Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1 | Page 6

will not believe it, those who did not will care little about it, and forget the name in a week. Had he given the decision in our favour, I should have been better pleased, but it's no use crying; what's done can't be helped."
This letter was written from Brighton, and the following year found Marryat on the Continent, at home in a circle of gay spirits who might almost be called the outcasts of English society. They were pleasure-seekers, by no means necessarily depraved but, by narrow incomes or other causes, driven into a cheerful exile. The captain was always ready to give and take in the matter of entertainment, and he was invited everywhere though, on one occasion at least, it is recorded that he proved an uncongenial guest. Having dined, as a recognised lion among lions, he "didn't make a single joke during the whole evening." His host remarked on his silence the next morning, and Marryat replied:--
"Oh, if that's what you wanted you should have asked me when you were alone. Why, did you imagine I was going to let out any of my jokes for those fellows to put in their next books? No, that is not my plan. When I find myself in such company as that I open my ears and hold my tongue, glean all I can, and give them nothing in return."
He did not always, however, play the professional author so offensively, and we hear of his taking part in private theatricals and dances, preparing a Christmas tree for the children, and cleverly packing his friends' portmanteaux.
Meanwhile, he was writing The Pirate and Three Cutters, for which he received ��750, as well as Snarley-yow and the Pacha of many Tales. He had been contributing to the Metropolitan at 15 guineas a sheet, until he paid a flying visit to England in 1836 in order to transfer his allegiance to the New Monthly Magazine, from which he secured 20 guineas. Mrs Lean states that her father received ��1100 each for Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, Japhet, and The Pacha of many Tales; ��1200 for Midshipman Easy, ��1300 for Snarley-yow, and ��1600 for the Diary in America. Yet "although Captain Marryat and his publishers mutually benefited by their transactions with each other, one would have imagined, from the letters exchanged between them, that they had been natural enemies." She relates how one of the fraternity told Marryat he was "somewhat eccentric--an odd creature," and added, "I am somewhat warm-tempered myself, and therefore make allowance for yours, which is certainly warm enough."
Marryat justified the charge by replying:--
"There was no occasion for you to make the admission that you are somewhat warm-tempered; your letter establishes that fact. Considering your age, you are a little volcano, and if the insurance were aware of your frequent visits at the Royal Exchange, they would demand double premium for the building. Indeed, I have my surmises now as to the last conflagration.
* * * * *
Your remark as to the money I have received may sound well, mentioned as an isolated fact; but how does it sound when it is put in juxtaposition with the sums you have received? I, who have found everything, receiving a pittance, while you, who have found nothing but the shop to sell in, receiving such a lion's share. I assert again that it is slavery. I am Sinbad the sailor, and you are the old man of the mountain, clinging on my back, and you must not be surprised at my wishing to throw you off the first convenient opportunity.
The fact is, you have the vice of old age very strong upon you, and you are blinded by it; but put the question to your sons, and ask them whether they consider the present agreement fair. Let them arrange with me, and do you go and read your Bible. We all have our ideas of Paradise, and if other authors think like me, the most pleasurable portion of anticipated bliss is that there will be no publishers there. That idea often supports me after an interview with one of your fraternity."
Marryat only returned to England a few months before hurrying off to America in April 1837. The reasons for this move it is impossible to conjecture, as we can scarcely accept the apparent significance of his comments on Switzerland in the Diary on the Continent:--
"Do the faults of these people arise from the peculiarity of their constitutions, or from the nature of their government? To ascertain this, one must compare them with those who live under similar institutions. I must go to America--that is decided."
He was received by the Americans with a curious mixture of suspicion and enthusiasm. English men and women of letters in late years had been visiting the Republic and criticising its