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Page 30
His difficulties were not over, however; for when I talked to him of the
necessity of sending out one or two skilful agents immediately to take
the personal superintendence of his complicated affairs, the old man
sighed, and said he had no skilful agents to send.
With his customary suspicion, he had no partners, and had never
intrusted his clerks with any general insight into his business.
Besides, he considered them all, like his captains, blunder-headed to
the last degree. I believe it was an idea of Julia's, communicated to me
in an eager, entreating glance, which induced me to propose myself as
one of these confidential agents, and to be responsible for the other.
I thought, as I spoke, of Singleton, to whom I knew I could explain my
plans in full, and whose mercantile experience would make him a valuable
coadjutor. The old gentleman accepted my offer eagerly. I told him that
twenty-four hours were all I wanted to prepare myself. He immediately
took measures for the charter of two little clipper schooners which lay
in port then; and before two days were past, Singleton and I were on our
voyage to South America. Imagine, if you can, how these two days were
spent. Then, as now, I could prepare for any journey in twenty minutes,
and of course I had no little time at my disposal for last words with
Mr. and--Miss Wentworth. How I won on the old gentleman's heart in those
two days! How he praised me to Julia, and then, in as natural affection,
how he praised her to me! And how Julia and I smiled through our tears,
when, in the last good-bys, he said he was too old to write or read any
but business letters, and charged me and her to keep up a close
correspondence, which on one side should tell all that I saw and did,
and on the other hand remind me of all at home.
* * * * *
I have neither time nor room to give the details of that South American
expedition. I have no right to. There were revolutions accomplished in
those days without any object in the world's eyes; and, even in mine,
only serving to sell certain cargoes of long cloths and flour. The
details of those outbreaks now told would make some patriotic presidents
tremble in their seats; and I have no right to betray confidence at
whatever rate I purchased it. Usually, indeed, my feats and Singleton's
were only obtaining the best information and communicating the most
speedy instructions to Mr. Wentworth's vessels, which were made to move
from port to port with a rapidity and intricacy of movement which none
besides us two understood in the least. It was in that expedition that I
travelled almost alone across the continent. I was, I think, the first
white man who ever passed through the mountain path of Xamaulipas, now
so famous in all the Chilian picturesque annuals. I was carrying
directions for some vessels which had gone round the Cape; and what a
time Burrows and Wheatland and I had a week after, when we rode into the
public square of Valparaiso shouting, "Muera la Constitucion,--Viva
Libertad!" by our own unassisted lungs actually raising a rebellion,
and, which was of more importance, a prohibition on foreign flour, while
Bahamarra and his army were within a hundred miles of us. How those
vessels came up the harbor, and how we unloaded them, knowing that at
best our revolution could only last five days! But as I said, I must be
careful, or I shall be telling other people's secrets.
The result of that expedition was that those thirteen vessels all made
good outward voyages, and all but one or two eventually made profitable
home voyages. When I returned home, the old gentleman received me with
open arms. I had rescued, as he said, a large share of that fortune
which he valued so highly. To say the truth, I felt and feel that he had
planned his voyages so blindly, that, without some wiser head than his,
they would never have resulted in anything. They were his last, as they
were almost his first, South American ventures. He returned to his old
course of more methodical trading for the few remaining years of his
life. They were, thank Heaven, the only taste of mercantile business
which I ever had. Living as I did, in the very sunshine of Mr. Went
worth's favor, I went through the amusing farce of paying my addresses
to Julia in approved form, and in due time received the old gentleman's
cordial assent to our union, and his blessing upon it. In six months
after my return, we were married; the old man as happy as a king. He
would have preferred a little that the ceremony should have been
performed by Mr. B----, his friend and pastor, but readily assented to
my wishes to call upon a dear and early friend of my own.
Harry Barry came from Topsham and performed the ceremony, "assisted by
Rev. Mr. B."
G.H.
ARGUS COTTAGE, April 1, 1842.
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