"'The sum which he thus bore about him was no less than ten thousand
pounds sterling. It constituted the whole patrimony of a worthy and
excellent family, and the loss of it reduces them to beggary. It is gone
with Watson, and whither Watson has gone it is impossible even to guess. "'You may now easily conceive, sir, the dreadful disasters which may be
connected with this man's fate, and with what immeasurable anxiety his
family and friends have regarded his disappearance. That he is alive can
scarcely be believed; for in what situation could he be placed in which
he would not be able and willing to communicate some tidings of his fate
to his family? "'Our grief has been unspeakably aggravated by the suspicions which Mrs.
Maurice and her friends have allowed themselves to admit. They do not
scruple to insinuate that Watson, tempted by so great a prize, has
secretly embarked for England, in order to obtain payment for these
bills and retain the money for his own use. "'No man was more impatient of poverty than Watson, but no man's honesty
was more inflexible. He murmured at the destiny that compelled him to
sacrifice his ease, and risk his life upon the ocean in order to
procure the means of subsistence; and all the property which he had
spent the best part of his life in collecting had just been ravished
away from him by the English; but, if he had yielded to this temptation
at any time, it would have been on receiving these bills at Jamaica. Instead of coming hither, it would have been infinitely more easy and
convenient to have embarked directly for London; but none who thoroughly
knew him can, for a moment, harbour a suspicion of his truth. "'If he be dead, and if the bills are not to be recovered, yet to
ascertain this will, at least, serve to vindicate his character. As long
as his fate is unknown, his fame will be loaded with the most flagrant
imputations, and, if these bills be ever paid in London, these
imputations will appear to be justified. If he has been robbed, the
robber will make haste to secure the payment, and the Maurices may not
unreasonably conclude that the robber was Watson himself.' Many other
particulars were added by the stranger, to show the extent of the evils
flowing from the death of his brother, and the loss of the papers which
he carried with him. "I was greatly at a loss," continued Wortley, "what directions or advice
to afford this man. Keysler, as you know, died early of the pestilence;
but Keysler was the only resident in this city with whom Williams had
any acquaintance. On mentioning the propriety of preventing the sale of
these bills in America, by some public notice, he told me that this
caution had been early taken; and I now remembered seeing the
advertisement, in which the bills had been represented as having been
lost or stolen in this city, and a reward of a thousand dollars was
offered to any one who should restore them. This caution had been
published in September, in all the trading-towns from Portsmouth to
Savannah, but had produced no satisfaction. "I accompanied Williams to the mayor's office, in hopes of finding in
the records of his proceedings, during the last six months, some traces
of Watson; but neither these records nor the memory of the magistrate
afforded us any satisfaction. Watson's friends had drawn up, likewise,
a description of the person and dress of the fugitive, an account of the
incidents attending his disappearance, and of the papers which he had in
his possession, with the manner in which these papers had been secured. These had been already published in the Southern newspapers, and have
been just reprinted in our own. As the former notice had availed
nothing, this second expedient was thought necessary to be employed. "After some reflection, it occurred to me that it might be proper to
renew the attempt which Williams had made to trace the footsteps of his
friend to the moment of his final disappearance. He had pursued Watson
to Thetford's; but Thetford himself had not been seen, and he had been
contented with the vague information of his clerk. Thetford and his
family, including his clerk, had perished, and it seemed as if this
source of information was dried up. It was possible, however, that old
Thetford might have some knowledge of his nephew's transactions, by
which some light might chance to be thrown upon this obscurity. I
therefore called on him, but found him utterly unable to afford me the
light that I wished. My mention of the packet which Watson had brought
to Thetford, containing documents respecting the capture of a certain
ship, reminded him of the injuries which he had received from Welbeck,
and excited him to renew his menaces and imputations on that wretch. Having somewhat exhausted this rhetoric, he proceeded to tell me what
connection there was between the remembrance of his injuries and the
capture of this vessel. "This vessel and its cargo were, in fact, the property of Welbeck. They
had been sent to a good market, and had been secured by an adequate
insurance. The value of this ship and cargo, and the validity of the
policy, he had taken care to ascertain by means of his two nephews, one
of whom had gone out supercargo. This had formed his inducement to lend
his three notes to Welbeck, in exchange for three other notes, the whole
amount of which included the _equitable interest_ of _five per cent. per
month_ on his own loan. For the payment of these notes he by no means
relied, as the world foolishly imagined, on the seeming opulence and
secret funds of Welbeck. These were illusions too gross to have any
influence on him. He was too old a bird to be decoyed into the net by
_such_ chaff. No; his nephew, the supercargo, would of course receive
the produce of the voyage, and so much of this produce as would pay his
debt he had procured the owner's authority to intercept its passage from
the pocket of his nephew to that of Welbeck. In case of loss, he had
obtained a similar security upon the policy. Jamieson's proceedings had
been the same with his own, and no affair in which he had ever engaged
had appeared to be more free from hazard than this. Their calculations,
however, though plausible, were defeated. The ship was taken and
condemned, for a cause which rendered the insurance ineffectual. "I bestowed no time in reflecting on this tissue of extortions and
frauds, and on that course of events which so often disconcerts the
stratagems of cunning. The names of Welbeck and Watson were thus
associated together, and filled my thoughts with restlessness and
suspicion. Welbeck was capable of any weakness. It was possible an
interview had happened between these men, and that the fugitive had been
someway instrumental in Watson's fate. These thoughts were mentioned to
Williams, whom the name of Welbeck threw into the utmost perturbation. On finding that one of this name had dwelt in this city, and that he had
proved a villain, he instantly admitted the most dreary forebodings.