Limekiller!

This statement was confirmed and extended by others. Black Arawak fishing-vessels, moving up from the southern waters of the colony, had occupied the traditional in-shore fishing-grounds of the Port Caroline Bayfolk: and it was to protest this violation of ancient custom that the Caroline fishermen were gathered here before the habitation of authority, to wit, Government Buildings. Another peep inside showed the broad face and shoulders of the District Commissioner. D.C. Esequiel Bosco was a man of the utmost integrity'. He was also a member of the Black Arawak people.

Limekiller thought it discreet at this point to ask no more questions, but several of the Baymen around him thought it in no way- indiscreet to supply him with at least some answers to questions unasked. And these, collectively, were approximately thus:

“Suppose dev [the Black Arawak] stay doewn Sote. Suppose we Bayfolk stay ahp Nart. Dees only lee’ beet country, but beeg enough fah bote ahv we. Beeg enough fah bote ahv we, eef we each stays in we w’own place. Even de Bay hahv feesh enough fah feed bote ahv we. But w’onlv juss enough. Noew, what de arrangement? De arrangement, sah, de w’old custom fah hondred year aht leas’, we Bayfolk, us feesh Nart ahv Pelican P’int, sah, ahn de Ahrawock, dey feesh Sote ahv Pelican P’int. Ahn de bess place fah cotch feesh fah we, eet ees hahfwav between Pelican P’int narteast t’ards de Scotchmon Caves. Een fact, eet ees so good een yield feesh, we cahl eet De Garden, sah. We torms eet De Garden Groend.

“— Now, sah. Suppose we sees wahn Ahrahwock hahv he boat dere. We not say nut-teeng. Suppose we sees two Ahrahwock: hahv dey boat dere. May be we grumble lee’ beet. But sah. But sah. Consider. Consider. De whole Ahrahwock fleet, sah, ahs you might say, ees feesh-eeng dere. Feesh-eeng een oe-ah groend. Well sah. Dey dere forst, we fine dem dere dees marneeng when we arrive. Dey stay' dere. What we do, we no cotch nah-teeng becahs dey ahlready cotch eet ahl? Hoew we feed we pickney, sah? Hoew we fine meelk? Bread? Rice ahn bean? Sah, ahl-ways ah struggle, sah: but de Laard provide feesh fah we —”

And, indeed, the waters of the Inner Bay did not exactly teem. “Give us this day our daily fish” would have been a reasonable form of prayer: each day there was just so much fish at any given spot. And when that just so much was gone, there wasn’t anymore. Not that day.

“Ahn hoew we pay we rent, sah?”

As Limekiller had no answer, he ought to have done no more than shake his head, sympathetically. But he did not think of this. And, entirely without thinking, entirely automaticallv, he said, “Well. '

It just happened that one of those twenty-minutes-after-the-hour, angel-is-flying-overhead, sort of pauses, occurred just then. And so his “Well. ”, delivered in an ordinary tone of voice, sounded forth in a manner more declarative. It reached the ears, even, of those inside the front office, who looked up and out. At which, those outside, seized by what Mackay has somewhat prolixly called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, decided, for one, that though Limekiller was outside, he ought to be inside — and, two, that although he was not a Bayman (not, indeed, a professional fisherman, not even a National of the Colony), he was certainly a boatman: and perhaps also made aware that he was, certainly, White, and, perhaps, since White men were few in Port Caroline and there was no Poor White class there at all -

“Go een, Mr. Limekiller, go een, do, sah, do!”

“Tell, dem, Jock, go een ahn tell dem, mon!”

Exactly what he was to tell them was not specified, but they began to push him forward, they pushed him all the way to the very verge of the office, where he did catch hold of the wall-corner — to the Governor, whose face at the moment was not indicative of any great degree of welcome, he said, protestingly, “Sorry, Sir, I have really no idea what this —”

To which Sir Joshua, in voice between grunting and growling, replied, “Well, for God’s sake, boy, don’t keep on tottering there, like a virgin at a whorehouse door: Get in!“

Limekiller released his hold, and was propelled inside of the gates of authority. The crowd sent up a cheer. They had at any rate accomplished somehing.

Sir Joshua sighed. He had been sighing at intervals. “You ask why, if the Arawak are occupying the northern, or, anyway, the north-central fishing-grounds, why don’t the Baymen simply go and occupy the southern fishery? Well, they say it’s too far. they say it isn’t theirs. that it’s inconvenient. that they are not familiar with it.

“And all of this is true, you know. Mind you, they are not under oath. They are telling the truth, but they’re not telling the whole truth. ” Sir Joshua, however, showed no immediate disposition to tell the whole truth, either, and let that aspect of it drop.

Superintendent Edwards asked, softly, “This. this old agreement, which the people speak of, now —”