Genoa (31 page)
Authors: Paul Metcalf
and the Naval expedition, in the year 1891—the year of Melville’s death:
“Commander G. A. Converse,
“Commanding U. S. S. Enterprise.
“Sir:–
“In obedience to your orders of the 13th inst. we respectfully submit the following report of the results of an exploration of the ruins of the city of Isabella.
“The party left the Enterprise, then anchored off Puerto Plata, Island of Santo Domingo, at 6:30 on the morning of the 14th of May and proceeded in the steamcutter thirty miles to the westward along the north shore of the island of Santo Domingo. We were accompanied by an old native pilot who was recommended by the U. S. Consul of Puerto Plata as familiar with the coast and such traditions as exist among the natives respecting the first settlement of Columbus. He has piloted vessels to and from the port of Isabella for many years.
“About eight miles inside the cape now known as Isabella there is a bay of considerable size; on its eastern shore a slight rocky projection of land formed by one of the numerous bluffs was chosen for the first permanent settlement of the Spaniards in the New World . . .
“No habitations are to be found within a mile and a half of the ruins . . .
“On landing we turned to the right and ascended a gentle slope to a little plain about two acres in area; this slightly projects into the bay and is bounded on the north and south by two dry water-courses forming natural ditches, or moats, and terminating abruptly on the western, or water side, in cliffs from twenty to thirty feet high formed by large boulders containing fossil coral and shells. Tradition points to this little plateau as the site of the ancient city and here we found scattered at intervals various small, ill-defined heaps of stones, remnants of walls built of small unhewn stones, evidently laid in mortar, pieces of old tiles and potsherds, some of the latter glazed, and fragments of broad, roughly made bricks. There were half a dozen or more blocks of dressed limestone that may have been part of the walls of buildings somewhat finished and permanent in character. The trees, matted roots and trailing vines overspread the ground . . .
“We overturned all the cut blocks of stone and examined them
carefully in the hope of finding some marks or dates, but without success, and it is our belief that nothing of the kind exists.
“Should further exploration be made it would be of undoubted scientific interest to examine the fauna and flora of this region and there are evidences of interesting fossil remains. The caves in the cliffs of Cape Isabella and vicinity would probably yield interesting relics of the aborigines—the now extinct Caribs.”
Melville—Customs Inspector #75
—
writes a letter to John Hoadley: “By the way I have a ship on my district from Girgenti—Where’s that? Why, in Sicily—The ancient Agrigentum. Ships arrive from there in this port, bringing sulphur; but this is the first one I have happened to have officially to do with. I have not succeeded in seeing the captain yet—have only seen the mate—but hear that he has in possession some stones from those magnifcent Grecian ruins, and I am going to try to get a fragment, however small, if possible, which I will divide with you.”
and Isabella today: a pasture by the sea, with only a few stones above the ground . . .
Turning, I amble back to the desk . . .
WOMAN WHO LURED BOY FROM SCHOOL
TELLS POLICE HE WASN’T FRIGHTENED
ST
.
LOUIS
, Oct. 7 (
AP
)—The woman who lured Buddy Williams from his school in Kansas City on the start of a trip that was to lead to a shallow grave said today the 6-year-old boy wasn’t frightened.
“He was such a sweet child,” said Mrs. Bonnie Brown Heady.
“He came so nice. He talked about getting a dog and ice cream.”
(and there was Billy Budd: “. . . he showed in face that humane look of reposeful good nature . . .”
(“The ear, small and shapely, the arch of the foot, the curve in mouth and nostril . . .”
(and he was called by his shipmates, Baby Budd . . .
PAIR PLEAD GUILTY
TO KIDNAP CHARGE
KANSAS CITY
, Nov. 3 (
AP
)—Ex-mental patient Carl Austin Mills and his alcoholic companion, Mrs. Bonnie Brown Heady, pleaded guilty in federal court today to the kidnapping of 6-year-old Buddy Williams and were ordered to trial Nov. 16.
we thought that, because of his mental record, he would plead insanity, and all of us—Mother, Linda, and I—tried to persuade him to it; but Carl himself insisted against it, and such a plea was never made . . . instead, he took a rigorous psychiatric examination, and conned his way through it . . .
KIDNAP KILLERS WILL DIE
DEC
. 18; ‘
TOO GOOD FOR
THEM
,’
WILLIAMS SAYS
Mrs. Hall,
Mills Stoically
Hear Sentence
KANSAS CITY
, Nov. 19 (
AP
)—The kidnap slayers of Buddy Williams were sentenced to death today and will go to the gas chamber together for their ruthless crime.
I made several trips—to St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City—but on all occasions Carl refused to see me, or acknowledge me . . .
PENITENTIARY GATES
CLOSE ON KIDNAPPERS
No Appeals Planned
JEFFERSON CITY
, Nov. 20 (
AP
)—The Buddy Williams kidnap killers reached the Missouri Penitentiary tonight where they will die together in the gas chamber one week from Christmas.
Carl Austin Mills, 43, and Mrs. Bonnie Brown Heady, 41, were received at the grim gray-walled prison in gathering darkness at 5:35
P.M
. They arrived in handcuffs and chains after an automobile trip from Kansas City . . .
On Thursday, the 20th of May, 1506, in the city of Valladolid, Christopher Columbus died . . .
(Melville:
(“Like those new-world discoverers bold
Ending in stony convent cold,
Or dying hermits; as if they,
. . . . . . . . .
Remorseful felt that ampler sway
Their lead had given for old career
Of human nature.”
and Melville, in 1891, the year of his death, set aside B
ILLY
B
UDD
, as finished—and picked it up again: added a chapter—afterthought to an afterthought—B
ILLY
I
N
T
HE
D
ARBIES
: