A Royal Smuggler

WILLIAM DALTON,

CHAPTER I - AN IMPORTANT LETTER.

“News from Uncle Adam! — cried my brother Martin, as the maid, one morning, placed upon the breakfast-table a letter, bearing a foreign postmark; and the words are still fresh in my memory, for that epistle influenced the fates of my father, brother, and myself. It was addressed to our parent, in reply to one he had sent to Batavia, some twelve months before.

“Yours, my dear brother, lovingly,
“Adam Blake.

“P.S. — I am sorry to add, that I cannot offer you and the boys a home in my house, as I am no longer a lonely man, my chief reason for marrying again being for the sake of my dear little Lip-lap, your niece. —

“A second wife, — murmured my father, sadly, as if pondering upon his own bereavement.

“I wonder, — said I, —what our cousin is like, and why Uncle calls her Lip-lap’Lip-lap, what can it mean? —

“A nickname given to the children of Americans born in Java, Claud, — answered my father.

“Queer, — said my brother. “But it is no matter what they call her so that she is pretty’I like pretty girls. —

“All of which we shall discover when we reach Java, — replied our father. “But now, boys, get you to your lessons, while I go to make inquiries about a ship. —

Father will be rich again, and we shall grow up to be great merchants, like Uncle Adam, and have a cousin, too, — said Martin, merrily; but as the thought passed through his mind that the death of our dear mother had been caused chiefly by our father’s misfortunes, he burst into tears. “Oh! why did God take from us poor dear mamma? Why didn’t this letter come ever so many months ago, and she would have lived! — Heaven knew that I had felt our loss as deeply as my brother; but for his sake, for the sake of my father, who had never smiled since her death, and who trembled at a word or a thing that brought it fresh again to his memory, I had struggled to suppress any sign of emotion at the chance mentioning of her name.

“Martin, it is wicked to be ever recurring to our loss, when you know how it shocks our father. Remember, mamma is in heaven, and happy. —

“I know it is wicked, but I cannot help it’I won’t help it’I never will stop talking of dear mamma! — and the passionate boy ran from the sitting-room into our sleeping-chamber, and, throwing himself upon the bed, sought relief in a good cry.

But unfortunately we had to wait six months before we could get a ship’a loss of time that, as will be seen hereafter, materially influenced our future. Taking into account this delay, the six months for the coming of the letter, and a similar period for our outward voyage, it will be seen that a year and a half elapsed between the penning of our uncle’s invitation and our anchoring in the roadstead of Batavia. What unexpected events, what misfortunes, may happen in eighteen months! and they did happen. Ominous, indeed, of misfortune was the night of our arrival in the island. It was the latter end of October, the period of the monsoons.

The hurricane, however, although terrible in its fury, was but of short duration; for by daybreak we were enabled to moor the vessel alongside the pier, and also to procure a messenger, whom my father at once dispatched to advise his brother of our arrival.

“If that is Batavia, it is a queer, dirty hole, — said Martin, shrugging his shoulders, as he stood gazing upon the bamboo huts of the poor natives, the warehouses of the Dutch merchants, and the thousands of bales of goods, covered with tarpaulin, which seemed to block up and render the roadways impassable.

“And we have to live there, — said Martin, with a shudder. “Yet, — he added, thoughtfully, —it can’t kill everybody, for Uncle Adam has lived in it many years. —

“Not so, my lad. Like the other American merchants, your uncle quits this place every evening at six o’clock, for his home in the upper town in yonder mountain, where you will find large streets, a healthy atmosphere, the Government-house and offices, the theatre, and the grand residences of the principal colonists. —

“That is good news, — said I, for I had been as nervous as my brother at the prospect of having to live in such a wretched place as the town before us; —but, — I added, —where is the Chinese city, for I have heard that those people abound in Java? —