Mr.Hare speaks of Sterling "sailing over to St.Valery in an open boat along with others,"upon one occasion,in this enterprise;--in the _final_English scene of it,I suppose.Which is very possible.
Unquestionably there was adventure enough of other kinds for it,and running to and fro with all his speed on behalf of it,during these months of his history!Money was subscribed,collected:the young Cambridge democrats were all ablaze to assist Torrijos;nay certain of them decided to go with him,--and went.Only,as yet,the funds were rather incomplete.And here,as I learn from a good hand,is the secret history of their becoming complete.Which,as we are upon the subject,I had better give.But for the following circumstance,they had perhaps never been completed;nor had the rash enterprise,or its catastrophe,so influential on the rest of Sterling's life,taken place at all.
A certain Lieutenant Robert Boyd,of the Indian Army,an Ulster Irishman,a cousin of Sterling's,had received some affront,or otherwise taken some disgust in that service;had thrown up his commission in consequence;and returned home,about this time,with intent to seek another course of life.Having only,for outfit,these impatient ardors,some experience in Indian drill exercise,and five thousand pounds of inheritance,he found the enterprise attended with difficulties;and was somewhat at a loss how to dispose of himself.
Some young Ulster comrade,in a partly similar situation,had pointed out to him that there lay in a certain neighboring creek of the Irish coast,a worn-out royal gun-brig condemned to sale,to be had dog-cheap:this he proposed that they two,or in fact Boyd with his five thousand pounds,should buy;that they should refit and arm and man it;--and sail a-privateering "to the Eastern Archipelago,"Philippine Isles,or I know not where;and _so_conquer the golden fleece.
Boyd naturally paused a little at this great proposal;did not quite reject it;came across,with it and other fine projects and impatiences fermenting in his head,to London,there to see and consider.It was in the months when the Torrijos enterprise was in the birth-throes;crying wildly for capital,of all things.Boyd naturally spoke of his projects to Sterling,--of his gun-brig lying in the Irish creek,among others.Sterling naturally said,"If you want an adventure of the Sea-king sort,and propose to lay your money and your life into such a game,here is Torrijos and Spain at his back;here is a golden fleece to conquer,worth twenty Eastern Archipelagoes."--Boyd and Torrijos quickly met;quickly bargained.
Boyd's money was to go in purchasing,and storing with a certain stock of arms and etceteras,a small ship in the Thames,which should carry Boyd with Torrijos and the adventurers to the south coast of Spain;and there,the game once played and won,Boyd was to have promotion enough,--"the colonelcy of a Spanish cavalry regiment,"for one express thing.What exact share Sterling had in this negotiation,or whether he did not even take the prudent side and caution Boyd to be wary I know not;but it was he that brought the parties together;and all his friends knew,in silence,that to the end of his life he painfully remembered that fact.
And so a ship was hired,or purchased,in the Thames;due furnishings began to be executed in it;arms and stores were gradually got on board;Torrijos with his Fifty picked Spaniards,in the mean while,getting ready.This was in the spring of 1830.Boyd's 5000pounds was the grand nucleus of finance;but vigorous subscription was carried on likewise in Sterling's young democratic circle,or wherever a member of it could find access;not without considerable result,and with a zeal that may be imagined.Nay,as above hinted,certain of these young men decided,not to give their money only,but themselves along with it,as democratic volunteers and soldiers of progress;among whom,it need not be said,Sterling intended to be foremost.
Busy weeks with him,those spring ones of the year 1830!Through this small Note,accidentally preserved to us,addressed to his friend Barton,we obtain a curious glance into the subterranean workshop:--"_To Charles Barton,Esq.,Dorset Sq.,Regent's Park_.
[No date;apparently March or February,1830.]
"MY DEAR CHARLES,--I have wanted to see you to talk to you about my Foreign affairs.If you are going to be in London for a few days,Ibelieve you can be very useful to me,at a considerable expense and trouble to yourself,in the way of buying accoutrements;_inter alia_,a sword and a saddle,--not,you will understand,for my own use.