7^ 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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 Cornell University Library 
 PS 2376.M7K2 1900 
 
 Kalooah.The adventures of Jonathan Rome 
 
 3 1924 022 219 400 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022219400 
 
I e 
 
KALOOLAH 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF JONATHAN ROMER 
 
 W. S. MAYO, M.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF *'THE BERBER," '' NEVEK AGAIN," ETC. 
 
 THE FRAMAZUGDA EDITION 
 
 ILI.USTRATED ]!Y FREDERICKS 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 ttbe Iknfcfserbijcfeerr press 
 
 1900 
 
^''^9 9 f^ I 
 
 A 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 1887 
 
 Press of 
 
 G. P. PutmaSj's Sons 
 
 New York 
 
TO 
 
 MRS. MARIA MAYO SCOTT. 
 
 Madam : 
 
 There are, I presume, a few " good-natured " people in the world who 
 will be ready to attribute this dedication to a desire merely of connecting 
 my name, however remotely or indirectly, with that of your illustrious 
 husband — the Hero of Niagara and Mexico. There are some, also, who, 
 deceived by the identity of our family names, may kindly give me credit, 
 unless I put in this disclaimer, for a disposition to parade a relationship 
 that does not exist. All, however, who have the honor of your friend- 
 ship, will do my motives justice, inasmuch as they can readily compre- 
 hend the inducements to pay a compliment, where the highest terms of 
 compliment are but the words of soberness and truth. They, at least, 
 will find no difficulty in believing that I avail myself of your permission 
 to inscribe to you the following pages, solely because it affords me an 
 opportunity of expressing my appreciation of your many high qualities — 
 your literary tast'e, cultivated conversational talent, happy grace of man- 
 ner, and kindness of heart. 
 
 Your obedient servant. 
 
 The Editor. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following letter will best explain the way in which these pages 
 came into the editor's hands, and the degree of credit that may be fairly 
 given to them as an authentic record of the travels and adventures of a 
 young American : " 
 
 Dear Doctor : 
 
 You must know that I have recently come into the possession of a 
 manuscript, purporting to be the travels and adventures of a young 
 American, in various parts of the world, but mainly in the deserts of 
 Africa, and in the unknown, and hitherto unvisited countries south of the 
 Soudan. The manuscript strikes me as being curious, interesting, and 
 apparently authentic ; but I have so little confidence in my own judg- 
 ment, in such matters, that after a deal of patient and painful cogitation 
 upon the subject, I find myself utterly unable to decide two questions 
 that present themselves, to wit : Is it worth publishing ? and if so, what 
 will be the best manner of giving it to the world ? 
 
 But first let me explain how the manuscript came into my possession. 
 You have heard of Salee, I suppose ; or rather, of the Salee Rovers, who 
 not many years since swept the Atlantic from Tercera to Teneriffe, and 
 (with a degree of boldness that made them the bug-a-boos of crying babies 
 for miles inland) carried their bloody swallow-tail pendants up the Eng- 
 lish Channel, and even through the intricate passages of the Skagerrack 
 and Cattegat. You have heard of these rascals, and of their town ; but 
 perhaps you would have to refer to your geography or to a gazetteer ; 
 for the fact that it is situated at the mouth of the Buregreb, exactly 
 opposite the flourishing town of Rabat, and precisely one hundred and 
 twenty miles from the Straits of Hercules, down the Atlantic coast of the 
 dominions of Muley Abderrahman. Now in this particular, to wit, the 
 aspect and topography of Salee and its environs, I have the advantage of 
 you ; for it so happens that, once upon a time, I was under its walls, and 
 in momentary expectation of entering its gates, when I was advised that. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 owing to the fanaticism and ferocity of the inhabitants of the dilapidated 
 town, it would be unsafe to enter, and that we must make a detour by 
 the walls to reach the ferry and cross to Rabat. Passing the lofty arches 
 of an ancient aqueduct, my guides hurried me along a road at the bottom 
 of the ditch, with the crumbling walls on one hand, and the crest of the 
 cactus-covered glacis on the other, until we debouched upon a broad 
 reach of sand, which has filled up the port of the once famous town, and 
 diverted the channel of the river to its rival Rabat. 
 
 The liberalizing influences of commerce are nowhere better to be seen 
 than in its effect upon the character and manners of the people of Rabat. 
 In the one — a flourishing town, where reside many Moorish and Jewish 
 merchants who have intimate relations with the Rock of Gibraltar, Mar- 
 seilles, and Leghorn, — a Christian can pass through the streets under the 
 protection of a Moorish guide, without any great danger of violence from 
 the manifestations of holy hatred with which the pious people look upon 
 the dog of an unbeliever ; in the other — a dilapidated town, whose inhab- 
 itants have nothing (spinning haicks and tanning goat-skins excepted) to 
 do but to nurse their prejudices and dream of the glorious days when a 
 hundred plunder-laden feluccas and polaccas crowded the now sand- 
 choked harbor, and the groans of ten thousand cursed Kaffir captives 
 resounded through the capacious vaults of the water wall and bastions, — 
 any thing in cravat, coat, and pantaloons runs an imminent risk of life. 
 In the one, the booted and beavered stranger has thrown at him dark 
 scowls and sinister grins ; in the other, he is sure to be pelted with stones ; 
 in the one he is spit at, in the other he is spit upon ; in the one he gets 
 merely curses, in the other he is sure to get kicks ; in the one a single 
 guard protects him from personal violence ; in the other it may be ques- 
 tioned whether the Sultan's crack regiment, said to be composed wholly 
 of his own sons, would be able to preserve an inch of Christian skin 
 intact. Strange that there should be such a difference between the in- 
 habitants of two places, situated not more than five or six hundred yards 
 apart. 
 
 Arriving at Rabat, I found an order from the court requiring me to 
 stop until I could explain more satisfactorily the object of my journey. 
 As I afterwards found, commercial jealousy had been aroused, and repre- 
 sentations made to the emperor that under the pretence of travelling for 
 amusement, I in reality concealed some deep political designs. The sus- 
 picion of the most suspicious, ignorant, and bigoted court in the world 
 once excited, there was an end to my visions of a gilt-edged, Morocco, 
 bound volume, entitled, " Itineratings in the Atlas," or some other fanci- 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 ful and taking title. Tiie recollection of the Spanish impostor, who, about 
 forty years since, under the name of Ali Bey, and disguised (Christian dog 
 that he was) in the garb of the faithful, made his way to the capital, and 
 afterwards perpetrated a book of travels, is still fresh in the minds of the 
 Moors ; and next to a spy of the French government, the last person 
 they would like to see perambulating the country would be a gentleman 
 suspected of paper-spoiling propensities, in search of the novel and the 
 picturesque. At an audience with the governor of the town, I found 
 that my return was equally impossible — not that I was positively prohib- 
 ited from going back, but it was respectfully intimated that could I per, 
 suade my guards and muleteers to accompany me, they would have every 
 particle of skin cut from their backs with thongs of bull's hide. There 
 was no resource but to send a courier to the court and quietly await an 
 answer, which I did with somewhat of the feeling of the worthy nephew 
 of Gil Perez, when he found himself caught in the cave, like a rat in 
 a trap. 
 
 A walk through the town, and a visit to the towers and battlements 
 of the Kassbah, sufficed to pass the first day. A ride in the environs, 
 and an examination of Sma Hassan, a superb square tower, said to have 
 been built by the architect of the Giralda of Seville, answered for the 
 second. The third day I amused myself mainly with an examination of 
 the town of Salee, through my pocket telescope ; the distance was so 
 small that I could see every stone of the towers, matchicolated with 
 stork's nests, and every crevice of the dilapidated curtains connecting 
 them. Was it fancy, or did the breeze really waft to my ears a faint echo 
 of the million sighs and groans that years past were borne upon every 
 blast of the sea-breeze around those cruel walls ? I could hardly tell, but 
 one thing, at least, I made sure of, and that was that on the beach, be- 
 tween the river and the water gate, there was any quantity of long-legged 
 biped, of the snipe genus — tall fellows, standing a foot high, at least, 
 without counting the depth of their tracks. So on the fourth day I shoul- 
 dered my gun, hired a boat, and had myself rowed across to a retired 
 spot some distance below the ferry. I expected sport, but I must say 
 that I was wholly unprepared for such kind of sport. It was almost im- 
 possible to get a shot at them, they were so tame. No sooner would I 
 succeed in raising a fellow by poking him up with the muzzle of my gun, 
 than, before I could draw trigger, down he would pop right at my feet, 
 with an air as much as to say, wring my neck, if you please, but don't fire. 
 At the first shot all Salee was alive, and a hundred vagabonds poked their 
 dirty noses from the arches of the water gate. Before they could reach me, 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 I picked up my birds, stepped into the boat, and paddled back to Rabat. 
 When all was quiet I ventured across again, took another shot, stirred up 
 the old pirates' nest, bagged my bird, and made a similar retreat. This 
 interesting operation I repeated half a dozen times in the course of the 
 day, the game improving each time in shyness, and promising great sport 
 in a day or two, when its caution, so long in abeyance, should have be- 
 come thoroughly aroused. But an end was put to my sporting calcu- 
 lations when, upon displaying my spoils at night, I found that my 
 worthy Jewish host, who was a strict constructionist of the law, would 
 have nothing to do with them, and that he would not even permit the 
 desecration of his only stew-pan by the blood of birds that had not been 
 slaughtered, /fr forinam theologicam. 
 
 The resources of the place thus completely exhausted, the fifth day 
 hung heavy. I could do nothing but pace up and down the narrow pre- 
 cincts of the paved court-yard ; the Bashaw having sent me, with a present 
 of grapes and figs, an intimation that I had better not expose myself so 
 much on the roof and in the streets, lest some kief-smoking, hasheesh- 
 eating believer should, in his delirium, take it into his head to make of my 
 person a target for ball practice, and thus win heaven for himself by send- 
 ing me to the devil. 
 
 " Have n't you a book of any kind ? " I inquired of my host, Isaac 
 Benshemole. 
 
 " Not one ; Rabbi Yacob Benolile, however, has several ; I will go 
 down to the Millah, or Jews' Quarter, and borrow them for you." 
 
 " Do so. If he has n't any Spanish or Latin books, bring any thing 
 that he has; Syriac, Coptic, any thing. I feel as if I could read an 
 Egyptian papyrus or a Runic tombstone." 
 
 The worthy representative of the two great commercial powers, Eng- 
 land and America, started off on his errand ; but in a moment he returned, 
 and putting his head in at the door, exclaimed, " Manuscritos, seiiorf" 
 
 " Certainly, manuscripts or printed books ; any thing to read," I 
 replied. 
 
 "Well, then, seilor, I now bethink me that I have two manuscripts" ; 
 and drawing aside a curtain from a dark recess, Isaac produced from a 
 dusty shelf a large bundle, enveloped in a fragment of an old Moorish haick. 
 Upon examination it was found to contain two stout rolls of paper : one of 
 these, with a very ancient appearance and fish-like smell, proved to be the 
 log-book of a Portuguese mistico, and besides the usual notices of courses 
 and winds, contained several accounts current with the crew for oil, gar- 
 lic, salt fish, and Jew brandy, with frequent memorandums of cargo, 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 custom-house payments, and port charges. The other was a much cleaner 
 and newer piece of writing, in a character that I at once concluded to be be- 
 yond my skill to decipher. I could not even conjecture, with confidence, the 
 language. It clearly was not Arabic or Hebrew, and, therefore, it might 
 be Tuaric or Shellock, and if so, I could pore over it a week, and be none 
 the wiser : but still my eyes were rivettedon the pages ; there was a familiar 
 look in the turn of some of the letters that quite fascinated me. The 
 writing was in a very fine and compact hand ; it was divided into chapters, 
 and what was the most curious thing about it, each chapter was numbered 
 in Roman numerals. Upon questioning Isaac, he informed me that the 
 manuscript had been in his possession about a year ; that it had been 
 brought to him by a Moor from Tafilet, who said that it had been left in 
 his charge by a sick man who had arrived with the last caravan from the 
 desert, and who had requested him to bring it with him, and give it to 
 any of the commercial agents of Christian countries he should meet on 
 the coast. At first Isaac had felt some curiosity in relation to it, and had 
 shown it to a French wool-dealer, and to several learned rabbins, all 
 of whom could make nothing of it. He then thought of sending it to 
 the English consul-general, but business interfering, he had put it aside, 
 and thus it had remained undisturbed ever since. 
 
 I was about closing the book in despair, when, upon the margin of one 
 of the pages I saw, in parallel columns, the English alphabet, and the 
 corresponding characters of the manuscript, which it was easy to perceive, 
 when thus in juxtaposition, were nothing more or less than Roman letters, 
 with the consonants trimmed down and condensed, and the vowels 
 expressed by a single dot. Imagine my astonishment and delight, to 
 find upon applying this key, and deciphering a few words, that the manu- 
 script was written in English; After a few hours' practice I found that I 
 could read this cypher quite easily, so that, at the end of five days I had 
 read and re-read the whole of it. Permission now arriving from the court 
 to resume my journey, I bade adieu to Rabat, and to the worthy Benshe- 
 mole, who readily consented to my taking the manuscript with me. 
 
 It is a transcription of this manuscript that I now send you for your 
 opinion. Is it worth publishing? as for me, I have sometimes had my 
 doubts about it, although I have been, and am now, deeply interested in 
 it ; but then I am fond of any thing in the shape of travels and adven- 
 tures, and my judgment may not be sufficiently discriminating. Should 
 your opinion coincide with mine, I have to request that you will take the 
 editorial charge of the matter, and prepare it for the press, with such cor- 
 rections and emendations as may seem to you proper. I have the utmost 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 confidence in your literary judgment, and besides, the work, written as it 
 is by a medical student, and containing frequent allusions to medical 
 matters, should have a medical editor. I entrust the affair, therefore, 
 wholly to you. 
 
 There is still another point, in relation to which I must beg your 
 opinion. It is now, according to the best estimate that I can make, about 
 five years since the manuscript was written. Mr. Romer has been all this 
 time in the interior of Central Africa, and if he is alive, and has at 
 all prospered in his plans, he must have extended the boundaries of the 
 kingdom of Framazugda far down towards the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. 
 Don't you think that it would be well that all consular agents, and com- 
 manders of national vessels should be apprised of the fact, and officially 
 required to keep a sharp look-out for any intimations of his advent, and 
 especially for any letters or manuscripts he will most probably send to 
 the coast in the hopes of their falling into civilized hands. 
 
 Hoping that you may find the manuscript worthy of the labor of pre- 
 paring it for the press, 
 
 I am 
 
 Your obedient servant, etc., etc. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 DEDICATION iii 
 
 PREFACE V 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A Life of Adventure Hereditary — Nantucket Whalemen — Thoughts in a Whale's Mouth — 
 
 A Ship Struck by a Whale and Destroyed ......... i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 School Life — Boyish Adventures — A Revival — School Broken Up — Wanderings and Re- 
 flections in the Woods — Joe Downs, the Trapper — An Indian Killed with a Ramrod 
 — Arrangements for an Expedition into the Wilderness — A Letter from the Writer's 
 Mother lo 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Hunting Expedition — Meeting with the Indians — A Secret Cavern — Mr. Downs' Opinions 
 of the Indians — Indians Suing for Assault and Battery — Encampment in the Pine 
 Barrens — One Way to Cook Fish — Deer-Shooting by Torch-Light .... 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A Friendly Warning — A Night Visit from Indians — Downs Dangerously Wounded — Re- 
 treat to the Secret Cavern — Jonathan's Medical and Culinary Skill — Life in a Cave in 
 the Woods — Recovery of Joe ........... 27 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 An Opportune Arrival — Return to the Village — Bad News — Jonathan Hurries Home — 
 His Mother's Death — A Spiritual Visitation 
 
 37 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Commences the Study of Medicine — Medicine and its Professors — The Doctors in Doubt 
 — A Grave Incident — Flight of Jonathan — Arrival in New York — Meets an Old 
 Friend — A Youngster on the Main-Gaff — An Opportune Offer — Sailing of the Lively 
 Anne 43 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 At Sea — Motions and Emotions — A Boat Afloat — Jonathan's Verses and the Captain's Pun 
 — A Critique on Lycidas — Corvo and Flores — Arrival at Fayal — ^The Town o£ Orta — 
 Sailors and Discipline — Marine Tartars — A Last Look at the Peak — A White Squall, 
 or a Water-Spout — A Capsize ........... 53 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Schooner on Her Beam Ends — State of the Wreck — Jonathan Alone — Cuts Away the 
 Main-Mast — Pumps Out the Wreck — The Water Casks Swept Overboard — Jonathan's 
 Expedient — A Successful Experiment . .... . . 60 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Preparing Signals — Overhauling the Lockers — A Sail in Sight — Fresh Provisions — Hooking 
 a Turtle — More Ships in Sight — Moonlight on the Ocean — The Salvages — Dr. 
 Johnson's Prayer ...... ...... 67 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Land Ho !— A Weatherly Craft— The Peak of Teneriffe— Oratavo— A Dark Night— Shore 
 Lights — Hailing a Fisherman — Beauties of Quarantine — A Disappointment — A Storm 
 — Dining Like a Gentleman — A Ship in Sight — Visit from Her Captain — Leaving the 
 Lively Anne .............. 74 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 £.1 Bonito — Her Officers and Crew — The Cape de Verde Islands — Peak of Fuego — 
 Captain Roberts' Account — The Horse-Latitudes — Rains that are Rains — Flying 
 Fish and Their Enemies — The Bonito a Slave Ship — The Misfortunes of Monte — The 
 African Coast — A Visit from the Blacks — An Accomplished Linguist — The Fashions 
 of Cacongo — The Mafooka — Anchor in Moenza Enzadda — A Slave Station — A White 
 Girl — The Gerboo Blanda ........... 82 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Cetting the Ship Ready for Slaves — A Congo Apollo — Visit to a Slave Pen — The Gerboo 
 Girl — An Assault and Battery — Caddee M'Pemba — A Compromise — An Offer for a 
 Fetish — Purchase of the Gerboo — Visit to Banza Embenda — Kaloolah's Brother — 
 Purchase of Enphadde — Return to Lembee — The Bonito Driven to Sea by a British 
 Cruiser — Meeting of Kaloolah and Enphadde — House Hunting by Torch-light . . 93 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 An Invasion of Ants — Burnt Out — A New House — A Visit from the Slave-Dealer — A Des- 
 perate Race — A Judicial Indulgence — An Apt Pupil — Framazugda — Enphadde's Story 
 — A Warning — Kaloolah's English — The Tultul and the River — An Attempt to Kill 
 Kaloolah — A Sleepless Night .......... loi 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A Congo Custom — A Funeral — A Compliment to the Corpse — A Feast — A Public Speech 
 — Making a Hit, or Shooting a Fetish — Kaloolah's Conquest — A Musical Entertain- 
 ment — The Malaria — An Attack of Fever — Kaloolah as Nurse — Attentions of the 
 Negroes — Return of the Bonito — Danger from Kaloolah's Good Looks — Expedient lo 
 Get Rid of Her Beauty ....... .... no 
 
119 
 
 CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Captain Garbez' Return — A Hard Blow — A Promise to the Virgin — Sufferings in the 
 Barracoons — Preparations for Loading — Packing the Slaves — Loose Packing and 
 Tight Packing — Arrangements for Kaloolah and her Brother— A Timely Fit of the 
 Rheumatism— Getting to Sea— Effects of. Sea-Sickness among the Slaves— The 
 Captain's Argument — Jonathan's Proteges — Talk about Framazugda — Jonathan's In- 
 tentions 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Condition of the Slaves — Throwing Overboard the Sick — A Row with Monte — War to the 
 Knife— A Gale — Bearing Away^Opening the Hatches — ^^Picking out the Dead- 
 Ophthalmia — A British Cruiser — A Chase — A Dense Fog — A Curious Phenomenon — 
 Throwing Overboard the Blind — The Giant of the Diamond Rock— The Lifting of the 
 Fog — A Stern Chase— Kaloolah Struck by Monte — Monte Felled to the Deck — 
 Jonathan and his Proteges Jump Overboard — Picked up by the Brig .... 127 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Boarding the Brig — Reception by the Captain — Monte in Irons — The D I's Nephew — 
 
 The Doctor a Philologist — Quarter-Deck Wit — Politeness of tlie Officers — Kaloolah's 
 Recovery — Captain Halsey , . . . . . . . . . .139 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Sierra Leone — Situation of Freetown — Exuberant Vegetation — Malaria — Its Cause and 
 Essence — An Original Suggestion — The Population of Freetown — Politeness of the 
 Whites — Anxious Consultations — Enphadde's Plans — A Koollah Guide — Jonathan's 
 Resolutions — Takes Passage for Liverpool — A Scene with Kaloolah — The ParcEe at 
 Work .....'... 145 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington — Jack Thompson — The Ship's Reckoning — A New Rule in 
 Navigation — The Captain's Notion of Lunars — A Curious Phenomenon — Breakers 
 on the Weather-Bow — Missing Stays — Wearing Ship — The Ship Ashore — Getting 
 out the Boat — An Anxious Consultation — Jonathan's Plan — Preparations for 
 Landing ,.......,.,.... IS4 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Situation of the Ship — Swimming Ashore — Landing Provisions — Thompson Reaches the 
 Reef — Provision Depots in the Sand — A Passage up the Bank — A Hiding-Place — 
 Climbing the Cliff — The Desert — A Mounted Arab— The Wreck Discovered— A 
 Discourse on Cannibals — Return to the Beach 161 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Bedouins in Force — A Storm at Night — Breaking Up of the Ship— Collecting the 
 Plunder — An Admiralty Judge — The Hiding-Place Discovered — Meeting the Bedouins 
 — A Warm Reception — A Council — A Gentle Intimation — A March to the Hills — 
 Feminine Curiosity — Jonathan's Plans — Thompson's Despair . . . ' . 168 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Scanty Breakfast — Watering the Camels — A Change of Humor — Plaguing the Women 
 — Judicious Flattery — A Pigeon-Wing in the Desert — Working the Pumps — Starting 
 for the Interior — Suffering by the Way — Character of the Country — InStinct of the 
 Camelb— The Wells of Ageda 176 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Bedouin Salutations — Encampment at the Wells — Cooscoosoo — An Arrival — "Wind 
 Drinkers" — A Change of Masters — Parting with Jack — A Ride in the Desert — Sidi 
 Mohammed's Douah — Life in the Douah — Amulets — A Timely Warning — A Delicate 
 Hint 183 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A Prize — A Depot of Provisions — A Heirie — The Talayeh, the Sebay, and the Tasay- — An 
 Arrival at the Douah — A Search for the Heirie — A Ride with Soonshoo — Secreted 
 Stores — Milking the Camels — The Devil's Month — Stretching out into the Desert — 
 Soonshoo's Alarm — A Man Overboard — Assisting Soonshoo to Remount — Good-by to 
 the Oasis — A Message to Fatimah — Soonshoo Sets Off for Home — A Change of Course 
 — Heirie Riding Bedouin Boast ........... i8q 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Sunrise in the Desert — A Sand Wind — A Dead Camel — Sunset — A Good Day's Travel — 
 Character of the Country — Encamping for the Night — Electrical Phenomena — Position 
 of the Traveller — -Threatening Appearances — A Sand Storm — A Runaway Heirie — 
 Finding a Well — A Loaded Camel Buried in the Sand — Examination of his Load — 
 A Complete Outfit ............. igj 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Emerging from the Sand-Hills — Burying Treasure — A Beautiful View — A Douah — Arabic 
 Greetings — A Sharife and a Hadji — Indications of Danger — A Watchful Night — A 
 Startling Warning — An ID-Timed Compliment — The Muezzin's Morning Call — An 
 Effective Speech — Setting Off for the Buried Caravan 205 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The Buried Caravan — Moving a Douah — A Feast — A Conversazione — The Wells of 
 Boulag — Schools and Scholars — Arts and Artisans — A Tibib — Epaoedopathy — Story- 
 Telling — Music — The Song of the Bedouin — Fears and Doubts .... 2H 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The Timbuctoo Kafiila — The Camp in Arms — Sheikh Mahmoud Eben Doud Skein — A 
 Display of Horsemanship — Preparations to Attack the Kaffila — The Lab el Barode — 
 The Ambuscade — Debouching from the Sand-Hills — The Attack — The Bivouac — 
 Astrology and its Truths — A Happy Rencontre — Kaloolah's Story — Jennie — Tim- 
 
 buctoo 
 
 217 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Kaloolah and Jonathan en route — A Dissatisfied Arab — Reasons for Flight — Unrequited 
 Affection — Buried Stores — Hurrah ! for Framazugda — Pillars of Sand — The Mirage — 
 The Fata Morgana — A Party of Travellers — A Cup of Tea — Hahnemann and 
 Homoeopathy 227 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 El Garwan — A Bedouin Adage — Sal-gem — Hiring a House — Rumors of a White Slave 
 — A Beggar — An Irish Soliloquy — A Manifestation — Hugh Doyle's Slory — Hope 
 for the Regenade ............. 234 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Departure from El Garwan — Arrival at Marbash — A Recognition — Jack Thompson-r-A 
 Party of Tuarics — A Complete Equipment — Establishing a Watch — The Moral In- 
 fluence of Food 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 The Limit of the Desert — Hugh's System of Fortification — A Herd of Gazelles — Character 
 of the Country — Encamping in the Shade — Gazelle Stalking — A Pleasant Meal' — Jack's 
 Song — Hyena Music — A Fresh-Water Lake — Bathing — A Visit from a Crocodile — A 
 Characteristic Proposition — Leeching a Camel — A Negro Ploughman — A Chase and a 
 Capture — Hassan and the Tuarics — A Supply of Provisions — An Addition to the Party, 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Forest Sights and Sounds — Kaloolah 's Feelings— The Great River — A Fine Prospect — 
 The Froulbell — A Strong Camp — Constructing a Raft — A Stroll in the Forest — A Lion 
 in the Path — The Boa — Crossing the Yah'nil Nebbe 260 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Beyond the Yah'nil Nebbe — An Alarmed Town — An Expressive Pantomime — A Friendly 
 Reception— The Matcham — Habit Versus Principles— A Kyptily Breakfast — The 
 Town of Soconale — The Matcham's Foreign Relations — Departure from Soconale . 270 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Djebel el Kumri— Slave-Hunters Abroad— The Footas and Their Guns — Jack's Opin- 
 ion of the Footas — A Plundered Village — Military Precautions — A Kimboo Scout — 
 An Accession of Strength — Midnight Musings— Planning an Ambuscade — Caught in 
 Our Own Trap — A Charge and Repulse — The Kimboos' Revenge .... 277 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 A Sight for the Reader— Hospitality of the Kyptiles— A Volcano— A Wakeful Night — 
 Kaloolah in Tears— Stories of the Guides— Origin of the Framazugs— The Jiggers— 
 The Jouaks— The Serpent-Men— The Jalla— The Footas— A Snail-Field- A Rhi- 
 noceros — The Nourwall — Garazha — The Captain of the Port — Whamba Donga's 
 Town — A Message to the Governor — Crossing the Nourwall — A Triumphal Recep- 
 tion — The Dagash — A New View of Kaloolah 288 
 
xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Garazha — A Ride— Supping in a Cavern — New Notions of Noses — A Sumptuous Repast 
 — A Hunt — Rousing a Lion^A Desperate Ride — The Cha Donga-troll — Death of 
 the Lion — Large Birds' Nests — The Semper-sough — Waiting for News — The Change 
 in the Princess ..........•••• ^99 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Arrival of Enphadde— The Prince's Story— Setting Out for Kiloam— A Buffalo and His 
 
 Trappings — A Weatherly Craft — Jack jn th? Howdah ...... 307 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Character of the Country — Houses — Monuments — Fountains — A Touch of Politics — 
 First Sight of Kiloam — Kaloolah's Emotion — Reception at Jellalob — A Separation — 
 An Entertainment — Feats of Jugglers 3I3 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Departure from Jellalob— Pholdefoos — Approach to Kiloam — Entrance into the City — 
 Novel Pavement — The Acropolis — The Palace — A Bouquet from the Princess — The 
 Hall of the Fountains— The Throne Room — Audience of the Sultan— The Great 
 Shounse— A Royal Feast 321 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Apartments of the Princess — An Embarrassing Position — A View from the Balcony — A 
 Lovers' Interview — A Spiritual Visitation — Ambitious Reveries — Lightning-Fish — 
 Gogo — A Novel Musical Instrument — The Ristum-Kitherum — A Morning Walk — 
 Verses for the Princess 333 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Royal Festivities — Latitude of Kiloam — A Transit Circle— Situation of the City — Houses 
 — Flower-Garden Roofs — Streets — Municipal Hygiene Sewers — New Mode of Cooling 
 Houses — Markets — Bath-Houses — Public Squares — Rate of Mortality — Temples — Re- 
 ligious Notions — The Government — Social Distinctions — The Origin of the Framazugs, 343 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 A Marriage — Public Curiosity — The Hall of Doubt — A Chorus — An Idle Ceremony — Queer 
 Notions of Marriage — The Princess' Toilet — A Curious Veil — A Marriage Procession 
 —^Sculptured Nondescripts — The Mound Temple — The Marriage Ceremony — Buried 
 Alive 353 
 
 CHAPTER LXLIV. 
 
 The Honeymoon — News from the Borders — Ravages of the Jalla — Alkafuz — A Night's 
 Reconnoissance — Riding a Boa — A Battle — Marching into the Jalla Country — A Novel 
 Battering-Ram — Jebha — A Strong Position — Enphadde's Plans — Capitulation of Jebha 
 The Grand Shocco — The Source of the Nile — Origin of the Jalla — Queer People — 
 Gourd Huts — A Country of'Snakes — Return to Kiloam ..... 359 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xvu 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Preparations for War — Organizing an Army — The March — Crossing the Queal — A Grand 
 
 Battle — Siege of Goolah — A New Melhod of Scaling Walls 376 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Return from the Wars — Hammed Benshoolo — Message from Kaloolah — Mysterious In- 
 dications — Gogo in Chains — An Infant Phenomenon — Conclusion .... 385 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A Desperate Ride Frontispiece 
 
 " He fell into the whale's mouth, and the teeth of the animal closed upon 
 
 his leg " . . 3 
 
 I looked up and saw his comical phiz above the snowbank " . . . 7 
 " Dead as Julius Caesar " ....... . . 17 
 
 " A canoe with a single Indian glided alongside " 29 
 
 " Much shattered and contained no one " .... -53 
 
 " The first thing was to give the schooner a chance to right itself " . .61 
 
 You have had rough work here,' he continued, stepping upon deck". . 79 
 
 The Slave Pen — an Assault and Battery 94 
 
 " And drawing my knife I was proceeding to sever the bonds that con- 
 fined his arms "..... .... 97 
 
 " And briaging up my gun to bear upon it, fired both barrels in immediate 
 
 succession" . . 113 
 
 "' Stir one step,' I exclaimed, ' and you die !' " . ... 129 
 
 " Sprang into my arms and buried her face in my bosom " . . -151 
 " I pointed it out to my companion " ..... 162 
 
 "Crouching low, and near the edge throwing himself on his face " -165 
 
 The Hiding-Place Discovered ......... 172 
 
 " Seizing the hump of one of the tallest camels, drew myself on to his 
 
 back" ....... . . . 179 
 
 " Good-by, my dear Soonshoo " . . . . 193 
 
 A Loaded Camel Buried in the Sand . . . . 202 
 
 " Salam Ailekom ! " . . . . . 207 
 
 Story-Telling . . . . . . . . . . . .214 
 
 " The reclining figure raised itself from the ground, and, stretching forth 
 both arms, whispered low but distinctly : ' It is I — Kaloolah, Oh ! 
 Jon'than ! '" . . . . . . . . . . . 222 
 
 " Her chief employment was to bring water in a calabash "... 225 
 
 " Mounting so as to overlook the wall " 235 
 
 " Hurrah for Framazugda ! " — Tailpiece ... ... 246 
 
 A Visit from a Crocodile ...... . 252 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS. 
 
 'He suddenly stopped, and poising a light spear, expressed, by his ges- 
 tures, a very decided disposition to assume the offensive " . . 255 
 
 ' You are silent, Kaloolah "....... . 260 
 
 ' Over and over rolled the struggling beast "...... 268 
 
 'The stranger repeatedly putting his hand upon his head and bowing " . 271 
 
 ' The great volcano, that, rising far above its compeers, served as a beacon 
 
 to the country for a hundred miles around " . . . . 288 
 
 ' I wheeled my horse among the bushes, and fired at the monster " . . 293 
 
 ' Straight and swift as an arrow he sped along the cracked and jagged 
 
 wall " 3°2 
 
 ' Presenting a. figure tha:t would have furnished ah artist with a good life 
 
 model of Neptune on the couch of Amphitrite " . . . -311 
 
 ' Enphadde and myself ascended, aiid crossed the tufted carpet, to the 
 
 foot of the throne " ... 330 
 
 ' As I entered, the officer who had conducted me threw his feet up into 
 
 the air " • ■ 335 
 
 ' He is sentenced to a douche bath, and to be publicly scrubbed from 
 
 head to foot "...... .... 347 
 
 ' A deep pit, into which there was a descent by a few stone steps, yawned 
 
 at our feet " . 358 
 
 'You will sometimes see twenty of these houses hanging from one tree," 373 
 
KALOOLAH, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A Life of Adventure Hereditary — Nantucket Whalemen — Thoughts in a Whale's Mouth — A 
 Ship Struck by aW'hale and Destroyed. 
 
 LIFE of adventure may be justly considered my birthright. 
 Descended, on both sides of the house, from some of the earli- 
 est settlers of Nantucket, and more or less intimately related 
 to the Coffins, the Folgers, the Macys, and the Starbucks of 
 that adventurous population, it would seem that I have had a natural 
 right to a roving disposition, and to a life of peril, privation, and vicissitude. 
 Nearly all the male members of my family, for several generations, have 
 been "followers of the sea": some of them in the calm and peaceful 
 employment of the merchant-service ; . others, and by far the greater 
 number, in the more dangerous pursuit of the ocean monster. 
 
 Whaling, it is well known, has been, almost from the first settlement 
 of this country, the chief employment of the inhabitants of " the Island." 
 All were directly or indirectly mterested in it. By it were bounded the 
 hopes of the young and the memories of the old. In it alone could the 
 highest honors be won, and good blows and true with harpoon and lance 
 were not of less effect in winning the regard of the fair and the respect 
 of the men, than the most trenchant sword-cuts of- gallant knights in the 
 best days of chivalry. It was, consequently, pursued with an ardor and 
 an enthusiasm that penetrated the remotest, wildest, ice-bound retreats, 
 of the flying cetacea, and which has served to associate with the charac- 
 ter of a Nantucket whaler the idea of dauntless bravery, enduring forti- 
 tude, determined energy, industry, and skill. 
 
 In such a pursuit, the most thrilling adventures are the common inci- 
 dents of life ; and the traditions of my family abound with stories of 
 shipwreck and death, and of " hair-breadth 'scapes " from the imminent 
 
2 KALOOLAH. 
 
 dangers of the sea. One relative was wrecked upon a desert island of the 
 Pacific, and supported life for months upon the eggs of the penguin. 
 Another — a Macy — was found floating upon a spar three days after his 
 ship had foundered with all her crew. Still another was an officer of a 
 ship which was struck and destroyed by an infuriated cachelot, whether by 
 accident or design remains a disputed point amongst whalers. 
 
 The boats of the ship were out in pursuit of a " school " of whales, 
 when the officer in charge of the deck perceived an enormous animal 
 coming down, in the direction on which the vessel was standing, with 
 fearful rapidity. It was apparent that, unless the ship's course was 
 changed, in an instant more a collision would take place ; and the steers- 
 man was directed to put the helm up, in order to give her a sheer out of 
 the way, — but it was too late. Her bows had fallen off but a point or 
 two when the whale struck her, " head on," with tremendous force. Re- 
 covering from their astonishment, the crew proceeded to examine into 
 the injury which the ship had suffered. It was soon ascertained that no 
 very serious damage had been sustained, when one of the look-outs ap- 
 palled them with the shout " Here she comes again ! " and down came 
 the whale with renewed fury, — a broad-sheet of white foam attesting the 
 rapidity of her progress. Again she struck the ill-fated vessel in nearly 
 the same place — just forward of the fore chains. It was now evident 
 that the ship was materially injured. Signals were made for the boats to 
 return ; they came alongside, and as the vessel was beginning to settle 
 rapidly by the head, provisions and instruments were put into them. In a 
 few hours she went down, and her crew in three boats were left in the 
 middle of the vast Pacific. Only one of the three, after tossing months 
 upon the ocean, and enduring the extremes of hunger and thirst, succeed- 
 ed in reaching land. 
 
 Another member of my family was the identical boat-steerer of whom 
 an anecdote has been often told, illustrative of the characteristic coolness 
 of the Yankee whaler. The boat to which he belonged was once knocked 
 several feet into the air by a blow from the tail of a fish to which it was fast. 
 Upon coming down he fell into the whale's mouth, and the teeth of the 
 animal closed upon his leg. After being in this terrible position for some 
 time, he was released, picked up by another boat and carried on board, 
 where, while preparations were making to amputate his crushed limb, he 
 was asked " what he thought of while in the whale's mouth." With the 
 utmost sangfroid and simplicity, he replied : " Why, I thought she would 
 yield about sixty barrels ! " 
 
 But it is not my intention to detain the reader with anecdotes, of 
 
KALOOLAH. 3 
 
 which I could relate enough to fill a volume. I mention a few here, only 
 to illustrate my hereditary claims to a life of adventure. 
 
 It is a curious fact — one which I believe to be well established — that 
 not only are physical and intellectual qualities communicated from 
 parents to children, but also many of those mental habitudes and modes 
 of thought which are stamped upon our minds by the circumstances in 
 which we live. We are impressed from our earliest existence, with the 
 spirit of the age or the community, and our mental and moral constitu- 
 tions are modified by the influence of that spirit upon the generations 
 immediately preceding us. In the days of chivalry, for instance, youths 
 
 "He fell into the whale's mouth, and the teeth of the animal closed vpon his leg." 
 
 were not only educated into gallant and courteous knights, but they were 
 also born with a natural predisposition to what were then esteemed 
 knightly qualities, accomplishments, and vices. They were born with the 
 chivalric idiosyncrasy. 
 
 My parents, both natives of this famous little sandy sea-girt isle, were 
 induced, by considerations I need not detail, to take up their residence 
 very early in the present century, on the then wilderness of the banks of 
 the St. Lawrence. 
 
 The village of O is beautifully situated at the confluence of a 
 
 small stream with the St. Lawrence, and. unlike most of the towns of our 
 
4 KALOOLAH. 
 
 new country, it is not wholly destitute of romantic associations and his- 
 torical remains. Upon a point of land across the affluent of the St. Law- 
 rence, and opposite the village, stood the ruins of an old French trading 
 house and fort ; one of the chain of posts which the first masters of Can- 
 ada undertook to establish from Montreal to Fort Duquesne. It consisted 
 of four square buildings, erected upon the angles of a parallelogram, and 
 connected by a curtain or wall of twelve or fourteen feet in height. 
 Slightly constructed as a defence merely against musketry, or the arrows 
 of the Indians, it was illy calculated to resist the ravages of time. Its 
 crumbling walls, however, were the scenes of authentic tradition and ro- 
 mantic story. To me they furnished the richest food for the imagination, 
 and more than one glorious castle in the air was raised while seated upon 
 the fallen stones of that dilapidated pile. To me they supplied the place 
 of the broken arches and moss-covered relics of the ancient abbey, or the 
 ivy-crowned towers of the feudal castle. They were the birthplace and 
 school of my ardent and excited fancy ; and as such I shall always recol- 
 lect them with more reverence and respect than I could feel now in look- 
 ing upon the proudest monuments of the long-since-mighty dead. 
 
 The death of my father, when I was but eight years old, freeing me 
 from a good deal of that salutary parental restraint which a father only 
 can exercise, my adventurous disposition rapidly developed itself, and 
 with it the physical capacities and energies best adapted to that constitu- 
 tion of mind. Even when quite a boy I had achieved no inconsiderable 
 fame as a wrestler, jumper, swimmer, and marksman. At school, although 
 far from industrious or attentive, I acquired a respectable standing, with 
 the reputation of being " smart enough, if I would only apply myself," 
 but out of school my supremacy was universally acknowledged. No one 
 could run faster, swim farther, send a rifle or pistol bullet with surer aim, 
 or was more expert at boyish mechanical contrivances. Even at some 
 exercises which are not generally practised by boys in the country, such 
 as fencing, I became quite a proficient. A deserter from the Canadian 
 garrison, on the other side of the river, who had at one time of his life 
 acted as a kind of maitre d'armes of a ship of war, gave me my first 
 lessons. 
 
 But, although enjoying the practice of all gymnastic sports, and prid- 
 ing myself not a little upon my victories and successes, they were far from 
 being my only amusement or occupation ; an insatiable thirst for reading 
 soon exhausted the scanty libraries of the village, and could only be grati- 
 fied by reperusal, until many books were gotten almost by heart. Buried 
 in the depths of the sombre forest, or floating upon the broad St. Law- 
 
KALOOLAH. 5 
 
 rence on a raft of my own construction, or seated amid the ruins of the 
 old trading house I have mentioned ; tales, travels, plays, poetry, and 
 history, were swallowed indiscriminately with the most comprehensive 
 avidity. All came alike to me, and were believed alike. I knew that 
 many people looked upon certain books as fictions. I could only wonder 
 at such scepticism. Were there not kings and princes and beautiful 
 ladies in the world ? Then there must be dragons, griffons, and enchanted 
 castles. The evidence was the same for both. I knew that the Seven Cham- 
 pions once flourished, each one \x\ propria persona, and that some of their 
 relations were still left in the world. I knew that Robinson Crusoe was a 
 veritable personage ; no imaginary amplification of a commonplace Scotch, 
 man, but a true bona-fide fellow, who had no more to do with Alexander 
 Selkirk than I had. Even Jack the Giant Killer — if any boy had dared 
 to doubt, in my presence, his bodily existence, that boy would have been 
 flogged. At length this mania, for it amounted to that, reached its crisis. 
 A copy of Don Quixote fell in my way. The pleasure — the excitement, 
 as I read, amounted to agony. There was nothing ludicrous in any of 
 the Don's adventures. Taking windmills for giants, was a mistake, no 
 doubt, but then the windmills themselves were worthy opponents. I 
 longed to attack a windmill. I had a perfectly clear conviction, that, if I 
 could once fairly charge a windmill, I should overthrow it and compel it 
 to resume its true shape, that of some gigantic magician. Unfortunately 
 the only windmill in the neighborhood was one with wings that moved 
 horizontally, and at some distance from the ground. The tallest knight 
 that ever bestrode a charger of sixteen hands could not have touched the 
 lower edge of them with the point of his lance. The windmill was safe, 
 but I could not help feeling something like contempt for the great cow- 
 ardly whirligig, that, confiding in its secure elevation, seemed to mock my 
 ambition. The excitement of my mind continued to increase. My brain 
 became as full of absurd conceits as the old Don's. I could not sleep, 
 lost my appetite, grew pale and emaciated, and in fact was on the verge 
 of settled insanity. 
 
 My mother, justly alarmed, resolved upon change of scene for me, 
 and it was decided that I should be sent to the principal academy of the 
 county, situated in a pleasant village, about thirty miles from my birth- 
 place. 
 
 The day after my fourteenth birthday I started upon the journey. I 
 have since wandered amid the most dreary wilds of the African conti- 
 nent, I have crossed the Sahara, have encountered its arid sands and its 
 poisonous simoon, its desolate rocks and its remorseless robbers ; but all 
 
6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 can never efface the remembrance of that first going forth from home. 
 Never as yet had I been a day from beneath my mother's eye. Never 
 for a day had I lacked the consciousness of her watchful anxiety, or the 
 efficacy of her blessing. Wild, wayward, self-willed, and often utterly 
 reckless of her wishes or commands, I yet loved her with the intensest 
 affection. The parting was hard, although the crotchets of Don Quixote 
 running through my head very much blunted my sense of its pangs. 
 
 " Jonathan," said my mother, at the conclusion of a long conference, 
 " I have packed your trunk with every thing that I can think necessary. 
 If any thing- is wanting, why the distance is really short, although it 
 seems so long, and I can easily send it to you. You will find in one cor- 
 ner your Bible. Don't forget it, Jonathan. You say you like the Old 
 Testament best, with its battles and sieges. Well, that 's a boy's taste. 
 Read the Old Testament then, and perhaps some day you will learn to 
 prefer the New. And by the Bible, Jonathan, you will find a small purse ; 
 I made it many years ago. It contains a gold coin, the first which your 
 father earned, and sent to his mother as a testimony of his success and 
 his filial remembrance. He was then, you know, several years younger 
 than you are. Keep it carefully, it is a true talisman of more efficacy 
 than ever fairy bestowed upon any of your favorite knights, and — and — 
 Jonathan " 
 
 My mother's voice faltered, and the tears again filled her eyes. 
 
 " What? dearest mother," I exclaimed, throwing my arms around her 
 neck. 
 
 "You will find," she continued, composing herself with an effort, 
 " you will find at the bottom of your trunk a garment different from your 
 other linen, which might puzzle you to understand the use of. You are 
 going far from me, Jonathan, among strangers. If you are sick I shall 
 come to you — but then — many accidents may happen, you are so ventu- 
 rous, Jonathan, you may get thrown from a horse, or drowned " 
 
 " Oh, no, mother, that 's impossible : did n't I break Jem. Smith's colt 
 after he had killed the circus-rider, and nobody else would mount him ; 
 
 and can't I swim four times across the O , and that 's more than a 
 
 mile." 
 
 " Yes, I know, every one says that you are the best rider and swimmer 
 in the village, but you are also the boldest, and you run great risks. You 
 have promised me to be cautious for my sake, but accidents, as I have 
 said, may happen to any one, and I have thought proper to make you a — 
 a " 
 
 " Shroud, mother ! " 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Why, no, not exactly a shroud, but something that will answer as a 
 grave dress. God save you, my son, from requiring the use of it ! " 
 
 Was ever maternal consideration carried farther? I might die among 
 strangers, and be buried carelessly, without proper grave-clothes ! Cot- 
 ton, even tow cloth, might have answered for the living body, but noth- 
 ing but the finest linen comported with the sanctity of the dead ! For 
 years I carried that garment at the bottom of my trunk. Somehow, it 
 became known to my schoolmates, and at first was a source of consider- 
 able ridicule, but I soon contrived to flog them all into a proper apprecia- 
 tion of my mother's forethought and care. As the reader may perhaps 
 
 " Drawing down my head, I was co?nfiletely concealed. ^^ 
 
 think with them, and as I have neither the inclination nor opportunity to 
 correct his or her opinion in the same way, I can only say that my moth- 
 er was from Nantucket, and they are all queer people there. 
 
 It was in the depth of winter that I left home, under the particular 
 
 charge of a careful and respectable teamster, who was going to P 
 
 with a sleigh-load of salt. It was just after a heavy fall of snow, and the 
 narrow track, imperfectly broken, was bounded by immense banks of 
 snow, almost as high as our heads, as we were seated on the front and 
 only seat of the long, low, open sleigh. On either side stretched the in- 
 terminable forest, its leafless branches loaded with icy crystals, and glit- 
 tering in the struggling sunbeams as brilliantly as the gemmed trees in 
 
8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the cavern of Aladdin. Here and there, at the distance apart, sometimes 
 of several miles, would be seen the small clearing surrounding the solitary 
 log-house of some enterprising settler. Covered by unvarying carpet of 
 Tvhite, through which peeped the unpicturesque stumps, they were far 
 from presenting a very cheerful appearance, — they served, like the slight 
 breaks sometimes in a firmament of storm clouds, to reveal — -not relieve 
 — the surrounding sternness and gloom. 
 
 For several miles after leaving the village we rode along in perfect 
 silence, my companion occasionally eying me with a curious look, and 
 evidently making preparations for opening a conversation. To several 
 remarks upon the state of the weather, the road, etc., I made no answer; 
 my mind was filled with too many contending emotions for speech. 
 
 " I say, sonny," he at length exclaimed, evidently determined to come 
 to the point at once with the moody boy at his side, " I say, sonny, you 
 don't seem to like leaving home for the first time. Well, well, nobody 
 does. I did n't. I was the homesickest fellow once, you ever did see, 
 and I was a good deal older than you are too." And then he went on to 
 give me a long account of his first journey, to all of which I made no 
 reply. I was indignant at being called sonny. I was indignant at being 
 addressed at all — at having my confused meditations interrupted, — and 
 each moment I grew more and more provoked. 
 
 "Come, come, why don't you talk a little? it will do you good. 
 Well," after a pause, " they say that you are a queer fellow, and I really 
 believe they 're right. I 've heard tell some curious stories about you. 
 They say that you knocked old Clark, the schoolmaster, off his chair, 
 with the broomstick, because you thought that you was St. George, and 
 that he was a dragon going to eat up a little boy. How was that, was 
 that so? Come, tell us the story. Some thinks you was cracked, but I 
 guess old Clark's head was the most cracked in that affair." And then 
 followed a long and hearty laugh at his own wit. 
 
 I could stand it no longer, — so, putting my foot upon the edge of the 
 sleigh, and exerting that agility which, a little later, has often enabled 
 me, with one running-jump, to clear nearly twenty-two feet of ground, I 
 gave a spring entirely over the perpendicular snow-bank, and landed 
 nearly up to my neck in the roadside ditch. By drawing down my head 
 I was completely concealed for a while from the astonished teamster. 
 He checked his horses, stretched himself up in his sleigh, and looked 
 around with a countenance irresistibly ludicrous, from amazement and 
 fear. 
 
 " Soh ! whow ! " to his restive horses. " Whow ! I tell you. — Where has 
 
KALOOLAH. 9 
 
 he gone to ? Good Lord ! what shall I do ? Dear me ! where on airth is 
 he ? Whoa ! I tell you. Darnation ! Whoa ! darn your skins ! — Jona- 
 than ! " I looked up and saw his comical phiz above the snowbank. The 
 spirit of fun revived. After some little parley I made my way through 
 the snow and took my seat in the sleigh, heartily enjoying both his fright 
 and his satisfaction in recovering part of his load, for the safe arrival of 
 which he knew that he should be held responsible. I could not retain 
 ill feelings against the honest man any longer, and we chatted and 
 laughed, at first with some little reserve on his part, but on overturning 
 in getting out of the road for the mail, I assisted him in righting his sleigh, 
 and restoring its load with so much activity, strength, and good-will, that 
 I quite won his heart. " Good-bye, sonny," he exclaimed, as he landed 
 me at the door of the house to which I had been consigned, "Good-bye; 
 if I can do any thing for you, just let me know, for — a — for you 're not 
 such a darned fool as they say you are." 
 
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 CHAPTER II. 
 
 School Life — Boyish Adventures — A Revival — School Broken Up — Wanderings and Reflections 
 in the Woods — Joe Downs, the Trapper — An Indian Killed vifith a Ramrod — Arrange- 
 ments for an Expedition into the Wilderness — A Letter From the Writer's Mother. 
 
 »T would be a waste of time and space to give all the little 
 adventures and incidents of my academic course of four years. 
 With but little exertion I continued to maintain a respectable 
 standing in my classes, at the same time that I acquired, by a 
 desultory and extensive course of reading, a great deal of knowledge 
 which frequently gave me many advantages over my more industrious 
 and regular schoolmates. It was often a wonder how I knew so much 
 upon the most recondite and out-of-the-way subjects, when I was seldom 
 seen to study, and devoted so much of my time to fishing, gunning, and 
 gymnastic sports. 
 
 As in all small towns where academic institutions are situated, there 
 was a good deal of jealousy, rivalry, and sometimes downright ill-feeling 
 between the students and the youths of the village, occasionally display- 
 ing itself in serious and even dangerous battles, but most generally in the 
 more harmless, but not less exciting trials of activity and skill. On 
 fourths of July, training days, and other occasions, young men from the 
 country around, at a distance of ten or fifteen miles, would come for the 
 purpose of competing for the championship in these contests, in which, as 
 the leader of the school, I soon became conspicuous. Was there a game 
 at cricket or base-ball to be played, my name headed the list of the 
 athletae. Was some foot-race or leaping-match to be contested, I was the 
 academic champion. Did some burly wrestler from a neighboring village 
 want the " conceit " taken out of him, either at back-hold, side-hold, or 
 arms-end, I "was the one to do it ; or if I could not do it, it was pretty 
 clear that no one else could. With my pistol, at fifteen paces, I could drill 
 a mark the size of a half dollar at every shot, and with the rifle it was 
 
KALOOLAH. 1 1 
 
 universally concluded by all the getters-up of turkey-shooting matches, 
 that it would never do to put the birds up for me at twenty rods, for a 
 shilling a shot. I dwell upon these qualities, not so much from the pride 
 that I took in them, as from the service that they have since rendered 
 me, in situations where nothing but a quick eye, practised hand, and agile 
 foot could have saved me. I say not so much from the pride that I took in 
 them, but why pride, and a pretty good share of it too, is not allowable, I 
 cannot understand. Formerly, merely animal strength was held in the 
 greatest repute ; but since, in modern days, the intellectual, as a source of 
 power, has been gaining so much upon the physical, that the latter seems 
 to me to have been unnecessarily and unjustly decried, and its proper 
 cultivation neglected. The physical powers are as much the gift of 
 God — in all situations their highest development is serviceable, and in 
 some cases essential, and even by a happy relation the health and strength 
 of the intellectual qualities are dependent upon it. Fortunately, our 
 boys, particularly those who have the advantage of a country life, educate, 
 to some extent, their physique for themselves. Future generations will 
 undoubtedly enjoy the advantage of having gymnastics' taught as a 
 science, and the highest development given to the. body as well as to 
 the mind. 
 
 I am far from wishing to convey the idea that I was free from the 
 faults incident to youth. A perfect character may read very well in fic- 
 tions, but would at once appear improbable and out of place in a plain 
 and simple autobiography of a real personage. Rousseau, I recollect, in 
 his confessions, draws rather a dark picture of his early character, and hon- 
 estly allows that he was a liar, a thief, and given to a variety of boyish 
 evil practices. I can hardly admit that I was as bad as the sentimental 
 Frenchman. Although I had in the abstract no very great regard for the 
 truth, yet a certain boldness and recklessness of character saved me from 
 being much of a liar ; a good share of generosity kept me from those 
 vices which result from selfishness ; but if robbing hens' nests, cornfields, 
 orchards, and melon grounds, be stealing, we were all thieves, and I was 
 one of the greatest and most inveterate. 
 
 Upon my first arrival at the school this kind of robbery was carried 
 on in a small way ; there was nothing dignified and grand enough about 
 it to suit my notions. I soon reformed the system, made it much more 
 comprehensive, and organized a band, which became a perfect nuisance 
 to the whole country round, particularly to -those who had a reputation 
 for stinginess, or who, too incautiously boasted of their watch and ward. 
 If a farmer was heard to threaten the unknown depredators with his gun 
 
12 KALOOLAH. 
 
 or dogs if they dared to visit his grounds, he was sure to be the subject 
 of a desolating nocturnal foray, or if too strict a watch was kept up at 
 night, the day-time would be selected, when the men were away from 
 home. Upon a signal given, a dozen boys disguised, who had been lying 
 perdu perhaps for two or three hours, would jump his fences, each one 
 with a large bag, and rapidly collecting the fruit, make off amid the 
 screams of the women and the barking of dogs, and vanish with the 
 plunder in the most mysterious manner in the neighboring wood. In a 
 short time some of the gang would perhaps saunter back to the same 
 house, and with the most innocent air ask the enraged women for a cup 
 of buttermilk, or a draught from the well. 
 
 A revival of religion, as it was called, at last put an end to my aca- 
 demic course ; in fact it came pretty near putting an end to the academy 
 itself. It was simultaneously manifest in each of the three chtrrches into 
 which the town was divided, the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, 
 and gradually included the members of our own school, as well as the in- 
 habitants of the village. It spread itself like an epidemic, and seemed to 
 be governed by similar laws. Rapidly increasing in violence as it ad- 
 vanced, it attacked all classes, but evinced particular power over the very 
 young, the very aged, and the very vicious. No revival in that section of 
 country had ever been more complete, or had been more stronly charac- 
 terized by enthusiastic zeal and intense, wild, passionate excitement ; and 
 none, I may say, supposing it to have been at first the true spirit of God 
 stirring up the apathetic consciences of men, was ever more thoroughh- 
 perverted from its proper ends, or marked by more disgusting scenes of 
 intemperance or fanaticism, or followed by a more complete and striking 
 reaction. 
 
 In a short time, out of one hundred and eighty scholars, male and 
 female, but five remained " unconverted." The school was entirely 
 broken up, all recitations and studies were neglected. Every one went 
 and came as he pleased ; teachers and pupils were all too busy with the 
 concerns of the soul to heed the duties of the school, with the exception 
 of our venerable president, who was also the pastor of the Presbyterian 
 church. He had set himself sternly and strongly against what his good- 
 sense led him to pronounce an unhealthy if not an unholy excitement. 
 He predicted that much evil would come of it, and endeavored to moder- 
 ate the inflammatory zeal of his flock ; but in vain. He could not with- 
 stand the overwhelming and impetuous tide of public opinion. A highly 
 cultivated mind, refined taste, gentle manners, and undoubted piety served 
 not to save him from contumely and insult. Excited zealots prayed for 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 13 
 
 him even in his own church as a bHnd leader, a weak brother, an agent of 
 the Devil, while he, finding that he could not repress or divert the storm, 
 calmly awaited its subsidence, knowing that with the return of reason 
 would return the influence of his character and his counsels. 
 
 At this time most of my hours were spent in the woods, either fishing, 
 reading, or perchance dreaming. Often stretched at length upon the 
 sunny bank of the most beautiful trout stream in the world, or seated 
 upon some prostrate giant of the forest, I have turned with shuddering 
 and loathing from the sight and sounds of the distant village, and have 
 felt borne to my innermost soul the conviction that cant and rant are 
 utterly inconsistent with the true worship of God. How soft, and low, 
 and calm, yet deep and full of meaning and power are the hymns sung to 
 His praise in the great temple of nature. How varied too ! How infi- 
 nitely expressive ! Listen to the hot sunbeams striking upon the thick 
 pendent foliage, to the soft sighing of the million leaves, as, disturbed by 
 the fitful breeze, thej' twist and wriggle themselves back to stillness and 
 rest. Listen to the low hum of the lazy insects ; the hesitating twitter 
 of the sleepy birds, or to the occasional sullen sluggish plash of some 
 trout, who has been lured from his siesta by the temptation of a careless 
 fly. The blended whole makes music — it speaks of life, health, vigor; 
 but of life, health, vigor, doomed to decay. It is prophetic in its tones ; 
 the deepest well-springs of the soul are stirred, gently, sadly, but not un- 
 pleasantly, as the foreboding notes rise, and swell, and fall. Anon, the 
 tempest comes, the majestic clouds speak tq each other and to earth in 
 the deep voices of the pealing thunder ; the sturdy woods re-echo, and 
 prolong the crashing sounds ; the wind sweeps through the foliage with a 
 hollow rushing, as if a myriad viewless spirits were flapping their pinions 
 and careering before it ; the big drops fall with leaden sound upon the 
 leaves. Does not the whole make the wildest, sublimest harmony? There 
 is nothing dismal or gloomy in it ; it is sternly joyous ; it speaks of 
 power — of might ; but it speaks too in solemn and majestic tones — no 
 ranting or canting — of a power above and beyond mere drooping and 
 decaying nature. Stand forth, and enjoy it ! Quail not ! Bare your 
 brow to the storm — look with a steady eye upon the lightning's flash — 
 listen to the awful chorus and feel alike the infinity of God and the great- 
 ness of the soul. 
 
 The storm has passed — the moistened foliage rustles in the breeze, 
 but with a different tone — a tone of pure gladness ; the insects beat the 
 air with their tiny wings to a more joyful measure ; the birds sing freely, 
 blithely; the trout spring actively from the placid lake, and dash the 
 
14 KALOOLAH. 
 
 sparkling circles with a sound of merriment and glee. The harmony is of 
 nature revived, restored. It speaks of hope and confidence — it presages 
 immortality. But how easy, natural, and quiet ! How deep and strong, 
 and heart-pervading in that very naturalness and quiet ! Ah ! in all that 
 infinite variety of praise, and prayer, and thanksgiving, }'ou can discover 
 nothing like rant or cant. 
 
 It was with such thoughts in my head that, early one beautiful morn- 
 ing, I was ranging the woods, gun in hand, occasionally stopping to listen 
 for the drumming of the partridge, or the cooing of the wild pigeon. The 
 peculiar sound of the former struck upon my ear ; I took aim — fired, and 
 was reloading my rifle, when a loud and hearty salutation rang through 
 the trees. 
 
 " Hallo ! Mr. Jonathan, good morning. How are you?" exclaimed the 
 stranger, picking up the partridge as he advanced towards me. " That 's 
 a capital shot of yours — a first-rate shot ; ten rods at least, and head taken 
 off as clean as a whistle." 
 
 The speaker was old Joe Downs, well known as an expert trapper and 
 hunter ; and as generally liked as he was known. There was nothing 
 rough or outr6 in his appearance or style of conversation ; none of the 
 half-horse and half-alligator characteristics generally attributed to the 
 woodsman of the south and west. Nothing could be more simple or 
 respectable than his air and looks ; so much so that more than once Joe 
 had been taken for a country parson. His ostensible home was in the 
 village, but his real home was in the woods, the greater part of his time 
 being spent in expeditions up to the sources of the Rackett and Grass 
 Rivers, in the dense and perfectly uninhabited wilderness in the northern 
 part of the State of New York, known as John Brown's tract. A few 
 beaver yet lingered round their old favorite haunts on the numerous 
 beautiful little lakes, which, like dimples here and there, lighted up the face 
 of nature with smiles, and relieved the stern solitude of the woods. They 
 were, however, nof in sufficient numbers to attract the hunter, who found 
 more profitable enjoyment in trapping the muskrat, or in killing deer for 
 their skins. Even in these pursuits but very few whites were engaged, 
 the most of the hunters being Indians, of the St. Regis nation, or from 
 some Canadian tribes, who, once a year, made an excursion up the Rac- 
 kett for two or three months, and then returned with their spoils to their 
 home on the St. Lawrence. 
 
 Joe had frequently proposed to me to accompany him on one of his 
 expeditions ; and circumstances now seemed to favor the plan. 
 
 " I '11 tell you what it is now," he exclaimed, as we took our seats upon 
 
KALOOLAH. 15 
 
 the trunk of a fallen tree. " 1 '11 tell you what it is, you can't do nothing 
 here. There 's no decent game within ten miles of us. The psalm-sing- 
 ing and praising the Lord has knocked all business in the head, and broke 
 up the Academy ; so you haint no school to go to ; well, you wont pray, 
 you can't study, and you can't hunt ; so what 's the use of staying here. 
 No, go along with me for three or four weeks, and I '11 show you some 
 sport that would even make that tarnal old scoundrel, Deacon Zeb, stop 
 his snuffle, and haw-haw right out like a decent white man. What do 
 you say to a wolf ! Pooh ! they are not worth the powder and shot, un- 
 less you can shoot two at a time. But what do you say to a bear or two ; 
 real old fellows, that will take half a dozen balls in the body and still 
 make a respectable fight ! Why, I '11 do still better by you than that ; if 
 I don't put you right alongside of the biggest catamount you ever heard 
 tell of, my name aint Joe. I will, 'pon my word. You .shall stand right 
 under the tree, and take him in the eye just as he is about to spring upon 
 you. There 's nothing better for the nerves. It kind of braces them 
 up, and you feel always afterwards just as though you could shoot 
 the Devil." 
 
 "But, Joe! " 
 
 "Oh, there 's no but about it. If you don't kill him dead, I '11 just 
 stand one side and wont say a word, and you can take it out — fair play — 
 with hatchet and knife. 'Pon my word you shall have a chance to kill a 
 catamount, if you can't stir for three weeks afterwards." 
 
 Joe's promises were too tempting to be resisted. There were no 
 studies, or recitations; and vacation, when I was to return home, would 
 take place in about a month ; giving me just time enough for the 
 excursion. 
 
 " When shall we start ? " I demanded. 
 
 " Oh, to-morrow or next day if you 're a mind to. I 've got my old 
 bark-canoe all nicely patched up, and my rat-traps all fixed. You just 
 get a couple of blankets and your shooting and fishing fixings all in order, 
 and mind and bring along a strong pickerel Hne. I '11 show you a pond 
 up there where the youngest infants of a genteel pickerel's family weigh at 
 least three pounds." 
 
 " Shall we have any company ? " I inquired. 
 
 " No, not a white face within forty miles of us. There '11 be plenty of 
 red-skins — half a dozen canoes went up the river yesterday, but they aint 
 of no account. They are a poor, lying, cheating, stealing set of vaga- 
 bonds. There is n't one of them that I 'd trust within a mile of my 
 camp." 
 
i6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " But don't you ever have any difficulty with them ? " 
 
 "Why, no, not what you may call real downright difficulty. We 
 used to a good many years ago, but now, although they '11 murder you 
 if they get a chance for a pack of skins, they don't vally a scalp. No — 
 since I finished off one of the biggest scoundrels in the whole St. Regis 
 nation, I haint been troubled." 
 
 " How was that ? " 
 
 " Why, I '11 tell you : you see it was way towards Tupper's Lake. There 
 had been a light fall of snow, and I was scouting round, when I happened 
 to make a circumbendibus, and came across my own tract, and there I 
 saw the marks of an Indian's foot right on my trail. Thinks I, that is 
 kind of queer ; the fellow must have been following me ; howsomever, 
 I '11 try him and make sure ; so I made another large circle, and again 
 struck my own track, and there was the tarnal Indian's foot again. Says 
 I, this wont do ; I must find out what this customer wants, and how he '11 
 have it. So I stopped short, and soon got sight of him ; he knew that I 
 saw him, so he came along up in the most friendly manner you can think. 
 But I did n't like his looks, he was altogether too darned glad to see me. 
 He had no gun, but he had an almighty long-handled tomahawk, and a 
 lot of skins and rat-traps. Thinks I, may be, old fellow your gun has burst 
 or you 've pawned it for rum, and you can't raise skins enough to redeem 
 it, and you want mine, and perhaps you '11 get it. 
 
 " At last I grew kind of nervous ; I knew the fellow would hatchet me 
 if I gave him a chance, and yet I did n't want to shoot him right down just 
 on suspicion. But I thought, if I let him cut my throat first, it would be 
 too late to shoot him afterwards. So I concluded that the best way 
 would be to give him a chance to play his hand ; and, if it so be, he 'd 
 lead the wrong card, why I should have a right to take the trick. Just 
 then at the right time a partridge flew into a clump that stood five or six 
 rods off. So I kind of 'nceuvred round a little. I drew out my ramrod 
 as if to feel whether the ball in my rifle was well down, but instead of re- 
 turning it again, I kept it in my hand, and without letting the vagabond 
 see me, I got out a handful of powder. I then sauntered off to the bush, 
 shot the partridge, and in an instant passed my hand over the muzzle of 
 my rifle, and dropped the powder in. I picked up the bird, and then just 
 took and run my ramrod right down upon the powder. Now he thought 
 was his chance before I loaded my gun again. He came towards me with 
 his hatchet in his hand. I saw that he was determined to act wicked, 
 and began to back off ; he still came on. I lowered my rifle and told him 
 to keep away. He raised his tomahawk, gave one yell, and bounded 
 
KALOOLAH. . 
 
 i; 
 
 right at me. When he was just about three or four feet from the muzzle, 
 I fired. You never see a fellow jump so. He kicked his heels up in the 
 air and came down plump on his head." 
 
 " Dead ? " 
 
 "Dead as J uliar Caesar. He never winked; the ramrod — a good 
 hard, tough piece of hickory — had gone clean through him, and stuck out 
 about two feet from his back. Sarved him right, did n't it ?" 
 
 "Certainly. I don't see what else you could have done." 
 
 " Nor I, nother. But I am sorry I took his traps. Howsomever, I 
 
 " Dead as Julius deiar. 
 
 did n't keep them long. I gave them away to a half-drowned redskin, 
 who had lost his in trying to cross the river, right at the head of the big 
 wolf chute. There 's a story about that too ; but we 'II put it off till we 
 get up to our camp. So, what do you say ? shall we go .'' " 
 
 "Agreed," said I. And in a few words our plans were all laid, and 
 we returned to town to make arrangements for carrying them out. 
 
 Arrived at my room, I found a long letter from my mother. How 
 well I recollect its contents, although years have elapsed since I have 
 read it. There was nothing in it that struck me at the moment as 
 
1 8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 very important, but it afterwards acquired a peculiar interest — it was 
 her last. 
 
 * * * -X- * * ■;:- * 
 
 It is now one month," she wrote, "to your vacation, but I have just 
 heard some reports which make me somewhat curious to know what you are 
 doing. You have alluded to the revival, in one of your letters, but I had 
 no idea that it had gone so far as they say it has, or that there was any 
 thing strikingly or strongly opposed to a proper cultivated Christian taste. 
 You know how deeply and ardently I have wished to impress you with 
 a proper sense of religion, but I have no sympathy with the passionate 
 enthusiasm — the mere animal excitement which has recently been so 
 common in this neighborhood. I think that I can trust your taste and 
 good sense; however, you might better come home without waiting for 
 your vacation. Upon the whole, I think that you might better come 
 immediately." 
 
 ******** 
 I wrote a hasty answer to my mother's letter, expressing my assent to 
 her proposition, and informing her that the remainder of the term I had 
 determined to devote to an expedition into the woods, which I thought 
 would have a very beneficial effect upon my health, and enable me to 
 commence the study of medicine with much greater vigor. The letter 
 was dispatched, and in a few hours all my arrangements were made to 
 join the old trapper upon my first grand hunt. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Hunting Expedition — Meeting with Indians — A Secret Cavern — Mr. Downs' Opinions of thfi 
 Indians — Indians Suing for Assault and Battery — Encampment in the Pine Barrens — One 
 Way to Cook Fish — Deer Shooting by Torch-Light. 
 
 'UR outfit was simple enough. I took with me a rifle and a 
 double-barrelled fowling-piece, with plenty of powder, ball, and 
 shot, etc., together with an ample assortment of fishing tackle, 
 a pocket telescope, two blankets, a pouch of pepper and salt, 
 and a bag of crackers. Joe brought with him his rifle, axe, blanket, and 
 traps, an iron jack to hold a light of pine knots in the bow of our boat, 
 and a bag of wheat and Indian meal. 
 
 Thus supplied we launched our light birchen canoe upon the river at 
 daybreak, and were soon gliding rapidly along the winding and narrow 
 channel formed by the numerous little islands which intervene between 
 the village and the foot of the first rapid or falls. 
 
 Arrived at the rapids, we were compelled to unload our canoe and 
 carry it and our baggage around some distance to reach the smooth water 
 above — a performance which we found occasion to repeat not unfre- 
 quently in the course of our voyage. The labor, however, though rather 
 arduous, was far from distressing ; our baggage being divided into parcels 
 of light weight, with the exception of our canoe. This, however, though 
 rather large and heavy for its kind, was not too much for Joe alone, who 
 would " catch " his shoulder under the " gunnel " and trot off with it for 
 a mile or so without stopping. Of course I could not allow myself to feel 
 unequal to any exertion which the old man (who was also my inferior in 
 size and weight) was capable of making. Working " with a will," the 
 portages seemed short, and when launched again, paddling the canoe was 
 merely an agreeable exercise. 
 
 It was on the second- morning of our voyage that I was aroused from 
 the sweetest and most profound sleep that I had ever enjoyed, by the 
 voice of Joe : " Come, come, Mr. Jonathan, it 's time to start. Don't 
 you hear the black-birds, and they aint very early risers. Come let 's 
 
20 KALOOLAH. 
 
 bundle our traps into the canoe and you shall crack two or three of the 
 darkies over, as we go by the willow islands. They are as fat as butter, 
 and will make a first-rate breakfast when we get up to ' Blue Ledge 
 Point.' " 
 
 I awoke and gazed around ; I could at first scarcely comprehend my 
 position. Our canoe had been hauled up on land and turned over our 
 baggage to protect it from the rain or dew. At my feet, as I lay wrapped 
 in my blanket, were the smouldering embers of our evening fire ; the dark 
 overshadowing masses of trees on one side, and the bluish sheen of the 
 rippling river on the other, were just veiled by the purple light which be- 
 gan to appear in the east. I started up — opened my eyes — rubbed them 
 — stared at Joe, the woods, the stream, the clouds, and felt the exciting 
 conviction rush upon my mind, that at last I was engaged in a veritable 
 adventure. 
 
 In ten minutes our canoe was launched and loaded, and we were again 
 afloat. It grew momentarily lighter, until at last the lagging sun popped 
 up suddenly his full-orbed face above the horizon, shedding a flood of 
 glory upon forest, glade, and stream. 
 
 " Take your gun now," said Joe, " while I '11 paddle along close by the 
 willows of that island — just see how thick they are — you can get three or 
 four at a shot." 
 
 " Not at them ! not at them ! " exclaimed Joe, as I was taking aim, 
 " they are too far in — we shall have to wade in the mud for them. Wait 
 till you can catch 'em on the edge of the water. But — hush 1 I hear 
 voices." 
 
 We listened, and could distinctly hear some low guttural sounds, and 
 the occasional plash of the water on the other side of the long narrow 
 mud island. Resuming my paddle, we soon shot ahead, so as to com- 
 mand a view of the opposite channel. At the instant that we reached the 
 head of the island, a canoe, manned by three Indians, came in sight close 
 alongside of us, and followed by several others a little farther down. 
 
 " Sago — sago neeckie," shouted Joe. " Good morning — how do you 
 do?" 
 
 The savage wielding the stern paddle of the foremost canoe turned 
 upon us a countenance, the natural diabolical expression of which was not 
 diminished by a few patches of black paint. A scowl of intense hatred 
 and malice was his only reply to our salutation, as with a sweep of his 
 paddle he turned the bow of his boat from us, and with a few vigorous 
 strokes shot it ahead. 
 
 " Oh ! I know you, you sneaking scoundrel ! " growled Joe, between his 
 
KALOOLAH. 21 
 
 clenched teeth ; " I know you, and I 'II make you know me if you don't 
 look out. But here comes Captain Pete, he 's almost the only decent 
 chap in the whole tribe." 
 
 The other boats now came up to us. Their crews returned our salu- 
 tations with apparent good-will. We even rested upon our oars, and had 
 quite a long chat about the weather, the game, and the prices of powder, 
 shot, and muskrat skins. 
 
 " Who was that polite fellow in the first canoe ? " I demanded, as we 
 turned off and resumed our course. 
 
 " His name," replied Joe, " is Blacksnake, and a darned good name it 
 is for him. He 's black enough as you see, and he 's a regular snake at 
 heart. I 'm afraid I shall have to put stones on his tail one of these days, 
 as the boys do when they catch his namesake." 
 
 " But what 's the difficulty ? " I inquired. " He did n't seem to look 
 at you in the most loving temper." 
 
 " Why, no ; and I must allow he has n't any very great reason. You 
 see he 's the brother of that fellow I was telling you about — the one that 
 I pinned with the ramrod ; and there 's a whole lot of relations. They 
 don't know exactly that I did it, but they kind of conceit that I did, and 
 that 's just about as bad." 
 
 " And have they never sought to revenge his death ? " 
 
 " Certainly ! I was leaning out of the second-story door-way of Jone's 
 shop one day, looking across the river, when, whiz, a rifle bullet came and 
 buried itself in the doorpost. I haint the least doubt that that very iden- 
 tical Blacksnake sent it. Thank God, his aim was not as good as his will ! 
 He 's a bad chap. Why, I really believe it was he who murdered my old 
 friend Dan White, the trapper. If I only knew it was the fact, I wish I may 
 be stuck forked end uppermost in a coon hole, if I would n't send a ball 
 through his painted old brain-case this ere very identical minute. Darn 
 your skin ! " energetically growled Joe, shaking his fist at the distant canoe. 
 
 " But how is it that you have escaped until this time ? " I inquired. 
 " Blacksnake and his friends must have had opportunities enough of set- 
 tling your business for you, if they had sought them. How long is it 
 since you killed that fellow ? " 
 
 " Why, about three years," replied Joe ; " but then you see they are 
 such thundering cowards. They would like to fix me, but they dares n't. 
 They know it is n't so easy to catch me asleep ; and besides that, they 
 are kind o' fraid of the law ever since the Indian was hung for killing a 
 white man up in Brown's settlement. They don't like hanging, and they '11 
 take pretty good care how they do any thing to bring their necks into 
 
22 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the noose. No, the fellows know the law just as well as white men. 
 Why, I once cleared away the ground in a little open piece of woods, 
 about a mile out of town, and thought I 'd make a melon-patch. Well, I 
 planted some, and they came on to grow very nice, and I calculated that 
 being as how they were all open, and no fence around them, that nobody 
 would be so mean as to steal them. But one day I found that somebody 
 had been at 'em, and had picked all the ripe ones, and had trod down the 
 vines, and done a monstrous sight of damage. I saw that there had been 
 a good many fellows at work, and they had left a pretty broad trail ; so I 
 just started off upon it, and about a quarter of a mile I found six great 
 red devils squatted down, and a grunting, and a giggling, and a sucking 
 my water melons, just as though they had bought and paid for them. I 
 tell you I was almighty mad, and there happened to be lying just right, a 
 broken hoop that had been pretty well straightened by the rain. I seized 
 that, and jumped right into the midst of them, and the way I did lather 
 them fellows was really ridiculous. The hoop was tough and limber, and 
 every time I 'd strike it would double clear round their bodies. Such a 
 dancing and screaming and capering you never did see ! They soon scat- 
 tered themselves, I tell you — the fat lazy old war chief last. He made a 
 spring at a rail fence, and I believe would have gone over it at the first 
 jump, although he carried weight with his two pounds of pewter and brass 
 rings in his ears, but just as he cleared the ground I wollopped the hoop 
 around him and snaked him back, head over heels ; he gathered himself 
 like a frightened deer, and cleared the fence next jump easy. And what 
 do you think these fellows did ? 
 
 " What on 'arth do you think they did? " demanded Joe. 
 
 " I can't imagine, I 'm sure," I replied. 
 
 " No ! I know you can't ! You could n't guess if you should try a 
 week. They went and took the law of me — 'pon my word they did ! 
 The justice said they deserved the licking, but he must fine me five -dol- 
 lars. I told him I thought that was very reasonable, and if I caught them 
 at my melon-patch again, I 'd take ten dollars worth at the same rate." 
 
 Our conversation did not interrupt the continued and vigorous strokes 
 of our paddles, which forced our light canoe along the surface of the water 
 with a rapidity which gave one hardly time to observe the striking nat- 
 ural features of the scenery by which we were surrounded. In some 
 places the river contracted its banks until it was almost overshadowed by 
 the densely wooded height ; at others, expanded itself into little silvery 
 lakes, dotted with islands, crowded with ducks of several species, and 
 alive with fish. The shores varied at each instant in their colors and 
 
KALOOLAH. 23 
 
 forms, verdant flats, low marshes, overhanging with willows ; rolling hil- 
 locks, and lofty ledges of red freestone succeeded each other with a per- 
 fect prodigality of picturesqueness ; while at every few miles, some tribu- 
 tary creek would open up such a vista of inviting beauty, that at times I 
 could with difficulty resist an inclination to arrest the progress of the 
 canoe and propose an exploration. My companion, however, would 
 hardly have consented to such a waste of time ; and I was therefore com- 
 pelled to suffer the painful sentiment of a sense of beauty lost forever, as 
 we glided so rapidly by. 
 
 " Here 's something that I want to show you," said Joe, as he turned 
 our canoe into a narrow channel not more than ten feet wide, that ran 
 between a little islet and the lofty bank of rock, which rose almost per- 
 pendicularly directly from the water to a height of some seventy feet. 
 " You would n't think," continued Joe, " that five hundred men might be 
 stowed within ten feet of us, and without the least danger that the most 
 thorough search could discover them ? " 
 
 I looked all around — at the little island, which barely concealed our 
 canoe from the main channel, and at the solid wall of smooth rock that 
 towered overhead. 
 
 " You don't believe it ! " said Joe. 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 " Well, I '11 show you. Do you see that little ledge jutting out from 
 the face of the rock, about ten feet above there ? Well, you 'd think that 
 it was no more than two feet broad, and that it was close to the bank, but 
 you 'd make a great mistake ; it stands out clear three feet at least, and 
 right behind it is a large hole that leads to one of the nicest caves you 
 ever did see. It 's as dry as a bone, and I don't believe that anybody 
 without wings ever looked into it except myself." 
 
 "You see I was coming along here one day, three or four years ago, 
 when all of a sudden I heard a noise on the top of the cliff ; I looked up, 
 and there I saw a young catamount, scrambling up that little old oak ; he 
 stretched himself out on that branch and looked down upon me so kind 
 of impudent, I thought I 'd take a crack at him. I raised my rifle and 
 fired ; and down he came — ker-chunk — right on the edge of the precipice. 
 He gave a jump or two, but it was the wrong way, and down he came 
 right along the face of the wall, and right on that ledge. I thonght he 'd 
 bound off, and perhaps tumble aboard of me ; but he did n't ; he stopped 
 short, and went right out of sight. Thinks I, that 's queer. I must see 
 about that. So I pushed right in here, between these two stones, and 
 fastened my canoe to this bush." 
 
24 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Suiting the action to the word, Joe stopped and fastened our boat, 
 and we both commenced climbing the face of the rock, by means of two 
 or three jutting points, that could hardly have been observed from the 
 river, until we had reached the ledge. 
 
 " Here ! " said Joe, " I found the critter, right behind this. I pulled 
 him out, and then I thought I 'd see where this opening went to. — Come 
 in, come in ! " 
 
 We entered and found ourselves in an irregular but roomy apartment.- 
 The dim light, as we had no torches with us, enabled me to form but a 
 very indefinite idea of its size, but I could not but think what a palace it 
 would have been thought by the Troglodytes, of whom I had just been 
 reading in Herodotus. Several large cracks and orifices led off to other 
 parts of the cavern ; but as we had no light, and Joe was anxious to get 
 to the camping ground, which he had selected some six or eight miles 
 above, I had no opportunity of examining it very closely at the time, al- 
 though afterwards I had good cause to know it better. 
 
 " I 've shown this to you," said Joe, " but I would n't have it known 
 to any one else for a good deal of money. It has served me often to hide 
 my traps or a bundle of skins in. There 's no danger of a skulking In- 
 dian finding them there. It can't be seen from above, and no one would 
 begin to think of it from below unless they happen to tumble a panther 
 into it as I did." 
 
 Two or three miles farther brought us to the largest lake, or expan- 
 sion of the river, that we had yet seen. It burst upon us as we rounded 
 the rocky promontory, which had hidden it from our view, like some 
 scene of enchantment, and I thought at the time that were I the master 
 of all the genii of the Arabian Nights I could not have commanded for 
 my own especial admiration and enjoyment a more delicious and pictur- 
 esque scene. But neither space nor time will permit me to undertake a 
 description. 
 
 " Beautiful ! beautiful ! " I exclaimed, dropping my paddle, and gazing 
 with delight. 
 
 " Yes, it 's first rate," replied my companion. " There 's lots of deer 
 all along here for ten miles, up to the head of the lake, and muskrats are 
 as plenty as blackberries on them islands, and around them flats. But do 
 you see them pine woods yonder? that 's our place. It 's just a.bout half 
 way up the lake, and a capital spot for a camp — dry as a bone — plenty of 
 wood, and no mosquitoes." And Joe industriously plied his paddle in the 
 direction he pointed. 
 
 We soon reached the spot indicated — the edge of an extensive pine 
 
KALOOLAH. 25' 
 
 barren ; no underwood obstructed the view through the gigantic trees, 
 which towered their lofty heads to the clouds ; and in some places not 
 even the scantiest vegetation held the movable sand, that whirled in the 
 gusts of -wind around the sturdy trees with the uncontrolled freedom of 
 the desert. 
 
 Our baggage was soon landed, a place selected, and preparations made 
 for erecting our hut. A few saplings and bushes from the edge of the river 
 were all that were required, and in a few hours we had a comfortable wig- 
 wam — completely sheltered from the weather on three sides, and a huge 
 log fire blazing in front. An hour more, and a couple of black squirrels 
 hung dangling from the ends of sticks implanted in the ground, and in- 
 clined at an angle towards the fire, while a magnificent trout was broiling 
 upon the glowing embers, and diffusing a most savory odor, which soon 
 brought numerous lupine and vulpine visitors, who, by their howling, 
 snufifing, and scampering around our camp, seemed to envy us our lux- 
 urious repast. A thin cake of Indian meal, skilfully mixed by the old 
 trapper, and baked upon a heated stone, completed the materials for our 
 supper. — And such a supper! I thought of thepeitis soupers of Aspasia, 
 and of Alcibiades, and of Lucullus and the purple chamber, with feelings 
 of the most perfect contempt. 
 
 " Yes, as you say," exclaimed the old man, " this fish is first rate, but 
 it aint a circumstance to what can be done in the cooking way. I '11 tell 
 you how you can cook a fish to make it taste just as you please. We '11 
 try it some day. You take some nice clean clay and work it up a little, 
 then catch your trout — or any other kind of fish, — and don't scale or dress 
 him, but just plaster him all over with the clay about an inch thick, and 
 put him right into the hot ashes. When he 's done, the clay and scales 
 will all peel off, and you '11 have a dish that would bring to life any 
 starved man, if he had n't been dead more nor a week. That 's the 
 natural way " — au naturel, Joe would have said, had he been acquainted 
 with the technicalities of the cuisine, — " but if you want an extra touch, 
 cut a hole in him, and stick in a piece of salt pork or bear's feet, and a 
 few beechnuts, or the meat of walnuts or butternuts, and. Lord, bless you, 
 you 'd think you was eating a water angel." 
 
 " But come ! " continued Joe, " we 've got through supper, let 's stir 
 round and do something. It 's too late to set the traps, but we can take 
 a shot at the deer." 
 
 Our boat was soon prepared. The jack, or light iron grate, was erected 
 upon a stake in the bow, at the height of six or seven feet. Soon from it 
 flamed a blazing fire of pine knots, throwing its light far around and be- 
 
26 KALOOLAH. 
 
 neath the surface of the calm clear water, and illuminating the giant trees 
 and wild rocks of the shores with the most curious effects of light and 
 shade. The trapper stationed himself directly beneath the light, rifle in 
 hand, while I cautiously and silently plied the paddle. A plashing in the 
 water along the bank of the lake, where the deer had come down to drink 
 and refresh themselves with a standing bath in the cool water, betrayed 
 the game to Joe's practised ear. Our canoe slowly approached them. 
 The simple animals, startled, but fascinated by the mysterious light, stood 
 stupidly gazing at the flaming jack, and allowed us to approach within 
 two or three rods. The spell that held them was broken by the crack of 
 the rifle, and one of their number fell instantly dead with a ball through 
 the brain. 
 
 We obtained five the first night. The next day was spent in looking 
 up muskrat tracks, and setting our traps, and in the evening the deer-shoot- 
 ing was resumed with equal success. In this way several days glided by, 
 with nothing to disturb the perfect enjoyment of the scene, except an 
 occasional doubt as to how my mother would like my escapade. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A Friendly Warning — A Night Visit from Indians — Downs Dangerously Wounded — Retreat to 
 the Secret Cavern — ^Jonathan's Medical and Culinary Skill — Life in a Cave in the Woods — 
 Recovery of Joe. 
 
 WEEK had passed — a week that, tested by the home associa- 
 tions which would once in a while intrude themselves, seemed 
 long, but which, measured by the current feelings of the moment, 
 seemed but as an hour. It is thus the flight of time is ever 
 noted : brooding over the reminiscences of the past, or the hopes of the 
 future, time seems a laggard, and we are tempted to direct all the offen- 
 sive weapons we can muster, against the lazy fellow as he floats on slug- 
 gish pinions by ; absorbed in the engagements, the thoughts, or the duties 
 of the present, with what fearful and relentless velocity he passes ; we no 
 longer think of " killing " him any more than we should think of killing 
 the eagle as he stoops in the very majesty of speed with a wild startling 
 rush and whir from his lofty perch upon the finny prey that his appear- 
 ance has frightened from the clutches of some .straggling hawk. 
 
 A week had passed, and as yet we had met with no very extraordinary 
 or thrilling adventure. I had not even seen a panther or a bear. The 
 ordinary routine of deer-shooting and muskrat-catching employed us so 
 fully, that we had not had time to look for them, but the interest and 
 excitement of that occupation was beginning to flag. I began to long for 
 something more piquant. 
 
 It was just at the close of a laborious day that I took the canoe and 
 pushed out into the lake for the purpose of procuring the piscatory por- 
 tion of our evening meal ; no difficult job, as may be supposed, where the 
 fish were so plentiful and so unsophisticated — so utterly unaccustomed to 
 the specious illusions of the baited hook. I had captured enough for the 
 appetites of any two ordinary ichthyophagi, and was debating with my- 
 self the exceeding impropriety of continuing the sport merely as sport, 
 when a gruff, guttural salutation struck my ear, and a canoe with a single 
 Indian, who I immediately recognized as Captain Pete, glided alongside. 
 " The general — where is him?" demanded the captain. 
 
 27 
 
28 KALOOLAH. 
 
 The general was a title in which I knew that Joe sometimes luxuri- 
 ated, especially with his Indian friends, although I was ignorant of the 
 source, or the manner in which it had been acquired. I replied that the 
 general was ashore at the camp, and would be glad to see a friend that he 
 thought so much of, as I knew that he did of Captain Pete. 
 
 " No," said the captain, " no stay — you tell him lookout — Blacksnake 
 bad man — he mean bad — I know him — tell general to sleep with one eye — 
 take plenty care. You tell him ? " 
 
 " Certainly, I '11 tell him- " 
 
 " Good ! " and the captain dropped his paddle into the water and urged 
 his light birchen bark towards the opposite side of the lake. 
 
 There was something in the captain's voice and manner that conveyed 
 far more meaning than his words. I saw that he was in earnest, and that 
 he, at least, entertained the conviction that Joe was in some danger. My 
 suspicions, and I must confess to some little extent my fears, were thor- 
 oughly aroused. I had heard so much of Indian revenge, that notwith- 
 standing Joe's contempt for the semi-civilized and wholly demoralized 
 red-skins that were about us, I was disposed to believe them still equal to 
 those daring and bloody deeds that authentic history, as well as doubtful 
 tradition, has so often described. I was sorry I had not questioned 
 Captain Pete a little, but he had started away so abruptly, having evident- 
 ly wished to convey his warning without being seen lingering in the 
 neighborhood of our camp, that I had not time to fairly recover myself 
 before he was out of hearing. However, Joe will be able to form some 
 judgment of the extent and character of the danger that threatens us, 
 thought I, as I pulled up my anchor and made all haste to the shore. 
 
 " Pooh ! pooh ! " said Joe, as I finished my story, " 't aint nothing 
 worth thinking of. Captain Pete is a good old fellow, and he 's always 
 been a warm friend, as he ought to be, since I have done him some goodl 
 turns in my time ; but he don't know over much. He 's afraid of 
 Blacksnake himself, and he thinks he 's doing a service by trying to 
 frighten me." 
 
 Joe's assurances were far from satisfying me. I could easily perceive* 
 that Captain Pete's message had made a much greater impression upon 
 him than he was willing to allow. While I was telling my story he had 
 looked around for his rifle, had taken it up, examined the flint and prim- 
 ing, and passed the ramrod down to be sure that it was loaded, all the 
 time listening with evident interest, and asking questions that betrayed 
 not quite so much recklessness as he endeavored to assume. 
 
 " Pooh ! pooh ! " said Joe, as he turned off and rested his rifle against 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 29 
 
 the corner of our hut ; but I was far from being assured either by his 
 tone or his words. 
 
 " You seem," said I, at the conclusion of quite a long and hot argu- 
 ment, in which I defended the received notions of Indian character, — 
 " you seem, Mr. Downs, to have a poor opinion of red-skin courage." 
 
 " That I have, and with good reason too. I don't know what they 
 might have been once, but I know that rum and civilization have made 
 them a poor, sneaking, cowardly set. Now off to the west they are a 
 little better ; but even there, they 're no great shakes. Why, I was out 
 there with Harrison, in Tecumseh's time, and I know that a deuced sight 
 of nonsense has been written and talked about the ' lords of the forest ' 
 
 ' ' A Canoe with a single Indian glided alongside. '' 
 
 as you call 'em. There was not a scout in the army that valued a single 
 Indian more nor the snap of his thumb. They can't shoot — can't run — 
 can't row — can't swim — can't do any thing with a white man, unless it is 
 to starve longer, and that they have been brought up to. You see I 'm a 
 small man, and an old man, but if I can't lick, in fair fight, any single 
 Indian you can pick up between here and the Rocky Mountains, my 
 name aint Downs, and I aint given to bragging much neither. They are 
 just like them wolves," and Joe pointed to a lot of lupine attendants, 
 that, as usual, were howling about at a respectful distance from our camp. 
 "They are just like them wolves; they 11 hang around just as though 
 
30 KALOOLAH. 
 
 they would eat you, and if you move a step towards them, they '11 rua 
 hke so many sheep." 
 
 " Well, well," said I, " it may be as you say ; we won't argue the sub- 
 ject any further — but I must say that if Blacksnake feels towards you as 
 you think he does, he has got no Indian blood in him if, sooner or later, 
 he does not contrive to get a shot at you. Why, I should n't wonder if 
 he was prowling round here this very night." 
 
 Joe laughed. 
 
 "You laugh," said I, "but, tell me, what is there to prevent him ?" 
 
 "Nothing on earth," replied Joe, " excepting that he 's afraid. I tell 
 you he no more dares to come within speaking distance of this old tool," 
 touching his rifle, " than one of them wolves dares to come in here and 
 help himself to fat out of that stewpan." 
 
 "Well," said I, "if there is no more danger than that, we 're safe 
 enough. There 's no wolf yonder fool enough to give us a fair sight of 
 his countenance ; so as I want a wolf-skin badly, I 'II just step out and 
 try once more if I can't get a shot at these noisy cowards that you liken 
 the ' lords of the forest ' so contemptuously to." Taking up my double- 
 barrelled gun, I carefully loaded it with a full charge of heavy buck-shot. 
 
 "Go round b}' the right," replied Joe, "and you '11 hem 'em in be- 
 tween the lake and our fire ; and perhaps }'ou '11 get a chance to take one 
 of the fellows as they rush by you." 
 
 Following his directions I started off, making a small detour, and 
 leaving the trapper seated before the fire industriously platting a deer- 
 skin rope. Long after I had passed out of sight of the camp into the 
 shade of the tall woods I could see his figure fully revealed in the flash- 
 ing light of the pine-log fire. 
 
 The night was an impressive one ; there was something heavy and 
 threatening in the air, although there were no decided indications of a 
 storm. The wind came sluggishly across the bosom of the lake, slightly 
 wrinkling its surface, and sighing with gentle but exceedingly mournful 
 tones among the tops of the lofty trees. It is curious what different 
 sounds are produced by winds of equal force at different times in the 
 same place. It is true the phenomenon can be explained by reference to 
 the comparative temperature, moisture, and density of the atmosphere; 
 but the difference of those tones has a meaning to many ears that cannot 
 be explained away with the explanation of the physical cause. In this in- 
 stance the wind had perhaps additional significance from its harmony with 
 my feelings — it was a foreboding wind. The moon, too, seemed triste as 
 she worked her way through the masses of fleecy clouds, occasionally 
 
K A LOO L AH. 
 
 31 
 
 darting upon the surface of the ruffled lake a beam that was instantly 
 broken into a thousand sparkling gems of light, and anon hiding behind 
 some jealous cloud, as if glad for a moment to fly the sight of a bad 
 earth. It was altogether such an evening as the Huntsman of the Hartz 
 would have selected for a pleasant moonlight ride. 
 
 But although as sensible to the spiritual influences of the weather as I 
 have ever been impassive to its physical effects, I had but a short time 
 to indulge in the mere sentiment of the time and scene. The wolves are 
 much the most interesting objects of the moment, and fully occupied my 
 attention. I had succeeded in approaching a party of them without 
 being perceived. I could not see them ; but I could distinguish the spot, 
 from their noises, at which they were congregated, and was slowly and 
 cautiously closing in upon them. I had arrived within about fifty yards 
 of the lake, and some three or four hundred yards below our camp, the 
 light of which I could clearly see, when a sudden rush took place, and the 
 gaunt forms of half a dozen of the famished wretches flitted by me. I 
 raised my gun, and with finger on the trigger fairly covered one of them 
 as he bounded by at a distance of not more than three or four rods ; but 
 I did not fire. Why or for what reason it is impossible to say. It seemed 
 as though there was something providential in it, although it was prob- 
 ably nothing but one of those moments of indecision which the keenest 
 sportsman will recollect to have felt. It was but an instant ; but that in- 
 stant was enough. The next, or to speak more correctly, the very same 
 moment a tall shadowy figure glided from behind the tnmk of a mighty 
 pine. I dropped my gun from its level, and stared with pure unthinking 
 and unreflective wonder at the strange apparition. In a moment another 
 figure glided out, and again another, and there were clearly revealed the 
 forms of three stalwart Indians, creeping along from tree to tree in the 
 direction of our fire. Without a moment's thought I turned in nearly 
 upon their rear, and followed them with a step as noiseless as ever trod 
 an Indian Uvarpath. I was not afraid — in fact, I never was more perfectly 
 cool ; but I had that intense concentration of feeling which, while it 
 leaves the physical powers in full play, prevents thought ; or perhaps the 
 mind in such cases is so lightning-like in its action that we do not perceive 
 its processes. At any rate, it seemed to me as if I only felt. I acted by 
 a kind of instinct ; my mind appeared to be diffused through my whole 
 body, and my legs and arms to know as much as my head. 
 
 Slowly and cautiously the Indians drew towards our camp, and slowly 
 and cautiously I followed them. I have since frequently thought of a 
 dozen plans that I might have adopted. I might, by firing my gun, have 
 
32 KALOOLAH. 
 
 frightened the Indians from their purpose, and perhaps put Joe on his 
 guard, or I might, by swiftly making a detour, have reached the camp, 
 when by taking to the trees we could have had a fair fight, and had there 
 been six Indians, instead of three, we should undoubtedly have had the 
 best of it. But I did not know what objects the Indians had in view, 
 and these are thoughts that came afterwards, or that can only be made 
 advantageous at the moment by great natural courage, thoroughly edu- 
 cated in the school of danger. I had a fair share of the first, but the 
 education was wanting, and, as I have said, I felt rather than thought. 
 
 The Indians had arrived within ten or fifteen rods of .our hut when 
 they stopped, and appeared to me to be holding a consultation, while 
 grouped for a moment in the deep shadow of the trees. They had evi- 
 dently not the slightest suspicion that any one was in their rear. They 
 were altogether too much occupied with the sight in front of them to 
 think of suspecting danger from any other quarter. Cautiously closing 
 up, I had advanced to within twenty or thirty paces of them, and could 
 distinctly see their figures well defined in all their outlines, especially as I 
 now had got them nearly in a line with our fire, which was blazing away 
 right merrily, and throwing a prodigious volume of light to the tops of 
 the loftiest trees. Joe was seated in precisely the same position in which 
 I had left him. His face was turned nearly towards us, and his body 
 slightly bent downwards, as he held on to the thongs of deer-skin at- 
 tached to a peg driven into the ground. The firelight shone full upon 
 his person, making a fair and easy target. 
 
 A slight movement was made by the group. I had hardly time to 
 see and comprehend it, when two rifles flashed almost simultaneously, 
 and the echoes of their sharp reports rolled through the woods. I saw 
 the trapper jump to his feet, raise his hand above his head and totter 
 backwards, and at the same instant the third Indian levelled his rifle at 
 him, but the skulking murderer was too slow in his motions ; with a kind 
 of sigh and a grunt he jumped a step or two forwards, his gun going 
 off at random, and fell dead with a charge of buck-shot through his body. 
 In the thousandth part of a second, and with an aim as calm and as sure 
 as ever pointed gun against whirring partridge or flitting quail, I gave 
 one of the other two the contents of my remaining barrel — he never 
 knew what killed him. Without pausing for a moment, I dashed forward 
 at the third fellow. He turned, jumped back a few feet, and clubbed his 
 unloaded rifle to receive me. Without making at first a downright blow, 
 against which, perhaps, he would have been upon his guard, and which, 
 from the imperfect light, might have exposed myself, had he too been 
 
KALOOLAH. 33 
 
 making a blow at the same time, I made a straight forward thrust, and 
 struck him a severe blow in the face. He staggered back, and before he 
 could recover himself, with an overhand slashing cut, I brought the heavy 
 barrels down upon his bare skull. He fell like a log. There was no need 
 of any questions. I knew that he was dead. I felt the bones crack and 
 crumble beneath the force of my blow. Without stopping a moment I 
 bounded on to our hut, there I saw a sight that for a moment completely 
 stupefied me. Joe had fallen backwards, his head resting, slightly raised, 
 against the upright of our hut, where leaned his rifle, and, to first appearance, 
 dead. A large portion of the left eyebrow was cut away and hung down 
 over the eye, and from the dangerous-looking wound the dark blood 
 slowly dribbled down over his face. A slight movement showed that there 
 was still some life left in him. I raised his head, and placed it in an easy 
 position, and felt his pulse, which was beating with wonderful rapidity, 
 but so faintly as to be almost imperceptible. In a moment he opened 
 his eyes, or rather eye, which gradually lightened with returning con- 
 sciousness. His lips moved — I put my ear close to his mouth — " Water," 
 he murmured. 
 
 In an instant I was myself again. I felt that it was no time for doubt 
 and indecision. The little medical knowledge that I had picked up by 
 stray reading, and visiting " doctor shops," was instantly available, and I 
 thought of' all the curious cases that I had heard of, where people had 
 been shot all to pieces and survived. " Never say die," thought I, and 
 with that vulgar but encouraging maxim almost on my lips, I jumped to 
 the lake and returned with a can of the fresh water. Joe took a draught 
 which revived him a little, while I set to and washed his face. Upon clean- 
 ing the wound, I found it did not present so formidable an appearance. 
 By passing my finger along through it, I found that the ball had glanced 
 obliquely above and through the eyebrow, but that the bone was not in- 
 jured, although the concussion had at first stunned him. I was preparing 
 to restore the flap and bind it up, when I became sensible that the old 
 man, who had again become unconscious, was lying in a pool of blood, 
 which had completely staturated his clothes on one side, and the ground 
 around him. The true cause of his exhaustion was revealed. The wound 
 in the head, as I had thought, was of no great consequence. He was d}'- 
 ing from loss of blood. There was no time to lose — I threw a few pine- 
 knots on the fire, turned Joe over on one side, and cut and tore the bloody 
 part of his clothes from him, in less time than it takes to tell of it. A 
 small wound, corresponding nearly to the intercostal space of the fifth and 
 sixth ribs, was slowly pouring forth the tide of life, already reduced to its 
 
34 KALOOLAH. 
 
 lowest ebb. I had no means of probing it, but I could feel, upon pressure, 
 the crepitation of the broken rib. Some indefinite ideas of internal bleed- 
 ing flashed through my mind, but, thought I, he may as well die from in- 
 ternal as external bleeding — the only thing that I can do is to plug the 
 wound. Tearing off a square piece of linen, I placed it over the wound 
 and forced the centre of it into the surface between the two ribs with the 
 point of my ramrod, making a kind of pouch, into which I continued to 
 cram small pieces of linen until I had distended it into a good and effi- 
 cient plug. This finished, I commenced clearing away the coagulated 
 clots, when, as I was passing my hand over his side, imagine my joy at 
 feeling a hard round substance, directly beneath the skin, and in a line 
 some six or eight inches backwards from the wound. I felt it again ; it 
 was clearly and decidedly a rifle ball. The case was now cleir ; it needed 
 no surgeon to make a correct diagnosis. The ball had not entered the 
 body, it had touched the lower end of the rib, fracturing it and rupturing 
 the intercostal artery, and glancing a little upwards, had slipped round 
 upon the bone, directly beneath the skin. " He '11 live ! I know he '11 
 live ! " I exclaimed, and as if in confirmation of my opinion, the old 
 trapper opened his eyes and exhibited signs of returning consciousness. 
 But much remained to be done. There, at a little distance, lay three 
 savages dead ! — killed by my own hand ! It seemed like a dream. I 
 could hardly believe it possible, and yet there was no room to doubt. 
 There were too many proofs of a fact, which, if I had read it in any of my 
 favorite romances, I should have thought improbable and exaggerated. 
 One, or at most two Indians would have been enough for any ordinary 
 hero of a novel. But three ! What a complete verification of the old 
 adage, that " truth is strange, stranger than fiction." I took a torch and 
 went to where they lay. Their contorted and stiffening forms, and con- 
 vulsed features, were far more fearful to look upon than they could have 
 been when alive and armed with the powers and energies of determined 
 malice. They looked as though they yet meditated revenge, and revenged 
 they assuredly would be as soon as their fate became known to their 
 friends in the neighborhood, unless something was done to baffle detection 
 or pursuit. Without Joe's assistance I could hardly expect to make 
 much resistance ; without his advice, I knew not what to do. I thought 
 of changing our camp ; but where could we go ? I thought of putting 
 my companion into the canoe and starting for home — but could he stand 
 so long a voyage ; and how could I get him round the rapids ? It would 
 kill him to carry him on my shoulders in his present state. I tried to 
 talk with him and get his opinion of the probable danger of attack from 
 
KALOOLAH. 35 
 
 other Indians, and as to the course we should pursue, but he was too ex- 
 hausted with loss of blood to comprehend even what I said, much less reply. 
 I was in a perfect quandary. It seemed as if every moment lost was as 
 much as our lives were worth, and I could not but look around upon the 
 tall shadowy trees, and fancy that I could almost hear the yells of a dozen 
 savages, leaping with brandished tomahawks from behind them. In such 
 a case I might perhaps escape by taking to the bush, but poor Joe ! his 
 little spark of life would be readily extinguished. 
 
 At this moment of my greatest perplexity, a thought of the cave Joe 
 had pointed out to me flashed upon my mind. It came like an inspiration 
 from Deity. I did not wait to think twice, and in less than twenty 
 minutes I had all our essential goods and chattels in the canoe. A few 
 leaves in the bottom of the boat, and our blankets folded on them, made 
 as comfortable a bed as any invalid could wish, and taking up Joe in my 
 arms, who really seemed light from loss of blood, I laid him so gently 
 upon it as hardly to extort a sigh. 
 
 Not a little relieved in my mind did I feel when I had pushed out 
 fairly into the lake. Steering as direct a course as I could, two hours' 
 paddling brought us to where the expanded water again contracted itself 
 to the narrow boundaries of the river. The range of tall black cliffs in 
 which I knew the cave to be, here commenced, but as it ran a distance of 
 several miles, I began to be afraid that I might have some difficulty in 
 finding the exact spot. Fortune, however, favored me, and I had not 
 gone much farther when my canoe ran almost bow-on the little island 
 lying before the cave. Gliding into the narrow and shallow channel 
 between the two, I soon succeeded in fastening the canoe to a small bush 
 directly beneath the ledge that concealed the entrance. Taking a pine- 
 knot and a tinder-box, I commenced climbing up to it, which, as the 
 moon was exceedingly fitful in her light, and as I could not recollect pre- 
 cisely the steps we had taken in the daytime, was more difficult than I 
 expected. Once up, I crept inside and struck a light. A few small bats 
 were at first a little startled by the intrusion, but besides these all was 
 quiet. The aspect of the place was eminently comfortable ; it was so dry 
 and clean, while the windings of the long, nearly level, and lofty saloon 
 put at rest all fear of the possibility of a light being seen from the 
 entrance. 
 
 But the next question was how to get Joe into it. However, I felt so 
 inspired by my success so far, that I considered that a minor difficulty, 
 which I was determined should not trouble me. I knew I could haul him 
 in easy enough, but my great care was to do it so as not to give him pain. 
 
36 KALOOLAH. 
 
 or again start the hemorrhage of his wound. This I contrived to accom- 
 pHsh by pulUng the corners of the blanket from beneath him, leaving him 
 in the middle of it, and bringing them up over him and tying them in a 
 firm knot. To this knot I attached a cord of deer-skin, and taking the 
 other end up to the ledge, with a good strong steady pull 1 brought the 
 blanket, with Joe in it, up to the ledge. A few low groans, which I heard 
 with almost positive pleasure, inasmuch as they showed there was still life 
 in him, a fact which I had more than once doubted as we were coming 
 down, were the only evidences of suffering in his rough ascent. Stretch- 
 ing him temporarily upon the softest-looking stone I could find, in a few 
 minutes I had a bed rigged for him, which, as Joe afterwards acknowl- 
 ledged, was " good enough for the president or the queen of England." 
 A few moments more I had all our goods hauled up, our canoe stowed 
 away in the bushes of the little island, and a good fire throwing around 
 its mellow light and sending up its smoke among the arches and crevices 
 of the cavern, disturbing no one but the bats, who soon found themselves 
 compelled to evacuate the premises. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 An Opportune Arrival — Return to the Village — Bad News — Jonathan Hurries Home — His 
 Mother's Death — A Spiritual Visitation. 
 
 [ OR three weeks we lived in these comfortable and secure quar- 
 ters, the old man gradually gaining strength, but still incapable 
 of any exertion. He had been so nearly exsanguinated that 
 his recovery was necessarily slow, although it isprobable that 
 but for the loss of blood inflammatory symptoms might have developed 
 themselves, that would have severely taxed my little stock of medical 
 science to treat. For three weeks we thus lived, and yet time did not 
 pass tardily. I had so much responsibility, so much to do, and so much 
 to think of, that the hours glided by with the greatest rapidity. 
 
 In the daytime I mostly stayed at home, except during two or three cau- 
 tious excursions for partridges and other small game, amusing myself as I 
 best might, preparing our meals, talking with Joe, or rather to him, for I 
 would not allow him to say much for fear of the wound in his side, and 
 walking up and down, building castles in the air, in every one of which 
 there was precisely such a nice, cozy, comfortable and secret cavern as ours- 
 In the night I sallied out for fuel and fish : on the other side of the little 
 island, in the main channel, there were plenty of rock-bass, perch, and 
 sunfish ; and towards some marshy ground on the opposite side of the 
 river, with an hour's bobbing I could half fill the canoe with eels. 
 
 The cooking afforded much occupation and amusement, and exercised 
 my ingenuity not a little. I took it into my head that Joe must have 
 soups of some kind, and boiled meats instead of roast ; but unfortunately 
 our tin can had become leaky, and our only other vessel was a small 
 wooden pail ; but by unstocking my rifle-barrel, closing up the vent, and 
 inserting the muzzle into an orifice cut into the side of the pail a little 
 above the level of the bottom, I contrived to make a machine that 
 answered every purpose. By inserting the gun-barrel, and putting the 
 other end in the fire, I had a capital soup pot ; on plugging up the orifice, I 
 had a water pail or a live-bait bucket. The best materials for soup I 
 
 37 
 
2,& KALOOLAH. 
 
 found, after several trials, were thin pieces of fish dried in the sun and 
 pounded up with a cracker. " How do you like that?" said I, as I fed the 
 first mess of it to Joe, with a piece of birch bark folded up for a spoon. 
 
 " Good ! " whispered Joe, " it goes right into my veins." 
 
 And then such a variety of soups as we had ! There was bass-soup — 
 pickerel-soup — mullet-soup — and eel-soup, with partridge and blackbird 
 broths, and I even attempted a number of experiments at flavoring them 
 with wintergreen, birch-bark, and sassafrass, some of which, I could not 
 but think were tolerably successful, although Joe allowed that he " rather 
 liked the plain soup the best." 
 
 It was the last evening of our third week that I was seated before the 
 fire busily engaged stringing worms for an eel-bob : Joe was stretched 
 upon his bed on the opposite side, and, as I supposed, in a sound sleep, 
 but upon looking up from my work I found his eyes fixed upon me with 
 the greatest intentness, and with a peculiar expression that induced me 
 to ask him if he wanted any thing. 
 
 " My God ! Mr. Jonathan," exclaimed Joe, " how can I ever repay 
 you ? " 
 
 " Repay me ! what for ? what do you mean ? " 
 
 " For all that you have done for me. Here, you have saved my life, 
 and have nursed and tended me just like a mother, and have fed me, and 
 what 's more have stayed here shut up in this old den, without a single 
 impatient look or gesture. I 've watched you all the time. But if I can't 
 repay you perhaps God will, and that 's some comfort." 
 
 " Pshaw ! Joe, don't talk foolish." 
 
 "There 's no foolishness about it. It must be tiresome. This aint 
 no place for a fellow as young and strong as you are, and 't is n't what I 
 bargained you should have, and I 'm not going to stand it any longer. 
 I 've been thinking of something. We may have to stay here three 
 weeks more before I shall be strong enough to walk round the long por- 
 tage, and you see my ribs want a little tinkering up by the doctors, and 
 that ball cut out of my back ; and besides that, our meal is all out, and 
 our crackers must be nearly gone, for I have noticed that you have not 
 eaten one for several days. Now, I can move about a little here and help 
 myself, and I think that the best plan is for you to lay in a pretty good 
 stock of wood and fish, and then take the canoe and start for the village. 
 We 've got a good moon now, and if you start just at sundown, and 
 paddle all night, you '11 be in the morning at the first rapids, and from 
 there you can easily get in town by three or four o'clock in the afternoon,' 
 and then you go right to Dan Wright who keeps the red wooden grocery 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 39 
 
 store, and tell him all about it, and he '11 get somebody with him and 
 start in ten minutes. He '11 be up here in two days, and then I can be 
 carried round the falls and reach home before the week is out." 
 
 Joe's proposition was debated pro and con, but, as it really appeared 
 the only feasible plan, and as he was perfectly confident of being able to 
 do his part, I at last, although with some reluctance, consented to it. 
 Fortunately, however, we were not compelled to put it into execution, 
 as the very next morning the means of escape from our confinement were 
 presented to us. 
 
 I had risen rather late, having been employed according to Joe's sug- 
 gestion during most of the night in laying in a good stock of wood and 
 eels, when, stepping to the mouth of the cave to take a look out, I saw a 
 canoe with two persons in it coming up the stream, I ran for my pocket 
 spy-glass, and soon ascertained that they were white men. 
 
 " Then they must be old Simmons and his son," said Joe, " there 's 
 no one else that would be coming up this way." 
 
 Satisfied that the old man was right, I got our canoe out from its 
 hiding-place, and paddled out into the main channel to meet them. They 
 were somewhat surprised at seeing me, and listened with not a little 
 interest and even uneasiness to my story. 
 
 "Well, I declare now, that 's monstrous bad," exclaimed old Simmons, 
 " why, the ugly critters might take a notion to have a shot at us." 
 
 " I should n't wonder," said I. " It would be far the safest plan for 
 you to turn round, and help me to get Mr. Downs down the river." 
 
 " Well, perhaps so, but where is he ? let 's see him, and see what he 
 says." 
 
 We ascended to the cave, when, after a little conversation with Joe, 
 the matter was arranged. A slight touch of anxiety as to the notions of 
 revenge the " ugly critters " might take into their heads quickening the 
 really kind and benevolent feelings of the new-comers, all was soon ready. 
 Joe was lowered into the canoe, and we started off. Arrived at the rapids, 
 we easily made a litter of two poles and a blanket, and carried him round. 
 In the afternoon of the third day we reached the village. Joe was at 
 once put in the -doctor's hands, who assured him that "he could n't have 
 been better treated, and that a few weeks more would make him as sound 
 and strong as ever. I, however, could not look after him any further, as 
 I found an urgent letter, which had been awaiting me for three or four 
 days, requiring me to come home immediately. " My mother," it stated, 
 " had suddenly been taken quite ill, very ill, indeed dangerously ill " ; and 
 I " must lose no time." 
 
40 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Early the next morning I had taken my seat on the mail-stage, and 
 was hurrying home as fast as the nature of the roads would admit, but at 
 a pace that seemed to me the very antithesis of speed. Going over the 
 ground as often as I,had at the commencement and end of our quarterly 
 vacations, I had formed quite an intimate acquaintance with the coach- 
 man ; so, seating myself on the box, I plied him with all manner of per- 
 suasives, not forgetting the brandy and water at the stopping-places, and 
 thus made out to get a mile or two an hour more out of his straining team. 
 
 Notwithstanding our haste we did not arrive at my native village until 
 quite late in the afternoon. As the coach had a number of passengers to 
 set down, I knew that I could reach home sooner on foot ; so jumping 
 from the box, I rushed onward with the speed of fear and hope. As I 
 came within sight of the house, a good many strange and unusual circum- 
 stances attracted my attention. The windows were all open, and I could 
 perceive that a number of people were moving about within. At the 
 •door and in the long low porch, where in early infancy I had so often 
 played bo-peep with my mother, through the foliage of the thick wood- 
 bine, and where later she so often sat and listened, with half a smile and 
 half a tear, to the legends I was so fond of reading to her, were several 
 persons silent and motionless, or if moving at all, with evidently cautious 
 steps. In the broad esplanade of green in front of the dwelling, or lean- 
 ing on the white paling, lined with the lilac, the rose, and the honey- 
 suckle, were several quiet groups gazing at the house with a subdued and 
 serious air that sent an icy chill through my beating heart. Some of 
 these were miserably clad — in rags — and had the wo-begone look that 
 poverty, superadded to ill-health, cannot fail to produce, but they were 
 the only natural or cheering part of the sight, for my mother I had been 
 accustomed to see surrounded, more than half her time, by the sick and 
 the poor. 
 
 I strode on across the green, and ascended the porch. An old friend 
 of my mother advanced and took my hand. I could not speak, but must 
 have looked the question, for he instantly replied, " She is living yet." 
 
 I passed on, and entered the sick room ; the doctor, nurse, and attend- 
 ing friends made way for me, and I stood by her side. My mother must 
 have heard and recognized my footstep, for her glazed eyes had been 
 already dimmed by the touch of death. Her hand extended itself 
 to greet me. I took it, and felt the feeble pressure of her small fingers 
 upon mine. A faint but happy smile played upon her lips ; they parted, 
 and gently, but distinctly, she murmured, " My son ! " The next moment 
 her features were fixed in the cold, hard rigidity of death. 
 
KALOOLAH. 41 
 
 Dead ! impossible ! It could not be ! It could not be that the 
 pleasant and beautiful world had been thus instantaneously palsied at a 
 single stroke— that the sun was for ever darkened, and that the moon 
 would no longer give her cheerful light— that the trees were withered, 
 and the grass faded, and all nature tinged with a black funereal hue of 
 grief and death ! 
 
 It could not be that life, to me so full of happiness and joy, had, at 
 one blow, been converted into a dismal and dreary blank — a voyage with- 
 out a haven — a pilgrimage without a shrine ! It could not be ! and yet it 
 was. There lay the remains of all that made the world a pleasure, life an 
 object, and even heaven a hope. 
 
 Oh ! the agony of that first night ! The darkness of my chamber was 
 comparative light to the intense thick blackness that seemed to fill my 
 brain, and to clog the pulses of my heart. I buried my head in the folds 
 of the pillow, compressed my beating temples with my hands, and strug- 
 gled, as if with a mighty and fearful demon, who, with a grasp upon my 
 throat, was crushing me to the ground. 
 
 The long night had nearly passed, when I was startled by a slight 
 noise in my apartment. It sounded like the passage of some light body 
 through the air, or like the gentle rustling of a leaf. I raised my head 
 from the bed on which I had thrown myself without undressing, and 
 listened. It came again. There was a low, slight murmur, and then my 
 mother's voice distinctly pronounced the words : 
 
 " My son ! my son ! " 
 
 The words seemed for a time to float upon the air, and then die away 
 with a cadence so reproachful, yet so sweet and mild, as to pierce the 
 deepest recesses of my heart. They ceased ! I raised myself from the 
 bed, and stretching forth my arms, exclaimed, " Mother ! mother ! speak 
 to me ! " But no answer was returned. All was silent, save the occa- 
 sional foot-fall of the watchers of the dead. 
 
 I know that all this can be easily and naturally explained as the effect 
 of imagination — as the mere fancy of a distempered and excited brain. 
 But, if dubiQUs about accepting such an explanation even now, I should 
 have scorned it at the time. The words^ — the tones, were too distinct — 
 too real. They fell upon my soul like oil upon the troubled waters ; or 
 like the voice of Him upon the billows of Gennesareth. 
 
 I rose and stood by the side of my mother's remains. I could gaze 
 upon them without feeling longer that utter prostration of soul, that in- 
 tense and desperate anguish. I knew that that lifeless clay was not my 
 mother; it was something that once appertained to her, and therefore 
 
42 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 sacred — something that she had used and had discarded, while she her- 
 self was still with me and around me. I felt perfectly calm — almost 
 happy in the thought, and I acted as I felt ; so much so as to excite 
 remark. On the day of the funeral I overheard one of the spectators say, 
 
 " Well, he seems to take it mighty easy." 
 
 What answer, if I had wished to answer it, could I have made to such 
 an observation ? Have told them, as I then firmly believed, that that was 
 not my mother they were bearing to the tomb, that she still remained in 
 the old home, had visited me in my chamber, had spoken to me ; I should 
 have been met with an almost universal smile of derision and contempt. 
 Fools ! fools who thus dare to dogmatize upon the awful and mysterious 
 possibilities of the spiritual world. 
 

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 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Commences the Study of Medicine — Medicine and its Professors — The Doctors in Doubt — A 
 Grave Incident — Flight of Jonathan — Arrival in ^ew York — Meets an Old Friend — A 
 Youngster on the Main-Gaff — An Opportune Offer — Sailing of the Lively Anne. 
 
 [OW aptly has time been termed " The Consoler." " The De- 
 stroyer " is hardly more appropriate, for surely he relieves as 
 much distress as he causes ; cures as many wounds as he inflicts. 
 I could not but continue to mourn my mother's death, but time, 
 in his rapid flight, had brought so many new scenes, and thoughts, and 
 feelings, that in a few short weeks I found, much to my surprise, that the 
 keen edge of grief had become materially blunted. I was not only sur- 
 prised, but ashamed — ashamed that I could not keep up the strong sense 
 of woe — ashamed that I could allow any of the objects or interests of life 
 to drive her image, for a moment, from my mind. I thought there must 
 be something wrong in my moral constitution, and that I deserved to be 
 looked upon by all with that contempt that I felt for myself. 
 
 She was so much more than a mere mother to me — a friend and com- 
 panion : one who took, or with the most delicate tact affected to take, an 
 interest in all my boyish sports and occupations — seldom directly oppos- 
 ing my wishes and inclinations, but adroitly curbing and directing them. 
 How well I could recollect numberless instances of that kind of gentle 
 leading and guiding, which, at the time, I did not perceive or understand ! 
 How many instances, too, of the sacrifice of her feelings and taste to a 
 jealous anxiety for my safety and welfare. 
 
 Alas for my sensibility and feeling ! it was but a very few weeks after 
 her decease that I began, as I have said, to take a renewed interest in the 
 affairs of life. In this, however, respect for her expressed wishes actuated 
 me, and, when joined to the solicitations of my guardian and friends, and 
 the desire for sonie kind of agreeable and useful occupation, induced me to 
 enter upon a course of medical study. I had but little idea that I should 
 ever carry my professional knowledge into practice, but the study itself 
 was sufficiently enticing, and soon it absorbed every faculty of my mind. 
 
 There is so much in the science of medicine and its collateral branches 
 
 43 
 
44 KALOOLAH. 
 
 to gratify the noblest, as well as the meanest and most prurient curiosity, 
 that it is no wonder that young men take to it with an avidity and en- 
 thusiasm that the students of other professions seldom feel. There is 
 none of the aridity complained of in the law^ — none of the dulness and 
 formality of theology. Every thing is new, fresh, and interesting. The 
 most fertile portion of the broad field of nature is thrown open, wherein 
 lie hidden the most recondite secrets — the most curious mysteries. Anat- 
 omy reveals the structure of that wonderful machine, which, in point of 
 complexity, yet perfect adjustment and adaptation of parts, so infinitely 
 surpasses the most ingenious products of the mechanician's skill ; Physi- 
 ology, the vital functions and the intricate laws of life ; and Pathology, 
 the organic lesions — the changes of structure — the wear and tear of the 
 animal machine. Chemistry and Materia Medica are broad paths to the 
 very arcana of nature ; a little rough, perhaps, at first, but paved with the 
 gems of science and strewn with the flowers of truth. As the student 
 advances, the path grows more and more pleasant and picturesque, dis- 
 closing, at each step, new scenes to stimulate curiosity or reward toil. 
 The Institutes and History of Medicine furnish themes for the profoundest 
 reflections, subjects for the most refined philosophic analysis, and incite- 
 ments to the most engrossing application. The student, as he advances, 
 ascends ; his views grow more and more comprehensive ; his mental vision 
 takes in the vast materials of a long-continued and copious induction. 
 He finds that there is much truth mingled with much error, but he learns 
 to distinguish between the two ; he learns to separate the logical deduc- 
 tions from the vagaries of theory, the prejudices of ignorance, or the 
 perversions of craft. He learns to estimate at their proper value the pre- 
 tensions of charlatans and the crudities of professional humbugs, who take 
 advantage of that quality of the human mind that disposes it to believe 
 any thing, if it is sufficiently improbable, to foist upon the world some 
 miserable but fortunately short-lived delusion. He sees that there always 
 have been, and probably always will be, such pretenders, and that they 
 always have had, and always will have their dupes, who greedily swallow 
 as new and important discoveries what are oftentimes nothing more than 
 the exploded quackeries of ignorant antiquity. But amid all, he sees the 
 pure stream of science welling from its fountain in Cos — for centuries 
 after the time of Hippocrates, receiving scarce an addition, — now gradu- 
 ally and slowly enlarging its current, steadily winding its way in despite 
 of all obstacles, and mirroring in its waters the very image of truth — 
 truth often indemonstrable from the nature of its essence, and often 
 incommunicable to the vulgar from its form, but still truth. He feels a 
 
KALOOLAH. 45 
 
 pride in his profession, the ground of which the uninitiated cannot appre- 
 ciate or understand. He feels a confidence, too, that, although the 
 creduHty of a portion of the pubhc, like the stomach of the ostrich, rejects 
 nothing, however crude, the majority of the intelligent classes will ever 
 believe, that a man of clear head and thorough education, who practises 
 the received principles of his profession, and combines with his personal 
 observation the experience of ages, is full as likely to form correct opinions 
 and give correct advice, as any seventh son of a seventh son, however 
 ignorant ; or any crotchety German enthusiast, however wild. 
 
 The time for the commencement of the winter course of lectures 
 approaching, I repaired to the medical college, at New York, where I at 
 first found that every thing did not appear invested with the rose-tints in 
 which my imagination had luxuriated — that there was much in the study 
 of medicine that was disagreeable, much that was downright disgusting. 
 This however was, in the main, but a transient impression. It soon van- 
 ished after a little familiarity with the subject. It could not long co-exist 
 with that intense professional curiosity which induces men, intended by 
 nature for physicians, to fight with the worms of the charnel-house, their 
 way to knowledge, through the most disgusting masses of putrefying 
 humanity. It could not withstand the contagious recklessness of a medi- 
 cal class. 
 
 At the close of the lectures I returned to the village, bringing with 
 me some little experience in metropolitan life, and an increased enthusi- 
 asm for professional study. 
 
 " How is Smith's child ? " inquired Doctor H , the younger part- 
 ner of Doctor S , as the latter entered the office. 
 
 " Dead. He died about half an hour since." 
 
 " I thought so," was the reply. " I knew last night that he could n't 
 live twenty-four hours." 
 
 The child spoken of was a boy of ten or twelve years of age, and the 
 son of quite an influential, but ignorant and bigoted man, who was noted 
 for his illiberal opposition to any and every one whom he suspected of 
 having pretensions to more knowledge or influence than himself. The 
 boy had been sick some time with a curious and novel form of dis- 
 ease, which had sorely taxed the skill and science of our preceptors. The 
 indications had been investigated and the pathognomic circumstances 
 watched and compared, with a degree of care and anxiety common 
 enough in medical practice, but for which the profession seldom receive 
 any credit, but from the peculiar difficulties of the case, no positive con- 
 clusion, as to the exact seat and nature of the complaint, had been arrived 
 
46 KALOOLAH. 
 
 at. The symptoms were almost wholly referable to an anomalous lesion 
 of the brain, but the physicians were strongly of opinion that the original 
 cause was some irritation of the digestive organs, which had contrived to 
 mask itself and simulate an affection of the head. 
 
 " I suppose they will let us examine him " said Dr. H . 
 
 " That they will not," replied Doctor S " I have had a talk with 
 
 them about it, and strongly urged the necessity of an autopsy. The 
 mother is quite willing, in fact she wishes it, but the stupid old fool of a 
 father politely informed me that he 'd see me and all the profession 
 further first." 
 
 " That 's very unfortunate." 
 
 " Provoking is n't it ? " 
 
 " Too bad ! too bad ! Can't something be done ? " and the two doctors 
 looked each other full in the eyes for some time with a peculiar wistful 
 inquiring expression, which struck me as rather comical. 
 
 " No, no," said Doctor S , as he turned off with a sigh and a shake 
 
 of the head. " I 've done every thing I could — the father won't give his 
 consent — if I was thirty years younger that would n't make much differ- 
 ence — but now — I 'm too old. I wish I was a medical student ! " 
 
 " I 'd give a hundred dollars for a chance at a post-mortem of that 
 case," said Doctor H . " When is the child to be buried ? " 
 
 " To-morrow afternoon." 
 
 "A hundred dollars," muttered Dr. H again, unconsciously. 
 
 " And I 'd give twice the sum," replied Doctor S . 
 
 " You need n't give yourselves any trouble about it," said I to myself. 
 " I '11 see what I can do for you," and beckoning to the only one of the 
 students in whose energy and courage 1 had any confidence, I left the 
 room. 
 
 "What do you think?" said I, as soon as we were outside of the 
 office. 
 
 " We can't have a better chance." 
 
 " You 're right, and we must improve it ; but we can't trust any of our 
 fellow-students till after it is over. If we should say any thing to them 
 about it, the whole town would know what an astonishing feat was con- 
 templated ; if they did not tell it, they would look so frightened that 
 every one would see there was something in the wind." 
 
 Punctual to the hour, we took up our line of march for the graveyard, 
 which was almost a mile distant, and completely buried in the woods. 
 The moon had gone down, leaving a somewhat cloudy sky ; but still 
 there was sufficient starlight to reveal the masses of thick foliage, with 
 
KALOOLAH. 47 
 
 black, giant-looking trunks, and the uncouth shadowy branches of the 
 trees. But why enter into a minute account of an adventure which, with 
 many, will excite disagreeable associations, and which I should not allude 
 to at all were it not for the lasting influence it has had upon my destiny. 
 Suffice it to say, that in silence, save a few whispered sentences, we made 
 our way to the grave, which had been previously examined and marked, 
 so that we could readil}- find it in the dark, when we should come to 
 restore the little one to his resting-place. 
 
 Arrived at the ofifice, of which we had taken the precaution to secure 
 a key, we stealthily entered, and secreted our prize in a little unoccupied 
 attic. This done, the door carefully secured, we betook ourselves each 
 to his home and to bed. 
 
 To bed, but not to sleep. I was altogether too inexperienced in the 
 art of body-snatching for that. I tossed and tumbled about as wakeful 
 and as restless as if I had been dining with a party of ghouls, and the 
 charnel-house viands had produced a fit of indigestion. I felt not so 
 much remorse, but the dread of detection came strong upon me. I had 
 an overwhelming presentiment that the result of the affair would be ex- 
 ceedingly disagreeable. 
 
 The morning came ; but it brought no relief. It seemed as though 
 the night's exploit must be already publicly known ; and as I sneaked 
 along to the office I fancied that every one whom I encountered looked 
 at me with a peculiarly inquisitive and suspicious glance. I would have 
 given worlds that the deed had been left undone, especially as the worst 
 of it was still to come, and that was to make it known to the principals 
 of the ofifice. How would they receive the news? What would they 
 say ? What would they do ? I began to have strong doubts of the mean- 
 ing that I had attributed to their remark of the day before ; and my fel- 
 low-student I found in an equal degree of perplexity. Several times I 
 
 attempted to broach the subject to Dr. H , as the one least likely to 
 
 find fault with our performance, but as often the slightest word or cir- 
 cumstance would be sufificient to turn me from the point, and the day 
 passed in doubt and indecision. The next day came, and with it a firm 
 determination to know the worst ; but before I could get a chance to 
 talk about it with either of our preceptors, circumstances transpired which 
 saved me the trouble, and put an end for ever to my professional career. 
 
 It was just as Dr. S was getting into his gig to visit a distant 
 
 patient, whose case I knew to be urgent, that I saw Squire D- , one of 
 
 the justices of the peace, come up to him and speak a few words, which 
 seemed strongly to excite the doctor's attention. A feeling of apprehen- 
 
48 KALOOLAH. 
 
 sion came over me, which was still further increased, when after a short 
 conversation, the doctor refastened his horse, and the two entered the 
 office, retiring to a private room, and carefully shutting the door. At 
 any other time the circumstance would have excited no remark ; but just 
 then it had a most portentous aspect, and I awaited the result of the con- 
 ference with the profoundest conviction that the subject of it was the 
 cold and silent tenant that we had introduced to the attic room. 
 
 In a few minutes I had confirmation strong — the door opened, and the 
 doctor called me in. 
 
 " Do you know any thing about these articles ? " said he, pointing to a 
 splinter of mahogany and a small piece of linen that were lying on the table. 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 " Come, come ! — be quick ! A nice scrape you 've got yourself into, 
 and, if you want to get out of it, there 's no time to lose. John told me 
 that you came into the office night before last with a bundle in your arms, 
 and old Jackson, coming through the graveyard, picked up these things 
 alongside of the grave of Smith's child. He handed them to our friend 
 here ; but several other persons know of it, and a good deal of suspicion 
 is excited. As soon as it comes to Smith's ears the grave will be exam- 
 ined, a formal complaint made, and a search-warrant issued, and then we 
 shall be in a devilish pretty mess." 
 
 I saw that the game was all up, and that I might as well tell the whole 
 
 story. Doctor H was called in, my guardian and the friends of my 
 
 companion sent for, and a consultation held as to the best means of 
 escaping the consequences of our ill-advised and ill-conducted perform- 
 ance. It was decided that, to exonerate themselves, the doctors should 
 lay a regular information before the justice of the peace, who would be 
 in no hurry t© act upon it, and that towards evening, two young men, 
 carefully disguised, should be rowed with an appearance of mystery to 
 the Canada side of the St. Lawrence, while my fellow-student should be 
 despatched to some distant relatives, and I should start for New York. 
 This would lead to the belief that we had gone to Canada, and, in a short 
 time, it was expected, some compromise could be made, and the affair 
 entirely blow over. 
 
 Acting upon this plan, I made my way, by a circuitous route to the 
 high road, at a point some distance from the town, and awaited the 
 arrival of Dr. H , who came along in his gig, and taking me up, car- 
 ried me on to the next village, where I was to take a seat in the mail- 
 stage as it past through. 
 
 I took my seat in the coach in no pleasant frame of mind; but the nil 
 
KALOOLAH. 49 
 
 desperafidum principle, which was constitutionally a favorite with me, soon 
 regained its influence, and I began to think that a trip to the great city, 
 under any circumstances, could hardly fail to be agreeable. In four days' 
 staging, canalling, and steaming, during which I had ample time to reflect 
 upon the prominent events of my life, which in less than a year had fol- 
 lowed each other with so much rapidity, I arrived in New York ; but 
 until I had fairly set foot upon Cortlandt Street quay, I could hardly be- 
 lieve that I had not been all the time in a dream. I found the utmost 
 difficulty in impressing myself with a " realizing sense" of my position and 
 prospects. Events so important, and apparently so improbable, had hap- 
 pened so easily and so naturally, that I was almost inclined to think that 
 they had not happened at all. I pondered over my adventure with Joe 
 — from whom, by-the-by, I had received a letter, informing me that he 
 had recovered from his wound, and that the Indians having returned to 
 their homes in Canada without saying any thing about our adventure, it 
 had ceased to be talked of, and would in a short time be forgotten ; and 
 I thought of the death of my mother, of my medical course and of my 
 body-snatching performance, until I had almost thought myself into 
 quite a distressing state of dubitation as to my personal identity. 
 
 The first two days after my arrival were passed in calling upon a few 
 friends, looking up some college acquaintances who resided in the city, and 
 visiting my former haunts, the infirmaries, hospitals, and museums. On the 
 third, at an early hour, I repaired to the post-office, and received, as I 
 
 expected, several letters — one from Dr. H , one from my guardian, 
 
 and one from my fellow-students. But what was my disappointment and 
 consternation at their contents ! They were ail of the same tenor and to 
 the effect that the affair had become public, and had produced infinitely 
 more excitement than had been anticipated ; that the father and family 
 were perfectly implacable ; that old Smith, enraged at what he considered 
 a gross insult to his standing and position in society, was determined to 
 pursue the case to the utmost ; that he had, somehow, got information 
 that I had not gone to Canada, and that he was about to offer a large 
 reward for my apprehension ; that this would stimulate the activity of the 
 city police, and I would certainly be arrested unless I got out of the 
 country immediately. For this purpose a draft was enclosed by my 
 guardian, which I was directed to get turned into a bill upon Liverpool, 
 London, or Havre, or any place to which the first packet should sail. It 
 was particularly and repeatedly urged that I should be quick in my 
 movements, as my enemies were in earnest, and their operations would 
 be pushed with vigor and decision. 
 
50 KALOOLAH. 
 
 I had turned into the large and splendid refectory in the neighborhood 
 of the post-office, and seated myself in a corner to read my letters. The 
 room began gradually to fill with hungry and thirsty customers, and to 
 resound with a confused babble of sounds, many of which would have 
 puzzled any one but an American, however well acquainted with the 
 English language, to understand. From one side came loud and frequent 
 calls for certain familiar eatables, such as sandwiches, buckwheat cakes, 
 mince pie, and cranberry tarts ; while from the other proceeded certain 
 cabalistic exclamations, quite unintelligible to me, such as " dodger," 
 " smasher," " whiskey-skin," and " gin-doodle," with an occasional sten- 
 torian invitation "to take something," and the kind inquiry "what '11 
 you have?" The confusion, however, disturbed me but little, as I sat 
 abstracted, pondering upon the contents of my letters and the course of 
 conduct marked out for me. 
 
 My revery was interrupted by a heavy hand upon my shoulder. I 
 started and turned, expecting to meet nothing less than the visage of 
 that renowned impersonation of prehensile acuteness — the Vidocq of New 
 York — old Hays. But I was agreeably surprised to find only the rough, 
 but good-natured face of an old acquaintance, Captain Coffin, who had 
 formerly commanded, in my father's service, a schooner upon Lake 
 Ontario, and who had several times visited the St. Lawrence, since his 
 death. The captain was a short, thick-set man, with a dark sunburnt 
 countenance, but with a heart big enough for a giant, and as pure and as 
 soft as a child's. A thorough seaman, with a good deal of general infor- 
 mation, and as generous as that often-quoted model of generosity, " a 
 prince," he was one of the class of men who have done so much honor 
 to our mercantile marine ; having elevated the character of the merchant- 
 captain to a level with that of the officers of our national service. 
 
 " Jonathan Romer, as I 'm alive ! " he exclaimed. " How do you do? 
 How long have you been in town ? What is the news ? Here, Captain 
 Folger," speaking to his companion, " I '11 make you acquainted with 
 Jonathan Romer, son of your old master, Seth Romer. Captain Folger, 
 Jonathan." 
 
 " Chip of the old block, aint he, captain ? My stars, how he has 
 grown ! When I first knew him he was n't more than so high, and now 
 just see what a tall fellow, full six feet in the clear, and as tough and as 
 withy as a young hickory. Do you recollect, Jonathan, your ride upon 
 the main-gaff? I '11 tell you how it was, Captain Folger. The schooner 
 that I commanded had just got in from her trip up the lake, when Captain 
 Romer, my owner, came on board, bringing this youngster, then not 
 
KALOOLAH. 51 
 
 much over three years old, with him. The fore- and main-sails had been 
 hauled up ; the crew had most of them strolled ashore, and the captain 
 and I went down into the cabin to look over some papers. In a few min- 
 utes his father missed Jonathan, and we ran up on deck but could n't see 
 any thing of him. ' Jonathan ! ' sung out the captain, as if he was hailing 
 to windward in a hurricane. ' Here I am, father,' squeaked a voice right 
 overhead. We looked up, and there was the young monkey astride of 
 the main-gaff, and holding on to the peak halHards. The vangs had n't 
 been hauled taut, and the gaff was swinging about, and every now and 
 then bringing up with a jerk that would have sent a cat with ten claws 
 flying. I '11 tell you what, if no one ever saw Seth Romer turn pale or 
 tremble before, they might have seen him then. He could n't speak, and 
 I was glad of it, for I did n't want to startle or frighten the boy. I jumped 
 and took in the slack of the vangs. ' Hold on tight,' said I, ' until I come 
 up and help you down.' ' No,' said he, ' I '11 come down myself,' and 
 before I could say a word he slewed himself under the gaff, got hold of 
 the vang, and came down by the run as neatly as ever you saw a fellow 
 slide down a backstay. ' How on earth did you get up there ? ' said I, for 
 I was puzzled. We had n't missed him more than five minutes. There 
 were no ratlines to our main rigging, and there was an uncommon hoist 
 to the main-sail ; besides, the throat halliards had been slackened a little, 
 and the gaff peaked up considerably more than half-way between nothing 
 at all and a church steeple. ' How on earth did you get up there? ' 'Oh, 
 I creeped up them ropes, and then I creeped down them ropes, and I 
 creeped out on that big stick ' 
 
 " ' Yes, and I '11 teach you how to creep out of my sight next time,' 
 said his father, untwisting a nice nettle from a piece of inch-and-half. 
 
 " ' No, no,' said I, ' you must pardon him this time ; he won't do so 
 again. Why, captain,' said I to him aside, ' you might flog him for a week, 
 you could n't flog it out of him — it 's in his blood; he '11 know the ropes 
 yet.' ' God forbid,' said the captain ; ' but was n't it beautiful ? ' 
 
 " But come, Jonathan. What 's the news? " 
 
 Captain Folger taking his leave, we drew our chairs to one side, and 
 entered into a long and circumstantial conversation, in the course of which 
 I explained to Captain Cofifin the business that had brought me to New 
 York, and showed him the letters which I had just received. 
 
 " Well, I declare now," said he, as he finished reading them, " it 's the 
 luckiest thing in the world." 
 
 "What is the luckiest thing?" I demanded, somewhat surprised at 
 his tone and words. 
 
52 K ALGOL AH. 
 
 " Why, that I happened to meet you," he replied. " I 've got one of 
 the finest foretopsail schooners you ever saw, and she 's all ready loaded 
 with staves and a few boards for the Western Islands. I did not intend 
 to sail until day after to-morrow ; but I guess I can make my arrange- 
 ments to get off to-morrow morning. You shall go along with me. It 
 will be just fifty chances to one that we shall have to go on to Malaga to 
 dispose of our cargo and take in a load of dried fruit and wine. You '11 
 have a first-rate chance to practise your Spanish with the Malaga sefloras." 
 
 Nothing of course could have been more agreeable or better timed 
 than the captain's proposition, and I at once addressed- myself withactivi-. 
 ty to the required preparations. The rest of the day was just sufificient 
 to finish several letters, and make the necessary purchases of clothing, 
 nautical charts, quadrant, spy-glass, etc., with some fifty volumes of 
 miscellaneous books, consisting principally of old voyages and travels 
 from the shelves of the street book-stands. Early the next morning I 
 \>ci'a.x^&6.Xh& Lively Anne, just as she had commenced pulling out from 
 the dock. The sails were soon hoisted and shifted well aft, and we 
 commenced working down the bay against a wind that compelled us to 
 make several tacks. Upon rounding fairly into the ofifing the wind 
 became more free, and the Lively Anne bounded off at a rate that soon 
 sank the highlands of Jersey below the edge of the distant horizon, 
 leaving me for the first time shut in by the blue concave, upon the foam 
 flecked expanse of the restless, heaving sea. Who that has ever ventured 
 forth upon the great deep but will recollect, if he cannot describe, the 
 whirl of contending emotions with which for the first time he has seen 
 the blue vault of ether resting in uninterrupted union upon that 
 
 " Glorious mirror, where tli' Almighty's form 
 Glasses itself in tempests," 
 
 or listened to the deep tones of 
 
 " The strongest of creation's sons. 
 That rolls the wild, profound, eternal bass 
 In nature's anthem," 
 
 ^"^^^^^^^iiSf^^^^ 
 

 s 
 
 ^^s 
 
 '*^^7' ^**®-^*aV^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 j^^cJ^^"^^^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 At Sea — Motions and Emotions — A Boat Afloat — Jonathan's Verses and the Captain's Pun — A 
 Critique on Lycidas — Corvo and Floras — Arrival at Fayal — The Town of Orta — Sailors and 
 Discipline — Marine Tartars — A Last Look at the Peak — A White Sqnall, or a Water-Spout 
 — A Capsize. 
 
 'Y emotions were cut short by certain queer feelings in the epi- 
 gastric region, which warned me of a very common circumstance 
 in a first voyage, that I had left out entirely in all my calcula- 
 tions of the pleasures of the sea. Although I had inherited a 
 taste for the bounding billows, I had by no means inherited an immunity 
 
 " Much shattered and contained no one." 
 
 from their nauseating influence. Disappointed and indignant, I had to 
 take to my berth with such a distressing gyration of the brain, such a 
 combination of disgusting tastes in my mouth, and such a complete pros- 
 tration of all mental and physical power, that I would have given worlds 
 for the use of the smallest possible portion of terra firma for an hour. 
 
 53 
 
54 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Early in the morning of the sixth day out, it was announced that there 
 was something hke a boat in sight. We altered our course a little and, 
 when near enough, discovered, as it inclined upon the side of a wave, that 
 it was much shattered and that it contained no one. We stood on, how- 
 ever, and picked it up for firewood. When hauled out of the water a 
 " school " of little rudder fish, which had been playing in and about the 
 boat, took up their quarters directly beneath the stern of the schooner, 
 whence I amused myself in transferring them to the " doctor's "' 
 frying-pan. Conjecture was of course busy in my brain, as to how and 
 why this boat was abroad in the middle of the Atlantic, and I persisted 
 in boring Captain Cofifin with all manner of supposable cases. 
 
 " Oh, no, there is no ground for your conclusions," said the captain, 
 quite unconscious of the fact that he had perpetrated a very tolerable 
 pun. 
 
 But I would n't give it up so. In fancy, I saw a distressing shipwreck, 
 with all the attending circumstances ; and, returning to my berth, I com- 
 posed some verses, in which largely figured a young husband — who, from 
 having forgotten the name I then chose, I will now call John Smith — and 
 his interesting wife and children. John was hastening home after a long 
 absence, with feelings of unabated affection, and Mrs. Smith was expecting 
 his return with tears of hope and fear. But Smith is dead, " dead ere his 
 prime! young John Smith!" Oh, Smith ! 
 
 " It was that fated and perfidious bark, 
 Built ill the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, 
 That sunk so low that sacred head of thine." 
 
 " There," said I to the captain, " what do you think of that ? " show- 
 ing him my elegiac attempt. 
 
 " Why, I think," he replied, carefully conning over the lines, " think 
 that Mrs. Smith's tears are all in my eye, and that her children, like beg- 
 gars' babies, are borrowed for the occasion. That boat shipped a little 
 water, and broke from her davits ; and that 's all about it. Such things 
 happen every day. But what is the meaning of this motto you 'vegot 
 here at the head — ' rigged with curses dark ' ? I don't understand that. 
 If it was ' loaded with curses dark ' there would be some sense in it. I 
 recollect a case in point. It was said that old Commodore Ben Swain 
 never required any ballast, because he could curse his ship's hold full of 
 oaths, and bring her down to her heavy-load line in less than five min- 
 utes ; but rigging a ship with curses is a different matter. To be sure, 
 you can rattle 'em 07it fast enough ; but how can you rattle 'em down f " 
 
KALOOLAH. 55 
 
 " Land ho ! " cut short the captain's criticism upon Milton's famous 
 ■elegy. It proved to be the islands of Corvo and Floras, the most west- 
 erly of the Azores, or Western Islands. Corvo, a smalf rocky island, so 
 named from its resemblance to a crow, and on which it is said was 
 found by the first visitors, some time before the discovery of America, 
 an equestrian statue, with a hand pointing to the west, was too far to 
 the north of us for a distinct view. Flores we saw more distinctly. 
 Passing within a few miles of it we could plainly perceive the masses of 
 volcanic rock of which it is composed. As far inland as the eye could 
 reach along the verdant ravines and gorges the land appeared to be in 
 the highest state of cultivation. Every foot of the meagre soil seemed 
 to have been wrested by the hand of industry from the dominion of 
 nature, and made to subserve the interests of a poor, ignorant, super- 
 stitious, but honest and hard-working, population. We all concluded 
 from the distant, but tolerably distinct view that we had of it, that Flores 
 must be worthy of its name — the island of flowers. 
 
 Passing by Flores we saw the next morning in the distance the island 
 of Fayal, and about four in the afternoon we rounded the high point 
 which juts out on one side of the harbor or roadstead of Orta, and came 
 all at once in full view of the town. Orta, with its white-washed stone 
 buildings, and, interspersed, the towers and steeples of churches and con- 
 vents, presents a brilliant and interesting aspect from the sea; but upon 
 landing the illusion is soon dissipated, as is generally the case with all 
 Spanish, Portuguese, or African towns. Dilapidated buildings, narrow, 
 dirty streets, and a forlorn-looking population give token of ignorance, 
 superstition, and misgovernment. The situation of the town is exceed- 
 ingly beautiful, lying along the base of a steep range of volcanic hills, 
 which rise from the shore to the height of a thousand feet, and enclose it on 
 three sides ; it has spread before it the roadstead, in which are frequently 
 displayed the flags of our American whalers, who visit it for vegetable 
 supplies ; and across the harbor, at the distance of five or six miles, the 
 island of Pico, from which shoots up, to the height of seven or eight thou- 
 sand feet, one of the most beautiful natural objects in the world. It is a 
 perfectly symmetrical, conical mountain, called the " Peak," occupying 
 nearly the whole of the small island to which it gives its name ; and rising, 
 as it were, directly from the sea, the eye commands every foot of the ac- 
 clivity, and takes in at one glance the whole of its beautiful proportions. 
 Frequently a great part of the scenic effect of a lofty mountain is lost 
 from the irregularity of the base and the difificulty of determining at 
 what point the mountain commences. In this case there is no uncer- 
 
S6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tainty, and the whole elevation is at once attributed to the magnificent 
 cone, which rears its lofty apex far into the region of the clouds, which in 
 a thousand fantastic and ever-varying shapes wreath their vapory forms 
 around it. 
 
 Upon landing we were politely welcomed by the American consul, and 
 conducted to his house, where I was received with unexpected kindness 
 and attention, and invited to take up my quarters while I remained, an 
 invitation which I was unfortunately able to avail myself of for only one 
 night, as Captain Coffin soon ascertained that his staves, which were in- 
 tended for the Pico wine — large quantities of which are obtained from 
 the vineyards on the slopes of the Peak, and exported from Fayal to the 
 United States, — were not in demand, and that he must seek a market in 
 some other port. 
 
 Sound and sweet was the first night's sleep in a foreign land. Once in 
 the night the loud bray of a donkey directly beneath my window broke 
 in on my slumbers, but the interruption was far from being unpleasant. 
 I had never heard a donkey's voice before, and I was somewhat startled 
 and astonished, and quite delighted. It was really spirit-stirring. It 
 spoke in deep and, as I thought, melodious tones of a thousand things 
 new, strange, foreign, and exciting. I longed to hear it again, but the 
 stupid beast, with the perversity of his nature, refused to gratify me. 
 Perhaps, however, in this I do him, as the world has ever done his kind, 
 injustice. Could he have known how much I wished to hear his tuneful 
 voice once more, it may be that he would have pitched his pipes to their 
 most sonorous key. But he was ignorant of my feelings, and, vainly 
 waiting and wishing, I sunk again to sleep. 
 
 Taking a hint from the sun, I arose, and in company with some mem- 
 bers of the consular family descended to the gardens and extensive 
 orangeries, devoted to the supply of a good portion of the fruit of 
 the English market. Coming from the cold latitudes of the St. Law- 
 rence, where nature's feeble hortulan efforts had received but little 
 assistance from the ingenuity of man, I enjoyed to ecstasy the colors, 
 perfumes, and motions of the affluent vegetation. The garden of 
 what was the old American consulate I was prepared to admire, from 
 the descriptions of several travellers, who had particularly noticed it 
 in their accounts of the Western Islands. I found it small, consisting 
 of several terraces upon the side of a hill, but well laid out and beautifully 
 cultivated. There, in friendly contiguity, were growing the fruits 
 and flowers of almost every clime — the camphor, coffee, ginger, cinna- 
 mon ; the orange, lime, lemon, banana, and dragon tree, with the aloe. 
 
KALOOLAH. 5; 
 
 peach, plum, fig, and the passion-flower, with its delicious pendulous 
 fruit ; and a hundred others were all grouped in this delightful spot. 
 Of flowers there was a great variety of the most magnificent kinds — 
 roses', dahKas, hydrangias, heliotropes, honeysuckles, japonicas, and 
 some splendid specimens of the cactus. I have since seen many of those 
 trees and flowers in their native climes, and under skies more con- 
 genial to their habits and constitutions, but never in the profusest 
 luxuriance of their favorite abodes have they seemed to me as beau- 
 tiful as then. For a blissful hour I revelled in their morning sweets, 
 forgetful of the past, and happily unconscious of the dreary doom 
 impending over my head. 
 
 " Hurrah for Malaga! " exclaimed Captain Coffin, jumping upon the 
 deck of the Lively Anne. " Up with the anchor, Mr. Sims — we '11 get 
 under weigh immediately ! " 
 
 " Aye ! aye, sir ! " responded the mate. " Is the cargo of fruit 
 coming on board ? " pointing to a boat-load of apricots, figs, 
 plums, and melons that I had brought off with me. " Very well, sir," 
 he continued, receiving an affirmative reply. " If it will only keep till it 
 is all eaten, there would be no fear of scurvy for one six months, but I 
 should n't like to insure the ship against cholera morbus. Come ! bustle 
 about, men. Hitch on the boat falls, and rouse her in. Do you hear? 
 
 stir, your d d lazy stumps. Ship the windlass bars — heave away — 
 
 heave with a will ! What, in the devil's name are you at there you 
 
 d d lubberly monkey, with a blue skin stuck in your mouth as big as 
 
 a frigate's dead-eye ? can't you work first and eat afterwards ? " 
 
 This polite inquiry was addressed to a youngster, who, loath to lose a 
 fine blue fig, had seized it with his teeth, while with both hands he took 
 a pull at the topping lift. 
 
 "Softly! softly! Mr. Sims," interposed the captain. "You know I 
 don't like to have the men damned, unless it is absolutely necessary. 
 There never was a crew that needed it less than ours." 
 
 " You 'd a sworn too, I guess," retorted Mr. Sims, " if you 'd seen the 
 fellow. Apples of gold in pictures of silver are said to be beautiful, but 
 
 blue figs in such a d d mahogany frame as that, aint the thing at 
 
 sea, when work is to be done." 
 
 " A good fellow is Sims," said the captain to me, as the mate turned 
 off to his duty, " and a capital officer, if he would only give up his habit 
 of grumbling and cursing. He 's got a notion that it is necessary to find 
 fault, and swear freely, in order to command the attention and respect of 
 the crew, and I can't convince him how wonderfully he is mistaken. Your 
 
58 KALOOLAH. 
 
 regular tartar is often respected by sailors ; but it is generally for other 
 qualities than tartness and severity, and, least of all, for injustice and 
 inhumanity. Sailors never liked to be cursed and hectored about, how- 
 ever much they be used to it. Why, I '11 bet, with a right kind of a first 
 ofificer, I can take an American crew and go around the world, without a 
 high word spoken after the first three days." 
 
 Captain Coffin paused in his discourse, and we both turned to take a 
 parting look of the Peak, which was rapidly growing bluer and smaller, 
 with the wind abeam, we gradually sunk it over our starboard quarter. 
 
 The breeze veered two or three points by the stern. " You may, Mr. 
 Sims, set the fore-topmast studding-sails, this wind is too good to last 
 long, and we 'd better make the most of it," saying which, the captain 
 descended to the cabin, leaving me to promenade the deck, and watch 
 the stars emerging from the last beams of the purple twilight, that 
 with unwonted pertinacity, of such a low latitude, continued to 
 struggle against advancing night for the mastery of the water and the 
 heavens. 
 
 In conformance to our wishes, rather than our expectations, the wind 
 continued all night full and free, and we bowled along before it at a rate 
 which, by morning, left nothing of the isles behind us in sight. As the 
 day advanced the wind gradually decreased, until about noon it nearly 
 ceased, coming only in gentle cat's paws, with hardly strength enough to 
 wrinkle the surface of the water, or steady the flapping sails, and followed 
 by intervals of dead calm. The intense heat of the sun, despite of my 
 broad-brimmed Panama hat, had driven me below, where I found the 
 captain quietly seated at his desk, and busy with a voluminous manu- 
 script, which he intended as a letter to his wife, to be sent by the first 
 homeward-bound vessel we should encounter. Ten chances to one we 
 should have no such opportunity, but then it was a labor of love which, 
 even if the captain had to deliver the letter himself, would not be entire- 
 ly thrown away. The example had its influence, and I also got out my 
 writing materials, and was soon absorbed in the labor of turning sentences 
 and rounding periods, which, although addressed to one, my vanity 
 
 intended for the admiration of all of my friends in the village of O . 
 
 Scratch, scratch went our pens over the paper, interrupted by no sound 
 except an occasional flap of the huge main-sail, or the creaking, now and 
 then, of a block or a bulkhead, as the schooner lazily rolled, and rose and 
 fell upon the long smooth seas. 
 
 Suddenly the loud, stern voice of Mr. Sims, in tones of the highest 
 excitement, burst upon us like a clap of thunder in a cloudless sky. 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 59 
 
 " Luff ! luff ! " he exclaimed with startling energy. " Down with your 
 helm ! hard down ! Let go the head sheets ! Let go every thing ! " 
 
 At the first order Captain Coffin sprang up the companion-way, and I 
 followed directly behind him. As my head fairly emerged above deck I 
 heard the captain shriek out the order to let go the halliards. At this 
 instant the schooner was knocked clear over, and a portion of spray, 
 driven with a rapidity that gave it a force almost as great as that of 
 grape-shot, struck me on the side of the head and dashed me against the 
 side of the hatchway, when I must have rolled back down the cabin stairs 
 perfectly senseless. 
 

 
 
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 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Schooner on Her Beam Ends — State of the Wreck — Jonathan Alone — Cuts Away the 
 Main-Mast — Pumps Out the Wreck — The Water Casks Swept Overboard — Jonathan's 
 Expedient — A Successful Experiment. 
 
 [OW long I remained in that condition I know not, but I sup- 
 pose it could not have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. 
 Upon recovering I found myself stretched out alongside the 
 starboard lockers beneath a pile of chairs, tables, writing-desks, 
 books, etc., and the cabin floor standing up almost perpendicularly, like 
 a wall, down which every thing movable had rolled to leeward. The 
 schooner was on her beam ends. A good deal bruised, I contrived to 
 extricate myself with some difficulty, and clamber by the inclined stair- 
 way to the deck. There a scene of destruction and desolation broke 
 upon me, to which I feel myself perfectly incapable of doing full justice; 
 still less can I expect to convey any thing like a true impression of the 
 emotions which it excited. The short time that I had been insensible 
 had sufficed for the furious squall to do its worst ; and sailing off, per- 
 haps in search of other objects, on which to vent its mighty wrath, 
 it had left its shattered prey a wreck upon the bosom of the quiet, 
 gently undulating sea. Not the slightest commotion indicated the 
 recent passage of the storm-fiend, and hardly a breath of air ruffled 
 the surface of the sluggish swell that slowly rolled its slumbering 
 length beneath the fierce brightness of the unclouded sky. Yet there 
 lay the Lively Anne, a few minutes before so trim and buoyant, 
 now capsized and hampered with the wreck of spars and sails, and 
 shorn of the graceful gear, wherein had lain the greater portion of 
 her beauty and her speed. The jib-boom and fore-mast were gone 
 by the board ; the main-mast, however, remained, and that, with the 
 heavy sail and gaff top-sail, which had got loaded with water, held 
 the schooner down and prevented her from righting herself. Portions 
 of the weather bulwarks were shattered, and the whole of the starboard 
 bulwarks stove fore and aft, leaving only three or four stanchions stand- 
 ing. The long boat, cook's galley, water casks, harness casks, tool 
 
 60 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 6i 
 
 chest, and all the fixtures of the deck, except the windlass, were gone. 
 Not a vestige of any thing movable remained, save the axe, which hung 
 in a becket by the main-mast, and a few splinters of the shattered wheel 
 binnacle and booby hatch. 
 
 But the most distressing part of the affair was that not the slightest in- 
 dication of a living being presented itself. I crept forward and shouted 
 down the forecastle. No voice answered. I was alone upon the waste 
 of waters, " sole monarch " not, alas ! of a " peopled deck," but of a soli- 
 tary and dismantled wreck. Of all our company, consisting of captain, 
 mate, cook, and five seamen, not one remained to explain the how and 
 wherefore of our sad mishap. Whether it was a white squall or a water- 
 
 
 " The first thing was to give the schooner a chance to right itself." 
 
 spout ; whether the destruction had been principally effected by the wind 
 or water, and whether proper care might not have saved us, are questions 
 which must forever remain unanswered. I would have asked them, but 
 alas ! there was no one to reply. The conviction of the sad fate of my 
 companions, and of the awful solitariness of my situation, which for some 
 time I was loath to admit, completely unmanned me. Seating myself 
 upon the stump of the broken mast, I freely paid the tribute of my bitter 
 tears to the cruel and deceitful sea. But mine, as I have said, was not a 
 temperament given to weeping ; in fact, it needed but a little more age, 
 and a little more seasoning in the rough school of active life, to dry up 
 the fountains of grief for ever. I soon had my "cry out," and, drying 
 my eyes, took a long look around the horizon for sails. Not one was ifli 
 
62 KALOOLAH. 
 
 sight. Satisfied that it was in vain to hope for assistance from any quar- 
 ter, at least for the present, my regards naturally returned to the wreck. 
 Something must be done, and, as I was the only living thing, it was 
 pretty evident that, if it was done at all, it must be done by myself. 
 
 The first thing was to give the schooner a chance to right itself, which 
 I saw she would readily do if relieved of the mainmast and heavy sails. 
 I thought that perhaps it might be useful to leave a portion of the mast 
 standing for the purpose of hoisting a signal if I should be so fortunate 
 as to fall in with any vessels. So, taking the axe, I crept out upon the 
 inclined spar about ten or twelve feet, and made a deep cut, where I pro- 
 posed the fracture should take place. Returning on board, a few blows 
 upon the lanyards of the tautened rigging released from its supports 
 the mast, which instantly, with a loud crack, broke off short at the point 
 which I had scored. The schooner, relieved from the powerful leverage 
 of the heavy water-logged top hamper, righted herself at once, with a 
 violent surge, and as none of the cargo had shifted, resumed a perfectly 
 upright and stable position. I was not much of a practical seaman, as 
 the reader may judge from the little experience I had had ; but I was 
 tolerably familar with many of the expedients resorted to in various 
 cases, and as I knew not how long I might have to remain on the wreck, 
 I concluded that the safest way would be to make at once the best dis- 
 position I could against a storm. With this view I got up the end of a 
 small hawser from the fore-hatch, passed it out the hawse-hole, and made 
 it fast to the rigging of the main-mast, fore-mast, and jib-boom, which 
 were still alongside, and attached to the hull by portions of the lee- 
 shrouds and running rigging. I then cut away every thing, and veered 
 out the hawser, making the inner end fast to the windlass and the splin- 
 ters of the fore-mast. A light breeze had now sprung up, and, as I ex- 
 pected, the comparatively high hull of the schooner floated before it 
 faster than the mass of spars, which, lagging behind, dragged upon the 
 hawser, and kept the schooner head to the wind. In a hard blow the 
 force exerted by the spars would be very great ; they would also serve to 
 break the force of the sea, and if, in addition to them, I could contrive 
 to rig a tarpaulin or some rag of canvas upon the remnant of the main- 
 mast, I had no doubt of being able to keep my vessel in a very comfort- 
 able and weatherly position. The correctness of these calculations I 
 afterwards found repeatedly verified. 
 
 My next movement, after clearing the wreck, was to examine the 
 pumps. To my great delight, I found upon sounding, but two feet of 
 water in the hold, which I concluded must have come in, the greater 
 
KALOOLAH. 63 
 
 portion of it, at least, through the strained seams of her upper works 
 while the schooner was on her beam ends. Not that there was much im- 
 mediate danger, the nature of her cargo considered, even if she leaked 
 freely, but it would be so much more agreeable to have a dry, tight, and 
 buoyant vessel, although shorn of her fair proportions and left an un- 
 manageable float upon the surface of the ocean. A few vigorous strokes 
 by lessening the depth of water confirmed my conclusion. Satisfied that 
 there was no dangerous or permanent leak, I continued under the excite- 
 ment of hope the exertion of pumping until I had nearly exhausted both 
 the water and my own strength. I paused, wiped away the perspiration 
 rolling in torrents down my face, and took another long, steady look 
 around the horizon. A flock of Mother Carey's chickens and a few 
 fleecy clouds in the sky were the only moving objects in sight. 
 
 It was now nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, and certain cravings 
 of the stomach reminded me that my usual dinner hour had long since 
 passed. It may seem strange that under the circumstances I could think 
 of eating ; but in a hearty youth of twenty, the physical appetites do not 
 give place so readily to mental emotions, however strong the latter may 
 be. I felt thirsty too, and I looked around for some means of satisfying 
 the desire. At this moment the awful truth burst upon me, that not a 
 drop of fresh water remained. I knew that our whole stock was upon 
 deck, in casks, lashed to the booms and the stanchions of the bulwarks. 
 The whole had been swept away. I ran up and down the deck, 
 and looked under and over the remaining bulwarks in perfect 
 dismay. I thought that there must be a small cask left some- 
 where, although there was no place on the open and clear deck 
 where could have been concealed an ordinary drinking can. I no 
 longer thought of eating, but my thirst increased with wonderful rapidity. 
 A few minutes before, a glass of water would have sufficed, now I felt as 
 though I could drain a hogshead. " Good Lord ! " I exclaimed, with that 
 curious mingling of the ridiculous and the serious, common to some 
 minds : " if I were only the highlands of the Hudson, with the North 
 River running right through me ! " 
 
 I rushed down into the cabin, with the poor hope of finding a little 
 water in the pitcher, that might serve to avert, at least for a few hours, 
 the approach of death in his most horrible form ; it had been overturned 
 and broken ! The steward's pantry hardly better repaid my anxious 
 search. About half a glass of cold coffee, the remains of our last com- 
 fortable and social breakfast, was all the fluid that I could find. My thirst 
 increased, my mouth grew parched and feverish, my pulses throbbed, 
 
64 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and my whole frame trembled with excitement, as the conviction of the 
 ultimate certainty of death, by the pangs of thirst, came stronger and 
 stronger upon me. All that I had ever heard or read of suffering from 
 thirst, by sea or land, rushed, thronging to my recollection. Brissot, 
 Adams, Paddoc, Riley, with his horrible expedient of double and treble 
 refiltrations, and a dozen more, whose records of hardships, endured upon 
 the Sahara and other desert coasts, had been my favorite reading, started 
 up all at once, in high relief upon the surface of memory. Could it be that 
 I had been saved from the comparatively mild fate of my companions, 
 only to suffer the lingering agonies which these voyagers had sp strongly 
 depicted ? Amid the vast ocean of water, was there not one drop of 
 hope — one sweet draught, with which to dilute the cup of despair ? " O 
 God ! save me ! " I ejaculated, as I fell, rather than seated myself, upon 
 the transom. I bowed my head to my knees, and prayed with that 
 fervor resulting from an aroused and all-pervading sense of dependence 
 upon the Supreme Being for the simplest and most common elements of 
 life. Let him who looks upon the choicest gifts of Providence, the air, 
 the water, or the light, as his natural and indefeasable right, as something 
 valueless, from the profusion with which they have been bestowed, and 
 as demanding no thankful acknowledgments like the more immediate 
 personal and particular evidences of God's merciful care — let such a one 
 be placed in my situation, and he will feel, what is often enough admitted 
 in general terms, that gratitude is due as much, or more, for the gifts 
 which administer to the necessities of our physical being, than for the 
 luxuries of appetite, the gratification of intellect, or the pleasures of 
 taste. 
 
 I arose, calm, collected, and confiding. My prayers had been heard, 
 and, somehow, I felt confident would be answered. A ship would heave 
 in sight, or genial showers would be sent to my relief ! something ! any 
 thing ! I knew not what or how, but at any rate, I was not to be aban- 
 doned to perish. At this moment, my eye happened to be directed to 
 the captain's state-room, in one corner of which were standing, fastened 
 to a rack, a couple of old muskets, with a long leather shot pouch 
 dangling between them. The means and mode of my salvation were re- 
 vealed. With these and the coffee-pot, I felt confident of making an 
 apparatus with which sea water might be distilled in sufificient quantities. 
 The reaction of mind and body, upon this discovery, was astonishing. I 
 no longer felt thirsty or fatigued ; relieved from the apprehension of the 
 greater evil, all that had passed seemed light in comparison. The sad 
 fate of my companions, cut off, as they had been, so suddenly, in the 
 
KALOOLAH. 65 
 
 bloom of health and happiness, was almost forgotten. Even the dreary 
 solitude and uncertainty of my situation gave me no further trouble. 
 Every thing was for the best ! God was above me, and around me, and I 
 should not die of thirst ! 
 
 Some cold Indian cake, a biscuit, with a slice of pork, and the dregs 
 of the coffee-pot, made a capital meal ; after which I set myself actively 
 to work upon my proposed distilling apparatus. The two muskets were 
 soon unstocked and unbreeched and cleaned : the two ends of the 
 barrels were notched with a file, approximated to each other, and inserted 
 into a short tube of leather, cut from the shot pouch, which was after- 
 wards sewed all around, and firmly secured, with tarred twine. A long 
 pipe, conveniently flexible at the leather joint, was thus formed, and the 
 whole of it afterwards wrapped from end to end with strips of blanket, 
 for the purpose of keeping it wet with the cool sea water. A small block 
 of pine, hewn from the stump of the fore-mast, was bored through by 
 means of the file and jack-knife, to a size that on one side would tightly fit 
 the end of my musket barrel worm, and on the other, closely cap the 
 spout of the coffee-pot. By turning and grinding it upon the ends of the 
 pipe and the spout, and carefully working it with a round file, the joints 
 were made sufficiently close and accurate. The lid of the vessel not fit- 
 ting very perfectly, it took some time to adapt a cover of wood, which, 
 upon trial, was found to answer the purpose exactly, as the slight swelling 
 of the wood, from the effects of the steam, made the joint completely air- 
 tight. 
 
 It remained now to rig some kind of a furnace, by which heat could 
 be applied to my rude apparatus. It had become quite dark, but I had 
 no disposition to give over work until the experiment had been tried, and 
 my sanguine hopes either dissipated or realized. The cook's galley, with 
 the other fixtures of the deck had been swept away, and not a fragment 
 of stove, stew-pans, or any articles of kitchen furniture remained, but, in 
 the cabin pantry I found a large earthen baking dish, from which the un- 
 fortunate " Doctor " had not unfrequently regaled us with divers pleasing 
 compounds of pastry, with rice, apples, eggs, chickens, and pork. He 
 little dreamed to what last uses his pudding dish would come to be 
 applied ! An empty flour barrel, firmly fastened down to the deck 
 with a number of spikes driven into the upper head, served as a stand 
 for the dish, across which a few pieces of wire were arranged as a grate. 
 Upon this I placed the coffee-pot filled up to the spout with sea water, 
 and joined to it the pipe, which led down to a tin can placed upon the 
 deck. A fire of splinters of dry staves was soon kindled, and I had noth- 
 
66 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ing left to do but to feed it occasionally and anxiously await the result. 
 Never did alchemist watch his crucible for the moment of projection 
 with a more curious eye than did I for the ebullition of my still. At last 
 the water boiled, and the strong firelight streaming up in the calmness 
 of the dark night, and illuminating the deck of the desolate wreck, showed 
 the big drops slowly falling into the vessel below. I continued to feed 
 the fire, and to apply cold water to the tube, and soon had the satisfaction 
 of seeing the condensed fluid trickle down in an almost continuous 
 stream. By nine o'clock I had collected nearly a pint : it was warm, flat, 
 and bitter, and had a taste of the wood, the iron, and the leather, but a 
 cup of nectar from the hand of Ganymede himself was never more 
 delicious. 
 
 The success of the experiment established, and the excitement of 
 conflicting hope and anxiety abated, my body began to be sensible of its 
 bruises and its fatigue. Another slice of pork and a biscuit, with the 
 result of my distillation, satisfied all the cravings of appetite, and carefully 
 securing my still below, for fear of accidents during the night, I retired 
 to my berth with the profoundest feelings of gratitude to Him, in whose 
 hands are the issues of life and death, for my happy preservation. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Preparing Signals — Overhauling the Lockers-^A Sail in Sight^Fresh Provisions — Hoolting a 
 Turtle — More Ships in Sight — Moonlight on the Ocean — The Salvages — Dr. Johnson's 
 Prayer. 
 
 'INGULARLY enough, the most pleasant and profound repose 
 soothed my bodily ailings and rewarded my toils. Not a dream 
 of past or future calamity disturbed the serene and pleasant 
 reveries of the night ; the which I attribute solely, to the relief 
 of my mind from the stronger and overwhelming apprehensions of a lin- 
 gering death. As, when on the sea-shore, the largest wave effaces the 
 ripple marks of its smaller predecessors, and retiring, leaves the beach 
 level and smooth ; so the last tide of threatened affliction, in rolling back, 
 had carried with it the otherwise strong and permanent impressions of 
 inferior grief. 
 
 The morning was calm and beautiful. One distant sail showed itself, 
 like a dark spot, upon the farthest verge of the horizon, and suggested 
 the idea of preparing some signals, to be used in case of a nearer 
 approach. The distilling machine put in operation, with some little im- 
 provements in its mounting and fixtures, which daylight enabled me 
 better to make, I descended to the cabin, and commenced overhauling the 
 lockers and drawers. In one of these I found the schooner's flag ; 
 attaching a loop to one end of a gunstock, I climbed to the top of the 
 broken main-mast, and firmly lashed the other end of the stock to the 
 head of the stump. This gave a hoist of about fifteen feet, and by reeving 
 the halliards through the loop, the flag was ready to be run up, union 
 down, at a moment, when required. I also got ready a quantity of oakum 
 and chopped staves, for the purpose of making a smoke, as being calcu- 
 lated to attract attention from a distance at which the flag might not be 
 seen. By the time these preparations were completed, the vessel, at the 
 instigation of whose top-gallant sails they had been undertaken, was no 
 longer in sight. But happy are they who expect nothing, for they are 
 seldom disappointed ; and as I had not calculated upon her coming near 
 enough to notice me, I saw the last speck of her royals disappear without 
 any regret. 
 
 67 
 
68 KALOOLAH. 
 
 My next operation, was an examination into the state of the bread 
 pantry, and the provision-room, in the run of the schooner, beneath the 
 cabin floor. In the first was a bag of rice, half a bag of coffee, a large 
 canister of tea, about half a barrel of brown sugar, and a large cheese ; in 
 the latter, among other articles, were three barrels of pork and beef, as 
 many more of ship-bread, two barrels of potatoes, four hams, and a keg 
 of molasses. As may be supposed, I was somewhat interested in the 
 account of stock — much more so, perhaps, it may be thought, than the 
 reader can possibly be — and the inventory made a permanent impression 
 on my memory. Satisfied that the schooner was provisioned for at least 
 a year's cruise, reduced as she was in hands, or rather mouths, I grew 
 quite contented with my lot, which, in reality presented a disagreeable 
 aspect only when I thought of the friends and companions I had lost. It 
 would be, I thought, impossible to float about the ocean for many weeks, 
 in the track of so many ships, without being picked up ; and in the mean- 
 time, I had a strong and safe vessel beneath me ; plenty of room for exer- 
 cise ; plenty of books ; plenty to eat and drink, and plenty of occupation 
 in preparing my meals, feeding my distillery, catching fish, and looking 
 out for sails. My only apprehension was that the current might set me 
 down toward the African coast, and land me upon the inhospitable shores 
 of the Sahara. There was no means of accurately determining longi- 
 tude that I was familiar with, but my observations for latitude, which I 
 took regularly every day, showed that a strong current was setting the 
 schooner to the south. 
 
 A week of unclouded weather imperceptibly glided by, when upon 
 coming upon deck shortly before sunrise, I found upon different points 
 of the horizon five sail of vessels in sight, one of which appeared to be 
 standing on a course which would bring her quite close to me. My sig- 
 nals were immediately prepared ; the flag was run up to the gun-stock, 
 and a tall column of smoke arose from the forecastle, and sailed off to 
 leeward before the light northerly breeze. On came the stately ship, 
 until, with the glass, I could just see her quarter rails, but not the slight- 
 est notice did she appear disposed to take of me ; so far from it, she 
 availed herself of a slight change in the direction of the wind, to hold up 
 and pass me some distance to the north. Her stupid crew could hardly 
 have failed to see the smoke, and most probably when arrived in port, had 
 a wondrous story to tell of a volcanic eruption, or some curious meteoric 
 phenomenon, which, with the uninquiring, unenterprising, money-getting 
 stolidity too common in the merchant service, they could not afford time 
 to investigate. My heart somewhat failed me, when I found the ill- 
 
KALOOLAH. 69 
 
 success of my effort to attract attention, but with the consoling motto 
 " better luck next time," and a continued reliance upon the mercy of an 
 immediate superintending Providence, I made out to resign myself to my 
 fate, and resume with cheerfulness my usual avocations. 
 
 The distillery worked to perfection — a good day's run yielding me 
 fully a pint more of the water than I consumed. The surplus was care- 
 fully bottled and put away against bad weather, when it might not be 
 quite so easy to keep the steam a-going. The earthen pan had given 
 way, but in the meantime, while it lasted, a large quantity of ashes had 
 been accumulated, and by wetting these with sea water, and pressing 
 them down upon a bed of boards, a kind of hearth, impervious to the 
 heat, was formed, which supported the fire. 
 
 Nor was the luxury of fresh provisions wanting. In rummaging the 
 unfortunate mate's stock of sail, needles, palms, fish-hooks, etc., a small 
 pair of grains, for spearing fish, were discovered. This instrument, con- 
 sisting of a bunch of barbed points on a socket of iron, when attached to 
 a staff, formed by splicing together pieces of staves, proved an invaluable 
 instrument. By means of it, any quantity of the rudder fish that 
 thronged round the schooner, and now and then a dolphin or bonito, 
 were transferred from the water to the broiling coals of my distillery fire. 
 It also served to fish up the bunches of sea-weed that floated by. From 
 these, when thrown upon deck, would creep out hundreds of small crabs, 
 not one larger than the end of my little finger ; lively, active, healthy 
 fellows, with the shells perfectly formed, and of various colors. Whether 
 they were a distinct species by themselves, or the young of a larger kind, 
 I could not decide ; from the uniformity, however, in size, of those that 
 came under my observation, I should thjnk it probable that the first was 
 the case. They were so numerous, that when the sea-weed was plenty I 
 could collect a pint of them in a couple of hours. If upon them was 
 poured some boiling vinegar, or a handful of them distributed into the 
 pork fat that hissed and bubbled over the fire in the bent and battered up 
 bottom of an old tin canister, they made a dish, that, swallowed shell and 
 all, more than rivalled in delicacy and piquant crispness the delicious 
 shedders and soft shells of the New York restaurants. 
 
 Neither was the range of my appetite necessarily confined to such 
 small game. It was one calm afternoon, that a large turtle, weighing at 
 least sixty pounds, made his appearance at the distance of a few yards 
 from the schooner. His shellship had come to the surface for a siesta, 
 and was quietly floating, unconscious of impending danger, in a sound 
 sleep. A longing to appropriate the delicate steaks and green fat of the 
 
^o KALOOLAH. 
 
 lethargic monster, who seemed to have been expressly sent for my use, 
 took possession of me ; but how to accomplish it was a question. There 
 was no harpoon with which to pierce his defensive armor, and even if 
 there had been, there was no boat with which to get at him— ^the stern 
 boat, with my load of fruit, having followed the way of the long boat, 
 and all the other furniture of the deck. The only means of reaching him 
 that presented itself, was by swimming. Fortunately, a piece of whale 
 line, of sufificient length, had been stowed away in the run of the vessel, 
 with a large shark hook attached to it. Fastening, at intervals of ten or 
 twelve feet, some pieces of staves to act as floats, and securing the other 
 end to a stanchion, I slipped off my clothes, dropped into the water, and 
 taking the hook in my teeth, carefully stretched out towards my prey. 
 By taking him a little in the rear, the slumbering animal was undisturbed 
 by my noiseless approach, and he suffered me to gently take his extended 
 flipper, and with a sudden thrust pass the large hook through it. For an 
 instant the astonished sleeper lashed the water with head, tail, and paws, 
 and the next disappeared with a rapidity which I had not supposed him 
 capable of, while I swam back to the schooner. When within a few yards 
 of the main chains, a large black moving object appeared above the water, 
 at about the same distance from the vessel's side towards the bow. It 
 was plainly a shark's fin, and, from the size of it, belonged to no small 
 fellow. How, or by what means I reached the deck I could not recollect 
 precisely in five minutes afterwards, but I knew that the process had not 
 taken much time. Upon trying the tautened whale line, the prize, for 
 which I had run the risk of being dined upon, instead of dining, was found 
 secure, and a good deal of hard tugging brought him alongside. A com- 
 bination of slip nooses were now passed round him, and he was soon fliat 
 on his back upon the deck. 
 
 The poor fellow lay so quiet and looked so resigned that my heart mis- 
 gave me as to the propriety of his capture. I did not much like the idea 
 that one in my situation — one who was living only by the special mercy 
 of the Almighty, and who could not offer the plea of necessity, should, for 
 the gratification of the mere caprice of appetite, sacrifice the life of a 
 breathing, sentient, warm-blooded animal. As to the fish, they were in a 
 different category; their cold blood and want of lungs and limbs put them 
 too far beyond the pale of humanity ; their natural destiny was, to be 
 caught, cooked, and eaten ; and, besides, I destroyed no more of them 
 than I actually required and consumed. With the turtle, the case was 
 different ; four fifths, at least, of his flesh would spoil before I could use 
 it. This last consideration prevailed, so filing off the barb and extracting 
 
KALOOLAH. ji 
 
 the hook, the fellow was bundled overboard, when he instantly made 
 off, heedless, probably, of his slight wound, in the joy of his recovered 
 freedom. 
 
 " Go," said I, thinking of Uncle Toby and his fly, " go ! the ocean is 
 wide enough for us both, and if I am destined to test its depth also, I 
 hope that you, at least, will have gratitude enough to refrain from nib- 
 bling my bones ! " 
 
 I felt better, as any one always does after a humane and kindly act to 
 any of God's creatures ; although the deed was, perhaps, much less merito- 
 rious as an act of self-denial on my part, than it would have been in an 
 aldermanic disciple of Apicius, whose taste had been formed in the festal 
 schools of Guildhall or Bellevue. I felt better, but I am afraid that had 
 a harpoon been at hand, my overstrained humanity would have reacted 
 with cruel violence upon the body of " Johnny Shark," who, with the 
 impudence of his tribe, when feeling secure from attack, continued fof 
 several days to rub his huge carcass against the sides of the schooner, and 
 to interfere in the comfort of my daily bath. 
 
 For several days now in succession, numerous .ships appeared in sight. 
 but none came near enough to notice my signals. They were, most of 
 them, standing east, and, as I supposed, bound up the Straits of Gibraltar. 
 It was about a week after the capture and liberation of the turtle, making 
 four weeks from the time of the capsize, that a small dark bank appeared 
 in the east, which presented very much the aspect of land. As my lati- 
 tude, by observation, was nearly that of Madeira, and as the light winds 
 had been blowing most of the time from the northwest, I concluded that 
 it was that island that was in sight. But if my course was so much east 
 of south, when and what would be the end of my cruise ? The answer to 
 the question involved some alarming conclusions. The chart was atten- 
 tively studied, and presented, in every view of it, confirmation of the fact, 
 that if my present course should be persisted in for any length of time, the 
 shores of the African desert would bring me up. Africa had ever been to 
 me the land in which, more than any other, my imagination had delighted 
 to wander. I had even conceived the design of attempting, in emulation 
 of my gallant countryman, Ledyard, the exploration of the unknown in- 
 terior; but I had no idea of making my entrance into the country byway 
 of the coasts of the Sahara. Yet such clearly threatened to be the termi- 
 nation of my voyage. 
 
 Time passed on ; the moon again poured, in bountiful effulgence, her 
 silver light upon the bosom of the deep, which, with the exception of 
 two days out of the six weeks, had been as placid as a lake. The nights 
 
72 KALOOLAH. 
 
 were delicious, and the greater portion of each was spent in walking the 
 deck, gazing into the clear blue sky, or down into the dark unfathomable 
 sea. Emotions, which to coldly analyze, would be to deprive of half 
 their beauty and sublimity, would, at such times, rush upon the mind 
 and overwhelm it in the vain attempt to grasp the great mysteries of 
 nature. Drunk with the glory of the scene, the soul, not unfrequently, 
 felt an almost irresistible longing to plunge into the deep, and seek in its 
 profundity the Infinite, the Eternal. Shuddering like him who looks 
 from tower or precipice, I was often compelled to draw back and rush be- 
 low to escape from the delirious whirl of feelings, common enough, per- 
 haps, to all, but felt in their full intensity and force, only in solitude upon 
 the calm and moonlight sea. At other times, again, the mind could 
 study the same scenes in a more quiet spirit — perhaps a better — in 
 
 ** That serene and blessed mood, 
 In which the affections gently led us on, 
 Until the breath of this corporeal frame. 
 And even the motion of our human blood, 
 Almost suspended, we are laid asleep, 
 In body, and become a living soul ; 
 While with a heart made quiet by the power 
 Of harmony, and the deep sense of joy. 
 We see into the life of things." 
 
 Then it was that with the eye of fancy I could see each one of the 
 myriad, silver-tipped ripples between me and the Jersey shore, the long 
 reach of the noble Hudson, and the rough roads and rocky hills that 
 stretched to the St. Lawrence, without a repining or impatient thought 
 — with hardly a sigh for the comforts of home, or the companionship of 
 friends. 
 
 It was one night, when the moon was just at the full, that I was upon 
 deck, later than usual, enjoying the flood of rich and mellow light. The 
 day had been exceedingly hazy, and the boundary of vision much con- 
 tracted ; but shortly after sunset the mists had dispersed, and the full orb 
 looked down through an unclouded sky. The surface of the long, slow 
 swell ever agitating the bosom of the Oceania token of the resistless 
 energies slumbering within — was slightly furrowed by the wind, and each 
 beam, as it fell, paved with fragments of gems the broad pathway of 
 light. All at once a lofty and somewhat indistinct object upon the water, 
 apparently at but a short distance off, attracted my attention. " Sail, 
 ho ! " I shouted in ecstasy of delight ; although what appeared to be the 
 gleaming canvas of a large ship was evidently a mile beyond the reach 
 
KALOOLAH. ';3 
 
 of my voice. A signal, by fire, might, perhaps, serve the purpose, and 
 soon a bright flame sent forth its imploring light. No answer followed, 
 and what was much more mysterious, the relative position of the schooner 
 and the object had hardly altered in the course of an hour's attentive 
 watching, or, at least, had altered so slightly as to be utterly inconsistent 
 with the idea of the latter beirig a ship under full sail. At length my ear 
 caught the sound of water dashing against some solid body. The idea of 
 the Salvages, a group of naked rocks, which rear their tall forms, in soli- 
 tary dignity, from the middle of the ocean, about half-way between 
 Madeira and the Canaries, occurred to me. More than one mariner, it is 
 asserted, has been deceived in the same way, from their resemblance to 
 the sails of a ship, and, perhaps too, more than one ship has been lost 
 upon them, while ploughing her way heedless of danger in the darkness 
 of the night. Uninhabited and uninhabitable, they are visited only at 
 certain seasons by a few Portuguese from Madeira, for the purpose of col- 
 lecting the feathers of the sea fowl, who, in great numbers, have made 
 them their home. An examination of the chart and a comparison of my 
 latitude, and the probable influence of the winds which had prevailed for 
 several days, confirmed the conjecture which was fully established the 
 next day, during the whole of which, their ragged points continued plain- 
 ly in sight. 
 
 Thus again, for nearly the twentieth time, had my hopes of succor 
 been excited only to be depressed. But I had got pretty well inured to 
 that kind of disappointment, and my confidence in my ultimate preser- 
 vation, through the mercy of Providence, continued unabated. Satisfied 
 by a close watch of a couple of hours, that the schooner was increasing 
 her distance from the rocks, I retired to rest, after praying, as usual, for 
 the merciful protection of the Almighty, and especially for the continued 
 influence of my mother's spiritual presence and affection. " O Lord ! " 
 prayed the great Doctor Johnson, " if Thou hast ordained the souls of the 
 dead to minister to the living, grant that I may enjoy the good effects of 
 my departed wife's attention and ministration, whether exercised by ap- 
 pearances, impulses, dreams, or in any other manner agreeable to Thy 
 government ! " If Doctor Johnson could so pray, why might not I ? 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Land Ho !— A Weatherly Craft— The Peak of Teneriffe— Oratavo— A Dark Night— Shore 
 Lights — Hailing a Fisherman — Beauties of Quarantine — A Disappointment — A Storm — 
 Dining Like a Gentleman — A Ship in Sight — Visit from Her Captain — Leaving the Lively 
 Anne. 
 
 ?AND ho ! " The famous Peak of Teneriffe was in sight. This 
 was on the tenth of September, or a Httle more than eight 
 weeks since my visit to the Azores. It really seemed, that 
 in my solitary fioatings I was destined to have a glimpse, 
 in succession, of the principal insular curiosities of the Atlantic, and I be- 
 gan to speculate upon the prospect of the Cape de Verde, St. Helena, 
 and Ascension ; or, with greater probability, of getting into the trade 
 winds, and turning up, along the great western current, among the West 
 Indies. 
 
 After leaving the Salvages, a succession of gales and squalls from al- 
 most every point of the compass, for nearly a week, completely upset all 
 calculations of longitude ; and it was no little satisfaction to have a fresh 
 landmark, even if it was but to prove, in common as well as technical 
 meaning, a " point of departure." It was in these gales that the schooner 
 demonstrated her possession of very excellent weatherly qualities for a 
 dismasted wreck. Unsteadied by any top hamper, her rolling was rather 
 sharp and uncomfortable, but her pitching was beautiful. The float of 
 spars kept her pretty well " head on," and she craned and ducked to the 
 heavy sea as gracefully as a boarding-school miss in the preparatory back- 
 ing and filling of her first public quadrille — each time slowly bowing her 
 nose to it, and then lifting herself as buoyant as a cork, and " as dry as a 
 bone." 
 
 For nearly three days the schooner remained in full view of the port 
 of Oratavo, on the northern side of the island, at a distance of not more 
 than ten or fifteen miles. Palma was in view in the northwest, and with 
 the glass large objects could be distinctly seen on the shore of Teneriffe. 
 I amused myself for some time in trying to pick out, but without the 
 most remote idea of being able to do so, the big dragon tree of Oratavo, 
 
 74 
 
KALOOLAH. 75 
 
 celebrated by Humboldt and other travellers. The distance was of 
 course too great. A more satisfactory subject of examinatiqn was the 
 cinder-covered summit of the famous Peak, from which arose from time 
 to time light puffs of vapor, apparently smoke. I kept my glass upon it 
 by the hour, but no one seemqd disposed to return the compliment, or 
 even so much as glance seaward long enough to fix in their eye the black 
 speck that bore me and my hopes. Certain it is, at least, that they made 
 no demonstration of aid in answer to all my signals, and it is perhaps 
 more charitable to attribute the fact to their blindness than to their lazi- 
 ness or inhumanity. Had the schooner been within the same distance of 
 the shores of Cape Cod, Nantucket, or Long Island, the case would have 
 been different. Some sharp-eyed, wide-awake Yankee would have been 
 sure to make the discovery, and half a dozen whale-boats would have run 
 a race for the prize. 
 
 Slowly the schooner drew towards the east end of the island, until, at 
 sunset of the third day, she was not more than three miles from the per- 
 pendicular wall of basaltic rock. The current evidently set round the 
 point, and along the southern side of the island, which was now just be- 
 ginning to open. The schooner might perhaps go ashore in the night, 
 which, considering the abrupt and rocky nature of the coast, against which 
 I could hear the surf dashing, was not particularly desirable, or what was 
 much better, she might be swept along into, or off, the roadstead of Santa 
 Cruz, whence, as being the chief town and seaport of Teneriffe, she would 
 stand a greater chance of being seen. I prepared myself for either event. 
 The night set in exceedingly dark, but I could perceive that the schooner 
 slowly followed the line of the coast, and that she kept gradually edging 
 in nearer to it. On the shore, close to the water's edge, were numerous 
 large lights, as from fires, which it was evident were kindled for the pur- 
 pose of fishing. The sight was cheering. How pleasant it would be to 
 plump right ashore at a fishing station, amid a set of honest, generous 
 Pescadores ! The idea of it was so absorbing that I most unaccountably 
 forgot to make my own signal fire. Some of the lights were stationary, 
 and by them I could compare the changes in the schooner's position. 
 Other lights appeared to move, as if carried in boats along beneath the 
 base of the cliffs. Up to twelve o'clock they continued to increase in 
 number. New ones were lighted, and others were brought into view as 
 the schooner fully opened the whole reach of the southern side of the 
 island, until at least fifty or sixty were in sight at once. 
 
 About three o'clock in the morning dense masses of black clouds, 
 which had been gradually accumulating, spread themselves over the 
 
7(> KALOOLAH. 
 
 whole face of the heavens, leaving no loop-hole from which a solitary- 
 star could look out upon the surface of the benighted deep. A few 
 flashes of lightning in the north, dimly lighting at considerable intervals 
 the black line of the coast, betokened a collection of electric materials on 
 the opposite side of the island. One by one the lights on land began to 
 disappear, and those' in the boats to steal along homeward between the 
 schooner and the shore. I tried my voice, but without effect — the surf 
 perhaps prevented it from being heard. Several times the idea occurred 
 to me of trusting myself to the water, and swimming to the land ; but, 
 although the distance was not more than a mile, the intense dark- 
 ness, and my utter ignorance of the character of the beach, together 
 with a desire to save if possible my money, papers, etc., prevented the 
 attempt. 
 
 Suddenly there was a sound of oars — it grew louder and louder. The 
 boat, from which it proceeded, was evidently moving in a direction that 
 would bring her past the schooner at no great distance — some fisherman, 
 perhaps, who was returning with his load to the market of Santa Cruz. I 
 strained both eyes and ears — a few low sounds, as if of voices, occasionally 
 floated upon the water, but not a glimpse of any object could be had in 
 the thick, pitchy darkness. Waiting until the boat, to judge from the 
 sound of the oars in the rowlocks, had got nearly abreast of me, and as 
 close, as from the indications of her course, she would be likely to come, 
 I nerved myself for a tremendous vocal effort. " El Bote ! Bote de pescar, 
 ahoy ! " I shouted at the top of as stout a pair of lungs as ever served a boat- 
 swain's mate in a storm, " Hola ! Seiiores Tente ! Venga V. por aqui ! " 
 
 The noise of the oars ceased, and, after apparently a moment's con- 
 sultation, an answer was returned to my hail, " A/'o tengo ningun pescado" 
 was all that could be distinguished. 
 
 " No, no, seflor. I don't want any fish. I want to get ashore. Come, 
 come, venga, venga, acd ! " 
 
 "■No, es imposible ! " and then followed something, of which I could 
 only catch the vf ords prdctico and hacer cuarentena. The oars again com- 
 menced moving in the rowlocks. 
 
 " Maldita sea vuestra cuarentena / " I ejaculated, " and all the quaran- 
 tines that were ever invented for no earthly good, except to 'hamper 
 commerce and fatten a few prejudiced officials ! " But it was no time to 
 stand anathematizing a system of humbug, from which my own enlight- 
 ened country is not yet wholly free. 
 
 " Por el amor de Dios, seiiores, come to me. I 'm alone, upon a wreck 
 — un naufragio ! " and I shrieked the last word with redoubled energy. 
 
KALOOLAH. yj 
 
 " No, no, es imposible. Your ship must get practique first, and besides 
 it 's coming on to blow, we must hurry ashore." 
 
 " Oh, seizor, pare V. el barco ! Estese quiet o p or un momenta! Stop 
 the boat ! Stop for one moment ! I '11 come to you ! I '11 swim to 
 you ! Wait for me, for God's sake ! " But the vigorous and continued 
 strokes of the oar showed that my hospitable and generous Pescadores 
 were fully determined not to risk a scrape with the practique ofifice, or 
 custom-house, by having any thing to do with me. 
 
 And thus again did a chance of escape vanish from my excited vision. 
 My hopes at once fell below zero. It was not despair, but a Jiind oi 
 dogged indifference to the frowns of fate, that took possession of me. 
 It was the contentment of contempt for any and all of the ills of my 
 destiny, and a determination never again to humbug myself with the 
 delusions of hope. With a blow-away-and-do-your-worst kind of feeling, 
 I listened to the roar of the wind, as it swept down the steep cliffs and 
 deep gorges of the mountains, and striking the schooner, bore her away 
 from the land to the southwest. Such a mood of mind, however, cannot 
 long withstand the influence of prayer. The direct appeal to Deity 
 necessarily induces a mental state utterly incompatible with either the 
 rebellious promptings of the haughty and self-relying spirit,the indifference 
 of mere stoicism, or the self-abandonment of despair. I prayed and slept. 
 
 As the wind came off the land in a direction about northeast by north, 
 there could be no danger of running foul of the Grand Canary, or any 
 other of the islands, so, without hesitation or concern, I surrendered my- 
 self to the somniferous influences of the tempest's tones until eight 
 o'clock the next morning. Upon getting upon deck at that hour, no 
 land could be seen — a regular northeast storm, with a driving rain, shut 
 out every thing from view except a narrow circle of the tossing and hiss- 
 ing sea. All day and most of the next night the wind continued to 
 blow a gale — veering occasionally a point or two to the east, but always 
 pufifing away with unflinching vigor. It was cheerless and comfortless 
 enough, but there was consolation in the thought that it was slanting me 
 off from the African shore. Had it been from the northwest, it would 
 have puzzled the most inveterate optimist to have extracted from it a 
 particle of comfort. Towards morning it began gradually to abate, but 
 still continued to blow a pretty stiff breeze until about three o'clock in 
 the afternoon, when it suddenly moderated ; the sea subsided, the clouds 
 dispersed, and the sun shone out with unwonted brilliancy, chasing the 
 lingering mists, and pouring his serene and soothing light upon the 
 fretted sea. 
 
78 KALOOLAH. 
 
 I set about my employments with something like my usual spirit and 
 vigor. The schooner had made a good deal of water, and it took a hard 
 hoLir's " spell " at the pump to relieve her of it. The cabin floor, too, 
 was all afloat with what had rained in, or been dashed in, from the tops 
 of the sea, which had, once in awhile, tumbled aboard, and it was neces- 
 sary to swab it up. The culinary department had been much neglected, 
 having contented myself during the storm with a piece of salt pork and 
 a biscuit. Now it was necessary to have something " good." But what 
 should it be ? After much consultation and debate, it was decided nem. 
 con. that it should be hot johnny-cake and molasses, with a few raisins 
 in it. There was a good deal of philosophy in the choice. First, there 
 were the pleasant home associations hanging around a hot johnny- 
 cake ; second, its intrinsic palatableness, especially with molasses, which 
 none but some recreant to the true principles of taste can deny ; third, 
 the raisins were my own invention — a gratifying exercise of ingenuity — 
 a hopeful attempt to combine the merits of a johnny-cake and an Indian 
 plum-pudding ; fourth, the making and baking would take some trouble 
 and time, and afford an interesting and diverting employment — a " some- 
 thing to do." Ay, there 's wonderful virtue in that same " something to 
 do " in this world. Fortunately, most people have enough of it, and 
 have therefore never been made to feel, in its full force, the admitted 
 truth, that without it time would prove no better than a curse, and life 
 a cheat. 
 
 Acting upon this principle, I resolved to reform my mode of eating 
 altogether. Before, I had taken my meals as I could get them — at all 
 times — without any regularity — sitting or standing — with or without 
 plates — in the cabin or on the deck. Henceforth, I should set out a table 
 with the remnants of crockery, cook my dinners after a more elaborate 
 fashion, serve them in proper style, and then dine like a gentleman- 
 Thus, in the threefold capacity of cook, waiter, and master, I should 
 occupy more of my superabundant time, which, as I had pretty much 
 read up my books, began to drag rather heavily. I could, at least, pelt 
 away at the old gentleman of the scythe with some of the proprieties of 
 society, if I could not kill him with its luxuries and its pleasures. 
 
 My solitary dreams were, however, destined to have an end. As the 
 third I sat longer at the table than usual, in the enjoyment of imaginary , 
 hob-nobbings, with divers dignitaries of the earth. I had ever the faculty 
 of surrendering myself, body and soul, to the fancy of the moment, how- 
 ever ridiculous or improbable. In fact, the impossible was no let or 
 hindrance. I fought, when a boy, as readily upon the banks of the 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 79 
 
 Scamander, or the plains of Arbela, as at Warsaw or Missolonghi ; built 
 castles in the air as easily in the moon as upon earth. Coming upon 
 deck with my guests, Wellington, General Jackson, and Mehemet Ali, 
 three of the greatest men, as I thought, that the world had produced, I 
 was too much absorbed in them to notice, at first, a ship on the starboard 
 tack, close-hauled to the wind — which was changed to the south, — and 
 heading up in a direct line for the schooner. If she kept on without 
 tacking she could not fail to notice me. The duke, general, and pacha 
 taking their leave, I hoisted my flag and awaited the event. 
 
 As she came on I had full time to note all her beautiful proportions. 
 
 " ' You have had rough work here ! ' he continued, stepping upon deck." 
 
 She was small, apparently not above three hundred tons, and had a pecul- 
 iarly trim and clipper-like look. Her bright copper, flashing occasionally 
 in the sunlight, showed that she was in light sailing trim ; while from the 
 cut of her sails, the symmetrical arrangement of her spars and rigging, 
 and her quarter boats, I concluded that she must be a man-of-war. Pass- 
 ing me about half a mile astern, she stood on for a little distance, then 
 hoisting the bilious-looking flag of Spain, she tacked and ran for me, 
 backing her main top-sail within twenty rods of my larboard beam. Her 
 quarter-boat was immediately lowered, and half a dozen fellows, in red 
 caps and flannel shirts, jumped into it, followed by an officer in a blue 
 velvet jacket, with a strip of gold lace upon his shoulders, and a broad- 
 
8o KALOOLAH. 
 
 brimmed straw hat upon his head. I ran below, stuffed all the money 
 that I had in gold — about a thousand dollars — into my pockets, and got 
 upon deck again just as the boat touched the side. 
 
 " Welcome, sefior," I exclaimed in Spanish, " I am exceedingly glad 
 to see you." 
 
 " I should think so," returned the stranger in very good English, but 
 with a marked Spanish accent. " I should think so ; you have had rough 
 work here," he continued, stepping upon deck, and turning a glance upon 
 the shattered bulwarks and splintered stanchions and masts. " Rough 
 work ! but where is your crew ? " 
 
 By this time, the boat's crew were on deck, running about, asking 
 questions all at once, and addressing their velvet-coated companion with a 
 degree of familiarity that I was unaccustomed to see between an officer and 
 his men. Some of them had made their way to the cabin ; and I congratu- 
 lated myself, not a little, upon my forethought in securing the gold upon 
 my person, as I heard them rummaging about and overhauling every thing 
 they could lay their hands on. Velvet Jacket himself seemed disposed to 
 have a finger in the pie, and led the way below without any ceremony. 
 
 He was a large stout-looking man, with a face strongly marked with the 
 small-pox, and deeply scarred, upon the chin and cheek, by a cut, which 
 was only partially concealed amid a black forest of moustache and whisk- 
 er. With a low projecting forehead, piercing black eyes, rendered pecul- 
 iarly sinister by a whitish speck in one of them, and coarse grisly hair, 
 it must be allowed that he was not much of a beauty, and his men, if 
 possible, were still less prepossessing ; they all had a kind of cut-throat 
 expression, that suggested the idea of pirates. The chief reason for not 
 thinking them so, was that their vessel was square-rigged, a long low 
 rakish schooner seeming to be the only natural craft for a pirate. But 
 why might they not have chosen the unusual rig of the ship, for the very 
 purpose of better deceiving their prey or their foes ? I must own that 
 the idea gave me some little pleasure. I had no objection to a practical 
 acquaintance with piratical life, if it was forced upon me. I might, per- 
 haps, be the means of doing much good and preventing much evil — 
 perhaps save some lovely damsel and her doting father, and be rewarded 
 with a heart and a fortune ; nothing more natural, and, if the novelists 
 could be depended upon, nothing more common. Physically, I felt 
 myself a match for any half-dozen pirates ; and mentally, what youth^ 
 almost twenty-one, ever felt any doubt about his ingenuity, his courage, 
 his resources, or his knowledge of men and the world ? If I had had, 
 however, a little more of the latter quality, I might have saved my specu- 
 
KALOOLAH. 8i 
 
 lations as to the chances and turn-ups of the piratical profession, and 
 have made a shrewder guess at the character and employment of my new- 
 acquaintances. Not even when Velvet Jacket told me that she was bound 
 from Cuba to the coast of Africa, did I begin to suspect that that beauti- 
 ful craft was, if any thing, worse than a pirate — a slaver. 
 
 " What is the name of your vessel ? " said I, after telling my story, as 
 we were all huddled about a bottle of Pico wine, in the small cabin. 
 
 " El Bonito, and mine, Captain Pedro Garbez, at your service." 
 
 " And to what port in Africa are you going? " 
 
 " I don't know, exactly, yet," he rephed, in a hesitating manner; "it 
 will depend upon circumstances and the state of trade." 
 
 " You are going for dye-woods and palm oil, I suppose," said I. 
 
 " Si, senor, por palo de tinte y aceite de Senegal" he replied, repeating 
 my words in Spanish, and looking round upon his men with an impres- 
 sive glance. 
 
 In the course of conversation it came out that I was a medico, which 
 fact seemed to give general satisfaction. The men, when they heard it, 
 repeated it to each other with many expressions of pleasure, while the 
 captain, taking my hand, warmly welcomed me to his ship. 
 
 " We are lucky in falling in with you," said he. " The doctor that 
 was to have accompanied us was taken sick just before we sailed, and we 
 could not get another. We have already three or four men on the sick 
 list — one of them with a dislocation of the shoulder joint ; we 've nearly 
 all of us taken a pull in turn at him, but we can't get the arm back again 
 — so, you see, you 're just the man we want ; you will tinker up our 
 short sick-list now, and in a few weeks we '11 have plenty of other work 
 for you ; but I '11 explain all about that another time. Come, now, let 
 us get on board." 
 
 Securing my trunk, clothing, papers, and nautical and surgical instru- 
 ments, while the men did the like service for the captain's and mate's 
 personal property, we pushed off, and in a few strokes of the oar were 
 alongside the ship. The captain and I mounted to the deck, while the 
 boat was ordered back for another load of cabin furniture, bedding, and 
 provisions. In about an hour she returned, when the ship immediately 
 filled her main top-sail, and stretched off to the southeast. 
 
 I could not but part from the old wreck with feelings of regret — she 
 had borne me in solitude so long and so gallantly — she seemed so much 
 like home ! I gazed at her until she dwindled to the smallest speck, and 
 after she had disappeared from the deck, stepped into the mizzen-top to 
 take one last lingering look. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 El Bonilo — Iler Officers and Crew — The Cape de Verde Islands — Peak of Fuego — -Captain 
 Roberts' Account — The Horse Latitudes — Rains that are Rains — Flying Fish and Their 
 Enemies — The Bonito a Slave Ship — The Misfortunes of Monte — The African Coast — 
 A Visit from the Blacks — An Accomplished Linguist — The Fashions of Cacongo — The 
 Mafooka — Anchor in Moenza Enzadda — A Slave Station — A White Girl — The Gerboo 
 Blanda. 
 
 [ESERVING of her name was El Bonito — as much so as the 
 well-known fish after which she had been baptized, and which 
 have acquired their name in an adjectival expression for 
 beauty and grace. Of great breadth of beam, but sharp for- 
 ward and very lean aft, and heavily sparred, she gave indications of speed, 
 which, one could not be long on board without perceiving, were abun- 
 dantly realized. Six small pieces of ordnance piercing her high and com- 
 fortable bulwarks, and a long twenty-four pound pivot-gun constituted 
 her armament. Her crew consisted of about thirty men, among whom 
 were several Portuguese, most of them rather hard-looking fellows, and 
 all of them dressed in the characteristic red cap, striped woollen shirt and 
 worsted sash. Beside these there were several ofificers of various grades, 
 contramaestres, carpinteros, pilotos, and capitanes. Between these and the 
 men there was a degree of familiarity that in an American ship would 
 have been destructive of all discipline. There seemed to be no idea of 
 subordination, except in matters immediately pertaining to the duties of 
 the ship, but still, the work was performed with a degree of regularity, 
 the ship kept quite trim, and, for a Spanish ship, tolerably clean. 
 
 The second officer was, if possible, a more truculent-looking fellow 
 than the captain. He had a peculiarly savage and morose expression — a 
 kind of look that spoke of murdering, in all its tenses, past, present, and 
 future. He spoke but little, except in occasional bursts of the most out- 
 rageous blasphemy, when any thing crossed his wishes. I never knew to 
 what extent profanity could be carried, until one day he gave me an in- 
 stance. We had been bothered for several days with a calm, common 
 enough in those latitudes, and the sailors had placed an image of St. 
 
KALOOLAH. 83 
 
 Anthony against the main-mast, with a prayer to send them wind, and a 
 threat that his saintship should remain in his uncomfortable position 
 until he did. Either the saint was unable or unwilling to comply, and no 
 wind came. El segundo capitan began to mutter and to curse. At last 
 his rage broke all bounds ; his eyes glowed like the flues of a steam boiler, 
 and his face became as bloated and speckled as a toad's back. He stamped 
 upon the deck, tore his hair, and shrieked out volleys of curses upon the 
 air, the sea, the sky, the God that made them, and the whole Holy Trinity. 
 He anathematized the Virgin Mary, called her all manner of names, and 
 cursed all the saints in the calendar, with an affluence of objurgatory pro- 
 fanity, rivalled only by the denunciatory anathema-maranathas of Rome, 
 and jumping forward to the main-mast, he gave St. Anthony a kick that 
 almost sent him overboard. I was inexpressibly shocked, but I could 
 not help laughing until my sides ached. With this worthy I had but little 
 to do. We had conceived a dislike of each other from the moment that 
 we first met. 
 
 I could easily spin out a chapter or two in the description of the ship 
 and my companions, and in the recital of the interesting but comparatively 
 trivial occurrences of our voyage, but the space I have already occupied 
 warns me that I must hasten the more important incidents of my story. 
 
 The tenth day of baffling winds, squalls, and calms saw us floating 
 motionless upon the quiet sea, directly beneath the frowning cliffs of 
 Fuego, one of the Cape de Verdes. I had been gratified with the sight 
 of the Peak of Pico, afterwards with the Peak of Teneriffe, and now with 
 the Peak of Fuego. The first was the most beautiful, the second the 
 loftiest ; indeed, struck with its majestic and imposing appearance, there 
 have not been wanting visitors who have claimed for it the credit of being 
 the far-famed Atlas of the ancients. The claim vanishes, however, before 
 the better-founded pretensions of the Mauritanian giant, and the Peak of 
 Teneriffe must content itself with its modern fame and the classic associ- 
 ations of the Fortunate Isles, of which it is the pride. 
 
 Both Pico and Teneriffe are smouldering volcanoes — sleeping giants, 
 who, as if tired out with their exertions in past ages, had composed them- 
 selves to rest ; an occasional groan — a sighing sulphurous expiration — a 
 deep but transient shivering alone giving evidence of the vitality — the 
 raging life — the restless energies within. The Peak of Fuego, on the con- 
 trary, has been almost always, since its discovery, in a state of active erup- 
 tion. From the accounts of the earliest voyagers, however, it would 
 seem that they were much more violent formerly, than in the present 
 day. " It is most horrible to behold, especially in the night," says Beek- 
 
84 KALOOLAH. 
 
 man. " What prodigious flames and vast clouds of smoke it vomits up 
 continually, which we could perceive afterwards in a clear day, though 
 we were above sixty miles distant." Captain Roberts, who in 1721 was 
 captured by pirates, and landed at the Cape de Verdes, says, in his 
 account of his remarkable adventures : " It is almost incredible what huge 
 rocks are cast out, and to what a great height, the noise of which, in fall- 
 ing again, breaking and rolling down, may very easily be heard eight or 
 nine leagues off in a still air, and in the night be seen rolling down the 
 Peak all in a flame." 
 
 It is a curious fact that at the time of the discovery of the islands the 
 Peak of Fuego did not exist ; that is, if we may believe the traditions of 
 the inhabitants. Certain it is, that Cada Mosto, an adventurous Genoese 
 — in the service of the Portuguese — who discovered them, makes no men- 
 tion of it ; and it was some time after his day that the name he gave it, 
 St. Felipe, was superseded by that of Fuego, or island of fire. It seems 
 that shortly after Cada Mosto's visit the whole island was enveloped in 
 flames, and that, in consequence, no efforts were made to people it for 
 many years. At length the fire having subsided, excepting at what is 
 now the Peak, the king of Portugal issued an edict, granting the lands to 
 whoever would settle upon them, and a scanty population was soon drawn 
 from St. Jago, Mayo, and the other islands, partly allured by the hope of 
 finding some of the gold, which, according to tradition, was the cause 
 of the fire. 
 
 Among our crew, as I have said, were several Portuguese, two or three 
 of whom were natives of the Cape de Verdes — black, curly-headed fel- 
 lows, with marks of the strong infusion of negro blood, common to all the 
 inhabitants of the islands. It was of these, and surrounded by a group 
 of other sailors, that I was making some inquiries in relation to Fonta de 
 Villa and the little town oiLa Ghate, off which we were becalmed. All at 
 once a broad glare of light shot up from the dark mountain, illuminating its 
 rugged sides, and streaming in the darkness of thenight far out to seaward. 
 
 " El Pico ! El Pico ! " exclaimed a dozen voices. 
 
 Two tall columns flashed upwards from the mountain — at one mo- 
 ment steady and erect — the next, quivering and swaying to and fro in the 
 currents of the wind ; now seeming to repel each other, now bowing, 
 crouching, and turning, like wary combatants preparing for a struggle 
 for life or death, they would rush at each other, close, and writhe for an 
 instant in the fierce embrace. 
 
 " Los Padres ! " shouted one fellow. " Los Mdgicos 1 " exclaimed a 
 second. "Los Alquimistas ! " bellowed a third. 
 
KALOOLAH. 85 
 
 " Priests, magicians, and alchemists ! What do you mean ? " I de- 
 manded. 
 
 " Oh, ask Pedro Vosalo," replied one of the crew, " he was born just 
 round the point, where you see so many sea-v/eed fires in the little 
 bay of Nossa Senora, and he knows all about it. Pedro, Pedro ! come 
 here, and tell sehor elmidico the story of the magicians." 
 
 Nothing loath, Master Pedro, a little, round-shouldered, bandy-legged 
 mulatto, came forward, and throwing aside the stump of his paper segar, 
 commenced his story, which, fortunately for the reader, I am not dis- 
 posed to attempt giving in the execrable patois, half Spanish and half 
 Portuguese, in which it was told. 
 
 For nearly a week we were struggling along in that part of the ocean, 
 in the neighborhood of the Cape de Verdes, which seems to have been des- 
 tined to an eternal alternation of squalls and calms. Since the days of 
 the early Spanish voyagers, who frequently suffered terrible hardships in 
 these latitudes, no piece of navigation has been found more trying to the 
 temper and patience of mariners, and el segundo capitan,'as, might be sup- 
 posed, profited not a little by the opportunity for the continued exercise 
 of his peculiar gifts. His oaths, however, did not seem to do much 
 good, though were it possible for a captain to take his ship through the 
 horse -latitudes, as is frequently done through the custom-house, by 
 dint of hard swearing, he was the man to do it. 
 
 The regular wind came mostly from the south, compelling us to stand 
 east, toward the African continent, while that accompanying the squalls 
 blew in all manner of ways, but not with sufficient force to raise much 
 of a sea. Indeed, that would have been impossible, for any wind under 
 the depressing influence of the torrents of water that poured from the 
 sky. If a person will imagine all the thunder showers of a summer sea- 
 son in New York, concentrated into one thunder shower, and the whole 
 poured upon him at once, in drops, somewhat less in size than common 
 billiard balls ; or, if anxious for a more particular illustration, he will put 
 his head directly beneath the Catskill Falls, where an extra quantity of 
 water has been turned on for the amusement of visitors, he will begin to 
 have some idea of the way in which it rained. For my part, I almost 
 questioned, several times, whether the story of the creation was intended 
 to apply to this part of the world ; whether the waters under thg firmament 
 ever had been separated from the waters above the firmament — they 
 seemed to be all one. In the intervals of the squalls the sky was gen- 
 erally clear overhead, but loaded with dense black banks of vapor in the 
 eastern horizon, through which continually played the most vivid light- 
 
86 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ning ; while in the west invariably gathered groups of bashful clouds, 
 which, when blushing beneath the kisses of the setting sun, glowed with 
 far deeper and richer hues than I had ever seen among their more brazen- 
 faced sisters of the north. 
 
 In twenty days after leaving Fuego we had reached the meridian of 
 Cape Palmas, and standing close-hauled on the larboard tack, steered 
 across the Gulf of Guinea. As we advanced, the sea became literally 
 alive with fish. Myriads of albicore — a kind of tunny-fish, weighing from 
 one to two hundred pounds, continually surrounded the ship ; while all 
 around us could be seen, almost at any moment, thousands of flying-fish 
 upon the wing. The faculty of flying, however, seemed to avail them 
 but little as a means of escape from their numerous enemies. What with 
 the dolphins, bonitos, and albicores in the water, and the tropic and man- 
 of-war birds in the air, their life appeared to be any thing but a charmed 
 or a charming one. Rising with a few quick flaps of their wings or fins, 
 if against the wind, they almost immediately dropped into the voracious 
 jaws below ; if before it, they sailed off some distance, exposed to the re- 
 morseless claws and beaks above. The hunted fish were not safe from 
 this latter danger, even when in their proper element. Flying low, and 
 skimming the water like a gull, the tropic-bird picked them up from the 
 surface ; while hovering on the wing, the man-of-war taking aim, and de- 
 scending like a hawk, seized them in the depths. 
 
 Numerous boobies, a bird well known to sailors, now visited us, 
 skimming the surface of the water in pairs, with outstretched necks and 
 expanded tails, and sometimes settling upon the spars in the dusk of 
 the evening, when they allowed themselves to be easily caught. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of October we crossed the line, with the thickly- 
 wooded island of St. Thomas in sight. Through the open space that 
 separates a rock called the Mono Cacada, from the north end of the island, 
 we could see a large brig standing to the south. As el capitan had no 
 disposition to come upon a British cruiser at the southern end, we hauled 
 to the wind, as close as possible, and stood to the southwest. 
 
 I had, long before this, ascertained the character of our ship and the 
 object of her voyage ; and, as may be supposed, I would gladly have em- 
 braced any opportunity of leaving her ; but with her superior sailing 
 qualities, and the indisposition of her officers to hold any communication 
 with the ships that we occasionally saw, it appeared not at all likely that 
 any such chance would offer. The prospect would have appeared infinite- 
 ly more gloomy, had I had a more definite idea of all the horrors of such 
 a voyage. True, I had been accustomed to hear the detestable traffic in 
 
KALOOLAH. 8/ 
 
 human flesh spoken of in terms of the utmost abhorrence, and had some- 
 thing of a general notion of the cruehies of the " middle passage," but it 
 was too vague and imperfect to excite much apprehensionon the score of 
 mere physical suffering, when I looked at the clean decks and roomy pro- 
 portions of El Bonito. I had the utmost confidence in the capacity for 
 any thing diabolical of both officers and crew ; but the ship herself was 
 such a beauty, such nice between-decks — no mere temporary slave deck, 
 with a space between it and a spar deck of only two or three feet in height, 
 into which to cram hundreds of human beings, where half of them die 
 from suffocation ; but a permanent berth-deck, with more than five feet 
 in the clear. She might be an agent in great moral guilt, but certainly 
 not in the production of death, disease, and physical pain. So I then 
 thought. And it was not a little satisfaction to think, that if compelled 
 to make the whole voyage, I should not be shocked by the usual horrors, 
 and might perhaps do much towards relieving the ills to which, under 
 the best of circumstances a cargo of human flesh must be exposed. 
 
 I had already acquired considerable influence with the captain. A 
 violent bilious attack had readily yielded to my active treatment, and 
 although he was not very profuse in his expressions of gratitude, I could 
 see that he felt that I had been the means of saving his life. This feel- 
 ing was evinced, most to my satisfaction, by turning the mulatto steward 
 out of my state-room, or rather, perhaps, his state-room, as he had the 
 right of priority, leaving me all the room to myself. I was also on pretty 
 good terms with most of the other officers and crew, with the exception 
 of el scgundo capitan, who, for some reason that I could not comprehend, 
 continually looked daggers at me, and had there been a good opportunity, 
 would, ro doubt, have used them. His enmity, I afterwards found, was 
 not wholly personal ; it comprehended within its limits my country and 
 my countrymen, and with good reason too, if the story told me in confi- 
 dence by the fellow whose dislocation I had reduced, was true. ''El 
 segundo capitan" said he, " was formerly a pirate, and conducted a very 
 flourishing business on the coast of Cuba, in a little brigantine which he 
 owned ; but one day the boats of an American man-of-war chased him on 
 shore, captured his vessel, and landing, destroyed his boat, stores, and a 
 good many of his men, and completely broke up his establishment. 
 Pobre hombre ! he was ruined ! 
 
 Holding in our southwest course long enough to clear the vessel that 
 we had seen, we bore away again for the coast, in the direction of Cabenda, 
 the port for which we were destined. A steady run of ten days brought 
 us in sight of the reddish-gray cliffs which extend along from Loango 
 Bay to between Cabenda and the mouth of the Congo. 
 
88 KALOOLAH. 
 
 In the course of the evening several canoes, paddled by naked blacks, 
 came alongside. Their crews were invited on board to take a drink of 
 brandy, and give us any information as to the state of the slave-market, 
 and the probabilities of interference from the British cruisers. The invi- 
 tation seemed to give them great pleasure, particularly that part of it 
 respecting the brandy. Several of them spoke Spanish and French, and 
 one or two a little English. To one of these, after some conversation in 
 English, I gave a strong glass of New England rum. " I can speak Eng- 
 lish too," said one of his companions, addressing me in Spanish. 
 
 " Indeed ! let us hear you speak it." 
 
 "■ Dame un poco de aguardiente. Den me speak." 
 
 Respect for his polyglot pretensions would not allow me to refuse. He 
 took the glass, turned it off, and smacking his lips, exclaimed with 
 marked emphasis: 
 
 " Good ! d n good ! c est tout — Yo no savey mas ? " 
 
 If the fellow had exhausted the English vocabulary, he could n't have 
 marched off with a more dignified swagger. 
 
 They were all fine-looking men, tall, well made, and with features more 
 ■nearly resembling the European than is usual in the negro. Of their 
 forms, we had a good opportunity of judging, as they were quite naked, 
 except two or three who had strips of palm-leaf matting around their 
 waists, and red woollen caps upon their heads. Indurated ridges — the 
 cicatrices of repeated scarifications adorned their breasts ; rings of copper 
 encircled their wrists and arms ; and fetishes or charms, consisting of 
 bunches of rags, feathers or fur, with oyster-shells, iron spikes, alligators' 
 teeth, and snakes' tails, dangled from their necks, and protected their per- 
 son from all evil influences. 
 
 From them we learned that there were no slaves at Cabenda, a state- 
 ment which was confirmed the next morning by the Mafooka himself, 
 who came off to visit the ship. This ofificer, who is the head of the 
 custom-house, or rather the chief of the board of trade, for his mas- 
 ter, the Chenoo, was attended with quite a retinue of persons of dis- 
 tinction, who had plainly much higher pretentions to the genteel, in 
 dress, than our first visitors. Their picturesque variety of costume 
 would have made them admirable subjects for a Broadway lounge. 
 The Mafooka was habited in a red cloth cloak, and a round embroid- 
 ered cap, the symbol of his office. The three next in rank had 
 made a partnership affair of some European officer's uniform — one 
 wore the coat and epaulets, another the vest buttoned up to the chin, 
 but without a particle of other clothing, while the third indemnified 
 
KALOOLAH. 89 
 
 himself for the nakedness of the upper-half of his person, by encasing 
 his long muscular nether limbs in the short tight-fitting pantaloons. Two 
 or three others had on sailors' jackets and red woollen shirts ; but the 
 most remarkable swell was cut by a huge fellow in an old cocked-hat ; 
 a flashy, but somewhat dilapidated silk gown, which looked as though 
 it might once have belonged to the wardrobe of a dowager of quality, 
 and a pair of jack boots without soles. The peculiar elegance of this 
 distinguished-looking gentleman's equipments was still further enhanced 
 by a monstrous fetish encircling his neck, consisting of the brim of an 
 old hat, covered with grease and filth, and loaded with scraps of tin, 
 copper, and iron, and pieces of twine and rope yarn, with bunches of rags 
 and hair. It was, as the owner asserted, esteemed the most powerful 
 fetish in the country — "a perfect life-preserver ; no beast,, however wild, 
 dared look at it ; if he did he became blind." 
 
 Upon ascertaining that there were no slaves at Cabenda, it was re- 
 solved, much to my regret, to run round into the mouth of the Congo or 
 Zaire. I was anxious to visit Cabenda, which, from its fine port and 
 fertile country, has been called the paradise of the coast, partly from 
 curiosity, and partly in the hope that I might find it possible to leave the 
 ship, and await the arrival of some trading vessel or man-of-war. Once 
 in the Congo, the chances of escape, as far as I could judge from the 
 slight information I obtained, would be but small. The strong current 
 of the river, in the rainy season, and the peculiar unhealthiness of its 
 banks, rendered it very unlikely that any ships engaged in an honest 
 trade would be found, in which case the only alternative would be to re- 
 main among the negroes an indefinite time, or make the voyage with El 
 Bonito. As the last would, perhaps, be inevitable, I felt the necessity of 
 keeping on good terms with the captain, and of not exciting his suspicions 
 beforehand by too minute inquiries. With Mont6, the first mate, my re- 
 lations had rapidly come to be those of avowed hostility ; and it was evi- 
 dent that, through his representations, I had grown into great disfavor 
 with the majority of the crew, who, however, seemed to consider it a 
 settled thing, that I was to remain with them. I could not doubt that, 
 to secure my services, they would have no hesitation in restraining my 
 personal freedom. 
 
 Weighing anchor, with a light sea breeze from the west, we stood 
 down the coast, which, a little below Cabenda Bay, becomes flat and 
 marshy, and covered with a thick growth of mangroves. About noon. 
 Cape Padron, on the further side of the river's mouth, was in sight. In- 
 stead of crossing the current and rounding Cape Padron and Shark's 
 
$o KALOOLAH. 
 
 Point from the southward, as is usually done, Captain Garbez determined 
 to anchor on the edge of the Moena Moesa bank, just outside of Fathom- 
 less Point, on the north, and await a more favorable turn of tide. In 
 three or four hours we got under weigh again, and by the aid of the 
 tide and the strong sea breeze which had freshened considerably, made 
 out to stem the current, which here ran at the rate of five or six miles in 
 the hour, and at night we again dropped anchor some distance within 
 Fathomless Point. Here the Mafooka of Boolembemda came off to the 
 ship, and informed us that there were plenty of slaves at Embomma, the 
 chief town, some forty miles up the Aloensa Enzadda, or great river, as 
 the natives call the Congo, and that there were no vessels of any kind to 
 interfere in the trade. 
 
 We at length reached Lombee, and anchored off the town, which is 
 the chief market or slave depot for Embomma. It consists of about a 
 hundred huts of palm leaves, with t\\o or three block houses, where the 
 slaves are confined. About two hundred slaves were already collected 
 and more were on their way down the river, and from different towns in the 
 interior. After presents for the king of Embomma, and to the Mafooka, 
 and other officials had been made, and a deal of brandy drank, we landed, 
 and in company with several Fukas, or native merchants, and two or 
 three Portuguese, went to take a look at the slaves. Each dealer paraded 
 his gang for inspection, and loudly dilated upon their respective qualities. 
 They were all entirely naked, and of all ages, sexes, and conditions, and 
 all had an air of stolid indifference, varied only in some of them by an 
 expression of surprise and fear at the sight of the white men. I had 
 the satisfaction of perceiving that my appearance produced a stronger 
 sensation of dread, astonishment, and disgust, than that of either of 
 my companions. 
 
 After looking at them for some time, and making some inquiries about 
 the places they had been brought from, I was turning off, leaving Captain 
 Garbez to finish his examination, when my attention was attracted to a 
 shrinking figure that I had not before noticed. It was that of a young 
 girl, apparently twelve or thirteen years old, which, as is well known, 
 corresponds in warm countries to the sixteen of colder climes. Her 
 features were not at all of the usual African stamp. Her forehead was 
 moderately high, but very broad, clear, and perpendicular — the facial 
 angle being as great as is ever seen in the finest European heads. Her 
 eyebrows were arched, eyes large, dark and fringed with the longest and 
 blackest lashes I had ever seen. Her nose was straight and well formed ; 
 lips full, but not thick ; teeth as white as snow, and chin beautifully 
 
KALOOLAH. 91 
 
 rounded and dimpled. Her complexion would not have been deemed at 
 all too dark for a brunette. Her hair was curly, but not crisp, nor woolly, 
 while her figure, slight and finely framed, contrasted curiously with the 
 fat forms and ebony skins behind which she was trying to hide herself from 
 sight. A sentiment of modesty was pleasingly evinced by a tattered waist 
 cloth of palm leaves, the only attempt at clothing in the whole group. 
 
 It will be supposed from this description that she was beautiful, and so 
 she was, but it was beauty under an eclipse. The sunken eye and hollow 
 cheek, and attenuated frame, spoke of long weeks and months of mental 
 anguish and physical pain. Her hair, that once curled ^Yaccfully as the 
 tendrils of the vine, was matted into one dense and unsightly mass. Her 
 skin, begrimed with dirt, was marked with the lash, which had urged on 
 her weary steps in her long and dreadful journeyings. Several recent 
 wounds, aggravated by exposure to the sun, disfigured her limbs, and her 
 whole form and face had that expression of spirits crushed, hopes blighted, 
 feelings outraged, and strength prostrated seen only in the slave. For 
 some time I could not take my eyes from her. She was dreadfully inter- 
 esting ! disgustingly attractive ! 
 
 I looked at her long and steadily: compassion must have beamed from 
 my face, for I felt it like a mountain at my heart, and as she met my gaze, 
 her eye lighted, and a mournful smile parted her lips, and showed her snowy 
 teeth — the only feature that had not been affected by suffering and pain. 
 
 "Who is this?" said I, speaking through an interpreter to a slave- 
 dealer, a great burly negro wielding a long thong of plaited buffalo hide. 
 
 " Who is this? Why, she is about as worthless a piece of goods as I 
 have got in my stock. She is hardly worth the crack of my whip. I am 
 sorry I bought her, for she has given me more trouble than all the rest 
 put together." 
 
 " Where did she come from ?" I inquired, arresting the fellow's arm, 
 as he whirled his whip round the heads of the crouching and shrinking 
 slaves. 
 
 " A great way off in that direction," he replied, pointing a little north 
 of east. I bought her two moons from this, and she had then come a great 
 journey. She comes from what the Youga Jagas call the Gerboo Blanda, 
 or white nation. I 've got another one of them — a young man ; I beheve 
 her brother. He 's at a Banza, about a quarter of a day from this." 
 
 " Do you often get people of her nation ? " 
 
 " No, I never saw one before, and I never saw any one who had seen 
 them ; but I have heard the slaves that I have bought from the eastern 
 Jagas talk about them." 
 
92 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " And what do the slaves you have seen say about this Gerboo Blanda ? " 
 
 " Oh, they know but little about it, except that it is a great nation of 
 white people — living in big stone houses, on a great plain on the top of 
 a mouatain." 
 
 " Can any one here speak this girl's language ? " 
 
 " I believe not. There is a slave who can talk with her in his own 
 language, of which she understands a little, and she has also picked up a 
 few words of Congo, but not much." 
 
 Our conversation was here interrupted by preparations for a grand 
 palaver, at which all hands were to assist, and where the price of slaves 
 was to be settled, the dues of the Chenoo, Mafooka, and other officers 
 arranged, and as much brandy drank as would serve to elucidate any points 
 in dispute, and bind the bargains. Making an engagement with the slave- 
 dealer to visit the Banza where the brother of the girl was confined, in the 
 afternoon, I returned to the ship. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Getting the Ship Ready for Slaves — A Congo Apollo — Visit to a Slave Pen — The Gerboo Girl — 
 An Assault and Battery — Caddee M'Pemba — A Compromise — An Offer for a Fetish — Pur- 
 chase of the Gerboo — ^Visit to Banza Embemda — Kaloolah's Brother — Purchase oi En- 
 phadde — Return to Lembee — The Bonito Driven to Sea by a British Cruiser — Meeting of 
 Kaloolah and Enphadde — House Hunting by Torch-light. 
 
 JN board every one was busy in preparations for the reception 
 of the slaves, which were to be all sent off the next day. 
 Some were engaged in filling the water-casks, while others 
 were taking in stores of Indian corn, plantains, and potatoes. 
 Crowds of Fukas with their linguistas, or interpreters, were on board, or 
 around the ship in their canoes ; most of them half dressed and invariably 
 with some piece of European clothing. 
 
 I tried to make some minutes in my journal, but the noise and con- 
 fusion were too great, and besides the face of the Gerboo girl haunted me 
 so as to preclude thought of any other subject. I felt the deepest com-, 
 passion for her ; but how could I lighten her hard fate ? I longed to do 
 something, but what ? The question recurred again and again. Should 
 I purchase her, and thus, however innocently, become a participant in a 
 trade denounced by my government as piracy, and punished with death ? 
 Or, should I leave her to the mercies of her negro masters, and to all the 
 horrors of African slavery ? I was certain that in her present weak and 
 exhausted state, she would not be purchased as a part of our regular 
 cargo, and merely to give her her freedom, and leave her behind, would 
 not at all better her condition. 
 
 Without being able to come to any settled resolution, I picked out 
 from my store of money a few Spanish pillar dollars, the only current 
 coin, and, stepping into a native canoe, returned to the shore. Making 
 my way among the scattered and irregularly arranged huts, composed of 
 stakes covered with a matting of palm leaves, I arrived at the stockade, 
 or picketed enclosure, in which she was confined. Here I found a partner 
 or assistant of the slave-dealer with whom I had spoken. He was a stout 
 muscular man, with a peculiarly malignant expression of face. The skin 
 
 93 
 
94 KALOOLAH. 
 
 of his breast and body was raised in the most frightful ridges by the 
 process of repeated scarification ; his front teeth projected far from his 
 mouth, and were filed down to sharp points — a custom which prevails ex- 
 tensively among different nations of Africa — and his thick bushy hair 
 was shaved so as to leave it in tufts, like bunches of bog-grass, standing 
 ont from different parts of his head. 
 
 We entered and found within the enclosure an open area, without any 
 shelter from the sun or rains. Here and there were pools of stagnant 
 water, and, all around, the ground was covered with a thick black mud, 
 into which, in the driest part, we sank ankle deep at every step. In this 
 place, that was more than equalled in comfort by any ordinary pig-sty, 
 were about thirty females, most of them sitting or lying, half-buried, in 
 the abominable reeking compost. 
 
 The Gerboo girl was not, at first, in sight. The slave-dealer called 
 for her two or three times, in tones that gave indication of the treatrpent 
 to which she must have been subjected. " Kaloolah ! Kaloolah ! " he 
 shouted, and at last espying her crouching behind a picket that projected 
 from the side of the entrance, he sprang towards her with every mark of 
 fury in his face, and, before I could prevent him, struck hter a heavy blow 
 with his whip of raw hide. I saw the quivering flesh, where fell the lash, 
 marked with a long streak of blood, and I saw the whip half raised, as if 
 for a second bIo\\'. It was altogether too much for my share of human 
 nature to bear. I have said that I had never yet met my match for muscu- 
 lar power, and twice my usual strength was in my arm as with my left hand 
 I grasped his brawny throat, and dashed his head against the wall with a 
 force that, if it had been a white man's, would have seriously endangered 
 the continuity of its bones. I drew back my right hand to strike, and, 
 had the blow been given under the energetic impulse of the moment, I 
 verily believe it would have killed him. Fortunately, a thought of the 
 consequences restrained me, and the blow was arrested in time. I loos- 
 ened my grasp, and the big brute sank to the ground, apparently as life- 
 less as a log. What with the concussion of the brain, and the compression 
 of the wind-pipe, he was decidedly in a bad way. 
 
 In an instant there was a tremendous hubbub and uproar. The counte- 
 nances of the poor slaves expressed the height of astonishment and ter- 
 ror, while the spectators, who had accompanied us in, drew back, scream- 
 ing and gesticulating, and loudly asserting that I must be Caddee M' Pcmba, 
 or the devil, to dare thus attack one of the stoutest and most desperate lion 
 hunters and jaga killers in the country. Soon a large crowd collected, 
 and among them the Mafooka and the principal slave-owner. I was, of 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 95 
 
 course, exceedingly anxious to settle matters, not at all on my own ac- 
 count, but for fear the slaves, and particularly the Gerboo girl, might 
 have to suffer for my doings. The unbounded influence of money favored 
 me, and a few dollars, judiciously distributed, soon brought about a most 
 amicable understanding. Not that there was much ill-feeling evinced tow- 
 ards me, my opponent being pretty generally hated and feared, but a 
 natural sense of justice told them that a man ought to be paid for mal- 
 treatment administered without the slightest (to them) provocation. So, 
 after a deal of talk, it was settled that I should pay the plaintiff in the 
 suit, who was beginning to recover his breath, the sum of four dollars, 
 and also the costs of court, in the shape of a five-gallon keg of rum, to 
 be shared by all hands, judges and jurors, witnesses and spectators. 
 
 Taking me aside with a very mysterious air, the principal slave-dealer 
 informed me that he was confident that I must have in my possession a 
 very powerful fetish, that had enabled me to handle so easily his assist- 
 ant, who was notorious for his strength and courage, and who had killed 
 with his one hand more than fifty men ; that if I would sell him my fetish, 
 he would give me any two slaves for it, and that he would guarantee me 
 against injury from my late antagonist, who, notwithstanding the award 
 of four dollars, would most assuredly seek revenge. 
 
 I replied that I could not think of selling my fetish, but that I would 
 give him ten dollars for the girl, and as to his man, I was not afraid of 
 him or any of his friends, and that he had better be careful how he med- 
 itated any evil to me, for if I had occasion to put hands on him again, he 
 would not escape so easily. 
 
 Finding me inexorable in relation to the fetish, my offer was accepted 
 after much chaffering, and Kaloolah was delivered over to me. Never 
 did a poor creature's countenance brighten from the darkest shades of 
 despair to the full light of hope more rapidly than hers, when she found, 
 that she was to accompany me. Strength seemed almost instantly re- 
 stored to her limbs, and even health and beauty to her face. 
 
 Taking her into one of the huts, I put her in charge of some Congo 
 women, who, for the consideration of a small coin, readily undertook to 
 obey my directions. I gave her to understand, as well as it was possible 
 without a common language, that she should be well treated, have plenty 
 to eat, and that after bathing in the river she must dress herself in a piece 
 of cotton long cloth, which I had purchased of a fooka, or native mer- 
 chant ; that I was going to see her brother, and would perhaps purchase 
 him ; and that when I came back I would attend to dressing her wounds and 
 excoriations. She listened with the greatest interest, apparently compre- 
 
96 KALOOLAH. 
 
 hending with intuitive rapidity every word and gesture, and expressing 
 her apprehension of my meaning by a few exclamations in Congo and in 
 her own language, which last struck me as being peculiarly mellifluous. 
 When the cotton was produced, her eyes sparkled with delight, and when 
 she understood that she would see her brother, the tears rolled down her 
 cheeks ; she clasped her hands, and, overcome with joy and gratitude, 
 threw herself upon the ground and tried to embrace my feet. Her mo- 
 tions were so perfectly natural, graceful, and expressive, that I found it 
 difficult to keep from crying myself. 
 
 The road to Banza Embemda led directly back from the banks of the 
 river, through a fertile and tolerably well-cultivated country. Groups of 
 the wine palm and the gigantic baobab occurred at intervals, and between 
 them, fields of manioc, corn, beans, and cabbages, and groves of limes, 
 papaws, and plantains. Numerous huts, generally grouped in twos or 
 threes within a fence of canes, and invariably dignified by the name of 
 " town," sheltered the lazy husbandmen ; and several fields of tall grass, 
 as high as a man's head, performed the like office for immense quantities 
 of birds, reptiles, and wild beasts. When dry, these covers are frequently 
 set on fire by the natives, and their dangerous inhabitants either roasted 
 to death or expelled. 
 
 A three hours' walk brought us to Embemda, a small town of some 
 thirty or forty huts, situated upon the slope of a rocky hill, to which it ap- 
 peared the town had been recently removed from the low ground for safety 
 and comfort during the season of the rains. Here we found about twenty 
 slaves secured, as at Lembee, in an enclosure of pickets, with the addition 
 of stout cords upon the legs and arms of several of them who were most 
 restive. Most of them were of the Modongo nation, and quite a number 
 had gun-shot wounds, inflicted by the slave hunters, who are in the habit 
 of waylaying their prey, shooting it down like wild game, and then se- 
 curing their wounded captives with cords. 
 
 Among others, tied neck and heels, which the slave-merchant said was 
 as much to prevent them from killing themselves as to guard against 
 their running away, was the Gerboo. A single glance at him was sufficient 
 to put his relationship to Kaloolah beyond a doubt. He had the same 
 characteristics of form, face, and expression, except that his skin was' a 
 little darker — a clear nut-brown, and his look, one of fierce, dogged de- 
 fiance, rather than hopeless despair. His body was much emaciated, and He, 
 too, bore the marks of the lash, and the deep ulcerations caused by the 
 tightened cords. But, although worn down with suffering and confine- 
 ment, his eye quailed not, and the lines of his well-formed mouth seemed 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 97 
 
 curved to the concentrated expression of regal scorn and pride. He was 
 tall, but rather delicately framed, and, as near as could be judged from his 
 looks, about nineteen or twenty years of age. 
 
 The sum of twenty dollars, after the usual chaffering characteristic of 
 Congo trade, even in the meanest trifles, made him my property ; and 
 drawing my knife I was proceeding to sever the bonds that confined his 
 arms, when the slave-merchant arrested me. 
 
 " Don't do that," said he, ," you can't think what a bad fellow he is. 
 Leave the cords on his arms and loosen those on his legs a little, so that 
 he can just walk. If you take them all off, he will certainly kill himself 
 or run away. I ve had more difficulty with this fellow and the girl than 
 
 " And drawing my knife I was proceeding to sever the bonds that confined his arms'' 
 
 I 've had with all the other slaves. They tried to drown themselves 
 in every river we had to cross. One day we came to a ford and had got 
 almost over, when an enormous lion came bounding out of the reeds upon 
 the bank behind us. We all rushed on, but this fellow turned round and 
 walked back towards the lion on purpose to be killed. The lion was so 
 astonished that he ran away faster than he came. At last I found a way 
 to manage him. I bought his sister from another gang who were going 
 to Malemba, and kept her a little before him, and when he tried any of 
 his tricks I made my men flog her. He did n't like that. But don't untie 
 him, if you do you will lose him." 
 
98 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Paying no attention to his remonstrances, I put the slave-merchant aside 
 and passed my knife through the cords. The young man started from 
 the ground, stretched himself up, and held out his hands as if to assure 
 himself that they were free. He seemed, for a few moments, to think 
 himself in a dream — that compassion must be a mockery — freedom an 
 illusion. 
 
 Taking ofT a white worsted sash, that in imitation of my Spanish com- 
 panions, was wound round me, I signified to him that he should spread it 
 open, and gird it about his loins. He readily complied, with a look of 
 surprise, which was, however, more than equalled by the utter astonish- 
 ment of the surrounding slaves and spectators. Their wonder was still 
 further increased when an offer was made for a cap and a kind of capote 
 of fine grass work, and the articles bought and presented to him. 
 
 I now put my hand upon the slave-merchant, pronouncing his name, 
 then upon my breast, repeating my own, and pointing to the Gerboo, 
 awaited his answer. 
 
 " Enphadde Ban Shounse," he instantly replied, or Enphadde the son 
 of Shounse, the " Ban," having clearly the same force as " Ben" in the 
 Arabic and Hebrew. 
 
 It was nearly sunset when we started upon our return to Lembee, with 
 several blacks in company, who tried to act as interpreters between En- 
 phadde and myself, but his knowledge of the Mandongo and Congo 
 dialects was too limited to admit of much communication, and I had to 
 content myself with taking a lesson in his own language, by pointing to 
 the different objects that we passed, and making him repeat their names. 
 This he did with evident marks of quickness and general intelligence, and 
 with great apparent interest in the correctness of my pronunciation. 
 
 Upon arriving at Lembee, the sun had set, still enough of the short 
 twilight remained to render objects upon the river distinctly visible, but, 
 to my astonishment. El Bonito was nowhere to be seen. Hurrying on to 
 ascertain the cause of her disappearance, we found the town in the utmost 
 confusion, and so many anxious to make explanations all at once, that it 
 was some time before the real truth could be arrived at, but, at last one 
 of the most expert linguistas obtained the floor. 
 
 " King of English he come," said he, "catchee ship. Ship no like him 
 — no stay. He pull em up anchor, an' run away. Man-of-war big — plen- 
 ty boats — plenty guns — plenty men — but no habee ship. When he gone, 
 ship come back." 
 
 It appeared that about an hour before, news had arrived that an Eng- 
 lish cruiser had entered the river, and made her way up as high as Loo- 
 
KALOOLAH. 99 
 
 bondi Island, where she had come to anchor. In ten minutes Captain 
 Garbez got under way, preferring to slip by her at night, in another 
 channel, and stand out to sea, rather than to run the chance of an attack. 
 He left word that in a week he should return, when the merchants were 
 to have slaves enough ready to complete his loading at once. 
 
 It would be hard to tell whether I was most pleased or displeased with 
 the news.- The former feeling .would have, undoubtedly-predominated, 
 could I have sent word to the captain of the man-of-war, but I observed 
 that the bare mention of it excited surprise and distrust, and that the 
 safest way would be to wait the turn of events. If the English should 
 visit Embomma, communication could be had with them in person, if not, 
 it was hardly possible that they would remain long enough at their un- 
 healthy anchorage to receive my message, even should the Mafooka allow 
 me to forward it. 
 
 This point satisfactorily settled in my mind, my attention naturally 
 recurred to my interesting proteges, and to the means of disposing, in the 
 meanwhile, of them and myself. 
 
 Kaloolah we found settled upon a mat in a corner of the hut where 
 she had been left, but so metamorphized in appearance, that it was 
 difficult to recognize in her the dispirited, dirty, and naked slave of the 
 morning. The bath and a full meal had worked wonders for her, and the 
 cotton, which with true feminine taste she had contrived to dispose about 
 her person in the most graceful folds, something after the manner of the 
 Moorish haik, concealed the marks of suffering, and the painful emaciation 
 of her figure. As Enphadde entered the hut, she gazed at him a moment 
 in the glare of the torch-light, uttered a shrill cry of delight, and bounded 
 into his arms. Never was the intensity of fraternal affection more strong- 
 ly evinced than by him as he pressed her to his bosom. Even the negroes 
 of the hut had their sympathies aroused, and evinced quite a pleasurable 
 interest in the scene. 
 
 The first exclamations of endearment past, Kaloolah, in the most 
 animated and excited manner, poured forth a flood of melodious words, 
 which, from her glances, evidently had reference to me. Enphadde lis- 
 tened for a moment, and then, without saying a word, stepped towards me, 
 dropped upon his knees, and seizing my hand placed it upon the back of 
 his bended neck. Raising him, I took each of them by the hand, looked 
 at them as benignly as features not naturally very stern would permit, and 
 putting their hands together left the hut to look up a house of my own. 
 
 " House hunting by torch-light in a negro Banza " would make a good 
 title for a full chapter, but I must forbear ; suffice it to say that after a 
 
lOO 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 good deal of trouble and a monstrous expenditure of words, I succeeded 
 in purchasing a house in tolerably good repair. The owner, a Formio of 
 distinction, was seated before his hut, a large fire burning in front, and 
 " turn tumming " on a kind of gourd banjo an accompaniment to the 
 monotonous and drawling cadences of a song. Several spectators soon 
 assembled to assist in the bargain, and every possible advantage, except 
 that of its being a " corner lot," was urged to enhance the price. At last 
 it was settled that I should have the house for the sum of five dollars, 
 cash down, and two jugs of brandy, to be paid when the ship returned. 
 This was just double its fair value, but the terms were agreed to upon 
 condition of immediate possession, and that a piece of palm matting, large 
 enough for several partitions, should be thrown in. A few minutes suf- 
 ficed to remove the noble owner's furniture and family to other quarters, 
 when, with Kaloolah and Enphadde, I was duly installed as master, in fee, 
 of the slight but not uncomfortable domicile. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 An Invasion of Ants — Burnt Out— A New House — A Visit from the Slave-Dealer — A Desperate 
 Race — A Judicial Indulgence — An Apt Pupil — Framazugda — Enphadde's Story— A Warn- 
 ing— Kaloolah's English— The Tultul and the River— An Attempt to Kill Kaloolah— A 
 Sleepless Night. 
 
 'E were not destined to a long enjoyment, in quiet, of our new 
 habitation. It was the second night of our possession that 
 Enphadde and myself were startled by a scream from Kaloolah, 
 as she rushed from the door of the hut. Jumping up on the 
 instant, before we could get out we were covered with a swarm of small 
 black ants, which, in countless myriads, had broken into our hut like a 
 perfect torrent. The noise soon brought some of our neighbors, who 
 commenced throwing fire-brands into the mass, that by this time covered 
 the ground in the rooms to the depth of four or five inches. There had 
 been no rain for two or three days, and the palm-leaf matting was quite 
 dry, so that, one of the brands coming in contact with it, we had the satis- 
 faction of seeing the ants well roasted, but at the expense of our house, 
 which was utterly destroyed in about fifteen minutes. Fortunately my 
 clothes, gun, etc., were saved. This accident involved the necessity of 
 purchasing another hut, which, at last, with a great deal of trouble was 
 obtained. It was situated a little out of the village, amid a grove of 
 palms, and consequently more exposed to the attacks of wild beasts, par- 
 ticularly the lion, which is sometimes known to enter the centre of a town, 
 but, as some compensation for its isolation, it was surrounded by a high 
 fence of reeds. 
 
 But it was not so much the wild beasts that we had to dread, as it was 
 our enemies in human form, who had already commenced their machina- 
 tions. Seeing the interest I took in my companions, and instigated, no 
 doubt, by his brutal assistant, the slave-merchant from whom I had 
 purchased them, paid me a visit, and demanded that the bargain should 
 be rescinded, upon the ground that a leaf or blade of grass had not been 
 broken between us, and that without such ceremony no contract was 
 valid. He had even the impudence to lay hands on Kaloolah, as if to 
 
I02 KALOOLAH. 
 
 drag her off with him. With every mark of horror and disgust she shrank 
 from his grasp, and fled into the hut. Indignant at such an outrageous 
 attempt at imposition, I saw that no deprecatory measures would answer, 
 and that the only way to prevent further difificulty, was to meet the 
 fellow half way, and frighten him out of his wits by a prompt and ener- 
 getic resistance : so, giving way, all of a sudden, to an expression of the 
 fiercest rage, I drew a pistol, fired it towards him, taking good care not 
 to hit him. He bounded out of the gate-way with surprising agility, and, 
 as I was close upon his heels, necessarily had to take a path that led away 
 from the town. It would have been easy at any moment to have over- 
 taken him, but such was not my object; so, following him just close 
 enough to keep him up to his full speed, away we went through the mud, 
 and over the jagged slate-beds, and around the trees at a perfectly killing 
 pace for a distance of at least two miles. He had rather too much flesh 
 for a long heat, and, before he had gone far, his wind began to fail him. 
 His breath came short, hard, and wheezy, like the asthmatic puffings of a 
 high-pressure steamboat. His eyes protruded from their sockets, his 
 thick bloodless lips were flecked with foam, and the ebony of his com- 
 plexion fairly terrified into a spotted and dirty drab. Whenever he 
 turned his glances behind him at the " white devil " on his track, the 
 loudest yells that my lungs were capable of, aroused his flagging energies, 
 and urged him on in his supposed race for life. 
 
 Just as my own powers were nearly exhausted, we came to a slate 
 bed, upon the edge of a narrow muddy bayou. Down this the fellow 
 rushed with unabated speed, and, taking to the water, stretched out for 
 the other side, while I stopped short, and employed myself in quickening 
 his motions by the aid of several large stones, thrown into the water 
 around him. Scrambling up the other bank, he had just strength 
 enough left to throw himself prostrate at the edge of a thicket of tall 
 grass, and creep on hands and knees into the friendly cover. 
 
 Upon returning to the town I sought the Mafooka, and slipping a 
 dollar into his hand, to sharpen his eyesight, told him that he must 
 clearly see that the demand of the slave-merchant was unjust, that the 
 bargain had been fairly made, and that however imperative the custom of 
 breaking a leaf might be, between natives, it was not at all necessary 
 between a native and a white man, who could not be supposed to know 
 any thing about it. The Mafooka allowed that my view of the case 
 was the only one consistent with equity, good conscience, and his own 
 interest, and that any degree of force in resisting such preposterous 
 pretensions would be perfectly justifiable. 
 
KALOOLAH. 103 
 
 " Kill him ! kill him ! " continued the worthy official, in very intelligible 
 English ; " you give me two five dollar you shall kill him by G — d. Knock 
 him head — break him bones — cut him throat — so, — " and here the speaker 
 gave a spirited pantomimic representation of the different processes he 
 proposed. 
 
 Promising to give him the ten dollars, whenever I should conclude to 
 do the deed, I took my leave, but not without repeated cautions from 
 him to beware of the fetish. More than once the same warning was 
 repeated by friendly natives, who either could not, or would not give me 
 any precise information of the nature or extent of the danger. The 
 most that I could learn was, that Bergamme, the Jaga killer, had em- 
 ployed some of the most renowned gangams, or priests, to make him a 
 fetish of wonderful power, that was to be employed in some way against 
 me. The earnestness of the natives, and the vagueness of the danger, 
 produced a feeling of apprehension that was far from comfortable. I had 
 no fears for myself, but I felt much solicitude for the safety of Kaloolah 
 and Enphadde. 
 
 The more I had seen of this young couple, the more had my sympa- 
 thies become interested in their favor, and the better satisfied did I feel 
 with the relation I had assumed towards them. On their part, every look 
 and action evinced the profoundest sense of gratitude and obligation ; 
 and their whole deportment continually astonished me with evidences of 
 delicacy, refinement, and mental cultivation far beyond what I had been 
 prepared to expect. Kaloolah, in particular, evinced the most surprising 
 quickness of comprehension — mastering a large number of English phrases 
 with a readiness and tenacity of memory that very far surpassed my most 
 strenuous efforts in the acquisition of her own tongue. My progress, how- 
 ever, was not slow, and I knew not which to admire most, her tact as a 
 teacher, or her quickness as a pupil. Both she and her brother wrote 
 their language with apparent ease, in characters somewhat resembling the 
 Hebrew, but arranged after the style called Bousirophedon, or alternately 
 from left to right and from right to left. I regretted exceedingly, that 
 my knowledge of the Hebrew extended only to the letters of the 
 language, and that I was unable to compare the words and grammatical 
 forms. 
 
 With the aid of their language, the Congo, a few words of English, 
 and Kaloolah's expressive pantomime, I was soon able to understand the 
 main points of their interesting story. 
 
 The Gerboo Blanda, I found, was a name given to their country by 
 the Jagas, that its true name was Framazugda, and that the people were 
 
J04 KALOOLAH. 
 
 called Framazugs. That it was situated at a great distance in the in- 
 terior, in a direction west by north, and that it was surrounded by negro 
 and savage nations, through whom a trade was carried on with people at 
 the northwest and east, none of whom, however, were ever seen at 
 Framazugda, as the trade had to pass through a number of hands. 
 Enphadde represented the country to be of considerable extent, con- 
 sisting mostly of a lofty plateau or elevated plain, and exceedingly popu- 
 lous, containing numerous large cities, surrounded by high walls, and 
 filled with houses of stone. Several large streams and lakes watered the 
 soil, which, according to his account, was closely cultivated, and produced 
 in abundance the greatest variety of trees, fruits, flowers, and grain. Over 
 this country ruled Selha Shounse, the father of Enphadde and Kaloolah, 
 as king. 
 
 It was in going from the capital to one of the royal gardens that their 
 escort was attacked by a party of blacks from the lowlands, the attendants 
 killed or dispersed, and the young prince and princess carried off. The 
 blacks belonging to a powerful nation that had, within a few years, con- 
 quered their way to the borders of Framazugda, and who had even made 
 frequent inroads upon the Framazugs themselves, retreated in haste, 
 dragging with them their victims, and depriving, at one audacious blow, 
 the bereaved monarch of his only son and daughter. Enphadde and his 
 sister were tied hand and foot, and thrown across horses, which, at full 
 speed, soon carried them beyond reach of assistance. Once in the country 
 of their captors, there was no chance of rescue, as the Framazugs had re- 
 peatedly found the impossibility of contending successfully against an 
 enemy who had a numerous cavalry, and an immense superiority in the 
 knowledge and possession of fire-arms. 
 
 At first the youthful captives were carried towards the northwest, for 
 three or four days' journey, until they arrived at a small walled town, 
 where they were sold for a piece of red cloth and some beads to a kaffila 
 of slave-merchants, travelling in a southwesterly direction. On this course 
 they continued about thirty days, crossing several rivers and steep ranges 
 of hills, and passing numerous villages, until they came to a large town, 
 composed of reed huts and tents of skins, which was situated upon the 
 borders of a sandy desert. Here they were bought by a party of Jagas, 
 and journeyed with them for ten days over a dreary, barren waste, where 
 not a particle of vegetation was to be seen. In this journey they suffered 
 the greatest hardships, having to walk barefoot over a surface of hard 
 flints, with their arms tied behind them, in the hot, tropical sun, and with 
 but a single sip of brackish water in the twenty-four hours. Twice they 
 
KALOOLAH. 105 
 
 were separated and conducted off in different directions, but at last were 
 reunited at a town of the Yonga Jagas, on a branch of the Congo. Here 
 they were again sold, placed in boats, and carried down to the main 
 stream, where they were bought by their Congo master. Leaving the 
 banks of the stream, they journeyed for sixty days, including stoppages, 
 through a country of lofty forests, prairies, and swamps, constantly ex- 
 posed to the attacks of serpents, elephants, lions, and tigers. Several 
 times the kafifila were compelled to take to the trees, or set fire to the 
 tall, dry grass, to save themselves from the wild beasts, and several times 
 they were attacked at night by the still wilder bushmen, who were said, 
 by the slave-merchants, to be inveterate cannibals. Enphadde seemed 
 to have a good idea of the course they had pursued, and made con- 
 tinual reference to the cardinal points of the compass, as indicated by the 
 stars. He even explained the position of his country, by showing the 
 difference in the length of his shadow, at times when the sun had the 
 greatest northern and southern declination. He showed me that when 
 the sun, at noon, was over the tropic of Capricorn, his shadow, falling 
 towards the north, was about one thirteenth part longer than when the 
 sun was in the opposite solstice, and the shadow was projected to the 
 south. From this fact, I deduced the position of the capital of Frama- 
 zugda, in about one degree of north latitude, and from Enphadde's courses 
 and dead-reckoning it could not be far from about thirteen hundred miles 
 in a direct line from the north of the Congo. I was gratified in being 
 able to obtain so accurate an idea of its position, but it was still more 
 gratifying to find in Enphadde such an evidence of education, and so 
 much knowledge of the principles of astronomical science. No native pf 
 Cpngo would have dreamed of conveying an idea of the latitude of places 
 by the comparative length of shadows, and I was so unprepared for such a 
 thing, even in him, that I could not at first comprehend his meaning, 
 which he illustrated in a variety of ways, by pointing to his own shadow, 
 and to the sun's movements in declination along the meridian, and by 
 setting up perpendicular sticks, and measuring on the ground their sup- 
 posed northern and southern shadows. Of course it was only the com- 
 parative length of the shadows, and not the positive length, as indicated 
 by any actual system of measure. This rendered the problem of the lati- 
 tude rather complex. The solution required the finding of two angles, 
 the sum of which should amount to 26° 56', whose tangents should be 
 to each other as twelve to thirteen. I had no table of tangents, and my 
 only resource was a series of rough projections and approximations, which 
 served to pass the time, and to demonstrate that the capital of Framazugda 
 
io6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 was situated within a few miles of the Hne, and, of course, within a region 
 wholly unknown to the civilized world. 
 
 Although so near the equator, Enphadde and Kaloolah represented 
 the climate to be delightfully temperate, which it might well be, from the 
 great elevation of the country, and from the influence of the snow eternally 
 covering the lofty peaks of a mountainous chain, stretching off to the south 
 tind east. An abundance of delicious fruits, for many of which Enphadde 
 could point out no parallel in Congo, were found growing wild in bound- 
 less profusion. A vast variety of flowers enamelled the fields, or were 
 cultivated in regular gardens, which were also adorned with works of art. 
 Such as hot-houses, fountains, and statuary. Interminable fields of grain, 
 pasturage, and orchards covered the plains and the valleys, except where 
 groves of umbrageous trees afforded shelter to tribes of monkeys, and 
 arhall quadrupeds of different species, and innumerable birds, with every 
 possible variety of magnificent plumage. The architectural structures 
 Enphadde represented to be on a scale commensurate with the splendid 
 natural features of the country, and worthy of a nation which had reached 
 a high point in civilization and refinement. 
 
 My imagination was so excited by Enphadde's accounts, that I con- 
 ceived the design of starting with him, and endeavoring to reach his 
 country by the same route by which he had come. Upon proposing it to 
 them, Kaloolah clapped her hands with delight, and Enphadde's eyes 
 sparkled for a moment with eager joy, but his glances soon fell, as the 
 conviction of the utter impossibility of accomplishing such a journey 
 came upon him. He explained, by a rough chart drawn upon the ground, 
 that the nations to the north of Framazugda were much less savage, and 
 that were we to approach his country in that direction it would be dififi- 
 Gult, but still possible to reach it ; but in going east-by-north from the 
 Congo there would be no hope. Even were we alone, there would not be 
 the slightest probability of success — with Kaloolah it would be impos- 
 sible. Leaving out the formidable difficulties and dangers of the route, 
 the desert of Srah, would be an obstacle impassable, except by the con- 
 sent and assistance of the cruel and ferocious beings who inhabit it. 
 
 Kaloolah was by no means disposed to submit to the reasoning of her 
 brother. She persisted in asserting her willingness and ability to en- 
 counter and endure any hardships and dangers ; and to all his objections, 
 made answer by pointing, sometimes to me, and sometimes to my gun, 
 as if, with that in hand, I alone could ensure their safety against wild 
 beasts, cannibals, and bushmen. Poor Kaloolah ! woman-like, she followed 
 the dictates of her heart rather than her head ; and danger, suffering, even 
 
KALOOLAH. 107 
 
 death itself, had no power to stay her in the route affection pointed out. 
 Forgetting fear, in the excess of hope, she would joyfully, had we con- 
 sented, have commenced the long and fearful pilgrimage, though a thou- 
 sand deaths had stared her in the face. 
 
 We were debating the point, when our conversation was interrupted by 
 the protrusion of a black shining face through the open wicket. Glan- 
 cing carefully round, and making sundry grimaces, to indicate caution^ 
 pur friendly visitor delivered himself of the same warning that had been 
 so often repeated. 
 
 " Prenez garde," said he, " Bergamme make fetish, muy grande. Prenez 
 garde" and before I had time to question him, the speaker had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 There was something exceedingly annoying in this threatening of an- 
 indefinite danger, the nature of which it was impossible to ascertain, and 
 against which it was, of course, impossible to guard. Although there was 
 nothing to apprehend, from the fetish itself, it was quite probable that, 
 encouraged by the supposed power of the charm, Bergamme, and his 
 partner the slave-merchant, might undertake something, which, from the 
 wholesome fear I had instilled into them, they would not otherwise dare 
 to attempt. 
 
 In company with Enphadde I made a thorough search of the neigh-i 
 borhood around our hut, but nothing of a suspicious character could be 
 found. Not a single native was in sight, and no unusual sights or sounds 
 indicated danger from the distant village. 
 
 It was quite dark when we re-entered the hut, where we found Kaloo- 
 lah, who had taken upon herself, with true feminine spirit, the duties of 
 house-keeping, busy in preparing supper. Within the court a small fire 
 of mangrove branches was blazing brightly, upon which was cooking, in 
 an earthen pot, a hodge-podge of chicken, rice, peppers, and potatoes. I 
 threw myself upon a mat in one corner of the large room, or hall, while 
 Enphaddt seated himself in the other. The cheerful light streamed in at 
 the open door-way, and occasionally a puff of savory steam diffused its ex- 
 citing odor through the apartment. Kaloolah was seated upon the 
 ground just without the door, but in full view from the outside, and in 
 such a position that, by leaning back a little, she could listen to, and join 
 in, our conversation. Nothing could be more admirable than the un- 
 studied grace of her attitudes, or the good-humored archness of her face, 
 as revealed in the flashes of the strong firelight. Her body was constantly 
 in motion: sometimes bending forward to feed the fire with dry leaves, 
 and singing, the while, snatches of a plaintive song, and then stretching 
 
io8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 her gracefully turned head and neck into the hut, repeating English 
 words and phrases, and laughing at their oddness in those dulcet tones 
 that make the gushing, gurgling laugh of a pretty woman the most deli- 
 cious sound in nature. 
 
 " Oh !- J&n'than, now fire burn — make supper very quick. Sheeken 
 supper very good — supper, dinner, breakfast — one — two — three," and 
 then, as if there was something irresistibly comic in the sounds, she would 
 laugh heartily, while her bright black eyes danced, and her whole face 
 beamed with a matchless expression of mingled archness and nawetL 
 
 " Sing a song, Kaloolah," I exclaimed. 
 
 She hesitated. " I will sing," said I ; and I sang a verse of Inkle and 
 Yarico. It was an old song of my mother's, but it struck me as singular 
 that, at that moment it should have occurred to me ; I took it as a 
 warning. 
 
 " Now, Kaloolah, you sing," said I, as I finished. 
 
 " Oh, yes — I sing — much — very good," she replied, and pausing for an 
 instant, commenced a love ditty. The Tul-tul, I afterwards found was a 
 species of sweet-scented lily, growing upon the banks of the mountain 
 streams of Framazugda, and the following is a literal translation of the 
 words, which a better acquaintance with the language than I then had 
 has since enabled me to make. There is not much, ia the words^ but the 
 sentiment indicates a greater refinement in love, than would be found in 
 a savage and debased state of society, while the air was exceedingly 
 plaintive and sweet, reminding me very much of some of the simple but 
 touching melodies of the Irish school of composers. 
 
 THE TUL-TUL AND THE STREAM. 
 
 By Streamlet's brink a Tul-tul grew, 
 
 And from her leaflets, moist with dew, 
 
 Enchanting fragrance far she threw. 
 
 Ah ! Tul, beware the fickle Stream ! 
 
 Love's life is but a giddy dream, 
 
 'V\^lere shadows flit, and false lights gleam. 
 
 The Streamlet saw the blooming flower ; 
 
 " Ah, Tul," he cried, " 't is now love's hour, 
 
 Come, yield thee, sweet one, to his power." 
 
 Ah ! Tul, beware ! if thy heart owns 
 
 The melody of his low tones, 
 
 Thou 'It answer yet with sighs and moans. 
 
 By blushing Tul the strain is heard : 
 
 She smiles, and drinks the honeyed word ; 
 
KALOOLAH. 109 
 
 With half-formed hopes her breast is stirred. 
 Ah ! Tul, beware ! His quiet mien, 
 His gentle tones, his glittering sheen, 
 Are naught but lures, I sadly ween. 
 
 Sweet Tul-tul's feet his rijjples lave ; 
 
 She sees her image in his wave ; 
 
 Can naught be done poor Tul to save ? 
 
 Ah ! Tul, beware ! The fickle Tide 
 
 Will well around thee deep and wide, 
 
 But soon love's claims he will deride. 
 
 The dew has failed, the ground is dry. 
 The air is hot, the sun is high. 
 Sweet Tul now sees her lover fly. 
 
 Ah ! Tul, sweet Tul ! She hangs her head ; 
 
 The blight of love is o'er her shed ; 
 
 The faithless stream afar has fled. 
 
 From noontide heats in shady dell. 
 The Streamlet seeks his rocky cell. 
 Ah ! who poor Tul-tul's grief can tell ? 
 
 Poor Tul ! Her fragrant breath has flown ; 
 
 Her withered leaves around are strown ; 
 
 Rustling with saddening sigh and moan. 
 
 As the last words of the song died upon the air, we were startled by 
 the loud report of a musket, and the crashing of the bullet through the 
 slight reed fence and the palm-leaf matting. It had evidently been aimed 
 at Kaloolah, through the interstices of the canes, but, deviating slightly 
 from its course in its passage, it just missed her person, and striking a 
 brand, knocked the fire about in all directions, and passed in at the door- 
 way and out through the matting at the farther side, a little above 
 Enphadde's head. I seized my gun and rushed out of the wicket, fol- 
 lowed by Enphadde, but it was so dark that it was impossible to see any 
 object, not in motion, at ten paces distant. We listened intently, and 
 fancied that we could hear retreating feet ; it was useless, however, to 
 pursue them, and we were compelled to return no wiser than we went. 
 Kaloolah was very much frightened, and I must confess that my own 
 fears were thoroughly aroused ; but the only thing that could be done 
 was to put out our fire and keep a good look-out for any further attack. 
 In the morning I was determined to see Bergamme, and take such action 
 in the case as the occasion might require. We passed a sleepless night, 
 but nothing more occurred to excite particular attention or alarm. 
 
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 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A Congo Custom — A Funeral — A Compliment to the Corpse — A Feast — A Public Speech — 
 Making a Hit, or Shooting a Fetish — Kaloolah's Conquest — A Musical Entertainment — The 
 Malaria — An Attack of Fever — Kaloolah as Nurse — Attentions of the Negroes — Return of 
 the Boniio — Danger from Kaloolah's Good Looks — Expedient to Get Rid of Her Beauty. 
 
 \T is the custom in Congo to suffer an interval of time to elapse 
 between the decease and burial of members of the higher 
 classes, proportioned to the rank of the subject and the wealth 
 of surviving friends. In the meantime the body is enveloped 
 in voluminous folds of cotton cloth, pieces of which are weekly and 
 almost daily added, so as to conceal any signs of decomposition. This 
 process goes on until the corpse attains an enormous size. When too 
 large for the house in which it is contained, the building is taken down and 
 a larger one erected in its place. In the case of very distinguished indi- 
 viduals, this is frequently done two or three times ; and a fellow who, in 
 his lifetime, never had clothing enough to cover his nakedness, is, after 
 death, swathed into a capital illustration of the principle of compensa- 
 tion — clothing himself then (or rather his friends doing so for him) in all 
 the cloth which he was formerly entitled to but did not have. 
 
 The day after the night which closes the last chapter was appointed 
 for the burial of a distinguished personage who had been dead seven or 
 eight years. During the whole of this long period, the body had been 
 undergoing this epidemic accretion. Every rag of cotton that could be 
 bought, begged, or stolen, had been added by mourning relatives, until a 
 bulk sufficient to satisfy the pride of affection had been attained. 
 
 The grave was at some little distance from the village, and consisted of 
 a large pit, ten feet wide and at least twenty feet deep. To it the corpse 
 was borne on a bier of poles by a procession of all the inhabitants of the 
 town, accompanied by bands of musicians, some of them blowing conch 
 shells, others rattling strings of gourds, and others beating with the open 
 hand large drums made of skins stretched across the mouths of hollow 
 logs. A kind of guitar or banjo aided the harmony with its tinkling 
 sounds, while tones, not unlike in quality to those of a small organ, were 
 
 no 
 
KALOOLAH. in 
 
 produced from a row of gourds fastened to a board, and across the open 
 mouths of which were placed three slips of reeds. These were struck 
 with small sticks, precisely in the same way as are the pieces of glass in a 
 musical instrument common enough in Christian countries, but of which 
 I do not now recollect the name. 
 
 Surrounding the corpse were bands of mourning females, who made 
 the air additionally vocal with cries, groans, and ejaculations — keeping up 
 a continuous torrent of questions addressed to the dead man, or shrieking 
 his praises at the utmost pitch of their voices. 
 
 " Oh, why did youdie ? Why did you go away ? Will you ever come 
 back ? Are you happy ? Do you forget us all ? Oh ! hoo ! oh ! hoo \ 
 He was such a good man ! He kept all his wives so fat ! He gave them 
 so much to eat ! And he gave them so much rum to drink ! Oh ! hoo ! 
 He was such a good man ! Oh ! hoo ! Oh ! hoo ! " 
 
 Numerous gangams (priests) added to the clamor of the women the 
 most frantic and diabolical yells. They ran, leaped, and danced about 
 the corpse with uncouth gestures and horrid grimaces, and practised vari- 
 ous ceremonies of incantation which it would be tedious to particularize. 
 
 It was intimated that it would be considered a compliment to the 
 family, and a favor to the whole town, if my gun was discharged a few 
 times — a request with which I very readily complied. After the burial, a 
 grand feast, open to all, finished the services of the day. All signs of 
 grief were now thrown by. Those who could get it, inspirited themselves 
 with rum and brandy, while those who could not continued to reach an 
 equally glorious degree of elevation by means of old and strong palm 
 wine. The festivity was kept up with music, obscene songs, and lascivi- 
 ous dances until a late hour in the night. 
 
 About sunset I walked down to the village to see the ceremonies of 
 the feast, which had commenced an hour or two before I arrived. A 
 large group of the principal men, surrounded by inferior parties, were 
 squatted on the ground in an open space in front of the widow's house. 
 I was quite warmly received, and invited to take a seat upon the leopard 
 skins of the Mafooka and his ofificers, which invitation I was about to 
 accept, when I spied Bergamme and his partner seated together, at a little 
 distance off. I had been on the watch for him during the whole day, but, 
 conscious of guilt, and dreading to meet me, the fellow had not thought 
 proper to show himself. I determined, on the instant, not to let slip the 
 opportunity of making a decided impression. 
 
 He was seated about twenty feet from the Mafooka, with half a dozen 
 blacks immediately about him, and in such a position as to be in full view 
 
112 KALOOLAH. 
 
 of all upon the ground. By his side lay an old Spanish musket, and 
 around his neck hung his famous fetish. It consisted of an uncouth hol- 
 low figure of dried clay, the upper part of which was fashioned somewhat 
 into the resemblance of the human face. The body of it was studded 
 with parrot feathers of different colors, every one of which had been par- 
 ticularly blessed by the gangam, and inserted into the clay with magical 
 ceremonies and incantations. For every feather a fowl had been sacri- 
 ficed by the priests, and the point dipped into the blood. No expense 
 had been spared by Bergamme to make it as perfect as possible, and the 
 gangams had exerted their utmost skill. With the credulous faith of his 
 superstitious countrymen in the power of these ignorant but exceedingly 
 cunning impostors, he believed that he had got a charm that would pre- 
 serve him from any danger ; even a musket-ball would be diverted from 
 his own person, and turned back against the breast of the sacrilegious 
 wretch by whom it had been fired. 
 
 Declining the invitation to be seated, I strode up to Bergamme, and 
 stopped directly in front of him. He quailed a little at my presence, but 
 kept his position, while his companion scrambled backwards some yards 
 in the greatest affright. 
 
 " Listen," said I, looking around and over the reclining audience, and 
 directing a friendly linguista, who spoke excellent Spanish, to interpret 
 my words. 
 
 " Listen ! Last night a musket was fired into my house. It came 
 very near killing one of my slaves. I charge this man with the deed ! " 
 
 All eyes were now directed towards us, but not a word was spoken ; 
 even Bergamme, although he looked utterly confounded, retained his 
 position without stirring. 
 
 " This man," I continued, " fired that shot. I know it. He dare not 
 deny it ; he wishes to take my life ! Will you allow such a crime ? Shall 
 he not be punished ? I came among you as a friend. I have been re- 
 ceived as a friend. How would the Chenoo, your master at Emboma, 
 receive the news, that a friendly white man, who came to ' make trade,' 
 had been killed or maltreated ? " 
 
 " He shall drink the kisha water," said the Mafooka. " If he is inno- 
 cent it will do him no harm ; if he is guilty it will kill him." 
 
 " No, no," I replied, " I don't wish to compel him to drink the kisha. 
 He knows that he is guilty, and that if it is a true test he would die." 
 
 The proposition by no means suited me, as I knew that if he was sub- 
 jected to the ordeal, his friends, the gangams, who administer it, would 
 give him some harmlesss potion, and the fellow would have all the advan- 
 tage of an honorable acquittal. 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 113 
 
 " No I wont subject him to the test of guilt ; I want only to warn him 
 against any further crime. If he attacks me again he must look out; the 
 consequences will be bad for him ; he can't hurt me, but he may hurt 
 himself. He puts his trust in this thing," and here, with a sudden grasp, 
 I seized the fetish, and tore it from his neck. My motions were so quick 
 and unexpected, that he could offer no resistance, even had he been dis- 
 posed, which he was not ; he fairly shivered with astonishment at the 
 audacity of the act. 
 
 " He puts his trust in this- thing," said I, holding it up. " It can't 
 protect him if I resolve to punish him. It may be the most powerful 
 
 ' And bringing up my gun to bear upon it, fired both barrels in immediate succession. " 
 
 fetish in the country, but I care nothing for it. What can it do to me? 
 Look ! " 
 
 Every eye was upon me as I spat contemptuously in the face of the 
 grinning figure. A general groan of terror expressed the apprehensions 
 of the audience. If the earth had yawned and swallowed me up, or the 
 Evil One had caught me up bodily in his clutches, they would not have 
 been at all surprised. 
 
 " Look! " I continued, "you see it has no power to harm me. I am 
 too strong for it. I fear it not ; I despise it — that for his fetish ! " and 
 
114 KALOOLAH. 
 
 I tossed the figure into the air, and bringing up my gun to bear upon it, 
 fired both barrels in immediate succession. They were heavily loaded 
 with duck-shot, and both charges took effect. The clay figure was broken 
 into a thousand pieces, and the feathers cut and scattered in every 
 direction. 
 
 " Do you see that ? " said I, addressing Bergamme. " Well, if ever you 
 or that fellow there come around my house again, with evil intent, by the 
 great and ever-living Zamba Em Pounga, I will serve you in the same way. 
 The darkness of the darkest night won't Save you." 
 
 Wonder, admiration, and fear were variously depicted upon the faces of 
 my audience, and, as their tongues became loosened, were expressed in 
 all kinds of curious exclamations. Never did actor on the stage feel better 
 assured of having made a decided hit than did I, when I looked at the 
 powerless and prostrate form of the killer, shivering as if with an ague 
 fit. There was no further harm to be apprehended from him. 
 
 Stepping up to the Mafooka, I took a sup from his brandy jug. 
 
 " You did not get this from El Bonito ? " said I. 
 
 " No ! it is Portuguese," he replied. 
 
 " I thought so. It is very good ; but we have some much better on 
 board. When she comes back I will send you a couple of bottles." 
 
 " And won't you give me one ? " demanded a Formio of distinction. 
 
 " With the greatest pleasure." 
 
 " And me ? " said another. 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " And me ? and me ? and me ? " shouted the crowd. 
 
 In a moment I had promised a dozen bottles, and, fearful of committing 
 myself further, I made a rapid but dignified retreat. 
 
 Kaloolah was on the watch for me. I saw her intently peering from 
 the entrance to the court in the direction of the village. As I came in 
 sight she suddenly started, and withdrew within the gate-way. In a moment 
 she re-appeared, and came bounding towards me with a handful of the 
 sweet-scented wild flowers that grew in endless variety on the uncultivated 
 land along the margin of the river. Upon entering the house I found a 
 large bouquet of the same flowers arranged in an earthen jug at the side 
 of my palm-leaf bed. This delicate and considerate attention delighted 
 but did not surprise me. I was prepared to receive any evidence of 
 refined sensibility and feminine taste in Kaloolah as a matter of course. 
 Thanking her warmly for her kindness, I assured her that I was very fond 
 of flowers, and that those she had selected were very beautiful and very 
 sweet. 
 
KALOOLAH. 115 
 
 "Very sweet flowers," she replied, repeating my words. "Ah, yes, 
 very sweet! " 
 
 She raised the flowers to inhale their fragrance, and as she did so her 
 smile died away to a most touching sadness, and the tears started to her 
 eyes. 
 
 "What is the matter, Kaloolah ? " said I, taking her hand; "what 
 makes you sad?" 
 
 She understood the import of my question, if not the exact meaning 
 of each word. 
 
 " Ah ! " she replied, " flowers very much sweet in Framazugda ! " 
 
 The mysterious chain of association had been struck, and vibrated in 
 every link, responsive to the blow. The delicate perfume had aroused 
 the slumbering recollections of fair gardens and fragrant bowers, and with 
 them the thoughts of home and friends — the sacred memories of the 
 heart. Who could wonder at her tears? 
 
 In a moment her smiles returned, and aided by Enphadde she set 
 about preparing for the evening meal. In these household affairs I care- 
 fully abstained from offering any assistance, feeling that it was best to 
 leave to them the only means they had of showing their overflowing 
 gratitude and respect. The supper over, the remainder of the evening 
 was passed in conversation and song. Kaloolah sang several simple and 
 pleasing melodies, accompanying herself with small pieces of reed of dif- 
 ferent lengths and sizes, that, twirled by the fingers with wonderful rapid- 
 ity, gave a few low, buzzing notes that harmonized with her voice, and 
 produced a very agreeable effect. Enphadde had also contrived an in- 
 strument, consisting of a sounding-board, into which were inserted slips 
 of reed which were supported by a bridge. The instrument was held by 
 the left hand, at an angle of inclination sufficient to bring the row of 
 reeds into a horizontal position, which were then snapped by the fingers 
 of the right hand with a degree of dexterity that must have required 
 much practice to attain. The tones were pleasant, and the divisions of 
 the musical scale perfectly accurate. Both Kaloolah and her brother 
 evinced the possession of a very fine and accurate ear, and a quick and 
 tenacious musical memory. Several English airs Kaloolah could repeat 
 after hearing them once, without missing a note. 
 
 Our entertainment was kept up until a late hour in the evening, and, 
 although I may not say that it would have fully satisfied the fastidious 
 ears of a critical bravurist, it gave us as much pleasure as ever was 
 derived from the loftiest harmonies of Beethoven, or the sprightliest 
 melodies of Rossini. Time, place, and circumstance ever powerfully in- 
 
ii6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 fluence the effect that music produces upon the mind ; and our music 
 must have been indeed execrable, if in a negro hut, far from home, in 
 the wilds of Congo, it had not power to excite agreeable associations, 
 and gently, perhaps sadly, but withal not unpleasantly, arouse emotion, 
 and stir the heart. 
 
 Upon retiring to rest I resigned myself to slumber, with a sense of 
 security, as far as the former masters of Kaloolah were concerned, which 
 for several previous nights it had been impossible to feel. Still my sleep 
 was broken and disturbed. A vague impression of coming evil took pos- 
 session of me. Shadowy, half-formed fancies — the gaunt, gloaming 
 ghosts of horrible ideas stalked through my mind, and kept me tossing 
 and tumbling on my bed of leaves until nearly daylight. A few hours' 
 unquiet sleep, and I awoke with a slight headache, a feeling of general 
 lassitude, and chillness and dull pains in my back and lower extremities. 
 Then it was that I first suspected that I was ill. Kaloolah's expressive 
 face was a mirror in which I could see that I looked fully as unwell as I 
 felt, and, if further confirmation were wanted, it was present in the furred 
 tongue and the yellow tinge with which all objects appeared invested. 
 
 The grasp of the malaria — that curse of the African coast — was upon 
 me. Brooding in darkness and in damp over the low alluviums of the 
 intertropical shores, that mysterious power, innocuous to the negro, 
 but a deadly foe to the Caucasian constitution, presents a barrier which 
 the white man has not yet been able to pass. I was to prove no exception, 
 and I shuddered as well at the thought as beneath the direct chilling 
 touch of this relentless agent of death. 
 
 My headache gradually increased, accompanied with nausea and a 
 sensation of weight in the region of the stomach, and all my symptoms 
 began to be aggravated, except perhaps the feeling of chilliness. The 
 rapidity with which in many cases the African fever develops itself is 
 well known. There was no time to lose, if any preparatory remedial 
 measures were to be adapted. Fortunately, I had a small paper of medi- 
 cines in the pocket of my instrument-case, and as there was not much 
 doubt in my mind of the propriety of emetics in the forming stage of all 
 fevers, it was not difficult to decide upon a full dose of the tartrate of 
 antimony. 
 
 By night reaction had taken place, and the fever was fully developed. 
 Strong cerebral symptoms convinced me that it would not answer much 
 longer to confide in my medical judgment, even should my senses be pre- 
 served, and that the best way would be to make sure of one good dose 
 of calomel and jalap, and then trusting to a good constitution, leave the 
 disease to its course. The powder was prepared, and swallowing it, with 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 117 
 
 somewhat of the feeling with which the mariner casts his last anchor to 
 windward on a lee-shore, I resigned myself to my fate. 
 
 Delirium soon supervened; but amid the wanderings of reason and 
 the vagaries of maddened fancy, I was still conscious of the soothing in- 
 fluences of woman's gentle attentions. The figure of Kaloolah, multiplied 
 by diseased sensation into a dozen angelic forms, was ever around me. Flit- 
 ting spirits, bearing her face and form, constantly hovered over me, fan- 
 ning my hot cheek with their gentle wings, or, with light fingers, parting 
 my hair, and bathing my throbbing temples— at each moment smoothing 
 the rumpled palm leaves, chasing the buzzing insects, and refreshing my 
 parched mouth with draughts of cool water or the pleasant juice of the 
 sweet lemon. I knew not all the time that it was she ; but still, even 
 when most bewildered, there remained a distinct consciousness of some 
 power without that kept down the raging demon, who roared and strug- 
 gled for mastery within. 
 
 On the ninth day the fever reached its crisis, and, thanks to a good 
 constitution and kind nursing, the crisis was safely passed. From that 
 day recovery was no longer doubtful, and in three or four days more I 
 was able to sit up, and indulge with a good appetite in the convalescent's 
 luxury — a bowel of chicken broth. It would require weeks, however, to 
 regain my full strength. Although the disease had manifested itself in a 
 comparatively mild and simple form, and had not been complicated by 
 any severe local congestions, and had in consequence lasted hardly a 
 quarter of its usual time, it had nevertheless left marks of its power 
 behind, which it would require time to remove. 
 
 I learned from Enphadde that during my illness the inhabitants of the 
 village had in general evinced a great deal of good feeling ; the women 
 in particular frequently visiting the hut and' offering assistance. The 
 Mafooka had sent several times to inquire after my health, accompanying 
 his messages with presents of fowls and eggs. A native physician had 
 offered to perform the operation of cupping, but Enphadde did not dare 
 give his consent. 
 
 The favorable change in the disease was soon known, and brought a 
 succession of visits of congratulation from the principal citizens of the 
 town. Each one, as is sometimes the case in more civilized countries, 
 had something to suggest in aid of my speedy recovery. One recom- 
 mended lion's-tail soup ; another, a dish of alligator's eyes ; and a third, 
 a fricassee of monkeys' tongues, and each one offered to provide his 
 remedy for a proper consideration. The terms were too high, and if for 
 no other reason, I was compelled to respectfully decline their assistance, 
 and rely upon chicken broth and the culinary skill of Kaloolah. 
 
ii8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 It was now more than three weeks since the departure of the slaver, 
 and as yet nothing had been heard from her. It was known that she 
 had succeeded in passing, without molestation, the English man-of-war, 
 and that the latter, the next morning had also weighed her anchor 
 and stood out of the river. Had she overtaken the Bonito? and if 
 so, what was to become of me and my companions? It must be rec- 
 ollected that I was sick — worn down in body, and depressed in mind, 
 and it will not appear strange that a supposition of the slaver's having 
 been captured, which, under other circumstances would have given me 
 pleasure, now excited nothing but dismay. I brooded over the thought 
 with the most melancholy anticipations. My money was nearly gone. 
 When all was spent how were we to obtain the commonest necessities 
 of life? When, and how should we find means to escape from a 
 country and climate that desponding imagination began to invest with 
 all the horrors of purgatory ? 
 
 Feeling thus, it may be supposed that I was overjoyed when, at 
 near the close of the fourth week, the news came that the Bonito had 
 arrived in the river, and was at anchor about twenty miles below. My 
 spirits, however, were far from undergoing an elation corresponding to their 
 previous depression. Doubts and fears intruded themselves, and very 
 much qualified the anticipated pleasures of freedom and pure ocean air. 
 
 One great source of anxiety was the beauty of Kaloolah, which had 
 been growing more and more striking as her face daily recovered some 
 portion of its original fulness, and her figure its rounded and graceful 
 proportions. I knew my own powerlessness on shipboard, especially in 
 my then state of health ; and I knew well the lawlessness of the Bonito s 
 crew. Fortunately, among my other medicines there was a stick of nitrate 
 of silver, or lunar caustic, and the idea occurred to me that by means of it 
 her dangerous beauty might be deprived for a time of its power. I at 
 once proposed it to her, and after explaining that we were going among 
 bad men, who might be rude to her, and that it would be perhaps much 
 easier for me to protect her from insult if we could get rid of her 
 good looks, she at once consented to the application of the caustic. In a 
 few minutes her face was covered with black spots and blotches which 
 completely altered its expression. There was the same lustrous eye, the 
 same finely turned features, but a stranger would have turned from them 
 with pity for the horrible disease with which they were overcast. The 
 change was so great that Enphadde, who better than Kaloolah had com- 
 prehended the object I had in view, looked quite shocked, and would 
 hardly be satisfied with my repeated assurance that the spots would wear 
 off, and his sister's skin resume its natural hue. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 fever ! 
 
 Captain Garbez' Return — A Hard Blow — A Promise to the Virgin — Sufferings in the Barra- 
 coons — Preparations for Loading — Packing the Slaves — Loose Packing and Tight Packing 
 ' — Arrangements for Kaloolah and her Brother — A Timely Fit of .the Rheumatism — Get- 
 ting to Sea — Effects of Sea-Sickness among the Slaves — The Captain's Argument — 
 Jonathan's Proteges — Talk about Framazugda — ^Jonathan's Intentions. 
 
 UIEN ES v.?" exclaimed Captain Garbez, as I mounted the 
 
 side of the slaver just as her anchor struck the ground ofT 
 
 Lembee. " Madre de Dios ! how you have altered ! One 
 
 would hardly know you, you have changed so ! Ah, the rascally 
 
 I know it well, for I 've had it myself. But, what is the news? 
 
 what has happened during the last month ? " 
 
 " Nothing," I replied, " but what you can see for yourself. The 
 fever has pulled me down, as you perceive. It was sharp, but short, and 
 I am recovering now as fast as I could reasonably expect. It is but five 
 days since I was confined to the bed. But what has kept you so long ? I 
 had begun to think that perhaps you were figuring before your friends of 
 the mixed commission." 
 
 " No, they don't catch me so easy," replied the captain. " The 
 Bonito has broad wings, and you might as well send a turkey-cock after a 
 sea-gull as to chase her with any English craft that I know of. It is the 
 cursed calms that have kept us so long. See, I 've lost half the hair on 
 my head. Caramba ! I would n't mind having my whole scalp blown 
 off in a gale of wind, but to be compelled to tear my hair out, in a stupid 
 calm, is too bad. We 've had but one capful of wind since we left, and 
 that was a regular buttender right in our teeth. You see, just as we left 
 the mouth of the river we came across the consort of the fellow we had 
 left behind. As soon as he saw us he loosened and sheeted home every 
 thing, and took after us, but it was of no use. We stretched off to the 
 west, and soon dropped him ; but when we began to think about turning 
 back, the wind came on to blow a perfect hurricane from the east. We 
 were ,compelled to lie-to for eight and forty hours, and although the 
 Bonito is a pretty weatherly craft, we drifted to leeward like the D 1 
 
 iig 
 
I20 KALOOLAH. 
 
 in Lent. Since then we had nothing but calms and light head-winds. I 
 promised our Holy Mother the price of a young negro in wax lights, but 
 she did n't do us any good, and burn my eyes if she may n't find her own 
 candles, or sit in the dark for aught I care." 
 
 " How soon do you get under way again ? " said I, interrupting the 
 captain, who was rapidly working himself into a passion about the 
 weather. 
 
 " As soon as possible, but the Lord only knows when that will be. I 
 shall try to be off in less than a week. It will depend upon the time it 
 takes to bring all the slaves in. The negroes here are wretchedly slow in 
 all their movements, and what is worse, there is not much use in trying 
 to stir them up. Along the coast, from Cabenda up, they do business 
 more promptly. When the barracoons are full, the shipping a cargo will 
 not take more than an hour or two. The slaves suffer so much from their 
 confinement and want of food in the barracoons, that when the gates are 
 opened they frequently run and skip down to the canoes in their delight 
 at being taken to ' the white man's country, where they will have plenty 
 to eat.' But I must hurry ashore and see what can be done." 
 
 The captain's boat was ready, and he stepped into it and shoved off, 
 while I turned into the cabin to look after my personal property, which, 
 including my money, I was happy to find had been undisturbed. 
 
 Preparations were actively resumed for the reception of the slaves, 
 and in a few hours after the captain's visit to the shore several boat-loads 
 of unhappy wretches were sent on board. The first comers were taken 
 below the berth-deck and arranged upon a temporary slave-deck placed 
 over the water-casks, and at a distance of not more than three feet and a 
 half from the deck overhead. Into the planks eye-bolts were inserted, 
 and firmly secured at different intervals, in four rows, running fore and 
 aft the ship. Through these bolts traversed iron shackle bars, which were 
 prevented from slipping by a knob at one end and a padlock at the other. 
 When the padlock was removed the bar could be shoved back, and the 
 slaves strung upon it in gangs of five, six, or eight in number. The 
 shackle was a stout piece of iron, curved like a horse-shoe, with holes in 
 the ends for the bar to pass through. Each slave had one of these 
 shackles placed over his ankle ; the long bar was drawn through the ends 
 of it along the und^r side of his leg, and so on of each slave belonging 
 to the gang ; the end of the bar was then passed through the eye-bolt 
 and secured by the padlock. This arrangement made it very convenient 
 to air the slaves on deck, when the weather would permit. All that was 
 necessary was to remove the lock, slide the bar back, and slip the shackles 
 
KALOOLAH. 121 
 
 off, when the limbs of the whole gang were at once unfettered. After 
 their airing they could be strung along on the bar, and the end of it again 
 secured with hardly more time or trouble. It was somewhat unusual, the 
 captain informed me, to shackle slaves taken from the coast south of Cape 
 Lopez, inasmuch as they are generally a mild and timid race, but for those 
 obtained from any of the stations from Cape Lopez north to the Gambia 
 shackles are essential. 
 
 The slaves, as I have said, were arranged in four ranks. When lying 
 down, the heads of the two outer ranks touched the sides of the ship ; 
 their feet pointing inboard or athwart the vessel. They, of course, occu- 
 pied a space fore and aft the ship of about six feet on either side, or 
 twelve feet of the whole breadth. At the feet of the outside rank come 
 the heads of the inner row. They took up a space of six feet more on 
 either side, or together twelve feet. There was still left a space running 
 up and down the centre of the deck, two or three feet in breadth ; along 
 this were stretched single slaves, between the feet of the two inner rows, 
 so that when all were lying down almost every square foot of the deck 
 was covered with a mass of human flesh. Not the slightest space was 
 allowed between the individuals of the ranks, but the whole were packed 
 as closely as they could be, each slave having just room enough to stretch 
 himself out flat upon his back, and no more. In this way about two hun- 
 dred and fifty were crowded upon the slave-deck, and as many more upon 
 the berth-deck. 
 
 Horrible as this may seem, it was nothing compared to the " packing " 
 generally practised by slavers. Captain Garbez boasted that he had tried 
 both systems, tight packing and loose packing thoroughly, and ihat he had 
 found the latter the best. 
 
 " If you call this loose packing," I replied, " have the goodness to ex- 
 plain what you mean by tight packing." 
 
 " Why, tight packing consists in making a row sit with their legs 
 stretched apart, and then another row is placed between their legs, and 
 so on, until the whole deck is filled. In the one case each slave has as 
 much room as he can cover lying ; in the other, only as much room as he 
 can occupy sitting. With tight packing this craft ought to stow fifteen 
 hundred." About fifty of the whole number were females, who were left 
 unshackled, but were closely confined in a small space at the stern, which 
 was cut off from the apartment of the males by a stout bulkhead. 
 
 It was with a good deal of difficulty that I made arrangements for 
 Kaloolah and Enphadde. The captain, at first, strongly objected to re- 
 ceiving them at all. He could not spare the room ; but that difficulty 
 
122 KALOOLAH. 
 
 was obviated by my offering to indemnify him for any loss, in a sum 
 equal to the clear profit his owners would receive for the two slaves, that, 
 as he asserted, would be displaced. 
 
 " Besides," continued I, " they will not take up any of the room of the 
 ship that could be otherwise occupied. I intend to take them both into 
 my state-room." 
 
 " Impossible ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Not at all," said I, " it may be, perhaps, inconvenient for me, but they 
 won't be in the way of any one else. Come, captain, you must consent. 
 I assure you I will fully satisfy your owners. You can see for your- 
 self that I have the means," and I showed to the captain a large purse 
 of gold. 
 
 The captain eyed me for some time in silence. 
 
 " I '11 go still further than that," I continued ; " I '11 not only pay for 
 their passage, but if you allow me to put them into the cabin, where they 
 won't disturb any one but myself, there 's my chronometer — you have 
 often admired it — it is yours." 
 
 " Well, doctor, do as you please — but what the d- — 1 you see in those 
 two slaves to like so much, I can't understand. They are not niggers, it 
 is true, and that is the reason why they are not worth half so much as a 
 pair of full-blooded blacks. We often get queer kinds of people, of all 
 colors, shapes, and sizes, but they are good for nothing in the market. 
 They can't stand heat or labor with the pure blacks. I once took a cargo 
 to Brazil, of which about one half were real whites — some of them with 
 blue eyes and light hair ; there was not as much negro blood in them as 
 you see in the whitest slaves in New-Orleans or Havana. They went oft 
 at half prices, and when put down to work they all died in less than a 
 year. So if you expect to make a speculation with these you will find 
 yourself much mistaken. The girl, perhaps, would bring a good price, if 
 you can cure those spots on her face, but the boy is good for nothing in the 
 field, and for house-work people like only slaves that have been trained." 
 
 Most fortunately el segundo capitan was confined to his berth with a 
 violent attack of inflammatory rheumatism, and incapable of making any 
 opposition to my plans. 
 
 In five days the Bonito's compliment of slaves was on board, and all 
 ready for departure. At the last moment I joined the ship, with Kaloo- 
 lah and Enphadde ; the anchor was weighed, and with a fair and stiff 
 breeze we ran down the rapid current on the top of an ebbing tide. In a 
 few hours, we were dancing upon the lively swell of the open ocean, and 
 inhaling with delight the breeze which, although coming from the land. 
 
KALOOLAH. 123 
 
 seemed to have lost its malevolent and oppressive character. As we in- 
 creased our distance from the shore, my breath came deeper, freer : each 
 draught seemed to penetrate farther and farther among the clogged air 
 cells of the lungs, stirring the sluggish blood, and chasing the lingering 
 remnants of disease. What an inestimable blessing is plenty of pure 
 fresh air ! What exquisite pleasure in the free and easy performance of 
 the .respirattDTy function ! Alas ! five hundred unhappy vi^retches were 
 beneath my feet, who had been cruelly cut off from that pleasure — de- 
 prived of that blessing ! Despite the refreshing influences of the breeze 
 I sickened at the thought.- 
 
 As night set in the wind freshened, with a short, quick head-sea, 
 through which the ship, under full sail, ploughed her uneasy way. As 
 the motion increased, the most heart-rending sounds began to issue from 
 between her decks. It grew stronger and stronger — blending with and 
 almost overpowering the creaking of spars and bulkheads, and the melan- 
 choly wail of the breeze among the tautened cords of the weather- 
 rigging. A deep, dull chorus of moans and sobs, and sighs, arose from 
 the grated hatchways spread around upon the air, and enwrapped the 
 cursed craft in all the harmonies of hell. It was the shrill cry of youth, 
 and the sobbing voices of woman in the hour of fright and distress. It 
 was the deep groans of manhood, wrung by pain from the panting breast. 
 It was the choking sobs of oppressed respiration — the retchings of nausea 
 the clanking of fetters, and the stertorous gaspings of wretches in the 
 last agonies of death. 
 
 The next morning five corpses were picked out from among the men, 
 and two from among the women, and thrown overboard. 
 
 " Only seven ! " exclaimed the captain, " well, that 's devilish good 
 luck so far. I always calculate, with a full cargo, to lose from fifteen to 
 twenty by the first touch of sea-sickness. Come, bear a-hand there, and 
 give them an airing ! " 
 
 From forty to fifty at a time were now brought upon deck. As they 
 emerged from the hatchway they were manacled together in gangs of six 
 or eight, as much to prevent individuals from jumping overboard as to 
 guard against resistance. Each gang was then placed in turn on the fore- 
 castle, the brakes of a forcing pump manned, and a powerful stream of 
 water directed through a hose upon them. After being thoroughly 
 drenched, they were allowed to walk about and dry themselves for fifteen 
 or twenty minutes, and were then passed down to their shackles, to be 
 succeeded by another set. 
 
 Never but in a slaver were seen such groups of woe-begone wretches. 
 
124 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Many were ill with previous disease, and all of them laboring under the 
 distressing effects of sea-sickness; their naked bodies, begrimed with filth, 
 shivered and shrunk in the cool fresh air and their quivering lips and 
 rolling eyes expressed the height of bodily suffering, mental agony, and 
 hopeless despair. There was none of that stolid indifference which had 
 characterized the expression of their faces on shore. There, cruelty and 
 hardship had assumed familiar forms, and a dogged endurance opposed 
 itself to the frowns of fate. Here they were upon a new and fearful 
 element — new terrors aroused their jaded and sluggish fears — new pangs 
 developed the secret sensations of their benumbed and hardened frames. 
 Alas ! they were only at the commencement of their fearful voyage — at 
 the threshold merely of the horrors that were to multiply, in geometric 
 ratio, the farther they advanced. 
 
 I attempted to visit the slave-decks. The sights, sounds, and smells 
 were intolerable ; and, with a death-like sickness at the heart, I was com- 
 pelled to retire. " Good heavens ! " I exclaimed, " I had no idea of 
 this." 
 
 " Why, it is n't very pleasant," said the captain, " but what can you 
 expect when they are all sea-sick ? Wait till they get over that, and we 
 shall be able to keep them in better order ; and, besides, they '11 naturally 
 thin out a little, and that will make them more comfortable." 
 
 " But if such is the state of things in fair weather," I demanded, " how 
 will it be if it should come on to blow ? " 
 
 " If it is a downright regular gale, we shall have the d I's own time, 
 
 of course," replied the captain. " When it comes to closing the hatches, 
 it is all up with the voyage. You can hardly save enough to pay expenses. 
 They die like leeches in a thunder-storm. I was once in a little schooner 
 with three hundred on board, and we were compelled to lie-to for three 
 days. It was the worst sea I ever saw, and came near swamping us 
 several times. We lost two hundred and fifty slaves in that gale. We 
 could n't get at the dead ones to throw them overboard very handily, and 
 so those that did n't die from want of air were killed by the rolling and 
 tumbling about of the corpses. Of the living ones, some had their limbs 
 broken, and every one had the flesh of his leg worn to the bone by the 
 shackle-irons." 
 
 " Good God ! and you still puruse the horrible trade ? " 
 
 " Certainly : why not ? Despite of accidents the trade is profitable, 
 and for the cruelty of it no one is to blame except the English. Were it 
 not for them, large and roomy vessels would be employed, and it would 
 be an object to bring the slaves over with every comfort, and in as good 
 
KALOOLAH. 125 
 
 condition as possible. Now every consideration must be sacrificed to the 
 one great object — escape from capture by the British cruisers." 
 
 I had no wish to reply to the captain's argument. One might as well 
 reply to a defence of blasphemy or murder. Giddy, faint, and sick, I turned 
 with loathing from the fiends in human guise, and sought the more genial 
 companionship of the inmates of my state-room. 
 
 Kaloolah and Enphadde were suffering slightly from the effects of sea- 
 sickness, but in every other respect they were as comfortable as could be 
 wished. Enphadde was stretched upon the narrow floor, wrapped in a 
 blanket, with a carpet-bag for a pillow. Kaloolah occupied the lower 
 berth, while the upper berth was reserved for myself. We, were thus 
 rather closely stowed, but I had only to think of the miserable beings 
 between decks and the sense of constraint and discomfort vanished. 
 
 In two or three days my interesting room-mates were so far recovered 
 as to be able to take the air upon deck. Kaloolah, however, I kept closely 
 confined in the daytime, and allowed her to come out only at night. I 
 wished to prevent either her seeing or being seen ; and even Enphadde, 
 according to my instructions, exposed himself as little as possible to the 
 notice of the crew. As soon as it grew dark we would all three creep 
 over the taffrail into the stern-boat, and enjoy several hours' unmolested 
 and interesting conversation. I had already made so much progress in 
 the Framazug tongue that I could already comprehend the minutest de- 
 scriptions of the wonderful scenes of their native country ; and, in turn, 
 astonish them with an account of the curious things that they were to see 
 in mine. At such times it was impossible to resist the temptation to en- 
 courage their hopes of returning through the northern negro countries to 
 their home. 
 
 " You will go with us, won't you, Jon'than ? " said Kaloolah, one even- 
 ing, when I had been explaining how easy it would be to go from my 
 country to some of the French or English ports south of the great desert, 
 and that from thence it would be possible to reach the Niger or Quorah, 
 of which river they had heard the name. Once upon the Quorah, 
 Enphadde felt confident that he would be able to make his way to 
 Framazugda. 
 
 " You will go with us, won't you, Jon'than ? " 
 
 " Perhaps so," I replied. 
 
 " Ah, yes, you must go. You will see so many pleasant things in 
 Framazugda. Your country is very grand and beautiful, but it can't 
 equal ours. The trees, the flowers, the birds ! Ah, I 'm sure no country 
 in the world can equal Framazugda." 
 
126 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Poor girl ! I could not bear to disturb with a doubt her happy 
 dreams, the realization of which seemed to her so certain — to me, so dis- 
 tant and improbable. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be asked what were my plans respecting her and her 
 brother. The subject was one that I did not, at the time, wish to think 
 about. I had paid the price of their freedom, because I had become in- 
 terested in their appearance and manners, and because my sympathies 
 had been aroused by their sufferings. I was bringing them to the United 
 States simply because it would have been the height of cruelty to leave 
 them behind. There was no alternative. Mere freedom would have 
 been but an idle gift in the wilds of Congo. I could not doubt but that 
 my motives would be appreciated, and the force of my reasons allowed ; 
 but what was to be their ultimate fate was a question that I rather 
 shrunk from entertaining. Certain crude ideas would occasionally in- 
 trude themselves, but I generally contrived to banish them without 
 allowing them to assume full shape. Trusting that time would develop 
 nothing but favorable circumstances, I rested satisfied with the resolution 
 that my best exertions should never be wanting to mitigate the hardships 
 of their fate and insure, in future, the comfort and, if possible, the hap- 
 piness of their lives. 
 
 But however practicable were my resolutions for the future, my power 
 was unequal to their protection from a good many present annoyances. 
 Monte, the second captain, had got about again, and seemed more ma- 
 liciously inclined than ever. Several times, when I was not by, he struck 
 Enphadde with a rope's end, and one evening when I had left Kaloolah 
 alone in the stern-boat for a few minutes she was roughly dragged out 
 and pushed, or rather thrown, down from the poop-deck. My blood 
 boiled at the outrage. I complained to Captain Garbez, but to no pur- 
 pose ; to speak to Monte would be to subject myself to useless insult. 
 I was compelled to keep my wrath to itself, but it lost nothing by 
 nursing. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Condition of the Slaves — Throwing Overboard the Sick — A Row with Monte — War to the Knife 
 ^A Gale — ^Bearing Away — Opening th« Hatches — Picking out the Dead — Ophthalmia — A 
 British Cruiser — A Chase — A Dense Fog — A Curious Phenomena — Throwing Overboard the 
 Blind — The Giant of the Diamond Rock — The Lifting of the Fog— A Stern Chase — Kaloo- 
 lah Struck by Monte — Monte Felled to the Deck — Jonathan and his Proteges Jump Over- 
 board — Picked up by the Brig. 
 
 j^WO weeks of fine weather, but with rather unfavorable winds, 
 brought us to the line, which was crossed in about five or 
 six degrees of longitude west. 
 
 The slaves had become by this time somewhat used to the 
 motion of the ship, and the mortality had diminished from five or six to 
 one or two in the twenty-four hours. They were regularly aired and 
 washed every day, and had pretty good food, though rather a short 
 allowance of it ; but although every care possible was taken to preserve 
 their health, even to administering to them at regular intervals brimstone 
 and molasses, and other slave-ship prescriptions of supposed efificacy, 
 nothing could compensate for the injurious effects of confinement in a 
 close and vitiated atmosphere. They grew weaker and weaker, and their 
 bodies rapidly reached a state of distressing emaciation. Putrid sores 
 and malignant eruptions broke out upon them: in some cases old wounds 
 that had been healed for years reopened, asuming a peculiarly unhealthy 
 aspect ; in others a virulent ophthalmia completely destroyed the tissues 
 of the eye. Many became afiflicted with scrofula, developing itself in 
 tubercular phthisis, or in swellings and ulcerations of the glandular sys- 
 tem, and many were attacked with pneumonia, ternriinating, in th« case of 
 one poor fellow, in that most loathsome form of disease, gangrene of the 
 lungs. Nothing can equal the horrible odor of the expectorations in this 
 disease ; and to get rid of the offensive smell which, with its kindred 
 perfumes, seemed to permeate every pore of the ship, the sick man was 
 brought up at night and coolly thrown overboard — alive. A happy re- 
 lease ! the reader will think, for him. 
 
 When told of his fate the next morning, indignation mastered pru- 
 
 127 
 
128 KALOOLAH. 
 
 dence, and I freely expressed, in the most unqualified terms, my opinion 
 of the deed. I was met with scowling looks and muttered imprecations. 
 
 " Take care," exclaimed el segundo capitan, " or you '11 go the same 
 way. Por la madre de Dios ! I will have no one to meddle or make on 
 board this ship." 
 
 " Murderer ! Coward ! " I shouted, completely carried away by rising 
 passion. " Repeat that threat if you dare ! " 
 
 His face grew purple with rage, and drawing a long Spanish bladed 
 sheath knife, he darted towards me, but when within almost arm's reach, 
 he was checked by the muzzle of a pistol, which, with a motion as quick 
 as his own, I had pulled from my pocket, and levelled at his head. 
 
 " Stir one step," I exclaimed, " and you die ! " 
 
 He stopped motionless, but in the very attitude of springing upon me, 
 a horrible convulsion of the muscles of his mouth drew aside his lips, 
 and disclosed his jagged teeth. A grin, like that of an infuriated hyena, 
 overspread his face, and his whole body worked and quivered with pas- 
 sion ; but he stirred not, and fortunately for him, or rather for both, he 
 did not. The least motion — and I sliould have scattered his brains, with- 
 out the slightest regard to consequences.- 
 
 We stood thus, both perfectly motionless, confronting each other for 
 quite a space of time. The sailors who happened to be by were also 
 taken by surprise, and offered no interference. Their feelings were 
 against me, but I do not know that they would have taken any decided 
 part ; at any rate the scene was got up so quickly that it reached its de- 
 nouement before they had time to recover their thoughts. 
 
 The captain was the first to come to his senses, and wildly shouting 
 and gesticulating, he rushed between and motioned us apart. I dropped 
 my pistol, and Captain Garbez grasping my antagonist's arm, compelled 
 him to put up his knife. Slowly he returned it to its sheath, and drew 
 himself off among the crew. The scowl of determined malice was on 
 his face, and I felt that, from that moment, it was war to the knife be- 
 tween us. 
 
 The captain, seizing my arm, hurried me aft, beyond the hearing of 
 the crew. 
 
 " Good G-d, senor el medico,'' he exclaimed, " do you want your throat 
 cut, or your heart's blood let out, that you thus quarrel with Monte? 
 He '11 have your life — he never forgets nor forgives. You must be care- 
 ful, or I can't protect you." 
 
 " I am much obliged to you. Captain Garbez," said I, " but if you 
 cannot protect me, I can protect myself." 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 129 
 
 " You can't," replied he ; " let me beg of you not to provoke him 
 again— he '11 surely have revenge. There is a bad feeling among some 
 of the crew towards you. They overheard your foolish and improper re- 
 marks about the ship and the trade, and they say that you will make 
 difficulty for us yet. If they take it into their heads, they would make 
 nothing of throwing you overboard." 
 
 " Let them try it ! " I exclaimed, although secretly I allowed it would 
 not be very prudent to provoke them to the attempt. " Let them try it ! 
 but I have no fear that they will do so. I have not given, and shall not 
 give, them any ca.use. But as to this Monte, he had better look to him- 
 
 " Stir one step" I exclaimed, " and you die ! 
 
 self. I 've borne enough from him. He threatens to turn Enphadde 
 and his sister out of my stateroom, and send them below upon the slave- 
 deck. Now, mark you, he '11 never live to see the sun set on the day 
 that is done. I 've paid for their passage, and a good price too, as you 
 know, and you 'd better see to it." 
 
 " Well, for heaven's sake be careful," replied the captain ; " Monte and 
 some of the crew are part owners of the ship, and he 's about as much 
 captain as I am. I shall be sorry to have any thing happen to you." 
 
 The day after this little fracas a violent gale sprang up from the south- 
 west. The regular trades were compelled to succumb to the influence of 
 thfe new-comer ; and between them both a tremendous irregular cross-sea 
 
I30 KALOOLAH. 
 
 was knocked up, which made the situation of the ship full as dangerous as 
 it was uncomfortable. Each moment heavy masses of water tumbled aboard 
 of us, shaking the ship throughout every fibre of her frame, and flooding 
 her decks, so that the fore and main-hatches had to be closed, cutting off 
 the supply of air for more than four hundred breathing beings, except what 
 could find its way down the after-hatch. 
 
 For nearly twenty-four hours we lay-to on the larboard tack, under the 
 fore, main, and mizzen stay-sails ; but the sea becoming more and more 
 dangerous, and the motion of the ship more and more distressing to her- 
 self as well as to her cargo, it was resolved to bear away, and scud before 
 the wind. We should thus lose a good deal of ground, and be running 
 north and east towards the African coast, but there was no alternative. 
 
 All hands being ready, the closed-reefed main-top-sail was loosed ancj 
 sheeted home. The fore-sail loosed, the larboard tack got down, and the 
 starboard sheet aft. The main and mizzen stay-sails were then hauled 
 down ; the main and top-sail braces hauled in to shiver the top-sail, and 
 the helm put hard-a-weather. The ship fell off rapidly, and, when before 
 the wind, the yards were squared, the fore-sheets both hauled aft, and 
 away we went under closed-reefed main-top-sail and reefed fore-sail. 
 
 The motion of the ship was now much easier ; we flew before the sea 
 in a way that prevented it from breaking on-board. Every few minutes 
 a huge, hissing wave, with numerous little waves furrowing his surface, 
 would come sweeping after us, apparently threatening inevitable destruc- 
 tion, and as the gallant ship eluded his grasp, dash a portion of spray 
 with resistless force over the stern, and roll on indignantly beneath us. 
 But no swell succeeded in boarding us bodily, as when we were lying-to. 
 
 The hatches were now opened, and more than thirty dead bodies 
 picked out from among the mass of human flesh, and thrown overboard. 
 
 In ten or twelve hours after the ship was got before the wind, the 
 gale abated ; the wind shifted to the east, and the heavy sea gradually 
 subsided. But, although without, the elements had ceased their strife for 
 the dominion of nature, within, the effects of the contest were only be- 
 ginning to develop themselves. Owing, undoubtedly, to their close 
 confinement during the gale in the vitiated air between-decks, the eyes 
 of nearly one half the slaves became affected simultaneously with acute 
 and painful inflammation. It was purulent ophthalmia in its most virulent 
 form. There had been a few cases previous to the storm, but the disease 
 then was limited in its progress, and assumed a milder and less malignant 
 character. 
 
 It was wonderful, the rapidity with which it ran its course. In some 
 
KALOOLAH. 131 
 
 cases not three days would elapse from the first symptoms, until the eye- 
 lids would be swelled to an enormous extent — the lower one so much so 
 as, to rest — a huge mass of disease — upon the cheek. Ulcerations of the 
 cornea, and the utter disorganization of the ball of the eye, was, in most 
 cases, the result. Fever, violent pains in the head, and, in many cases, the 
 most excruciating pains in the eye, from the motion of the upper eyelid 
 over the ulcerated^cprnea, ,\yhere the conjunctiva had been abraded or ab- 
 sorbed, accompanied the disease. In three days one hundred slaves had 
 lost an eye, and more than twenty, deprived of both eyes, were irrecover- 
 ably blind. 
 
 I exerted myself to the utmost to alleviate their sufferings ; but my 
 best efforts were of little avail. No form of medical treatment seemed 
 adapted to the case, and the disease only ran a more rapid race when any 
 attempts were made to arrest it. I had nothing, however, to reproach 
 myself with on that score ; for I felt the conviction that under all the at- 
 tending circumstances the most powerful medicines in the most skilful 
 hands would have been administered in vain. 
 
 Emerging from the fore hatchway, after a useless visit to the unfortu- 
 nates below, I observed some of the sailors engaged in slinging several 
 twelve-pound shots to pieces of rope two or three feet in length. I stopped 
 for a moment to inquire for what they were intended, when at the moment 
 a shout of " Sail ho ! " came from the look-out at the mast-head. Upon 
 -looking in the direction indicated a large brig was to be seen not more 
 than five or six miles off, on our lee-beam. The weather, which had been 
 thick and cloudy all day, had prevented her from being noticed sooner, 
 and her sudden appearance now, about four o'clock in the afternoon, took 
 us completely by surprise. Spy-glasses were produced and levelled at the 
 stranger — the result of the examination was evidently far from satisfac- 
 tory. The two vessels were standing on converging courses, which, if 
 persisted in, would soon bring them within hailing distance. A hurried 
 consultation between the captain and his officers took place in a low tone, 
 at the conclusion of which Garbez and Monte, glass in hand, mounted into 
 the main-rigging. A new hope sprang up in my breast at the evident 
 - anxiety of all hands. " God send that she prove a British cruiser ! " In 
 a minute this hope was strengthened by the voice of the captain as he 
 descended from the top. 
 
 " All hands make sail " ! he shouted. " Haul out the spanker- 
 bonnet the jib, and set the flying jib. Ease off the weather-braces. Luff ! " 
 ■ These orders were executed with wonderful rapidity, and the ship, 
 with all sail set, was hauled up close to the wind on the starboard tack. 
 
132 KALOOLAH. 
 
 1 had a glass to my eye as the Bonito sprung to her luff. The brig 
 was carrying single reefed top-sails, with top-gallant sails over them. What 
 was my delight to see the reefs shaken out and the sails trimmed sharp 
 on a wind. 
 
 "Captain," said I, "that fellow is an Englishman." 
 
 " To be sure he is," he replied, " but he '11 have to fly, caramba ! to 
 catch us." 
 
 For more than an hour I stood gazing at the pursuing vessel. I 
 measured with my straining eye every foot of the intervening distance. 
 One moment it seemed to diminish. She gains ! She gains ! No, no, 
 't is only fancy, flattering hope. Another look ! She is as far from us as 
 ever! For the love of Heaven and humanity, gentlemen, take another 
 pull on your lee-braces, and steer small ! Alas! 't is all in vain. The 
 Bonito is both too fast and too weatherly. What an honor and a re- 
 proach to the perverted skill of her Yankee builders ! 
 
 By nightfall we had gained three or four miles dead to windward, and 
 the brig was left nearly hull down. At ten o'clock Captain Garbez gave 
 orders to tack ship, expecting to stand on for two or three hours, and 
 then bear away on his course with a free wind ; but shortly after execut- 
 ing this manoeuvre the wind lulled, and by three o'clock in the morning 
 it was perfectly calm. 
 
 It was just at daybreak that while lying in my berth my attention was 
 aroused by some sounds on the forward deck. I heard a confused noise 
 — a number of voices speaking together in rather a low key, and then a 
 shrill cry of pain and fright, followed by a plunge of some heavy body 
 into the water. In a minute or two the sounds were repeated. Again 
 and again they struck upon my ear. " What devil's work is going on 
 now? " I exclaimed, jumping from my berth and stepping out upon deck. 
 
 A dense fog brooded upon the surface of the ocean, and closely en- 
 veloped the ship — standing up on either side, like huge perpendicular walls 
 of granite, and leaving a comparatively clear space — the area of the deck 
 and the height of the maintop-mast cross-trees. In-board the sight 
 ranged nearly free fore-and-aft the ship ; but seaward no eye could pene- 
 trate more than a yard or two the solid-looking barrier of vapor. A man 
 standing at the taffrail might have seen the cat-heads the whole length of 
 the deck, while at the same time behind him the end of the spanker- 
 boom, projecting over the water, was lost in the mist. I looked up at 
 the perpendicular walls, and the lofty arch overhead with feelings of awe, 
 and, I may add, fear. Cursed indeed must be our craft, when the genius 
 of the mist so carefully avoided the pollution of actual contact. His roll- 
 
KALOOLAH 135 
 
 ing legions were close around us ; but vapory horse and misty foot 
 shrunk back affrighted from the horrors of our blood-stained decks. 
 
 The cause of the phenomenon I concluded to be the hot air generated 
 in the crowded space between decks, but I had not time for much specu- 
 lation as to the precise manner of its action. The same shrill cry and 
 heavy plunging sound was repeated, and turning in the direction from 
 whence it came, I saw a sight that riveted every faculty. A slave was 
 standing amid a group of sailors, one of whom was busy fastening to his 
 leg one of the twelve-pound balls that I had noticed the day before. 
 When this was done, four men standing upon a grating, raised a foot or 
 two from the deck, seized him on either side, and elevating him with a 
 dexterous jerk, pitched him head first over the bulwark. His wild shriek 
 of fear, when he found himself going, was hardly commenced before it 
 was stifled by the waters closing over his head. Another succeeded, and 
 again another. 
 
 "Are you sure that there are no more?" demanded Monte, who 
 superintended the operation. 
 
 " All at present," responded a sailor ; " there is a dozen more that will 
 have to go to-morrow ; but we may as well let them have their chance out." 
 
 And this was the fate of the blind ! Of what value is a slave who has 
 lost his sight? None! He is worth less than nothing! He is an in- 
 cumbrance — a useless expense — an unsalable article. Pitch him over- 
 board ! twenty-five to-day, and " a dozen more to-morrow ! " 
 
 There are a good many elements of the sublime in a cold-blooded, 
 deliberate murder. The rush and roar of Niagara, the awful voices of 
 the tempest, the wild heaving of the ocean, the death-dealing charge of 
 the battle-field, even the judicial killings called capital punishments, are 
 nothing in comparison. A cool, unimpassioned murder is certainly one 
 of the most wonderful, the most incomprehensible, the most awful, and 
 the most horrible sights that can be witnessed in this world — it is nothing 
 less than the immediate and astounding revelation of the full majesty 
 of hell. 
 
 The sun was now some two hours and more above the horizon, and 
 gathering power as he rose, began to make a sensible impression upon 
 the gray banks of vapor. Gradually it resolved itself into detached 
 masses, with deep caves and ravines between, into which the eye could 
 penetrate for some distance, and slowly and gracefully the whole body of 
 it lifted itself from the surface of the ocean, disclosing each instant some 
 new expanse of the sheeny water, and some new effect of the struggling 
 light. 
 
134 K A LOO LA H. 
 
 Kaloolah and Enphadde were with me, upon the cabin deck, watching 
 the evolution and dissolution of the myriad fantastic forms. 
 
 " Look, look, Enphadde ! " exclaimed his sister ; " there 's the giant 
 of the Diamond Rock, and see, there 's his famous dog with the two 
 heads, following after him." 
 
 " And who is the Giant of the Diamond Rock? " I demanded. 
 
 " Oh, there 's a long story about him," replied KalooLah ; " too long 
 to tell now. His home is in a high mountain peak in Framazugda, called 
 the Diamond, but he wanders all about the world with his dog. When 
 he is seen, and his dog makes no noise, it is considered a happy omen ; 
 but if his dog growls it bodes bad luck for some one. Are you not glad, 
 Jon'than," continued Kaloolah, playfully, " that the two-headed monster 
 marches on so silently ? " 
 
 The question had hardly passed her lips when a low, rumbling sound 
 came over the water in the direction of the misty figure, which an active 
 fancy might as well have likened to any thing else as to a giant and a 
 dog. Kaloolah started and turned pale. Enphadde's ear had also caught 
 the sound. 
 
 We listened intently, and again heard the same sound, but more 
 faintly than at first. It was evidently from a much farther distance than 
 the column of mist, which had now almost melted into air. 
 
 " It must be from some vessel ! " I exclaimed ; " would to God that 
 we were on board of her ! Can you swim, Kaloolah ? " Enphadde, I 
 knew, was accomplished in the art. 
 
 " Like a fish," interrupted her brother ; " she is a real water-witch. 
 I ve known her to sport for hours in the great lake of Wollo ; she can 
 swim almost as fast and as far as I can." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I can swim ! " exclaimed Kaloolah, raising both hands, 
 while an expression of delighted energy beamed from her large lustrous 
 eyes. " I could swim miles, to escape from this horrible ship. Come, 
 come, let us go ! " 
 
 " Where to ? " said I, pulling her back from the low rail, upon which 
 she placed one foot, in the attitude for a plunge. 
 
 " To the vessel yonder ; we surely can reach it." 
 
 " Ah ! but we don't know that there is a vessel there ; and if there 
 was, how could we find it in this fog ? A breeze might come before we 
 could swim half the distance, and then we should be left in the middle of 
 the Atlantic. No, if we can escape only by swimming, our chance is a 
 poor one." 
 
 While speaking, a slight ripple ran along the surface of the water, and 
 
KALOOLAH. 135 
 
 in a moment the coiling wreatlis of vapor glided before it, and upwards, 
 into the higher regions of the air. As they vanished, a flood of light 
 poured upon the glassy slopes of the undulating water, and standing out 
 clearly into view, was to be seen the hull and spars of a large, full-rigged 
 brig. If it had suddenly popped up from the bosom of the deep, the 
 effect could not have been more startling. It was the brig that had 
 chased us the evening before. She must have tacked about the same 
 time that we did, and by hugging the light wind, while we had been mov- 
 ing slowly with it on a free course, had brought herself into a position 
 about a mile and a quarter to windward. At any rate, there she lay, and 
 the sight of her was any thing but agreeable to the officers and crew of 
 El Bonito, although they had too much confidence in the speed of their 
 ship off the wind as well as on it to feel any very serious alarm. 
 
 At once, all was excitement and bustle — the wind freshened rapidly — 
 the slaves, who had been brought up for their morning ablutions, were 
 hurried below, and all hands called to make sail. The fore course was 
 hauled down, royals loosened, and sheeted home, studding-sails got out, 
 the yards braced square, and away we went, with the wind directly over 
 the taffrail. In the meantifne, the stranger had not been idle. We had 
 got a little the start of him, but almost as soon as ourselves, he was mov- 
 ing through the water under every available rag of canvas. 
 
 A stern chase is said to be a long one, even when the pursuer is the 
 fleetest ; what hope then when the advantage of superior speed is on the 
 side of the pursued. It was clearly so in this instance. In half an hour 
 we had increased our distance almost half a mile. 
 
 Monte bustled about with a smile, and a malicious scowl, alternately, 
 upon his ugly countenance — at one moment chuckling with fiendish glee, 
 and the next pouring forth a volley of profane imprecations. Several 
 times he passed me, and always with a muttering curse. In this there 
 was not much harm, but it was exceedingly annoying to live in continual 
 dread of some treacherous attack — perhaps a pistol-shot, or a stab in the 
 back. Happily it had been ordered that this state of suspense and fear 
 should not be of much longer duration. 
 
 Enphadde and myself were standing well aft upon the raised deck of 
 the cabin, watching the progress of the chase, which had now lasted about 
 an hour. Kaloolah was a little behind us, and Monte had just mounted 
 the ladder, and was walking aft. Kaloolah made a step backwards, and 
 slightly jostled against him. I heard a heavy blow — a groan of pain, and 
 turning, saw her stretched upon the deck. With one bound I was upon 
 him. He grasped the handle of his knife, but before he could draw it, my 
 
136 KALOOLAH. 
 
 left hand reached his frontlet, followed by the right, strongly planted on 
 his chin. The blows were given with an irresistible earnestness of pur- 
 pose. Monte's body was projected before them, and thrown violently 
 against the foot of the mizzen-mast, where he lay for a moment without 
 sense or motion. 
 
 Enphadde raised Kaloolah — she was perfectly sensible, but her breath, 
 at first, came with difificultly and pain — Monte had stricken her down 
 with a heavy blow on the breast. There was, however, no time to inquire 
 into particulars. Monte was upon his feet again — knife in hand — his face 
 streaming with blood, and his eyes glaring with maniacal r3,ge. Unfor-" 
 tunately my pistol was below, and I had nothing to oppose to the deadly 
 weapon, in the use of which all Spaniards are so well skilled. Superior 
 coolness, quickness, and strength, were the only advantages upon which I 
 had to rely against such fearful odds. 
 
 Monte advanced swiftly, crouching low, and holding the point of his 
 long knife slightly depressed. It was no time for hesitation ; my only 
 hope was in the offensive. I rushed at him, and struck out with my left 
 hand. He was on the point of making a thrust at the lower part of my 
 body, but instinctively raising his hand in guard, the point of the knife 
 entered my arm, inflicting a deep, but not a disabling wound. With the 
 rapidity of light I seized his wrist with my right hand, and thrusting my 
 left on the outside, grasped his face: applying, at the same moment, my 
 left foot to the outside of his ankle, with a sudden and powerful effort I 
 bore him backwards and sideways to the deck — falling upon him heavily 
 with my whole weight. The point of the knife entered the deck, and the 
 handle of it was wrenched from his grasp. He struggled to regain it, but 
 I succeeded in rolling him over and beyond it. It was now within my 
 reach, and my first impulse was to seize it, and drive it into his heart, but 
 I had no wish to kill the fellow, although I knew that if he lived there 
 was hardly a chance for my own life. 
 
 It must be understood, that there was no one upon the cabin-deck ex- 
 cept ourselves and Kaloolah and Enphadde, and that the whole affair 
 took place in much less time than it takes to describe it. From the 
 beginning to the end was hardly half a minute. 
 
 By this time the noise had aroused the officers and crew, and they all 
 came pouring aft, gesticulating and screaming as only Spaniards can ges- 
 ticulate and scream. Two or three sprung upon the ladder, at once 
 interfering with each other, and giving a practical illustration of the truth 
 of the old saying, " the more haste the less speed." Already one or two 
 had a footing upon the deck. Had I awaited the onset, ten chances to 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 m- 
 
 one my life would have been instantly sacrificed, or, at least, I should 
 have been put in some way so completely hors de combat, that Monte 
 would have been able to give me the finishing touch. The risk was tqo 
 great ! 
 
 " Overboard ! overboard ! " I shouted to Enphadde, who was support- 
 ing the fainting form of his sister. " Jump overboard. I '11 follow you — 
 quick! " 
 
 I made an effort to tear myself from Monte's grasp, but he was far 
 from being deficient in personal strength, and with one hand in my long 
 hair, and the other on my throat, he clung to me with the tenacious 
 clutch of a tiger. 
 
 " Hands off ! You won't ? go too, then ! " and, clasping him With 
 
 both arms, I raised him clear from the deck and dashed over the low 
 quarter rail, head first into the water, just as half a dozen hands were ex- 
 tended to grasp my person. 
 
 Down, down into the depths of ocean, many feet, we sank ere our 
 tense muscles relaxed, in the deadly fierceness of that close embrace. We 
 talk of the dogged courage — the sullen persistence — the unyielding game 
 of the Anglo-Saxon character — there is as much of the same quality in 
 the Celtiberian blood. If the Englishman typifies himself in his own 
 bull-dog, the Spaniard's " totem " may, with equal justice, be found in 
 the indomitable mastiff of the Sierra de Cuenca. 
 
 Upon coming to the surface, the first objects of interest were Kaloo- 
 lah and Enphadde at a few feet distance, supporting themselves with ease 
 amid the dancing foam of the ship's wake. The Bonito was twenty rods 
 off, and flying from us at the rate of ten knots an hour. It was no time 
 for her to heave to, with a fleet enemy not more than two miles astern. 
 The brig was heading directly down upon us. She could hardly pass 
 without seeing us, but it was an object to let her know our situation in 
 good time. For this purpose I held Enphadde as high out of the water 
 as possible, while he waved around his head a straw hat which luckily had 
 accompanied him overboard. Satisfied that Monte could swim, I gave 
 myself no further trouble about him. 
 
 Down came the stately brig, her broad wings stretching far on either 
 side over the glancing water, and towering in graceful symmetry to the 
 sky. Nearer and yet nearer, until the smallest rope could be distinguished, 
 as well as the sparkhng " bone in her teeth," as the sailors sometimes call 
 the foam round a ship's bows. Nearer and yet nearer— still no sign of 
 any preparation for picking us up. Can it be possible that she will pass 
 us unnoticed ? No ! Hurrah ! hurrah !— there go the studding-sails. 
 
138 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 simultaneously alow and aloft ! the fore course rises. " Port ! port your 
 helm ! " cries a clear voice. " Royal and top-gallant halliards ! Starboard 
 fore-brace — larboard main-brace ! haul out the try-sail ! " 
 
 Gracefully she sweeps round to the wind, and heaves to with her fore- 
 top-sail aback. Men in the larboard chains stand ready as she sags down 
 upon us. A few strokes of the arm and we are alongside. The ropes 
 are thrown — grasped — and we mount the bulwarks ! We stand safe and 
 sound upon the snow-white decks of the British brig ! 
 
 " Fill away, my hearties ! brail up the try-sail — shiver the main and 
 mizzen — brace round the fore-yard — down with your fore-course — right 
 your helm and away, away again, after yonder ' hell afloat.' If you can't 
 close with her, you can, at least, show your good will. So mind your 
 helm, my fine fellow, and keep your jib-boom end-on to her stern-post ! " 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Boarding the Brig — Reception by the Captain— Monte in Irons— The D I's Nephew— The 
 
 Doctor a Philologist — Quarter-Deck Wit — Politeness of the Officers — Kaloolah's Recovery 
 — Captain Halsey. 
 
 (ATHER an unceremonious way of boarding your ship, gen- 
 tlemen," said I, bowing to a group of ofificers, " but I hope 
 you '11 pardon us ; necessity can't always stop to ask leave." 
 " No excuses — you are heartily welcome," replied a short, 
 portly middle-aged man with a rubicund but good-natured face. " But I 
 
 should like to know who the d 1 you are, where you come from, and 
 
 what you come for." 
 
 " My name, sir, is Romer — passenger on board of an American vessel, 
 I was wrecked at sea, and picked up by a slaver : These two are Africans, 
 brother and sister, and that pleasant-looking chap yonder is first ofificer of 
 the ship ahead. We left her about fifteen minutes since, and we have 
 come on board you simply because we could n't help it." 
 
 Several questions were propounded by the officer, who proved to be 
 the commander of the brig, to which I replied in a few words, succinctly 
 detailing the most important circumstances of our adventure. As I pro- 
 ceeded, his quarter-deckish air and tone changed to a decided expression 
 of frank and sailor-like affability. Putting out his hand, he exclaimed : 
 " Well, sir, I 'm glad to see you. Come, walk below, we '11 see if we 
 can't find some dry clothes for you and your proteges. I 've got an old 
 dressing gown that will just fit Mademoiselle Kaloolah, especially about 
 the wais):." The other ofificers were equally hberal in their expressions of 
 interest and offers of service, and it was no little satisfaction to find that 
 getting on board of her majesty's brig Fly-away, we had got among as 
 pohte and gentlemanly a set of fellows as ever walked a quarter-deck. 
 
 " Mr. Crawford," said the captain, addressing tlie ofificer of the deck, 
 " see that that Spanish rascal has, a dry suit, and then clap him in irons. 
 Put a sentry over him, for when the story of the twenty-five blind men 
 gets forward the crew may not treat him very politely." 
 
 139 
 
140 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Why not run him up to the yard-arm at once?" replied Mr. Craw- 
 ford. 
 
 " I wish I could," said the captain ; " if you '11 find law for it, I 'm sure 
 I '11 find rope." 
 
 " Hanging is too good for him. I should like to cut his liver out 
 with the double cats," muttered Mr. Crawford, as he turned away to 
 his duty. 
 
 Instinctively Monte had drawn himself forward and away from the 
 quarter-deck. He knew that his case was one that would excite for him 
 but little sympathy ; in fact, that nothing but a want of jurisdiction saved 
 him from instant and condign punishment. The only thing that could be 
 done to him, was to put him in irons, which, as a kind of compromise to 
 the public opinion of the forecastle, was essential to his comfort and per- 
 haps to his safety. He had no fear, therefore, as to the ultimate result; 
 but, in the meantime, he had to endure the pangs of baffled revenge. His 
 countenance betrayed the emotions of his fiendish heart, the scowl of un- 
 dying hate, the sullen glare of settled malice, the lines of desperate resolve 
 for evil drove from his truculent visage the last remnant of a humanizing 
 expression. 
 
 In the cabin we found the breakfast-table waiting for the captain to 
 finish his meal ; and, on changing our clothes, we were politely invited to 
 take a seat at it ; an invitation which our salt-water bath had disposed us 
 with good appetites to accept. Enphadde and myself did full justice to 
 the good sea fare, but Kaloolah was still suffering from the blow ; and 
 to the polite persuasions of the captain could only return a faint smile 
 of denial. 
 
 " Poor thing! " said Captain Halsey ; " you say she 's a princess. Well, 
 I don't doubt it. She looks like one. My old velvet becomes her admira- 
 bly. What magnificent eyes ! — pity she 's got those spots on her face. 
 She does n't understand English ? " he continued, observing a blush mant- 
 ling her face. 
 
 "A little," I replied, "just enough to know that you are talking 
 about her." 
 
 "Ah, clever too as well as handsome ; but I suppose you have, taken 
 particular pains in her instruction, notwithstanding her spotted skin." 
 
 " No, I have been rather anxious to learn her language than to teach 
 her English; and as to the spots that you regret so much, they are only 
 temporary ; I made them myself with caustic. As we were going among 
 rather a lawless set, I thought it -would be wise to counteract as far as 
 possible the force of her personal attractions." 
 
KALOOLAH. 141 
 
 " Good ! A capital idea ! A kind of quarantine flag, ha ! painted 
 ports to frighten off the pirates! I took them for indications of the black 
 blood ; but, if these were made with caustic, she must be of a pure white 
 •breed.' I have seen a number of Africans that were called white, but they 
 always had some of the negro characteristics of form or feature. How- 
 ever, I have never had any doubts that there were white nations far in 
 the interior. I have heard many negroes assert the fact, and the remove 
 between some of the Fellatah tribes and a white race is not so great as 
 between them and a full-blooded black." 
 
 " I agree with you," said the surgeon, who had just entered the cabin. 
 " What can be more probable than that in the vast central regions of 
 Africa, about which we know literally nothing, there should be tribes as 
 purely white as the Tuarics of the Sahara, or the Shillocs and Berbers of 
 the Atlas — descendants perhaps of the old Gaetulians or Garimantes. I 
 have always thought so, and I 'm glad now to see it proved. There is no 
 negro blood in these two." 
 
 " If there is," replied the captain, " it must have been pretty well 
 diluted. By George ! they are a good-looking couple. Give the young 
 fellow a full-dress fit, and a small black mustache, and what a swell he 
 could cut in a London drawing-room. He looks very much like some of 
 those handsome Armenians you see up the Levant, but he 's got more 
 ' eye ' than an Armenian ever had." 
 
 " What are their names ? " demanded the doctor. 
 
 " Kaloolah and Enphadde — Enphadde ban Shounsi," I repHed ; " and 
 their country they call Framazugda." 
 
 " Framazugda! " exclaimed the doctor, " that is curious — I should n't 
 wonder ! — it must be so — it is." 
 
 " What ? " demanded Captain Halsey. 
 
 " Why, almost proof positive of the truth of my suggestion about the 
 Garimantes and Gaetulians. You see many of the tribes of Barbary and the 
 Sahara, who are the undoubted aboriginal inhabitants, are known by the 
 name of Amazergs. Now, what can be more clear than the derivation of 
 Framazugda from the word Amazerg. The prefix fr, or fra, perhaps 
 means from, and the afifix dah perhaps means people or nation — nation 
 derived from the Amazergs ; or perhaps the dah may mean from, and the 
 fra may mean people ; or perhaps the fra and the dah may both 
 mean " 
 
 " Bravo, doctor! " interrupted the captain, " you extract an etymology 
 as dexterously as if it were a cataract, or an old double tooth. Get hold 
 of the roots ! eh ! By George, I had no idea that you were so expert at 
 reducing compound philological dislocations." 
 
142 KALOOLAH. 
 
 A midshipman entered with a message from Mr. Crawford that the 
 ship continued to gain upon the brig. 
 
 " I suppose so," said the captain, " she 's too fast for us. Tell Mr. 
 Crawford that we '11 hold on for an hour longer, to make assurance doubly 
 sure, and then we 'II haul our wind, and stand on our old course." 
 ' And where may that take us to? " I inquired. 
 
 " To Sierra Leone ! back again to Africa. How do you like that, my 
 princess ? " 
 
 I interpreted the question. 
 
 "Can we reach the Quorra from thence?" demanded Enphadde. 
 
 " Why, yes, but it will be rather a long and hard journey ; especially 
 for your sister." 
 
 " No matter," said Enphadde ; " there are no dangers or hardships 
 that I will not dare." 
 
 " And none that I would not share with you," interposed Kaloolah ; 
 " oh, how willingly I would die, for even a distant sight of the towers of 
 Kiloam ! " 
 
 "And is there nothing, or nobody," inquired the captain, glancing at 
 me, " that you care for out of Framazugda ? " 
 
 " Jon'than, he go wid us," said Kaloolah, in English, when I had ex- 
 plained the captain's question, the meaning of which she had already 
 comprehended. " Jon'than hab no fadder, no modder, no brodder, no 
 sister — he will get all — very much — in Framazugda." 
 
 "And a wife, too, I suppose, if he wants one ? " said the doctor, with 
 a meaning look. 
 
 A deep blush crimsoned Kaloolah's cheek. " Come, come, doctor," 
 interposed the captain, " you are probing the matter too closely. Rec- 
 ollect that a young, unsophisticated female heart is rather more tender 
 than a tough deltoid or gluteus. There is some difference between a 
 puncture from one of Cupid's darts and a gun-shot wound." 
 
 " You 're right," returned the doctor, " there is a difference ; one is 
 always curable, the other is not." 
 
 "Ah, doctor, you 're getting to be perfectly incorrigible! you talk 
 treason, sir, rank treason. We shall have to arraign you before the judges 
 of Cupidom, and have you bound over to court." 
 
 "I 'm sure I should forfeit my bail." 
 
 " Well, then, you will be declared an outlaw, and be doomed to wan- 
 der round the world, a confirmed old bachelor." 
 
 " Well, there are worse batches than a bach&\ox. What do you say to 
 a batch of squalling children ? " 
 
KALOOLAH. 143 
 
 " Horrible ! " exclaimed the captain ; " the most horrible attempt at a 
 pun I 've heard this long time. Doctor, you deserve a round dozen." 
 
 " Of children ? " said the doctor, opening the cabin door. 
 
 " No, of the cats ; or rather, you ought to be kept at the mast-head, on 
 the look-out for squalls. You seem to have as good a scent for them as 
 you have for the roots. Don't forget \he. fra and the dah," shouted the 
 captain, as the doctor ascended the stairs. 
 
 This colloquial smartness was, of course, wholly lost upon my com- 
 panions ; but the captain's good-natured face, jolly tones, and hearty 
 laugh, had none the less an inspiriting effect. Kaloolah' and Enphadde 
 watched him with a pleased and confiding expression, which, to judge 
 from physiognomical indications, was fully deserved. 
 
 "And now," said the captain, putting his hand familiarly on my shoul- 
 der, "we must see about your sleeping arrangements. I 've one spare 
 state-room here, which will just do for the princess ; and a hammock for 
 you can be swung in the open cabin ; it can be put up at night, and taken 
 down in the morning, so as not to be at all in our way. As for his royal 
 highness, we '11 find a hammock for him in the steerage. You '11 all three 
 mess at my table." 
 
 I commenced expressing my sense of his kindness and politeness, but 
 was cut short with a rough " Come, come, none of that — let us take a look 
 on deck," and together we ascended to the open air. 
 
 The brig had been hauled by the wind, and was steering nearly north- 
 east. The ship was almost out of sight — her snow-white top-sails dotting 
 the horizon, and gleaming as gaily in the sunshine as if they were not 
 wafting a freight of misery, and sin. Press on, thou fearfully laden bark ! 
 the ocean groaneth not beneath thy weight^ — the skies frown not on thy 
 bloody decks — the breeze not urigently distends thy well-trimmed sails, 
 but the eye of Almighty justice is upon thee! Press on ! 
 
 A week of pleasant weather and pleasant company ! Time flew — so 
 rapidly, that seemingly without an interval his glittering pinions reflec- 
 ted the golden flood of morning, the deep azure of noon, the glory of 
 sunset, and the sable of night ! 
 
 Kaloolah had ei)tirely recovered from the effects of the blow, and to- 
 gether we passed many pleasant hours, in walking the deck and discours- 
 ing of the wonders of the deep, or of the curious and magnificent social, 
 natural, or artificial features of her distant home. In these conversations 
 the officers of the brig often took part, making the minutest inquiries, 
 and listening, with marks of the strongest interest to her artless descrip- 
 tions of strange scenes, and to her and her brother's details of a novel and 
 
144 KALOOLAH. 
 
 peculiar civilization. It was especially gratifying to perceive the respect 
 which both she and her brother excited, exhibiting itself in a degree of 
 kind and courteous deference, in which not even my jealous and watchful 
 anxiety could find the slightest ground of reproach. Captain Halsey was 
 uniformly afTable and polite, and any one who knows anything of a man- 
 of-war, knows what influence the character of the commander has upon 
 his subordinates. It might, perhaps, be expected that I should be more 
 particular in my description of him ; that I should attempt a portrait of 
 his person, and draw more minutely the peculiarities of his manner and 
 his mind ; that I should undertake to individualize him, like a character 
 in a novel, but delicacy forbids. He is probably still alive (at least I 
 hope so, and a post -captain too), and I know not how he would like to 
 have himself paraded in print ; sufficient is it to say, that he was a gentle- 
 man and a sailor. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Sierra Leone — Situation of Freetown — Exuberant Vegetation — Malaria — Its Cause and Es- 
 sence — An Original Suggestion — The Population of Freetown — Politeness of the Whites 
 — Anxious Consultations — Erphadde's Plans — A KooUah Guide — Jonathan's Resolutions 
 —Takes Passage for Liverpool— A Scene with Kaloolah— The Parcse at Work. 
 
 JOWHERE in the world can be found a more admirable site for 
 a city, in all the particulars of a magnificent and picturesque 
 scenery, than on the broad estuary of Sierra Leone. Twenty 
 miles in length, and varying in breadth from ten miles at its 
 entrance, between Leopard's Island, on the north, and Cape Sierra 
 Leone, on the south, to four miles at the Island of Tombo, where it 
 terminates, it presents, on either shore, a variety of natural features, which 
 at once rivets attention and excites a mixed and highly pleasing emotion 
 of the beautiful and the sublime. 
 
 In glowing terms, have travellers described the picturesque and Orien- 
 tal character of the view — as rising from the water's edge, the town 
 stretches up the surrounding hills, with its white dwellings and prolific 
 gardens ; whilst in the distance, emerging from the high woods, appear 
 the country mansions of the Europeans, with their projecting eaves and 
 rows of green jalousies enclosing the shady verandas — affording the lux- 
 ury of a mid-day walk in the open air. How is it possible for gloomy 
 forebodings of disease and death to thrust themselves upon a stranger, 
 who, for the first time, looks upon this enchanting s< ene — upon the glow- 
 ing bosom of the estuary, scarcely rippled by th?. light airs and gentle 
 tides of these latitudes, the quiet Bullom shore, the bold sweep of that 
 amphitheatre of mountains, gaping with enormous ravines and dark val- 
 leys, and clothed with never-fading forests ! Yet in this very excess of 
 beauty germinates the seeds of the pestilence. So bountiful is nature, 
 that the first showers of the wet season convert even the public ways into 
 fields, and cover them with a rich mantk of herbage. From the decom- 
 position of this exuberant vegetation is supposed to arise the deleterious 
 miasma, so powerful in its influence upon the unacclimated constitution 
 of the European visitor. If such is the case, what is its nature or essence ? 
 
 145 
 
146 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Is it a gas ? The theory has many and able advocates, but if true, chem- 
 ical analysis ought to be able to detect it. Is it an effluvia or odor? Pos- 
 sibly, but how is it that in many cases it produces no effect upon the 
 sense of smell? Is it animalcular? The speculation is as old as the 
 times of Lucretius and Columella, and it certainly accords the best with 
 what we know of the laws by which malaria is governed. But may it 
 not be vegetable in its composition, as well as in its origin, and consist of 
 the germs of the vast variety of fungi ! These germs, imperceptible to 
 the sense, and inappreciable by the most delicate analysis, are known to 
 pervade the air in the greatest abundance. Perhaps their quantity may 
 regulate the intensity, and their specific character the form of disease. 
 This suggestion is, as far as I know, original, and seems to me as plaus- 
 ible as either of the others. It may pass for what it is worth.* 
 
 The greater portion of the population of Freetown consists of liber- 
 ated Africans, who have been rescued from Spanish and Portuguese 
 slavers. The white residents are few in number — scarcely a hundred — • 
 most of them the officials of the different colonial departments, such as 
 the legislative council, the vice-admiralty court, and the mixed commis- 
 sion for the adjudication of captured slave-ships. 
 
 From a number of these gentlemen I received treatment that was but 
 a continuation of the politeness and kindness of the officers of the brig, 
 and my companions came in for their share of attention. Offers of ser- 
 vice, advice, with invitations to breakfasts, dinners, and suppers were 
 poured upon us. A bill upon a Liverpool house for one hundred and 
 fifty pounds, which I luckily happened to have upon my person when 
 leaving the slaver, furnished a highly satisfactory test of the sincerity of 
 these proffers. The bill was readily cashed at the commissariat depart- 
 ment. 
 
 But it is not my intention to detain the reader with all the little de- 
 tails of my short sojourn in Sierra Leone, and I must hurry on to my 
 departure, touching, by the way, only upon one event — my separation 
 from Kaloolah and Enphadde. 
 
 Long and anxious were the consultations before it was finally settled 
 that we should part — I to return to home and friends in the far West ; 
 Enphadde and his sister to seek, amid the dangers and difficulties of African 
 
 * It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that the writer could not, by any possibility, have 
 heard of the speculations of Professor Mitchell upon the same subject. It does not, of course, 
 diminish the credit due the Professor, for his recent able and conclusive exposition and develop- 
 ment of this theory of malaria, that the idea should have occurred several years since to Mr. 
 Homer, or that it should have been made the occasional subject of conversation and investiga- 
 tion by the editor for ten years past. — Note by the Editor. 
 
KALOOLAH. 147 
 
 barbarism, their native country in the East. The prospect for them, how- 
 ever, wore not so gloomy an aspect as might at first be supposed. Enphadde, 
 as I have said, seemed to have a very definite idea of the relative situation 
 of the Quorrah and Framazugda, and he was confident that if he could 
 reach the banks of that river in the kingdom of Bambara, of which country 
 he had heard, he could make his way through Houssa to the great city of 
 Sackatoo, from thence to Mandarra, where a short space of three or four 
 hundred miles farther, in a southeasterly direction, would bring him to 
 the confines of his own country. The journey was long, and filled with 
 dangers, but it was some encouragement to reflect that Denman, Clapper- 
 ton, Lang, etc., had found comparatively but little difficulty when once in 
 the interior, and that chiefly arising from the jealousy of the white man, 
 or the unfavorable influence of the climate upon the European constitution. 
 To neither of these would Enphadde be exposed, especially if, as he pro- 
 posed, he should darken his and his sister's skin with the juice of some of 
 the various coloring nuts always at hand. 
 
 Closely we pored over the map of Africa, until Enphadde had made 
 himself master of all the geographical information it could afford. Much 
 useful knowledge was also acquired by repeated conferences with some 
 intelligent Mandingo traders. A kaffila of these people was expected to 
 start in a short time for Bambara, and with them it was proposed that 
 Enphadde should make the first and most dangerous part of his journe}' 
 through the country of the Timmanees. It was considered essential that 
 he should assume the character of a merchant, and for this purpose a stock 
 of goods was necessary. These, thanks to my bill of exchange, were easily 
 obtained. The assortment was principally composed of beads, rings, small 
 mirrors, coral, paper, knives, linen, scarlet cloth, gold lace, and a variety of 
 small wares. As an assistant in the business of the journey, we selected 
 a native of Koollah, who, about a year before, had been brought into port 
 in a slave-ship. The fellow had acquired a high character for honesty and 
 industry, and, like many other liberated slaves, was accumulating money; 
 but the desire of revisiting his distant home was too strong for him to 
 withstand the temptation of company and protection the whole distance. 
 He acceded, with apparent delight, to Enphadde's proposal, and in all his 
 actions and words evinced so much openness and candor, that I felt satis- 
 fied that my companions had made in him an important acquisition. 
 
 Appropriate and comfortable clothing was purchased for them all, and 
 to Enphadde's accoutrements I added a stout cutlass, a pair of double- 
 barrelled pistols, and a portable compass. To Kaloolah's charge was 
 entrusted a small spy-glass and a compact and convenient form of tinder- 
 
148 KALOOLAH. 
 
 box. The first, perhaps, might be useful in discovering danger in time lo 
 avoid it — the second would always secure a means of protection against 
 the dangerous inhabitants of the forest. To the Koollah I made a present 
 of a musket, with which he promised to perform wonders in the way of 
 guarding Kaloolah from enemies of every kind. Nothing that I could 
 think of, likely to facilitate their journey or insure their safety, was 
 neglected. The whole plan of the expedition was thoroughly digested, 
 and every conceivable combination of circumstances considered and, as far 
 as possible, provided for. My directions, reiterated again and again to 
 Enphadde, were that, as far as possible, he should conform to the manners 
 and customs of the countries he had to pass ; that Kaloolah should travel 
 with her face concealed as closely as could be done without exciting 
 curiosity and suspicion ; that he himself should adhere strictly to the 
 character of a merchant; and that while, on the one hand, he should not 
 be too chary of his presents to the ofificials of the different countries on 
 his route — on the other hand, he should avoid any thing like a careless 
 prodigality, or an appearance of inattention to his mercantile interests. 
 Enphadde was quick, shrewd, and bold, and I felt confident that he would 
 act up strictly to my numerous suggestions; and that in any extraordinary 
 cases he would find the necessary resources in his own wit and courage. 
 Had he been unencumbered with his sister, I should hardly have felt a 
 doubt of the successful termination of his journey. As it was, I had strong 
 hopes that their safe return would, erelong, cause the hills of Kiloam to 
 resound with the songs of joy and rejoicing. 
 
 And why did not I accompany them ? That is precisely the question 
 that was so often asked by Kaloolah. And a difficult question it was to 
 answer — at least to her satisfaction — in fact, I could hardly answer it to 
 my own. On the one hand was the strong temptation to enter upon the 
 exploration of the mysterious regions of Central Africa — the curiosity to 
 see and examine the productions, the scenery, and the manners and cus- 
 toms of the country of which my companions were the representatives. 
 The interest, even affection, which they had excited ; and, added to all, 
 the natural promptings of an adventurous disposition. On the other 
 hand was an almost irresistible longing to revisit once more the scenes of 
 my youth. An indefinite, and therefore exaggerated, idea of the difficul- 
 ties and dangers of the adventure — a little of that inexplainable but 
 exceedingly natural and common irresolution so often felt, especially by 
 the inexperienced, at the threshold of any important undertaking ; and a 
 doubt as to the propriety of continuing my relations to Kaloolah, which 
 it was beginning to be quite evident were fraught with trouble to her, if 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 149 
 
 not to myself. But more than all in determining my course was the dis- 
 couraging influence of ill health. The remnants of the Congo fever still 
 hung about me, inducing a degree of mental and corporeal lassitude, and 
 repressing that elasticity of spirit which, in full health, would have con- 
 verted dangers into pleasures, and obstacles into arguments for pushing 
 on. These sensations of depression and weakness grew daily stronger 
 and stronger in the bright but pestilent air of Sierra Leone. I longed to 
 escape to a colder and more congenial climate ; and, as it happened, a 
 vessel for Liverpool was lying in port, almost ready to sail. Should I 
 forego the opportunity, it would be some time before another would 
 occur. Suddenly summoning resolution, I sought the captain, and made 
 an agreement with him for the passage. 
 
 The pallor of death overspread the features of Kaloolah when I an- 
 nounced to her that I had made arrangements to sail in the next ship. 
 She uttered no sound — not a sigh — not a tear ; but the fixed eye, the 
 quivering lip, the bloodless cheek, and the shrunken rigidity of her whole 
 frame indicated the intense emotion within. For a moment she stood 
 thus, erect, and the next the spasm passing, my outstretched arm was 
 hardly in time to save her from falling to the ground. Gently laying her 
 upon the green sward at the foot of a waving palm, I knelt by her side. 
 She did not faint — I was in hopes that she would. Shocked and fright- 
 ened, I knew not what to say or do. I screamed to Enphadde, but he 
 was far down the hill-side. I shouted to some negro women for water, 
 but they paid no attention. I rubbed her hands, raised her head, and 
 turned her face to the cool sea breeze that came up from the broad 
 estuary below, and at last did what was the very best thing to do — I 
 raised her in my arms, pressed her to my heart, and kissed her pallid 
 lips. 
 
 For a few minutes she struggled with the tide of feeling that had 
 been so suddenly thrown back upon her heart. She grew in years as I 
 gazed. When I first saw her, she was a child — an artless, fascinating 
 child — and now ! It seemed as if at one bound she had reached the 
 verge of womanhood. 
 
 She bent forward her head, covered her face with her hands, and 
 burst into a passionate flood of tears. I felt reheved. Her tears were to 
 me like the rain-drops to the mariner in a hurricane — the presage of a 
 calm. " 'T is well," thought I, and I drew my breath more freely ; " 't is 
 well the heavy night dews, dropping from the bended' flower, relieve it 
 from the weight that endangers the stem." 
 
 She raised her head. " Kaloolah ! " said L 
 
ISO KALOOLAH. 
 
 She sprang into my arms, and buried her face in my bosom. 
 
 " Kaloolah, you love me ! " 
 
 " As I love nought else in this world," she replied. 
 
 " And I — I, Kaloolah ! " — I was about to add some protestation of 
 affection, but would my feelings towards her warrant it ? — were they 
 those of strong abiding love ? Were they other than fraternal ? Other 
 than a sympathy for her misfortunes, an admiration of her simplicity — 
 her innocence ? I knew not ; but even if they were, would it be right to 
 express them ? I thought of my mother, and fancied that I could 
 almost hear her words. My son ! my son ! amid the sighs of the gentle 
 sea-breeze that swept through the rustling palm-tops. 
 
 " And Enphadde ? " said I. 
 
 " Will journey more easily without me — he will reach home in safety, 
 and gladden the eyes that now weep for him. 
 
 " And you, Kaloolah ? " 
 
 " And I — I — ," passionately exclaimed Kaloolah, " am your slave — I 
 follow you — where you go I will go — your country shall be my country." 
 
 " Impossible ! Kaloolah. Enphadde will never go and leave you 
 behind. Without you, how would he dare meet the eyes of that white- 
 haired old man who sits mourning for his youngest child, his best be- 
 loved daughter in the halls of Kiloam. Think of your cousins, Kaloolah. 
 Think of the playmates, and friends, and servants who all loved you so 
 much. Think of the hall of crj'stal, the court of the fountains, and the 
 broad, shady gallery that looks down upon the joyous and magnificent 
 city. Think of the pleasant walks in the royal gardens upon the banks 
 of the Wollo. Think of your favorites, the flowers, the birds, the dia- 
 mond fish, and Gogo, your golden-haired ape, who would mind no one 
 but you, and who was so graceful and so sensible. Think of all the 
 beautiful things that you have so often talked with me about. You can- 
 not leave them all. You will return to them. Your sisters, Kaloolah, 
 are sad ; your presence will change their tears into smiles. The streets of 
 Kiloam are in gloom, for there is grief in the palace of Selha Shounsi, 
 the father of his people ; your return will fill them with the voices of 
 gladness. The hall of crystal will again glitter in the light of the festival 
 — the water will again sparkle and play in the court of the fountains — 
 the drooping flowers will raise their bended headS' — your silent pets, the 
 birds, will resume their songs — the diamond fish will flash their silver 
 light from the lowest depth of their marble pools ; and Gogo — sensible 
 Gogo — will cease to pine when he gambols once more in the footsteps of 
 his mistress." 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 151 
 
 As I spoke, Kaloolah withdrew herself from my arms. Calmly she 
 drew up her slight and graceful figure to its full height, while a sparkle 
 of feminine pride beamed from her eye. 
 
 " Enough," she said. " I understand you. You love me not. You 
 would be burdened with me no longer. I forgot that I was to you but a 
 useless slave. I fancied that I was a princess of the long line of Shounsi 
 — forgive my foolishness " 
 
 " Kaloolah ! " said I, reproachfully, taking her hand. 
 
 Her countenance fell, she grasped my hand in both of hers, and 
 tears again started to her eyes. 
 
 
 ^' She sprang hito my arms, and buried her face in my bosom*' 
 
 " Forgive me," she sobbed, " you have been too kind to me. I obey 
 you — I go with Enphadde, but — but — those pleasant scenes you have 
 spoken of, Jon'than ' 
 
 " What of them ? " I demanded. 
 
 " I shall never see them ! " 
 
 " Nay, nay, Kaloolah, think not so. Enphadde feels confident of re- 
 visiting them." 
 
 " He may— he will, but unless in company with you, Jon'than, I shall 
 never see them. They are here, Jon'than, and here," pointing her hand 
 to her head and heart ; " but we look upon the realities together, or I 
 shall never see them." 
 
152 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " A foolish fancy, Kaloolah. Why should you think so? " 
 
 " I know not why, but so it is. Yet mention it not to Enphadde — 
 I would not discourage him in the attempt." 
 
 " Perhaps you will tell a different story when I visit you a year or two 
 hence in Framazugda," said I. 
 
 " How ! What mean you?" exclaimed Kaloolah. 
 
 " That, perhaps, I will yet undertake to visit your country. It is pos- 
 sible, I will even say probable ; but it would only be in hopes of finding 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, Jon'than, if that could be so ! but I cannot hope it." 
 
 " It shall be so — I feel that such will be my destiny — be assured that 
 I shall make no resistance to the march of fate." As I spoke the reso- 
 lution, full-formed, sprang into life. I felt its invigorating influence. Why 
 should I not give Kaloolah the full benefit of it. 
 
 " I will certainly make the attempt to reach Framazugda," said I, 
 energetically. 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Ere the almond-trees have three times strown, with their silver 
 leaves, the garden walks on the Wollo." 
 
 " You promise?" 
 
 "No circumstances that I can control shall prevent me from being 
 there. I promise." 
 
 "Oh, Enphadde! " exclaimed Kaloolah, throwing herself joyfully into 
 the arms of her brother, who was advancing to join us. " Jon'than will 
 come to us. We shall see him again — he has promised to join us erelong 
 in Framazugda." 
 
 " God grant it," replied Enphadde. " No stranger could bring such 
 light and joy to thecourt of Selha Shounsi." 
 
 We seated ourselves upon the sloping green sward, and for an hour 
 discussed the pleasant and newly opened prospect of a future meeting. 
 Uncontrolled by reason, hope revelled wild and free, indulging in the 
 most delightful vagaries. An event really so improbable seemed to grow 
 more and more simple and feasible the longer we considered it. Kaloolah, 
 so far from dreading now the journey, was anxious to set out at once that 
 she might be at home to receive me. 
 
 Unfortunately, the kaflila of Mandingos would not be ready to start 
 for two or three weeks, whereas, in a day or two at most the ship in which 
 I was going would sail. This would be a lonely interval of time for 
 them ; but there was some encouragement in the reflection that it was 
 short, and would soon pass. 
 
KALOOLAH. 153 
 
 Again and again had I to repeat tlie promise of coming to Framazugda. 
 Kaioolah dwelt upon it every hour of the three days that elapsed before 
 my departure, and at the last moment she exacted its solemn renewal. 
 
 " I shall watch the fall of the almond's silver leaves," were her last 
 words ; " the fourth time, and you come not, they fall on my grave. 
 Farewell ! " 
 
 " Farewell, Kaioolah ! " 
 
 Gracious heaven ! I like not, even now, to think of the horrible chok- 
 ing sensation with which those words were pronounced. Not ten miles 
 from land, and I would have given the world to have returned and linked 
 my fate indissolubly with hers. But it could not be, and well it could 
 not. Mysterious agencies were weaving the threads of destiny far more 
 skilfully than we could have done had we had complete control of warp 
 and woof. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 TKe Duke of Wellington — Jack Thompson — The Ship's Reckoning — A New Rule in Naviga- 
 tion — The Captain's Notion of I.unars — A Curious Phenomenon — Breakers on the Weather- 
 Bow — Missing Stays — Wearing Ship — The Ship Ashore — Getting out the Boat — An Anxious 
 Consultation — Jonathan's Plan — Preparations for Landing. 
 
 'UR ship was old, leaky, a dull sailor, and heavily laden — quali- 
 ties that illy accorded with the pretensions of her high-sounding 
 name — the Duke of Wellington. The crew consisted of eight 
 men and two boys, and a more lubberly set, with the exception 
 of one fine white-headed old seaman, named Jack Thompson, were never 
 berthed in a forecastle. Bad as they were, however, it m'jst be said in 
 their favor that they were fully worthy of their ofificers. 
 
 The latitude of Cape Verde was reached on the eighth day after leav- 
 ing Freetown, but our course had been so far to the west that we did not 
 get sight of the cape. In fact, according to the calculations of the cap- 
 tain, we had been compelled to give it altogether too wide a berth, and 
 he consequently gave orders to haul the ship's head more towards the 
 African shore, as soon as the wind permitted. It was evident that, miss- 
 ing a sight of the cape, he was all abroad as to his longitude, and well he 
 might be, for he had nothing but a very loose, inaccurate dead-reckoning 
 to depend upon. During his own watch, the log was never thrown — a 
 drunken guess at the ship's way serving instead — and in the mate's watch, 
 the reckoning was kept \i'ith hardly more accuracy. 
 
 One evening, a few days after our departure, the ship was standing 
 westerly, with the wind from the north, and the mate was heaving the 
 log, when, as I came upon deck, I heard him say " Seven knots and a 
 half," and immediately he proceeded , to note it down upon the log-slate. 
 I looked aloft and around — the wind was light, the ship close-hauled, and 
 apparently moving very sluggishly through the water. "Seven knots 
 and a half !" I exclaimed. " It is impossible that she can be going so 
 fast." 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir," replied the old sailor whom I have mentioned. " She 
 is going that — here — " and he put his finger to his eye, and nodded his 
 
 154 
 
KALOOLAH. 155 
 
 head towards the mate, who had stretched himself out for a doze upon 
 the hen-coop. " Some craft sail very fast, sir, with three sheets in tJie 
 wind. What they don't go ahead is made up in the spinning round." 
 
 " Let us try a cast of the log," said I ; and calling one of the boys to 
 relieve him at the wheel, the old man held- the reel for me. The marks 
 upon the line indicated a rate of about four miles and a half. 
 
 " Not so much out of the way as I thought," said the old man. " Only 
 three miles ! that 's nothing to some of the captain's guesses. I should n't 
 be at all surprised to see the skipper put her any time dead to windward 
 at the rate of twenty miles an hour. According to the rule of mathe- 
 matics that he uses sometimes, he could do it just as easy as he could say 
 ' How do you do ? ' to the bottom of an empty rum bottle." 
 
 " And what rule may that be ? " I inquired. 
 
 "A rule in compound addition and multiplication, sir. It 's simple 
 enough, but 'taint every one who can work it like he can. He adds his 
 own particular lee-way to the lee-way of this lubberly old tub ; throws in 
 her way through the water, and multiplies the sum by the number of 
 horns he took before breakfast. The product is the number of knots that 
 we've cheated the wind out of." 
 
 "And by such a rule, how long will it be before we reach Liverpool?" 
 
 " The Lord knows, sir. If the skipper has many sober fits we may- 
 box about the ocean a long time ; but, if by good luck, he should keep 
 himself dead drunk the whole voyage, as he did coming out, we shall 
 have a chance to hit our port and float in." 
 
 Previous to this conversation I had paid but little attention to the' 
 ship's reckoning, but from this time it began to be a subject of much in- 
 terest. Its manifest inaccuracy could not but excite some little anxiety, 
 which was not diminished by being shared with my new friend, Jack 
 Thompson. With the captain, any kind of conversation in relation to it 
 was perfectly impracticable. " He was satisfied as to the ship's position " ; 
 " could attend to his own business " ; " did n't want the advice of any 
 one." And when I proposed to adjust his quadrant, swore that adjust- 
 ment was all fudge, and that he could take the sun near enough for his 
 purposes without any such nonsense. 
 
 For several days the ship had been heading to the northeast. Our 
 latitude by observation was about 20° N. and our distance from the Afri- 
 can coast, according to the captain's computation, a little over two 
 hundred miles. I grew more and more uneasy. My mind was constantly 
 haunted by vague ideas of the dangerous rocks and shoals, and the strong 
 and irregular currents by which so many ships had been swept to destruc- 
 
iS6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tion ; and of the cruel fate of their crews — hurried into hopeless captivity 
 among the Arabs of the desert. My fears compelled me to speak once 
 more to the captain. 
 
 " Blast my eyes ! " he exclaimed, " do you take me for a fool ? do you 
 think that I don't know all about the Arguin bank, and the Blanco reef, 
 and the currents, and all that ? You can't tell me any thing, sir, that I 
 don't know." 
 
 " Well — but captain," said I, as deprecatingly as possible, " suppose 
 that we try a lunar observation. There is a good opportunity now, and 
 if you and Mr. Brown will take the altitudes, I will measure the lunar dis- 
 tance, and work the problem." 
 
 " Blast your lunars ! " he replied ; " they are all humbug. I would n't 
 give a rope's end for a bushel of them. I never knew a fellow that med- 
 dled with lunars and chronometers, and such nonsense, who did n't run 
 his ship ashore in the end." 
 
 That evening I remained upon deck until a late hour, listening to 
 some rather tough yarns of my forecastle friend. The mate, as usual, was 
 asleep upon the hen-coop ; the captain was preparing himself for his watch 
 on deck, and a fresh tour of duty at the brandy bottle in his berth below. 
 
 My mind was busy with thoughts of Kaloolah. I thought of her as 
 threading with weary steps the wild forests of Central Africa, — crossing 
 the swollen streams, and ascending the pathless hills, — enduring fatigue, 
 and encountering danger, — exposed to insult, and threatened each instant 
 with slavery and perhaps with death. The unpleasant revery was inter- 
 rupted by a low soughing sound, that appeared to come from directly 
 overhead. I stopped short in my walk, listened intently, and again heard 
 it, but it was so faint as to be scarcely perceptible. 
 
 " Did you hear that? " said I, advancing to the old sailor at the wheel. 
 " Listen ! " 
 
 " lean hear nothing," he replied after a moment's pause, — and neither 
 could I from where we stood, but by stepping a few feet forward, toward 
 the starboard gangway, it came again. Entrusting the wheel to his com- 
 panion, the old man joined me. 
 
 " Well, I declare," he exclaimed, after listening for a few moments, 
 " that is curious. If I did n't know that it is the wind eddying around in 
 the belly of the sail, I would swear that there were breakers aloft, — it 
 sounds just like the surf at a great distance." 
 
 " Perhaps it is the sound of the surf which, striking against the sail, is 
 reflected down to us ; such a thing may be. Had I not better speak to 
 the mate ? " 
 
KALOOLAH. 157 
 
 " No ; there 's no use in that ; it 's nothing but the wind — and, be- 
 sides, you could never make him hear it." 
 
 The sounds came fainter and fainter and less frequent, and at last died 
 away entirely, which the old man explained by the wind's veering a point 
 or so — not a very satisfactory explanation, for, as the vessel luffed in a 
 corresponding degree, the wind must have struck the sail at the same 
 angle ; whereas, were the sounds the reflected notes of a distant surf, they 
 might well cease from the change in the relative position of the plain of 
 the sail. However, there was but little use in expressing my apprehen- 
 sions to either captain or mate. The idea of hearing breakers overhead 
 would have been scouted as an absurdity, or laughed at as a capital joke, 
 according to the captain's spiritual barometer — a dozen glasses above 
 comfortable, it might be " devilish funny " ; a few glasses short of that 
 mark, and it would be a " blasted humbug," and any one who believed it 
 " a lubberly fool." 
 
 I retired to my berth a little before twelve o'clock. At the expiration 
 of the mate's watch he came below and awoke the captain, who turned 
 out in rather a surly humor, to judge from the growling and muttering, 
 at some undefined object of objurgation, that he kept up while putting 
 on his clothes. As he mounted the companion-way the mate turned in, 
 " all standing," or, in other words, with his clothes on ; and, resuming the 
 slumber that had been interrupted merely by the change of the watch, 
 the cabin was all quiet again, save the heavy tramp of the captain's feet 
 overhead, as he lazily paced up and down the deck. 
 
 Suddenly there came a loud shout from the forecastle, and the noise 
 of many feet moving aft. 
 
 " Breakers ! breakers ahead ! breakers on the weather-bow ! " shouted 
 several voices, and all was in an instant hurry and confusion. 
 
 Jumping from my berth, I rushed upon deck, closely followed by the 
 mate. The night was dark, the wind moderate, and blowing about five 
 points on shore. Ahead, and on the larboard bow, a line of light flashed 
 through the gloom, and the roar of the surf rose and fell upon the fitful 
 blasts of the breeze. 
 
 Both officers and men were completely paralyzed by surprise and fear. 
 
 " Wear ship ! " I shouted, seeing that it was apparently clear water 
 on the lee-quarter. But the helm was already jammed hard down, and 
 the ship was coming to the wind. A dozen contradictory orders were 
 issued by captain and mate. The ship, never very active at the ma- 
 noeuvre, now refused to come round, missed stays, fell off, and gathered 
 stern-way. 
 
158 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Wear her round," was now the word, but such confusion prevailed 
 that hardly an order was given or obeyed in proper time. It was with 
 difficulty that I could get the fore-top-mast stay-sail hoisted or the spanker 
 brailed up. No one seemed to have any idea of what to do or how to do 
 it, except Thompson, who jumped forward to obey my orders, reiterating 
 them at the same time in a tone that began, at least, to command atten- 
 tion and obedience — but attention and obedience were now too late. 
 
 The after sails were shivering, and the. head yards were still sharp 
 aback, when a heavy swell, subsiding beneath us, let the ship down upon 
 the rocks with a shock that threatened dislocation to every bone in our 
 bodies. The next wave knocked her stern quite round, and, raising us, 
 threw us with another tremendous thump higher up, with our broadside 
 to the sea. She heeled over towards the shore and settled down so solidly 
 as to be hardly moved by the succeeding waves. With the exception of 
 the main-top-mast, all our spars remained standing, and their weight, and 
 the action of the wind upon the sails, which were still flying, served to 
 hold the ship down in her inclined position. The captain proposed to cut 
 away the masts, which would have lightened the ship and allowed her to roll 
 off seaward, when she would have sunk, or thumped to pieces in a very few 
 minutes. It was only bythe most authoritative interposition, in which I was 
 warmly seconded by Jack, that the execution of the order was prevented. 
 
 All that we could do or say, however, was insufficient to prevent 
 active preparations for going ashore, which could be indistinctly seen, like 
 a black line, at some thirty or forty rods' distance. I represented to the 
 crew the almost certainty of being swamped if they attempted it in the 
 darkness of the night — the little danger there was of the ship's breaking 
 up before daylight, as the tide must be ebbing, and her position becoming 
 more and more stable and secure ; and that, if the boat were lost, our 
 only chance of escape from death or captivity among the merciless in- 
 habitants of the desert, would be destroyed. 
 
 " Get out the boat ! get out the boat ! we '11 go ashore," was echoed 
 by all hands, and foremost by the captain and mate. 
 
 The boat was soon under the lee of the ship, and the men crowded 
 into her, all except my friend Thompson, who indicated his determination 
 of sticking to the ship. We felt alike as to the stupidity and folly of the 
 act, and the worse than stupidity that had brought us into our present 
 situation. The captain was the last who entered the boat. 
 
 " Will you come with us ? " he asked, while holding on in the main- 
 chains. 
 
 "Never!" exclaimed Jack, with indignant energy: "I've followed 
 
K ALGOL AH. 
 
 159 
 
 you far enough ; I 've no disposition to go with you to the place where 
 you are now going." 
 
 " What place is that ? " demanded the captain. 
 
 " To hell — in five minutes — with the blood of a dozen men on 
 your drunken soul ! " 
 
 The captain sank into the boat, which immediately pushed out from 
 the lee of the ship into the raging and roaring waters. 
 
 " There he goes, poor devil," muttered Jack. " It 's no time to bear ill 
 will to any one, but I do wish that his owners at Liverpool were along 
 with him. More than half the blame rests at their door for intrusting the 
 ship to such a stupid sot." 
 
 " You are right, Thompson," said I, " it 's no time to bear ill will or 
 bitter feelings. Let him go ; we 've got enough to do to take care of 
 
 ourselves " 
 
 " Enough to do ! " interrupted Jack. " What can we do, but wait the 
 breaking up of this old tub ? The stern boat is stove, and the long boat 
 that they 've gone o£f in is by this time no better ! However, if you can 
 propose any thing, I 'm agreeable. I see that you 're the chap to work out 
 of a scrape, if any one can, and whatever you say I '11 lend a hand to do." 
 " Well then, listen to me ? Do you know where we are ? " 
 " Why, on the desert, somewhere about the middle of it, I suppose." 
 " You are right ; we are somewhere near, if not directly upon Cape 
 Barbas. The nearest places, where we could find any assistance from 
 Christians, are Portendik, about three hundred miles to the south ; and 
 Mogadore, more than five hundred miles to the north. The distance 
 either way is a perfect desert, without vegetation, without water, at least 
 that we could find, and inhabited by tribes of wandering Christian-hating 
 savages. You see that our chance of reaching either place by land is 
 rather small." 
 
 "You may say that," said Thompson, "what with the heat, and the 
 sand, and the thirst, and the merciless Arabs, we should stand no more 
 chance than a short-tailed whale in the Norway whirlpool." 
 
 " Our next chance is, that the captain and crew have got safe on shore, 
 and if so, the boat will enable us to reach the Canaries." 
 
 " Belay that," interrupted the old man, " there 's no use talking about 
 it. There is n't the ghost of a chance. If you depend upon that, we had 
 better make up our minds to give ourselves up to the Arabs at once." 
 
 " I don't depend upon the poor chance of finding that the boat is safe. 
 There is still another and a better chance. This coast from Cape Blanco 
 to Cape Bojador is the resort of fishing-vessels from the Canaries. They 
 are large polacca-rigged boats of from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 
 
i6o KALOOLAH. 
 
 tons, and they remain on the station for some time. They generally 
 anchor close in-shore, and sometimes they land and carry on a small trade 
 with the wandering natives. They don't go north of Bojador, because 
 there the inhabitants have small boats in which the Moors would come off 
 from the shore and attack them ; and they never go much south of Cape 
 Blanco, or the bank of Arguin. A little north of the cape is their favorite 
 ground. If we could get on board one of these fishermen, we should be safe." 
 
 " Aye, if we could ; but without a boat, what can we do? " 
 
 " We can try, at any rate," I replied. " In half an hour it will be day- 
 light, when we shall be able to see our way to the shore. If we can con- 
 trive to make a landing, and take with us water and provisions, we shall 
 probably be able to find some place in the neighborhood where we can 
 secrete ourselves until the Arabs have paid their visit to the ship. 
 When the coast is clear again we can then watch for a fisherman, and 
 perhaps attract his attention by some kind of signal. If we can find a safe 
 hiding-place for a week or two, I am convinced that Providence will send 
 us the means of escape. If not, when our water and provisions are 
 exhausted, we can take the chance of pushing out to sea on some piece 
 of a wreck, or give ourselves up to the Arabs." 
 
 Jack approving my plan, without more words we addressed ourselves 
 actively to the proposed preparations. The position of the ship favored 
 our exertions ; she was careened towards the shore, with her stern some- 
 what elevated, so that the sea was prevented from dashing over her deck, 
 except just at the bow ; while the stern being raised, prevented the water, 
 with which the ship was filled, from standing above the floor of the cabin, 
 and enabled us to get at any thing we wished in the steward's pantry, and 
 the bread-lockers. 
 
 Our first care was to collect all the bottles, jugs, and demijohns that 
 had withstood the shock of the ship's striking, and fill them with water 
 from the casks that still remained safely lashed to the booms. A ten- 
 gallon keg of brandy, which was the cause of all our misfortunes was 
 emptied of its remaining contents, and devoted to the same purpose. 
 The beef and pork, that happened to be in the harness casks on deck, we 
 divided into two or three lots, which we wrapped in canvas covers. We 
 did the same with a barrel of ship biscuit, and with several miscellaneous 
 articles, such as clothing, instruments, a few nails and spikes, which we 
 thought might perhaps come in play, and a few pieces of small cordage. 
 My idea in taking these last-mentioned articles was, that in case we could 
 do nothing better, we might perhaps construct a raft out of the spars 
 and pieces of timber which would come ashore from the wreck. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Situation of the Ship-^Swimming Ashore — Landing Provisions — Thompson Reaches the Reef 
 — Provision Depots in the Sand— A Passage up the Bank — A Hiding-Place — Climbing the 
 Cliff — The Desert — A Mounted Arab — The Wreck Discovered — A Discourse on Canni- 
 bals — Return to the Beach. 
 
 ^Y the time we had finished our preparations it was quite hght, 
 allowing us an opportunity in observing, with the desired dis- 
 tinctness, the perils and horrors that environed us. We found 
 that the ship had struck upon the rocks at the bottom of the 
 little bay, or indentation in the line of breakers, and that consequently 
 we were considerably nearer the shore than we should have been had she 
 gone on a hundred yards farther, either above or below. Directly in front 
 of us, and not more than thirty rods off, rose a perpendicular cliff of dark, 
 ragged rock. At this point the base of the cliff was washed by the sea ; 
 but we observed with pleasure that, at a short distance, in a northeasterly 
 direction, the wall of rock withdrew itself, in an irregular curve, from the 
 water, leaving a long beach of sand. Between the ship and the shore was 
 a line of naked rocks, which, at high tide, were so situated as to be washed 
 with the whole force of the surf. Beyond them the water, at low tide, 
 was quite smooth, and apparently not of much depth. An opening at 
 some distance to the right of the ship's position, afforded the only practi- 
 cable passage for a boat to the shore. I pointed it out to my companion. 
 
 " The fools," he exclaimed, bitterly, " if they had waited till daylight 
 they need not have splintered their boat, and dashed their bodies 
 upon those black-looking rocks. But some men are doomed — if God 
 wont kill them, they will kill themselves." 
 
 Fastening a line around my body, I jumped overboard, and stretched 
 out for the reef. A minute or two sufficed to carry me within reach 
 of a jagged point of rock, which I succeeded in grasping — retaining 
 my hold while the following swell dashed over me ; upon its subsidence 
 I gained a footing and reached, not without some severe bruises, a 
 higher point of the reef. Pausing merely to haul taut the line and 
 fasten it around a point of a rock, I stepped into the water on the other 
 
 I6l 
 
1 62 KALOOLAH. 
 
 side, and found, as I expected, that it was possible to wade without 
 much difficulty to the base of the cliff, and by diverging a little to 
 the right, gain the narrow beach of sand. 
 
 Making my way back to the reef, I found Jack ready with the 
 line rove through a pulley at the end of the fore-top-sail yard to veer 
 away the bundles that we had prepared. Hauling down the line on deck, 
 he attached in turn a jug of water or a bag of bread, and hoisting it 
 to the yard-arm, veered away ; as he veered I hauled, and in this way 
 succeeded in bringing the various articles within reach without touch- 
 ing the water. As they arrived I detached the bundles from the line, 
 and wading with them ashore, deposited them safely upon the sand. 
 There now remained only the old man. I made signs to him to lash him- 
 self to the middle of the line, the same way as he had the keg of 
 water, so that he could veer himself away, while I hauled him in. Sta- 
 tioning myself as far out as I could, and yet retain a firm footing, I 
 prepared to receive him. He was almost within my grasp, when the 
 reflux of the wave tore him away, but the next moment a huge swell 
 threw him into my arms, and rolled us over upon the jagged bed of 
 rock. Happily no bones were broken, but the blood streamed from 
 numerous cuts upon our hands and bodies. 
 
 Casting off the line, so that the Arabs might have no reason to sup- 
 pose that any one had had communication with the shore, we crossed 
 the water to the main beach. Here we found ample evidence of the 
 melancholy fate of our companions. Fragments of the boat were 
 scattered along the sands, and just at the water's edge was a large" 
 white object that sluggishly rolled up and down the inclined bank — 
 one moment at rest upon the bare sand, and the next, sprawling and 
 bobbing about in the returning water. — It was the mutilated corpse of 
 one of the boat's crew. 
 
 At a little distance above high-water mark we proceeded to make an 
 excavation in the sand, in which we deposited a keg of water, with a 
 package of pork and biscuit, and our bag of nails and cordage ; care- 
 fully effacing our footprints, we returned to the edge of the water, 
 where any tracks would soon be washed out by the rising tide, and 
 loading ourselves with our remaining provisions, set out for a hiding- 
 place for ourselves. We carried an earthen jug, half a dozen junk bottles 
 and small copper tea-kettle filled with the precious element ; together 
 with about twenty pounds of ship biscuit, a few pounds of pork, and a 
 dozen or two of raw potatoes. In addition to my share of the burden, I 
 also charged myself with a spy-glass, compass, and an old musket. 
 
a 
 » 
 
 
 ^ 
 
KALOOLAH. 163 
 
 The sun was now about three hours high', and peering ov&r the lofty 
 banli, threw his burning rays upon us. The shade at the base of the cliff 
 invited us, but we dared not quit the margin of the beach, for fear of 
 leaving the impression of our feet in the sand. The heavy night-dew 
 which had laid the dust on the heights above, had now evaporated, and a 
 strong land-breeze springing up, clouds of silicious particles came eddying 
 down from the top of the clifT. The volleys were composed of an almost 
 impalpable powder, that filled our mouths, ears, and eyes, mingled some- 
 times with small, round grains, that made the skin of our faces and hands 
 •smart severely. The heat was intense ; the perspiration poured from 
 our faces, and, catching the flying particles, rolled down our cheeks in 
 arenulous ridges and streams. 
 
 About a mile from the ship we came to a long ravine that opened up 
 the bank for some distance. It was very rough and irregular, and we 
 could not see its termination, but we concluded that it must afford a pas- 
 sage to the top of the bank. Our first impulse was to ascend it, but, upon 
 consultation, we decided that as it would probably be the passage by which 
 the Arabs would descend to the ship, it would be better to push on beyond 
 it to some broken rocks which we could see about half a mile off. 
 
 We resumed our march, and soon arrived at a spot where the bank 
 came down again, almost close to the water. Along the base were several 
 huge pieces of rock, which had evidently been detached from the face of 
 the cliff. One of these had fallen so as to leave a small triangular space, 
 elevated about twenty feet, and exposed to observation only from the sea, 
 while at the same time it was concealed from above by the projection of 
 the overhanging cliff. With some difficulty we clambered over the frag- 
 ments of rock, and deposited our burdens upon the small bed of sand 
 which partly filled up the crevice. For some distance farther on, the nar- 
 row space between the bank and water was so covered with heaps of 
 large stones, that we had no fear of any one making the attempt to pass 
 in front of our hiding-place. 
 
 We had now appoint d'appui for our further operations; and after rest- 
 ing ourselves, and examining with the glass the beach, and the crest of 
 the cliff on either hand, as far as we could see, we concluded to set out 
 again, and explore the country on top of the bank. To attempt the ascent 
 along the ravine I have mentioned, would take us too far from our cover ; we 
 were compelled, therefore, to seek a path nearer, but much more difficult. 
 The bank that we had to clear was fully a hundred feet in height, and rose in 
 some places perpendicularly, in others inclined, at an angle of several 
 degrees towards the sea. The geological composition of the rock. 
 
i64 KALOOLAH. 
 
 however, favored us, consisting of strata of calcareous and silicious 
 sandstone, separated by layers of quartz sand, which had become disinte- 
 grated by the action of the sea air ; there were numerous horizontal 
 crevices and ledges, by which we could gain a foothold on the face of the 
 cliff. In the upper strata particularly, the calcareous prevailed over the 
 silicious in the formation, and there were numerous holes which had for- 
 merly been filled with some pure calcareous material, which, having been 
 decomposed, had been forced out by the wind. These holes assisted us 
 much in drawing ourselves up from ledge to ledge. It was trying work 
 in the hot sun, but at last our exertions were rewarded with success, and 
 we stood upon the top of the bank. 
 
 What a sight met our eyes ! A boundless earth-ocean, with its rocky 
 islets and billows of sand ! A dreary waste, with no green thing to re- 
 lieve the dismal uniformity — no sight or sound of even the meanest 
 specimen of organic life ! Overwhelmed with the terrible sublimity of 
 the scene, we remained for some minutes mute, motionless, straining our 
 eyes across the undulating lines of low hills, or watching the wild gambols 
 of the whirling, clouds, " Bahar billah maia ! " well have thy savage in- 
 habitants named thee, thou " arid sea of sand ! " 
 
 Keeping our way as much as possible between the sandhills, we started 
 •off for a rocky elevation about half a mile inland, which promised a more 
 extended horizon. As we advanced, we found that in some places the 
 ground was hard, and covered by a layer of silicious pebbles ; in others, 
 the bare rock showed itself, with its upper surface worn as smooth as 
 glass by the attrition of the moving sand. In some spots this rock was 
 an agate-looking limestone, beautifully mottled and veined, and suscepti- 
 ble of the highest polish. At the base of the crag which we proposed 
 to ascend, we were gratified by the sight of several stunted thorn bushes, 
 if a gratification that can be called which only served to impress more 
 forcibly the idea of barrenness and sterility. 
 
 I was stooping to examine their withered leaves and sturdy spines, 
 when I was startled by an exclamation from my companion. The old 
 man pointed to a dark object, moving among the sand hills on our right. 
 Upon applying the glass to my eye I saw that it was a man mounted up- 
 on a camel. He was moving slowly down to the edge of the bank. We 
 watched him, keeping ourselves well concealed, and saw him make his 
 way nearly to the crest of the beetling crag, when he dismounted and 
 walked forward on foot. He soon caught sight of the ship, and running 
 back, mounted his camel and came down towards us on a long swinging 
 trot. When he had arrived at a point opposite the ship, he dismounted 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 i6s 
 
 again, and advanced forward, but this time with more caution, crouching 
 low, and near the edge throwing himself on his face and slowly drawing 
 himself along the ground. For some time he remained, peering down 
 upon the ship, then mounting his camel, he moved still farther towards 
 us, and stopped at the head of the ravine; here he halted for a few 
 minutes, as if in doubt ; but at last wheeling his beast, he urged him for- 
 ward at a rapid rate, in an east-by-south direction. His course slanting 
 inland from the coast, which here trended from west-southwest to east- 
 northeast, carried him within a few rods of us, but throwing ourselves 
 flat on the ground behind a hillock, we escaped his observation. 
 
 Crouching low, and near the edge throwing himself on his face. ' 
 
 We watched him until he was out of sight, when we mounted the crag, 
 arid discovered that his course lay toward a distant range of black hills, 
 which we concluded afforded a refuge to his family or tribe. 
 
 " He 's a rum-looking bird, he is," was Jack's commentary upon the 
 fellow's appearance, as we saw the fluttering rag that was bound round 
 his head disappear in the distance. 
 
 " Yes, a rum-looking bird indeed, and in an hour or two he '11 be 
 down upon us with his whole flock ; we must be travelling back to our 
 retreat." 
 
 " Do you suppose,, Mr. Romer, that God made this country himself ? " 
 inquired Thompson, as we struggled back through the sand. 
 
 " Why not, as well as the rest of the world ? " 
 
 " Because the Bible says that he looked at all he had made, and pro- 
 
i66 KALOOLAH. 
 
 nounced it good. Now He never could have said that of this country. 
 A poorer piece of land I never laid eyes on. You don't need a mark of 
 the cloven hoof to know it for the 'devil's own.' I 've heard tell," he' 
 continued after a pause, " that the inhabitants here are man-eaters. What 
 do you think, Mr. Romer?" 
 
 " That there is no truth in the report. Their religion would keep 
 them from cannibalism. They would no more touch a man's flesh than 
 they would pork." 
 
 " I don't know about that. If they don't eat each other, what else 
 have they got to live on. I 've heard some folks say that there are no 
 such thing as cannibals anywhere in the world ; but I know better. I 've 
 been among the New Zealanders, and there they use each other for fresh 
 grub, as regular as boiled 'duff' in a man-of-war's mess. They used to 
 eat their fathers and mothers when they get too old to take care of them- 
 selves ; but now they 've got to be more civilized, and so they eat only 
 ricketty children, and slaves, and enemies taken in battle." 
 
 " A decided instance of the progress of improvement and the march 
 of mind," said I. 
 
 " Well, I believe that is what the missionaries call it," replied Jack, 
 "but it 's a bad thing for the old folks. They don't take to the new 
 fashion — they are in favor of the good old custom. I never see'd the 
 thing myself, but Bill Brown, a mess-mate of mine once, told me that when 
 he was at the Bay of Islands he see'd a great many poor old souls going 
 about with tears in their eyes trying to get somebody to eat them. One 
 of them came off to the ship and told them that he could n't find rest in 
 the stomachs of any of his kindred, and wanted to know if the crew 
 would n't take him in. The skipper told him that he was on monstrous 
 short allowance, but he could n't accommodate him. The poor old fel- 
 low. Bill said, looked as though his heart would break. There were plenty 
 of sharks around the ship, and the skipper advised him to jump overboard, 
 but he could n't bear the idea of being eaten raw." 
 
 We had reached the edge of the bank, and paused to take another look 
 over the arid expanse. 
 
 " This is a good moral, Mr. Romer," exclaimed Thompson. 
 
 " How so?" I demanded. 
 
 " Why, I never had any thing that made me feel so like a parson in a 
 hurricane — ready to get right down on my knees, and say ' Good Lord, 
 deliver us.' " 
 
 " We may well pray for his help," I replied, "for without it we stand 
 but a poor chance of deliverance from our present difHculties." 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 167 
 
 " You 're right, Mr. Romer ; if a poor fellow needs a lift from Provi- 
 dence anywhere, it is on such a piece of land as this. Afloat with plenty 
 of sea-room, I always feel independent, and just as though I could veer 
 and haul for myself ; but here, bless my soul ! unless God lend a hand, a 
 fellow can neither tack ship, nor wear, heave-to, nor scud." 
 
 With a good deal of difficulty we succeeded in descending the path 
 that we had come up. We reached our retreat thoroughly exhausted by 
 the heat and the exertion. Having arranged that we should keep watch 
 and watch, Thompson stretched himself upon the ground to take what 
 he called his watch below, while I stationed myself so as to command a 
 view of the mouth of the ravine. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Bedouins in Force — A Storm at Night — Breaking Up of the Ship — Collecting the Plunder 
 — An Admiralty Judge — The Hiding-Place Discovered — Meeting the Bedouins — A Warm 
 Reception — A Council — A Gentle Intimation — A March to the Hills — Feminine Curiosity 
 — Jonathan's Plans — Thompson's Despair. 
 
 ^H E sun was about an hour high, when two half-naked figures pre- 
 sented themselves ans-ong the fragments of rock at the bottom of 
 the gorge. One of them I instantly recognized as the fellow we 
 had seen, by the rag around his head, which was so tied as to 
 allow the end of it to fall down partly over his face. The other one had no 
 head-gear, and his only protection from the rays of the sun was a thick mop 
 of short grisly hair. Their only garments were ragged shirts of cotton, once, 
 perhaps, white, but now of a dirty brown. Their complexions were swarthy, 
 almost black, which, however, we had afterwards opportunities of observ- 
 ing, was in a great measure, owing to a thick coating of dirt. Their 
 forms were of the middle height, light, and exceedingly spare ; and they 
 evinced wonderful agility in slipping from rock to rock down the declivity. 
 
 As soon as they reached the sand they started off on a swift run 
 towards the ship. In a few minutes they were followed by two more 
 men, and these by several other parties, among whom five or six women 
 made their appearance. As they came upon the level ground, each in 
 turn stretched out at full speed, until at last more than forty ragged 
 shirts were streaming along, at intervals, from the ravine to the wreck. 
 
 They were soon all collected in a group, at the base of the cliff, where 
 it came down to the water's edge, opposite the ship ; and from their 
 rapid motions and vehement gestures, we concluded that they were dis- 
 cussing the interesting question of the best means of getting at the prize. 
 Parties of them continually waded from the shore to the reef, and back 
 again, but without, apparently, being able to devise any plan for passing 
 the barrier of breakers. 
 
 " It 's plain enough," remarked my companion, " that there 's none of 
 the Sandwich Islander breed about these fellows. Why, I 've seen women 
 in the Pacific miles out to sea, swimming about with their young ones on 
 
 i68 
 
KALOOLAH. 169 
 
 their backs. These chaps are nothing but land crabs, and they 'II never 
 lay claws on that ship until she breaks up, and comes ashore herself." 
 
 The Arabs seemed to have come to the same conclusion ; for quitting 
 the reef, they seated themselves in a circle upon the sand, while the 
 women were employed in picking up the fragments of the boat, and 
 branches of dried sea-weed, with which to make a fire. As the fire could 
 not be needed for warmth, and as they most probably had no provisions 
 that required cooking, we concluded that it was for the purpose of 
 burning the splinters of the boat, so as to extract the iron nails. For 
 two or three hours after the darkness of night had closed over sea and 
 shore, the bright flashes of flame streamed upward from the wild bivouac, 
 and, dying away, left us to our speculations for the morrow, or to such 
 slumber as might be supposed would visit our eyes in the vicinage of 
 such neighbors. 
 
 About the middle of the night, the wind, which had been blowing for 
 several hours a fresh breeze directly on shore, increased in violence, 
 rolling the surf in with such force, that at high tide we were drenched 
 with the spray. We comforted ourselves, however, with the reflection 
 that the old ship must inevitably go to pieces, and that the sooner the 
 Arabs got possession of her fragments, the sooner they would leave the 
 coast clear for our operations. 
 
 The morning dawned, and, agreeably to our expectation, the ship was 
 no longer in sight. But, as the light grew stronger, we could perceive 
 that the beach was covered with broken spars, pieces of timber, casks, 
 cabin furniture, sails, and clothing, and we observed with dismay, that a 
 large fragment of the rudder, with the iron pintles attached, was thrown 
 upon the rocks, almost at our feet. 
 
 The savages were actively at work, running up and down the sands, 
 securing pieces of clothing, canvas, and cordage, and occasionally quar- 
 relling, and even fighting among themselves for the possession of coveted 
 articles. A seaman's chest had come ashore, at not a great distance from 
 our hiding-place. It was discovered by one of the women, but before she 
 could open it the crowd collected around from all quarters, and then such 
 a scrambling for its contents ; every article had a dozen hands on it at 
 once. Knives were drawn, and blows made, apparently with desperate 
 determination. One fellow had succeeded in securing several check 
 shirts, which he threw into the arms of one of the women, and flourishing 
 his knife, energetically expressed by the most frantic gestures his resolu- 
 tion to defend them to the death. At this moment the grisly-haired old 
 fellow came up, running like the wind, and dashing him aside, struck the 
 
I70 KALOOLAH. 
 
 woman a blow on her breast, knocked her down, and seizing the shirts, 
 thrust them into the arms of another woman. He then made a bound at 
 a fellow who had got possession of a sailor's jacket, and compelled him to 
 relinquish it, and was equally successful in an attempt upon a red woollen 
 cap. I concluded that he must be the admiralty judge, for certainly no 
 one could have made a more striking practical application of the laws of 
 flotsam and jetsam. 
 
 Next to pieces of sail-cloth and clothing, the article of most value to 
 them was the iron, and to get at this, they had no other means than to 
 haul fragments of the wreck into piles, and set them on fire. This was 
 laborious and slow work, and the day passed before they had half finished 
 it. All night the fires were kept burning, and in the morning the search 
 was resumed for fresh material. Several times parties came within a few 
 rods of us, but each time something attracted their attention, and pre- 
 vented them from continuing their researches in our direction. We could 
 not flatter ourselves, however, that we should long escape detection. 
 From the moment that we first saw the rudder on the rocks below us we 
 had given up all hope. 
 
 In view of our inevitable fate, I occupied a portion of our time in im- 
 pressing upon my companion certain rules for his conduct, and in giving 
 him all the information that I thought might prove serviceable to him in 
 case we were separated. I did not conceal from him the sufferings to 
 which he would probably be subjected ; but at the same time I encour- 
 aged him to hope that, like a good many other unfortunates, we might 
 live to return to civilized life. I urged upon him that in no case, however 
 strong the inducement, must he turn Mahometan — that, as a renegado, 
 his life would be fully as uncomfortable, and that then all hope of redemp- 
 tion would be destroyed. That he must steadily deny all knowledge of 
 any mechanical employments, and persist, in spite of suffering and pun- 
 ishment, in refusing to make himself of any value to the Arabs as a slave. 
 I also told him that if he could persuade his masters to take him to 
 Sweirah (the Arabic name for Mogadore), his ransom would be readily paid 
 by Mr. Wiltshire, the English consul, with whose name all the inhabitants 
 of the desert were perfectly familiar. Jack promised to remember and 
 obey my injunctions, and — having agreed between us to say nothing of 
 our buried provisions, for fear that our captors would suspect that we had 
 also concealed money, and resort to torture to force us to disclose it — 
 with as much resolution as we could command, we awaited our fate. 
 
 We had not long to wait. The sun was not an hour above the horizon, 
 when one of the stragglers of the party came down to within a few rods 
 
KALOOLAH. 171 
 
 of us. He was a young man, apparently not more than twenty years of 
 age, but he had the true truculent scowling look of the Bedouin, that at 
 first sight made him appear about forty. He got sight of the rudder, and 
 immediately ran towards it. While stooping to examine it he did not 
 observe us, but upon raising his head, there we were seated upon the rock, 
 a little elevated, not more than a dozen yards off, and looking down di- 
 rectly upon him. Never was there presented a more striking picture of 
 astonishment and terror. His eyes started from their sockets, his short 
 stiff hair erected itself like steel-filings on a magnet, the blood forsook his 
 swarthy skin, leaving it of a dirty yellow, and his lips curled themselves 
 up in a rigid cataleptic grin. For some moments he stood still, unable to 
 move, until I made a motion to rise, when he gave two or three convul- 
 sive jumps among the rocks, reached the sand, and started up the beach, 
 yelling as if he thought a legion of fiends were at his heels. 
 
 " The game is up now," said Thompson. " What shall we do ? " 
 
 " Make sure of one good drink of water," I replied, " and then march 
 out and meet them." 
 
 Taking the old musket in my hand I stepped forth, followed by 
 Thompson, and gained the sands. The alarm had spread : the Arabs 
 were running from all quarters. As we advanced, those nearest to us re- 
 treated, evidently in so much consternation that, had we followed them 
 up briskly, we should have been able to drive them from the field. 
 
 When we had advanced a short distance, we stopped and waited a few 
 minutes until the Bedouins, recovering from their surprise, moved down 
 in a body towards us, halting in apparent doubt and hesitation, when 
 within fifteen or twenty rods. I immediately moved forward alone, again 
 stopped, and, bowing low in token of submission, exclaimed : " Salam 
 Ailekom ! " This salutation in their own language seemed to puzzle them 
 exceedingly. I happened to remember a few words of Arabic that I had 
 seen in some old narratives of shipwrecks ; so after bowing once more, I 
 exclaimed : " Fine Sheikh ? " — Where is the chief ? A movement in the 
 group indicated that the old grisly-haired fellow was a man of authority. 
 Making a signal for him to come towards me, I threw aside the gun, and 
 again bowed. The gun seemed to have been the cause of their hesita- 
 tion ; for the instant it was out of my hands they rushed up like so many 
 tigers. Offering no resistance, I was at once borne to the ground by the 
 force of numbers ; and it seemed for a few minutes as if the whole party 
 were bent upon piling themselves upon my body. Their knives gleamed 
 before my eyes, and grazed my skin in several places ; and each moment 
 I expected was to be my last. The metal buttons of my pea-jacket were 
 
172 KALOOLAH. 
 
 cut off in a trice, my pockets torn out, and my clothes rent in numerous 
 places in their eagerness to find money. There was ' not much about me 
 to gratify their cupidity, and, in a few minutes, I was allowed to rise and 
 look around. Thompson, I saw, had been treated in like manner, or 
 worse ; the remnants of his garments presenting a more dilapidated ap- 
 pearance even than my own. 
 
 A furious discussion now commenced, as to the right of ownership of 
 our persons, in the course of which we were most unceremoniously 
 hauled, and pulled about by the contending claimants, and several times 
 threatened with instant death. For full half an hour the contest raged 
 with unabated fury ; more than once I expected to see them come to 
 blows, when most probably our lives would have been sacrificed in the 
 melee by the jealous disputants. At last a kind of compromise was 
 effected, and the war was ended without bloodshed. 
 
 We were now seated together upon the sand, and the Bedouins hud- 
 dling around began to question us about the ship. They soon found 
 that my knowledge of Arabic extended only to a few words, but they 
 could not conceal their expressions of wonder that I could speak even 
 those. They first wanted to know if I was the " rats," or captain ; to 
 which I replied "la," or no, and here our verbal conversation, for want 
 or words, had to close. By signs I explained to them, that excepting 
 Thompson and myself, the crew were all drowned ; that the ship had 
 been to the negro country for wood and oil, and that she had no 
 money on board. I mentioned Sweirah, and Mr. Wiltshire, and under- 
 took to persuade them to take us there for ransom. But little attention 
 was paid to my representations — our captors continually recurring to the 
 subject of the ship and her cargo. It was with difficulty that I could 
 satisfy them that she had not had money, and that we had not buried 
 some of it in the sand. They tried my companion, but he had heard my 
 answers, and an energetic " La ! Lawah ! " was all they could get out of 
 him. 
 
 At the conclusion of the consultation, which lasted two or three 
 hours, the grisly-haired fellow, whose name I ascertained was Hamet As- 
 keiff, intimated to me by a kick in the ribs that I was his property, and 
 that I must rise, and prepare to ascend the bank. The preparation con- 
 sisted in packing on my back about fifty weight of iron bolts. My com- 
 panion received a like intimation, couched in similar terms, and his back 
 was loaded with a similar burden. " Bomar ! bomar ! " shouted our mas- 
 ters, at the same time giving us a few hearty thwacks with a large stick, 
 and off we started, accompanied by five or six of the men and two or three 
 
14 
 > 
 O 
 
 u 
 
 < 
 
 ci 
 
 z 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 w 
 
K ALGOL AH. 
 
 173 
 
 women. The ascent through the ravine, under our heavy loads and in 
 the hot sun, was laborious enough. Several times Thompson lost his 
 footing and fell, when he was compelled to rise again amid a shower of 
 execrations and blows-, and upon attempting to assist him my back came 
 in for a liberal share of the same kind of compliments. Fortunately, I 
 had been allowed to retain my pea-jacket, M^hich served as some protec- 
 tion, but Thompson had been stripped of all except his canvas trousers 
 and tarpaulin hat, and his naked body suffered not only from the blows, 
 but from the intense heat of the sun. We were near the top of the bank, 
 when Jack became utterly exhausted by the exertion. Our masters were 
 a little distance behind. 
 
 " Mr. Romer," he exclaimed, drawing with laborious effort his breath, 
 " I can't stand this any longer." 
 
 " We must, we can't help ourselves. Come on, hold out for a minute 
 more and we shall be at the top." 
 
 " No, no, let us dash these villains down the rocks, and then rush 
 down upon their friends at the beach. Better die at once by their knives, 
 than be murdered this way. I '11 carry my load no farther " ; and my 
 companion threw his burden from his back to the ground. 
 
 Without stopping to answer him, I seized his load, and staggered for- 
 ward and upward as fast as I could under a hundred weight of iron. He 
 started after me, calling out for me to stop and give him back his burden, 
 but I persevered, and we reached the level ground together, and at the 
 same moment with our masters. Here a shower of blows, equally distrib- 
 uted, rewarded Jack for dropping his load, and me for picking it up. 
 
 Five or six camels were standing at a little distance, each one with his 
 fore-leg doubled up, and tied with a rope of hide, so as to prevent them 
 from wandering. One of these was selected, the iron placed upon his 
 back, and one of the Arabs mounting him, the word " bomar " was again 
 sounded, and we all started off across the desert, in the direction of the 
 hills that we had seen on the first day in the southeast. 
 
 For three long hours we pursued our weary way in the broiling sun, 
 over loose sand hills, into which our feet sank deep at every step, until 
 we came to a small rocky plain, and beyond that to a range of rock hills, 
 two or three hundred feet in height. At the foot of one of these we 
 found several huts, constructed of stone piled up on three sides, about 
 four feet high, and covered with a skin, or an awning of coarse dark cloth. 
 Here we found a number of women and children, who gathered around 
 us, at first in silent curiosity, but soon they got bolder, and began to an- 
 noy us with their impertinent familiarities. They examined our skins ; 
 
174 KALOOLAH. 
 
 felt our persons ; pulled our hair and ears, and closely investigated the 
 mystery of our clothing. My pantaloons, in particular, excited their won- 
 der, and the question was often asked how I got into them, and whether 
 I had been put in, and then sewed up in them. Their attentions, how- 
 ever, were not confined to these pleasantries. Several of the women 
 amused themselves by spitting upon us, throwing sand in our faces, and 
 cursing us in a profusion of unintelligible gutturals. 
 
 " Sere ! sere ! " I exclaimed, jumping to my feet, and assuming as 
 fierce a look as possible. 
 
 At this Arabic exclamation, equivalent to " go away," or " clear out," 
 our tormentors rushed from us, screaming with affright ; but in a few 
 moments they returned, and became more abusive than ever. Our lives 
 were even in danger from the stones with which they had armed them- 
 selves, when Hamet fortunately made his appearance, and I called to 
 him to come to our assistance. " Aghee ! aghee ! Hamet Askeiff ! " 
 
 He ran up, laughing immoderately at my pronounciation of the 
 words, and at our distresses ; but at last he condescended to interfere, 
 and our tormentors were driven off. 
 
 At sunset several loaded camels came in from the wreck, and with 
 them most of the party that we had left behind on the beach. The 
 camels were unloaded, and turned loose to browse upon a few stunted 
 thorns. A mixture of water, camel's milk, and the meal of a kind 
 of millet, was prepared by the women, and furnished the only re- 
 freshment ; after which the Arabs disposed themselves for a regular 
 council. A bright fire, made of splinters of the wreck, and dried thorn- 
 bushes, threw up its light and illuminated the swarthy faces of about 
 thirty Bedouins, who squatted in a circle around it. Pipes were pro- 
 duced, filled, and passed about from mouth to mouth. The whole scene 
 brought strongly to my mind certain descriptions of Indian councils in 
 my own country, but there were many points of dissimilarity. There 
 was a lack of that gravity and dignity so generally attributed to the con- 
 duct and manners of the aborigines of America, and there was certainly 
 but little resemblance between the blank desert waste, and the thickly 
 wooded covers and green prairies of my own distant land. 
 
 We were ordered to take our seats within the circle, and then com- 
 menced a repetition of the same questions that had been put to us at 
 the beach. As soon as an opportunity occurred, I brought forward 
 the subject of taking us to Sweirah for ransom, but it was received with 
 no better favor than in the morning. They seemed to be much sur- 
 prised that I should know any thing about Sweirah, and could point out 
 the direction in which it lay, but they gave us to understand, in the most 
 
KALOOLAH. 175 
 
 decided manner, that there were insuperable obstacles to taking us there. 
 Hamet, drawing his knife, placed the point of it against his breast, inti- 
 mating that he would run upon it in going to Mogadore, from which I 
 concluded that his band was at feud with some of the northern tribes. 
 In the course of the conversation, the word Hoden was frequently men- 
 tioned, and also the word Waladah. I knew that Hoden was supposed 
 to be a town or station, and was generally put down, probably without 
 much accuracy, to the southeast of us. I could form no idea of the 
 position of Waladah, but it was not difficult to understand that it was a 
 place where it was proposed to carry us for sale as slaves. In such a case 
 all hope of redemption was at an end, and the only chance of ultimately 
 regaining our freedom would be in making ourselves thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the language, so as to be able to avail ourselves of any 
 favorable circum.stances to escape. To acquire the language perfectly, I 
 at once resolved should be my chief object. Once master of it, so as to 
 pass for an Arab, I could not see how my masters would be able to pre- 
 vent me from regaining my freedom. The future was dark and indefinite, 
 but not without a few feeble gleams of hope that forbade utter despair. 
 
 I communicated my suspicions and plans to Thompson. The old 
 man shook his head despondingly. 
 
 " It may do all very well for you, Mr. Romer, but it wont answer 
 for me." 
 
 " Why not?" I replied, as encouragingly as possible. 
 
 "Why, just look at the difference between us. You propose to make 
 yourself a regular Arab. Well, you 're young, and with your spare figure, 
 dark complexion, and black hair and eyes, in a short time you will look 
 like an Arab, but what shall I do, with my light skin and blue eyes. 
 Besides, I am too old to learn the language. I might, perhaps, learn to 
 parly-voo-fransay through my nose, but I can never get the knack of pull- 
 ing my words up by the roots, from the pit of my stomach. No, I feel 
 that I shall kill two or three of these chaps before long, and that '11 be 
 the end of me." 
 
 I endeavored to comfort the old man, and to inspire him with a more 
 hopeful idea of his future fate, but fatigue, hunger, thirst, and the pain 
 of his cuts and bruises conspired to depress his spirits, and he refused to 
 entertain the belief that he had any prospect of life, much less of liberty. 
 We were stretched side by side upon the sand ; a heavy dew was falling, 
 and the night wind grew quite chilly. My pea-jacket, which I had taken 
 off, and stretched over us, afforded an inadequate protection ; but, notwith- 
 standing all the disagreeable and painful circumstances of our situation, 
 tired nature exacted from the "restorer" thetribute of her oblivious sweets. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A Scanty Breakfast — Watering the Camels — A Change of Humor — Plaguing the Women — 
 Judicious Flattery — A Pigeon -Wing in the Desert — Working the Pumps — Starting for the 
 Interior — Suffering by the Way — Character of the Country— Instinct of the Camels — The 
 Wells of Ageda. 
 
 >T early dawn we were aroused, and about a pint of milk and 
 water, in which had been mixed a handful of barley-meal, was 
 given to us for our breakfast. We begged loudly for more, 
 and at last succeeded in getting a part of one of our biscuits, 
 which we shared between us. We found our palates not quite so dainty 
 as the day before, and the ill flavor of the putrid water no longer excited 
 so much disgust. 
 
 Most of the Arabs immediately started for the beach, after giving us 
 to understand that the next day we were to take up our line of march 
 for the interior. One reason for moving so soon, we found to be the state 
 of the wells, which were unusually low for the season, and which promised 
 in a day or two to fail entirely. We were taken to these wells, and com- 
 pelled to assist nearly the whole day in drawing water. They were situa- 
 ted at a little distance from the camp, at the bottom of a cleft in the hills, 
 and consisted of two or three natural holes of great depth. A stake was 
 made fast across the mouth, with a rude kind of pulley attached to it ; 
 through this a rope, with a goat-skin bucket at the end, was rove. By 
 the aid of the rope, an Arab descended to the bottom, and filled the 
 bucket with the water that slowly percolated through the chinks, from 
 some hidden reservoir. When the bucket was filled we walked away with 
 the other end of the rope, and drew the bucket to the top, where it was 
 emptied into a large calabash by the women, and supplied to the camels. 
 As soon as the first camels had been watered they were dispatched to 
 the beach, and, with an appearance of haste, in the movements of their 
 masters, that induced us to think that the scanty supply of water was not 
 alone the cause of our departure. Besides their desire to get us at once to 
 market, we concluded that they had fears of a visit from some of their ene- 
 mies, or perhaps, friends, who might wish to come in for a share of the spoil. 
 
 176 
 
KALOOLAH. 177 
 
 I had made up my mind to take my fate as easily z.z possible, and to 
 waste no mental energy in useless repinings. Nothing that I could say, 
 do, or think, could, for the time, alter my .destiny, and therefore why 
 trouble myself with fears, hopes, and regrets, which could have no influ- 
 ence in furthering my chief object. There were but two great facts in 
 relation to my situation, worthy of serious thought— one, that I was a 
 prisoner, and about to be sold into slavery, in which state I should be 
 compelled to remain for a year, or perhaps two ; and the other, that I was 
 bound to recover my freedom. That my master could not keep me for 
 ever was a settled point— a fixed fact, that admitted of no dispute. How 
 or by what means my escape was to be effected, it was impossible to say ; 
 that was a question that time alone could determine, but, until time did 
 so, I was resolved that I would not give myself any trouble, but take 
 things easily, and bide the march of fate. Providence, and my own stout 
 legs and arms, I felt to be a good dependence. 
 
 As soon as I had formed this resolution, a kind of reckless jollity took 
 possession of me, which, at first, excited my companion's surprise, but 
 which, before long, exerted an infectious effect upon his feelings. The 
 change in our humor at once made a decidedly favorable impression upon 
 our masters, and before nightfall we had fairly gained an immunity from 
 the wanton annoyances and insults which we had to endure the day be- 
 fore. We might have tried to excite their sympathies for our distresses 
 in vain, but as soon as they found that we were perfectly reckless, 
 impudent, and independent, they began to entertain for us a degree of 
 respect. 
 
 Acting up to the design I had formed of learning the language as soon 
 as possible, I lost* no time, but at once commenced an energetic and 
 thorough course of practice — asking the names of every thing I could see, 
 repeating their phrases, and shouting out the words that I had mastered, 
 right or wrong, to the utter astonishment and, at the same time, to the 
 high amusement of our masters. I joked, laughed, and scolded with the 
 women, ridiculing some and flattering others, and instantly retorting any 
 abuse in their own terms, eked out with voluble English and Spanish. 
 Several times I received some hard knocks from the enraged women, but, 
 by skipping about here and there, and dodging around and under the 
 camels, I generally contrived to elude them. There was one skinny old 
 hag, with whom, in the course of the day, I had a good deal of amusement. 
 She seemed at first to have taken a particular dislike to Jack, and was every 
 moment attacking him with words and blows, until I contrived to draw 
 her rage upon myself, and at last worry her into terms. I mimicked her 
 
1/8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 motions and words, and retorted her curses, until, almost bursting with 
 passion, she would rush at me with a heavy stick, when away I would 
 skip, cutting up all kinds of queer antics amid the immoderate laughter of 
 the other women and of the few men who were looking on. No one 
 seemed to enjoy the fun more than the wife of Hamet, who, as it was 
 easy to perceive, was as delighted at the old hag's disappointment and 
 discomfiture, as at my capers. 
 
 For the twentieth time the old lady came at me, with the kind inten- 
 tion of knocking out my brains, expressed in every movement and feature. 
 Exerting my agility, I sprung up, and seizing the hump of one of the tall- 
 est camels, drew myself on to his back. The astonished animal hopped 
 about upon his three legs, while I, vaulting from side to side as my pur- 
 suer came round, looked down with the utmost complacency from my 
 secure elevation. When the old lady's breath was pretty well exhausted 
 I finished the performance by jumping down, and cutting a regular pigeon- 
 wing in the sand. The most vigorous and graceful /zVij^^W^ of a Vestris 
 or Taglioni never excited greater admiration and applause. The men 
 laughed heartily, while the women and children fairly shrieked and yelled 
 with delight, and when Jack Thompson capped the climax with a double- 
 shuffle, I was really afraid that fat Mrs. Askeiff would go off in a convulsion. 
 This would have been a sad misfortune, for, from the instant we had seen her 
 round, fat, and comparatively good-humored face, we had marked her out 
 for a patron and friend. Luckily an opportunity offered itself for a piece 
 of judicious flattery, privately administered, which completed the favor- 
 able impression that my saltatory exertions had commenced. Passing 
 my hands up and down, at a little distance from my own person, to indi- 
 cate her obesity, I bowed, smiled, and exclaimed " Beautiful ! very beau- 
 tiful ! " If she had been brought up in an English boarding-school she 
 could not have comprehended more readily my words. It would be hard 
 to say which was swallowed with the greatest avidity, the delicate compli- 
 ment or the bowl of milk and meal with which it was repaid. 
 
 At sunset our master, Hamet, with the other men, returned from the 
 beach. After conversing for a few moments with the women, and giving 
 some directions about the camels, he beckoned me to follow him, and to- 
 gether we moved out from the camp. Turning behind a rock that concealed 
 us from view, he stopped, uttered a few words, and pointed to my feet. 
 His words were worse than Greek — pure Arabic — and his motions per- 
 fectly incomprehensible. He repeated his orders, and at last, with an 
 expression of angry impatience, he began to move his own feet. The 
 idea broke upon me ; he had heard of my pigeon-wing, and was deter- 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 179 
 
 mined to have a private reliearsal for his own particular amusement. Was 
 ever any thing more ridiculous ? A captive in the hands of barbarians, 
 amid the sands of the great desert, to be taken out behind a rock and re- 
 quired to cut a pigeon-wing for the amusement of an old surly Arab! 
 Hamet waited until my risibles had composed themselves, when he again 
 gave the signal, and the performance commenced. Once, twice, three 
 times — and then gravely indicating his satisfaction, he signed me to fol- 
 low him back to the huts. A rather large allowance of milk and a whole 
 biscuit testified to the liberalizing influence of the pigeon-wing upon his 
 heart. 
 
 -"* A./S 
 
 ^--2»-,„ -pSt-^ 
 
 "Seizing the humf of one of the tallest camels , drew myself on to his back." 
 
 " Well, if that is n't the rummest go I 've heard of," exclaimed 
 Thompson, when I explained to him the cause of Hamet's unexpected 
 liberality. " I 'm glad he did n't call on me for a double-shuffle, for my 
 soles wont stand it many times ; and if we are to get our living by dancing, 
 what are we to do when our shoes are gone ? I 've known fellows to keep 
 themselves above water by working their pumps, but I had no idea that 
 the same thing could be done on dry land, or I would have brought 
 along an extra pair." 
 
 Before daylight the next morning preparations were commenced for 
 the journey. The skin and cloth coverings of the huts were taken off 
 and packed away ; the cooking utensils secured, and the camels saddled 
 
i8o KALOOLAH. 
 
 and loaded. Three of these animals were furnished with panniers, in 
 which rode the smaller children and two or three women, among whom, 
 of course, was Mrs. Hamet Askeiff. The other women, like ourselves, 
 were compelled to walk. 
 
 The first day's journey, after leaving the hills, was over a flat pebbly 
 plain, perfectly destitute of vegetation, except now and then a thorn-bush 
 and a few roots of the salcornia. We passed the skeleton of a camel, and 
 not far from it we observed the tracks of an animal of the cat kind. Our 
 direction was about east-by-south, and we travelled at least twenty-five 
 miles. My companion was exceedingly distressed, and with difficulty 
 kept up with the body of the caravan. Not unfrequently his motions had 
 to be quickened by applications of the stick. Being younger, and of a 
 spare make, and, at the same time, more accustomed to pedestrian exer- 
 tion, I did not suffer nearly as much. 
 
 At sundown we encamped on the open plain, with nothing in view 
 but the sky above and the vast expanse of low sand-hills around us. The 
 camels were unloaded, two or three small tents erected, and, after evening 
 prayers, every one received his allowance of meal and water. Thompson 
 and myself got each about half a pint. We begged lustily for more, but 
 received only an intimation that we had already had more than we de- 
 served. Kind Mrs. Hamet, however, took compassion on us, and slily 
 slipped into our hands a few dates, as dry and as hard as so many pebbles. 
 We swallowed them whole upon a suggestion from Thompson, that " in 
 that way they would last the longer, and our stomachs would have some- 
 thing to gnaw upon for a week." 
 
 After prayers, and their make-believe ablutions, our masters disposed 
 themselves for a smoke and a talk. The tobacco-pouch was produced, 
 and the pipe carefully filled, lighted, and passed round. Thompson suc- 
 ceeded in begging a mouthful of the weed. The Arabs watched him as 
 he rolled it up and thrust it into his mouth, when they burst out into an 
 unanimous expression of disgust and contempt. 
 
 " Look ! " they exclaimed, " at the Kaffirs ! see how they pervert God's 
 gifts ! Tobacco was made to smoke and to snuff, and the infidel dogs 
 (God's curse upon the whole race !) put it in their mouths and eat it. But 
 what can you expect of fellows who never pray and who eat pork ! Faugh ! 
 Manshallah ! Blessed be God, they '11 all roast yet ! " 
 
 Before sunrise the next morning we were again en route. The charac- 
 ter of the country differed but little from that of the day before, with the 
 exception that there was a larger portion of rough and rocky surface. Our 
 shoes suffered severely, and by the time we had reached our camping 
 
KALOOLAH. i8i 
 
 ground we were but little better than barefoot, and with a sad prospect 
 of sore feet before us. In this particular the third day fully realized our 
 expectations. The heat of the burning sand, and the sharp points of the 
 jagged rocks, made it impossible for us to keep up with the caravan. We 
 pointed out to our masters the cause of our loitering, but they only laugh- 
 ed and urged us on with sticks and stones. At last my companion gave 
 out entirely ; his feet were so lacerated and swollen that he swore he 
 could n't and would n't move a step farther. The Arabs, finding that it 
 was really impossible for him to move, made him mount on the hinder 
 part of a camel, where he had to keepiimseif fromslipping ofT backwards 
 by holding on by the tufts of hair on the hump. The rough skin, sharp 
 bones, and heavy motion of the animal soon made this mode of travelling 
 as distressing as walking. More than once he was about to throw himself 
 off, upon the ground, to die ; and nothing but my encouraging exhorta- 
 tions prevented him from obeying the dictates of pain and despair. 
 
 At night there was a discussion among our masters concerHing us. 
 My progress in the language enabled me to comprehend the general drift 
 of the conversation, from which it appeared that we were bound for some 
 place by the name of Quahlet, but whether it was the Walet of Mungo Park, 
 or the Qualet of Callie, or, as was most probable, a different place from 
 either, it was impossible to say. A few days, however, five or six at 
 furthest, would, perhaps, elucidate the question ; so, dismissing the sub- 
 ject, I composed myself, as tranquilly as possible, to sleep — to sleep, but 
 not to dream ; the exigencies of exhausted nature frequently forbid an in- 
 dulgence in such luxuries. Nowhere can I recollect that I enjoyed more 
 profouud repose than during this first journey in the desert. Queen Mab, 
 if she ever drives her team of atomies in that quarter of the world, never 
 seemed disposed to pay me a visit, or if she did, found sense, feeling, and 
 fancy all engaged, and was denied admission. 
 
 The country, as we advanced, continued to present the same appear- 
 ance, a vast plain of sand-hills, until the sixth day, when we entered upon 
 a more rocky, and irregular tract. Large masses of a reddish granite were 
 scattered about in all directions, sometimes so closely together as to leave 
 room for not more than one loaded camel at a time to pass. 
 
 Emerging from this sea of rock, we encamped upon the edge of a plain 
 of yellow sand. The ground was hard, the sand-hills few and small, and 
 the scene agreeably relieved by several patches of vegetation. A number 
 of acacias were in sight, and close around our camp were numerous bush- 
 es, upon which the camels were turned loose to graze. 
 
 In the course of the next day we saw several gangs of camels, some 
 
1 82 KALOOLAH. 
 
 with loads, moving under the guidance of their masters, and others quiet- 
 ly browsing upon the thorn-bushes that grew at distant intervals. Tow- 
 ards nightfall two horsemen were seen skirting the edge of the horizon. 
 The air was so clear that we could see the slender shafts of their long 
 spears, drawn like black lines upon the sky. Hamet pointed to them and 
 exclaimed " Ostrich hunters ! " 
 
 We resumed our march again early in the morning, and pressed on 
 with rapidity during the greater part of the day. From the motions of the 
 camels alone, it was easy to perceive that we were approaching water. 
 They no longer straggled wide, or stopped to crop the stunted bushes, 
 but with outstretched necks toiled on at a rate which made it extremely 
 difScult for me to keep up with them. A ridge of low, whitish-looking 
 hills indicated the position of the wells, which, even at the distance of 
 ten or fifteen miles, had sent their grateful odors to the keen senses of our 
 thirsty beasts. 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternoon we came upon the brink of a 
 steep precipice, about fifty feet in height, inclosing on three sides a small 
 irregular basin, of perhaps twenty acres in extent. We halted and looked 
 down upon the busy scene below. At the bottom of the basin were 
 numerous pits, and around three or four of these were collected crowds 
 of camels. There were at least three hundred in all, attended by fifty or 
 sixty men and women. We noticed also several horses and mules. Hamet 
 happening to be in very good humor, condescended to inform us that 
 these were called the wells of Ageda, and that they were the only wells 
 within five days' journey, and furnished all the water for the town of 
 Quahlet, which was half a day farther to the east. 
 
 By making a slight detour we reached a place where the shelving 
 precipice allowed our camels to descend without going round to the head 
 of the ravine, through which the camels below were ascending and de- 
 scending in long strings. 
 
 The path was difificult, and in several places the animals had to jump 
 from rock to rock, a distance of six or eight feet, but, under the skilful 
 guidance of our masters,, the descent was accomplished in safety, and we 
 stood at the bottom of the basin amid the group around the wells. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Bedouin Salutations— Encampment at the Wells— Cooscoosoo— An Arrival— "Wind Drinkers" 
 — A Change of Masters— Parting with Jack— A Ride in the Desert— Sidi Mohammed's 
 Douah — Life -in the Douah— Amulets— A Timely Warning — A Delicate Hint. 
 
 ^ALAM Ailekom ! Ailekom Salam ! " was reiterated a hundred 
 times between our party and the strangers, accompanied with 
 the almost interminable string of compliments, inquiries, and 
 good wishes which Arab etiquette prescribes for a friendly 
 greeting. The ceremony through, and the excitement created by our 
 appearance somewhat abated, we were allowed to approach the wells and 
 commence drawing water for our camels. 
 
 When we ha-d finished, instead of keeping on to the town, our masters 
 made preparations for spending the night upon the spot. A fire was 
 kindled, and, after evening prayers, a large bowl of cooscoosoo prepared, 
 of which we got a small portion, and found it delicious. It consisted of 
 flour, rolled into small round grains, and was cooked by putting it into a 
 kind of earthen colander, with holes pierced in the bottom. The colander 
 was then fitted into the mouth of an earthen pot, which contained a little 
 water, with part of a kid cut in small pieces. The steam, as it arose, 
 ascended through the holes in the bottom of the colander, and made its 
 way through the mass of cooscoosoo, which, whfen sufficiently cooked, 
 was turned out into a large dish, a cavity made in the middle of the pile, 
 and the contents of the pot poured into it. A dozen dirty hands were at 
 once thrust into the dish, and, by a dexterous twist, the yellow grains 
 were rolled into good-sized balls, and jerked into the mouth with wonder- 
 ful rapidity. 
 
 Fortunately, in the dish prepared for Hamet and his immediate 
 friends, there were a few grains more than was necessary to distend their 
 stomachs to within the smallest possible distance of the bursting point, 
 so we were allowed to finish the dish, or, as Hamet facetiously expressed 
 it, to swallow our " share." 
 
 The night passed pleasantly ; the weather was serene, and the high 
 banks on either side protected us from the wind. Several parties, with 
 
 183 
 
i84 KALOOLAH. 
 
 their camels, remained upon the ground, and numerous camp-fires threw 
 their flickering lights upon the wild and uncouth groups of animals, and 
 upon the rugged boulders and precipitous ridges of the deep basin. Until 
 late at night the Arabs remained assembled in front of our tents, where 
 they were amused by the performance of a professsional story-teller, who 
 recited his tales with much spirit and energy — imitating the voices of the 
 different speakers, gesticulating and grimacing with great freedom, and 
 accompanying himself with frequent emphatical blows upon a tambourine. 
 His longest story was a peculiar version of the " Forty Thieves." In the 
 main, he adhered to the plot as we have it in the " Arabian Nights "; but 
 there was an infinity of detail that the Eastern racontettr had not dreamed 
 of, and which, perhaps, the more polished taste of Yeman would have 
 rejected as puerile and tiresome, but which seemed to constitute the chief 
 charm of the story to the unrefined auditors of the Sahara. 
 
 The next morning, at sunrise, as we were getting ready to set out for 
 Quahlet, three or four horsemen dashed up to the wells at full speed, 
 shouting at the top of their voices, '^ Fine Nazarin?" "Where is the 
 Christian ? " 
 
 We were pointed out to them, when they galloped toward us, jumped 
 to the ground, and, leaving their horses unattended, advanced close to us, 
 and began a minute inspection of our persons. They were horrible- 
 looking fellows, worse, even, than our masters, or any Arabs we had yet 
 seen. Their forms were literally nothing but skin, sinew, and bone. 
 Their eyes, deep sunk in their heads, emitted a lurid light, and a dark 
 scowl was carved in permanent lines upon their sharp angular features. 
 Each one wore a haick, and over it a jallabeali of coarse woollen, re- 
 sembling, in shape, a shirt with a hood attached to it. Their horses had 
 very much the look of their masters ; at first sight they would have been 
 taken for broken-down hacks, but, upon closer examination, the clean 
 limbs, small head, clear eye, and expanded nostril, would have indicated 
 their descent from the famous SJirubah Errech, or " wind drinker " of the 
 desert, so called, partly as a metaphor for speed, and partly because of a 
 habit they universally have, of thrusting out their tongue, with a peculiar 
 noise, when running. 
 
 After the new-comers had examined us to their satisfaction, they 
 withdrew with our masters, and commenced chaffering about our price. In 
 an hour or two it was announced to us that I had been purchased by the 
 strangers, but that Thompson must accompany his first masters to the 
 town, where he would be sold to a Moor, who wanted to take him on to 
 some place still farther in the interior. I heard the name Al Araiouan 
 
KALOOLAH. 185 
 
 pronounced, but I could not make out distinctly whether that was the 
 place where the Moor, whom the new-comers represented to be ready to 
 purchase Thompson, resided or not. 
 
 The news that we were to be separated occasioned us the greatest 
 distress. There is nothing like a partnership in misfortune to originate 
 and .strengthen a feeling of friendship; and nowhere, perhaps, could a 
 slight acquaintance ripen into intimacy more readily than amid the deso- 
 lation of the desert. The old man fairly wrung his hands in despair 
 when informed of our doom. He urgently joined me in my entreaties to 
 my new master, that he would also purchase him, but without success. 
 
 " Never mind," said I, " we will meet yet, and that too under more 
 favorable circumstances than at present. Keep up a good heart, as I 
 shall, and trust in Providence. I feel perfectly confident that we shall 
 together escape from these miserable wretches. And it will not be a 
 great while either before we do so." 
 
 " I hope so, but I must say that I don't see much chance of it. How- 
 ever, God bless you, Mr. Romer, and I hope he '11 restore you to freedom, 
 whatever he does with old Jack Thompson. When you get clear, if you 
 will recollect to write, or send word to the old woman in Liverpool — you 
 know the street, — you will do me a favor. But you wont forget it, I 
 know. God bless you, my boy! Good-bye!" 
 
 We held each other by the hand. Our masters made a movement of 
 impatience. " God bless you ! Good-by ! " I exclaimed, and dropping 
 his hand, turned to conceal my tears. Upon looking around, Thompson 
 was at some distance, slowly following the camels of Hamet. He looked 
 back, waved his hands in adieu, and then steadily plodded onward. 
 
 Seldom has my heart felt more heavy than at that moment. It was 
 not merely the peculiar circumstances of our position that made the part- 
 ing so hard. There were points in the character of Jack that had served 
 to create a strong feeling of attachment and respect. I should have 
 parted with him, under any circumstances, with regret ; judge then of my 
 feelings, when bidding him adieu, probably for ever, amid the wilds of the 
 Sahara. 
 
 Leaving the hills, my new master, whose name I was informed was 
 Sidi Mohammed ben Alum, turned off in a direction due north, accom- 
 panied by one of his companions; the rest of the party setting off at 
 full speed towards the southwest. 
 
 My feet were in such a condition that, although I had bound them up in 
 strips of clothing torn from the skirts and lining of my pea-jacket, I walked 
 with pain, and with difficulty kept up with my master's horse, whose pace 
 
1 86 KALOOLAH. 
 
 was restrained to the slowest rate. After moving along in this way for 
 two or three hours, Mohammed began to get impatient, and finding that 
 his curses had no effect in quickening my motions, he asked me if I could 
 ride. His surprise was great when I replied in the affirmative. " How is 
 it," said he, " that you who always live in houses upon the water, should 
 know how to manage a horse ? " 
 
 Nothing could be more admirable than the steadiness and ease with 
 which the gaunt half-starved animals beneath us kept up their stride. 
 Going ahead with a long swinging gait seemed positively more natural 
 and less fatiguing to them than standing still ; and for four or five hours 
 we kept under way at different rates of speed, according to the nature of 
 the ground, but without once fully stopping to breathe. 
 
 Our way lay over an extensive plain, covered in some places with 
 loose flints, and scattered here and there with thorns. From this we 
 passed through a long valley, overgrown with thistles, and again an open 
 tract of moving sand, beyond which we came to a range of rocky emi- 
 nences, at the base of which was situated a douah, or village, composed 
 of about thirty tents, arranged in two parallel lines. For a distance of 
 several miles around, the plain was covered with scattered thorns and 
 thistles. 
 
 As soon as we came in sight of the douah a number of black slaves 
 ran forward to meet us. Taking hold of Mohammed's foot, as it was 
 turned up along the horse's flank by the short stirrup, they applied their 
 heads to the sole, and repeatedly kissing the hem of his kaick, welcomed 
 him back with a profusion of compliments. The women and children 
 too, came forward, and repeated in a very submissive tone their greetings. 
 Mohammed's wives arranged themselves before him, crossed their arms 
 upon their breasts, and bowed. He advanced towards them and held out 
 his hand ; they all touched it and then applied their own hands to their 
 mouths, heads, and breasts. The whole ceremony was well calculated to 
 make an impression upon strangers, and, had I not already learned that 
 appearances were not to be relied on, I should have gathered the idea 
 that Mohammed was a good husband, kind father, and humane master ; 
 and that his polite dependants were really ■ glad to see him back. My 
 hesitation in admitting the evidence of this excessive ceremonial polite- 
 ness saved me from a great mistake, for a more complete devil in human 
 form, and one more generally hated and feared in all the relations of life, 
 it would have been hard to find even among the inhuman fiends of the 
 Sahara. 
 
 It would occupy too much space were I to note the course of my life 
 
KALOOLAH. 1S7 
 
 from day to day from this time forward for several months. The time, 
 although fertile in events of interest to me, would seem monotonous 
 and tiresome to the reader if dwelt upon in all its details. It is suf- 
 ficient to say that I was soon established in all the duties and privi- 
 leges of a slave. The duties consisted mainly in watching the camels 
 while feeding — driving- them to the hills, and collecting the roots of a 
 kind of thorn for fuel. The privileges consisted in sleeping outside of 
 the tents, exposed to the sand winds and the chilly dews, and supping 
 once a day upon the refuse of the meals for the black slaves, who, be- 
 ing believers, were entitled to, and received a degree of favor and con- 
 sideration that no Kafifir could expect. 
 
 Notwithstanding my sufferings and privations, my health continued 
 good. Every ounce of superfluous flesh being gone, my frame rapidly 
 became hardened to the sinewy consistence of a Bedouin's body, and 
 soon acquired a wonderful power of enduring fatigue, hunger, and thirst. 
 My progress in the language was rapid, so much so, that before the year 
 was out I spoke it fluently. I felt that my capacities for action were 
 nearly reaching their perfect development, and that in a short time it 
 would be necessary to mould into some degree of form and consistency 
 the vague plans which had been revolving in my head. As I frequently 
 had to drive the camels a distance of two days' journey, and remain 
 alone with my gang in the plain, sometimes four or five days, 1 had 
 abundant opportunity for meditation, while, by close attention to the 
 conversation of the Bedouins, I was able to pick up a great deal of in- 
 formation in relation to the desert, without exciting their suspicion. 
 
 One of the most serviceable accomplishments, I knew to be the art of 
 writing charms for the cure of diseases, or for the protection of the wearer 
 from all evil influences. These charms invariably consist of v^ses from 
 the Koran, which are frequently written upon scraps of paper, and worn 
 about the person, at other times written with chalk upon a board. The 
 chalk marks are then washed off, and the water drunk by the patient with 
 the usual reverential expressions of faith in the unity of God and the 
 sanctity of his prophet. As it was impossible for me to learn to read and 
 write the Arabic, I adopted the plan of copying repeatedly all the charms 
 that came in my way, until I had fixed the turn of each letter in my 
 mind. In this manner I accumulated quite a stock, which, without 
 knowing the meaning of any of them, it was in my power to reproduce 
 at any moment. 
 
 I resolutely persisted in making myself of as little use to the Arabs as 
 possible. I could do nothing well, except watch and drive the camels. 
 
i88 KALOOLAH. 
 
 There was some danger, however, of carrying the thing too far, and I took 
 timely warning, from a remark that I accidentally overheard Mohammed 
 make, to the effect that he had a great mind to sell me to the workers of 
 the salt mines below Quahlet. This idea was warmly seconded by sev- 
 eral of his friends, particularly by an old talb, or priest, who had been the 
 most strenuous in his exertions to convert me to the true faith. 
 
 " The Nazarin is good for nothing, why have him about. The sight 
 of him is bad for the eyes." 
 
 I took the hint. I had no idea of being sold into the salt mines, 
 where my personal movements would be restrained so as to render escape 
 perhaps impossible, and I at once resolved that the old priest's eyes should 
 no longer be troubled with the sight of me. Fortunately events occurred 
 a day or two after that enabled me to carry my long-cherished designs 
 into execution. 
 
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 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A Prize— A Depot of Provisions— A Heirie— The Talayeh, the Sebay, and the Tasay— An Ar- 
 rival at the Douah — A Search for the Heirie — A Ride with Soonshoo— Secreted Stores — 
 Milking the Camels — The Devil's Month — Stretching out into the Desert — Soonshoo's 
 Alarm — A Man Overboard — Assisting Soonshoo to Remount— Good-by to the Oasis — A 
 Message to Fatimah — Soonshoo Sets Off for Home — A Change of Course — Heirie Riding 
 — Bedouin Boast. 
 
 iT was one evening, at the close of the nineteenth month of my 
 captivity, that, being at some distance from the camp, a dark 
 speck appeared upon the distant horizon, which my keen and 
 practised vision at once discovered to be a camel. I supposed, 
 at first, that it had a rider, and that it was, perhaps, the avant-coureur of a 
 party who were coming to visit us ; but upon watching the animal for 
 awhile, it became evident that there were no others in company, and that 
 he was without a master. Upon coming to this conclusion I started off 
 for the animal with all speed. Could I have been seen streaming along, 
 bare-foot and bare-legged, with a dirty piece of cotton around my head, 
 and the rags and tags of a tattered haick fluttering in the wind, not one 
 of my Christian friends would have dreamed that I was aught other than a 
 genuine wild Arab. 
 
 The last rays of the twilight lingering over the scene sufficed to satisfy 
 me that no Arab was near, so making the camel kneel, I mounted him, 
 and directed his course towards the camp. The animal was much fatigued 
 and evidently in want of water ; but the readiness with which he stretched 
 out at the word of command, into a long, rolling, jolting, but rapid pace, 
 showed that he was of a better breed than the ordinary pack camel, and 
 that he had, at least, some of the blood of the high-bred dromedary, so 
 much valued for their extraordinary bottom and speed. 
 
 Before coming in sight of the camp, I took the precaution of stopping 
 and hiding a bag of dates that hung at the saddle-bow in a secret hiding- 
 place, where I had already accumulated several articles that might some 
 day come in play, such as a large water skin, a wooden bowl, and a small 
 bag of meal. It must not be supposed that I had been able to obtain 
 
 189 
 
igo KALOOLAH. 
 
 these articles without a good deal of difficulty. My stock of food, small 
 as it was, required months of gradual accretion— every handful that I 
 could save, or steal, being carefully added, until the bag acquired a 
 weight, which, expressed in the equivalent of sustentation, might be 
 safely put down as equal to at least a month above the point of actual 
 starvation. 
 
 It was quite dark when I rode up to the tents, and threw myself from 
 the camel. Most of the men were away upon some expedition, but those 
 who were at home, including my master Mohammed, immediately gath- 
 ered around. 
 
 "You have done well, Rooinah" said Mohammed. " He has lost his 
 master. We must take care of him. What is one man's misfortune is 
 another man's good luck. Blessed be the name of the Prophet ! Let us 
 see what God's gift is worth." 
 
 Torches were lighted, and the Arabs commenced an examination of 
 the animal. At once several voices exclaimed, ''' A heirie ! a heirie ! " 
 Sidi Mohammed evinced the highest exultation, and all the party mani- 
 fested their satisfaction at what they unanimously pronounced to be a 
 piece of good-fortune. The camel was examined with the closest atten- 
 tion, and his points discussed with as much interest as were ever those of 
 a race-horse by a party of turf-men. There seemed to be no doubt that 
 the animal was a tasay heirie. For the first time in his life, Mohammed 
 spoke pleasantly to me. 
 
 It may be well to explain that a heirie is of a peculiar breed of camels, 
 famous all over the desert for their great endurance and wonderful speed. 
 They are to the common camel what the racer is to the cart-horse, and as 
 much pains are taken to preserve the purity of their blood as are ever 
 bestowed upon the thorough-bred champions of the turf. As in the case 
 of the race-horse, there are certain points, consisting mainly in the greater 
 fineness and compactness of the frame, by which the breed can be at once 
 recognized. Of course there is a great deal of difference in the powers of 
 different animals, depending upon some accidental peculiarity of structure, 
 and perhaps upon a greater or less taint of common blood ; but it must 
 be a very poor heirie that cannot far surpass, in the important qualities 
 of wind and speed, the best of the ordinary camel. Inferior heiries, called 
 talayeh, will perform three moderate days' journey in one, or about sixty 
 miles a day ; and this they can do for several days in succession. A bet- 
 ter class, denominated sebay, will go seven days' journey in one, or a hun- 
 dred and twenty miles ; and the fleetest, called tasay, have been known to 
 go at the rate of nine days' journey, or a hundred and sixty miles per day. 
 
KALOOLAH. igr 
 
 A heirie of this last kind is of course rare, and exceedingly valuable, being 
 worth three or four hundred times the usual price of a pack-camel. 
 
 It was expected by my masters that so valuable an animal would not 
 be long without some inquiries after him, and the best means of securing 
 him from his owners were openly discussed. The third morning after- 
 wards, I was directed to ride him to a distant well, that was but little 
 used, and where we should be but little likely to meet any other families of 
 the oasis. I had just ridden up on my return, when a couple of horse- 
 men belonging to our family or douah, dashed into camp from the wells 
 of Ageda. They looked at the camel with some surprise, asked a few 
 questions, and then announced that his owner, with a large party of 
 friends, was at no great distance behind — that they had met them in the 
 basin af Ageda, where they made a great ado about their loss — that the 
 animal had wandered from them while on their way from Hoden to their 
 home in the oasis of Bahga, and that they were determined to search the 
 whole length and breadth of the oasis of Quahlet to find him. 
 
 " God send them good eyesight ; they will need it to find him," 
 exclaimed Hamet. 
 
 " Selme ! Fatimah ! " he continued, calling to his wives, " bring the 
 dates ! bring some bread and a skin of water, quick ! hurry ! Here, Roomah, 
 fasten these articles,' and now you and Soonshoo mount and take your 
 course to the 'devil's mouth' ; when you get there, make the heirie lie 
 down in just the spot where we found our stray camel the other day. 
 You and Soonshoo will keep watch over him, and don't you stir until I 
 come. I will be with you as soon as these people are gone." 
 
 Obeying the order we mounted the kneeling heirie. As the director 
 of his motions I occupied the front seat, with my legs closed upon his 
 neck, while Soonshoo, a little bandy-legged black slave, was a-straddle 
 behind the hump, and holding on by the long hair. 
 
 In about an hour we came to the spot where I had concealed my 
 stock of provisions. Little Soonshoo's eyes opened with astonishment 
 when he saw the articles. " Ah, Roomah" he exclaimed, " what an 
 admirable thief ! you beat us all. We steal only a little milk or a few 
 dates, but you steal things by the bagful. But what are you going to 
 do with all these articles ? " 
 
 " I '11 show you, you little rascal," said I, attaching to the saddle my 
 bag of meal, dates, and my goat-skin bottle. " Come, mount. Do you 
 see those milch camels yonder ? The fellow in charge of them is stowed 
 away under some thorn-bush, sound asleep, I '11 venture to say ; we '11 
 have our fill of milk for once, if we never do again." 
 
192 KALOOLAH. 
 
 In a few minutes we came up with the group of camels grazing, and, 
 dismounting, we tied up the foreleg of our heirie and proceeded at once 
 to milking the flock. I gave Soonshoo the wooden bowl, while I milked 
 directly into the mouth of the skin. He imagined that we were only to 
 help ourselves to a drink ; but when he had filled the bowl, I turned it 
 into th« bottle, and, to his utter astonishment, directed him to fill it 
 again. 
 
 " But Mohammed ! What will he say ? He '11 break every bone in our 
 bodies ! " 
 
 " Never mind Mohammed," I replied. " I '11 take all tlie beating. Fill 
 the bowl." 
 
 " Well do our masters call you the son of Eblis" replied Soonshoo. 
 " Where will your courage stop ? You will dare some day to steal the 
 haick from Mohammed's back. But mind, if this is known, I shall put all 
 the blame upon you." 
 
 " Yes, and the first thing you do will be to tell of it, in order to have 
 me flogged. I know you, you little black rascal ; but never mind, milk 
 away, I '11 take all the blame." 
 
 Two hours brought us to the " devil's mouth," where we were to 
 secrete ourselves. The " mouth " consisted of a few low rocks at the 
 commencement of an extensive reach of loose sand, which was utterly 
 destitute of vegetation. 
 
 The little black shouted, pointed to the rocks, and vehemently insisted 
 that I was making a great mistake in altering my course. " Stop ! Roomah ! " 
 he exclaimed, "there is the 'mouth.' Why don't you hold up? Son of 
 Satan, you are going out into the open desert ! Stop, I tell you, Kaffir ! 
 dog! I '11 have you flogged till there 's as many holes in your skin as 
 there is in my cousad." 
 
 Finding that his cries received no attention, and that I steadily per- 
 sisted in pushing out into the desert, the fellow let go his hold, and, at no 
 little risk to his bones, allowed himself to slip down from his elevated 
 position and roll heels over head upon the sand. I immediately stopped 
 the heirie and made him kneel, at the same time sternly ordering Soonshoo 
 to remount. " Mount, mount, you little villain ! Do you hesitate? Look 
 at this," and I flourished my camel goad around his ears, making him 
 dodge and hop about with extraordinary agility for such a corpulent and 
 sturdy subject. 
 
 " Mohammed shall know this," he shouted, " you son of Shetan ! " 
 
 " You are mistaken," I replied, " I 'm Shetan himself. Mount, mount 
 quickly! You wont? Well, I must make you." Catching him by the 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 193 
 
 back of the neck I shook him a few times, and then gave him a kick that 
 lifted him fairly on to the back of the kneeling camel. " Now, be cautious, 
 and keep your seat ; if you tumble off again I '11 put the evil eye on 
 you, and change you into a baboon." 
 
 At the end of about two hours, having, as near as I could judge, made 
 some fifteen miles, from the "devil's mouth," I halted and dismounted. 
 Making Soonshoo do the same, I untied the bottles of milk and water,, 
 and poured out a portion of both, until the bowl, which held nearly a 
 pint and a half, was filled to the brim. Into this I threw a handful of 
 meal, and told Soonshoo, who was holding the bowl, to drink. Fear 
 
 " Good-by, my dear Soonshoo ! ** 
 
 checking his usual greediness, he obeyed with a timid air, and after a few 
 swallows handed the bowl towards me. 
 
 " Drink it up ! finish the whole of it ; you know that 's the way you 
 have always done whenever our mistress gave you any thing to share with 
 me. Drink it all, you '11 need it before you get home." 
 
 " In the name of the Prophet, tell me, O Roomah, where you are 
 going to take me. Let us go back ; there is nothing before us for forty 
 days but the broad desert. If we go far into it we shall be lost ; I will 
 say nothing to Mohammed about coming here, or about milking the cam- 
 els, or about " 
 
 " No lies, you little villain ! save your tongue until you get to camp. 
 
194 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and then you may tell Mohammed what you please. Here, take these 
 dates, and tie them up in a corner of your cousab." 
 
 Securing all my bottles and bags, and tightening the girths of my sad- 
 dle, I mounted my camel and made him rise, leaving the black standing 
 upon the ground and looktng^ on with the strongest expression of aston- 
 ishment depicted in his sable visage. 
 
 " Good-by, my dear Soonshoo ; I sha'n't see you again, so take good 
 care of yourself. You know your way , it 's a straight course back to the 
 ' devil's mouth.' By the time you get there it will be quite late, and 
 your short legs will be very tired, so you will have to go into the sand- 
 hollow between the rocks and take a good long sleep. The next day you 
 can set out for the camp, which you will reach by sundown. If you are 
 thirsty to-morrow you can milk the camels, you know, if you come across 
 any, and put the blame all upon me. When you get in you must bid 
 Mohammed adieu for me. Tell him that if he wants to see me again he 
 must come to Sweirah — that if he had taken me there himself he should 
 have had a large ransom in powder, cloth, and guns ; but that he would n't 
 believe my word, and I must now look out for myself. Give my love to 
 our mistresses, and if Fatimah inquires after me, tell her that I shall 
 always think of her as one of the most ugly, loathsome animals that 
 Allah ever suffered to creep about upon the face of the globe. Tell her that 
 it I do go to hell, as she has so often predicted, it is some consolation to 
 know that she has got no soul and can't come there too. Good-by, Soon- 
 shoo ! You must ply your legs, my little friend^ or you wont get sight of 
 the rocks before dark. Good-by ! " 
 
 I waved my hand to the stupefied Soonshoo, and then adjusting my- 
 self in the saddle, gave the word to my gallant heirie, who started off at 
 a pace that would have tasked a good trotter on a smooth road, to keep 
 way with, even for half an hour. On looking back, I could seethe black, 
 standing, for some time, in the position that 1 left him in ; but, at last, 
 apparently awaking to the reality of his situation, he turned, and with 
 desperate energy commenced running in the direction of the "mouth." 
 He soon tired of that gait, and the last that I could see of him he was 
 trudging along more slowly, most probably pondering the wonderful 
 story he had to tell of the son of Shetan, who had carried him off nearly 
 two days' journey into the desert, and had left him to find his way back 
 on foot. 
 
 Instead of continuing my course to the north, as soon as Soonshoo 
 was fairly out of sight I hauled my heirie's head around due east. My 
 object had been to impress the black, and through him, his masters, with 
 
KALOOLAH. 19S 
 
 the idea that I had started for Sweirah or Mogadore, in the southern 
 extremity of the kjngdom of Morocco, and thus throw them off my track, 
 should they, as they most probably would, undertake to follow me. Mo- 
 hammed would readily credit the idea ; in fact, had I been going that 
 routC; it would have been impossible, by any doublings or maskings, to 
 make him believe that I had taken any other, and this was one reason 
 why I had deemed it best to merely make a feint at Sweirah, but, in 
 reality, to plunge into the midst of the Sahara. Besides this, there were 
 insuperable objections to continuing my course towards Mogadore ; it was 
 in that direction that the owners of my camel resided ; there was, also, 
 much risk of falling in with some of my old friends belonging to the 
 family of my first master, Hamet Askeiff ; and there was the small chance 
 of making my way alone, without suspicion, through the populous dis- 
 tricts on the northern border. My true plan I concluded to be, to press 
 on easterly until I reached some of the great caravan tracks, in the neigh- 
 borhood of which I might find a residence, until an opportunity present- 
 ed of joining a kafifila going north, and thus, as an obscure individual 
 member of a great multitude, emerge from the desert at some point on 
 the coast of Barbary, as Fez, Tunis, Tripoli, or, perhaps, Cairo. Such a 
 course would be divested of all ground for suspicion, and would leave 
 Mohammed and his friends completely at fault. 
 
 It was with an indescribable rush of feeling- — a perfect whirlwind of 
 emotion — that I wheeled my heirie short round, and shouted a few en- 
 couraging words to the willing beast. There was something in the idea 
 of unrestrained freedom — something in the all-pervading sense of de- 
 pendence upon naught save the blessing of God, and my own strength 
 and courage, that overbore fear, doubt, hesitation, and suppressed all con- 
 temptible repinings and all the agitations, even of hope. There was no 
 moving object in sight. Around lay the desert, and before me stretched 
 its interminable wastes, where for hundreds of miles no green shrub grew, 
 where the foot of no living thing, save that of the occasional wanderer, 
 had ever printed its moving sands. I was alone, but I was free ! Once I 
 was alone upon the sea, but how different this solitude of the desert. 
 There I was the slave of circumstances, here their equal ; here was action, 
 energy, volition. If conquered in a contest with fate, there was the 
 pleasure of fighting, if not the joy of victory. One case required patience 
 and fortitude, the other simply courage. Ah ! how much more pleasant 
 to attack and repel, than to await and endure. 
 
 The rapid motion of my heirie exhilarated me. To skim along on a 
 dromedary, at a steady pace of ten miles an hour, produces a feeling as 
 
196 KALOOLAH. 
 
 near to that of ubiquity as it is given to man to know. On horseback 
 one may attain a greater speed, but it is for a short time, and there is the 
 disagreeable sense of exhausted wind and tired muscles — a sympathetic 
 feeling of the fallibility of horse-flesh. By steamer or rail-car one may 
 travel much faster, but in straight lines, and on given courses. Stick to 
 the track is the law of such motion, and a sense of confinement the re- 
 sult. But with the lithe frame and indefatigable sinews of a thorough- 
 bred dromedary beneath you, and the broad desert around you, there is, 
 besides the full joy of rapid motion, a deep sense of freedom in azimuth 
 that is perfectly enchanting, and a most refreshing feeling of reliance 
 upon the inexhaustible energies and unfailing wind of the animal you 
 bestride. You need not trouble yourself about your beast. Be assured 
 that he can stand it as long as his rider. Be assured that he will almost 
 jolt the heart out of you, make your chylopoietic viscera " chassez and 
 cross over," and semi-luxate every bone in your body, before he will give 
 out. " I 'm a man," gasconades a Bedouin. " I can back a heirie at full 
 speed for a week ! " There is meaning in the boast. " It takes a man," 
 thought I, as I tightened my sash, pulled a piece of haick around my face 
 to keep off the sand wind, and took a steady strain upon the halter that 
 served to support my heirie's outstretched neck and head — " It takes a 
 man, and there is deep pleasure in feeling equal to the demand." 
 
 For three hours we kept under way, until just at nightfall we arrived 
 at a small hollow — where grew a few bushes — the extreme outposts of 
 the oasis. Here I decided to stop for the night, and allow my heirie an 
 opportunity of nibbling a few mouthfuls, the last that he would most 
 probably get for many days. 
 
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 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Sunrise in the Desert — A Sand Wind — A Dead Camel — Sunset — A Good Day's Travel — Char- 
 acter of the Country — Encamping for the'Night — Electrical Phenomena — Position of the 
 Traveller — Threatening Appearances — A Sand Storm — A Runaway Heirie — Finding . a 
 Well — A Loaded Camel Buried in the Sand — Examination of his Load — A Complete 
 Outfit. 
 
 j\HE first glimmeriugs of morning twilight found me mounted, 
 and at least an hour's distance from my resting-place in the 
 sand hollow, where I had halted my dromedary the night be- 
 fore. The short-lived crepusculum was soon succeeded by the 
 full light of the sun, who rose from his bed of sand with a remarkably 
 lurid and bloated countenance, that seemed to indicate any thing rather 
 than a pleasant night's repose. Instead of looking like a bridegroom, 
 fresh from his chamber, he had much more the appearance of an old de- 
 bauchee, who had been keeping late hours and bad company. 
 
 As he rose the wind rose : the sharp, fine grains of sand flew with 
 such force as to make the skin tingle severely where they impinged, but 
 it was some comfort to reflect that the wind would have the effect of ob- 
 literating our track. As we were travelling directly against it, some part 
 of its force was due to the velocity with which we moved. More than 
 once we were compelled to abate our speed, and even to stop and turn 
 our backs to it, until the whirling gust had swept past. 
 
 As the day advanced, the fierce red sun shot down his burning rays, heat- 
 ing the naked plain and the dusty air almost to a furnace heat. In the 
 intervals of the gusts the surface of the parched ground glimmered, and 
 glowed through the refracting currents of the air, like objects seen through 
 the waving vapor surrounding a hot stove-pipe, and suggested, more than 
 once, the idea of the country schoolhouse in winter, the huge stove with 
 its basin of water on top, its piles of green wood drying beneath it, and 
 the shivering, red-cheeked, and red-nosed urchins arrayed in rows around 
 it. But, as has been frequently observed, a man can't hold fire by think- 
 ing of the frosty Caucasus ; so neither could my recollections of red noses 
 and cold feet, or any of the " please-let-me-go-to-the-stove-and-warm-my- 
 
 19,7 
 
1 98 KALOOLAH. 
 
 self " associations of boyhood modify the oppressive influences of the sun, 
 wind, and dust. 
 
 Something crackled beneath the feet of my dromedary ; it was the 
 fieshless skeleton of a camel, half buried in the sand — some luckless way- 
 farer, who had, at last, succumbed to the depressing power of heat, thirst, 
 and fatigue ! 
 
 Towards night the wind ceased entirely, but, although a perfect calm 
 prevailed, the atmosphere remained filled with particles of dust, which 
 seemed to have been so finely comminuted as to have lost the property 
 of weight. The atmosphere overhead had a peculiarly hazy and purplish 
 appearance ; huge currents of slow-moving air crept like monstrous ghosts, 
 with grotesque forms, and with mysterious movements, along the surface. 
 The sun sank down, but long before he reached the horizon his fiery 
 face was merged in the glowing wall, that, like a great rim of red-hot 
 copper, bounded the vision on every side. 
 
 At dark we encamped on the open plain. I allowed myself not half 
 a pint of milk and water, but I could not resist the temptation of washing 
 the nostrils of my heirie, and squeezing a few drops of the precious fluid 
 into his mouth. According to my reckoning we had made about ninety 
 miles. It would not have been difficult, despite the wind, which is 
 always a great drawback, to have made at least twenty-five miles more, 
 but, after having obtained a good ofifing from the oasis, I had judged it 
 best to husband the powers of my heirie, and, accordingly, had reduced 
 his pace to one at which he would be the most likely to hold out the 
 longest. 
 
 Early in the morning we were under way again. The weather was 
 similar to that of the day before, with the exception that the wind did 
 not blow quite so hard, and there were longer intervals of dead calm. 
 The surface and soil were somewhat different, the sand hills were not so 
 high, there was a greater proportion of pebbles and angular fragments 
 of stone, and in some places a stratum of dark granite showed itself 
 above ground, either running along in level plains, or shooting up in 
 irregular and jagged pinnacles of from five to fifteen feet in height. At 
 one spot these were so numerous and so uniform in size, as to put me in 
 mind of a ploughed sandy clearing, with the dark stumps standing in it. 
 Several fragments of skeletons were passed, and, moving rapidly among 
 the rocks was an enormous serpent, full thirty feet in length. As I was 
 wholly unarmed, prudence prevailed over curiosity, and the monster 
 was allowed a wide berth, of which he gladly availed himself, to make his 
 escape. 
 
KALOOLAH. .199 
 
 Encamped again at night on the open plain, having made about one 
 hundred miles. The evening breeze came fitfully, and with a peculiar 
 heaviness, that was attributable more to its electrical state than to any 
 change in temperature. For several hours there was a succession of 
 flashes of electricity, without thunder. Any one would have sworn that 
 we were about to have a shower, but, before morning, all indications of it 
 had disappeared. 
 
 The third day passed with no unusUal occurrence. Nothing could be 
 more disheartening than the baleful aspect of the sky, as the sun went 
 down behind the sand-hills in the west. Words will not convey an idea 
 of the scene, or of my sensations, or, at least, it would require too many of 
 them to do so ; and if, therefore, the reader has any curiosity upon the 
 subject, the best way of gratifying it is to imagine himself on a sandy plain, 
 and, for firmament, a huge red-hot potash kettle inverted over him. My 
 poor dromedary seemed to feel the depressing influences of the weather. 
 When we stopped, which, we did after having achieved a distance of one 
 hundred miles, he evinced a degree of restlessness and irritability, that 
 alarmed me not a little for the state of his health 
 
 According to the most accurate computation that the circumstances 
 of the case would permit, we had travelled a distance of three hundred 
 miles from the douah of Sidi Mohammed, and were now somewhere near 
 the usual caravan route, from Timbuctoo to Taffalet, in Morocco ; and 
 within at least three days' journey, or sixty miles of the town of Toude- 
 ney, where is a great salt mine, and in the neighborhood of which are the 
 wells of Teleg. To the south lay the town of El Arouan, five or six days' 
 journey ; to the east, about the same distance, the oasis of Mabewah, in- 
 habited by the Wolled sleni errife ; to the northwest, I supposed, was 
 El Kabla, the oasis of the Wolled D'leime. It will be seen that I had a 
 pretty general idea of the geography of the desert, as understood by the 
 Arabs ; but, for more particular information respecting my position, and 
 the exact bearing and distance of places, it would be necessary to seek 
 information of some one better acquainted with the immediate locali- 
 ties. This I hoped soon to be able to do, as I was confident that there 
 were human beings within at least fifty miles of me. 
 
 The morning of the fifth day dawned with a still more lurid and 
 threatening aspect than had been worn by either of the preceding ones. 
 Shortly after sunrise the wind increased in violence, lifting immense 
 clouds of sand, and hurrying them with a gyratory motion across the 
 plain. For some time we struggled on, but in a few hours the sun be- 
 came hidden and the horizon completely shut out. The movements of 
 
200 KALOOLAH. 
 
 my beast plainly indicated his desire to stop, and as the only object of 
 moving now was the chance of falling in with travellers, I judged it best 
 to obey the dictates of his instinct. No hill, rock, or bush was there to 
 afford us a shelter, and as the wind momentarily increased in force, we 
 were compelled to crouch, as best we might, before it on the open plain. 
 
 Darker and darker grew the scene. Thicker and thicker came the 
 clouds of sand. Fiercer and fiercer howled the sweeping blast. A few 
 dim rays of yellowish light alone had power to penetrate the dense 
 masses of dust that enveloped us. My heirie buried his nose in 
 the sand, finding it easier to breathe beneath the surface than above it, 
 and wrapping my face in my haick, I followed his example. The op- 
 pression of the chest — the accumulation of sand in the lungs and air pas- 
 sages — the heat — the thirst — were terrible. 
 
 It required frequent exertion to keep from being buried alive. Every 
 little while a solid sand-hill would be hurled upon us to a depth of three 
 or four feet, when we would have to struggle up from it in utter dark- 
 ness, and shaking it off, resume our prostrate position. I lay close by 
 the side of my heirie, with the halter in my hand. Upon rising and 
 giving his head a slight pull, he would surge forward and backward, and 
 heave himself up like a ship after having been boarded by a heavy sea, 
 and then immediately settle down again to his former place without 
 stirring from his tracks. 
 
 The feeble glimmerings of light died away, and it w'^s night ; but 
 there was no moderation in the force of the gale. The light returned, 
 and I concluded that it was again day ; but fiercer flew the sands, and 
 louder howled the whistling blasts. I had tasted nothing now for nearly 
 twenty-four hours, not even a drop of water. With my eyes shut, I felt 
 for the skin, and untying its mouth took about half a pint. It was evi- 
 dent that the water was evaporating beneath the extreme aridity of the 
 air ! " O Thou, who boldest the wind in the hollow of thy hand, save 
 me ! save me ! " 
 
 Notwithstanding the sip of water, which was all that I could allow 
 myself, the sensation of thirst grew in fierceness. Without the practice 
 and the training that I had had un'der the privations and sufferings of 
 the oasis, it would have been ungovernable. What reason, thought I, 
 to thank God for all things ; even for the barbarities of Mohammed and 
 the hatred of his wives ! Besides the sensation of thirst, there was the pros- 
 tration of strength, the exhaustion and agony of obstructed respiration. 
 An occasional low moan from my companion added to my own sufferings 
 the awful apprehension of losing in him my only earthly dependence. 
 
KALOOLAH. 201 
 
 Night again came and passed, and no change in the force of the wind, al- 
 though it had varied in direction, until about the middle of the forenoon, 
 when suddenly it fell to a light breeze, and in a few minutes to a perfect 
 calm. The reader may imagine my physical exhaustion, upon rising and 
 looking around once more upon the open day. But after clearing out 
 my air-passages, eyes, and ears, getting a good drink of milk and water, 
 and inhaling a few mouthfuls of the comparatively clear air, my strength 
 began to return. My friend and companion was also much weakened, 
 but after performing the same kind offices for him that I had for myself, 
 and giving him about a pint of water, he recovered rapidly, and in two or 
 three hours was quite ready for a start. 
 
 At the north there was something that appeared like a range of small 
 hills, and towards them I directed my course, but my heirie seemed to be 
 of a different opinion, and resolutely persisted in turning his head to the 
 southeast. Recolketing the wonderful stories told by the Arabs, of the 
 camel's power of discovering water at a distance, I concluded that it 
 would be best to let him have his own way. We moved off at a slow 
 and steady pace for three hours, through an unvarying succession of sand- 
 hills without seeing any thing to attract attention, except a few scattered 
 twigs of thorns, which had been torn off by the wind. It was now about 
 an hour to sunset, and, exhausted as I was, I felt it almost impossible to 
 keep my seat any longer, so selecting a spot to stop, I halted my beast 
 and dismounted. Imagine my consternation when while standing care- 
 lessly by his side, he suddenly jerked his halter from my hand and started 
 off at a sharp trot. Away he went at the top of his speed, and away 
 went, with a startling whir, the flock of hopes that, through all difficul- 
 ties and dangers, had hitherto nestled around my heart. I pressed after 
 him with desperate energy, when suddenly he disappeared entirely from 
 sight. The view was quite uninterrupted clear to the horizon, and it was 
 not easy to imagine what had become of him, until upon arriving upon 
 the brink of a deep hollow of some thirty feet in depth, and about ten 
 acres in area, I saw him slowly moving about with his head close to the 
 ground. To descend the declivity and secure the fellow was the work of 
 an instant. Having tied up his foreleg, I had leisure to look around while 
 seating myself upon the ground to recover my breath, and was at once 
 convinced that the hollow contained water, the scent of which had led my 
 heirie into his alarming but lucky escapade. The formation of the ground 
 favored the idea, and if any further proof were wanting, there were signs 
 around of its having been, not long since, visited by camels. 
 
 Upon examination, it was not difficult to select from several indica^ 
 
202 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tions, but principally from the dromedary's movements, a spot beneath a 
 small ledge of rocks as the place where it was most likely that water 
 would be found. The sun was still above the horizon, though, of course, 
 his level beams could not reach the bottom of the pit. There was light 
 enough, however, for the time, and by a little exertion perhaps something 
 might be done before it was quite dark, so turning to with my wooden 
 bowl for a shovel, I commenced throwing out the sand ftom beneath the 
 ledge. At a depth of four or five feet a little moisture began to show 
 itself, and upon penetrating a foot or two farther the water began to per- 
 colate slowly through the bottom and sides of the pit. Helping myself 
 to a good draught, and my heirie to about a dozen bowlsful, merely to 
 take off the edge of his appetite, I secured him so that he could not get 
 into the well, and stretched myself upon the ground, when my eyes were 
 almost instantaneously closed in a sound sleep. 
 
 In the morning, after making a thorough ablution of my person, and 
 eating an unusual liberal breakfast of meal, dates, and sour milk, the im- 
 portant and laborious operation of watering my heirie commenced. As 
 the water ran but slowly, and there was nothing but a small bowl in 
 which to deliver it, it was quite late in the forenoon by the time we 
 had made a finish. There were, however, no reasons for hurry. One 
 day's rest, after a sand-storm, was little enough to recruit exhausted 
 nature, and it was not until the next day that we got underweigh. 
 
 "And which way now, my friend?" said I, in accordance with the 
 Arab's habit of continually talking or singing to his camel. "Which 
 way now ? Oh, thou bird ! thou beauty ! Choose for thyself. Oh, thou 
 who drinketh the wind ! who swalloweth the ground ! who killeth with 
 the blows of thy feet both time and space ! choose for thyself, for if 
 one course does not answer we will make another, returning in time 
 upon our track to the cool well for a starting-point. The southeast ? 
 Well, away ! — lu-bi ! lii-lu — away ! " 
 
 Three hours' travel, with a good look-out all around the horizon, and 
 no sign of a human being ! The re-appearance, however, of the desert- 
 thistle in patches was a cheering indication, especially to my companion, 
 who eagerly browsed upon the tough leaves and thorny branches. Upon 
 remounting him, after having allowed him two or three hours for his 
 meal, we altered our course a little more to the east. 
 
 Shortly after, while winding along between the sand-hills, my atten- 
 tion was attracted to a dark and motionless object projecting from the 
 side of one of the hills. Upon approaching, it proved to be a camel with 
 a heavy pack upon its back, and on looking around, at some little dis- 
 
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 H 
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 S 
 
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KALOOLAH. 203 
 
 tance, there were indications of several more. The animal had been dead 
 not more than two or three days, for there was hardly a sign of putrefac- 
 tion, and the ravens had not yet had time to pay the body a visit. The 
 conclusion was irresistible, that it was one of a caravan which had been 
 overwhelmed by the recent sand-storm. 
 
 The load of the poor beast was composed of several bales, or packages, 
 of a moderate size and light weight. Upon opening them, there appeared 
 on one side a number of pieces of red and blue cloth ; a package of Fez 
 caps, and several fine closely-woven haicks, in the manufacture of which 
 the Moroccans excel. On the other side were packages of coral, glass, 
 and amber beads — the latter exceedingly valuable for rosaries, — a dozen 
 or two of small mirrors, and a case of long Spanish sheath-knives. But 
 by far the most interesting objects to me were several pairs of pistols, 
 single- and double-barrelled ; half a dozen canisters of best English pow- 
 der, so highly valued by the Arabs for priming, and a mahogany case 
 with the key attached to the lock. Let it be recollected that my chief 
 trouble had been the want of arms, and the delight may be imagined 
 with which, upon opening the case, my eyes fell upon a double-barrelled 
 gun, of French manufacture. Had I needed any guaranty of the value 
 of the article, after closely inspecting the elaborate and careful finish of 
 all its parts, it was to be found in the name of " Le Page, Paris," engraved 
 upon the locks. The gun was furnished with all its appurtenances, such 
 as flints, flask, and bullet-moulds, and, in addition, a bag containing four or 
 five pounds of leaden balls ; an exceedingly lucky circumstance, as with- 
 out it the gun would have been comparatively useless. 
 
 It was quite late before my examination of all the packages was 
 finfshed, giving me good opportunity, during the night, of making my pla;">.s 
 for a disposition of the treasure. In the morning, as soon as it was light 
 enough, I commenced operations, by taking the gun from its case, putting 
 its parts together, and laying it aside ; the case was buried deep in the 
 sand, so that no Arab, finding it, might suspect that it belonged to my 
 gun, and that, consequently, I had examined the camel's pack, and 
 had secreted any of its contents. I then selected a pair of English double- 
 barrelled pistols, and a long sheath-knife, filled the powder-flask, and made 
 up a pouch of bullets from the large bag ; a few pieces of amber and 
 coral, by way of ready money, completed my personal equipment. I had 
 a strong disposition to rig myself out in an entire new suit, but prudence 
 advised sticking to my old rags and tatters, for a while at least, or until it 
 had been ascertained how much temptation to robbery and murder the 
 virtue of my next friends could withstand. 
 
204 KALOOLAH. 
 
 The remaining powder and ball, with two pair of pistols, three 
 knives, four haicks, sashes, and caps, half a dozen small mirrors, and all 
 the coral, amber, and glass beads, were made up into a secure and com- 
 pact package. The remainder of the goods I re-arranged as they were 
 before, leaving them half buried in the sand, for the benefit of the next 
 comer. 
 
 Securing my pistols, powder-flask, and coral upon my person, and 
 fastening the package upon my heirie, I mounted, gun in hand, and set 
 out. Fortune, as if determined to smile her sweetest, conducted me, a 
 little farther on, to another member of the unfortunate kafiSla, to whose 
 saddle-bow was attached a large bag of dates. There was no use in stop- 
 ping to examine the dead animal's load. My outfit was complete. I 
 needed nothing else. I was richer than Crassus or Croesus — I had enough. 
 There were but three articles besides those with which I was supplied, 
 for which I could have found use — a compass, pocket-sextant and a spy- 
 glass. As it was hardly probable that any one of these would be found in a 
 camel's pack in the desert, I merely stopped to secure the dates, remounted, 
 and went on, meditating, by the way, the truth of the old adage, " it is an ill 
 wind that blows nobody any good," and deeply pondering the mysterious 
 orderings of Providence, of which the misfortunes of the kafifila, and my 
 consequent good luck, afforded such a striking example. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Emerging from the Sand-Hills— Burying Treasure— A Beautiful View— A Douah— Arabic 
 Greetings— A Sharife and a Hadji — Indications of Danger— A Watchful Night— A Start- 
 ling Warning — An Ill-Timed Compliment— The Muezzin's Morning Call — An Effective 
 Speech — Setting Off for the Buried Caravan. 
 
 FTER a hard ride of several hours we emerged from the sand- 
 hills, and arrived at the borders of an extensive plain that was 
 covered with pebbles and flints of a large size, and which was 
 traversed by a serrated chain of gentle elevations. Arrived at 
 a suitable spot, a slight depression of the ground, screened from observa- 
 tion at a distance, I dismounted, and using the wooden bowl, scooped out 
 a hole in the ground large enough to contain the package of articles 
 selected from the dead camel's pack. My object in doing this was to se- 
 cure my treasure from the cupidity of the people I was approaching. I 
 had fears that even my heirie and gun would prove a strong temptation 
 to a violation of the laws of hospitality. Having deposited, therefore, 
 the package, and with- it the bag of dates, the ground was filled in, the 
 pebbles spread over it, and a careful note made, in my mind, of the ap- 
 pearance of the spot and its bearing from the hills. 
 
 Upon remounting my heirie and issuing from the hollow, I was not a 
 little startled at the apparition of two moving figures at a very little dis- 
 tance. It took a second look to convince me that they were ostriches, 
 and not men. As soon as they caught sight of me they took to their 
 heels, and by their watchfulness and timidity, afforded a still further proof 
 that the neighboring country was inhabited. 
 
 The rough, pebbly plain extended, on the side that we were approach- 
 ing, quite up to the foot of the hills. Reaching these I dismounted, and 
 ascended their acclivities on foot, for a reconnaissance of the country be- 
 yond. Upon gaining the summit, one of the most charming views in the 
 world burst upon my sight. Lying under the lee of the hills, and pro- 
 tected by them from the blasting southeast sand-winds, there stretched a 
 magnificent expanse of gently undulating stony surface, more than half 
 of which was covered with a pleasing variety of thorns and brambles. 
 
 205 
 
2o6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Where the bushes could not grow, the naked granite rocks, or perchance 
 a patch of dark sand, served to reHeve what would otherwise have been a 
 monotony of beauty. A few scraggy acacias, with, two or three stunted 
 date palms, materially added to the picturefequeness of the view. Several 
 camels and a flock of goats were scattered over the plain. I stood en- 
 tranced, so much so that it was some time before I observed at my feet 
 a douah of a dozen tents. Apparently none of its inhabitants had yet 
 got sight of me. 
 
 Hastening at once to my heirie, and mounting him, we took our 
 course throu-gh a hollow between the hills, and debouched on the other 
 side, in full view of the douah. According to the etiquette in such cases, 
 I moved up to within thirty or forty rods of the tents, and then dis- 
 mounting, stood motionless until it pleased the sheikh of the douah to 
 take some notice of my presence. I had not long to wait. In a few 
 moments a white-bearded old fellow, in a greasy haick, stepped forth from 
 one of the tents, and came towards me. When within half a dozen 
 yards, he stopped, and after a moment's scrutiny saluted me with Salam 
 Ailekom ! " 
 
 " Ailekom Essalam" I replied. 
 
 " Is it peace ? " he demanded. 
 
 " It is peace," I replied. 
 
 Upon this we advanced towards each other, touched our hands to- 
 gether, and then applied them to our lips. This was repeated half a 
 dozen times, each time both of us making an effort to kiss the other's 
 hand, which was modestly withdrawn, as if the honor was considered too 
 great to receive. The courteous contest would have lasted a long time, 
 had I not at last cut it short by grasping a portion of his dirty haick, and 
 applying it to my lips. All this time there was a rapid interchange of 
 complimentary questions. 
 
 " Are you well ? how are your friends ? How are all the people of the 
 west ? How is our Lord Muley Abderrhaman ? " The last question is a 
 compliment that an Arab of the western part of the desert seldom fails 
 to pay to the emperor of Morocco. A compliment which he can well 
 afford to pay, inasmuch as he never pays any thing else. 
 
 Our greetings over. Sheikh Ali ben Hammadow conducted me to the 
 douah, where I was introduced to his sons, and half a dozen other men, 
 by the name of Ishmael El Drebbah, or Ishmael the marksman. My story 
 was soon told. I represented that I belonged to the Beni Zebis, a tribe of 
 Mongearts, in the neighborhood of Cape Bojador, and that I was almost 
 the only one living of my immediate family, which had been nearly extir- 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 207 
 
 pated in a death feud with a family of the Beni Zosh. That recently I 
 had taken signal vengeance for the death of my relatives, by murdering 
 my chief enemy, with two of his wives and three of his children, besides 
 killing several camels and maiming a slave belonging to his brother, and 
 firing several stacks of barley the property of his cousin ; and that to 
 avoid the fury of his friends, I had taken my heirie and fled. 
 
 Sheikh Ali complimented me upon the virtuous resolution and courage 
 thus displayed, and invited me, with many protestations of undying friend- 
 ship, to make his tent my home. He informed me that the country was 
 called the Waddy Messir, and that it contained numerous douahs, inhabited 
 by the members of his tribe — the Beni Hareb. I also gathered from the 
 
 ' Salam Ailekom !' 
 
 conversation of those around, that my entertainer was both a sharife and 
 a hadji — that is, one claiming descent from the Prophet, and one who had 
 made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Upon the whole, I rather liked his ap- 
 pearance, but there was something exceedingly repulsive and sinister in 
 the manners and appearance of his sons and other relations. 
 
 At night All's wives presented us with a large dish of cooscoosoo. 
 With a " Bishmallah errachman errachman ! " — In the name of God, all 
 powerful and merciful ! — I thrust in my hand and made a hearty meal. 
 " Elhamed lilah ! " — God be praised ! — I exclaimed, finishing, and throw- 
 ing myself upon the ground just within the edge of the tent, but in such 
 a situation that I could command a good view outside. In a few minutes 
 
2o8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 my eyes closed in a pretended sleep. A number of suspicious circum- 
 stances, which it is needless to particularize, now occurred to convince me 
 that some of the Arabs, with Hassan, the Sheikh's oldest son, at their 
 head, were plotting mischief. Until late at night, my weary aqd anxious 
 watch was kept up ; at last all was still, and slumber was about settling, 
 with its heavy weight, upon my eyelids, when my attention was aroused 
 by a slight rustling movement close to the edge of the curtain dividing 
 the tent. It was so dark that the bodies of Ali and several of his sons, who 
 were stretched in the same apartment, could not be distinguished ; but 
 my ears were so close to the curtain that it was easy to perceive that it 
 had been raised, and that somebody was creeping from beneath. Cautious- 
 ly, and without the least noise, my knife was drawn from its sheath, and 
 held in my right hand, while my left was outstretched upon the ground 
 towards the raised curtain. Slowly the moving body drew itself towards 
 me, stopping often ; and although.the distance from the curtain to me was 
 not more than three or four feet, taking at least twenty minutes to creep 
 it. Imagine my anxiety and suspense. At last a hand was laid upon my 
 arm, and passing downwards, my hand was gently pressed by a set of 
 small fat fingers, that, it was plain enough, belonged to no man, and 
 which, upon second thought were clearly referable to no woman about the 
 encampment, except to All's youngest wife. A prompt attack ! thought 
 I, recollecting several amiable glances which the young Arab beauty had 
 bestowed upon me. But I was doing the benevolent Mrs. Ali, in my 
 thought, a great injustice. 
 
 A gentle pressure of my hand, as if to see whether I were awake, was 
 returned on my part, and was followed by a low " Hish ! " and my visitor 
 reached forward, so as to bring her mouth close to my ear. 
 
 " Listen," she said, " but don't speak. You are in great danger. 
 Hassan and his brothers have resolved to murder you. There are but 
 two ways in which you can escape ; take your choice. You must give 
 your heirie to Ali, and your gun to Hassan, and all will be well. If you 
 wont, you must stay by the tent until I get a chance to drive your droiri- 
 edary up into the gorge of the hills, and when I give you the signal, you 
 must wander towards him, and without losing an instant, mount and be 
 off. Hish ! Don't speak." 
 
 Forbidden to speak, it was yet necessary to make my visitor some ac- 
 knowledgment of her kindness. Her lips were in tempting proximity — I 
 recollected that they were smooth and pouting, and enclosed a row of 
 pearly teeth — so turning my head, I brought my own lips smartly in con- 
 tact with them. A stinging slap in the face, and then a sound like a 
 
KALOOLAH. 209 
 
 suppressed laugh, and a parting squeeze of the hand, showed that Mrs, 
 AH, ■while she could resent any thing of impertinence in the kiss, was not 
 wholly insensible to its propriety as a token of gratitude, and an expres- 
 sipn of my perfect comprehension of her plans. In the morning it was 
 pleasant to find, from her good-natured smile, that the rather ill-timed 
 compliment, upon the whole, had not been taken amiss. 
 
 The loud voice of old Ali, in the muezzin's usual form of invocation, 
 resounded through the douah, calling the faithful to morning prayer. 
 After which I arose, stepped forward in front of the tent, and speaking to 
 Ali in a loud tone, invited him and all within hearing to listen to me. I 
 then commenced — addressing my discourse chiefly to Ali. I observed 
 that " hospitality to the stranger was the great virtue of the Arab char- 
 acter; that it was enjoined by the Koran, and universally practised and 
 esteemed, except by unbelievers and idolaters. That the life and property 
 of one to whom we were offering the rights of hospitality were, and ought 
 to be, held sacred."' 
 
 To this proposition Sheikh Ali audibly assented, while Hassan and his 
 companions loerlced on, with increasing marks of surprise. 
 
 " Now you must know that here, in your family, there has been formed 
 a determination to violate my rights, and to disgrace the character of the 
 true believer. You need not ask me how I know it, I am a learned man, 
 a doctor — a Tibeb — El Hackem. I know the secrets of the earth and the 
 air, and should I not know such a thing as this ? I do not accuse you, but 
 I ask you how will Allah look upon the man who violates his law by the 
 murder of a guest ? " 
 
 " It shall not be," said the old man, jumping to his feet, and striking 
 his staff violently on the ground. " It shall not be. Am I not master 
 here ? I say it shall not be." 
 
 " I know it," I replied. " It shall not be ; I have not spoken of it so 
 much for my sake as for yours. I need not explain how the plot must 
 have failed, but I will show you how Allah was prepared to punish the 
 crime, had it been consummated. Listen to me, and mark how wonderful 
 are the ways of God, and what risks we run when we deviate in the slight- 
 est degree from the plain track of the law! Your best heirie is lame — I 
 can cure him. If I had been murdered last night, you would never have 
 ridden him again. Your brother is sick — I am Tibeb — with the blessing 
 of Allah I can cure him — without my skill he will soon die But listen 
 still furtTier! Listen, and open your eyes with wonder at your stupidity 
 and God's goodness. My gun and camel, and this old haick, are all the 
 property that could be got by taking my life, while with me would have 
 
2IO KALOOLAH. 
 
 perished the knowledge of the spot in the desert where lie, overwhelmed 
 with the sands, the richly laden camels of a kaffila from Tefifilet. You 
 would have robbed a poor man, and at the same time have destroyed the 
 only guide to wealth that will make your family the richest in the desert." 
 
 This announcement caused an immense sensation. The Arabs jumped 
 to their feet, and crowded around me, each one protesting that I was the 
 best fellow in the world — that I was their friend and guest, and that they 
 never had an idea of harming a hair of my head. Old All embraced me 
 several times, and even the truculent lout, Hassan, had the impudence to 
 offer me his hand, and to swear by every hair in the tail of Mohammed's 
 camel that my life, in his eyes, was more sacred than his own! It was 
 not my policy to push matters too far, so I accepted Hassan's apologies 
 and protestations, with an intimation of the possibility of having mistaken 
 his intentions ; but to all questions as to the locality of the buried caravan, 
 I refused to reply until all was ready for a start, when I would show them 
 the way. The whole ordering of the business I at once took upon myself, 
 with the purpose of establishing, as far as possible, habits of command 
 and obedience, which might be available at some future time. A strong 
 power is frequently built up on a series of small and opportune demands 
 and submissions. The first links are so silently and smoothly forged as 
 to excite no observation, until at last compliance becomes a stringent 
 custom, and exaction, oppression, and tyranny, a right. 
 
 At night, the camels having been watered, and every thing prepared, we 
 set out — crossing through the hills, and striking out into the flinty plain 
 on the other side. Our party consisted of twenty men, and ten or twelve 
 camels. Ali, Hassan, and myself were mounted upon horses. They 
 were truly gallant animals — not to the eye, for they were nothing but 
 animated skeletons, — but their speed and bottom were wonderful, and 
 they were even able to go two or three days without drink. Hadji Ali 
 loudly vaunted their qualities, assuring me that they were of the pure 
 blood of the Frafiye- — the best family of the Koheije in Yeman, — and that 
 he could produce their pedigree for more than two thousand years. " But 
 know, O my worthy friend Ishmael, that dear to me as is the animal you 
 bestride, if thy report of the kaffila prove true, he is yours. I will pluck 
 him from my eyes, I will tear him from my heart. Thou shalt have Ayoud." 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The Buried Caravan — Moving a Douah — A Feast — A Conversazione — The Wells of Boulag — 
 Schools and Scholars — Arts and Artisans — A Tibib — Epacedopathy — Story-Telling — Music 
 — The Song of the Bedouin — Fears and Doubts. 
 
 NEED not dwell upon our expedition. Suffice it to say that 
 it was quite successful. We found the camels as I had left 
 them, and, upon a close search of the country, discovered half 
 a dozen more, with their valuable loads, and in several instances 
 the remains of their unfortunate masters. After an absence of twenty 
 days, we returned to Waddi Messer, bearing with us an amount of wealth 
 that more than realized the expectations my report had excited. 
 
 Shortly after this, the water of the wells beginning to fail, it was re- 
 solved to break up the douah, and remove to the well of Boulag, about 
 forty miles to the northwest, and not far from Toudena, to which town 
 the Arabs proposed to carry their goods for sale, to the salt traders going 
 south. With wonderful despatch the tents were struck, and, with the 
 household utensils, packed upon the camels. The goats were collected 
 and driven ahead, preceded by Ali and myself on horses. A long train 
 of camels, some of them piled up with women and children, followed the 
 goats, and a party of five or six horsemen brought up the rear. We en- 
 countered several douahs, by whose inhabitants we were politely greeted, 
 and, in several instances, hospitably entertained. On the third night we 
 fell in with a family, en route, like ourselves. We encamped together, and 
 having purchased two kids and a sack of rice, I issued a general invitation 
 to a feast. My wishes were admirably seconded in the department of the 
 cuisme, by young Mrs. Ali, and in two or three hours after sunset, the 
 senses of my dark, dirty, and hungry guests were delighted with several 
 dishes of smoking pilaw. " Bishmalla ! " \ exclaimed, " in the name of 
 God, fall to," and upon the word, at least forty hands were plunged simul- 
 taneously into the smoking messes. An exhibition of manual and man- 
 dible dexterity followed, which lasted about fifteen minutes, when repeated 
 exclamations of '.' Thank God ! " and " Glory to his Prophet ! " indicated 
 that there were limits to the capacity of even an Arab's stomach. Gen- 
 
212 KALOOLAH. 
 
 erally, the Bedouin is extremely abstemious ; but occasionally, and 
 especially when he can gratify his appetite at another man's expense, he 
 will demonstrate the possession of a talent for goiirmandize that would 
 eompo-rt with the umbiUcal expansion of a Samaied or an Esquimaux, 
 but which one would hardly expect to find within that spare and attenu- 
 ated frame, in which it lies, most of the time, in abeyance. 
 
 After supper pipes were produced and passed around, and the conver- 
 sation became general and animated. The subject of horses and camels 
 was discussed — the state of the markets at Sweirah and Timbuctoo was 
 introduced, with the rate of a camel's freight across the desert, and the 
 prices paid for protection through the different tribes. Several stories of 
 family feuds, and among them the one that I had invented, were told. 
 These were received with applause in proportion to the atrociousness of 
 the revenge. It being a subject of regret that there was no professed 
 story-teller present, I volunteered to give them the story of Aladdin and 
 his lamp. My offer was received with a round of compliments, which, 
 upon the conclusion of the story, were renewed. " Bishmalla ! what a 
 man he is ! what generosity — what courage — what wit ! He feasts our 
 bodies and souls. He tickles our hearts as well as our stomachs. His 
 story is fit sauce to his feast, and his feast was worthy of a king." 
 
 It was five or six days before we reached the well of Boulag, which we 
 found already surrounded by several families, but there was water enough 
 for all, and our tents were erected without any objections from the first 
 comers, who were all either relations or friends. We were now a large 
 and formidable part}', consisting of at least two hundred men, and num- 
 bering a hundred horses, full five hundred camels, and a goodly number 
 of goats. The women and children were in fair proportion. For the 
 latter there was a regular school, where they were taught to read the 
 Koran. The plan of instruction consisted in practising, simultaneously, 
 in their loudest voices, a portion of the sacred book, written on a board. 
 It was not a little amusing to see fifty or sixty boys squatted upon the 
 ground, each one with his board, and all of them violently working their 
 bodies backwards and forwards, as if upon the industrious flexure of their 
 vertebral articulations depended the proper articulation of their words. 
 
 I was not a little surprised to see so many artisans in full employment. 
 A number of weavers were daily engaged in turning into cloth the yarn of 
 camels' and goats' hair spun by the women. Saddle- and bridle-makers 
 were busy with harness for horses and camels. Blacksmiths had enough 
 to do in furnishing bits and shoes. They were exceedingly skilful: 
 with a small charcoal fire, and a bellows made of a couple of bladders. 
 
KALOOLAH. 213 
 
 they contrived to do very difficult work, with neatness and despatch. 
 There were even jewellers, who exhibited no small degree of taste and 
 dexterity in the matra^a^ture of gold and silver rings, ornaments for the 
 hair, and studs for headstalls and reins. 
 
 It soon became known that I was a Tibeb, and the fame of the cure 
 effected in the case of Hadji Ali's brother, brought me repeated applica- 
 tions for medical advice. As the cases where my medical skill was invoked 
 were mostly either imaginary or such as required time, the expectant plan, 
 luckily, inasmuch as there were few or no medicines to be had, was the 
 true plan ; but instead of the bread pills of the allopath, or, what is the 
 same thing, the infinitesimal doses of the homoeopath, my usual prescrip- 
 tion was a written charm. It was wonderful, the success that attended 
 my practice. Pity it is that I have not preserved a record of my cures, 
 and that I am unable now to present a detailed statement of all the 
 pathognomonic signs, and therapeutic indications that were met and 
 fulfilled by this one infallible specific. Science suffers — and, still more, 
 bequacked Christendom suffers — for then had the medical quidnuncs rev- 
 elled in a new system of practice with a hard name, and the credulous 
 public had tickled itself for a time, at least, with the beauties of epacedo- 
 pathy. A course of Koran would have become, perhaps, in time, the 
 fashionable alternative, and the writings of the Arabian prophet, turned 
 to their true account — that of an universal panacea, — have been swallowed 
 throughout Christian lands without stirring the bile of a sound orthodox 
 faith. 
 
 But it was as a raconteur, rather than as a physician, that my reputation 
 attained its widest range. Fortunately, the Arabian Nights was a book 
 that had been a favorite, and my memory was charged with the whole 
 stock in trade of the beautiful Scheherazade. Every evening, when in 
 camp, it was the custom to assemble in the centre of the douah, and 
 there, squatted in a circle upon the ground, listen to the song or story, 
 which, however often repeated, seemed never to tire. My stories were 
 received with particular favor, for the reason that, in addition to all the 
 fanciful embellishments of the Eastern authors, I did not hesitate to add 
 a few grotesque inventions and ridiculous exaggerations of my own. The 
 fame of our entertainments soon spread, and attracted visitors from the 
 other douahs: so that, not unfrequently, there was an audience of two or 
 three hundred. Among these were always three or four good singers, 
 with a stock of songs that seemed perfectly inexhaustible. The singer 
 generally accompanied himself upon a rude guitar, or a tambourine, and 
 frequently several instruments would join in the chorus. The airs were, 
 
214 KALOOLAH. 
 
 most of them, exceedingly monotonous, and the words and sentiments had 
 hardly more variety. Nine tenths of all the songs were on the subject of 
 love, in which were invariably introduced the horse, the heirie, or some allu- 
 sion to the happy lot of the Bedouin. A few were exclusively patriotic, 
 and devoted to celebrating the pleasures and comfort of the desert, and the 
 courage and independence of its inhabitants. Of these latter, the follow- 
 ing may serve as a fair specimen : — 
 
 THE SONG OF THE BEDOUIN. 
 
 Like a star peering out tlirough the folds of thick night, 
 
 An oasis gleams 'mid Sahara's drear wilds, 
 Dispersing the gloom with its emerald light, 
 
 And cheering the waste with its soft sunny smiles. 
 Here the tent often folded, now firmly pitched stands. 
 
 With the voices of childhood the green Waddy rings ; 
 The pure water bubbles from 'neath the fierce sands, 
 
 And, loudly exulting, the wild Arab sings : 
 
 " What reck I of all the dull pleasures of town ; 
 
 Of life's feeble jpys, crushed and cramped within walls ; ) 
 Of the Mufti's weak laws, or the Kadi's stern frown ; 
 
 The bazaars, and the baths, or the base traders' stalls ! 
 No, alone in the desert, so boundless and wild. 
 
 The pleasures of freedom the bold Bedouin finds. 
 Fierce pleasures, and meet for Sahara's own child, 
 
 Who roams o'er her sands as uncurbed as the winds. 
 
 *' My camels are strong, and my heiries are fleet ; 
 
 Ever saddled and ready my ' wind-drinker ' stands ; 
 I call him — -he comes, and I vault to the seat. 
 
 Now away, and away o'er the fierce burning sands ! 
 With what thrilling delight do my quick pulses beat, 
 
 As like to some wild flying demon in wrath. 
 My gallant steed swallows the ground with his feet. 
 
 And swift as a bird, through the air cleaves his path .' 
 
 " Ha ! a dark moving object far distant I see ; 
 
 Along the horizon it rushes with speed ; 
 Come, come, my brave courser, my trust is in thee — 
 
 That ostrich shall honor thy blood and thy breed. 
 We near him ! We near him ! Ah, laggard, 't is vain 
 
 That with rapid feet casting the dusty clouds back, 
 In circles wide wheeling, thou securest the plain. 
 
 For Ayoud, untiring, is close on thy track ! 
 
 " We near him ! We near him ! — in vain all his speed. 
 In vain all his strength, all his wiles, all his art : 
 
a 
 z 
 
 M 
 I 
 
 >■ 
 
 Q 
 
KALOOLAH. 215 
 
 One more spring ! one more stride ! and the slender jeered 
 
 Is brandished aloft, and flies straight to his heart. 
 Stately bird of the desert, thy plumage so bright. 
 
 So soft, and so graceful, and light as the air,. 
 The markets of Sweirah shall iill with delight, 
 
 And in far Kaffir lands wreathe the brows of the fair. 
 
 "Why trembles my courser ? Why snuffs he the air ? 
 
 Why pales the bright sun in the brightness of noon ? 
 'T is the breath of Azrael — prepare, oh ! prepare. 
 
 For the poisonous blast of the purple simoon ! 
 Down, down in the dust, and hold tightly the breath. 
 
 Till the dark desert demon has fiercely swept past — 
 He has gone — he has gone — the dread angel of death 
 
 Has flown on the wings of the hot scorching blast ! 
 
 " To horse ! now, to horse ! Mount, mount, every man ! 
 
 Send the word through the tribes with the speed of the light, 
 The merchants of Houssa, Tombute, and Soudan, 
 
 With their rich laden camels are heaving in sight. 
 Behind the dark sand-hills we quietly sit ; 
 
 Hush ! hush ! — not a whisper. — Now, now we 're away ! 
 With the blood on our rowels, and foam on the bit. 
 
 With a rush like the Siroc we dash on our prey. 
 
 " At the gleam of our spear-points the battle is won ; 
 
 The brave who resist are borne earthward and slain ; 
 The cowards are scattered like mists by the sun, 
 
 And their bales of rich merchandise cumber the plain. 
 There are cottons of Nyffe, and cloths of Bornou, 
 
 The jelib, the haick, the bornouse, and kaftan. 
 Rings, anklets, and bracelets from famed Sackatoo, 
 
 And jewels, and ingots from golden Soudan. 
 
 ' ' Now, glory to Allah ! who sends us the prize ; 
 
 To Allah, unstinting, who loads us with spoil ; 
 UntoHim, who each want of His children supplies. 
 
 And rewards thus so freely their faith and their toil. 
 And to Him, who is seated at Allah's right hand, 
 
 To God's holy Prophet let all glory be : 
 And glory, O glory, thou dear desert land ! 
 
 For thy joys, though they 're few, are the joys of the free." 
 
 My skill as a inarksman contributed not a little to the consideration 
 and influence that I was acquiring ; with this disadvantage, however, that 
 it excited more jealousy and envy than my other accomplishments, and 
 gave me two or three strong personal enemies. Among these, the prin- 
 cipal one was the truculent Hassan, son of Ali. 
 
2i6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 A source of considerable anxiety was the constant apprehension of 
 the appearance among us of some one of the family of my old masters, 
 by whom my person might be recognized as that of the fugitive slave. 
 The dread of such a misadventure compelled me to the precaution of 
 scrutinizing any new-comers before showing myself, while it very much 
 interfered with the pleasures and comforts of my situation, and very 
 much strengthened my determination to avail myself of the first oppor- 
 tunity of returning to civilized life. Sometimes, however, I had a mind 
 to set out for the south and visit the negro countries, and even attempt 
 penetrating the Djebel Kumri — the Arabic name for the Mountains of 
 the Moon — and seeking, among the transmontane table-lands of that 
 mysterious chain, the native land of Kaloolah. On the one side, there 
 was the strong desire to revisit old friends and old haunts ; an intense 
 curiosity as to what had taken place during my absence ; a wish to relieve 
 the anxiety that I knew must be felt respecting me ; and a disposition to 
 relate to sympathizing ears the curious adventures that I had encoun- 
 tered : on the other hand, was the unquenched thirst for adventure ; the 
 glittering allurements of a terra incognita; the ambition of being the 
 means of solving some of the great geographical problems which had for 
 so long a time excited the interest of the scientific world ; and, more than 
 all, the hope of again seeing Kaloolah, whose image neither shipwreck, 
 nor slavery, nor the fierce storms, nor the wild freedom and excitement of 
 the desert, had banished from my mind. It was thus, halting between two 
 opinions, that I remained three or four months at the well of Boulag, little 
 dreaming that circumstances were maturing that would turn the scale in 
 favor of the south, and leave country, home, and kindred dangling in the 
 distant perspective. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The Timbuctoo Kaffila — The Camp in Arms — Sheikh Mahmoud Eben Doud Sliein — A Display 
 of Horsemanship — Preparations to Attack the Kaffila — The Lab el Barode — The Ambus- 
 cade — Debouching from the Sand-Hills — The Attack — The Bivouac — Astrology and its 
 Truths — A Happy Rencontre — Kaloolah's Story — Jennie — Timliuctoo. 
 
 NE day the news arrived in camp that a caravan from Tim- 
 buctoo was- attempting the direct northern route, without 
 having made the usual terms with the leading men of our 
 tribe. As this was the caravan that I had been so anxiously 
 expecting, it was not a little disappointment to learn that owing to the 
 foolhardiness of its conductors, who believed that the oasis of the Messer 
 had been deserted for the valleys of Hareb and the plains of Tuat, the 
 expedition would certainly fail ; and that, instead of having an oppor- 
 tunity of joining the kaffila, I should probably see it attacked and 
 plundered — a catastrophe that might have been easily prevented by the 
 payment of the usual tolls to the wild masters of the country through 
 which it had to pass. 
 
 " To horse ! to horse ! " was the word that passed from one extremity 
 of the oasis to the other with the rapidity of the wind. Each green 
 waddy, from a distance around of a hundred miles, poured forth its 
 horsemen ; all rushing, with the instinctive eagerness of the Ishmaelite, 
 at the first intimation of spoil. The rendezvous was appointed at Boulag, 
 and when all were collected we numbered over four hundred mounted 
 men, the whole under the command of Sheikh Mahmoud Eben Doud 
 Skein, the acknowledged senior chief of the whole tribe. 
 
 The sheikh, a little withered fellow, was nearly ninety years of age, 
 but he sat his horse with the grace and vigor of early manhood, and 
 evinced an uncommon degree of vivacity and energy in all his movements. 
 The first day of his arrival he dashed into the encampment, with a few 
 followers, at full speed ; checked his horse instantaneously, bringing his 
 haunches almost to the ground, and then forcing him to perform a num- 
 ber of lofty croupades, marked upon his sides with the points of the 
 heavy iron spur the initial letters of the Mohammedan confession of faith. 
 
 217 
 
218 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Jumping from his horse, the old fellow seated himself upon the ground, 
 and quietly enjoyed the expressions of admiration which his performance 
 called forth. His orders were given with promptness and precision. 
 Scouts were despatched to watch the movements of the kafifila ; which 
 was struggling along at the slow pace of the loaded camel ; and, in the 
 meantime, arrangements were made to meet our prey at the well of the 
 Waddy el baltr nile, or the valley of the dry river, which was about three 
 days' journey to the southwest. 
 
 Besides Mahmoud, there were several other sheikhs of nearly equal 
 authority ; the most active of whom was Kaid Hassen iben Salech el 
 Achmer, Sidi Achmed iben Ali el Hammr el Sehare, and Hammed iben 
 Omar el Busroche. The last was particularly celebrated in the Lab el 
 Barode, a game of which the Arabs are extravagantly fond. It consists 
 in several horsemen placing themselves in a line abreast, and dashing for- 
 ward for a few rods, all the while twirling their muskets in the air, and 
 sometimes throwing them up and catching them with great dexterity. 
 At the end of the course the horses are instantaneously checked, the 
 muskets brought down and fired over the head of the crouching steed, 
 the animal recovered with a single demi-volte, wheeled and walked slowly 
 back to the starting-point. 
 
 At length all our preparations having been completed, and having ob- 
 tained accurate information of the movements of the kafifila, we set out, 
 and in three days, without any adventure of interest, reached the banks 
 of the rocky ravine, where we proposed to conceal ourselves. Next day 
 we remained quietly crouching among the sand-hills, bordering a flinty 
 plain of several miles in extent — the hot sun beating down upon our un- 
 sheltered heads, and occasional eddies of impalpable dust making respira- 
 tion, which, in a pure air, is decidedly the most pleasing function of the 
 body, a positive misery. A few dates, equally shared between man and 
 steed, and a single sip of water, afforded the only refreshment that my 
 hardened and abstemious companions required. For myself, anxiety for 
 the doomed caravan wholly occupied my mind, but none of the numerous 
 plans that occurred to me seemed to promise any hope of averting its fate. 
 It had advanced so far that even a knowledge of its danger would come 
 too late — too late to escape, but, perhaps, not too late to effect a com- 
 promise, and prevent an attack. 
 
 Seeing no other plan, I had almost made up my mind to jump upon 
 Ayoud, and dash out at any and all risks, when messengers arrived with 
 information that at once excited a commotion in our ranks. Orders were 
 passed to mount, and taking up our line of march in an oblique direction 
 
KALOOLAH. 219 
 
 towards the level plain we had crossed the day before, we slowly and 
 cautiously wound among the low sand-drifts. The greatest care was taken 
 to conceal our movements, not a man was allowed to ascend the rifts, 
 which compelled us to make large detours to get round them, and in sev- 
 eral places orders were passed for the men to dismount and lead their 
 horses, until a higher cover had been attained. 
 
 The sun was about three hours high when we reached a position just 
 at the edge of the plain, and where we were protected from view by a 
 long rift of sand and a few irregular rocky eminences. By stretching our 
 necks a little, we had a good view of the plain, quite to the distant hori- 
 zon. All eyes were at once directed to the left, where, emerging from the 
 sand-hills, were to be seen numerous groups of men and camels. No 
 order appeared to be preserved in their line of march, the different parties 
 straggling over a space of a quarter of a mile in width and nearly two 
 miles in length, with wide intervals between the groups. One after 
 another, the heavily laden " ships of the desert " worked their way out 
 from among the sand-hills on to the plains, until at last there appeared an 
 almost interminable array of full fifteen hundred camels, accompanied by 
 five hundred men and numerous slaves. Slowly the straggling trains 
 toiled on towards us, in a course that would bring them past our cover at 
 the distance of less than a quarter of a mile. Already the guides and 
 foremost groups had passed by, and, from their motions, were evidently 
 about to halt for the night, while from the advancing parties could be 
 heard the monotonous chant with which the Arab encourages the foot- 
 steps of his weary beast. At this moment the signal was given, and in 
 a solid mass we rushed upon the plain, deploying at full speed, as soon as 
 we had cleared the sand-hills, into a long line, two deep. This manoeuvre 
 was executed with unexpected precision. 
 
 About fifty of our men were armed with guns, and these occupied the 
 front rank; the remainder were armed with spears, which, with wild shouts, 
 were twirled high in the air above their heads. " Allah Ackbah ! Allah 
 Ackbah ! Allah illah Allah ! Rasoul Mohammed Allah ! " was loudly shouted 
 along the ranks, mingled with the strongly aspirated and encouraging 
 " Hah-hah ! Hah-hah ! " of the Arabic horseman to his steed. It was 
 easy to perceive, however, that, amid all the bustle and excitement, there 
 was an intentional illustration of the adage, " the more haste the less 
 speed," and that, notwithstanding our yelling and spurring, we were far 
 from charging at our fastest pace. Our horses were forced into lofty and 
 violent action, while in reality they covered the ground slowly, and by 
 this plan the panic was allowed time to spread, and afforded to many an 
 
220 KALOOLAH. 
 
 opportunity of flying, who would otherwise have fought in sheer despe- 
 ration. 
 
 The instant our first shout broke upon the stillness of the plain, the 
 whole kafifila halted in consternation. Shouts of fear and rage answered 
 our battle-cry, mingled with the loud yells and curses of the camel-drivers, 
 and the shrieks of the women and children, who formed part of the riches 
 of the caravan. The few who were in the van goaded their weary beasts 
 into a trot, and pressed onwards, regardless of those behind, while those 
 in the rear collected their beasts and turned back among the sand-hills, 
 from which they had just emerged. Others, who were tog far advanced 
 to escape, deserted their property, and fled wildly on foot across the open 
 country, while others stood their ground and made what preparations they 
 could for resistance. These last, however, were few in number, and they 
 had hardly time to uncover their long guns or to unsheath their scimitars 
 before we were upon them. 
 
 Without combination or order, they could make but little resistance, 
 and in a few minutes they were all overpowered, disarmed, and compelled 
 to seat themselves upon the ground, while the victors proceeded to collect 
 the spoil. The last rays of the short twilight of southern latitudes were 
 now illuminating the scene, showing with wonderful distinctness the wild 
 groups of horsemen, as they galloped about after the fugitive camels. In 
 a few moments the glowing red was succeeded by the cold gray of night, 
 and the Bedouins began to gather in with the animals they had captured, 
 leaving fully one half of the scattered caravan to make its escape under 
 the friendly cover of the darkness. It was arranged to bivouac upon 
 the spot, and await the light of day for an examination of our plunder. 
 The slaves, most of them women and children, were placed in the centre, 
 around these the loaded camels were made to kneel, while outside, and 
 surrounding all, the victors stretched themselves upon the ground, each 
 one beside his steed, and with his arms by his side ready for use. A 
 guard was stationed over the prisoners, and sentinels were posted far out 
 on the plain as a precaution against attack, although there was but little 
 danger to apprehend from the scattered and flying fugitives. 
 
 Gradually, one after the other, the chattering Bedouins had sunk back 
 upon the ground, and wrapping their faces in the folds of their haicks, 
 were resigning themselves to rest. The cries of the children and the 
 moans of the women slowly subsided, when they found that their captors 
 were not the desert demons with which their imaginations had been filled. 
 A few low voices in conversation, in the liquid languages of the Soudan, 
 rose and fell upon the gentle night wind, interrupted, perhaps, now and 
 
KALOOLAH. 221 
 
 then, by the deep guttural exclamation of an Arab voice at a restive 
 camel. One of these animals exhibited signs of restlessness, and, rising 
 to his feet, evinced a disposition to press in upon the enclosed slaves. 
 Leaving my horse at a little distance, securely picketed by a short cord 
 and a strong wooden peg driven into the ground, I strode forward, and 
 with some little difficulty reduced the animal to obedience ; but, as he 
 still evinced symptoms of disquiet, instead of returning to my steed I 
 threw myself upon the ground at the side of the camel, and between him 
 and a closely hooded figure that I supposed to be some female slave of a 
 higher class than the other half-naked blacks. 
 
 The noises of the wild bivouac grew less and less ; the night wind 
 swept by with a more gentle sigh ; the sky was cloudless, and the bright 
 stars peered down like angels' eyes, with a peculiar earnestness and intent- 
 ness, as if their wondering owners were trying to pry into the deep physi- 
 cal and still deeper moral mysteries of this strange world. " Look on ! 
 Look on ! " I muttered, half-aloud, imagination lending plausibility, for 
 the moment, to the forced conceit. " Look on, ye host of sparklers ! your 
 pure natures must ever find a puzzle in the changing and commingling 
 threads of vice and virtue that make up the web of human life." I gazed 
 upward, steadily, in a deep and absorbing revery, and as I gazed the stars 
 seemed to grow brighter and larger, and to pour into my soul a flood of 
 radiance that slowly etherialized each material portion of my frame. He 
 who has ever drunk in the spiritualizing influences of nature in any of her 
 highest moods, will understand the sensation with which I gazed, while 
 almost a conviction sprang to my mind that some truth might yet be 
 found lurking beneath the rubbish of rejected astrology. " Bright and 
 beautiful beings ! " I exclaimed, " it cannot be that all the beliefs respect- 
 ing your aspects and influences, once so firmly and so generally held, were 
 utterly vain and untrue. Say, were all the dreams and dogmas of astrol- 
 ogy, from the first, the offspring of ignorance and chicane, or were they 
 the relics of a higher astronomy that flourished ere the world grew old ? 
 Oh ! if the science were true, and I were but master of its arcana, how 
 would I question you ! I would make you prophesy of the future, but 
 not until you had satisfied me as to the present and the past. I would 
 ask you of other scenes and fairer lands. I would ask you of friends — 
 and above all, I would ask you of Kaloolah — sweet, gentle, artless 
 Kaloolah!" 
 
 At this instant I heard my own name pronounced in a low, soft tone, 
 but with perfect distinctness. " Jon'than Romer! " were the words that 
 seemed to float upon the air directly above me. I could not but smile at 
 
222 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the intensity of imaginings that could thus so impudently attempt an im 
 position upon my senses, but at the thought the words came again,:and 
 with a clearness of enunciation that made me start almost with alarm 
 lest my senses themselves might be joining in the league against my rea- 
 son. " I like to give fancy fair play," said I to myself, " but this is carrying 
 the joke a little too far," and sitting up I gave myself a shake, as if to 
 arouse the sleepy understanding to a proper watch and ward over the 
 portals of the mind. 
 
 "Jon'than Romer ! " said the voice, and this, time in tones that could 
 not be misunderstood for the delusions of fancy. " What mystery is 
 this? " said I, starting and turning towards the figure that I had taken for 
 a negro slave. " Can it be — Kaloolah ? Did you call me ? Kaloolah ! " 
 The reclining figure raised itself from the ground, and stretching forth 
 both arms, whispered low, but distinctly, " It is I — Kaloolah. Oh ! 
 Jon'than ! " Fler further words were cut short by a choking inspiration, 
 and she would have fallen, but I was at her side, and she buried her face 
 in my bosom. 
 
 For some moments we sat without speaking ; indeed words would have 
 been inaudible amid the deafening reverberations of our beating hearts. 
 
 I turned back the folds of her head-dress and exposed her face to the 
 bright rays of Arcturus, who was peering down from the zenith. There 
 could be no room for doubt. 'T was she ! Kaloolah ! I pressed her 
 closely to my breast. For a moment she lay, unresisting, in my embrace, 
 and then gently disengaging herself, she drew her hood over her face and 
 sat erect. Still all was silence ; how long it might have lasted I know not, 
 had it not been broken by a sob, followed by the least faint tinkle of a 
 silvery laugh. I caught her hand, and drew her again towards me. It 
 was necessary to sit very close, and whisper low, to avoid attracting atten^ 
 tion from the drowsy slaves, or the more distant but wakeful Bedouins. 
 
 " Tell me, Kaloolah, how is this ? How do I find you here — in this 
 wild spot, and in such a guise ? " 
 
 " I come, as you see — a slave. Such have I been almost from the time 
 we parted ; but you, Jon'than, how came you here ? " 
 
 "Ah, mine is a long story; tell me first how you came to recognize 
 me, and to call my name ? " 
 
 " The heart, the heart — Jon'than, has keen senses. I saw you as you 
 stood over the wounded man, and turned aside the swords that were 
 seeking his life. The idea that it was you was too improbable for belief, 
 but the fancied resemblance made my heart give one bound, and then 
 fall cold and dead as a stone. Again, when you came here to the 
 
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 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 •»3 
 8 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
KALOOLAH. 223 
 
 camel, that voice roused every thought of you, but I could not, for a 
 moment, really believe that it was you. After quieting the camel, you 
 threw yourself upon the ground, and at last I heard you muttering words 
 that sounded like English. How my heart struggled with its rushing 
 tide. I pronounced your name — an Arab would not have noticed the 
 sound — you started. I repeated your name ; you answered me, you 
 called me Kaloolah. Ah, tell me, do I dream, or is it all true and real ? 
 Tell me that you are Jon'than, that fancy does not deceive me." 
 
 In answer to my questions, Kaloolah now related her adventures after 
 leaving Sierra Leone. Her story was long and interesting, but for rea- 
 sons, that perhaps the reader is fully prepared to appreciate, it must be 
 condensed into the fewest possible words. 
 
 Leaving Freetown, the Mandingo kafHla, with whom, it will be recol- 
 lected, Kaloolah and Enphadde were to travel, made its way through the 
 country of the Timanees. Beyond this the road became exceedingly 
 rough and difficult, until they had reached Kissa, where the kafiSla halted 
 for two or three weeks. Up to this time, Enphadde and his sister had 
 travelled without much molestation, except from the occasional insolent 
 curiosity of the fanatic Foulahs, who, however, when assured that the 
 white people were not Christians, allowed them to pass without deten- 
 tion. At Kissa, however, symptoms of difificulty began to show them- 
 selves. For some time they were closely confined, while councils were 
 held respecting them. The party of Mandingos, who had sworn to pro- 
 tect them, now deserted them, carrying off a large portion of their prop- 
 erty, and leaving them to the tender mercies of the rapacious king and 
 nobles of Kissa. After much difificulty and trouble, Enphadde succeeded 
 at last in procuring permission to set out on his journey for Tim^. Two 
 surly Foulah guides were obtained, by whom the travellers were con- 
 ducted to a small village nearly four day's journey beyond Kissa. The 
 village was situated upon the banks of a pleasant stream, and consisted 
 of about thirty mud huts, affording accommodation to a pastoral and 
 inoffensive people. The appearance of the travellers excited no little 
 surprise, but they were received with kindness and hospitality. A hut 
 was assigned them on the banks of the river, and provisions supplied them 
 in abundance. 
 
 In the evening Enphadde was sent for, to visit the chief of the village. 
 During his absence, Kaloolah, allured by the beauty of the night and the 
 rippling of the water, stepped from the door of the hut to the edge of 
 the stream. For some minutes she stood gazing in a deep revery upon 
 the bosom of the star-lit water, when she was suddenly seized from 
 
224 KALOOLAH. 
 
 behind — a cofiow paigne thrown over her head and twisted almost to suf- 
 focation. Her hands and feet were then tied together, when she was 
 lifted up, carried a short distance down the stream, and deposited in a 
 canoe. In a short time the canoe stopped, the muffler was taken from 
 her face, her limbs freed, and with a rough grasp upon her shoulder, she 
 was forced forward at a rapid pace through a tortuous and tangled forest- 
 path. About midnight they arrived within sight of a fire, kindled at the 
 base of an impending rock. Here they found a party of four females, 
 recently captured, and in course of the night were joined by two more of 
 the slave-hunting gang, who brought with them a boy of about five 
 years of age. 
 
 Before daylight the whole party set out at a rapid pace in a direction 
 nearly due north. For twenty days they continued their journey, barely 
 stopping for sleep and meals, and carefully avoiding several villages, that 
 Kaloolah could see in the distance on either hand. Several times they 
 encountered bands of travellers and wild beasts, but met with no moles- 
 tation from either. At last they reached a large and populous town, which 
 proved to be an extensive slave-mart. Here the females were exposed 
 for sale — the blacks readily finding purchasers ; but the whiteness of 
 Kaloolah's skin, and her slender figure, worn down by her long and 
 fatiguing journey, were deemed objections, and it was some time before 
 a purchaser could be found. At last, however, she was bought by a 
 Madengo merchant, who was about to start with a number of slaves for 
 the great city of Jennie, on the Niger. 
 
 In this large and flourishing city Kaloolah remained for about a year, 
 as a slave in the house of Hamadow Kinka, a rich Foulah, a relative of 
 King Sego Ahmadow, and a devout believer. Not content with perform- 
 ing the duties enjoined by the Koran, this pious Mussulman, in his rever- 
 ence for the words of the sacred book, had bowed in humble submission 
 to its less stringent suggestions. With him, permissions were recom- 
 mendations, recommendations commands ; and four wives in consequence 
 rivalled each other in their attempts at his domestic felicity To one of 
 these ladies Kaloolah was particularly assigned, but the repugnance she 
 evinced to the duties proposed to her soon reduced her from the light 
 but disgusting offices of lady's maid, to the more fatiguing but dignified 
 labor of the household drudge. 
 
 To assist at the toilet of civilized beauty; to adjust the graceful 
 drapery ; to tint, with the hues of health, the delicate cheek ; or to braid 
 the glossy ringlet ; is an employment that, in numberless instances which 
 might be mentioned, fairies, and queens, and illustrious ladies of all ranks 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 225 
 
 have condescended to, without derogation to their dignity and grace ; 
 but to perform the like offices for an Ethiopian belle — to rub in the ran- 
 cid mutton-tallow and palm-oil, with which her whole person has to be 
 anointed ; to drape her reeking form in dingy and unctuous finery ; or to 
 wield the fan for hours over her heavy post-prandial slumbers ; all this is a 
 very different matter. The truth of this observation will explain the feel- 
 ing of pleasure with which I ftiund that Kaloolah had chosen the hard lot 
 of an out-door slave ; and excuse the particularity with which I take leave 
 to state that her chief employment was to bring water in a calabash for 
 
 " Her chief employment was to bring water in a calabash." 
 
 domestic purposes from the river, and that she never assisted in anointing 
 or abluting either of the obese beauties of Kkid Kinka's harem. 
 
 It happened that in her visits to the river, Kaloolah's appearance 
 attracted the attention of an old Moor from Morocco, who had crossed 
 the desert to Timbuctoo on a trading speculation, and thence had pushed 
 on up the Niger to Jennie. He was now about to return, and after 
 making some inquiries, proposed to Kinka to purchase her with the inten- 
 tion of taking her home with him, where her white skin would be no 
 objection, and her peculiar beauty would be better appreciated. " Who 
 knows," thought the old speculator, " but that she may find favor in the 
 
226 KALOOLAH. 
 
 eyes of Muly Abderrhaman himself, and if so she will prove one- of the 
 best bargains that I have yet made." 
 
 In a few days after this change of masters Kaloolah and the Moor 
 embarked in one of the large boats employed upon the river for the 
 famed city of Timbuctoo. There were forty or fifty other slaves, with a 
 dozen or more negro and Moorish traders, besides a crew of fifteen or 
 twenty men, and a heavy cargo of rice, millet, butter, honey, onions, pis- 
 tachios, colat-nuts, preserved fruits, and manufactured stuffs. 
 
 Without incident, except the forcible exaction of tribute by a party 
 of Tuarics, the travellers reached, after a voyage of a month, a small 
 village, and landing, proceeded over fields of sand, about an hour's jour- 
 ney to the great city of Timbuctoo. During her short residence in this 
 city Kaloolah was closely housed, so that she had hardly an opportunity 
 of making any observations as to the size or general appearance of the 
 town. She noticed only that the streets were narrow ; the houses low, 
 mostly of one story ; that the city appeared to stand in a plain of sand, 
 and that it had no walls. Ten days after her arrival, her master announced 
 that a caravan was ready to start, and that she must prepare for a jour- 
 ney across the great desert. But little preparation on her part was 
 necessary, her whole wardrobe consisting of a long, loose cotton robe, a 
 cotton kerchief tied around the head, and falling over the face like a veil, 
 and a thick woollen haick in which, at pleasure, she could wrap herself 
 from the' fierce rays of the sun, or the keen airs of the night. ■ As her 
 beauty was the chief subject of the speculation, it of course was for the 
 interest of her master to treat her with kindness, and to afford her all 
 possible comforts in her wearisome and fatiguing journey. A matting of 
 coarse wool was provided for her repose at night, and the large pannier 
 in which she rode was so stuffed and slung as to render comparatively 
 easy the heavy paces of the camel. 
 
 In six days the caravan halted at El Arouan, a town in the midst of 
 the desert. Here it rested about a week, when it resumed its march, and 
 toiling on from well to well, a weary journey of twenty days, had at last 
 falletr into the ambuscade, which the attempt to avoid the usual tribute 
 had provoked. For a second time, under circumstances of peculiar 
 interest, at least to us, Kaloolah had been thrown, as it were, into my 
 arms. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Kaloolah and Jonathan en route — A Dissatisfied Arab — Reasons for Flight — Unrequited Affec- 
 tion — Buried Stores — Hurrah ! for Framazugda — Pillars of Sand — The Mirage — The Fata 
 Morgana — A Party of Travellers — A Cup of Tea — Hahnemann and Homoeopathy. 
 
 [T was about a week after the events described in the last chap- 
 ter, that two travellers might have been seen en route across 
 the yellow plain, billowed by arenulous waves, that, sun-tipped 
 by the level light, glowed coppery and carbuncular as the noses 
 of a bivouac of gigantic Bacchuses. Both were mounted upon camels. 
 One, perched upon his high and narrow saddle, with his feet upon the 
 animal's neck, after the usual manner of " camelestrians." The other 
 seated in a pannier, which was balanced by a weight of provisions, water, 
 and baggage. The difference in position would at once have indicated 
 the difference of sex, and it needed not the gun, slung across his back, 
 and only partially concealed by the folds of his haick — or the long, slen- 
 der spear, serving also as a goad for his companion's beast — to enable 
 any one to pronounce as to the respective gender of the parties. 
 
 Of course, the reader understands that the two were no other than 
 Kaloolah and myself ; and it is unnecessary, therefore, to stop longer than 
 to explain that it was the enmity of Hassan, and the jealousy of Mrs. Ali, 
 that had caused our precipitate flight. Upon the division of the spoil, 
 on the morning after our attack upon the caravan, Kaloolah had been as- 
 signed by lot, to an old Arab, who, satiated with the pleasures, yet hardly 
 inured to the pains, of a well-stocked harem — and, withal, having certain 
 notions of female loveliness, to which Kaloolah's classic features and 
 slender figure did not conform — was exceedingly chagrined at the turn 
 of fortune, which threatened to throw into the wrangling elements of 
 his domestic felicity a feminine superfluity — or, as he expressed it, 
 "another tongue in his tent." 
 
 " Bishmallah ! " he exclaimed ; " God is great ! — but this is a small 
 thing! She is not a man; she is not a black; she cannot work; but 
 wont she eat and talk ! They all eat and talk ! I take a club sometimes 
 and knock them down ; beat them ; break their bones ; but they still eat 
 
 227 
 
228 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and talk ! God's will be done ; but it is too much ! To put such a 
 thing upon me for my share ! She is good for nothing : I cannot sell 
 her ! " 
 
 " Yes, you can," said I. " I will give you these tobes," showing him 
 three or four cotton garments, which had fallen to me as my share of the 
 spoil. 
 
 The old fellow eagerly accepted the offer ; and the bargain was con- 
 cluded, with all legal forms, just as Hassan interfered with a higher offer : 
 but he was too late. 
 
 Upon returning to the douah at Boulag I purchased a small tent for 
 Kaloolah, to which she closely confined herself, in order to escape the 
 insult, and even violence, to which she was liable on account of her white 
 skin, and her ignorance of the dogmas and forms of the Mohammedan 
 religion. Nothing, however, could save her from a great deal of annoy- 
 ance and discomfort. In addition to this there was the settled enmity 
 of my old enemy, Hassan, with whom I had already had several alterca- 
 tions ; and who, as was frequently intimated to me by several of his 
 friends, and even by old Ali himself, only waited a convenient opportu- 
 nity of carrying his designs against me into execution, without danger to 
 himself. In my case — a stranger, without relations — there was no blood- 
 avenger to fear, and nothing but a wholesome respect for my personal 
 prowess held his hand from immediate attack. Such a state of things 
 was far from pleasant : not that I had the least fear of the fellow — for a 
 constant reliance upon my own personal resources had almost extin- 
 guished the feeling — but the uncertainty as to the time of his intended 
 attempt was exceedingly annoying. The necessity of keeping a vigilant 
 watch was exhausting in the extreme. But little refreshing is sleep when 
 the head is pillowed upon pistols, and the hand relaxes not its grasp upon 
 the yataghan. Had it not been for Kaloolah, the temptation would have 
 been almost irresistible to settle the doubt, by provoking a rencontre, 
 and deciding the question, as to his life or mine, upon the spot. As it 
 was, however, prudence dictated an immediate flight — a course that was 
 still further indicated by the sudden and distressing development of love, 
 and its common attendant, jealousy, in the bosom of the young wife of 
 Ali. Truth, not vanity, induces me to mention my unintended conquest. 
 Respect for the sex, however, and a sentiment of gentlemanly delicacy, 
 which the reader will appreciate, prevents me from dwelling upon the 
 story at length. It was wrong, undoubtedly, in Seffna to love any other 
 than her old, rugose-faced, white-bearded husband ; but it is not for me 
 to blame her. One thing, however, in her conduct can hardly be excused. 
 
KALOOLAH. 229 
 
 True, I might have treated her affection with more tenderness ; I might 
 have nursed the gentle flowers of passion, instead of turning away from 
 their fragrance ; I might have responded to that " yearning of the soul 
 for sympathy " — have relieved, with the food of love, " the mighty hunger 
 of the heart " ; but all this and more that I might have done, but did not 
 do, gave her \\<s> right to throw stones at Kaloolah. 
 
 These last — the stones I mean — could be received only as an intima- 
 tion that it was best to take our departure at once, and as I had made all 
 preparations — having bartered Ayoude for a heirie, which although far 
 inferior to my own, was still a good traveller, and having provided a store 
 of provisions and water — we silently left the douah just after nightfall, 
 and proceeding to where I had stationed the camels, mounted, and set 
 out with our faces towards the south. 
 
 The rising sun found us many miles from Boulag, and not far distant 
 from the range of hills where I had first come upon the douah of Sidi 
 Hadji Ali. It will be recollected that in a small hollow of the desert- 
 plain, stretching oiT from the base of the hills, was deposited the greater 
 portion of the treasure that I had selected from the lading of the dead 
 camel, and a slight deviation from our true course brought us into the 
 immediate neighborhood of the spot. Still it required a close observa- 
 tion, and an attentive comparison of the salient points, if salient they 
 could be called, when all but the distant hill-tops was nearly unvarying 
 uniformity, to hit upon the exact place, and it was not until the sun was 
 several hours high that we directed the steps of our camels down the 
 sides of the familiar-looking depression. 
 
 Making the camels kneel, so that we were secure from observation, 
 while Kaloolah kept watch upon the edge of the hollow, I turned to, and 
 with the blade, of my spear soon succeeded, much to my satisfaction, in 
 disclosing the buried package. Upon examining the powder, pistols, and 
 other articles, they were found uninjured by their temporary inhumation, 
 and after replenishing my flask and pouch with.the munitions of war, I 
 remade the package and placed it upon the back of my heirie with a sen- 
 timent of confidence in fortune that was peculiarly refreshing. I knew 
 that the fickle goddess had a strong liking for me, but should she attempt 
 to play any of her coquettish tricks, had I not the means and the will to 
 compel her favors ? " Yea, verily," thought I to myself, " I will woo her 
 as the heroes of Valhalla wooed their brides, sword in hand, with the 
 stern word and the strong arm ! Am I not rich and well armed, and 
 ready to buy or fight my way through the darkest portions of the Ethio- 
 pian world ? What more can I ask? Hurrah for Framazugda ! " 
 
230 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Hurrah for Framazugda ! " said Kaloolah, repeating the exclamation 
 that had unconsciously escaped me, and at the same time thrusting her 
 tiny hands from the folds of her haick, and waving it with inimitable 
 grace. 
 
 There is nothing more fascinating in female manner to many tempera- 
 ments than that compound expression of tenderness, interest, and mirth, 
 expressed, though but poorly, by the term " archness." When founded 
 on a delicate appreciation of the ludicrous, yet modified, and accompanied 
 by a deep sympathy with the sentiments to which it is a response, it goes 
 at once to the core of the heart. The proudest man bows without a mur- 
 mur to the implied superiority ; the most sensitive man fears not the 
 gentle smile, or laugh, when accompanied by the eager eye, or the 
 blushing cheek. 
 
 " You laugh at me, Kaloolah," said I, " but I will show you that mine 
 is no idle boast. You shall once more see the flowers and the fields of 
 Framazugda." 
 
 " I am certain of it, Jon'than, or else I could not laugh." 
 
 " And why are you certain? " 
 
 " Because you promise it. What you undertake, you will accomplish. 
 What you promise, you will undertake." 
 
 " But it is a long road, and, as you well know by experience, it is filled 
 with dangers. Have you no fear?" 
 
 " None while I am with you, Jon'than. The noon-day sun suffers no 
 shadows. You are my sun ; in the light of your eyes dangers draw off 
 like the wild beasts from the traveller's fire ; they may threaten, and 
 growl, but they dare not attack me." 
 
 Nothing strengthens a man more than the confidence of others in his 
 capacity to do, and it may be judged, therefore, that it was with a very 
 comfortable share of determination that, placing Kaloolah in her pannier, 
 I mounted my heirie, and gave to our camels the signal to set out. 
 
 Our route for several hours lay over a hard pebbly plain, bounded to 
 the south by a belt, or rather bed, of reddish sandstone, beyond which 
 came again an interminable extent of shifting sand. At sundown we 
 halted for the night. The camels were secured ; a small tent of goat- 
 skins, as a bed-room for Kaloolah, was speedily pitched, into which I in- 
 sisted she should retire as soon as we had partaken of our frugal supper 
 of dates, sour milk, and barley meal. She protested that she was not 
 sleepy; but it was easy to perceive that the heavy, jolting trot of the 
 heirie had greatly fatigued her, and that repose was necessary if we 
 wished to husband that essential element of success, her health and 
 
KALOOLAH. 231 
 
 strength. I had but to throw myself on the ground and intimate my de- 
 sire to sleep to secure obedience to my injunctions. Kaloolah withdrew 
 to her tent, and I saw no more of her until the gray and purple coated 
 avant-couriers of Apollo's chariot announced that it was time to be up and 
 away. 
 
 Six days passed, in which time, according to my calculations, we had 
 measured off and marked with the broad, spongy feet of our camels a 
 hundred and eighty miles of sand. A few trifling desert incidents alone 
 served to vary the monotony of the way — the blanched skeleton of a 
 camel — a flight of vultures — an ostrich — the tracks of a recent traveller, 
 and a few straggling and struggling thorns. One of these latter, a stunted 
 but sturdy little fellow, stood solitary, without a companion, directly in 
 our path. I drew the rein of my heirie to allow him to crop its leaves. 
 
 " No, No ! " exclaimed Kaloolah ; " do not harm it. 'T is but a mouth- 
 ful, and existence must be sweet, or it would not cling to life so bravely. 
 Let it live on. Why should we be more cruel than the winds and sands 
 of Sahara? " 
 
 " A very pretty sentiment, Kaloolah ; but like a good many pretty 
 sentiments, it will hardly bear to be carried very extensively into practice. 
 You think of the useless little bush, while you forget the poor heirie." 
 
 On the morning of the fourth day we had a fine opportunity of viewing, 
 in immediate succession, some of the most interesting phenomena of the 
 desert. There first appeared on our left hand several gigantic pillars of 
 sand. At one time we counted a dozen. Sometimes almost stationary, 
 yet with a very evident rotary motion, at others trailing over the ground 
 with an irregular pace, and swaying backwards and forwards, and gliding 
 round and round each other in all possible curves, they could not but sug- 
 gest the ideas of dancing giants and demons — thus taking the mind back 
 through all the apocryphal histories of tall men, from Teutabochus to 
 Polyphemus, unto those authentic times when " there were giants in 
 those days," and revealing to fancy's vision a pretty fair glimpse of an 
 antediluvian quadrille. 
 
 As the sun rose in the heavens the whirling pillars slackened in their 
 gyrations, and one after the other diappeared, to be succeeded by that 
 most curious phenomenon, the mirage. Not a breath of air disturbed the 
 profound calm of the plain, though in the upper regions of the atmos- 
 phere there floated lazily a few vapory films, attenuated to the verge of 
 impalpability. Around, all was still — the stillness of the desert — a still- 
 ness which, if the reader will pardon the paradox, one can hear — when 
 silence becomes audible — when the impact of the sunbeams upon the sand 
 
232 KALOOLAH. 
 
 becomes a sound — when the auricular nerves, unsupported by their accus- 
 tomed stimulus, vibrate without sound, producing a sensation as if one 
 were listening to the very first beginning of a mighty, ever-threatening, 
 never-coming noise — a noise that you can hear and cannot hear at the 
 same time. Suddenly there was a glancing, gleaming, and quivering close 
 to the surface of the plain, which increased as we advanced, until we were 
 presented with a wavy and somewhat indistinct view of a large sheet of 
 water. Gradually the scene became more clear and steady, until at last 
 there lay stretched before us a beautiful lake, than which no lake ever 
 seemed more inviting or more real. 
 
 " Wollo, Wollo ! " exclaimed Kaloolah. " How beautiful. Let us hurry 
 on. One bath in that clear water will give me strength for a thousand 
 miles. Oh ! I wonder if we shall find in it the azure-leafed lotus that 
 grows in the Wollo ? " 
 
 Poor Kaloolah ! what a disappointment when she learned that the whole 
 was an illusion, and saw in a few minutes the enchanting scene dissolving 
 away. For some time we rode on in silence, with the veils of cotton cloth 
 drawn over our faces to ward off the light and heat. Upon looking forth 
 again not a vestige of the lake was left, but an exclamation from my com- 
 panion attracted my attention to several dark specks in the sky. They 
 were elevated at about an angle of forty-five degrees, and showed themselves 
 a little to the west of the point whither we were tending. The spots were 
 in motion relatively as to each other, and were also moving very slowly 
 across our path. It was easy to perceive that they were the inverted and 
 magnified images of camels, and that in number they were just sixteen. 
 
 It was not until two or three hours had passed that the real causes of 
 this desert Fata Morgana appeared on the verge of the horizon. Urging 
 our beasts into a more rapid pace, in about an hour we came up with them, 
 and found that they were traders coming from the northeast, and proceed- 
 ing south like ourselves ; but that, disappointed in finding water where 
 they had expected, they had been compelled to change their course to due 
 west, in hopes of discovering an old neglected well. 
 
 " Where are your companions? " I demanded. " There were sixteen 
 of you." 
 
 The travellers answered that a party, with the fastest camels, had been 
 dispatched to look for the wells. My knowledge of their numbers excited 
 the greatest astonishment, and at once elevated me in their estimation to 
 the rank of a magician. 
 
 The story that I was moving to the Negro country on account of a 
 blood-feud, and m the expectation of trading advantageously a few 
 
KALOOLAH. 233 
 
 rosaries of coral and glass, was readily received and credited, and it was 
 at once settled that I should join their party, at least as far as El Garwan, 
 a salt mine, about five or six days distant. The agreement was mutually 
 advantageous. The travellers were not sorry to have their forces 
 strengthened by the addition of one well armed man, especially as we 
 were now coming into the immediate neighborhood of a tribe of Tuarics. 
 These savages, bold, rapacious, and predatory, are afraid of nothing but 
 fire-arms, and my gun added an effective fourth to the strength of our 
 party. For my part, I cared but little for protection, but I wanted 
 guides; and hence my willingness to accommodate my motions to the 
 slow paces of a loaded camel. 
 
 Two of the party returning and informing us that they had been 
 successful in their search, we moved off in the direction indicated, and, 
 about sundown, reached the well, which, when cleaned out, yielded a full 
 supply of very pure and sweet water. Around this " gem of the desert " 
 we encamped ; the camels were watered — a fire of dry brambles made — ■ 
 some water boiled in an earthen jar, and into it infused, by the old chief, 
 with an air of wonderful importance and gravity, about half a teaspoonful 
 of green tea. 
 
 " Taste this," said he, offering me some of the colorless infusion ; " it 
 is the great medicine of the Nasarins. It comes from the other side of 
 the earth, where the sun never shines ; and men find it only by creeping 
 about on their hands and knees, with lanterns hung around their necks." 
 
 " Oh, Hahnemann ! " thought I, "what a humbug is thy doctrine of 
 infinitesimals ! It may do when the patient needs no medicine, but not 
 when he is dying for a full, strong dose ! Oh ! for an honest Christian cup, 
 big, black, and steaming with odors, consecrated to the worship of the Dii 
 Penates, and suggestive of the sweetest associations of home ! " 
 

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 WB'**.JV2.(9v 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 El Garwan — A Bedouin Adage — Sal-gem — Hiring a House — Rumors of a White Slave — A 
 Beggar — An Irish Soliloquy — A Manifestation — Hugh Doyle's Slory — Hope for the 
 Regenade. 
 
 L Garwan ! El Garwan,! " shouted my companions, as a col- 
 lection of clay houses and low round huts broke upon our 
 view. Situated in the open plain, with no green thing about 
 it, nothing could be more dreary and unpicturesque. The 
 movable douahs of the Bedouin seemed, in comparison, almost beautiful; 
 yet here could be found men — some of them from the semi-civilized towns 
 of the Mediterranean states — who, for the sake of money, were willing to 
 spend their lives in this awful, miserable, hot, dry, dusty and dirty hole. 
 " Drop a dollar into a potter's furnace, and you '11 burn a Barbary Moor 
 to death," is an adage of the Bodouin, which, if any one believes to be an 
 exaggeration, can be verified by a visit to El Garwan. 
 
 The whole trade of the town consists in salt, which is dug up in large, 
 hard lumps of pure sal-gem, from a depth of five or six feet below the 
 surface. The work is wholly performed by slaves, who also cut the lumps 
 into pieces of a uniform size, and generally ornament them with some 
 rude, fanciful designs. So compact is the salt, and so dry the air, that 
 houses are sometimes built of pieces of it, which are found to be as dura- 
 ble as those constructed of rubble work, or of sun-burned brick. 
 
 Having hired a house — consisting of only one apartment, about four 
 feet wide, eight feet long, and as many high, into which Xaloolah with- 
 drew from the heat of the sun, and the impertinent observation of a crowd 
 of vagabonds — I went out to take a look at the slaves in the salt-pits, in 
 the expectation that there might be some Christians among them, to 
 whom I could afford relief. I had not forgotten Jack Thompson, and 
 there was a bare possibility that he might be among them. A thorough 
 search, however, dissipated the hope, and, in answer to my inquiries, I 
 was assured that there were no slaves but the wooley-headed, ebony- 
 skinned beings before me. ' 
 
 "But are there no Christians?" I demanded. 
 
 234 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 235 
 
 " None now," replied my informant ; " we often have them, but they 
 are not good for much : they cannot stand the heat." 
 
 " You are right," I repHed ; " they are worthless dogs for work, but 
 they bring good ransoms at Sweirah. If I could come across any, I would 
 purchase them for that purpose." 
 
 "Well, I will tell you where you can find one. About three days' 
 journey to the west is Marbash, and there I know that they have a Chris- 
 tian slave, for I saw him working in a salt-pit, not one moon ago." 
 
 " How old is he? " 
 
 ■, so as to overtook the wall" etc. 
 
 " He is not young — his hair is gray ; but I should think that he has 
 twenty years yel in his body." 
 
 The description given me by my informant answered very well for 
 Thompson ; but I knew that there were too many Christian prisoners in 
 the desert, who were supposed by their friends to have been lost at sea, 
 to feel much confidence in finding him in the slave at Marbash. Who- 
 ever he was, however, he was evidently some one demanding my services, 
 
236 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and I at once resolved to visit him, and, if possible, purchase him of his 
 barbarous masters. 
 
 Returning through the narrow and filthy streets, to the door that 
 opened into the little court in front of my house, I was struck with the 
 appearance of a ragged and squalid figure that accosted me for alms. A 
 few woollen tatters hung about his person, which was thickly bestudded 
 with sores ; a brown rag was tied around his black, bullet head, and the 
 ends brought down so as partially to defend his eyes, which were disgust- 
 ingly inflamed. His form was emaciated, and he walked with a feeble 
 and tottering gait. His age was about thirty. Such figures are common 
 enough in any Mohammedan town, but there was something in this 
 fellow's appearance that at once arrested my attention. There was a 
 familiar look about him, and there was a melanchol}' twinkle at the bottom 
 of his dark gray eye, that spoke of a soul not yet broken down by the 
 frowns of fortune, or driven into the Mussulman's usual refuge — a stupid 
 indifference to life, with its miseries and its pains. 
 
 He said he had not tasted food for several days. His looks were 
 sufficient proof of the fact ; so slipping three or four feloos — a copper 
 coin— into his hand, I told him to go and purchase bread. 
 
 An hour or two afterwards, as I was standing in the little court, which 
 was separated from the street by a low wall, I was startled by a voice, 
 singing in a low tone a verse or two of the well-known Irish song, the 
 " Exile of Erin." Mounting, so as to overlook the wall, I saw the beggar, 
 seated on the ground beside the wicket, apparently awaiting my exit. In 
 the meantime he was amusing himself with singing and talking to him- 
 self, and in poking a pile of offal with his staff. There was no one but 
 myself within hearing; but, even if there had been, he need hardly have 
 feared to discover his secret thoughts and feelings, inasmuch as he was 
 speaking a language that no citizen of El Garwan could have understood. 
 My surprise may be imagined, when I heard the fellow talking in good, 
 plain English, though with certain peculiarities of accent and pronuncia-. 
 tion that spoke strongly of that gem of the ocean, the Emerald Isle. His 
 words ran nearl}' as follows : 
 
 " Sure, it 's in luck you are to-day, Mr. Hugh Doyle ! 'T aint every day 
 that yer stomach has a chance to cry enough, in the face and eyes of a 
 calabash of milk and meal. Will ye be aisy now, an' maybe I '11 get ye 
 some more from the same place. Ah, Hugh Doyle ! Hugh Doyle ! do ye 
 remember the time when ye 'd hardly say thank ye for a meal of parates 
 and meat ? and now ye 're starving to death ! — And don't ye deserve it, 
 ye vagabond ? Did n't ye desart yer country in anger, and have n't ye 
 
KALOOLAH. 237 
 
 renounced your God in fear? — Are ye a true man, Hugh Doyle ? Divil 
 the bit of it ! Ye 're a cowardly, lying, skulking thief of a renegado ! — 
 Can you pray ? Yes, ye can, to Allah and Mahomet ! Allah, Allah, 
 Allah ! Mohammed rasoul Allah ! And is that yer creed ? Ye 've sworn 
 it, ye villain ! Holy Mother of God ! ye re damned, Hugh Doyle! All 
 the praists in the world, with the Pope and his cardinals at the back of 
 'em, could n't absolve ye ! And how have ye bettered yerself ? When 
 a slave, ye were worked and baten, but ye were fed. Ye chose to make 
 a hathen and a beggar of yerself, and now ye 're starving to death ! Ye 
 have the lot of Lazarus in this world, without a chance of his fate in the 
 next ; and all becase ye are not a true man. Ochone ! Ochone ! I mourn 
 for ye, Hugh Doyle ! " 
 
 The beggar bent his head in silence. A few low sobs came from his 
 breast, which was evidently filled with emotions deeper and stronger 
 than would seem to be indicated by his deliberate, audible self commun- 
 ings. With his thin hand he passed a portion of his tattered garments 
 across his eyes. 
 
 In a few minutes he raised his head, and commenced singing : " ' There 
 came to the bache — ' ah ! if I could only get to that same bache !— seems 
 to me if I could see the ocean on'st more I could die content. Sure I 
 could look across it as aisy as across the lake at Bournboy, and see the 
 green hills of Erran and Derrymorn. Sure I could pick up its drops in 
 my hand and ask them, did they know any thing of the water of Cavan ? 
 Had they ever fallen in rain upon the Ballyneegeerah ? Had they ever 
 hung in dew diamonds from roses of Eneskillen ? Had they ever been 
 scattered from the daisies by the light steps of the ' Pride of the Borne?' 
 
 Och, Bessy, mavourneen, why, why did ye smile on Teddy 
 
 Moffat and frown black as night on Hugh Doyle? Could ye see me now, 
 but little would ye drame that ye saw the boy ye drove to list in the 
 
 marines 1 was mad Ye thought I would n't, but I 
 
 did, and here now sits Hugh Doyle among haythens, himself as big a 
 haythen as can be found in the four quarthers of Asia, Africa, and Amir- 
 
 ica Och, Hugh, you vagabond (bad luck to ye, I would say 
 
 but sure, ye 've enough of that same), ye 've desarted yer country, ye 've 
 changed yer religion, ye 've sold yer soul for nothing at all. Small price, 
 ye may say ; and so it would be for a dacent soul, but yer's is worth no 
 more, and ye can't complain, for has n't the divil paid ye up like a jintle- 
 
 man, and a man of his word ? Hugh, Hugh Doyle, ye '11 
 
 starve in this world and roast in the next, ye poor, mane, unfortunate 
 vagabond ! " 
 
238 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Hugh Doyle ! " I exclaimed in a loud voice from the top of the wall 
 directly over his head, " Hugh Doyle, are you a true man ? " 
 
 " Holy St. Patrick ! what is that ! " said Hugh, jumping to his feet 
 with an agility hardly to be expected of his feeble frame. 
 
 " Hugh Doyle ! " I repeated, sinking my head instantly behind the 
 wall, " are you a true man ? " 
 
 " Sure I am — Hivin presarve us, but this is a manifestash'un ! Maybe 
 it is the saint himself — sure I am, your reverence. No, no, I was- — that 
 is, I will be. Och, help, your reverence, a poor cratur who has drained 
 the cup of misfortune, and has been living upon the dregs for the ten 
 years past — a poor divil, your honor, who has had to keep a mortal long 
 Lent without fish — whose tay has been nothing but adversi-^ay, with not 
 
 the laste dash in the world of sugar or crame " 
 
 " Come in," said I, pushing open the gate, and addressing him in 
 Arabic. 
 
 He entered, and looked around with an air of bewilderment that was 
 truly comical, and that served to heighten the tragic interest of his 
 appearance by contrast. He could see no one but, as he supposed, a 
 grave Mussulman, who commenced asking the particulars of his history, 
 to which he at once replied in voluble and exceedingly pure Arabic. 
 
 Divested of its unessential details, Hugh's story was short. He was 
 born in the county of Cavan ; had received some education ; had got 
 into some love difficulties ; had enlisted in the marines, and been sent to 
 sea in an armed brig, which had been wrecked upon the coast of the 
 Sahara. With a portion of the crew he reached the land ; was soon dis- 
 covered by some of the tribes who wander up and down the coast in 
 search of wrecks ; seized as a slave, carried into the interior, and sold.' 
 In a short time the cruel treatment he was compelled to endure on the one 
 hand, and the promises and persuasions of the Arabs on the other, induced 
 him to renounce his relig-ious principles and profess a belief in the creed 
 of Mohammed. For a little while he enjoyed a benefit in the change. 
 The luxury of proselyting — one of the highest in the world, and one for 
 which every sect has a taste — cannot be had every day, and the Arabs 
 were willing to pay for it in charity to the convert. But with the novelty 
 of his conversion abated their sympathy in his fate, and soon the con- 
 tempt invariably felt for any one who changes his opinions or renounces 
 his principles from the force of external circumstances, began to manifest 
 itself in their conduct. They had saved his soul, why should they bother 
 themselves about his body — they had put him into the path to paradise, 
 he must pick out for himself his way in the world. He had no means of 
 
KALOOLAH. 239 
 
 obtaining a living. Nominally free, he was yet jealously watched, at 
 least until the deficient charities of a poor, selfish, and cruel people had 
 allowed his health and strength to sink below the possibility of an attempt 
 at escape. 
 
 " You would like an opportunity of escaping from this horrible hole, 
 would you not ? You 've had enongh of the Prophet and his followers. 
 Nay, nay," I continued, speaking for the first time to him in English, 
 " speak the truth, Hugh Doyle." 
 
 The poor fellow, pale and trembling, sunk upon his knees. 
 
 " You wonder who I am — no matter, you '11 know one of these days. 
 I 've only time now to talk about your case. You would leave this place, 
 and no wonder, for any change in your condition must be for the better. 
 Listen then, obey my orders implicitly, and you shall go with me ; fail in 
 any one particular, and I cast you off to die the death of a renegade." 
 
 There was no danger that Hugh would intentionally disobey any of 
 my directions, but there was much risk from the excitement of newly 
 awakened hope, and the inconsiderate levity, sometimes an ingredient in 
 Irish character. It was safest, therefore, to take advantage of the mys- 
 tery in which, to his apprehension, I was enshrouded, to enforce obedi- 
 ence, compel caution, and concentrate his attention to the object in view, 
 and the means of attaining it. 
 
 " You have been at Marbash ? " I demanded. 
 
 "Sure I have," replied Hugh, "'twas there that I lived better nor 
 three years. I remember it well. If I had now all the blood in my body 
 that was drawn from my back, and buried in the salt-pits there, I should 
 be a strong man." 
 
 " Do you think that you could find your way back ? ' 
 
 " As asy as point out the course of the sun in broad day. 'T is a wide 
 path, and no turns in it." 
 
 " Well, then, listen to my plan. I intend going to Marbash, and shall 
 want a guide, and some one to look after the camels. We must contrive 
 it so that you will be the man. I will go into the street just beforestart- 
 ing, which will be in two or three days, and commence bargaining for a 
 guide. Numbers will propose, but I shall offer so little that no one will 
 accept the terms. In the midst of our wrangling you must come for- 
 ward and offer your services, when I will at once strike a bargain with 
 you, and we will mount and be off." 
 
 Hugh seized the hem of my haick, and pressed it to his lips, while 
 sobs prevented a reply. 
 
 " Well, what do you say. Do you hesitate? " 
 
240 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Hesitation ! yer honor ; would a man hesitate to draw his hand from 
 the fire ? Oh, no, 't is only the suddenness of it — like a flash of light- 
 ning to a man who has lost his road in the night — t' is the unexpectedness 
 of it." 
 
 " We will start in two days," I continued. " This will give you some 
 time to recruit your strength, which you will do rapidly upon full meals, 
 as you are suffering wholly from want of food. But it will not do for 
 you to be seen with money, and to avoid all suspicion, we must have but 
 little communication with each other ; you will, therefore, come here at 
 night, and you shall have a supply of cooscoosoo and milk. In the mean- 
 time be careful that you do or say nothing that will attract attention ; 
 follow your usual habits, and mind how you ever address me in 
 English." 
 
 Having reiterated my directions in the minutest manner, and enforced 
 upon him the necessity of extreme caution, I opened the door of the 
 court for him to pass into the street. Closing the gate, and stepping to 
 the spot where I could overlook the wall, I saw Hugh stop for a moment, 
 cross himself, clasp his hands together, and, raising his face, mutter some 
 prayerful ejaculation. He then marched off with quite a firm, almost 
 stately, step, down the street for a few paces, and then pausing, again 
 looked back. I threw open the door, and beckoned to him. 
 
 " Is this the way," I exclaimed, in a stern tone, "that. you obey my 
 directions. Pray standing, cross yourself, and march off as if you were 
 the kaid of the town ! " 
 
 " Sure I forgot " 
 
 " How dare you forget. Have you performed the part of a half- 
 starved beggar for ten years, and yet you cannot continue to do so for 
 two days longer ? Go, sir. I shall keep watch of you, and if you ven- 
 ture to attract attention, by word or deed, or by any alteration in look, 
 manner, gesture, or gait, I '11 leave your fleshless bones to be buried in 
 the sands of El Garwan. No words ! be off, and thank God — secretly, 
 mind you — that there was no Moor within sight when you chose to in- 
 sult the Prophet with your Christian prayers in the streets of a Moham- 
 medan town." 
 
 Without a word Hugh slunk away, but it was easy to see, that, how- 
 ever he might imitate it, his gait had no longer the natural and painful 
 slouchness of one without hope. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Departure from El Garwan — Arrival at Marbash — A Recognition — Jack Thompson — A Party 
 of Tuarics — A Complete Equipment — Establishing a Watch — The Moral Influence of 
 Food. 
 
 'OT ^^HE two days passed without any adventure of interest. By a 
 liberal but judicious distribution of alms to the poor, presents 
 to some of the chief men, with medical advice to all who 
 asked it, I had thoroughly engratiated myself with the in- 
 habitants of the town, none of whom offered any opposition to my taking 
 Hugh with me to Marbash, or expressed any doubt of our return. In- 
 deed, how could they, when we left behind, as security, an old camel and 
 three or four loads of salt. 
 
 These two days had done wonders for Hugh ; had afforded a neces- 
 sary rest to Kaloolah, and had prepared our animals for a long stage of 
 a hundred and fifty miles which we had yet to pass before reaching the 
 southern borders of the desert. The two animals that I had added to 
 my party were both heiries, and although hardly equal to the one ridden 
 by Kaloolah, and far inferior to mine, were yet strong, active, and very 
 fleet as compared with the common camel. Hugh mounted one, the 
 other was laden, for the time, with an extra supply of provisions and 
 water, and, as quietly as possible, at early dawn we set out for Marbash. 
 
 It was not without some little emotion that at about sunset of the 
 second day I saw a few dark spots in the distance, which Hugh asserted 
 were the two or three dozen hovels that composed the town of Marbash. 
 No one, who has not experienced the feeling, at a distance from home, 
 and in barbarous lands, can understand the force with which a man is at- 
 tracted towards one of his kind with whom he has any community of 
 religion, language, or habit. The bands of human sympathy are strong 
 and all-pervading ; but, unfortunately, nations have stretched them to a 
 degree of tenuity which prevents them from always being seen or felt. 
 When removed to a distance from the repelling forces, man finds himself 
 attracted to man in a proportion compounded of his distance from old 
 
 241 
 
242 . KALOOLAH. 
 
 stupid conventionalities and selfishisms, and his nearness to his sympa- 
 thizing kind. 
 
 The next morning we mounted and rode into the town. There were 
 not more than a dozen inhabitants to be seen. Most of the houses were in 
 ruins, or half buried in the sand. Once a place of some consequence by its 
 trade in salt, it had been almost depopulated by the superior attractions 
 of the mine at El Garwan, and by the frequent visits of a tribe of ma- 
 rauding Tuarics. 
 
 Without circumlocution I stated the object of my visit. The conse- 
 quence was, as we have anticipated, that the master of the slave at Once 
 made up his mind to demand four times as much as his market value. 
 " He is a wonderful slave ! is he not ? " exclaimed the fellow, appealing to 
 the bystanders, who answered with an assenting " Yea ! yea ! " 
 
 " He has all the knowledge of the Christians. He is as strong as a 
 lion. He is as " 
 
 " Bah ! " I exclaimed, cutting short his list of good qualities ; " we 
 understand all that. For work he is not worth the salt that he eats ; but 
 I want him to take to Sweirah. If he is an Englishman I will give you a 
 good price ; if not, he wont be worth taking as a gift ! " 
 
 A short walk brought us into the salt-pits. At the first glance I recog- 
 nized the familiar form and. face of Jack. He was working, together with 
 half a dozen negroes, breaking up, with a kind of small spade, the sal-gem 
 into large square pieces. In appearance, he had altered but little. If any 
 thing he looked in rather better condition than when we parted at the 
 well of Ageda. 
 
 As we approached he looked up at me, and gave a sudden start ; but 
 as I met his glance with a cold, steady, and unmoved look, his countenance 
 fell, though still retaining traces of astonishment and dubitation. His 
 master took no notice of his emotion, and in a few moments we walked 
 off to conclude, if possible, our bargain. Expressing myself satisfied with 
 his appearance, and with the Moor's assurance that he was an English- 
 man, I made an offer which, after some chaffering, was accepted. Certain 
 legal forms had to be gone through with — a talb or scribe was called to 
 make out a bill of sale and a receipt. While waiting for this I directed 
 Hugh to take the two camels and to mount Jack upon one of them, and 
 set out from the town. In a few minutes I also got under way with 
 Kaloolah, and followed at some distance behind, until we had got beyond 
 the view of the inhabitants of Marbash. 
 
 " Jack Thompson, ahoy ! " was my salutation as we rode up on a 
 sharp trot beside him. " How are you, my old friend? Do you know me? 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 243 
 
 Nay, Nay, hold on ; if you lurch so you '11 be overboard. Steady man. 
 Mind your helm. If you yaw your craft about in that way you '11 broach 
 to, or come by the lee, and have your decks swept before you know it ! " 
 
 " Bless my eyes ! Mr. Romer ! Good heavens ! Oh, dear me, can it 
 be ! " and the old man wrung my hand while tears started from his eyes 
 and trickled down his weather-beaten face. 
 
 His emotion was infectious. Kaloolah's eyes were distilling the 
 diamonds of sympathy. Hugh's inflamed eyes were overflowing, and 
 there was a very perceptible sense of moisture in my own. 
 
 " 'T is only the last drops, yer honor ! " said Hugh, pointing to his eyes. 
 " Sure, when the heart is filled with grief it overflows, and its waters are 
 bitter ; but when ye put a big joy into it the grief is forced out, and its 
 last drops are sweet. Oh, there 's all the difference in the world between 
 the top and bottom of sorrow." 
 
 " Don't think that I 'm astonished to see you, Mr. Romer," interposed 
 Thompson. " I knew that you would come ; I have dreamed it a hundred 
 times. If it had n't been for the thought of you I should have bilged and 
 gone down long before this. I am flat aback with joy, but not with 
 surprise." 
 
 " Well, file away again, Jack, and let us know how you have got along 
 since we parted. But come, while we are talking we may as well be 
 moving. We must put thirty miles between us and this spot before 
 night. Hugh Doyle, you will attend to this lady's camel. Forward ! " 
 
 As we rode along, Jack and myself exchanged the histories of our 
 adventures ; but, as the details of his desert life would be wholly without 
 interest, it is needless to note the long, rambling conversation in which 
 they were told. His had been the monotonous life of a slave in a salt 
 mine, undisturbed by events of higher importance than occasional beat- 
 ings, freq.uent attempts at proselyting, and once a change of masters, and 
 a journey from the Waddy Sebah to Marbash. 
 
 Our conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a company of 
 Tuarics, who were mounted upon heiries, and armed with their usual 
 weapon, a long lance. Handing my spear to Hugh, and my knife to Jack, 
 I unslung my gun, and held it conspicuously, with the muzzle projecting 
 above my head. The Tuarics upon sight of our party changed their 
 course, and came towards us at a rapid pace. There were but six of them, 
 and, armed as we were, there was but little to fear. Still, a battle was to 
 be avoided, if possible, and as nothing invites an attack so much as an 
 appearance of hurry and fear, we closed up our ranks in compact order, and 
 moved on steadily, but with slow and deliberate steps. Something in our 
 
244 KALOOLAH. 
 
 motions or equipment evidently had a discouraging effect ; for, after ad- 
 vancing so closely that I was just beginning to entertain the question of 
 emptying a couple of their saddles before allowing them to come any 
 farther, they halted, and, after a brief consultation, wheeled their heiries 
 and made off. 
 
 " Perhaps," suggested Kaloolah, " they intend to follow us with a 
 greater force." 
 
 " No danger, yer ladyship, of that," said Hugh. " It is aisy to see that 
 those fellows are a long way from home. Their beasts are leg-weary; 
 and, do ye see, they are as gaunt as greyhounds ? They have n't tasted 
 water for a week." 
 
 We encamped a little before sunset, in order to have light for selecting 
 an outfit for my companions from my stores. Each was furnished with a 
 new suilJiam, cap and turban, a pair of pistols, with a supply of ammuni- 
 tion, and a small quantity of coral, amber, and glass beads, which, as 
 having a readily exchangeable value, would answer for money, in case 
 any thing should happen to separate us. 
 
 When the division was made, and our packages done up and stowed, 
 I addressed my companions, explaining to them my determination to 
 proceed due south, through the Negro countries of Africa ; that it was a 
 long journey, filled with difficulties and dangers, and that I had no wish 
 to take them with me against their will. I told them that, according to 
 my calculations, we were not far from the southern borders of the desert, 
 and about seven hundred miles from the Atlantic coast : that, if they 
 chose to undertake the journey across the desert to Mogadore, it was very 
 possible they would succeed ; and that, in such case, they were quite wel- 
 come to the animals they were riding and to the articles that had just 
 been distributed between them. 
 
 " Bless my eyes, Mr. Romer, you ain't in earnest ! " exclaimed Jack. 
 
 " Ye may say that ! " interposed Hugh. " Holy St. Patrick ! Lave ye, 
 is it ? I '11 tell you, on'st for all, Mr. Romer, it can't be done ! Ye may 
 say the word, and I '11 creep on my knees ; but, by jappers ! I 'II follow ye. 
 A purty business we should make of it, to start for Mogadore, full fifteen 
 hundred miles, and us not knowing a foot of the way ! To be sure, Mr. 
 Thompson might tell the pints of the compass, and so could I, for that 
 comes natural to all men ; but how could we get our latitude and 
 longitude? — us, who have n't been university-bred, and don't understand 
 fluxions and logarithms, and other mathematics ? " 
 
 " And what do you say, Thompson ? " 
 
 " Say ? What should I say, except that it will be a hard blow that 
 
KALOOLAH. 245 
 
 makes us part company again ? I agree with Mr. Doyle, that it would be 
 sheer nonsense for us to attempt to work a back traverse without you. 
 No, no ; drive ahead, I say ! When a, ship gets oh a reef, it 's the best 
 plan, sometimes, to crack on all sail, and force her over into deep water. 
 Who knows but that we may come out at the Cape of Good Hope, yet ? 
 But, at any rate, whether I 'm ever to see blue water again or not, I shall 
 keep in your wake. You 've youth and strength, and wit and luck, on 
 your side, and, in future, I sail under your orders." 
 
 " Well, my friends ! " I exclaimed, " I am not sorry that you so readily 
 make up your minds to go with me. In fact, it would be very foolish for you 
 to do otherwise ; and I only made the proposal in order to give you a fair 
 chance of choosing for yourselves. It might be possible for Hugh, speak- 
 ing the language as he does, to get through ; but for you. Jack, the 
 chances would be that you 'd run aground before the voyage was half over. 
 For my own part, I am glad of your company. You will be able to render 
 me the greatest assistance ; and, if this lady ever sees her country again, 
 she and her friends will be under no small obligations to you." 
 
 " Will she ? By the powers, I 'm thinking that it is just the revarse \ 
 'T is we that are under obligation to her, for permission to tread in her 
 footsteps." 
 
 " I 've been thinking, Mr. Romer," interrupted Thompson, " that, in 
 our situation, a good look-out is one of the greatest of virtues. Now, 
 you 're the captain of this crew, and it wont answer for you to keep 
 watch ; or, rather, you are supposed to be on the watch all the time : so 
 I think that Mr. Doyle and myself had better keep watch and watch. 
 He 's been to sea, and knows what that is. If he '11 call himself the 
 starboard watch, I '11 take the larboard; or vice varse , it 's all the same 
 to me." 
 
 To this proposal Hugh readily assented, and even warmly insisted 
 upon it, when I suggested that his strength would hardly permit him to 
 keep watch, for several days yet. It was astonishing what wonders five 
 days of food and hope had done for him. He was no longer the same being. 
 There began to be a degree of steadiness and strength in his gait, a cer- 
 tain smile round his lips, and a pleasant light in his eye, that indicated the 
 workings of a renewed spirit ; and, as well, the full and happy operations 
 of the digestive organs. Even his sores had put off their indolent and 
 malignant character, and were rapidly assuming a healthy appearance. 
 So much for good food, and plenty of it ! It is a great thing, a plenty 
 of good, plain, wholesome food in this world, and not without its influence 
 in the next. If any one doubts, let him ask the starving millions, whu 
 
246 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 are suffering the pangs of hunger — who are dying of diseases engendered 
 of famine — who are grovelling in the mental and moral debasement of 
 deficient nutrition— and what will be the answer ? Why, that a starving 
 stomach permits no moral sense, no religious sentiment — that you must 
 fill that organ before you can touch the heart — before you can make the 
 consolations of religion, the incitements of virtue, the hopes of heaven, 
 any thing better than miserable and empty sounds, signifying nothing. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 The Limit of the Desert — Hugh's System of Fortification — A Herd of Gazelles — Character of 
 the Country — Encamping in the Shade — Gazelle Stalking — A Pleasant Meal — Jack's Song 
 — Hyena Music — A Fresh-Water Lake — Bathing — A Visit irom a Crocodile — A Character- 
 istic Proposition — Leeching a Camel — A Negro Ploughman — A Chase and a Capture — 
 Hassan and the Tuarics — A Supply of Provisions — An Addition to the Party. 
 
 iIVE days of weary travelling, and the character of the country 
 began to change. The sand-hills no longer lay so heavy nor 
 so steep ; the desert-thistle began to appear in great abun- 
 dance, and, farther on, numerous specimens of the acacia, and 
 a tree bearing an agreeable red fruit, like the cranberry ; tracks of the 
 jackal and panther were noticed, and several flocks of gazelles scoured 
 the plain as we approached. 
 
 " It will not be long, now, Mr. Romer," said Hugh, " before we come 
 upon the inhabitants of these parts. God send us a safe deliverance from 
 them, if they are Tuarics ! " 
 
 " Amen ! " exclaimed Thompson. " If what the Moors and Arabs say 
 of that people is true, we shall have good reason to call upon God for help." 
 
 "No croaking, my men," I replied. "You ought to know the Moors 
 too well to take their word for any thing. We know that they will lie; 
 what the Tuarics will do, we have yet to learn. The Tuarics are no worse, 
 I '11 answer for it, than fifty other nations that we shall have to pass before 
 we reach the end of our journey." 
 
 " Don't you think, yer honor," said Hugh, after a pause, " it might be 
 as well to fortify ourselves a little, in case of accidents ? " 
 
 " Fortify ourselves ! — with what ? " 
 
 " With a full male. Do you see that ? " pointing to a herd of thirty 
 or forty gazelles. " There 's not a jintleman's parkin Ireland, or England 
 either, that has a finer taste of venison than this same country, and divil 
 the game-keeper within twenty miles of us ! " 
 
 "You seem to think of nothing but eating." 
 
 "And with rason, yer honor. Is n't every man born to ate a sartain 
 amount in this world ? and have n't I starved so long that I must make 
 
 247 
 
248 KALOOLAH. 
 
 my jaws do double duty to make up for lost time ? Sure, I 've enough to 
 answer for, without laving the world with a long account of unaten din- 
 ners upon my conscience ! But it 's not for myself that I spake, yer honor ; 
 it 's for her ladyship. The laste taste in the world of flesh would do her 
 a power of good. Beauty can't live upon air, nor upon date-stones, baring 
 the leather-skinned beauty we have left behind us. Sure, one Christian 
 faste would give her ladyship a dale of strength, and put us all in good 
 heart to meet any vagabonds of Tuarics that may cross our path. Look, 
 yer honor, what a nice shade from the hot sun beneath this clump of trees ! 
 and here, too, is green herbage for the poor bastes to moisten their mouths 
 with ; and see, there is dry sticks enough for a bonfire ! Sure, if ye would 
 move along to the back of that hillock, ye could get a shot at those 
 beauties ! " 
 
 The country presented somewhat the appearance of an open heath. 
 The soil was thin, but sufficient to support an amount of vegetation that, 
 after the perfect nakedness of the desert we had just left, struck us as being 
 almost grandly rich and luxuriant. A dozen trees, at least, besides those 
 by which we had stopped, dotted the extensive landscape ; hundreds of 
 low bushes, with dark green foliage, enlivened the scene ; and here and 
 there, over broad patches, a few gallant grasses and mosses held, in the 
 chains of vegetation, the roving sands. 
 
 We dismounted ; the camels were unladen, and turned out to graze. 
 Kaloolah's tent was pitched, and Hugh and Jack set about collecting sticks 
 for a fire. Giving them the strictest orders not to wander far from the 
 camp, and to keep a good look-out around the horizon for visitors, I took 
 my gun, and started off towards the herd of gazelles, who were quietly 
 dozing beneath the shade of a group of acacias. Making first a large 
 detour, in order to get to windward of them, I crept down slowly towards 
 them, and, by taking advantage of all the little inequalities of the ground, 
 was enabled to approach within shooting distance without exciting any 
 alarm. For the last hundred yards I was compelled to crawl slowly along 
 the ground. Upon rising to get a fair view of them, the whole herd 
 started to their feet, and stood, for an instant, trembling with excitement 
 at the unexpected apparition. I marked a fine fat fellow, and fired. On 
 the instant, they bounded into the air, and upon descending again, com- 
 menced kicking the ground from beneath them, in a succession of wonder- 
 fully vigorous and spiteful jumps. Higher than all jumped the one that 
 had been hit, but he did not cover so much ground, and, after a few bounds 
 (the convulsive efforts of departing vitality), he fell lifeless upon the plain. 
 Under Hugh's energetic superintendence, a large fire was awaiting the 
 
KALOOLAH. 249 
 
 result of my expedition. It did not take long to dress the animal, por- 
 tions of whose carcass were soon roasting, frying, and stewing before a 
 fierce fire of dry sticks. When done, I served up a portion to Kaloolah, 
 upon a platter of fresh leaves, and was exceedingly gratified to see her, 
 although endowed with as much real delicacy as any heroine of romance, 
 make a good, solid, sensible meal, like any other hungry traveller. 
 
 We had, of course, no forks ; but despite the manipular necessities of 
 the case, Kaloolah managed her meal with singular dexterity and grace. 
 There is hardly a prettier sight, thought I, than to see a pretty woman 
 eat. True, in the verdancy of youthful sentiment, many a one has shrunk 
 from the profane association of ruby lips with the processes of mastica- 
 tion and deglutition, but a little more experience, and there comes to a 
 man the conviction that women, however angelic, are not wholly spiritual 
 in their natures, and that food is essential to all of the sex, as well as to 
 grandmothers and old maiden aunts. With this conviction, he learns to 
 extract pleasure from what at first gave him pain. The prickle that 
 pierced the tender papilla of his unsophisticated sensibility becomes a 
 pleasant morsel to the hardened and practised camel's-tongue of true taste, 
 and he no longer sympathizes with the pseudo-sentimentalists, who would 
 wreathe, as it were, with cypress and yew the portico of the temple of 
 Love — forbid the burnt-offerings and libations, and literally starve to 
 death the enchanting beauties that minister at the altars. 
 
 As the sun went down the air became quite cool, making our bright 
 fire as pleasant to feel as it was to see. What with the refreshing cool- 
 ness, the flashing fire, the full meal, and the fact of having arrived at the 
 borders of vegetation, my party were all in high spirits — the animated 
 conversation, and the loud laugh, indicating an elevation of feeling 
 that was quite gratifying, knowing as I did the many dangers we had 
 to encounter, and the necessity of a good morale to meet them success- 
 fully. 
 
 Withdrawing a few yards into the shade of a clump of trees, I took a 
 look at the scene. It was striking and picturesque. Kaloolah sat on a 
 piece of carpet at the door of her goat-skin tent beneath the scanty 
 branches of a scraggy acacia — on either hand at a respectful distance sat 
 my two followers, dressed alike in their new Moorish garments, with the 
 exception of the turban — Hugh having laid his aside ; and Jack's twist 
 being a kind of ad libitum performance, it is impossible to describe. 
 
 For some time Hugh entertained Kaloolah with a number of Irish 
 melodies. They sounded curiously enough, those familiar airs, as they 
 floated away on the night wind of the desert. Could they have caught 
 
250 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the ear of some adventurous Clapperton, or Lang, how they would have 
 excited his astonishment and stirred his heart. 
 
 Hugh rose to his feet and made a low salaam — " May it plase yer 
 ladyship," said he to Kaloolah, " to open that half-blown rose of a mouth 
 of yers, and favor us with a song." 
 
 As soon as she could make out his meaning, Kaloolah complied — 
 singing several pleasant little songs in her own soft language. When 
 she had finished she intimated a desire for Jack to give her a taste of his 
 musical quality. Nothing loth, Jack struck an attitude and began. It 
 was only a common sea song, and could be considered appropriate to 
 time and place only by contrast ; but as I lay at some little distance in 
 the shadow of the trees, his voice came over me like a nor'wester. He 
 sang with unction, and his damp tones, redolent of spoon-drift, fairly 
 brought the brine to my eyes. 
 
 THE HURRICANE. 
 
 The mercury fell so far and fast, 
 
 Our skipper's cheek grew pale, 
 " Lay up ! Lay out ! " he sternly cried, 
 
 " Furl every stitch of sail ; 
 Pass double gaskets, fore and aft ; 
 
 The hatches close secure ; 
 Trice up the ports — the guns run in. 
 
 And lash them firm and sure." 
 
 Our skipper spake unto a crew 
 
 Of joyous hearts, and free 
 As ever, in a right trim ship. 
 
 Sailed o'er a tropic sea. 
 And while he spake, the sun his rays 
 
 Poured down like melted gold. 
 And lazily our gallant bark 
 
 In noon-day calmness rolled. 
 
 But as our crew sprang up the shrouds. 
 
 They saw, with vague surprise. 
 The yellow sun grow dim and red, 
 
 And one dark cloud arise — 
 That swiftly to the zenith swelled 
 
 And spread around, o'er all 
 Old Ocean's slowly heaving breast, 
 
 A black and dismal pall. 
 
 And then a moan crept o'er the sea, 
 Beneath the breathless air. 
 
 And came, as if from out the deep, 
 
 The wailings of despair. 
 While higher yet — and higher yet 
 
 The long and placid swell. 
 On which our bark had gently rolled. 
 
 Now, surging, rose and fell. 
 
 And tossed her wide — stripped to her spars 
 
 Of every rag of sail, 
 And all prepared, alow, aloft. 
 
 To battle with the gale. 
 One moment thus we silent lay, 
 
 When sudden through the gloom 
 We heard the whirlwind's awful roar. 
 
 The crashing thunders boom. 
 
 And at the soxmd the demon blast 
 
 Leapt on our quivering bark, 
 And bore her down till her yard-arms 
 
 Bestirred the waters dark. 
 " Hard up ! Hard up! Starboard your helm," 
 
 Our skipper fiercely cried. 
 " Hard up it is," the straining men 
 
 In shrieking tones replied. 
 
 But still on our broadside we lay. 
 
 Amid the wild uproar. 
 And buried deep in showers of drift 
 
 That hurtled fiercely o'er. 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 251 
 
 " Ho ! axes for the mizzen-mast,'' 
 
 Ouf fiist lieutenant~cries. 
 " Hold on ! hold on ! One moment hold ! " 
 
 Our skipper brave replies. 
 
 And then with trumpet to his lips, 
 
 High rising o'er the gale, 
 He sends along our anxious decks 
 
 His steady, cheering hail : 
 " Ho ! forward, there — the fore-shrouds 
 man," 
 
 And as his voice thus rung, 
 Twice fifty true and gallant men 
 
 Into the rigging sprung ; 
 And there, 'mid driving foam and spray,' 
 
 With desp'rate grasp they clung. 
 
 Hurrah ! her head pays slowly off 
 
 Before this added strain, 
 " Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Ease down your 
 helm. 
 
 She rights — she rights amain." 
 And quick before the demon blast, 
 
 Who, mad at loss of prey. 
 Now louder howls — now fiercer chafes, 
 
 Our good ship gathers way. 
 
 And through a seething sea of foam, 
 
 And 'mid the driving rack. 
 She swiftly flies, with no sails set. 
 
 To urge her on her track. 
 With no sail set ! — but hark ! that sound 1 
 
 It is the main-course driven 
 From out the double gasket's gripe, 
 
 And into fragments riven. 
 
 With no sail set, but hark ! again, 
 
 A top-sail breaks away. 
 And whipt to ribbons, in a breath. 
 
 Far out the streamers play. 
 But still both brace and stay hold true, 
 
 And still our spars stand strong, 
 And still, amid the wild uproar. 
 
 Our staunch bark bowls along. 
 
 But swiftly now the raven clouds 
 
 From the dark furrows rise. 
 And fast before the struggling light 
 
 The storm-king shrieking flies. 
 And now, thank God, with stay-sails set, 
 
 And helm held hard-a-lee, 
 Our brave old ship — laid timely to. 
 
 Safe heads the surging sea. 
 
 Never, perhaps, were stomachs more thoroughly astonished than were 
 ours at this sudden change from a hard, meagre, vegetable diet, to a full 
 meal of animal food. They took it quietly, however, and a good night's 
 rest showed that, if surprised, they were far from displeased. A solid 
 breakfast, after the same fashion, completed Hugh's plan of fortification, 
 and, mounting, we rnoved on, prepared for the worst, confident that only 
 with life could we be deprived of the invigorating influences of a glorious 
 "feed," and the pleasant reminiscences of a roasted gazelle. 
 
 During the night, the hungry growl of the hyena rose several times 
 upon the air, and, shortly after getting under way, a party of the gaunt, 
 grinning beasts flitted across our path, in the purplish gray light of early 
 dawn. Hyenas are not very interesting or companionable animals, and 
 their voices are not generally considered musical ; but, under the circum- 
 stances, we were pleased to meet with them — the silence and lifelessness 
 of the desert had given us a fellow feeling for any and every form of 
 animal life. 
 
 We had been in the saddle but two or three hours, when our attention 
 was aroused by the shouts and gestures of Jack, who had ridden on some 
 
253 KALOOLAH. 
 
 distance in front. As we neared him his excitement appeared to increase ; 
 he waved his hands for us, and eagerly pointed to some object ahead. 
 A long way ofT, we could hear his stentorian shout of " Water ! water . " 
 and, as we came up, a charming scene broke upon us, as suddenly as if 
 created by the wave of an enchanter's wand. The main feature was an 
 extensive sheet of water, that stretched away from our feet to the base of 
 a range of low blue hills. The shores were, apparently, marshy, and the 
 lake of no great depth, inasmuch as numerous sand-bars and mud-flats> 
 showed themselves above the water. Countless flocks of aquatic fowl 
 blackened its surface, and far out was a moving object, that we concluded 
 to be a man in a canoe ; he was standing up, but whether paddling or 
 poling his boat we could not decide. 
 
 We soon stood upon the flat shore, and convinced ourselves, by copi- 
 ous draughts, that it was no mirage. After satisfying our own appetites, 
 and allowing our camels to drink their fill, it was resolved, unanimously," 
 that we should indulge in the luxury of a bath. The propriety of ablu- 
 tion, in our case, will hardly be disputed by any one who recollects the 
 mode of life we had been leading ; the scarcity of water in the desert, and 
 the complete exclusion of our skins, for so long a period, from its clarify- 
 ing influences. 
 
 Around a projecting point, covered with thick brushes, lay a beautiful 
 little bay, which I selected as a bathing spot for Kaloolah. The beach 
 was shelving and sandy, the water shallow, and a single broad-leaved palm 
 tree threw its shade upon shore and lake. Leaving Kaloolah, with special- 
 directions not to venture far out for fear of crocodiles, or hippopotami, I 
 returned to a little knoll that commanded a view of all the approaches to 
 the spot. Further down the beach, Hugh and Jack had selected a bath- 
 ing-place, and were soon busily engaged in unearthing their long-buried 
 cuticular strata. 
 
 For some time I sat watching the movements of the distant boatman, 
 who seemed, from his motions, to be spearing fish — or noting the ma- 
 noeuvres of the vast squadrons of water-fowl — or gazing at the odorous, 
 and infinitely varied beauties of the lotus fields, that lay basking in the 
 full sun upon the surface of the water. Suddenly there came a shrill 
 shriek from Kaloolah, and in an instant she darted into view, and ran 
 rapidly along the shore. Her loose robe of cotton draped itself round 
 her limbs, and somewhat impeded her movements, but still two to one 
 on her would have been a fair bet, had even Atalanta, or swift Camilla 
 been in the field. Without stopping, however, to admire her graceful 
 paces, I rushed to the shore, and soon ascertained the cause of her alarm. 
 
Q 
 O 
 
 o 
 
KALOOLAH. 253 
 
 As I came in sight, Kaloolah turned quickly, and finding herself, as the 
 phrase is, " more frightened than hurt," she uttered a laugh, and pointed 
 to a youngster of a crocodile who had come out of the water, and while 
 she was dressing had advanced unperceived, until close enough to seize 
 her haick as it lay upon the sand. The fellow was making off with his 
 -prize, when I rushed at him, and succeeded in seizing him by the tail. 
 The water was about knee deep, and as the thief was strong and active, 
 though not more than six or seven feet long, the splashing that incon- 
 tinently took place may be more easily imagined than described. Ka- 
 loolah seemed to enjoy the terrors of this novel aquatic combat, ftar, al- 
 though frequently exhorting me to let the fellow go, she laughed long 
 and loudly at our grotesque struggles. At one moment I would drag the 
 monster out, high and dry, when, like a very Antaeus, he would gather 
 fresh strength from contact with the ground, and walk off into the water 
 in spite of my best exertions, all the time retaining a firm hold of the 
 haick. At last, however, finding that it was impossible for either of us 
 to get the advantage, we concluded to compromise matters, and upon his 
 surrendering the haick I gave him his tail, with which he industriously 
 paddled himself off into deep water. The haick was of course somewhat 
 injured in the contest, having numerous marks of the monster's teeth, but 
 as Hugh observed, " It was such a blessing that Kaloolah's body was not 
 wrapped in it when the marks were made," that the injury to the garment 
 could hardly be considered a matter of regret. 
 
 It was now my turn to bathe, so intrusting Kaloolah to the ward of 
 Hugh and Jack, I sought a retired spot and plunged in. It was not 
 advisable to venture far out, lest some saurian spes gregis should take it 
 into his head to resent the insult that had been just offered to one of the 
 youngsters of his flock. 
 
 While preparing to remount. Jack made a characteristic proposition. 
 It was neither more nor less than that we should give up travelling by 
 land, and embark upon the lake. 
 
 " Embark in what ? " I demanded. " What kind of a craft do you pro- 
 pose ? " 
 
 " Why, surely," he replied, " we shall be able to find something that 
 we can make a raft of at least. Or, why could n't we make a signal to 
 that fellow, and get him to take us on board ! " 
 
 Thompson was really in earnest, and I had to explain to him that the 
 lake was most certainly not the expansion of a navigable river, and that 
 it could be nothing more than the marshy terminus of a few short water 
 courses from the distant hills, to convince him that his proposition was 
 
.254 KALOOLAH. 
 
 impracticable. " The boat you see yonder," I continued, " is probably a 
 small ' dug-out,' carrying only one man, and it is doubtful whether the 
 water is deep enough to float a large craft. In fact, in a few days it is 
 quite probable that the whole lake will disappear — " 
 
 " In which case," interposed Hugh, " we shall cut a mighty quare 
 figure, all illigantly wrecked upon the rocks of a mud-bank, and without 
 the laste drop of water around us in which we could swim to the shore." 
 
 We had proceeded but a few paces on our course when my heirie 
 began to give symptoms of uneasiness. He turned his head about, and 
 champed his teeth as if in pain, and at length blood was observed to issue 
 from his mouth. Our alarm may be imagined ; a worse accident could 
 hardly befall us than that one of our beasts should give out. We held an 
 anxious consultation. At last I bethought me of making a close exam- 
 ination, and endeavoring to ascertain the cause and nature of the com- 
 plaint, and commencing with his mouth, our investigations were at once 
 rewarded with success. 
 
 " I see him ! I see him ! " exclaimed Hugh, and suiting the action to 
 the word, he plucked from beneath the heirie's tongue a monstrous leech, 
 which the poor beast had taken in with the water of the lake. The 
 alarming symptoms exhibited by my heirie were at once removed. With 
 a deep sense of joy and thankfulness, we speedily reformed our line of 
 march — Jack leading, in what he called " the cat-head watch," while Hugh 
 spread himself well out on our left flank ; our right being covered by the 
 lake. This triangular disposition of our forces was the best we could 
 adopt to guard against surprise, and to command an extensive view of 
 the country, which, as we advanced, became more and more irregular in 
 its surface, and more thickly dotted with trees. 
 
 We moved on for about half an hour, when suddenly Jack stopped, 
 and upon coming up to him, he pointed to the tracks of men and camels. 
 The tracks were numerous, and of different ages, some of them appearing 
 quite recent, and some of them several days old. 
 
 We moved on again, but in a few minutes our motions were arrested 
 by a signal from Hugh. He was near the crest of a low ridge of ground, 
 about half a mile off on our right. We saw him dismount, and leaving 
 his kneeling camel, creep cautiously along to the top of the ridge. In a 
 moment he returned and made motions to us to join him. Upon com- 
 ing up, Hugh informed us that he had been startled by the sounds of a 
 human voice, and that upon creeping to the top of the hill he had dis- 
 covered a black man ploughing in the field beyond. As he spoke a loud 
 shout came over the crest of the ridge. I at once dismounted, and crept 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 235 
 
 up high enough to obtain a view of the fellow. He was a stalwart black; 
 quite naked, with the exception of a waist-cloth of blue cotton tied round 
 his loins. He was engaged in lazily turning up the thin soil for a crop of 
 some kind of grain. A crook stick of timber cut from the trunk, and one 
 of the branches of a small tree, answe.red for a plough ; to this rude in- 
 strument were harnessed a couple of small cows, by means of ropes of 
 hide fastened to their horns. The furrows, or rather scratches, made by 
 this machine, were not more than two or three inches deep. It was evi- 
 dent that we had arrived in a country in which geoponics, as a science, 
 had been stationary since the days of the first tiller of the earth. 
 
 Having ascertained that the ploughman was alone, I directed Hugh 
 and Jack to await my motions, and remounting my heirie, urged him 
 across the rounded ridge at his best paces. The negro soon got sight of 
 me, and instantly started off at full speed, but my beast was altogether 
 
 "He suddenly stopped, and poising a light spear, expressed, by his gestures, a very decided 
 disposition to assume the offensive." 
 
 too fleet for him to escape. Finding that we were gaining upon him, he 
 suddenly stopped, and poising a light spear, expressed, by his gestures, a 
 very decided disposition to assume the offensive. 
 
 It was impossible to persuade him that my intentions were not hostile, 
 and it was only by pointing my gun at him that I could make him throw 
 away his spear and go back with me. He could speak only a few words 
 of Arabic, but when Hugh addressed him in Tuaric he answered readily, 
 and upon assurance that we wanted nothing of him but a httle informa- 
 tion in relation to the country, he laid aside his fears and became quite 
 communicative. 
 
 He informed us that we were about sixty days' journey east of Tim- 
 buctoo, and that we were clear of the desert, and just upon the edge of a 
 Country inhabited by Tuarics, but that at present most of the men were 
 
256 KALOOLAH. 
 
 away, engaged in an attack upon a large negro town in the southwest, 
 the inhabitants of which had refused to pay the customary tribute. We 
 could not have arrived at a more fortunate moment. 
 
 It was exceedingly gratifying to find from the man's replies that my 
 calculations, as to our position, were not more than fifty miles in fault. 
 We were a httle farther east from Timbuctoo than by my estimation, 
 but that might be explained upon the ground of the strong probability 
 that the city is situated at a less distance from the ocean than is generally 
 indicated upon the maps. At any rate we were just where I wished to be, 
 and so near to our estimated position, as to warrant a very comfortable 
 degree of confidence in the correctness or my dead reckoning for the future. 
 
 The negro informed us that Agades, a large caravan station, was due 
 west of us, from whence a frequent communication was kept up with 
 Sackatoo, the great capital of Houssa, and with the flourishing city of 
 Kano, visited and described by Captain Clapperton. Our informant 
 seemed to understand the country well. He told us that he belonged 
 to a tribe of Kerdies, or Kafifirs, inhabiting a chain of hills in the south 
 of Mandara ; that he had been captured, and taken from place to place 
 until he reached Kano, where he lived for three or four years, until pur- 
 chased by a party of slave-dealers to be taken across the desert. On 
 their way from Kano to Agades they were attacked by the Tuarics, and 
 he thus came into the hands of his present masters. 
 
 Upon asking him the bearing of Sackatoo, he pointed to the south- 
 east. He said that by taking this course we should get clear of the 
 Tuaric country in three daj-s, and that when once among the negroes, 
 travelling would be comparatively safe, and that it would be easy to fall 
 into some of the Kafifila tracks leading to Sackatoo. In reply to ques- 
 tions about a guide, he shook his head, and intimated pretty plainly that 
 the less we had to do with his masters the better — that our best plan was 
 to push on as rapidly as possible, giving a wide berth to any Tuaric vil- 
 lage we might encounter, for, although the warriors were away, the 
 women, children, and old men were not to be despised. There was but 
 one objection to this plan, and that was, that our provisions were nearly 
 exhausted. Upon mentioning this we were astonished by an offer from 
 the negro to bring us a supply of meal. He took us to a rising ground 
 and showed us a collection of mud and stone huts covering the slope of 
 a hill about two miles off, promising that if we would encamp in th« 
 hollow and keep out of sight, he would go and get some provision and 
 return in the course of the night. As an earnest of his intention, he 
 insisted upon milking his cows into our bowl and giving us a good draught 
 
KALOOLAH. 257 
 
 all around. There was an air of openness and honesty in the fellow's 
 face and manner that would perhaps have induced us to confide in him, 
 even, had we not been so situated that it was impossible to do otherwise. 
 
 The sun was just setting when we finished our conversation, and we 
 at once commenced unlading our camels and preparing to encamp, while 
 the negro, who gave his name as Hassan Haboo, unyoked his team, and 
 driving them before him, set off for his village. As soon as he was out 
 of sight we replaced the loads and led our camels to another hollow 
 about a quarter of a mile off. Here I resolved to leave Hugh and Jack 
 with Kaloolah, while I kept watch at the first place ; by this plan, if 
 Hassan intended treachery, we should discover it in time to escape. 
 
 Never was suspicion more unjust. It was near midnight that my 
 anxious ear detected the sound of footsteps. By putting my ear close to 
 the ground I could distinguish the dull heavy tread of a camel mingled 
 with the lighter foot-falls of his master, and in a few minutes they 
 appeared in sight upon the crest of the hill. Descending into the hollow 
 the stranger halted, apparently in doubt at not finding the objects he 
 sought. As he was alone there could be no doubt that it was our new 
 friend Hassan ; so, without further hesitation, I rose from my cover and 
 joined him. 
 
 He had brought with him a camel well laden with barley-meal, rice, 
 and a quantity of hard bread, unleavened and baked in cakes of a rhom- 
 boidal shape. He had also a jar of honey, another of butter, and half a 
 dozen strings of kabobs, which are small pieces of meat strung alternately, 
 fat and lean, and roasted by twirling them before the fire, carefully baist- 
 ing them the while with butter, and flavoring them with salt and the 
 bruised seeds of a species of pungent pepper. 
 
 Without giving us time to make any disposition of the provision, 
 Hassan insisted that we should mount and set out ; and when it was ob- 
 jected that we could not find our way in the dark, he announced his 
 determination to act as a guide. To all our questions his replies were 
 vague and indefinite ; but still there was something in his manner — an air 
 of sincerity, and an unaffected expression of uneasiness and fear that com- 
 pelled me to follow his advice. 
 
 The loads were put upon our beasts, and, leading them by their 
 halters, Hugh and Jack brought up the rear, while, with Kaloolah, I kept 
 close to our guide in order to have an eye upon his movements. The 
 night was cool and pleasant, though the stars twinkled but dimly to eyes 
 accustomed to the eager lustre with which they look down upon the 
 desert. A soft southern zephyr, laden with moisture and melancholy. 
 
2S8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 came noiseless, but with a capacity and a longing for sound, until 
 catching the echoes of our footsteps it bore them murmuring with joy 
 away. There was something in the scene, the time, the weather, the 
 stealthy pace of our little party, the silence enforced by our guide, and 
 our ignorance of what we had to fear, that made me feel, to say the least 
 of it, uncommonly queer. 
 
 Hassan led the way, without once stopping or hesitating, and at the 
 first blush of daylight he set us the example of mounting his camel, and 
 still pressed on. It is singular, thought I, as the sun rose over a line of 
 distant highlands, revealing a broad and smiling prospect of grass-covered, 
 grove-besprinkled hill and plair. ; it is singular that the fellow evinces yet 
 no disposition to leave us. At that moment the idea occurred to me that 
 Hassan had joined us with the intention of escaping from his masters, the 
 Tuarics, and that our chief danger was the danger of being pursued and 
 caught with him in company. Calling Hugh to me, I rode up to Hassan, 
 and questioned him, when he at once admitted that such was the case. 
 He said that he had long resolved upon flight, and when he found that 
 we were going in the direction of his country, he had made up his mind 
 on the spot to go with us. That as for being pursued there were only a few 
 old men and boys to pursue us, and that he had managed matters so that 
 his flight would not be suspected for a day or two, when he would be 
 beyond reach. 
 
 " Do with me as you please," he continued, taking my hand and put- 
 ing it on the back of his neck. " I am your slave, but I can never go back." 
 
 The fellow, as a guide and as a stout addition to our little force, was 
 worth running some risk for; so we determined, without much hesitation, 
 to enlist him into our ranks, and to accept his supply of provisions with- 
 out inquiring too curiously whether he had been fully justified in stealing 
 thern or not. 
 
 BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 The editor here takes the liberty of condensing into a few words six 
 long chapters of Mr. Romer's manuscript, which are devoted to a descrip- 
 tion of the five months' journey through the negro countries that lie 
 between the northern frontiers of Houssa and the extreme southern 
 boundary of Mandara. 
 
 Our travellers passed through the Tuaric country in safety, owing to 
 the absence of the greater portion of the population. When they reached 
 a little town called Dirkim, they exchanged their camels for four fine 
 
KALOOLAH. 259 
 
 horses apd two pack mules. From this place they proceeded under a 
 succession of guides to Sackatoo, the capital of the Fellatah dominions. 
 Here Mr. Romer disposed of a portion of his goods at an advantageous 
 rate, and purchased three Moorish muskets and a quantity of cowrie 
 shells, which were the current coin of the more southern country. He 
 also purchased a bright-eyed young negress to serve as an attendant to 
 Kaloolah. Four months after leaving Sackatoo, they reached the Kerdie 
 country to the south of Dah Koollah. Here they found an agreeable 
 change in the character of the land. There was every indication that 
 they were not more than three or four hundred miles from Framazugda, 
 Kaloolah's home. From this point we must let our author speak for 
 himself. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Torest Sights and Sounds — Kaloolah's Feelings — The Great River — A Fine Prospect — The 
 Froulbell — A Strong Camp — Constructing a Raft — A Stroll in the Forest — A Lion in the 
 Path — The Boa — Crossing the Yah'nil Nebbe. 
 
 I OR a long time had we pursued our way through the sombre 
 forest, all silent — subdued in spirit, and disposed to bow 
 reverentially to receive the blessings which the religious old 
 trees, with outstretched arms seemed invoking upon our 
 heads. From all sides arose curious and horrid noises, that, like the 
 grotesque grinning faces of Gothic architecture, served only to increase 
 the pervading solemnity — the screeching of parrots, paroquets, and an 
 infinite variety of birds unknown to naturalists even by name ; the chat- 
 tering of myriads of monkeys ; the occasional laugh and growl of animals 
 of the hyena family ; the wild rush and whir of startled deer, harts, roe- 
 bucks, and the gliding, rustling sound of huge snakes, moving along the 
 ground, or around the gigantic trunks, and among the verdure of the 
 gnarled branches. 
 
 " You are silent, Kaloolah ; what are you thinking of ? " I demanded. 
 
 " I am not thinking," replied Kaloolah, " I am only feeling." 
 
 " And how are you feeling, pray ? " 
 
 " As I did once when I stood in the inner hall of the great mound 
 temple of Kiloam. There, however, all was silence — with nothing to 
 disturb the sense of God's presence and power — but here — this — oh, this 
 is horrible ! " 
 
 " What is horrible ? This shade — this gloom — " 
 
 " No, no ; not the forest-; not this cool shade ; not this pleasing 
 gloom, but these sounds that so mock and threaten as we go — these 
 gibbering fiends, up there in the trees, that grin upon us so. Oh, how 
 pleasant it would be to have this shade to ourselves — to be able to 
 move beneath this umbrageous canopy without being annoyed and star- 
 tled by such terrible sights and sounds — so strange, yet so familiar — 
 familiar, yet none the less horrible. They do not frighten me so much 
 
 260 
 
>.IY^ 
 
KALOOLAH. 261 
 
 since I know, Jon'than, you can protect me, but they somehow frighten 
 my heart." 
 
 " Indeed, Kaloolah, so young, so innocent, and yet thy heart has 
 recollections of grinning faces, and mocking voices, that the noises 
 
 around us revive ! Courage ! we shall soon be through this wood. 
 
 Well, Hassan, what now ? " 
 
 " The great river is in front of us," replied Hassan ; and in a few 
 minutes we emerged from the dark forest, and stood upon its banks. 
 There lay the broad stream, some fifty or sixty feet beneath us, and 
 beyond it a vast expanse of open, rolling country, dotted with clumps of 
 trees, and undulating with rounded hills, through which opened up long 
 vistas of surpassing beauty. In the middle ground the hills grew more 
 varied in their forms, and more abrupt, serving to link, by an easy transi- 
 tion, the milder beauty of the river's bank with the lofty grandeur of a 
 chain of towering mountains in the background. 
 
 From the foot of the bank upon which we stood extended a wide 
 beach of dark, gray pebbles and sand. It took us some time to find a 
 spot at which our animals could descend. From the beach the view was 
 much restricted of the country on the other side of'the river, but the loss 
 was made up by the pleasing outline of the bank, and the magnificence of 
 the masses of rock and verdure that towered above us behind, and ex- 
 tended as far up and down as the eye could reach. Gigantic flowering 
 creepers, splendid specimens of the rock-hugging ceres, and a magnificent 
 flower, like the morning-glory, but as large as a man's hat, and of a bril- 
 liant blue and gold, covered and concealed the angular points and rough 
 projections of the cliffs. Among these, as in the forest we had passed, 
 revelled a thousand different kinds of birds of the most glorious plumage : 
 little paroquets, bedecked in all the prismatic colors ; humming-birds ; 
 golden and purple wood-peckers, and a little bird that Kaloolah clapped 
 her hands at the sight of, and called the kinkapal, or gem-bird. Around 
 its head and neck were little tufts of plumage of different hues, that re- 
 flected the sunlight as brightly as a brilliant of the first water. The wings 
 and body were of a plain gray, while the head and neck were clothed as 
 with a little casque and corselet of diamonds, rubies, and opals. Here, 
 too, floated several specimens of the froulbell, a bird which may justly be 
 pronounced one of the greatest ornithological curiosities in the world. Its 
 body is about the size of a wren, and without wings, but from every point 
 on its surface comes out the most delicate feather streamers, a foot or more 
 in length. Wonderful is the delicacy and lightness of this large mass of 
 plumage in which the little body of the bird is concealed. The finest 
 
262 KALOOLAH. 
 
 feathers of the ostrich, or the bird of paradise, are coarse in comparison. 
 The outer extremity of each feather is of a pure white, but towards the 
 body glow the brightest hues of green, bkie, purple, and gold, so that the 
 wind, parting the masses of graceful plumage as the bird floats slowly 
 along, reveals each moment new combinations of color to the delighted 
 eye. But not the least curious part of the froulbell's structure is the ma- 
 chinery with which, in the absence of wings, it is furnished for locomo- 
 tion. The bill is simply a tube, open at both ends, and extending 
 directly through the head, so that one orifice is directly in front, the 
 other behind. From the middle of this tube, or from the top of the 
 head, rises a hollow, cartilaginous globe, capable of expansion and con- 
 traction ; this communicates with the tube, in which are two valves, the 
 one in front opening towards the globe, the one behind, away from it. 
 When the globe is expanded a vacuum is produced, and the air rushes in 
 through the valve in front. When the globe contracts, this valve closes, 
 and the air is forced out through the other valve behind ; and thus, by an 
 alternate action of suction and propulsion, the froulbell is able to move 
 along slowly, when the wind is not too high. The flexibility of the neck 
 enables the bird to direct the tube to any angle of elevation, and thus, 
 aided by the legerity of its plumage, to ascend to any height, although it 
 generally flies low in search or small insects and animaculse, which, when 
 sucked into the globe, are retained in the convolution of a lining mucous 
 membrane, and afterwards transmitted into the stomach. The passage of 
 the air through the valves occasions a pleasant flute-like sound, which 
 varies in tone and quality with the size of the bird and the rapidity of 
 its motion. 
 
 But it was no time for ecstasies over the beauties of the animal and 
 vegetable kingdom, with a broad and rapid river in front of us, and with 
 no means at hand of crossing it. Again and again I questioned our two 
 guides, but they were firm in the assertion that we should have to travel 
 several days before encountering a Kerdie village, and that then we might 
 not find either ford or ferriage. The only plan was to make some kind of 
 a boat or raft upon which we could carry our luggage, and to swim our 
 horses across, despite the danger of attack from the crocodiles, with which 
 the river appeared alive. As this would require some time, preparations 
 were made for a more permanent encampment than usual. 
 
 A little rocky peninsula jutted into the river, and was connected to 
 the main land by a narrow isthmus. The sides were quite steep and jag- 
 ged, rising about five or six feet in height, or enough to protect us from 
 the visits of the river monsters, while a large fire upon the narrow neck 
 
KALOOLAH. 263 
 
 afforded a full defence toward the land. The area of the peninsula 
 was just sufficient to accommodate our party, beasts and all. Here we 
 picketed our steeds, pitched Kaloolah's tent, and arranged our baggage. 
 The rest of the day was consumed in building a shanty of bushes, cutting^ 
 fodder for our horses, and collecting firewood. 
 
 We passed a pleasant night, although, had not our ears been hardened 
 by our long and intimate companionship with wild beasts of every de- 
 scription, we should perhaps have been disturbed by the loud whining 
 and plashing of the crocodile, the deep breathing and floundering of the 
 hippopotamus, the bark of the jackal and hyena, or the thundering roar 
 of the lion that occasionally reverberated along the cliffs, startling for a 
 while to silence the inferior beasts. We slept, however, with an unusual 
 feeling of security. Our position was a strong one, in fact perfectly im- 
 pregnable — a real little Gibraltar of an encampnent to our prowling and 
 growling foes. 
 
 The next morning we started in search of some kind of material for a 
 raft. We had not gone far up the stream when we came across a large 
 hollow tree, about fifty feet in height, without branches, except near the 
 top, where it put forth ten or twelve arms, somewhat resembling the 
 sturdy and awkward-looking limbs of the dragon-tree. It was little more 
 than two feet in diameter, and although decayed near the roots, so as to 
 expose its hoUow-heartedness, is still seemed to enjoy a vigorous old age. 
 
 " There," said Jack, " that would be just the thing if we had it down, 
 and cut up into three or four lengths, with any way of stopping the ends." 
 
 " The easiest thing in the world. You see to getting it down, and I 
 will find something with which to cover the ends. Or, rather, as we shall 
 need lashing to hold the pieces together, you shall manufacture the 
 necessary rope out of the skins that I will furnish, and Hugh shall super- 
 intend cutting the tree." 
 
 Leaving Kaloolah and her maid in charge of Jack, and Hugh with 
 the two guides hard at work upon the tree, I took Hassan with me, and 
 moved into the woods in search of skins. Nothing of sufficient size could 
 come amiss, and it took but a short time to shoot and flay more than 
 twenty animals, among whom hardly two were of the same species. 
 
 By sunset Hugh had the tree down, and Jack had twisted a large 
 quantity of rope. The tree had now to be cut into three pieces of about 
 twelve feet in length, the openings at the ends to be secured with skins, 
 and the logs got into the water and firmly lashed together into a raft. 
 Without any of the proper means and appliances, this was a work of time, 
 and it was not until the fifth day that the raft was ready for its burden. 
 
264 KALOOLAH. 
 
 It was early on the morning of the sixth, that, accompanied by 
 Kaloolah, and the Hvely Clefenha, I ascended the bank for a final 
 reconnoisance of the country on the other bank of the river. It was not 
 my intention to wander far, but allured by the beauty of the scene, and 
 the promise of a still better view from a higher crag, we moved along the 
 edge of the bank until we had got nearly two miles from our camp. At 
 this point the line of the bank curved towards the river so as to make a 
 beetling promontory of a hundred feet perpendicular descent. The 
 gigantic trees grew on the very brink, many of them throwing their long 
 arms far over the shore below. The trees generally grew wide apart, and 
 there was little or no underwood, but many of the trunks were wreathed 
 with the verdure of parasites and creepers so that the forest vistas were 
 often shut off by immense columns of green leaves and flowers. The 
 stems of some of these creepers were truly wonderful : one, from which 
 depended large bunches of scarlet berries, had, not unfrequently, stems 
 as large as a man's body. In some cases one huge plant of this kind, 
 ascending with an incalculable prodigality of lignin, by innumerable 
 convolutions, would stretch itself out, and, embracing several trees in its 
 folds, mat them together in one dense mass of vegetation. 
 
 Suddenly we noticed that the usual sounds of the forest had almost 
 ceased around us. Deep in the wood we could still hear the chattering 
 of monkeys and the screeching of parrots. Never before had our presence 
 created any alarm among the denizens of the tree-tops ; or, if it had, it 
 had merely excited to fresh clamor, without putting them to flight. We 
 looked around for the cause of this sudden retreat. 
 
 " Perhaps," I replied to Kaloolah's inquiry, " there is a storm gather- 
 ing, and they are gone to seek a shelter deeper in the wood." 
 
 We advanced close to the edge of the bank, and looked out into the 
 the broad daylight that poured down from above on flood and field. 
 There was the same bright smile on the distant fields andhills ; the same 
 clear sheen in the deep water ; the same lustrous stillness in the perfumed 
 air; not a single prognostic of any commotion among the elements. 
 
 I placed my gun against a tree, and took a seat upon an exposed 
 portion of one of its roots. Countless herds of animals, composed of 
 quaggas, zebras, gnus, antelopes, hart-beasts, roeboks, springboks, buffalos, 
 wild boars, and a dozen other kinds, for which my recollection of African 
 travels furnished no names, were roaming over the fields on the other 
 side of the river, or quietly reposing in the shade of the scattered 
 mimosas, or beneath the groups of lofty palms. A herd of thirty or forty 
 tall ungainly figures came in sight, and took their way, with awkward 
 
KALOOLAH. 265 
 
 but rapid pace, across the plain. I knew them at once to be giraffes, 
 although they were the first that we had seen. I was straining my eyes 
 to discover the animal that pursued them, when Kaloolah called to me to 
 come to her. She was about fifty yards farther down the stream than 
 where I was sitting. With an unaccountable degree of carelessness, I 
 arose and went towards her, leaving my gun leaning against the tree. As 
 I advanced, ,she ran out to the extreme point of the little promontory I 
 have mentioned, where her maid was standing, and pointed to something 
 over the edge of the cliff. 
 
 " Oh, Jon'than ! " she exclaimed, " what a curious and beautiful 
 flower? Come, and try if you can get it for me ! " 
 
 Advancing to the crest of the cliff, we stood looking down its precipi- 
 tous sides to a point some twenty feet below, where grew a bunch of wild 
 honeysuckles. Suddenly a startling noise, like the roar of thunder, or 
 like the boom of a thirty-two pounder, rolled through the wood, fairly 
 shaking the sturdy trees, and literally making the ground quiver beneath 
 our feet. Again it came, that appalling and indescribably awful sound ! 
 and so close as to completely stun us. Roar upon roar, in quick succes- 
 sion, now announced the coming of the king of beasts. " The lion ! the 
 lion ! — Oh, God of mercy ! where is my gun ? " I started forward, but it 
 was too late. Alighting, with a magnificent bound, into the open space 
 in front of us, the monster stopped, as if somewhat taken aback by the 
 novel appearance of his quarry, and crouching his huge carcass close to 
 the ground, uttered a few deep snuffling sounds, not unlike the prelim- 
 inary crankings and growlings of a heavy steam-engine, when it first feels 
 the pressure of the steam. 
 
 He was, indeed, a monster ! — fully twice as large as the largest speci- 
 men of his kind that was. ever condemned, by gaping curiosity, to the 
 confinement of the cage. His body was hardly less in size than that of a 
 dray-horse ; his paw as large as the foot of an elephant ; while his head ! 
 — what can be said of such a head ? Concentrate the fury, the power, 
 the capacit}-, and the disposition for evil of a dozen thunder-storms 
 into a round globe, about two feet in diameter, and one would then 
 be able to get an idea of the terrible expression of that head and 
 face, enveloped and set off as it was by the dark' frame-work of bristling 
 mane. 
 
 The lower jaw rested upon the ground ; the mouth was slightly open, 
 showing the rows of white teeth and the blood-red gums, from which the 
 lips were retracted in a majestic and right kingly grin. The brows and 
 the skin around the eyes were corrugated into a splendid glory of radiant 
 
266 KALOOLAH. 
 
 wrinkles, in the centre of wiiich glowed two small globes, like opals, but 
 with a dusky lustrousness that no opal ever yet attained. 
 
 For a few moments he remained motionless, and then, as if satisfied 
 with the result of his close scrutiny, he began to slide along the ground 
 towards us; slowly one monstrous paw was protruded after the other; 
 slowly the huge tufted tail waved to and fro, sometimes striking his 
 hollow flanks, and occasionally coming down upon the ground with a 
 sound like the falling of heavy clods upon a cofifin. There could be no 
 doubt of his intention to charge us, when near enough for a spring. 
 
 And was there no hope ? Not the slightest, at least for myself. It 
 was barely possible that one victim would satisfy him, or that, in the con- 
 test that was about to take place, I might, if he did not kill me at the 
 first blow, so wound him as to indispose him for any further exercise of 
 his power, and that thus Kaloolah would escape. As for me, I felt that 
 my time had come. With no weapon but my long knife, what chance 
 was there against such a monster ? I cast one look at the gun that was 
 leaning so carelessly against the tree beyond him, and thought how easy 
 it would be to send a bullet through one of those glowing eyes, into the 
 depths of that savage brain. Never was there a fairer mark ! But, alas ! 
 it was impossible to reach the gun ! Truly, " there was a lion in the path." 
 
 I turned to Kaloolah, who was a little behind me. Her face expressed 
 a variety of emotions ; she could not speak or move, but she stretclied 
 out her hand, as if to pull me back. Behind her crouched the black, 
 whose features were contracted into the awful grin of intense terror ; she 
 was too much frightened to scream, but in her face a thousand yells of 
 agony and fear were incarnated. 
 
 I remember not precisely what I said, but, in the fewest words, I inti- 
 mated to Kaloolah that the lion would, probably, be satisfied with attack- 
 ing me ; that she must run by us as soon as he sprang upon me, and, 
 returning to the camp, waste no time, but set out at once under the 
 charge of Hugh and Jack. She made no reply, and I waited for none, 
 but facing the monster, advanced slowly towards him — the knife was 
 firmly grasped in my right hand, my left side a little turned towards 
 him, and my left arm raised, to guard as much as possible against the first 
 crushing blow of his paw. Further than this I had formed no plan of 
 battle. In such a contest the mind has but little to do — all depends upon 
 the instinct of the muscles; and well for a man if good training has 
 developed that instinct to the highest. I felt that I could trust mine, and 
 that my brain need not bother itself as to the manner my muscles were 
 going to act. 
 
KALOOLAH. 267 
 
 Within thirty feet of my huge foe I stopped — cool, calm as a statue ; 
 not an emotion agitated me. No hope, no fear : death was too certain to 
 permit either passion. There is something in the conviction of the im- 
 mediate inevitableness of death that represses fear; we are then compelled 
 to take a better look at the king of terrors, and we find that he is not so 
 formidable as we imagined. Look at him with averted glances and half- 
 closed eyes, and he has a most imposing, overawing presence ; but face 
 him, eye to eye; grasp his proffered hand manfully, and he sinks, from a 
 right royal personage, into a contemptible old gate-keeper on the turnpike 
 of Hfe. 
 
 I had time to think of many things, although it must not be supposed, 
 from the leisurely way in which I here tell the story, that the whole affair 
 . occupied much time. Like lightning flashing from link to link along a 
 chain conductor, did memory illuminate, almost simultaneously, the chain 
 of incidents that measured my path in life, and that connected the present 
 with the past. I could see the whole of my back track " blazed," as clearly 
 as ever was a forest path by a woodman's axe ; and ahead ! ah, there was 
 not much to see ahead ! 'T was but a short view ; death hedged in the 
 scene. In a few minutes my eyes would be opened to the pleasant sights 
 beyond ; but, for the present, death commanded all attention. And such 
 a death ! But why such a death ? What better death, except on the 
 battle-field, in defence of one's country? To be killed by a lion! Surely, 
 there is a spice of dignity about it, maugre the being eaten afterwards. 
 Suddenly the monster stopped, and erected his tail, stiff and motionless, 
 in the air. Strange as it may seem, the conceit occurred to me that the 
 motion of his tail had acted as a safety-valve to the pent-up muscular 
 energy within : " He has shut the steaim off from the 'scape-pipe, and now 
 he turns it on to his locomotive machinery. God have mercy upon me ! 
 — He comes! " 
 
 But he did not come ! At the instant, the light figure of Kaloolah 
 rushed past me: " Fly, fly, Jon'than ! " she wildly exclaimed, as she 
 dashed forward directly towards the lion. Quick as thoAight, I divined 
 her purpose, and sprang after her, grasping her dress, and pulling her 
 forcibly back, almost from within those formidable jaws. The astonished 
 animal gave several jumps sideways and backwards, and stopped, crouch- 
 ing to the ground and growling and lashing his sides with renewed fury. 
 He was clearly taken aback by our unexpected charge upon him, but it 
 was evident that he was not to be frightened into abandoning his prey. 
 His mouth was made up for us, and there could be no doubt, if his 
 motions were a little slow, that he considered us as good as gorged. 
 
268 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Fly, fly, Jon'than ! " exclaimed Kaloolah, as she struggled to break 
 from my grasp. " Leave me ! Leave me to die alone, but oh ! save 
 yourself, quick ! along the bank. You can escape — fly ! " 
 
 " Never, Kaloolah," I replied, fairly forcing her with quite an exertion 
 of strength behind me. " Back, back ! Free my arm ! Quick, quick ! 
 He comes ! " It was no time for gentlenesss. Roughly shaking her re- 
 laxing grasp from my arm, she sunk powerless, yet not insensible, to the 
 ground, while I had just time to face the monster and plant one foot 
 forward to receive him. 
 
 He was in the very act of springing ! His huge carcass was even 
 rising under the impulsion of his contracting muscles, when his action 
 was arrested in a way so unexpected, so wonderful, and so startling that 
 my senses were for the moment thrown into perfect confusion. Could. 
 I trust my sight, or was the whole affair the illusion of a horrid dream ? 
 It seemed as if one of the gigantic creepers I have mentioned had sud- 
 denly quitted the canopy above, and, endowed with life and a huge pair 
 of widely distended jaws, had darted with the rapidity of lightning upon 
 the crouching beast. There was a tremendous shaking of the tree-tops, 
 and a confused wrestling, and jumping, and whirling over and about, 
 amid a cloud of upturned roots, and earth, and leaves accompanied with 
 the most terrific roars and groans. As I looked again, vision grew more 
 distinct. An immense body, gleaming with purple, green, and gold ap- 
 peared convoluted around the majestic branches overhead, and stretching 
 down, was turned two or three times around the struggling lion, whose 
 head and neck were almost concealed from sight within the cavity of a 
 pair of jaws still more capacious than his own. 
 
 Thus, then, was revealed the cause of the sudden silence throughout 
 the woods. It was the presence of the boa that had frightened the 
 monkey and feathered tribes into silence. How opportunely was his pres- 
 ence manifested to us ! A moment more, and it would have been too late. 
 
 Gallantly did the lion struggle in the folds of his terrible enemy, 
 whose grasp each instant grew more firm and secure, and most astounding 
 were those frightful yells of rage and fear.- The huge body of the snake, 
 fully two feet in diameter, where it depended from the trees, presented 
 the most curious appearances, and in such quick succession that the eye 
 could scarcely follow them. At one moment smooth and flexile, at the 
 next rough and stiffened, or contracted into great knots — at one moment 
 overspread with a thousand tints of reflected color, the next distended so 
 as to transmit through the skin tbi golden gleams of the animal light- 
 ning that coursed up and down within. 
 

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KALOOLAH. _ 269 
 
 Over and over rolled the struggling beast ; but in vain all his strength, 
 in vain all his efforts to free himself. Gradually his muscles relaxed in 
 their exertions ; his roar subsided to a groan ; his tongue protruded 
 from his mouth, and his fetid breath mingled with a strong sickly odor 
 from the serpent, diffused itself through the air, producing a sense of 
 oppression, and a feeling of weakness like that from breathing some 
 deleterious gas. 
 
 I looked around me. Kaloolah was on her knees, and the negress 
 insensible upon the ground a few paces behind her. A sensation of 
 giddiness warned me that it was time to retreat. Without a word I 
 raised Kaloolah in my arms, ran towards the now almost motionless 
 animals, and, turning along the bank, reached the tree against which my 
 gun was leaning. 
 
 Darting back, I seized the prostrate negress and bore her off in the 
 same way. By this time both females had recovered their voices, 
 Clefenha exercising hers in a succession of shrieks that compelled me to 
 shake her somewhat rudely, while Kaloolah eagerly besought me to 
 hurry back to the camp. There was now, however, no occasion for 
 hurry. The recovery of my gun altered the state of the case, and my 
 curiosity was excited to witness the progress of deglutition on a large 
 scale; which the boa was probably about to exhibit. It was impossible, 
 however, to resist Kaloolah's entreaties, and after stepping up closer to 
 the animals for one good look, I reluctantly consented to turn back. 
 
 The lion was quite dead, and, with a slow motion, the snake was un- 
 coiling himself from his prey and from the tree above. As well as I 
 could judge, without seeing him straightened out, he was between ninety 
 and one hundred feet in length^not quite so long as the serpent with 
 which the army af Regulus had its famous battle, or as many of the same 
 animals that I have since seen ; but, as the reader will allow, a very 
 respectable sized snake. I have often regretted that we did not stop 
 until at least he had commenced his meal. Had I been alone I should 
 have done so. At it was, curiosity had to yield to my own sense of pru- 
 dence, and to Kaloolah's fears. 
 
 We returned to our camp, where we found our raft all ready. The 
 river was fully half a mile wide, and it was necessary to make two trips ; 
 the first with the women and baggage, and the last with the horses. It is 
 unnecessary to dwell in detail upon all the difficulties we encountered from 
 the rapid currents and whirling eddies of the stream ; suffice it that we got 
 across in time for supper and a good night's sleep, and early in the morn- 
 ing resumed our march through the most enchanting country in the world. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV, 
 
 Beyond the Yah'nil Nebbe — An Alarmed Town — An Expressive Pantomime — A Friendly Re- 
 ception — The Matcham — Habits Versus Principles — A Kyptily Breakfast — The Town of 
 Soconale — The Matcham's Foreign Relations — Departure from Soconale. 
 
 ^HE first day there appeared no signs of human life. Countless 
 herds of wild animals roamed over the plains. Sometimes we 
 were completely surrounded, as far as the eye could extend, 
 with herds of quagas, gnus, antelopes of five or six different 
 species, buffalos, wild boars, giraffes, ostriches, and elephants. Each 
 moment as we advanced we started from their lairs, in the crevices of the 
 calcareous rocks, or from beneath the thick herbage, the leopard, the 
 hyena, and the lion. The prestige, however, of the latter had departed — 
 he was no longer the unconquerable, and, except at night, we had no fear 
 of an attack. The elephants and wild buffalo were much more dangerous, 
 and repeatedly we had to make large detours to avoid them. 
 
 Several times we mistook a collection of lofty ant-hills for human 
 habitations, and as often did we fancy the figures of the tall ourang- 
 outangs, who stalked about upon the edges of the cliffs, to be those 
 of men. 
 
 On the second day we entered a valley, through which meandered a 
 shallow tributary of the Yah'nil nebbe, the great river that we had just 
 crossed. The scenery along its banks was singularly picturesque and im- 
 posing. Sometimes the valley spread itself out so as to leave a space for 
 fertile savannahs along the river's banks, where grew clumps of palms, 
 with a peculiar variety of the baobab, and a tree that I took to be a spe- 
 cies of the Indian banian. Numerous fruit-bearing trees were scattered 
 about ; one of them producing a fruit like a large green-gage, but without 
 a seed stone. The flavor was delicious. Another, producing a fruit about 
 a foot long and an inch in diameter — it consisted of a brilliant scarlet 
 rind, containing a transparent pinkish fluid, with the bouquet of Chateau 
 Margeaux and a taste resembling champagne punch. It was precisely 
 similar in its effects to the latter drink. Luckily we were cautioned in 
 
 270 
 
KALOOLAH. 271 
 
 time by Kaloolah, and indulged no further than to a little pleasant eleva- 
 tion of the spirits. 
 
 The fifth day we got sight of several stone huts erected upon the jut- 
 ting promontory of rock that overlooked the level savannah. The in- 
 habitants did not await our arrival. I rode forward alone, and made signs 
 to them. The men stopped, and poised their spears, while the women 
 continued their retreat. Upon attempting to approach them they also 
 took to flight, and disappeared in the deep gullies and dense jungles. 
 
 As we advanced, clusters of huts became more frequent ; in fact the 
 country seemed quite populous, but it was impossible to get speech with 
 any of the people. The only conclusion we could come to was, that 
 they took us for a party of slave-hunters, and that our guns excited 
 their alarm. 
 
 We were now thinking about encamping for the night when Hugh rode 
 up and informed us that just beyond a thicket of acacias he had discov- 
 ered a walled town upon the slope of a hill. We spurred forward, and 
 upon emerging from the wood there lay an open plain about a mile 
 broad, covered with tall grass, and beyond it a town of about fifty 
 houses. 
 
 We had hardly entered the plain when we heard the sound of drums 
 and wooden horns. Several horsemen appeared, galloping across the 
 field, and men could be seen running about upon the slope of the hill and 
 the tops of the houses and walls. 
 
 We advanced steadily to the foot of the hill. A straight path led up 
 to a wooden gate which was closed and defended by towers on either side. 
 In these towers and along the walls were stationed men and women, 
 armed with spears and bows, which they flourished over their heads with 
 furious gestures and cries, intended to intimidate us and encourage them- 
 selves. It is to be hoped that they succeeded better in doing the latter 
 than they did in their attempts at the first. 
 
 Halting at a proper distance, I directed Hassan to ride forward and 
 make signals of friendship to them. He advanced until within a bow-shot, 
 when he dismounted, and laying his gun upon the ground, pointed to it. 
 He again advanced a few steps forward, bearing a staff with one of 
 Kaloolah's linen garments tied to it for a flag. The shouts and gesticula- 
 tions recommenced, and, the arrows beginning to fall about him, Hassan 
 was compelled to make a rapid retreat. 
 
 "It is clear enough they don't like a black skin," exclaimed Jack; 
 " suppose I give them a look at the red and white paint of my figure-head. 
 Perhaps they have a taste in colors." 
 
272 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Dismounting and taking the emblem of peace in his hand, he went 
 forward on foot. Arrived to within a proper distance, he commenced a 
 long oration in the language of signs. There was a copiousness and pro- 
 fusion of imagery in Jack's style that would have made his fortune in 
 pantomime. It had its effects upon the inhabitants of the town. A man 
 was lowered over the wall, which was not more than twelve feet high, by 
 a rope. He came towards Jack, when the two saluted each other with a 
 profusion of gestures — the stranger repeatedly putting his hand upon his 
 head and bowing, while Jack, doffing his straw hat, grasped his fore-lock 
 and scraped his foot in true quarter-deck style. 
 
 We were growing a little impatient at the length of the colloquy, when 
 Jack made a sign to us to advance. As we came up, the natives, who 
 were now increased in numbers, by the addition of five or six from the 
 walls, stood their ground and gazed at us with a peculiar expression of 
 interest. At this moment Kaloolah threw back her veil. The movement 
 quite delighted them, seeming to inspire them with confidence in the 
 honesty of our intentions. " Framazug ! Framazug!" they exclaimed, 
 and two or three running towards the gate, which was now partially 
 open, returned with an old man, who at once addressed us in the Frama- 
 zug tongue. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the delight of Kaloolah when she heard his 
 words. She pressed forward, and at once engaged the Kyptile in a most 
 animated conversation. They talked so rapidly that it was with difficulty 
 that I could follow them. 
 
 It appeared that these were a people very friendly to the Framazugs, 
 from the borders of whose country we were now distant only about ten 
 days' journey, and that Kaloolah's father was still alive. As to any thing 
 further in relation to the internal affairs of Framazugda, the speaker 
 knew nothing. 
 
 Two dignified personages, armed with whips of buU's-hide, with which 
 they kept back the crowd, now invited us, in the name of the Matcham 
 or king of the town, to enter and enjoy the hospitalities of Soconale. We 
 found his majesty seated on a stone bench, just within the, gate. There 
 was no attempt at royal display. Two or three elderly men, probably 
 cabinet ministers, sat on either side of him ; and half a dozen tall fellows, 
 with spears and large shields of bull's-hide, seemed to act as guards. The 
 king was quite old, and, unlike many of his subjects, was very fat. Our 
 conversation lasted until it was dark. Torches were then produced, and 
 the old king waddled before us up a broad, straight street, until we came to 
 an enclosure, surrounded with a picket fence, in the centre of which stood 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 273 
 
 a large one-story stone house. Here the Matcham informed us we were 
 to take up our quarters. 
 
 In front of the entrance to the house a large fire was blazing. From 
 several huge earthen pots issued clouds of promising odors. The stone 
 floors were covered with matting, new and clean, and from the roof our beds 
 were suspended with ropes — there was first a heavy .wooden frame, upon 
 which was spread to the thickness of a foot a layer of the freshly hatchelled 
 fibres of a kind of spartum or rush, and over this a fine flexible mat of the 
 same material. Soft, yet cool, there were never beds more luxurious — 
 too much so for us ; and for the first two or three nights we were com- 
 
 ** The stranger repeatedly putting his hand upon his head and bowing.^' 
 
 pelled to give them up and sleep on the stone floor. So much for the 
 power of habit ! Strange that such a power should be so much neg- 
 lected, and that many sensible people, parents and teachers, should con- 
 fine themselves to the prevention of bad habits, caring nothing for the 
 inculcation of good, and imagine that they can make up for the latter by 
 a stuffing of principles. " Good principles are very well ; but good, 
 strong, positive habits are better," I exclaimed, throwing myself upon the 
 stones, where in a few minutes we were all in a sound and refreshing sleep. 
 In the morning we had a message from the king inquiring after our 
 
274 KALOOLAH. 
 
 healths, and shortly he himself appeared, followed by two or three ser- 
 vants bearing a fresh supply of provisions. The remains of our supper 
 were removed, and a profusion of good things arranged for breakfast 
 upon small wooden tables, standing about a foot high from the floor — 
 fresh eggs, milk and honey, rice cakes, wheaten bread, with a great many 
 dishes and fruits that no Christian ever heard of before. In the centre of 
 the table was an immense egg-shell, about a foot in diameter, which, fur- 
 nished with a rim and feet of gold, answered for a punch-bowl. Into this 
 the Matcham emptied the contents of several of the red peduncles of 
 the good and evil tree which I have mentioned. A servant now presented 
 a bouquet of flowers, from which the Matcham, selecting three, gave us 
 each one. They were in color of a deep orange varied with blue. The 
 calyx was about the size and shape of a small tea-cup, and situated at a 
 right angle to the hollow stem, which served as the handle of a dipper, 
 and which, passing through the side of the flower down to the bottom, 
 answered, also, the purpose of a straw in a tumbler of mint-julep. The 
 dew was still on them, and an enchanting fragrance was exhaled from the 
 little vermilion, lily-shaped anthers, that far surpassed the mingled per- 
 fumes, while it excited the heart-filling memories, of musk, patchouli, 
 and eau de cologne. Following the example of the Matcham, we dipped 
 our flower-cup into the egg-shell and finished our breakfast by sucking up 
 two or three draughts of nectar, such as was never offered by Ganymede 
 to Jove. 
 
 After breakfast we walked out to see the town. There was nothing, 
 however, of much interest in the view. The houses were all of one story, 
 generally surrounded by a stone fence, and scattered around without any 
 regard to regularity, except on the borders of the large avenue which ran 
 from gate to gate. 
 
 The inhabitants were a different race from any that we had yet seen. 
 They had none of the negro characteristics. Their skins were of a light 
 copper color, their hair straight and flowing, and their noses aquiline. 
 Their dress consisted mainly of a loose shirt of linen, confined to the 
 waist with a woollen sash, Sandals of untanned skin protected their 
 feet, and strips of feather-cloth adorned their heads and necks. 
 
 After our walk we stopped at the palace and were invited to a seat 
 beneath a shady arbor in front of the porch. Several dignitaries of the 
 court here joined us, while the curious crowd stood around at a little 
 distance. 
 
 The Matcham informed us that he was hereditary ruler, not only of 
 Soconale, but of several other towns to the south. He represented the 
 
KALOOLAH. 275 
 
 country, between his dominions and Framazugda, to be thinly inhabited 
 by other tribes of the same people, who all lived in walled towns, and 
 who were more or less dependants of the great Sultan Shounse, whose 
 power, however, was inadequate to their protection from the attacks of a 
 very barbarous white people who lived about ten days' journey east of 
 his, the Matcham's towns. 
 
 " And what is the name of this people ? " I inquired. 
 "They call themselves the Jalla," repHed the king. "They are ex- 
 ceedingly cruel and ferocious, but we don't dread them much, because 
 they can't make thunder and lightning. It is the negroes from the north 
 who are our worst enemies. Once upon a time my people, the Kyptiles, 
 were very numerous, and inhabited the plains all along the Yah'nil Nebbe. 
 But the negroes began to come across and seize our people, and carry 
 them away. We couldn't stand before their guns ; and after fighting with 
 them for a great many years, we were compelled to fly higher up, and 
 build our towns with walls. Even now they frequently come in large 
 parties and traverse our country quite to the borders of Framazugda. 
 
 " To the southwest there used to live a very good people, who were 
 negroes ; but other blacks, with fire-arms, came upon them, and have 
 taken possession of their country, and have extended their conquests 
 clear up the hills to Framazugda, so that we have now the Jallas on the 
 east, the Manda and KooUa blacks on the north, and the Phollo and 
 Foota Jal negroes on the west. Our only friends are the Framazugs on 
 the south." 
 
 After condoling with the poor old king upon the threatening aspect 
 of his foreign relations, we took our leave, and retired to our quarters. 
 
 It was nearly a week before the hospitable king and people of Soconale 
 would consent to our departure. We were compelled to demand an au- 
 dience of leave, at which I distributed a quantity of beads, coral and 
 amber, to the different dignitaries of the court. To the king I gave a 
 brass basin that I had purchased at Sackatoo, a silk tobe and cap, and 
 a pistol with a few charges of powder. The latter was received with an 
 expression of reverence and awe, that I felt sure would soon elevate it 
 into an object of adoration. 
 
 Outside the gate we found our escort drawn up for us. It consisted 
 of a dozen men, well mounted upon small black horses, and armed with 
 bows and long spears. Besides these there were two mounted guides, 
 one of whom was the old fellow who had acted as our interpreter ; and 
 three men, on foot, each leading a buffalo, by a rope through his nose. 
 The huge packs of provisions that towered from the backs of these ani- 
 
276 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 mals, proved that the worthy Matcham did not intend that we should 
 starve by the way. 
 
 With the king at their head, the whole population of Soconale accom- 
 panied us to the banks of a little stream ; here our fi»al adietrs- were-ex^ 
 changed. Shall I confess it ? it was with moistened eyes, and a yearning 
 at the heart that I waved my hand to the simple and affectionate Kyp- 
 tiles, and spurred up the steep banks of the rippling brook. If Frama- 
 zugda had not been before me, I could have accepted the king's urgent 
 invitation to stay with them, and defend them against the Mandi and 
 the Jalla. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Djebel el Kumri — Slave-Hunters Abroad — The Footas and Their Guns — Jack's Opinion of 
 the Footas — A Plundered Village — Military Precautions — A Kimboo Scout — An Accession 
 of Strength — Midnight Musings — Planning an Ambuscade — Caught in Our Own Trap — 
 A Charge and Repulse — The Kimboos' Revenge. 
 
 !iEN days brought us to the base of a lofty chain of mountains — 
 a spur of the Djebel el Kumri, or Lutkb Monies — stretching to 
 the southwest. On either hand the peaks shot up to a very 
 great height, and were covered with snow ; but in front of us, 
 to the south, they fell away, so as to withdraw their fir-covered summits 
 from the region of perpetual congelation. Along the base of these lesser 
 peaks our route lay on the fifth day after leaving Soconale. A beautiful 
 plain extended as far as the eye could see to the west ; several rivers me- 
 andered through it, and, away in the distance, a broad silver lake glittered 
 in the noontide sun. This plain, once populous, was now, our guides in- 
 formed us, almost uninhabited — the Foota Jals having nearly extermi- 
 nated the Kerdie population. 
 
 At the banks of a large river, flowing in a northerly course, our route 
 turned, due south, into the mountains. A succession of beautiful valleys 
 opened up an easy and pleasant path. As we advanced, we fell upon a 
 broad trail of men and horses, going south. We followed it for several 
 hours, until we came to the remains of a village, which had all the marks 
 of a recent fire. The blackened stone walls were standing, but the wood- 
 work and thatched roofs were gone. There were no living beings in sight, 
 but, upon riding up to the top of the ' hill, ujjon which the village was 
 built, we discovered half a dozen bodies, horribly mutilated, and within 
 the huts, the half-roasted remains of several more. The bodies were 
 neither Kyptiles nor negroes, but apparently mulattoes, or a mixed race. 
 Thus, then, was confirmed the story which some herdsmen had told 
 us the day before — that several parties of slave-hunters were abroad. 
 Our Kyptiles were terribly frightened. " We shall all be captured and 
 killed ! " exclaimed Sooloo Phar, the captain of our escort, in a very dole- 
 ful tone. 
 
 277 
 
278 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Silence ! " I exclaimed, with a voice and look that made Sooloo al- 
 most jump from his saddle. " Are you a man, and frightened before you 
 see your enemy ? What are you afraid of ? Are we not twenty well- 
 armed men ? " 
 
 " But they are armed with guns ! " replied Sooloo. " If they were 
 Kerdies, or even the fierce Jalla, I would show you what a Kyptile can 
 do ! But these are Foota Jals, and who can stand before their guns ? " 
 
 " That, for their guns ! " I exclaimed, snapping my fingers with as con- 
 temptuous an expression as I could conveniently assume. " That, for 
 their guns ! Have not we guns, too ? and, besides, your bows and spears 
 are not such poor weapons in comparison. Charge a party of these Foota 
 the same as you would a party of Jalla, and you will find that they will 
 run like sheep. Come, move on ; as for hiding ourselves, or turning back, 
 I would n't think of the thing if athou.sand Footas were in the way! Ask 
 Mr. Thompson, there, he knows all about guns, what he thinks of turn- 
 ing back, because there is a chance of meeting with a party of slave-hunt- 
 ers, armed with their rusty old guns, and powder that wont send a bullet 
 as far as you can throw a long spear ? " 
 
 " My opinion ! " replied Jack, " my opinion is, the Footas may go to 
 the devil ! If these gentlemen are afraid of their guns, suppose you let 
 Hugh and myself ride ahead, and when we get sight of those land-sharks 
 we '11 take their guns away, and put plugs in their muzzles, tie up their 
 triggers, and empty their pans, and then our friends here can ride up, and 
 have a fight upon equal terms." 
 
 Jack's quizzical proposition, when translated, with all gravity, into the 
 language of our friends, seemed to please them mightily, and, added to 
 my own assurances, restored a degree of confidence that made them quite 
 willing to push on. There could be no doubt of their natural courage, 
 and their readiness to fight on even terms ; but it was difficult to shake 
 off their overwhelming apprehension of fire-arms. Although somewhat 
 accustomed to our guns, they could hardly be persuaded to touch them ; 
 and when we rested them upon the ground, at our halting-places, our 
 guards would place themselves at some distance, and eying them with an 
 air of veneration, mutter charms and prayers. I almost wished for a brush 
 with a party of slave-hunters, in order to disabuse them of their paralyz- 
 ing prejudice. 
 
 Upon dismounting, and closely examining the ruins, and the decaying 
 bodies, it became evident that not more than three days had elapsed since 
 the visit of the Footas ; and that, consequently, their parties had not yet 
 returned from the south, in which direction a broad trail indicated that 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 279 
 
 they had gone after firing the village. It was necessary to move with 
 caution to guard against surprise. Jack, with one of the guides and two 
 other Kyptiles, led the way ; Hugh and two Kyptiles brought up the 
 rear ; while, with Hassan, Kaloolah, and the main body of the army, in- 
 cluding the buffaloes and baggage, I occupied the centre. Nor were our 
 flanks neglected. A scout moved along the river's bank, so as to com- 
 mand a view of its rocky bed ; and another kept even pace with us, among 
 the rocks and bushes of the hills on our left. 
 
 A circumstance sqon occurred that proved the value of my precau- 
 tions. It was gratifying, inasmuch as I was beginning to reproach myself 
 with excess of prudence, and to fancy that I was humbugging myself, with 
 an idea of danger and responsibility, into a very unnecessary and roman- 
 tic display of strategic generalship, in a remarkably small way. Watching 
 the motions of the scout, who was about a quarter of a mile from us, on 
 the elevated ground to our left, and at the base of a steep range of rocky 
 Ijills, we saw him stop, and, in a few minutes, make a signal, by stretching 
 out his arms. Riding at full speed towards him, I perceived that, in front 
 of him, and between us, was a deep rocky gully, and that he was pointing 
 to a clump of palm-bushes, that grew on the side towards me. As my 
 horse flew by the bushes I got sight of the object indicated, and wheeling 
 my steed instaptly, was, in another jump, right over the crouching body 
 of a man. The poor wretch expected nothing but instant death. 
 
 He was a tall, well-made young mulatto, of a light yellow complexion, 
 and with thin lips and prominent nose. His dress consisted of a ragged 
 linen shirt, with the eternal red sash, and around his shoulders some tat- 
 ters of a robe of bird-skins ; his thick bushy hair was cropped close behind 
 and on the top of his head, but was allowed to grow long in front, and to 
 project horizontally, like a shaggy pent-house, over his eyes — a style of 
 head-dress- which, as may be supposed, was decidedly more of the useful 
 than the ornamental. 
 
 When assured that he was among friends, he readily told his story, in 
 the Kyptile tongue, with which he seemed perfectly familiar. He said 
 that he belonged to the village that we had seen in ruins ; that the Footas' 
 surprised the town when many of the men were away, and had slaughtered 
 all the males and infants, and driven off the women and children that 
 could walk; that, upon the alarm being given, the men, who came run- 
 ning to the town, were attacked by parties of Foota horsemen, and cut 
 down, in every direction, in the fields ; not more than thirty, out of a 
 village of three or four hundred, had made their escape. 
 
 He could give no definite idea of the number of the Footas, but from 
 
28o KALOOLAH. 
 
 his replies I gathered that they were about two hundred, mounted, one 
 third of whom might be armed with guns. He said that, higher up the 
 country, he had seen towns on fire, and that the Footas were burning and 
 slaying in every direction. In answer to my inquiry, as to what he was 
 hiding behind the bushes for, he repHed that he had been placed there by 
 his comrades, to watch for the Footas, who, having gorged themselves 
 with spoil, must now be upon their return. 
 
 " And what to do ? " I demanded. " Would you attack them ? " 
 
 For an instant the fellow's eye gleamed like a tiger's, and a convulsion 
 of rage and anguish passed over his features, but his countenance fell, and 
 a melancholy shake of his head was his only reply. 
 
 "Have your countrymen no weapons?" I continued. "Have they no 
 hearts — no courage ? Are you all cowards, that you thus suffer your wives 
 and children to be carried off, without resistance ? " 
 
 " We have weapons," he replied ; " bows and arrows, and shields, and 
 spears, and we have got strong arms and stout hearts ; but what can we 
 do against the lightning-irons of the Footas ? " 
 
 " Have your people the will to do any thing, if I show them the 
 way ? " 
 
 '• My countrymen have no wish to live," he replied. " Give us thirty 
 Foota lives, and take ours when you will." 
 
 " Go, then, collect your countrymen, and bring them to me this even- 
 ing. I will pitch my camp in that grove, and will wait for you. We '11 
 see if we can't teach these Footas a lesson that they will remember ! 
 Go, bring your friends, and let as many as possible come mounted, and all 
 of them fully armed." 
 
 The fellow started off upon his mission with alacrity, while we moved 
 up into a small thick grove of trees, and prepared our camp for the night. 
 
 Two or three hours after dark our outposts heard and answered the 
 signals agreed upon. Our messenger had collected about forty of his 
 countrymen, one third of whom were mounted. They were a dejected, 
 miserable-looking set of men, and, at first, could hardly comprehend my 
 intentions. But when made to understand that we would go with them 
 against the Footas, and attempt the rescue of their wives and children, 
 their spirits revived, and their countenances expressed a degree of 
 animation that proved they wanted only a leader, and more confidence 
 in themselves and their weapons, to become fully a match for their cruel 
 foes. 
 
 In a rocky hollow our camp-fire burned brightly, and before it and 
 upon the glowing coals roasted the carcass of a wild hog and several 
 
KALOOLAH. 281 
 
 specimens of smaller game. It was a pleasure to see our half-starved 
 visitors eat. After their appetites were satisfied, I took their leading men 
 aside and held a long consultation. 
 
 In reply to questions, they informed me that at about half a day's 
 journey up the country, the hills came down nearly to the bank of the 
 river, leaving a long, narrow defile, through which the Footas would have 
 to pass upon their return. From their description I was convinced that 
 it would be just the place for an ambuscade. The only question was, 
 could we reach it before the Footas should have passed. The strangers 
 assured me that they knew, from the smoke of the burning villages, that 
 the enemy were now engaged in the valley, beyond the pass, and that if 
 we pressed forward we should be in time to occupy it, as the Footas 
 would, necessarily, move very slowly, laden, as they were, with spoil, and 
 having to drive before them their numerous captives. 
 
 "And you, Kaloolah, what do you say? Shall we go on and meet 
 these Footas, or shall we try to hide ourselves until they have passed ? 
 We cannot turn back, for there is a large party in our rear." 
 
 " Oh, let us go on and meet them," replied Kaloolah — " think of the 
 women and children — " 
 
 " But suppose they should prove too strong for us. What would be 
 our fate ? Have you no fear?" 
 
 " Have you any fears, Jon'than? " demanded Kaloolah. 
 
 " None, if we can cross the little prairie before they emerge from the 
 hills." 
 
 "Let us on then — my heart knows no fear when you lead the way; 
 but, Jon'than, if the Footas should prove too strong for us; they will 
 never make you a slave. You will either escape or die, wont you, 
 Jon'than?" 
 
 "Certainly, I shall never be taken alive." 
 
 "And I," repHed Kaloolah, "I shall go with you. In either case, 
 Jon'than, I go with you ! " 
 
 Hugh and Jack expressed themselves in the most emphatic manner 
 in favor of a brush, and even Sooloo Phar, when he found, as he did from 
 our visitors, that another body of Footas were in our rear, so that there 
 was no turning back, declared his readiness to fight. It was refreshing 
 to find such a degree of unanimity, and so much spirit and confidence — 
 thanks to our four guns. 
 
 The chief of a hundred fights may sleep on the eve of a great battle, 
 but I felt no disposition to close my eyes. I don't choose to dwell 
 upon my anxieties and sense of responsibility ; but the reader will 
 
282 KALOOLAH. 
 
 readily understand that, considering the disparity of force in men and 
 weapons, and the important issues at stake, it is no reproach to my cool- 
 ness or confidence that I felt rather wakeful. The great heroes of 
 history have played the game of war upon a grander scale, but never with 
 stronger feelings of interest in the result. " No ! " I exclaimed, as I was 
 pacing up and down before the flickering fire, in an oratorical tone, 
 that started Hugh and Jack from their slumbers, and which would have 
 brought three rounds in Tammany Hall, — " No ! a prospect of the biggest 
 empire that ever dazzled the vision of blood-stained ambition could add 
 nothing to the interest of a contest when the issues are victory and 
 liberty on the one hand, defeat and slavery on the other! " 
 
 ■'Was yer honor spakeing to us? " demanded Hugh. 
 
 "Yes, yes! Up, up ! It is time to start. I see the first blush of 
 daylight, and the sun, you know, gives short warning in these latitudes." 
 
 The word was spread throughout the camp, and in ten minutes the 
 whole army, now amounting to about sixty-five men, was ready to start. 
 A scouting party of our new friends, the Kimboos, led the way. Close 
 behind I followed with a small party of Kyptiles, and at a little distance 
 in the rear came the three guns and the infantry, cavalry, and baggage in 
 close Order. 
 
 The sun had risen a couple of hours when we came to a great plain 
 intersected by several streams, and encircled by bold and lofty hills. In 
 shape it resembled an elipse, our path corresponding to the conjugate 
 diameter, which might be about eight miles. The transverse diameter was 
 fully twenty. The surface, which appeared quite smooth and level, though 
 we afterwards found some considerable elevations, was covered with a 
 rich clothing of grass. No trees, however, afforded a shelter from the sun 
 or a cover from the enemy. 
 
 For a few minutes I hesitated about committing my party to the open 
 prairie, and proposed that we should skirt the circle of hills, where we 
 could, if attacked, make a better defence against the enemy's cavalry ; but 
 the Kimboos assured us that this was impossible by reason of several 
 deep and impassable ravines which projected far out into the plain. Our 
 only chance was -to take the direct route along the banks of the river, and 
 to press on so as to reach the pass before the Footas. 
 
 We stopped a few minutes for breakfast and to water our horses, and 
 then, leaving the friendly cover of the trees and rocks, launched out into 
 the open plain. 
 
 While toiling on through the rank herbage, occasionally descending 
 into water-gullies and crossing the beds of several small streams, my eyes 
 
KALOOLAH. 283 
 
 were not idle, and I noted several places where the nature of the ground 
 would have aided in a defence against cavalry. This was encouraging, as 
 I had expected to find the plain a perfect fiat, and without shelter of any 
 kind. 
 
 It was within about a mile of the rugged hills that rose abruptly from 
 the further side of the plain to a height of a thousand feet that we 
 passed a little peninsula of land, made by the confluence of a creek with 
 the main river. I did not take much notice of it at the time, as we were 
 so close to the mouth of the defile, and all e3'es were strained in the 
 direction of the hills. In a few minutes more we should know our fate. 
 There were yet no signs of the Footas. We pressed on, our hearts beat- 
 ing high with a hope which was destined to a most cruel disappointment. 
 
 Our advance guard of mounted Kimboos were observed to stop, and 
 the next minute wheel their horses and gallop towards us. It was easy 
 to see, at a long distance, that they were the bearers of bad news. Upon 
 coming up they informed me that from the crest of a low ridge of ground 
 about half a mile beyond, a large body of Footas might be seen reclining 
 in the shade of the hills, and that another party were just debouching 
 from the defile into the plain. While speaking, a party of two or three 
 horsemen appeared in sight, and galloped down towards us. When within 
 fifty rods they wheeled~tii«ij-Jiorses and went back at full speed. 
 
 We were fairly caught in our own trap. In a few minutes the whole 
 body of the enemy would be down upon us, and in the open plain, where 
 my frightened troops could scatter and run, there was no chance for a 
 successful resistance. The danger was imminent. Fortunately there was 
 no time lost. My decision was made at once, and, riding back, I gave 
 orders to retreat upon the peninsula already mentioned, which was a little 
 dista«C€ in the rear and on our right hand. 
 
 This tongue of land was made by a creek with a wide bed and steep 
 banks, some twelve or fifteen feet high, which, running in a line perpen- 
 dicular to the main river until within a hundred feet, suddenly turned at 
 right angles, and, running parallel with the river, emptied into it three or 
 four hundred feet below. The promontory was considerably elevated, so 
 that when we reached it, which we did in about ten minutes, we could 
 command a view of the hollow way in which the Footas were moving. 
 We could perceive a large party, which was gradually increased in num- 
 ber by flying horsemen, from the crowd in the rear. These were coming 
 towards us. 
 
 Dismounting my men at the entrance to the point of land, I sent 
 Kaloolah and her maid in to its farther extremity, together with our bag- 
 
284 KALOOLAH. 
 
 gage and our horses. By rolling down the banks a few loose stones, I 
 shortened the breadth of the narrow isthmus from one hundred to eighty 
 feet. This line I filled up with a rank of twenty-five men, making them 
 kneel and present their spears, with the butts resting upon the ground, 
 after the manner of the rows of an infantry square. Behind these I 
 placed another rank of twenty-five men, with their long spears projecting 
 over the heads of the first. 
 
 As soon as my men caught the idea, they formed the lines as accu- 
 rately and as quickly as if they had been veterans. The whole operation 
 did not require five minutes. The Footas were now close by, and coming 
 on at full speed ; but I knew the necessity of an appearance of coolness 
 to encourage my men, and deliberately passing up and down in front of 
 them, I adjusted the spear heads to their proper elevation. When all 
 was arranged I made a brief address, to the effect that if they were per- 
 fectly steady the Footas could do them no harm : " They cannot get upon 
 our flanks, and you will soon see that they dare not attack us in front. 
 Keep cool, and stir not, and we will give these Footas a reception they 
 little dream of. But if you do not stand firm," I continued, going at 
 once to the verj' foundation of discipline, "if you do not stand firm, you 
 see this," showing them one of my pistols, "well, I shall keep it charged, 
 and will blow the brains out of the first man that moves from his posi- 
 tion ; so mind you, if the Footas are in front, recollect I 'm behind you, 
 and I never miss my aim." 
 
 Stepping within the ranks, I took my station in line with my three 
 musketeers and a dozen archers, giving them the strictest orders not to 
 •fire a shot or draw a bow until I gave the word. 
 
 On came the Footas, whirling their guns and spears above their heads, 
 and yelling like so many fiends. There were at least a hundred and fifty 
 of them, and one third were armed with muskets. These came first, fol- 
 lowed by the spearmen, the whole squadron moving without any other 
 effort at order. As they came on, the nature of the ground compelled 
 them to crowd together, and when within a few rods of us, they were so 
 huddled up as to very much interfere with each other's movements ; but 
 still they l;ept at full gallop, and for a few minutes I was apprehensive 
 that, not knowing their danger, and ignorant that military etiquette re- 
 quires that cavalry should check their horses in front of a square of 
 infantry, they might spur on and ride us down before they could be made 
 to understand their mistake. It was pleasant, therefore, to see the front 
 rknk beginning to draw reins, while the rear ranks were closing up in 
 great confusion, and forming a fine compact mass of human fiesh for my 
 batteries. 
 
KALOOLAH. 285 
 
 " Oh ! for a long eighteen," exclaimed Jack to his companion, " and a 
 stand or two of grape-shot ! " 
 
 " You may say that. There could n't be a more beautiful chance for 
 mince-meat. But look, here comes their broadside ! I wonder when the 
 , captain is going to give us the word ! " 
 
 " Steady, men ! steady ! now," I exclaimed encouragingly to the 
 kneeling ranks, " recollect, the first man whose spear-head wavers shall 
 have a bullet through his head ! " 
 
 The Footas were now five or six rods off, when they simultaneously 
 brought the butts of their long guns against their breasts and fired, but 
 with a very bad aim, or rather without any aim— many of them who were 
 in the rear firing their guns into the air. The balls whistled over our 
 heads, but not a man was struck. 
 
 "See," I exclaimed, "their guns do you no harm. Steady there! 
 keep in your places and hold your spears firmly! Recollect, the man 
 who stirs from his position or whose spear-head wavers, I '11 shoot right 
 through the head ! " 
 
 It must not be supposed that, during this time, the Footas had come 
 to a halt. They had merely slackened their speed to deliver their fire, 
 and then, calculating upon the usual paralyzing effect of their volley, 
 they spurred up, expecting us to give way. On they came until within 
 ten feet of our spear heads, when the front ranks recoiled as suddenly as 
 if they had breasted a rock. There was something in our motionless 
 ranks that they could not comprehend, and they would willingly have 
 turned back, but that was not so easy, as those in the rear came pressing 
 on, yelling and flourishing their swords and spears, and crowding up in 
 constantly increasing confusion. 
 
 Our enemies were not a bad-looking set of men. They were well 
 formed, good riders, and mounted upon small, active horses with the 
 high-peaked Moorish saddle, which was generally furnished with red 
 housings. Rings and plates of silver and gold hung from various parts 
 of their half-naked bodies, and relieved the dense jet of their skins, while 
 their faces were constantly lighted up by their white flashing teeth and 
 eyes. 
 
 " Back ! back ! " pressed the astonished leaders ; but still the move- 
 ment of the whole mass vi^as towards us. 
 
 " Are you all ready? take good steady aim ; and you, Jack Thompson, 
 cover that fellow in front of you with the leopard skin ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir ? I 've been drawing a bead upon him for this last five 
 minutes ! " 
 
286 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Fire, then ! " 
 
 Bang ! went my three muskets simultaneously, and at the same in- 
 stant twanged the bow-strings of Sooloo Phar and his Kyptiles. 
 
 Not a shot was thrown away, which, as soon as I saw, I threw in my 
 reserve fire, and knocked over a couple of prominent-looking individuals 
 with ostrich plumes in their hair. 
 
 Our guns were discharged now as fast as we could load and fire, while 
 Sooloo Phar kept up an effective and continuous flight of arrows. 
 
 The enemy were completely panic-stricken and thrown into the ut- 
 most confusion. They fought and struggled with each other ; horses 
 reared and plunged, and several were forced down the precipices on 
 either side. For some minutes they seemed utterly incapable of making 
 any properly directed efforts to escape, while we continued to pour in 
 our fire with the utmost coolness and precision. At last they got their 
 horses' heads round, and began to make off, many of them severely 
 wounded, and leaving about thirty-five men, most of whom had muskets, 
 dead upon the ground. 
 
 At this instant the idea of charging the Footas in turn flashed upon 
 me, and, without hesitating an instant, I gave the order to mount. A 
 number of the Kimboos rushed out, and seized the riderless horses of the 
 Footas, while the others, with the Kyptiles flew to our steeds, which we 
 had turned loose behind us. In less time than it takes to tell of it, we 
 were all mounted, and, spears in hand, ready to launch upon the flying 
 and frightened foe. 
 
 Giving Kaloolah and Clefenha in charge of Jack and Hassan, with 
 strict orders to follow our motions, a little in the rear, I shouted the word 
 to charge. 
 
 "Forward, and keep close order! Ride together, men! Close up, 
 close up ! Keep 'together ! Hold in there, in front, or I '11 send a pistol 
 ball after you ! " 
 
 There was no need for words of encouragement ; a complete reaction 
 had taken place, from the extreme of fear to the extreme of confidence 
 and courage ; and my men would have charged a thousand Footas, for 
 whom they now felt almost as much scorn and contempt as they did 
 hate. Vengeance ! vengeance ! almost streamed in a visible streak from 
 the strained eyes and dilated nostrils of the Kimboos. 
 
 " Ha, ha ! Ha, ha !" laughed the old Kyptile guide and interpreter, 
 who rode by my side on the flank of the column ; " Ha, ha ! the spears 
 are thirsty ; the bows and the guns have had a good drink of blood ; but 
 the spears of the Kimboos are dry ; they '11 drink the Foota River up." 
 
KALOOLAH. 287 
 
 ; The Faotas had separated into several small parties, some of them 
 flying back to their companions who were left in charge of the slaves, but 
 the larger party, numbering perhaps fifty, drawing off along the banks of 
 the creek, until we set out, when they too turned their horses' heads to 
 the south, to regain their reserve body. It was our object to intercept 
 them. Every nerve was strained for that purpose, and it was soon evident 
 that we should succeed. 
 
 We were close to thfem when they halted, some wheeling their horses 
 to turn back, some proposing to go across the plain to the east, and some 
 few, apparently, making indications of resistance. It was at this instant 
 of hesitation that we drove in upon them at full speed. Heels over head 
 went men and horses, and even several of our own men were dismounted 
 by the shock. The Footas could make no resistance. In five minutes 
 forty saddles were empty, and the light spears of the Kimboos were 
 dripping with blood. 
 
 Those who escaped took their way towards their camp, and at full 
 speed we followed them. By the time we came to the ridge, beneath 
 which was the Foota camp, I had succeeded in again forming my men 
 into close order. Below us were our enemies, apparently in the greatest 
 consternation. They had drawn themselves in front of their crowd of 
 captives, to the number of seventy or eighty ; and as we came down upon 
 them they fired an irregular volley, as much at the fugitives before us as 
 at our ranks. Before they could load again we were upon them, and then 
 commenced a similar scene of unresisting slaughter as that which had just 
 been enacted. 
 
 The Footas were flying like scud in a gale, and the Kimboos were 
 pursuing and spearing them down without mercy. Satisfied that there 
 was no danger of their rallying again in force, I drew off my Kyptiles and 
 rode on to the Captives, when we dismounted and cut the bands that 
 confined the limbs of the males. There were between two and three 
 hundred prisoners, the greater number of whom were women and large 
 children. The smaller children, tii« sick artd the aged, had all been 
 slaughtered by the Footas. Who could wonder at the pertinacity with 
 which the victorious Kimboos kept wheeling and circling in all parts of 
 the plain, like kites o'er their quarry, and pouncing with relentless fury 
 upon their unnerved and scattered foes. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 A Sight for the Reader — Hospitality of the Kyptiles — A Volcano — A Wakeful Night — Kaloolah 
 in Tears — Stories of the Guides — Origin of the Framazugs — The Jiggers — The Jouaks — 
 The Serpent-Men — The Jalla — The Footas — A Snail-Field — A Rhinoceros — The Nour- 
 wall — Garazha — The Captain of the Port — Whamba Donga's Town — A Message to the 
 Governor — Crossing the Nourwall — A Triumphal Reception — The Dagash — A New View 
 of Kaloolah. 
 
 j AD the reader, about ten days after the battle, been perched, 
 with a good telescope in his hand, upon the snow-covered 
 summit of the great volcano that, rising far above its com- 
 peers, served as a beacon to the country for a hundred miles 
 round, he might, perhaps, have seen a large party, some mounted and 
 some on foot, winding its way upward and through a beautiful country 
 of hill and dale, wood and open plain. But the reader, under such cir- 
 cumstances, would have been, probably, profoundly ignorant of J:he char- 
 acter and object of the travellers, whereas, now, it is hardly necessary to 
 inform him that the party consisted of neither more nor less than myself 
 and companions, accompanied by about a hundred guides and guards 
 from the last town. 
 
 We had got again into a district inhabited by Kyptiles, and had been, 
 of course, well received by the Matcham and his people. From all the 
 villages that we passed, the people came out with presents of melons, 
 grapes, figs, small loaves of hot wheaten bread, smoking dishes of meat, 
 fish, and vegetables, and that greatest of all luxuries, pure water, iced with 
 snow from the hills. Invitation upon invitation poured in upon us to 
 stop and refresh ourselves, but the nearer we approached the confines of 
 Kaloolah's country, the more anxious was she to press on. The lofty 
 peak of the flaming Kebbi was a familiar object to her, and recalled in 
 their fullest force the associations of kindred and home. 
 
 At night we encamped with the volcano in full view. About one 
 third of the way up its rugged sides was spread a dark forest of cypress, 
 fir, and pine. Between this and the region of snow was a brilliant zone of 
 electric light. Through the night the lightning played in broad sheets of 
 
 288 
 
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 K^ 
 
 
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 fe-'r** 
 
 ^^^^&" 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^^^^fc' 
 
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KALOOLAH. 289 
 
 flame over the rugged rocks, flashing far upward on the snows above, and 
 illuminating the dark wooded slopes and ravines below ; while above all 
 streamed upward the lurid flames of the peak. 
 
 At length the morning dawned of the day which, before its close, was 
 to bring us to the banks of the Nourwall, a stream separating the Kyp- 
 tiles from Framazugda. No sleep had visited my eyes, an indescribable 
 whirl of emotions had compelled me to pace away the midnight watch in 
 front of our camp-fire. Hugh and Jack were alike wakeful, and till a late 
 hour were anxiously listening to the stories told by our guides of the 
 wonders that were in store for us. 
 
 Kaloolah stepped from her tent, with her hood drawn closely around 
 her face. Kebbi was flaming up at the moment famously, as if in rivalry 
 of the blushing morn, that came bounding along the tops of the hills. I 
 took Kaloolah's hand, and, bidding her good morning, pointed to the 
 peak — but she averted her head and made no reply. Her steed was 
 ready, and without further words I tossed her to the saddle. I could 
 feel, however, that she was somewhat heavier than usual ; that her touch 
 upon my shoulder was not so delicate — the pressure of her little foot not 
 so light and springy. 
 
 "Are you ill, Kaloolah ? " said I, resting my arm upon the high back 
 of her saddle. 
 
 She suddenly threw herself forward upon my shoulder and sobbed 
 violently. 
 
 " Are you ill, Kaloolah ? Unhappy ? Tell me what disturbs you." 
 
 " I don't know, Jon'than ; I have been dreaming of Enphadde, 
 and " 
 
 " Believe me, we shall find him safe. How happy he will be to meet 
 you ! " 
 
 " It may be, but even if I were sure of his safety, I think that I should 
 weep this morning. Why ? I know not, unless it is because we were so 
 gay yesterday." 
 
 " And why not be gay to-day ? by night we shall have reached the 
 end of our journey ; and are we not assured that there is no danger in the 
 way ? " 
 
 " Ah, that is what makes me sad. Our journey has been long and 
 wearisome and dangerous, but still I do not wish it finished. I could 
 think of nothing all night but the past, and there were moments when I 
 almost wished that we were back in the desert. But here come the sun ; 
 heed not my foolish tears, they will dry in his beams like dew on the 
 flowers." 
 
290 KALOOLAH. 
 
 But despite the enlivening influences of the sunlight, it was not until 
 late in the day that Kaloolah's spirits recovered their usual joyous 
 elasticity. 
 
 As we rode along our guides entertained us, as had been their custom, 
 with stories of the land we were about to enter ; in which it was easy to 
 perceive that there was no disposition to sacrifice the wonderful to pre- 
 cision and truth. This, however, did not surprise me, as most of the 
 stories, especially those relating to the capital, purported to be only at 
 second-hand — not one of our escort having visited the great city of 
 Kiloam. 
 
 "And how is it," I demanded, "that none of you know much of 
 Framazugda from personal observation ? Is there not a constant com- 
 munication kept up between your countrymen and the Framazugs ? " 
 
 " The Framazugs do not like the visits of strangers," was the reply. 
 " 'T is true that we are now upon good terms, and our people even pay a 
 trifling tribute to the Emperor Shouns6 as an acknowledgment for the 
 protection that he has afforded us against the Jalla ; but for many cen- 
 turies the Kyptiles and Framazugs were bitter enemies. 
 
 " You must know that the Kyptiles came from the north many hun- 
 dred years ago, but still long after the Framazugs, who, coming from 
 the east, across a great water, had taken possession of the country. Our 
 people displaced a portion of the Framazugs and drove them south into 
 their present country, where the main portion of them had taken up 
 their residence. From that time there was a constant succession of wars 
 along the borders, which interrupted all communication." 
 
 "But how is it," said I, "if the Framazugs are so rich, and learned, 
 and numerous as you say they are, that your people were able to war 
 with them upon equal terms for so long a time ? " 
 
 " They had enemies on every side of them. Away to the southwest 
 of them are deserts, inhabited by a wild people called Jiggers. They 
 ride upon birds, like an ostrich only ten times as big. These birds can 
 run like the wind, and they have wings with which, although they can- 
 not fly, they can skip along over rocks twenty feet high, with a man 
 on their backs. Beneath their bills they have a large bag, in which 
 they carry water for a long journey ; and at night, when the Jigger 
 encamps, he makes the bird brood upon the ground with outstretched 
 wings and tail, beneath which he and his family find shelter. The Jiggers 
 have always been terrible enemies to the Framazugs. 
 
 " Besides these there are the Jouaks who inhabit the hills and moun- 
 tains on the southeast. They are a wild race, who are covered all over 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 291 
 
 with hair, go naked, and fight with clubs. These people often descend 
 into the plains of the Framazugs, destroy the crops, and carry off the 
 inhabitants, whom they are said to eat. The Jouaks are horrible-looking 
 wretches — their under lips hang quite down to their breasts, and con- 
 stantly drop blood ; their teeth project and are filed to a sharp point, 
 and from the corners of their mouths stand out tusks as large as a 
 wild boar's." 
 
 " Next to these comes a country of swamps and marshes, inhabited 
 by terrible animals, part man and part beast. They have the heads and 
 breasts of men, and the bodies and tails of serpents, and when they come 
 out from their swamps the breath of their armies poisons the air for miles 
 round." 
 
 " Then in the northeast, just beyond those hills, are the Jalla. For 
 many years they pressed upon the Framazugs, until about five years ago, 
 they made their way by exterminating whole tribes of Kerdie blacks, t'> 
 the borders of the Kyptiles. 'T was then that we found it best to come 
 to terms with the Framazugs, and make common cause with them against 
 the enemy. In a few years we had additional reason to cultivate peace 
 with our southern neighbors ; for the Kollah and Mendi negroes, armed 
 with lightning sticks, came upon us from the north, and drove us from 
 the banks of the Yah'nil Nebb6, killing the Kyptiles and carrying off the 
 Kerdies who were living among us, and ravaging our country so that this 
 portion which we are now traversing is the only part that has escaped 
 their visitation ; and now the Flahhas and Foota Jals are enclosing us on 
 the west ! " 
 
 " High time," I observed, " that you and the Framazugs should make 
 friends, when you are completely surrounded by such enemies." 
 
 " So our people thought ; and, notwithstanding our many wars, the 
 Framazugs were very willing to make peace with us, for although they 
 are a brave people, they are not fond of war — they much prefer to build 
 great houses, and plant gardens, and make fountains, and dance, and 
 feast, and bathe. The Jalla and the Kqola made us peaceable, and then 
 came the Footas and made us firm friends. Two or three times the Em- 
 peror Shouns^ has sent armies to the assistance of the Kyptiles against the 
 Jalla and Foota." 
 
 "With what success?" 
 
 " Perfect success against the Jalla : they have been defeated several 
 times, and prevented from coming down from the passes of the mountain- 
 ous country that you saw on your left after crossing the Yah'nil Nebbe. But 
 against the Footas we could do nothing. They can bring large armies of 
 
292 KALOOLAH. 
 
 twenty and thirty thousand men into the field, all armed with guns ; and 
 before them the combined forces of the Framazugs and our people have 
 always been compelled to fall back. The Footas have continued to advance, 
 until, within a year or two, they have established themselves all along the 
 banks of the Queal from Lake Tsamsa, which is in Framazugda, to the 
 Yah'nil Nebbe. Ten days in that direction is the lake, and just where the 
 Queal issues from it the Footas have built a large walled town, from whence 
 they send out their plundering expeditions." 
 
 For several hours we had t>een riding through a rough and rocky district, 
 in many places almost bare of vegetation, and apparently destitute of 
 inhabitants, when suddenly we came upon a wide plain that, at first sight, 
 seemed one bed of the richest-hued flowers. What was our surprise 
 when we found that the dazzling dyes were owing to myriads of stiails 
 that covered the stocks of a species of coarse furze. Beyond the plain 
 the ground became low and marshy, and covered with clumps of man- 
 groves, canes, and large tufts of bog grass, that grew to the height of ten 
 feet. We passed several deep pools, made, as our guides assured us, by 
 a very large creature with one horn. We heard the noise of some animals 
 floundering and wallowing in the mud among the reeds. I supposed them 
 to be hippopotami, but was undeceived by the sudden appearance in our 
 rear of a monstrous rhinoceros. The Kyptiles passed on, while I stopped 
 to take a better look at him. In a few minutes half a dozen more made 
 their appearance. Riding a little too close, one of them took offence, 
 and instantly charged me. I wheeled my horse among the bushes, and 
 fired at the monster, within a few feet of his tough hide, as he dashed by, 
 but without apparently making the least impression. The fellow and his 
 companions were about twice as large as the ordinary rhinoceros — their 
 horns were fully six feet in length, and their hides thick in proportion. 
 They were truly great game ; but, to enjoy the sport, one ought to hunt 
 them with a battery of flying artillery. 
 
 Overtaking my party, we debouched from the marsh, crossed a narrow 
 strip of firm and open ground, and came upon the hard sandy beach of 
 the river. A little rocky island, two or three rods from the shore, was 
 covered with the stone huts of fishermen. Several canoes were drawn up 
 on its banks, and the rocks were covered with large hand-nets. A number 
 of tawny fellows, dressed in red cotton shirts, were basking in the sun, 
 with the thorough poco curanie a.ir oi their profession. Our arrival excited 
 some sensation, and in a few minutes the little island was alive with women 
 and children. 
 
 Across the stream (which was about three hundred yards broad) the 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 293 
 
 bank rose abruptly, by a succession of steep terraces, and was crowned 
 with several buildings, connected by crenelated curtains, and defended by 
 several low battlemented towers. The terraced ascent was without trees, 
 or an unevenness that could serve as a cover to an attacking party, and 
 thus corresponded to the glacis of modern fortification. No part of the 
 town was in view, as it occupied a slope of the hill that fell away from the 
 river, and the road to it led along the base of the castle bank, and up 
 around a ravine, through which ran a small stream into the Nourwall. 
 
 Far down the river, on the same side on which we were, was a height 
 of ground, upon which a shattered wall and falling towers indicated the 
 position of a town, which, for some reason, had been abandoned. Two 
 
 ' / wheeled my horse among the bushes, and fired at the monster. '' 
 
 or three boats were moving about on the water, with low, straight bows, 
 and high arched and carved sterns, that came up and turned over forward, 
 like the acrostolicon of the ancient trireme. These served for orna- 
 ment, and also answered to suspend an awning of red cotton that was 
 stretched on a framework of reeds. 
 
 We soon opened a communication with the island. A boat was 
 launched, and three fellows stepping into it, with one push sent it across 
 to the beach. They evinced no little surprise when they saw Kaloolah 
 and heard her speak ; but my appearance and manners seemed to puzzle 
 
294 KALOOLAH. 
 
 them the most. It was curious to witness the respect with which they 
 looked upon our guns — the first that they had seen. 
 
 They offered, at once, to take our message to the governor of Garazha, 
 requesting permission to enter the Framazug territory ; intimating, how- 
 ever, that it was not customary to admit strangers without a good deal of 
 delay, and that we should, probably, have to wait where we were until 
 the next morning. The idea was not a pleasant one, inasmuch as we 
 should have to encamp upon low flat ground, exposed to the visits of the 
 crocodiles and hippopotami of the river on the one side, and the rhinoceri 
 and elephants of the marsh on the other. A dozen large fires would 
 be necessary, and there was no fallen timber anywhere near. 
 
 We watched our three messengers (who refused to permit any one of 
 my party to accompany them) until they landed, and, drawing up their 
 boat, proceeded beneath the terraces, which began now to be covered 
 with spectators, around by the ravine, and so out of sight. It was full an 
 hour before they returned, when they came accompanied by forty or fifty 
 people, and getting into their boat, pushed off. At the same instant, 
 from the smaller stream, there shot out into the Nourwall a large wide 
 barge. It was rowed, or rather paddled, by twenty men, in two rows, all 
 of them in red shirts, and wide-brimmed, high-peaked, palm-leaf hats. In 
 the stern-sheets, beneath the red cotton awning, reclined an elderly man, 
 dressed in loose flowing robes of white and blue, and a cap of feathers 
 that gleamed like a casque of burnished silver and gold. 
 
 He landed, and, in quite a haughty manner, commenced making a few 
 inquiries, and ended by informing us that the dagash, or governor, could 
 not send his boats for us until the next morning, and, in the meantime, 
 we must stop where we were. 
 
 I was not a little provoked, both at the interruption and at the old fel- 
 low's manner. There was an assumption of superiority that I felt strong 
 disposition to put down on the first favorable opportunity, which was not 
 decreased upon learning that he was nothing more than a kind of captain 
 of the port. 
 
 " Can we find a place to sleep among those ruins on our right? " I de- 
 manded. 
 
 " Oh ! no, no ! — impossible ! " chorused the whole body of fishermen, 
 in which they were joined by the Kyptiles. Even the old Framazug 
 shook his head, and the faces of his crew showed that they agreed 
 with him. 
 
 " Why not ? " I demanded, somewhat astonished at the outbreak of 
 voices. 
 
K A LOO L AH. 
 
 295 
 
 " Why ? because that is the Whamba Donga's own town ! It is a 
 thousand years ago that the people of Garazha wished to build a town, 
 and they chose that spot ; but every night the tools with which they 
 worked were carried over the river, to where Garazha now is, by spirits. 
 They persisted, however, until they had got one of the towers done, when 
 Whamba Donga took up his residence in it, and played so many diaboli- 
 cal tricks upon the builders that, at last, they were compelled to give up, 
 and leave the place to the demons, who have ever since had possession of 
 it. Any one who ventures among those ruins after dark is strangled and 
 eaten by Whamba Donga and his imps." 
 
 "More likely by lions and leopards from the jungle," I replied. 
 " Come ; I 'm not afraid of Whamba Donga. Let us go and find some 
 snug corner where a single fire will protect us ! " But not a Kyptile 
 would consent, and, to my utter astonishment, even Hugh and Jack 
 seemed to think it better to run our chance with the rhinoceri and 
 elephants in the open ground, than to provoke the devil by an invasion 
 of premises which he had held in fee simple for a thousand years. 
 
 " Well ! then we must cross to Garazha ! " 
 
 " Impossible ! " replied the captain of the port ; " the governor says 
 that you can't enter until to-morrow." 
 
 " But how can we remain here, when these fishermen say that this 
 bank at night is covered with wild animals, and that they dare not set 
 foot upon it after dark. We have no wood, and we shall need several 
 large fires, not so much to protect ourselves, as to secure our beasts ; and 
 besides, we are in want of food. We must cross the river." 
 
 " Impossible ! " replied again the captain. 
 
 " No, sir ! " I exclaimed, striding up close to the astonished ofificial, 
 and backing him with a number of majestic flourishes to his boat, " it is 
 not impossible. We will cross ; back, sir, and tell the dagash that Dr. 
 Jonathan Romer, one of the sovereigns of the great republic of the 
 United States of America, demands immediate admittance. Tell 
 him, too," said I, pointing to Kaloolah, " that his master's daughter, 
 the most illustrious Princess Kaloolah Sem Shouns^, is here, and that 
 she orders him to send boats for us without delay. Tell him that if he 
 hesitates we will swim our horses across and push on to Kiloam in 
 despite of him ! " 
 
 The announcement of Kaloolah's birth and rank created no small sen- 
 sation. Making a low salaam, the old Framazug jumped quite nimbly into 
 his boat, and pushed off without saying a word. 
 
 It was not long before he reappeared, followed by several large boats. 
 
296 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Upon landing he informed us, in quite a subdued manner, that he had 
 been directed to take us across. Our horses were first embarked in a 
 large scow, and then we took our places beneath the awning of the cap- 
 tain's barge. 
 
 On the other side we found, quite a crowd, and were received by 
 several officers, habited like the captain, in loose robes and feather caps. 
 The common people were all dressed in red cotton shirts and palm hats. 
 It will be recollected that, for almost everything curious and strange, I 
 had been prepared by my long conversations with Kaloolah, her brother, 
 and the Kyptiles ; and that, therefore, there was nothing in the universal 
 red to surprise me, knowing, as I did, that that was the natural color of 
 the Framazug cotton. 
 
 Mounting our horses, we were conducted a few rods along the beach, 
 and then, turning at right angles, were led up the bank of the small brook, 
 that was fringed with alders, willows, and magnificent oleanders in full 
 bloom. The road ran along between the bed of the stream and the wall 
 of the town, until it stopped at a wide machicolated gateway. 
 
 A company of horsemen were waiting to receive us. Within the gate 
 a band of fifty musicians had been stationed ; and the instant we appeared 
 trumpets sounded, drums were beaten, and cymbals clashed, and wild 
 barbaric strains of harmony floated upon the air, startling our steeds, and 
 producing in me a degree of " all-overishness" that was quite refreshing. 
 I should be doing injustice to my feelings, to compare them to any thing 
 else than those which must have agitated the breast of Alexander upon 
 his triumphal entry into Babylon. I looked at Kaloolah, and fancied 
 that she had grown two inches taller. A tear stood in her eye, her lip 
 trembled, but her head was well back, her breast thrown forward, and she 
 sat her horse with a graceful and dignified firmness that I had never be- 
 fore noticed. 
 
 Slowly we moved up a wide straight street, lined on either side with 
 stone houses, which were generally of two stories, and furnished with 
 deep receding balconies, and shaded with rows of majestic trees. The 
 street was well paved and clean, but the cross streets were noticed to be 
 small, unpaved, and dirty. Accustomed, as I had been, to the disgrace- 
 fully paved and filthy streets of New York, and of various Portuguese, 
 Moorish, and negro towns, it was not for me to deny any portion of 
 credit due to the municipal government of Garazha, for keeping even one 
 street in passable order. 
 
 We arrived at the foot of the hill, upon which was the castle and resi- 
 dence of the governor. A winding road led upward. As we ascended 
 
KALOOLAH. 297 
 
 we had a fine view of the town below us, and of the rich valley beyond 
 the walls, across which the setting sun was shooting his level beams. 
 
 We passed through an arched passage and rode into a wide, open, 
 elliptical court. A large fountain was playing in the centre. A row of 
 copper brackets, all around the wall, a little higher than a man's head, 
 supported earthen vases in which grew the richest flowers, new to me, and 
 exhaling perfumes to which my olfactories were wholly unaccustomed. 
 Several pairs of carved and painted folding doors opened on either side, 
 and a row of lattices above the flower-pots looked down into the court 
 from the second story. 
 
 We were now requested to dismount, and were conducted across the 
 court through a wide door, and domed hall or ante-room, into a large 
 square apartment. The room was carpeted with a thick covering, which, 
 as I afterwards learned, was made by first spreading the floor with melted 
 asphaltum, and then dotting it with variously colored cotton and wool. 
 Several round windows of rock crystals, set in copper frames, looked out 
 upon the river, and admitted the last beams of the sun. At the upper 
 end of the room, beneath the windows, were five or six figures of lions 
 crouching. These were lion skins stuffed with wool, and intended for 
 seats. In the corners were large flower stands, and depending from the 
 ceiling was an immense bouquet. The walls and roof were richly orna- 
 mented with what any one would have taken for fine gilding, but which 
 was nothing more than a mosaic of pieces of the glittering skins of 
 serpents. 
 
 There was no one in the room when we entered, and the officers who 
 ushered us in, instantly disappeared. Directing Hugh, Jack, Hassan, and 
 Sooloo Phar to arrange themselves near the entrance, I led Kaloolah to 
 the upper end of the room and looked out upon the river, where boats 
 were now bringing the main body of my Kyptile guard. 
 
 We stood thus, for a few minutes, when the wide doors were flung 
 open — two ofificials entered, followed by a venerable, dignified man, with 
 a long white beard and with no covering upon his head but a single 
 plume of the froulbell gracefully interwoven with his gray locks. He was 
 the dagash ! 
 
 With Kaloolah upon my arm, I advanced towards him. He turned so as 
 to bring the light full upon her fac«, looked steadily at her for a moment, 
 ;and then attempted to prostrate himself before her. But Kaloolah was 
 too quick for him — she darted forward and seized his hand. 
 
 " Rise," she exclaimed with a royal air, " rise, worthy Lord of Goul ; 
 the old confidant and friend of Shouns^ must not kneel to his daughter." 
 
298 KALOOLAH. 
 
 If the dagash had had any doubt before of the identity of Kaloolah, it 
 was now removed, and he threw himself upon the floor in a perfect agony 
 of loyal and affectionate respect. 
 
 At last we got the old gentleman on his feet again, and Kaloolah, tak- 
 ing his arm, made him conduct her to the lions. She seated herself upon 
 the back of one of them, and, obeying the courtly wave of her hand, the 
 dagash and myself followed her example. 
 
 As Kaloolah sat thus, talking with the respectful official, there was 
 surrounding her, and pervading every look and action, that maintien of 
 high breeding — that certain indescribable something beyond what is ex- 
 pressed by the mere term refinement — that air of lofty self-possession, of 
 habitual repose in a serene social atmosphere, above the reeking fogs and 
 fumes that envelop the struggling vulgar, little and great, which is, to men 
 who can appreciate it, so overwhelmingly fascinating, and without which 
 physical beauty and all feminine attractions are like jewels without gold, 
 lacking in a finished and elegant setting. Hitherto Kaloolah had not had 
 the advantage of having been seen through the magnifying glass of the 
 imagination. She had been too near to admit of it, but now that there 
 was evidently a distance growing between us, my fancy begun to have 
 more scope. For the first time I took a look at her through my mental 
 telescope, adjusting the focus for parallel rays, and putting on a high 
 power, so as to fill the field of view with her manifold perfections. As I 
 sat and watched her lithe figure, swaying with every emotion — one tiny 
 hand half hidden in the lion's mane, the other gracefully moving, in ex- 
 pressive gesture — her black eyes now beaming, now melting — her fruity 
 mouth — her rich hair waving in clustered ringlets — and her laugh and 
 voice, so eminently persuasive and thorough-bred in its simple and 
 earnest abandon, — as I sat, and with sharpened senses drank in all this, a 
 slight feeling of anxiety, for the first time, came over me. It was difficult 
 to repel the idea, that perhaps this star, now culminating so brilliantly in 
 the zenith of love, might turn out to be a comet moving in a path of such 
 eccentricity and inclination as to put the chance of its intersecting my 
 orbit again, out of the question entirely. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Garazha — A Ride — Supping in a Cavern — New Notions of Noses — A Sumptuous Repast — A 
 Hunt — Rousing a Lion — A Desperate Ride — Tlie Cha Donga-troll — Death of the Lion — 
 Large Birds' Nests — The Semper-sough — Waiting for News — The Change in the Princess. 
 
 fY means of posts at short intervals it was possible to convey a 
 a letter from Garazha to Kiloam, and receive an answer in three 
 days. It was settled, that, in the meantime, we should take up 
 our residence in the castle and await the orders of the court. 
 Every thing was done that the worthy dagash could do, that would 
 minister to our comfort and pleasure. A fine suite of rooms, looking out 
 upon the river were allotted to us. Those on one side of the central 
 saloon were occupied by Kaloolah and Clefenha, the others by myself and 
 attendants. Numerous servants were appointed to wait upon us, and we 
 had but to express a wish and it was gratified. 
 
 In the afternoon we took a ride beyond the walls. We passed through 
 groves of banian, tallipot, and acacia, and cultivated fields enclosed by lofty 
 hedges of cactus, and over meadows enamelled with the iris, daffodil, lotus, 
 crocus, narcissus, and a dozen flowering bushes, trees, and' creepers that 
 put my slight smattering of botany completely at fault. On our return 
 we visited a magnificent limestone cave. Numberless large and lofty 
 rooms, ornamented with stalactites of dazzling whiteness, were lighted up 
 with lamps of hippopotamus oil. We passed through them until we came 
 to a chamber three hundred feet long, about one hundred feet in 
 breadth, and about sixty feet in height to the lower points of the stal- 
 actites with which the roof was incrusted. Innumerable lamps, concealed 
 in the crevices and angles of the roof, lighted up the place with the 
 brilliancy of day. A small stream of cool water ran through the centre of 
 the room ; and along its bank, as if growing from the marble beds, were 
 arranged masses of fresh flowers. A band of music struck up as we 
 entered — its wild strains roUing and reverberating among the arches and 
 interstices of the fretted roof with wonderful effect. We were conducted 
 to the upper end of the room, where a row of calcareous concretions 
 
 2gg 
 
300 KALOOLAH. 
 
 slightly fashioned by the hand of man, served for tables and seats ; and 
 here, again, were flowers 
 
 " Truly, princess, your people have a taste for flowers ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 " It is their passion," replied Kaloolah. "The dagash will tell you 
 that it is universal, and that a Framazug could as well do without food as 
 without flowers." 
 
 " Ah ! yes," said I, " they are very beautiful, and afford great delight 
 by their brilliant colors and graceful forms, but I cannot understand the 
 expression of ecstatic pleasure with which your people seem to inhale 
 their fragrance. Tell me," said I, turning to the dagash, "to. which of 
 the senses, sight or smell, do flowers chiefly address themselves?" 
 
 The dagash looked at me for a moment as if he thought the question 
 a very simple one. 
 
 "To the smell surely," was his reply. "To the sight, it is true, they 
 give exquisite pleasure ; but the sight cannot be cultivated so highly as can 
 the sense of smell. Numberless as are the combinations of form and 
 color, and keen as may be the appreciation of visible beauties by an 
 educated eye, they are as nothing to the rich melodies and infinite har- 
 monies of scentdom — to the million correspondences and differences — 
 chords and discords that address themselves to the exalted sensibility of a 
 highly cultivated nose." 
 
 " A cultivated nose ! " I exclaimed. " Do you mean to say that you 
 have any systematic methods of training noses, and thus artificially de- 
 veloping their natural capabilities?" 
 
 The dagash gave me another look of astonishment, as much as to say, 
 what on earth were noses in your country made for ? 
 
 " Certainly," he replied ; " what sense more worthy of it ? What sense 
 will better repay the labor ? What sense is capable of affording more 
 exquisite delight ? Through what sense is the mind more ecstatically 
 affected ? Can it be, that in your country its supremacy is not acknowl- 
 edged ?" 
 
 "In my country," I replied, "the sense of smell is thought to be a 
 very useful sense ; but no one ever dreamed of undertaking by a course 
 of training to develop its latent capacities." 
 
 " How is that ? Do you not cultivate the eye, tlie ear ! why not the 
 nose ? " 
 
 "I don't know; unless it is that in our cities, particularly the great 
 commercial capital that I came from, there are not unfrequently odors 
 that would render the exercise of a delicate nasal sensibility any thing but 
 agreeable. It may be that a secret conviction of expediency has held the 
 higher and more refinable powers of the olfactories in abeyance." 
 
KALOOLAH. 301 
 
 " Shocking! " exclaimed the dagash, rapidly running his nose over a 
 large bouquet in zig-zag and irregular lines, like a dog when hunting a 
 quail field. 
 
 " The worthy dagash has not been far enough from home to learn 
 that a bad smell is not the worst evil in the world," said Kaloolah, laugh- 
 ing. " If his nose had been compelled to endure all that mine has, he 
 would have got used to perfumes that the bare intimation of now makes 
 him shudder ! " 
 
 " Unfortunate daughter of the great Shouns6," exclaimed the dagash, 
 " and did you encounter many bad smells ? " 
 
 There was something in the old man's tone and look of respectful pity 
 that made me, too, feel sorry for Kaloolah's nasal afflictions, and I rapidly 
 ran over in my mind all of the principal stenches that we had been called 
 upon to endure, to see if there were any that some exertion on my part 
 might not have dispersed or neutralized. " No," said I, upon reflec- 
 tion, " I am free from reproach. A gross of the best double distilled 
 cologne could not have saved us; but, most illustrious princess, I can 
 readily understand now what you must have suffered." 
 
 A crowd of servants in the universal red cotton shirts and feather-cloth 
 jackets now came bearing trays of roasted meats, fish, flesh, and fowl. To 
 these succeeded veg.etables, most of which were new to me. Among 
 others was the custard plant, belonging to the cucurbitaceous family, and 
 numerous specimens of the solanum genus — one a magnificent variety of 
 the lycopersicum, and another a large tuberosum growing above ground, 
 that far surpassed the ordinary potato. A dessert of fruit, flowers, and 
 conserves followed, with the delicious juice of the red pepper-looking 
 • pendants of the champagne-punch tree. The fruit that most excited my 
 admiration was a large purple gourd, something like an egg-plant. These 
 were served up, embedded in snow. Upon slicing off the top there ap- 
 peared a pink-colored fluid of the consistence of thick cream, which was 
 scooped out, and eaten with spoons, fashioned from the dazzling white 
 teeth of the hippopotamus. 
 
 " How beautiful is nature in this country," thought I. " Delicacies 
 that in poorer countries are the products of art, here grow spontaneously. 
 Champagne and ice-cream ! Well, I should n't be surprised to be offered 
 a finishing glass of natural maraschino." 
 
 Our repast finished, we were conducted to our horses just as the last 
 beams of the setting sun were gilding the silver snows of the distant moun- 
 tains. As we came out I noticed that the long low entrance was plenti- 
 fully encrusted with saltpetre — an observation that was afterwards to prove 
 of the greatest utility. 
 
302 K A LOO L AH. 
 
 On our way home the conversation turned upon fire-arms, and the da- 
 gash and his officers expressing a wish to see an exhibition of their power, 
 it was decided to make a hunting excursion to the other side of the river 
 the next day. 
 
 A hurried breakfast, al fresco, in the court of the fountain, and we de- 
 scended by a steep path along the terraces to the shore of the Nourwall. 
 We crossed in company with the dagash and his oflfiicers, and found assem- 
 bled, on the other side, a body of two hundred men, all armed with bows 
 and arrows and long spears. Suspended from different parts of their per- 
 sons, each one wore what looked at first to be small wisps of straw, but, 
 upon closer examination, they proved to be bunches of dry rushes, soaked 
 in some very inflammable fluid. These were intended as a means of de- 
 fence against the rhinoceros, and were to be used by attaching them to 
 the end of the spears, lighting them by mean of a match, carried for that 
 purpose, and presenting them, in full blaze, to the eyes and nose of the 
 attacking animal. The rhinoceros, upon receiving such a salute, turns 
 and runs, when the spear is instantly thrust into a tender place in the 
 lower part of his body, and the animal, after running a few rods, and dash- 
 ing, in his stupid rage, against trees and rocks, and sometimes giving with 
 his monstrous horn a death-thrust to his nearest relatives, falls and ex- 
 pires. The sport requires skill, activity, and nerve.. The hippopotamus 
 is sometimes killed in the same way, when caught on shore in the day- 
 time, but with the elephant the plan does not answer ; with his trunk he 
 dashes aside the blazing fagot, and presses on to the charge. Fortu- 
 nately his skin is not so thick as that of the rhinoceros, and poisoned 
 arrows bring his stately carcass slowl}- but surely to the ground. 
 
 We had not proceeded far down the river when we roused from his lair 
 a huge lion, who, after looking at us contemptuously for a few minutes, 
 bounded off and hid himself among the ruins of Whamba Donga's town. 
 The Framazugs evinced no disposition to follow him, and for that very 
 reason I was determined to see something more of his majesty. 
 
 Putting spurs to my horse, I breasted him directly against a hill, over 
 which the lion had disappeared. The dagash and all hands called and 
 shouted after me, but supposing that they were expressing their fears of the 
 lion, or of Whamba Donga, I drove the heavy Moorish spurs into my active 
 little steed, and dashed with a wild Arabic yell up the hill at full speed. 
 The top was reached, and there, yawning directly under my horse's nose, 
 lay a ravine, two hundred feet wide, and sheer down fifty or sixty feet 
 deep. There was no room, or time, to check or turn my horse, or throw 
 myself from the saddle. The motion was too swift — our momentum too 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 303 
 
 great. A yard farther, either to the left or the right, and we must have 
 gone headlong over the precipice, but directly in front of us ran a ruined 
 wall, less than three feet wide, across the ravine. It was broken away in 
 several places, and divided by wide cracks, where the stones stood trem- 
 bling for a fall. Without the slightest feeling of hesitation — without the 
 smallest movement of restraint, I swerved my horse a little, and with a 
 fresh touch of the spur, leaped him on to the crumbling and narrow path. 
 Straight and swift as an arrow he sped along the cracked and jagged wall, 
 dashing aside the loose stones, toppling over large masses of masonry, and, 
 at the end, safely leaping a chasm of ten feet between the wall and the bank. 
 
 I wheeled my steed, and looked back, but not without a shudder, and a 
 feeling of thankfulness at my lucky escape. The Framazugs had reached 
 the top just as my horse was climbing along the wall, and, upon seeing 
 me rein up safe and sound upon the other side, they set up a great shout, 
 and moved in a body down toward the river, where there was a path 
 across the ravine. 
 
 In the meantime I amused myself in examining the wall. It appeared 
 to be very old, and to have been intended as a foot-way, or as a support 
 to an aqueduct. Upon inquiring of the Framazugs, none of them knew 
 any thing about it, except that it was built by the founders of Whamba 
 Donga's town— and that it was known as Cha Donga-troll, or the Devil's 
 bridge. His infernal majesty, it had always been supposed, possessed the 
 exclusive right of way — a right which my safe passage across seemed to 
 render somewhat questionable. 
 
 While looking up the ravine, where the banks became more shelving, 
 I saw a large animal lazily bounding over the loose stones of the bottom 
 and slowly ascending the side on which I was standing. It was the lion. 
 The few palmettos and tufts of flowery shrubs that grew in the crevices 
 of the rocks were insufflcient to conceal him for more than a moment 
 from sight, and I watched him until he reached a platform of rock, some 
 ten or fifteen feet from the top of the bank. A small camphor-tree, with 
 its pointed and warty leaves, that, waving in the breeze, reflected with 
 varying effects the light from their green and yellow-tinted upper and 
 under surfaces, grew upon the very edge, and threw a shade upon the 
 rock below. The lion paused, snuffed the air, stretched himself like a 
 cat, gave two or three tremendous yawns, and then leisurely laid himself 
 down for a snooze, with his head towards the inclined bank. 
 
 As soon as he had settled himself for his siesta, I dismounted, and 
 crept along the bank, until within about three rods of him. Crouching 
 low, I could see his whole carcass except his head, and, of course, without 
 
304 KALOOLAH. 
 
 being seen myself. The question now was, whether upon raising my eyes 
 so as to get a view of his, he might not start before a sure aim could be 
 taken. There was no use in mentally revolving a point that could be 
 settled only by experiment ; so, raising my person to its full height, I 
 looked the monster in the face. He did not appear to notice me ; his 
 eyes were open, but there was no " speculation," at least, as to the price 
 and qualities of man's meat, in them. I raised the gun slowly to my shoul- 
 der, and deliberately looked along the sights right into the monster's eye. 
 
 Ha ! there goes a lurid flash across that yellow optic — wave upon wave 
 of pinky light, like the vibratory flashings of the aurora borealis ; like the 
 half-advancing, half-retreating colors of the dawn ; like the deepening 
 blushes of beaut}' when awakening to the first consciousness of the heart; 
 like the pulsatory gleamings of a puddling furnace on a foggy night ; or 
 like the glowing light of a kettle of melted potash in the depths of a dark 
 forest. He 's waking up. He begins to fancy that he sees something. It 
 would not be safe to calculate upon that eye remaining where it is more 
 than the thousandth part of a second longer. So, lightly on the trigger! 
 
 The sharp report startled the sleepy rocks, and set them a-screaming 
 and yelling, as if each one was bound to prove his descent from the iden- 
 tical stone into which, according to Ovid, Juno turned her loquacious 
 handmaiden. At the same instant the lion tore up the bank with a 
 furious bound, and rolled over and over upon the level ground in the 
 agonies of death. I jumped aside as he came up, and, with. my gun still 
 to my shoulder, was about to give him the contents of the other barrel 
 behind his forelegs, when it became evident that it was unnecessary. 
 Tumbling about for a few moments without consciousness, and in the 
 exercise of mere muscular contractility, he sank to the ground and died, 
 about as soon, perhaps, as it was possible for such an enormous mass of 
 tough vitality to die. 
 
 At this moment the dagash and suite came up — admiration and 
 astonishment depicted in their faces, and expressed both by gestures and 
 words. " Balak lucn ! g'rJi sah Iioo-lwo ivaddcn ! " " What a man ! What 
 courage, to attack a lion!" exclaimed the dagash, and ''Balak wen! 
 grh'sah hoo-Iwo wadden ! " replied the officers and men, whose admiration 
 seemed to be equally divided between my ride across the Donga-troll, and 
 the death of an animal that they had never dared attack except in large 
 parties, and even then at a great risk of life. As it was an object to 
 acquire a reputation for hardihood, I affected to look upon the perform- 
 ance as a matter of course, and, with a politic disingenuousness, did not 
 explain that my ride had been involuntary, and that my attack upon the 
 lion had been by stealth, and not an open, fair fight. 
 
KALOOLAH. 305 
 
 While riding along upon the banks of the stream, my motions Were 
 arrested by the voice of Hugh, who was floundering out of his path among 
 the tall reeds of the marsh. " Come here, yer honor ! here 's something 
 worth looking at ! Did yer honor ever see any thing the likes o' that ? " 
 said Hugh, pointing to two birds' nests, built upon the ground, of canes 
 and reeds, interwoven with dry grass and the fibres of the spartum. Each 
 nest was about ten feet in diameter, and four feet deep. Upon inquiring 
 of the natives, they were represented to belong to a monstrous bird with 
 a body as large as an elephant, and standing almost twenty feet high. 
 From the description it appeared that the animal must belong to the 
 flamingo family — but as to the size, we could not but think that the 
 Framazugs were exaggerating ; yet there were the nests, large enough to 
 couch an elephant. I will only add, that all doubt has been since re- 
 moved, and that I have had opportunities of verifying the existence of an 
 animal, alongside of which the Arabian roc would sink into insignificance, 
 and which is as large as, if not larger *"han, the monstrous bird of New 
 Holland, whose existence has been put beyond a doubt, by the frequent 
 discovery of nests, twenty-five and thirty feet in circumference. I need 
 say nothing further here, inasmuch as a full description will form one of 
 the most striking features of my proposed work upon the natural history 
 of Framazugda. In that work, too, will figure to better advantage, in full 
 detail, the many curious smaller animals that we encountered, not forget- 
 ting various specimens of flying serpents, a large winged alligator, and an 
 animal that I at once recognized as a dragon, from its correspondence to 
 the descriptions in that standard work, " The Seven Champions." An- 
 other animal will demand a prominent place, although here I may merely 
 mention it. It is an amphibious polypus. If the reader will conceive a 
 large cart-wheel, the hub will represent the body of the animal, and the 
 spokes the long arms, about the size and shape of a full grown kangaroo's 
 tail, and twenty in number, that project from it. When the animal moves 
 upon land, it stiffens these radii, and rolls over upon the points like a 
 wheel without a felloe. These arms have also the capability of a lateral 
 prehensile contraction in curves, perpendicular to its plane of revolution, 
 and enable the animal to grasp its prey, and draw it into its voracious 
 mouth. It attacks the largest quadrupeds, and even man himself ; but if 
 dangerous upon land, it is still more formidable in the water, where it has 
 been known to attack and kill an alligator. This horrible monster is 
 known by the name of the Semper-sough, or " snake-star," and is more 
 dreaded than any other animal of Framazugda, inasmuch as the natives 
 have no way of destroying it, except by catching it when young in cane 
 traps sunk in the water, and baited with hippopotamus cubs. Fortu- 
 
3o6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 nately it is not very prolific, and its increase is further prevented by the 
 furious contests that these animals have among themselves. Sometimes 
 twenty or thirty will grasp each other with their long arms, and twist 
 themselves up into a hard and intricate knot. In this situation they re- 
 main, hugging and gnawing each other to death, and never relaxing their 
 grasp until their arms are so firmly intertwined that, when life is extinct and 
 the huge mass floats, they cannot be separated. The natives then draw the 
 ball ashore, cut it up with axes, and make it into a compost for their land. 
 
 Crossing the river, we retired to the castle, where we waited with no 
 little impatience until sundown, for the arrival of a messenger from 
 Kiloam. None came, and even the dagash could not conceal his surprise 
 and disappointment. 
 
 " Perhaps he has been delayed by some accident," I observed. 
 
 " No," replied the dagash, " it is hardly possible ; the runners go in 
 pairs, and the day's journey is divided into twenty stages. The road is 
 smooth, and there are never any accidents. I know not what to think." 
 
 " Well, I do," exclaimed Kaloolah, jumping up and clapping her 
 hands with girlish glee, in utter contempt of all regal dignity, and to the 
 great astonishment of the worthy dagash. " I understand ; Enphadde is 
 coming, and the runners are stayed that he may announce himself. How 
 long will it take him to come after receiving the news of our arrival ? " 
 
 " Four or five days ; depending upon the sharpness of his spurs." 
 
 " Then I 'm sure we shall see him in three days more ; but that will 
 be a long time ; suppose that we set out to meet him ? " 
 
 Kaloolah's proposition was at once negatived by the dagash, much to 
 my satisfaction. I was in no hurry, though, of course, full of curiosity ; 
 for, somehow, there was something uncommonly pleasant in the view by 
 moonlight, from the great terrace above the Nourwall ; and Kaloolah 
 thought so too. 
 
 There could be no doubt that, whatever had been my feelings up to 
 this time, I was now getting pretty deeply in love. The humbug of 
 " fatherly care," and " brotherly affection," was all gone, and in its place 
 there had got to be a most indubitable, love-like feeling of sympathy, 
 anxiety, and respect. The change in me was but a natural response to a 
 change I have already mentioned in Kaloolah's appearance and manners. 
 
 I remarked to Kaloolah how much she had altered ; how suddenly she 
 had assumed the retenue of womanhood. She playfully denied the charge. 
 " At least," said she, putting her hand to her heart, " I have not altered 
 here. Feel it ; its pulses are the same as when you threw it from you on 
 the banks of the Sierra Leone." 
 
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 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Arrival of Enphadde — The Prince's Story — Setting Out for Kiloam — A Buffalo and His Trap- 
 pings — A Weatherly Craft — Jack in the Howdah. 
 
 'ARAZHA wasa scene of excitement. The unusual detention 
 of the royal messengers had aroused curiosity, and now it was 
 announced from the battlements that a large cavalcade was in 
 sight, and rapidly advancing to the southern gate. 
 
 " It is Enphadde, I know it is Enphadde," whispered Kaloolah, pale 
 and trembling. 
 
 The door of the saloon opened, and there entered a tall, graceful 
 figure, dressed in a blue shirt, and over it a closely fitting garment that 
 came down to the knees, composed of fine feathers worked into a kind of 
 cloth. The prominent color was a deep dazzling blue, bordered with a 
 bright yellow. His legs were bare, except a garter of gold lace from 
 which depended a heavy fringe like the bullion of an epaulette. Buskins 
 of yellow morocco were laced to his feet, and on his head he wore a 
 closely fitting green feather-cloth cap, with a fillet of gold and silver 
 filigree, and a drooping plume of feathers of the froulbell. 
 
 Uttering a scream of delight, Kaloolah threw herself into the stranger's 
 arms. It took me somewhat longer to recognize, in the full, manly figure, 
 the stripling Enphadde. Disengaging himself from his sister's arms he 
 flew towards me and gave me a most cordial embrace. 
 
 , We, shortly retired from the gaze of the crowd of ofificers, who filled 
 the lower end of the long saloon, to the quiet of the terrace, where we 
 ■seated ourselves upon the sward just as the sun was bidding good-night 
 to the blushing clouds that hung in silent admiration of their own beauti- 
 ful images, gleaming far down in the depths of the purple Nourwall. 
 
 As may be supposed, we had long stories to tell — many a question to 
 ask — many a question to answer. Mine and Kaloolah's the reader under- 
 stands. Enphadde's must be summed in three lines. 
 
 Upon returning to the hut and finding his sister gone, he rushed back 
 to the head man and alarmed the whole village with his complaints and 
 
 307 
 
3o8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 lamentations. All hands turned out in search ; which was continued dur- 
 ing the night. It was at last concluded that she had been killed and car- 
 ried off by some wild beast ; in a day or two, however, it was known that 
 a party of slave-hunters had been in the neighborhood and all doubts as 
 to her fate were at once removed. 
 
 Grief so weighed upon Enphadde that he was unable to go on with 
 the Mandingos, and for two or three weeks he remained, wishing and in- 
 viting death ; his misfortunes excited the sympathy of the humane vil- 
 lagers, and he received the kindest nursing and attendance. 
 
 When able to walk he joined a kafifila going east. For about a month 
 they got on very well ; passing through several populous countries, until 
 at last, while fording a broad stream, the kafifila was attacked by a party 
 of armed negroes. The Mohammedan members of it were killed or dis- 
 persed, and the KafRrs were seized as slaves. Great was Enphadde's joy 
 when he found that his captors were marching him to the southeast. In 
 fact, what seemed at first a misfortune, proved the safest and most direct 
 means of his restoration to his own country. 
 
 Three weeks' travel brought him and his masters to a large town. 
 Here he was exposed in the socco and immediately purchased by a slave- 
 dealer, who put him, with others, on board of a large canoe and ascended 
 (five or six days' journey) a stream running from the east. They then 
 landed, and striking off through a hilly country in a southerly course, 
 arrived in fifteen days at a small walled town named Bemme. 
 
 There happened to be, luckily, in this town a party of Shemba traders, 
 who had visited the country of the Foota Jals, where they had heard of 
 the Gerboo Blanda, or white people of Framazugda. Enphadde's com- 
 plexion and features excited their curiosity, and upon questioning him, 
 and finding that he was the son of the Gerboo king they offered to 
 purchase him, and take him home for ransom. For a whole lunar month 
 they journeyed to the east, until they reached the first towns of the 
 Footas, where his masters, either doubtful of his ransom, or tired of the 
 long journey, sold him to a Foota chief, who promised to take him to 
 Framazugda, but who, in the meantime, put him to work in his rice and 
 cotton fields. Enphadde endeavored by promises of a high ransom to 
 induce some one else to purchase him, but his master refused all offers. 
 Finding, at length, that the Foota lord was too avaricious to part with 
 his hopes of a splendid ransom, and yet too indolent to set about obtain- 
 ing it, Enphadde secured a small bundle of provisions and a spear, and 
 boldly plunged into a wild rocky country to the southeast. 
 
 For ten days he endured the extremes of hunger and fatigue, besides 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 309 
 
 being several times attacked by wild animals. Once a lion bounded at 
 him from the sergy margin of a small watercourse. Enphadde had barely 
 time to scramble to the top of a high rock, when the lion gave a jump, 
 just reaching with his forefeet the edge of the rock, and slipping back 
 without getting a foothold. The animal turned back, and deliberately 
 placing himself in the same spot from which he had sprung, tried it again, 
 but with no better success. Twenty times the creature repeated the 
 experiment before he could satisfy himself that it was beyond his power. 
 Unfortunately Enphadde had dropped his spear, or he might have easily 
 put an end to the monster's saltatory exertions, by thrusting him while 
 clinging to the edge of the rock. Upon finding that his proposed dinner 
 was beyond his grasp, the fellow had the impudence to stretch himself 
 out upon the ground and keep Enphadde broiling in the hot sun upon 
 the rock until sunset, when, with a deep roar of disappointment and im- 
 patience that made the boulders in the bed of the river rattle like pebbles 
 on the sea-shore, he bounded off in search of a less piquant but more 
 come-at-able supper. Enphadde descended and secured his spear, but he 
 thought it best to take up his lodging upon the rock for the night. 
 
 On another occasion Enphadde had succeeded in spearing a monkey, 
 and, taking his prize to the bank of a stream, was busily engaged in rubbing 
 two dry sticks together, in hopes of getting a fire, and making a comforta- 
 ble meal, when he was alarmed by a wild rushing through the forest, and 
 turning, he beheld himself enclosed by a legion of monkeys armed with 
 sticks and stones. Discharging their missiles with wonderful precision 
 and force, these infuriated animals closed in upon him. Enphadde used 
 his spear vigorously — killing numbers, but not in the least deterring the 
 rest. They swarmed upon him like vermin, and in a minute more he 
 must have been overborne and killed, had he not staggered to the water 
 and plunged in, with about forty monkeys hanging to him by their claws, 
 tails, and teeth. The ferocious little devils were compelled to let go their 
 hold and scramble back to the land, while Enphadde swam across to the 
 other side. Covered with bruises and bleeding from a hundred wounds, 
 and faint from want of food, he could just draw himself ashore, where he 
 must have perished had he not been discovered by a party of negroes, and 
 taken to their village. 
 
 He soon found that he was as much a slave as ever; but upon telling 
 his story, they at once agreed to take him to the confines of his country 
 and offer him for ransom. As soon as he was able to walk, they set out, 
 and in ten days reached the river Queal. Ascending it to Lake Tsamsa, 
 they arrived at the last town of the Foota Jals, named Goolah. From 
 
3IO KALOOLAH. 
 
 this place messengers were despatched across the lake to a Framazug 
 town, and from thence word was sent to Kiloam, that the king's son, who 
 had been mourned as dead, was alive, and to be ransomed for as many 
 gold rings, of a certain thickness, as would cover to their tips the fingers 
 of his master's hands. Commissioners were at once deputed to effect the 
 ransom ; who, when they arrived at the appointed spot for the ratification 
 of the bargain, were introduced to a gigantic negro of Goolah, as the 
 master of Enphadde. A delay of two or three days now occurred, in con- 
 sequence of the commissioners not having more than half the requisite 
 number of rings for his monstrous fingers. But at last a supply was pro- 
 cured — the giant's digits were sheathed in gold, and Enphadde was 
 restored to the bosom of a doting father and to the affections of an 
 admiring people. Great was the joy upon his return ; but it was qualified 
 by the profound regrets for the supposed cruel fate of his beloved sister. 
 " Could we have known," concluded Enphadde, " that God had sent 
 Jonathan again to your protection, how happy we should have been ! " 
 
 " Poor Enphadde ! " replied Kaloolah, " your fate has been the hardest ; 
 you have had no hope of my safety to support you, while I have been 
 almost ever confident of yours." 
 
 " No," rejoined Enphadde, "we had no hope of ever seeing you again. 
 Imagine our joy, then, upon hearing that you were here, alive and well, 
 and that the preserver of both our lives was with you. ' Fly ! fly ! En- 
 phadde,' said the great Shouns^, 'and bring her to my arms. And this 
 noble stranger, conduct him in all honor, and quickly, too, for I long to 
 testify my gratitude to the savior of my children.' " 
 
 Enphadde's story was finished — the fog-laden breeze began to steal 
 across the bosom of the river, and the old dagash made his appearance, 
 with many apologies for the intrusion, to announce that supper was 
 waiting in the great hall. We entered amid a blaze of light, a burst of 
 delicious music, and a shower of ecstatic odors, shaken from ten thousand 
 flowers. 
 
 In his hurry to get back to Kiloam, the prince was anxious to obtain 
 a remount of horses from Garazha, and set off the next morning. But 
 the dagash told him that that was impossible. " There are hardly twenty 
 horses in town, and to collect fifty from the country would take three or 
 four days. In two days your own horses will have recovered from their 
 fatigue, and, in the meantime, you will have to honor my poor quarters 
 with your presence." 
 
 Enphadde was thus compelled to submit to a delay of two days, 
 which was little enough time for his exhausted horses to recruit their 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 3" 
 
 strength. The time, however, soon passed, arid on the morning of the 
 third day we were all in the saddle, and, escorted by the dagash and most 
 of the inhabitants of the town, we emerged from the heavy stone gate- 
 way, and set out diagonally across the pleasant valley through which ran 
 the little tributary to the Nourwall. 
 
 A monstrous buffalo had been prepared for the use of the princess. 
 To a ring in his nose was attached a rope, by which he was led, although 
 he was so tame and well trained as to obey the slightest intimations of 
 the voice. Upon his back was erected a framework of canes, and this 
 
 " Presenting a figure that would have furnished an artist with u good life model of Neptune on 
 
 the couch of Amfhitrite,^' 
 
 was covered with curtains of the finest muslin, worked in a kind of ara- 
 besque, with threads of gold, silver, and purple ; within were cushioned 
 seats, upon which the rider might recline at any angle corresponding to 
 his or her notions of comfort or grace. Bands of glittering snake-skin con- 
 fined the structure upon the back of the buffalo, whose horns, neck, and 
 tail were bedecked with garlands of flowers. The animal's gait was an 
 easy but rather ungainly amble, which he could continue for any length 
 of time, compelling his leaders and attendants, who ran by his sides 
 with bushes of fragrant herbs to keep off the flies, to move at a sharp 
 trot. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the fascinations of this bovine gestation, 
 Kaloolah expressed her preference for the saddle, and, after parting with 
 
312 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the dagash and his guards, she insisted upon mounting her horse and 
 resigning the buffalo to Jack, who loudly expressed his delight at the 
 change. 
 
 "Talk of horses," exclaimed Jack, "they are nothing to this ere craft. 
 Why, when astraddle of one of these narrow-backed things, I feel like a 
 lubber on a yard-arm. I roll, and pitch, and toss like a badly stowed 
 ship ; and every few minutes I fancy my ballast is about to shift, and that 
 I shall be down upon my beam-ends. But here ! Lord bless the two 
 prettiest black eyes that ever looked out from an angel's head — and those 
 are your'n, marm ! I never see'd such a regular ship-shape ambulation 
 on four legs afore. Why, I was once in an American brig out of New 
 York — Mr. Romer's own city — and off the Horn we lay-to for two and 
 thirty days in one steady gale. The wind blew so hard that it took six 
 men and the cook to hold the captain's quadrant while he took the sun, 
 and yet we never sprung a spar, opened a seam, strained a bulkhead, or 
 shipped as much water as you could put in your eye and make anybody 
 believe you had been crying. Now the motion of this craft is just 
 like that brig, and if I had only a little sniff of tar and bilge water I 
 could go to sleep and dream that I was in her, and once more fairly off 
 soundings." 
 
 It will not be supposed that Kaloolah's knowledge of English was 
 sufficient to enable her to understand all the delicate shades of meaning 
 in Jack's sea-talk, but, somehow, they got on very well together They 
 had become great friends, and were very fond of holding long conversa- 
 tions, when Jack would spin his yarns with a profusion of gestures and 
 grimaces that never failed to please the princess much, and which, 
 not un frequently, made it difficult for me to preserve a proper gravity 
 of countenance. 
 
 At first I objected to the manifest impropriety of Jack's mounting 
 the buffalo, but Kaloolah insisted upon it, and afterwards rode by his 
 side, enjoying the unaffected delight with which he resigned himself to 
 the rolling motions of the beast. Kaloolah's slightest wish was attended 
 to with an air of deference and respect by her brother and guards that 
 alone would have prevented me from interposing any serious objections 
 to her will, and I was, therefore, obliged to permit Jack to occupy his 
 elevated position, where he stretched himself out with the most insouciant 
 air imaginable — presenting a figure that would have furnished an artist 
 with a good life model of Neptune on the couch of Amphitrite. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Character of the Country — Houses — Monuments — Fountains — A Touch of Politics — First 
 Sight of Kiloam — Kaloolah's Emotion — Reception at Jellalob — A Separation — An Enter- 
 tainment — Feats of Jugglers. 
 
 >UR road for five days lay through an undulating country, that 
 grew more populous and more closely cultivated at every step. 
 On either side it was lined with a double row of fruit-trees, a 
 few only of which were familiar to me — such as the olive, the 
 almond, the orange, th-e fig, and the cactus opuntia or prickly pear. These 
 -were all public property, and afforded the traveller both refreshment and 
 shade. The trees were very flourishing ; and, upon inquiry, I found that 
 it was a matter of emulation among the owners of property along the 
 road as to which should thus present strangers with the most tempting 
 fruit. Between the trees were placed marble pillars, surmounted with 
 vases filled with fresh flowers. No higher compliment can be paid to the 
 owner's taste and horticultural skill than for the passing traveller to stop 
 and select the most beautiful. 
 
 The houses on either hand were mostly of stone — a yellow-tinted 
 marble, — and, although low, had a peculiarly light appearance. Generally 
 they were half buried in masses of rich verdure, which served to give 
 them a degree of breadth and dignity, and to very much assist their 
 architectural effects. Numerous aqueducts of freestone-work could be 
 seen crossing the country in every direction ; and spanning the rivers and 
 watercourses were bridges equal in solidity and symmetry to the best 
 productions of Roman masonry. Lofty monuments, consisting of marble 
 pillars, carved into a series of globes, gradually decreasing in size from 
 the bottom to the top, and surmounted by a small plain cube of lava, 
 peered up from above the loftiest trees; and immense buildings, which 
 proved to be distributing reservoirs, into which the water is pumped for 
 the purpose of giving it sufificient head, crowned the summits of the-hills 
 and frowned in massive majesty, like the feudal castles of Christian coun- 
 tries, upon the flowery dells and flowing streams below. Like feudal 
 castles ? True, there was something suggestive of the association, but 
 how unlike in all important points. Both are elevated upon heights, and 
 
314 KALOOLAH. 
 
 generally upon the banks of rivers, but one is so elevated to afford a 
 rapid descent to the pure water — to give force and pressure to the number- 
 less refreshing jets and cooling cascades, and graceful fountains, the other to 
 afford security to violence, vantage to rapine and slaughter — to give to 
 human selfishness strongholds, from which, with irresistible momentum, 
 it might descend and deluge the lower lands with blood. Suppose that 
 all the dwellings of cruel, brutal, ignorant, short-sighted tyranny and 
 superstition that dot the surface of Europe, had been for ages merely 
 fountain-heads of water — prisons only for Undines and Nereids, who, 
 when released from confinement, had danced and sung, ever and for ever 
 appealing to the gradually deepening sense of the beautiful ; speaking 
 with a refining power to the delighted heart, and persuading from lavish 
 Ceres and Pomona their choicest gifts to man. Suppose, still further, that 
 instead of being mere reservoirs of water, these old castles, and towers, 
 and convents, had been reservoirs of virtue — strongholds of honest human 
 sympathy, whence had flowed all fertilizing and elevating influences: 
 suppose, in other words, that all government, political, social, and religious, 
 had not been perverted from its plain and inviting ends — the good of the 
 whole to the sordid advantage of a part, — and what would now be the 
 condition of Europe ? — of the world ? The wildest imagination can 
 hardly compass the then glories of Christendom, with its ten or twenty 
 thousand millions of happy and comfortable people. 
 
 And how has the world been thus cheated of its inheritance, and, 
 possible, yet unborn, millions deprived of their rights in eternity, and the 
 world overburdened with people, while yet not a thousandth part of its 
 power of production has been developed ? Is it the result of necessary 
 pre-existent causes — the natural and inevitable evolution of the germs of 
 evil, implanted from the beginning in the human heart — something over 
 which man, from the laws of his nature, could have exercised no control? 
 Or, is it the result of false teaching and bad habits — of imperious fashion 
 — of long-continued and assiduous experiments in evil — of an industrious 
 training in vice — of a diabolical combination of selfish men to trample 
 their fellow-citizens beneath them, to degrade and beggar them, and to 
 crush, with the iron heel of power, their generous impulses, their few and 
 feeble, because unstimulated, aspirations for a nobler, and always nobler 
 civilization? If the first, adieu to all the glowing hopes of the political 
 reformer; if the second, who can set bounds to the constantly accelerated 
 rush of political and social improvement? 
 
 But to return to my sheep, from which the water tanks have taken me 
 a long way, and which were literally gambolling by my side. There were, 
 
KALOOLAH. ^ 315 
 
 as I have mentioned, several varieties of them, but the most curious was 
 a long-wooled animal, about the size of a small cow, and furnished with 
 monstrous udders of rich milk. Their backs were broad and soft, and 
 more than once we saw a long-legged Framazug astride of one of them, 
 and industriously drumming on its sides with his heels. 
 
 We passed through several villages and large towns, and saw others in 
 the distance, and the places where we stopped for the night were substan- 
 tial cities of twenty and thirty thousand inhabitants. From all these the 
 people came out in crowds, saluting us with hearty shouts and a general 
 waving of bouquets. 
 
 It was in the afternoon of the fifth day, after leaving Garazha, that 
 our road lay up the steep sides of a range of hills, which for a long time 
 had been seen bounding our horizon to the south. We were within a few 
 rods of the crest of the hill. " Prepare yourselves," said Enphadde, " for 
 a fine view. In a moment more you will see Kiloam. We are on the 
 very brink of the great valley of the Wollosab ! " 
 
 At this instant our vanguard raised a great shout and flourished their 
 spears over their heads. All stopped where the road made a sharp turn, 
 and eagerly looked down at something on their left. Hugh stretched 
 himself up in his stirrups, and gazed fixedly. Jack, finding the curtains 
 df his howdah impede his view, jumped nimbly from the back of his buf- 
 falo and ran out to the side of the road ; and Hassan, as was his custom 
 whenever any thing particularly pleased him, threw up the muzzle of his 
 musket and fired it in the air. The instant he had done so I could see 
 his eyes roll round towards me, as deprecating the anger that he knew he 
 had justly aroused. " You 've fired your last charge of powder, my good 
 fellow ! " said I, looking and speaking somewhat sternly to the frightened 
 culprit. But at this moment my attention was drawn to the princess, by 
 an exclamation from Enphadde. , 
 
 Kaloolah was deadly pale. I thought she was about to faint, and 
 juniping from my horse, flew to her side and lifted her to the ground. 
 
 " It will be over in a moment," said Kaloolah; "direct our train to 
 move on. We can overtake them in a few minutes." 
 
 "It is very foolish in me," said Kaloolah, "to feel' so ! But when 
 Enphadde exclaimed that at yonder bend of the road we should see Ki- 
 loam, and when I saw the guards toss their spears and shout, my heart 
 began to beat as it never beat but once before " ; and the princess gave 
 me a look that I at once interpreted to mean, on the evening of the 
 attack upon the caravan among the sand-hills of the desert. 
 
 " No, Kaloolah," I replied, "it is not foolish to feel as you do. Noth- 
 
3i6 ^ KALOOLAH. 
 
 ing can be more natural. Were I in your situation, man as I am, I 'm 
 afraid I should not be able to control my emotion as well as you. Even 
 as it is, Enphadde's announcement made my pulses throb like a fright- 
 ened child's." 
 
 " Come, come," exclaimed Enphadde, after a pause, " lean upon our 
 arms, and let us move up to this view that seems to frighten you so." 
 
 " Are you sure that it is there ? " said Kaloolah. " It seems to me as 
 though the whole might be a dream. Here, pinch my fingers," said^he, 
 naively, throwing out her hands, " and see if I am awake." 
 
 I took one hand, and was giving it a gentle squeeze, when she sud- 
 denly pulled it away, and the color came into her face. " No, no," she 
 exclaimed, " I don't wish to know ; if it 's a dream, it 's a pleasant one, 
 and I wont be waked from it ; come, let us go " ; and putting her arms 
 within ours, we slowly advanced to the crown of the hill. 
 
 Despite her assumed vivacity and calmness, I could f«el her frame 
 tremble, and could perceive the increasing pallor of her cheek. WitTi a 
 sudden effort she hurried us forward, mounted the projecting ledge of 
 rock, and gazed at the vast ocean of earth that lay beneath and be- 
 fore us. 
 
 " Loo, loo, bil sa Wollosab, bah loo, loo bil sa mahrah Kiloam ! " exclaimed 
 Enphadde. 
 
 Kaloolah raised her hands to her eyes, as if the sight was too much 
 for her, and turning away, fell sobbing into her brother's arms. I felt 
 that this was a situation in which even the most sympathizing lover 
 would be de trop. There were thronging associations which I could not 
 share — vibrating memories to which my voice was not attuned — bonds of 
 affection, which all-powerful love might transcend, and even disrupt, but 
 whose precise nature it could not assume. 
 
 There are some lovers who are jealous of such things — fellows who 
 like to wholly monopolize a woman — and who are constantly on the 
 watch, seizing and appropriating her every look, thought, and feeling, 
 with somewhat of the same notion of an exclusive right as that with 
 which they pocket a tooth-pick ;— I am not of that turn. The female 
 heart is as curiously and as variously stocked as a country dry-goods 
 store. A man may be, perhaps, allowed to select out for his own exclu- 
 sive use some of the heavier articles, such as sheetings, shirtings, flannels, 
 trace-chains, hobby-horses, and goose-yokes, but that is no reason why 
 the neighbors should be at once cut off from their accustomed supply of 
 small wares. 
 
 I withdrew a few yards, to a higher and more projecting crag, not to 
 
KALOOLAH. 317 
 
 obtain a more extensive view, for the character of the scene by no means 
 excited that desire to see farther and still farther beyond what at first 
 breaks upon the sight, which is so often felt in viewing a landscape, or 
 any object which depends for its effect upon extent or size. The beautiful 
 or the sublime emotion arising from form, color, motion or any com- 
 bination of these qualities, may be complete, entire, mind-filling and soul- 
 satisfying, because the causes may be perfect, and incapable of improve- 
 ment or augmentation. Their power cannot be increased by adding a 
 little more form, a little more color, or a little more motion. But, when 
 extension is the only or the predominant element of the view, the mind 
 is at once dissatisfied, and demands more and more, bounding its desires 
 not even by the limits of human reason. 
 
 Now, in the view before me there was wonderful extension — an almost 
 limitless expansion ; but it was subordinate to the magnificent combina- 
 tion of form, color, and motion. 
 
 Sheer down went the precipice a thousand feet, and from its base the 
 country descended, by gentle slopes and wide terraces, a thousand feet 
 farther, to the banks of the Wollosab, a distance of about fifteen miles. 
 Far up to the left was the great lake of WoUo, forty miles long and ten 
 broad, with numerous islands — all of them in sight. From the lower 
 end of this lake, and nearly opposite to us, on the farther side, opened 
 two immense valleys far up, in which couM be caught the glitter of 
 smaller bodies of water. The mountain dividing the valleys ran boldly 
 down to the lake, bearing upon its crest a stream, that, descending by 
 two successive leaps, five hundred feet each, ran for a quarter of a mile, a 
 broad sheet of milky foam, and again bounding over a lofty ledge, 
 whitened, for a league, the surface of the Wollo. Ten miles below this 
 and in front of us, where the river issued from the lake, was the great 
 city of Kiloam, and more than fifty other cities could be seen at a 
 glance. 
 
 Beyond the Wollosab, there stretched a plain fifty miles broad, tra- 
 versed by numerous streams, and bordered by a sea of purple-bodied, 
 white-headed mountains, that seemed as if in the very act of tossing 
 themselves, in proud defiance, against the sky. Far away to the right this 
 plain extended, to where the hazy cones closed in and left barely a passage 
 for the majestic river. 
 
 Back of us the scene was equally gorgeous. There lay the rich rolling 
 country that we had passed, bordered by hills, which, in the northeast 
 and east, grew into mountains, among which, proudly conspicuous, stood 
 the ever-flaming Kebbi. 
 
3i8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 The small chain of hills upon which we stood was thus the centre of 
 a vast amphitheatre. The chain was not more than thirty miles in 
 length, and was deeply serrated. We might have taken a more level 
 road, through the deep passes, or escaped the hills altogether by a slight 
 detour ; but Enphadde had chosen the path over the highest peak, in 
 order to give us a more striking and comprehensive view of his country. 
 
 There was a wonderful clearness and transparency of the air, that 
 more than doubled the limits of ordinary vision. Cities, palaces, aque- 
 ducts, bridges, monuments, stood forth, at a distance of leagues, with 
 telescopic distinctness. I gazed as one entranced. 
 
 My revery was broken by the voice of the princess, who called to me 
 to come and take a seat by her side. 
 
 Together we gazed, lost to all sense of time, in the deep emotions of 
 the scene, until suddenly, far below us, the spear-points of our escort 
 gleamed from the overarching trees — '' Come ! " exclaimed the prince, 
 jumping to his feet ; " the sun is going down, and we must follow his 
 example, or we shall have to find our way by starlight." 
 
 Our attendants bringing up our horses, we mounted, and descended a 
 steep, winding road, running through dense arbors of flowering trees, and 
 crossing several times, by light wooden bridges, a tangled silvery thread 
 of water. We overtook our escort when in sight of a large town, where 
 we were to stop for the night. 
 
 As usual, crowds of people were awaiting our arrival at some distance 
 from the gates. Every one bore a bouquet in one hand, and a torch or 
 paper lantern in the other. As darkness came on, the flambeaux were 
 lighted, and from the walls, towers, and houses streamed the light of in- 
 numerable lamps. 
 
 From the gateway to the house appointed for our reception, a distance 
 of full half a mile, we rode along under a continuous canopy of flowers. 
 A netting of rope work had been stretched across from the tops of the 
 houses, and into this the flowers had been interwoven, lea\"ing, at inter- 
 vals, dependent garlands and wreaths. The balconies and porticos were 
 also wreathed with flowers, and filled with beautiful women. Thousands 
 of lamps, torches, and lanterns diffused as intense a light as the full bright- 
 ness of day. In front of us danced a dozen girls, in picturesque costume, 
 with musical instruments, like tambourines, with which they accompanied 
 their voices ; and on each side moved a dense throng, from whose throats 
 every few minutes came a wild chorus, that fairly lifted the canopy of 
 flowers, and that thrilled through me like ten thousand bowie-knives. 
 
 The good people of Jellalob had taken us quite by surprise. Orders 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 319 
 
 having been issued tiiat our journey should be conducted with all privacy, 
 we were not prepared for such a display. Enphadde, however, was the 
 only one of the party displeased ; and he signified as much to the dagash 
 and the authorities of the town. Kaloolah, however, interposed, and 
 averted the storm of princely wrath ; and Enphadde was fain to receive 
 the excuses of the frightened ofificials^ who represented that ever since the 
 announcement that the princess was on the road, the people had been in 
 the greatest ferment, and that it would have been impossible to prevent 
 them from making some demonstration of their joy. 
 
 Upon reaching the palace we alighted, and were conducted across an 
 open courtyard paved in mosaic — in the centre of which played an il- 
 luminated fountain — to a flight of low broad marble steps ; ascending 
 these, we were conducted through a wide hall to a lofty saloon, hung in 
 blue and gold, and furnished with curiously sculptured alabaster pedestals, 
 containing lamps, and wreathed on the outside with flowers. In a few 
 minutes we were shown to our sleeping rooms. Mine led from the 
 farther end of a long marble saloon, and opened out into a balcony that 
 overlooked a small court, where played a lively jet of sparkling water. A 
 ■ flight of narrow stone steps led to the court, and thence to a bathing 
 room, where a bathing tub of fragrant cedar, studded with silver, and 
 filled with warm rose-water, awaited me. 
 
 I was preparing to enjoy the refreshing luxury, when a servant 
 announced that Enphadde wished to see me. Upon repairing to the 
 saloon I found him and his sister still in their travelling dresses, and 
 apparently ready to resume their journey. They announced that word 
 had just been received from the court that their father had gone to a 
 ; royal chateau upon the banks of the Wollo, about ten hours' ride from 
 us, and that he expected his daughter to come on at once, while I was to 
 remain for a day or two at Jellalob, and to have a presentation to his 
 majesty at Kiloam. I had no right to object to this arrangement, but I 
 could not refrain from expressiiig my regrets at parting. 
 
 " 'T is only for a day," whispered Kaloolah, as I assisted her into a 
 curtained palanquin. 
 
 " True, 't is only for a day," said I, smiling, and waving my hand as 
 the bearers lifted their lovely burden from the ground, but at heart I felt 
 as forlorn as if it had been for a year, or a lifetime. 
 
 " Pshaw ! " I mentally ejaculated, " this is too ridiculous, to let a little 
 Congo slave-girl get the upper hand of my heart in this way ! " 
 
 Upon entering my saloon I found my lords-in-waiting. Jack, Hugh, 
 and Hassan, engaged with a host of servants in arranging and displaying 
 
320 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 several complete suits of dress. There were garments of fine linen, shawls 
 like those of cashmere, figured muslins, and r&bes and surcoats of feather- 
 cloth of the most gorgeous colors. 
 
 After my bath I selected a cashmere for a turban, and throwing a 
 feather robe over my shoulders, I descended, with my companions, all 
 dressed in a similar style, to the banquet hall, where the dagash, and 
 forty or fifty officers were waiting to receive me. 
 
 After the feast came music, dancing, and a variety of juggling feats. 
 The dancing girls were beautiful and very graceful in their movements, 
 and their conjuring tricks were novel and performed with great skill. 
 Some of them were truly wonderful, as, for instance, turning a man into 
 a tree bearing fruit, and with monkeys skipping about in the branches ; 
 and another case, where the chief juggler, apparently swallowed five men, 
 ten boys, and a jackass, threw them all up again, turned himself inside 
 out, blew himself up like a balloon, and, exploding with a loud report, 
 disappeared in a puff of luminous vapor. My companions declared that 
 we had got into a country of enchanters, and I could not but admire the 
 skill with which the tricks were performed, although I was too much of a 
 Yankee to be much astonished at any thing in the hey ! presto ! line. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Departure from Jellalob — Pholdefoos — Approach to Kiloam — Entrance into the City — Novel 
 Pavement — The Acropolis — The Palace — A Bouquet from the Princess — The Hall of the 
 Fountains — The Throne Room — Audience of the Sultan — The Great Shounse — A Royal 
 Feast. 
 
 I E set out, the next day, with an immen.se escort, and were fol- 
 lowed by large crowds of people from Jellalob and the neigh- 
 boring cities. Buffaloes, richly caparisoned, were provided 
 for us, and for most of the accompanying dignitaries ; but we 
 preferred our horses ; and, in compliment to us, the dagash and several 
 high officers from the court also took their seats in the saddle. 
 
 On either side of us were footmen, who supported over our heads, by 
 long slender poles, awnings of pure linen. These were bedecked with 
 streamers of variously colored muslin, and with wreaths of fresh flowers. 
 A little in the rear came a hand-barrow, in which were conspicuously 
 placed our muskets and pistols. These seemed to attract the largest 
 share of public attention, and the barrow was frequently raised aloft to 
 afford the people an opportunity of seeing the wonderful machines, which, 
 in the hands of the Footas, were beginning to threaten their existence as 
 a nation. 
 
 We passed several of the columns that I have mentioned, surmounted 
 with the usual cube of lava. A very lofty one having attracted my at- 
 tention, Seywad dal Gouk, one of the lords of the court, who rode by my 
 side, volunteered an explanation. 
 
 "You must know," said he, " that these columns are erected as me- 
 mentos of the Pholdefoos, or the ' Seekers of Truth.' " 
 
 "True," I replied, "the young prince, Enphadde, told me as much, 
 but I do not understand, precisely, who these ' seekers of truth ' are." 
 
 " They are," said the Seywad, " a class of pure, holy, and wise enthusi- 
 asts, who withdraw from their fellow-men and the common concerns of 
 life, and devote themselves solely to the search for the germs of moral, 
 religious, and political truth, and to the inevitable fate that awaits them 
 at the end of their search." 
 
 "An exclusive caste or order? " I demanded. 
 
322 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " No, any one can become a seeker, provided he gives evidence of the 
 proper intellectual and moral qualities, and of those spiritual promptings 
 which are necessary to carry him in triumph to the end. Such a one is 
 permitted to take the vows of his order on his thirtieth birthday. From 
 that time he devotes himself to meditation and study. A small stipend 
 from the government barely supplies him with the necessaries of life. 
 Part of the time he wanders about the country, studying human nature, 
 investigating the laws of social organization, inquiring into the history, 
 antiquities, and jurisprudence of past generations, and collecting from the 
 monuments of departed ' seekers ' the germs of truth for which they had 
 sacrificed their lives. The rest of the time he devotes to meditation in 
 some retired spot, afar from the bustle and turmoil of the world. Here 
 he prepares himself for his fate, and eliminates the apothegm upon which 
 his reputation for wisdom and virtue is to depend. 
 
 " A few days before his fortieth birthday, the announcement is made 
 throughout the country, of the approaching sacrifice of a ' seeker.' Peo- 
 ple collect from all parts — the seeker, attended by the proper officers, ap- 
 pears, arrayed in white linen. Alone he mounts upon a lofty staging, 
 erected over an immense pile of fagots. A chaplet of roses adorns his 
 head — flowers bedeck the funeral pile beneath. A hundred virgins 
 chant, to the music of sweet-toned instruments, the praises of Truth and 
 her heroic ' seekers.' He now proclaims aloud the one single short apo- 
 thegm or maxim, to the discovery or enforcement of which he has re- 
 solved to devote his life. The phrase is taken up and repeated by thou- 
 sands of voices. Shouts of applause and admiration rend the air, the pile 
 is lighted — the volleying smoke and flames ascend, and envelop the 
 * seeker,' who, waving his arms, triumphantly leaps into the glowing 
 furnace below. 
 
 " A mortument is at once erected to his memory, and ornamented, as 
 you see, by a cube of lava — typical, in its shape, of the perfectly sym- 
 metrical form of a fundamental truth, viewed in whatever aspects ; and in 
 its composition, of the refining fiery influences under which the truth has 
 been sought and obtained." 
 
 "How is it?" I demanded, "that while most of these monuments 
 are of the same size, there are a few that tower far above the usual 
 height ? " 
 
 " Those," replied my informant, " are erected in memory of some 
 great truth that has withstood the test of ages. It is permitted to the 
 people at the end of five hundred years after the death of the ' seeker 'to 
 tear down his monument, if time has demonstrated the fallacy of his 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 323 
 
 dogma, or to enlarge it, if public opinion so decrees. This high monu- 
 ment was erected thousands of years ago ; since then it has received 
 many additions, and more than a hundred other monuments have been 
 erected in enforcement and elucidation of its truth-speech." 
 
 " And what is its truth-speech ? " 
 
 " Simply this : ' He loves himself the best who loves God the most ; 
 and he loves God the most who loves with his whole heart his fellow- 
 men.' Yonder you see a modern monument, with a similar sentiment in 
 different words. It says : ' The earth would be God's flower-garden, did 
 not human selfishness choke the paths so that the Devil only can walk 
 therein.' 
 
 " And do not these apothegms," I demanded, " furnish texts for dis- 
 putation ; are all admitted, at once, as truth?" 
 
 " Certainly not," replied Dal Gouk, " some are of questionable truth- 
 fulness under any interpretation, and others give rise to sects. For 
 instance, there is one expressing a moral correlative of the axiom I have 
 mentioned. Its motto is, ' The love of their kind is a ladder by which 
 men can climb to heaven.' This was considered plain enough, until, long 
 after the ' seeker ' was dead, the question arose, ' whether a man, who, by 
 cultivating a love of his kind to the complete uprooting of self-love, had 
 attained the top of the ladder, would have reached heaven actually, or 
 would have reached a height to ensure heaven after death.' At once two 
 parties arose — the actualists and the super-actualists, — and the dispute 
 between them is now at its height." 
 
 "And how will it be decided? " 
 
 " Why, as is usual in such cases, the people and authorities will have 
 to tear down the monument, thus referring the truth to future seekers, 
 who will develop it in a new form. But it is not alone moral and 
 theological truths that furnish grounds for dispute — political and social 
 maxims are equally prolific. Fortunately, the expounders and commen- 
 tators and disputers stre held in the greatest contempt, and although some 
 few may for awhile be led astray, the people ultimately put the polemics 
 with their- dogmas, and half truths, and false facts wholly aside, and 
 steadily adhere to the stately, strong, slow current of national opinion." 
 
 " And whither is this current tending ? " 
 
 " Onward, ever onward, if not always directly towards the true and 
 the beautiful, at least away from the ugly and the false." 
 
 " We sha,ll have Dal Gouk turning pholdefoo one of these days," 
 interposed a young noble, shrugging his shoulders at the Seywad's rising 
 enthusiasm. 
 
324 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Dal Gouk shook his head, bi*lrmade no reply, and for some time we 
 rode on in silence. When conversation was resumed it took a wide 
 range, and embraced a variety of subjects, which would be, perhaps, of 
 interest to the reader, but which the extended space my manuscript has 
 already reached warns me must be left for a separate work. 
 
 As we advanced, the glittering towers and domes, and lofty battle- 
 ments of the great city grew more distinct. A three hours' ride brought 
 us to a long stone bridge of twenty arches, leading across the Wollosab. 
 Crossing this, we wheeled along the river for a few rods to the left, and 
 then traversing a small promontory, came to a broad, straight road, 
 bounded by lofty walls, which put me in mind of the fxanpa rBiKt} by 
 which Themistocles connected his famous city with its Piraeus. Enter- 
 ing this road through a wide-arched gateway, we again turned to the left, 
 and, riding along for about a mile, debouched into a large place, sur- 
 rounded by massive stone buildings, and ornamented with marble 
 columns and fountains. The square was crowded with people, who 
 received us with shouts and a universal waving of bouquets. 
 
 Several streets led off from the sides. Our escort took its course 
 across the square and up a broad straight street, the pavement of which 
 struck me as being considerably superior to the barbarous rubble work of 
 Broadway. It was composed of large stones four and five feet square, 
 and six or eight inches thick. Across the surface of each ran grooves 
 half an inch in depth and width, and four inches apart, affording a foot- 
 hold for horses, donke3-s, and buffaloes. It costs but little time or 
 trouble to lay this pavement, the blocks of stone being simply placed so 
 as to break joints upon a foundation made by levelling the ground, and 
 then driving wooden pegs a foot or more long, or rather of a length and 
 size proportioned to the nature of the ground. These little piles are 
 driven at intervals of ten or twelve inches apart, and being completely 
 covered by the earth, they never decay and never give way — thus forming 
 a foundation cheap, efficient, and durable. 
 
 This road runs directly with a slight ascent for a distance of two miles, 
 up to the face of a precipice of rock three hundred feet high. Then di- 
 viding, it turns at right angles, and runs, on either hand, entirely around 
 this stately acropolis. The stone has been accurately scarped, and two 
 deep stairways cut in it. Up these the people rushed, completely filling 
 them from top to bottom, with a crowd which, slowly winding its way 
 upwards, looked like two huge snakes of brilliant hues creeping along the 
 face of the rock. 
 
 A lofty archway opened before us into a tunnel, fifty feet wide, and 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 325 
 
 eight hundred feet in length, cut out of the solid rock. We entered this, 
 and at the end of it came to a circular shaft, or well, that extended to the 
 top of the acropolis, a height of more than three hundred feet. Upon 
 looking up, the clear sky could be, seen resting like a dome upon the 
 mouth of the shaft. A broad, gently sloping road, making one of the 
 most magnificent spiral staircases in the world, afforded an easy ascent to 
 men and beasts. 
 
 On emerging from the shaft we found ourselves in the centre of a large 
 square, shaded with majestic trees, divided into walks, ornamented with 
 fountains, columns, and flower-stands, and surrounded on three sides with 
 a parapet, from which one could look down on the city and its beautiful 
 environs, and upon the vast expanse of country beyond. The fourth side 
 was bounded by a range of buildings connected by terraces and balconies, 
 the whole presenting one of those confused, irregular architectural masses, 
 of not much pretension or promise externally, but which at once sug- 
 gests the idea of long winding corridors, interminable halls, countless 
 courts, private staircases and secret passages, and excites a longing to ex- 
 plore the presumed labyrinthian mysteries. 
 
 Passing from the gaze of the countless multitudes crowding the square, 
 we were ushered through a low arched gateway into a small court, where, 
 upon dismounting, I was met by Enphadde. He at once conducted us 
 through several long passages to a fine suite of apartments overlooking 
 the eastern side of the acropolis. 
 
 My first inquiry, as the reader may suppose, was after Kaloolah. 
 
 " She is well," replied the prince, " although still suffering from the 
 agitation of meeting her father. Joy almost killed the great Shouns6. 
 He has recovered now, but he still holds my sister to his heart. But see, 
 she has not forgotten you — she sends you this," and Enphadde produced 
 a tiny bouquet, not much larger than a rose-bud, and yet containing a 
 dozen different flowers, each one of which conveyed some message, but 
 which, as I was no adept in the language of flowers, I concluded it best 
 not to puzzle my head by attempting to read. " No ! no matter," I re- 
 plied to Enphadde, who off ered to explain ; " tell Kaloolah that the heart 
 is an apt scholar in such cases, and that mine shall read her message for 
 me. 
 
 " I must leave you now," said Enphadde ; " and when the sun has de- 
 scended half-way the western arch of heaven I will come and conduct you 
 to my father." 
 
 It was about three hours before Enphadde's return, and, in the mean- 
 while we had time for a delicious bath and an elaborate toilet, in which 
 
326 KALOOLAH. 
 
 we were assisted by numerous attendants, between whom and my three 
 personal followers there was a good deal of discussion in relation to the 
 esthetics of dress. Jack was much the most difficult to please, rejecting 
 each garment offered him, and making his comments upon the " monkey- 
 fied, sodger-looking " dresses with an expression of the highest disgust. 
 At last I had to interfere, and actually order him into a picturesque-look- 
 ing costume. 
 
 " Well, if I must, I must ! " said Jack ; " but I 'm blessed if it aint a 
 disappointment ! I 've navigated under all kinds of outlandish rigs, and it 
 seems kind of natural to do so among the Bedouins and Blackamoors, and 
 other savages ; but you have always said that we were coming among a 
 civilized people. Well, here we are, and devil the thing that looks like a 
 pea-jacket, or a pair of duck trowsers, have these fellows got in all this 
 finifine toggery ! Civilized ! They don't know the rudiments ! I 'm 
 blessed if I believe they could tell a piece of black ribbon a yard long, if 
 they should see it. And as for a tarpaulin ! — just think of a fellow's haul- 
 ing out the weather-earing in a sou'wester with one of these feather things 
 on his head ! " 
 
 We were all ready when Enphadde returned, and descending a broad 
 flight of marble steps, we entered a paved hall a hundred feet in length, 
 which conducted us to a large circular room, lighted by a dome, which 
 was supported upon eight pillars of verd antique. The shafts of these 
 pillars were fluted in spirals, and the capitals were elaborate imitations of 
 bunches of flowers. The bases and entablature were nearly pure Corin- 
 thian, and the general effect was very much the same as of that order. 
 
 The room was filled with officials, in rich dresses, who received us in 
 silence, with a series of profound genuflexions. We paused for a moment 
 in the centre of the room, where a slender fountain was throwing a jet of 
 perfumed water. Enphadde raised his hand, and a pair of folding-doors, 
 of panelled boxwood, inlaid with silver and ivory, drew noiselessly aside. 
 A burst of delicious music, from a hundred soft-toned instruments, 
 greeted us as we stepped into the great hall of the fountains. 
 
 As we stood at one end, the coup-d'oeil was magnificent. As far up 
 almost as the eye could reach extended two rows of tall columns ; each 
 column represented two convoluted serpents, their intertwined tails coiled 
 up for a base, from which their huge helicoidal bodies sprang to a height 
 of twenty-five feet. At this point the necks of the serpents separated, 
 and each one, curving outwards and upwards, longitudinally, again ap- 
 proached the other, describing a heart-shaped curve, and, bending down- 
 wards, took a single twist, from which the heads diverged in every variety 
 
KALOOLAH. 327 
 
 of action and expression. These columns were of carved cedar, inlaid,' or 
 covered with the skins of serpents. Their surfaces had thus been made 
 to gleam and glow, in the most natural manner, with all the rich and deep 
 colors of the intertropical reptalia. A light entablature rested upon the 
 curved necks of the serpents. Along the frieze ran a bas-relief of vines, 
 with fruits aind flowers of burnished gold, silver, and precious stones ; and 
 in the mouths of many of the serpents were branches of gilded fruit. 
 
 The whole length of the hall was about four hundred feet ; its width 
 between the rows of pillars, about fifty feet. Between th^ pillars and the 
 walls, on either side, was a space of about fifteen feet, the floor of which 
 was raised a foot or two above that of the centre, and strung the whole 
 length with cushions, upon which were seated a double row of guards, 
 habited in the most gorgeous uniforms. The floor of the centre, between 
 the colonnades, was of the most elaborate mosaic, representing five large 
 vines, with spreading tendrils and branches, among whose leaves played 
 monkeys of every shape and size, some of them with wings ; and birds, 
 rivalling in brilliancy of plumage their animate prototypes of the wood ; 
 and all kinds of snakes and lizards, with glittering skins, and eyes of ruby, 
 diamond, and opal. 
 
 But where were the fountains from which the hall took its name ? 
 Above, directly overhead, on either side from the galleries, supported by 
 the pillars, arose a thousand jets, each one arching itself, in a parabolic 
 curve, across the hall, and falling into the opposite gallery. These jets, 
 arranged alternately, were so adjusted that the spread of the water in one, 
 as it fell, would just fill the space between the concentrated fluid issuing 
 from the opposite pipes ; and in this way, by the accurate interposition of 
 corresponding streams, there was supported a continuous canopy of water 
 the whole length of the hall. 
 
 A flood of light was poured from myriads of unseen lamps upon the 
 upper surface of this sparkling roof, while below, numberless hidden 
 tapers were so arranged in tubes as to throw their rays against the under 
 surface of the watery arch, from which they were returned, after count- 
 less refractions and reflections, to the delighted eye. A wonderful variety 
 of effects were produced by the continually changing color of the water; 
 for a minute or two it would be of a pure white, and then, slowly assum- 
 ing a prismatic tint, run on through all the colors of the rainbow. 
 
 The low, hollow, rushing noise of the falling water filled the lofty hall, 
 and floated in massive but most musical waves of sound upon the per- 
 fumed air. The glowing pillars seemed animated, as the bright and 
 flickering light played upon their burnished surfaces. The vines of the 
 
328 KALOOLAH. 
 
 mosaic pavement, and the fruits and flowers of the frieze, waved as if in 
 obedience to the breeze ; while the green, yellow, and scarlet monkeys 
 gambolled among the branches, and diamond-eyed snakes and birds glided 
 amid the quivering leaves. 
 
 Enphadde paused at the foot of the hall, and, for ten minutes, we 
 stood silently gazing up the interminable vista. Hugh, Jack, and Hassan 
 stood a few feet behind us, but so close that I could occasionally hear 
 their remarks. Hugh was the first to find his tongue. 
 
 " Jack, dear ! " he exclaimed, " do you think, those sarpents are alive ? " 
 
 " To be sure ! Don't you see how they twist and wriggle about ? " 
 
 " I do ; but I don't see how they can be made to stand so straight, and 
 hould such a big weight on their necks." 
 
 " Why, it 's their edication ! What makes a soldier so straight ? What 
 takes the kinks out of the back of a corporal of marines? Is n't it edica- 
 tion ? These sarpents have been devilish well trained ! Why, I 've seen, 
 in the East Indies, a snake dance a hornpipe ! Now, if a snake can dance 
 a hornpipe, I argues that a snake can be edicated to do anything; unless 
 it may be, perhaps, to preach a sarmon, or cat and fish a frigate's best 
 bower." 
 
 "What does the nigger say?" demanded Jack of Hugh, as Hassan 
 interposed some observations in mingled Tuaric and Arabic. 
 
 " He wants to know," replied Hugh, " if we sha'n't be aten up by these 
 creatures ! Never you mind, honey ! it 's just follow the captain, that 's 
 all. When he 's swallowed you may begin to look out for Jonah's lod- 
 gings for yourself ; but — whist ! — whist ! — Holy Mary ! " 
 
 A roar, louder than the united voices of a million whirlwinds, arose 
 throughout the hall, that drowned all sounds, and seemed to shake the 
 solid pavement beneath our feet. For a moment I thought that it was 
 an earthquake, but Enphadde and the Framazug nobles behind us were 
 perfectly composed. The next instant I perceived my mistake, and dis- 
 covered the cause of the sounds. The double row of guards behind the 
 pillars, upon some signal, had sprung simultaneously from their cushioned 
 seats, each one with an enormous gong in his hand, upon which he pro- 
 ceeded to drum as energetically as if announcing dinner to the hungry 
 boarders of a New York hotel. Five hundred large gongs sounding to- 
 gether! Can any one conceive of a more horrible tympanum-stretching, 
 soul-benumbing concord ? Yes ! there is one thing, and one thing only, 
 that can surpass it — a concert of a thousand gongs ! but who could sur 
 vive to describe the effect ? 
 
 The drum of my ear was just giving way, when the noise began to 
 
KALOOLAH. 329 
 
 subside — it fell to the gentlest rumbling of distant thunder, and then rose, 
 loud, fierce, furious, as the very " crack of doom." Again it subsided, 
 and again it rose — three times — a royal salute, and an announcement that 
 the great Shouns6 had taken his seat upon the throne. 
 
 Slowly we moved up the gorgeous hall, which now seemed, by con- 
 trast, as silent as death. The guards on either side presented their gongs, 
 which proved to be shields, and stood with their heads bowed low, im- 
 movable as statues. We reached the upper end, and, emerging through 
 an arched doorway, hung With heavily embroidered curtains, entered a 
 large circular room of at least a hundred feet diameter. The roof was 
 curiously arched and groined, and appeared to be of white marble, and 
 from it depended several large chandeliers of alabaster, rock crystal, and 
 gold, wliich diffused a brilliant but mellow light around. A large carved 
 -and gilded ring ran round the room for a cornice, and from this depended 
 curtains or hangings of crimson and gold, which, at equal distances were 
 pulled aside and looped up, disclosing the walls, empannelled in blue and 
 silver. Two thirds of the floor was a rich arabesque mosaic, representing 
 a variety of nondescript and fanciful vines, leaves, and fruits. This por- 
 tion of the room was ornamented with vases of flowers, and was occupied 
 by several groups of dignitaries, habited in flowing robes of gorgeous 
 feather cloth, worked with gold and gems, and in crimson and blue head- 
 dresses, from which waved the inimitable plumage of the froulbell. 
 
 The other third of the room was elevated to the height of two broad 
 steps, and covered with a richly figured carpet of asphaltum, with tufts 
 of cotton and wool of the kind that I have before described. In the 
 middle of this portion of the room was a small carved ivory platform 
 about eight feet square, and approached on three sides by three low 
 steps, running the whole length. From this platform arose a curiously- 
 constructed wide cushioned chair. The legs and arms were made out of 
 solid tusks of ivory, inlaid with gold and silver. The back was formed of 
 an immense gold shield, which was held in the claws of two large silver 
 lions rampant, at the sides of the chair. One broad step upon which, at 
 either end, had been placed two cushions, led up to the throne, over the 
 arms of which, somewhat hke a shawl thrown carelessly across a chair, 
 was a purple cloth sparkling with gems. This drapery hung negligently 
 in flowing folds — on one side, half hiding the lion supporting the shield, 
 —and falling away to the right and left, in graceful amplitude, rested far 
 out upon a carpet to which it was firmly anchored by tags of solid gold, 
 -about the size and shape of a six-pound shot. 
 
 From the ceiling depended a lustrous canopy, formed by eight winged 
 
330 KALOOLAH. 
 
 serpents. Thdy were represented as twisting their tails around a golden 
 ring at the 'roof, and after uniting their bodies, descending, until, at a 
 proper distance over the chair, they diverged like the radiating serpents 
 in a sky-rocket, and spreading their wings, formed a large spherical dome. 
 The necks of the serpents continued off beyond the circumference of the 
 canopy, and, twisted in all directions, served to. support long pendent 
 necklets of precious stones. In the mouth of each serpent was a small 
 bunch of natural flowers. 
 
 It must not be supposed that I observed all these minute facts during 
 this, my first interview with the majesty of Framazugda. I have' since 
 had repeated opportunities of informing myself in relation to any circum- 
 stances about which my curiosity has chosen to make an inquiry. At 
 the time I am describing, I was too much excited to note distinctly such 
 little architectural details. There was a general sense of splendor and 
 wealth, and this perhaps would have been quite overwhelming, had it not 
 been that amid so much that was grand and gorgeous, I could perceive 
 some evidences of a barbaric taste. This quite reassured me. I braced 
 myself at once with the pride of superior civilization ; and, although 
 wholly unused to the glare of royalty, I felt my responsibilities as a rep- 
 resentative of Christendom in general, and of the " greatest nation in all 
 creation " in particular ; and my deportment, I can assure the anxious 
 reader, was characterized by the requisite dignity and composure. 
 
 As we entered the room the groups of dignitaries I have mentioned as 
 occupying the paved portion of the floor, made way for us. Silently, and 
 in obedience to the signals of an old fellow with a long white wand, they 
 arranged themselves in three parallel rows on each side, between the arch 
 by which we were entering and the steps leading to the elevated portion 
 of the room. Another wave of the wand, and each noble put his hands 
 to the floor, and with a very dexterous and graceful jerk, kicked his heels 
 up in the air, and stood perfectly straight and motionless upon his hands, 
 with his head downwards. As we passed on they successively resumed 
 an upright position. I could not but admire this new mode of salutation 
 — it was so graceful, such a pleasing exemplification of the line of beauty, 
 such a combination of natural litheness with acquired dexterity, and so 
 profoundly respectful ! 
 
 Arrived at the steps that divided the room, I directed my three fol- 
 lowers to halt, while Enphadde and myself ascended and crossed the 
 tufted carpet to the foot of the throne. On this was seated a venerable 
 man, with a long white beard, and a peculiarly benign countenance. He 
 was attired, with striking plainness, in a loose flowing robe of white. His 
 
"^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 t< 
 
 
 s 
 
 s 
 
 « 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
 
KALOOLAH. 331 
 
 head was covered only by a few straggling locks, as colorless as snow, but 
 his eyebrows were remarkably heavy and black. He was of middle size 
 —his figure rather full,— his features large, but regular, and his whole face 
 square and massive, with an expression that reminded me at once of the 
 portraits of Washington. 
 
 We reached the ivory steps where, pausing, Enphadde addressed the 
 monarch, but in a voice so clear and distinct as to be heard by the listen- 
 ing courtiers in every part of the room. H^e mentioned my name and 
 the name of my country ; alluded to the hardships to be endured and 
 the dangers to be encountered in coming from so distant a region ; spoke 
 of the important services I had rendered to him and his sister ; and ended 
 with a glowing eulogy of my transcendent wisdom, generosity, and valor. 
 The prince was really eloquent, and had not my modesty been fully 
 equal to my Other qualities, I should almost have believed that I merited 
 his concluding laudation, he expressed himself with such a graceful 
 warmth. 
 
 As he finished, the great Shouns6 rose from his throne and stepped 
 down upon the ivory platform. " The saviar of my children is wel- 
 come ! " he exclaimed, stretching forth his hand, as I thought, for me to 
 kiss. Instinctively I took a step upwards and forwards, and bowing my 
 head, just touched his hand with my lips. Before I could recover myself, 
 he threw his arms around my neck, and gave me a hearty embrace. 
 " Welcome, my son ! " he exclaimed ; " I lost two children, and lo ! three 
 have been returned to me. Who may dare question the wisdom and 
 goodness of God ! Nobles, and wise men of Framazugda, behold in this 
 stranger the son of your king." 
 
 At these words the whole assembly flung their feet into the air, and 
 the infernal noise of the gongs rolled adovvn the hall of the fountains. 
 The king turned and ascended his throne, making the prince and myself 
 take a seat upon the cushions at either side of the step by his feet. He 
 now commenced asking questions about my country and the other nations 
 of the world, and my own personal history, avoiding, as I could perceive, 
 any allusion to the agitating subject of his daughter's adventures. 
 
 A slight noise inducing me to look up, I saw behind the throne a long 
 strip of gilt lattice work, through which came, occasionally, the bright 
 sparkle of diamonds, or the still brighter flashes of female eyes. Was 
 Kaloolah there? I judged that she was, or else why did my heart give a 
 leap, as if it was coming out of my mouth ? 
 
 After a conversation of half an hour the monarch rose from the throne, 
 and my followers were called up and allowed to kiss hands, which they 
 
332 KALOOLAH. 
 
 did in rather a bungling manner, although I had taken the precaution to 
 school them as to almost every possible case of etiquette that could 
 arise. Descending the ivory steps, the old man supported himself upon 
 my arm, and followed by Enphadde, and a dozen dignitaries who were 
 standing behind the throne, we left the room. We traversed a long cor- 
 ridor that looked out from latticed arches into a tessellated court, and 
 entered a saloon, where, amid the richest display of flowers, were spread 
 the choicest viands of a royal feast. Not a lamp could be seen, but a 
 flood of sparkling light was poured from the ceiling, which consisted of a 
 sheet of rock crystal, set in burnished copper, and supported upon pilas- 
 ters of carved ebony and cedar. There were music, and incense, and wine, 
 and crowds of menials, and all and more than all of the conventional 
 accompaniments and accessories of an ostentatious Oriental entertain- 
 ment, but which I have not now space to describe. 
 
 The monarch arose, and affectionately embracing me, bade me good 
 night. Enphadde assisted his trembling steps. At this moment an offi- 
 cer of the court presented me a little bouquet, which, in an instant, I saw 
 was an exact counterpart of the one I had received from Kaloolah. He 
 motioned towards a door at the lower end of the hall, and I at once 
 sprang to my feet and followed him through a succession of passages and 
 courts — a perfect labyrinth, to which, although I have since traversed it 
 a thousand times, I have hardly yet learned the clew. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Apartments of the Princess — An Embarrassing Position — A View from the Balcony — A Lovers' 
 Interview — A Spiritual Visitation — Ambitious Reveries — Lightning-Fish — Gogo — A Novel 
 Musical Insirument — The Ristum-Kitherum — A Morninsr Walk — Verses for the Princess. 
 
 INHERE was a low, large irregular room, divided into several 
 portions by groups of slender columns. It was carpeted with 
 the softest stuffs, hung with rich crimson drapery, surrounded 
 by a row of ottomans and sofas, and perfumed with the scent- 
 laden breeze that came through the arches on one side, from a garden of 
 flowers. A few lamps of alabaster illuminated the apartment, and lighted 
 up several clusters of gayly dressed and beautiful damsels, who were 
 reclining in all manner of easy and graceful attitudes upon the cushioned 
 seats. 
 
 As I entered, the officer who had conducted me threw his feet up into 
 the air, and then stepping backwards^ withdrew behind the drapery of the 
 door. My appearance created quite a sensation among the beautiful 
 occupants of the room. Several of them started to their feet, and for a 
 moment I was apprehensive that I was about to be edified with a speci- 
 men of feminine litheness and agility, after the fashion of the nobles in 
 the throne room. It was, however, only the start of surprise. 
 
 Rapidly running my eye over the charming groups, I saw that the 
 princess was not among them. This compelled me to pause — for a mo- 
 ment I knew not what to say or do, and no one seemed disposed to come 
 to my relief. My position was becoming awkward and embarrassing, 
 when I was happily reassured by the glimpse of a female figure through 
 a curtained window in the farther end of the room ; with noiseless steps 
 I crossed the tufted carpet, and passed into a balcony that on one side 
 looked down into a little parterre of flowers, and on the other almost 
 overhung the perpendicular side of the acropolis. Far down below was 
 stretched out, for miles, a populous section of the great city. It was 
 illuminated by a number of light towers, each two hundred feet high, and 
 each surmounted by a large conical cap-like reflector, beneath which 
 burned huge lamps, fed with prepared naphtha. The yellow light 
 
 333 
 
334 KALOOLAH. 
 
 streamed down in heavy masses upon the flat-roofed houses, or poured in 
 full radiance into the numerous open squares, or struggled from side to 
 side of the balconied walls to the smooth pavements of the narrow streets. 
 There was a breadth, and a strength of light and shade, a wonderfulness 
 of chiaroscuro — a deep juicy jelliness of tone, that would have, probably, 
 suggested the peculiar style of Rembrandt, had I ever had the pleasure of 
 seeing the oft be-similied chefs-d'oeuvre of that great master, and had I 
 not had my attention mainly engrossed by the female figure that, habited 
 in a robe of white, was leaning upon the marble balustrade of the balcony. 
 
 Kaloolah was lost in revery, and did not perceive my approach until I 
 stood by her side. Without a word, I gently passed my arm around her, 
 and drew her towards me. It was my first full, free, unmistakable lover's 
 caress. Often had my arm been in the same place, but always with some 
 reference to protection or support. My face was so close to hers that, 
 although in the deep shade of the curtain, and with no light but that of 
 the stars, I could see a liquid diamond trembling between the long black 
 lashes of her eye. 
 
 " How is this ? " I demanded. " I thought we had done with tears? 
 What troubles )-ou ? What were you thinking of ? " 
 
 " I was thinking," replied Kaloolah, " while looking down upon the 
 scene below us, with its dark and bright spots, its illuminated roofs and 
 walls, and its hidden chambers ; its lighted parks, and its numerous 
 shaded and crooked avenues, how like it is to our hearts. In these we 
 find bright spots and dark, open places, and secret passages, and half- 
 shaded, half-illuminated avenues and hidden chambers, where lurk 
 thoughts and feelings unknown to ourselves. I was thinking, too, that, 
 as in that scene below, it is no easy thing to acquire a knowledge of the 
 heart's secret ways, no, not even when that heart is our own. And that 
 led me to think, Jon'than, that — that — after all, we might both be mis- 
 taken in believing that you loved me." 
 
 " You mean that the last thought came first, and that it led you to 
 your comparison. But come, tell me, what first put the thought into 
 your head ? " 
 
 " I do not know, but it seems to me now, when I look back upon our 
 long intercourse, that you have ever treated me with a degree of coldness 
 inconsistent with love. True, you have been kind, oh ! how kind, but 
 when I have felt that I could throw myself upon your bosom, weep and 
 die — when I have felt that for an assurance from you of a love like mine, 
 I would have sacrificed even the hope of home, you have treated me, I 
 will not say coolly, distantly, but at least calmly, carelessly." 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 335 
 
 " And can you think that I acted thus without design ? Can you 
 think of no reason for restraining my communications to you within the 
 bounds of the strictest decorum. Recollect all the peculiar circumstances 
 of our relative positions." 
 
 " Yes, Jon'than, I know what you would say ; think not that I do not 
 understand your kindness, your generosity ; you were afraid that with 
 the smallest encouragement I would forget myself, my sex, my birth, all, 
 every thing, but you, as I did once beneath the palm grove on the banks 
 of the Sierra Leone ; say, was it not so ?" 
 
 "As I entered, the officer who had conducted ine threw his feet -up into the air." 
 
 " I confess it, but, believe me, that which is sometimes a reproach to 
 unbridled passion is ofttimes the highest compliment that man can pay 
 to female simplicity and innocence. I was afraid for you, but not you 
 alone. There was one for whom I had much more fear." 
 
 " Indeed ! whom ? " 
 
 " Myself ! " 
 
 "You? Jon'than." 
 
 " Yes, me ! Oh, believe me, Kaloolah, I have loved you with a love 
 
336 KALOOLAH. 
 
 too passionate, yet too pure, to permit its expression in the circumstances 
 in v/hich we were placed. I could not trust myself, and I did not like to 
 run the risk of sullying the lustre of that sentiment, of which you were the 
 object. Do you understand me, Kaloolah ? " 
 
 " I do," whispered Kaloolah, " and oh ! — how foolish not to have 
 understood you before ; but I am so weak and ignoraint, while you are so 
 ■wise and good ! " 
 
 " I wish," I exclaimed, with a gentle tightening of my grasp upon her 
 slender, but well rounded figure, " that I were a thousandth part as wise 
 or as good as you are lovely." 
 
 "And you really love me?" murmured Kaloolah, as soon as her lips 
 were at liberty to speak, " with your whole heart, Jon'than?" 
 
 " With my whole heart," I replied, and I spoke the truth ; and yet, at 
 the instant, there came rolling in upon my heart, like a dark surf on a 
 shining sea-beach, a flood of other feeling, and love was almost buried 
 amid the mist and foam of memory. I thought of home, and all its as- 
 sociations came thronging to my mind. Could I give them all up, and 
 that, too, for ever? Could I link myself to Framazugda for life? Could 
 I curb, always, the strong yearnings for country and kind by affection 
 even for the peerless being by my side ? Could I live for love ? Alas, 
 I knew that only woman's heart is capable of that ; men can merely die 
 for the object of their affections — they cannot live on through all circum- 
 stances solely for love. Man's vigorous, coarse, sensual, and selfish nature 
 requires more solid and varied food. Love has been said to be an episode 
 in the life of man, but to be woman's whole existence. I prefer to carry 
 out my metaphor, and say that to men love is always a condiment — an 
 cntremet — a kind of anti-prandial lemon and oysters ; but to woman it is, 
 sometimes, the first, second, third course, and dessert. 
 
 I felt and thought thus, although, perhaps, not precisely in these 
 words. For a few moments I stood silent, abstracted, and irresolute. 
 Kaloolah's heart, as she hung upon my arm, felt sympathetically the 
 doubtful feeling of my own, and she looked up in my face with an anxious 
 and inquiring look. And now what I am about to relate I hope no in- 
 credulous readers will pronounce to be a pure invention, however much 
 they think it the mere fiction of my fancy. 
 
 There was a slight rustling sound, as of female garments trailed along 
 the garden walk into which the balcony opened. Kaloolah started and 
 listened. A white, misty, ill-defined figure swept past and around us, and 
 in fact, for a moment, seemed to envelop us like a wreath of thin vapor. 
 I felt myself gently compressed, as if in the embrace of some spiritual 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 337 
 
 being, and at the same time forced closer to Kaloolah by some power, 
 which, although almost imperceptible, was clearly external to us, and in- 
 dependent of our own muscular volition. At this moment there was a 
 voice — a low, sweet, and to my ear, familiar voice, and the words that it 
 whispered were : " My son ! my son ! " The last sounds came from above. 
 I looked up, and could see something white, quivering and gently waving 
 to and fro, and ascending. A dimness came across my vision, and when 
 it cleared away I found myself steadily gazing at a speck of shining cloud 
 far up in the starry sky. * 
 
 Enough for me, that whether fancy or reality, fiction or fact, that 
 vision and voice drove all doubts from my heart. It was my mother's 
 sanction to my feelings for Kaloolah ! And if she could thus visit me in 
 the heart" of central Africa, why should not Framazugda become my 
 country and my home ? It should ! and my best energies and talents 
 should be devoted to the service of my adopted land. True, I would 
 have no chance to play the part of a Menes, a Moses, or a Manco Capac. 
 I could add nothing to the old and well-polished political, judicial, and 
 social systems of a highly cultivated nation ; and it was questionable 
 rwhether, in relation to the arts of peace, I should not find much more to 
 learn than to teach ; but I could, at least, show the Framazugs some- 
 thing in the-vi^ay of war. I could give them discipline, and a system 
 of tactics that wauld enable them to meet the formidable barbarians who 
 were pressing upon them. I could give them a knowledge of that great 
 and happy discovery of the old alchemist — the art of manufacturing gun- 
 powder ; an art which has been often anathematized, but which may 
 justly be pronounced the best boor, of science to a combative world, the 
 greatest blessing to humanity, the supporter and protector of civilization, 
 the spreader of true religion ; an art, by the aid of which ignorance, 
 superstitio-n, and idolatry have been in some countries utterly extirpated 
 — by the aid of which the bloody rites of Huitzilopotchli have been 
 swept from the plains of Anahuac — the Manito worship almost driven 
 out of my own enlightened country — the barbarous darkness of Atlas 
 pierced by the brilliant beams of French faith and politeness — the fero- 
 cious Mohammedanism of the Caucasus compelled to give way to the 
 blessing of the Greek Patriarch and the benign growls of the black bear 
 of Russia; and last, though not least, a flood of Christianity rolled in 
 upon the plains of heathen India, which, daily increasing, shall roll on 
 until the British Lion, with his paw upon every inch of ground between 
 the Euphrates and the Blue Sea, between the Indian Ocean and the peaks 
 of the Altai, shall drown with his roar the groans of Gooroo, Brahma, and 
 
338 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Fo, and wagging his tail in pious exultation, exclaim to the vanquished 
 nations of Asia, " in the name of the Blessed Jesus, peace ! " I could 
 give my new country this glorious art, and with it security from attack, 
 and even the means of conquest. Dim ideas of civilizing barbarous tribes, 
 reclaiming from rude nature a large and fertile portion of the globe, 
 suppressing the vile traffic in human flesh, and extending the domain of 
 Framazugda from the Indian Ocean to the Bight of Benin, floated through 
 my mind. In a glow of love and ambition I pressed the princess to my 
 heart, and anxiously inquired whether her father would have any objec- 
 tions to our union ? " None ! none whatever ! " Kaloolah was positive" 
 that it would be the very wish of his heart. 
 
 At this moment Enphadde joined us, and he, too, expressed a like opin- 
 ion, avowing, at the same time, his own satisfaction at the state of affairs 
 between his sister and myself. 
 
 After a few minutes' conversation in the balcony, Kaloolah proposed 
 that we should descend the marble steps, and take a turn or two in the 
 garden. I at once complied, and leaning upon her arms, she led us to a 
 large marble tank of water, in which were swimming a number of light- 
 ning-fish. They were of the shape and about the size of salmon-trout, and 
 had the faculty of emitting, at intervals of a few seconds, a vivid flash of 
 light from the surface of their bodies. 
 
 As we stood gazing down into the illuminated depths of the tank, we 
 were started by the cries of a domestic, who, flinging open a gate, rushed 
 into the garden, calling, in a coaxing tone, to some animal which had 
 scrambled over the trellised wall, and appeared to be escaping from its 
 keeper. We had hardly time to turn around when the little creature 
 bounded down the path, and, springing upon the marble curb of the tank, 
 jumped thence into Kaloolah's arms. It was Gogo — yellow-haired Gogo 
 — a diminutive specimen of the ourang-outang. He was, when standing 
 perfectly erect, about six inches high, and covered with a long silky fur, 
 of a bright golden hue, except about the shoulders and arms, where there 
 was a delicate shade of purple. We took him to the light that streamed 
 through an open window, and examined him. It would be difficult to 
 find a more lovely creature, or one better calculated for a lady's pet. 
 Nestling in Kaloolah's arms, he grinned and chattered his delight ; and 
 when Enphadde endeavored to take him away and hand him to his 
 keeper, he screamed and clung to his mistress with the most affectionate 
 tenacity ; but when Kaloolah told him that it was time for him to go to 
 bed, and that, if he would kiss her hand, say good-night, and go without 
 making any noise, she would see him in the morning, he at once obeyed, 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 339 
 
 and with an expression of human intelligence and sympathy, that would 
 have gone far to convince the sternest opponent of Lord Monboddo, that, 
 
 ^ if men are not monkeys with their tails cut off, monkeys may be, perhaps, 
 
 I degenerate caudalized specimens of humanity. 
 
 We entered the saloon by way of the balcony, and took our seats 
 upon a low sofa, the ends of which, curving upwards, supported a grace- 
 ful canopy of feathers and artificial flowers. Small stands, bearing golden 
 trays, were placed before us, and were served with confectionery, sweet- 
 meats, and a variety of liqueurs and cordials. Of the liqueurs, one, in par- 
 ticular, tickled my palate with an exquisite galvanic force, equal to the 
 voltaic power of a dozen pewter pint-pots of porter. I was not, however, 
 surprised at its thrilling flavor, when informed that it was made by digest- 
 
 ; ing the pollen of numerous aromatic herbs with the dew of violets, and a 
 minute proportion of venom, expressed from the stings of the honey-bee. 
 Upon a sign from the princess, a heavy curtain, concealing a deep al- 
 cove, was drawn aside, displaying a musical instrument resembling a 
 church-organ. It had a keyboard, and within contained, in place of 
 strings, a series of drums, running from C in altissimo down to D, two 
 and a half octaves in pitch below the G string of the violincello. A piece 
 of mechanism, like the pedals of a pianoforte, enabled the composer to 
 change the whole, or any number of the drums, from stringed to muffled, 
 at pleasure. A performer now stepped from a side door, and placed him- 
 self at the instrument. His first notes were electric, and fairly startled me 
 from my seat in delight and surprise, at the astonishing fulness and rich- 
 ness of tone. No stringed instrument every produced any thing like the 
 effect. A few preliminary flourishes were followed by a grand piece, com- 
 posed in honor of Kaloolah's return. The musical reader will, perhaps, 
 regret that my ignorance of Ihe technicalities of the art prevents me from 
 attempting to convey any very accurate idea of the qualities or merits of 
 the composition. Suffice it to say, that it was spirited and expressive, and 
 
 I that the execution, in some passages, was truly wonderful ; particularly in 
 a number of brilliant runs, and in an occasional powerful and prolonged 
 shake upon the big bass-drum, which was positively awful. It may, per- 
 haps, be wondered how a performer can evolve, with his fingers merely, 
 sufficient power. The explanation is easy: the keys do not communicate 
 with the drums directly, but are used as a means simply of geering and 
 ungeering, at the will of the player, a row of heavy drumsticks to a series 
 of ratchet-wheels, which are kept in motion by a band running to a shaft, 
 turned by a donkey in the court below ; so that it is the donkey that 
 makes the music. Of course there is nothing very novel about this instru- 
 
340 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ment, it being simply the application of well-known principles ; but I men- 
 tion it because of its striking effects. 
 
 At the conclusion of the piece the prince inquired whether I should 
 not like to witness a performance upon the perfume-machine, which had 
 often been the subject of conversation between us. I at once assented, 
 and rising, we all repaired, by a short passage, to a low, narrow, but very 
 long hall. It was destitute of furniture, except a couch in the centre, 
 upon which we seated ourselves. At one end of the hall there were two 
 large circular apertures, the open ends of pipes leading to a centrifugal 
 blower, precisely like those in use in the Hudson River steamboats. 
 Opening in at the centre of motion, around the axis of the revolving fan, 
 the action of the blower was, of course, to suck the air out of the hall, 
 through the pipe, in a steady current. The upper end wall of the hall 
 was studded with the open mouths of very small tubes, the other ends of 
 which communicated with reservoirs of perfume without the room. Below 
 these projected from the wall a carved shelf, or rather box, supporting a 
 row of keys, the extreme ends of which were attached by wires to valves 
 in the tubes. Upon pressing the keys, corresponding valves were opened, 
 and jets of scented air thus allowed to enter the hall. These odors, borne 
 on the steady current, passed down the room, and out through the pipes 
 leading to the blower. 
 
 There were more than fifty distinct perfumes, that stood in the same 
 relation to each other that tones and semi-tones do to the different parts 
 of the scale in music. The harmonic combinations of these were infinite. 
 There are also several fundamental and controlling odors, by which the 
 whole scale can be modified at pleasure. The three principals of these 
 are garlic, musk, and sulphuretted hydrogen. The garlic, which corre- 
 sponds to the minor key in music, is exceedingly plaintive and affecting. 
 Compositions in this key almost invariably excite the smeller to tears. 
 Compositions in the musk key are very varied in their expression ; some- 
 times grave and solemn, like church music; at other times gay, lively, and 
 redolent of chalked floors and gaslights. Compositions in the sulphuretted- 
 hydrogen key have invariably a spirit-stirring and martial expression. It 
 is the proper key for odorate marches, battle-pieces, and storm-rondos. 
 
 The Christian reader, with an uneducated sense of smell, may, per- 
 haps, turn up his nose (in profound ignorance of his nose's capacities) at 
 the instrument I am describing ; but if he should ever have an oppor- 
 tunity of snuffing the melodious streams and harmonic accords evolved by 
 a good performer, upon a properly constructed instrument, he will be 
 compelled to admit that his nasal organ was given to him for a higher 
 
KALOOLAH. 341 
 
 purpose than to take snuff, support spectacles, or express contempt. 
 True, at first he may not appreciate the more recondite combinations 
 and dehcate aperfumes, any more than a novice in music appreciates the 
 scientific arrangement of notes in Italian or German opera, but he will at 
 once be able to understand and admire the easy melodies — the natural 
 succession of simple fragrances, and, in time, the cultivated sensibility of 
 his nasal organ will enable him to comprehend the more elaborate har- 
 monies — the most subtile and artificial odoriferous correspondences and 
 modulations. 
 
 The name of this instrument is the Ristum-Kitherum, which, if my' 
 recollection of the Greek serves me, is very much like two words in that 
 language signifying a nose and a harp. It was played upon the occasion 
 of which I speak, by the same artist who had just performed upon the 
 sheepskins, and, although hardly qualified to judge, I had no hesitation 
 in setting him down as equally a master of both. 
 
 For some time I sat, the complete verification, notwithstanding the 
 presence of the princess, of an observation, I think by Hazlit, that odors, 
 better than the subjects of the other senses, serve as links in the chain of 
 association. A series of staccato passages amid bergamot, lemon, orange, 
 cinnamon, and other famihar perfumes, quite entranced me, while a suc- 
 cession of double shakes on the attar of rose made me fancy, for a moment, 
 that the joyous breath of a bright spring morning was once more dashing 
 the odors of that old sweet-brier bush into the open window of my chamber 
 at . 
 
 The night was well advanced when the performance concluded, and 
 bidding Kaloolah good-night, I was conducted by the prince to my own 
 apartments, where Hugh and Jack were waiting for me. In no mood for 
 talking, I despatched them to bed, and withdrew to my own chamber, 
 where, revolving in my mind the question whether odors, instead of being 
 material emanations, may not be, like light or sound, mere vibrations 
 ; propagated in an elastic medium, I threw myself upon my couch, and was 
 soon in a sound sleep, hardly dreaming even of Kaloolah. 
 
 In the morning I arose early and strolled out into the garden. Nothing 
 could be more magnificent than the fountains and arbors and grottos and 
 broad gravel walks, but my mind was too busy with its own thoughts to 
 heed them very closely. I plucked a cluster of roses and seated myself 
 upon a marble slab beneath an umbrella tree, and beside a fountain com- 
 posed of a dozen bronze monkeys, that were dashing water at each other in 
 every variety of attitude and expression. As I knew nothing of the language 
 of flowers, and could not, therefore, construct a bouquet according to rule 
 
342 
 
 KALOOLAH. 
 
 I took out my writing materials, which, since my visit to the well-stocked 
 markets of Sackatoo, I had always carried on my person, and composed 
 a few verses, which, although in English, delighted Kaloolah very much. 
 I give them here, because they really were expressive of my feelings for 
 the princess, and because they indicate my notions of her style and char- 
 acter. Elaborate versified sentiment requires a higher inspiration than 
 mere good looks. Many a man's fancy is taken with nothing but a pretty 
 face, or a fine figure ; but in all such cases the captive will, I take it, unless 
 he is a professed poet, and running over with rhyme, do all his love-making 
 in prose. 
 
 TO KALOOLAH WITH FLOWERS. 
 
 Musing in deep and unmixed pleasure, 
 
 O'er my heart's love — my prize — my treasure, 
 
 I paced in slow, abstracted measure 
 
 A garden round. 
 I heeded not the flowerets springing. 
 Nor yet the odors they were flinging. 
 Nor yet the warblers that were singing, 
 
 Nor sight, nor sound 
 Of yEoIus, from the tree-tops crying. 
 Or Zephyr, through the fresh blooms sighing, , 
 Or lights or shadows ever flying 
 
 Along the ground. 
 
 'T was thus mechanically walking. 
 Quite heedless whither I was stalking, 
 That sudden a sound of voices talking 
 
 Startled my ear — 
 Arousing me from my fond dreaming. 
 With tones like moonlight, fitful gleaming. 
 O'er ruffled waters, ever seeming 
 
 Distant, yet near. 
 I turned me whence those tones were flowing, 
 And, turning, turned where roses growing 
 Their richest odors wild were throwing, 
 
 And paused to hear ; 
 
 I heard the roses softly telling 
 
 Of hopes and fears, their bosoms swelling. 
 
 Ah ! me, to find such feelings dwelling 
 
 In things so fair. 
 They told of the fickle south wind's sighing. 
 Of dewdrops false their bosoms flying, 
 
 Of drooping, fading, withering, dying 
 
 Of chill despair. 
 And as with many a modest token 
 Their tales of hapless love were spoken. 
 It made me feel almost heart-broken, 
 
 I do declare. 
 
 So piteous was their sighing, blushing, 
 I could not hold myself from rushing 
 And nearly in my hurry crushing 
 
 Their tender weakness. 
 To catch the perfumes they were weeping. 
 To save the freshness their hearts' steeping. 
 To rescue them from the rough keeping 
 
 Of morn's chill bleakness. 
 Come, come, cried I, ye beauteous creatures. 
 Ye heavenly ministers, ye angel preachers. 
 Ye man's most soft, persuasive teachers 
 
 Of love and meekness — 
 
 Come, come with me, your sad eyes drying, 
 I '11 take you where, in her smiles lying. 
 No more shall ye have cause for sighing, 
 
 Or love-lorn tears. 
 Beneath her soft and kindly smiling 
 Ye '11 bloom a time, pale memories wiling 
 With fondest hopes, and life beguiling 
 
 Of doubts and fears — 
 And death ! Ah ! what more pleasant feeling 
 To die ! when Death, his form revealing 
 'Mid floods of light from Her eyes stealing. 
 
 All bright appears. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Royal Festivities — Latitude of Kiloani — A Transit Circle — Situation of the City — Houses — 
 Flower-Garden Roofs — Streets — Municipal Hygiene Sewers — New Mode of Cooling 
 Houses — Markets — Bath-Houses — Public Squares — Rate of Mortality— Temples^Re- 
 ligious Notions — The Government — Social Distinctions — The Origin of the Framazugs. 
 
 'EVER was the oft-quoted adage about the course of true love 
 more fully falsified than in the case of Kaloolah and myself. 
 Not a breath of opposition ruffled the deep, calm current of 
 affection ; not a cloud lowered in the horizon of love. The 
 old king readily gave his consent to our union ; the court approved, and 
 the people were well pleased. 
 
 Three or four months glided by in a round of festivities and rejoicings. 
 We visited the royal chateau. We made excursions into the country. 
 We climbed the slopes of Toosh Gualabemba. We boated on the broad 
 bosom of the Wollo. In this way I enjoyed not only opportunities of 
 gratifying , curiosity, but also of collecting materials for my proposed 
 work upon the political and natural history of the country. 
 
 Several weeks of this time were given to sight-seeing alone, in the 
 \great city, to which it will be, perhaps, thought pardonable if I devote a 
 page or two of my present manuscript. 
 
 Kiloam, according to the most accurate observations that I have been en- 
 abled to make, is situated in 32' north latitude, and somewhere between 25" 
 and 30° east longitude. My longitude is, of course, not much better than 
 guess-work, as it is arrived at only by a comparison of my rate of travel, 
 and the bearings of my course from Sackatoo. My latitude, however, is 
 nearly exact, and was obtained by a series of meridian altitudes of the 
 sun. The instrument employed is one that, notwithstanding its rudeness, 
 I have great confidence in. It consists of a large circle, six feet in diam- 
 eter, made of a very hard, dense, highly polished wood. A steel axis, like 
 the arms of a transit telescope, supports the instrument upon two pillars 
 of stone. Through this axis, and at right angles to it, passes a tube of 
 brass eight feet in length and one inch in diameter. This tube crosses the 
 face of the circle, in the line of a diameter, and, as near as possible,, like 
 
 343 
 
344 KALOOlAH. 
 
 the telescope of a mural circle. On either side a curved bracket project- 
 ing from the tube grasps the periphery of the wheel, and by turning a 
 screw the tube and circle can be clamped or loosened at pleasure; another 
 screw clamps the circle to one of the stone pillars. 
 
 To get this instrument into the meridian was a job that puzzled me a 
 good deal. I had no practical knowledge of astronomy; no nautical 
 almanac or catalogue of the stars ; and, although happening to recollect the 
 declination of two fixed stars, I had nothing like an accurate idea of the 
 right ascensions of a single one, and I was too far south to avail myself of 
 the upper and lower transits of the circumpolar stars. My only resource 
 was in repeated observations upon the shadows of perpendiculars. 
 
 It may be asked how I got along without a table of declination. For- 
 tunately I recollected, from frequently referring to the tables in Bowditch, 
 and the nautical almanac, the sun's declination for most days in the year, 
 and there were two points — the solstices — about which there could be no 
 mistake. Besides which, as I have said, there were two fixed stars whose 
 declination I had in mind, namely, Arcturus and Alpha Lyra. Upon 
 them I have made many observations ; sometimes for altitude, and some- 
 times, after adjusting my tube perpendicularly by a plumb line passing 
 through it, for zenith distances. 
 
 I have been somewhat particular in the description of this instrument, 
 in order that the reader may judge for himself as to the correctness of the 
 data upon which I put down the latitude of the great city at 32' 31" 
 north. 
 
 Great city I call it, and well does it deserve that title. Few capitals 
 in Europe compare with it, either in extent or the architectural elegance 
 of its public and private edifices, the beauty of its parks, or the number of 
 its population. Situated on a peninsula, formed by a bend of the Wol- 
 losab, it is surrounded on three sides by water. The city proper, how- 
 ever, does not come down to the water's edge, but is separated by a wall 
 and a wide open piece of ground, across which runs several roads enclosed 
 by high walls, and terminating at little ports, or at the entrances of long 
 stone bridges stretching to the opposite shore. In the centre rises the 
 acropolis I have mentioned, on three sides perpendicular, and on the 
 fourth communicating by a narrow ridge of rock with the country beyond 
 the isthmus joining the peninsula to the mainland. The top of this 
 acropolis is about a quarter of a mile in breadth by three quarters of a 
 mile in length, and nearly one half of it is occupied by the royal buildings 
 and courts. From the base of this hill the houses stretch far away in 
 every direction until they reach the lofty battlemented walls, within 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 345 
 
 which, according to the official registers of the census, is contained a 
 population of six hundred and twenty-three thousand souls. 
 
 The houses are mostly built of a cream-colored freestone, although 
 there are some of marble and granite, and even some of brick. They are 
 invariably large quadrangular edifices, with massive walls, two stories 
 high, and all of them have an open court in the centre, with a fountain. 
 The roofs are flat, and formed of timbers of a species of cypress, which are 
 almost proof against decay. They are placed close together, and covered 
 with a plating of lead. Upon this is placed a layer of earth six or eight 
 inches deep, which is laid out into walks and beds, and cultivated with 
 flowers and fruits. High parapets of stone protect these aerial gardens on 
 the outside, w-hile inside a light iron railing serves to keep the careless 
 lounger or romping children from falling into the court below. Nothing 
 can be more magnificent than the view of this boundless contiguity of 
 flower gardens from the palace on the rock. 
 
 Some of the public thoroughfares are very broad, but in general the 
 streets are of a moderate width, paved, as I have mentioned, with large 
 grooved stones, and kept scrupulously clean. Indeed, what would strike 
 a visitor, from the Christian cities of Europe and America, and particularly 
 if he should happen to be from New York, is the close attention paid to 
 every thing relating to municipal hygiene. The general health of the city, 
 the people of Kiloam consider to be the first great object of police regula- 
 tions ; the protection of property and the facilitation of trade are of 
 secondary importance. They look upon a great city, as something better 
 than a mere collection of reckless money-getters, who, in the blind pursuit 
 of wealth, are as willing to sacrifice their own and the general health, as 
 they are to forego the pleasures of taste, the enjoyments of reason, the 
 delights of the heart, and the hopes of heaven. They look upon the as- 
 semblage of men in cities as an admirable modification of social life ; but 
 admirable only as it affords an opportunity of attaining many of the higher 
 objects of humanity. The elevation and polish of intellect- — the cultiva- 
 tion of taste — the refinement of manners — the development of the social 
 sympathies and philanthropic emotions of the heart, are the great objects 
 among the Framazugs of city life. To these they add, as lying at the 
 foundation of mental and moral as well as physical activity and power, 
 the preservation of health. 
 
 To secure this last great end, every means has been adopted. The 
 streets are not only swept, but washed every day, a complete system of 
 sewerage, serving to carry off the refuse water and materials. With re- 
 gard to dust, the Framazugs are very particular. Never was the governor 
 
346 KALOOLAH. 
 
 of Kiloam more astonished than when, in the course of conversation, one 
 day, I told him tha:t three or four hundred people were annually killed in 
 New York by dust alone. He would not believe it possible. " It is a fact," 
 said I, " at least that number of fatal consumptions are owing to that one 
 cause, but that is not the worst of it ; several hundred thousand dollars' 
 worth of propert}' are also annually damaged or destroyed." He threw 
 up his hands in astonishment and horror, and blessed his fate that he did 
 not live in such a barbarous community. The sewers are large vaulted 
 tunnels, in substantial masonry, into which leaden pipes lead from each 
 house ; and they not only serve to drain the city, but for passages along 
 which are laid the iron pipes that supply the city with water. There is 
 room for workmen around these pipes ; so that in repairing or replacing 
 them, it is not necessary to turn up the earth of the street, and if one 
 happens to burst, as is sometimes the case, from the enormous pressure, 
 the water runs off by the sewer, without overflowing the neighboring 
 houses and saturating the soil for half a dozen blocks around. 
 
 Besides the tubes conveying water into and from each house, there is 
 an air tube which runs from the sewer to the mouth of a small centrifugal 
 blower ; from around the centre of motion of this blower go two tubes, 
 which, dividing into many small ones, penetrate every room and nook in 
 the house. A small wheel, turned by a jet of water, communicates mo- 
 tion by a band to the fan, which, in its revolutions, sucks into the blower 
 all the foul air in the chambers, and forces it out through the main pipe 
 into the sewer, leaving its place to be supplied by the pure air that draws 
 down into the court from above. The whole apparatus occupies but a 
 small space in the basement, and can be put in motion any moment by 
 turning the faucet of a water-pipe. The openings to the sewer are air- 
 tight, excepting at distant intervals, in the larger ones, where there are 
 placed ventilating towers two hundred feet in height. These, with a 
 liberal use of quick-lime in the tubes leading into the sewers, prevents the 
 accumulation of foul air, so that when the stones stopping the ordinary 
 street openings are removed, the eye and not the nose takes cognizance 
 of the fact. The mode, too, of cooling apartments in hot weather, which is 
 in general use, and which might unquestionably be advantageously adopted 
 in all warm climates, contributes much to the purity of the air. By means 
 of a condensing apparatus, air is forced into copper -reservoirs, capable of 
 resisting a great pressure : in this way it is compelled to give up a large 
 portion of its caloric. When this condensed air is suddenly turned into a 
 room, it enters with a wonderful capacity for caloric that enables it in- 
 stantly to reduce the temperature of all the air in the apartment. Besides 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 347 
 
 its caloric, the air is compelled to part with some portion of its moisture 
 which condenses at the bottom of the reservoir. With the moisture are 
 precipitated all impurities, and the compressed air issues cold, dry, and 
 pure. 
 
 The streets are furnished with sidewalks, and shaded by rows of trees, 
 the foliage of which is clipped in the French style. No manufactories of 
 any kind are allowed except in certain streets, and those which are offen- 
 sive to the senses er dangerous to health are wholly excluded from within 
 the walls. The slaughter-houses, for instance, are confined to the other 
 banks of the river; and thus, beside the unhealthy effluvium and the dis- 
 gusting associations, the danger of driving herds of cattle through the 
 streets is wholly obviated. 
 
 He is sentenced to a douche bath, and to be publicly scrubbed front head to foot." 
 
 The same care is exhibited in the construction and management of 
 the markets. These are immense squares with roofs, supported upon col- 
 umns of marble, and with smooth stone pavements, laid in asphaltum. 
 The fish, meat, and even fruit-stands are all of marble or granite, and not 
 a particle of wood is to be seen, except in the cedar of the roof. Every 
 article is closely examined by competent officers before it is admitted ; 
 and unripe or decayed fruit and vegetables and unhealthy meats are 
 rigidly excluded. Numerous fountains play in the broad lanes and pas- 
 sages, and several little rivers, running in marble beds, intersect each 
 other, mingling the sounds of moving water with the busy hum of trade. 
 
 More than fifty free baths, for the poorer classes, attest the opinions 
 
348 KALOOLAH. 
 
 of the magistrates of Kiloam, that personal cleanliness is essential to 
 health. At these baths an artisan or laborer, after his day's work, can 
 obtain a cold bath without charge, or a warm bath by paying a small 
 copper coin — the estimated expense of heating the water. Besides these 
 municipal baths, there are great numbers of public and private baths that 
 invite to ablution, the practice of which is also rendered obligatory upon 
 every citizen by law. If any one is accused of neglecting to bathe for 
 one lunar month, he is brought up before the proper court, and, upon 
 conviction, he is sentenced to a douche bath, and to be publicly scrubbed 
 from head to foot by men appointed for that purpose. The penalty is, 
 in reality, much more severe than might at first be supposed, inasmuch 
 as the sufferer, however hard he may have been scrubbed, invariably 
 comes out from his forced ablution with the reputation of a dirty fellow 
 for life. 
 
 The law may seem arbitrary, but it is founded upon the justifiable as- 
 sumption, that personal cleanliness is a duty that every citizen owes to 
 the community, as well as to himself — that no man has a right to clothe 
 himself in filth — to encrust his carcass in its own vitiated and putrefying 
 secretions — to turn his body into a generator of the miasms of typhus 
 fever, plague, scrofula, and a host of cutaneous diseases — to perambulate 
 the streets, a spreader of pestilence, an offence to the eyes and noses of 
 all good citizens. 
 
 Acting upon the same principle, the municipal authorities will not 
 allow the over-crowding of houses by poor tenants ; and when there is 
 more than one family in a house, the owner is made responsible for the 
 cleanliness of the premises. In cases where there is a suspicion of dirt or 
 bad ventilation, the police make sudden and unexpected domiciliary 
 visits, and immediately order the necessary alterations, repairs, and ablu- 
 tions, charging the owner with the expense. 
 
 More than a hundred public squares and parks, of which at least half 
 a dozen are of vast extent, each of several hundred acres, contribute an 
 important part to the ventilation of the city. And, still more, they afford 
 those opportunities and incentives to exercise, so essential to the health 
 of metropolitan society. At the same time, they serve, with the statues, 
 columns, fountains, and trees that adorn them, to cultivate the taste, to 
 develop and elevate the sense of the beautiful, to soften rudeness, polish 
 coarseness, reform vulgarity, and to administer to the proper and patriotic 
 pride that a citizen ought to take in his country and his city. 
 
 The success that attends this attention to municipal hygiene amply 
 repays the labor and care. Formerly, before it was deemed a matter of 
 
KALOOLAH. 349 
 
 so much importance, the city of Kiloam was hardly more healthy than 
 many Christian cities — the deaths being annually one in forty-five, or 
 about the same proportion as in London, the healthiest city in Europe. 
 Now the proportion has been reduced to one in seventy-six, and each 
 year shows a gradual improvement. There can be no doubt that similar 
 means would produce like results in the cities of America, and it is in the 
 hope of stirring up some of the New York readers to the importance of 
 the subject, that I dwell upon it to the exclusion of more interesting 
 details. 
 
 In the number and splendor of its public edifices Kiloam probably 
 surpasses any city in the world. Full fifty ventilating columns of the 
 great sewers, and as many more lofty towers supporting fires lighting the 
 city, and the monuments of distinguished Pholdefoos, are a peculiar and 
 striking feature. Besides these, there are the royal buildings upon the 
 acropolis ; the numerous public edifices for the accommodation of the 
 officers of the city ; the fifty large baths; the markets, and innumerable 
 temples. 
 
 These temples are large mounds of earth, terraced on the outside, and 
 planted with flowers. The interior is excavated into intricate winding 
 passages, leading to a central hall, in which is a slight tottering bridge 
 spanning a deep pit. A solitary lamp throws its feeble light but a short 
 distance into the black obscurity of the hall, faintly illuminating a few 
 jutting points on the sides of the pit below, or of the lofty dark domes 
 above. It is in vain that the eye is strained to discern either .the top or 
 the bottom of the vast vacuity in which the trembling bridge is hung. At 
 one moment a misty, lurid light, hke the vapory recollection of a dream, 
 rolls far below, and the next instant all is blackness. At one moment a 
 flickering beam glances athwart the gloom above, and the next, sight is 
 lost in the thick darkness, and the devout gazer is conscious only of the 
 narrow bridge upon which he stands, the single dim lamp, and the silent 
 priest — his guide. 
 
 But few worshippers visit the central hall. Most are content to stop 
 in a large vaulted room near the portal, where they listen to discourses 
 upon morality, and occasionally to an exposition of religious doctrine. 
 They are taught that there is but one God, the creator of all things ; that 
 in making man he implanted in him certain religious instincts, which he 
 intended should be developed in a variety of ways, and that thus every 
 religious system, including the idolatry of the Kyptiles, the Moham- 
 medanism of the Footas, or the antiquated faiths of their ancestors, is 
 from God. They are taught to believe in a future state, or rather states. 
 
350 KALOOLAH. 
 
 there being an infinite ascending series of conditions, or modes of life, in 
 each of which our happiness or misery depends upon our conduct in the 
 one just preceding. That, in the state next beyond death, the mind, 
 freed from the trammels of a material body, will recall every thought, 
 feeling, and emotion by which it was ever agitated ; and that the slightest 
 of our actions, the least hidden of our motives, the most trivial of our 
 passing sentiments, will stand forth clear as day, in all their moral beauty 
 or deformity, and that there will be no diverting the mind from the sight. 
 
 At the end of one hundred thousand years the soul will be refurnished 
 with a body, and again make its appearance upon the earth, where it will 
 remain in the enjoyment of the highest happiness until the final destruc- 
 tion and annihilation of all mundane things, both spiritual and material. 
 The new body will be endowed with senses infinitely more acute, so as to 
 bring the purified soul into relation with the mysterious worlds of life, 
 and sound and motion, by which we are even now immediately sur- 
 rounded, but from which we are cut off by the narrow limits bounding 
 our hearing, reason, and feeling. As to the final destruction of the 
 world, the Framazug divines do not, like some Christian theologians, 
 attempt to settle the exact day and hour in which it is to take place — 
 although they have quite definite ideas upon the subject. They believe 
 that as human life has a fixed average duration, so has the life of races, of 
 nations, and of worlds, and as the average life of the individual is meas- 
 ured by years, that of the nation is by generations ; or, what amounts to 
 the same thing, by social and political revolutions ; and that of the world 
 by the astronomical cycles that are marked out by a complete retroces- 
 sion of the equinoxes — making periods of twenty-five thousand years 
 each. They believe that, as the duration of a generation is about forty 
 years, the average existence of large and healthy nations is about forty 
 generations ; that the duration of the race of man, as at present situated, 
 is intended to be about forty times the lifetime of a nation, and that man 
 is now in the twentieth term. As to the world itself, its course, it is esti- 
 mated, will endure for one hundred complete retrocessions of the equinox, 
 forty-six of which cycles have already been finished. As this puts off the 
 final destruction of the world for more than a million of years, it is, per- 
 haps, unnecessary to inquire minutely into the accuracy of the calculation. 
 
 The enlightened Christian may, perhaps, say that in some particulars 
 these views are unscriptural ; and that they are wholly insufficient to sal- 
 vation, but he can hardly deny that if the doctrines of the Framazugs 
 wont ensure them salvation in the next world, they offer strong incen- 
 tives to virtue in this. 
 
KALOOLAH. 351 
 
 The government of the city of Kiloam is administered by a dagash 
 appointed by the king, and ten assistants selected by himself, from among 
 the literary men of the city. Only those who have written a book, or 
 perpetrated something in the literary way, are considered eligible to the 
 office, for two reasons. The first is, that an opportunity is thus afforded 
 the people of judging of the general capacity, the mental and moral tone 
 of their rulers ; and the second is, that contrary to the opinion that ob- 
 tains in some countries, literary men, particularly the poets, are consid- 
 ered to be the best qualified for almost any kind of public business. 
 
 The general government of the country is equally opposed to the re- 
 ceived notions and definitions of Christian nations. It maj' be said to be 
 an hereditary, elective, democratic, despotic monarchy. The king inher- 
 its the throne, but at the end of every five years the votes of the people 
 are taken upon the question whether he has properly performed the du- 
 ties of his office. If two thirds vote in the negative, he is compelled to 
 resign, and his heir takes his place. In every thing, except in relation to 
 this one constitutional provision, the king has unlimited power, with the 
 understanding, however, that it is derived solely from the consent of the. 
 people, and that the great object of its exercise is the comfort and happi- 
 ness of the great masses of his subjects. There is no hereditary aristoc- 
 racy — the honors and dignities granted by the king being only for life. 
 
 Such dignities, however, are merely political, and confer no social dis- 
 tinction. The principle upon which all rank in society is founded, is the 
 comparative degrees of refinement of manner and mind. All questions in 
 relation to rank are settled by a capital institution, which may be called 
 the Board of Commissioners of Position, and also by the suffrages of so- 
 ciety as in Christian countries, only here the votes are actually taken by 
 ballot. For instance, when a lady wishes to assume a certain position, 
 the question is submitted to her friends, it being understood that if they 
 will vote for her, her enemies will make no objection. If the vote is fa- 
 vorable, the commissioners examine the candidate as to her social experi- 
 ence and qualifications, and issue a patent of position, accompanied with 
 a medal, made of the tanned hide of the hippopotamus, colored to corre- 
 spond to the rank assigned. In case her social ambition prompts to a 
 higher flight, she wears for some time a parti-colored medal, and again 
 undergoes the ordeal. The advantages of this custom are apparent. The 
 position of every one is, for the time, fixed, and there is consequently 
 none of that jealous fear, lest it should be compromised, which obtains in 
 some countries. -It allows much greater liberty of social intercourse, inas- 
 much as a red medal can be seen talking to a green medal, or even smell- 
 
352 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ing at the same bouquet, without any apprehension of losing caste. It 
 strikes me that this custom might be advantageously transferred to Amer- 
 ica, where in the absence of an hereditary aristocracy, birth and family go 
 for but little — and where money, the great rank-giver, is so frequently 
 unaccompanied by the social essentials, refinement and agreeability. The 
 adoption of the medal would certainly give great relief to the muscles of 
 many, who, although well up in the world, feel that their social pyramid 
 is resting on its little end, and that it is necessary to stand bolt upright to 
 preserve their equilibrium. There is one obstacle, however, in the way of 
 introducing the use of the medal, and that is the difficulty, or, perhaps, 
 impossibility of procuring, in sufficient quantities, the skins of the hippo- 
 potami. But American enterprise is proverbial, and it would be well 
 worth while to make the attempt. 
 
 There are some things in the political system of the Framazugs as well 
 as in their manners and customs, and their knowledge of the arts, that 
 would lead to the idea of their being of Chinese descent. Moreover, 
 tradition ascribes their origin to a country due-east, and across a great 
 water. But there are so many points of difference that, upon fuller in- 
 vestigation, the notion has to be given up. They have nothing of the 
 Chinese physiognomy, nothing of the angular eyes and high cheek-bones 
 of the Tartar races. Their style of dress, the general use of feather 
 cloth, their knowledge of some arts that the Chinese have not, and their 
 ignorance of others which the Chinese have, and their peculiar style of 
 architecture, looking like a light and elegant modification, or rather devel- 
 opment, of the Egyptian, prove them to be of a different race. 
 
 Some circumstances would lead one to infer that they were a colony 
 of Hindoos, who had migrated before the division of people into castes ; 
 but their light complexions and vigorous frames, to say nothing of other 
 points, belie the idea. 
 
 Their aquiline features and fine Egyptian heads would indicate an origin 
 from the banks of the Nile, did not tradition point so strongly to the east. 
 
 The same circumstance militates still more strongly against the idea 
 that they are a colony of Carthaginians ; and the conclusion that I have 
 come to is, that they are from Yeman, or the coast of Hadramaut. The 
 chief ground for the opinion is in certain granimatical affinities between 
 the Framazug and the Arabic languages ; but I am reminded, by having 
 reached the customary longitude of a chapter, that such speculations are 
 forbidden at present, even had I the philological and ethnographical 
 erudition and acumen necessary to make such speculations interesting or 
 useful, and that I must confine myself, in the coming chapters, to the 
 more pertinent details of personal adventure. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 A Marriage— Public Curiosity— The Hall of Doubt— A Chorus— An Idle Ceremony— Queer 
 Notions of Marriage— The Princess' Toilet— A Curious Veil— A Marriage Procession- 
 Sculptured Nondescripts — The Mound Temple— The Marriage Ceremony — Buried Alive. 
 
 J IX months passed, when one day all Kiloam was in a fever 
 of excitement. There was to be a marriage — a marriage 
 in high life — a royal marriage. One of the sovereigns of 
 the great Yankee nation was about to espouse a princess 
 of Framazugda. If marriage in the upper circles of American society 
 can create so much of a sensation, as they frequently do — if the question 
 of three or four hundred dollars, more or less, in the cost of the 
 bride's lace veil and dress can agitate a cultivated community for a 
 week — if bridal presents, consisting of a few pieces of plate, a soli- 
 tary cashmere at five hundred dollars, or a set of glazier's diamonds at a 
 thousand or two, can be considered fit subjects for ostentatious display, 
 and of the most profound admiration of the wealthy community gener- 
 ally, — it cannot be considered strange that the elegant and refined but 
 still barbarous quidnuncs of Kiloam found themselves in a perfect 
 flutter of delighted curiosity over the magnificent " doings " and superb 
 "fixings " of Kaloolah's wedding. 
 
 For three days, according to custom, the princess had taken her seat 
 in the Hall of Doubt — a dismal-looking chamber, hung with gray. Her 
 sisters — not the children of the great Shouns^, but a band of maidens, 
 who, having been born on the same day, had been selected, when infants, 
 as her companions — were around her. In mournful garb, and with sad- 
 dened faces, ever and anon they sang, with plaintive voices, a melancholy 
 chorus, portions of which ran thus : 
 
 Stay, sister, stay ! 
 
 Why shouldst thou go away ? 
 Why withdraw thy maiden hand 
 From the warm claspings of thy sister 
 band ? 
 
 Stay, sister, stay ! 
 
 Think, maiden, think ! 
 
 While thy foot is on the brink ; 
 Think, ere thou tak'st the final leap, 
 Little thou know'st whither the swift waters 
 
 sweep. 
 Think, maiden, think ! 
 
 353 
 
354 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Take heed, ah ! take heed ! Doubt, sister, doubt ! 
 
 Thy step is in the flowery mead ; Oft the fire of love goeth out ; 
 
 Why ? oh ! why should the happy maid Flames it now ? erewhile thou 'It find 
 
 Seek the unknown paths amid the forest's shade ? Nothing but cinders 'and ashes are left behind. 
 
 Take heed, ah ! take heed ! Doubt, sister, doubt ! 
 
 But despite all that could be said or sung, Kaloolah persisted in her 
 determination of becoming my wife. " It is an idle ceremony," said the 
 princess. 
 
 " Not so," said her father, " the custom comes from the olden time, 
 and it has ever been considered a good ceremonial enforcement of 
 caution and dubitation." 
 
 " True," replied Kaloolah, " the intention of the custom is well enough, 
 but it fails in its effect from the peculiar qualities of the female heart. A 
 woman who is thoroughly in love never doubts about the propriety of 
 marrying the object of her affections ; if she is not in love she needs no 
 solicitations to do so." 
 
 " Ah ! " said I, " that sentiment would hardly go down in my country, 
 particularly the latter part of it ; with us it is no uncommon thing- for a 
 woman to rush as unhesitatingly into a marriage, in which her heart is 
 not interested, as if she were desperately in love." 
 
 " A strange idea your people must have of marriage," replied the 
 king. 
 
 " Not so, your majesty," said I ; " their ideas are very simple, and very 
 natural. They look upon marriage as an alliance offensive and defensive 
 between two naturally antagonistic powers — a contract between two co- 
 equal sovereignties — a limited partnership for the common carr}dng on 
 of some of the duties of life, in which special provisions are necessary to 
 guard the respective independent rights of the parties — a convenient 
 mode of assuring the paternity of children — a respectable mode of ob- 
 taining a livelihood." 
 
 " And is that all," interrupted the king. 
 
 " All ! " said I, " what more would your majesty have? " 
 
 " Ah ! " replied the king, " our notions are very different. We be- 
 lieve that marriage is not a common contract, and that there can be no 
 real marriage unless the parties are firmly drawn together by the cords of 
 love. We believe that there are two great changes for the soul, inarriage 
 and death, and that the first is by far the more important. At marriage, 
 two single souls become one soul. This one soul is no longer like a 
 single soul, but its component elements, united by the power of love, be- 
 come a very different kind of spiritual entit}? ; and this union is so inti- 
 
KALOOLAH. 355 
 
 mate as to admit between its parts only the relations of duty and privi- 
 lege, not of right. No marriage is valid — no marriage is a marriage, with- 
 out this fusion of the duality into unity." 
 
 It was evident that the great Shouns^ was growing a little transcen- 
 dental : luckily he stopped short, and I turned to the princess. 
 
 " And you, Kaloolah, in view of such an idea of marriage, have you 
 no doubts ? " 
 
 " Not of the heart," said her father, putting his hand familiarly on my 
 shoulder, " but of the head ; or, rather, I have for her." 
 
 " And in what respect does your majesty doubt ? " I demanded. 
 
 " Your age," replied the king. " You are either too young or too old ; 
 j younger, you would more easily forget your country and early associa- 
 tions, and more readily absorb the life and spirit of Framazugda ; older, 
 you would have proved many things in your own country, against which 
 your imagination will now chafe itself into restlessness and discontent. I 
 foresee that you will long to revisit your native land ! " 
 
 " But not more than I shall," replied the princess. " When Jon'than 
 wishes to return to his country I shall wish to go too — I long, even now, 
 to visit his great city of New York." 
 
 " You forget the savages and wild beasts you would have to encounter 
 in going," said one of her attendants. 
 
 " And the bad smells," whispered another. 
 
 " Yes, and the bad smells after you had arrived there," thought I to 
 myself, but, it being no very pleasant subject, I said nothing, and the 
 \ conversation was turned to the preparations for the wedding, which was 
 to take place the coming day. 
 
 The reader need not be afraid that I am going into a minute detail of 
 all the circumstances and ceremonies, but I must dwell on Kaloolah's ap- 
 pearance for a moment. Her full rounded figure was habited in a tight- 
 fitting spencer of the richest feather-cloth, to which there was attached a 
 ' flowing skirt of the finest lace, worked in gold and silver filigree. Her 
 bare arms were wreathed from shoulder to hand with spiral, serpent-like 
 ■ bracelets of rubies, emeralds, and opals— a gorget of amethysts encircled 
 her throat. Her rich dark hair hung naturally in thick clusters down her 
 l^neck. On her head she wore a golden crest, like a cock's-comb, or very 
 much like the crest of the old Roman helmet. It ran along the centre of 
 the head from the front backward, was in height about two inches, and 
 was thickly encrusted with diamonds — the end over the forehead termi- 
 nating in a slender crescent of gems, encircling a sun, the centre of which 
 was a large brilliant yellow diamond. From the top of this crest arose a 
 
356 KALOOLAH. 
 
 golden staff, or standard, three inches high, surmounted by a plume of 
 froulbell. Around this staff was twisted the middle of a long veil of 
 spider's web that fell down on either side to her feet. Nothing in the 
 fabrics of Valenciennes or Brussels ever approached, in delicate legerity 
 and exquisite workmanship, to this veil, which was made, not as has been 
 frequently done in Christian countries by twisting the fibres of spider's 
 web into thread, and then weaving them into tissue, but by making the 
 spiders actually spin out the veil complete. The spider employed for 
 this purpose is of a peculiar species — being very docile and easily governed 
 by its master by means of a small twig of bamboo, so as to be made to 
 work out any figure designed. The only difficulty is, that in working 
 large articles, the spider is apt to spin himself out before his work is 
 finished, and it is impossible to get another spider to carry out the same 
 design. This enhances the cost enormously — I am sorry that I cannot 
 give the exact expense of Kaloolah's veil in dollars and cents, but a rough 
 estimate will, perhaps, do something towards satisfying the enlightened 
 curiosity generally felt on such subjects. Taking the average price of 
 wheat in New York at ninety cents a bushel, and estimating the bushel 
 in Kiloam to be worth as much as the bushel in New York, the veil 
 must have cost, say at fifteen thousand bushels, thirteen thousand five 
 hundred dollars ! My estimate may be wrong as to the price of wheat, 
 but if so, some of my female readers, whose fathers are in the iiour trade, 
 can easily correct the mistake. 
 
 The morning dawned brightly, as all the mornings in Framazugda do, 
 not even excepting those of the two short rainy seasons. After an 
 elaborate toilet, of which shawls, feather-cloth, and fine linen were the 
 principal materials, but which I shall not stop to describe, I descended 
 with my suite to the vestibule of the great central pavilion, where, in a 
 short time, I was joined by the princess. After some little delay, Kaloolah 
 and myself took our seats beneath a canopy of flowers, supported upon 
 an immense gilt machine, like an ancient triumphal chariot. To this car 
 were harnessed eight pairs of buffaloes by strips of burnished snake-skin. 
 These buffaloes were of a spotless white ; their horns were wreathed with 
 flowers, and each one bore on his back two trumpeters, who blew their 
 instruments with almost as much vigor and perseverance as they could 
 have done had they been educated in the American school of trumpeting. 
 Behind us came a train of buffaloes, bearing howdahs containing Kaloo- 
 lah's companions ; and on either side of our car paced a stately escort of 
 young nobles, mounted upon giraffes. Farther in the rear came another 
 magnificent chariot, bearing the great Shounse. 
 
 A tremendous salvo of gongs, and a flourish of trumpets, drums, and 
 
KALOOLAH. 357 
 
 cymbals, mingled with the shouts of the vast multitude, announced our 
 arrival at the great Mound Temple. Parallel rows of colossal stone figures 
 formed a long avenue leading to the portico. Each figure represented the 
 body of an elephant, with a human head and face having a remarkably 
 sagacious expression. The trunk of the elephant represented the head 
 and superior portion of a large serpent ; the hind legs were formed by two 
 crouching figures of men in chains, and the forelegs were precisely like 
 those of the domestic cat. A long tail like a monkey, but terminating in 
 a hard horny sting like a scorpion, completed the form of these stone 
 nondescripts. I have seen nothing in all Framazugda more curious, and 
 nothing that I should like better to send to America than one of these 
 figures. If mounted upon a proper pedestal in front of the City Hall, or 
 in Wall Street, before the Exchange, New York could boast a sculptured 
 curiosity that would throw entirely into the shade the horses of St. Mark, 
 the obelisk of the Place de la Concord, or the marbles of the British 
 Museum — one that would have more beauty, more meaning, and more 
 antiquity than the Memnon, the Sphynx, the bas-reliefs of Persepolis, or 
 the grotesque carvings of Elephanta. 
 
 Through this avenue we were conducted on foot byacompany of yellow- 
 robed priests into the great central hall — avast gloomy apartment lighted 
 by colorless flames, like those from burning alcohol. The contrast between 
 the light, noisy joyousness that we had just left, and the dismal stillness 
 of the temple was almost appalling. No one, with the exception of the 
 king and his privy council, Kaloolah's sisters, and my immediate attend- 
 ants, had entered with us ; and upon them and the long trains of priests 
 fell the dubious light with a most ghostly effect. 
 
 Led by two aged priests, whose tottering forms trembled beneath the 
 weight of a hundred years, we advanced to the great altar. A deep pit, 
 into which there was a descent by a few stone steps, yawned at our feet. 
 A heavy marble slab rested by its side. Slowly, a long train of priests, 
 looking more like spectres than living beings, wound round and round us 
 and the altar, from which some burning material threw up its flickering 
 and lugubrious light, and solemnly rolled the deep strains of a monotonous 
 chant among the heavy stone columns and along the lofty arches. 
 
 It was intimated that the princess and I were to descend into the 
 tomb before us. Instinctively, and without thinking, so completely was 
 my reason and imagination mastered by the dismal mummery going on 
 around, I led Kaloolah down the steps. We seated ourselves upon a 
 projecting ledge of rock, and in an instant the heavy marble slab was 
 lowered upon the mouth of the pit, and we were shut in from the least 
 ray of light. There were sounds as if of earth or mortar being filled in 
 
358 KALOOLAH. 
 
 upon the marble covering — fainter and fainter came the choral wailing, 
 and then all was still. We were buried alive. 
 
 Buried alive ! And might it not be ? might it not be that we were 
 the victims of some political or social jealousy, or of some priestly super- 
 stition ? Might it not be that, despite the kindness with which I had 
 been entertained, and the love which her family unquestionably bore to 
 Kaloolah, that we were to be sacrificed to some supposed necessity ; to 
 avert some omen, perhaps, or to fulfil some prediction ? I started at the 
 thought — a thousand little circumstances flashed conviction to my mind 
 — there could be no doubt of it. The perspiration stood upon my fore- 
 head — my blood froze in my veins — a thrill of horror ran through my 
 frame. I dashed Kaloolah' from my side and rushed up the steps. 
 Madly, in tones of mingled rage and fear, I shrieked, " Of? ! off with the 
 stone ! Let me out ! Priests ! villains ! dogs ! I 'II throttle the whole of 
 ye ! Let me out ! " Madly I struggled to raise the stone. Ah ! confir- 
 mation strong ! I could have thrown off a slab of twice its weight ; but, 
 horror of horrors ! it was fastened down. Madly I exerted myself — 
 madly I dashed my head against the immovable marble until, completely 
 exhausted, 1 fell back to the floor. Kaloolah's arms were around me — 
 she raised my head and pressed me to her bosom, and her soothing tones 
 fell upon the ear — a revulsion of feeling took place — "At least," said I, 
 throwing my arms around her, " we will die together." 
 
 At this moment there came to our ears sounds, as if of blows struck 
 by a heavy hammer, and, suddenly, the top and sides of the tomb flew 
 apart in the most mysterious manner, leaving us exposed in the full glare 
 of day, upon an elevated platform, outside the temple, to the eyes of the 
 shouting multitudes crowding the vast court below. 
 
 If attitude is graceful in proportion as it is unstudied, ours must have 
 been the impersonation of Hogarth's spiral. The princess was seated on 
 the floor supporting my head, which was still throbbing with its wild ex- 
 citement, while I was stretched at length with my arms around her waist. 
 For a moment I was somewhat stupefied by the glare, the crowd, and the 
 noise — the next, a feeling of indignation at the barbarous ceremony and 
 the ridiculous exposure to the eyes of the crowd, so strangely in contrast 
 to the quiet privacy, the refined delicacy, the reserved dignity with which 
 marriages are always conducted in Christian countries, nerved me for the 
 finishing performance, which consisted simply of a procession to the gar- 
 den of the Wollo, outside of the city, accompanied by the whole popula- 
 tion of Kiloam ; and a grand feast, of which all partook, amid its shady 
 avenues and around its gleaming fountains. 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 The Honeymoon — News from the Borders — Ravages of the Jalla — Alkafuz — A Night's 
 Reconnoissance — Riding a Boa — A Battle — Marching into the Jalla Country — A Novel 
 Battering-Ram— Jebha— A Strong Position— Enphadde's Plans— Capitulation of Jebha— 
 The Grand Shocco — The Source of the Nile — Origin of the Jalla — Queer People — Gourd 
 Huts — A Country of Snakes — Return to Kiloam. 
 
 gathered. 
 
 )T was three or four days after our marriage, that the princess 
 was seated upon a bank of turf in the great garden of the 
 Wollo, engaged in the interesting employment of twisting my 
 long hair and beard with the flowers that Gogo industriously 
 The deep sounds of the great cataract were borne upon the 
 scent-laden breeze, mingling, in luscious harmony, with the rustling of the 
 leaves, the melodious strains of innumerable birds, the dreamy hum of 
 bees, the tinkling plash of a tiny fountain, the chattering of Gogo, and the 
 delicious notes of Kaloolah's laugh and voice. I looked up into the clear 
 depths of the blue sky. I looked up into the still clearer depths of her 
 large dark eyes, and a feeling of exquisite happiness came over me, 
 marred, however, by the reflection that such foretastes of heaven are 
 liable to many interruptions, and are, necessarily, of short duration in 
 this mortal world. At the instant, as if in confirmation of the reflection, 
 Enphadde made his appearance, with a command for my immediate 
 attendance upon the king. 
 
 We found his majesty, with his countenance troubled by news just 
 brought from the eastern border of his domains, of an irruption of the 
 fierce Jalla, who were desolating with fire and sword a fertile and popu- 
 lous tract, not more than two hundred miles from Kiloam. We had 
 hardly entered the council-room when another messenger was announced, 
 with news from the northwest, of an expedition of Footas into the coun- 
 try of the Kyptiles. The foreign relations of Framazugda were evidently 
 getting into a bad way. 
 
 In a short speech, I proposed a plan of operations which met with in- 
 stant and unanimous approval. I explained that, as far as regards the 
 Footas, we must meet them with their own weapons, and that some time 
 
 359 
 
36o KALOOLAH. 
 
 would be required to make the necessary preparations, but that the Jalla 
 required our immediate attention, and that we had ample means at hand 
 to repress their ravages, and to compel them to observe, in future, a 
 respectful distance from our borders. I therefore suggested that messen- 
 gers should be despatched to the cave, near Garazha, to collect the salt- 
 petre that I had observed incrusting the sides and floor of the entrance, 
 and also to the slopes of the great volcano for sulphur, and that in the 
 meantime Enphadde and myself should set out, and, making a rapid 
 march to Alkafuz, put ourselves at the head of what few troops we could 
 find at that frontier town, and proceed to chastise the Jalla. Upon our 
 return I would commence the necessary preparations for carrying fire and 
 sword into the heart of the Foota country. 
 
 Early the next morning we left Kiloam, and took the road for Alka- 
 fuz, which city we entered on the fourth day, with a body of eight hun- 
 dred Framazugs and two hundred Kyptiles, whom we had picked up in 
 our rapid march. 
 
 We found Alkafuz a pleasant little town, of five or six thousand in- 
 habitants, but containing for the time being, double that numberof people, 
 who had been compelled to take refuge within the walls, from the attacks , 
 of the Jalla. Situated at the edge of a lofty plateau, it looked off upon 
 a beautiful rolling country towards the northeast, which, falling away to a 
 much lower level until it reached a hilly district, made a kind of neutral 
 ground between the Jalla and the Framazugs. 
 
 According to the best information we could get from the frightened 
 people of the country, there were two bodies of these savages, number- 
 ing twelve or fifteen hundred men each, at no great distance from the 
 city. The next day we got news of another small party of three or four 
 hundred, and the day after, word was brought that one of the large par- 
 ties, laden with spoil, had commenced a retreat, while the other was still 
 advancing up the country, and was at the moment attacking a small town 
 to the south of Alkafuz, which, however, being well defended by high 
 walls, would probably be able to withstand a long siege. 
 
 Leaving the besieged town for the time to defend itself as it best 
 might, I drew out my forces from Alkafuz, on the morning of the third 
 day after our arrival, and commenced a pursuit of the retreating party. 
 Our army, amounting to about twelve hundred horse and a thousand 
 foot, well armed with spears and bows, was in capital spirits, and animated 
 with the highest confidence in the invincibility of its Christian allies, and 
 in the gallantry of its youthful prince. 
 
 At the close of the first day word was brought, by the scouting parties 
 
KALOOLAH. 361 
 
 I had sent out, that three or four hundred of the enemy were close at 
 hand in a small valley not more than five or six miles from our camp. 
 The valley was a hollow way about two miles long, and a quarter of a 
 mile broad, between two low but precipitous ledges of rock, and just the 
 spot to trap the whole party, if we moved with sufficient celerity. 
 
 Giving orders to Enphadde to march the main body of our forces, 
 after they should have had a few hours' rest, to the mouth of the pass, 
 and to take up such a position by early dawn as to prevent the escape of 
 the Jalla, I selected six hundred of our best-mounted men, and set out at 
 once for the head of the ravine. 
 
 It was midnight when we entered it, and moving slowly down the 
 grassy slope, in about two hours we came in sight of the smouldering 
 fires of the unsuspicious Jalla. Halting my weary troop I made the men 
 dismount, and each one, with the bridle of his horse in his hand, stretched 
 himself on the thick herbage. Leaving them, with the strictest orders to 
 Hugh and the officers in command of the battalion not to allow a man to 
 move a foot, I went forward with our guide to employ the short hour 
 until daylight, when Enphadde would be in his position, in a closer ex- 
 amination of the Jalla camp. 
 
 It was a clear, starlight night, and as there were no obstructions, we 
 made our way without difficulty to within twenty rods of their fires. I 
 could see the tall forms of the savages flitting about among the crowds 
 of crouching captives, and the long lines of horses, picketed by ropes to 
 pegs driven into the ground. Occasionally the guards would stir up the 
 embers, and throw on an armful of dry grass to warm their nearly naked 
 skins in the cool air of the morning, or to give light by which to reduce 
 to quiet a restive and pugnacious steed, or drive back to the captive flocks 
 and herds some fugitive sheep or cow. 
 
 Anxious to obtain a more accurate idea of the number of horses, I 
 whispered to my companion to remain in his position, while I crept a little 
 closer to a small knoll, whence could be obtained a better view of the 
 encampment. 
 
 I had gone but a few yards when I fancied that there was a slight rus- 
 tling, as if of some wild animal in the grass before me. I paused, and 
 listened intently. My gun had been left behind, in charge of Hugh, but 
 I had in my belt my doubled-barrelled pistols, one of which I drew, and 
 carefully cocking both locks, held it in my left hand, while in my right 
 was a short but heavy and serviceable sword, that by daylight would have 
 been a very dangerous weapon for any animal, not even excepting a lion, 
 to run upon. 
 
362 KALOOLAH. 
 
 After waiting awhile, and finding that all was still, I concluded that 
 my ears had deceived me, and although a perceptible tinge of light in the 
 eastern sky warned me that it was time to hurry back and lead on my 
 troops to the attack, I thought that I would venture a few yards farther, 
 and finish my reconnoissance from the knoll. 
 
 I had advanced, perhaps, a dozen steps, when I encountered what 
 seemed to be a large log lying across my path. Without pausing to 
 think of the improbability of the object being a log, when there was not 
 a tree larger than a man's arm within ten miles, I jumped upon it, and 
 stretched myself up for a good look. It gave a little to my weight, like 
 many an old half-rotten trunk that my feet have pressed in the forests of 
 the St. Lawrence. It seemed so much decayed as hardly to be able to 
 bear me — as if it were about to break asunder and let me down into its 
 spongy interior. My foot slipped upon the yielding surface — I recovered 
 my balance, and on the instant felt myself elevated two or three feet. 
 The whole log was alive beneath me, and — good heavens ! I knew the 
 boa ! 
 
 My feet went out from under me — and I fell with my back across the 
 writhing monster. For the fraction of a second there might have been 
 some question as to which way my body was going, but a twist of the 
 animal soon settled the point by letting me down upon my head and 
 shoulders, and leaving my feet elevated on his back in the air. 
 
 I fell partly on my right side ; my sword flew from my hand, but I 
 still kept hold of the pistol. I glanced upwards — a huge, black object 
 was hovering over and rapidly descending upon me. It was the monster's 
 enormous head with jaws outstretched wide enough to engulph an ele- 
 phant ! Instinctively I stretched out my left hand. The pistol barrels 
 rattled against some hard bony substance, and at the instant my fingers 
 contracting upon the triggers, both charges exploded simultaneously with 
 a loud report, and with a recoil that wrenched the weapon from my 
 grasp. 
 
 There was a snort of agony and instantly a flouncing as if, to use a 
 common Yankeeism, " heaven and earth had come together," amid which 
 my feet were thrown into the air, and sent flying over my head, my neck 
 twisted almost to dislocation, and my body projected through an inde- 
 terminate series of ground tumblings to the foot of the knoll. 
 
 Jumping to my feet, and recalling my scattered senses, the first 
 inquiry was whether the creature was pursuing me, and the second as to 
 the state of my bones. A tremendous floundering about a hundred yards 
 off, on my right, that made the ground tremble like the shocks of an 
 
KALOOLAH. 363 
 
 earthquake, relieved me of all fear of the first, and a slight examination 
 showed that no material damage had been done to the second. 
 
 The Jalla camp was all alive, and our hopes of taking the enemy by 
 surprise at an end ; so, following the example of my companion, I com- 
 menced a retreat in double-quick time. 
 
 My men had heard the alarm, and were all ready to mount. They 
 sprang into their saddles just as a score of Apollo's outriders leaped the 
 barrier of the horizon into the eastern sky. 
 
 " Charge ! " was now the word, and away we rattled, as fast as our 
 jaded steeds could get through the tall grass, down upon the foe. About 
 half the distance was passed, when a party of three or four hundred Jalla 
 drew out from the main body, and advanced towards us. It was evident 
 that they were not so easily frightened, and that they were determined to 
 fight, if necessary, to cover the retreat of the guards in charge of the cap- 
 tives and spoils. 
 
 Seeing them so well prepared and resolute, and knowing that they 
 could not escape, prudence dictated that we should follow without 
 attacking them, until we should hear something from Enphadde. It was 
 apparent that the numbers of the enemy had been greatly underrated. 
 Their whole force considerably exceeded mine, and they were all fresh 
 and vigorous, while my men and their beasts were somewhat exhausted 
 from fatigue and want of sleep. 
 
 The enemy, on their side, had apparently no stomachs for any un- 
 necessary fighting ; and finding that we were not about to charge them, 
 they drew back, and followed slowly their main body. Occasionally they 
 would face about when we closed up a little too near to them, and ride 
 towards us, and, upon our halting or moving more slowly, they would 
 wheel and retreat. 
 
 Backing and filling in this way, we followed them for nearly an hour, 
 until the sun was up, and pouring the full light of day into the lovely 
 little valley. Suddenly there was a tremendous commotion in their 
 ranks, their van recoiled upon their plunder-laden centre, and all was con- 
 fusion. At this moment there came the report of a musket, and the next 
 instant another which I knew must be from the guns of Hassan and 
 Jack, who were with Enphadde. Soon the fierce sounds of strife came 
 rolling towards us, and finding that Enphadde was fully engaged, and that 
 a panic was extending through the ranks of our enemy, I led forward my 
 men to the charge. 
 
 It is needless to go into a minute detail of the battle, which lasted 
 about an hour. The Jalla fought bravely, although the occasional dis- 
 
364 KALOOLAH. 
 
 charge of our fire-arms deprived them of their usual confidence. About 
 two hundred and fifty were left dead upon the field, two hundred were 
 made prisoners, and two or three hundred, deserting their horses, 
 clambered up the sides of the hollow, and made their escape across the 
 level, country. On our side we lost a hundred and "fifty men, some of 
 whom were killed by being ridden over by the charging squadrons, or 
 knocked down and trampled to death by the herds of frightened cattle, 
 who, hemmed into the narrow battle-ground, were soon mingled with the 
 combatants in inextricable confusion. In this way a score of the women 
 and children, captives of the Jalla, were killed. 
 
 As soon as the fight was at an end, our prisoners secured, and order 
 in some degree restored, my surgical skill was put in requisition, and for 
 two or three hours I was employed in dressing wounds. It struck me at 
 the time that were princes, prime-ministers, generals, and demagogues 
 compelled to dress all the wounds that they caused, there would be but 
 little fighting in the world. 
 
 I was just finishing with a flesh wound in the shoulder of the prince, 
 which he had refused to have touched until all the men were cared for, 
 when Hugh came running up with the news that the dead body of a huge 
 serpent had been found among the rocks at a little distance. We went 
 to see it, and found that it was the very fellow who, resenting my famil- 
 iarity, had compelled me to my involuntary somersault. My pistol had 
 been fired into his open mouth, and the balls, penetrating diagonally up- 
 wards and backwards, had passed through the palatal bones, and lodged 
 in the brain. He was truly a monster, measuring fully one hundred feet 
 in length, five feet in circumference, and with a head as large as a wine- 
 cask. Great as was the veneration for our fire-arms, they rose to a still 
 higher point in public estimations when it was understood that such a 
 monster owed his death to one of our smallest weapons. 
 
 It was not until next morning that our army was in a condition to 
 resume its march, and in the meantime word had been brought that the 
 large detachment of the enemy which we had set out to pursue had got 
 so far the start of us that it would be useless to follow them with an ex- 
 pectation of coming up with them before they reached the friendly shel- 
 ter of their hills. Our plan, therefore, was to turn back and intercept the 
 party, who, ignorant that there were Framazugs near them in such force, 
 were still busy in attacking and sacking villages, and plundering and 
 desolating the country. This done, I was determined to attempt inspir- 
 ing the Jalla with wholesome terror by a vigorous, offensive war, carried 
 into .their strongholds in the hills. 
 
KALOOLAH. 365 
 
 It made it very inconvenient to us that they would not keep together 
 in one body and allow us to defeat them in a lump. Enphadde and 
 Thompson, however, succeeded in intercepting a party of five or six hun- 
 dred, when a desperate fight ensued, in which we lost two hundred men, 
 and Thompson was so severely wounded that we had to send him. into 
 Alkafuz. More than half of the enemy were killed or captured, and the 
 rest were glad to leave their plunder and escape with their lives. 
 
 It was now our turn to assume the offensive. A week's rest recruited 
 our forces and enabled us to assemble an army of five thousand men, 
 with a train of buffaloes for our baggage and provisions. Unfortunately, 
 Thompson's wound, much to his chagrin, compelled us to leave him at 
 Alkafuz ; but his gun was entrusted to the charge of an officer of distin- 
 guished bravery, so that its moral influence was not lost to the army. 
 
 A march of three days to the northeast took us obliquely across a fine 
 rolling country, which descended by a series of gentle inclinations from 
 the plateau of Alkafuz to a level plain at the foot of the Jalla hills. We 
 encountered several rivers ; but as it was the dry season there was no 
 difficulty in fording them, except in one place where the creek expanding 
 into a marsh made the clay soil so soft that our animals in attempting the 
 passage sunk up to their knees at every step. Here we should have been 
 compelled to stop had it not been for an ingenious expedient of the 
 Kyptiles Collecting a species of tough dry grass, they twisted it into 
 ropes of about an inch diameter. With these they wrapped the feet of 
 their horses and cattle until they were encased in bundles of hay as large 
 as was consistent with motion. The whole was firmly secured with an 
 outside lacing of stout thongs of untanned skin. Equipped in mud shoes 
 our animals skimmed the surface without any difficulty. 
 
 Shortly after crossing the marsh we encountered, in succession, sev- 
 eral untenanted villages, the Jalla having had notice of our approach ; but 
 we found great stores of wheat, barley, rice, honey, and oil in caves in the 
 ground. 
 
 Burning the villages, which were composed of reed houses, plastered 
 with mud and thatched with straw, and destroying such stores as we did 
 not want, we moved on until we came to a large town at the foot of a 
 mountain pass, which was defended by a stone wall and a ditch. The 
 wall was very slight and the ditch narrow ; but there was a formidable 
 force within the defences of nearly a thousand men. Upon our appear- 
 ance the enemy mounted the walls, and evinced, by words and gestures, 
 their determination to make a vigorous resistance. 
 
 It would not answer to penetrate into the mountains, leaving such a 
 
366 KALOOLAH. 
 
 post in our rear, and yet, how to take it? We had nothing but a few 
 light scaling ladders, and there was not a piece of timber large enough for 
 a battering-ram within ten miles. The thought occurred to me of collect- 
 ing some small trees, and making a catapult ; but there were two strong 
 objections : the first was, that it would take too much time ; and the sec- 
 ond, that I knew nothing about the construction of the machine. The 
 last objection may seem to some insuperable, but it would be dishonoring 
 my Yankee blood to allow that it alone prevented a catapult from being 
 m.ade. A thoroughbred Yankee, I take it, can make any thing, upon a 
 pinch, that he has ever heard the name and use of, even if he has never 
 seen it, and has no idea of its form and structure. 
 
 The enemy, confident in the strength of their position, were loud in 
 their insulting bravadoes, refusing to listen to any terms, shooting at the 
 heralds we sent to parley with them, and even exhibiting the heads of 
 Framazug captives, stuck on pikes, upon the wall. Oh, for one single 
 field-piece, of even the smallest calibre 1 
 
 Something must be done, and that quickly, if we wished to press mat- 
 ters home to the Jalla in the hills. ■ At last a plan occurred to me, which 
 we at once proceeded to carry into execution. 
 
 The town was of an elliptical shape, and covered an area of about one 
 hundred acres. Two gates, opposite to each other, were the only means 
 of entrance or egress. These were evidently old, and very weak, and in 
 front of them the ditch, instead of continuing on, stopped short, on either 
 side, leaving a broad, level path leading up to them. Our forces were di- 
 vided into four divisions; two of these were stationed opposite the walls, 
 at an equal distance from either gate. Each of these divisions was fur- 
 nished with three or four ladders, and every man was armed with a large 
 fascine of bushes, which, upon a given signal, he was to rush forward and 
 throw into the muddy ditch, or with a bundle of dry grass, which was to 
 be set on fire, and thrust over the wall, on long spars, to disorder the 
 enemy while the assailants were planting their ladders. 
 
 Had we had a few more ladders there could have been no doubt of 
 carrying the place by escalade. As it was, I expected merely that they 
 would answer for a powerful diversion in favor of the other two divisions 
 that were destined to attack the gates. One of these divisions was under 
 the immediate command of Enphadde, the other I took charge of myself. 
 Each division was drawn up under cover of their bucklers, as close to the 
 walls as the bows and slings of the enemy would permit. 
 
 Our battering machines, two in number, were now prepared and lev- 
 elled for the charge. They consisted of three horses each. The animals 
 
KALOOLAH. 367 
 
 being first blindfolded, were harnessed together abreast, and laden with a 
 heavy weight of stones in panniers. On either side rode a horseman, who 
 was stuffed and padded with skins, until he was arrow-proof. Halters at- 
 tached to the heads of the three doomed horses enabled the outriders to 
 direct their course so as to strike at full speed the feeble gates. 
 
 When my preparations were all finished, I rode round to the other 
 gate, and found Enphadde, with his three-horse battering-ram, ready for 
 the charge. The enemy had suddenly become very quiet ; they were be- 
 ginning to feel a little dubious as to our intended movements. Returning 
 by a circuit of the walls to my post at the northern gate, I gave a sign to 
 Hugh, who fired his musket. It was answered by Hassan, from the other 
 gate, and at the report the drums beat, the trumpets sounded, and all 
 hands rushed to the walls. 
 
 The three blind horses, guided by the riders at their side, and goaded 
 by bunches of thorns, attached to thongs that flapped against their 
 flanks, rushed at full speed upon the gates. When within thirty or forty 
 feet, the two guides checked their horses, leaving the others to pursue 
 their way. The feeble barrier yielded to the shock as if it had been 
 made of paper, and the animals moving with irresistible momentum, 
 dashed through the splintered bars as easily as a reckless steed through 
 the painted canvas walls of the Corso in a Roman horse-race, and were 
 precipitated dead or dying into the town. 
 
 Charging at a full run, we reached the gates before the astonished 
 Jalla had time to take any measures for defending the breach. On his 
 side Enphadde was equally successful, and the panic created, allowed 
 the other assailants, on either side, to plant their ladders and climb over 
 the walls. 
 
 The town was now carried in all quarters, and our four divisions 
 came pouring in, driving the enemy before them, and slaughtering them 
 without mercy. I rode forward and met the prince in the market-place, 
 and together we tried to draw off our troops, and give the enemy an 
 opportunity to ask and receive quarter. With much difficulty we suc- 
 ceeded in saving about two hundred warriors, and a great number of 
 women and children, who had taken refuge in a small enclosure of reeds 
 surrounding the Shocco, or chief. All the rest were killed with the ex- 
 ception of about fifty, who in the confusion of the melee had jumped the 
 walls, and eluding our outposts, made their way to the hills. 
 
 There remained now no obstacle to our march into the mountains, 
 and it was decided to set out at once, and move rapidly upon Jebha, the 
 chief town of the Shelwhuck tribe of Jalla, and take it, if possible, before 
 
368 KALOOLAH. 
 
 assistance could be collected from the more distant tribes. If we could 
 not succeed in taking it, we could at least desolate the environs, and 
 perhaps frighten the Grand Shocco into a treaty of peace. 
 
 At the first view of this stronghold of the Grand Shocco, I gave up 
 all hopes of taking it by storm. Situated in the midst of a small slope 
 about half a mile in length, and less than a quarter in breadth, upon the 
 side of a steep rocky hill, that rose nearly perpendicular from the plain, 
 it was approachable only by a narrow pathway that led directly up the 
 face of the cliiT. Ten men could easily defend this road against ten 
 thousand. The elevation of the village was about one hundred and fifty 
 feet. There were no walls or other artificial defences, except a mound 
 of large stones, that were ready to be rolled down the steep and narrow 
 path. Where the road commenced to ascend, there was a conical hill 
 about fifty feet high, and some three or four hundred yards distant from 
 the face of the cliff. It would have made a beautiful spot for a mortar 
 battery. From the upper part of the town rose a steep hollow way, 
 which, at the end of five or six hundred yards was crowned with a beet- 
 ling ledge of rocks. A mountain howitzer, had we had one, and could 
 we have got it up there, would soon have rendered the town untenable. 
 
 The first thing to do was to take possession of the small hill that 
 commanded the commencement of the path — certain, that if we could 
 not get up, the enemy could not get down. We were now in a position 
 to starve them into submission ; the only difficulty was that we could 
 not afford the time. The enemy seemed to think that was our only 
 plan, for they appeared capering upon the edge of the cliff, with loaves 
 of bread on the points of their swords and spears, to indicate that they 
 had an abundant supply of provision for a siege. 
 
 For several days we remained inactive. No plan of operations pre- 
 sented itself. I had examined the whole circumference of the mountain 
 without being able to find any point at which it could be climbed, and 
 was about giving up in despair, when the prince rode into camp from a 
 reconnoissance, and stated that he thought he had discovered a crag, 
 from which, if it could be reached, the ascent would not be impossible 
 to the top of the cliffs commanding the town. He proposed to take the 
 ladders and splice them together, and, with a body of two hundred men, 
 make the attempt. If he succeeded, he would detach some of the masses 
 of rock that were, apparently, trembling to a fall. From the nature of 
 the ground these would necessarily take their way down through the 
 midst of the town. Or, if it was found impossible to loosen the rocks, 
 he would guard the passage by which he had ascended, until I led up 
 
K A LOO L AH. 369 
 
 our men in full force, when we could descend the ravine to a proper dis- 
 tance, take up a position, and open our batteries of slings, arrows, and 
 fire-arms from a commanding height. 
 
 I gave my assent to this proposition. Taking with him the ladders 
 and a large quantity of stout cords, made of braided skin, Enphadde set 
 out at night-fall for the spot that he had noted, about four miles from 
 our camp. There was not much danger that he would meet with any 
 opposition from the enemy ; but in order to make a diversion in his 
 favor and to occupy their attention, I ordered large fires to be built, and 
 made some of the soldiers busy themselves around them, as_ if construct- 
 ing monstrous machines. Others were employed in digging, under a full 
 blaze of light, in a trench that had been commenced across the foot of 
 the road to the town, while others amused themselves and the enemy, 
 who crowded the ledges of their plateau, blowing horns, beating drums, 
 and dancing, leaping, and yelling. 
 
 As morning dawned all eyes were strained in the direction of the 
 peak. A light cap of vapor for a time obscured the view ; but as the 
 sun rose it suddenly lifted, disclosing, not more to my delight than sur- 
 prise, a group of figures upon the highest rock. One of them came for- 
 ward and waved a banner. The Framazugs knew their prince, and a loud 
 shout went up from the camp in reply. 
 
 Enphadde lost no time ; one half of his men were distributed out 
 upon the jutting points, so as to command the approaches from the town, 
 the others, divided into three parties, commenced their attacks upon as 
 many masses of overhanging rock. Some plied the pickaxes at the 
 crumbling bases, others adjusted levers and ropes to the crevices above. 
 When all was ready, according to agreement, the prince made a signal 
 by waving a flag. 
 
 In the meantime the enemy had been invited to parley, but they 
 would receive no proposition. We wavecj a white flag to them ; they 
 answered with yells of defiance. Anxious to save bloodshed, I sent a 
 single man to attempt the ascent ; he was repelled with stones and 
 arrows. Although somewhat confounded by the appearance of our men 
 on the peak, it was evident that they had no idea of the intended plan of 
 attack. With a feeling, compounded of anger at their stupidity and ob- 
 stinacy and sorrow for their impending fate, I was compelled to give the 
 signal to Enphadde to let fall. 
 
 Instantly his men threw their full strength upon the levers beneath 
 the tottering masses, which, slowly yielding to the force, hung for a mo- 
 ment as if trembling at the fearful leap, and the next, like the stone of 
 
370 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Sisyphus " resulting with a bound," thundered impetuously down the 
 precipitous ravine directly into the town. One of these masses in leap- 
 ing from a projecting ledge was broken into a thousand pieces. A sec- 
 ond was diverted somewhat from its course by the inequalities of the 
 ground, so as to strike only a couple of houses at the side. But the third, 
 a huge rock of ten tons, rolled straight through the town, carrying every 
 thing before it ; prostrating twenty houses, killing and wounding more 
 than fifty people, among the latter of whom was the Grand Shocco himself ; 
 and leaping from the edge of the inclined plain with a force that pro- 
 jected it a distance of forty yards on the ground below. 
 
 The prince and his men sprang at once to work, preparing for another 
 discharge, while from the town went up a chorus of sounds that almost 
 sensibly aided in loosening the trembling rocks. 
 
 '■'Oicheolu! Oic hi heo lu ! " yelled the frightened J alia. '^ Zi-lc — li- 
 e — li-e-c ! " screamed the women and children at the top of their shrill 
 voices. The men leaped about like so many monkeys, gesticulating furi- 
 ■ously, throwing themselves upon the ground and tearing their long hair, 
 which, frizzled and stiffened with a composition of beeswax and mutton 
 tallow, had very much the appearance of a grenadier's cap saturated with 
 ■Soap fat. The women ran about with their children in their arms or 
 clinging to their garments ; while any number of dogs, partaking of the 
 •general panic, scampered through the town, with their voices elevated in 
 long-drawn howls (they were incapable of barking) to concert pitch. 
 
 Making a signal to Enphadde to suspend his operations, I again ex- 
 pressed to the enemy our desire to offer them terms. The sense of security 
 in which they had hitherto contemned our proffers, was now gone, and 
 they signified their disposition to treat for a surrender. Our messengers 
 were despatched into the town, and in a few minutes they returned 
 with a deputation from the Grand Shocco. As there were no compli- 
 cated diplomatic forms to be gone through with, the business was soon 
 settled. My ultimatum was stated without circumlocution. Immediate 
 surrender, the Grand Shocco and twelve principal men to put themselves 
 into my hands without conditions, and the lives and property (except 
 provisions necessary for our army) of all the other inhabitants to be 
 saved, were the terms to which they at first demurred, but which, as 
 there was no alternative, they were compelled to accept. 
 
 A great many people from the surrounding country had flocked into 
 Jebha for security ; as soon as these had evacuated the narrow plateau 
 we marched up and took possession of the place. We found it to con- 
 sist of about three hundred dwelling-houses, and a dozen large stores 
 
KALOOLAH. 371 
 
 filled with grain, honey, oil, wool, woollen cloths, dates, and weapons of 
 war — the whole belonging to the Shocco, who ruled with despotic power 
 this particular tribe, the Shelwhuck Jalla, who, far more than the other 
 tribes of the same people, had molested the borders of Framazugda. 
 
 Understanding that the chief was lying badly wounded, having been 
 buried beneath the walls of his house, which unluckily stood in the 
 way of Enphadde's irresistible messenger, I went to see him, and 
 found him with a dislocated shoulder and two or three fractured; 
 ribs. He could not conceal his astonishment, when he suddenly found, 
 himself treated as a patient — his broken bones bandaged up, and his; 
 luxation reduced. It was equally a matter of surprise, the attention that 
 I paid to the wounds of his people. 
 
 " I cannot understand," he exclaimed, "why you should take so much 
 pains to cure what you have come so far to make ! " 
 
 We explained to him that we had not come merely for revenge, but 
 to recover the captives that he had sent his people to steal, and to com-, 
 pel him to keep the peace. We told him that the Great Shouns^ bore him. 
 no ill-will, and wished him no harm ; but that he was determined that 
 his people should no longer suffer from the predatory excursions of the 
 Jalla, even if he had to quarter a permanent army in their country, des- 
 olate it with fire from one end to the other, and slay all who should be. 
 caught — men, women, and children. I told him that, for my part, I felt 
 very friendly towards him, but that I had undertaken the command of 
 all the forces of the great king, and that, if I was compelled to return, 
 into his country, I should bring with me great guns, fifty times larger, 
 than our muskets, which would reach him, even if he built his town 
 upon the apex of the peak, and that I should then have to exterminate 
 him and all his people. 
 
 Reinforcements of both Framazugs and Kyptiles, among which was 
 my old friend Sooloo Phar, arriving, our force was swelled to ten thousand 
 men. Leaving, therefore, a strong garrison at Jebha, we set out on an 
 expedition to some other tribes. As we advanced, the chiefs cam^ for- 
 ward, and submitted without opposition, pledging themselves to peace 
 with both the Framazugs and Kyptiles. 
 
 For ten days we continued our march, penetrating the country for 
 more than a hundred miles. At last we came to a small stream, which 
 we should hardly have noticed, had not the inhabitants called our atten- 
 tion to it, asserting that it was the beginning of the greatest river in the 
 world. That after running an immense distance, receiving streams from 
 every direction, it joined itself to a great river farther to the east, and that 
 
372 KALOOLAH. 
 
 both together ran on for several moons' journey, and emptied into a salt 
 lake. Could it be that I stood at the sources of the Bahr el Abiad? that 
 my feet pressed the spot which Bruce so longed to tread, and which, 
 when standing by the fountains of the Blue River, he vainly fancied he 
 had found ? It was possible, in fact probable. I stooped, and kissed 
 the water where it rilled from the ground. Perhaps, thought I, the very 
 drops/ touched by my lips, may course on their winding way, for thou- 
 sands of miles, until, leaping the cataracts of Syene, and passing the pal- 
 aces of Luxor and the pyramids of Geeza, they reach the Mediterranean, 
 and lave the keel of some one of the many ships, bearing the stripes and 
 stars, that proudly part its clear blue waters. 
 
 I asked our guides if it would be possible to follow the stream to its 
 mouth ; they held up their hands in amazement at the idea. 
 
 " Why not ? " I demanded. 
 
 " Oh ! because of the savage countries through which it runs. In 
 some places through barren deserts, and dense forests, in others, through 
 countries inhabited by wild men and cannibals." 
 
 " How do you know, then, that this stream is the head of a great 
 river, if no one has ever traced its course ? " 
 
 " Our ancestors have told us so. They knew, because thirty thousand 
 moons ago they lived upon its banks, where it was a broad stream. But 
 they were compelled by their enemies to fly up into this high country ; 
 and on their journey, which lasted a hundred moons, they were forced to 
 fight their way through nations so fierce, that no Jalla have ever since 
 attempted to return." 
 
 " What kind of people are these that you speak of — white or 
 black ? " 
 
 " Oh ! of all colors," replied my informant, the Shocco of a Jalla 
 town ; " white, black, red, blue, and green." 
 
 Upon expressing some surprise at this statement, the Shocco appealed 
 to several of his nobles for its truth, and even offered, if I would go with 
 him, to lead nxe against a people who had their faces, arms, and breasts, 
 all covered with blue lines, or, if we pleased, he would make an expedi- 
 tion with us to the east, where lived a nation of a little people, covered 
 with green hair, who lived in holes that they dug in the ground with 
 their hands, " or among the branches of the trees." 
 
 " In other words," I interrupted, " a nation of monkeys." 
 
 " Not at all," replied the Shocco, " they are human beings, speak a 
 language that sounds like the whistling of arrows, are governed by chiefs, 
 and when caught, as they sometimes are by the D'jhas'r'huc Jalla, they 
 
KALOOLAII. 
 
 373 
 
 make good slaves. But why should I talk when I can show you one of 
 them. Here Syedge ! Galloom ! Miefrah ! " shouted the Shocco, calling 
 to his slaves, " run up the mountain to the goats' valley, and tell Jicric 
 that I want hini ! " 
 
 In a few minutes Jicric stood before us, and a comical-looking little 
 fellow he was. In height he was about four feet to the top of his shoul- 
 ders, which were elevated to a level with the crown of his head. He had 
 no neck, and his head was half buried in his chest, so that his mouth 
 came just above the upper edge of his sternum, His arms were long, 
 terminating in hands resembling claws. His body was thick and short, 
 
 ** You will sometimes see twenty of these houses hanging from one tree*' 
 
 with a protuberant abdomen, and his lower limbs slender, but strong and 
 sinewy. He had no clothing, but instead was covered with a thick coat- 
 ing of long, coarse hair, of a light pea-green tint. What was my surprise 
 to find such an animal speaking Jally fluently, and answering, through 
 an interpreter, my questions with spirit and intelligence. 
 
 He said that his people were divided into many tribes ; and that they 
 inhabited a great marshy country intersected by rivers running to the 
 east. That they lived upon the spontaneous productions of the soil ; 
 such as nuts, wild fruits, and edible roots ; and also upon insects, locusts, 
 and serpents. That their chief enemies were a white people on the east, 
 with long hair, who annually made an incursion into their country 
 
374 KALOOLAH. 
 
 for slaves ; and on the north, a nation of red men, who painted their 
 faces, and lived in gourds. 
 
 Not understanding what Jicric meant by a people living in gourds, I 
 demanded an explanation. 
 
 " You must know," said he, " that these red men live in a country that 
 produces a vine that bears a gourd as large as a Jalla hut. The stalk of 
 this vine is frequently more than two hands'-breadth in diameter, and 
 the fruit that hangs from it is sometimes more than five paces through. 
 These vines the red people train upon large trees ; and when the yellow 
 hard-shelled gourds have attained their growth, they excavate them, and 
 convert them into pendent dwellings, where they are secure from the at- 
 tacks of the numerous serpents that infest their country. You will sonie- 
 times see twenty of these houses hanging from one tree." 
 
 " How do the inhabitants get in and out ? " 
 
 " Why, by a hole in the bottom, to which they draw themselves up 
 by ropes, or which they can reach by climbing the trunk of the tree and 
 stepping down round the outside of the gourd." 
 
 " Capital houses they must be for the rainy season ! " 
 
 " Oh beautiful ! beautiful ! " exclaimed Jicric ; " and for snakes ! 
 wonderful for snakes ! " 
 
 " Why, are the snakes so numerous ? " 
 
 " Numerous ? why, there is a country not twenty days' from here, 
 where they are so thick that even the people who live in squashes are 
 compelled to desert it. The snakes, in the morning, when they come out 
 of their holes, erect themselves as high and as thick as trees. Some- 
 times, when you look over this snake country you would think that you 
 saw a leafless forest waving in a storm ! " 
 
 Jicric's tones were beginning to assume an air of exaggeration, but 
 they were abundantly corroborated by the loud assertions of the Shocco 
 and his friends. 
 
 I asked Jicric if he would accompany me ; and, upon his assenting, 
 made a bargain for him with his master. The little fellow has been with 
 me ever since, and has grown to be a great favorite with Kaloolah, al- 
 though at first she could hardly bear him in her sight. 
 
 Having now ventured as far from home as prudence would permit, 
 with so small an army, we set out on our return to Jebha. Here we 
 picked up the Grand Shocco, with his twelve principal men, and started 
 for Alkafuz. 
 
 At Alkafuz we left him to come on by litter, and the prince and my- 
 self, mounting the fleetest horses, set out for the capital. In four days 
 
KALOOLAH. 375 
 
 we reached the city, and such a time as we had in making our way 
 through the crpwds in the streets, and into the great square into the pal- 
 ace ! There was nothing Hke a regular procession, and no parade of cap- 
 tives or spoils ; but our reception was a complete impromptu popular 
 triumph. I thought of Bacchus on his return from his Indian expedi- 
 tion ; but Bacchus, if I recollect aright, was acconipanied by all his 
 women folks, and he could afford to dance and fiddle his way along 
 leisurely, whereas mine I had not seen in some time, and I knew that she 
 was waiting for me ; so, jumping from my horse, I dashed through the 
 crowds on foot, leaving the prince to do the honors of the occasion, and 
 crossing the court of monkeys, entered a room hung with feather-cloth 
 and filled with flowers. A female, draped in flowing robes of white, was 
 waiting to receive me, but she was so tall, so dignified, and had such an 
 air of social and regal aplomb that, although she was my own wife, a de- 
 cided sentiment of the reverential qualified the embrace with which I 
 received her, as she threw herself into my arms. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Preparations for War^Organizing an Army — The March — Crossing the Queal- 
 tle — Siege of Goolah — A New Method of Scaling Walls. 
 
 -A Grand Bat- 
 
 kEVERAL months elapsed from the time of our triumphant 
 return before all our preparations were completed for my 
 proposed system of operations against the Footas. In the 
 meantime, however, there had been a number of skirmishes 
 and small battles, in which the Framazugs, and a few Kyptiles, under 
 the command of Enphadde, and assisted by Hugh, Hassan, and Thomp- 
 son, had conducted themselves with a good deal of spirit. In general, 
 however, they were indisposed to attack an enemy armed as the Footas, 
 and no affair of any moment, in consequence, took place. The enemy 
 made continual incursions into the Kyptile and Kimboo countries, and, 
 although they met with more opposition, and had to fight a little harder, 
 they succeeded in making many slaves, and in some places in driving the 
 Kyptiles quite into the Framazug lines. 
 
 My preparations were pushed, under my own personal superintend- 
 ence, with the utmost vigor. Every means in the kingdom was placed at 
 my disposal, and the most stringent orders issued by the Great Shouns^, 
 to the effect that the most implicit obedience was to be rendered to any 
 directions that I might give. 
 
 The first thing I set about was the manufacture of gunpowder. 
 Fortunately, I recollected the proportionate numbers of the ingredients, 
 but I knew not to which article each number applied. That is, I knew 
 that there must be about seventy-five parts of one of the constituents of 
 gunpowder to fifteen of the second, and ten of the third, but whether the 
 seventy-five parts were to be of charcoal, sulphur, or saltpetre, was a point 
 which had wholly escaped my memory. It did not, however, require a 
 long course of experiment to determine the matter ; the powder was at 
 last produced, and that, too, of a very excellent quality. A large manu- 
 factory was now established, and a hundred hands set to work at the several 
 processes ; some pulverized the materials, others mixed the paste in large 
 
 376 
 
KALOOLAH. 377 
 
 wooden bowls, and others granulated it by passing it through sieves of 
 copper. 
 
 The next thing was to make the machines in which the powder was 
 to he used. As for casting solid cylinders of metal, and then boring them 
 out into cannon — it was out of the question. The most that we could 
 do was to cast a hoHow piece, and then work the bore' as smooth and as 
 straight as possible. We tried this, but with many difficulties and acci- 
 dents. The artists in my employ were unused to casting in such large 
 masses, their bronze work, of even their largest statue, being all done in 
 small pieces. We could not undertake, therefore, any thing larger than 
 a four-pounder. In the course of our experiments we met with many 
 accidents ; several times our moulds broke down while in the act of 
 running the metal. At other times the guns came out crooked, full of 
 flaws, and incapable of standing the most moderate proof. And once 
 the liquid metal was poured into a damp mould ; the moisture was 
 instantly converted into steam of a high expansive power. An explosion 
 took place that threw the hot bronze in every direction ; killing two of 
 the workmen, and severely wounding several others. 
 
 After a great deal of trouble in this way, and having succeeded in 
 making only three small pieces that were good for any thing, I concluded 
 to adopt an entirely different plan, and to go back to first principles, or 
 rather to first practices. It occurred to me that I had read somewhere of 
 wooden guns being used in the infancy of artillery science, and even 
 cannon made of leather. Acting upon this idea, I caused the trunk of a 
 peculiar species of palm to be sawed into proper lengths ; the soft pith or 
 heart of one of these was easily removed, leaving a smooth bore of about 
 five inches and a half in diameter, surrounded by a shell three inches 
 thick, of wood surpassing in hardness lignum vitae, or the still harder 
 fibre of the cabbage tree. An iron breech, through which was bored a 
 vent, was now adjusted into one end ; next a number of wrought-iron 
 rings, each two inches thick and four inches wide, and a very little smaller 
 in diameter than the external circumference of the wooden tube, was 
 prepared. These were heated so as to expand them, and passed on in 
 succession, until the whole length of the tube, from breech to muzzle, 
 was encased. Each ring was so fashioned as to dovetail, or interlock, 
 with the ones above and below it. The whole length of the guii was 
 about four feet, and the bore, as I have said, a little more than five inches 
 and a half, making it, as near as I have been able to form any notion on 
 the subject, about the size of a twenty-four-pound howitzer. 
 
 Great was our delight upon trying this piece to find that it fully an- 
 
378 KALOOLAH. 
 
 swered our purposes. More than forty rounds of leaden grape-shot were 
 fired from it before it was materially injured, and even then it was ser- 
 viceable for thirty or forty charges more. The action of the powder 
 upon the wood hardened it almost to the density of iron. Another piece 
 stood more than thirty discharges of round shot, and we found that by 
 taking the precaution of wrapping the ball in greased cloth more than a 
 hundred rounds could be fired, and still leave the gun capable of service. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, it was resolved to prepare twenty-five 
 pieces, and five hundred of the best artisans were at once employed in pre- 
 paring the palm trunks, making the ironwork, casting balls, making up 
 stands of grape and canister, and constructing the carriages. These 
 last were composed of a wooden shoe, into which the gun was fastened, 
 and which was placed upon a stout, heavy plank, with grooves in it that 
 allowed the shoe to slide back and forth about eighteen inches. The 
 recoil, when it had reached its greatest limit, was checked by stout iron 
 springs. Three wooden rollers of different sizes served to elevate to any 
 required angle the forward end of the plank, and ropes attached to the 
 other end served to give a horizontal motion. To rings in the plank 
 were fastened two spars, each thirty-five feet in length, and by means of 
 lanyards to these spars, forty men could lay hold of them, and carry off 
 the guns with ease. When the gun was to be placed in battery these 
 spars could be at once unlimbered and drawn to the rear. 
 
 The organization oi\.h.& personnel ol my army was cov^AmlCX&A. pari passu 
 with the preparation of the materiel. A hundred thousand men were 
 anxious to serve ; but I was determined not to embarrass myself with a 
 horde that it would be impossible to reduce to discipline, or to find any 
 use for. I resolutely insisted on limiting the whole number to twenty- 
 four thousand men. These I divided into eight brigades, each brigade 
 into three regiments, and each regiment into ten companies of one hun- 
 dred men each. They were all armed with bows and arrows ; the bows 
 were carried at the back; each man was also furnished with a large sling 
 to use in case his arrows gave out and stones could be got. Besides these, 
 he carried a short strong spear or pike, about six feet and a half in 
 length, and with a stout double-edged iron point. This shortening of 
 the spears from twelve feet to six was the only thing in all my innova- 
 tions that excited any question as to its propriety ; but my orders had to 
 be obeyed, and twenty-four thousand broad-bladed, sharp-pointed weap- 
 ons, having the well-balanced and agreeable hang of a ship's boarding 
 pike, were made. 
 
 It was fortunate, perhaps, that I knew nothing of military tactics be- 
 
KALOOLAH. 379 
 
 yond what arty Yankee youngster obtains from reading of battles and 
 seeing " general trainings." I might otherwise have been perplexed 
 with knowledge, and anxious to communicate too much of it to 
 my troops. As it was, I felt no inducement to indulge in any of the 
 superfluities of drill. In the school of the soldier a simple system of 
 manual exercise was the first thing that demanded my attention. The 
 nature of it will be best understood, perhaps, from the words of com- 
 mand. These were: "shoulder spears," "charge spears," "ground 
 spears," which meant sticking the spears upright into the ground in front 
 of the soldier; " unsling bows," " notch arrows," " draw arrows," " fire." 
 Hugh, who undertook the entire superintendence of the manual exercise, 
 wished to introduce several other commands, such as " carry arms," 
 " present arms," etc. ; and had the men had any thing about them that 
 could have been twisted by any effort of fancy into a resemblance to 
 ramrods and cartridges, he would have insisted upon their drawing the 
 one and handling the other. As it was, I had to compromise matters 
 with him, and, in consideration of their utility in relieving the men upon 
 a march, permit the use of " slope spears " and "trail spears." 
 
 In the school of the company there were no very difficult or impor- 
 tant points necessary for our purposes to be attended to. Marching by 
 whole front or platoons, wheeling, changing face, and halting were all 
 that we attempted, and these were not performed, as Hugh loudly pro- 
 tested, secundein artcin ; but as he could not demonstrate that the prac- 
 tice of the royal marines was any better, he was compelled to swallow 
 his professional pride and follow the army regulations, as by myself and 
 my respectable old father-in-law established. 
 
 The school of the battalion was more difficult to arrange, and tasked 
 my invention the most severely, inasmuch as neither Hugh nor myself 
 knew any thing of battalion or regimental manoeuvres. But, although 
 ignorant of the means, or rather the modus operandi, the indications to be 
 fulfilled were evident enough. Of these, the two most important were, 
 deploying from column, and forming squares. The latter, in particular, 
 was of the highest consequence, inasmuch as upon it depended the entire 
 success of our operations against an enemy whose whole force consisted 
 in cavalry. 
 
 After much consideration, I succeeded in arranging a series of evolu- 
 tions, by which each regiment could be thrown into square, solid or hol- 
 low, according to the exigencies of the case and the extent of the ground, 
 at a moment's notice, either from column or line, and when marching or 
 stationary. It would take too long to give all the details of the manoeu- 
 
38o KALOOLAH. 
 
 vres, and, besides, I have no wish to shock the professional sensibilities 
 of any of the accomplished tacticians and martinets of the New York mi- 
 litia. Suffice it therefore to say that, upon my system, squares to resist 
 a charge of cavalry can now be formed with all necessary rapidity and 
 precision. 
 
 A system of tactics having been matured, it became necessary to apply 
 it in practice, and to discipline twenty-four thousand men, to train them 
 to new uses of their weapons, to qew combinations of movement — to 
 teach them the more effective Christian mode of fighting. This was ac- 
 complished in a wonderful short space of time, by collecting all the 
 officers of the army into a battalion about eight hundred strong, and 
 drilling them first. They were then dismissed to their respective corps, 
 when each regimental staff exerted itself in emulation to communicate its 
 knowledge to the men. To favor this emulation, the regiments were en- 
 camped apart, and for three months the drills were conducted without 
 any one but the members of the corps being present. Every day the 
 battalion line of officers was formed, and either Hugh or myself put them 
 through their, evolutions, but I carefully abstained from visiting the 
 quarters of the different regiments when they were at their exercises. At 
 the end of three months it was announced that the king and myself 
 would make a tour of inspection, and that those regiments that best per- 
 formed their exercises would receive marks of the royal bounty. It must 
 be understood that the army was composed of picked men, men chosen 
 for their intelligence and activity, and that the spirit of emulation had 
 been carried to the highest pitch in order to comprehend the wonderful 
 progress that they had made. The emperor was in raptures, and ordered 
 that every man should receive a month's pay as a present, and that the 
 officers should be rewarded with an increase of salary and with decora- 
 tions and orders. Captains of companies were allowed to add a green 
 parrot's feather to their caps, and the field officers were each presented 
 with a stuffed monkey's paw, to be worn suspended from the neck by a 
 blue ribbon. 
 
 The army was now collected in one camp on the outskirts of the city, 
 and the drilling went on under my own personal inspection. Particular 
 pains were taken in the formation of the squares. The officers, when in 
 the centre were taught to use a number of encouraging expressions to 
 their men, and the firmness of the kneeling ranks was assured by the 
 repeated charges of squadrons of cavalry up to the very spear-heads. No 
 military manoeuvre, when well performed, can be more beautiful. Upon 
 the word, each regiment rapidly closes into a solid mass ; the men, with 
 
KALOOLAH. 381 
 
 their polished spears and their hght-red uniforms, and the officers in the 
 centre with their dancing, many-colored plumes and rich uniforms of bril- 
 liant feather-cloth. A second order, and the flashing spear-points are 
 levelled and inclined outward, the front ranks drop to their knees with a 
 movement that, to a spectator at a little distance, looks not unlike the 
 bursting from bud to flower of a gigantic rose, or rather like the blowing- 
 of a large red thistle. 
 
 At length all was ready, and early one beautiful morning in the be- 
 ginning of the dry season the army commenced its march for the Queal — 
 which river was reached without any difficulty, the roads being good, and 
 every thing having been prepared to facilitate our progress. It was my 
 plan to cross the stream, and, pushing on down to the lake, lay siege to 
 Goolah. Here it was thought that the Footas would make a vigorous 
 defence, but it was not expected that they would meet us in full force in 
 the field. We were, therefore, somewhat astonished, though far from 
 displeased, to find the enemy in considerable numbers, occupying the 
 opposite bank of the river. I at once decided, instead of depending 
 upon our skin boats, to throw a bridge across the river, and to fortify it 
 so as to secure a means of retreat, if necessary. For this purpose En- 
 phadde was despatched across with a detachment to seize a position, which 
 he did without opposition, the attention of the enemy being diverted by 
 the main body of the army, and in a few hours had it strongly entrenched. 
 
 In three days we had a fine wide bridge, consisting of a strong frame- 
 work, covered with planks, floated by means of boats and inflated skins, 
 and defended at either end by a stone tower. We crossed, and took up 
 our line of march through a wild, open country — the Foota horsemen 
 appearing in great numbers, but retreating as we advanced. 
 
 It is unnecessary to detain the reader with all the details of marching^ 
 bivouacking, and skirmishing. Suffice it to say we at length reached 
 the banks of the lake, and within sight of the walls of Goolah. We 
 found the enemy in full force, occupying a wide level piece of ground 
 that stretched from the town along the lake, up to the mouth of the 
 Queal. On the other side, this plain was bounded by a ridge of wooded 
 hills. At one place these hills came down to within half a mile of the 
 water, so as almost to cut the plain in two, and then fell away again, with 
 a bold sweep around the town. A thorough reconnoissance satisfied us 
 that the hills were uninhabited, and that it was possible, although diffi- 
 cult, to pass along through them, and reach the narrowest part of the 
 plain ; thus cutting the Footas off from their town, and compelling them 
 to a general engagement at once. 
 
382 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Leaving Dal Gouk at the head of half my disposable force of twenty 
 thousand, in an entrenched camp, to occupy the Footas and to cover our 
 detour, I set out, accompanied by the prince and my companions, with 
 the remaining ten thousand, and three complete batteries of artillery. 
 Luckily, our batteries were not composed of Christian cannon, or we 
 should have found the way perfectly impracticable. As it was, it was 
 very heavy work carrying our light guns up and down precipices, 
 and over jagged rock3 ; but perseverance conquered all obstacles ; and at 
 nightfall, after a terrible day's march, we reached a point still covered by ' 
 the hills, but whence we could at once debouch upon the narrow portion 
 of plain before mentioned. Little did the Footas, who were assembled 
 some thirty thousand strong, at the upper part of the small prairie in 
 front of Dal Gouk's lines — little did they dream that their flanks had 
 been turned, and that their enemy, with a divided force, it is true, but 
 still a sufificient one, had reached their rear. And just as little did they 
 dream of the death-dealing properties of the formidable machines that 
 they were soon about to encounter. 
 
 Putting the army in motion at daybreak, in a few minutes we reached 
 the level ground. A small rocky islet stood out a little distance in the 
 plain ; upon this I placed three pieces of artillery in care of Jack, with 
 orders not to fire a gun until the enemy's charge had been repulsed. 
 When fully in position, our right flank, under Enphadde, rested upon the 
 bank of the river, and was supported by three pieces in charge of Hugh. 
 The remaining artillery, consisting of twelve pieces, I drew up under my 
 own personal superintendence, upon our left flank, at the base of the 
 hills, and three or four hundred yards in rear of Jack's masked demi- 
 battery. 
 
 It was the middle of the forenoon when all our positions were taken, 
 and by that time the enemy were fully informed of our movements. In 
 fact, our operations had been conducted after daylight, directly under 
 the supervision of bodies of horsemen, who, however, had offered no 
 opposition. Large masses of cavalry began to accumulate in front of us ; 
 until about noon the enemy's full force had moved down from Dal Gouk's 
 camp to the barrier so suddenly raised in their rear. They were not long 
 in coming to the conclusion to ride over us, a feat which they had no 
 doubt about being able to perform on level ground. As soon as it was 
 evident, from their motions, that there was to be a general charge, I 
 threw my troops into squares, and passed up and down the whole length 
 of the line, addressing to each battalion a few words of encouragement, 
 which were received with the utmost enthusiasm. 
 
 Grandly the whole mass moved down upon us. There was no effort 
 
KALOOLAH. 383 
 
 at order, but for spirit, rapidity of pace, and numbers, there was never a 
 cavalry charge of the French more magnificent. On they came, the ground 
 trembling and groaning beneath the tramp of twenty thousand horses, 
 twirling their muskets and spears high above their heads, and beating with 
 might and main on their shields of buffalo hide. On they came, with their 
 white teeth flashing, their scimitars gleaming, and their ornamented 
 trappings rattling like pebbles amid the thundering of a heavy surf. On 
 they came with trumpets sounding, cymbals clashing, and each voice 
 shouting the famous battle-cry of the Saracens — that battle-cry which, 
 however Christians may boast of their achievements, has been heard on 
 more fields and has heralded more bloodshed than any Christian battle- 
 cry ever uttered, not excepting the exciting oaths of the English soldiery, 
 the blasphemies of the French, the obscene anathemas of the Spanish, 
 or the elegant and encouraging " give 'em hell " of my own countrymen. 
 On they came, but still my men stood as firm as did the English squares 
 at Waterloo. Suddenly the roar of the batteries on our left was added to 
 the tumult. It was answered by Hugh's three pieces, and by a general 
 discharge of slings, arrows, and small-arms from our lines. The enemy 
 immediately in front of the batteries were completely demolished by our 
 first discharge, when, changing front to the right, I opened a tremendous 
 flanking fire upon the dense masses, very much to the relief of the hard- 
 pressed squares. As the enemy recoiled. Jack's gun came into play, and 
 the rapid discharges of grape and canister, from eighteen pieces, carried 
 death into every portion of their disordered ranks. 
 
 At this moment a body of a thousand horse came creeping down on 
 our left, under the shadow of the hills. They proved to be our Kyptilea 
 and Kimboos, under Sooloo Phar, from Dal Gouk's camp. At a word 
 they threw themselves upon the struggling and reeling masses, and the 
 rout was complete. Five thousand were left dead on the field — while 
 several hundreds were forced over the steep banks into the river, and 
 many more were destroyed by the Seywad as they fled by his camp. 
 
 The next day the whole army made a regular investment of the town, 
 which had refused all offers for a capitulation. Our batteries were at 
 once placed in position, but after a hard day's firing, we found that they 
 were utterly inadequate to making any impression upon the massive walls, 
 In addition to their want of size, our guns began to show signs of weak- 
 ness, and it was evident that another day's cannonade would use them 
 up entirely. 
 
 For three weeks we lay before Goolah, suffering many inconveniences, 
 especially from want of provisions, the remnants of the defeated Foota 
 army occupying our rear, and cutting off our communications. And 
 
384 KALOOLAH. 
 
 there we might have stayed until the present day, had I not thought of a 
 plan for taking the town, which, if not as ingenious as that adopted by 
 Cyrus for the capture of Babylon, was at least as novel and as successful. 
 
 On the east side of the town, the wall, crossing between two eleva- 
 tions of ground, had been carried the same height as upon the eminences ; 
 the consequence was, that at this point it was more than sixty feet 
 from top to bottom, and that this very height rendered it unlikely to be 
 attempted by escalade, led to its being less vigilantly guarded than the 
 more accessible portions. A close and continued watch satisfied us that 
 at night the enemy wholly neglected it, while at the gates and walls 
 generally they kept themselves pretty wide awake. 
 
 My plan once formed, I instantly set about preparing the machinery 
 for carrying it into execution. Two large strong concave disks of copper, 
 about the size of soup plates, were first made. Around the edge of each 
 was fixed a rim of leather, and into the back, or convex side, was firmly 
 inserted, perpendicularly, a pistol barrel. A piston adapted to the barrel 
 converted it into a pump, by which the air within, when the disk was 
 pressed against a flat surface, could be exhausted. The pistol barrel 
 projecting horizontally when the disk was placed against a perpendicular 
 surface, served as a projection for the hand to grasp, while from each 
 depended a loop or stirrup for the feet. The method of using this appa- 
 ratus is simple enough ; all that is necessary is to place one disk against a 
 smooth wall, as high as the arm can reach ; the piston is worked for a 
 few seconds by means of the thumb forcing it in, and a spring driving it 
 out — a partial vacuum, produced when the disk is held firmly against the 
 wall, by the pressure of the external air. Upon standing up in the 
 stirrup, the other disk is applied higher up, and fastened in the same 
 manner, and so on alternately. In this way a person can creep along a 
 smooth wall to any height or distance. 
 
 Upon trying this apparatus, one dark night, on the lofty portion of 
 wall that I have mentioned, I found it to answer my expectations perfectly. 
 Reaching the top without any difficulty, and without exciting any alarm, 
 I drew up, by means of a cord, a ladder of ropes. Up this quietly crept 
 a body of two hundred men, headed by Jack. When all were assembled, 
 and dawn sufficiently advanced to see our way, we passed swiftly along 
 to one of the gates, and descending, took possession of it almost without 
 opposition. The alarm had spread, but before the enemy could recover 
 from their surprise, the gate was thrown open, and the prince, at the head 
 of a battalion, with two or three guns, came rushing in. The other gates 
 were soon secured, and the town was ours. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Return from the Wars — Hammed Benshoolo — Message from Kaloolah — Mysterious Indications 
 — Gogo in Chains — An Infant Phenomenon — Conclusion. 
 
 iT was about three weeks after the capture of the city that, 
 accompanied by Hammed Benshoolo, a Moorish trader from 
 Morocco, whom we had found in Goolah, and a small escort, I 
 started on my return to Kiloam. The main body of the army, 
 under the command of the prince, was to remain for a while on the further 
 banks of the Queal to enforce the terms of the treaty, the principal items 
 of which were the suppression of all slave-hunting expeditions, the 
 demolition of the walls of Goolah, and the payment of a tribute to the 
 Great Shouns6. 
 
 The lofty acropolis of Kiloam was in sight. I pointed it out to 
 Hammed. " You little expected to find such a country as this, and such 
 a city as that yonder," said I. 
 
 " Not so populous and so large," replied the Moor; "but still I have 
 often heard rumors at Jennee and Timbuctoo of a very rich white nation 
 beyond the Djebel el Kumri. In truth, I should not have journeyed to 
 Goolah, so much farther than any Moorish trader ever came before, if it 
 had not been in hopes of seeing something of the great unknown land." 
 
 " You are determined to return ? " I demanded. 
 
 "With your permission," replied Hammed. " It will be a long and 
 difficult journey, but, with the blessing of God, I shall get back as I came, 
 in safety." 
 
 A capital opportunity, thought I, of sending some news to my Chris- 
 tian friends of my whereabouts and prospects. At this moment my at- 
 tention was taken by the flutter of a royal banner- from the turret of a 
 chateau we were approaching, and in a few moments we encountered mes- 
 sengers, who had been despatched to inform me that the princess had 
 come thus far to meet me. 
 
 For more than a month I had heard no news from the court, and the 
 anxiety with which I questioned the messages may be imagined ; but 
 they had nothing to tell, except that the princess had been ill, but was 
 
 385 
 
386 KALOOLAH. 
 
 own much better, and that she was awaiting me at the neighboring 
 chateau. There was an air of constraint in their manner and answers that 
 I thought a little singular, but which I suffered to pass without further 
 question, hurrying my pace only, and riding down any bodements before 
 they had time to form. 
 
 We entered the gates of the chateau. Throwing the reins of my 
 horse to an attendant, I strode across the court-yard to the great hall, at 
 the entrance to which stood Clefenha, making all kinds of grimaces and 
 gestures. She rolled her eyes, showed her white teeth, threw her arms 
 about in all manner of ways, and, dancing up and down, muttered a 
 string of unintelligible exclamations — " Oh, Wollo ! Wollo ! how big ! 
 how fat ! how beautiful ! " At the same time, seizing my hand, she half 
 devoured it with kisses. 
 
 " The girl must be crazy," said I to the surrounding groups, who, 
 however, made no reply. 
 
 At this moment I noticed Gogo — yellow-haired Gogo — poor fellow ! — 
 he was seated in a corner in a very desponding attitude ; but what was 
 most singular, he was firmly secured by a stout wire chain around his neck. 
 
 " And what can this mean ? " I exclaimed, advancing towards him, 
 " Gogo in disgrace ! " 
 
 But the negress intercepted me, sputtering out in broken sentences of 
 Framazug her indignation at some offence Gogo had been committing. 
 As she spluttered and shook her hand at him, he chattered and rattled 
 his chain, until, at last, excited beyond all bounds, the negress flew at him 
 and gave him a smart box on the ear. The explosion of rage on both 
 sides was exceedingly comical, and wholly incomprehensible, except on 
 the supposition that Gogo had become mad, and that Clefenha had been 
 bitten by him. 
 
 " I must ask Kaloolah what all this means," said I, as I ascended the 
 stairs, followed by the negress, who, amid her objurgations of Gogo, con- 
 trived to intersperse her indefinite admiratory exclamations of something 
 that was " Wollo ! Wollo ! how beautiful ! and how fat ! " 
 
 Kaloolah stood beneath a curtained archway to receive me. The 
 passage was in shadow, but I could perceive that she was pale, and that 
 she was holding on by the golden fringe of the drapery to support herself. 
 I rushed forward to her, and she fell, sobbing, into my arms. , 
 
 " Kaloolah ! Lolo Yarra ! Lolo Semali! My life ! my heart ! What 
 is this ? What has happened ? Are you ill ? Has any accident befallen 
 the Great Shouns6 ? And, Clefenha, what is the matter with her — has 
 she gone crazy ? " 
 
KALOOLAH. 387 
 
 The princess looked up, with a smile, in my eyes. 
 
 " And Gogo — what is the matter with Gogo, that he is banished 
 from your presence in chains ? " 
 
 " Oh, the naughty little wretch ! " said Kaloolah, shuddering. "And 
 yet, I ought not to say so. Poor fellow, I pity him." 
 
 " Why so ? , What is the matter with him ? " 
 
 " He is jealous." 
 
 " Jealous ! of what ? " 
 
 " I '11 show you," said Kaloolah, looking up in my face with an expres- 
 sion of mingled pride and affection, and with a cunning smile, that, 
 flashing through my memory, instantaneously lighted up each little spot 
 and dot that marked the train of reminiscence from the princess of Fra- 
 mazugda, back to the little slave girl on the banks of the Congo. 
 
 " I '11 show you," said Kaloolah, and leading me along the passage, 
 she pulled aside the curtain, and we entered a room in the centre of 
 which stood a couch formed of ivory, pannelled with the beautifully 
 polished hide of the rhinoceros. On one side of the couch sat Jicric 
 with a palm-leaf fan in his hand, and so busily engaged in the investiga- 
 tion of some mystery hidden in the drapery, that he did not perceive my 
 approach ; while on the other stood Clefenha, still dancing, and wrig- 
 gling, and rolling her eyes, and muttering " WoUo ! Wollo ! so big — so 
 fat — so beautiful ! " 
 
 We advanced to the couch. Kaloolah drew down the light covering, 
 
 and there was exposed — what shall I say ? — what shall I call it ? 
 
 It is to be hoped that the reader is fond of fat babies — for this was a 
 perfect little monster — a regular little Daniel Lambert of a baby ; and 
 then such red cheeks, and such big black eyes ! 
 
 Baby was awake, and, of course, had to be taken up and receive his 
 first paternal kiss — a performance which he took quietly enough, but 
 which nearly threw Clefenha in convulsions. " Wollo ! Wollo ! " she 
 shouted, dancing about the room — " so big — so fat — so beautiful ! " 
 
 There was a scratch upon one of its round red cheeks. " Ah ! that is 
 Gogo's villainy," said Kaloolah — " when he first saw his rival in my arms 
 he flew at him like a little fiend, and before Jicric could come to my 
 assistance, inflicted the wound you see." 
 
 After sufficiently condoling with Kaloolah upon Gogo's rascality, ad- 
 miring the points of little J on 'than, and amusing myself with the odd 
 sound of my own voice in English baby-talk, the infant phenomenon 
 was handed back to his couch, and Jicric, squatting by his side, resumed 
 his intense search for any straggling fly. 
 
388 KALOOLAH. 
 
 And there he lay, cooing and looking with his great eyes at nothing, 
 and doubling up his fat fists, and blowing bubbles with his round pout- 
 ing mouth, just like any Christian-born baby ; there he lay, a glorious 
 lump of human possibilities — a tiny candidate for the world's prizes — a 
 new entry for the race to eternity. There he lay, an offshoot of Ameri- 
 can institutions — a seedling of Christianity and republicanism — of the 
 first, yes, for I will indoctrinate him ; of the latter, as circumstance may 
 determine, — republicans are born, not made. There he lay, the seal of 
 my fate — the estopple upon any vague longings or designs of returning 
 to my own country, at least for the present. 
 
 " Yes," said I, aloud, " the thing is settled ; my destiny is fixed ; the 
 chain of matrimony merely might be carried around the world, but not 
 when loaded with a baby — where is Hammed Benshoolo ? " 
 
 Hammed was soon in attendance. 
 
 " How soon do you wish to set out on your journey ? " I demanded. 
 
 " As soon as your highness pleases," replied Hammed ; " after I have 
 feasted my eyes, with your permission, upon the glories of the great city." 
 
 " And you intend to journey by the way of Timbuctoo and Tafilet 
 to Morocco." 
 
 " I intend to return, God willing, to my native town of Alkassar, near 
 the city of Fez." 
 
 " From thence to some of the seaports of Morocco will be but two 
 or three days' journey." 
 
 " A mere step, your highness, to one who has visited the Dj6bel 
 Kumri, traversed the Soudan, and crossed the desert." 
 
 " And will you undertake to deliver a parcel of manuscripts into the 
 hands of the American consul at Mogadore, Mazagan, or Tangiers ? " 
 
 " I will do it," replied Hammed, " if it should cost me the little profit 
 that, with God's blessing, I hope to reap from my long journeying." 
 
 " No fear of that ; it will cost you nothing ; and, besides, I will fill 
 your hollow staff with more gold dust than you could collect in ten 
 trading trips across the desert ; will you promise to carry what I entrust 
 to you, with care, and to deliver it faithfully ? " 
 
 " I swear it," exclaimed Benshoolo, solemnly, " by Allah and Mo- 
 hammed ! " 
 
 And now, dear reader — permit me to call you so, especially as I know 
 that, most probably, you have an existence only in my own imagination ; 
 that you are but a bare possibility of animate intelligence — dearest reader, 
 the preceding pages are the manuscript so intrusted to the Moor, in the 
 
KALOOLAH. 389 
 
 not very confident hope that it will reach the eye of some one, who, con- 
 sidering the circumstances under which it has been written, may think it 
 worthy of being given to the world. It was at first my intention to re- 
 write it, but I content myself with cutting it down a little, and with 
 throwing out some portions that personal delicacy would permit only in a 
 journal that by no possibility could ever meet the public eye. Still, there 
 are some things for which I owe an apology — some expressions of senti- 
 ment and feeling — some confidences in relation to the sacred secrets of 
 the heart, fit only for the pages of a sentimental poet, or of some gentle- 
 man all soul and but little delicacy ; and the apology that I have to offer, 
 is the uncertainty whether my manuscript will ever meet a civilized eye ; 
 and the vast distance that separates me from all Christian curiosity and 
 sympathy — a distance which, like death, will, I hope, magnify into objects 
 of some interest my otherwise unimportant adventures, and mellow down 
 any impertinences of egotism. 
 
 Kaloolah is looking over my shoulder as I write. She wishes me to 
 express to you, reader, her profound wishes for your health and happiness ; 
 in fact, to say to you, and to every man, woman, and child in America, 
 that she loves the whole of you — that to such of my fair countrywomen 
 as may take any interest in this tale of my journeyings, she sends a thou- 
 sand kisses each. As there is such uncertainty of their reaching their 
 destination in this way, it will' be best, perhaps, for me to receive Ka- 
 loolah's kisses on deposit ; and should I ever succeed in my plans for 
 reaching the Bight of Benin, and opening a communication between 
 Framazugda and the Christian world, under liberal reciprocity treaties, 
 which I am in hopes of being able to do in four or five years, or sometime 
 about 1849 O"" '5°' -^ shall hold myself ready to deliver them most faith- 
 fully to all claimants, in the promptest manner, and upon the slightest 
 demand. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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