The covenant - James A. Michener [85]
As the time neared for the birth of their child, Willem endeavored to visit with Deborah as much as possible, and it became known to everyone that he was the father. She walked with him sometimes to the vineyard, thinking with amusement of how a Portuguese grandee at Malacca would have scorned any fellow countryman who dipped his hands into the earth. But she was acquainted with growing things and said, 'Willem, those vines are dying.'
'Why? Why do they die?'
'The rows run the wrong way. The wind hits them too strong.' And she showed him how, if he planted his vines along the direction from which the winds blew, and not broadside to it, only the lead plants would be affected, while the sun would be free to strike all the vines evenly.
She was at the vineyard one day, singing with that extraordinary voice, when Van Riebeeck came to inspect the German vines, and he, too, saw that they were dying: 'It's the wind.' And he added grimly, 'No wine from these plants,' but he assured Willem that replacement plants were on their way from France. He was determined to produce wine for the Compagnie, even if he had to import new plants constantly.
When the women of the fort led Deborah to her confinement, Willem was overwhelmed by the realization that he was about to become a father, and this had an unexpected effect: he wanted to recover his Bible so that he could record in it the fact of birth, as if by this action he could confirm the Van Doorn presence in Africa. Since he had a hut apart from the others, it would be safe to produce the book without being required to offer explanations as to how he had acquired it. So in the evening after his son was born he slipped along the beach till he came to that ancient cave, and when he was satisfied that no one was spying, he entered it to claim his Bible.
A few days later Commander van Riebeeck appeared at the vineyard, said nothing about the birth of the boy, but did ask for Willem's assistance on a knotty problem: 'It's this Hottentot Jack. They tell me you know him.'
'Jack!' Willem cried with obvious affection. 'Where is he?'
'Where indeed?' And the commander unraveled his version of duplicity, stolen cows, promises made but never kept, and suspected connivance with the dreadful Bushmen who had edged south, enticed by Compagnie sheep and cattle.
'That doesn't sound like my Jack,' Willem protested.
'The same. Nefarious.'
'I'm sure I could talk with him . . .'
The complaints continued: 'When we arrived in the bay, there he was, uniform of an English sailor, shoes and all.'
'That's Jack,' Willem said.
The commander ignored him. 'So we made arrangements with him. He to serve as our interpreter. We to give him metal tools and objects.'
'He spoke English rather well, didn't he?'
'But he was like a ghost at twilight. Now here. Now gone. And absolutely no sense of property. Whatever he saw, he took.'
'Surely he gave you cattle in return.'
'That's what I'm here about. He owes us many cattle and we cannot find him.'
'I could find him.'
At this confident offer the commander placed the tips of his fingers together and brought them carefully to his lips. 'Caution. We've had killings, you know.'
'Our men shot the Hottentots?' Willem asked in amazement.
'There were provocations. It was this sort of thing Jack was supposed to'
'I'll go to him,' Willem said abruptly. So Van Riebeeck arranged for three trusted gunners to accompany him in an exploration of those villages which Jack and his people had occupied when the Haerlem wrecked, but Willem refused the gunners: 'I said I'd go. Not with an army.'
That was the beginning of his difficulties with the Compagnie. Those in authority refused to believe that an unprotected Dutchman would dare to move inland, or survive if he did, but Willem was so confident that he could reach Jack and settle differences with him that he persisted. In the end he was ordered to accept the three gunners, and after strong protest which irritated everyone, he complied.
He had been right. When the Hottentots spied the armed men