Surely people farm other crops?
She shook her head. We keep beasts or at any rate they keep themselves. But with the fish jumping out of the river and the animals in the forest its not worth the labor of doing more than fishing and hunting. Besides, we can trade for anything we need with the Indians. They can do the labor of farming for us. We can all be squires here.
I thought Id travel round, J said. Hire a horse and ride round the country, see what I can find.
They both looked at him and rudely laughed in his face.
Hire a horse! the woman exclaimed. Theres not more than half a dozen horses in the whole plantation. You might as well ask for a coach and four.
J kept his temper. I see I have much to learn.
She rose from the table and went to the fire. Dark morning, she said irritably. She bent to the fire and lit what looked like a little twig of kindling. To Js surprise it burned with a bright clear flame at the very tip, like a specially made taper. She rested it on a small holder, placed on the stone hearth for that purpose, and came back to the table.
Whats that?
She glanced back without interest. We call it candlewood. I buy it from the Indians every autumn.
But what sort of wood is it?
Candlewood, she said impatiently.
But from what sort of tree?
She looked at him as if he were foolish to be asking something that no one else cared about. How should I know? I pay the Indians to fetch it for me. Dyou think I go out into the woods to gather my own candlewood? Dyou think I make my own spoons from spoonwood? Dyou think I make my own sugar from the sugar tree or my own soap from the soapberry?
Candlewood? Spoonwood? J had a moment of wild imagining, thinking of a tree growing candles, a tree growing spoons, a bush growing soap. Are you trying to make a fool of me?
No greater fool than you are already what else should I call them but what they are?
What you want, the man said pacifically, pushing away his empty bowl and taking out a pipe and filling it with rich golden tobacco leaves, is an Indian, a savage. One to use as your own. To take you out into the forest and show you all these things. Take you out in a canoe up and down the river and show you the things you want to know.
Dont any of the planters know those things? J asked. He felt fearful at the thought of being guided by an Indian. There had been too much talk in London of brown men armed with knives of stone who crept into your house and cut your throat while you slept.
The woman hawked and spat into the fireplace. They dont hardly know how to plant! she said. Everything they know they learned from the Indians. You can find yourself an Indian to tell you what the soapberry tree is. Civilized folks here arent interested in anything but gold and tobacco.
How shall I find an Indian to guide me? J asked. For a moment he felt as helpless as a child, and he thought of his fathers travels to Russia, to the Mediterranean, to Europe. He had never asked his father if he had felt fear, or worse than fear: the babyish whimper of someone lost, friendless in a strange land. Where would I find a safe Indian?
No such thing as a safe Indian, the woman said sharply.
Peace! Js fellow lodger said quietly. If youre serving the king, you must have papers, a safe pass, that sort of thing.
J felt inside his shirt where the precious royal order was wrapped in oilskin. Of course.
Best see the governor then, the man suggested. If youre from the king and youve got some influence at court, the governorll have time for you. God knows he has no time for honest workingmen trying to make a living here.
Does he have a court? J asked.
Knock on his door, the woman said impatiently. Court indeed! Hes lucky to have a girl to open the door for him.
J stood up from the table. Where shall I find his house?
Set beyond the Back Road, the man said. Ill stroll over with you now.
I have to wash first, J said nervously. And get my hat and coat.
The woman snorted disparagingly. Hell want to paint and powder next, she said.
The man smiled. Ill wait for you outside, he said and went out, closing the door gently behind him.
There was neither jug nor ewer in the attic, nor a mirror. Everything that had to be brought from England was at a premium in the new colony. The most trivial things that J had taken for granted in England were rare luxuries here. J washed under the pump in the yard, flinching from the icy splash, and unconsciously keeping his lips tight shut, fearful of drinking the foul water.
His fellow lodger was waiting for him outside the house, in the shade of a tree, sipping from a mug of small ale. The sun beat down on the blinding dust all around him. He nodded when he saw J and slowly got to his feet. Dont rush, he advised him. A man can die of hurry in this climate.
He led the way down the track that ran between the houses. The road was no dirtier than a back road in London, but somehow it seemed worse, with the heat of the sun beating down on it and the bright light which dazzled J and made him squint. Hens clucked around in the dust and shied away from their strolling feet at every street corner, and every garden, every drainage ditch, was filled with the ungainly sprout and flapping leaves of the tobacco plant.
The governor, when J managed to gain admission to the small stone-built house, did nothing more than repeat the lodging-house womans advice. I shall write you a note, he said languidly. You can travel from plantation to plantation and the planters will make you welcome, if that is what you wish. Theres no difficulty there. Most of the people you meet will be glad of the company and a new face.
But how shall I find my way around? J asked. He was afraid that he sounded humble, like a fool.
The governor shrugged. You must get yourself an Indian servant, he said. To paddle you in a canoe. To set up camp for you when you can find nowhere to stay. Or you can remain here in Jamestown and tell the children that you want flowers from the woods. Theyll bring a few things in, I dare say.
I shook his head. I need to see things where they are growing, he said. And see the parent plants. I need roots and seed heads, I need to gather them myself. I need to see where they thrive.
The governor nodded, uninterested, and rang a silver bell. They could hear the servant trotting across the short hall and opening the badly hung door.
Take Mr. Tradescant to Mr. Joseph, the governor ordered. He turned to J. Hes the magistrate here at Jamestown. He often puts Indians in the stocks or in prison. Hell know the names of one or two. He might release one from prison to you, to be your guide.
I dont know the ways of the country J said uneasily. I would rather have a law-abiding guide-
The governor laughed. Theyre all rogues and criminals, he said simply. Theyre all pagan. If you want to go out into the forest with any one of them, you take your life in your own hands. If I had my way we should have driven them over the Blue Mountains into the western sea. Just over the distant mountains there drive them back to India.
J blinked, but the governor rose to his feet in his enthusiasm. My plan is that we should plant the land from one river to the other from the James River to the Patowmeck River and then build a mighty fence and push them behind it, expel them from Eden as if we were archangels with flaming swords. Let them take their sins elsewhere. Therell be no peace for us until we are undisputed masters of all the land we can see.
He broke off. But you must take your choice, Mr. Tradescant. The only people who know anything of plants or trees in Virginia are the Indians, and they may slit your throat once you are in the woods with them. Stay here, safe inside the city, and go home empty-handed; or take your chance. It is a matter of complete indifference to me. I cannot rescue you if you are in the woods with them, whatever the king asks of me, whatever safe passes you have in your pocket.
J hesitated. He had a moment to appreciate the irony that he had thought he might die on the voyage and had welcomed the thought of his own death, which he had recognized as the only thing to ease his grief. But the thought of meeting his death violently and in fear in unknown woods at the hands of murderous pagans was a different matter altogether.
Ill speak to this Mr. Joseph, he said at last. See what he advises.
As you wish, the governor said languidly. I hope you enjoy your stay in Virginia. Please assure His Majesty that I did everything in my power to assist you, when you get home; if you get home.
Thank you, J said levelly, bowed and left the room.
The maid would not take him even for the short walk to Mr. Josephs house until she had tied a shawl around her shoulders and put a broad-brimmed hat on her head.
Its cool, J protested. And the sun is not even overhead.
She shot him a swift defensive look. There are bugs that bite and a sun that strikes you down, and the heat that comes off the marshes, she warned. The graveyard is full of men who thought the Virginia sun was not yet up, or that the water was good enough to drink.
With that she said nothing more but led the way to the magistrates house, past the fort where the bored soldiers whistled and called to her, and inland up a rough dirt road until she stood before a house that was grand by Virginia standards but would have been nothing more than a yeomans cottage in England.
Mr. Josephs house, she said shortly, and turned and left him at the rough wood front door.
J knocked, and opened the door when a voice shouted to him to come inside.
Mr. Josephs house, she said shortly, and turned and left him at the rough wood front door.
J knocked, and opened the door when a voice shouted to him to come inside.
The house was divided into two. The largest room, where J was standing, served as the kitchen and dining room. There was no separate parlor. There was a ladder at the back of the room leading to attic bedrooms. A light wooden partition, hardly a wall, divided the master bedroom on the ground floor from the rest of the house. Mr. Joseph was sitting at the roughly made table in the living room, writing in a ledger.
Who are you?
John Tradescant, from England, J said, and proffered the governors note.