University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.

This conversation was interrupted by a messenger
from my wife, who desired my return immediately. I
had some hopes of meeting with Mervyn, some days
having now elapsed since his parting from us, and not
being conscious of any extraordinary motives for delay.
It was Wortley, however, and not Mervyn,
to whom I was called.

My friend came to share with me his suspicions and
inquietudes respecting Welbeck and Mervyn. An accident
had newly happened which had awakened these
suspicions afresh. He desired a patient audience while
he explained them to me. These were his words.

To-day a person presented me a letter from a mercantile
friend at Baltimore. I easily discerned the
bearer to be a sea captain. He was a man of sensible
and pleasing aspect, and was recommended to my
friendship and counsel in the letter which he brought.
The letter stated, that a man, by name Amos Watson,
by profession a mariner, and a resident at Baltimore,
had disappeared in the summer of last year, in a mysterious
and incomprehensible manner. He was known
to have arrived in this city from Jamaica, and to have
intended an immediate journey to his family, who lived
at Baltimore; but he never arrived there, and no trace

of his existence has since been discovered. The bearer
had come to investigate, if possible, the secret of
his fate, and I was earnestly intreated to afford him
all the assistance and advice in my power, in the prosecution
of his search. I expressed my willingness to
serve the stranger, whose name was Williams; and,
after offering him entertainment at my house, which
was thankfully accepted, he proceeded to unfold to me
the particulars of this affair. His story was this.

On the 20th of last June, I arrived, said he, from the
West-Indies, in company with captain Watson. I
commanded the ship in which he came as a passenger,
his own ship being taken and confiscated by the English.
We had long lived in habits of strict friendship,
and I loved him for his own sake, as well as because he
had married my sister. We landed in the morning,
and went to dine with Mr. Keysler, since dead, but who
then lived in Water-street. He was extremely anxious
to visit his family, and having a few commissions to
perform in the city, which would not demand more
than a couple of hours, he determined to set out next
morning in the stage. Meanwhile, I had engagements
which required me to repair with the utmost expedition
to New-York. I was scarcely less anxious
than my brother to reach Baltimore, where my friends
also reside, but there was an absolute necessity of going
eastward. I expected, however, to return hither
in three days, and then to follow Watson home.
Shortly after dinner we parted; he to execute his commissions,
and I to embark in the mail-stage.

In the time prefixed I returned. I arrived early in
the morning, and prepared to depart again at noon.
Meanwhile, I called at Keysler's. This is an old acquaintance
of Watson's and mine; and, in the course
of talk, he expressed some surprize that Watson had
so precipitately deserted his house. I stated the necessity
there was for Watson's immediate departure
southward, and added, that no doubt my brother had
explained this necessity.

Why, said Keysler, it is true, Captain Watson mentioned
his intention of leaving town early next day;
but then he gave me reason to expect that he would
sup and lodge with me that night, whereas he has not
made his appearance since. Beside his trunk was
brought to my house. This, no doubt, he intended
to carry home with him, but here it remains still. It
is not likely that in the hurry of departure his baggage
was forgotten. Hence, I inferred that he was still in
town, and have been puzzling myself these three days
with conjectures, as to what is become of him. What
surprizes me more is, that, on enquiring among the
few friends which he has in this city, I find them as
ignorant of his motions as myself. I have not, indeed,
been wholly without apprehensions that some accident
or other has befallen him.

I was not a little alarmed by this intimation. I
went myself, agreeably to Keysler's directions, to Watson's
friends, and made anxious enquiries, but none of
them had seen my brother since his arrival. I endeavored
to recollect the commissions which he designed
to execute, and, if possible, to trace him to the spot
where he last appeared. He had several packets to deliver,
one of which was addressed to Walter Thetford.
Him, after some enquiry, I found out, but unluckily
he chanced to be in the country. I found, by
questioning a clerk who transacted his business in his
absence, that a person, who answered the minute description
which I gave of Watson, had been there on the
day on which I parted with him, and had left papers relative
to the capture of one of Thetford's vessels by the
English. This was the sum of the information he
was able to afford me.

I then applied to three merchants for whom my brother
had letters. They all acknowledged the receipt
of these letters, but they were delivered through the
medium of the post-office.

I was extremely anxious to reach home. Urgent
engagements compelled me to go on without delay. I
had already exhausted all the means of enquiry within

my reach, and was obliged to acquiesce in the belief,
that Watson had proceeded homeward at the time appointed,
and left, by forgetfulness or accident, his trunk
behind him. On examining the books kept at the
stage offices, his name no where appeared, and no conveyance
by water had occurred during the last week.
Still the only conjecture I could form, was that he had
gone homeward.

Arriving at Baltimore, I found that Watson had not
yet made his appearance. His wife produced a letter,
which, by the post mark, appeared to have been put into
the office at Philadelphia, on the morning after our
arrival, and on which he had designed to commence his
journey. This letter had been written by my brother,
in my presence, but I had dissuaded him from sending
it, since the same coach that should bear the letter, was
likewise to carry himself. I had seen him put it unwafered
in his pocket-book, but this letter, unaltered in
any part, and containing money which he had at first
intended to enclose in it, was now conveyed to his wife's
hand. In this letter he mentioned his design of setting
out for Baltimore, on the twenty-first, yet, on that day
the letter itself had been put into the office.

We hoped that a short time would clear up this mystery,
and bring the fugitive home, but from that day till
the present, no atom of intelligence has been received
concerning him. The yellow-fever, which quickly followed,
in this city, and my own engagements, have hindered
me, till now, from coming hither and resuming
the search.

My brother was one of the most excellent of men.
His wife loved him to distraction, and, together with
his children, depended for subsistence upon his efforts.
You will not, therefore, be surprized that his disappearance
excited, in us, the deepest consternation and distress;
but I have other, and peculiar reasons for wishing
to know his fate. I gave him several bills of exchange
on merchants of Baltimore, which I had received
in payment of my cargo, in order that they might, as
soon as possible, be presented and accepted. These

have disappeared with the bearer. There is likewise
another circumstance that makes his existence of no
small value.

There is an English family, who formerly resided in
Jamaica, and possessed an estate of great value, but
who, for some years, have lived in the neighborhood of
Baltimore. The head of this family died a year ago,
and left a widow and three daughters. The lady tho't
it eligible to sell her husband's property in Jamaica, the
Island becoming hourly more exposed to the chances of
war and revolution, and transfer it to the United States,
where she purposes henceforth to reside. Watson had
been her husband's friend, and his probity and disinterestedness
being well known, she entrusted him with legal
powers to sell this estate. This commission was
punctually performed, and the purchase money was received.
In order to confer on it the utmost possible security,
he rolled up four bills of exchange, drawn upon
opulent merchants of London, in a thin sheet of lead,
and depositing this roll in a leathern girdle, fastened it
round his waist, and under his clothes; a second set he
gave to me, and a third he dispatched to Mr. Keysler, by
a vessel which sailed a few days before him. On our arrival
in this city, we found that Keysler had received
those transmitted to him, and which he had been charged
to keep till our arrival. They were now produced,
and, together with those which I had carried, were delivered
to Watson. By him they were joined to those
in the girdle, which he still wore, conceiving this method
of conveyance to be safer than any other, and, at the
same time, imagining it needless, in so short a journey
as remained to be performed, to resort to other expedients.

The sum which he thus bore about him, was no less
than ten thousand pounds sterling. It constituted the
whole patrimony of a worthy and excellent family, and
the loss of it reduces them to beggary. It is gone with
Watson, and whither Watson has gone, it is impossible
even to guess.

You may now easily conceive, Sir, the dreadful disasters
which may be connected with this man's fate, and
with what immeasurable anxiety his family and friends
have regarded his disappearance. That he is alive, can
scarcely be believed, for in what situation could he be
placed in which he would not be able and willing to
communicate some tidings of his fate to his family?

Our grief has been unspeakably aggravated by the
suspicions which Mrs. Maurice and her friends have allowed
themselves to admit. They do not scruple to insinuate,
that Watson, tempted by so great a prize, has
secretly embarked for England, in order to obtain payment
for these bills, and retain the money for his own
use.

No man was more impatient of poverty than Watson,
but no man's honesty was more inflexible. He murmured
at the destiny that compelled him to sacrifice his
ease, and risk his life upon the ocean in order to procure
the means of subsistence; and all the property which
he had spent the best part of his life in collecting, had
just been ravished away from him by the English; but
if he had yielded to this temptation at any time, it would
have been on receiving these bills at Jamaica. Instead
of coming hither, it would have been infinitely more
easy and convenient to have embarked directly for London;
but none, who thoroughly knew him, can, for a moment,
harbor a suspicion of his truth.

If he be dead, and if the bills are not to be recovered,
yet, to ascertain this, will, at last, serve to vindicate his
character. As long as his fate is unknown, his fame
will be loaded with the most flagrant imputations, and
if these bills be ever paid in London these imputations
will appear to be justified. If he has been robbed, the
robber will make haste to secure the payment, and the
Maurices may not unreasonably conclude that the
robber was Watson himself.” Many other particulars
were added by the stranger, to show the extent of the
evils flowing from the death of his brother, and the loss
of the papers which he carried with him.

I was greatly at a loss, continued Wortley, what
directions or advice to afford this man. Keysler, as
you know, died early of the pestilence; but Keysler
was the only resident in this city with whom Williams
had any acquaintance. On mentioning the propriety of
preventing the sale of these bills in America, by some
public notice, he told me that this caution had been
early taken; and I now remembered seeing the advertisement,
in which the bills had been represented as having
been lost or stolen in this city, and a reward of a
thousand dollars was offered to any one who should restore
them. This caution had been published in September,
in all the trading towns from Portsmouth to
Savannah, but had produced no satisfaction.

I accompanied Williams to the mayor's office, in
hopes of finding in the records of his proceedings, during
the last six months, sometraces of Watson, but neither
these records nor the memory of the magistrate, afforded
us any satisfaction. Watson's friends had drawn up,
likewise, a description of the person and dress of the
fugitive, an account of the incidents attending his disappearance,
and of the papers which he had in his possession,
with the manner in which these papers had been
secured. These had been already published in the
Southern newspapers, and have been just re-printed in
our own. As the former notice had availed nothing,
this second expedient was thought necessary to be employed.

After some reflection, it occurred to me that it might
be proper to renew the attempt which Williams had
made to trace the footsteps of his friend to the moment
of his final disappearance. He had pursued Watson
to Thetford's, but Thetford himself had not been seen,
and he had been contented with the vague information
of his clerk. Thetford and his family, including his
clerk, had perished, and it seemed as if this source of
information was dried up. It was possible, however,
that old Thetford might have some knowledge of his
nephew's transactions, by which some light might
chance to be thrown upon this obscurity. I therefore

called on him, but found him utterly unable to afford
me the light that I wished. My mention of the packet
which Watson had brought to Thetford, containing
documents respecting the capture of a certain ship,
reminded him of the injuries which he had received from
Welbeck, and excited him to renew his menaces and
imputations on that wretch. Having somewhat exhausted
this rhetoric, he proceeded to tell me what connection
there was between the remembrance of his injuries
and the capture of this vessel.

This vessel and its cargo were, in fact, the property
of Welbeck. They had been sent to a good market and
had been secured by an adequate insurance. The value
of this ship and cargo, and the validity of the policy he
had taken care to ascertain by means of his two nephews,
one of whom had gone out supercargo. This had formed
his inducement to lend his three notes to Welbeck,
in exchange for three other notes, the whole amount of
which included the equitable interest of five per cent. per
month on his own loan. For the payment of these notes,
he by no means relied, as the world foolishly imagined,
on the seeming opulence and secret funds of Welbeck.
These were illusions too gross to have any influence on
him. He was too old a bird to be decoyed into the net
by such chaff. No; his nephew, the supercargo,
would of course receive the produce of the voyage, and
so much of this produce as would pay his debt. He had
procured the owner's authority to intercept its passage
from the pocket of his nephew to that of Welbeck.
In case of loss, he had obtained a similar security
upon the policy. Jamieson's proceedings had been
the same with his own, and no affair in which he had
ever engaged, had appeared to be more free from hazard
than this. Their calculations, however though plausible,
were defeated. The ship was taken and condemned,
for a cause which rendered the insurance ineffectual.

I bestowed no time in reflecting on this tissue of extortions
and frauds, and on that course of events which
so often disconcerts the stratagems of cunning. The

names of Welbeck and Watson were thus associated
together, and filled my thoughts with restlessness and
suspicion. Welbeck was capable of any wickedness.
It was possible an interview had happened between
these men, and that the fugitive had been someway instrumental
in Watson's fate. These thoughts were
mentioned to Williams, whom the name of Welbeck
threw into the utmost perturbation. On finding that
one of this name had dwelt in this city, and, that he
had proved a villain, he instantly admitted the most
dreary forebodings.

I have heard, said Williams, the history of this Welbeck
a score of times from my brother. There formerly
subsisted a very intimate connection between them.
My brother had conferred upon one whom he thought
honest, innumerable benefit, but all his benefits had
been repaid by the blackest treachery. Welbeck's character
and guilt had often been made the subject of
talk between us, but, on these occasions, my brother's
placid and patient temper forsook him. His grief for
the calamities which had sprung from this man, and his
desire of revenge, burst all bounds, and transported him
to a pitch of temporary frenzy. I often enquired in
what manner he intended to act, if a meeting should
take place between them. He answered, that doubtless
he should act like a maniac, in defiance of his sober
principles, and of the duty which he owed his family.

What, said I, would you stab or pistol him?

No! I was not born for an assassin. I would upbraid
him in such terms as the furious moment might
suggest, and then challenge him to a meeting, from
which either he or I should not part with life. I
would allow time for him to make his peace with
Heaven, and for me to blast his reputatien upon earth,
and to make such provision for my possible death, as
duty and discretion would prescribe.

Now, nothing is more probable than that Welbeck
and my brother have met. Thetford would of course
mention his name and interest in the captured ships, and
hence the residence of this detested being in this city,

would be made known. Their meeting could not take
place without some dreadful consequence. I am fearful
that to that meeting we must inpute the disappearance
of my brother.