Perils of Certain English Prisoners | Page 6

as "Government."
He was a stiff-jointed, high-nosed old gentleman, without an ounce of
fat on him, of a very angry temper and a very yellow complexion. Mrs.
Commissioner Pordage, making allowance for difference of sex, was
much the same. Mr. Kitten, a small, youngish, bald, botanical and
mineralogical gentleman, also connected with the mine--but everybody
there was that, more or less--was sometimes called by Mr.
Commissioner Pordage, his Vice-commissioner, and sometimes his

Deputy-consul. Or sometimes he spoke of Mr. Kitten, merely as being
"under Government."
The beach was beginning to be a lively scene with the preparations for
careening the sloop, and with cargo, and spars, and rigging, and water-
casks, dotted about it, and with temporary quarters for the men rising
up there out of such sails and odds and ends as could be best set on one
side to make them, when Mr. Commissioner Pordage comes down in a
high fluster, and asks for Captain Maryon. The Captain, ill as he was,
was slung in his hammock betwixt two trees, that he might direct; and
he raised his head, and answered for himself.
"Captain Maryon," cries Mr. Commissioner Pordage, "this is not
official. This is not regular."
"Sir," says the Captain, "it hath been arranged with the clerk and
supercargo, that you should be communicated with, and requested to
render any little assistance that may lie in your power. I am quite
certain that hath been duly done."
"Captain Maryon," replied Mr. Commissioner Pordage, "there hath
been no written correspondence. No documents have passed, no
memoranda have been made, no minutes have been made, no entries
and counter-entries appear in the official muniments. This is indecent. I
call upon you, sir, to desist, until all is regular, or Government will take
this up."
"Sir," says Captain Maryon, chafing a little, as he looked out of his
hammock; "between the chances of Government taking this up, and my
ship taking herself down, I much prefer to trust myself to the former."
"You do, sir?" cries Mr. Commissioner Pordage.
"I do, sir," says Captain Maryon, lying down again.
"Then, Mr. Kitten," says the Commissioner, "send up instantly for my
Diplomatic coat."
He was dressed in a linen suit at that moment; but, Mr. Kitten started
off himself and brought down the Diplomatic coat, which was a blue
cloth one, gold-laced, and with a crown on the button.
"Now, Mr. Kitten," says Pordage, "I instruct you, as
Vice-commissioner, and Deputy-consul of this place, to demand of
Captain Maryon, of the sloop Christopher Columbus, whether he drives
me to the act of putting this coat on?"
"Mr. Pordage," says Captain Maryon, looking out of his hammock

again, "as I can hear what you say, I can answer it without troubling the
gentleman. I should be sorry that you should be at the pains of putting
on too hot a coat on my account; but, otherwise, you may put it on
hind-side before, or inside-out, or with your legs in the sleeves, or your
head in the skirts, for any objection that I have to offer to your
thoroughly pleasing yourself."
"Very good, Captain Maryon," says Pordage, in a tremendous passion.
"Very good, sir. Be the consequences on your own head! Mr. Kitten, as
it has come to this, help me on with it."
When he had given that order, he walked off in the coat, and all our
names were taken, and I was afterwards told that Mr. Kitten wrote from
his dictation more than a bushel of large paper on the subject, which
cost more before it was done with, than ever could be calculated, and
which only got done with after all, by being lost.
Our work went on merrily, nevertheless, and the Christopher Columbus,
hauled up, lay helpless on her side like a great fish out of water. While
she was in that state, there was a feast, or a ball, or an entertainment, or
more properly all three together, given us in honour of the ship, and the
ship's company, and the other visitors. At that assembly, I believe, I
saw all the inhabitants then upon the Island, without any exception. I
took no particular notice of more than a few, but I found it very
agreeable in that little corner of the world to see the children, who were
of all ages, and mostly very pretty--as they mostly are. There was one
handsome elderly lady, with very dark eyes and gray hair, that I
inquired about. I was told that her name was Mrs. Venning; and her
married daughter, a fair slight thing, was pointed out to me by the name
of Fanny Fisher. Quite a child she looked, with a little copy of herself
holding to her dress; and her husband, just come back from the mine,
exceeding