these waters, as Jago said, then men vanished also. The Roanoke colony and
Grenville’s men … gone.
Many were the tales that came from the sea, but I had little faith in enchanted
isles or haunted ships or the like. Those were sailor’s tales to be told in port
to goggle-eyed landsmen, and rarely believed of themselves. Yet … what Jago
had told, Jago believed, and he was a no-nonsense sort of man, and a good
seaman.
Many in the England of our good Queen Bess thought of this land as unknown, and
indeed, much of it was, but where there are riches to be had, men will go, and
the ships of Gosnold, Weymouth, Newport, and others had already cruised the
coast. To the north were the ships of the French, and Cabot had sailed here, and
Verrazzano, Corte-Real, and many another.
All the knowledge we had of such places was from the few men who could write and
keep records, and how many could write? Among my crew, there were but three who
could write, and if something happened to us, then what record could be left by
the others?
I studied even my secret ones, which had far more detail, and I made a chart of
my own from memory of what I had seen.
My plans must be simple, to be augmented with time. First, to find Tempany and
Abigail, second to establish a trading post, third to cultivate friendship with
the Indians, and fourth, to establish a base deeper into the country from which
we could explore toward the mountains and to which I could retreat if a British
ship with warrants for my arrest should come.
After a bit, I slept, awakening to go on deck for the morning watch. We had hove
to during the night, simply taking in our sails and drifting.
Jago was on watch when I came on deck. “It will be a fair day, Cap’n, a fair
day.” He glanced at me. “Will we be making a landfall today?”
“Aye.” I glanced toward the clouds that lay low along the horizon, and nodded to
indicate them. “What do you make of them, Jago?”
“Cap’n,” his voice shook a bit, “we’d better head in toward land. That’s no
natural cloud.”
“Hail the men on deck,” I said, “and shake out some canvas. Put a good man on
the whipstaff for we’ll be looking for our opening in the outer banks.”
Taking my glasses, I studied the cloud. It seemed neither nearer nor farther
off. The sky above was blue and lovely, but the white clouds, possibly a fog,
lay close along the face of the sea, and once inside that cloud we should be
able to go neither north, south, east, nor west.
The cloud hung there, turning slowly lighter as the sun arose. How easily, I
thought, when the mind is prepared can one begin to believe!
It was only a cloud … a bit of fog that would clear with the day.
Only it did not.
There was little wind, and we moved but slowly. I looked again at the fog bank
and it seemed closer. Jago was staring at it, obviously frightened. With my
glass I lifted a strong dark line, like a thread. Land!
“Aye,” Jago said, “and none too soon.”
Lila came on deck and walked to the rail and looked astern. As she stood there
the fog seemed to thin toward the center and dimly we seemed to see an island.
A mirage? My chart showed no island there. It suddenly seemed clearer. Were
those houses? Temples? I walked to the afterrail and stared.
“See it, Cap’n?” said Jago. “See? Look, but never speak of it, men will think
you daft, as they have thought me. Look … something moves! Do you see it?”
Indeed, I did, or thought I did. I pointed my glass toward it again, and the
figures leaped at me. Men … and women, all in strange costumes … temples of
a sort not seen before …
“Captain,” Tilly was speaking, “we’re closing in on the shore. There seems to be
an opening yon.”
With an effort, I took my eyes away and looked shoreward. A long white beach,
gleaming in the sun, a sandy shore stretching north and south as far as the eye
could reach … and yes, there seemed to be an opening.
“Jago?” I said. He did not turn and I spoke again, more sharply. “Jago!”
“Aye, aye.”
Indicating the opening, I said, “Do you know that one?”
“I do that. She’s shoal, Cap’n, but with the lead we can go in yonder.”
He looked back over his shoulder, and I over mine. The opening in the mist had
closed, the mist was thinning, the fair vision of a city was gone.
Was it a mirage? For a moment it had seemed we looked into another world, as
through a magic window or door.
Was that where the vanished ships had gone? Through that door? Into that mirage?
14
Cautiously, using the lead, I took the fluyt into the passage between the sandy
islands, using only such sail as needed for steerage way. If we ran aground here
and a storm blew up we would be at the mercy of wave and wind, and all my great
hopes might vanish in what followed. If I ran aground, I wished it to be not too
forcefully, that we might the easier escape.
Lowering a boat, we let it proceed before us, and thus found our way through and
into deeper water, when we took the boat back aboard once more. Remembering my
one-time meeting here with my old enemy Bardle, I had two guns prepared and gun
crews standing by.
Blue, having the sharpest eyes, was posted aloft to look out for ships and
savages, or any smoke which might hint of activity ashore.
Now that we were so close, Lila was silent, eyes wide with apprehension, fearful
her mistress might have been killed, drowned, or otherwise lost. I scoffed at
this, and kept still my own fears, for better than she I knew what dangers the
country might hold.
Calling John Tilly aft, I told him I wanted the men to go below, two at a time,
and arm themselves each with a cutlass, and then I wanted muskets charged and
kept in a rack conveniently placed inside the door to the main cabin where they
would be ready to hand.
Worried, I paced the afterdeck. I had armed myself with my sword as well as a
brace of pistols, yet it was not of weapons I thought, for indeed, they were but
a precaution. Captain Tempany was a fine seaman, and he’d a good crew aboard …
but supposing he had been overhauled and forced back by a Queen’s ship because
of his connection with me?
What if pirates had taken his ship? Or storms?
Hour by hour my anxiety grew, and still no sign of the ship.
Darkness came, and rather than venture on we let go the anchor to wait for
daybreak.
The ship should be here, yet if I recalled rightly there were four big rivers
flowing into the two sounds, and a number of lesser streams. There were any
number of coves and inlets in which the ship might be lying. I tried to think of
all the reasons we had not found her, all that could be done, yet nothing gave
me rest.
Alone I stood by the rail, looking shoreward. Restless, unable and unwilling to
sleep, I had told Tilly to let the crew rest and when I.was ready to turn in I’d
awaken one of them to take my place on lookout.
Hearing a step, I turned. It was Lila. She came to the rail and stood beside me.
“Will we find her?”
“I think so. If she is here, we’ll find her.”
“It is a vast land. I could not imagine it so big, so empty.”
“There are Indians over there … many of them.” I paused. “Not so many people
as in England, of course. The way they live, mostly hunting and gathering
berries, roots, and nuts, they need much land to support only a few.”
“They do not plant?”
“Some of the tribes do. They plant corn, a few other things. Mostly they live by
hunting, fishing, and gathering, so they move from time to time, going to new
areas where they can find more game, and more food.”
“Our coming will change them, I think.”
“I don’t know, Lila. Perhaps it will. Yes, I believe it will, and perhaps not
for the better. They have a way of life that is not ours, beliefs different than
ours. We will learn much from them about this country, and they will learn from
us, but I am not sure whether what they learn will be good for them.
“All I know is that it is inevitable. If not us, then somebody else, and all