Manuscripts
Sarah Orne Jewett Manuscript -- The Cape of St. Nicholas-Mole
Introduction
On Sunday 16 February 1896, Sarah Orne Jewett, in company with Annie Adams Fields, Henry Lillie Pierce, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, with a servant and the crew of the steam yacht Hermione, took shelter in the harbor at Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the northwestern coast of Haiti. They had endured an often grueling vacation cruise in the western islands of the Caribbean over the previous month. Foul weather stranded them for five days in this small port that offered little to the pleasure traveler. Annie Fields kept a journal during the cruise, and her account of the area provides an interesting comparison with Jewett's sketch in this short story draft.
Though it remains uncertain when Jewett composed this unfinished story, almost certainly her work took place between February 1896 and September 1902. Given the specificity of her descriptions, the draft has "the feel" of being composed very close to her time in the port. As there was so little to do there, she may well have begun the story in Haiti to occupy her time.
This transcription is presented with editorial commentary intended to help readers understand the appearance of the penciled manuscript while being minimally intrusive for casual readers.
Notes on the Presentation of Manuscript Materials
^ ^ : The author has inserted text.
abc: The author has deleted text.
[ ] : Editorial comments and descriptions.
{ } : Editorial insertions in pursuit of clarity.
Jewett's periods often appear as dashes, and also often are indistinguishable from commas. Where her intentions seem clear, I have placed commas and periods; when not sure I have given the dashes or included a note.
She is not consistent in using apostrophes. I have presented words needing apostrophes as she presents them.
The manuscript of this story is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. The Cape St. Nicholas. A.MS.(unsigned); [n.p., n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett compositions and other papers, 1847-1909. MS Am 1743.22 (10). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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Incomplete*
The ^Cape^ St. Nicholas-Mole -- \ Hayti Story
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There is a harbor on the north coast of one of the far West Indian Islands where now and then adecrepit^ [rotting? ] creaking^ old steamer or ^logwood laden^ schooner destitute of paint and with sails patched like a chequer board puts in to escape the fury of a northern -- Otherwise weeks go by without anything to break the quiet life of ^this part of^ Santa [ Teresa corrected ]. The office of customs and other high officials amuse themselves as best they can with potent drinks and* excited talk of politics, and even descend from official business to gossiping about their neighbours.
The ^outward^ citywore a^itself^ [ looked changed from look ] like a mountain river in the dry season. There was an enormous amount of building material to be seen -- There were to begin with, the ruins of the old fortifications which now
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the [ treasures changed from treasury ] of France and now of Spain had been robbed to build. There were the long ^lines of^ ramparts{,} the clumsy blocks of small dwellings in the [ casements ? ], the [ pathways ? ] {,} the roofless barracks, and [ various corrected ] defences that ran out along the shore with their tunnels and [ solid ? ] platforms for great guns which had vanished ^long ago^ nobody could tell where.
There was a wide parade ground paved with stone but the weeds grew thick along the widening crevices, and waved from the toppling walls. To build this great invulnerable fort what blood of human creatures{,} what money of unsteady governments{,} that prestige and authority ofapprehensivepower-loving kings had all been spent! And the blazing tropic sun and floods of tropic
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rain, now and then theeasyjoggle of an earthquake hadmade the^cracked the great^ blocks of stone and made them fall. [ When corrected ] the ^old French^ troops had drilled and their young officers had looked [ like ? corrected ] they mocked thetropic^wild^ flowers with their gay gilt uniforms the lizards ran ^from place to place^ andtheshadows of the great brown pelicans flitted to and fro --
[ Deleted word Out ? ] In the middle of this great parade ground was a modern church which ^the^ good fathers Benedict and André [ had corrected ] by desperate economies and beggings and much goading of their feeble parish contrived to build and pay for. The missionary societies had paid most of the cost -- the corrugated iron was already warping in the
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heat -- perhaps it had never been well jointed {--} at any rate the great [ rains corrected ] came through the roof -- and Father Benedict and Father André themselves had died in the next season of yellow fever after the church's dedication, and were represented by poor little white tablets setto^against^ the walls.
The priest* now in charge served two parishes -- He looked thin and frail and remorseful -- an exile no doubt from France. The bell that rang for mass and tried its best to be gay at the great church festivals had belonged to the ^old^ chapel of the fort. It was a Spanish bell [ and corrected ] bore the royal arms and some pious legends but the iron belfry was too [ unrecognized word rackety ?] for its support and the sexton pulled the rope more and more gently lest such a weight
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should come crashing down upon his head.
You could kill plenty of snakes on this sunburnt plaza {--} they came down into the hot sunlight from the damp tangled woods on the hills above, but you could also pick scarlet and yellow flowers, and peer into darkinterior places^rooms^ filled with fallen rubbish -- you could climb the high walls and look seaward and get cool ^in^bythe trade
[ missing material ]soft island stone {--} Pierre Montagna Borbeury {--} Jule-Quimfer Alexis {--} St. Remy a Provence;* they were all Frenchmen and compatriots -- they all died perhaps poor fellows in this abominable climate{.}
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^slender^ beams of the larger roofs had naturally fallen first{,} each with its rattling shower of [ tiles ? corrected ], so that the humblest of [ houses corrected ] were deemed altogether more solid and desirable -- There these gay lazy coloured people with their children and their nice fowls have not unhappy lives. The old women sat outside the doors all/ready to enjoy whatever might happen. [ Paragraph mark ]
In the first house outside the great gateway of the fort wassomea family of somewhat better estate -- ^the [ Marcles ? corrected ]{,} mother & daughter & cockfighting son* --^ their roof [was corrected ] whole, they represented the better classes of that once flourishing city which had had not only a general commanding, but a [ bishop corrected ] of its own. It was a rambling old house which could
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[ could repeated ] have told many more exciting stories than the writer of this one. At present the family was living in hope [ of corrected ] a new grant from the government to repair the old fort, which would bring an idle engineer and two or three other idle young officers and they would waste their time but one had to live somehow and part of the appropriation would ^at least^ be scattered among the coloured people of the town. Everybody knew that it was foolish tobuildput up a derrick and [ swing corrected ] the blocks of stone to the top of such a toppling sea wall, but the ^coming of^ {an} inspector was only the signal for a high time of reveling and feasting and the usual custom had been to
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represent to the government that so small an appropriation was ^[ simply ? ]^ futile and that another year it must be increased.
And when the less and less frequent dole was spent, the officers went hastily away forgetting that they had amused themselves by being rivals for the hand of Maria Marca{,} their highborn landladys daughter. She had learned to takeit^such disappearances^ with equanimity and to enjoy their company while it lasted -- The successful aspirant of the moment [ usually corrected ] promised with [ solemn corrected ] oaths and sometimes even tears that he would return{,} but he never did -- Maria March* had passed the first bloom of youth but she was still a splendidly handsome creature full of spirit
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and with ^of^ an unconquerable gayety. The father had been the last officer in command of that deserted fort. The mother whowasstout* and apathetic had once been a sylph and daughter to the collector of customs. They all claimed the noblest sort of military and civic descent. They had enormous claims against ^either^ [ the French written over something ] or Spanish governments -- it was ^growing^ somewhat vague which, [ but corrected ] now and then the cock fighting son departed in fine array to the capital of the island upon business but he always returned crestfallen and with the air of one who had fallen among worse card sharpers than himself.
Yet to see the two ladies stepping proudly
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to mass with their black lace headgear{,} their gilded prayer books on Sunday mornings, to catch a glance of their ^handsome black^ eyes -- you might have fancied yourself in Seville or Barcelona instead of ^in^ an earthquakeruined^shattered^utterlyforsaken [ written over word, intending West ? ] Indian ruin of a town which was not half certain of its own history, whose only pride was in its half forgotten past.
Nobody had the least consciousness of an existence that was larger and possibly better except Maria herself -- She was a great reader of newspapers and romances{.} She had been taught to read French as well as her native Spanish [ by corrected ] poor Father Benedict who had much lovedthis^his^ brilliant [ little corrected ] parishioner, and who
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would have sent her to a good sisters school for proper education if he had only lived. She had said many a prayer for the good father [since corrected ] the Lord had seen fit to take him -- She always said to herself when she thought of him that the Lord gave us ^also our^ kindred, but it was only once in life that he permitted the blessing of a friend. And from year to year having been taught a few things by thissad^goodly priest{,} this sad^ scholar and gentleman in his lonely exile, Maria Marca had been looking for something happier & better in life which had never come. Even the appropriations had failed for two years [ and ? ] had been so small the last time that the Engineer and his attendant officers had favored the city but two weeks.
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IIThere came an answer next day from the brother at Santo Domingo. It was the usual request for money to pay his passage home -- but since [ M. corrected ] Patrasse was so kind as to bring it himself both Maria & her mother counted it but
There was ^only^ one resource -- there was one sign of the vitality of that great Civilized world of which this ruined city was an ossified and [ disorderly written over something ] part. Down by the harbour side was a ^small^ low building of two rooms where the ^submarine^ cable* ^was^ landed and the telegraph clicked busily in one room and Monsieur Patrasse the telegraph operator in charge lived in the other. He had not much to do -- he read and slept industriously but he seldom left his post --
An old ^black^ woman in a neighboring ^house^ ^a mere^ burrow of tumbled stones cooked for him what he did not choose to cook for himself -- Luckily it was always possible to make an omelet in the [ fallen SaraandNicola ? ]
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The curiosity of woman had forced Maria Marca to walk along the sea wall to the sandy beach and pass the door of the telegraph officewiththe next day after his arrival by government boat and she had caught sight of a clean looking gentleman with a clean [yellow-covered corrected ] novel in his hand {--} it might be a volume of Charpentier* or it might oh heavenly hope!* be the [ second ? written over something ] ^first^ volume of Vingt Ans Apres* which she never had read -- thefirst^second^ having been left ^behind^ by one of the Engineers -- The stranger did not look out of his door then though poor Maria had passed so near that her slender shadow must have fallen
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on the floor at his feet. But two or three days after, the cockfighting brother having been long away at the metropolis and his mother growing anxious Maria had come ^properly attended by her maidservant Luisa, to send a telegram of recall. She looked very well dressed poor thing and quite a little lady --
Ce n'est pas possible que vous parley ^le langue^ Francais* [ declared or exclaimed ? ] M. Patrasse in delighted wonder, and they were friends on the moment. It took so long to manage the telegraph, that M. Patrasse* had time to state his distress at being stranded in so shocking ^[ accursed ? ]^ a place of snake haunted ruins and to tenderly commiserate Maria March* [ who corrected ] was
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properly an ornament to the heart of Paris -- but she departed rejoicing not with the first volume to Vingt Ans Apres but the whole lovely and exciting tales of Carmen and File 113* which she had never before read. It was as ifthe^a^ door of heaven had been opened, and that night she said prayers for Father Benedict as if she had never prayed before orknewthanked him* for his patience in those French lessons.
a joy, and ^only^ arraigned a government which considers so little the rights of gentlemen -- as they offered ^all^ the hospitality [ of written over and ] their house and their most pleasing smiles to the obliging messenger --[ Page 17 ]
Td*
M. Patrasse carried a sufficient walking stick, and was absolutely fearless of snakes [ and corrected ] every other [ unrecognized word creature ? ] that might be met in anevening^afternoon^ stroll -- And as evening came on and the blazing sky cooled a little he explored the old battlements and towers of observation{.} The Triumph Arch on the hillside, the battered barracks. He discovered plenty of French names cut in the
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There was a balcony above the entrance to the once palatial residence of the Marcas where the ladies ^had year after year^ sat with their fans in the afternoon looking down the street for lovers who ^so^ seldom came. They kept bravely to the inherited habits ofgenerations[ of repeated ] all their grandmothers who had done the same thing from generation to generation in Spain and her ^island^ colonies --But it came to be a fixed habit that the ladies should ^promptly^ appear [ when written over something ] the sun was low enough to cast [ the written over a ? ] shadow of the house ^far enough^ over the balcony and that M. Patrasse should very soon come strolling up
the street to join them. If [ he corrected ] were needed at the telegraph office old Marta the negress would come out & plant are large and legible signal in the door -- He had ^at last^ taught her [ to written over the ] recognize the ^operators^ call, but her ears were dull and she was apt of fall asleep in the slow hot afternoons.[ Page 19
This page belong to another manuscript ]*
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There was always a cooling [ drink ? ] [ to be corrected ] shared by the little company on the balcony andthe^most^ excellent tobacco. The active occupation of rolling cigarettes seems almost too great an effort, but it was never any effort to talk -- and the history of hopes and disappointments and past gayeties which belonged toboth^the^ hostesses and their guest was [ minutely ? ] recounted little by little and ^one^ afternoon after another --
The Frenchman began to go to mass on Sundays ^and to walk away with Señora Marca^. Then he was seen on week day [ mornings ? ] in the same devout company
while old Luisa who walked behind nodded her head with comprehensive approval to chance passers by even if they were commonplace or persons whom she alternately[ Page 21 ]
patronized^[received corrected ] as familiar^ and ^completely^ scorned --
A man stranded in such a god-forsaken littleseaport far from his native place{,} his native café [ might corrected ] gladly make the best of what society he could find -- And poor little Maria was so frankly grateful for his kindness{,} for his novels -- she had found life so dreary and youth so fleeting, that a [ man corrected ] would be but half a [ youth ? ] who did not respond to her glances and [ receive corrected ] the warm profession of her complete adoration.
III
Therehad been^was a^ Norther of unusual determination gathering in the sky, and out of the cloudy gray sea; through the ugly white
waves that leaped at the mouth of the harbour ^there^ came hurrying in the handsomest steam yacht that had ever made that lonely port. ^All" the city officials from the mayor to the second officer of customs at once put out from shore in a rickety boat laden[ Page 22 ]
with^to the gunwale^ with their dignity and importance. Old Manuel ^a huge negro^ who drew but a meagre income ascollector^Health officer^, wore his portentous tall hat the brim of which came down on his shoulders like a little cape. It had been a hatters sign in Havana until its glories were past but it was still [ holding ? ] its own and wearing well -- But this official visit was shorn of its pleasures by a gruff captain who first waved them toward the starboard gangway, and then forbade their coming aboard since he was coming ashore at oncethat^to^
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settle the yachts affairs. The officials were not only greedy for their fees but they had hoped forfurtherhospitality -- you could never tell how hospitable a heart might beat in a strange captains breast -- There was no fear with such a gale ^blowing^ outside that the yacht would slip away by starlight. And the officials went splashing back to shore discouraged [ but written over by ] not despairing. Presently the Captainwouldappear* and the steward and one could at least have some chickens ready to sell -- these fine pleasure yachts weregrand customers^great consumers for their provisions^ for theslendermeagre poultry and seldom haggled much over prices.
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Story
St. Nicholas Mole -----
Sailor hatted girls = "You are quite solitary," said the pretty girl who lingered behind the others and looked at them sorrowfully with her head on one side like a bird's{,} "Yes, I am solitary" said the young Frenchman with a answering glance. She disappeared, and he gave a light sigh -- then he sighed heavily, then he sat down at his table [ where corrected ] the ticker was calling impatiently and dropped his head upon his folded arms and burst into tears.
Notes
Incomplete: This note may not be in Jewett's hand.
and: In this manuscript, Jewett often writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I have rendered all of these as "and."
priest: Jewett's paragraphing is uncertain. Where -- as here -- she clearly leaves a wide space between sentences, I have assumed she intended a new paragraph.
son: It is not perfectly clear where Jewett intended to place this insertion.
Maria March: Jewett may not have decided on the family's last name. Each time she presents it up to this point, it looks different. Jewett continues to vary this spelling, though usually it is "Marca."
stout: Though Jewett deleted "was," probably she intended to let it stand.
hope!: Jewett has written both an exclamation point and a question mark, leaving it unclear which is written over the other.
submarine cable: The first undersea telegraph cable connecting Môle-Saint-Nicolas with the growing world network was completed in 1888.
Charpentier: This allusion is somewhat mysterious, there not being a well-known French author by this name from this period. Perhaps Jewett refers to the publisher, Georges Charpentier (1846-1905), who published a number of writers who would have been of interest to Maria.
Vingt Ans Apres: Twenty Years After (1845) is the second in the trilogy about the three musketeers by French novelist, Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). The volume Maria had not yet been able to read was the first, The Three Musketeers (1844).
Francais: It is not possible that you speak the French tongue!
Patrasse: Presumably this is what Jewett intended, though her marginal scrawl little resembles this, except for a clear capital P.
Carmen ... File 113: Presumably, the "tales of Carmen" refers to the novella Carmen (1845) by French author Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870).
Le Dossier n° 113 (1867) is a detective novel by French author Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873).
thanked him: An insertion appears at about this point that I am not able to recognize: as _____.
Td: This transcription is uncertain and its meaning as yet unknown.
Provence: Transcription of several of these names is doubtful.
manuscript: This page of the manuscript is on different paper and clearly belongs with a different story. It reads as follows:
Yes,
I like Esther [ Elsten ? ]{.} She never has been one to think of herself.
The older I grow the more I hate the plaintive ones, for they are the selfish ones --
WheThey cant take right hold & be happy doing for others
appear: Though Jewett has deleted "would," it seems likely she intended to let it stand.
This manuscript is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. The Cape St. Nicholas. A.MS.(unsigned); [n.p., n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett compositions and other papers, 1847-1909. MS Am 1743.22 (10).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Manuscripts