Chapter 27: Chapter 26- Not that type of Oil (1766)
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The next two days were rife with planning for the mining operation. The two of them started planning for the equipment and supplies to send down to the Carolina's along with some men his grandfather trusted to mine the ore.
After planning, John took a horse and rode with Eli out to the cave that his grandfather mentioned. Arriving outside a small sparse grove the two boys made their way through the brush. While along the slight indentation in the ground showed an old and rarely used track, most likely one used by the natives before the arrival of the colonists.
While riding with Eli he decided to tell him what would happen to the cave they would visit.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that you found gold in the south and plan to shove it all in a cave?" Eli asked after hearing the plan.
"Yes, from what grandfather told me it is a dry cave with good airflow and off the beaten path enough to keep any passersby from going in it."
"Well let us hope it will all fit in there," Eli says looking as if he is distracted by his thoughts.
As they ride further into the brush they come upon the rock face that was described to him. Dismounting and tying the horses to a nearby tree the two boys walk along the wall of stone until they come upon an opening. Partially covered by brush the hole seems more like a doorway as it stands a little over 5 feet tall and four feet wide. Grabbing a lantern that he brought with them John lights it with some flint and makes his way into the cave following Eli who hopped in without a second thought.
Walking carefully John notices the distinct lack of water in the cave. While it would be obvious that this formation was caused by water it seems to have been drained many years ago leaving it barren and eerily quiet. Catching up with Eli who stands looking down into what can only be described as a massive cavern. This room could easily be one hundred feet long and two hundred wide and another eight or nine feet deep. Seeing this John and Eli make their way down a sloped path formed by a now dried-up waterway.
"This place would be perfect," John said as the two of them walked toward the center of the cavern. "It is dry, large, out of the way, and easily accessible if you know where it is."
As the two draw out a map for the rest of the cave, which surprisingly is not large compared to the large room, they leave.
It is already late in the day as the ride north took a few hours and some time was spent in the cave. On the way back Eli asks a question, "John why are you hiding the gold, if you own the land where it is why not just tell everyone and then mine it."
John lets the two of them rise in science for a few more seconds before responding. "Because we will be at war in the coming decade, England is pushing the colonies and when the fighting breaks out our new nation will need a war chest."
Eli seems a bit startled by the drastic left turn in the conversation, "So you will use the gold during the war to do what?"
"Three things, one is to pay our spiders, whatever nation we make will not have enough credibility to establish a currency so we must use gold to dissuade any fears of not being paid. Second, we can use it to trade with foreign powers and get supplies. But third and most importantly I hope to gain the aid of some of the more prominent native tribes north of us."
While exempting the first two Eli looks like he understands what John is saying, but upon hearing the third he seems shocked.
"You plan to entreat with the Indians, why!?" he almost shouts. "Why would you work with the tribes."
John expected this reaction, many people in the colonies had similar sentiments as Eli had, while John had done his best to temper the xenophobic and racist sentiments Eli had to be very progressive for this day and age Eli still considered the native tribes to be uncivilized compared to the colonies.
"Not all the tribes Eli," John said doing his best to temper the reaction, "Only the tribes with stable governments and advanced societies. In the north, I want to work with the Iroquois who have an extremely stable and democratic government. While in the south I hope to work with the Creek and Cherokee."
This calms Eli down as he realizes that John's plan is not to have bands of rabid warriors but to work with the more 'civilized' tribes.
The ride back is calm and the two of them arrive later at night, grab something quick to eat, and head to bed.
The next morning John goes to his grandfather's study to report on his findings. Walking in he is greeted by the familiar sights that accompany the room, messy piles of books, loose paper, and a few empty cups of what is presumably coffee.
Looking up from his papers his brown eyes show warmth as he sees John enter, "Ah, John come sit down," he says gesturing to the seat he usually takes.
"How was the trip to the cave, is it large and dry though to be used for our project?" he asked. The two of them had been referring to their smuggling plan as the "project" as a security measure.
"It is perfect, there are natural pathways in the cavern and a large enough room to store it safely. And concerning the water, most of it is gone with the little that remains being runoff from the hills and is in such little volume that it is negligible."
"Perfect, that is perfect," William said nodding his head, "We can't refine it in large quantities, but we can build facilities so that when the time comes we can. I will deal with that as it may require some politicking and I would rather not have you give a verbal lashing to local authorities."
John chucked at this, he remembered a time when a British tax officer was skulking around one of his mills once and John chased him off with insults and his blunted training sword. The man was so ashamed of being chased off by a child that he didn't bring it up to his superiors leaving John in the clear.
John was about to speak when he was cut off, "Enough about that though, what about your peanut experiments."
He had prepared for this, getting a small batch of peanuts he performed a few experiments with them to figure out how to best extract oil
"Things have gone well, by my estimates it takes between twenty and twenty-five pounds of peanuts to make a gallon of oil, we can sell it at a rate of two pounds a gallon."
"Hm, compared to whale oil's seven pounds a gallon it is much cheaper, and with the price of Olive oil so unpredictable it should be well received."
John smiled at the validation of his hard work, "We can work on making a mill for it later, I still need to do some more work on getting the process finalized and working on scaling it up."
"I have some more paperwork that needs to be done right now, we can talk during dinner."
John nodded and left for the kitchen, for the first time he had access to cooking oil from his experiments and a thought crossed his mind and a slight smile graced his lips.
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Hey there, here is the second chapter of the week. I may make a third but I don't know. Look out for the weekend though because I may release another of those future snippets.
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