It was early the next morning when Robert awoke from his sleep and enjoyed a bit of breakfast. The crew of soon-to-be Bahamas landowners around him were a bit more bleary-eyed than he was, but Robert supposed that they had not slept as comfortably as he had, given that they had far less expensive accommodations than he did, and so let it pass without judgement. He ate his bread and butter and jam, washed it down with some of the local coconut milk that was used as a common juice, and was ready to go about his day. Before too long the others joined him as he walked out to the port to find out which ship would be available to take them to Freetown. Asking for directions and information at the port had its desired effect and soon the party was on a small mail boat that was going to take various messages to the town as well as Robert and the group of new settlers. Presumably part of the messages going to Freetown was the message relating to their settlement by the Vice Admiral.

As was his custom when sailing, Robert found a place on the boat where he could enjoy both some shade from the heat of the sun while also maintaining a beautiful view. He had to admit that the short cruise from New Providence to Freetown was a beautiful one. The water was a particularly lovely shade of blue, the Bahamas as a whole were a set of low sandy islands full of gorgeous palm trees, and Freetown itself, when he observed it, was an endearing small city that had a few substantial public buildings and private residences and cozy small homes for most of the common inhabitants. When the boat made its way to the dock, the travelers made there way onto the dock and then to the small and cozy government house that existed nearby. Along with the travelers, one of the crew members had been set aside to serve as a bit of a guide and to deliver messages to the people responsible for governing the town.

The group entered the government house to the mild but pleasant surprise of the clerk there.

“Greetings, would you state your business?” the clerk asked Robert as he looked at the various messages that had been handed to him.

“I am Robert Woods and I was sent by Vice Admiral Maxwell to take this group of people who has recently arrived from South Carolina to become residents of this town,” Robert stated.

“I assume that the letter informing me of this is one of the pieces of correspondence I have,” the clerk replied.

“I believe so,” Robert said good-naturedly.

“You don’t mind if I try to find the message and read it before I address your business?” the clerk asked.

“By all means, go ahead,” Robert replied.

The clerk read through the messages, most of which were routine enough, and made some notes as to things that he would have to do and messages that he would have to send back to the government in Nassau, and finally came to the letter that discussed the business at hand. He read it carefully, made some additional notes, and then spoke up.

“I see that the group here is to be assigned plots of land within town by family,” the clerk commented.

“Do you want the group here to group by family, then?” Robert asked.

“That would be helpful,” the clerk said. The group did so, and showed itself to be a half dozen families of various sizes. The DuPont family was pretty representative of the group that had been provided in terms of its size and the general youth of many of the people who had helped the British and who needed to evacuate because their service had been conspicuous enough to the Empire to make them a target of patriot abuse and hostility.

The clerk noted the six family groups and went to get a map of the town. Before too long he returned and pointed out to Robert and the people where the plots of land that they were to receive were and what would be expected of them in terms of building their own huts.

“We have some tents for temporary dwellings, but the sooner that these settlers will be able to build their own huts, the better,” the clerk said.

“What is the local construction method,” Robert asked the clerk.

“For this sort of dwelling, some sort of sawboard walls with roofs taken from thatch or palm fronts would be acceptable and would not require too much effort,” the clerk answered. Some members of the group who had done some sort of carpentry work nodded their heads to say that this work was within their competence.

“I suppose we can take a walk around to your new homes,” Robert said, and after the group signed for the lots that they had been assigned they all went to find the plots nearby, which did not take too much walking as the town was still quite small. They came across plots of land that had already been set out alongside various roads.

“I see you are all to be neighbors,” Robert said. “Do you all know each other?”

The group mostly shrugged their shoulders to suggest that they were not close to each other, at least not yet. It did not take long for Robert to realize that his presence here was largely superfluous. The land did not need to be surveyed, as the city lots were of a standard size, and generally similarly sandy appearance. Nor did the houses need to be designed with any degree of expertise. Robert could see the sort of huts that existed around him and they were pretty straightforward. He had no doubt that these settlers would be able to quickly build similar huts for themselves. There was a sawmill nearby, and a fair quantity of planks to build with, and palm trees were in abundance, and so the materials for the structure of the home were close at hand. He had no doubt that it would take a bit more time for more substantial furniture to be built, but many of the families had been able to bring at least some of their own furniture and property from South Carolina and Robert was sure it would be put to good use.

“I don’t see any reason why I need to supervise your work. I think you all know what needs to be done,” Robert said, before walking back to the dock. He found, though, much to his surprise, that the boat was to remain in Freetown overnight and return in the morning, and that there was usually a cycle that repeated trips once every two-days between the two cities unless more urgent communication needed to take place. Robert could see, from the air of the city he had seen so far, that not much appeared to be very urgent about life in the tropics. He asked in turn where there would be lodging, and was informed that as he was a stranger to the city, he was free to borrow one of the tents or seek to call in at one of the more substantial homes where some of the more powerful people within town resided. He figured he would try his luck with making some new friends, and found his way to a pleasant estate not too far away from the Anglican church. He walked up to a smartly kept yard and by a charming garden and knocked at the door. It was opened by a young man.

“Hullo there,” the young man replied. “I am John Temple, and who are you?”

“My name is Robert Woods,” Robert replied. “I was sent by the Vice Admiral to bring a group of settlers to the town but having brought them, there appears to be nothing left to do but return, though I must wait until tomorrow for the boat.”

“Ah, that happens all the time,” John says. “It’s a common enough situation, would you care to come in and have a seat?”

“Certainly,” Robert said, as John showed him to one of the comfortable seats within the sitting room of the house.

“What’s your story?” John said. “How did you get here?”

“I suppose I could ask the same of you,” Robert answered.

“Yes, that’s the point of this conversation, to swap stores. No one ends up in a place like Freetown without some kind of story, not least an Englishman like ourselves,” John said. To this Robert could only nod his agreement.

“How much background do you want?” Robert asked.

“Well, start from the most recent and go back. You’ve already let me know that you were sent here by the Vice Admiral, so obviously you are not just any sort of traveler if you can casually drop the names of people like that,” John said.

“I suppose you’re right there,” Robert said. “I must admit I have just made the Vice Admiral’s acquaintance. Before then I had been in Charleston, South Carolina, serving the interests of His Majesty as an attorney for a young man who had been accused of murdering his father.”

“And how did you get from there to hear?” John asked.

“Well, I won my case on the merits of the law, since the young man in question had not laid hands on his father, who dropped dead of apoplexy during their argument in the streets outside of their home,” Robert said. “But the judge decided to bow to the prejudices of the people of the town and made sure that the young man who had been accused, his family, which consists of a younger sister and their mother, and their attorney–me–were ordered to leave town immediately to avoid giving an example of antislavery attitudes to the people of the local community,” Robert answered.

“I have just met you and I already know so much about you,” John said.

“You do?” Robert asked.

“Well, you must be a person of rather flexible talents if you were asked to serve as an attorney in Charleston, then immediately asked to serve as who knows what in some frontier town like Freetown immediately afterwards,” John said. “What is the nature of your service to His majesty?”

“It has been highly variable in nature, believe me,” Robert said.

“I am sure of it,” John said. “And where is your domicile?”

“My home, such as it is, is a small house not unlike this one, in fact, in St. Augustine, in East Florida,” Robert said.

“You are not very far from home, then,” John said.

“Not at all, really,” Robert replied.

“But East Florida has only been a part of the British Empire for some twenty years or so, since it was taken in the late hostilities with France,” John said. “Where were you before then?”

“I was born and spent the first ten years of my life in North Yorkshire, near the town of Market __________,” Robert answered.

“What sort of family do you have there?” John asked.

“My father was the second son of Viscount Lipton, who lives in the area on his estate, and my mother was the eldest daughter of a merchant’s family in the town who had some extensive colonial interests, and from what I gather a reasonably large dowry, large enough that my grandfather was not too furious about their marriage,” Robert answered.

“Now I know who you are,” John said with a smile. “And I can return the favor. I am John Temple, son of William Temple, who serves as the Lieutenant Governor of these islands.”

“I have heard something of this man,” Robert said. “But no one ever sees him.”

“He is indeed a very busy man,” John agreed. “I am normally asked to take care of home and make sure that any guests are treated well, and you are precisely the sort of guest we most appreciate, guests who like my family are servants of the crown.”

“I am glad to be the sort of guest you seek,” Robert said. “It is far more agreeable to me than sleeping on the bare sand in a borrowed tent, that is for sure.”

“I agree. Instead, we can talk about the islands while drinking rum punch and eventually enjoy some steaks cooked on a grill in the fashion of the locals,” John said.

“That would be very agreeable to me,” Robert said. And so it proved to be.