Far Tortuga (15 page)
Authors: Peter Matthiessen
Foreign vessels intending to engage in the turtle fishery on the Miskito Banks must register with the customs officials of the Republic of Nicaragua, and go to port to clear again upon departure from these waters. In addition to port fees, foreign vessels must pay a tax on every head of turtle to be transported from the territorial waters of the Republic of Nicaragua
.
Toward noon, the
Eden
comes in under Cape Gracias. Because of the heavy surge, the ship drops anchor well offshore.
A coast of giant mangrove backed by low hills, heavy sky: there is no smoke nor sign of human presence. A low bar where dirty waves break in a fringe is the outer delta of the Coco River, which carries so much silt from inland jungles that even here, a mile at sea, the water is the color of dead mud.
The
Eden
swings heavily on her chain. Now her bow heads up into the wind, and from the pulley on the mast her port boat is swung over the rails. When the ship rolls, the catboat bangs against the hull, and the sound brings the Captain from the deckhouse. He is wearing clean shirt and pants, mostly unbuttoned, and street shoes and a bent Panama hat.
Papa? It say here in my book dat Cape Gracias a Dios got dat name from Christopher Columbus—
Hold her off dere! Hold dat boat off!
Dem short masts, Copm Raib! Can’t swing her clear!
Can’t use an oar to hold her off while she goin down? Never heard about dat?
With dat short swing—
Nemmine! Men dat know dere job—
You sayin—
Nemmine, I said!
Copm Raib? Copm Raib? You all dressed up! You lookin like you plannin on gettin married!
Dis how
you
looked when
you
got married? Wouldn’t s’prise me. (
shouts
) Buddy! Run get dat shoe box with de ship’s documents! Who goin ashore?
I willin, Papa.
Go get dat box, I said! (
grunts
) Okay dere, Speedy. Nobody else? Don’t like rowin? Well, c’mon den, Vemon, I get some work out of you yet!
How about Athens? Athens never—
He sick! Dass what dey tell me about
dat
one! Dat one too
sick
to work!
Dat ain’t justice!
I say, get in de boat! I take care of de justice around here! Hold her off dere, Speedy! Speedy, you row in de middle till I see how you do!
Copm? Know de channel? What you do is dis—
You sayin I don’t know my way on de Miskita Coast? By God, Byrum, I never thought I hear
dat
!
Nemmine, den. But I was here on de
A.M. Adams
since you was last here—
Shove off dere! Let go dat line!
The blue catboat falls downwind from the
Eden
. Raib stands upright in the stern, holding a short blunt Miskito paddle. Speedy and Vemon step the mast, a spruce pole with a piece of dirty canvas wrapped around it; the mast is hand-adzed, with flat facets, like rail fence. The sail is gaff-rigged, and there is a small jib which
Vemon secures to the bow: in place of a tiller, there are rudder lines, secured to both ends of a yoke fixed to the head of the rudder, like the top of a T.
Now the wind thumps in the sail, and the catboat scuds away toward the coast.
Copm Raib? Which gang you got me in, Copm Raib?
You be with Will in dis port boat. You and Athens; you got your partner dere to pull for you. (
laughs
) I take Byrum in de starboard gang with Speedy here, cause Speedy green, ain’t dat right, Speedy? Green but willin!
I do my domnedest, Doddy.
Den dere’s Buddy …
Nemmine about Buddy—dat is
my
business.
Copm Raib? Buddy gettin a full share, ain’t he? I mean to say, seem like dere an extra man aboard—don’t need but eight.
Goddom it, with dis lot, I
need
an extra mon! And maybe de extra one is
you
, ever think of dat? Goddom drunken—
What I mean is, Copm Raib, I think I like to change into
your
catboat, so I
learn
more. Dat fella you got dere for mate, he just got too much mouth for me.
Raib laughs quietly for a long time.
Now I heard plenty said about Will, but dat is one thing dat I never heard about. Will pretty quiet when he ain’t got something to say. Ain’t like his boy. Neither one of dem got sense, but Will got sense enough to keep his mouth shut when his brain ain’t workin.
Dass right! You recall dat time you told him he were wrong? And den he—
Raib starts to laugh again; he wipes his eyes, looking shy.
Well, I guess you ain’t de only one dat got faults, Vemon, it just
seem
dat way. But Will a pretty good sailor, I got to say dat. Dey don’t come no better den dat in days like dis. I mean to say, you couldn’t hardly expect a first-class turtler; ain’t many of
dem
no more. Will can pretty well take care of de job on de vessel deck, and set de nets too, he can set de nets. But de important part dere dat he don’t know much about, and dat is where to
put
de nets. He not a first-class pilot.
Dass right. Dass—
But come to seamanship, he as good as you will find today. Him and Byrum, dey as good as you will find today.
Well, seamanship, dat is one place dat I got Will beat.
A silence.
I bet you thought dat Will had seaman’s papers, dat right, Copm Raib?
Raib cocks his head.
How soon after we gets home you gone have your money spent on rum? Can you drink it all up in one week?
Huh! Maybe I won’t drink at all!
Dat would be de best thing, darlin. Dat would be de best.
Vemon struggles to look injured.
Once I went two, three months without touchin no rum! I was
workin
! My own provision ground. Over dere north of Salt Creek, between Salt Creek and Batabano. Yams. Papaws. Had a grass piece with a cow in it! Dat time I was workin for myself, de provision ground of Vemon Evers—
Vemon
Dilbert
Evers.
Vemon Dilbert Evers. And during de time dat I was workin for myself, I never touch it once. Not even
once
.
Dass very fine. Have your own ground. Man dat got a cow, he got it made. I plont some young trees now, small plonts. Later on, Speedy got fruit. You know? On my own ground. In de Bay Islands.
Vemon sets his striped cap hard upon his head.
In dem days, over dere north of Salt Creek, I were feelin good. Dat were my chance in dis life, and I lost it.
Buddy, Byrum and Athens are dozing in the stern. Will is mending net, and Wodie sits on the galley roof, bare black legs swinging. Brown is perched on his blue fuel drum, staring at nothing and singing with no expression.
I can’t help
(voice cracks) shit!
I can’t help it
If I still in love with you
Delta. A circle of dark birds over the trees.
Oh, yes. I work a little on de turtlin boat, learn how dey do; den I go home. I givin up de sea, work on de land. I workin my plontation. I can
hoe
, mon.
I tellin you, Speedy, some dese young fellas dat dey got dese days, dey can’t even work a hoe. Dat Conwell dat is son to Will, he one of dem. It like Old Copm Jim dere, what I heard him say to de Tailor from Jamaica. (
laughs
) Copm Jim, he must be close to ninety years of age, and dis day he fightin mad dat de Tailor from Jamaica made so much money from just settin dere and tailorin.
In Jamaica?
No, mon. Tailor
from
Jamaica. He tryin to establish hisself. Come from Jamaica about twenty-five years ago. Dey calls him de Tailor from Jamaica for dat reason.
Got no name, huh?
In Jamaica, prob’ly, dey give him some kind of a name. Anyways, Copm Jim say, You ever tote wood? Mend net? Work a hoe? Copm say, How many grandchildren you got? (
laughs
) Cause dat is de one thing, and de
only
thing dat Copm Jim has got, and dat is grandchildren. And great-grandchildren.
Copm Raib? Copm Jim got grandchildren he don’t even know about!
Dass it. Poor old fella, dass about all he
do
got, and dat ain’t much, in
dat
family. So he say to de Tailor from Jamaica, How many grandchildren you got? And den he say it couple times again, just so he could hear de words.
Brown? Like singin? Cause dere was an old song dat we had down at East End, it were a song we called de Hox-bill Song. Calvert Conally and a guy by de name of Garwin Rankin used a catboat, used a trap net, to cotch turtle, and dey were around on de northeastern part of de island, called Bluff Bay, fishenin and trappin. And dere was dis hox-bill dat were not in de nets, dey claim; dey hook him up with a fish hook from de bottom. But Bonnie Dixon had a net sot, and he claimed de net were tangled, and when he examined de turtle, de turtle had line marks on it. So he took de turtle from dese boys, and Calvert grandmother, she gave Bonnie Dixon de name of Black Cat, and dey made a song off of it. I would have to set back a little to remember all de words, but I remember it because we used to use it as a dance tune.
It was a holiday in de month of May
Calvert and Garwin went Bluff Bay
Caught one hox-bill, so dey say
But Old Black Cat went and took it away
…
Lord, what a miser-y
Took away dat cash mo-ney
People, people will be sorry to see
De graveyard for Bonnie and de gallows for me!
