another letter was handed him, giving Oberlus's version of the affair. This precious document had been found pinned half-mildewed to the clinker wall of the sulphurous and deserted hut. It ran as follows; showing that Oberlus was at least an accomplished writer, and no mere boor; and what is more, was capable of the most tristful eloquence. "Sir: I am the most unfortunate ill-treated gentleman that lives. I am a patriot, exiled from country by the cruel hand of tyranny. "Banished to these Enchanted Isles, I have again and again besought captains of ships to sell me a boat, but always have been refused, though I offered the handsomest prices in Mexican dollars. At length an opportunity presented of possessing myself of one, and I did not let it slip. "I have been long endeavouring by hard labour and much solitary suffering to accumulate something to make myself comfortable in a virtuous though unhappy old age; but at various times have been robbed and beaten by men professing to be Christians. "To-day I sail from the Enchanted group in the good boat Charity bound to the Feejee Isles. "FATHERLESS OBERLUS. "P.S.-Behind the clinkers, nigh the oven, you will find the old fowl. Do not kill it; be patient; I leave it setting; if it shall have any chicks, I hereby bequeathe them to you, whoever you may be. But don't count your chicks before they are hatched." The fowl proved a starveling rooster, reduced to a sitting posture by sheer debility. Oberlus declares that he was bound to the Feejee Isles; but this was only to throw pursuers on a false scent. For after a long time he arrived, alone in his open boat, at Guayaquil. As his miscreants were never again beheld on Hood's Isle, it is supposed, either that they perished for want of water on the passage to Guayaquil, or what is quite as probable, were thrown overboard by Oberlus, when he found the water growing scarce. From Guayaquil Oberlus proceeded to Payta; and there, with that nameless witchery peculiar to some of the ugliest animals, wound himself into the affections of a tawny damsel; prevailing upon her to accompany him back to his Enchanted Isle; which doubtless he painted as a Paradise of flowers, not a Tartarus of clinkers. But unfortunately for the colonization of Hood's Isle with a choice variety of animated nature, the extraordinary and devilish aspect of Oberlus made him to be regarded in Payta as a highly suspicious character. So that being found concealed one night, with matches in his pocket, under the hull of a small vessel just ready to be launched, he was seized and thrown into jail. The jails in most South American towns are generally of the least wholesome sort. Built of huge cakes of sunburnt brick, and containing but one room, without windows or yard, and but one door heavily grated with wooden bars, they present both within and without the grimmest aspect. As public edifices they conspicuously stand upon the hot and dusty Plaza, offering to view, through the gratings, their villainous and hopeless inmates, burrowing in all sorts of tragic squalor. And here, for a long time, Oberlus was seen; the central figure of a mongrel and assassin band; a creature whom it is religion to detest, since it is philanthropy to hate a misanthrope.8 1854, 1856 From BATTLE-PIECES AND ASPECTS The Portent2 Hanging from the beam, Slowly swaying (such the law), The cut is on the crown (Lo, John Brown), And the stabs shall heal no more. 8. "They who may be disposed to question the possibility of the character above depicted, are referred to the 2nd vol. of Porter's Voyage into the Pacific, where they will recognize many sentences, for expedition's sake derived verbatim from thence, and incorporated here; the main difference-save a few passing reflections-between the two accounts being, that the present writer had added to Porter's facts accessory ones picked up in the Pacific from reliable sources; and where facts conflict, has naturally preferred his own authorities to Porter's. As, for instance, his authorities place Oberlus on Hood's Isle; Porter's, on Charles's Isle. The letter found in the hut is also somewhat different, for while at the Encantadas he was informed that not only did it evince a certain clerkliness, but was full of the strangest satiric effrontery which does not adequately appear in Porter's version. I accordingly altered it to suit the general character of its author" [Melville's note]. 1. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) is Melville's best-known volume of poetry; it also contained a 5 prose "Supplement," which, like his own war poems and those of Whitman, was written in a spirit of "reconciliation." As Richard Chase points out, Melville assumed the role of counselor to the nation: the tragedy of war, he thought, lay in its mindless destruction of the past, a calamity which might destroy the "Founders' dream." In his essay, "Melville the Poet," Robert Penn Warren asserts that Melville often succeeded in achieving "a nervous, masculine, dramatic style. *** If his poetry is, on the whole, a poetry of shreds and patches, many of the patches are of a massy and kingly fabric." Melville's verse was also published in two other volumes: John Marr and Other Sailors (1888) and Timoleon (1891). The Constable Works contains "Miscellaneous Poems"; Vincent added another section. Clarel (2 vols., 1876) is a philosophical poem. 2. The abolitionist John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, for leading an abortive raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Did all the lets and bars appear To every just or larger end, Whence should come the trust and cheer? Age finds place in the rear. All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys, The champions and enthusiasts of the state: Not barrenly abate Stimulants to the power mature, Who here forecasteth the event? Contemned foreclosures of surprise? No berrying party, pleasure-wooed, No picnic party in the May, Into that leafy neighbourhood. In Bacchic glee they file toward Fate, But some who this blithe mood present, 3. "The depth and precision of the word weird is worthy of notice," remarks R. P. Warren. 4. On July 21, 1861, the Federal forces were driven from the field of Bull Run 5 ΤΟ 15 20 25 30 (First Manassas), panicked, and fled to Washington in "a frightened mob." 5. A Semitic deity whose worship was accompanied by human sacrifice, especially of first-born children. 1861 As on in lightsome files they fare, Shall die experienced ere three days are spent- 35 1866 Shiloh A REQUIEM (APRIL 1862) Skimming lightly, wheeling still, Over the field in clouded days, Solaced the parched one stretched in pain Around the church of Shiloh— The church so lone, the log-built one, Of dying foemen mingled there- But now they lie low, While over them the swallows skim, 5 ΙΟ 15 1866 Malvern Hills Ye elms that wave on Malvern Hill In prime of morn and May, Recall ve how McClellan's men Here stood at bay? While deep within yon forest dim Some with the cartridge in their mouth," 6. The Union forces were defeated again here on August 30, 1862, and retreated toward Washington, although this time in orderly fashion. 7. Most of this bloody west Tennessee battle was fought around the Shiloh Baptist Church, April 6 and 7, 1862. Union losses were 13,047 men; those of the Confederates, 10,694. 5 8. In the "Seven Days' Battle" before Richmond, which culminated in Lee's defeat at Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, the Confederate losses were in excess of 20,000, those of McClellan's army "a little under 16,000." 9. The ends of paper cartridges were bitten off in order to permit the cap to ignite the powder. 1862 Invoking so The cypress glades? Ah wilds of woe! The spires of Richmond, late beheld Were closed from view in clouds of dust Where streamed our wagons in caravan; Of march and fast, retreat and fight, Pinched our grimed faces to ghastly plight Does the elm wood Recall the haggard beards of blood? The battle-smoked flag, with stars eclipsed, In silence husbanded our strength- Till on this slope we patient turned Reverse we proved was not defeat; Bethink itself, and muse and brood? We elms of Malvern Hill But sap the twig will fill: Leaves must be green in Spring. "Formerly a Slave" AN IDEALIZED PORTRAIT, BY E. VEDDER, IN THE SPRING The sufferance of her race is shown, And retrospect of life, Which now too late deliverance dawns upon; Her children's children they shall know And so her reverie takes prophetic cheer- Far down the depth of thousand years, 1. The sentiment here expressed reflects the "guarded meliorism" which R. P. Warren detects in Melville's thought. "Time-all-healing Time-Time, great ΙΟ 15 20 -5 30 1866 5 10 philanthropist! Time must befriend these thralls," he exclaims in Mardi with reference to the slaves of Vivenza (the U. S.). |