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- 6831
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- 2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z
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- 6759
- text
- SKETCH SEVENTH.
CHARLES’S ISLE AND THE DOG-KING.
—So with outragious cry,
A thousand villeins round about him swarmed
Out of the rocks and caves adjoining nye;
Vile caitive wretches, ragged, rude, deformed;
All threatning death, all in straunge manner armed;
Some with unweldy clubs, some with long speares.
Some rusty knives, some staves in fier warmd.
We will not be of any occupation,
Let such vile vassals, born to base vocation,
Drudge in the world, and for their living droyle,
Which have no wit to live withouten toyle.
Southwest of Barrington lies Charles’s Isle. And hereby hangs a history
which I gathered long ago from a shipmate learned in all the lore of
outlandish life.
During the successful revolt of the Spanish provinces from Old Spain,
there fought on behalf of Peru a certain Creole adventurer from Cuba,
who, by his bravery and good fortune, at length advanced himself to
high rank in the patriot army. The war being ended, Peru found itself
like many valorous gentlemen, free and independent enough, but with few
shot in the locker. In other words, Peru had not wherewithal to pay off
its troops. But the Creole—I forget his name—volunteered to take his
pay in lands. So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted
Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage of
Peru. The soldier straightway embarks thither, explores the group,
returns to Callao, and says he will take a deed of Charles’s Isle.
Moreover, this deed must stipulate that thenceforth Charles’s Isle is
not only the sole property of the Creole, but is forever free of Peru,
even as Peru of Spain. To be short, this adventurer procures himself to
be made in effect Supreme Lord of the Island, one of the princes of the
powers of the earth.[1]
[1] The American Spaniards have long been in the habit of making
presents of islands to deserving individuals. The pilot Juan Fernandez
procured a deed of the isle named after him, and for some years
resided there before Selkirk came. It is supposed, however, that he
eventually contracted the blues upon his princely property, for after
a time he returned to the main, and as report goes, became a very
garrulous barber in the city of Lima.
He now sends forth a proclamation inviting subjects to his as yet
unpopulated kingdom. Some eighty souls, men and women, respond; and
being provided by their leader with necessaries, and tools of various
sorts, together with a few cattle and goats, take ship for the promised
land; the last arrival on board, prior to sailing, being the Creole
himself, accompanied, strange to say, by a disciplined cavalry company
of large grim dogs. These, it was observed on the passage, refusing to
consort with the emigrants, remained aristocratically grouped around
their master on the elevated quarter-deck, casting disdainful glances
forward upon the inferior rabble there; much as, from the ramparts, the
soldiers of a garrison, thrown into a conquered town, eye the
inglorious citizen-mob over which they are set to watch.
Now Charles’s Isle not only resembles Barrington Isle in being much
more inhabitable than other parts of the group, but it is double the
size of Barrington, say forty or fifty miles in circuit.
Safely debarked at last, the company, under direction of their lord and
patron, forthwith proceeded to build their capital city. They make
considerable advance in the way of walls of clinkers, and lava floors,
nicely sanded with cinders. On the least barren hills they pasture
their cattle, while the goats, adventurers by nature, explore the far
inland solitudes for a scanty livelihood of lofty herbage. Meantime,
abundance of fish and tortoises supply their other wants.
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