A Lad's Portion

It seems, from what I have overheard of the conversation since we came to anchor here off Gravesend, that even a lad like myself may have a certain portion of the king's gift, for it is set down in the documents to which the gentlemen referred, that to all children under the age of sixteen years who shall be taken to Maryland at the expense of their parents, or guardians, twenty-five acres of land shall be given for their very own.

Therefore it is that I am even now the same as a New World planter, for my father is paying all the charges of my journey, and already have I begun to ask what I shall do with such an estate.

It is also set down in the documents, that each adventurer shall provide himself with one gun having a snaphance lock; ten pounds of gunpowder; forty pounds of leaden bullets, pistol and goose shot, of each sort some; one sword and belt, and one bandolier and flask.

At the first opportunity I shall ask my father if he has provided all these things for me, otherwise it may chance that I be not allowed to claim the land which Lord Baltimore has said shall be given to each child under the age of sixteen, and it would grieve me sorely to lose by any oversight that portion of the New World which is mine by right, or will be as soon as I have come to the country of Maryland.

It comes to my mind that perhaps some who may read what I am setting down, not being accustomed to the use of firearms, will fail to understand what is the meaning of a snaphance lock, for it is less than a year since it was invented. You who read doubtless think of a gun as being a firelock only, and perhaps have been vexed time and again at being forced to carry a slow match in order to discharge the weapon; but all that has been done away with by the lock of which I speak, for it is made with a spring, and affixed to the hammer is a piece of flint, which, when the trigger is pulled, strikes against the steel bar of the barrel, thus producing a spark which gives fire to the powder.

Mayhap some, not being versed in the art of war, will fail also to understand the meaning of the word "bandolier." It is, however, nothing more than a broad belt to be worn over the shoulder and across the breast, at the lower end of which can be fastened a bag or powder-flask, if, perchance, one does not carry his ammunition made up into cartridges, in which last case the cartridges are hung from the bandolier, as are also the flint and steel, priming horn, and such other articles as a man of arms may need.