attorney accusing Spain of human rights violations in a sixteenth-century world criminal court.
Draw on the Voices of Freedom pieces in this chapter to help you prepare your closing argument. What do you
imagine Spain’s defense attorney would argue regarding Spanish and Indian interactions?
• Discuss the borderlands area of New France. What roles did the French settlers, missionaries, trappers, and various
Indian tribes play in the development of the borderlands of New France?
13.
SUPPLEMENTAL WEB ANDVISUAL RESOURCES
American Beginnings
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/divam.htm
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/nattrans.htm
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/tblibrary.htm
The National Humanities Center. Teacher Serve: An Interactive Curriculum Enrichment Service for Teachers. Two sections: one on
religion and the national culture and one on the environment in American history. Toolbox Library offers a plethora of primary
sources, discussion questions, additional online sources, and talking points.
Caribbean Amerindians
http://indigenouscaribbean.wordpress.com/articles/issues-in-indigenous-caribbean-studies/
Issues in Indigenous Caribbean Studies is an online collection of academic papers.
Columbian Exchange
www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/columbian.htm
The National Humanities Center chronicles the Columbian Exchange with help from Alfred Crosby.
Conquistadores
www.pbs.org/conquistadors
This is a two-volume PBS Home Video. Host Michael Wood travels the routes that the Spanish conquistadores took in the
sixteenth century. Cortés and the Pizarro brothers are highlighted.
Images of Pre-Columbian America
https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/Hort_306/
Hosted by Purdue University, this site offers more than fifty photographs of ancient artifacts.
1492: An Ongoing Voyage
www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html
This exhibit, hosted by the Library of Congress, provides a variety of resources and information about Columbus and the consequences
of his voyage.
The Mound Builders
http://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/historic-sites/poverty-point-state-historic-site/index
The Louisiana State Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Office of State Parks, offers this website for the Poverty Point
Historic Site.
www.cr.nps.gov/archeology/feature/builder.htm
The National Park Service’s archaeology site features a time line, artifacts, “delta voices,” and more from the mound builders.
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon
https://solsticeproject.org/Chaco_Films_Videos/The_Mystery_of_Chaco_Canyon/
A full-length documentary film (56 min.) about the most impressive Native American archaeological site in North America.
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680
www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/one/pueblo.htm
This PBS site offers useful information about the Pueblo Revolt. Also linked is information on the PBS documentary The West, the
first volume of which covers the Pueblo Revolt.
14.
SUPPLEMENTAL PRINT RESOURCES
Axtell,James. “The Moral Dimensions of 1492.” Historian 56, no. 1 (1993): 17–28.
Bradley, James W. Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois: Accommodating Change, 1500–1655. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
2005.
Crosby, Alfred. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.
Davis, David Brion. “Constructing Race: A Reflection.” William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 1 (1997): 7–18.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Krech, Shepard, III. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Lunenfield, Marvin, ed. 1492: Discovery, Invasion, Encounter: Sources and Interpretations. Lexington, MA: Heath/Houghton Mifflin,
1991.
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
Mann, Charles. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. New York: Vintage Books, 2012.
Pauketat, Timothy R. Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi. New York: Viking Press, 2009.
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped
America. New York: First Vintage Books, 2005.
Townsend, Camilla. “Burying the White Gods: New Perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico.” American Historical Review 108, no. 3
(2003): 659–687.
Wright, Ronald. Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas. New York: Mariner, 2005.
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTOR ACTIVITIES
1. Pizarro and the Incas: Group Film Analysis
Have students watch Guns, Germs, and Steel, episode 2, “The Conquest,” based on Jared Diamond’s book. It is available on DVD
or streaming from Netflix. The DVD is a National Geographic program, but PBS has an insightful companion website that includes
transcripts of all episodes: www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/.
Discussion Activities
1. What was life like for the Incas in the sixteenth century?
2. What was life like for the Spanish in sixteenth-century Europe?
3. Why did conflict arise between the Spanish and the Incas?
4. Discuss the advantages Spanish society had over Incan society and which allowed the Spanish forces to conquer the large
Incan army. How did these advantages come about?
5. Why were the Incas and other Native American societies extremely susceptible to European diseases? What role did disease
play in the conquest of the Incas?
6. How did the geography of North America and South America shape the development of the Incas? Did it influence other Native
American societies?
7. Compare Incan society with Aztec society regarding achievement and structure. How does the conquest of the Incas compare to
the conquest of the Aztecs?
2. The Spanish Conquest: European and Indian Perspectives: Class Debate
Divide the class in half to represent European and Native American people. Allow the groups to meet and finalize their talking points
on the question of how European arrival in the Americas impacted Native American people. A class debate will ensue for 30 minutes,
with each side answering the questions and concerns of the other. Keep track of the most important points of evidence from the
chapter raised by both sides to assess which side won the debate.
15.
TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1.Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
2. Explain how Indian and European ideas of freedom differed on the eve of contact.
3. Explain what impelled European explorers to look west across the Atlantic.
4. Explain what happened when the peoples of the Americas came in contact with Europeans.
5. Identify the chief features of the Spanish empire in America.
6. Identify the chief features of the French and Dutch empires in North America.
Multiple Choice
1. In 1776, what did political philosopher Adam Smith observe about the “discovery” of the Americas?
a. The European colonization of the Americas changed the course of history.
b. The idea of slavery in the New World originated with the Native Americans.
c. In reference to the Americas, the term “discovery” is misleading and should not be used.
d. Christopher Columbus’s role in settling the New World was insignificant.
e. Native Americans had benefited tremendously from European encounters.
ANS: A TOP: Global Awareness | Introduction: Columbian Exchange DIF: Moderate REF: Full p. 5 | Seagull p. 1
MSC: Understanding
OBJ: 4. Explain what happened when the peoples of the Americas came in contact with Europeans.
2. Which of the following resulted from the European exploration, conquest, and colonization of the Western
Hemisphere?
a. Crops new to each hemisphere reshaped people’s diets and transformed the natural environment.
b. Native Americans gained an unprecedented amount of political power.
c. The Old and New Worlds remained largely unchanged.
d. European interest in Africa dissipated; instead, Europeans focused on enslaving Native American populations.
e. European nations entered the longest era of peace since the Pax Romana.
ANS: A TOP: A New World DIF: Easy
REF: Full p. 5 | Seagull p. 2 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 4. Explain what happened when the peoples of the Americas came in contact with Europeans.
3. Which of the following statements accurately describes the Americas before the arrival of Europeans?
a. Across Native American groups, only a few languages were spoken, which aided communication.
b. A diverse array of Native American groups had their own languages, cultures, and conflicts.
c. Trade among Native American groups had yet to be established because there were few riches there.
d. Groups relied only on hunting and gathering, not any form of farming the earth.
e. Very little diversity existed in North America, which contributed to the lack of fighting.
ANS: B TOP: Global Awareness | Introduction: Columbian Exchange DIF: Moderate REF: Full p. 6 | Seagull p. 3
MSC: Understanding
OBJ: 3. Explain what impelled European explorers to look west across the Atlantic.
16.
4. Which statementis true about Native Americans who lived in the Western Hemisphere prior to the arrival of
Europeans?
a. They descended from people who are believed to have arrived in North America from Asia between 15,000 and
60,000 years ago, via a land bridge across the Bering Strait.
b. They lived in large cities such as Tenochtitlan, which had a population that surpassed 1 million people.
c. The most complex Native American civilizations developed in the region that later became the United States.
d. Native Americans were heavily reliant on livestock populations.
e. Native Americans all spoke the same language.
ANS: A TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 6 | Seagull pp. 3–4 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
5. What was a commonality shared between the Asians who crossed the Bering Strait and the Europeans who crossed
the Atlantic Ocean thousands of years later?
a. Both groups were sent there by powerful monarchs.
b. Both groups were driven by the desire to hunt large mammals.
c. Both groups started as slaves and then gained their freedom during the journey.
d. Both groups trekked during bitter ice ages.
e. Both groups were searching for resources.
ANS: E TOP: The First Americans | The Expansion of Europe DIF: Difficult REF: Full pp. 6, 18 | Seagull pp. 3–4, 15
MSC: Analyzing
OBJ: 3. Explain what impelled European explorers to look west across the Atlantic.
6. Around 9,000 years ago, where did farming first start in the Americas?
a. the Mississippi Valley
b. the Ohio Valley
c. around the Amazon River
d. Mexico and the mountains of South America
e. the Near East
ANS: D TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 6 | Seagull p. 5 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
7. Pre-Columbian Native Americans were viewed by Europeans as “backwards” due to their
a. lack of farming techniques.
b. lack of metal tools.
c. inadequate hunting and fishing skills.
d. lack of trade networks.
e. inability to communicate within their tribes.
ANS: B TOP: The First Americans REF: Full p. 8 | Seagull p. 5 MSC: Analyzing OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns
of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
8. Both the Aztec and Inca empires were
17.
a. urban, butlacking markets and trade networks.
b. small in population but sophisticated in infrastructure.
c. large, wealthy, and sophisticated.
d. large in geographic size but sparsely populated.
e. rural, with few impressive buildings.
ANS: C TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 8 | Seagull p. 5 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
9. Why did Native Americans who farmed never plow their fields?
a. The soil was too dry.
b. They had no livestock.
c. There was too much fertilizer.
d. They had big shovels to use to dig.
e. They did not need to grow many crops.
ANS: B TOP: The First Americans DIF: Easy
REF: Full p. 8 | Seagull p. 5 MSC: Understanding
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
10. Which of the following statements accurately describes one of the advancements of the Inca kingdom?
a. The Incas were the only Native American group to own vast quantities of gold.
b. The Aztecs helped the Incas develop their empire, as these groups formed a close alliance.
c. The Incas were predominantly located along the Atlantic Ocean and pioneered shipbuilding.
d. The Incas refrained from expanding so that the empire was easy to manage.
e. The Incas developed a complex system of roads and bridges along the Andes mountain chain.
ANS: E TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 8 | Seagull p. 5 MSC: Understanding
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
11. Where did mound-building tribes flourish?
a. near the Atlantic Ocean
b. in the Mississippi River Valley
c. in present-day New Mexico
d. in present-day South Florida
e. near the Hudson River
ANS: B TOP: The First Americans DIF: Easy
REF: Full p. 9 | Seagull p. 6 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
12. Pueblo Indians lived in what is now
a. the eastern United States.
b. the southwestern United States.
c. the Yucatan Peninsula.
18.
d. the northeasternUnited States.
e. western Canada.
ANS: B TOP: The First Americans DIF: Easy
REF: Full p. 10 | Seagull p. 6 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
13. The Pueblo Indians encountered by the Spanish in the sixteenth century
a. had engaged in settled village life only briefly before the Spanish arrived.
b. had been almost completely isolated from any other people before the Spanish arrived.
c. used irrigation systems to aid their agricultural production.
d. were called mound builders because of the burial mounds they created.
e. created a vast empire that included control of the Incas.
ANS: C TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 10 | Seagull p. 6 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
14. Who were the Native Americans who created the Great League of Peace?
a. Creeks
b. Mohegans
c. Choctaws
d. Powhatans
e. Iroquois
ANS: E TOP: The First Americans DIF: Easy
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull p. 7 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
15. When Europeans arrived, many Native Americans
a. tried to use them to enhance their standing with other Native Americans.
b. immediately opened treaty negotiations regarding land and resources.
c. promptly united against them in open warfare.
d. immediately surrendered due to the Europeans’ superiority.
e. simply moved away to avoid any interactions with them.
ANS: A TOP: The First Americans DIF: Easy
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull p. 7 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 4. Explain what happened when the peoples of the Americas came in contact with Europeans.
16. Which of the following was one of the primary focuses of the Great League of Peace?
a. It led an educational program intended to spread knowledge of the best farming techniques.
b. It successfully outlawed any wars among tribes over goods or sentiments such as revenge.
c. It greatly decreased the amount of centralized authority that had been the norm before the fifteenth century.
d. It forbid all participating Native American groups from having their own political systems and religious beliefs.
e. It relied on representatives from different groups to decide on whether to have friendly relations with outsiders.
19.
ANS: E TOP:The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull p. 7 MSC: Applying
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
17. Native American religious ceremonies
a. were completely unrelated to traditional practices such as farming and hunting.
b. reflected a belief that sacred spirits could be found in living and inanimate things.
c. conveyed that man was subject to supernatural forces he could not control.
d. were practiced the same way in every community regardless of tribe.
e. posed sharp distinctions between the natural and supernatural.
ANS: B TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull pp. 7–8 MSC: Remembering
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
18. How did Native Americans view the concept of land ownership?
a. They treated land as a space for only hunting, not farming.
b. They viewed land as a common resource to use.
c. They viewed land as a possession owned only by individuals, not families.
d. They considered land as a trading opportunity.
e. They treated land as an economic commodity.
ANS: B TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull p. 9 MSC: Understanding
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
19. When European clergy read to Native Americans from the Bible about God creating the world in six days, was there
anything relatable for Native Americans?
a. Most Native Americans did not have any religion to compare with Christianity.
b. No Native American religions believed in creation myths.
c. Most Native Americans compared the Bible with their own written version of the Old Testament.
d. Some Native Americans stated that they were a lost tribe of Israel.
e. Many Native Americans concurred with the idea of a single supreme being creating the world.
ANS: E TOP: The First Americans DIF: Difficult
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull p. 9 MSC: Analyzing
OBJ: 1. Describe the major patterns of Native American life in North America before Europeans arrived.
20. How were the shamans and medicine men regarded in Indian societies?
a. Native Americans in general viewed them with mistrust.
b. Native American women, in particular, tended to reject them.
c. Native Americans in general treated them with respect.
d. Native Americans viewed them as highly paid witches.
e. Native Americans regarded them as murderers.
ANS: C TOP: The First Americans DIF: Moderate
REF: Full p. 12 | Seagull p. 9 MSC: Understanding
A LIFT ONTHE ROAD.
A curious difficulty sometimes faces the administrators of the law in
dealing with some of that numerous class known as swindlers. A
man calls at various houses and represents that he is a clergyman in
want or distress, and thus gets money. Some one sharper than the
rest runs him down, and he is caught and charged; when, lo! it turns
out that the so-called rogue—and rogue he generally is—has actually
been a clergyman, and of course is, in common with all broken men,
actually in want. The result is clear—there has been no fraud. He
has deceived no one; he has told the truth; and though he might be
convicted of begging, he cannot be charged with swindling or
obtaining money under false pretences.
It is a man of this stamp I have now to introduce. His real name
was Alfred Johnston. He was a college-bred man of great smartness,
and would have soon made a mark as a clergyman had he not been
caught and ruined by a bad woman. Rendered dissolute in his habits
and disowned by his friends, he changed his life and became as
great a rascal as before he had been promising as a man.
Even with talents such as Johnston possessed this life is not all
smooth sailing. There come times of want and danger, when their
dearest companions would betray them without reward, or see them
drop dying of hunger at their feet without putting out a hand to
save. These are the reverses which are never heard of, but which
22.
are more commonin a life of crime than any other on the face of the
globe.
Johnston had tramped on foot the greater part of the road from
Glasgow to Edinburgh, and had just crossed the boundary of the
shire, which means that he was ten or twelve miles from the capital.
His appearance was very much against him, or his route would have
been easier. His boots were mere shreds of leather, through which
his feet showed conspicuously, and he had no stockings. He had no
shirt, and the utmost ingenuity in buttoning up his ragged coat could
scarcely conceal the fact. The only trace of respectability remaining
about his attire was a shabby and much battered dress hat.
Johnston was a very good-looking fellow, with fine flowing black hair,
and a big beard and moustache, and was still young—about thirty—
but Apollo himself would have had an evil look in such a garb, so
this prodigal’s lines had been hard ones for some time. In this plight
—wearied in body, tired of life, disgusted with himself and all the
world—Johnston lay down on a green bank by the road-side,
wondering whether it were best to lie there and die, or struggle on
over the remaining miles, which seemed to lengthen as they grew
fewer in number.
A lovely sunset was shedding glory on the scene, and all was
peaceful but the mind of that lost man. In looking listlessly around,
his eye fell on a comfortable and well-sheltered residence, the very
air of which proclaimed it, to Johnston’s experienced eye, a
minister’s manse. There was a large garden attached, well stocked
with fruit trees and bushes, and every other appurtenance that could
render a country house snug and attractive. I don’t know whether
the thought struck him that he might have been the comfortable
23.
occupant of sucha house—possibly it did, for he was conscious that
he had more talent than dozens of the drones occupying manses of
the kind—but his immediate action was to rouse himself to consider
whether he could not lay the occupant under contribution. A passing
field hand, belonging to the village close by, supplied him with the
occupant’s name and opinions, and, thus armed, he ventured up to
the house, gently rang the bell, and with some difficulty induced the
servant to take up his name—“The Rev. Alfred Johnston”—to her
master.
Johnston stood demurely in the lobby, to which he had been
admitted with marked suspicion by the servant, till the Rev. Robert
Goodall appeared, in spectacles and slippers, direct from his study. If
he had been startled to learn that a brother clergyman wished to see
him, he was much more so at seeing the brother clergyman. But
Johnston was fluent of tongue, and he had experience in dealing
with such surprise.
“I am really a clergyman, as I can prove to you, but have been
reduced to this state by my own folly,” he hastened to humbly say.
“And I have not come to beg or ask you for money, as I daresay
there are so many legitimate calls upon your goodness that you can
ill afford to succour strangers. But I have walked all the way from
Glasgow, and am now nearly fainting with hunger. If you could tell
your servant to give me, out on the door-step or at the road-side,
enough broken victuals, no matter how plain or coarse, to support
me till morning, your kindness will never be forgotten.”
The clergyman heard him in silence, and probably scepticism; but
on questioning him closely as to his college career, was surprised to
find every statement agreeing with his own knowledge. Johnston
24.
described the classes;mimicked the Professors; quoted Greek and
Hebrew writings with the utmost ease and correctness, and even
showed that he had made the acquaintance of personal friends of Mr
Goodall who had attended during the same sessions. In this
narration Johnston had only to keep to the truth to make it
saddening to listen to, and this he did, adding a few pathetic
touches about a wife and child left in great want in Glasgow, while
he made a struggle to reach Edinburgh on foot, in hope of securing
a tutor’s place, for which he was well qualified.
“Do you mean to try to reach Edinburgh to-night?” inquired the
clergyman, with some pity in his tones.
“No, that is impossible, for I am quite exhausted,” said the
wanderer, with apparent frankness. “I cannot go much further. I
shall rest under some hedge or hay-stack till morning, and then
make my way thither by daylight.”
“I am sorry for you, a man of education and talent, who might be
in so much better a position,” said the clergyman, in gentle rebuke.
“However, you shall have the food you require, but not out on the
door-step. Come this way.”
Mr Goodall led the way to a comfortable parlour, where he lighted
a lamp, drew the blinds, and then ordered in the remains of his own
dinner—cold, of course, but much better fare than Johnston had
tasted for many a day. When he had eaten his fill, and finished with
a glass of wine brought to him by the kind clergyman, he was in no
hurry to leave, and his entertainer was as willing that he should
linger. Johnston’s tongue was fluent, and he could tell many strange
stories of his ups and downs, and in the present case so suited them
to a clerical ear that the good-hearted man at length felt strong
25.
qualms as tosending such a man out into the darkness. The best
plan would have been to give the needy being a shilling wherewith
to pay for a lodging at some travellers “howff,” but that never
occurred to the minister. He was entertained, flattered, and amused
by the queer waif cast up at his door, and fancied that the best way
to show his gratitude was to invite Johnston to stay there over the
night. The wanderer affected to receive the invitation with
unbounded astonishment, but was at length prevailed upon to
accept the offer, and after patiently listening to some of Mr Goodall’s
printed sermons, and passing very flattering criticisms upon their
logic and learning, he followed the good man upstairs to a spare
bedroom, where an old suit of the minister’s, with a pair of boots
and a shirt, made a considerable improvement in his appearance.
After supper they parted for the night with mutual good wishes,
and the minister lay down to a sound night’s sleep, conscious of
having that day emulated his great Master in doing one good action
to the neediest near his hands. Johnston ought to have slept soundly
too, for he had travelled far and fasted, and then eaten well, but
cupidity was in him stronger than drowsiness. In producing his pet
sermons to read them over for his guest’s edification, the clergyman
had used his keys to a drawer in the writing-table and exposed
something very like a cash-box. When the sermons had been
restored to their place of security, the drawer had been again locked,
but the keys were left in the lock. Johnston, during a momentary
absence of his entertainer, unlocked the drawer and placed the keys
ostentatiously on the top of the writing-table, from which they were
lifted by the owner a few minutes later, all unconscious but that he
had himself left them there.
26.
No opportunity occurredduring the evening for testing the
contents of the unlocked drawer; but in anticipation of there being
something in it worth carrying away, he arranged with his kind host
that he should be allowed to leave the house very early in the
morning.
The thought of that money-box kept him awake for three hours,
by which time he guessed rightly that both the clergyman and his
housekeeper would be fast asleep. He then slipped down to the
parlour on his stocking-soles—the first use to which he put the gift
of Mr Goodall—and took from the box about £50 in notes and coin. A
gold pencil-case, a silver fruit knife, and a pair of spectacles, which
were lying close by, he was mean enough also to appropriate. He
then slipped upstairs, and lay down and slept the sleep of the unjust
till about seven in the morning.
I don’t know what the man’s feelings had been when he found
that Mr Goodall was up, and had caused the servant to prepare
breakfast for him, and when that was hastily swallowed, insisted on
accompanying the wanderer back part of the way to the nearest
railway station, at which he paid his fare to Edinburgh, and pressed
a few shillings into his hand, merely saying at parting—
“Go in peace, and sin no more.”
Surely his heart must have got a sore twinge at that moment.
Johnston soon reached Edinburgh, and the telegram announcing
the robbery followed an hour or two later. This message contained a
brief description of the man, who, however, was known to me by
reputation, though I had never seen him. My only wonder was that
he had given his real name and antecedents, which, I suppose, may
be accounted for by the robbery being an after-thought. With such a
27.
sum of moneyin his possession Johnston was practically at the ends
of the earth, and it might be thought foolish to look for him in
Edinburgh; but I reasoned otherwise. Your very needy rascal, who
has not fingered money for a long time, grudges to throw away
much of it on railway fares, or anything, indeed, which does not
minister immediately to his own gratification. Besides, Johnston had
spoken of going to “friends” in Edinburgh, and I had no doubt but he
had in his mind at the moment certain of my “bairns” hailing from
Glasgow, and already known to him, who would be glad to profit by
his superior education and planning power. By telegraphing to
Johnny Farrel I had a list of these “friends” an hour after the receipt
of the news, and immediately went out to seek some of them,
sending Mc
Sweeny in another direction on the same errand. The
brief description from the robbed clergyman was supplemented by a
fuller one from Glasgow, and thus we were pretty certain of
identifying our man, even if we had met him on the street. Now,
behold how, when you are most certain, you may be most easily
deceived. Mc
Sweeny went to a certain house in Potterrow, which he
entered without ceremony, and then proceeded to question the
inmates. This house had generally a stranger or two in it at every
inspection, and the present occasion proved no exception. There
were two strangers—one a hawker, and the other an evil-looking
character with the hair of his head cropped close to the skull, and
his face as smooth and hairless as the palm of his hand. Neither of
these answering the description, Mc
Sweeny began to make inquiries
for Johnston, and was even obliging enough to describe his
character and general appearance to those present in that kitchen.
28.
“I believe Isaw him not an hour ago,” said the cropped-headed
man sullenly, after a dead silence on the part of all present.
“Where?” eagerly demanded Mc
Sweeny.
“Where I could get him again in five minutes, I think, if it was
worth my while,” suggestively returned the man.
“Will you take me to him now, then?” cried Mc
Sweeny.
“No. But I’ll send him up here if you like to wait. Is it worth half-
a-crown?”
Mc
Sweeny considered for a moment, and then said that it was.
The man slowly rose from his place by the fire and held out his hand
for the money; but the clever and cunning Mc
Sweeny only winked
hard, and made a few remarks about great detectives, famous all
over the world, not being easily cheated.
“No, no, my jewel,” he added; “ye’ll get the money when ye’ve
earned it—not a minute sooner.”
The man scowled horribly, and slowly slunk out of the room and
the house. Was ever an escape more neatly effected? That clean-
shaven, cropped-haired man was Johnston! The moment he had
entered the city he had gone to a barber and got shaved and
cropped—I afterwards spoke to the man who did it—and the
alteration which such an operation effects on the appearance can be
understood only by those who have seen it performed. Had Johnston
been placed at that moment under the eyes of Mr Goodall he most
certainly would not have been able to identify his late guest; nay, I
am not sure but he might have sworn most positively that that was
not the man.
Mc
Sweeny waited patiently for nearly half an hour, and then it
began to dawn upon him that he had been done. The grins of the
29.
occupants of thatkitchen as he went out did not tend to soothe his
feelings. Not a word was said on either side; it was all understood.
What had first roused my chum’s suspicion of the truth was the
recollection that the man had passed out of the room without a
head-covering, and that the remainder of his body was covered with
a very loose-fitting old suit of blacks. Now the clergyman had made
Johnston a present of just such a suit, and being himself a stout
man, had not been able to give him a very good fit. Along with the
suit went a broad-brimmed clerical-looking dress hat; but that
Johnston had only assumed when out of Mc
Sweeny’s sight. What
made the thing more aggravating was that Mc
Sweeny had seen the
hat hanging on a window-shutter in one of the rooms in searching
the house, yet had never thought of connecting it with the evil-
looking wretch by the fire. Not long after Mc
Sweeny’s discomfiture,
one of the county police appeared with a full description of this suit
of clothes and broad-brimmed hat—just too late, of course.
When Mc
Sweeny had spent a deal of time in hunting for the man
who had so neatly escaped him, and appeared to report to me, I
was in a very bad temper, for I was conceited enough to think that,
if it had been I who had clapped eyes on Johnston, he would not
have got off—an opinion which I changed when I knew the rascal
better.
Like Jim Macluskey, [See Brought to Bay, page 5] he had the rare
faculty of being able to change the whole expression of his face by
ingeniously contorting his features, and could speak in any kind of
language or tone to suit. Mc
Sweeny’s mistake was really not so
surprising or stupid as it appeared to me at the moment, or as it
now appears in print.
30.
I had notime to say much, for I felt that Johnston must have
realised that the city was too hot for him, and would get out of it at
his swiftest. If I was to get him it must be at once.
What route or means was he most likely to take? That was the
all-important question with me. First I decided that he would not go
near any of the railway stations, else I should have hopefully turned
in the direction of the Forth and the North—quite a favourite route
for escaping criminals. Then it struck me that, having gone the
length of sacrificing his fine beard and hair, and been so successful
in thus altering his appearance, he might boldly try the most
dangerous route of all, as that on which he was least likely to be
looked for—the road for Glasgow. He was not to know that, when it
was too late, we had penetrated his disguise, and at that moment
was probably exulting over his cleverness. I did not expect him to
walk all the way to Glasgow, but thought he might go out a good
distance, and then take train at some obscure railway station for
whatever town he meant to favour with his presence. My idea was
that Glasgow itself was to be thus favoured, but that point did not
concern me for the present.
Now, there were the three roads all crossed by the railway to
choose from, and I was a little puzzled which to try. He had come by
that leading through East Calder, and I scarcely thought he would
take that. That left the Bathgate and Linlithgow routes to choose
from. I got a gig with a strong stepping horse, and drove out the
Linlithgow road till I came upon one of the county police, who
satisfied me that no such man had passed along that road within the
last three hours. My reason for trying that route was that there was
a possibility of him, when once on the railway skirting that road,
31.
branching away tothe north by way of Stirling, and so escaping.
However, there was nothing for it but to drive back in all haste and
get on to the Bathgate road, which is the favourite one for tramps.
When I was a few miles from the city, I could scarcely believe my
own eyes when I saw a man approaching me from the opposite
direction, clad in a suit identical with that I was looking for. There it
was—loose-fitting, shabby, old, and black, with the broad-brimmed
hat to crown all. The man’s face had no beard either, but it was
roasted brown with the sun, and had on the chin a stubbly growth of
hair some days old. Nevertheless, I pulled up and stopped him.
“Here, you!” I said, displaying my staff as I jumped down.
“Alfred Johnston, I’ve been looking for you. I’ve a warrant for all
Scotland, so step up quietly;” and before he had recovered from his
astonishment, or uttered a word, I had the handcuffs on his dirty
wrists.
“My name isn’t Johnston—that I’ll swear,” he said, simply, when
he got his breath; then a light appeared to break on him, and with a
great oath he added, “Now I think I know why the kind gentleman
got me to change clothes with him, though mine were sorry rags
and them is first-class. Whew! who’d have thought it? He’s done
something, and the police is after him for it?”
This seemed not bad at all, and quite worthy of the man who
had so neatly befooled Mc
Sweeny, but I only grinned unfeelingly in
his simple face, and said dryly that “I believed so,” and bundled him
without ceremony into the gig.
“But—but—ye don’t mean to tell me ye’re going to take me
instead of him?” he at length articulated, with a look of half-comical
alarm.
32.
“I am—just.”
“Then thereal man’ll get off, and I’ll be hanged in his stead!” he
cried, fairly breaking down with terror; “for he’s footing it out fast
enough, I tell ye.”
“The real man?” I said, thinking to humour him, as I resumed the
reins and turned the horse’s head; “and what was he like, pray?”
“A clean-shaved, smooth-spoken gentleman—for all the world like
a priest or a minister, only that his head’s cropped as close as if he
was just new out of jail,” was the prompt answer; “though, by my
troth, he looked more like a shockerawn in my old duds when I left
him.”
I started, and began to think. Then I pulled off my prisoner’s hat,
and found his hair not at all close cropped. I drove rapidly back to
one of those wayside stations of the county police, and there left my
prisoner safely locked up, every question he answered confirming
my impression that he had been speaking the truth. The only
difficulty I had with him was in getting him to describe the clothes
which he had exchanged for the old blacks he wore. These he either
could not or would not name—in colour, shape, or material—a
difficulty which I only understood when the rags were before me—
and then it would have puzzled me to do what I wondered at him
not doing. Even a detective can be unreasonable at times.
Leaving the Irish-speaking man thus, I turned the horse’s head
and made him spin along the road at a fine rate, being not only
anxious to overtake the wearer of the “duds,” if he existed, but also
to escape a storm of rain which had been threatening for half the
day and was then beginning to descend. When I had gone on thus
for a few miles, and passed a good many on the road—not one of
33.
whom answered thedescription of my man—I allowed the horse to
“breathe” in ascending one of the braes by laying the reins on his
neck and letting him take his own pace. In thus moving slowly
along, I turned a corner allotted to stone breaking, and there caught
sight of a dark object huddled in to shelter from the rain. I was all
but past, and had just noticed that the figure was that of a ragged
tramp, when the man rose and trotted hurriedly after the gig, saying
respectfully—
“If you please, sir, would it be asking too much, sir, for you to
give me a lift?”
I pulled up the horse and scanned him closely, while I appeared
to busy myself pulling up my collar to keep out the driving rain.
“Well,” I said, in a tone by no means gracious or obliging, “how
far are you going?”
“I’m not particular, sir,” he answered with alacrity, “as far as
you’re going yourself, sir.”
“Come up, then.”
I had decided that he might not be my man, but I would be as
well to have him beside me till I saw if there were any others further
on. Besides, it was already growing dark, and I had little time to
lose.
The bundle of rags got up, and I had a better view of his face as
he made his ragged legs comfortable under the knee cloth. It was
clean shaven and by no means so loutish as his speech. His hair, I
saw, was cropped to the bone. I drove on till it was dark without
overtaking any other, drawing my companion out on the weather
and other every-day topics.
34.
“What are youwhen you are at home?” I at length half jocularly
asked.
I had kept him at arm’s length, so to speak, all the way, never
allowing him to become familiar in the least.
He paused over his answer, looking up at my face through the
darkness.
“I’d astonish you if I told you,” he at last replied, in a somewhat
altered tone.
“Indeed!” I answered, apparently with great indifference, but
really trembling with eager curiosity.
“Yes, I am really a clergyman, but reduced to this state by my
own folly.”
At last I had him! There he was sitting close by me in the dark,
betrayed by his own pet phrase, so truthful, and yet so often used to
deceive. I could have shouted with exultation, but I was too anxious
to see him safe under lock and key. Plenty of time for crowing when
I had him in the cells.
I gave a dissatisfied grunt and a dry “Imphum,” and remained
silent for some time. During that interval a bright thought flashed
upon me, and at the first cross road I purposely turned the horse off
the main road, and went on till we were stopped by a farm.
I had gig lamps, and these I got lighted, and then I mounted and
turned back till we reached the main road, which I boldly turned into
—in the direction leading back to Edinburgh.
“Are you sure you’re not going the wrong way?” said my
companion, after a little.
“I am going my way—this is my road,” I replied, with some
gruffness; “I can’t say anything about yours. I think you said you
35.
weren’t particular?”
“All right—neitherI am,” he said, evidently not relishing the
thought of being turned out on the dark road in such a rain. “Just
drive on, please, and never mind me.”
I did drive on at my fastest. I soon reached the little station-
house; but before that I had decided that it might not be very safe
to trust Johnston in such a place for the night, and I passed it
without stopping. At last the lights of the city appeared in front of
us, and my companion roused himself to watch them with growing
interest.
“What town is this?” he at length asked.
“Edinburgh,” I shortly answered.
“What! Edinburgh?” he cried, almost jumping up from his seat.
“How can that be? I thought we were driving towards Bathgate?”
“We were at first, but I changed my mind and turned back. Want
to get down, or will you go further?”
He considered the matter, though I was really laughing at him in
my sleeve while making the suggestion; for, as may be guessed, I
had no intention of allowing him to get down—alone. Then he said
ruefully—
“Which way are you going?”
“Round by the back of the Castle towards the High Street,” was
my prompt answer; and he directed me to drive on, signifying that
he was going that way too—which was perfectly true. At the
Puseyite Chapel he touched me on the arm and said—“I’ll get down
here, sir, if you please.”
I was driving along at a great speed and appeared not to hear
him, and in a moment more we were tearing into the brightly-lighted
36.
Lawnmarket and HighStreet.
“I wanted to get down,” he said reproachfully, and a little angrily,
as we went careering madly down the street.
“It’s all right,” I said; “I’m getting down in a minute myself;” and
sure enough, in less than that time, I pulled up in front of the
Central, where I gave the reins to a man, who delightedly
exclaimed—
“Oh, Mc
Govan’s got him!”
My prisoner gave me a look—long and steady—which spoke more
than a thousand words, and then I helped him down with the
words—
“Come away, Johnston; we’ve had a very successful drive,
haven’t we, though it has been disagreeably wet?”
He replied in the affirmative, but the language in which it was
couched was not clerical. That lift on the road cost him just five
years’ penal servitude. I shall allude to him again.
37.
THE ORGAN-GRINDER’S MONEY-BAG.
Whenthe organ-grinder appeared in a distracted state at the Office,
his face was quite familiar to me through seeing him on the streets
and at race-courses and other gatherings with his organ. He was a
big-bodied, swarthy man, with a full black beard, and, of course, till
that moment I had taken him for an Italian. To hear the Irish brogue
come pouring in a torrent out of his mouth, therefore, was a little
startling. His very grief, and earnestness, and evident
unconsciousness of anything ludicrous added comicality to the
discovery, and it was with the greatest difficulty that I restrained a
smile while he incoherently made known his loss.
“The savings of tin years tuck from me in a lump,” he groaned,
with a shower of lamentations; “and however the thafe did it, or
found out where my money was, or that I had any to stale, I can’t
for the life of me tell; for even my friend Tom Joson here thought I
hadn’t a penny, and didn’t know where it was kept.”
The friend thus alluded to bobbed to me, and I recognised him
also as a street musician. He was a lame man, and used a crutch
and stick to move about, and his instrument was a tin whistle.
Sometimes, I think, he used two of these whistles tied together, and
he affected to be much more lame and helpless than he really was.
His favourite “pitch” was to squat cross-legged at the edge of the
pavement on the Mound with his crutch and stick ostentatiously
displayed before him, and a tin mug placed on the kerb ready for
38.
contributions, and therehe droned out his tunes, generally of a
plaintive character, for hours together, with wonderful taste and skill.
He got drunk at times, and became troublesome, and had to go to
jail to cool down.
That was the man who now bobbed to me, and shook his head
dolefully over his friend’s misfortune.
“I came here to show him the way, and introduce him to the
great detective,” Joson volunteered, with a sympathetic snifter and
cringe.
“Yes, having been here so often yourself, you were quite qualified
for that task,” I dryly returned, whereat the lame man cringed and
bobbed again, and affected to take the observation as a very good
joke, though his mental remarks, I feel sure, were quite unfit for
publication.
“You say you have lost a bag of money,” I continued to the
organ-grinder, after taking down his name as Peter Mc
Carthy. “How
did it happen, and how much money did the bag contain?”
“’Twasn’t lost—’twas stole from me,” cried the organ-grinder, with
a fresh burst of expletives on the head of the robber; “and there was
two hundred and seven golden sovereigns in the bag—two hundred
and seven, sur. ’Twas a heap of money, and it was so pleasant to
feel the gold running through your fingers. But I’m afeared I’ll never
touch it again. And I worked hard for it, sur; if I’d coined every
sovereign of it out of me own blood it couldn’t have been got slower.
Tin years! och, if I lose it, I may creep into me grave.”
“You were foolish to carry such a large sum about with you,” I
could not help observing.
39.
“I didn’t carryit about with me—it had got too heavy for that,”
quickly returned the organ-grinder. “Faith, I only wish I’d never given
up carrying it, and I’d have had it now. No; I had it stowed away in
a hole of the chimney of my house, where no living being could get
at it.”
“And yet it was taken—how do you explain that?”
“I can’t explain it. I only know that it’s gone,” he answered with a
mysterious look, much as if he thought some greedy ghosts had
been at work removing his hidden pile. “My house is a garret in the
Grassmarket. I’ll take you to it, and show you the place whenever
you like. The landlord is a hawker called Jimmy Poulson. He has the
other two rooms; but he can’t get into my place at any time, as I’ve
a lock on the dure, which I had put on myself, which no one can
pick.”
At the mention of Jimmy Poulson’s name, Tom Joson, the lame
man, jerked his head to me significantly.
“I’ve always till now thought Jimmy an honest man,” continued
the organ-grinder, “and even if he had got into my house while I was
out, how could he have known I had money, or got it out without
leaving marks?”
“Ay, how?” groaned the lame man in sympathy.
“You see, sur,” pursued the other, “I never had a fire on in my
room, for the agreement was I was to get the use of Jimmy’s kitchen
and fire for a shilling a week extra, so I had a board made to fit the
fire-place, and I had that always fixed in while I was out. I’ll tell ye
how I fixed it so as nobody could move it without me knowing. I
always pasted a paper over the edges, and the paper had generally
a picture on it. If any one had tuck it down when I was out the
40.
paper picture musthave shown the cracks and tears. Last night
when I got home there wasn’t a scratch or tear in the paper—this
morning the same; but when I took out the board with my own
hands I found that the hole in the chimney was empty, and my bag
of gold stole away.”
“Stole away!” echoed the lame man, like an obedient chorus,
with a doleful shake of the head.
“Then I wondered how it was I hadn’t seen Jimmy for three
days, for I’d never known him to be away so long before,” continued
the organ-grinder. “You see, we have both keys to fit the outer door,
and when Jimmy’s away I just look after things for him. He’s a
bachelor, and so am I, and likely to keep so if I don’t get back my
money. Oh, what will my poor darlin’, Honora, say when she hears of
me being robbed!” he moaned, flying off at a tangent again. “She’s
waited for me for ten years, and the money was to fulfil a vow I
made as a penance to me sowl, for I wance struck my mother, and
knocked her senseless, and I vowed before God that if He’d restore
her I’d save, and slave, and scrape, and stint myself, and never
marry my own devoted girl till I’d bought the little bit of land and the
house for the owld paiple to end their days in peace; and another
year would have done it. Surely the blessed Lord above us, that
heard my vow and helped me to keep it, won’t let me be sent
broken-hearted to the grave with this cruel loss?”
“You ought to have put the money in the bank,” I said severely.
“The interest alone during these years would have amounted to
something handsome, and allowed you to fulfil your purpose by this
time.”
41.
“I couldn’t trusta bank,” he said, with the national prejudice in
every word and tone. “When the bank broke I’d have blamed myself
for my simplicity and foolishness, but now I blame nobody but the
black-hearted thafe. If it’s Jimmy Poulson that’s done it, he’ll never
prosper in this world; for it’s not me alone he’s wronged, but the
owld paiple, that are less able to bear it, and my sweet colleen, that
would lay down her life for me.”
“Oh, but Mr Mc
Govan will soon run him down,” observed the lame
man, hopefully.
I was not so sure of that, for, supposing the thief to be Poulson,
that worthy had already got three days’ start. As yet, however, I was
by no means certain that there had been any thief in the case. When
I had got from the organ-grinder a description of the land of houses
in which he lived, I found that it was one well known to me as one
of the ricketiest buildings in the quarter, and I quickly formed a
theory, from his description of the place and circumstances, that
seemed to offer the only feasible explanation. He had thrust the bag
of money into a hole inside the chimney; that hole might have been
deeper than he thought; might have led into another chimney; and
so, in thrusting in the treasure, it was possible he might have sent it
tumbling down, like a gift from heaven, into some wretched abode
beneath. I said little of this idea at the moment, but anxiety to test
the matter induced me to go with the queer pair to the organ-
grinder’s garret. It was a poor place, and very small. There was a
bed at one side, and a window jutting out on the slates. This
window was fastened with two thick screw nails on the inside, and
had not been opened for years. I tried with all my strength to open
it, but it did not yield in the slightest. The place was very tidy and
42.
clean, considering thatno woman ever got within the door. I turned
to the fire-place, beside which stood a square board very much
papered over on one side, but showing clean white wood and two
cross spars on the other. This fitted the fire-place exactly. Directed
by the organ-grinder I reached up inside the fire-place and soon
touched a recess in the wall of the chimney. It was a mistake to call
it a hole; it was a mere ledge in the wall on which a bag of money
might have rested easily, but in which it could scarcely be said to be
hidden. There was no soot in the chimney, and my fingers were not
even soiled by the inspection. My theory, of course, was completely
knocked on the head, but I immediately formed another.
Looking up the chimney I could see daylight at quite a short
distance above. The vent was nearly straight till near the fire-place,
where it widened considerably. The organ-grinder was positive that
the strange door of his safe and its fastenings had been quite
untampered with before he himself opened it. He declared that if it
had been he should have detected the fact at a glance. The money
therefore had not come out at that door; neither had it gone
through the wall or down any other chimney; there remained
therefore but one way for its abstraction, that was—up the chimney.
The lame man Joson, who assisted me officiously during the
examination, was anxious when I had concluded to learn what
theory I had formed in regard to the robbery, but I did not enlighten
him; and though the second theory, like the first, proved to be not
quite correct, it was perhaps as well that I said nothing of it at the
time. No such caution is necessary here, however, and I may state
the theory. I had often seen ragamuffins fishing down the street
gratings or inaccessible areas for odds and ends dropped by passers
43.
by, their fishing-tacklegenerally consisting of a long bit of twine and
a piece of wood or stone, the under side of which was coated with
tar or some such sticky substance. Sometimes, instead of a tarred
stone, there was a well-sharpened table fork, which was simply
lowered and let “dab” into the article to be hoisted.
If the article happened to lie in any corner “off the plumb,” some
difficulty was generally experienced in the fishing, though even then
captures were sometimes made by setting the fork or sticky stone in
motion, pendulum wise, and at the proper moment letting it fall on
the article. Now, applying this knowledge to the organ-grinder’s
money-bag, it seemed to me quite likely that it had been fished out
in the same fashion, though I was doubtful if a fork or even a sticky
stone could have laid hold of a money-bag of green flannel,
especially when that bag was weighted with 207 sovereigns. But
even supposing the “fishing” theory correct, boys do not generally
wander along roofs fishing down chimneys for possible hoards.
To fish down that chimney implied a knowledge that the gold was
there, and that knowledge, the organ-grinder insisted, had been till
that day confined strictly to his own breast. Even his own relations in
the west of Ireland, he declared, knew nothing of his hiding-place or
the amount of his savings. In saying so he possibly spoke what he
believed to be the truth. It is possible to betray many a secret
without ever using the tongue or opening the lips, and certainly
without ever knowing or dreaming that we have revealed what we
are striving to conceal. I therefore made no comment on these
strong statements, but sought by a series of indirect questions to
discover whom he consorted with most, and, above all, who was
44.
favoured so faras to be admitted into this house of his, as he chose
to dignify the garret.
Only two persons, so far as I could learn, were thus favoured,
and these were the landlord, Jimmy Poulson, and the lame man,
Tom Joson. The organ-grinder did not make a confidant of either of
these men, but if one of them had a higher place in his esteem than
the other, that one was Joson. I suspect the organ-grinder was
inclined to be miserly, and liked Joson, because the lame man
treated him to drink without ever asking him to return the
compliment.
The street whistle-player, unlike his dear friend, was a married
man, and never got into difficulties with the police except by getting
drunk and quarrelling with his wife. He had therefore got into a habit
of shunning public-houses when he wanted a comfortable spree—as
he knew only too well that there he would be unerringly hunted out
by his wife—and going instead to the organ-grinder’s garret, where,
after the labours of the day, they could enjoy in peace what was
denied to Joson elsewhere. Much of this I drew out of the organ-
grinder after getting rid of Joson, by sending him out for some
writing-paper and ink. When I had drawn from him all I wished, I
began to speculate as to whether it was not possible that both
Poulson and Joson had participated in the robbery. If I had had any
choice in the matter, I should rather have blamed the lame man than
the hawker. Poulson was a hard-working man, and had never been
through our hands, while the lame man was a bit of an imposition,
had often been in jail, though not for stealing, and was exceedingly
cunning besides. But there was the condemning fact—Poulson had
run off and disappeared, while the lame man not only remained, but
45.
had been theadviser and guide of the organ-grinder in seeking the
aid of the police. Still I could not see what interest the lame man
could have had in so constantly seeking the society of the organ-
grinder. What object could he have in view? Had he suspected that
the man kept a hoard somewhere about the room, and determined
to find out where that hide was?
These were some of the thoughts which troubled me, but I put
them past for after consideration, while I made arrangements with
the organ-grinder to try a curious experiment, first binding him to
absolute secrecy, even from his “friend, Tom Joson.” The lost money-
bag had been made out of a piece of the green cloth which had
covered Mc
Carthy’s organ when he was overtaken by rain. He had
made the bag himself, and said he would know it again among a
thousand. I asked him if he could make one a little like it in size, to
which he promptly answered that he could, and out of the same
stuff. I then left him, and returned late at night, and long after it was
dark. We weighted the new money-bag with a quantity of coppers
which the organ-grinder had taken in the streets, and then placed it
on the ledge in the chimney. I then mounted to the roof and easily
found the right chimney top, as I had made Mc
Carthy light a candle
and place it within the fire-place. I then lowered the “fishing tackle”
I had prepared for my experiment. This was a leaden sinker at the
end of a string, to which was attached an arrangement of hooks,
which could not have failed to catch the money-bag if I could only
have brought them near it. But there was the difficulty. I fished and
fought away for half an hour, but I could never get swing enough on
that sinker to bring the hooks near the bag, though I knew exactly
where the bag lay, which was more than the thief could have known.
46.
As the fire-placewidened considerably from the chimney proper, I
could not see the bag for which I was fishing, and in the end I gave
up the attempt, almost convinced that the robbery had not been
effected by any such means. I had gone there after dark to make my
queer experiment with a view to keeping the thing as quiet as
possible, and also because I thought it likely that the real attempt
had been made under like conditions. While doing so I was, without
knowing it, within a few feet of what would have given me the real
clue to the mystery—I might almost have touched it with my hand—
and yet I saw nothing, and left the roof rather more puzzled than
when I ascended. Had I gone in daylight all that might have been
different.
I had now done with experiments, and set myself to something
practical by hunting for the absconding hawker. The finding of his
whereabouts was no difficult matter. He was well known, and though
out of the city, he had to pursue his calling to get a living, and so a
few messages across the adjoining counties soon revealed the fact
that Poulson, after an eccentric tour, was returning to Edinburgh for
a fresh stock. I was surprised at the news. I had fully expected that
a man with 207 stolen sovereigns in his possession would not only
cease working for a while, but give the scene of his exploit a wide
berth for some time to come. At length I heard that he was in the
city, and went to his house to look for him. As I had expected, he
was not there, and had not been near the place. There was another
place known to him, as I had discovered through Tom Joson, the
lame man, in which any one who had means could hide for any
length of time. I had been in that den before, and went there direct.
47.
It was aquiet place, down near the bottom of the North Back
Canongate. The house was entered by an outside stair in a dark
court, where there were excellent corners for concealment.
I took up my position there as soon as it was dark, and had not
been long there before I saw a man enter the court, take in all the
bearings of the place much as I had done myself, and then select a
corner quite as good as my own. In this he ensconced himself so
coolly that in sheer wonder I crossed the court and grabbed him by
the shoulder. Then in the dim light I recognised a sheriff-officer well
known to me.
“Hullo! are you watching for some one too?” I exclaimed.
“Yes, and a bonnie chase I’ve had,” he growled in a whisper. “It’s
a hawker called Poulson——”
“Ah, indeed! and what do you want him for?”
“Oh, just an affiliation case—decree for ten pounds and
expenses, and the usual aliment. I’ve been all over Fife after him,
and he knows it. Fourpence a mile will never pay me for all the
trouble I’ve had. I know he’s in here, but I’ll wait till he comes out. I
wouldn’t go into that den for a hundred pounds. They’d jump on me
and stave in my ribs, or break my leg as soon as look at me.”
“Then, if you’re sure he’s in here, let’s go in together,” I
answered; “I’ll warrant they won’t jump on me, or break my leg
either. I want Poulson, too; what are we to do with him when we get
him, eh?—halve him?”
“Oh, you can keep him if we get him,” he returned, with a
gruesome shrug of the shoulders. “He’ll be as safe with you as any
one.”
48.
We ascended thestair and knocked, and after some delay were
admitted. Poulson, they said, was not there, and of course we did
not see him. After locking the outer door on the inside and pocketing
the key, I went over the three rooms. In the windows of two
apartments adjoining each other there were fixed boxes, with lids,
which appeared to be used as seats.
I lifted the lid of one. There was nothing inside, and the space
revealed was only about three feet long by a foot and a half deep. I
got into the next room after a little, and saw the exact counterpart
of this box seat in the window of that. It also was empty, but in
length was rather shorter than the other. Something about one of
the ends attracted my attention, and I put my hand to it. The whole
end moved a little. I touched a small nail in the centre and pulled it.
The end slid easily towards me, and, looking through, I saw that the
two window seats were one compartment with a movable division.
In the long end—that is the end I had searched first—Poulson was
lying on his side, and he looked considerably astonished when I
hauled him out by the leg.
But when we got him out of the house, and he learned that he
was wanted by me more than the sheriff-officer, his surprise
increased. He could not understand it at all. When we got him to the
Central, and the charge was made known, he broke out into the
most indignant protestations of innocence. He had never heard of
the robbery of the organ-grinder’s money-bag, and had not dreamt
of the man possessing such a sum.
“If I had thought it,” he added, “I would have asked him to lend
me enough to get over this difficulty.”
49.
He was lockedup, and every search made for the stolen
sovereigns, but without success; and after a few days’ detention he
was handed over to the sheriff-officer. As he pledged himself to pay
all his debts, he was released under certain conditions.
This fact having been made known to me, I had him strictly
watched, as I had the idea that the money would be drawn from
that pile of sovereigns taken from the organ-grinder. No such call,
however, was made upon that store. Poulson proceeded to “realise”
upon his furniture and effects, and with that and the little money he
had for buying a new stock, he managed to clear himself of the
disagreeable surveillance of the sheriff-officer. He was still being
watched closely by Mc
Sweeny, and as he soon became conscious of
the fact, he became very unhappy. His recent misfortunes had
somewhat broken his spirit, and he began to drink and loaf about
instead of bestirring himself to retrieve his position. There was not
the slightest indication that he had the organ-grinder’s sovereigns
hidden anywhere; and in his straits he was dependent chiefly upon
the organ-grinder and the lame man, Tom Joson. One day when he
had reached his last coin and was groaning over the fact that he was
the object of such attention from the police, it was proposed to him
by the lame man that he should get rid of the espionage by a
sudden flight.
“I’ll lend you enough to pay your passage to London,” said the
generous Joson confidentially; “and to tell you a secret, I’m thinking
of going there myself if I can manage to give the wife the slip.”
The offer was jumped at by the hawker, the more so as Joson
told him he would give him a trifle to start with when he should
reach the metropolis. One afternoon, accordingly, they met at an
50.
appointed place, andwalked towards Granton together. As a
touching proof of his confidence, the lame man entrusted Poulson
with a bundle of his to carry. The bundle was not very large, but it
was heavy. When they reached Trinity, the lame man said he could
walk no further, and took a penny ride by rail for the rest of the way,
the agreement being that they were to meet on board the steamer.
Mc
Sweeny, who had got word of the movement from the organ-
grinder, was already at the ticket office at Granton Pier. The lame
man went on board unchecked. Half an hour later Poulson appeared,
carrying the bundle given him by the lame man, and was promptly
stopped by Mc
Sweeny. The weight of the bundle gave my chum
great hope, and for once he was not disappointed. When the bundle
was opened at the station-house, there was found within a bag of
coarse green cloth, containing 203 sovereigns. Then the hawker
confessed that he had got the bundle from the lame man to carry,
but was well laughed at for his pains. By that time the London
steamer had sailed, and it appeared probable that the lame man had
gone with it, for he was nowhere to be found. Mc
Sweeny was very
proud of his capture, but while he was thus engaged I had been
busy in another quarter. A slater had gone up on to the roof of the
house upon which I had made my fishing experiment, and found
there a long iron rod, bent at the end and fitted with a sharp hook.
The moment I got word of this discovery I made the circuit of the
district to find the nearest blacksmith, and from him I learned that
the rod had been made to order by him for “a lame man who played
the whistle on the streets.” Back to the organ-grinder I went, and
tried the patent rod down his chimney with perfect success. I
hooked up the dummy bag at the very first attempt. At the same
51.
time I drewfrom the organ-grinder a confession that “in drink” he
was very loquacious and communicative. I had now no doubt but he
had in some such unguarded moment allowed the lame man to draw
from him part of his secret, the man’s native cunning and ingenuity
filling up the blanks.
I now wished very much to see Joson, and with that end in view
took the night mail for London. I was in the city long before the
steamer arrived, and waiting for it at the wharf when it slowly crept
up the river. No tender relative could have looked out for a dear
friend with more anxious solicitude than I did for the face of the
cripple whistle-player, and, as luck had it, his was almost the first
face I saw.
He was looking over the taffrail, and evidently viewing the lively
scene with great interest, for he saw no one—not even me—till my
hand was laid upon his arm with the words—
“Well, Joson, I’m glad to see you. I hope you’ve had a good
passage?”
The kind inquiry was never answered. Joson appeared to collapse
at the very sight of my face, and submitted to be led away without a
murmur. Poulson would have had some difficulty in proving his
innocence, had not the lame man made a clean breast of it, and
pleaded guilty with a view to shortening his own sentence.
For a long time there was one whistler less in the streets, and the
organ-grinder’s motto ever after was, “Save me from my friends!”
52.
THE BERWICK BURR.
Thefirst time my attention was directed to Will Smeaton, was by a
telegram from a Border town which described his appearance, and
stated—a little late, however—that he had escaped in the direction
of Edinburgh. The message called for Smeaton’s arrest on suspicion
of a very deliberate attempt at murder, the victim being a
sweetheart, named Jessie Aimers. The full particulars followed the
telegram, and they seemed to leave little doubt of Smeaton’s guilt.
Jessie Aimers was a girl of superior education, a teacher in the town,
and greatly beloved by all. She and Smeaton had been brought up
at the same school, but with very different results—for he became a
kind of coarse dare-devil, a brass-finisher by trade, with a strong
inclination for salmon poaching; while Jessie grew up refined,
modest, and gentle. What possible bond of love could exist between
two such natures? is the question which naturally rises to one’s lips;
yet, with that tantalising contrariety which humanity seems to revel
in, the answer was only, that such love did exist, and in no common
degree of strength. The question was asked and echoed by all the
townsfolk, and debated and wondered over, but the only decision
was that Jessie Aimers was foolish to lavish her love on such a
worthless object, and very much to be pitied on that account.
Simple, short-sighted townsfolk! Jessie’s love was her life, her
breath, the very pulse of her heart. To give up that would have been
simply to lie down in the grave.
53.
The circumstances underwhich the attempt at murder was said
to have been made were these:—Jessie Aimers had left her home
about dusk on a fine October evening to meet her lover, who was
positively forbidden her father’s house. They had met at some
appointed spot, and were seen about an hour later wandering slowly
up by the river side. Smeaton appeared to be in a bad temper, for he
was talking loudly and hotly. Jessie was answering gently and
pleadingly. It was then quite dark, but they were readily recognised
by their voices. Further up the river, and but a short time after, a
great scream was heard, and very soon Smeaton was seen returning
along the path alone, in great haste, and so intent on his own
thoughts that he passed an intimate acquaintance close enough to
brush his sleeve, silent as a ghost. Smeaton had gone straight
home, but stayed there only long enough to get some money and
his watch, and then made his way to the railway station and took a
ticket for Edinburgh.
It was the manner in which this ticket was procured which first
excited suspicion. Smeaton did not go to the ticket window himself,
but skulked at the other end of the station, while he sent a boy
whom he had hailed for the purpose to get the ticket. The boy was
known, and the ticket clerk—astonished at him taking such a long
journey—refused to give the ticket till he admitted that he was
acting not for himself but for Will Smeaton. The boy probably made
no mention of the circumstance to Smeaton, for when the ticket
clerk went over the train helping to examine the tickets, and came
upon Smeaton in an obscure corner, he said to him laughingly
—“Were ye feared to come for the ticket yoursel’?” whereat the
54.
passenger looked horriblyscared and taken aback, so much so that
he was unable to reply before the ticket clerk was gone.
While this had been taking place, some young fellows were
making a queer catch on the river. They were salmon poachers, and
were hurriedly making a cast of a net at a shady part of the stream
after seeing the watchers safely out of sight, when suddenly one of
them cried out—
“Pull in! pull in! we’ve gotten as bonnie a beast as ever was ta’en
oot the water. I saw the white glisk o’ her as she tried to skirt roond
ootside the net, but we’ve gotten her! The sly witch is hidin’ at the
bottom, but ye’ll see her in a meenit!”
Very much more quickly and eagerly than paid salmon labourers,
the others rushed the ends of the close-meshed net ashore,
agreeing the while that if it was but a single fish, it was a sixty or
seventy pounder at least, and in a moment or two had landed the
bonnie white fish—sweet Jessie Aimers, with her light dress clinging
close to her slight figure, her eyes closed as in death, and her white
face gleaming up at them like a shining moon out of the gloom.
“Gude save us, it’s a wuman! drooned! deid!” the scared
poachers cried in a breath, and by a common impulse they were
near dropping her and the net, and taking at once to their heels.
But one more sharp-sighted than the rest, bending down, noticed
first that there was a wound on the white brow, which was bleeding,
and next, that the features were familiar to him.
“Dog on it, lads, if it’s no bonnie Jessie Aimers!”
Exclamations of incredulity and horror ran round the group, and
it was only on one striking a match and holding the light close to the
cold face that they were convinced of the truth.
55.
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