John Barth - The Sot-Weed Factor

"Nay, can that be?" Ebenezer was not a little troubled by all this association of the Baltimores with the Jesuits, which brought to his mind the dark plots Bertrand had believed in. "I understood 'twas King Charles called it Maryland, after Baltimore had proposed the name — " He turned to Burlingame, who was staring thoughtfully into the fireplace. "What was the name, Henry? It slips my mind."

"Crescentia," Burlingame replied, and added: "Whether 'twas meant to signify the holy lunar crescent of Mohammed or the carnal crescent sacred to Priapus is a matter still much argued by the scholars."

"Ah, Henry!" Ebenezer blushed for his friend's rudeness.

"No matter," the priest said indulgently. "In any case 'twas but a piece of courtliness on Calvert's part to give out that he had chosen the King's suggestion o'er his own."

"Then pray let's go on with the tale, sir, and I'll not interrupt you farther."

Father Smith replaced the letter on the pile. "The two priests that made the first voyage were called Father John Gravener and Father Andrew White," he said. "Father White's name is genuine — he wrote this fine account here, called A Briefe Relation of the Voyage Unto Mary-land. The other name is an alias of Father John Altham. One of these two went with George Calvert on the journey that you just heard spoken of in the letter, which purported to be an expedition into Virginia. Methinks 'twas Father White, for he was as mettlesome a fellow as ever cassock graced. But the other wight, whose name is absent from the letters, was in fact the saint I spoke of: one Father Joseph FitzMaurice, that also called himself Charles FitzJames and Thomas FitzSimmons. The truth of't is, he ne'er returned from the journey."

"But the letter you read declared — "

"I know — to the author's shame. 'Twas doubtless meant to impress his superiors in Rome with the mission's success. Father FitzMaurice was the last of the three priests to come hither in 1634. His was a soul too zealous for God's work in London in those troubled times, which was best done unobtrusively, and 'twas at his superiors' behest he shipped for Maryland. But alas, on his arrival in St. Mary's, Father FitzMaurice found his brothers' work aimed almost wholly at the planters themselves, that were slipping daily nigh to apostasy. He was farther disillusioned by the Piscataways of the place, that so far from being heathen, far outshone their English breathren in devotion to the One True Faith. Father White had made an early convert of their Tayac, as is our policy, and anon the entire town of salvages had set to making rosaries of their roanoke. 'Tis little wonder that when George Calvert proposed his journey of exploration, Father FitzMaurice straightway offered to accompany him. 'Twas Calvert's declared intent to learn the western boundaries of his brother's county palatine, but his real design was to dicker privily with Captain William Claiborne about the Kent Island question."

"I recall that name," Ebenezer said. "He was the spiritual father of John Coode!"

"As sure as Satan was of Martin Luther," agreed the priest. "Father FitzMaurice saw how scanty were George Calvert's provisions, and so put by a large stock for himself; regardless of the length of the expedition, he planned to live some months among the wildest heathen he could find, and bring new souls to the Supremest Lord Proprietary of All."

"That is good," Ebenezer said appreciatively. "That is well said."

The priest smiled acknowledgment. "He packed one sea-chest full of bread, cheese, dried unripe corn, beans, and flour; in a second he packed three bottles of communion wine and fifteen of holy water for baptisms; a third carried the sacred vessels and a marble slab to serve for an altar; and a fourth was fitted with rosaries, crucifixes, medallions, and sundry gewgaws and brummagem oddments for appeasement and persuasion of the heathen. The whole was loaded in the pinnace Dove, and on the fourth of September they set sail to southwards. Howbeit, ere the afternoon was done the pinnace came about and headed up the Chesapeake instead. When Father FitzMaurice enquired the reason for't, he was told they were simply tacking to windward, and inasmuch as he knew naught of the ways of ships, he had perforce to say no more.

"At sunset they made anchorage in the lee of a large island, which the Piscataway guide called Monoponson, but George Calvert called Kent Island. Father FitzMaurice went ashore in the first boat and was chagrined once more, for 'twas settled and planted from shore to shore and abounded with white men, who were heretic and inhospitable enough, but in no wise heathens. Then fancy his disgust when Calvert gave out to the company that this was in fact their destination, and that his real mission was to negotiate Lord Baltimore's disputes with Captain Claiborne!

"Yet when he voiced his pique to Father White, that good man recommended acquiescence. 'We must make a virtue of necessity,' is what he counseled. 'If Claiborne trades with salvages, 'tis logically antecedent there are Indians on this island. Who then can say but what our paths were guided hither for the improvement of these same salvages, and the furtherance of the One True Faith? Were't not in fact impiety, a denial of God's direction, not to remain here and reap our bounty among the heathen?' "

"There is a pretty piece of casuistry," Burlingame remarked.

" 'Twas reasoned closely enough," the priest agreed, "but Father FitzMaurice would have none of't, nor would he rest content ere he found himself amid truly salvage Indians. Such heathen as remained upon the island, said he, were already half converted by the Virginians, though like as not to some rank heresy or other; the true worth of the missionary could be assayed only among the pure and untouched heathen that had ne'er set eyes on white men.

"Father White spoke farther, but to no avail, so incensed was Father FitzMaurice; they retired at length with some of the ship's company, the rest being engaged in carousal ashore. Next day no trace of Father FitzMaurice was to be found, nor of his four small chests, nor of the small boat that had been tethered beside the Dove. One message alone he left, by Father White's breviary: Si pereo, pereo, A.M.D.G. He ne'er was seen again, and in time the Society gave him up for dead and struck his name from the records. No wight e'er learned whither he rowed, or what his fate was, until I commenced my researches some fifteen years ago: 'twas my good fortune then to converse with one Tacomon, an ancient salvage that once was king of a town at Castlehaven Point, just o'er the Choptank from here, and from him I heard a tale whose hero could be none but Father FitzMaurice. .

"As best I understand it, Father FitzMaurice rowed from Kent past Tilghman's Island and eastward into the mouth of the Choptank, and headed shorewards when he saw the salvage town. Inasmuch as he faced his vessel's stern while rowing, the Indians had long since descried him and knew him for a white man, and King Tacomon with sundry of his Wisoes went down to greet him on the beach.

"When the stranger stepped ashore, they observed that he wore a strange black gown, and that the image of a bird was painted on his boat. 'Tis these two details I pounced on when I heard them, for the Dove's boat carried such an emblem on its stern, and Father FitzMaurice ne'er removed his cassock save to sleep. Moreover, he had four wooden chests aboard the boat, and when he came ashore he fell to his knees in prayer — no doubt to Maria Stella Maris, to thank her for his safe deliverance. The salvages showed great interest in all this, and greater still when Father FitzMaurice gave them baubles from his chest. Tacomon sent a man straightway into the town, who soon fetched down a goodly load of furs and all the other salvage folk as well.