Major Stede Bonnet, the father of Kate, whose mother had died when the
child was but a year old, was a middle-aged Englishman of a fair estate,
in the island of Barbadoes. He had been an officer in the army, was well
educated and intelligent, and now, in vigorous middle life, had become a
confirmed country gentleman. His herds and his crops were, to him, the
principal things on earth, with the exception of his daughter; for,
although he had married for the second time, there were a good many
things which he valued more than his wife. And it had therefore
occasioned a good deal of surprise, and more or less small talk among
his neighbours, that Major Bonnet should want to buy a ship. But he had
been a soldier in his youth, and soldiers are very apt to change their
manner of living, and so, if Major Bonnet had grown tired of his farm
and had determined to go into commercial enterprises, it was not,
perhaps, a very amazing thing that a military man who had turned planter
should now turn to be something else.

Madam Bonnet had heard of the ship, although she had not been told
anything about her step-daughter taking a trip in her, and if she had
heard she might not have objected. She had regarded, in an apparently
careless manner, her husband's desire to navigate the sea; for, no
matter to what point he might happen to sail, his ship would take him
away from Barbadoes, and that would very well suit her. She was getting
tired of Major Bonnet. She did not believe he had ever been a very good
soldier; she was positively sure that he was not a good farmer; and she
had the strongest kind of doubt as to his ability as a commercial man.
But as this new business would free her from him, at least for a time,
she was well content; and, although she should feel herself somewhat
handicapped by the presence of Kate, she did not intend to allow that
young lady to interfere with her plans and purposes during the absence