Chapter 1 - The Farmer
The Summer of 1702 would be remembered as the Summer of Peace in the Royal Colony of North Carolina.
The hot Carolina sun beat down upon his neck. Sweat dripped down his brow stinging his eyes. The mule plodded along pulling the plow, slowly turning over that hard red clay. The Sun rose high in the eastern sky, as the man and the mule plowed one row after the other.
The farmer's thoughts took him back to his second love, the love of the Sea. He remembered he once was free, he once saw a large horizon and now all he could see was a prison of tall pines and hard red clay. He remembered he once saw Spanish Galleons laden with gold and silver. He remembered he once saw cannons firing, he once saw ship masts splintered by a perfect shot of his cannon. He remembered once he was a gunner upon the greatest ship that sailed the Seas.
His dreaming of glorious conquests upon the Seas, ended abrubtly in the mid day sun, the mule stopped. He hit the mule with the reigns, and the mule stood still. He cursed and he kicked and still the mule stood still, paying no attention to the ship's gunner.
"Damn it!"
The mule turned and stared at the farmer, but refused to move, the sun was high in the mid day sky. He broke down and unhitched the mule from the plow. The mule turned, gave the farmer a knowing look and slowly turned and headed back to the barn without the plow, leaving the farmer broken on his knees. He stared up to heaven and cried.
"Maggie, I don't know why you had to die. I have tried these past seven years to be a good father to our son. I have tried to be an honest man. I have tried to farm this land, but this was your dream and not mine. You left me Maggie and you left our son."
The farmer wept.
He had hoped that by some miracle, God would let him hear her voice one more time, to see her smile again, to feel her touch. Nothing, not even the sound of her voice in the wind, the silence from heaven pierced his broken heart and he wept.
"Da! Annie is back in the barn! Is you alright? Da! Da!"
Kevin's voice brought him back from the depths of despair. But only briefly, sometimes he could not even look at his own son, for to look upon Kevin was to look upon Maggie. His red hair, his smile, the freckles upon his face, all bore witness that Maggie was his mother.
"Da, is you alright?"
"I'm fine!"
He pulled himself up off the ground and slowly walked towards Kevin. Kevin knew his father's mood, he knew him all too well. He knew his Da often wept for his mother, a mother he had never met, a mother who passed from this world giving him birth.
"Is you missin' her again?"
"Yes, I miss her." He smiled at his son.
"Annie is back in the barn. You should know that she don't work past mid day."
They both laughed.
"Seems that old mule has got more sense than I do."
They both laughed even louder.
"She sure do Da, she sure do."
They both slowly walked side by side back to the cabin.
The Summer months passed slowly but the farmer kept himself busy working his fields of tobacco. He and the boy spent their days armed with hoes in an endless battle against the weeds, row after row and day after day. The crop was hung in the barn to cure and another made ready for market.
"Ten, Da, I count ten hogshead of tobacco, we will be rich! When is the market, when are we headed out? Will Aunt Katie be there?"
Kevin had a thousand questions, and was tired of all the work. He wanted to leave the farm and all the work behind. He most especially wanted to see his Aunt Katie, his mother's younger sister. He stared at his father waiting for an answer, but the farmer just sighed and looked off into the sky. Finally, the silence broke.
"Yes, your Aunt Katie and Uncle Aaron, will be at the market in Bath Town in two days. We will load up the cart and head out tomorrow."
He smiled and was glad that Kevin loved Katie. She married an Englishman Aaron Lewis, a purchasing agent of the West India Trading Company and Captain of fly-boat, a small wide cargo ship, that plied along the Albemarle Sound and sometimes ventured along the Atlantic Coast. He hoped that she would keep her promise, last year she promised that when Kevin turned seven, he could sign aboard ship as cabin boy. The last wish he had for his son was to be a farmer, to never leave the land, to never leave this prison of pines, to toil in the hard red clay until his body broke. He wanted his son to learn to be a man of trade and commerce, to be a man of the sea, to be a captain.
"Kevin, tonight I will be going to the McPhearsons to make arrangements for them to mind the farm while we are gone."
After dinner, he instructed Kevin to get to sleep early and if he was not back by sunlight to load the tobacco and hook Annie up to the cart. The farmer made his way to the McPhearsons, and after a brief visit when a deal was struck the farmer turned back towards home.
He came upon a large rock and stood still for a moment. He carefully examined the rock and found a small carving, a carving he had made seven years ago when he and Maggie first arrived in the Colony. He looked straight at the carving and then pointed in a perfect right angle to the left. He then turned to the left and began to take large strides counting them off 1 . . .2 . . .3 . . . finally he reached 21. And there before him, deep in the woods under some dead branches was a small pile of rocks. The farmer began removing the rocks, deeper and deeper into the ground he dug until he found his old sea chest. It was still there, he thought someone might have stolen it, but then he looked around and seeing nothing but pine trees laughed to himself no one would ever be here in the wilderness. He lifted the contents of the old sea chest out, he only cared about two things his silver and his sword. He held his sword in his hand and pointed it towards the stars. He declared to God, I shall be a farmer no more. He carefully wrapped his sword in a deer skin, so as to keep it hidden. The purse of silver, which was heavier than he remembered, he put it in his ruckack.
The sunrise had already broken by the time he saw his barn. He laughed at the sight of Kevin standing by Annie, already hitched to a fully loaded cart.
"Son, are you ready to go to Bath Town?"
"I've been ready, and Annie's been ready, what took you so long Da?"
"Since you be ready, I guess we should best get started."
He took Annie's briddle in his hand, and the pirate and his son set out for the market in Bath Town.