Limekiller!

A few years earlier, this question asked him in North America, Jack would have at once said, “The Arawack are extinct.” And, as far as North America is concerned, the Arawack are extinct. In Central America, however, not necessarily. Limekiller said, perhaps cautiously, but, certainly, truthfully, “Well, they have never bothered me. ”

This was perhaps not what the man meant. The Fisherman Wharf, Jack recollected, was not, after all, an Arawack bar, it was a Bayman bar. The Arawack for the most part lived farther south, in a string of tiny coastal hamlets, many of which, oddly enough, had Scotch names: Aberdeen, Inverclyde, Mull, and others.

The fisherman said, “Mon, what I mean to ox, dev Block like we, nah true, sah? Nah true, dey Block like we? Some of dem, dey blocker than some of we. Whv dev no like ahd eet dev Block like we? Suppose, sah, you say to dem, ‘What, you no Block? You not Nee-gro?’ You not know, sah, what dey ahnswer? ‘No sotch teeng,’ dey say. ‘Notteeng like dot. We Eendian,’ dey gwevn tell you. Dey not want fi speak Baytahk. Dey w’onlv want fi speak dey w’own lahnguage, sah, which dey not want teach noo-bod-dy. Ahnd wot de troot, sah? De troot ees, dey mustee.”

Jack didn’t know the word, his face showed it.

The fisherman, seeing that, explained. “‘Mustee,’ sah, what we cahl mustee, eet means, meex. Wheech ees to say, dey ahv meex race. Yes sah. Block men from Africa, lahng, lahng time w’ago, dey meexing wit’ de w’old Ahrawock Eendian een de West Eedies, sah. Dev loosing de African lahnguage, sah. Becahs, sah, dese w’old- time Africa men, sah, coming from many deeferent tribe, sah, no common tongue, sah: and meengling weet de Ahrawock Eendian, dey adop de Ahrawock tongue. De Eendian become Block, de Block becoming Eendian. Ahftah while, sah, mi-grat-mg from de West Eendies. Settling here, sah.”

Still cautious, Limekiller said, “Yes, I believe you are correct.” A curious people, the Black Arawack. A mystery people, sure enough, with their black skins and their Indian faces and their archaic and (save of course to themselves) their unknown language. Mysterious, but certainly harmless. Harmless, certainly — but different. Harmlessly different, but — still — different.

“Yes, sah,” the fisherman said. “Dey settle here, Enn Breeteesh Heedalgo. But sah. We settle here forst. ”

It had been a fairly faint and fairly forlorn hope which had broughtjack down to Port Caroline. As far as imported goods were concerned, merchants and suppliers there did not order from abroad: they ordered from King Town. There did not seem to be any more stock in their warehouses than in the capital (and only) citv: however. None of them had ever studied Business Administration at Harvard. Their ways of administering business would have flunked not only any test administered in North America, they would probably have failed any Mexican examination as well. But their wavs wrere their own wavs and thev knew their own country. knew, certainly, their own local District and their district’s wavs.

Wilbur Velasquez, Hardware and Ironmonger, does not depose, but says: Yes, Jock, I does hahv dot amoent ahv roofing metal [corrugated iron]. Yes, Jock, I weel sell eet to de bee-shup, sortainlv. Noew, Jock, de w’only problem: Hoew' we go-een get eet doewn from Mt. Maria?

Ascander Haddad, Dealer in Ground Victuals, Citrus Fruits, Cement: Well, Mr. Limekiller, as it is for the church, very well, Mr. Limekiller. I have three sack of cement, store at my farm at Mile 23. I have another sack in the shed at my other house at Bendy- Creek. Suppose you can find some way of bringing them down, you can have them at same price.

Gladstone Lionel Piggott, Lumber Contractor and Dealer in Wood, Timber, and Planks: Me b’v, I be delighted to help you. Motta ahv foct, ahlthough I do not hahv your requirement directly at hond, not here in Port, I hahv a pile ahv season timber exoctly cot fah your need. Some five year ago I dismontle sahmill doewn aht Bamboo P’int, but timber still pile ahp, ahnd nicely season by noew, you see.