When my poor mother had gone up the stairs on my
grandfather's arm the strong soldier took me on his knee, and drawing
his pistol from his holster bade me snap the lock, which I was barely
able to do. And he told me wonderful tales of the woods beyond the
mountains, and of the painted men who tracked them; much wilder and
fiercer they were than those stray Nanticokes I had seen from time to
time near Carvel Hall. And when at last he would go I clung to him,
so he swung me to the back of his great horse Ronald, and I seized the
bridle in my small hands. The noble beast, like his master, loved a
child well, and he cantered off lightly at the captain's whistle, who
cried "bravo" and ran by my side lest I should fall. Lifting me off at
length he kissed me and bade me not to annoy my mother, the tears in his
eyes again. And leaping on Ronald was away for the ferry with never so
much as a look behind, leaving me standing in the road.

And from that time I saw more of him and loved him better than any man
save my grandfather. He gave me a pony on my next birthday, and a little
hogskin saddle made especially by Master Wythe, the London saddler in
the town, with a silver-mounted bridle. Indeed, rarely did the captain
return from one of his long journeys without something for me and a
handsome present for my mother. Mr. Carvel would have had him make his
home with us when we were in town, but this he would not do. He lodged
in Church Street, over against the Coffee House, dining at that hostelry
when not bidden out, or when not with us. He was much sought after.
I believe there was scarce a man of note in any of the colonies not
numbered among his friends. 'Twas said he loved my mother, and could
never come to care for any other woman, and he promised my father in the
forests to look after her welfare and mine. This promise, you shall see,
he faithfully kept.

Though you have often heard from my lips the story of my mother, I must
for the sake of those who are to come after you, set it down here
as briefly as I may. My grandfather's bark 'Charming Sally', Captain
Stanwix, having set out from Bristol on the 15th of April, 1736, with
a fair wind astern and a full cargo of English goods below, near the
Madeiras fell in with foul weather, which increased as she entered the
trades. Captain Stanwix being a prudent man, shortened sail, knowing the
harbour of Funchal to be but a shallow bight in the rock, and worse than
the open sea in