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Page 48
Sometimes nothing would satisfy him, but he must have some of his old
neighbors to dinner at the Wild Goose. There was no refusing him, for
he had got the complete upper-hand of the community, and the peaceful
burghers all stood in awe of him. But what a time would the quiet,
worthy men have, among these rake-hells, who would delight to astound
them with the most extravagant gunpowder tales, embroidered with all
kinds of foreign oaths; clink the can with them; pledge them in deep
potations; bawl drinking songs in their ears; and occasionally fire
pistols over their heads, or under the table, and then laugh in their
faces, and ask them how they liked the smell of gunpowder.
Thus was the little village of Communipaw for a time like the
unfortunate wight possessed with devils; until Vanderscamp and his
brother merchants would sail on another trading voyage, when the Wild
Goose would be shut up, and every thing relapse into quiet, only to be
disturbed by his next visitation.
The mystery of all these proceedings gradually dawned upon the tardy
intellects of Communipaw. These were the times of the notorious
Captain Kidd, when the American harbors were the resorts of piratical
adventurers of all kinds, who, under pretext of mercantile voyages,
scoured the West Indies, made plundering descents upon the Spanish Main,
visited even the remote Indian Seas, and then came to dispose of their
booty, have their revels, and fit out new expeditions, in the English
colonies.
Vanderscamp had served in this hopeful school, and having risen to
importance among the bucaniers, had pitched upon his native village and
early home, as a quiet, out-of-the-way, unsuspected place, where he and
his comrades, while anchored at New York, might have their feasts, and
concert their plans, without molestation.
At length the attention of the British government was called to these
piratical enterprises, that were becoming so frequent and outrageous.
Vigorous measures were taken to check and punish them. Several of
the most noted freebooters were caught and executed, and three of
Vanderscamp's chosen comrades, the most riotous swash-bucklers of the
Wild Goose, were hanged in chains on Gibbet-Island, in full sight of
their favorite resort. As to Vanderscamp himself, he and his man Pluto
again disappeared, and it was hoped by the people of Communipaw that he
had fallen in some foreign brawl, or been swung on some foreign gallows.
For a time, therefore, the tranquillity of the village was restored;
the worthy Dutchmen once more smoked their pipes in peace, eying, with
peculiar complacency, their old pests and terrors, the pirates, dangling
and drying in the sun, on Gibbet-Island.
This perfect calm was doomed at length to be ruffled. The fiery
persecution of the pirates gradually subsided. Justice was satisfied
with the examples that had been made, and there was no more talk of
Kidd, and the other heroes of like kidney. On a calm summer evening, a
boat, somewhat heavily laden, was seen pulling into Communipaw. What
was the surprise and disquiet of the inhabitants, to see Yan Yost
Vanderscamp seated at the helm, and his man Pluto tugging at the oars!
Vanderscamp, however, was apparently an altered man. He brought home
with him a wife, who seemed to be a shrew, and to have the upper-hand of
him. He no longer was the swaggering, bully ruffian, but affected the
regular merchant, and talked of retiring from business, and settling
down quietly, to pass the rest of his days in his native place.
The Wild Goose mansion was again opened, but with diminished splendor,
and no riot. It is true, Vanderscamp had frequent nautical visitors, and
the sound of revelry was occasionally overheard in his house; but every
thing seemed to be done under the rose; and old Pluto was the only
servant that officiated at these orgies. The visitors, indeed, were
by no means of the turbulent stamp of their predecessors; but quiet,
mysterious traders, full of nods, and winks, and hieroglyphic signs,
with whom, to use their cant phrase, "every thing was smug." Their ships
came to anchor at night in the lower bay; and, on a private signal,
Vanderscamp would launch his boat, and accompanied solely by his man
Pluto, would make them mysterious visits. Sometimes boats pulled in at
night, in front of the Wild Goose, and various articles of merchandise
were landed in the dark, and spirited away, nobody knew whither. One of
the more curious of the inhabitants kept watch, and caught a glimpse of
the features of some of these night visitors, by the casual glance of
a lantern, and declared that he recognized more than one of the
freebooting frequenters of the Wild Goose, in former times; from whence
he concluded that Vanderscamp was at his old game, and that this
mysterious merchandise was nothing more nor less than piratical plunder.
The more charitable opinion, however, was, that Vanderscamp and his
comrades, having been driven from their old line of business, by the
"oppressions of government," had resorted to smuggling to make both ends
meet.
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