Полная версияThe Lock and Key Library: The most interesting stories of all nations: American
I am old now – old and alone. My sisters would have had me to live with them, but I chose not to sadden their genial homes with my phantom face and dead eyes. Reginald married another. He has been dead many years. I never ceased to pray for him, though he left me when I was bereft of all. The sad weird is nearly over now. I am old, and near the end, and wishful for it. I have not been bitter or hard, but I cannot bear to see many people, and am best alone. I try to do what good I can with the worthless wealth Lady Speldhurst left me, for, at my wish, my portion was shared between my sisters. What need had I of inheritance? – I, the shattered wreck made by that one night of horror!
1
The Brill is a fortified seaport of Holland, on the Meuse River, near Rotterdam.
2
A point of land at the bend of the East River below Grand Street, New York City.
3
A game played by pushing or shaking pieces of money or metal so as to make them reach certain marks on a board.
4
A game played by pitching a flattened, ring-shaped piece of iron, called a quoit, at a fixed object.
5
A people of French origin, inhabiting the frontiers between France and Flanders. A colony of one hundred and ten Walloons came to New York in 1624.
6
Sir Henry Morgan (1637-90), a noted Welsh buccaneer. He was captured and sent to England for trial, but Charles II., instead of punishing him, knighted him, and subsequently appointed him governor of Jamaica.
7
Edward Teach, one of the most cruel of the pirates, took command of a pirate ship in 1717, and thereafter committed all sorts of atrocities until he was slain by Lieutenant Maynard in 1718. His nickname of "Blackbeard" was given him because of his black beard.
8
Spanish gold coins, equivalent to $15.60.
9
Spanish coins, worth about $1 each.
10
Portuguese gold coins, valued at $6.50.
11
Coins of gold and silver, valued at $2 and $1 respectively.
12
Spanish silver coins, worth about $.20.
13
It is an old superstition that to put on one's clothes wrong side out forebodes good luck.
14
A corruption of the old expression "another-gates," or "of another gate," meaning "of another way or manner"; hence, "of another kind."
15
Names of rich and influential Dutch families in the old Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.
16
The patroons were members of the Dutch West India Company, who purchased land in New Netherlands of the Indians, and after fulfilling certain conditions imposed with a view to colonizing their territory, enjoyed feudal rights similar to those of the barons of the Middle Ages.
17
A Dutch coin, worth about two cents; hence, anything of little worth.
18
Shabby.
19
Noisy.
20
A mixture of rum and hot water sweetened.
21
Triangular.
22
Reckless.
23
The coast of the northern part of South America along the Caribbean Sea, the route formerly traversed by the Spanish treasure ships between the Old and New Worlds.
24
Ships are said to be yardarm and yardarm when so near as to touch or interlock their yards, which are the long pieces of timber designed to support and extend the square sails.
25
"Broadside and broadside," i.e., with the side of one ship touching that of another.
26
Feast of the Archangel Michael, a church festival celebrated on September 29th.
27
"Broadside of thundering oaths," i.e., a volley of abuse.
28
A kind of canvas used about a ship; hence, a sailor.
29
"Hand grenades," i.e., small shells of iron or glass filled with gunpowder and thrown by hand.
30
"Main chains," i.e., strong bars of iron bolted at the lower end to the side of a vessel, and secured at the upper end to the iron straps of the blocks by which the shrouds supporting the masts are extended.
31
The companion way is a staircase leading to the cabin of a ship.
32
A huge, flat rock, projecting into the Hudson River above the Highlands.
33
"In your teeth," a phrase to denote direct opposition or defiance.
34
A term of contempt used by seamen for those who pass their lives on land.
35
Bradish was a pirate whose actions were blended in the popular mind with those of Kidd. He was boatswain of a ship which sailed from England in 1697, and which, like Kidd's, bore the name of the Adventure. In the absence of the captain on shore, he seized the ship and set out on a piratical cruise. After amassing a fortune, he sailed for America and deposited a large amount of his wealth with a confederate on Long Island. He was apprehended in Rhode Island, sent to England, and executed.
36
A small cove in the East River two miles north of Corlear's Hook.
37
A long, narrow island in the East River, between New York and Long Island City.
38
Extinguish.
39
Davy Jones is the spirit of the sea, or the sea devil, and Davy Jones's locker is the bottom of the ocean; hence, "gone to Davy Jones's locker" signifies "dead and buried in the sea."
40
Chest.
41
Probably Deadman's Point, a small island near Deadman's Bay, off the eastern coast of Newfoundland.
42
Aspect.
43
See Story of the Blind Man, Baba Abdalla, in Arabian Nights' Entertainment. An inhabitant of Bagdad, Asiatic Turkey, meets with a dervish, or Turkish monk, who presents him with a vast treasure and with a box of magic ointment, which, applied to the left eye, enables one to see the treasures in the bosom of the earth, but on touching the right eye, causes blindness. Having applied it to the left eye with the result predicted, he uses it on his right eye, in the hope that still greater treasures may be revealed, and immediately becomes blind.
44
A bay of the East River, on which the Brooklyn Navy Yard is situated.
45
The southern extremity of New York City.
46
See Shakespeare's The Tempest, act ii., sc. 2.
47
At the time this story was written Bloomen-dael (Flowery Valley) was a village four miles from New York. It is now that part of New York known as Bloomingdale, on the west side, between about Seventieth and One Hundredth Streets.
48
Orchard oriole.
49
"Root house," i.e., a house for storing up potatoes, turnips, or other roots for the winter feed of cattle.
50
The same, no doubt, of whom mention is made in the history of Dolph Heyliger.
51
A fabric made of goat's hair and silk, or wool and cotton.
52
Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), a celebrated Dutch physician and philosopher.
53
Jan Baptista Van Helmont (1577-1644), a celebrated Flemish physician and chemist.
54
A mountain chain in northwestern Germany, between the Elbe and the Weser.
55
Astrology, alchemy, and divination were three imaginary arts. The first pretended to judge of the influence of the stars on human affairs, and to foretell events by their positions and aspects; the second aimed to transmute the baser metals into gold, and to find a universal remedy for diseases; while the third dealt with the discovery of secret or future events by preternatural means.
56
A divining rod is a rod used by those who pretend to discover water or metals underground. It is commonly made of witch hazel, with forked branches.
57
Hobby, or hobbyhorse, a favorite theme of thought; hence, "to mount a hobby" is to follow a favorite pursuit.
58
Overcoat.
59
Dutch courage is courage that results from indulgence in Dutch gin or Hollands; here applied to the gin itself.
60
"Three wise men of Gotham,They went to sea in a bowl —And if the bowl had been stronger,My tale had been longer."Mother Goose Melody.Gotham was a village proverbial for the blundering simplicity of its inhabitants. At first the name referred to an English village. Irving applied it to New York City.
61
A small bay in the East River below Corlear's Hook.
62
A German exclamation of anger, equivalent to the English "zounds!"
63
A swift, disorderly movement.
64
A noisy throng.
65
A piratical vessel.
66
Exhausted.
67
In Irving's time, quills were made into pens by pointing or "nibbing" their ends.
68
Biloquium, or ventrilocution. Sound is varied according to the variations of direction and distance. The art of the ventriloquist consists in modifying his voice according to all these variations, without changing his place. See the work of the Abbe de la Chappelle, in which are accurately recorded the performances of one of these artists, and some ingenious though unsatisfactory speculations are given on the means by which the effects are produced. This power is, perhaps, given by nature, but is doubtless improvable, if not acquirable, by art. It may, possibly, consist in an unusual flexibility or extension of the bottom of the tongue and the uvula. That speech is producible by these alone must be granted, since anatomists mention two instances of persons speaking without a tongue. In one case the organ was originally wanting, but its place was supplied by a small tubercle, and the uvula was perfect. In the other the tongue was destroyed by disease, but probably a small part of it remained.
69
Another clergyman in New England, Mr. Joseph Moody, of York, Maine, made himself remarkable by the same eccentricity that is here related of the Reverend Mr. Hooper. In his case, however, the symbol had a different import. In early life he had accidentally killed a beloved friend, and from that day till the hour of his own death, he hid his face from men.