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DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 The Glenn Negley Collection 
 of Utopian Literature 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/kaloolahorjourneOOmayo 
 
ALVORD, PRINT. >'. T 
 
w 
 
KALOOLAH, 
 
 OR 
 
 JOUMEYINGS TO THE DJEBEL KUMRI: 
 
 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 JONATHAN ROME R. 
 
 B PITB P BY 
 
 W. S. MAYO, M. D. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 165 BROADWAY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 DAVID BOGUE, 86 FLEET-STREET. 
 
 1849. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by 
 
 W. S. MAYO, M. D. 
 
 In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New- York. 
 
 Printed and Stereotyped by 
 
 D. PANSHAW. 
 
 35 Ann-sti-eet, 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 dedica- 
 tion to a desire merely of connecting my name, however 
 remotely or indirectly, with that of your illustrious hus- 
 band — 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 friendship, will do my motives justice, inasmuch 
 as they can readily comprehend the inducements to pay 
 a compliment, where the highest terms of complimenf 
 
 308524 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 are but the words of soberness and truth. They, at 
 least, will find no dijBBiculty in believing that I avail my- 
 self of your permission to inscribe to you the following 
 pages, solely because it afibrds me an opportunity of 
 expressing my appreciation of your many high qualities 
 — your literary taste ; cultivated conversational talent ; 
 happy grace of manner, and kindness of heart. 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 New-York, May 25, 1849. 
 
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 manu- 
 script, 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 un- 
 known, 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 judgment, in such matters, that after a deal of 
 patient and painful cogitation upon the subject, I find myself utterly unable 
 10 decide two questions that present themselves, to wit, is it worth publish- 
 ing? 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 crjing babies for miles 
 inland) carried their bloody swallow-tail pendants up the English 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 
 
 o A Q r; 9 a 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 mouth of the Buregreb, exactly opposite the flourishing town of Rabat, and 
 precisely one himdred and twenty miles from the straits of Hercules, down the 
 Atlantic coast of the dominions of Muley Abderhaimiiau. Now in this particular, 
 to wit, the aspect and topography of Salee and its environs, I have the advan- 
 tage 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, ow- 
 ing 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, Marseilles and Leg- 
 horn — a christian can pass through the streets under the protection of a Moor- 
 ish 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 inhabitants 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-choaked harbor; and the groans of ten thousand cursed Kaflircaptives 
 resounded through the capacious vaults of the water wall and bastions ; anything 
 in cravat, coat and pantaloons, runs an imminent risk of life. In the one, the 
 booted and bevered 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, iu 
 
PREFACE. Vii 
 
 the other, it may be questioned whether the Sultan's crack regiment, said to 
 be composed wholly of his own sons, would be able to preserve an inch of Chris- 
 tian skin intact. Strange that there should be such a difference between the 
 inhabitants 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 after- 
 wards found, commercial jealousy had been aroused, and representations made 
 to the Emperor, that under the pretence of travelling for amusement, I in rea- 
 lity concealed some deep political designs. The suspicion 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 fanciful and taking title. The 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 sus- 
 pected of paper spoiling propensities, in searcli 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 prohibited from going back, but it 
 was respectfully intimated, that could I persuade 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 ex- 
 amination of Sma Hassan, a superb square tower, said to have been built by 
 the architect of the Geralda of Seville, answered for the second. The third 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 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 storks nests, and every crevice of 
 the dilapidated curtains connectmg 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 home 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, between the river and the water gate, there was any quantity of 
 long-legged bipeds, 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 impossible to get a 
 shot at them, they were so tame. No sooner would I succeed in raising a fel- 
 low 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, 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 tune in shyness, and pro- 
 mising great sport in a day or two, when its caution, so long in abeyance, 
 should have become thoroughly aroused. But an end was put to my sporting 
 calculations, 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, per formam the- 
 ologicam. 
 
 The resources of the place, thus completely exhausted, the fifth day hung 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 heavy. I could do nothing but pace up and down the narrow precincts of the 
 paved courtyard ; 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 
 m the streets, least some kief-smoking, hashschese-eating behever should, ui 
 his delirium, take it into his head to make of my person a target for ball prac- 
 tice, and thus win heaven for himself by sending me to the devil. 
 
 " Haven't you a book of any kind ?" I inquired of my host, Isaac Ben- 
 shemole. 
 
 " 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 hasn't any Spanish or latin books, bring anything that he 
 has ; Syriac, Coptic, anything. I feel as if I could read an Egyptian papyrus 
 or a Runic tombstone." 
 
 The worthy representative of the two great commercial powers, England 
 and America, started off on his errand; but in a moment he returned, and put- 
 ting his head in at the door, exclaimed, " Maniiscritos, senor ?"' 
 
 " Certainly, manuscripts or printed books ; anything to read," I replied. 
 " Well, then, seiior, 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 exami- 
 nation 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 Portu- 
 guese mLstico, and besides the usual notices of courses and winds, contained 
 several accounts current with the crew for oil, garlic, salt fish, and Jew bran- 
 dy, with frequent memorandums of cargo, custom house payments, and port 
 charges. The other was a much cleaner, and newer piece of writing, in a cha- 
 racter that I at once concluded to be beyond 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 rivetted on the 
 pages; there was a familiar look in the turn of some of the letters that quite 
 
 1* 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 fascinated me- The writing was in a very fine and compact hand , it was divid- 
 ed 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 com- 
 mercial 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 in- 
 terfering, 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 correspond- 
 ing characters of the manuscript, which it was easy to perceive, when tlius in 
 juxtaposition, were nothing more or less than Roman letters, with the conso- 
 nants trimmed down and condensed, and the vowels expressed by a single dot. 
 Imagine my astonishment and delight, to find upon applying this key, and de- 
 ciphering a few words, that the manuscript was written in English. After a 
 few hours' practice I found that I could read the cypher quite easily, so that, at 
 the end of five days 1 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 Benshemole, 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, al- 
 though I have been, and am now deeply interested in it, but then I am. fond of 
 anything in the shape of travels and adventures, 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 
 tlie press, with such corrections and emendations as may seem to you proper. 
 
PREFACE. 3C1 
 
 I have the utmost confidence in your literary judgment, and besides, the work, 
 written as it is by a medical student, and containing frequent allusions to me- 
 dical 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 commanders of national vessels should be ap- 
 prised of the fact, and officially required to keep a sharp look-out for any inti- 
 mations 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 preparing 
 it for the press, 
 
 I am. 
 
 Your obedient Servant, &c. &c. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Pago, 
 
 A life of adventure hereditary. — Nantucket whalemen. — Thoughts in a 
 whale's mouth. — A ship struck by a whale and destroyed. — Loss of 
 an armed brig. — Where there's a will there's a way. — A passion for 
 the sea. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A comprehensive British blockade. — Specie accumulated at Vera Cruz. — 
 The writer's father dispatched in a fast-sailing schooner for it. — Night 
 encounter with a British vessel. — Getting into the midst of an English 
 squadron, and getting out again. 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The birth-place of the writer. — Ancient ruins. — Early physical education. — 
 First going away to school. — Characteristic adventure on the road. 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 School life. — Boyish adventures. 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A revival. — School broken up. — Wanderings and reflections in the woods. — 
 Joe Downs, the trapper. — An Indian killed with a ramrod. — Arrange- 
 ments for an expedition into the wilderness. — A letter from the 
 writer's mother. 38 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A hunting expedition. — Meeting with Indians. — A secret caravan. — Mr. 
 Downs' opinions of the Indians. — Indians sueing for assault and bat- 
 tery. — Encampment in the pine barrens. — One way to cook fish. — 
 Deer shooting by torch-light. 48 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Pȣ0 
 
 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. 58 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 An opportune arrival. — Return to the village. — Bad news. — Jonathan hur- 
 ries home. — His mother's death. — A spiritual visitation. 69 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 Jonathan's mother. — Commences the study of medicine. — Medicine and 
 
 its professors. — Student fancies. 77 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Fascinations of anatomy. — The doctors in doubt. — A grave incident. — 
 Flight of Jonathan. — Arrival in New -York. — Meets an old friend. — 
 A youngster on the main-gaft. — An opportune oifer. — Sailing of the 
 Lively Anne. 82 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 At sea. — Motions and emotions. — A boat afloat. — Jonathan's verses, and 
 the captain's pun. — A critique on Lycidas. — Corvo and Flores. — Ar- 
 rival at Fayal. — The town of Orta. — Garden of the American Con- 
 sulate. — An illustration of the force of prejudice. — The Peak of Pico. 
 — An elaborate, but forced conceit. — Reluctant adieus. 96 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Sailors and discipline. — Marine tartars. — Uncle Jethro's eye. — Pricking 
 the cook. — Flogging in the navy. — A last look at the Peak. — A white 
 squall, or a water-spout. — A capsize. 105 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 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 experi- 
 ment. 112 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Preparing signals. — Overhauling the lockers. — A sail in sight. — Fresh pro- 
 visions. — Hooking a turtle. — More ships in sight. — Moonlight on the 
 ocean. — The Salvages. — Dr. Johnson's prayer. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Land ho! — A weatherly craft. — The Peak of TenerifFe. — Oratavo. — A 
 dark night. — Shore lights. — Hailing a fisherman. — Beauties of Qua- 
 rantine. — A disappointment. — A storm. — Dining like a gentleman. — 
 A ship in sight. — Visit from her captaiu. — Leaving the Lively Anne. 128 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 El Bonito. — Her officers and crew. — The Cape de Verd 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. 138 
 
 CHAPTERXVII. 
 
 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. — Purchase of the Gerboo. — 
 Visit to Banza Embemda. — Kaloolah's brother. — Purchase of En- 
 phadde. — Return to Lembee. — The Bonito driven to sea by a British 
 cruiser. — Meeting of Kaloolah and Enphadde. — House hunting by 
 torch light. 151 
 
 CHAPTER XVTII. 
 
 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 warning. — Kaloolah's English. 
 — The Tultul and the river. — An attempt to kill Kaloolah. — A sleep- 
 less night. 160 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A Congo custom. — A funeral. — A compliment to the corpse. — A feast. — 
 A public speech. — Making a hit, or shooting a fetish. — Kaloolah's 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 Pog«. 
 
 conquest. — A musical entertainment. — The malaria. — An attack of 
 fever. — Kaloolah as uurse. — Attentions of the negroes. — Return of 
 the Bonito. — Danger from Kalool all's good looks. — Expedient to get 
 rid of her beauty. 171 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Captain Garbez's return. — A hard blow. — A promise to the Virgin. — Suffer- 
 ings in the baracoons. — Preparations for loading. — Packing the 
 slaves. — Loose packing and tight packing. — Arrangements for Ka- 
 loolah and her brother. — A timely fit of rheumatism. — Getting to 
 sea. — Effects of sea-sickness among the slaves. — The captain's argu- 
 ment. — Jonathan's proteges. — Talk about Framazugda. — Jonathan's 
 intentions. 182 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Condition of the slaves. — Throwmg overboard the sick. — A row with 
 Monte. — War to the knife. — A gale. — Bearing away. — Opening the 
 hatches. — Picking out the dead. — Opthalmia. — A British cruiser. — A 
 chase. — A dense fog. — A curious phenomenon. — Throwing overboard 
 the blind. — The giant of the Diamond rock. — The Ufting of the fog. — 
 A stem chase. — Kaloolah struck by Monte. — Monte felled to the 
 deck. — Jonathan and his proteges jimip overboard. — Picked up by 
 the brig. 192 
 
 CHAPTER XXII, 
 
 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. 206 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 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 Koolah guide. — Jonathan's resolutions. — Takes 
 passage for Liverpool. — A scene with Kaloolah. — The Parcae at work. 212 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 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. — Mi.ssing stays. — 
 
CONTENTS. 1 
 
 Page. 
 
 Wearing ship. — The ship ashore. — Getting out the boat. — An anxious 
 consultation. — Jonathan's plan. — Preparations for landing. 222 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Situation of the ship. — Swimming ashore. — Landing provisions. — Thomp- 
 son reaches the reef. — Provision depots in the sand. — A passage up 
 the bank. — A hiding place. — Climbing the clifF. — The deser t. — 
 mounted Arab. — The wreck discovered. — A discourse on cannibals. — 
 Return to the beach. 231 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Bedouins in force. — A storm at night. — Breaking up of the ship. — 
 Collecting the plunder. — An admiralty judge. — The hiding-place dis- 
 covered. — Meeting the Bedouins. — A warm reception. — A council. — 
 A gentle intimation. — A march to the hiUs. — Feminine curiosity. — 
 Jonathan's plans. — Thompson's despair. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 A scanty breakfast. — Watering the camels. — A change of humor. — 
 Plagueing the women. — Judicious flattery. — A pigeon-wing in the de- 
 sert — Working the pumps — Starting for the interior. — Suffering by 
 the way. — Character of the countrj'. — Instinct of the camels. — The 
 wells of Ageda. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Bedouin salutations. — Encampment at the wells. — Cooscoosoo. — An arri- 
 val. — " 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. 258 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A prize. — A dep6t 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 mouth. — Stretching out into the desert. — Soonshoo's alarm. — 
 A man overboard. — Assisting Soonshoo to remount. — Good-bye to the 
 oasis. — A message to Fatimah. — Soonshoo sets off for home. — A 
 change of course. — Heirie riding. — A Bedouin boast. 265 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 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 ap. 
 pearances. — A sand storm. — A run-away heirie. — Finding a well. — A 
 loaded camel buried in the sand. — Examination of his load. — A com- 
 plete outfit. 274 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Emerging from the sand hills. — Burying treasure. — A beautiful view. — A 
 douah. — Arabic greetings. — A sharifFee and a hadji. — Indications of 
 danger. — A watchful night. — A startling warning. — An ill-timed com- 
 pliment. — The Muezzin's morning call. — An effective speech. — Setting 
 off" for the buried caravan. 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 The buried caravan. — Moving a douah. — A feast. — A conversazione. — The 
 wells of Boulag. — Schools and scholars. — Arts and artizans. — A Ti- 
 bib. — Epaoedopathy. — Storj'-telling. — Music. — The song of the Be- 
 douin. — Fears and doubts. 290 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII, 
 
 The Timbuctoo kaffila. — 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. — Timbuctoo. 297 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Kaloolah and Jonathan en route. — A dissatisfied Arab. — Reasons for 
 flight. — Unrequited affection. — Buried stores. — Hurrah ! for Frama- 
 zugda. — Pillars of sand. — The mirage. — The Fata Morgana. — A 
 party of travellers. — A cup of tea. — Hahnemann and homoeopathy. .309 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 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 story. — Hope for the renegade 318 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Departure from El Garwan. — Arrival at Marbush. — A recognition.— Jack 
 Thompson.— A party of Tuarics.— A complete equipment.— Estab- 
 lishing a watch. — The moral uifluence of food. 326 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII, 
 
 The limit of the desert— Hugh's sj-stem of fortification— A herd of ga- 
 zelles.— Character of the country.- Encampmg m the shade. — Ga- 
 zelle stalking.— A pleasant meal — ^Jack's song.— Hyena music— A 
 fresh water lake.— Bathing.— A visit from 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. 332 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 By the editor. qaq 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 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 Uon ui the path.— The boa— Crossing the 
 Yah'nil nebbe. 3-^ 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 Beyond the Yah'nil nebbe— An alarmed town— An expressive panto- 
 mime.— A friendly reception.— The Matcham— Habits versus princi- 
 ples.— A Kyptile breakfast — The town of Soconale.— The Matchanvs 
 foreign relations— Departure from Soconale. 367 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 The Djebel el Kumri.— Slave-hunters abroad— The Footas'and their 
 guns.- Jack's opinion of the Footas— A plundered village.— Military 
 precautions. — A Kimbo scout. — An accession of strength. — Midnight 
 musings.— Planning an ambuscade.— Caught in our own trap.— A 
 charge and repulse. — The Kimboo's revenge. 374 
 
 CH APTE R XLII . 
 
 A sight for the reader.— Hospitality of the Kyptiles.— A volcano.— A wake- 
 ful night.— Kaloolah in tears— Stories of the guides.— Origin of the 
 Framazugs.— The Jiggers— The Jouacks— The Serpent-men.— The 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 Jalla. — The Footas. — A snail-field. — A rhinoceros. — The Nourwall. — 
 Garazha. — The captain of the port. — Whamba Donga's town. — A 
 message to the Governor. — Crossing the Nourwall. — A triumphal re- 
 reception. — The Dagash. — A new view of Kaloolah. 388 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 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 bird's nests. — The Sem- 
 persough. — Waiting for news. — The change in the princess. 401 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Arrival of Enphadde. — The Prince's story. — Setting out for Killoam. — A 
 
 buffalo and his trappings. — A weatherly craft. — ^Jack in the liowdah. 412 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Character of the country. — Houses. — Monuments. — Fountains. — A touch 
 of Politics. — First sight of Killoam. — Kaloolah's emotion. — Reception 
 at Jallalob. — A separation. — An entertainment. — Feats of jugglers. 419 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Departure from Jellalob. — Pholdefoos. — Approach to Killoam. — 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. 428 
 
 CHAPTER XL VII. 
 
 Apartments of the princess. — An embarrassing position. — A view from the 
 balcony. — j^ lovers' interview. — A spiritual visitation. — Ambitious 
 reveries. — Lightning-fish. — Gogo. — A novel musical instrument. — The 
 Ristum-Kitherum. — A morning walk. — Verses for the princess. 443 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 Royal festviities. — Latitude of Killoam. — 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. — Religious notions. — 
 The government. — Social distinctions. — The origin of the Framazugs. 456 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 A marriage. — Public curiosity. — The Hall of Doubt. — A chorus. — An idle 
 ceremony. — Queer notions of marriage. — The princess's toilet. — A cu- 
 rious veil. — A marriage procession. — Sculptured nondescripts. — The 
 Mound Temple. — The marriage ceremony. — Buried alive. 468 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 The honey-moon. — News from the borders. — Ravages of the Jalla. — Alka- 
 fuz. — 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 Killoam. 476 
 
 CHAPT E R LI. 
 
 Preparations for war. — Organizing an army. — The march. — Crossing the 
 Queal. — A grand battle. — Siege of Goolah. — A new method of 
 scaling walls. 496 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 Return from the wars. — Hammed Benshoolo. — Message from Kaloolah, — 
 Mysterious indications. — Gogo in chains. — An infant phenomenon. — 
 Conclusion. 508 
 
I 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A life of adventure hereditary. — Nantucket whalemen. — Thoughts in a 
 whale's mouth. — A ship struck by a whale and destroyed. — Loss of an 
 armed brig. — Where there's a will there's a way. — A passion for the 
 sea. 
 
 A life of adventure may be justly considered my birth-right. 
 Descended, on both sides of the house, from some of the earliest 
 settlers of Nantucket, and more or less intimately related to the 
 Coffins, the Folgers, the Macys and the Starbucks of tnat adven- 
 turous population, it would seem that I have had a natural right 
 to a roving disposition, and to a life of peril, privation and vicissi- 
 tude. Nearly all the male members of my family, for several gene- 
 rations, 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 pm'suit of 
 the ocean monster. 
 
 Whahng, it is well known, has been, almost from the first set- 
 tlement of this country, the chief employment of the inhabitants of 
 " the Island." All were directly or indirectly interested 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 of not less effect in winning 
 the regard of the fiiir and the respect of the men, than the most 
 
14 KALOOLAH. 
 
 trenchant SAVord-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 fly- 
 ing cetacea, and which has served to associate with the character of 
 a Nantucket whaler the idea of dauntless bravery, enduring forti- 
 tude, determined energy, industry and skill. 
 
 In such a pursuit, the most thriUing adventures are the com- 
 mon incidents of life : and the traditions of my family abound with 
 stories of shipwreck and death, and of " hair-breadth 'scapes " from 
 the imminent 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 stnxck and 
 destroyed by an infiu"iated 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 ani- 
 mal coming down, in the direction on which the vessel was stand- 
 ing, 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 steersman was directed to put the helm up, in or- 
 der 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. Recovering from their aston- 
 ishment, 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 appalled 
 them with the shout, " Here she comes again !" and down came 
 the whale with renewed fury, — a broad-sheet of white foam attest- 
 ing 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 
 
FAMILY ANECDOTES. 15 
 
 the vessel was beginning to settle rapidly by the head, pro^^sions 
 and instruments were put into them. In a few houis 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 himger and thirst, suc- 
 ceeded in reaching land. 
 
 Another member of my family was the identical boat-steerer of 
 whom an anecdote has been often told, illustrative of the charac- 
 teristic coolness of the Yankee whaler. The boat to which he be- 
 longed 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 1" 
 With the utmost sang frokl and simplicity, he replied, " Why, I 
 thought she would yield about sixty ban-els !" 
 
 But it is not my intention to detain the reader with anecdotes, 
 of 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 communicat- 
 ed from parents to children, but also many of those mental habi- 
 tudes 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 constitutions are modified by the in- 
 fluence of that spirit upon the generations immediately preceding 
 us. In the days of chivalry, for instance, youths 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, accompHshments and vices. They were born 
 with the chivalric idiosyncrasy. 
 
16 KALOOIiAH. 
 
 In tlie third year of the war of our revolution, it was resolved 
 by some enterprising citizens of Boston to fit out an armed vessel, 
 as well for harassing the enemy and cutting off their supplies, as 
 in the expectation of prize-money. With this object a fine large 
 clipper-brig was built, after the then most approved models of na- 
 val architecture. Especial reference was had to speed in her con- 
 struction, but she was also furnished with a battery of fourteen 
 guns, which rendered her fully a match for many of the light 
 cruisers with whom she was most likely to fall in. Encouraged by 
 success in previous attempts, a crew of an hundred and thirty men 
 was easily found, and my paternal grandfather Avas appointed to 
 the command. He sailed from Boston harbor, full of confidence in 
 the quahties of his crew and craft, and in his own capacity to rea- 
 lise the hopes and expectations of his friends and the public, — but 
 from that moment nothing has ever been heard of him. The brig 
 was never spoken or seen, and no clue was ever afforded to a 
 knowledge of his fate. 
 
 His wife, with an infant son, was thus loft in a state of the 
 most cruel widowhood. In general, where death severs the ties 
 of affection, the shock, however violent, is soon mitigated in its 
 force by the soothing hand of time. The very certainty of the 
 blow which has fallen upon us, and the knowledge of all its cir- 
 cumstances, prevents the fountain of the affections from being con- 
 stantly stirred up by false hopes, and allows the storm of grief to 
 subside into a mild and melancholy calm. But where all is uncer- 
 tain who, can paint the pangs of ardent and confiding love — the 
 terrible forebodings — the anxious looking for glad tidings — the 
 heart-sickenings of continued disappointment — the agitating daily 
 struggle between the fond wife's hopes and fears. It was several 
 years before the conviction of her loss was forced upon my grand- 
 mother's mind. When every one else had given up all idea of his 
 being still alive, and his fate had almost ceased to be alluded to in 
 conversation, she continued to expect his return. In the mean time, 
 however, she found some solace in her son, who grew apace in 
 
FAMILY ANECDOTES. lY 
 
 beauty and in strength, evincing from the first an ardent disposition 
 for the sea. KnoAving that it would be impossible to control this 
 inclination, or prevent its gratification, amidst the circumstances by 
 which he was surrounded, his mother, who had naturally conceived 
 a dread of the robber waves, had less hesitation in acceding to the 
 proposal of an uncle residing in Boston, who offered to take him 
 into his family and educate him for a mercantile life. She little 
 thought, that the very precaution she was adopting was to prove 
 an introduction to the kind of life which she feared. 
 
 At the age of nine years my father, Avho was an exceedingly 
 active and athletic lad, was sent to Boston. His uncle to whose 
 care he was consigned was of a harsh and imperious temper, and 
 he soon manifested a disposition to make the life of his nephew 
 as slavish and uncomfortable as he could. But lie knew not the 
 spirit of the boy with whom he had to deal. Before six months 
 were over, my father, finding that it was all liard work, bad fare, 
 brutal treatment and no " schooling," resolved to t^ike his des- 
 tinies into his own hand, and tying up a few books and clothes in 
 a pocket-handkerchief, he applied on board several vessels that 
 were getting ready to sail, for a berth. None of the captains, 
 however, would, owing to his youth and to his refusal to give any 
 explanation as to his friends and family, listen to him, and he was 
 about giving up in despair, when a large Indiaman commenced 
 hauling into the stream. In the hurry and confusion of getting 
 ready he made his Avay on board unnoticed, and slipping down into 
 the cabin, he secreted himself in a state-room, in wliich was tem- 
 porarily stowed a pile of spare sails. Every tiling was ready in an 
 hour or two ; the sails loosened and sheeted home, and with square 
 yards tlie ship was running off right merrily before a whole top- 
 sail breeze. 
 
 The next morning, long after the land had sunk from sight 
 below the horizon, one of the officers of the ship commenced 
 overhauling tlie sails beneath which the young adventurer was 
 snuglv ensconced : he and iiis bundle were of course discovered 
 
18 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and conducted to the presence of the shrewd captain, who soon 
 satisfied himself that he had made no small acquisition in his un- 
 known passenger, and orders were given for his formal installa- 
 tion into the office of cabin-boy, with a promise of regular wages 
 and good ship's fare. It was not long before his activity, courage 
 and good humor made him the favorite of both officers and crew 
 and his company was equally acceptable in the forecastle and 
 cabin. The officers all eagerly assisted him in the rudiments of 
 navigation, and were never tired of answenng the questions of his 
 inquisitive mind, Avhile the sailors vied with each other in initiating 
 him into all the mysteries of w^orming, serving, knotting and 
 splicing. 
 
 Arrived at the port to which they Avere destined, he wrote to 
 his mother, enclosing a Portuguese gold piece, the amount of his 
 wages, and apprising her of his determination never again to see 
 her until he should be in command of a ship. He accompanied 
 the same vessel with a cargo of pepper to the Mediterranean. At 
 Genoa he shipi>ed on board a brig bound to the coast of Chili ; 
 made several voyages to and from his country, carefully saving all 
 his wages, and sending them to his motlier, and serving in every 
 capacity from foremost hand up to first mate, until, on his twentieth 
 birthday, he was offered and accepted the command of the Neptune, 
 a fine Indiaman from tlie port of New- York. Then, and not till 
 then, did he visit his mother, w^ho although apprised of all his 
 movements, had not seen him for eleven years. He left her, a boy, 
 — he returned — the realization of all her hopes — a man respected 
 for probity, energy, enterprise, and all those qualities which go to 
 make up the true-hearted seaman. Can any one imagine a more 
 blissful moment than when the widowed mother pressed to her 
 heart her gallant stalwart sailor boy. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A comprehensive British blockade. — Specie accumulated at Vera Cruz. — The 
 writer's father dispatched in a fast-sailing schooner for it. — Night encounter 
 with a British vessel. — Getting into the midst of an English squadron, and 
 getting out again. 
 
 The deeds of our naval officers are emblazoned on the page of 
 histoiy, — the memory of their triumphs preserved in the hearts of 
 their countrymen, but the feats of our commercial marine, the gal- 
 lantry, courage and skill of its officers, however strikingly ennced, 
 pass unrecorded and unknown. 
 
 It was a few years previous to our last war, that the giant 
 strifes of christian Europe raged the fiercest. The flood of battle 
 rolled then its reddest tide, desolating the fair fields of civilized 
 man, and tinting with its sanguinary hue the waves of every sea. 
 Then was carried out to the fullest extent, that stupendous sys- 
 tem of aggression upon the rights of neutrals, in which the two 
 great belligerants vied with each other in acts of violence and in- 
 justice, and which reduced our growing commerce to a precarious 
 struggle with national buccaneers. Paper blockades, Berlin and Mi- 
 lan decrees, and orders in council, furnished excuses for all kinds 
 of insults and piracies, and embarrassed our communication with 
 more than half the ports of the globe. 
 
 Among other places thus interdicted to us, was the port of 
 Vera Cruz, which, as a Spanish possession, was included in the 
 comprehensive blockade of all the coasts of France and her allies, 
 by England. This place, then, as now, sustained important com- 
 mercial relations with the United States, which were for a time in- 
 teiTupted ; and large quantities of gold and -silver, the produce of 
 the Mexican mines, had accumulated there, the exportation of 
 which had been prevented by the strict watch kept up by British 
 cniisers. At last, however, its want began to be severelv felt. Ex- 
 
20 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tensive commeixial transactions, which had this blockaded specie 
 for a basis, had taken place, and it was resolved by those most in- 
 terested, to attempt getting it, at all hazards. For this purpose a 
 clipper schooner was expressly constructed ; and a commander 
 being required, combining activity and prudence, my father was 
 selected. His good luck was proverbial, having never cost the un- 
 derwriters a dollar, — and good luck, it is well understood, in a 
 seaman's life is generally but another name for good conduct. His 
 own maxim was, that there is no accident happening at sea, which 
 cannot be attributed to a want of either prudence or skill. Does a 
 squall strike a ship unexpectedly ! — there has not been a proper 
 look out. Is there a spar lost ! — the rigging is bad, or badly set 
 up, or the spar was defective, or the sail had not been reduced in 
 time. Is a ship imeasy in a hea\y sea-way ! — Her stowage is bad ; 
 or, does she find herself in dangerous proximity to land, or an ice- 
 berg ! — the reckoning is bad, or t!ie lead and the thei-mometer have 
 been neglected. 
 
 In going out to Vera Ciiiz, on her first voyage, the schooner 
 was overhauled by an English sloop of Avar, and carried into Nas- 
 sau, New Piovidence, as a prize ; but as there were no circumstan- 
 ces to justify her capture the courts were compelled to set her 
 free. Without further adventure she arrived off the port, and show- 
 ing her speed to an English frigate upon the station, easily slipped 
 in. The officers of the frigate, knowing the object for which she 
 had come, and confiding in the speed of their ship, were not un- 
 willing to entice such a prize to sea, but it was several weeks before 
 an opportmiity, that was thought available, occurred. At length, 
 getting under weigh late in tlie evening the schooner run boldly 
 out into the offing, without passing near enough to see any Eng- 
 lishman, and without its being suspected that anv one saw her. 
 For several days she ploughed her way before a good stiff breeze 
 until the fifth, wliich closed with the usual order to the man at the 
 mast-head to " take a good look around the horizon for sails," and 
 the response " that nothing was in sight." In tlie middle of the 
 
NIGHT ENCOUNTER. 21 
 
 night, while lying awake in his berth, the captain fancied tliat he 
 heard the swash of the water against the sides of a ship, and start- 
 mg bstantly to the deck, there was to be perceived the hull and 
 spars of a large vessel, not twenty yards off, on the weather bow. 
 The watch of the frigate, as she proved to be, were equaUy sleepy, 
 and the proximity of the schooner had not been discovered. Blow- 
 ing out the binnacle lights, and putthig the helm down, the schoo- 
 ner was directed across the ship's wake ; but at the moment when 
 right astern, the flapping of a sail or the cracking of a block 
 aroused the watch of the frigate, and a hoarse haU of " Ship, ahoy ! 
 what craft is that?" thundered fiom the lofty quarter, right down 
 upon the schooner's deck. 
 
 To this question no answer was returned, and it was immediate- 
 ly followed by a peremptory order to "Heave to." 
 " Heave to ! or I'll fire into you." 
 
 Still no answer. The ship was now all ahve. The dmms beat 
 to quarters, battle lanterns were lighted, can-onades cast loose, 
 pointed and fired, but yviih an aim so uncertain that, aUhough seve- 
 ral shot struck tlie schooner, no material damage was done, while 
 the chances each instant dkninished as she rapidly stretched out in- 
 to the pitchy darkness to windward. In a few minutes the carron- 
 ade shot fell short, wlien the frigate's gun-deck ports were opened 
 and a shower of u-on started from the muzzles of her long thh-ty- 
 twos ;— but it was too late— tlie chase was safe, and the dangerous 
 adventure at an end. 
 
 The result of this voyage led to several others, all equally suc- 
 cessful, but aboundmg in similar adventures and narrow escapes. 
 In the last and most important, from the amount of specie involved, 
 the vigilance of the British cruisers came near bemg rewarded wth 
 a splendid prize. It was just at the break of day, when my father, tu-- 
 ed out with the watchings of an anxious niglit, had retired to his berth, 
 that the unwelcome announcement of " Sail ho !" broke upon his ear. 
 " Where away ?" he shouted up the companion-way, to Mr. 
 Jones, the first mate, wlio was officer of the watch. 
 
22 KALOOLAH. 
 
 "Right off on the weatlier quarter,'' was the reply. 
 
 " What does slie look like ?" 
 
 "A large square-ngged vessel, sh*, with every thing set that 
 can draw, from royals, do^^^l. She looks hke a man-of-war." 
 
 In a moment he was on deck with his glass, and there, plainly 
 to be perceived in the dull gray of the moniing, was a large ship, 
 five or six miles to Avindward. Dropping the glass from his eye, 
 after a momentary survey, he turned to Mr. Jones. 
 
 "Well, sir, what do you think?" 
 
 " I flunk, SU-, it is mighty suspicious." 
 
 " Suspicious ! there is no suspicion about it, — that is an English 
 frigate, as plain as the nose on your face, — the very fellow that has 
 chased us so often." 
 
 "Ay, ay, sir, there can be no doubt of it," returned Mr. 
 Jones, — " you see she has got the identical brown fore-top-gallant- 
 sail. She is coming along like a race-horse." 
 
 " Ay, she's got a fresh breath of wind ; we shall get it in a mo- 
 ment more, when I hope the Atalanta (the name of the schooner) 
 will show a httle of her usual actinty." 
 
 " Never doubt, sir, the old girl can show her heel to any thing 
 in his majesty's ser-sice, and we have tried this fellow too often not to 
 know his rate. To be sure, if we were up there to windward, close 
 hauled, it woidd be a httle more easy, but as it is she can do it 
 without straining." 
 
 " Yes, she can do it easily enough, any away, and as we have 
 headed up long enough to be clear of the reef now, we will lay 
 our course. Ease off the sheets, and set the squaresail ! We can 
 afford to indulge that fellow in his humor for studding-sails." 
 
 The Atalanta fell off before the wind, bringing the frigate nearly 
 astern, — a point of sailing in which square-rigged vessels generally 
 have the advantage, but of no use in the present case, as the 
 schooner had the unusual quality for vessels of her class, of saiiino- 
 as well befoi'e the wind as close-hauled. In this way they continued 
 for some time, the Atalanta rapidlv increasing the distance from the 
 
ESCAPE OF THE ATALANTA. 23 
 
 frigate, when a sail to the leeward, and ahead, was announced. In 
 a few minutes it was ascertained that she, too, was a man-of-war. 
 Orders were given to brace up, bringing the schooner into her 
 original position, -with the wind a-beam ; the new vessel to leeward ; 
 and the frigate to windward, and a Uttle astern. 
 
 " Sail, ho !" shouted a look-out, for the thu-d time. 
 
 "What, another! Where away?" 
 
 " Dead ahead !" 
 
 " This is something more than we bargained for, Mr. Jones." 
 
 "Ay, sir, this is coming thicker and faster, and considerably 
 more of it. If that chap ahead is a Johnny BuU, with his teeth cut, 
 we shall be in a regular fix." 
 
 "Well, a fix it is, then," said the captam, with his glass to his 
 eye ; " he's an Enghshman, and there's at least three rows of teeth 
 beneath that mass of spars." 
 
 The Sim was now fairly up above the hoiizon, dispersing, by his 
 warmth, a slight haze which had obscured objects at a distance, and 
 disclosing two more sail, one on the starboard and the other on the 
 larboard bow. 
 
 We are in a nest of 'em, by heavens !" exclaimed the captain. 
 " What do you think, Mr. Jones ?" 
 
 A regular trap, sh, and I think the sooner we turn tail and try 
 to creep out the way we got in, the better. 
 
 " We never could do it — these two chaps could loib us to chips 
 between the muzzles of their guns, without firing a shot." 
 
 " Well, then, captain, I'm really afraid that it is a gone case 
 with us. Oh ! if we were only up there, (pointing to windward,) 
 we should be safe enough." 
 
 " Well, we must get there." 
 
 " It is impossible, sir." 
 
 " Impossible or not, we must try, — they can't do more than 
 smk us. Take in the gaft-topsails ! Haul aft the sheets ! Luff ! Luff 
 up ! Let her come to it as close as she will lie !" 
 
 In an instant the schooner had altered her course, heading up 
 
24 KALOOLAH. 
 
 to tn8 wind in a direclion obliquely across the bows of the rapidly 
 advancing frigate. 
 
 " There, well all that !" exclaimed the captain, taking the wheel 
 into his owrr hands, " noAv men, go below, all of you ! we shall 
 catch a grist or two of grape, and you may as w^ell keep imder 
 cover as much as you can." 
 
 The two vessels Avcre now rapidly approaching each other, the fri- 
 gate steadily pm-suing her course, apparently confident that the prize 
 was within her gTasp ; whUe the Atalanta, with the luff of her foresail 
 shivering, was, in the expressive language of the sailor, " eating into 
 the mnd " at a rate which put all the calculations of her pursuer at 
 fault. Soon she was nearly athwart the fore-foot of the frigate, and 
 within musket shot. 
 
 A flash from the bow-port, and a twenty-four pound shot 
 dashed up a cloud of foam du-ectly beneath the schooner's bows. 
 In an instant, another, evidently aimed at her, passed a few feet 
 astern ; and in a moment more the frigate braced sharp up and let 
 fly all the guns she could bring to bear. This manoeuvre lessened 
 her headway, and before she could repeat the discharge the 
 schooner had got so far up to windward as to be out of range of 
 her lee-broadside. 
 
 Although unable to hold her wind Avith the schooner, and 
 rapidly falling off to leward, the frigate advanced through the 
 water ^vith a velocity that soon brought her close-to on the lee- 
 quarter of the Atalanta. Falling off a little, which, while it made 
 her lose groimd, enabled her to open her weather broadside, she 
 sent forth a storm of shot, which, at first, hurtled harmlessly over 
 the little craft. Again and again it came, but with better aim, en- 
 veloping her in a shower of grape, riddling her sails — which were 
 fortunately, new and strong — and tearing the sphnters from her 
 bulwarks, masts and booms ; but still not an essential rope was cut, 
 or a spar materially injvu'ed, Avhile each mstant the distance 
 Detween the two vessels was increasing. 
 
 " You are hit !" exclaimed Mr, Jones to the captain, observ- 
 
ESCAPE OF THE ATALANTA. 25 
 
 ing his left hand drop from the wheel, shattered by a grape-shot. 
 
 " Ready about !" was the only reply, shouted in a tone which 
 brought the sailors instantly to the deck. " In a minute more we 
 shall be within shooting distance of the otlier fellow, ahead." 
 
 " Down with the helm, Mr. Jones !" 
 
 " Helm's a-lee !" 
 
 The jib-sheets were loosened, and the schooner came up, fore- 
 reaching when in the very eye of the wind, at the rate of three or 
 four miles the hour, and then falling off upon the other tack, in a 
 direction contrary to that the frigate was pm*suing. Following the 
 example, the fi'igate also tacked ; but it took her much longer, and 
 when she came round and gathered the headway she had lost, the 
 Atalanta was more than a mile off. huiro-ina; the wmd with a close- 
 ness and tenacity peculiar to fore-and-aft clippers, and chopping 
 her way up to windward, after a fashion which woidd have ren- 
 dered pursuit by any square-rigged vessel perfectly useless. 
 
 A shot from the fiigate's bow-chaser sunk, its force quite spent, 
 a few feet astern. 
 
 "HuiTah!" shouted the mate, unable any longer to control the 
 pent-up excitement of the chase. 
 
 " Hurrah !'" and swinging his cap round his head, he gave it a 
 shie over the lee quarter. 
 
 " Hurrah !" echoed the crew, with responsive enthusiasm, and 
 imitating the monkeys in the well-knoAvn story of the sailor and his 
 caps, they followed the example of their officer, and in an instant 
 a dozen tarpauhns were floating in the wake astern. Whether the 
 Enghshman fished any of them up as he came by, is not known, 
 but at any rate, it was his only chance for a prize. At daybreak the 
 next moiTiing the frigate was nowhere to be seen, and the 
 schooner, and cargo, without any farther adventure, arrived in 
 safety at New- York. 
 
 As may be supposed, my father received the congratulations 
 and approbation of his employers, comprising several of the richest 
 merchants, bankers, and agents for foreign houses. A siun of mo- 
 
 2 
 
26 K A LOOK AH. 
 
 ney was voted to him, with a piece of plate, and inducements were 
 held out to him by one who was principally interested, and who 
 had become a large landiiolder in the wilderness of the northern 
 part of the state of New-York, to go on there and settle. The in- 
 ducements were too strong to resist, especially when coupled with 
 'the persuasions of one to whom he had determined to unite him- 
 self, and who, although a native of the same little sandy, ocean-girt 
 isle, had imbibed an unconquerable aversion to the sea. Marrj'^ing, 
 he took my mother, Avho objected only to those adventures she 
 could not share, to the banks of the St. LawTence, and commenced 
 the construction of some of the first vessels employed m the lucra- 
 tive trade between the flourishing village of , and the ports 
 
 of Lake Ontario. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The birthplace of the writer — Ancient ruins. — Early physical education. — First 
 going away to school. — Characteristic adventure on the road. 
 
 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 new country, it is not Avholly destitute of romantic 
 associations and historical remams. Ui)on a point of land across 
 the affluent of the St. Lawrence, and opposite the village, stood the 
 ruins of on old French trading house and fort ; one of the cluiin of 
 posts which the fu-st masters of Canada undertook to establisli from 
 Montreal to fort Duquesne. It consisted of four square buildmgs, 
 erected upon the angles of a parallelogram, and connected by a 
 curtain or wall of twelve or fourteen feet in height. Shghtly con- 
 structed as a defence merely against musketry, or the arrows of 
 the Indians, it was illy calculated to resist the ravages of time. Its 
 
EARLY PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 2l 
 
 crumbling walls, however, were the scenes of authentic tradition 
 and romantic story. To me they fm-nished 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 suppUed 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 birth-place and school of my ardent and 
 excited fancy ; and as such I shall always recollect them with more 
 reverence and respect than I could feel now m looking 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 salutaiy parental restraint which a 
 father only can exercise, my adventurous disposition rapidly deve- 
 loped itself, and with it the physical capacities and energies best 
 adapted to that constitution of mind. Even when quite a bov I 
 had achieved no inconsiderable fame as a wrestler, jumper, swim- 
 mer and marksman. At school, although far fi-om industrious or 
 attentive, I acquired a respectable standing, with the reputation of be- 
 ing "smart enough, if I would only apply myself;" but out of 
 school my supremacy was imiversally acknowledged. Xo one 
 could nm faster, swim fmlher, send a rifle or pistol bullet with 
 surer aim, or was more expert at boyish mechanical contrivances. 
 Even at some exeTOses which are not generaU)^ practised by boys 
 in the country, ^eh as fencing, I became quite a proficient. A de- 
 serter from the Canadian gamson, 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. Under his instructions 
 I made such progress, that when, some time afterwards, a travelling 
 French dancuig-master, who was also a master of the weapon, came 
 into the village, his admiration was so much excited that we be- 
 came the best friends in the world, and every spare moment that 
 we had we spent with the foils in hand. 
 
 But although enjoying the practice of all gymnastic sports, 
 and priding myself not a little upon my victories and successes. 
 
28 KALOOLAH. 
 
 they were far from being my only amusement or occupation ; an 
 insatiable thirst for reading soon exhausted the scanty Ubraries of 
 the \illage, and could only be gratified by rcperusuls, until many 
 books were gotten almost by heart. Buried in the depths of the 
 sombre forest, or floating upon the broad St. Lawrence 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 avi- 
 dity. All came alike to me, and were beUeved ahke. I knew that 
 many people looked upon certain books as fictions. I coidd 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. Tlie evidence was the same for 
 both. I knew that the Seven Champions once floiuished, each one 
 in 'proiiria persona, and that some of their relations were still left 
 in the world. I knew that Robinson Crusoe was a veritable per- 
 sonage ; no imaginary amplification of a common-place Scotchman, 
 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 Dons adventm'es. Taking 
 windmills for giants, was a mistake, no doubt, but then the wind- 
 mills themselves were worthy opponents. I longed to attack a 
 windmill. I had a perfectly clear com-iction, that, if I could once 
 fairly charge a Avindmill, I should overthrow it and compel it to re- 
 sume 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 wmdmill was safe, but I could not help feeling some- 
 
DEPAUTLKE FOU SCHOOL. 29' 
 
 thing like contempt for the gieiil cowardly wliirligig, that, confiding 
 in its secure elevation, seemed to mock my ambition. The excite- 
 ment of my mind continued to mcrease. My brain became as full 
 of absvird conceits as the old Don's. I could not sleep, lost my ap- 
 petite, grew pale imd emaciated, and m fact was on the very 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 aca- 
 demy of the county, situated in the pleasant village of P » 
 
 about thirty miles from O . 
 
 The day after my fourieenth buthday I started upon the jour- 
 ney. I have since wandered amid the most dreary Avilds of the 
 African Continent, I have crossed the Saharah, have encountered 
 its arid sands and its poisonous simoon, its desolate rocks and its 
 remorseless robbers ; but aU 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 watchfid anxiety, or the efficacy of her bless- 
 ing. Wild, waj^^ard, self-wiUed, and often utterly i-eckless 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 blimted my sense of its 
 pangs. 
 
 " Jonathan," said my mother, at the conclusion of a long confe- 
 rence, " 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 )"ou. You 
 will find in one corner youi* Bible. Don't forget it, Jonathan. You 
 say you hke the old Testament best, ^vith its battles and sieges. 
 Well, that's a boy's taste. Read the old Testament then, and per- 
 haps some day you vnU. leani to prefer the new. And by tlie 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 remera- 
 
30 KALOOLAH. 
 
 brance. He was then, you know, several years younger than you 
 are. Keep it carefully, it is a tioie talisman of more efficacy than 
 ever fahy 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 Avill find at the bottom of your tnmk a garment dif- 
 ferent from your other linen, which might puzzle you to understand 
 the use of. You are going far from me, Jonathtm, among strangei-s. 
 If you are sick I shall come to you — but then — many accidents 
 may happen, you are so ventm'ous, Jonathan, you may get thrown 
 from a horse, or drowned — " 
 
 " Oh, no, mother, that's impossible, did'nt 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 nm 
 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." 
 
 " Why, no, not exactly a shroud, but something that wiU 
 answer as a grave dress. God save you, my son, from reqiming 
 the use of it !" 
 
 Was ever maternal consideration carried farther? I might die 
 among strangers, and be buried carelessly, without proper grave 
 clothes ! Cotton, even tow cloth, might have answered for the hving 
 body, but nothing but the finest linen comported Avith the sanctity 
 of the dead ! For years I canied that gannent at the bottom of my 
 trunk. Somehow, it became known to my schoolmates, and at first 
 was a source of considerable ridicule, but I soon contrived to flog 
 
A GRAVE DRESS. 31 
 
 them all into a proper appreciation of my mother's forethought and 
 care. As the reader may perhaps tliink with them, and as I have 
 neither the mclination nor opportunity to coiTect his or lier opinion 
 in tlie same Avay, I can only say that my mother was from Nantuck- 
 et, and they are all queer people there. 
 
 It was in the depth of winter that I left home, under the parti- 
 cular 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, w^as 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 interminable forest, its leafless branches 
 loaded with icy crystals, and glittering in the struggling simbearas 
 as brilhantly as the gemmed trees in the cavern of Aladin. Here and 
 there, at the distance apart, sometimes of several miles, would be 
 seen the small clearing suiTounding the solitary log house of some 
 enterprising settler. Covered by the unvarying carpet of white, 
 through which peeped the unpicturesque stumps ; they were far 
 from presenting a very cheerfid appearance, — they served, like the 
 sHght breaks sometimes in a iinnament of storm clouds, to reveal — 
 not reheve — the surromading sternness and gloom. 
 
 For several miles after leading the village we rode along in per- 
 fect silence, my companion occasionally eyeing me with a cmious 
 look, and evidently making preparations for opening a conversation. 
 To several remarks upon the state of the weather, the road, (fee. I made 
 no answer ; my mind was filled with too many contendino- emo- 
 tions 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 sav, 
 sonny, you don't seem to like leaAing home for the first time. 
 Well, well, nobody does. I didn't. I was the horaesickest 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 accoimt of his first 
 journey, to all of which I made no reply. I was indignant at being 
 
32 KALOOLAH. 
 
 called sonny. I was indignimt 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 aie a queer follow, and I 
 really believe they're right. I've heard tell some curious stories 
 about you. They say that you knocked old Clark, the schoolmas- 
 ter, 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 affah." 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 groimd, I gave a spiing 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 
 in*esistably ludicrous, from amazement and fear. 
 
 " Soh ! whow !" to his restive horses. '• Wliow ! I toll you. — 
 Where has he gone to ? Good Lord ! what shall 1 do ? Dear me ! 
 where on airth is he '? Whoa ! I tell you. Darnation ! Whoa ! 
 dam your skins ! — ^Jonathan !'* 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 at 
 recovering a part of his load, for the safe arrival of which he knew 
 that he should be held responsible. I could not retain ill feehngs 
 against the honest man any longer, and we chatted and laughed, 
 at first with some little i-eserve on his part, but on overturning in 
 getting out of the road for the mail, I assisted him in rigliting his 
 
ADVENTURES BY THE WAY. 33 
 
 sleigh, and restoring its load Avith so much activity, strength and 
 good will, that I quite won his heart. " Good bye, sonny," he ex- 
 claimed, 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." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 School Life. — Boyish Adventures. 
 
 It would be a waste of time and space to give all the little ad- 
 ventures 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 com-se of reading, a fjreat deal of knowledsxe which fre- 
 quently gave me many advantages over my more industrious and re- 
 gular schoolmates. It was often a wonder how I knew so much upon 
 the most recondite and out-of-tlie-way subjects, when I was seldom 
 seen to study, and devoted so much of my time to fishing, gmming, 
 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, occa- 
 sionally displaying 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 oc- 
 casions, young men from the coimtry arovmd, 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. Wa.s there a game at cricket 
 or base-ball to be played, my name headed the list of the atliletae. 
 
 2* 
 
34 KALOOLAH. 
 
 "Was some foot-race or leaping-match to be contested, I was the 
 academic champion. Did some burly wrestler from a neighboring 
 Aillage 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 coidd. With my pistol, at 
 fifteen paces, I could diill a mark the size of a half dollar at every 
 shot, and with the rifle it was universally concluded by all the get- 
 ters-up of turkey shooting matches, that it would never do to put 
 tlie 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 
 uraiecessarily and unjustly decried, and its proper cultivation ne- 
 glected. The physical powers are as much the gift of God — in all 
 situations their liighest 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 ^5/iys«(/Me for themselves. Fu- 
 ture generations will undoubtedly enjoy the advantage of haA-ing 
 gymnastics taught as a science, and the highest development given 
 to the body as well as to the mind. 
 
 I am far from wisliing to convey tlie idea that I was free from 
 the faults incident to youth. A perfect character may read very 
 well in fictions, but would at once appear improbable and out of 
 place in a plain and simple autobiography of a real personage. 
 Rousseau, I recollect, m his confessions draws rather a dark picture 
 of his early character, and honestly allows that he was a liar, a 
 
SCHOOL LIFE BOYISH ADVENTURES. 35 
 
 thief, and given to a \ariety of boyish evil practices. I can hardly 
 Admit that 1 was as bad as the sentimental Frenchman. Although 
 I had m the abstract no very great regard for the truth, yet, a cer- 
 tain boldness and recklessness of character saved me from bemg much 
 of a har ; a good share of generosity kept me from those \ ices 
 which result from selfishness ; but if robbing hen's nests, conifields, 
 orchards and melon grounds, be stealing, we were all thieves, and I 
 was one of the greatest and most mveterate. 
 
 Upon my first arrival at the school this kind of robbery vvas 
 canied 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 coiuitry round, particidarly 
 to those who had a reputation for stinginess, or who, too incau- 
 tiously boasted of then- Avatch and ward. If a ftumer was heard to 
 threaten the unknoAvn depredators with his gun or dogs if they 
 dared to visit his grounds, he was sme to be the subject of a desolat- 
 ing nocturnal foray, or if too strict a watch was kept up at night, the 
 day-time woidd 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 hoiu^, would jump his fences, 
 each one with a large bag, and rapidly coEecting the fruit, make 
 off amid the screams of the women and the barking of dogs, and 
 vanish with the plunder in the most mysteiious manner in the 
 neighboring wood. In a short time some of the gang would per- 
 haps saunter back to the same house, and with the most innocent 
 air ask the enraged women for a cup of butter nfilk, or a draught 
 from the well. 
 
 Things went on this way for a long time, defying the most 
 strenuous efforts of the authorities, both in and out of the academy, 
 either for prevention or detection. But at length the vigor with 
 wluch the depredations were committed began to flag, paitlv from 
 the novelty and spirit-stirring adventiuoiisness of our forays wear- 
 ing off, partly from oui' gro\vth in years putting us above and be- 
 
36 KALOOLAH. 
 
 yond the seductions whii.h led to them ; but principally fiom some 
 curious and mysterious circumstances, which probably have not been 
 explained to this day, m as much as I alone could have furnished 
 the key. 
 
 All the members of the gang, of Avhich 1 was the acknowledged 
 chief, occupied rooms upon the second story of a long range of 
 buildings, fonning the dormitories of the academy. As much of 
 the fruit captured in our ruthless raids was far from having arrived 
 at matmity, it was the custom to expose it to the sunshine upon 
 the ledges of the windows. After a while it was observed that 
 fruit thus exposed disappeared very mysteriously. At first it 
 was attributed to the servants of the establishment, or to fellow- 
 students. Every possible precaution was taken. The doors were 
 carefully locked upon going to recitation, or the play-ground ; still 
 tlie fruit, of whatever kind, continued to disappear after a fashion 
 which, had we been superstitious, might have been considered a 
 supernatural retribution for the way in which it was acquired. 
 The subject at last created quite an excitement. Numberless plans 
 for detecting the thieves were proposed and adopted. The strictest 
 watch was kept up. A committee selected by myself was frequently 
 stationed so as to guard the doors wliile the rest of the students 
 were assembled at the ball or wrestling grounds. No one could 
 be seen entering the rooms, and yet, during the watch the fruit 
 which had been previously counted and exposed would be carried 
 off. Sometimes we watched the windows, and once, upon a holiday, 
 a party, of which I was one, ]Ry secreted in a grove of trees, with 
 a spy-glass directed against oiu* room windows for live or six hours. 
 In less than half an hour after the watch was broken up some of 
 the rooms were robbed. The utmost confusion and excitement 
 prevailed. Who could be suspected ? How could it be done ? 
 Things grew more and more serious ; anything left upon the sills of 
 the wuidows was hable to disappear. One lost an old Virgil, ;m- 
 other a Horace; two or three pillows, which had been thru.st out lo 
 air, were missing; even an attempt was made to carry oft" a feather- 
 
SCHOOL LIFE — BOYISH ADVEXXURES. 37 
 
 bed, for it was foiind upon the ground beneath the window with a 
 large rent in it. 
 
 The teachers and authorities of the school at length became in- 
 terested, and almost every one was suspected in turn, except ray- 
 self. It was universally conceded, that it was a very remarkable 
 and mysterious affair. But if they could have seen me step from 
 the window of a closet opening from my room, and grasping the 
 lightning-rod, ascend with the rapidity almost of a flash of the fluid 
 for which it was designed, they would have got upon a clue by 
 which the whole mysterj' might have been easily unravelled. Ar- 
 rived at the roof, the access to which was generally cut off" to the 
 students by lock and key, I could creep along behind a hea-v^ bal- 
 lustrade without any danger of being perceived from below. By 
 attaching to the end of a long reed a couple of large straightened 
 fish-hooks, I had contrived to make a very effectual harpoon, with 
 which, by leaning over the gutter, I could easily reach the windows 
 below. My impunity consisted in the thorough knowledge of all 
 the movements of my companions, and of their plans for detecting 
 the thief. In the night I would again motmt to the roof, load my- 
 self with my prey, and descending, bury it in the woods. Return- 
 ing, I would have to mount the lightning rod to my room, and 
 always so noiselessly and adroitly, that out of fifty instances at 
 least, I never once disttu'bed the slumbers of my own chum. 
 
 It was wonderful, the perseverance, patience and energy with 
 which I devoted myself to this interesting employment, and as it 
 now seems to me, without any inducements. When I look back 
 upon all the circtunstances, I cannot fuUy understand them. I can 
 only laugh sometimes at the ridiculous figure that I must often have 
 cut, had there been spectators, when creeping up and down the 
 li'j-htnino"-rod in the middle of the night, perhaps in a pelting rain, 
 without clothes and with a large bag tied roimd my neck. Of my 
 feehngs, although but a few years have elapsed, I have but an 
 indefinite idea ; of my motives I have not the slightest conception. 
 It could not have been acquisitiveness, for I could not use or pre- 
 
38 KALOOLAH. 
 
 serve my spoils. It could not have b(H;n the mere vanity and am- 
 bition of the school hero, for that could have been gratified only by 
 publicity, and I recollect distinctly, that I had not the remotest 
 idea of demanding for my performances the applause which they 
 would certainly have received. No, it was probably nothing but 
 adventurousness and secretiveness combined with exuberant physi- 
 cal energy, which thus found a vent, added to which, perhaps, was 
 the pleasure of being at the bottom of a secret which created so 
 much excitement, or in other words, the pride of superior knowledge. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A Revival. — School broken up. — Wanderings and reflections in the woods. 
 — Joe Downs, the trapper. — An Indian killed with a ramrod. — Ar- 
 rangements for an expedition into the wilderness. — A letter from the 
 writer's mother. 
 
 A revival of religion, as it was called, at last put an end to my 
 academic course ; in fact, it came pretty near putting an end to the 
 academy itself. It had simultaneovisly broken out in each of the 
 three churches into which the town was divided, the Baptists, Me- 
 thodists and Presbj^terians, and gradually included the members of 
 our own school as well as the inhabitants of the village. It spread 
 itself like an epidemic, and seemed to be governed by similar laws. 
 Rapidly increasing in violence as it advanced, it attacked all classes, 
 but e\'inced particular power over the very young, the very aged 
 and the very vicious. No re\•i^'al in that section of country had 
 ever been more complete, or had been more strongly characterized 
 by enthusiastic zeal and intense. Avild, passionate excitement ; and 
 none, I may say, supposing it to have been at fir>t the true spirit 
 
A REVIVAL. 89 
 
 of God stirring up the apathetic consciences of men, was ever 
 more thoroughly pei-verted from its proper ends, or marked by 
 more disgusting scenes of intemperance and fanaticism, or followed 
 by a more complete and striking reaction. 
 
 In a short time, out of a hundred and eighty scholars, male 
 and female, but five remained " unconverted." The school was en- 
 tu'ely 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 chiu-ch. He had set himself 
 sternly and strongly against what his good sense led him to pro- 
 nounce an unhealthy, if not an unholy excitement. He predicted 
 that much evil would come of it, and endeavored to moderate the 
 imflammatory zeal of liis flock ; biit in vain. He could not with- 
 stand the overwhelming and impetuous tide of public opinion. A 
 highly cultivated mind, refined taste, gentle manners and imdoubted 
 piety served not to save him from contumely and insult. Rampant 
 zealots prayed for him even in his own church as a blind leader, a 
 weak brother, an agent of the devil: while he, finding that he 
 could not repress or divert the storm, calmly awaited its subsi- 
 dence, knowing that with the return of reason would retiu-n the 
 influence of his character and his counsels. 
 
 From all quarters of the academic buildings, and at all times of 
 the day and night, could be heard the sounds of prayer. Protracted 
 meetings now commenced, one of which lasted ■\\ithout the slight- 
 est intermission for seven days and seven nights, and it was even 
 proposed to continue it longer, in the expectation of the anival of 
 a disttnguLshed preacher, Avho was famous for his \igor, fluencv, 
 and spiiit-stiiTing influence in prayer. All kinds of curious strata- 
 gems were resorted to by the adroit leaders of these meetino-s to 
 entrap the feelings of the unregenerate. Ever}' one was prayed 
 for in full congregation by name, and frequently eff"ective allusions 
 made to age, situation, connections, and prospects. Little children 
 
40 KALOOLAH. 
 
 with plaintive voices would sometimes be selectc^d for this purpose, 
 and sometimes girls grown to womanhood, with whom the sinner 
 was supposed to be a little aux petits soins. In this way our band 
 of five lost very unexpectedly one of its members, and the uncon- 
 verted were thus reduced to four, with the old President at their 
 head. 
 
 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 siglit 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 
 woi-ship 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 I How infinitely expressive ! 
 Listen to the hot siuibeams stiiking upon the thick pendant foliage, 
 to the soft sighing of the million leaves, as, disturbed by the fitful 
 breeze, they twist and wriggle themselves back to stillness and rest. 
 Listen to the low hum of the lazy insects ; to the hesitating twitter 
 of the sleepy birds, or to the occasional sullen sluggish plash of some 
 trout, who has been lured from liis siesta by the temptation of a 
 careless fly. The blended whole makes music — low, melancholy 
 music — the most saddening 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 unpleasantly, as the foreboding notes rise, and swell, and 
 fall. Anon, the tempest comes, the majestic clouds speak to each 
 other and to earth in the deep voices of the pealing thunder; 
 the sturdy woods re-echo, and prolong the crastiing sounds; the 
 wind sweeps through the foliage with a hollow rushing, as if a 
 myriad viewless spirits were flapping their pinions and career- 
 ing before it — the big drops fall with leaden sound upo]i the lea^'es. 
 Does not the whole make the wildest, subliraest harmony ? There 
 
REFLECTIONS IN THE WOODS. 41 
 
 is nothing dismal or gloomy in it ; it is sternly joyous ; it speaks of 
 power — of miglit; but it speaks too in solemn and majestic tones, — 
 no ranting or canting — of a power above, and beyond mere droop- 
 ing and decaying nature. Stand forth, and enjoy it ! Quail not ! 
 Bare your brow to the storm — look with a steady eye upon the 
 Ughtning's tiash — listen to the awful chorus and feel alike the in- 
 finity of God and the gi'eatness of the soul. 
 
 The storm has passed — the moistened fohage rustles in the breeze ; 
 but with a different tone — a tone of pm"e gladness, the insects beat 
 the air with their tiny mugs to a more joyful measiu'e ; the birds sing 
 freely, bUthely; the trout spring actively from the placid lake, 
 and dash the sparkling circles with a sound of merriment and glee. 
 The hannony is of natm'e i'e\aved, restored. It speaks of hope and 
 confidence — it presages immortaHty. But how easy, natural and 
 quiet! How deep, and strong, and heart-per\'ading in that very 
 natm-alness and quiet! Ah! in all that inihiite variety of praise, 
 and prayer, and thanksgi\ing, you can discover nothing hke rant 
 or cant. 
 
 It was with such thoughts in my head that, early one beau- 
 tifid morning, I was rangmg the woods, gtm in hand, occasionally 
 stopping to hsten for the dnimming of the partridge, or the coo- 
 mg of the Avild pigeon. The pecuhar sounds of the former struck 
 upon my ear ; I took aim — fired, and was reloading my ritie, 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 yoiu's — a first rate shot; 
 ten rods at least, and head taken off as clean as a Avliistle." 
 
 The speaker was old Joe Downs, well known as an expert 
 trapper and himter; and as generally liked as he was known. 
 There was nothing rough or outre in his appearance or style of 
 conversation; none of the half- horse and half-alligator characteris- 
 tics generally attributed to the woodsmen of the south and west. 
 Nothing could be more simple or respectable than his ah* and 
 
42 KALOOLAII. 
 
 looks; so mucli tso, 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 tlie 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 natm-e with smiles, and relieved the 
 stern solitude of the woods. They were, hoAvever, not in sufficient 
 nimibers to attract the hunter, who found more profitable employ- 
 ment in trapping the musk-rat, or in killing deer for their skins. 
 Even at 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 Rackett for two or three months, and then returned with their 
 spoils to then- home on the St. LawTence. 
 
 Joe had frequently proposed to me to accompany him in one 
 of his expeditions ; and circumstances now seemed to favor the 
 plan. 
 
 "I'll tell you what it is now," he exclaimed, as we took our 
 seats upon the trunk of a fallen tree. "I'll tell you what it is, you 
 can't do nothing here. There's no decent game within ten miles 
 of us. The psalm-singing, and praising the Lord has knocked 
 all business in the head, and broke up the Academy; so you haintno 
 school to go to ; well, you won't pray, j^ou can't study, and you can't 
 hunt ; so what on earth is the use of staying here. No, go along with 
 me for three or four weeks, and I'll 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 Avhite man. What do j'ou say to a 
 wolf ! Pooh ! thej^ are not worth the poAvder and shot, unless you can 
 shoot two at a time. But what do you say to a bear or tw-o ; real old 
 fellow^s, that will take half a dozen balls in the body and still make a 
 respectable fight! Why, I'll do still better by you than that; if 
 
JOE DOWNS, THE TRAPPER. 43 
 
 I don't put you right along-side of the biggest catamount 3"ou ever 
 heard tell of, my name aint Joe. I vnR, 'pon my word. You shall 
 stand right \mder the tree, and take him in the eye just as he 
 is about to spiing 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 de\'il." 
 
 " But, Joe !— " 
 
 "Oh, there's no but about it. If you don't kill him dead, 
 I'll just stand one side and won't say a word, and you can take 
 it out — fan- 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 retmn 
 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 m order, and mind and bring along a strong pickerel line. I'll 
 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 inqviired. 
 
 " No, not a white face Avithin forty miles of us. There'll be 
 plenty of red-skins — half a dozen canoes went up the river yesterday, 
 but they ain't of no accoimt. They are a poor, lying, cheating, 
 stealing set of vagabonds. There is^^ one of them that I'd trust 
 within a mile of my camp." ^*»~- 
 
 "But don't you ever have any difficulty with them?" 
 
 " Why, no, not what you may call real down right difficulty. 
 We used to a good many years ago, but now, although they'll 
 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 
 
44 KALOOLAH. 
 
 scoundrels in tlie whole St. Regis nation, 1 haint been troubled." 
 
 " How was that?" 
 
 " Why, I'll 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 1 saw the marks of an Indian's 
 foot right on my trail. Think's I, that is kind of queer ; the 
 fellow must have been following me ; howsomever, I'll try him and 
 make sure ; so I made another large cu'cle, and again struck my 
 own track, and there was the tarnal Indian's foot again. Says I 
 this won't do ; I must find out what this customer wants, and how 
 he'll 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 didn't like his looks, he was alto- 
 gether too darned glad to see me. He had no gim, 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 bm-st, or you've 
 pawned it for rum, and you can't raise skins enough to redeem it, 
 and you want mine, and perhaps you'll get it." 
 
 " At last I grew kind of nervous ; I knew the fellow w-ould 
 hatchet me if I gave him a chance, and yet I didn'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 Avould be to give him a chance to 
 play his hand ; and, if it so be, he'd lead the wTong card, why I 
 should have a right to take the trick. Just then at tlie right time 
 a partridge flew into a climip that stood five or six rods off. So I 
 kind of 'nceuvred roimd a little. I drew out my ramrod as if to feel 
 whether the ball in my rifle was well down, but instead of returning 
 it again, 1 kept it in my hand, and without letting the vagabond see 
 me, I got out a handful of powder. I then saimtered 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 tlu'n just took and run my ramrod right down 
 
JOK UOW.VS STORY. 4o 
 
 upon the powder. Now he thought was his chance before I loaded 
 my gun agaui. 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, a^d bounded right at me. 
 When he was just about three or fom- 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 Julius 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'nt it?" 
 
 " Certainly. I don't see what else you could have done." 
 
 " Nor I, nother. But I am sorry I took his traps. Howsom- 
 ever, I didn'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 stoiy about that too ; but we'll 
 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 carrjang 
 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 strack me at the mo- 
 ment as very important, but it afterwards acquked a peculiar inte- 
 rest — it was her last. 
 
 " My health," she ■wrote, " has not been nearly so good as when 
 you were last here. In fact, I have been quite unwell ; and that 
 is the reason I have not wi'itten to you — I did not wish to give any 
 unnecessaiy alarai. I have now comparatively recovered, and the 
 doctor says that I shall be as strong as ever (which is not promising 
 much you know) in a few days. I know I should be quite well 
 
48 KALOOLAH. 
 
 were it not for the anxiety I feel, my dear son, respecting you. 
 You are arriving at that age when it is necessary to think pretty 
 seriously of the course in life which you intend to pursue. You 
 have given up, like a dutifid son, as you have generally been to 
 me, your determination to go to sea, but I know that you still 
 cherish a secret longing for that kind of life. In your case it is 
 natural, and perhaps it is an employment that is well adapted to 
 your taste and character; and yet, although I have a melancholy 
 presentiment that your fate will one day give you enough of the 
 ocean, I cannot consent. But even if I could, it is now too late. 
 You are almost eighteen, and to enter the "National Ser\'ice" 
 with any hope of arriving at a respectable rank before you are an 
 old man, you ought to have commenced three or four years ago. 
 
 Captain H says there are even sometimes midshipmen at only 
 
 twelve years of age, and as to the merchant service, it is a very dif- 
 ferent thing from what it was years ago. He says it " 'taint as it 
 used to be," and he knows all about it. There are no wars or block- 
 ades, or even pirates; and no chance for either fortune or adventure ; 
 
 I know you would not like that at all. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Now I am very anxious that you shoidd enter upon some 
 business or profession that would suit you, and I have been ha^■ing a 
 long talk with Dr. S. upon the subject. He says that you are 
 cut out exactly for a physician ; that he knows that you like the 
 study, that during the vacations, when you've been here, you 
 have read half the books in his librar}% and that you knoAV more 
 about anatomy and "doctor stuff" now, than a great many me- 
 dical students. He says that "he's confident you'd make a first- 
 rate surgeon, and that is saying a great deal, for it requires as great 
 a combination of the highest qualities to make a great surgeon 
 as to make a great general, or any other kind of great man." I 
 hope that you will like the notion. It is a most respectable pro- 
 fession, and you can do so much good in it, and there must be 
 so many curious adventures, and so much excitement. Why, a 
 
MY mother's letter. 4*1 
 
 doctor must have enough every day to try head, heart and hand ; 
 and just see how much they all like their profession, and how 
 much influence it gives them. I know that it will suit you, 
 and, my dear son, it would give me so much pleasure. Think 
 of it seriously. Yoiu- education is nearly completed. President 
 
 B writes to me that you are far in advance of all your classes, 
 
 and coidd easily take a degree in any college in the Union. I'm 
 sorry you would'nt go to college, Jonathan ; but then it would 
 have taken you so far from home, and you have so kindly given 
 up yom* deteimination of gomg to sea, and have made so much 
 out of your advantages, that I can't complain. In fact I am not 
 soiTy at aU, and now if you'll only make up yom* mind to com- 
 mence the study of medicine, I shall be quite happy. Come home 
 then, and if there is anytliing wanting to finish off your classical 
 studies, why there is a yovmg man here, ovu* new parson, who 
 is said to be the best scholar in the country ; he's in ill health 
 and sphits, and I've been doing all I could to comfort and con- 
 sole hmi, and he always says that he will do anytliing for you. 
 He'll read Homer and Aristotle with you, and all the Greeks if you 
 wish, and I really beheve he would rather do that than preach, for 
 the folks here don't seem to imderstand his sennons, so if you come 
 home, and conclude to study medicine, you will begin imdcr the 
 best avispices; you can go down to New- York and attend your 
 courses of lectm'es; and when you have gTaduated, perhaps my 
 
 health will require a sea voyage, and it wiU do you good, Dr. S - 
 
 says, to \'isit Paris, and may be we'll go and enjoy the sea together. 
 In the voyage, perhaps you will learn to like the sea less, and I to 
 
 Uke it better. 
 
 * * * * - * * ^ 
 
 It is now one month 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 anything strikingly or strongly opposed to a proper cul- 
 
48 KAI.OOLAH. 
 
 tivated christian taste. You know how deeplj' 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 ex- 
 citement 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 Avithout 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 infonning her that the remainder of 
 the temi 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 \4gor. The letter Avas dispatched, and in a few hours 
 all my arrangements were made to join the old trapper upon my 
 first grand hunt. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A hunting expedition. — Meeting with Indians. — A secret cavern. — Mr. Downs' 
 opinions of the Indians. — Indians sueing for assault and battery. — Encamp- 
 ment in the pine barrens. — One way to cook fish. — Deer shooting by torch 
 light. 
 
 Our outfit was simple enough. I took with me a rifle and a 
 double-ban-elled fowling-piece, with plenty of powder, ball and 
 shot, &c. together with an ample assortment of fishing tackle, a 
 pocket telescope, two blankets, a pouch of pepper and salt, and a 
 bao- 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. 
 
MY FIRST ADVENTURE. 49 
 
 Thus supplied we launched our light birchen canoe upon the 
 river at early day break, 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 vmload 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 unfrequently in the course of our voyage. The labor, 
 however, though rather arduous, was far from distressing; our 
 baggage being di\'idedinto parcels of light weight, with the ex- 
 ception 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 un- 
 equal to any exertion which the old man (who was also my inferior 
 in size and weight) was capable of making. Working "with a 
 wiU," the portages seemed short, and when launched again, paddling 
 the canoe was merely an agreeable exercise. 
 
 It was on the second morning of om* 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 tune to start. 
 Don't you hear the black-birds, and they aint very early risers. Come 
 let's bimdle 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 began to appear in the east. I 
 
 3 
 
50 KALOOLAH. 
 
 etaxted up — opened my eyes — rubbed them — stared at Joe, the 
 woods, the stream, the clouds, and felt the exciting conviction nish 
 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 hghter, imtil at last the lagging 
 'sun popped up suddenly his full-orbed face above the horizon, shed- 
 ding a flood of gloiy upon forest, glade, and stream. 
 
 " Take your gun now," said Joe, " while I'll 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 Avade in the mud for 
 them. Wait till you can catch 'em on the edge of the Avater. But 
 — hush ! 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 command a \iew 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 along side of us, and followed by several others a 
 little further down. 
 
 " Sago — sago neechie," shouted Joe. " Good morning — how do 
 you do?" 
 
 The savage wielding the stem paddle of the foremost canoe 
 turned upon vis a coimtenance, the natural diabolical expression of 
 which was not duninished by a few patches of black paint. A 
 scowl of intense hatred and mahce was his only reply to oiu* sa- 
 lutation, as with a sweep of his paddle he tm^ned the bow of his boat 
 from us, and with a few Angorous strokes shot it ahead. 
 
 " Oh ! I know you, you sneaking scoundrel," growled Joe, be- 
 tween his clenched teeth, " I know you, and I'll make you know 
 me if you don't look out. But here comes Captain Pete, he's al- 
 most the only decent chap in the whole tribe." 
 
 The other boats now came up to us. Their crews returned 
 
MEETING WITH INDIANS. 51 
 
 oiir salutations 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 musk-rat skins, 
 
 " Who was that pohte fellow in the first canoe ?" I demanded, 
 as we turned off and resumed our course. 
 
 " His name," rephed Joe, " is Blacksnake, and a darned good 
 name it is for him. He's black enough as you see, and he's a re- 
 gular 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 name- 
 sake." 
 
 " But, what's the difficulty ?" I inquired. " He did'nt seem 
 to look at you in the most loving temper." 
 
 " Why, no, and I must allow he hasn't any very great reason. 
 You see he's the brother of that fellow I was telhng 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 door post. I hain't the least 
 doubt that that very identical 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 trap- 
 per. If I only knew it was the fact, I wish I may be stuck forked 
 end uppermost in a coon hole, if I woiddn't send a ball through his 
 painted old brain-case tliis ere very identical minute. Dam your 
 skin," energetically growled Joe, shaking his fist at the distant 
 canoe. 
 
 " But how is it that you have escaped until this time ?" I in- 
 quired. " Blacksnake and his friends must have had opportunities 
 enough of setthng 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 
 
52 KALOOLAH. 
 
 are such thundermg cowards. They would hke to fix me, but they 
 daresn't. They know it isn't so easy to catch me asleep ; and besides 
 that, they are kind o' fraid of the law ever since the Indian was himg 
 for killuig a white man up in Brown's settlement. They don't hke 
 hanging, and they'll take pretty good care how they do anytliing to 
 bring their necks into the noose. No, the fellows know the law just 
 as well as white men. Why, I once cleared away the gromid 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 oft' upon it, and about a quarter of a mile I found 
 six great red devils squatted do\vn, 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 dancinsc 
 and screaming, and capering you never did see ! They soon scatter- 
 ed 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 pew- 
 ter 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 hke a frightened deer, and cleared 
 the fence next jump easy. And Avhat do you think those fellows 
 did?" 
 
 " What on 'arth do you think they did ?" demanded Joe. 
 
SCENFRY OF THE RIVER. 53 
 
 " I can't imagine, I'm sure," I replied. 
 
 " No ! I know you can't ! You couldn'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 dollars. 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 om* paddles, which forced our fight canoe along the sur- 
 face of the water with a rapidity which gave one hardly time to ob- 
 serve the striking natural featm'es 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 afive with fish. The shores varied 
 at each instant in their colors and forms, verdant flats, low marshes, 
 overhanging with willows ; rolling hillocks, and lofty ledges of red 
 freestone succeeded each other with a perfect prodigafity of pictu- 
 resqueness ; while at every few miles, some tributary creek would 
 open up such a A-ista 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 for 
 ever, as we gfided 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 httle islet and the lofty bank of rock, which rose 
 almost perpendicularly directly from the water, to a height of some 
 seventy feet. "You wouldn't think," continued Joe, "that five 
 hundred men might bestowed within ten feet of us, and with- 
 out the least danger that the most thorough search could discover 
 them ?" 
 
 I looked all around ; at the little island, which barelv concealed 
 
64 KALOOLAH. 
 
 our canoe from the main channel, and at the sohd wall of smooth 
 rock that towered overhead. 
 
 " You don't beheve it !" said Joe. 
 
 I shook ray head. 
 
 " Well, I'll 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 Avas 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 ■vvings ever looked into it 
 except myself." 
 
 " You see I was coming along here one day, three or four years 
 ago, Avhen all of a sudden I heard a noise on the top of the clilT; I 
 looked \ip, and there I saw a young catamount, scrambhng 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 Avrong way, and down he came right along the face of 
 the wall, and right on that ledge. I thought he'd bound off, and 
 perhaps tumble aboard of me ; but he didn'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." 
 
 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 iiregular but roomy 
 apartment. The dim light, as we had no torches with us, enabled 
 
A SECRET CAVERN. 65 
 
 me to form but a very iudefinite idea of its size, but I could not 
 but think what a palace it would have been thought by the Trog- 
 lodytes, 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 aniious to get to the camping 
 gi'ound, which he had selected some six or eight miles above, I had 
 no opportimity of examining it very closely at the time, although 
 afterwards I had good cause to know it better. 
 
 "I've shown this to you," said Joe, "but I wouldn't have it 
 known to any one else for a good deal of money. It has sened 
 me often to hide my traps or a bundle of skins in. There's no 
 danger of a skulking Indian finding them there. It can't be seen 
 from above, and no one woidd begin to think of it from below 
 unless they happened to tumble a panther into it as I did." 
 
 Two or three miles fmther brought us to the largest lake, or 
 expansion 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 aU the genii of the Arabian Nights, I 
 could not have commanded for my own especial admiration and en- 
 joyment, a more dehcious and picturesque scene. But neither space 
 nor time will permit me to imdertake a description. 
 
 " Beautiful ! beautiful !" I exclaimed, droppmg my paddle, and 
 gazing with dehght. 
 
 " Yes, it's fii-st rate," rephed my companion. " There's lots of 
 deer all along here for ten miles, up to the head of the lake, and 
 muski-ats 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 about half way up the lake, and a 
 capital spot for a camp — dry as a bone — plenty of wood, and 
 no mosquitoes." And Joe mdustriously plied his paddle in the 
 direction he pointed. 
 
 We soon reached the spot indicated — the edge of an extensive 
 pine barren, no underwood obstructed the \iew through the gigan- 
 
66 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tic trees, which towered their lofty heads to the clouds ; and in 
 some places not even the scantiest vegetation held the moveable 
 sand, that whirled in the gusts of wind around the stui-dy trees with 
 the uncontroled freedom of the desert. 
 
 Our baggage was soon landed, a place selected, and prepara- 
 tions 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 wigwam — completely sheltered from 
 the weather on three sides, and a husce log fire blazina in front. An 
 hour more, and a couple of black squirrels hung dangling from the 
 ends of sticks implanted in the ground, and inclined at an angle to- 
 wards the fire, while a magnificent trout was broiling upon the 
 glowing embers, and diffusing a most savory odor, which soon 
 brought nvunerous lupine and vulpine visitors, who, by their how- 
 ling, snuffing and scampering around our camp, seemed to envy 
 us om* luxiuious repast. A thin cake of Indian meal, skilfully 
 mixed by the old trapper, and baked upon a heated stone, com- 
 pleted the materials for our supper. — And such a supper ! I 
 thought of the petits soupers of Aspasia, and of Alcibiades ; 
 and of LucuUus 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 ain't a circumstance to what can be done in the cooking 
 way. I'll tell you how you can cook a fish to make it taste just as 
 you please. We'll 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 oS", and 
 you'll have a dish that would bring to life any starved man, if he 
 hadn'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 poik or bear's feet, and a 
 
HUNTING BY TORCH LIGHT. 67 
 
 few beachnuts, 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 roimd 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 
 Ught far around and beneath 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 hght, 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, betray- 
 ed 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 even- 
 ing the deer-shooting 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. 
 
 8* 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A friendly warning. — A night visit from Indians. — Downs dangerously 
 wounded. — Retreat to the secret cavern. — Jonathan's medical Jind culi- 
 nary skill. — Life in a cave in the woods. — Recovery of Joe. 
 
 k 
 
 A week had passed — a week that, tested by the home associa- 
 tions which woidd once in a while intnide 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 : brood- 
 ing 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 sluggish pinions by ; absorbed in the engagements, the thoughts, 
 or the duties of the present, with what fearful and relentless velo- 
 city he passes, we no longer think of " kiUing " him any more than 
 we should think of killing the eagle as he stoops in the very majes- 
 ty of speed, with a wild startling rush and whir from his lofty 
 perch upon the finny prey that his appearance has frightened from 
 the clutches of some straofolina hawk. 
 
 A week had passed, and as yet we had met Avith no very extra- 
 ordinary or thrilHng adventure. I had no.t 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 pis- 
 catory portion of our evening meal ; no diflicult job, as may be sup- 
 posed, where the fish were so plentiful and so imsophisticated — so 
 utterly imaccustomed to the specious illusions of the baited hook. I 
 had captiu-ed enough for the appetites of any two ordinary ichthy- 
 ophagi, and was debating with myself the exceeding impropriety of 
 
A FRIENDLY WARNING. 69 
 
 continuing the sport merely as sport, wlien a giniff, guttural saluta- 
 tion struck my ear, and a canoe with a single Indian, who I imme- 
 diately recognized as Captain Pete, glided alongside. 
 
 " The general — where is him '?" demanded the captain. 
 
 The general, was a title m which I knew that Joe sometimes 
 luxuriated, especially with his Indian friends, although I was igno- 
 rant of the source, or the manner in which it had been acquu'ed. 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 look out — 
 Blacksnake bad man — he mean bad — I know him — tell general to 
 sleep with one eye — take plenty care. You tell hira ?" 
 
 " Certainly, I'll tell him — " 
 
 " Good !" and the capt;iin dropped his paddle into the water 
 and urged his hght 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 woi'ds. 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 thoroughly aroused. I had heard so 
 much of Indian revenge, that notwithstanding Joe's contempt for 
 the semi-civilized and wholly demoralized red-skins that were about 
 us, I was disposed to beUeve them still equal to those daring and 
 bloody deeds that authentic history, as well as doubtful tradi- 
 tion, have so often described. 1 was sorry I had not questioned 
 Captain Pete a little, but he had started away so abraptly, having 
 evidently wished to convey his warning without being seen hngering 
 in the neighborhood of our camp, that I had not time to fairly re- 
 cover myself before he was out of hearing. However, Joe will be 
 able to form some judgment of the extent and character of the dan- 
 ger that threatens us, thought I, as I pulled up my anchor and 
 made all haste to the shore. 
 
60 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Pooh! pooh!" said Joe, as I finished my story, " 'taint nothing 
 worth thinliing of. Captain Pete is a good old fellow, and he's al- 
 ways been a warm friend, as he ought to be, since I have done him 
 some good turns in my time: but he don't know over much. He's 
 afraid of Blacksnake himself, and he tliinks he's doing a sendee 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 stor}^ he had looked around for his rifle — had taken it up, 
 examined the flint and priming, and passed the ramrod dowTi 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 oflF and rested his rifle 
 against the corner of our hut; but I was fai* from being assured 
 either by his tone or his words. 
 
 " You seem," said I, at the conclusion of quite a long and hot 
 argument, in which I defended the received notions of Indian cha- 
 racter. " 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 1 know that rum and cixilization 
 have made them a poor, sneaking, cowardly set. Now oflf 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 ' 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 anything with a white man, unless it is to stai-ve 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 hck, in fair fight, any single Indian 
 you can pick up between here and the Rocky Mountains, my name 
 
A FRIENDLY WARNING. 01 
 
 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 hke them wolves; they'll hang around just as 
 though they would eat you, and if you move a step towards them, 
 they'll run like so many sheep." 
 
 "Well, well," said I, "it may be as you say, we won't argue 
 the subject any further — but I must say, that if Blacksnake feels 
 towards you as you think he does, he has got no Indian blood ia 
 him if, sooner or later, he does not contrive to get a shot at you. 
 Why I shouldn'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 stew-pan." 
 
 " 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 Avolf-skin badly, I'll just 
 step out and try once more if I can't get a shot at these noisy cow- 
 ards, that you hken the ' lords of the forest ' so contemptuously to." 
 Taking up my double-baiTelled gun, I carefully loaded it with a full 
 charge of heavy buck-shot. 
 
 " Go roimd by the right," replied Joe, " and you'll hem 'em in 
 between the lake and our fire ; and perhaps you'll 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 flashing hght of the pine-log fire. 
 
68 KALOOLAH. 
 
 The niglit was an impressive one : there was something heavy 
 and threateninof in the air, although there were no decided indica- 
 tions of a storm. The wind caine sluggishly across the bosom of 
 the lake, sliglitly Aviinkling its sturface, 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 dift'erent times in the same place. It is true the pheno- 
 menon can be explained by reference to the comparative tempera- 
 ture, moisture, and density of the atmosphere ; but the diflference 
 of those tones has a meaning to many ears that cannot be explained 
 away with the explanation of the physical cause. In this instance 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, occasion- 
 ally 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 wea- 
 ther 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 were 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 clos- 
 ing in upon them. I had arrived within about fifty yards of the 
 lake, and some three or four hundred yards below our camp, tlie 
 hght of which I could clearly see, when a sudden rush took place, 
 and the gaunt forms of hrilf a dozen of the famished wretches flit- 
 ted by me. I raised my gun. and A\-ith fin<rer on the trigger, fairly 
 covered one of them as he bounded by at a dist^mce of not more 
 
A NIGHT VISIT FROM INDIANS. Ot 
 
 than three or four rods : but I did not fire ; why or for what rea- 
 son it is impossible to say. It seemed as though there was some- 
 thing providential in it, although it was probably nothing but one of 
 those moments of indecision which the keenest sportsman will re- 
 collect to have felt. It was but an instant, but that instant 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 gim from its level, and stared with 
 pure imthinking and unreflective wonder at the strange apparition. 
 In a moment another figure glided out, and again another, and 
 there was clearly revealed the forms of three stalwart Indians, 
 creeping along from tree to tree in the direction of our fire. With- 
 out a moment's thought I turned in nearly upon their rear and fol- 
 lowed them with a step as noiseless as ever trod an Indian war- 
 path. 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 ap- 
 peared 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 fre- 
 quently thought of a dozen plans that I might have adopted. I 
 might, by firing my gun, have 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 In- 
 dians, instead of three, we should undoubtedly have had the best 
 of it. But I did not know what objects the Indians had in ^^ew, 
 and these are thoughts that came afterwards, or that can only be 
 made advantageous at the moment by great natural courage, 
 thoroughly educated in the school of danger. I had a fair share 
 
64 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 oiu- hut 
 when they stopped, and appeared to me to be holding a consulta- 
 tion, while grouped for a moment in the deep shadow of the trees. 
 They had evidently 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 vnih. our fire, which was blazing away 
 right merrily, and throwing a prodigeous 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 tm'ned nearly to- 
 wards us, and his body slightly bent downwards, as he held on to 
 the thongs of deer skin attached to a peg driven into the groimd. 
 The fire light 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 simul- 
 taneously, 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 In- 
 dian levelled his rifle at him, but the skulking murderer was too slow 
 in his motions: with a kind of sigh and a gnmt 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 Avhirring partridge or flitting quail, I gave one of the other 
 two the contents of my remaining baiTel — 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 makinof at first a down- 
 
A NIGHT VISIT FROM INDIANS. 65 
 
 right 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 making a blow at the same time, I made a 
 straight forward thrust, and struck him a severe blow in the face. 
 He staofcrered back, and before he coxild recover himself, with an 
 overhand slashing cut, I brought the hea-vy 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 be- 
 neath the force of my blow. Without stopping a moment I boimd- 
 ed on to our hut, there I saw a sight that for a moment completely 
 stupified me. Joe had fallen backwards, his head resting, slightly 
 raised, against the upright of our hut, where leaned his rifle, an'' 
 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, 
 wliich 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 consciousness. His 
 lips moved — I put my ear close to his mouth — " Water," he mur- 
 miu-red. 
 
 In an instant I was myself again. I felt that it was no time for 
 doubt and indecision. The httle medical knowledge that I had 
 picked up by stray reading, and visiting " doctor shops," was in- 
 stantly 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 ^Tilgar but encouraging 
 maxim almost on my hps, I jumped to the lake and returned with 
 a can of the fresh water. Joe took a draught which i-e\aved him a 
 little, while I set to and washed his face ; upon cleaning 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 obhquely above and through the eyebrow, but that the 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 bone was not injured, although the concussion had at first stunned 
 him. I was preparing to restore the flap and bind it up, when I be- 
 came sensible that the old man, wlio had again become unconscious, 
 was lying in a pool of blood, Avhieli had completely saturated 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 dying 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 hfe, 
 already reduced to its 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 bleeding flashed through my mind, 
 but, thought I, he maj' as well die from internal as external bleed- 
 ing — 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, M'ith the 
 point of my ramrod, makmg a kind of pouch, into which I continued 
 to cram small pieces of linen until I had distended it mto a good 
 and efficient 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 roimd substance, dh-ectly 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 clear ; 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 ruptming the intercostal ar- 
 tery, and glancing a little upwards, had slipped round upon the 
 bone, directly beneath the skin. " He'll live ! I know he'll live !" 
 I exclaimed, and as if in confirmation of my opinion, the old trap- 
 per opened Ins eyes and exhibited signs of retui-aing consciousness. 
 But much remained to be done. There, at a little distance, lay 
 
A NIGHT VISIT FROM INDIANS. 0^ 
 
 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. Then- contorted and stiffening forms, and convulsed fea- 
 tm-es, were far more fearful to look upon than they could have 
 been when alive, and armed with the powers and energies of deter- 
 mined malice. They looked as though they yet meditated revenge, 
 and revenged they assm-edly would be as soon as their fate became 
 known to their friends m 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 ca- 
 noe 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 other In- 
 dians, and as to the com-se 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 bran- 
 dished tomahawks from behind them. In such a case I might per- 
 haps 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 
 
68 KALOOLAH. 
 
 in less than twenty minutes I had all our essential goods and chat- 
 tels 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 inva- 
 lid 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 paddUng 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 further when my 
 canoe ran almost bow-on the little island lying before the cave. 
 Ghding into the narrow and shallow channel between the two, I 
 soon succeeded in f;istening the canoe to a small bush directly be- 
 neath 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 
 precisely the steps we had taken in the day time, was more diffi- 
 cult 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, puts at rest all fear of the possi- 
 bility 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 mi- 
 nor difficulty, which I was detemiined 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, or again start the hemorrhage of his 
 wound. This I contiived to accomplish by pulling the corners of 
 the blanket from beneath liim, leaving him in the middle of it, and 
 
RETURN' TO THE SECRET CAVERN. 69 
 
 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 I 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 
 we were coming down, were the only e\-idences of suffering in his 
 rough ascent. Stretching him temporarily upon the softest look- 
 ing stone I could find, in a few minutes I had a bed rigged for him, 
 which, as Joe afterwards acknowledged, was " good enough for the 
 president, or the queen of England." A few moments more I had 
 all our goods hauled up, oiu* 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 ca- 
 vern, disturbing no one but the bats, who soon found themselves 
 compelled to evacuate the premises. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 An opportune arrival. — Return to the village. — Bad news. — Jonathan hurries 
 home. — His Mother's death. — A spiritual visitation. 
 
 For 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 exsangumated that his re- 
 coveiy was necessarily slow, although it is probable that but for the 
 loss of blood imflammatory sjTnptoms might have developed them- 
 selves, that would have severely taxed my httle 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 
 
10 KALOOLAH. 
 
 SO much to think of, that the hours glided by with the greatest 
 rapidity. 
 
 In the daytime I mostly staid at home, except during two or 
 three cautious 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 woimd in his side, and walking up and doAvn, 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 sun 
 fish ; 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 mgenuity 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 vinstocking 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 five-bait 
 bucket. The best materials for soup I 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 experi- 
 ments at flavo)"ing them with wintergreen, birch-bark and sassafrass, 
 some of Avhich, I could not but think, were tolerably successful, al- 
 though Joe allowed that he " rather hked the plam soup the best." 
 
LIFE IN THE CAVERN. ?1 
 
 It was the last eveninsf of our third week that I was seated be- 
 fore the fire busily engaged stringing wonns 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 foimd 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," exclauned Joe, " how can I ever 
 repay you ?" 
 
 " Repay me ! what for ? what do you mean ?" 
 
 " For aU 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 staid here shut up in this old den, 
 without a single impatient look or gesture. I've watched vou 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 thesome. This 
 aint no place for a fellow as 3'oimg and strong as you are, and 
 'tisn'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 roimd the long portage, and you see my ribs want a little 
 tinkering vip by the doctors, and that ball cut out of my back; and 
 besides that, ovu* meal is all out, and our crackers must be nearly 
 gone, for I have noticed that you have not eaten one for several 
 days. ISTow, 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 -s-iUage, 
 We've got a good moon now, and if you start just at sundown, and 
 paddle all night, you'll be in the mommg 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 Avho keeps the 
 red wooden grocery store, and tell him all about it, and he'll get 
 Bomebody with him and start in ten minutes. He'll be up here in 
 
72 KALOOLAH. 
 
 two days, and then I can be carried round the falls and reach home 
 before the week is out." 
 
 Joe's proposition was debated jyro and con. but, as it really ap- 
 peared 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. Fortimately however we were not compelled to 
 put it into execution, as the veiy next morning the means of escape 
 from our confinement were presented to us. 
 
 I had risen rather late, ha\4ng been employed according to 
 Joe's suggestion 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 so me what surprised at seeing me, and listened 
 with not a little interest and even xmeasiness 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 shouldn't wonder," said I. "It would be far the safest plan 
 for you to tm-n 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. Anived at the rapids, we easily made a 
 
JONATHAN HURRIES HOMK. 73 
 
 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 couldn't 
 have been better treated, and that a few weeks more would make 
 him as sound and as strong as ever. I, however, could not look 
 after him any further, as I found an urgent letter, which had been 
 awaitmg 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." 
 
 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 commence- 
 ment and end of our quarterly vacations, I had formed quite an 
 intimate acquaintance with the coachman; so, seating myself on 
 the box, I plied him with all manner of persuasives, 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, 
 
 " Oh ! it isn't my horses that I care any thing about," said 
 Jehu, " it won't hurt them ; it's my coach-springs and axletrees : if 
 they break, we're stuck," and on we went, bumping along over the 
 rocks and corderoy roads, or through the mud holes, with the 
 wheels alternately in the air one moment, and the next bur- 
 ned to the hub in the deep ruts — the coach body swinging to and 
 fro, and bounding upward and down, in a manner that would have 
 puzzled any ordinary natural philosopher to reconcile with the com- 
 mon theory of gravitation. To the inside passengers the motion ap- 
 peared to be mvich more cvirious than agreeable. They boxmced about, 
 knocking, pushing and huddling each other ; one moment striking 
 their heads against the top of the coach, and the next setthng to 
 their seats with a force that made their teeth snap, and which 
 seemed expressly intended to test the elasticity of the vertebral 
 column. " 
 
 4 
 
tfi KAI.OOLAH. 
 
 "Driver! driver !" exclaimed a fat man, with a remarkable red 
 face, who, by dint of hard holding on, had contrived to get his 
 head out of the front window. " Driver ! I say, what the 
 
 d 1 — " 
 
 His inqiury was cut short by a blow under the chm from 
 the window-sill, and a knock on the occiput from above, and his ru- 
 bicund and perspu-ing visage disappeared with an expression of per- 
 fect despau-. The whole thing was ludicrous enough, but I was in 
 no mood to enjoy it. I was too anxious and impatient to reach 
 home — a terrible foreboding, vagaie and indefinite, (for I would not 
 allow myself to give it shape or form,) had taken possession of 
 me. I felt as one conscious of impending evil, the very magnitude 
 of which paraUzes mind and sense ! We shut our eyes : we dare 
 not think. 
 
 Notwithstanding oirr haste we did not anive at my native vil- 
 lage imtil 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 jvmiping from the box, I nished onward vvith the 
 speed of fear and hope. As I came within sight of the house, a 
 good many strange and unusual chcumstances attracted my atten- 
 tion. The windows were all open, and I could perceive that a num- 
 ber of people w^ere 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 woodbine ; 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 
 pei-sons silent and motionless, or if moving at all, with evidently 
 cautious steps. In the broad esplanade of green in front of the 
 dwelling, or leaning on the white paUng, lined with the lilac, the 
 rose and the honeysuckle, 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 — m 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 
 
HIS MOTHER S DEATH. 
 
 part of the siglit, for my mother I had been accustomed to see sur- 
 rounded, more than half her time, by the sick and the poor. 
 
 No one spoke as I entered the gate, but they all looked at 
 me with a sad and pitying expression. I longed to ask a ques- 
 tion, but I dared not. I wanted to ask for what so many people 
 were collected round the house. Oh ! I could have hugged 
 to my heart the most shrivelled and repulsive pauper present, 
 had he or she but said they had come for a little more medicine 
 for the sick children, or more tea and sugar for the bed-ridden 
 grandmother. They were silent, and I lost all hope — I felt that 
 they had gathered about to attend the death bed of their bene- 
 factress and friend. I felt that they had come not to sohcit new 
 favors, but from a grateful recollection of the past. 
 
 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 hving yet." 
 
 I passed on, and entered the sick room : the doctor, nurse 
 and attendmg friends made way for me, and I stood by her 
 side. My mother must have heard and recognised 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 hps ; they parted, and gently, 
 but distinctly, she murmm-ed " My son !" The next moment her 
 features were fixed in the cold hard rigidity of death. 
 
 Dead 1 impossible ! It could not be ! It could not be 
 that the pleasant and beautiful world had been thus instanta- 
 neously pal-sied at a single stroke — that the smi 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 funeral 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 
 
Y6 KALOOLAH. 
 
 —a voyage without 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 pleaswe, hie 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 hurried my head in the folds of the pillow, compressed my 
 beating temples with my hands, and struggled, 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 hke the passage of 
 some light body through the an-, or like the gentle iiistling 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 munnur, and then my mother's voice distinctly 
 pronouced 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 anns ex- 
 claimed, " Mother ! Mother ! Speak to me." but no answer was 
 returned. All was silent, save the occasional 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 ex- 
 cited brain. But, if dubious 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 bil- 
 lows of Gennesareth. 
 
 I arose and stood by the side of my mother's remains. I could 
 
THE FUNERAL. 77 
 
 gaze upon them without feeling longer that utter prostration of soul, 
 that intense and desperate anguish. I knew that that lifeless clay- 
 was not my mother ; it was something that once appertained to her, 
 and therefore sacred — something that she had used and had dis- 
 carded, wlule she herself was still Avith me and aroimd 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 over- 
 heard 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 obsen-ation ? 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 \'isited me in my chamber, 
 had spoken to me ; I should have been met with an almost uni- 
 versal smile of derision and contempt. Fools ! fools who thus dare 
 to dogmatise upon the a^vfid and mysterious possibilities of the 
 spiritual world. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Jonathan's mother. — Commences the study of medicine. — Medicine and its pro- 
 fessors. — Student fancies. 
 
 How aptly has time been termed "The Consoler." " The Des- 
 troyer" is hardly more appropaiate, for surely he relieves as much 
 distress as he causes ; cures as many w^ounds as he inflicts. I could 
 not but continue to moura my mother's death, but time, in his ra- 
 pid 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 surprised, but ashamed — ashamed that I could not keep 
 
t% KALOOLAH. 
 
 up the strong sense of wo — 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 \\Tong in my moral con- 
 stitution, 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 companion : one who took, or with the most dehcate tact, af- 
 fected to take an interest in all my boyish sports and occupations — 
 seldom directly opposing 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 mstances too of 
 the saciifice of her feelings and taste to a jealous anxiety for my 
 safety and welfare. 
 
 Alas for my sensibiUty 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 ex- 
 pressed wishes actuated me, and, when joined to the solicitations of 
 my guardian and fiiends, and the deshe for some kind of agreeable 
 and useful occupation, induced me to enter upon a coiuse of medical 
 study. I had but little idea that I should ever carry my profes- 
 sional 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 to gratify the noblest, as well as the meanest and most 
 prmient cm'iosity, that it is no wonder that young men take to it 
 with an avidity and enthusiasm that the students of other profes- 
 sions seldom feel. There is none of the aridity complained of in 
 the law — none of the didness and formality of theology. Every 
 thing is new, fresh and interestmg. The most fertile portion of the 
 broad field of nature is thrown open, wherein he hidden the most 
 recondite secrets — the most curious mysteries. Anatomy reveals 
 the structui-e of that wonderful machine, which in point of com- 
 plexity, yet perfect adjustment and adaptation of parts, so infinitely 
 
STUDY OF MEDICINE COMMENCED. 79 
 
 surpasses the most ingenious products of the machanicians skill ; 
 Physiology, 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 tnith. As the student advances, the 
 path grows more and more pleasant and picturesque, disclosing, at 
 each step, new scenes to stimulate cuiiosity or reward toil. The 
 institutes and history of medicine furnish themes for the profound- 
 est reflection, subjects for the most refined philosophic analysis, and 
 incitements 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 deduction from the vagaries of 
 theory, the prejudices of ignorance, or the pen'ersions of craft. He 
 learns to estimate at their proper value the pretensions of charla- 
 tans and the crudities of professional humbugs, who take advan- 
 tage of that quality of the human mind that disposes it to beheve 
 any thing, if it is sufiiciently improbable, to foist upon the world 
 some miserable but fortunately short-hved delusion. He sees that 
 there always have been, and probably always will be, such preten- 
 ders, and that they always have had, and always -nail have theur 
 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 
 welhng from its fountain in Cos — for centiuies after the time of 
 Hippocrates, receiving scarce an addition — now gradually and slow- 
 ly enlarging its current, steadily winding its way in despite of all 
 obstacles, and mirroiing m its waters the very image of truth — 
 truth often indemonstrable from the nature of its essence, and often 
 incommunicable to the vulgar from its fonn, but still truth. He 
 
©Q K ALGOL AH. 
 
 feels a pride in his profession, the ground of which the uninitiated 
 cannot appreciate or understand. He feels a confidence too, that, 
 altliough the credulity of a portion of the pubHc, hke the stomach 
 of the ostrich, rejects jiotliing, 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 expe- 
 rience of ages, is full as likely to form correct opinions and give 
 correct advice, as any seventh son of a seventh son, however igno- 
 rant ; or any crotchetey German enthxisiast however wild. 
 
 It was with a strong natural predilection, then, for such studies, 
 and a tolerably good preliminary education, consisting mainly of a 
 little Latin, less Greek, and a pretty fau' smattering of French and 
 Spanish, that I became enrolled on the list of students, five or six 
 in number, of the two principal physicians of the place. The elder 
 had been a practitioner almost from the first settlement of the vil- 
 lage, and had acquired a high and wide-spread reputation. For 
 forty miles romid his name, in the mouths of tliose who do the 
 most to confer a local medical immortality — the old women — was 
 a synonyme for science and skill. And well did he deserve his re- 
 nowTi, although not a learned man — the pressing demands of his 
 extensive practice precluding the possibility of regular study — yet 
 he had a vast fund of uiformation, mostly tlie resiilt of his own ob- 
 servation, and much of that practical medical tact, mthout which 
 mere erudition, even when combined with personal experience, is 
 comparatively useless. He was not one of that class of physicians 
 who see in a case only a confused unconnected assemblage of symp- 
 toms, and who address their remedies to the language rather than 
 to the proximate causes of the disease ; nor yet of that class, who, 
 slaves to some foregone conclusion, which tliey endeavor to make 
 universal in its appUcation, can see, in tlie vast varieties of disease, 
 nothing but the lesion of some particular tissue, or the derangement 
 of some favorite organ. 
 
 His partner was a much younger man, fresh from the hospitals 
 
STUDENT FANCIES. 81 
 
 and lectui-e-rooms, and filled with professional enthusiasm, which to 
 some extent he commimicated to the students, who naturally fell 
 more immediately imder liis supervision. His pictm-es of college 
 and hospital life excited my imagination to the highest pitch. 
 
 The anatomical theatre I imagined to be a splendid saloon, richly 
 embellished with snowy skeletons, dried preparations, and morbid 
 specimens, where nature daily gave audience to her favorite pupils. 
 
 The hospital was a palace, divided into long and lofty wards, 
 furnished in the geometric style, Avith beautiful beds at regular in- 
 tervals, upon which reposed the most fascinating forms of disease. 
 
 In my dreams I saw interminable vistas of magnificent ulcers, 
 dislocations, and compound fractures, and lofty halls strewn with 
 cadavers, with hundreds of incipient Boerhaaves, flourishing their 
 scalpels amid the confused vociferations of " Em'eka ! Eureka ! Seat 
 of the soul ! cause of death ! life ! nervous essence ! anima ! vis 
 medicatrix " and a whole Babel of uncouth technical terms. 
 
 In a few weeks I had an opportunity of comparing my fancy 
 sketches Avith the reality. The time for the commencement of the 
 winter course of lectures approaching, I repahed 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 dowmight disgusting. This how- 
 ever was, in the main, but a transient impression. It soon vanished 
 after a httle familiarity with the subject. It could not long co-exist 
 with that intense professional cmiosity which induces men, intended 
 by nature for physicians, to fight with the worms of the chamel 
 house, their way to knowledge, through the most disgusting masses 
 of putrifying humanity. It could not withstand the contagious 
 recklessness of a medical class. 
 
 4* 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Fascinations of anatomy. — The doctors in doubt. — A grave incident. — Flight of 
 Jonathan.— Arrival m New-York.— Meets an old friend.— A youngster on 
 the main-gaft. — An opportune offer. — Sailing of the Lively Anne. 
 
 At the close of the lectures I retui-ned to the village, bringing 
 with me some httle experience in metropohtan life, and an increased 
 enthusiasm for professional study. The anatomical branch, had, in 
 particular, excited my interest and attention, and most of my time 
 had been devoted to the laborious duties of the dissecting-room, but 
 imfortunately, the tenn was too short to more than initiate me into 
 the first elements of the science. I felt an almost irresistible long- 
 ing to contmue a course of actual dissection — the only way in which 
 any available knowledge of anatomy can be acquired — in the quiet 
 retirement of the country, and I resolved to attempt sometlaing of the 
 kind, although, at first sight there seemed to be almost insuperable 
 obstacles in the way. 
 
 It is inconceivable the fascinations that the anatomical student 
 finds in the practical and manual investigations of the dissecting- 
 room. He feels a cvuiosity that must be gratified at any risk or ex- 
 pense, to verify upon the dead body the desciiptions of the books, 
 and to cut and carve his way to a full imderstanding of otherwise 
 perfectly inappreciable and confused details. He longs for cada- 
 vers as an enthusiastic botanist does for flowers. 
 
 This feehug was very much heightened among my felloAv stu- 
 dents after my retmn. They had not enjoyed the same advantages 
 that I had, but they felt none the less eager to avail themselves of 
 all the means of improvement ui their power, and the question was 
 frequently mooted, whether anatomical facihties might not, by a 
 little enterprise, be brought home to our own door. Upon a full 
 consideration, hoAvever, of the subject, so many difficulties and dan- 
 gers presented themselves, that it was concluded by all, except 
 
FASCINATIONS OF ANATOMY. 
 
 myself and one other student, that the thing was perfectly impos- 
 sible. In the first place, it must be done without the knowledge 
 or permission of the principals of the office, not that they would 
 have any scruples in the abstract, to the procurement of a body for 
 dissection, or any strong objections to the deed after it was done ; 
 but they would dislike to run the risk of compromising their prac- 
 tice, or of being caught as accessories to a crime to which was at- 
 tached the penalty of imprisonment, at hard labor, for three years. 
 Besides this, there was the difficulty of finding a suitable subject 
 when deaths were so few — the trouble and labor of exhumation, the 
 risk of detection, and the certamty that in a small village, mainly fill- 
 ed with people of strong prejudices and iUiberal ideas, popular opinion 
 wouldenforce the strictest penalties of the law upon the profane, hor- 
 rible, detestable Avretches, whose sacrilegious hands should violate the 
 sanctity of the grave — particularly if it should happen to be the 
 grave of some one who had been " well-to-do" in the world. 
 
 Nothwithstanding, however, all that could be urged, I resolved 
 to embrace the first opportunity that offered, and it was not long 
 before one presented itself. From the character of the family and 
 friends, prudence strongly dictated the propriety of letting it pass 
 unimproved, yet the temptation was too strong to be resisted. Be- 
 sides, as I had no compunctious visitings as to the moral quahty of 
 the offence I was disposed to commit, I could not be supposed to 
 have any very delicate appreciation of the ultra-sepulchral distinc- 
 tions of high and low, rich and poor. I knew that there were many 
 • — and knowing, contemned them, who with afiected liberality con- 
 ceded the necessity of dissection, but who would be perfectly horri- 
 fied at the practical application of their admissions to the deceased 
 relatives of the so called respectable class. What ! disturb the grave 
 of a rich man ! Lay impious hands upon the proud corpse of some 
 distinguished master mechanic or wealthy retail-trader, and con- 
 temptuously violate all the respectabilities of mahogany and fine lin- 
 en ! Shocking ! horrible ! profane ! especially when the bodies of 
 poor people can be had as easily ! Out upon such discriminating 
 
q4 kaloolah. 
 
 sensibility! A cjood, honest, ignorant prejudice against dissection, and 
 autopsical examination of any kind, is worthy of twice the respect. 
 Do the worms make any such distinction ? Do not the disgusting 
 associations of the tomb, ten times as offensive, if we do but think 
 of them, as those of the dissecting-room, cluster as thickly about the 
 gi-ave of the rich as of the poor ? 
 
 " How is Smith's child '?" inquired Doctor H , the younger 
 
 partner 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'nt live twentj'-four hours." 
 
 The child spoken of was a boy of some 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 in- 
 fluence than himself. The boy had been sick some time with a 
 curious and novel form of disease, which had sorely taxed the skill 
 and science of our preceptors. The indications had been investigat- 
 ed and the pathagnomic 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 
 pecuhar difficulties of the case, no positive conclusion, as to the ex- 
 act seat and nature of the compbint, had been arrived at. The 
 symptoms were almost wholly referable to an anomalous lesion of 
 the brain, but the physicians were strongly of opinion that the origi- 
 nal cause was some irritation of the digesti\e organs, which had 
 contrived to mask itself and simulate an affection of the head. 
 
 " I suppose they will let us examine him," said Doctor H . 
 
 " That they will not," replied Doctor S . "I have had a 
 
 talk Avith them about it, and strongly urged the necessity of an au- 
 topsy. The mother is quite Avilling, in fact she Avishes it, but the 
 stupid old fool of a father politely informed me that he'd see me 
 and all the profession d d first." 
 
 " That's very unfortimate." 
 
A GRAVE INCIDENT. SS 
 
 " Provoking isn't it ?" 
 
 " Too bad ! too bad ! Can't something be done ?" and the tAvo 
 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 
 
 shake of the head. " I've done everything I could — the father 
 won't give his consent — if I was thirty years younger that wouldn't 
 make much difference — but now — I'm too old. I wish I was a me- 
 dical student !" 
 
 " I'd give a himdred 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 Doctor H again, uncon- 
 sciously. 
 
 " And I'd give twice the sum," replied Doctor S . 
 
 " You needn't give yourselves any trouble about it," said I to 
 myself. " I'll see Avhat I can do for you," and beckoning to the 
 only one of the students in whose energy and courage I 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 mvist have 
 more help, and we can't trust any of our fellow students till after it 
 is over. If we should say anything to them about it, the whole 
 town would know Avhat an astonishing feat was contemplated ; if 
 they did not tell it, they would look so frightened that every 
 one would see there was something in the wind. We must get 
 
 friend T ," (a yoimg artist who had often expressed a wish 
 
 to improve his anatomical knowledge,) " we must get him ; he's 
 courage enough, and discretion enough, and besides he's as strong 
 as a horse, and that's something when it comes to digging into a 
 six foot grave." 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 Our preparations were few and simple — a spade, screw-diiA'-er, 
 and hatchet, being all the tools required, were easily obtained and 
 placed in readiness. The artist was enlisted ; a rendezvous appoint- 
 ed for twelve o'clock of the next night, and we waited Avith some 
 little anxiety and impatience, but with unfaltering determination, the 
 approach of the appointed time. 
 
 Punctual to the hour, we all arrived within a minute of each 
 other beneath the scaffolding of an imfinished building, situated upon 
 the outskirts of the to^vn. A few words, and we took up our Une 
 of march for the grave-yard, which was almost a mile distant, and 
 completely buried in the woods. The moon had gone down, leav- 
 ing a somewhat cloudy sky, but still there was sufficient starlight 
 to reveal the masses of thick foliage, vnth the 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 sen- 
 tences, we made our way to the grave, which had been previously 
 examined and marked, so that we could readily find it in the dark 
 — in silence we commenced the process of exhuming — in silence the 
 spade was passed from hand to hand in turn, and plied with a vigor 
 that made a rapidly deepening impression upon the loose and newly 
 filled in earth. There was none of that recklessness of feeling, and 
 certainly none of that levity of conversation or conduct \iniversally at- 
 tributed to actors in similar scenes. All was quiet, solemn, but deter- 
 mined. In little more than an hour, dm'ing which hardly ten words 
 were spbken, the deep grave was opened, the coffin taken out and 
 pryed apart, as we found that we could not unscrew it, the corpse 
 stripped of its clothes, which, with the coffin, were replaced, and the 
 grave refilled and restored as nearly as possible to its original ap- 
 pearance and form. 
 
 Arrived at the office, of wliich we had taken the precaution to 
 secure a key, we stealthily entered, hoping that we should be 
 
EXHUMING THE DEAD. ^1 
 
 able to secrete om- prize without disturbing the slumbers of John, an 
 
 old and favorite servant of Doctor S who slept in a small room 
 
 adjoining the one through which we had to pass. In this, however, 
 we were disappointed. John was awake, and coming forward at 
 the slight noise we made, at once recognised me and my fellow stu- 
 dent, our companion having retired without being seen. John, 
 however, was a shrewd fellow; he saw that something was going 
 on with which the less he had to do the better, so without any 
 question or remark he withdrew to his room, leaving us to deposite 
 our load in a httle unoccupied attic. This done, the door carefully 
 secured, and our tools disposed of, we betook oiu'selves 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. A vision of my mother's 
 shrouded and coffined form, of Avhich I had had several ghmpses, 
 but which, aided by the Ught of day, and the excitement of the 
 proposed adventure, my strong will had succeeded in banishing, 
 returned upon me in the stillness of the night with frightful vivid- 
 ness. 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 re- 
 morse, but the dread of detection came strong upon me. I had an 
 ovei'whelming presentiment that the result of the affah- would be 
 exceedingly disagreable. 
 
 The morning came, but it brought no relief. It seemed as though 
 the night's exploit must be already pubhcly known; and as I sneak- 
 ed 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, espe- 
 cially as the worst of it was still to come, and that was to make it 
 known to the principals of the office. How would they receive the 
 news'? What would they say ? What would they do? I began to 
 have strong doubts of the meaning that I had att)-ibuted to their 
 remarks of the day before ; and my fellow student I found in an 
 
88 K ALGOL AH. 
 
 equal degree of perplexity. Several times I attempted to broach the 
 
 subject to Doctor H , as the one least likely to find fault with 
 
 our performance, but as often the slightest word or circumstance 
 -would be sufficient to turn me from the point, and the day passed 
 in doubt and indecision. The next day came, and -with it a firm de- 
 termination to know the worst, but before I could get a chance to 
 talk about it mth either of our preceptors, circumstances transpired 
 which saved me the trouble, and put an end for ever to my profes- 
 sional career. 
 
 It was just as Doctor 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 apprehension 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 chcumstance 
 would have excited no remark, but just then it had a most porten- 
 tious aspect, and I awaited the result of the conference with the 
 profoimdest con\4ction 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 anything about these articles," said he, pointing 
 to a splinter of mohagany, and a small piece of linen that were ly- 
 ing 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 yom* anns, and old Jackson coming through the grave-yard picked 
 up these tilings along side 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 care 
 
A GRAVE INCIDENT. 89 
 
 the grave will be examined, a formal complaint made, and a search 
 "wairant issued, and then we shall be in a devihsh pretty mess." 
 
 I saw that the game was all up, and that I might as well tell 
 the whole story, concealing only the name of the Mend who had 
 assisted us. 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-con- 
 ducted performance. 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 to act upon it, and that to- 
 wards evening, two young men carefully disguised, should be rowed 
 with an appearance of mystery to the Canada side of the St. Law- 
 rence, while my fellow student should be dispatched to some dis- 
 tant relatives, and I should start for New- York. This would lead 
 to the behef that we had gone to Canada, and, in a short time, it 
 was expected, some compromise could be made, and the affair en- 
 tirely 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 takino- me 
 
 up, can-ied me on to the next village, where I was to take a seat m 
 the mail-stage as it passed through. 
 
 " What a confounded ridiculous business you have made of the 
 thing," said the doctor, as we rode along. Why didn't you tell 
 me? I could have given you a hint or two that would have saved 
 all tliis trouble. You ought always to take a moonlight night, and then 
 you can see what you are about — there is no moi-e danger, for people 
 don't hke grave-yards in moonlight nights any better than they do 
 in dark ones. At any rate, you ought always to go at earliest dawn, 
 and see that all is right and the grave made up nice and natural. 
 You can't take too much trouble and care, for you must recollect that 
 although there is no haiin in helping yourself to a subject, there is 
 great harm if you allow it to be discovered. You thus injure the 
 feelings of sur\'i\Tng relatives and friends, and no matter how ill- 
 
90 KALOOLAH, 
 
 founded those feelings are, they must be respected. Some day^ 
 perhaps, we sliall have a dift'erent state of opmion. I beUeve the 
 time will come when no man will die easy, luiless the doctors will 
 agree to dissect him, convert him into a handsome dried prepara- 
 tion, and hang him up on some comfortable peg in an anatomical 
 museum. 
 
 " Not in om- day," I interrupted. 
 
 "No, perhaps not, but sooner or later. The Romans burned, the 
 Egyptians embalmed, and we bury oar dead ; while some of the Tar- 
 ter tribes expose tiiem on stages for the birds to peck at ; and the 
 Hindoos chuck them into the sacred river. Mere fasliions, all of 
 them, and fashions must change. Ours is the least useful, and in 
 these days of utility, I'm sure it can't last long. Only to think, that 
 the christian and civilized portion of the eighty-six thousand, who 
 daily leave their bodies behind them, is of no service, vmless it is to 
 poison the air, fatten worms, or stimidate the rank and uncropped 
 herbage of the grave-yard. True, those slain in battle are not 
 wholly thrown away — they say that the crops at Waterloo are un- 
 commonly fine ; but then battle fields are too rare to amount to 
 much in that way, and besides they are seldom or never selected 
 with a proper reference to agricultiiral purposes. The dead are also 
 heaped up too much, and the piles of bodies are never afterwards 
 properly distributed. Now, by a judicious system of skirmishing 
 over a large extent of arable land, armies that were impoverishing a 
 coimtry on the one hand, might be em'iching it with their blood and 
 bones on the other. I wonder the potentates of the earth, who are 
 always studying the welfare of their subjects, have never taken the 
 subject into consideration, as it is the only argument that I know 
 of in favor of war. If, in addition to this, bodies were freely given 
 tip for dissection, the oft quoted reflection of Hamlet upon the pos- 
 sible application of Caesar's clay to a bung-hole, would be deprived 
 of half its point. " Base," as apphed to our post-mortem uses, would 
 cease to be true, and many a man would be of more real service to 
 the world after death than he ever was dui-ing life. The fashion 
 
FLIGHT OF JONATHAN. 91 
 
 would be useful too, as furnisliing tests of respectability. Eacli fa- 
 mily might have a room devoted to the purpose, where their departed, 
 but preserved, relatives woiild be ai-ranged. Just think of a man 
 with a garret-full of great grandfathers — who could doubt his claims 
 to respectabiUty? especially if at the same time he had money iu 
 the bank! But yonder comes the stage with plenty of room in it. 
 Good bye. I shall Aviite to you all the news by the next mail." 
 
 I took my seat in the coach in no very pleasant frame of mind ; 
 but the nil desperandum principle which Avas constitutionally a fa- 
 vorite with me, soon regained its influence, and I began to think that 
 a trip to the great city, under any chcumstances, could hardly fail 
 to be agreeable. In foiu* days staging, canalling and steaming, dm*- 
 mg which I had ample time to reflect upon the prominent events 
 of my life, which in less than a year had followed each other with 
 so much rapidity, I ai-rived in New-York ; but until I had fairly 
 set foot upon Courtlandt-street quay, I could hardly believe that I 
 had not been all the time in a dream. I found the utmost difiiculty 
 in impressing myseK with a " realizing sense " of my position and 
 prospects. Events so important, and apparently so improbable, had 
 happened so easily and so uatiurally, that I was almost incHued 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 hav- 
 ing returned to then- homes in Canada, without saying anything 
 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 mo- 
 ther, of my medical com'se and of my body-snatching performance, 
 until I had almost thought myself mto quite a distressing state of 
 dubitation as to my personal identity. 
 
 The first two days after my an-ival were passed in calling upon 
 a few friends, looking up some college acquaintances who resided in 
 the city, and visiting my fonner haunts, the infirmaries, hospitals 
 and museums. On the third, at an early hour, I repaired to the 
 post-oflice, and received, as I expected, several letters — one from 
 
92 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Dr. H , one from my guardian, and one from my fellow stu- 
 dents. But what was my disappointment and consternation at their 
 contents ! They were all of the same tenor and to the effect that the 
 aftair had become public, and had produced infinitely more excite- 
 ment 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 — tliat he had, somehow, got infor- 
 mation 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 imless 
 I got out of the countiy immediately. For this purpose a draft 
 was enclosed by my guardian, which I was directed to get tiu-ned 
 into a bill upon Liverpool, London or Havre, or any place to 
 which the first packet should sail. It was particularly and repeat- 
 edly urged that I should be quick iji my movements, as my enemies 
 were in earnest, and their operations would be pushed with vigor 
 and decision. 
 
 I had turned into the large and splendid refectory in the neigh- 
 borhood of the post-office, and seated myself in a comer 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, how- 
 ever well acquainted with the English language, to undei'stand. 
 From one side came loud and frequent calls for certain familiar eat- 
 ables, such as sandwiches, buckwheat cakes, mince pie and cran- 
 berry tarts; Avhile from the other proceeded certain cabalistic 
 exclamations, quite unintelligable to me, such as "Dodger," 
 ".smasher," "whiskey-skin," and "gin-doodle," with an occasional 
 stentorian invitation "to take something," and the kind inquiry 
 "what'll you luive ?" The confusion however disturbed me but 
 little, as I sat quite 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. 
 
MEETING A^ OLD FH.TEXD. 93 
 
 I started and turned, expecting to meet nothing less than the ais- 
 age of that renowned impersonation of prehensile acuteness — the 
 Vidoc 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 ser- 
 vice, a schooner upon Lake Ontario, and who had several times \i- 
 sited 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 information, and as 
 generous as that often quoted model of generosity, "a piince;" he 
 was one of that class of men who have done so much honor to 
 our mercantile marine ; having elevated the character of the 
 niercliaut-cuptain 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'll make you 
 acquainted with Jonathan Romer, son of yom* old master, Seth 
 Romer. Captain Folger, Jonathan." 
 
 " Chip of the old block, aint he captain ? My stars hoAV he has 
 groAvn ! When I first knew him he was'nt 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, Jona- 
 than, your ride upon the main-gaft ? I'll tell you how it was, Cap- 
 tain 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 much over three years old, 
 with him. The fore and main sails had been hauled up ; the crew 
 had most of them stroll'd ashore, and the captain and I went down 
 into the cabin to look over some papers. In a few minutes his fa- 
 ther missed Jonathan, and we ran up on deck but could'nt see any- 
 thing of him ; " Jonathan !" sung out the captain, as if he was 
 haihng to windward in a hurricane. " Here I am father," squeaked 
 
94 KALOOLAH. 
 
 a voice right over head. We looked up, and there was the young 
 monkey astride of the main-gaft, and holding on to the peak hal- 
 liards. The vangs hadn't been hauled taught, and the gaft was 
 swinging about, and eveiy now and then bringing up with a jerk 
 that would have sent a cat with ten claws flying. I'll tell you what, 
 if no one ever saw Seth Romer turn pale or tremble before, they 
 might have seen him then. He couldn't speak, and I was glad of 
 it, for I didn'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'll come down 
 myself," and before I could say a word he slew'd himself under 
 the gaft, got hold of the vang, and came down by the run as neat- 
 ly 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'nt 
 missed him more than five minutes. There were no ratlines to our 
 main riofaino- and there was an uncommon hoist to the main-sail — 
 besides, the throat halliards had been slackened a little, and the 
 gaft 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'll teach you how to creep out of my sight next 
 time," said his father, unlwisSng 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 covddn't flog it out of him — it's in liis 
 blood; he'll know the ropes yet." " God forbid," said the captain ; 
 "but wasn'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 cu-cumstantial conversation, in the 
 course of wliich I explained to captam Cofiin the business that had 
 
DEPARTURE IN THE LIVELY ANNE. 195 
 
 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, 
 "its the luckiest thing in the world." 
 
 "What is the luckiest thing?" I demanded, somewhat sur- 
 prised at his tone and words. 
 
 " 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 arrangements to get off to-moiTow morning. You shall o-q 
 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'll have a first rate chance to practice 
 your Spanish with the Malaga senoras." 
 
 Nothing of course could have been more agreeable or better 
 timed than the captain's proposition, and I at once addressed my- 
 self 'v\dth activity to the required preparations. The rest of the day 
 was just sufficient to finish several letters, and make the necessary 
 purchases of clothing, nautical charts, quadrant, spy-glass, &c. 
 with some fifty volumes of miscellaneous books, consisting princi- 
 pally of old voyages and travels from the shelves of the street book 
 stands. Early the next morning I boarded the Lively Anne, just 
 as she had commenced hauling out from the dock. The sails were 
 soon hoisted and sheeted well aft, and we commenced workino- 
 do^vn the bay against a wind that compelled us to make several 
 tacks. Upon rounding fairly into the offing 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 wiU recollect, if he can- 
 not describe, the whirl of contending emotions with which for 
 
96 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the first time he has seen the blue vault of ether, restmg in unin- 
 terrupted union upon that 
 
 " Glorious mirror, where th' Almighty's form 
 " Glasses itself in tempests." 
 
 or listened to the deep tones of 
 
 " The strongest of creation's sons, 
 
 " That rolls liie wild, profound, eternal bass 
 
 " In nature's anthem, — " 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 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 of Orta. — Garden of the American Consulate. — An il- 
 lustration of the force of prejudice. — The Peak of Pico. — An elaborate, 
 but forced conceit. — Reluctant adieus. 
 
 My emotions were cut short by certain queer feehngs in the 
 epigastric region, which warned me of a very common circumstance 
 in a first voyage, that I had left out entu'ely in all my calculations 
 of the pleasures of the sea. Although I had inherited a taste for 
 the bomiding billows, I had by no means inherited an immunity 
 from their nauseating influence. Disappointed and indignant I had 
 to take to my birth with such a distressing gyration of the brain ; 
 such a combination of disgusting tastes in my mouth, and such a 
 complete prostration 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 hoiu". 
 
 Early on the morning of the sixth day out, it was announced that 
 there was something like a boat in sight. We altered our course a little. 
 
THE captain's PUN. JjY 
 
 and, when near enough, discovered, as it incUned upon the side of 
 a wave, that it was much shattered, and that it contained no one. 
 We stood on, however, and picked it up for fii-ewood. When 
 hauled out of the water a "school" of Uttle rudder fish, which had 
 been playing in and about the boat, iook up their quarters directly 
 beneath the stern of the schooner, from whence I amused myself 
 in transferring them to the " doctor's " frying-pan. Conjecture 
 was of course bus}' in my brain, as to how and why this boat was 
 abroad in the middle of the Atlantic, and I persisted in boring- 
 Captain Coffin witli all manner of supposable cases. 
 
 '• Oh, no, there is no ground for vour conclusions," said the cap- 
 tain, quite unconscious of llie fact tiiat he had perpetrated a very 
 tolerable pun. 
 
 But I wouldn't give it up so. In fancy, I saw a distressing ship- 
 wreck with all the attending circumstances; and returning to my 
 berth, I composed some verses, in which largely figou'ed a young 
 husband — who, from lia\iiig 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 tmabated 
 affection, and Mrs. tSmiih 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 thiit fated and perridionii bark, 
 
 " Built in 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?" 
 showing him my eligiac attempt. 
 
 '•Why, I think," he rephed, carefully conning over the lines, "I 
 think that Mrs. Smith's tears are all in my eye, and that her chil- 
 dren, hke beggars' babies, are boiTOwed 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've got here at the head — ' rigged with curses dark'?' 
 I don't imderstand that. If it was 'loaded with curses daik' there 
 
 5 
 
98 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 heaw load line in less than five mmutes ; but ringing a ship 
 with curses is a different matter. To be sm-e, you can rattle 'em 
 out fast enough, but how can you rattle 'em down?" 
 
 " Land ho !" cut short the captain's criticism upon Milton's fa- 
 mous elegy. It proved to be the islands of Corvo and Flores, the 
 most westerly of the Azores, or Western Islands. Con-o, a small 
 rocky island, so named from its resemblance to a crow, and on which 
 it is said was foimd by the first visiters, sometime before the dis- 
 covery of America, an equestrian statue with a hand pointing to the 
 west, was too far to the north of us for a distinct \new. Flores, we 
 saw more distinctly. Passing willun 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 ravuies and 
 gorges, the land appeared to be in the highest state of cultivation. 
 Eveiy foot of the meagre soil seemed to have been wrested by the 
 hand of industiy from the dominion of nature, and made to subserve 
 the interests of a poor, ignorant, superstitious, but honest, and hard 
 working population. We all concluded from the distant, but tole- 
 rably distinct \iew 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 ol' 
 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 chm-ches and convents, presents a brilliant and interest- 
 ing aspect from the sea ; but upon landing, the illusion is soon dissi- 
 pated, as is generally the case with all Spanish, Portuguese, or Af- 
 rican tovras. Dilapidated bmldings ; narrow, dirty streets, and a 
 forlorn looking population, give token of ignorance, superstition and 
 misgovemment. The situation of the town is exceedingly beauti- 
 
THE ROADSTED OF ORTA. W 
 
 fill ; 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 \asit 
 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 thousand feet, one of the most beautifid 
 natural objects in the world. It is a perfectly symetrical, conical 
 moimtain, called the "Peak," occupying nearly the whole of the 
 small island to which it gives its name, and rising, as it were, dkect- 
 ly from the sea, the eye commands every foot of the acclivity, and 
 takes in at one glance the whole of its beautiful proportions. Fre- 
 quently a great part of the scenic effect of a lofty moimtain is lost, 
 from the iri^egidarity of the base and the difficulty of determining at 
 what point the mountain commences. In this case there is no un- 
 certainty, and the whole elevation is at once attributed to the magni- 
 ficent cone which rears its lofty apex far into the region of the clouds, 
 which, in a thousand fantastic and ever- varying shapes, wreath theu" 
 vapory forms aromid it. 
 
 Upon landmg we were poUtely welcomed by the American 
 Consul, and conducted to his house, where I was received with im- 
 expected kindness and attention, and invited to take up my quar- 
 ters while I remained ; an in\'itation w^iich I was imfortimately 
 able to avtiil myself of for only one night, as Captain Coffin soon 
 ascertained that his staves, which Avere intended for the Pico wine — 
 large quantities of Avliich are obtained from the Aineyards 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 that 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 dehghted. 
 
100 KALOOLAH. 
 
 It was really spiril-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 natiu-e, refused to gratify me. Perhaps, however, 
 in this I do him, as the Avorld has ever done his kind, injustice. 
 Could he have known how much I Avished to hear his tuneful voice 
 once more, it may be that he Avould have pitched his pipes to their 
 most sonorous key. But he was ignoi-ant of my feeUngs, and vain- 
 ly waiting and wisliing, I sunk again to sleep. 
 
 Taking a liint from the sun, I arose, and in company with some 
 members of the consular family descended to the gardens and ex- 
 tensive orangeries, devoted to the supply of a good portion of the 
 fruit of the English market. Coming from the cold latitudes of 
 the St. LaAvrence, where nature's feeble hortulan efforts had receiv- 
 ed but little assistance from the ingenuity of man, I enjoyed to 
 ecstacy the colors, perfumes and motions of the affluent vegetation. 
 The garden of what was the old American consulate I was prepar- 
 ed 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 con- 
 tiguity, were growing the fruits and flowers of almost every clime 
 — the camphor, coS"ee, ginger, cmnamon ; the orange, lime, lemon, 
 banana and dragon tree, with the aloe, peach, plum, fig, and the 
 passion flower, with its delicious pendulous fruit ; and a himdred 
 others Avere all grouped in this delightful spot. Of flowers there 
 was a great variety of the most magnificent kinds — roses, dahlias, 
 hydrangias, hehotropes, 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 congenial 
 to their habits and constitutions, but never in the profusest luxvui- 
 ence of their favorite abodes have they seemed to me as beautiful 
 as then. For a blissfid hour I revelled in their morning sweets, 
 
THE FORTK OF PREJUDICE. 101 
 
 forgetful of the past, and happily unconscious of the dreary doom 
 impending over my head. 
 
 In the afternoon a ride was proposed to a distant orangery, in 
 which was an observatory commanding a magnificent view. Our 
 party were soon mounted, some on horses and some on donkeys, 
 and we commenced ascending and descending the steepest kind of 
 hills, over a road ten feet wide, enclosed on either side by immense 
 walls, and running over jagged beds of lava, rendered none the bet- 
 ter footing by numerous loose angular fragments. In many places 
 deep tracks were cut in the solid rock by the continued wearing of the 
 rude and curiously constructed carts. I stopped to admire one of 
 these vehicular memorials of the olden time, that came creaking 
 and shrieking down the hill. If the moaning soul of the despair- 
 ing Sisyphus had obtained a permit to cart his stone, instead of 
 rolling it, and that was his cart, or if those wheels were the veri- 
 table wheels of the tortured Ixion, the ear-piercmg plaints that is- 
 sued from that ricketty machine could not have been more mov- 
 ino-. They would have drowned the concentrated exclamations of 
 a thousand ordmary ungi-eased axletrees. The wheels were formed 
 of solid planks, ^dthout spokes, and were planed down thin at the 
 circumferance, where they were thickly studded with iron spikes in 
 place of a tire. Instead of turning upon the axle, the wheels and 
 axletree were fii-mly framed together, and revolved in wooden boxes 
 upon the body of the cart. Guiltless of grease or any lubricating 
 material from its youth upward, the unearthly diabolic shrieks that 
 issued from it Avere well calculated to strike a stranger with admi- 
 ration and surprise. 
 
 "There, you see," said the consul, "a capital illustration of the 
 force of prejudice. That's a fair specimen of the vehicles univer- 
 sally used here, and yet the mhabitants can not plead ignorance of 
 a better kind." 
 
 Anxious to do away with the creaking and cumbrous machines, 
 and to facilitate the labor, in which he was much interested, of the 
 peasantiy, the consul had sent to the United States for a light, 
 
102 KALOOLAH. 
 
 strongly built cart, and when it arrived, had presented it to one of the 
 most intelligent and enterprising cartmen he could find. It was 
 with some difficulty that the man could be persuaded to use it at 
 all, and m a few days he brought it back with a "miiito ohrigado,^^ 
 but he had no occasion for it any longer. 
 
 "AVhynot," demanded the philanthropic donor, " is it not much 
 better than your old miserable creaking conceni ?" 
 
 " Oh yes, senor — better — but — " 
 
 " But what ? doesn't it run easier ?" 
 
 ♦' Yes." 
 
 " Stronger and lighter ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Can't your oxen draw twice as much with it in a day ?" 
 
 " Yes— but— " 
 
 " But what ?" 
 
 " Why, senor, it isn't like oiu' old carts ; I wouldn't have much 
 objection myself to using it, but the neighbors say that it won't 
 do ; I must give it up. Take it back, senor — but — " 
 
 " But what ? again." 
 
 " Why if you are willing to do lis a favor — will you lend us 
 your American saint ? we haven't had rain for a long time, and we 
 are going to get up a grand procession, with all the saints and re- 
 lics in the co;mtry. Out of so many, we hope that some one will 
 take pity on us, and I've thought that perhaps Saint Bra90-forte, 
 that you keep in your store-house, would be of some use ; he's 
 never been called upon to make rain for us, and perhaps he would 
 exert himself once, just for the novelty of the thing. I've mentioned 
 it to Father Alcofardo, and he told me to ask you." 
 
 The obhging consul readily consented to lend the image of St. 
 Bra^o-forte, which happened to be nothing more nor less than the 
 figure-head of the General Armstrong — a privateer schooner that 
 it will be recollected made such a gallant defence against the boats 
 of a British squadron, and which was finally abandoned and simk 
 in the harbor of Faval. The Yankee cart was returned, but his 
 
THE PEAK OF PICO. 103 
 
 Yankee saintsliip was received witli all honor, and acquired no little 
 renown for his supposed influence in the production of the copious 
 showers which speedily followed his invocation. 
 
 Our rough, but short side, soon brought us to the orangery from 
 whence we had been promised a splendid view, and well was the 
 promise kept. On one hand were the verdant valleys, dotted with 
 houses and hamlets, and stretching far into the interior ; on the 
 other, the town and bay of Orta, and beyond, the island of Pico, 
 with its majestic peak. Aroimd this latter a few soft fleecy clouds 
 of var}nng shape and hue were playing their most fantastic tricks ; 
 and along the slopes gamboled and skipped groups of vapoiy par- 
 ticles like flocks of gigantic sheep, in the very excess of free and 
 graceful beauty ; sometimes the whole collecting together would 
 fonn a close cap around the apex of the peak — one moment as 
 plain as a quaker's, and the next, adomed, with bows, ribbons, and 
 fiinges of vapor, as tastefvdly arranged as ever was the head-dress 
 of a Broadway belle. Sometimes the base and summit could be 
 seen with a narrow girdle of blue and white aroimd the middle, than 
 which the cestus of Venus could not have been more beautiful. I 
 ventured to suggest to my companions the similitude between the 
 mountam and a bride. Dame nature I supposed to be a tire wo- 
 man, or rather a fond mother decking her child for the ceremony 
 that was to unite her to her taller and more famous spouse, the 
 Peak of Teneriffe. As no one of my audience seemed to " take," 
 I concluded that my " conceit " was rather far fetched, and that I 
 might as well keep the rest of it to myself. So, alone, in fancy, I 
 enjoyed one of the most magnificent weddings that ever Cupid got 
 up for Hymen. It took place in a \ast domed hall, extending from 
 pole to pole, lighted by clusters of revohing worlds, and paved 
 with a curious mosaic of islands, continents, and seas. All the dig- 
 nitaries and powers of natm-e were present. Tornados and Ty- 
 phous fanned the air ; the forests of Ind and the Moluccas, with 
 the gardens of Yeman and Irak, tastefully arranged as bouquets, 
 exlialed tlie richest perfimie ; while, from above and aroiind, came 
 
104 K A LOOT. AH. 
 
 the delicious music of the split^res. The nianinge ring was a splen- 
 did specimen of polished basalt, which formerly had been the crater 
 of an extinct volcano, and which had been dug out expressly for the 
 purpose by that master-miner, an old eartluiuake. The ceremony 
 was performed by a queer looking fellow, who, under the names of 
 electricity, galvanism and magnetism, has been, for sometime, slightly 
 known to the world. His nuptial benediction was a most energetic 
 spitting forth of all manner of lightnings, sheet, chain and forked. 
 
 I might, perhaps, ha\e pursued my strained conceit until I saw 
 the happy pair suiTOunded by a family of little volcanos, or until 
 the venerable couple were consigned to the tomb, at a good old 
 age, with all the honors of a mundane disniption, had it not been 
 for the intimation that tea would be waiting for us, and that we must 
 hasten back. Tea over, Captain Coffin signified his intention of 
 getting immediately under weigh, and i was compelled to bid a re- 
 luctant adieu to my new, hut polite and amiable acquaintances, and 
 to a spot associated in my mind vnth the most agreeable ideas. 
 Fayal, however, may not prove so interesting to other visiters, and I 
 must allow that under other and more j)leasing circumstances than 
 those which immediately followed my \isit, 1 might not have retained 
 so vivid an impression of my short but agreeable sojourn. As the 
 pleasures of the present are often increased by u comparison with 
 the disagreeables of the past, so frequently the eolors in which they 
 are stamped upon the memory are heightened by contrast with the 
 dark lines by which they are succeeded. Like varnish to paint dis- 
 astrous fate illustrates former good fortune — pain exaggerates and 
 rebumishes the images of departed joys. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Sailors and discipline. — Marine tartars. — Uncle Jelhro's eye. — Pricking the 
 cook. — Flogging in the navy. — A last look at the Peak. — A white squall, 
 or a water-spout. — A capsize. 
 
 " Hm-rah ! for Malaga," exclaimed Captain Coffin, jumping upon 
 the deck of the Lively Anne. " Up with the anchor, Mr. Sims — we'll 
 get under weigh immediately !" 
 
 " Aye ! aye, sir ! " responded the mate. " Is that cargo of fruit 
 coming on board ?" pointing to a boat-load of apricots, tigs, plums 
 and melons that I had brought off with me. " Very well, sir," he 
 continued, receivuig 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 shouldn't hke 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 de- 
 vil'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, loth 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 captam. "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 oin-s." 
 
 " Yoii'd a sworn too, I guess," retorted Mr. Sims, if you'd 
 seen the fellow. Apples of gold in pictm-es of silver are said to 
 
 be beautiful, but blue figs in such a d d ugly mahogany frame 
 
 as that, am't 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 hi.'; duty, "and a capital officer, if he would only give 
 
106 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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. Yoiu* regular tartar is often respected 
 by sailors ; but it is generally for other quahties than tartness and 
 severity, and, least of all, for injustice and inhumanity. Sailors 
 I never like to be cursed and hectored about, however much they 
 be used to it. Why, I'll bet that with a right kind of a first offi- 
 cer, I can take an American crew and go round the world, without 
 a Wgh word spoken after the first three days." 
 
 " You don't believe then," said I, " in the common saying, that 
 * the better you tiy to serve sailors the w^orse they try to sers'e 
 you?'" 
 
 "No, not at all. 'Tis true, a good many of them are so accus- 
 tomed to the 'hell afloat' system, that they don't know at first 
 what good treatment means, but they soon learn. 'Tis the bad of- 
 ficers that make the bad crews. I sailed once with Captain Jethro 
 Macy, as first mate. He was a httle, quiet, mild spoken man, but 
 with an eye, that when he looked at you made you feel as transpa- 
 rent as a piece of flint glass. You ought to have heard him order 
 a ship's crew. He never gave an unnecessary order, and his men 
 knew it, and they knew too, that he was every inch a sailor. He 
 never made a voyage that before the end of it the men wouldn't 
 have jumped overboard in a hurricane if he had told them to do so. 
 Now and then, some green hands couldn't at first get the hang of 
 him. He'd call such a fellow aft, fix his eye upon him, speak a 
 few words, and send him off all curled up in the smallest kind of a 
 heap. I never saw but one chap that words and looks wasn't 
 enough for, and he was a great, stout, ugly fellow ; one of those 
 cross, grumbling, mutinous rascals, who have no idea of doing duty 
 imless they are continually damned up to it. The captain had spo- 
 ken to him two or three times in his mild but determined way, but it 
 was of no use — the fellow was determined to get liimself mto a scrape, 
 and I saw by the captain's looks that it wouldn't be long before he'd 
 
UNCLE JETHRO'S EYE. 10^ 
 
 be accommodated. One day, after we had been out about a 
 week, he was ordered to go aloft to do somethmg ; he looked up 
 very unconcernedly but never offered to stir. ' Do you hear ?' said 
 Captain Macy. ' Yes, I hear,' he replied, in quite an insolent tone. 
 Good lord ! how uncle Jethro's eye flashed, and cheek glowed. ' Go 
 then instantly,' he said, hissing the words out between his teeth, in 
 a way that the fellow, if he liadn't been as stupid as he was vicious, 
 might haAe known meant something. ' I'm going,' said he, and 
 then added loud enough for us all to hear, ' when I get ready.* 
 The captain gave one spring, and lighted on him like a booby on a 
 flying fish. He took him by the collar of his pea-jacket, and with 
 a trip and a twitch, kicked his heels up in the air, and slapped him 
 down on deck as motionless as a dead flounder. In the t\\dnkling 
 of a handspike the fellow found his hands tied, and a coil or two 
 of the slack of the top-gallant clewlines round his feet, and he lay 
 there helpless as a calf in a butcher's cart. And didn't he bleat 
 Avhen the captain took a rope's end and lathered him for about five 
 minutes in a way that would have been a caution to a Brazilian 
 field nigger ! The fellow begged, and promised, and swore that he'd 
 never do so again, and that he certainly would behave himself in 
 future, while the captam never said a word until he had finished. 
 • There,' said he, in his usual mild, quiet tone, ' go forward, and re- 
 collect that my people always obey orders ; they move when I'm 
 ready, and not just as they choose, and that too, Avithout any mso- 
 lence, if they don't, I make them.' That one flogging, by such a 
 little chap as the captain, without any assistance, for neither the se- 
 cond mate or myself had laid hand to him, frightened the devil com- 
 pletely out of him. He was as good a man as you'd want after it, 
 and went two or three voyages with us ; but it was a long time be- 
 fore he could get over the ridicule of his messmates. He had been 
 disposed to bully it in the forecastle, and there was no let up for him. 
 ' Oh, do give over boys,' I heard him say one day, ' I allow I was 
 an ass to get athwart hause of the old fellow, but I didn't think it 
 was in him.' ' Yes, vou were an ass,' replied one of his compa- 
 
108 KALOOLAH. 
 
 nions, ' an}- one wilh sense enougli to tell his shirt bosom from the 
 main-royal might have seen that it wonld be best to have an al- 
 mighty long pole to stir up that animal.' " 
 
 " But every one hasn't uncle Jethro's eye," T observed. 
 "No, and it isn't necessary," continued the captain, " an even, 
 firm temper, good seamanship, and good treatment, are all that is 
 wanted ; instead of which, some captains are continually exerting 
 themselves to make their crews as uncomfortable as possible — curs- 
 ing and kicking them about, and putting them to all kinds of unne- 
 cessary and untimely work, just to keep the d 1 out of them, as 
 
 they say. I've known several such fellows — chaps who are always 
 scraping and slushing the masts, setting up the rigging, getting out 
 and getting in studding sails, or painting the ship's sides in a heavy 
 seaway. And many of them are so mild and amiable on shore and 
 before their owners, who have no idea of their barbarity, that you'd 
 think ' butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.* If a mutiny occiu"s, 
 or any kind of difficulty, and half a dozen heads are broken with 
 marling spikes or capstan bars, oh ! its all the fault of the rascally 
 sailoi-s. I once sailed with a fellow who I reallv thought was old 
 satan himself. He exercised more ingenuitv in de\ising ways to try 
 human nature, and make himself hated, than would half filled the 
 model-room in the patent office. You may judge something of him 
 when I tell vou that he used often to make the cook, ao-ainst whom 
 he had an especial spite, take a seat upon the booby hatch, and then 
 amused himself by sticking forks in him, until one day, in the harbor 
 of Rio, he pricked the poor old fellow till he jumped overboard and 
 came very near drowning." 
 
 " He must have been crazy," I observed. 
 
 " Not a bit of it — to be sure he was half drimk most of his time, 
 but he knew well enough what he was about, and could behave 
 himself when he thought it necessary. However, he got brought 
 up with a round turn at last. His crew took it into their heads one 
 day to throw him overboard, and as he caught in the chains, one of 
 them took an axe and chopped his hands ofi". They were tried, 
 
FLOGGENG IN THR NAVY. 109 
 
 and I belicA'-e some of them hung, and justly too, I suppose, al- 
 though I can't but think he deserved his fate. Another time I was 
 passenger on board of a ship, where every time they made or took 
 in sail the captain and mate used to chase the crew up the rigging 
 with handspikes. Pleasant ! wasn't it ? Even in the navy, where 
 you'd expect strict, but perfectly equitable discipline, I've seen some 
 riiings that would astonish you. I've seen the captain of a man-of- 
 war, when his ship was getting under way, stand by and kick every 
 man at the capstan-bars as they came round, at the same time swear- 
 ing a toiTent of blasphemy that would have started every hair on 
 the head of a pirate. I've seen the same officer march up and down 
 the poop deck, flourishing a rattan in liis hand, which he generally 
 carried, and muttering and cursing because there Avas nothing to 
 find fault with. Every now and then he'd wallop the mizzen-mast 
 and the spanker-boom, until, at last, he spied a sailor with his back 
 towards him, bending down over the tafFerel for something in the 
 stern boat. The fellow's tight trousers were drawn over too fair a 
 mark for the captain to resist the temptation, so creeping up behind 
 hira, he brought him a cut that made him spring clear over the rail, 
 
 head first, into the boat. ' There, take that, d n your eyes,' said 
 
 the captain, resuming his walk, evidently quite refreshed with his 
 performance." 
 
 " I've been told," continued the captain, "upon good authority, 
 that, in more than one instance, all hands have been called to wit- 
 ness punishment, and that after the captain has read to the crew 
 the law, or nile by which he was authorized to Lnffict twelve lashes, 
 and no more, without sentence of court martial, he has ordered the 
 boatswain's mate to lay on two or three dozen. Now Jack is no 
 fool, and he sees and feels the injustice and illegality of such con- 
 duct ; he would take his dozen, and acknowledge the propriety of 
 them, but two dozen * 'aint the law.' " 
 
 " Such cases, however, must be exceptions," I exclaimed, quite 
 shocked at the captain's anecdotes of a service which has so long 
 occupied a first place in my thoughts and hopes. 
 
110 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " Exceptions it is true, and very rare ones too, but they are ex- 
 ceptions that ought not, by any possibility, to occur," he replied. 
 " They show rather indefinite notions of an officer's power and a 
 sailor's rights. I am not opposed to flogging, mind you. I believe 
 the power to inflict it is essential to discipline. Punishment at sea, 
 to be efficient, must be prompt, and instantly follow the ofi"ence, and 
 flogging is often just the kind of thing. But, because m some cases 
 it is necessary, and because all the talk by shore loafing grannies and 
 lubbers, about the disgrace, and mental degradation, and all such 
 stufi", is sheer twaddle and humbug, it is no reason that the power 
 should be abused. I've no objection to quaUty, but to quantity; and 
 I suspect that Jack often gets more than is good for him. I sup- 
 pose that not one frigate in ten leaves our ports, that does not have 
 some fifty men flogged, including cattings and coltings, in the first 
 week. There must be some mismanagement to make so much 
 flogging necessary." 
 
 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, as with the Avind abeam, we gradually smik it over our 
 starboard quarter. 
 
 The breeze veered two or three points by the stem. " You 
 may, Mr. Sims, set the fore-topmast studding-sails, this -nnnd is too 
 good to last long, and we'd better make the most of it," saymg 
 which, the captain descended to the cabin, leaving me to prome- 
 nade the deck, and watch the stars emerging from the last beams of 
 the purple twilight, that with unwonted pertinacity, for such a low 
 latitude, contmued to sti'uggle against adAancing night for 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 catspaws, 
 with hardly strength enough to WTinkle the surface of the water 
 
A CAPSIZE. Ill 
 
 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 belovr, where I fomid the captain quietly seated 
 at his desk, and busy with a voluminous manuscript, which he in- 
 tended 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 opportvmity, but then it was a labor of love, which 
 even if the captain had to deliver the letter himself, would not be 
 entii-ely thrown away. The example had its influence, and I also 
 got out my winting materials, and was soon absorbed in the labor 
 of turning sentences and rounding periods, which, although ad- 
 dressed to one, my vanity intended for the admiration of all of my 
 
 friends in the village of . Scratch, scratch went our pens 
 
 over the paper, inten-upted by no sound save 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 stem voice of Mr. Sims, in tones of the 
 highest excitement, burst upon us like a clap of thunder in a 
 cloudless sky. 
 
 " Luff" ! luff !" he exclaimed with starring 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 tlie order to let go the 
 halliards. At tliis instant the schooner was knocked clear o^'er, 
 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 tlie hatchway, when I 
 must have rolled back down the cabin stairs perfectly senseless. 
 
CHAPTf:R XI 1 1. 
 
 The schooner on her beam ends. — State of the wreck. — Jonallian alone. — 
 Cuts away the main-mast. — Pumps out the wreck. — The water casks 
 swept overboard. — Jonathan's expedient. — A successful experiment. 
 
 How 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 along side the star- 
 board lockers beneath a pile of chairs, tables, writing-desks, books, 
 &c. and the cabin floor standing up almost perpendicularly, like a 
 wall, down which every thing moveable 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 inclin- 
 ed stair-way to the deck. There a scene of destruction and deso- 
 lation 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, perhaps in search of other objects, on 
 wliich to vent its mighty wrath, it had left its shattered prey a 
 wreck vipon the bosom of the quiet, gently undidating 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 ham- 
 pered with the wreck of spars and sails, and shorn of the graceful 
 gear, wherem 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 
 gaft top-sail, which had got loaded with water, held the schooner 
 
STATE OF THE WRECK. 113 
 
 dovm and prevented her from righting herself. Portions of the weather 
 bulwarks were shattered, and the whole of the starboard bidwarks 
 stove fore and aft, leaving only three or four stanchions standing. 
 The long boat, cook's galley, water casks, harness casks, tool chest, 
 and all the fixtures of the deck, except the windlass, were gone. 
 Not a vestige of any thing moveable 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 indication 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 sohtary 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 oiu* sad mishap. 
 Whether it was a white squall or a water spout, whether the de- 
 stniction had been principally effected by the wind or water, and 
 whether proper care might not liave saved us, are questions which 
 must for ever 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 immanned 
 me. Seating myself upon the stump of the broken mast, I freely paid 
 the tribute of my bitter tears to the crael 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 oiit," and drying my eyes, took a long look 
 aroimd the horizon for sails. Not one was in sight. Satisfied that 
 it was in vain to hope for assistance from any quarter, at least for 
 the present, my regards naturally returned to the wreck. Some- 
 thing 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 
 mvself. 
 
114 KALOOLAH. 
 
 The first thing was to give the schooner a chance to right her- 
 self, which I saw she would readily do if relieved of the main- 
 mast and hea\'y 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 inchned spar, about ten or 
 twelve feet, and made a deep cut, where I proposed the fracture 
 should take place. Returning on board, a few blows upon the lan- 
 yards of the taughtened 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 
 leaverage 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 ex- 
 perience I had had; but I was tolerably familiar 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 tlie safest 
 way would be to make, at once, the best disposition I could against 
 a storm. With this view, I got up the end of a small hauser 
 from the fore-hatch, passedit outthehause-hole, and made it fast to 
 the rigging of the main mast, fore mast, and jib boom, which were 
 still along side, and attached to the hull by portions of the lee 
 shrouds and running rigging. I then cut away everything, and 
 veered out the hauser, making the inner end fast to the windlass 
 and the splinters of the fore-mast. A light breeze had now spi-ung 
 up, and, as I expected, the comparatively higli hull of the schooner 
 floated before it faster than the mass of spars, which, lagging be- 
 hind, dragged upon the hauser 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 tlie force of the sea, and 
 if, in addition to them, I could contrive to rig a tarpaulin, or some 
 rag of canvass upon the remnant of the main mast, I had no doubt 
 of being able to keep mv vessel in a ycvx I'omfortable and weatherly 
 
PUMPING OUT THE WRECK. 115 
 
 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 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 immediate 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 bouyant vessel, although shorn of her 
 fair proportions, and left an unmanageable float upon the surface 
 of the ocean. A few vigorous strokes, by lessening the depth of 
 water, confii*med my conclusion. Satisfied that there was no dan- 
 gerous or permanent leak, I continued, under the excitement of 
 hope, the exertion of pumping, until I had nearly exhausted both 
 the water and my own strength. I paused, wiped away the per- 
 spu'ation rolling in torrents down ray face, and took another long 
 steady look aroimd the horizon. A flock of mother Carey's chick- 
 ens, and a few fleecy cloulds in the sky, were the only moving ob- 
 jects 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 circum- 
 stances I could think of eatmg; but in a hearty youth of tAventy, 
 the physical appetites do not give place so readily to mental emo- 
 tions, however strong the latter may be. I felt thirsty too, and I 
 looked around for some means of satisfjang the desire. At this 
 moment the awfid truth burst upon me, that not a drop of fresli 
 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 tlie remaining bulwarks in perfect dis- 
 may. I tliought that there must be a small cask left somewhere, 
 although there was no place on the open and clear deck where 
 
IIG KAT.OOLAH. 
 
 could liave 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 sujBSced, now I 
 felt as thoufjh I could drain a hogshead. " Good Lord ! " I exclaimed, 
 with that curious minglmg of the ridiculous and the serious, common 
 to some minds : " if I were only the highlands of the Hudson, with 
 the North river rimning right through me!" 
 
 I rushed down into the cabin, with the poor hope of finding a 
 little water in the pitcher, that might sers^e to avert, at least for a 
 few hours, the approach of death in his most horrible form ; it had 
 been overtm-ned and broken! The steward's pantry, hardly better 
 repaid my anxious search. About half a glass of cold coffee, the 
 remains of our last comfortable and social breakfast, was all the 
 fluid that I could find. My thirst increased, my mouth grew 
 parched and feverish, my pulses throbbed, and my whole frame 
 trembled with excitement, as the comdction of the idtimate cer- 
 tainty of death, by the pangs of thirst, came stronger and stronger 
 upon me. All that I had ever heard or read of sufl:ering from 
 thirst, by sea or land, mshed, thronging to my recollection. Brissot, 
 Adams, Paddoc, Riley, with his honible expedient of double and 
 treble renal refiltrations, and a dozen more, whose records of hard- 
 ships endured upon the Saharah 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 sufifer the linger- 
 ing agonies which these voyagers had so 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? " Oh, 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 de- 
 pendence upon the Supreme Being for the simplest and most com- 
 mon elements of life. Let him who looks upon the choicest gifts 
 of Providence, the air, the water, oi- the light, as his natural and 
 
JONATHAN S EXPEDIENT. 117 
 
 indefeasable right, as something valueless, from the profusion with 
 which they have been bestowed, and as demanding no thankful ac- 
 knowledgments 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 ge- 
 neral terms, that gratitude is due as much, or more, for the gifts 
 which administer to the necessities of our physical being, than for the 
 luxmdes of appetite, the gTatification of intellect, or the pleasures 
 of taste. 
 
 I arose, calm, collected and confiding. My prayers had been 
 beard, and, some how, I felt confident, would be answered. A ship 
 Avould heave in sight, or genial showers would be sent to my relief ! 
 something ! anything ! I knew not Avhat or how, but at any rate, I 
 was not to be abandoned to perish. At this moment, my eye hap- 
 pened 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 revealed. With these and the coffee 
 pot, I felt confident of making an apparatus with which sea water 
 might be distilled in sufficient quantities. The reaction of mind and 
 body, upon this discovery, w^as astonishmg. 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 mv 
 companions, cut off, as they had been, so suddenly, in the bloom of 
 health and happiness, was almost forgotten. Even the dreary soli- 
 tude and vmcertainty of my situation gave me no fm-ther trouble. 
 Everything 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 my- 
 self actively to work upon my proposed distillmg apparatus. The 
 two muskets were soon unstocked, and imbreeched 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 
 
118 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the shot pouch, Avhich was afterwards served 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 pui-pose of 
 keeping it wet with the cool sea water. A small block of pine, 
 hewn from the stump of the foremast, was bored through by 
 means of the file and jacknife, 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 accu- 
 rate. The lid of the vessel not fittmg very perfectly, it took some 
 time to adapt a cover of wood, which, upon trial, was found to 
 answer the pui'pose 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 imtil 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 unfortunate "Doctor" 
 had not unfrequently regailed us wath 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 ap- 
 phed ! An empty flour ban-el, firmly fiistened 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 wii*e were arranged 
 as a grate. Upon this I placed the coffee-pot filled up to the spout 
 with sea water, and jomed to it the pipe which led do^vn to a tin 
 can placed upon the deck. A fire of splinters of dry staves was 
 soon kindled, and I had nothing left to do but to feed it occasionally 
 and anxiously await the result. Never did alchemist watch his cioi- 
 
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMEAT. 119 
 
 cible 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 
 tlie strong fire light streaming up m the calmness of the dark night, 
 and illuminating the deck of the desolate wreck, showed the bio- 
 drops slowly falhng into the vessel belo^v. I continued to feed the 
 fii-e, and to apply cold water to the tube, and soon had the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing the condensed fluid trickle down in an almost con- 
 tinuous 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 uon, 
 and the leather, but a cup of nectar from the hand of Ganymede 
 himself was never more deUcious. 
 
 The success of the experiment established, and the excitement 
 of conflicting hope and anxiety abated, my body began to be sensi- 
 ble of its bruises and its fatigue. Another shce of pork and a bis- 
 cuit, with the result of my distillation, satisfied all the cravtno-s 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 XIV. 
 
 Preparing signals. — Overhauling the lockers. — A sail in sight. — Fresh provi- 
 sions. — Hooking a turtle. — More ships in sight. — Moonlight on the ocean. 
 The Salvages. — Dr. Johnson's prayer. 
 
 Singularly enough, the most pleasant and profound repose sooth- 
 ed 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 lingering death. 
 
120 KALOOLAH, 
 
 As, when on the sea shore, the largest wave efikces the ripple marka 
 of its smaller predecessors, and retiring, leaves the beach level 
 and smooth ; so the last tide of threatened aliliction, in roUing back, 
 had earned with it the otherwise strong and permanent impres- 
 sions 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 improvements in its mounting and fixtures, which day- 
 hght enabled me better to make, I descended to the cabin, and com- 
 menced overhauling the lockers and drawers. In one of these I 
 found the schooner's flag ; attaching a loop to one end of a gun- 
 stock, I chmbe.d 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 reeraig the haUiards 
 through the loop, the flag was ready to be run iip, imion dowTi, at 
 a moment, when requu-ed. I also got ready a quantity of oakmn 
 and chopped staves, for the purpose of making a smoke, as being 
 calculated 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 
 imdertaken, was no longer in sight. But happy are they who ex- 
 pect nothing, for they are seldom disappointed ; and as I had not 
 calculated upon her cormng near enough to notice me, I saw the 
 last speck of her royals disappear without any regret. 
 
 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 cofi"ee, a large canister of tea, about half a ban-el of bro\vni 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 sup- 
 posed, I was somewhat interested in the account of stock — much 
 
A SAIL IN SIGHT. 121 
 
 more so, perhaps, it may be thought, than the reader can possibly 
 be — and the inventory made a permanent impression on my me- 
 mory. Satisfied that the schooner was provisioned for at least a 
 year's crmse, reduced as she was in hands, or rather mouths, I grew 
 qxdte contented with my lot, which, in reality presented a disagiee- 
 able 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 meantime, I had a strong and safe vessel be- 
 neath me ; plenty of room for exercise ; plenty of books ; plenty to 
 eat and drink, and plenty of occupatiun in preparing my me.ils, 
 feeding my distillery, catchiny tish, and looking out for sails. My 
 only apprehension was that the current might set me down towards 
 the African coast, and land me uj)on the inhospitable shores of the 
 Sahai-ah. There was no means of accurately deteiTnining longitude 
 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 imper(;eptibly glided by, when 
 upon coming upon deck shortly before sun-rise, I found upon dif- 
 ferent points of the horizon five sail of vessels in sight, one of which 
 appeared to be standing on a course which would bring her qidte 
 close to me. My signals were immediately prepared ; the flag was 
 rxm 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 slightest notice did she appear disposed to 
 take of me ; so far from it, she availed herself of a slight change in 
 the dh-ection 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 eiiiption, or some curious meteoric phe- 
 nomenon, which, with the uninquu-ing, unenterprising, money-get- 
 ting stohdity, too common in the merchant service, they could not 
 
 6 
 
122 KALOOLAH. 
 
 afford time to investigate. My heart somewhat failed me, when I 
 foimd the ill-success of my effort to attract attention, but with the 
 consohng motto "better luck next time," and a continued rehance 
 upon the mercy of an immediate superintending Providence, I made 
 out to resign myself to my fate, and rcsimie with cheerfulness my 
 usual avocations. 
 
 The distillery worked to perfection — a good day's run yielding 
 me fully a pint more of w^ater than I consxmaed. The surplus was 
 carefully 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 quan- 
 tity 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 luxtuy of fresh provisions Avanting. In rummag- 
 ing the imfortunate mate's stock of sail needles, palms, fish-hooks, 
 &c. a small pair of grains, for spearing fish, were discovered. This 
 instrument, consisting 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 quan- 
 tities of the rudder fish that thronged round the schooner, and now 
 and then a dolphin or bonito, Avere 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 think 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 
 
HOOKING A TURTLE. 123 
 
 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 de- 
 licacy 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 on 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, imconscious of 
 impending danger, in a sound sleep. A longing to appropriate the 
 delicate steaks, and green fat of the lethargic monster, who seemed 
 to have been expressly sent for my use, took possession of me ; but 
 how to accomphsh it was a question. There was no harpoon with 
 which to pierce his defensive annor, and even if there had been, 
 there was no boat with wlaich to get at him — the stern boat, Avith 
 my load of fruit, having followed the Avay of the long boat, and all 
 the other fiu-nitm"e of the deck. The only means of reaching him 
 that presented itself, was by swimming. Fortimately, a piece of 
 whale line, of sufficient length, had been stowed away m the rim of 
 the vessel, with a large shark hook attached to it. Fastening, at 
 intei-vals of ten or twelve feet, some pieces of staves to act as floats, 
 and securing the other end to a stanchion, I slipped oflf my clothes, 
 dropped into the water, and taking the hook in my teeth, carefully 
 stretched out towards my prey. By taking liim a httle in the rear, the 
 slumbering animal was undistm'bed 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 
 
124 KALOOLAH. 
 
 to no small fellow. How, or by what means I reached the deck I 
 coiild not recollect precisely in five minutes afterwards, but 1 knew 
 that the process had not taken much time. Upon trying the taught- 
 ened 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 combination of slip nooses 
 were now passed round him, and he was soon flat on his back upon 
 the deck. 
 
 The poor fellow lay so quiet and looked so resigned that my heart 
 misgave me as to the propriety of his captiu-e. I did not much like 
 the idea that one m 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 appe- 
 tite, 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 ; then- natural destiny seemed 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 liis flesh would spoil before I could use it. 
 This last consideration prevailed, so filing off the barb and extract- 
 ing the hook, the fellow was bundled overboard, when he instantly 
 made oft", 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 nibbling my bones !" 
 
 I felt better, as any one always does, after a humane and kindly 
 act to any of God's creatm-es ; although, the deed Avas, perhaps, 
 much less meritorious 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 m the festal schools of Guildhall or Bellevue. I 
 felt better, but I am afraid that had a harpoon been at hand, my 
 
MOONLIGHT ON THE OCEAN. 12^ 
 
 overstrained humanity -would have reacted with cruel violence upcm 
 the body of " Johnny Shark," who, with the impudence of liis tribe, 
 when feeling secure from attack, continued for 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 pre- 
 sented very much the aspect of land. As my latitude, by observa- 
 tion, was nearly that of Madeira, and as the light winds had been 
 blowing most of the time fi'om the north-west, I concluded that it 
 was that island that was in sight. But if my course was so much 
 east of south, when and what woxdd be the end of my cruise ? The 
 answer to the question involved some alarming conclusions. The 
 chart was attentively studied, and presented in eveiy view of it, con- 
 firmation 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 interior ; 
 but I had no idea of making my entrance into the country by way 
 of the coasts of the Saharah. Yet such clearly threatened to be 
 the termination of my voyage. 
 
 Time passed on ; the moon again poured, in bountiful eflfulgence, 
 her silver hght upon the bosom of the deep, which, with the excep- 
 tion of two days out of the six weeks, had been as placid as a lake. 
 The nights 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 anah'.-e. would 
 be to deprive of half their beautv and sublimity, would, at such 
 
126 KALOOLAH. 
 
 times, rush upon the mind and overwhelm it in the vain attempt to 
 grasp the great mysteries of nature. Dnmk -vvnth 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 hke him who looks from tower or precipice, 
 I was often compelled to draw back and rush below to escape from 
 the deluious wliirl of feelings, common enough, perhaps, to all, but 
 felt in their full intensity and force, only in sohtude 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 boun- 
 dary of vision much contracted ; but shortly after sunset the mists 
 had dispersed, and the full orb looked down through an unclouded 
 sky. The sm-face of the long slow swell ever-agitating the bosom 
 of the ocean — a 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 
 
THE SALVAGES. 12Y 
 
 at but a short distance off, attracted my attention. " Sail, ho !" I 
 shouted in ecstasy of delight ; although, what appeared to be the 
 gleaming canvass of a large ship, was evidently a mile beyond the 
 reach of my voice. A signal, by fire, might, perhaps, serve the 
 purpose, and soon a bright flame sent forth its imploiing light. oS'o 
 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 vnth the idea of the latter be- 
 ing a ship under full sail. At length my ear caught the soimd of 
 water dashing against some sohd body. The idea of the Salvages, 
 a group of naked rocks, which rear their tall forms, in solitary dig- 
 nity, from the middle of the ocean, about half way between 
 Madeira and the Canaries, occiured to me. More than one ma- 
 riner, 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, wliile plougliing her way heedless of 
 danofer in the darkness of the night. Uninhabited and iminhabit- 
 able, they are visited only at certain seasons by a few Portuguese 
 from Madeira, for the purpose of collecting the feathers of the sea 
 fowl, who, in great numbers, have made them their home. An ex- 
 amination of the chart and a comparison of my latitude, and the 
 probable influence of the winds which had prevailed for several 
 days, confinned the conjecture which was fully established the next 
 day, during the whole of which, their ragged points continued plainly 
 in sight. 
 
 Thus again, for nearly the twentieth time, had my hopes of suc- 
 cour been excited only to be depressed. But I had got pretty well 
 inured to that kind of disappointment, and my confidence in my 
 ultimate preservation, through the mercy of Providence, continued 
 unabated. Satisfied by a close watch of a couple of hours, that 
 the schooner was encreasing 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 
 
128 KALOOLAH. 
 
 spiritual presence and affection. '^ Oli ! Lord !"" prayed tlie gi-eat 
 Doctor Johnson. " if thou liast oidained tlio souls of the dead to 
 minister to tlie hving, grant that 1 may enjoy the good effects of 
 my departed wife's attention and ministiation, whether exercised by 
 appearances, impulses, dreams, or in any other manner agreeable to 
 Thy government !" If Doctor Johnson could so pray, why might 
 not I ? 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 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 sliip in sight. 
 — Visit from her captain. — Leaving the Lively Anne. 
 
 " Land ho !" The famous Peak of Teneriffe was in sight. This 
 was on the tenth of Septembei-, or a Uttle more than eight weeks since 
 my visit to the Azores. It really seemed, that in my solitary 
 floatings I was destined to have a glimpse, in succession, of the prin- 
 cipal insular curiosities of the Atlantic, and I began to speculate 
 upon the prospect of the Cape de Verds, 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 leavmg the Salvages, a succession of gales and squalls 
 from almost every point of the compa^-^s, for nearly a week, com- 
 plt;tely upset all calculations of longitude; and it was no little satis- 
 faction to have a fresh landmark, even if it was but to prove, in 
 coinmon 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. Un- 
 
A WEATHERLY CRAFT. 129 
 
 steadied by any top hamper, her rolling was rather sharp and un- 
 comfortable, 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 
 backing and fiUing of her first pubhc quadrille — each time slowly 
 bowing her nose to it, and then hfting herself as buoyant as a cork, 
 and " as dry as a bone." 
 
 For nearly thi'ee days the schooner remained in fvill 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 north- 
 west, and with the glass large objects could be distinctly seen on 
 the shore of TeneriS"e. 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, celebrated by Humboldt and 
 other travellers. The distance was of course too great. A more 
 satisfactory subject of examination 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 seemed disposed to return the comphment, 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 per- 
 haps more charitable to attribute the fact to their blindness than 
 to their laziness 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 sun-set of the third day, she was not more than three miles 
 fi-om the perpendicular wall of basaltic rock. The cuiTent evi- 
 dently set roimd the point, and along the southern side of the 
 island, which was now just beginning to open. The schooner 
 
130 KALOOLAH. 
 
 might perhaps go ashore m the night, which, considering the ab- 
 rupt and rocky nature of the coast, against which I could hear tlie 
 surf dashing, was not particularly desirable, or what was much 
 better, she might be swept along mto, or off, the roadsted of 
 Santa Cruz, from whence, as being the chief town and sea-port of 
 Teneriffe, she would stand a greater chance of bemg seen. I pre- 
 pared myself for either event. The night set in exceedingly dark, 
 but I coidd perceive that the schooner slowly followed the line 
 of the coast, and that she kept gradually edging in nearer to it. 
 On the shoi'e, close to the water's edge, were numerous large 
 lights, as from fires, wliich it was evident were kmdled for the 
 purpose of fishing. The sight was cheeiing. 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 Avere 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 whole face of the heavens, leaving no loop-hole from 
 which a soUtary star could look out upon the surface of the be- 
 nighted deep. A few flashes of lightning in the north, dimly light- 
 ing 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 sliore. 
 I tried my voice, but without effect — the siirf perhaps prevented it 
 from being heard. Several times the idea occured to me of trust- 
 ing myself to the water, and swimming to the land ; but, altliough 
 
HAILING A FISHERMAN. 131 
 
 the distance was not more than a mile, the intense darkness, and 
 my utter ignorance of the character of the beach, together with a 
 desire to save if possible my money, papers, &c. prevented the 
 attempt. 
 
 Suddenly there was the 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 Ciiiz. 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 imtil 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 coiirse, 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 boatswain's mate in a storm. " Hola ! Sehores 
 Tente ! Venga V. par aqui /" 
 
 The noise of the oars ceased, and, after apparently a moment's 
 consultation, an answer was returned to my hail, " JVo teiigo ningun 
 pescado" was all that could be distinguished. 
 
 " No, no, senor. I don't want any fish. I want to get ashore. 
 Cgme, come, venga, venga, acd!"^ 
 
 "No! es iraposible .^" and then followed something, of which I 
 could only catch the words ^'^a'cfe'co and hocer cuarentena. The 
 oars again commenced moving in the rowlocks. 
 
 " Maldita sea vuestra cuarentena !'' I ejaculated, "and all the 
 quarantines 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 enhghtened country is not yet wholly free. 
 
 " Por el amor de Dios, sehores, come to me. I'm alone, upon a 
 wreck — un naufragio !" and I shrieked the last word with redou- 
 bled energy. 
 
132 KAT-OOT.AH. 
 
 " No, no. es imposible. Your ship must get pratique first, and 
 besides, it's coming on to blow, we must hurry ashore." 
 
 " Oh, senor, pare V. el barco ! Estese quieto por un momenta ! 
 Stop the boat ! Stop foi- one moment ! rU come to you ! I'll 
 swim to you ! Wait for nie. for God's sake !" But the vigorous and 
 continued strokes of tlie oar slioAved that my hospitable and gene- 
 rous pescadoies were fxdly determined not to risk a scrape with the 
 practique office, or custom-house, by having anything to do with me. 
 
 And thus again did a oh;ince of escape vanish from my excited 
 vision. My hopes at once fell below zero. It was not despair, but 
 a kind of dogged indifference to the frowns of fate, that took pos- 
 session of me. It WHS the contentment of contempt for any, and all 
 of the ills of ray destiny, ;ind a determination never again to humbug 
 myself with the delusions of hope. With a blow-away-and-do-your- 
 woi'st 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 strik- 
 ing the schooner, bore her away from the land to the south-west. 
 Such a mood of mind, however, cannot long Avithstand the influence 
 of prayer. The dire(-t appeal to Deity, necessarily induces a men- 
 tal state, xitterly incompatible wit1i either the rebellious promptings 
 of the haughty and self-relying spii-it, the indifference of mere stoi- 
 cism, or the self-abandonment of despair. I prayed and slept. 
 
 As the wind came off the land in a direction about north-east 
 by north, there could be no danger of rumiing fovd of the Grand 
 Canary, or any other of the islands, so without hesitation or con- 
 'cem, I surrendered myself to the somniferotis 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 regidar north- 
 east storm, with a driving rain, shut out everything from view ex- 
 cept a narrow circle of the tossing and hissing 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 puffing away 
 with unflinching vigor. It was cheerless and comfortless enouo-h, 
 but there was consolation in the thought that it was slantino- me off 
 
DICING LIKE A GKNTLEMAX. 133 
 
 from the African shore. Had it been from the north-west, 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 sub- 
 sided, 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. 
 
 I set about my employments with something like my usual spirit 
 and \igor. The schooner had made a good deal of water, and it 
 took a hard hoiu-'s " spell" at the ptunp to relieve her of it. The 
 cabin floor, too, was all afloat with what had rained in, or been dash- 
 ed in, from the tops of the sea, which had, once in a while, tumbled 
 aboard, and it was necessary to swab it up. The culinary depart- 
 ment had been much neglected, having contented myself during the 
 storm vnth a piece of salt pork and a bisctiit. Now, it was necessaiy 
 to have something "good." But what should it be? After much 
 consultation and debate, it wa.*; decided nem. con. that it should be 
 hot johnny-cake and molasses, with a few raisins in it. There was 
 a good deal of pliilosophy in the choice. First, there were the plea- 
 sant home associations hanging aroimd a hot johnny-cake ; second, 
 its intrinsic palatableness, especially with molasses, which none but 
 some recreant to the tme principles of taste can deny ; tliird, 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 woidd take 
 some trouble and time, and afford an interesting and diverting em- 
 ployment — a " something to do." Ay, there's wonderful virtue ui 
 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 cm-se, and life a cheat. 
 
 Acting upon this principle, I resolved to reform my mode of eat- 
 ing altogether. Before, I had taken my meals as I could get them 
 
134 KAT.OOLAH. 
 
 — 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 din- 
 ners after a more elaborate fashion, serve them in proper style, and 
 then dine like a gentleman. Thus, in the three-fold capacity of 
 cook, waiter and master, I should occupy more of my superabun- 
 dant 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 gen- 
 tleman of the scythe Avith 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. 
 On the third I sat longer at table than usual, in the enjoyment of 
 imaginary hob-nobbings, Avith divers dignitaries of the earth. I had 
 ever the faculty of surrendering myself, body and soul, to the fancy 
 of the moment, however ridiculous or improbable. In fact, the im- 
 possible was no let or hindrance. I fought, when a boy, as readily 
 upon the banks of the Scamander, or the plains of Ai'bela, as at War- 
 saw or Missalonghi ; built castles in the air as easily in the moon, as 
 upon earth. Coming upon deck with my guests, Wellington, General 
 Jackson, and Mahemmet 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, closed hauled to the wind 
 — which had 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 aU her beautiful propor- 
 tions. She was small, apparently not above three himdred tons, 
 and had a peculiarly 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 arrange- 
 ment of her spars and riggmg, and her quarter boats, I concluded 
 that she must be a man-of-war. Passing me about half a mile as- 
 te)-n, she stood on for a little distance, then hoisting the billious 
 
THE captain's VISIT. 135 
 
 looking flag of Spain, she tacked and ran for me, backing her 
 main top-sail within twenty rods of my larboard beam. Her quar- 
 ter boat was immediately lowered, and half a dozen fellows, in red 
 caps and flannel shuts, jiunped into it, followed by an officer in a 
 blue velvet jacket, with a strip of gold lace upon his shoulders, and 
 a broad brimmed straw hat upon his head. I ran below, stufted all 
 the money that I had in gold — about a thousand dollars — mto my 
 pockets, and got upon deck again just as the boat touched the side. 
 
 " Welcome, senor !" I exclaimed m Spanish, " I am exceedmgly 
 glad to see you." 
 
 " I should think so," returned the stranger, in very good En- 
 glish, 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 stan- 
 chions and masts. " Rough work ! but where is your crew ?" 
 
 By this time, the boat's crew were on deck, iimning about, ask- 
 ing questions all at once, and addressing their velvet-coated compa- 
 nion 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 congratulated myself, not a little, upon my 
 forethought, in securing the gold upon my person, as I heard them 
 rummaging about and overhauling every tiling 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 foce 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 whisker. With a low projecting forehead, piercing 
 black eyes, rendered pecuUarly sinister, by a whitish speck in one 
 of them, and coarse grisley hah, it must be allowed that he was not 
 much of a beauty, and his men, if possible, were still less pre- 
 possessing; they all had a kind of cut-throat expression, that suggest- 
 ed the idea of pirates. The chief reason for not thinking them so, 
 was that their vessel was square-rigged, a long low rakish schooner. 
 
13G KALOOT-AH. 
 
 seeming to be the onl}'^ natural craft for a pirate. But Avhy 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 httle pleasure. I had no objection to a 
 practical acquaintance with piratical life, if it was forced upon me. 
 I might, perhaps, be the means of doing much good and prevent- 
 ing much evil — perhaps, save some lovely damsel and her doting 
 father, and be rewarded with a heart and a forttme ; nothing more 
 natural, and, if the novelists covdd be depended upon, nothing more 
 common. Physically, I felt myself a match for any half-dozen pi- 
 rates ; 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 qualitj% I might have saved my specidations 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 beau- 
 tiful craft was, if anything, worse than a pirate — a slaver. 
 
 " What is the name of your vessel ?" said I, after telling my 
 story, as we were all huddled around a bottle of Pico wine, in the 
 small cabin. 
 
 " El Boneto, and mine. Captain Pedro Garbez, at your ser- 
 vice." 
 
 " And to what port in Africa are you going?" 
 
 " I don't know, exactlj^ yet," he replied 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, sefior, po7- palo de tinte y acelte de senepal," he replied, 
 repeating my words in Spanish, and looking round upon his men 
 with an impressive 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 witli many expres-sions of 
 
PARTING WITH THE WRECK. 137 
 
 pleasure, while the captain, taking my hand, wannly welcomed me / 
 to his ship. 
 
 " We are lucky on 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'll have plenty of other woik for you — but I'll explain 
 all about that another time. Come now, let us get on board." 
 
 Securing my trimk, clothing, papers, and nautical and surgi- 
 cal instruments, whUe the men did the like service for the captain's, 
 and mate's, personal property, we pushed oflF, apd in a few strokes 
 of the oar were alongside the ship. The captain and I mounted to 
 the deck, while tlie boat was ordered back for another load of cabin 
 furniture, bedding and provisions. ^ In about an hoiu* she returned, 
 when the ship immediately filled her main top-sail, and stretched 
 off to the south-east. 
 
 I could not but part from the old wreck with feelings of regret — 
 she had borne me in sohtude so long and so gallantly — she seemed 
 so much like home ! I gazed at her until she dwindled to the small- 
 est speck, and after she had disappeared from the deck, stepped 
 into the mizzen-top to take one last lingering look. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 El Bonito. — Her officers and crew. — The Cape de Verd 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. 
 
 Desemng of her name was El Bonito — as much so as the 
 "well-knowTi 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 forward and veiy 
 lean aft, and heavily spai-red, she gave indications of speed, which, 
 one could not be long on board without percei\nng, were abun- 
 dantly realized. Six small pieces of ordnance piercing her high 
 and comfortable bidwarks, and a long twenty-four pound pivot- 
 gun constituted her armament. Her crew consisted of about thirty 
 men, among Avhom were several Portuguese, most of them rather 
 hard-looking fellows, and all of them dressed m the characteristic 
 red cap, striped woollen shirt and worsted sash. Beside these 
 there were several officers of various grades, contramaestres, carpin- 
 teros, 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 du- 
 ties of the ship, but stUl, the work was performed with a degree of 
 regularity, the ship kept quite trim, and, for a Spanish ship, tolera- 
 bly clean. 
 
 The second officer was, if possible, a more truculent-looking fel- 
 low than the captain. He had a peculiarly savage and moros6 ex- 
 pression — a kind of look that spoke of murdering, in all its tenses, 
 
CREW OF THE EL BONETO. 139 
 
 past, present and future. He spoke but little, except in occasional 
 bursts of the most outrageous blasphemy, when any thing crossed 
 his wishes. I never knew to what extent profanity could be car- 
 ried, until one day he gave me an instance. We had been bother- 
 ed for several days with a calm, common enough in those latitudes, 
 and the sailors had placed an image of St. Anthony against the 
 main-mast, with a prayer to send them \\nnd, and a threat, that his 
 saintship should remain in Iiis uncomfortable position until he did. 
 Eithef'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 shriek- 
 ed 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 profanity, 
 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. 1 was inexpressibly shocked, but 
 I could not help laughing until my sides ached. With this worthy 
 I had but httie to do. We had conceived a dishke 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 float- 
 ing 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 
 Teneriff'e, and now with the Peak of Fuego. The first was the 
 most beautiful, the second the loftiest : indeed, struck with its ma- 
 
140 KALOOLAH. 
 
 jostic and imposing appearance, there have not been wanting xiai- 
 tors who have claimed for it the credit of being the far-famed 
 Atlas of the ancients. The claim vanishes, however, befoi-e the 
 better-founded pretensions of the Mauritanian giant, and the Peak 
 of Teneriffe must content itself with its modern fame and the 
 classic associations 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 themselves to rest — an occasional groan — a sighing sul- 
 phurous expiration — a deep but transient shivering alone gi^^ng 
 evidence of the vitality — the raging life — the restless energies with- 
 in. The Peak of Fuego, on the contrary, has been almost always, 
 since its discovery, in a state of active eniption. 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 Beekman. " What 
 prodigious flames and vast clouds of smoke it vomits up continually, 
 which we could perceive aftei-wards in a clear day, though we 
 were above sixty miles distant," Captain Roberts, who in 1'721 
 was captured by pirates, and landed at the Cape de Verdes, says, 
 m 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 falling again, breaking and rolling downi, 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. Certam it is, that Cada Mosto, 
 an adventurous Genoese — in the ser\'ice of the Portuguese — who 
 discovered them, makes no mention 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 shortlv after 
 Cada Mosto's visit, the wliole island was enveloped in flames, and 
 
Til!': I'KAK OF K'JEGO. 141 
 
 t)mt, 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, wlaich, 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, ciu-- 
 ly-headed fellows, with marks of the strong infusion of negro 
 blood, common to all the inhabitants of the islands. It was of 
 these, and surroimded by a group of other sailors, that I was mak- 
 ing some inquiries in relation to Fonta de Villa and the little town 
 of La Ghate, off which we were becalmed. All at once a broad 
 glare of light shot up from the dark moimtain, illuminating its 
 rugged sides, and streaming in the darkness of the night far out to 
 seaward. 
 
 " El Pico ! El Pico !" exclaimed a dozen voices. 
 
 Two tall colxmms flashed upwards from the moimtain — at one 
 moment steady and erect — the next, quivering and swaying to and 
 fro in the ciurents of the \\ind ; now seeming to repel each other, 
 now bowing, crouching, and tuniing, like wary combatants prepar- 
 ing for a straggle 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 Mdgkos!" exclaim- 
 ed a second. " Los Alquimistas !'' bellowed a third. 
 
 " Priests, magicians and alchemists! What do you mean?" I 
 demanded. 
 
 " Oh, ask Pedro Vosalo," replied one of the crew, " he was 
 born just roimd the point, where you see so many sea-weed fires in 
 the little bay of Nossa Senora, and he knows all about it. Pedro, 
 Pedro! come here, and tell senor el medico the story of the magicians." 
 
 Nothing loth, Master Pedro, a little, round-shouldered, bandy- 
 legged mulatto, came forward, and throwing aside the stump of his 
 
142 KALOOLAH. 
 
 paper segar, commenced his story, wliich, fortunately for the read- 
 er, I am not disposed to attempt giving in the execrable jpa^o/s, half 
 Spanish and half Portuguese, in which it was told. 
 
 For nearly a week we were struggling along through that part 
 of the ocean, in the neighborhood of the Cape de Verds, which seems 
 to have been destined to an eternal alternation of squalls and calms. 
 Smce the days of the early Spanish voyagers, who frequently suf- 
 fered terrible hardships m these latitudes, no piece of navigation has 
 been found more trying to the temper and patience of mariners, and 
 el segundo cajntan, as might be supposed, 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 pos- 
 sible for a captain to take liis ship through the horse latitudes, as is 
 frequently done through the custom-house, by dint of haj-d swear- 
 ing, he was the man to do it. 
 
 The regular wmd came mostly from the south, compellmg us to 
 stand east, towards 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 season 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, when an extra quantity of water has been tm-ned 
 on for the amusement of visiters, he will begin to have some idea of 
 the way in Avhich it rained. For my part, I almost questioned, se- 
 veral times, whether the story of the creation was intended to apply 
 to this part of the world ; Avhether the waters under the 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 generally clear overhead, but loaded with dense black banks of 
 vapor in the eastern horizon, through which continually played the 
 
FLYING-FISH AND THEIR ENEMIES. 143 
 
 most vavid lightning ; while in the west, were invariably gathered 
 groups of bashful clouds, which, when blushing beneath the kisses 
 of the setting sun, glowed with far deeper and richer hues tlian I 
 had ever seen among their more brazen faced sisters of the north. 
 
 In twenty days after leaving Fuego we had reached the meri- 
 dian of Cape Pahnas, 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 himdred poimds, continually 
 surrounded the ship ; while all around us could be seen, almost at 
 any moment, thousands of flying-fish xipon the wing. The faculty 
 of flying, however, seemed to avail them but httle as a means of es- 
 cape from their numerous enemies. What with the dolphins, bo- 
 netos and albicores in the water, and the tropic and man-of-war 
 birds in the air, their life appeared to be anything 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 oft' some distance, ex- 
 posed to the remorseless claws and beaks above. The hunted fish 
 were not safe from this latter danger, even when in their proper ele- 
 ment. Flying low, and skimming the water hke a gull, the tropic- 
 bird picked them up from the surface : while hovering on the wing, 
 the man-of-war taking aim, and descending 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 pahs, 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 laroce brior standing to the 
 south. As el capitan had no disposition to come upon a British 
 
144 KALOOLAH. 
 
 cruizer at the soutliern end, we hauled to the vnnd, as close as pos- 
 sible, and stood to the south-west. 
 
 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 embraced any opportunity of leaving her; but with her supe- 
 rior sailing quahties, and the indisposition of her officers to hold any 
 communication with the ships that Ave occasionally saw, it appeared 
 not at all hkely that any such chance would offer. The prospect 
 would have appeared infinitely more gloomy, had I had a more de- 
 foiite idea of all the horrors of such a voyage. True, I had been ac- 
 customed to hear the detestible traffic in human flesh spoken of in 
 terms of the utmost abhorrence, and had somethinof of a o-eneral no- 
 tion of the cruelties of the "middle passage," but it was too vague 
 and imperfect to excite much apprehension on the score of mere 
 physical suffering, when I looked at the clean decks and roomy pro- 
 portions of El Boneto. I had the utmost confidence in the capacity 
 for anything diabolical of both officers and crew; but the ship her- 
 self was such a beauty, such nifce between-decks — ^no mere tempo- 
 rary slave deck, with a space between it and the spar deck of onlv 
 two or three feet m height, into w^hich to cram himdreds of human 
 beings, when 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 w^hole 
 voyage, I should not be shocked by the usual horrors, and might 
 perhaps do much towards reUeving the ills to which, under the best 
 of circumstances, a cargo of human flesh must be exposed. 
 
 I had already acquired considerable influence w^ith 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. Tliis feehng was evinced, most to my satisfaction, by turning 
 the mulatto steward out of my state-room, or rather, perhaps, his 
 
AN ACCOMPLISHED LINGUIST, 146 
 
 state-room, as he had the riglit 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 segundo capitan, who, 
 for some reason that I could not comprehend, continually looked 
 daggers at me, and had there been a good opportimity, would, no 
 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 confidence by tlie felloAv 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 
 httle brigantine which he owned ; but one day the boats of an Ame- 
 rican 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 e.stablishnient. " Pohre hombre ! he was 
 ruined!" 
 
 Holding in our south-west course long enough to clear the ves- 
 sel that we had seen, we bore away again for the coast, in the di- 
 rection 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. 
 
 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 probabihties of interference from the Bri- 
 tish cruizers. The invitation 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 Enghsh, I gave a strong glass 
 of New England rum. " I can speak English too," said one of his 
 companions, addressing me in Spanish. 
 
 " Indeed ! let us hear you speak it." 
 
 " Dame un poco de agaanUente. Den me speak." 
 
146 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Respect for his polyglot pretensions would not allow me to re- 
 fuse. He took the glass, turned it off, and smacking his lips, ex- 
 claimed with marked emphasis : 
 
 " Good ! d n good ! c'est tout — Yo no savey mas?" 
 
 If the fellow had exhausted the English vocabulary, he couldn't 
 have marched off with a more dignified swagger. 
 
 They were all fine looking men, tall, well made, and with fea- 
 tures more nearly resembling the Euporean 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 mat- 
 ting 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 ov rags, feathers or fur, 
 with oyster-shells, iron spikes, alligator's teeth, and snake's tails, 
 dangled from their necks, and protected their person from all evil 
 influences. 
 
 From them we learned that there were no slaves at Cabenda, a 
 statement which was confirmed the next morning by the Mafooka 
 himself, who came oft" to visit the ship. This officer, who is the 
 head of the custom house, or rather the chief of the board of trade, 
 for liis master, the Chenoo, Avas attended with quite a retinue of 
 persons of distinction, who had plainly much higher pretentions to 
 the genteel, in dress, than our first visiters. Their picturesque va- 
 riety of costume would have made them admirable subjects for a 
 Broadway lounge. The Mafooka was habited in a red cloth cloak, 
 and a round embroidered cap, the symbol of his office. The three 
 next ux rank had made a partnership affair of some European offi- 
 cer's uniform — one wore the coat and epaiilets, another the vest 
 buttoned up to the chin, but without a particle of other clothing, 
 while the third indemnified 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 
 
THE FASHIONS OF CACCNGO. 147 
 
 swell was cut by a huge fellow iii an old cocked-hat ; a flashy, 
 but somewhat dilapidated silk gowm, 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 distinguislied 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 as- 
 serted, 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 ascertainin^^t there were no slaves at Cabenda, it Avas 
 resolved, much to m^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 countiy, has been called the Paradise of the 
 coast, partly from curiosity, and partly in the hope that I mio-ht 
 find it possible to leave the ship, and await the arrival of some trad- 
 ing vessel or man-of-war. Once in the Congo, the chances of 
 escape, as far as I could judge from the shght information I obtain- 
 ed, Avould be but small. The strong current of the river, in the 
 rainy season, and the pecuhar unhealthiness of its banks, rendered it 
 very imlikely that any ships engaged in an honest trade would be 
 found, in which case the only alternative would be to remain among 
 the negroes an indefinite time, or make the voyage with El Boneto. 
 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 before hand by too minute inquiries — Avith Monte, the 
 first mate, my relations had rapidly come to be those of avowed 
 hostility; and it was evident that, through his representations, I had 
 grown mto great disfavor with the majority of the crew, who, how- 
 ever, 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. 
 
148 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Weighing anchor, with a hght sea breeze from the west, we 
 stood down the coast, which, a httle below Cabenda bay, becomes 
 flat and marshy, and covered with a thick growth of mangroves. 
 About noon, Cape Padron, on the fuii;her side of the river's mouth, 
 was in sight. Instead of crossing the ciirrent and roimding 
 Cape Padron and Shark's Point from the southward, as is usually 
 done, Captain Garbez determ'ned to anchor on tlie edge of the 
 Moena Moesa bank, just outside of Fathomless 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 ciu-rent which here ran at the rate of five or six 
 miles in the horn*, and at night we again d|M3ped anchor some dis- 
 tcmce within Fathomless Point. Here the »Kooka of Boolembem- 
 da came off to the ship, and informed us that there were plenty 
 of slaves at Embomma, the chief town, some forty miles up the 
 Moenza Enzadda, or great liver, as the natives call the Con- 
 go, 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, Avith two or three block 
 houses, where the slaves are confined. About two hundred slaves 
 were already collected and more were on their way do^vn 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 Portuijuese, 
 went to take a look at the slaves. Each dealer paraded his gang 
 for inspection, and loudly dilated upon their respective quahties. 
 They were all entirely naked, and of all ages, sexes, and conditions, 
 and all had an air of stohd 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 perceivmg that my appearance produced a 
 
A WHTTE GTRL. 149 
 
 stronger sensation of dread, astonishment and disgiist, than that of 
 either of my companions. 
 
 After looking at them for some time, and making some inqmries 
 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 Avell known, corresponds in warm countries to the six- 
 teen of colder climes. Her features were not at all of the usual Af- 
 rican 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 fiinged with the longest and blackest lashes I 
 had ever seen. Her Wse was straight and well formed; lips full, 
 but not thick; teeth as white as snow, and chin beautifully rovmded 
 and dimpled. Her complexion would not have been deemed at all 
 too dark for a brimette. Her hau- was curly, but not crisp, nor wool- 
 ly, 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 cloth- 
 ing 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 gracefidly 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 m'ged 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, feel- 
 ings outraged, and strength prostrated, seen only in the sla\'e. For 
 
150 KALOOLAH. 
 
 some time I coiild not take my eyes from her. She was dreadfully 
 interesting ! disgustingly attractive ! 
 
 I looked at her long and steadily : compassion must have 
 beamed from my face, for I felt it hke a mountain at my heart, and 
 as she met my gaze, her eye lighted, and a mournfid 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 the 
 slave dealer, a great bm-ly negro wielding a long tiiong of plaited 
 buffalo hide. 
 
 " Who is tliis ? 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 soriy I bought her, for she has given me more 
 trouble than all the rest put together." A 
 
 " Where did she come from ?" I inquired, arresting the fel- 
 low's arm, as he whirled his whip round the heads of the crouch- 
 ing: and shrinkingf slaves. 
 
 " A great way off in that direction," he replied, pointing a lit- 
 tle north of east. I bought her two moons from this, and she had 
 then come a great journey. She comes from what the Youga Ja- 
 gas call the Gerboo Blanda, or white nation. I've got another one 
 of them — a young man ; I believe, 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." 
 
 " 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 moimtain." 
 
 " Can any one here speak this girl's language ?" 
 
 " I believe not. There is a slave who can talk with her in his 
 
GETTING THE SHIP READY FOR SLAVES. 151 
 
 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 inten-upted 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 offices arranged, and as much brandy drank as woidd 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 XVII. 
 
 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 com- 
 promise. — An offer for a Fetish. — Purchase of the Gerboo. — Visit to Ban- 
 za Embemda. — Kaloolah's brother. — Purchase of Enphadde. — Return to 
 Lembee. — Tlie Bonito driven to sea by a British cruiser. — Meeting of Ka- 
 loolah and Enphadde. — House hunting by torch light. 
 
 On 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 theii- canoes ; most of them half di'essed and invariably 
 with some piece of European clothing. 
 
 I tried to make some minutes in my journal, but the noise and 
 confusion were too great, and besides the face of the Gerboo girl 
 haunted me so as to preclude thought of any other subject. I felt 
 
152 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the deepest compassion for her ; but how could I hghlen her hard 
 fate ? I longed to do something, biit what ? The question recur- 
 red again and again. Should I puichase her, and thus, however 
 innocently, become a participant in a trade denounced by my go- 
 vernment as pu-acy, and pxmished with death ? Or, should I leave 
 her to the mercies of her negro ma-sters, 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 regu- 
 lar cargo, and merely to give her her freedom, and leave her be- 
 hind, would not at all better her condition. 
 
 Without bemg able to come to any settled resolution, I picked 
 out from my store of money a few Spanish pillar dollars, the only 
 cun-ent coin, and, stepping into a native canoe, retiu-ned to the 
 shore. Making my way among the scattered and irregularly ar- 
 ranged huts, composed of stakes covered with a matting of palm 
 leaves, I arrived at the stockade, or picketed enclosure, m which 
 she was confined. Here 1 found a partner or assistant of the slave- 
 dealer wth whom I had spoken. He was a stout muscular man, 
 with a pecuharly malignant expression of face. The skin of his 
 breast and body was raised in the most frightful ridges by the pro- 
 cess of repeated scarification ; his front te<^th projected far fi'om 
 his mouth, and were filed down to sharp points — a custom which 
 prevails expensively among different nations of Africa — ^and his 
 tliick bushy hair was shaved so as to leave it in tufts, like bunches 
 of bog-grass, standing out from different parts of his head. 
 
 We entered and foimd within the enclosure an open area, with- 
 out any shelter from the sun or rains. Here and there were pools 
 of stagnant water, and, all a)ound, the ground v.-as covered \nth a 
 tliick black mud, into which, in the driest part, we sank ankle deep 
 at every step. In this place, that was more than equalled in com- 
 fort by any ordinary pig-sty, were about thirty females, most of 
 them sitting or lying, half buii-icd, in tlie aliominable reeking 
 compost. 
 
 The Gerboo girl was not, at first, in sight. The slave-dealer 
 
VISIT TO A SLAVE PEN. I53 
 
 called for her two or three times, in tones that gave indication of 
 the treatment to which she must have been subjected. "Kaloolah! 
 Kaloolah !" he shouted, and at last espying her, crouchino- behind 
 a picket that projected from the side of the entrance, he sprang 
 towards her with every mark of fury in his ftice, and before I could 
 prevent him, struck her a heavy blow with his Avhip 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 
 blow. 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 
 muscular 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 contmuity 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 veiily beheve 
 it would have killed him. Fortunately, a thought of the conse- 
 quences restrained me, and the blow was arrested in time. I loos- 
 ened my grasp, and the big brute sank to the ground, apparently 
 as lifeless 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 
 countenances of the poor slaves expressed the height of astonish- 
 ment and ten-or, while the spectators, who had accompanied us in, 
 drew back, screaming and gesticulating, and loudly asserting that 
 I must be Caddee M'Pemba, 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 
 mifooka and the principal slave owner. I was, of course, exceed- 
 ly anxious to settle matters, not at all on my own account, but for 
 fear the slaves, and particularly the Gerboo girl, might have to suf- 
 fer 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-feelino- 
 
154 KALOOLAH, 
 
 evinced towards 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 maltreatment 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 assistant, Avho 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 meditated 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 Avas 
 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 restored 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 imderstand, 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 
 
VISIT TO BANZA EMBEMDA. J§(> 
 
 river, she must dress herself in a piece of cotton long cloth, which I 
 had purchased of a fooka, or native merchant; 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 woimds and excoriations. 
 She listened with the greatest interest, apparently comprehending 
 with intuitive rapidity eveiy 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 pecidiarly melli- 
 fluous. When the cotton was produced, her eyes sparkled with de- 
 light, and when she understood that she woidd see her brother, the 
 tears rolled down her cheeks; she clasped her hands, and overcome 
 with joy and gratitude, threw herself upon tjie groimd and tried to 
 embrace my feet. Her motions were so perfectly natiu-al, gi-aceful, 
 and expressive, that I found it difficidt to keep from ciying myself. 
 
 The road to Banza Embemda led directly back from the banks 
 of the liver, tiirough a fertile and tolerably well cultivated country. 
 Groups of the wine palm and the gigantic boabab occurred at in- 
 tervals, and between them, fields of manioc, com, beans and cab- 
 bages, and groves of limes, papaws and plantains. Numerous huts, 
 generally grouped in twos or threes within a fence of canes, and in- 
 variably dignified by the name of "to^vTi," sheltered the lazy husband- 
 men; and several fields of tall grass, as high as a man's head, per- 
 formed 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 dangerovis inhabitants either roasted to death 
 or expelled. 
 
 A three hour's 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 appeared 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, Avith 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 trun-shot 
 
156 KALOOLAH. 
 
 wounds, inflicted by the slave hunters, who are in the habit of way- 
 laying 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 tlieir running awav, was the Gerboo. A single glance 
 at him was sufficient to put his iflationship to Kaloolah beyond a 
 doubt. He had the same characteristics of form, face and expi'es- 
 sion, except that his skin was a little darker — a clear nut-brown, 
 and his look, one of fieice dogged defiance, 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 suft'ei-ing and confinement, his eye 
 quailed not, and the lines of his well-formed mouth seemed curved 
 to the concentrated expression of regal scorn and pride. He was 
 tall, b\it 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 characte- 
 ristic of Congo trade, even in the me;inest trifles, made him my pro- 
 perty ; 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 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 
 i-ushed 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 1 found a way to man- 
 age him. I bought his .sistei- from anothei- gang Avho were going to 
 Malemba, and kept her a little befoi-e him, and when he tried any 
 
PURCHASE OF ENPHADDE. 157 
 
 of his tricks I made my men flog her. He didn't like that. But 
 don't xmtie him, if you do you will lose him." 
 
 Papncr no attention to his remonstrances, I put the slave-mer- 
 chant aside and passed my knife through the cords. The young 
 man started from the ground, stretched hinaself 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 oflf a wide worsted sash, that, in imitation of my Spanish 
 companions, was womid round me, I signified to him that he should 
 spread it open, and gird it about his loins. He readily compHed, 
 with a look of surprise, which was, however, more than eqixalled by 
 the utter astonishment 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 hii 
 name, then upon my breast, repeating my own, and pointing to 
 the Gerboo, awaited his answer. 
 
 " Enphadde Ban Shounse," he uistantly replied, or Enphadde 
 the son of Shounse, the " Ban," having clearly the same force as 
 " Ben" in the Arabic and Hebrew. 
 
 It was nearly sun-set when we started upon oiu* return to Lem- 
 bee, Avith several blacks in company, who tried to act as interpre- 
 tei-s between Enphadde and myself, but his knowledge of the Man- 
 dongo and Congo dialects was too limited to admit of much com- 
 munication, and I had to content myself with taking a lesson in his 
 own language, by pointing to the diflferent objects that we passed, 
 and making him repeat their names. This he did with e\'ident 
 marks of quickness and general intelligence, and with great appa- 
 rent 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 mv astonishment, El Bonito was nowhere to be seen. 
 
158 KAT.OOLAH. 
 
 Hurrying on to ascertain tlie cause of her disappearance, we found 
 the town in the utmost confusion, and so many anxious to make ex- 
 planations 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 rvm away. Man-of- 
 war big — plenty boats — plenty guns — plenty men — but no habee 
 ship. When he gone, ship come back." 
 
 It appeared that about an horn- before, news had amved that 
 an English cruizer had entered the river, and made her way up as 
 high as Loobondi Island, where she had come to anchor. In ten 
 minutes Captain Garbez, got mider way, preferring to sUp 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 re- 
 turn, 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 dis- 
 pleased with the news. The former feeling would have undoubt- 
 edly predominated, could I have sent word to the captain of the 
 man-of-war, but I observed that the bare mention of it excited sur- 
 prise and distrust, and that the safest way would be to wait the 
 turn of events. If the English should visit Embomma, comm\nii- 
 cation could be had with them in person, if not, it was hardly pos- 
 sible that they would remain long enough at their imhealthy an- 
 chorage to receive my message, even should the mafooka allow me 
 to forward it. 
 
 This point satisfactorily settled in my mind, my attention natu- 
 rally recurred to my interesting proteges, and to the means of dis- 
 posing in the meanwhile, of them and mvself. 
 
 Kaloolah Ave found seated upon a mat in a corner of the hut 
 where she had been left, but so metamoi-phised in appearance, that 
 it was difficult to recognize in her the dispirited, diity and naked 
 slave of the morning. Tiie bath, and a full meal liad worked won- 
 
MEETING OF KALOOLAH AND ENPHADDE. 159 
 
 tiers for her, and the cotton, which ^vith true femhiine 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 bound- 
 ed into his arms. Never was the intensity of fraternal affection more 
 strongly 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 mtei-est 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 Hstened 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 natm'ally very stern, would permit, and putting their hands to- 
 gether 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, 
 tliat after a 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 accompanyment to the monotonous and drawling cadences 
 of a song. Several spectators soon assembled to assist in the bar- 
 gain, and every possible advantage, except that of its being a "cor- 
 ner lot," was urged to enhance the price. At last it was settled 
 that I should have tlie house for the sum of five dollars, cash down, 
 and tAvo 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 throAvn in. A few 
 
160 KAT.OOI.AH. 
 
 minutes sufficed to remove ihe nol)le owner's, fui'niture and family 
 to other quarters, when, witli Kaloolah and Enphadde, I was duly- 
 installed as master, in fee, of the slight, but not uncomforLable 
 domicile. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 An invasion of ants. — Bnrnt out. — A new house. — A visit from tlie slave-deal- 
 er. — A desperate race. — A judicial indulgence. — Aii apt pupil. — Framazug- 
 da. — Enphadde's story. — A warning. — Kaloolah's English. — The Tul- 
 tul and the river. — An attempt to kill Kaloolah. — A sleepless night. 
 
 We were not destined to a long- enjoyment, in quiet, of our new 
 habitation. It was the second night of our possession that Enphad- 
 de and myself were startled by a scream from Kaloolah, as she 
 rushed from the door of the hut. Jumping up on the instant, be- 
 fore 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 neigh- 
 bors, 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 satisfaction of seeing the ants well 
 roasted, but at the expense of our house, which was iitterly de- 
 stroyed in about fifteen minutes. Fortunately my clothes, gun, 
 (fee. were saved. This accident involved the necessity of purchas- 
 ing another hut, which, at last, with a great deal of trouble was ob- 
 tained. It was situated a little out of the \illage, amid a grove of 
 palms, and consequently more expo.sed to the attacks of Avild 
 
A VISIT FROM THE SLAVE-DEALER. 101 
 
 beasts, particularly the lion, which is sometimes kno\^Ti 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 om- enemies in human form, who had already commenced 
 their machinations. 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 groimd 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 impu- 
 dence to lay hands on Kaloolah, as if to 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 difficulty, was to meet the 
 fellow half way, and frighten him out of his wits, by a prompt and 
 energetic resistance : so, giving way, all of a sudden, to an expres- 
 sion of the fiercest rage, I drew a pistol, fired it towards him, tak- 
 ing good care not to hit him. He bounded out of the gate-way 
 with surprising agility, and, as I was close upon his heels, necessa- 
 rily had to take a path that led away from the town. It would 
 have been easy at any moment to have overtaken 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 ti-ees 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 protrud- 
 ed from their sockets, his thick bloodless lips were flecked with 
 foam, and the ebony of his complexion fah'ly tem'fied into a 
 spotted and dirty drab. Whenevei he turned his glances behind 
 him at the " white devil " on his track, the loudest yells, that 
 
162 KALOOLAH. 
 
 my lungs were capable of, aroused his flagging energies, and 
 urged him on in his supposed race for life. 
 
 Just as my ovtw powers wen; nearly exhausted, we came to a 
 slate bed, upon the edge of a narrow muddy bayou. Down this 
 the fellow rushed with vmabated speod, and, taking to the water, 
 stretched out for the other side, while I stopped short, and em- 
 ployed 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 pros- 
 trate 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 eye-sight, told him tliat he 
 must clearly see, that the demand of the slave-merchant was un- 
 just, that the bargain had been fairly made, and that however im- 
 perative 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 \iew 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 per- 
 fectly justifiable. 
 
 " Kill him ! kill him !" continued the worthy official, in very in- 
 telligible English ; "you give me two five dollar you shall kill him 
 by G-d. Knock liira head — break him bones — cut liim tliroat — 
 so, — " and here the speaker gave a spirited pantomimic representa- 
 tion of the different prScesses he proposed. 
 
 Promising to give him the ten dollars, whenever I should con- 
 clude 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 lea in. was, that Ber- 
 gamme, the Jaga killer, had employed some of the most renowned 
 
FRAMAZUGDA. 163 
 
 gangams, or priests, to make him a fetish of wonderful power, that 
 was to be employed in some way agauist 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 soUcitude for the safety of Kaloolah and 
 Enphadde. 
 
 The more I had seen of this young couple, the more had my 
 sympathies become interested in their favor, and the better satis- 
 fied did I feel with the relation I had assumed towards them. On 
 their part, every look and action e^-inced the profoundest sense of 
 gratitude and obligation ; and their whole deportment contmually 
 astonished me with evidences of dehcacy, refinement and mental 
 cultivation, far beyond what I had been prepared to expect. Ka- 
 loolah, in particidar, evinced the most surprising quickness of com- 
 prehension — mastering a large number of Enghsh phrases with a 
 readiness and tenacity of memory that very far surpassed my most 
 strenuous eflforts in the acquisition of her own tongue. My pro- 
 gress, however, 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 wi-ote then* langiiage with apparent ease, in cha- 
 racters somewhat resembhng the Hebrew, but arranged after the 
 style called Boustrophedon, 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 xmable to compare the words and grammatical forms. 
 
 With the aid of their language, the Congo, a few words of Eng- 
 lish, and Kaloolah's expressive pantomime, I was soon able to un- 
 derstand the mam points of their mteresting story. 
 
 The Gerboo Blanda, I foimd, was a name given to their coimtry 
 by the Jagas, that its true name was Framazugda, and that the 
 people were called Framazugs. That it was situated at a great dis- 
 tance in the interior, 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 noi'thwest and east, none of 
 
164 KALOOLAH. 
 
 whom, however, were ever seen at Fi-amazugda, as tlie trade had to 
 pass through a number of hands. Enphadde represented the country 
 to be of considerable extent, consisting mostly of a lofty plateau or 
 elevated plain, and exceedingly populous, containing numerous large 
 cities, svirroundcd by high walls, and filled with houses of stone. 
 Several large streams and lakes watered the soil, which, according 
 to his accoimt, was closely cultivated, and produced in abundance 
 the greatest variety of trees, fniits, 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 low- 
 lands, the attendants killed or dispei-sed, and the yoimg prince and 
 pi-incess carried off. The blacks belonging to a powerful nation, 
 that had, within a few years, conquered their way to the borders of 
 Framazugda, and who had even made frequent inroads upon the 
 Framazugs themselves, i-eti'eated in haste, dragging with tliem 
 their victims, and depriving, at one audacious blow, the bereaved 
 monarch of liis 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 repeatedly found the impossibility of contending successfully 
 against an enemy who had a numerous cavaliy, and an immense 
 superiority in the knowledge and possession of fire-arms. 
 
 At first the youthful captives were carried towards the north- 
 west, for three or four day's journey, imtil 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 south- 
 westerly direction. On this course they continued about thirty days, 
 crossing several rivers and steep ranges of hills, and passing nume- 
 rous 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 bouglit by a party of Jagas, and 
 
enphadde'h sjory. 165 
 
 journeyed with tliem 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 
 sui-face of hard fhnts, 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 were separated and conducted off 
 in different dii'ections, but at last were re-united 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 sti-eam, where 
 they were bought by their Congo master. Leaving the banks of the 
 stream, they joimieyed for sixty days, including stoppages, through 
 a country of lofty forests, prairies and swamps, constantly exposed 
 to the attacks of serpents, elephants, lions and tigers. Several times 
 the kaffila Avere 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. En- 
 phadde seemed to have a good idea of the course they had pur- 
 sued, and made continual reference to the cardinal points of the 
 compass, as indicated by the stars. He even explained the position 
 of his countr}^ by showing the difference in the length of his sha- 
 dow, at times when the sun had the greatest northern or 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-thu'teenth part longer than when the sim was m the 
 opposite solstice, and the shadow was projected to the south. From 
 this fact, I deduced the position of the capital of Framazugda, in 
 about one degree of north latitude, and from Enphadde's com'ses and 
 dead-reckoning it could not be far from about thirteen hundred 
 miles in a du-ect 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 
 stUl more gratifying to find in Enphadde such an evidence of educa- 
 tion, and so much knowledge of the principles of astronomical 
 science. No native of Congo would have dreamed of comeying an 
 
166 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 va- 
 riety of ways, by pointing to his own shadow, and to the sun's 
 movements in declination along the meridian, and by setting up per- 
 pendicular sticks, and measuring on the ground their supposed 
 northern and southern shadows. Of course it was only the compa- 
 rative length of the shadows, and not the positive length, as indi- 
 cated by any actual system of measure. This rendered the problem 
 of the latitude 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 pro- 
 jections and approximations, which served to pass the time, and to 
 demonstrate that the capital of Framazugda was situated within a 
 few miles of the line, and of course within a region wholly unknown 
 to the civilized world. 
 
 Although so near the equator, Enphadde and Kaloolah repre- 
 sented 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 and east. An abundance of deli- 
 cious fruits, for many of which Enphadde could point out no paral- 
 lel in Congo, were found growing wild in boundless 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 mon- 
 keys, and small quadrupeds of different species, and innumerable 
 birds, with every possible variety of magnificent plumage. The ar- 
 chitectural structures Enphadde represented to be on a scale com- 
 mensurate with the splendid natural features of the country, and 
 worthy of a nation which had reached a high point in civilization 
 and refinement. 
 
A FRIENDLY WARNING. 167 
 
 My imagination was so excited by Enphadde's accounts, that I 
 conceived the design of starting with him, and endeavoring to reach 
 his country by the same route by wliich he had come. Upon 
 proposing it to them, Kaloolah clapped her hands with delight, and 
 Enphadde's eyes sparkled for a moment Avith eager joy, but his 
 glances soon fell, as the con\iction of the utter impossibiUty of ac- 
 complishing 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 ap- 
 proach his country in that direction it would be difficult, 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 im- 
 possible. Leaving out the formidable difficulties and dangers of the 
 route, the desert of Srah, would be an obstacle impassable, except 
 by the consent 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 encoimter and endure any hardships and dangers ; and to all his 
 objections, made answer by pointing, sometimes to me, and some- 
 times to my gun, as if, Avith 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 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 consented, have commenced 
 the long and fearful pilgrimage, though a thousand deaths had 
 stared her in the face. 
 
 We were debating the point, when om- conversation was inter- 
 rupted by the protrusion of a black shining face through the open 
 wicket. Glancing carefully roimd, and making sundiy grimaces, to 
 indicate caution, om- friendly visiter delivered himself of the same 
 warning that had been so often repeated. 
 
168 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ^' Pren(z garde '^ said he, " Bergamme make fetish, mity grande. 
 Prenez garde," and before I had time to question him, the speaker 
 had disappeared. 
 
 There was something exceedingly annoyhig m this threatening 
 of an indefinite danger, the nature of which it was impossible to as 
 certain, and against which it was, of course, impossible to guard. 
 Although there was nothing to apprehend, from the fetish itself, il 
 was quite probable that, encouraged by the supposed power of the 
 charm, Bergamme, and his partner the slave-merchant, might un- 
 dertake something, which, from the wholesome fear I had mstilled 
 uito them, they would not otherwise dare to attempt. 
 
 In company with Enphadde I made a thorough search of the 
 neighborhood around our hut, but nothing of a suspicious character 
 could be found. Not a smgle native was in sight, and no unusual 
 sights or sounds indicated danger from the distant village. 
 
 It Avas quite dark when we re-entered the hut, where we found 
 Kaloolah, who had taken upon herself, with true feminine spirit, 
 the duties of house-keeping, busy m prepanng supper. Within the 
 coiuli 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 cor- 
 ner of the large room, or hall, while Enphadde seated himself in 
 the other. The cheerful light streamed in at the open doorway, 
 and occasionally a pviff of savory steam diffused its exciting odour 
 through the apartment. Kaloolah was seated upon the giound 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 
 unstudied grace of her attitudes, or the good humored archness of 
 her face, as revealed in the flashes of the strong fire-light. 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 her gracefully turned head and neck into the 
 hut, repeating English words and phrases, and laughing at their 
 
KALOOLAH S ENGLISH. 
 
 oddness in those dulcit tones that make the gushing, gurgUng laugh 
 of a pretty woman the most dehcious somid innatm'e. 
 
 " Oh ! Jon'than, now fire bum — make supper very qmck. Sheek- 
 en supper very good — suppei*, dinner, breakfast — one — two — three," 
 and then, as if there was sometliing irrisistibly comic in the soxinds, 
 she would laugh heartily, while her bright black eyes danced, and 
 her whole face beamed with a matchless expression of mingled arch- 
 ness and naivete. 
 
 " Sing a song, Kaloolah," I exclaimed. 
 
 She hesitated. " I ^vill 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 smgular, that, at that moment it should have occuiTed to me ; 
 I took it as a warning. 
 
 " NoAv, Kaloolah, you smg," said I, as I finished. 
 
 " Oh, yes — I sing — much — very good," she replied, and paus- 
 mg for an instant, commenced a love ditty. The Tul-tul, I af- 
 terwards found was a species of sweet scented liUy, growing upon 
 the banks of the mountain streams of Framazugda, and the fpllow- 
 ing is a literal translation of the words, which a better acquaintance 
 Avith the language than I then had, has since enabled me to make. 
 There is not much in the words, but the sentiment indicates a 
 greater refinement in love, than would be foimd in a savage and de- 
 based state of society, while the air was exceedingly plamtive 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 TuI-tuI grew. 
 
 And from her leaflets, moist with dew, 
 
 Enchanting fragrance far she threw. 
 
 Ah I TuJ, beware the fickle Stieam! 
 
 Love's life is but a giddy dream, 
 
 Where shadows flit, and false lights gleam 
 
ITO KALOOLAH. 
 
 The Streamlet saw the blooming flower ; 
 
 " Ah, Tul," he cried, " 'tis uow 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'lt answer yet with sighs and moans. 
 
 By blushing Tul the strain is heard ; 
 
 She smiles, and drinks the honeyed word ; 
 
 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 ripples 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 I 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, Ave were start- 
 led 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 
 
AN ATTEMPT TO KILL KALOOLAH. l7l 
 
 evidently been aimed at Kaloolah, through the interstices of the 
 canes, but, deviating shghtly from its course in its passage, it just 
 missed her person, and striking a bi'and, knocked the fire about in 
 all directions, and passed in at the doorway and out through the 
 matting at the further side, a little above Enphadde's head. I 
 siezed my gun and i-ushed out of the wicket, followed by Enphad- 
 de, but it was so dark that it was impossible to see any object, not 
 in motion, at ten paces distant. We Ustened intently, and fancied 
 that we could hear retreating feet: it was useless, however, to pui'sue 
 them, and we Avere compelled to retvu-n 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 Bergam- 
 me, and take such action in the case as the occasion might require. 
 We passed a sleepless night, but nothing more occiured to excite 
 particular attention or alarm. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A Congo custom. — A funeral. — A compliment to the coi-pse. — A feast. — A pub- 
 lic 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 Bonito. — Danger from 
 Kaloolah's good looks. — Expedient to get rid of her beauty. 
 
 It is the custom in Congo to suffer an interval of time to elapse 
 between the decease and bmial 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 a oluminous folds 
 
 « 
 
172 KALOOLAH. 
 
 of cotton clotli, pieces of which are weekly and almost daily added, 
 so as to conceal any signs of decomposition. This process goes on 
 imtil the corpse attains an enormous size. When too large for the 
 house in which it is contained, the building is taken down and a 
 hirger one erected ui its place. In the case of very distinguished indi- 
 viduals, this is frequently done tAvo or three times ; and a fellow 
 who, ui his lifetime, never had clothing enough to cover his naked- 
 ness, is, after death, swathed into a capital illustration of the prin- 
 ciple of compensation — clothmg himself then, (or rather his friends 
 doing so for him,) in all the cloth which he was fonnerly entitled to 
 but did not have. 
 
 Tlie day after the night which closes the last chapter, was ap- 
 pointed for the burial of a distingviished personage who had been 
 dead seven or eight years. During the whole of this long period, 
 the body had been undergomg this epideiTnic accretion. Every rag 
 of cotton that could be bought, begged or stolen, had been added 
 by mourning relatives, imtil a bulk sufficient to satisfy the pride of 
 affection had been attained. 
 
 The grave was at some little distance from the village, and con- 
 sisted 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 blo^ving 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 quahty to those of a small organ, were produced from a 
 row of gom-ds fastened to a board, and across the open mouths of 
 which were placed three shps of reed. These were struck with 
 small sticks, precisely in the same way as are the pieces of glass in 
 a musical instnament common enough in christian countries, but of 
 which I do not now recollect the name. 
 
 Surrounding the corpse were bands of mourning females, Avho 
 made the air additionally vocal with cries, groans and ejaculations — 
 
A FUNERAL — A FEAST. 173 
 
 keeping up a contimious torrent of questions addressed to the dead 
 man, or shrieking his praises at the utmost pitch of their voices. 
 
 " Oh, why did you die ? 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 of priests added to the clamor of the wo- 
 men the most frantic and diabolical yells. They ran, leaped and 
 danced about the corpse with uncouth gestm'es and horrid grimaces, 
 and practised various ceremonies of mcantation 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 dis- 
 charged a few times — a request with which I very readily com- 
 plied. After the burial, a grand feast, open to all, finished the ser- 
 vices 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 lascivious dances until 
 a late houi- in the night. 
 
 About sunset I walked down to the ^^llage to see the ceremo- 
 nies of the feast, which had commenced an hour or two before I 
 arrived. A large group of the principal men, surrounded by infe- 
 rior parties, were squatted on the groimd 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 officers, 
 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 op- 
 portunity of making a decided impression. 
 
174 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 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 hollow 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 particularly blessed by the gangam, 
 and inserted into the clay with magical ceremonies and incantations. 
 For every feather a fowl had been sacrificed by the priests, and the 
 pomt dipped into the blood. No expense had been spared by Ber- 
 gamme to make it as perfect as possible, and the gangams had 
 exerted their utmost skill. With the credidous faith of his super- 
 stitious countrymen in the power of these ignorant but exceedingly 
 cunning impostors, he believed that he had got a charm that would 
 preserve him from any danger ; even a musket ball would be divert- 
 ed 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 du-ectly 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 affriglit. 
 
 " Listen," said I, looking around and over the reclining au- 
 dience, and directing a friendly linguista, who spoke excellent 
 Spanish, to interpret my words. 
 
 " Listen ! Last night a musket was fii-ed 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 confoimded, 
 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. 
 
A PUBLIC SPEECH. Il5 
 
 I have been received as a friend. How woidd the Chenoo, yoiir 
 master at Eniboma, 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 
 innocent, it will do him no harm, if he is guilty it will kill him." 
 
 " No, no," I replied, " I don't wish to compel hum 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 subjected to the ordeal, his friends the gangams, who adminis- 
 ter it, would give him some harmless potion, and the fellow would 
 have all the advantage of an honorable acquittal. 
 
 " No, I won't 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 disposed, 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 pmiish him. It may be the most power- 
 ful fetish in the country, but I care nothmg 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 appre- 
 hensions of the audience. If the earth had yavraed 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 I tossed the figure into the air, and bringing up 
 my gun to bear upon it, fired both barrels in immediate succes- 
 sion. They were heavily loaded with duck shot, and both charges 
 
116 KALOOLAH. 
 
 took effect. The clay tiguie 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-li\nng 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 Jagga killer, shivering, as if with an ague fit. There 
 was no farther 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 Boneto ?" 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 T will send vou a couple of 
 bottles." 
 
 " And won't you gi\e me one ?" demanded a Formio of dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 " 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, aud 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 
 
kaloolah's bouquet. 177 
 
 river. Upon entering the house I found a large bouquet of the same 
 flowers aiTanged in an earthen jug at the side of my palm-leaf bed. 
 This delicate and considerate attention delighted, but did not sur- 
 prise me. I was prepared to receive any evidence of refined sensibi- 
 lity 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. 
 
 " Very sweet flowers," she replied, repeating my words. " Ah, 
 yes, very sweet !" 
 
 Slie 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 fo 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 vi- 
 brated in every hnk, responsive to the blow. The dehcate peifume 
 had aroused the slumberina: recollections of fair sfardens and fra- 
 gi-ant bowers, and with them the thoughts of home and friends — the 
 sacred memories of the heart. Wlio could wonder at her tears ? 
 
 In a moment her smiles retxirned, and, aided by Enphadde she 
 set about preparing for the evening meal. In these household af- 
 fairs I carefully abstained from offering any assistance, feeling that 
 it was best to leave to them the only means they had of showino- 
 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 different lengths and sizes, that, 
 twirled by the fingers with wonderful rapidity, gave a few low, 
 buzzing notes that harmonized with her voice, and produced a veiy 
 agrefable effect. Enphadde had also contrived an instrument. 
 
178 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 plea- 
 sant, and the div-isions 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. 
 
 Oui" 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 bravurLst, it gave us as much pleasure 
 as ever was derived from the loftiest harmonies of Beethoven, or 
 the sprighthest melodies of Rossuii. Time, place and ch-cumstance 
 ever powerfully influence the effect that music produces upon the 
 mind ; and our music must have been indeed execrable, if in a ne- 
 gro 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 secmity, as far as the former masters of Kaloolah were concern- 
 ed, 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 possession of me. Shadowy, half-formed fancies — 
 the gaunt, gloaming ghosts of horrible ideas stalked through my 
 mind, and kept me tossmg and tumbling on my bed of leaves until 
 nearly day-light. A few hom-s unquiet sleep, and I awoke with a 
 slight head-ache, 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 
 
AN ATTACK OF FEVER. 179 
 
 fiUTed tongue, and the yellow tinge with which all objects appear- 
 ed invested. 
 
 The grasp of the malaria — that curse of the African coast — was 
 upon me. Brooding in darkness and in damp over the low allu- 
 viums of the intertropical shores, that mysterious po^yer, 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 head-ache 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 developes itself, is well known. There was no time to lose, 
 if any preparatory remedial measures were to be adopted. Fortu- 
 nately I had a small paper of medicines in the pocket of my instru- 
 ment-case, and as there was not much doubt in my mind of the 
 pi"opriety of emetics in the foiTning 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 con\inced me that it would 
 not answer much longer to confide in my medical judgment, even 
 should my senses be preserved ; and that the best way would be, 
 to make sure of one good dose of calomel and jalop, and then, 
 trusting to a o^ood constitution, leave the disease to its course. The 
 powder was prepared, and swallo^A^ng it, with somewhat of the 
 feeling vnih. which the mariner casts his last anchor to wind- 
 ward on a lee-shore, I resigned myself to my fate. 
 
 Delirium soon supervened, but amid tlie wanderings of reason, 
 and the vagaries of maddened fancy, I was still conscious of the 
 soothing influences of woman's gentle attentions. The figure of 
 Kaloolah, multiplied by diseased sensation into a dozen angelic 
 forms, was ever around me. Flitting spirits, bearing her face and 
 
180 KALOOLAH. 
 
 form, constantly hovered over me, fanning 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 parch- 
 ed mouth with draughts of cool water or the pleasant juice of the 
 sweet lemon. I knew not all the time that it wtis she, but still, 
 even when most bewildered, there remained a distinct consciousness 
 of some power without, that kept down the raging demon, who 
 roaj-ed and struggled for mastery within. 
 
 On the ninth day the fever reached its cnsis, and, thanks to a 
 good constitution and kind nursing, the crisis Avas safely passed. 
 From tliat day recovery was no longer doubtful, and in three or 
 four daj's more I was able to sit up, and indulge with a good ap- 
 petite in the convalescent's luxury — a bowl of chicken broth. It 
 would require weeks, however, to regain my f\ill strength. Al- 
 though 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 la.sted 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 tillage 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 
 ray 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 recommended lion's tail soup ; another, a dish of 
 alligator's eyes ; and a third, a fiicassee of monkey's tongues ; and 
 each one offered to provide his remedy for a proper considera- 
 
ATTENTIONS OF THE NEGROES. 181 
 
 tion. Tlie 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. 
 
 It was now more than three weeks since the departure of the 
 slaver, and as yet nothing had been heard fi-om her. It was known 
 that she had succeeded in passmg, without molestation, the Eng- 
 ish 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 compan- 
 ions ? It must be recollected that I was sick — worn down in body, 
 and depressed in mind, and it will not appear strange that a suppo- 
 sition of the slaver's having been captiu^d, which, under other cir- 
 cumstances would have given me pleasm-e, now excited nothing but 
 dismay. I brooded over the thought with the most melancholy 
 anticipations. My money was neai-ly 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 cli- 
 mate that desponding imagination began to invest with all tlie hor- 
 rors 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 Bo- 
 nito had arrived in the river, and was at anchor about twenty miles 
 below. My spirits, however, were far from undergoing an elation 
 con-esponding to their previous depression. Doubts and fears in- 
 truded themselves, and very much quahfied the anticipated plea- 
 sures of freedom and pure ocean au\ 
 
 One great soiu-ce of anxiety was the beauty of Kaloolah, which 
 had been growing more and more striking as her face daily recover- 
 ed some portion of its original fulness, and her figure its rounded 
 and graceful proportions. I knew my own powerlessness on ship- 
 board, 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 occun-ed to me that by means of it her dangerous beauty 
 
182 KAT.OOT.AH. 
 
 might be deprived for a time of its power, I at once proposed it 
 to her, and alter explaining tluit 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 fj-om 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 lus- 
 trous 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 comprehended the object I had in view, 
 looked quite shocked, and would hardly be satisfied with mj^ repeat- 
 ed assurances that the spots would wear off, and his sister's skin 
 resume its natural hue. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Captain Garbez's return. — A hard blow. — A promise to the Virgin. — Sufferings 
 in the baracoons. — 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. — Jonatlian's intentions. 
 
 " Qiiien es V. .?" exclaimed Captain Garbez, as I mounted the 
 side of the slaver just as her anchor struck the ground off Lembee. 
 " Madre de Dios ! how you have altered ! One would hardly know 
 you, you have changed so ! Ah, the rascally fever! I know it well, 
 for I've had it myself. But, what is the news ? what has happen- 
 ed durincf the last month ?" 
 
CAPTAIN GARBEZ S RETURN. 183 
 
 " Nothing," I replied, " but what you can see for yourself. The 
 fever has pvilled 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," rephed 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 Enghsh craft that I know 
 of. It is the cursed calms that have kept us out so long. See, I've 
 lost half the hah- on my head. Caramha ! I would'nt mind 
 having my whole scalp blown off in a gale of wind, but to be com- 
 pelled to tear my hair out, in a stupid calm, is too bad. We've had 
 but one cap fuU of wind since we left, and that was a regular butt- 
 ender 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 everything, 
 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 lay-to for eight and forty hours, 
 and although the Bonito is a pretty weatherly craft, we drifted to 
 
 leeward" like the d 1 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 didn't do us any good, and 
 burn mv eyes if she mapi't find her own candles, or sit in the dark 
 for aught I care." 
 
 " How soon do you get under way again ''" said I, inten'upting 
 the captain, who was rapidly working himself into a passion about 
 the weather. 
 
 " As soon as possible, but the Lord ovAj 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 
 
184 KALOOLAH. 
 
 is not much use in tn-ing to stir them up. Along the coast, from Ca- 
 benda up, they do business more promptly. When the baracoons 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 baracoons, that when the gates are opened they frequently- 
 run and skip doAvn to the canoes in their delight at being taken to 
 'the white man's coimtry, where they will have plenty to eat.' But 
 I must huny 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 pi-o- 
 perty, 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 hom-s after the captain's visit to the shore 
 several boat-loads of imhappy wretches were sent on board. The 
 first comers were taken below the berth-deck and aiTanged 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 dif- 
 ferent intervals, in fom- rows, running fore and aft the ship. Through 
 these bolts traversed hon shackle bars, which were prevented fi-om 
 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 
 boles 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 
 throujrh the ends of it alonjj the under side of his lesf, 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 ar- 
 rangement 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 off, when the 
 limbs of the whole ijanjj were at once unfettered. After their airing 
 
TIGHT AND LOOSE SLAVE-PACKING. 185 
 
 they could be stnmg along on the bar, and the end of it again se- 
 cured 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, shackTes are essential. 
 
 The slaves, as I have said, were arranged in four ranks. When 
 lying down, the heads of the two outer i-anks touched the sides of 
 the ship ; their feet pointing inboard or athwart the vessel. They, 
 of coiu'se, occupied 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 shghtest space was allowed between the 
 indinduals of the ranks, but the whole were packed as closely as 
 they could be, each slave having just room enough to stretch him- 
 self out flat upon his back, and no more. In this way about two 
 hundred and fifty were crowded upon tlie slave-deck, and as many 
 more upon the berth-deck. 
 
 Honible 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 that he had found the latter the best. 
 
 " If you call this loose packing," I replied, " have the goodness 
 to explain 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, vmtil the whole deck is filled. In the one case each 
 slave has as mucli room as he can cover lying ; in the other, only as 
 much room as he can occupy sitting. With tight packing this craft 
 
186 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 firet, strongly objected 
 to receiving them at all. He could not spare the room ; but that 
 difficulty 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 yourself 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'll go still further than that," I continued ; " I'll 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 ray 
 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 fight hair ; there was 
 not as much negro blood in them as you see in the whitest slaves in 
 New-Orleans or Havana. They went off at half prices, and when 
 
THE ANCHOR WEIGHED. 187 
 
 put down to work they all died in less than a year. So if you ex- 
 pect to make a speculation with these you will find yourself much 
 mistaken. The gu-1, 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 compHment of slaves was on board, 
 and all ready for departvire. At the last moment I joined the ship, 
 with Kaloolah and Enphadde ; the anchor was weighed, and with a 
 fair and stiff breeze we ran down the rapid current on the top of an 
 ebbmg tide. In a few hours, we were dancing upon the hvely swell 
 of the open ocean, and inhaling, with delight, the breeze, which, al- 
 though coming from the land, seemed to have lost its malevolent 
 and oppressive character. As we increased 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 Ungering rem- 
 nants of disease. What an inestimable blessing is plenty of pure fresh 
 air ! Wliat exquisite pleasure in the free and easy performance of 
 the respiratory function ! Alas ! five hundred unhappy wretches 
 were beneath my feet, who had been cruelly cut off from that plea- 
 sure — deprived 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, tinder full sail, ploughed her imeasy 
 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 melancholy wail of the breeze among the taugh- 
 tened cords of the weather-rigging. A deep, dull chorus of moans, 
 and sobs, and sighs, arose from the grated hatchways spread around 
 
1-88 KALOOLAH. 
 
 upon tlie air, and enwi-apped 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 
 manliood, wning by pain from the panting breast. It was the chok- 
 ing sobs of oppressed respiration — the retchmgs 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 thro^vn 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 jump- 
 ing overboard as to guard against resistance. Each gang was then 
 placed in turn on the forecastle, the brakes of a forcing pump man- 
 ned, and a powerful stream of water directed thi-ough 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 anoth- 
 er set. 
 
 Never, but in a slaver, were seen such groups of woe-begone 
 wretches. 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 then* quivering hps and rolling eyes expressed the heighth of 
 bodily suffering, mental agony and hopeless despair. There was 
 none of that stolid indifference which had characterized the expres- 
 sion of their faces on shore. There, cruelty and hardsliip had as- 
 sumed familiar forms, and a dogged endm-ance opposed itself to 
 the fiowns of fate. Here they were upon a new and fearful ele- 
 ment — new terrors aroused their jaded and sluggisli fears — new 
 
A VISIT TO THE ::;LAVE JJECKS. 189 
 
 pangs developed tlie secret sensations of their benumbed and hard- 
 ened frames. Alas ! they were only at the commencement of their 
 fearful voyage — at the threshhold merely of the horrors that were 
 to multiply, in geometric ratio, the further they advanced. 
 
 I attempted to visit the slave-decks. The sights, sounds and 
 smells were intolerable; and, with a death-Uke sickness at the heart, 
 I was compelled to retire. "Good heavens !" I exclaimed, " I had 
 no idea of this !" 
 
 "Why it isn'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'll naturally thin out a little, and that will make them more 
 comfortable." 
 
 " But if such is the state of things iii 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 clos- 
 ing the hatches, it is all up with the voyage. You can hardly save 
 enoiigh to pay expenses. They die like leeches in a thunder-storm. 
 I was once in a httle 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 couldn't get at the dead 
 ones to throw them overboard very handily, and so those that didn't 
 die from want of air were killed by the rolling and tumbhng about 
 of the corpses. Of the livmg 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 pursue the horrible trade !" 
 
 " Certainly : why not ? Despite of accidents the trade is profit- 
 able, and for the cruelty of it, no one is to blame except the Eng- 
 lish. Were it not for them, large and roomy vessels would be em- 
 ployed, and it would be an object to bring the slaves over with 
 every comfort, and m as good condition as possible. Now every 
 
190 KALOOLAH. 
 
 consideration miist 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 tiu-ned ^vith loathing from the fiends in human guise and 
 sought the more genial companionship of the inmates of my state- 
 room. 
 
 Kaloolah and Enphadde were suflfering 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 naiTow 
 floor, wrapped in a blanket with a carpet-bag for a pillow. Kaloo- 
 lah 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, how- 
 ever, I kept closely confined in the day-time, 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, ex- 
 posed himself as httle as possible to the notice of the crew. As 
 soon as it grew dark we would all three creep over the tafferel 
 into the stem-boat, and enjoy several hours' unmolested and inte- 
 resting conversation. I had already made so much progress in the 
 Framazug tongue that I could readily comprehend the minutest 
 descriptions of the wonderful scenes of their native countiy ; and, m 
 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 encourage their hopes of returning through the north- 
 em negro countries to their home. 
 
 " You wUl go with us, won't you, Jon'than ?" said Kaloolah one 
 evening, 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 
 
JONATHAN S INTENTIONS, 191 
 
 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 very beautiful, 
 but it can't equal ours. The trees, the flowers, the birds ! Ah, I'm 
 sure no countiy in the world can equal Framazugda." 
 
 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 distant 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 interested in their appearance and manners, and be- 
 cause 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 cnielty 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 en- 
 tertaining. Certain crude ideas would occasionally intrude them- 
 selves, but I generally contrived to banish them without allowing 
 them to assume full shape. Trusting that time would develope no- 
 thing but favorable circumstances, I rested satisfied with the resolu- 
 tion that my best exertions should never be wanting to mitigate the 
 hardships of their fate and insure, in future, the comfort and, if pos- 
 sible, the happiness of their fives. 
 
 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 maliciously inclined than ever. Several times, when 
 
192 KALOOLAH. 
 
 1 was not by, he struck Enphadde with a rope's end, and one even- 
 ing when I had left Kaloolali 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 Captam Garbez, but to no purpose ; to speak to 
 Monte would be to subject myself to useless insult, I was compell- 
 ed to keep my wrath to itself, but it lost nothing by nursing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Coudilion 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. — Opthalmia. — 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. 
 
 Two weeks of fine weather, but with rather unfavorable winds, 
 brouo-ht us to the line, which was crossed in about five or six de- 
 grees of longitude west. 
 
 The slaves had become by this time somewhat used to the mo- 
 tion of the ship, and the mortahty had diminished from five or six 
 to one or two in the twenty-four hom-s. They w^ere regtilarly au-ed 
 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 regidar 
 intervals brimstone and molasses, and other slave-ship prescriptions 
 of supposed efficacy, nothing could compensate for the injurious 
 effects of confinement in a close and vitiated atmosphere. They 
 grew weaker and weaker, and theu- bodies rapidly reached a state 
 
THROWING OVERBOARD THE STCK. 198 
 
 of distressing emaciation. Putrid sores and malignant eruptions 
 broke out upon them : in some cases old wounds that had been 
 healed for years, reopened, assuming a peculiarly unhealthy aspect ; 
 in others, a virulent ophthalmia completely destroyed the tissues of 
 the eye. Many became afflicted with scrofula, developing itself in 
 tubercular phthisis, or in swellings and ulcerations of the glandular 
 system, and many were attacked with pneumonia, terminating, in 
 the case of one poor fellow, in that most loathsome form of disease 
 — gangrene of the lungs. Nothing can equal the horrible odour 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 throAvn overboard — alive ! A happy release ! the reader 
 will think, for him. 
 
 When told of his fate the next morning, indignation mastered 
 prudence, and I freely expressed, in the most unqualified teims, 
 my opinion of the deed. I was met with scowling looks and mut- 
 tered imprecations. 
 
 " Take care," exclaimf^d el se(/undo capitan, " or you'll go the 
 same way. Por la madre de Dios! I will have no one to med- 
 dle or make on board this ship. 
 
 " Murderer ! Coward !" I shovited, completely carried away 
 by rising passion. " Repeat that threat if you dare !" 
 
 His face grew purple with rage, and drawing a long Spanisli 
 bladed sheath knife, he darted towards me, but when within 
 almost arm's reach, he was checked by the miizzle 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 honible convulsion of the muscles of his mouth drew 
 aside liis Ups, and disclosed his jagged teeth. A grin, like that of 
 an infuriated hyena, overspread his face, and his whole body work- 
 ed and quivered with passion ; but he stirred not, and forlunately 
 
194 KAI.OOLAH. 
 
 for him, or rather for both, he did not. The least motion — and I 
 should have scattered his brains, without 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 denoument before they had time to recover 
 their thoughts. 
 
 The captam 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 an- 
 tagonist's arm, compelled him to put up his knife. Slowly he re- 
 turned 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 between us. 
 
 The captain, seizing my arm, hun-ied me aft, beyond the hear- 
 ing of the crew. 
 
 " Good G-d, sefior el medico," he exclaimed, " do you want 
 your tbroat cut, or yoiu" heart's blood let out, that you thus quarrel 
 with Monte ? He'll have your life — he never forgets nor forgives. 
 You must be careful, 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." 
 
 " You can't," replied he ; " let me beg of j^ou not to provoke 
 him again — he'll surely have revenge. There is a bad feeling 
 among some of the crew towards you. They had overheard your 
 foolish and improper remarks about the ship and the trade, and 
 they say that you will make difficulty for us yet. If they take 
 it into then- 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 tliem to the attempt. " Let 
 
A GALE. — BEARING AWAY. 195 
 
 them try it ! but I have no fear that they will do so. I have not 
 given, and shall not give them any cause. But as to this Monte, 
 he had better look to himself. I've borne enough from him. He 
 threatens to turn Enphadde and his sister out of my state-room, 
 and send them below upon the slave-deck. Now, mark you, he'll 
 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 fi'om 
 the south-west. The regular trades were compelled to succumb 
 to the influence of the new comer ; and between them both a tre- 
 mendous irregular cross sea was knocked up, which made the situ- 
 ation of the ship full as dangerovis 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 herself as well as to her cargo, it was resolved 
 to bear away, and scud before the wind. We shoiild 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 close-reefed main-top-sail was loos- 
 ed and 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 sliip fell 
 
196 KALOOLAH. 
 
 off rapidly, and, when before the wind, the yards were squared, the 
 fore-sheets both hauled aft, and away we wejit under close-reefed 
 main-top-sail and reefed fore-sail. 
 
 The motion of the ship was now much easier ; we flew before 
 the sea in a Avay that prevented it from breaking in-board. Every 
 few minutes a huge, hissing wave, with numerous little waves fur- 
 rowing his surface, Avould come sweeping after us, apparently 
 threatening inevitable destruction ; 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 Avere lying-to. 
 
 The hatches were now opened, and more than thirty dead bo- 
 dies 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 con- 
 test Avere only beginning to develope themselves. Owing, undoubt- 
 edly, to their close confinement during the gale in the vitiated air 
 between-decks, the eyes of nearly one-half the slaves became afiect- 
 ed simultaneously with acute and painful inflammation. It was pu- 
 rulent opthalmia in its most viriilent form. There had been a few 
 cases previous to the storm, but the disease then Avas limited in its 
 progress, and assumed a milder and less malignant character. 
 
 It was Avonderful, the rapidity Avith Avhich it ran its course. In 
 some cases not three days Avould elapse from the first symptoms, 
 until the eyehds Avould be SAvelled 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 
 comer, Aviiere the conjunctiA'a had been abraded or absorbed. 
 
OPTHALMJA. — A BRITISH CRLI.SER. 19/ 
 
 accompanied the disease. In three days one hundred slaves had lost 
 an eye, and more than twenty, deprived of both eyes, were irreco- 
 verably blind. 
 
 I exerted myself to the utmost to alleviate their sufferings, but 
 my best efforts w ere 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 con- 
 viction, that xmder all the attending circumstances, the most power- 
 ful medicines in the most skilful hands would have been administer- 
 ed in vain. 
 
 Emerging from the fore hatch-way, after a useless visit to the 
 imfortunates below, I observed some of the sailors ensfaofed in slino-- 
 ing 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 com- 
 pletely by surprise. Spy-glasses were produced and levelled at the 
 stranger — the result of the examination was evidently far from sa- 
 tisfactory. The two vessels were standing on convero-ino- courses, 
 •which, if persisted in, would soon bring them within hailing distance. 
 A hmried 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 sprano- 
 up in my breast at the evident anxiety of all hands. " God send 
 that she prove a British cruizer !" 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 ofl" the weather- 
 braces. Luff !" 
 
198 KALOOLAH. 
 
 These orders were executed with wonderful rapidity, and the 
 ship, with all sail set, was hauled up close to the wind on the star- 
 board tack. 
 
 I had a glass to my eye as the Bonito sprung to her luff. The 
 brig was caiTying single reefed top-sails, with top-gallant sails over 
 them. What was my dehght 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'll have to fly, caramha, 
 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 inten^ening dis- 
 tance. One moment it seemed to diminish. She gains! She gams! 
 Ko, no, 'tis only fancy, flattermg hope. Another look ! She is as 
 far from us as ever ! For the love of Heaven and humanity, gentle- 
 men, take another pull on your lee-braces, and steer small ! Alas ! 
 'tis all in vain. The Bonito is both too fast and too weatherly. What 
 an honor and a reproach to the perverted skill of her Yankee builders ! 
 
 By nightfall we had gained three or foiu- miles dead to -wind- 
 ward, 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 coui'se with a free 
 wind, but shortlj after executing this manceuvi*e the wind lulled, 
 and by three o'clock in the morning it was perfectly calm. 
 
 It was just at day break, that while lying in my berth, my at- 
 tention 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 
 plimge 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 de\'irs work is going on now ?" I exclaimed, jumping 
 from my berth and stepping out upon deck. 
 
 A dense fog brooded upon the siuface of the ocean, and closely 
 enveloped the ship — standing up on either side, hke huge perpendi- 
 
THROWING OVERBOARD THE BLIND. 199 
 
 cular 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, sea- 
 ward, no eye could penetrate, more than a yard or two, the solid- 
 looking baiTier of vapor. A man standing at the tafferel 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 misL. 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 tlie 
 mist so carefully avoided the pollution of actual contact. His rolling 
 legions were close around us, but vapory horse and misty foot 
 slu'unk back affrighted from the horrors of our blood-stained decks. 
 
 The cause of the phenomenon, I concluded to be the hot air ge- 
 nei-ated in the crowded space between decks, but I had not time for 
 much speculation as to the precise manner of its action. The same 
 shrill cry and heavy plunging somid was repeated, and tmiiing in 
 the direction from whence it came, I saw a sight that rivetted 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 siglit ? None ! He is worth less than nothing ! He 
 
200 KALOOLAH. 
 
 is an incumbrance — a useless expense — an unsaleable article. Pitch 
 him overboard ! twenty-five to-day, and '-a dozen more to-morrow!" 
 
 There are a good many elements of the subhme in a cold-blood- 
 ed, deliberate murder. The rush and roar of Niagara, the a^vful 
 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, m-e nothing in comparison. A cool, unimpas- 
 sioned murder, is certainly one of the most wonderful, the most in- 
 comprehensible, the most awful, and the most honible sights that 
 can be A\-itnessed in this world — it is nothing less than the imme- 
 diate and astoundmg 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 impres- 
 sion upon the grey banks of vapor. Gradually it resolved itself into 
 detached masses, with deep caves and ravines between, into wliich 
 the eye could penetrate for some distance, and slowly and grace- 
 fiUly 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. 
 
 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 Frama- 
 zugda, called the Diamond, but he wanders all about the world with 
 his doe;. When he is seen, and his doti' makes no noise, it is consi- 
 dered a happy omen, but if his dog growls it bodes bad luck for 
 some one. Are you not glad, Jon'than," continued Kaloolah, play- 
 fully, " that the two-headed monster marches on so silently '?" 
 
 The question had hardly passed her lips, when a low, mmbling 
 sound came over the water in the direction of the misty figure. 
 
THE GIANT OF THE DIAMOND ROCK. 201 
 
 which an active fancy might as well have hkened to anything else 
 as to a giant and a dog. Kaloolah started and turned pale. En- 
 phadde'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 ?" En- 
 phadde, 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 !" exclauned Kaloolah, raising both hands, 
 while an expression of delighted energy beamed from her large lus- 
 trous 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 shodd be left 
 in the middle of the Atlantic. No, if we can escape only by swim- 
 ming, our chance is a poor one." 
 
 While speaking, a shght ripple ran along the surface of the 
 water, and in a moment the coihng wreaths of vapor glided before 
 it, and upwards, into the higher regions of the air. As they van- 
 ished, a flood of light poured upon the glassy slopes of the undulat- 
 ing 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 hght wind, while we had beeif moving slowly with 
 
202 KALOOLAH, 
 
 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 anything but agreeable to the officers and crew of El Bo- 
 nito, 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 mornmg 
 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 tafferel. In the mean time, 
 the stranger had not been idle. We had got a little the start of 
 him, but almost as soon as oursehes, he was moving through the 
 water under every available rag of canvass. 
 
 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, alter- 
 nately, upon his ugly countenance — at one moment chuckling with 
 fiendish glee, and the next pouring forth a volley, of profane im- 
 precations. Several times he passed me, and always with a mut- 
 tered curse. In this there was not much harm, but it was exceed- 
 ingly annoymg 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 horn-. 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 
 
MONTE FELLED TO THE DECK. 203 
 
 of his knife, but before he could draw it, my left hand reached his 
 frontlet, followed by the right, strongly planted on his chin. The 
 blows were given with an irresistible earnestness of purpose. Monte's 
 body was projected before them, and thro^Yll 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 difficidty 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 rage. Unfortunately my pistol was below, and I had 
 notliiiig 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. 
 
 Moute advanced smftly, crouching low, and holding the point 
 of his long knife slightly depressed. It was no time for hesitation ; 
 my only hope w^as in the offensive. I rushed at him, and strack out 
 with my left hand. He was on the point of making a thi-ust at the 
 lower part of my body, but instinctively raising his hand in guai-d, 
 the point of the knife entered my arm, inflicting a deep, but not a 
 disabling wound. With the rapidity of hght I seized his wrist with 
 my right hand, and thnisting 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 
 Aveight. 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 liim over and beyond it. It was now within my 
 retich, and my first impulse was to seize it, and drive it into his heart, 
 Inu I had no wish to kill the fellow, although I knew that if he 
 lived there was hardly a chance for my own Hfe. 
 
 It must be understood, that there was no .one upon the cabin- 
 
204 KALOOLAH, 
 
 deck except ourselves and Kaloolah and Enphadde, and that the 
 v?hole aftair took place in much less time than it takes to describe it. 
 From tlie beginning to the end was hardly half a minute. 
 
 By this time the noise had ai'oused the officers and crew, and 
 they all came pouring aft, gesticulating and screaming as only Span- 
 iards can gesticulate 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 one my life would have been in- 
 stantly 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 too great ! 
 
 " Overboard ! overboard !" I shouted to Enphadde, who was 
 supporting the faulting form of his sister. " Jump overboard. I'll 
 follow you — quick !" 
 
 I made an eflbrt 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 wth 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 extended 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 em- 
 brace. 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 English- 
 man typifies himself in his own bull-dog, the Spaniard's " totem " 
 may, Avith equal justice, be found in the indomitable mastiff' of the 
 Sierra de Cuenca. 
 
 Upon coming to the surface, the first objects of interest were 
 Kaloolah and Enphadde at a few feet distance, suj)porting them- 
 
PICKED UP BY THE BKIG. 205 
 
 selves 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 ene- 
 my 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 wliich luckily had accompa- 
 nied him overboard. Satisfied that Monte could swim, I gave my- 
 self 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 sym- 
 metry to the sky. Nearer and yet nearer, until the smallest rope 
 could be distinguished, as well as the sparkling " 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, 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 trysail !" 
 
 Gracefully she sweeps round to the wind, and heaves to with 
 her foretop-sail aback. Men in the larboard chains stand rea- 
 dy 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 foi'e- 
 course — right yo\ir 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 XXII. 
 
 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. 
 
 " Rather an unceremonious way of boarding your ship, gentle- 
 men," said I, bowing to a group of officers, " but I hope you'll par- 
 don 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-natin-ed 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 cliap 
 yonder is first officer of the ship ahead. We left her about fifteen 
 minutes since, and we have come on board you simply because we 
 couldn't help it." 
 
 Several questions were propounded by the officer, Avho proved 
 to be the commander of the brig, to which I replied in a few words, 
 succinctly detailing the most important circumstances of our adven- 
 ture. As I proceeded, his quarter-deckish air and tone changed to 
 a decided expression of frank and sailor-like affiibility. Putting out 
 his hand, he exclaimed, " Well, sir, I'm glad to see you. Come, 
 walk below, we'll 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 waist." The other offi- 
 cers were equally liberal in their expressions of interest and offers 
 of sen'ice, and it was no little satisfaction to find that getting on 
 board of her majesty's brig Fly-away, we had got among as polite 
 and as gentlemanly a set of fellows as ever walked a quarter-deck. 
 
 " Mr. Crawford," said the captain, addressing the officer of the 
 
MONTE IN IRONS, 207 
 
 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 poUtely." 
 
 "Why not nm him up to the yard-arm at once?" rephed Mr. 
 Crawford. 
 
 " I wish I could," said the captain, " if you'll find law for it, 
 I'm sure I'll find rope." 
 
 " Hanging is too good for him. I should hke 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 
 jmisdiction 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 fore- 
 castle, was essential to his comfort and perhaps to his safety. He 
 had no fear therefore as to the ultimate result ; but, in the mean 
 time, he had to endure the pangs of bafl[led revenge. His coimte- 
 nance betrayed the emotions of his fiendish heart, the scowl of 
 undying hate, the sullen glare of settled mahce, the lines of des- 
 perate resolve for evil drove from his ti-uculent visage the last rem- 
 nant of a humanizing expression. 
 
 In the cabin we found the breakfast-table waiting for the cap- 
 tain to finish his meal; and, on changing our clothes, we were po- 
 litely 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 suff"ering from the blow ; and to the polite persuasions of the 
 captain could only return a faint smUe 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 admirably. What magnificent eyes — pity she's got those spots 
 
208 KALOOLAH. 
 
 on her face. She don't understand English?" he continued, observ- 
 ing a blush mantling her face. 
 
 " A little," I replied, "just enough to know that you are talk- 
 ing about her." 
 
 " Ah, clev^er too as well as handsome ; but I suppose you have 
 taken particular pams in her mstruction, notwithstanding her 
 spotted sMn !" 
 
 " 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 tempory, 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 
 attactions." 
 
 " Good ! A capital idea ! A kind of quarantine flag, ha! paint- 
 ed ports to frighten off the pirates ! I took them for indications of 
 the black blood ; but, if these Avere 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. However, 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 Fella- 
 tah 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 Saharah, or 
 the Sliillocs and Berbers of the Atlas — descendants perhaps of the 
 old Gcetulians or Garimantes. I have always thought so, and I ra 
 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 moustache, and 
 what a swell he could cut in a London drawino room. He looks 
 
THE DOCTOR. A PHILOLOGIST. 209 
 
 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. 
 
 "Kaloolahand Enphadde — Enphadde ban Shounsi," I repUed ; 
 " and their country they call Framazugda." 
 
 " Framazugda !" exclaimed the doctor, " that is curious — I 
 should'nt wonder ! — it must be so — it is." 
 
 " What ?" demanded Captam Halsey. 
 
 " Why, almost proof positive of the truth of my suggestion 
 about the Gaiimantes and Gcertulians. You see many of the tribes 
 of Barbary and the Sahara, who are the undoubted aboriginal inha- 
 bitants, are known by the name of Amazergs. Now, what can be 
 more clear than the derivation of Framazugda from the word Ama- 
 zerg. The prefix fr, or fra, perhaps means from, and the affix 
 dah perhaps means people or nation — nation derived from the Ama- 
 zergs ; or perhaps the dah may mean from, and the fra may mean 
 people ; or perhaps the/ra and the dah may both mean " 
 
 '* Bravo, doctor !" interrupted the captain, " you extract an ety- 
 mology 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 dis- 
 locations." 
 
 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'll hold on for an hour longer, to make assu- 
 rance doubly siu-e, and then we'll 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 hke 
 that, my princess ?" 
 
 I interpreted the question. 
 
 " Can we reach the Quorra from thence?" demanded Enphadde. 
 
210 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " WI13', yes, but it will be rather a long and a hard journey ; 
 especially for your sister." 
 
 " No matter," said Enphadde ; " there are no dangers or hard- 
 ships that I will not dare." 
 
 " And none that I wuuld not share with you," interposed Ka- 
 loolah ; " oh, hoAV willingly I would die, for even a distant sight of 
 the towers of Kiloam !" 
 
 "And is there nothhig, or nobody," inquired the captain, glanc- 
 ing at me, " that you care for out of Framazugda ?" 
 
 " Jon'than, he go wid us," said Kaloolah, in English, when I 
 had explained tbe 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 doc- 
 tor, with a meaning look. 
 
 A deep blush crimsoned Kaloolah's cheek. " Come, come, doc- 
 tor," interposed the captain, " you are probing the matter too close- 
 ly. Recollect that a young, unsophisticated female heart is rather 
 more tender than a tough deltoid or gluteus. There is some diffe- 
 rence 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 an-aign 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 
 wander round the world, a confirmed old bachelor." 
 
 "Well, there are worse batches than a bachelor. What do you 
 say to a batch of squalhng children ?" 
 
 " Horrible !" exclaimed the captain ; " the most horrible attempt 
 at a pun I've heard this long time. Doctor, you deserve a round 
 dozen." 
 
QUARTER-DECK WIT. 211 
 
 " 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 the tra and 
 the dah," shouted the captain, as the doctor ascended the staus. 
 
 This colloquial smartness was, of course, wholly lost upon my 
 companions ; but the captain's good-natured face, jolly tones, and 
 hearty laugh, had none the less an inspu-iting eifect. Kaloolah and 
 Enphadde watched him with a pleased and confiding expression, 
 wliich, to judge from physiognomical indications, was fully desez^ved. 
 
 " And now," said the captain, putting his hand familiarly on 
 my shoulder, " 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 here in the open cabin ; it can be 
 put up at night, and taken doA\Ti in the morning, so as not to be at 
 all in our way. As for his royal highness, we'll find a hammock for 
 him in the steerage. You'll all three mess at my table." 
 
 I commenced expressing my sense of his kindness and pohteness, 
 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 au\ 
 
 The brig had been hauled by the Avind, 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 ^oaneth not beneath thy weight — 
 the skies frowni not on thy bloody decks — the breeze not ungently dis- 
 tends thy weU-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 ghttering pinions 
 reflected the golden flood of morning, the deep azure of noon, the 
 glory of sunset, and the sable of night ! 
 
 Kaloolah had entirely recovered from the eftects of the blow, 
 and together we passed many pleasant hours, in walking the deck 
 
212 KALOOLAH, 
 
 and discoursing of the wonders of the deep, or of the curious and mag- 
 nificent, 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 in- 
 terest to her artless descriptions of strange scenes, and to her and 
 her brother's details of a novel and peculiar civihzation. It was es- 
 pecially 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 unifoiTO- 
 ly affable 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 individuahze 
 him, like a character in a novel, but dehcacy forbids. He is probably 
 still alive, (at least I hope so, and a post-captam too,) and I know 
 not how he would like to have himself paraded in print ; sufficient 
 is it to say, that he was a gentleman and a sailor. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 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 Parcse at work. 
 
 No where, in the world, can be foimd a more admirable site for 
 a city, in all the particulars of a magnificent and picturestjue scene- 
 
SIKRIiA LEONE. 213 
 
 ry, than on the broad estuary of Sierra Leone. Twenty miles in 
 length, and varying in breadth from ten miles at its entrance, be- 
 tween Leopard's Island, on the north, and Cape Sierra Leone, on 
 the south, to four miles at the Island of Torabo, where it terminates, 
 it presents, on either shore a variety of natm-al features, which at 
 once rivets attention and excites a mixed and highly pleasing emo- 
 tion of the beautiful and the sublime. 
 
 In glowing terms, have travellers described the picturesque and 
 oriental character of the view — as rising from the water's edge, the 
 town stretches up the surroundmg 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 ve- 
 randas — affording the luxvuy 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 scene — upon the glowing bosom of the estuary, scarce- 
 ly rippled by the light airs and gentle tides of these latitudes, the 
 quiet BuUom shore, the bold sweep of that amphitheatre of moun- 
 tains, gaping with enonnous ravines and dark valleys, and clothed 
 with never-fading forests ! Yet in this very excess of beauty ger- 
 minates 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 mantle of herbage. From 
 the decomposition of this exuberant vegetation is supposed to arise 
 the deleterious miasma, so powerful in its influence upon the un- 
 acclimated constitution of the Em-opean visiter. If such is the case, 
 what is its nature or essence ? Is it a gas ? The theory has many 
 and able advocates, but if true, chemical analysis ought to be able 
 to detect it. Is it an effluvia or odor ? Possibly, 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 Lucre- 
 tius and Columella, and it certainly accords the best with what we 
 knoAV of the laws by which malaria is governed. But may it not 
 
214 KALOOLAH. 
 
 be vegetable in its composition, as well as in its origin, and consist 
 of the germs of the vast vaiiety of fungi ! These germs, impercep- 
 tible to the sense, and inappreciable by the most dehcate analysis, 
 are known to pervade the air in the greatest abundance. Perhaps 
 their quantity may reg-ulate the intensity, and their specific charac- 
 ter the form of disease. This suggestion is, as far as I know, origi- 
 nal, and seems to me as plausible as either of the others. It may 
 pass for what it is worth.* 
 
 The greater portion of the population of Freetown consists of 
 liberated Africans, who have been rescued from Spanish and Portu- 
 guese slavers. The white residents are few in number — scarcely a 
 hundred — most of them the officials of the dififerent colonial de- 
 partments, such as the legislative coimcil, the ^^ce-admiralty court, 
 and the mixed commission 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\nce, advice, with inntations to breakfasts, dinners and 
 suppers Avere 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 satis- 
 factory test of the sincerity of these proffers. The bill was readily 
 cashed at the commissariat department. 
 
 But it is not my intention to detain the reader with all the little 
 details of my short sojourn in Sierra Leone, and I must hurry on to 
 
 * It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say, that the writer could not, by any possi- 
 bility, have heard of the speculations of Professor Mitchell upon the same sub- 
 ject. It does not, of course, diminish the credit due the Professor, for his recent 
 able and conclusive exposition and development of this theorj- of malaria, that 
 the idea should have occurred several years since to Mr. Romer, or that it 
 should have been made the occasional subject of conversation and investigation 
 by the editor for ten years past. — Note by the Editor. 
 
ANXIOUS CONSULTATIONS. 215 
 
 my departure, touching, by the way, only upon one event — my sepa- 
 ration 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 dif- 
 ficulties of African barbarism, their native country in the east. The 
 prospect for them, however, 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 QuoiTah and Fra- 
 mazugda, and he Avas 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 fmlher, in a south-easterly direction, would 
 brmg 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, Clapperton, Lang, &c. had found comparatively 
 but little difficulty, when once in the interior, and that chiefly aris- 
 ing 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 proposed, 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 Avas 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 journey through the country of 
 the Tiramanees. It was considered essential that he should assume 
 the character of a merchant, and for this pm-pose a stock of goods 
 was necessary. These, thanks to my bill of exchange, were easily 
 obtained. The assortment was principally composed of beads, 
 
216 KAT-OOLAH. 
 
 rings, small mirrors, coral, paper, knives, linen, scarlet cloth, gold 
 lace, and a vai'iety of small wares. As an assistant in the business 
 of the journey, we selected a native of KooUah, 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 pro- 
 posal, and in all his actions and words evinced so much openness 
 and candor, that I felt satisfied 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 
 pan' of double-barrelled pistols, and a portable compass. To Kaloo- 
 lah's charge was entrusted a small spy-glass and a compact and 
 convenient form of tinder-box. The first, perhaps, might be useful 
 in discovering danger in time to 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 Ka- 
 loolah from enemies of every kind. Nothing that I could think of, 
 likely to facihtate 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 chaiy of his presents 
 to the officials of the difi'erent countries on his route — on the other 
 hand, he shoiild avoid any thing like a careless prodigality, or an 
 
JO.XATHAX'S REKOLUJ-IOXS. 2l7 
 
 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 extraordi- 
 nary cases he would find the necessary resources in his o^vn wit and 
 courage. Had he been unencumbered with his sister, I should 
 hardly have felt a doubt of the successful termination of his jour- 
 ney. As it was, I had strong hopes that their safe retmn would, 
 ere long, cause the halls 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 pro- 
 ductions, the scenery, and the manners and customs of the country 
 of which my companions were the representatives. The interest, 
 even affection, which they had excited ; and, added to all, the natu- 
 ral promptings of an adventurous disposition. On the other hand 
 was an almost UTesistable longing to re\isit once more the scenes 
 of my youth. An indefinite, and therefore exaggerated, idea of the 
 difficulties and dangers of the adventure — a Uttle of that inexplain- 
 able, but exceedingly natural and common u-resolution so often felt, 
 especially by the inexperienced, at the threshold of any important 
 imdertaking ; and a doubt as to the propriety of continuing my re- 
 lations to Kaloolah, which it was beginning to be quite evident were 
 fraught with trouble to her, if not to myself. But more than all 
 in determining my coui-se was the discouraging influence of ill- 
 health. The remnants of the Congo fever stiU himg about me 
 inducing a degree of mental and corporeal lassitude, and repressing! 
 that elasticity of spirit, which, in full health, would have converted 
 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 Sien-a Leone 
 
 10 
 
218 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 announced to her that I had made arrangements to sail in the 
 next ship. She uttered no somid — not a sigh — not a tear; but the 
 fixed eye, the quiveiing lip, the bloodless cheek, and the shrunken 
 rigidity of her whole frame indicated the intense emotion Avithin. 
 For a moment she stood thus, erect, and the next the spasm pass- 
 ing, my outstretched arm was hardly in time to save her from fall- 
 ing 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 frightened, I knew not 
 what to say or do. I screamed to Enphadde, but he was far down 
 the hiU-side. I shouted to some negro women for water, but they 
 paid no attention. I rubbed her hands, raised her head, and turn- 
 ed her face to the cool sea breeze that came up fi'om the broad 
 estuary below, and at last did Avhat was the very best thing to 
 do — I raised her in my arms, pressed her to my heart, and kissed 
 her pallid hps. 
 
 For a few minutes she stniggled 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 art- 
 less 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 relieved. Her tears 
 were to me hke the rain drops to the maiiner in a hurricane — the 
 presage of a calm. 'Tis well, thought I, and I drew my breath 
 more freely, 'tis well the heavy night dews, dropping from the 
 bended flower, reheve it from the weight that endanoers the stem. 
 
A SCE.NE WITH KALOOLAH, 219 
 
 She raised her head. " Kaloolah !" said I. 
 
 She sprang into my anns, and buried her face in my bosom. 
 
 " Kaloolah, you love me !" 
 
 " As I love nought else in this world," she rephed. 
 
 " And I — I, Kaloolah !" — I was about to add some protesta- 
 tion of afteotion, 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 misfortmies, and admi- 
 ration 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 the words, My son ! 
 my son ! amid the sighs of the gentle sea-breeze that swept through 
 the rusthng 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 beloved 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 crystal, 
 the coui't of the fountains, and the broad, shady gallery that looks 
 down upon the joyous and magnificent city. Think of the pleasant 
 Avalks in the royal gardens upon the banks of the Wollo. Thmk of 
 your favorites, the flowers, the birds, the diamond fish, and Gogo, 
 your golden-haired ape, who would mind no one but you, and who 
 was so graceful, and so sensible. Thiuk of all the beautiful things 
 that you have so often talked Avith me about. You cannot leave 
 them all. You will return to them. Your sisters, Kaloolah, are 
 
220 KALOOLAH. 
 
 sad ; your presence will change their tears into smiles. The streets 
 of Kaloam 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, Avill resume their songs — the 
 diamond fish will flash then- 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." 
 
 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 yo^^. 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 agam started to her eyes. 
 
 " 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 revisiting 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," point- 
 mg her hand to her head and heart; " but we look upon the real- 
 ities together, or I shall never see them." 
 
 " A foolish fancy, Kaloolah. Why should you think so ?" 
 
 " I know not why, but so it is. Yet mention it not to Enphad- 
 de — I would not discourage him m the attempt." 
 
JONATHAN S PROMISE. 221 
 
 " Perhaps j'ou 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 countiy. It 
 is possible, 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 -wiW be my destiny — be as- 
 sured that I shall make no resistance to the march of fate." As I 
 spoke, the resolution full formed sprang into life. I felt its invigor- 
 ating influence. Why should 1 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 sil- 
 ver leaves, the garden walks on the Wollo." 
 
 " You promise ?" 
 
 " No circumstances, that I can control, shall prevent me ft-om 
 being there. I promise." 
 
 " Oh, Enphadde !" exclaimed Kaloolah, throwing herself joy- 
 fully 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 pro- 
 mised to join us ere long in Framazugda." 
 
 " God grant it," replied Enphadde, " no stranger could bnng 
 such light and joy to the court 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, m- 
 dulging in the most delightful vagaries. An event, really so impro- 
 bable, 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 re- 
 ceive me. 
 
222 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Unfortunately, the kaffila 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 in- 
 terval of time for them, but there was some encouragement in the 
 reflection that it was short, and would soon pass. 
 
 Again and again had I to repeat the promise of coming to Fra- 
 mazugda. Kaloolah dwelt upon it every hour of the three days 
 that elapsed before my departure, and at the last moment, she ex- 
 acted its solemn renewal. 
 
 " I shall watch the fall of the almond's silver leaves," were her 
 last words, " the fourth time, and j^ou come not, they ffill on my 
 grave. Farewell !" 
 
 "Farewell, Kaloolah!" 
 
 Gracious heaven ! I like not, even now, to think of the horri- 
 ble choking sensation with which those words were pi'onounced. 
 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 Avell it could not. Mysterious agenciees were weaving 
 the threads of destiny far more skilfully than we could have done, 
 had we had complete control of warp and Avoof. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Tlae 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. 
 
 Our ship was old, leaky, a dull sailor, and heavily laden — quali- 
 ties that illy accorded with the pretensions of her high sounding name 
 
THE ship's reckoning. 223 
 
 — the Duke of Wellington, The crew consisted of eight men and 
 two boys, and a more lubberly set, with the exception of one tine 
 white-headed old seaman, named Jack Thompson, were never berthed 
 in a forecastle. Bad as they were, however, it must be said in their 
 favor, that they were fully worthy of their officers. 
 
 The latitude of Cape Verd was reached on the eighth day after 
 leaving Freetown, but our com'se had been so far to the west, that 
 we did not get sight of the cape. In fact, according to the calcu- 
 lations of the captain, we had been compelled to give it altogetlier 
 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 permit- 
 ted. It was evident that, missing 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, maccurate 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 with hardly more acciu-acy. 
 
 One evening, a few days after oui" 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, " Se- 
 ven knots and a half," and immediately he proceeded to note it 
 down upon the log-slate. I looked aloft and around — the vnnd 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 head towards the mate, who had sti-etched himself out 
 for a dose upon the hen-coop. " Some craft sail very fast, sir, with 
 three sheets in the 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 reUeve him at the wheel, the old man held the reel for me. 
 The marks upon the line indicated a rate of about foiu- miles and a half. 
 
224 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " 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 shouldn'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 mathematics that he uses sometimes, he could do it 
 just as easy as he could say ' liow do you do?' to the bottom of an 
 empty rum bottle." 
 
 " And what rule may that be ?" I inquired. 
 
 " A rule m 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 comuig 
 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 begun to be a subject of 
 much interest. 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 conver- 
 sation in relation to it was perfectly impracticable. " He was sa- 
 tisfied as to the ship's position ;" " could attend to his own business;" 
 " didn't want the advice of any one." And when I proposed to 
 adjust his quadrant, swore that adjustment 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 north-east. 
 Our latitude by observation was about 20° N. and our distance from 
 the African coast, according to the captain's computation, a little 
 
THE captain's NOTION OF LUNARS. 225 
 
 over two hundred miles. I grew more and more vmeasy. My mind 
 was constantly haunted by vague ideas of the dangerous rocks and 
 shoals, and the strong and irregiilar currents by which so many 
 ships had been swept to destruction ; and of the cruel fate of their 
 crews — hurried into hopeless captivity among the Arabs of the de- 
 sert. 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; "sup- 
 pose that we try a kmar observation. There is a good opportunity 
 now, and if you and Mr. Brown will take the altitudes, I will mea- 
 sure the lunar distance, and work the problem." 
 
 " Blast your lunars," he repUed, " they are all humbug. I 
 wouldn't give a rope's end for a bushel of them. I never knew a 
 fellow that meddled with lunars and chronometers, and such non- 
 sense, who didn't run his ship ashore in the end." 
 
 That evening I remained upon deck until a late hour, listening 
 to some rather tough yams 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 bran- 
 dy bottle in his berth below. 
 
 My mind was busy with thoughts of Kaloolah. I thought of 
 her as threading with weaiy 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 interrupted by a low soughing sound, that 
 appeared to come from directly over head. 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. " Li.<5ten I" 
 
 10* 
 
226 KALOOLAH. 
 
 " I can hear nothing," he replied after a moment's pause — and 
 neither could I from where Ave stood, but by stepping a few feet 
 forwards, towards the starboard gangway, it came again. Entrust- 
 ing the wheel to his companion, the old man joined me. 
 
 " Well, I declare," he exclaimed, after listening for a few mo- 
 ments, " that is curious. If I didn't know that it is the wind eddy- 
 ing ai-ound in the belly of the sail, I Avould swear that there were 
 breakers aloft — it sounds just like the s,uri at a great distance." 
 
 " Perhaps it is the sound of the siuf which, striking against the 
 sail, is reflected down to us ; such a thing may be. Had I not 
 better speak to the mate ?" 
 
 " No : there's no use in that ; it's nothing but the wind — and, 
 besides, 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 Avind must have 
 struck the sail at the same angle ; Avhereas, Avere 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, 
 tliere was but little use in expressing my apprehensions to either 
 captam or mate. The idea of hearing breakers OA'erhead 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 Avould be a " blasted humbug," and any 
 one who belicA^ed it " a lubberly fool." 
 
 I retired to my berth a little before tAvelve o'clock. At the 
 expiration of the mate's watch he came below and aAvoke the cap- 
 tain, who tiirned 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 moixnted the 
 companion-way the mate turned in, " all standing," or, in other 
 words, Avith his clothes on ; and, resuming the slumber that had 
 
THE SHIP ASHORE. 22t 
 
 been inteiTupted 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 confu- 
 sion. 
 
 Jumping from my berth, I rushed upon deck, closely followed 
 by the mate. The night was dark, the wind moderate, and blow- 
 ing about five points on shore. Ahead, and on the larboard bow, 
 a hne of light flashed through the gloom, and the roar of the surf 
 rose and fell upon the fitfid 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 manoeuvre, now refused to come round, missed stays, 
 fi-U off and gathered stern-way. 
 
 •' Wear her round," was now the word, but such confusion pre- 
 vailed that hardly an order was given or obeyed m proper time. It 
 was with diffif.nilty that I co\dd get the foretop-mast stay-sail hoist- 
 ed 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 forwards 
 to obey my ordei-s, reiterating them at the same time in a tone that 
 began, at least, to command attention and obedience — biit 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 
 
228 KAT.OOLAH, 
 
 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 maintop-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 by the most authoi-itative inter- 
 position, in which I was warmly seconded by Jack, that the exe- 
 cution of the order was prevented. 
 
 AH 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 re- 
 presented 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 inhabitants of the desert, would 
 be destroyed. 
 
 " Get out the boat ! get out the boat ! we'll go ashore," was 
 echoed by all hands, and foremost by the captain and mate. 
 
 The boat was soon imder the lee of the ship, and the men 
 crowded into her, all except my fiiend 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 pi-esent situation. The captain w^as 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 fol- 
 lowed you far enough ; I've no disposition to go with you to the 
 place where you are now going." 
 
AN ANXIOUS CONSULTATION. 229 
 
 " 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 sliip 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 haK 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 off in, is by this time no bet- 
 ter ! However, if you can propose anything, 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'll 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 Barbfis. The nearest places, where we could find any assis- 
 tance from Christians, are Portendik, about three hundred miles to 
 the south; and Mogadore, more than five himdred miles to the 
 north. The distance either way is a perfect desert, -without vegeta- 
 tion, 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 whirl- 
 pool." 
 
 " Our next chance is, that the captain and crew have got safe 
 
230 KALOOLAH. 
 
 on shore, and if so, the boat will enable us to reach the Canaries." 
 " Belay that," inten-upted the old man, " there's no use of talk- 
 ing about it. There isn'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 tons, and they remain on the sta- 
 tion 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 inha- 
 bitants 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 tliese 
 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 hnlf nn hour it will 
 be daylight, when Ave shall be able to see our way to the shore. 
 If we can contrive 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 ex- 
 hausted, 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 address- 
 ed ourselves actively to the proposed preparations. The position 
 of the ship favored our exertions ; she was careened towards the 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR LANDING. 231 
 
 shore, with her stern somewhat elevated, so that the sea was pre- 
 vented from dashing over her deck, except just at the bow; while 
 the stem 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 canvass covers. We did the same with a barrel of ship 
 biscmt, and with several miscellaneous articles, such as clothing, 
 instruments, a few nails and spikes, which we thought might per- 
 haps come in play, and a few pieces of small cordage. My idea 
 in takino- these last mentioned articles was, that in case we could 
 do nothing better, Ave might perhaps construct a raft out of the 
 spars and pieces of timber which would come ashore from the 
 wreck. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV, 
 
 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 cliiF. — The desert. — A mounted Arab. — 
 The wreck discovered. — A discourse on cannibals. — Return to the beach. 
 
 By the time we had finished our preparations it was quite light, 
 allowing us an opportunity of observing, with the desired distinct- 
 
232 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ness, the peiils 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 hne of breakers, and that consequently we were 
 considerably nearer the shore than we should have been had she 
 gone on a hundred yards further, either above or below. Directly 
 in front of us, and not more than thirty rods off, rose a perpendicular 
 cUff of dark, ragged rock. At tliis point the base of the cliff was 
 washed by the sea ; but we observed with pleasure, that at a short 
 distance, in a north-easterly direction, the wall of rock withdrew it- 
 self, in an irregxUar 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. 1 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 
 own bodies upon those black looking rocks. But some men are 
 doomed — if God won't kill them, they will kill themselves." 
 
 Fastenmg 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 grasp- 
 ing — retaining my hold while the following swell dashed over me — 
 upon its subsidence I gamed a footing and reached, not without 
 some severe bruises, a higher point of the reef. Pausing merely to 
 haul taught the line and fasten it around a point of a rock, I stepped 
 into the water on the other 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 naiTow beach of 
 sand. 
 
 Making my way back to the reef, I found Jack ready with the 
 line rove through a pully at the end of the fore-top-sail yard. 
 
SWIMMING ASHORE. 233 
 
 to veer away the bundles that we liad 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 Avithout touchmg the water. As they arrived I de- 
 tached the bundles from the line, and wading with them ashore, de- 
 posited them safely upon the sand. There now remained only the 
 old man. I made signs to him to lash himself 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. Stationing 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 iipon the jagged bed of rock. Happily 
 no bones were broken, but the blood streamed from mmierous cuts 
 upon our hands and bodies. 
 
 Casting oft' the line, so that the Arabs might have no reason to 
 suppose that any one had had communication with the shore, we 
 crossed the water to the main beach. Here we found ample evi- 
 dence 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 oV>iect 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 whieli we deposited a keg of 
 water, with a package of pork and biscuit, and our bag of nails and 
 cordage ; carefully effacing our foot prints, 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 proAnsions, set 
 out for a liiding place for ourselves. We carried an earthen jug, half 
 a dozen junk bottles, and small copper tea-kettle filled T^nith the pre- 
 cious element ; together with about twenty pounds of ship biscuit. 
 
234 KALOOLAH. 
 
 a few pounds of pork, and a dozen or two of raw potatoes. In ad- 
 dition to ray share of the burden, I also charged myself with a spy- 
 glass, compass, and an old musket. 
 
 The sxm was now aboiit three hours high, and peering over the 
 lofty bank, 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 impressions of our feet in the sand. 
 The heavy night dew which had laid the dxist 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 cliff. 
 The volleys were composed of an almost impalpable powder, that 
 filled our mouths, ears and eyes, mingled sometimes with small, 
 round grains, that made the skin of our faces and hands smart se- 
 verely. 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 irre- 
 gular, and we could not see its tennination, but we concluded that 
 it must afford a passage to the top of the bank. Our first impulse 
 •was to ascend it, but, upon considtation, 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 de- 
 tached from the face of the cliff. One of these had fallen so as to 
 leave a small triangular space, elevated about twenty feet, and ex- 
 posed 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 fragments of rock, 
 and deposited om- burdens upon the small bed of sand which partly 
 filled up the crevice. For some distance further on, the narrow 
 
THE DESERT. 235 
 
 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 a point d'appui for our further operations ; and af- 
 ter resting ourselves, and examining with the glass the beach, and 
 the crest of the cliff on either hand, as far as we could see, we con- 
 cluded to set out again, and explore the country on the top of the 
 bank. To attempt the ascent along the ra\ane I have mentioned, 
 would take us too far from our cover, we were compelled, there- 
 fore, to seek a path nearer, but much more difficidt. 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 seve- 
 ral degrees towards the sea. The geological composition of the 
 rock, however, favored us, consisting of strata of calcarious and sili- 
 cious sandstone, separated by layers of quartz sand, which liad 
 become disintegrated by the action of the sea air : there were nume- 
 rous horizontal crevices and ledges, by which we could gain a foot- 
 hold on the face of the cliff. In the upper strata, particularly, the 
 calcarious prevailed over the silicious in the formation, and thei-e 
 were numerous holes which had formerly been filled with some 
 pure calcarious 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 boimdless earth-ocean, with its 
 rocky islets and billows of sand ! A dreary waste, with no green 
 thing to relieve 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, mo- 
 tionless, straining our eyes across the undidatmg lines of low hills, 
 or watching the wild gambols of the whirling clouds, " Bahar hil- 
 lah maia f" well have thy savage inhabitants named thee, thou " arid 
 sea of sand !" 
 
!*• 
 
 236 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Keeping our way as much as possible between the sandhills, we 
 started oft' for a rocky elevation about half a mile inland, which pro- 
 mised a more extended horizon. As we advanced, we found that in 
 some places the ground was hard, and covered by a layer of sili- 
 cious pebbles ; in others, the bare rock showed itself, with its upper 
 suiface 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 susceptible of the highest polish. At the 
 base of the crag which we proposed to ascend, we were gratified by 
 the sight of several stimted 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 upon a camel. He Avas moving slowly doAvn to 
 the edge of the bank. We watched him, keeping ourselves well con- 
 cealed, and saw him make his way nearly to the crest of the beet- 
 ling crag, when he dismounted and walked forward on foot. He 
 soon caught sight of the ship, and rimning 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 again, and ad- 
 vanced forward, but tliis time with more caution, crouching low, and 
 near the edge, throwing himself on his face, and slowly draw- 
 ing himself along the ground. For some time he remained, peering 
 down upon the ship, then mounting his camel, he moved still fur- 
 ther 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 forward 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. 
 
A DlfcCOIR.^E U.V GA.WIBALS. 237 
 
 We watched him until he was out of sight, when we mounted 
 the crag, and discovered that his course lay towards a distant 
 range of black hills, which Ave 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 
 boimd round his head disappear in the distance. 
 
 "Yes, a rum looking bbd indeed, and in an hour or two he'll 
 be down upon us with his whole flock; we must be travelling back 
 to oui' retreat." 
 
 " Do you suppose, Mr. Romer, that God made this country 
 himself ?" inquh"ed 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 pronounced 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 in- 
 habitants here are man-eaters. What do you think, Mr. Romer ?" 
 " That there is no truth in the report. Their religion woidd 
 keep them from cannibalism. They -would no more touch 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 
 ai'e no such thing as cannibals any where in the world ; but I 
 know better. I've been among the New Zealanders, and there 
 they use each other for fresh grub, as regTilar 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 themselves ; but now they've 
 got to be more civilized, and so they eat only ricketty children, and 
 slaves, and enemies taken m battle." 
 
 '* A decided instance of the progress of improvement and the 
 march of mind," said I. 
 
238 KALOOLAH. 
 
 "Well, I believe that is Avliat 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 tiling 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 oflF to the 
 ship, and told them that he couldn't find rest in the stomachs of 
 any of his kindred, and wanted to know if the crew wouldn't take 
 him in. The skipper told him that he was on monstrous short 
 allowance, but he couldn't accommodate him. The poor old fellow. 
 Bill said, looked as though his heart would break. There were 
 plenty of sharks roimd the ship, and the skipper advised him to 
 jump overboard, but he couldn'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. Roraer," exclaimed Thompson. 
 
 " How so ?" I demanded. 
 
 " Why, I never had anything that made me feel so like a par- 
 son in a hm-ricane — 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 dehverance from our present 
 difficulties." 
 
 " You're right, Mr. Romer ; if a poor feUow needs a lift from 
 Prondence any where, it is on such a piece of land as this. Afloat, 
 with plenty of sea room, I always feel independant, and just as 
 though I could veer and haul for myself : but here, bless my soul ! 
 imless 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 descendmg the 
 path that we had come up. We reached oiu- retreat, thoroughly 
 exhausted by the heat and the exertion. Having arranged that we 
 
RETURN TO THE BEACH. 239 
 
 should keep watch and watch, Thompson stretched himself upon 
 the ground to take what he called his watch below, while I sta- 
 tioned myself so as to command a view of the mouth of the ravme. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Bedouins in force. — A storm at night. — Breaking up of the ship. — Collect- 
 ing the plunder. — An admiralty judge. — The hiding-place discovered. — 
 Meeting the Bedouins. — A warm reception. — A comicil. — A gentle inti- 
 mation. — A march to the hills. — Feminine curiosity. — Jonathan's plans. — 
 Thompson's despair. 
 
 The sun was about an hour high, when two half-naked figures 
 presented themselves among the fragments of rock at the bottom of 
 the gorge. One of them I instantly recognised 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 liis 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. Theii* only garments were ragged 
 shuts, of cotton, once, perhaps white, but now of a dirty brown. 
 Their complexions were swarthy, almost black, which, however, we 
 had afterwards opportunities of observing, was, in a great measm'e, 
 owing to a thick coating of dirt. Then- 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 
 
240 KALOOLAH. 
 
 six wozneu made their appeamnce. As tliey came upon the level 
 ground, each in turn stretched out at full speed, until at last more 
 than forty ragged shirts were stx'eamiug 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 dovm to the water's edge, opposite the ship ; and 
 from their rapid motions and vehement gestures, we concluded that 
 they were discussing the interesting question of the best means of 
 getting at tlie 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 bamer of breakers. 
 
 " It's plain enough," remarked my companion, *' that there's 
 none of the SandAvich Islander breed about these fellows. Why, I've 
 seen women in the Pacific miles out to sea, swimming about with 
 their young ones on their back. These chaps are nothing but land- 
 crabs, and they'll never lay claws on that ship vmtil 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 pro- 
 bably 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 bivouack, and, dying away, left us 
 to our speciilations 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 wmd, which had been blow- 
 ing 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 oiu-selves, however, 
 with the reflection that the old ship must mevitably go to pieces. 
 
AX ADMIRALTV JUDGE. 241 
 
 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 
 sliip was no longer in sight. But, as the light grew stronger, v.e 
 could percieve that the beach was covered with broken spars, pieces 
 of timber, casks, cabin furniture, sails and clothing, and we obsen'ed 
 with dismay, that a large fragment of the rudder, with the iron 
 pintles attached, was thrown upon the rocks, aknost at our feet. 
 
 The savages were actively at work, running up and down the 
 sands, securing pieces of clothing, canvass and cordage, and occa- 
 sionally quarrelling, and even fighting among themselves for the pos- 
 session of coveted articles. A seaman's chest had come ashore, at 
 not a great distance from oxu- hiding-place. It was discovered by 
 one of the women, but before she could open it the crowd collected 
 aroimd from all quarters, and then such a scrambling for its con- 
 tents ; eveiy article had a dozen hands on it at once. Knives were 
 di'awn, 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 resolution 
 to defend them to the death. At this moment the grisly -haired old 
 fellow came up, running like the wind, and dashing htm aside, 
 struck the woman a blow on her breast, knocked her doAvn, and 
 seizing the shirts, thnist them into the arms of another woman. He 
 then made a boimd at a fellow who had got possession of a sailor's 
 jacket, arid compelled him to relinquish it, and was equally suc- 
 cessful in an attempt upon a red woollen cap. I concluded that he 
 must be the admiralty judge, for certainly no one coidd have made 
 a more striking practical application of the laws of fiotsom and 
 jetsom. 
 
 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 be- 
 
 11 
 
242 KAT.OOI.AH. 
 
 fore they had half finished it. All night the fires were kept burn- 
 ing, and in the morning the search was resumed for fresh material. 
 Several times parties came within a few rods of us, but each time 
 somethmg attracted their attention, and prevented them from con- 
 tinuing their researches in our direction. We could not flatter our- 
 selves, however, that we should long escape detection. From the 
 moment that we fii-st saw the rudder on the rocks below us we 
 had given up all hope. 
 
 In view of our ine\atable fate, I occupied a poi'tion of our time 
 in impressing 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 suffoi-ings to which he would probably be subjected ; 
 but at the same time I encoui'aged him to hope that, like a good 
 many other unfortunates, we might hve to return to ci^'ilized life. 
 I m*ged upon him that in no case, however strong the inducement, 
 must he turn Mahomedan — that, as a renegado, his life would be 
 fully as imcomfortable, and that then all hope of redemption would 
 be destroyed. That he must steadily deny all Icnowledge of any me- 
 chanical employments, and persist, m spite of suffering and punish- 
 ment, in refusing to make himself of any value to the Arabs as a 
 slave. I also told him that if he could persuade liis masters to take 
 him to Sweirah, (the Arabic name for Mogador,) his ransom would 
 be readily paid by Mr. Wiltshhe, the Enghsh 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 biuied provisions, for fear that 
 our captoi-s 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 ovu* fate. 
 
 We had not long to wait. The sim was not an horn* above the 
 hoiizon, when one of the stragglers of the party came down to 
 within a few rods of us. He was a yoimg man, apparently not 
 more than twenty years of age, but he had the true tmculent scowl- 
 
THE HIDING-PLACE DISCOVERED. 243 
 
 ing 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 rais- 
 ing his head, there we "were seated upon the rock, a little elevated, 
 not moi'e than a dozen yards off, and looking down directly upon 
 him. Never was there presented a more striking picture of aston- 
 ishment and terror. His eyes started from their sockets, his short 
 stiff hair erected itself like steel-fihngs on a magnet, the blood for- 
 sook his swarthy skin, lea-ving it of a dirty yellow, and his lips curl- 
 ed themselves up in a rigid cataleptic grin. For some moments he 
 stood still, imable to move, imtil I made a motion to rise, when he 
 gave two or three conMolsive 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 retreated, 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 wait- 
 ed a few minutes until the Bedouins, recovering from their surprise, 
 moved down in a body towards us, haltmg in apparent doubt and 
 hesitation, when within fifteen or twenty rods, I immediately mov- 
 ed forward alone, again stopped, and, bowing low in token of sub- 
 mission, exclaimed " Salam Ailekom /" This salutation in their own 
 language seemed- to puzzle them exceedingly, I happened to re- 
 member a few words of Arabic that I had seen in some old nan-a- 
 tives of shipwrecks ; so after bowmg once more, I exclaimed "Fine 
 Sheikh?" — Where is the chief ? A movement in the group indicated 
 tliat the old grisly -haired fellow was a man of authority. Making a 
 
1244 KALOOLAH. 
 
 signal for him to come towards me, I threw aside the gun, and 
 asfain bowed. The o-un seemed to have been the cause of their 
 hesitation ; for the instant it was out of my hands they rushed up 
 like so many tigere. Offering no resistance, I was at once borne to 
 the groimd by the force of numbers ; and it seemed for a few mi- 
 nutes 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 cut ofiF in a trice, 
 my pockets torn out, and my clothes rent m nmnerous places in 
 their eagerness to find money. There was not much about me to 
 gratify then- cupidity, and, in a few minutes, I was allowed to rise 
 and look aroimd. Thompson, I saw, had been treated in like man- 
 ner, or worse ; the remnants of his garments presenting a more di- 
 lapidated appearance even than my o'wn. 
 
 A fmious discussion now commenced, as to the right of owner- 
 ship of our persons, in the course of Avhich we were most uncere- 
 moniously 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 fmy : more than once I ex- 
 pected 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 
 huddling 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 
 " rais" or captain ; to which I replied " la," or no, and here our ver- 
 bal conversation, for want of words, had to close. By signs I ex- 
 "|)lained to them, that exceptmg 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 
 
A GK.N'I'UE IN TlMAJ'lUN. 245;. 
 
 Sweirah, and Mr. Wiltshire, cUid undertook to persuade them to take 
 us tlierc lor ransom. But little attention was paid to my represen- 
 tations — our captors continually recurring to the subject of the ship 
 and her cargo. It was with difficvdty that I could satisfy them that 
 she had not liad money, and that we had not bmned some of it ia^ 
 the sand. They tried my companion, but he had heard my an- 
 swers, 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 Ha- 
 met Askeift", 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 consisted in packing on my back about fifty weight 
 of u'on bolts. My companion received a like intimation, couched in. 
 similar terms, and his back was loaded with a similar burden. 
 " Bo7nar ! bomar P^ shouted our masters, at the same time giving 
 us a few hearty thwacks with a large stick, and off we started, ac- 
 companied by five or six of the men and two or three 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 ^ 
 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, which 
 seiTcd as some protection, but Thompson had been stripped of all 
 except his canvass trousers and tarpaulin hat, and his naked body 
 suftered 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 mastei-s wei-e a little dis- 
 tance 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." 
 
246 KALOOLAH, 
 
 " No, no, let us dash these ^ iUains down the rocks, and then 
 rush down upon then- friends at the beach. Better die at once 
 by their knives, than be murdered this way. I'll cany my load no 
 further;" and my companion threw his burden from his back to the 
 ground. 
 
 Without stopping to answer hun, I seized liis load, and stagger- 
 ed forward and upward as fast as I could under a himdred 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 shoAver of blows, equally distributed, rewarded Jack for dropping 
 his load, and me for picking it up. 
 
 Five or six camels were standing at a httle distance, each one 
 ■with his fore leg doubled up, and tied with a rope of hide, so as to 
 prevent them from -wanderrng. One of these was selected, the iron 
 placed upon his back, and one of the Ai-abs mounting him, the 
 word " homar " was again sounded, and we all started off across 
 the desert, in the direction of the liills that we had seen on the first 
 day in the south-east. 
 
 For three long hours we pursued our w^eary way in the 
 broihng 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 hUls, two or three hmidred feet in height. At 
 the foot of one of these we foimd several huts, constmcted 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 num- 
 ber of women and childi*en, who gathered ai'ound us, at first in si- 
 lent curiosity, but soon they got bolder, and began to annoy us 
 witli then- impertinent famiharities. They examined om* skins ; felt 
 our persons ; pulled om- hair and ears, and closely investigated the 
 mystery of our clothing. My pantaloons, in particular, excited their 
 wonder, and the question was often asked how I got into them, 
 and whether I had been put in, and then served up in them. Their 
 attentions, however, were not confined to these pleasantries. Se- 
 
A BEDOUIN COUNCIL. 247 
 
 veral of the women amused themselves by spitting upon us, throw- 
 ing sand in our faces, and cursing us in a profusion of imintelligible 
 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," om- tormentors rushed from us, screaming with affright ; but 
 in a few moments they returned, and became more abusive than 
 ever. Om- lives were even in danger from the stones Avith which 
 they had armed themselves, when Hamet fortunately made his ap- 
 pearance, and I called to him to come to our assistence. " Aghee ! 
 aghee ! Hamet Askief !" 
 
 He ran up, laughing immoderately at my pronunciation of the 
 words, and at our distresses ; but at last he condescended to in- 
 terfere, and our tormenters were driven off. 
 
 At sunset several loaded camels came in from the wreck, and 
 with them, most of the party that we had left beliind on the beach. 
 The camels were unloaded, and turned loose to browse upon a few 
 stunted thorns. A mixtui'e of water, camel's milk, and the meal of 
 a kind of millet, was prepared by the women, and furnished tlie 
 only refreshment ; after which the Arabs disposed themselves for 
 a regular council. A bright fire, made of splinters of the wreck, 
 and dried thom-bushes, threw up its light and illuminated the 
 swarthy faces of about tliirty Bedouins, who squatted in a circle 
 aroimd it. Pipes were produced, filled, and passed about from 
 mouth to mouth. The whole scene brought strongly to my mind 
 certain descriptions of Indian councils in my own countiy, but 
 there were many points of dissimilarity. There was a kick of that 
 gravity and dignity so generally attributed to the conduct 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 tlie circle, and then 
 commenced a repetition of the same questions that had been 
 
248 KALOOLAH. 
 
 put to us lit the beacli. 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 surprised that I should know anything 
 about Sweirah, and could point out the direction in which it lay, 
 but they gave us to understand, in the most decided manner, that 
 there were insuperable obstacles to taking us there. Htuuet, draw- 
 ing his knife, placed the point of it against his breast, intimating 
 that he would run upon it in going to Mogador, from which I con- 
 cluded that his band was at feud with some of the northern tribes. 
 In the course of the conversation, the word Hoden was frequently 
 mentioned, and also the word Waladah. I knew that Hoden was 
 supposed to be a town or station, and was generally put down, pro- 
 bably without much accuracy, to the south-east of us. I coidd form 
 no idea of the position of Waladah, but it was not difficult to un- 
 derstand 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 acquainted with the language, 
 so as to be able to avail ourselves of any fa\orable circumstances 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, 1 
 coidd not see how my niasteis would be able to prevent me from 
 regaining my freedom. The futui-e was dark and indefinite, but not 
 Avithout a few feeble gleams of hope that forbad utter despair. 
 
 I communicated my suspicions and plans to Thompson. The old 
 man shook his head despondingly. 
 
 " It may do all verj' well for you, Mr. Romer, but it won't 
 answer for me." 
 
 " Why not," I replied, as encouragingly as possible. 
 
 " Why just look at the diflerence between us. You propose to 
 make yourself a i-egular 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 
 
Thompson's despair. 249 
 
 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 pulling 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'll be the end of me." 
 
 I endeavored to comfort the old man, and to inspire him with a 
 more hopeful idea of his futm'e fate, but fatigue, hunger, thh'st, and 
 the pam 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 hberty. 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, notwithstanding all 
 the disagreeable and painful circumstances of our situation, tired 
 nature exacted from the " restorer " the tribute of her oblivious 
 sweets. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 A scanty breakfast. — Watering the camels. — A change of humor. — Plagueing 
 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. 
 
 At 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 gettmg a part of one of our biscuits, which we 
 shared between us. We found om* palates not quite so dainty as 
 the day before, and the ill flavor of the putrid water no longer ex- 
 cited so much disotist. 
 
250 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Most of the Arabs immediately started for the beach, after giv- 
 ing us to understand that the next day we were to take up our hne 
 of inarcli for the interior. One reason for moving so soon, we found 
 to be the state of the wells, which were imusually low for the sea- 
 son, and which promised in a day or two to fail entirely. We were 
 taken to these wells, and compelled to assist nearly the whole day 
 in drawing Avater. They were situated at a little distance from the 
 camp, at the bottom of a cleft, in the hills, and consisted of two or 
 three natm-al holes of great depth. A stake was made fast across 
 the mouth, with a rude kind of pulley attached to it, through tliis, 
 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 huge calabash by the women, and 
 supplied to the camels. 
 
 As soon as the first camels had been watered they were dis- 
 patched to the beach, and, with an appearance of haste, in the 
 movements of their masters, that mduced us to think that the scanty 
 supply of water was not alone the cause of our departure. Be- 
 sides theh desu'e to get us at once to market, we concluded that 
 they had fears of a visit from some of then* enemies, or, perhaps, 
 friends, who might wish to come in for a share of the spoil. 
 
 I had made up my mind to take my fate as easily as 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 influence in furthering my chief object. There Avere 
 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 1 should be compelled to remain for a year, 
 or perhaps two ; and the other, that I Avas bound to recover my 
 freedom. That my master could not keep me for ever, Avas a settled 
 
A CHANGE OK HUMOR. 251 
 
 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 detei-mine, but, imtil 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 sur- 
 prise, but which, before long, exerted an infectious effect upon his 
 feelings. The change in om* humor, at once made a decidedly favora- 
 ble impression upon our masters, and, before nightfall we had 
 fairly gained an immunity from the wanton annoyances and m- 
 sults which we had to endure the day before. 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 leaiTiing the language 
 as soon as possible, I lost no time, but at once commenced an ener- 
 getic and thorough course of practice — asking the names of every- 
 tliing I could see, repeating their phrases, and shouting out ihe 
 words that I had mastered, right or wi'ong, to the utter astonish- 
 ment, and, at the same time, to the high amusement of our masters. 
 I joked, laughed, and scolded with the women, ridicuhng some, 
 and flattering others, and instantly retorting any abuse in their own 
 terras, eked out with voluble English and Spanish. Several times I 
 received some hard knocks from the enraged women, but, by skip- 
 ping about, here and there, and dodging around and imder the cam- 
 els, 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 eveiy moment attacking hkn, with words and blows, 
 imtil I contrived to draw her rage upon myself, and at last won-y 
 her into terms. I mimicked her motions and words, and retorted 
 her curses, mitil, almost bmsting Avith passion, she would rush 
 
252 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 Haraet, who, as it was easy 
 to perceive, was as deliglited 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 intention of knocking out my brains, expressed m every move- 
 ment and feature. Exerting my agility, I sprung up, and seizing 
 the hiunp of one of the tallest 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 pursuer came round, 
 looked down with the utmost complacency from my secure eleva- 
 tion. When the old lady's breath was pretty well exliausted, I fin- 
 ished the performance by jumping down, and cutting a regular 
 pigeon-wing in the sand. The most vigorous and gracefid jnroiiette 
 of a Vestris or Taglioni, never excited greater admiration and ap- 
 plause. The men laughed lieartily, while the Avomen 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. Askief woidd go ott" 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 pat- 
 ron and friend. Luckily an opportunity^ offered itself, for a piece of 
 judicious flattery, privately administered, which completed the fa- 
 vorable impression that my saltatory exertions had commenced. 
 Passing my hands up and down, at a little distance from my own 
 person, to indicate her obesity, I bowed, smiled, and exclaimed 
 " Beautiful ! very beautiful." 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 compliment, or the bowl of 
 milk and meal with which it was repaid. 
 
 At sunset oiu' master, Hamet, with the other men, returned 
 
A PIGEON-WING IN THE DESERT. 253 
 
 from the beach. After conversing for a few moments with the wo- 
 men, and giving some directions about the camels, he beckoned me 
 to follow him, and together we moved out from the camp. Turn- 
 ing 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 perfectly incomprehensible. 
 He repeated his orders, and, at last, "svith 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 detennined to have 
 a private rehearsal for his own particular amusement. Was ever 
 any thing more ridiculous ? A captive, in the hands of barbarians, 
 amid the sands of the gi-eat desert, to be taken out behind a rock, 
 and requu'ed to cut a pigeon-wing for the amusement of an old 
 sui'ly Arab ! Hamet waited until my risibles had composed them- 
 selves, when he again gave the signal, and the performance com- 
 menced. Once, twice, three times — and then gravely indicating his 
 satisfaction, he signed to me to follow him back to the huts. A 
 rather large allowance of milk, and a whole biscuit, testified to the 
 liberaUsing influence of the pigeon-wing upon his heart. 
 
 " Well, if that isn't the rumest go I've heard of," exclaimed 
 Thompson, when I explained to him the cause of Hamet's unex- 
 pected liberality. " I'm glad he didn't call on me for a double- 
 shuflle, for mj^ soles wont stand it many times ; and if we are to 
 get our living by dancing, what are we to do when om* shoes are 
 gone ? I've known fellows keep themselves above water by work- 
 ing 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 seciu-ed, and the 
 camels saddled 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 Askief. The 
 other women, Uke om'selves, were compelled to walk. 
 
254 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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. Oiu- direction was about east-by-south, 
 and we travelled at least tAventy-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 exertion, I 
 did not suffer nearly as much. 
 
 At svmdown 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 allow- 
 ance 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 alread}^ had more than we deserved. 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 something to gnaw upon for a week." 
 
 After prayers, and their make-beheve ablutions, our masters dis- 
 posed themselves for a smoke and a talk. The tobacco pouch was 
 produced, and the pipe carefully filled, lighted and passed round. 
 Thompson succeeded in begging a mouthful of the weed. The 
 Arabs watched him as he rolled it up and thrust it into his mouth, 
 when they bui'st out into an unanimous expression of disgust and 
 contempt. 
 
 " Look !" they exclaimed, " at the Kaffirs ! see how they per- 
 vert 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 
 
SUFFERINGS BY THE WAY. 255 
 
 never pray, and who eat pork ! Faugh ! Manshallah ! Blessed be 
 God, they'll all roast yet." 
 
 Before sunrise the next morning we were again en route. The 
 character of the country diftered but little from that of the day be- 
 fore, 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-ground we were but little better 
 than barefoot, and Avith 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 laughed 
 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 couldn't and wouldn't move a step further. 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 keep himself 
 from slipping off 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 oft', upon the 
 ground, to die ; and nothing but my encouraging exhortations pre- 
 vented him from obeying the dictates of pain and despair. 
 
 At night there was a discussion among our masters concerning 
 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 
 sav. A few days, however, five or six at farthest, would, perhaps, 
 elucidate the question ; so, dismissing the subject, I composed myself, 
 as tranquilly as possible, to sleep — to sleep, but not to dream ; the 
 exigencies of exhausted nature frequently forbid an indulgence in 
 such luxuries. Nowhere can I recollect that I enjoyed more pro- 
 
256 KALOOLAli. 
 
 found repose than duiing this tirst jom-ney 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 
 appearance, a vast plain of sand-hills, until the sixth day, when we 
 entered upon a more rocky, and irregular tract. Lai'ge masses of a 
 redish 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 groimd was hard, the sand-hills few 
 and small, and the scene agreeably reheved by several patches of 
 vegetation. A number of acacias were in sight, and close around 
 our camp were numerous bushes, upon which the camels were 
 turned loose to graze. 
 
 In the course of the next day we saw several gangs of camels, 
 some with loads, moA-ing under the guidance of their masters, and 
 others quietly browsing upon the thom-bushes that grew at dis- 
 tant intervals. Towards nightfall tAvo horsemen were seen skuting 
 the edge of the horizon. The au* 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 eai"ly in the mornuig, and pressed 
 on wnth rapidity during the greater part of the day. From the mo- 
 tions of the camels alone, it was easy to perceive that we were ap- 
 proaching 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 difficult 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 
 then* grateful odors to the keen senses of our thirsty beasts. 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternoon, we came upon the brink 
 
THK WELLS OF AGKDA. 257 
 
 of a steep precipice, about fifty feet iu height, enclosing 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 no- 
 ticed 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 fm'ther to the east. 
 
 By making a slight detour we reached a place where the shelv- 
 ing precipice allowed our camels to descend without going round to 
 the head of the ravine, through which the camel's below were as- 
 cending and descending in long strings. 
 
 The path was difficult, 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 accompUshed 
 in safety, and we stood at the bottom of the basin amid the groups 
 around the wells. 
 
258 KALOOLAH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Bedouin salutations. — Encampment at tlie wells. — Cooscoosoo. — An arrival. — 
 " W ind 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. 
 
 " Salatn Ailekom ! A'dekom Salam .'" was reiterated a hundred 
 times between oivr party and the strangers, accompanied with the 
 almost interminable string of comphments, inquiries and good wishes 
 which Arab etiquette prescribes for a friendly greeting. The cere- 
 mony through, and the excitement created by our appearance some- 
 what abated, we were allowed to approach the wells and commence 
 drawing water for our camels. 
 
 When we had finished, instead of keeping on to the town, our 
 masters made preparations for spending the night upon tlie spot. 
 A fire was kindled, and, after evening prayers, a large bowl of coos- 
 coosoo prepared, of which we got a small portion, and found it de- 
 licious. 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 Lid 
 cut in small pieces. The steam, as it arose, ascended through the 
 holes in the bottom of the colander, and made its way througli tlie 
 mass of cooscoosoo, which, when sufficiently cooked, was turned out 
 into a large dish, a ca\'ity made in the middle of the pile, and the 
 contents of the pot poured into it. A dozen dirty hands were at 
 once thiTist into the dish, and, by a dexterous twist the yelloAV 
 grains were rolled into good-sized balls, and jerked into the mouth 
 witli wonderful rapidity. 
 
 Fortunately, in the dish prepared for Haraet and his immediate 
 friends, there were a few grains more than was necessary to distend 
 
"WIND DRINKERS." . 259 
 
 tlieii' stomachs to within the smallest possible distance of the burst- 
 ing point, so we were allowed to finish the dish, or, as Hamet face- 
 tiously 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 par- 
 ties, with their camels, remained upon the groimd, and numerous 
 camp-fires threw their flickering hghts 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 om* tents, where they were amused by the 
 perfonnance of a professional story-teller, who recited his tales with 
 much spirit and energy — imitating the voices of the different speak- 
 ers, gesticulating and grimacing with great freedom, and accom- 
 panying himself with frequent emphatical blows upon a tambourine. 
 His longest story was a pecuKar 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 racon- 
 teur had not dreamed of, and which, perhaps, the more polished 
 taste of Yeman would have rejected as puerile and tu-esome, but 
 which seemed to constitute the chief charm of the story to the un- 
 refined 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 pomted out to them, when they galloped towards us, 
 jumped to the ground, and, leaving their horses unattended, ad- 
 vanced 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 noticing 
 but skin, sinew and bone. Then eyes, deep sunk in their heads, 
 emitted a lurid hght, and a dark scowl was carved in permanent 
 hues upon their sharp angular featm'es. Each one wore a haick, 
 and over it a jallabeah of coarse woollen, resembUng, in shape, a shirt 
 
260 KALOOJLAH. 
 
 with a hood uttached to it. Their horses had very much the look 
 of their masters ; at first sight they woidd have been taken for 
 broken down hacks, but, upon closer examination, the clean limbs, 
 smnll head, clear eye, and expanded nostril, would have indicated 
 then- descent from the famous ShWuhah Errech, or, " \vdnd drink- 
 er " of the desert, so called, partly as a metaphor for speed, tuid 
 partly because of the habit they universally have, of thrusting out 
 then- tongue, with a peculiar noise, when running. 
 
 After the new comers had examined us to their satisfaction, 
 they withdrew with om* 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 accom- 
 pany 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 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 great- 
 est distress. There is nothing like a partnership in misfortime, to 
 originate and strengthen a feehng of friendship ; and nowhere, per- 
 haps, could a slight acquaintance ripen into intimacy more readily 
 than amid the desoltition 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 m Providence : I feel perfectly contident 
 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. 
 However, God bless you, Mr. Romer, and I hope he'll restore you 
 to freedom, whatever he does with old Jack Thompson. When you 
 
PARTING WITH .TAf'K. 261 
 
 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 won't forget it, I know. God bless you, my boy. Good 
 bye." 
 
 We held each other by the hand. Our masters made a move- 
 ment of impatience. " God bless you ! Good bye !" 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 chcumstances of our position that made 
 the parting so hard. There were points in the character of Jack 
 that had served to create a strong feehng of attachment and res- 
 pect. 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, accompanied by one of his companions ; the rest of the party 
 setting off at full speed towards the south-west. 
 
 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 was restrained to the slowest rate. 
 After mo^ang along in this way for two or three hours, Mohammed 
 began to get impatient, and finding that his cm'ses 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 Uve 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 
 
202 KALOOLAH. 
 
 more natiuva] 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 natwe of the ground, but without once fvdly stop- 
 ping 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 Avhich we came to a 
 range of rocky eminences, at the base of which was situated a 
 douah, or village, composed of about thirty tents, arranged in two 
 parallal 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 iip along the horse's flank by the short stirrup, 
 they applied their heads to the sole, and repeatedly kissing the hem 
 of his haick, 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 sliould 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 ex- 
 cessive ceremonial politeness 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 from day to day from this time forward for several months. 
 
AMULETS, 2G3 
 
 The time, although fertile in events of interest to me, would seem 
 monotonous and tiresome to the reader if dwelt upon in all its de- 
 tails. It is sufficient to say that I was soon established in all the 
 duties and pri\aleges of a slave. The duties consisted mamly in 
 watching the camels while feeding — driving them to the hills, and 
 collecting the roots of a kind of thorn for fuel. The privileges con- 
 sisted 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 being believers, were entitled to, 
 and received, a degree of favor and consideration that no Kaffir 
 could expect. 
 
 Notwithstanding my sufiferings and privations, my health con- 
 tinued 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, 
 himger and thu'st. 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 
 moidd 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 plaui, sometimes four or five days, I had 
 abimdant opportunity for meditation, while, by close attention to 
 the conversation of the Bedouins, I was able to pick up a great 
 deal of infonnation in relation to the desert, without excitino- their 
 suspicion. 
 
 One of the most serviceable accomplishments, I knew to be 
 the art of Avi-iting charms for the cure of diseases, or for the pro- 
 tection of the wearer from all evil influences. These charms in- 
 variably consist of verses 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 ofl', and the water drunk by the patient with the usual 
 
264 KAT.OOLAH. 
 
 reverential expressions of faith in the imity of God, and the sanc- 
 tity 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. There was some danger, however, of canying 
 tlie thing too far, and I took timely Avarning, 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. Tliis idea was warmly seconded by several of his friends, 
 particularly by an old talb, or priest, who had been the most stre- 
 nuous 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 
 priests eyes sho\ild no longer be troubled with the sight of me. 
 Fortunately events occurred a day or two after, that enabled me to 
 caiTy my long cherished designs into execution. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A prize. — A dep6t of provisions. — A heirie. — Tlie talay^h, 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 mouth. — 
 Stretching out into the desert. — Soonshoo's alarm. — A man overboard. — 
 Assisting Soonshoo to remount. — Good-bye to the oasis. — A message to 
 Fatimah. — Soonshoo sets off for home. — A change of course. — Heirie rid- 
 ing- — A 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 practiced 
 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, Nvith 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 suSiced to 
 satisfy me that no Arab was near, so making the camel kneel, I 
 moimted him, and directed his course towards the camp. The ani- 
 mal 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 bet- 
 ter 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 
 12 
 
266 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Stopping and hiding a bag of dates that hung at the saddle-bow in 
 a secret hiding-place, where I had already accumulated several ar- 
 ticles that might some day come in play, such as a large wa- 
 ter skin, a wooden bowl, and a small bag of meal. It must not be 
 supposed that I had been able to obtain 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 mouth above the point of actual starvation. 
 
 It was quite dark when I rode up to the tents, and threw my- 
 self from the camel. Most of the men were away upon some ex- 
 pedition, but those who were at home, including my master Moham- 
 med, immediately gathered around. 
 
 " You have done well, Roomah,'' 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 examina- 
 tion of the animal. At once several voices exclaimed, "aheirief a 
 Jteirie /" Sidi Mohammed evinced the highest exultation, and 
 all the party manifested their satisfaction at what they unanimously 
 pronounced to be a piece of good-fortune. The camel was examined 
 with the closest attention, 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, ^lohammed spoke pleasantly to me. 
 
 It may be well to explain, that a heirie is of a peculiar breed ot 
 camels, famous all over the desert for their great endurance and 
 wonderful speed. They ai-e to the common camel, what the racer 
 is to the cart horse, and as much pains are taken to preserve the pu- 
 rity 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 com- 
 
THE TALAYER, SEBAY, AND TASAY. 267 
 
 pactness 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 diffe- 
 rent animals, depending upon some accidental peculiarity of structure, 
 and, perhaps upon a greater or less tamt of common blood ; but it 
 must be a very poor heirie that cannot far surpass, in the impor- 
 tant qualities of wind and speed, the best of the ordinary camel. Infe- 
 rior heiries, called talayeh, will perform three moderate days' jom-ney 
 in one, or about sixty miles a day ; and this they can do for several 
 days in succession. A better class, denominated sebay, will go 
 seven days' journey in one, or a hundred 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. 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 afterwards, 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 retiu'n, when a couple of horsemen 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 
 of 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 eye-sight, 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 ! 
 
268 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Here, Roomah, fasten these articles, and now you and Soonslioo 
 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 oiu- 
 stray camel the other day. You and Soonshoo will keep watch 
 over him, and don't you stir imtil 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 
 crossed upon his neck, while Soonshoo, a httle 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 aston- 
 ishment 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 bag full. But 
 what are you going to do with all these articles ?" 
 
 " I'll show you, you little rascal," said I, attachuig to the saddle 
 my bags 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 thornbush, somid asleep, I'll venture 
 to say— we'll have our fill of milk for once if we never do again." 
 
 In a few minutes we came up with the group of camels grazing, 
 and, dismounting, Ave tied up the fore leg of our heirie and pro- 
 ceeded at once to milking the flock. I gave Soonshoo the wooden 
 bowl, while I milked directly into the mouth of the skin. He ima- 
 gined that we were only to help ourselves to a drink ; but when 
 he had filled the bowl, I turned it into the bottle, and to his utter 
 astonishment, directed him to fill it again." 
 
 " But Mohammed! What will he say? He'll break every bone 
 in our bodies !" 
 
 " Never mind Mohammed," I replied, " I'll take all the beating. 
 Fill the bowl." 
 
 "Well do our masters call you tlie son of Ehlis'' replied Soon- 
 
SOONSHOO S ALARM. 269 
 
 shoo, " where will your courage stop ? You will dare some day to 
 steal the liaick 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 httle black rascal ; but never 
 mind, milk away, I'll take all the blame." 
 
 Two hom's 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 com"se. 
 " 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, KaflGLr ! dog ! I'll have you flogged 
 till there's as many holes in yoiu* skin as there is in my cousab.'' 
 
 Finding that his cries received no attention, and that I steadily 
 persisted in pushing out into the desert, the fellow let go his hold, 
 and at no httle risk to his bones, allowed himself to sUp dowTi from 
 his elevated position, and roll heels over head upon the sand. I im- 
 mediately stopped the heirie, and made him kneel, at the same time 
 sternly ordermg Soonshoo to remount. " ]\lount, mount, you little 
 villain ! Do you hesitcite ? Look at this," and I floiu-ished my camel 
 goad around his eai-s, making him dodge and hop about with extra- 
 ordinary agility for such a corpulent and sturdy subject. 
 
 " Mohammed shall know this," he shouted, " you son of 
 Shetanf" 
 
 " You are mistaken," I rephed, " I'm Shetan himself. Mount, 
 mount quickly ! Y"ou won't ? Well, I must make you." Catch- 
 ing him by the back of the neck, I shook him a few times, and 
 then gave hun a kick that lifted him fairly on to the back of 
 the kneelmg camel. " Now, be cautious, and keep your seat : if 
 you tiunble off" again I'll put the evil eye on you, and change you 
 into a baboon." 
 
270 KALOOLAH. 
 
 At the end of about two houi-s, 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 bot- 
 tles of milk and water, and pom-ed out a proportion of both, until 
 the bowl, which held nearly a pint and a-half, was filled to the 
 brim. Into this I threw a hand full of meal, and told Soonshoo, 
 who was holding the bowl, to diink. Fear checking his usual gree- 
 diness, 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 mistresses gave j^ou anything 
 to share with me. Drink it all, you'll need it before you get home." 
 
 " In the name of the Prophet, tell me, oh ! 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 camels, or about " 
 
 " No hes, you little villain ! save your tongue imtil you get to 
 camp, and then you may tell ISIohammed 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 saddle, I momited my camel, and made him rise, leaving the 
 black standing upon the ground, and lookmg on with the strongest 
 expression of astonishment depicted in his sable visage. 
 
 " Good-bye, my dear Soonshoo ; I shan't see you agam, so take 
 good care of yourself. You know yom* 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 sun-down. If you are thirsty to-morrow, you can milk the 
 camels, you know, if you come across any, and put the blame all 
 vipon 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 
 
SOONSHOO SETS OFF FOR HOME. 271 
 
 Sweirah — that if he had taken me there himself, he should have 
 had a large ransom in powder, cloths and guns ; but that he wouldn'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 if I do go to hell, as she has so often predict- 
 ed, it is some consolation to know, that she has got no soul, and 
 can't come there too. Good-bye, Soonshoo ! you must ply your 
 legs, my Uttle friend, or you won't get sight of the rocks before 
 dark. Good-bye !" 
 
 I waved my hand to the stupified Soonshoo, and then adjusting 
 myself 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 see the black, standing, for some time, in the position that I 
 left him in ; but, at last, apparently awaking to the reaUty of his si- 
 tuation, 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 the idea that I had started for Sweirah or 
 Mogador, in the southern extremity of the kingdom of Morocco, 
 and thus throw them off of my track, should they, as they most pro- 
 bably would, undertake to follow me. Mohammed would readily cre- 
 dit the idea ; in fact, had I been going that route, it would have 
 been impossible, by any doublings or maskings, to make him be- 
 lieve 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 rea- 
 
272 KALOOLAH, 
 
 lity, to plunge into the midst of the Sahara. Besides this, there 
 were insuperable objection;? to continuing my course towards Mog- 
 ador ; it was in that direction that the owners of ray 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 Askeif ; and there 
 was the small chance of making my way alone, vAithout suspicion, 
 through the populous districts 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 neighborhood of which I might find 
 a residence, until an opportunity presented of joining a kaffila going 
 north, and thus, as an obscure, individual member of a great midti- 
 tude, emerge from the desert at some point on the coast of Bar- 
 bary, as Fez, Tunis, Tripoli, or, perhaps, Cairo. Such a coui'se 
 would be divested of all ground for suspicion, and would leave Mo- 
 hammed and his friends completely at fault. 
 
 It was with an indescribable rush of feeling — a perfect whirl- 
 viind of emotion — that I wheeled my heirie short round, and 
 shouted a few encouraging words to the willing beast. There was 
 something in the idea of unrestrained freedom — something in the 
 all-pervading sense of dependence upon naught save the blessing 
 of God, and my own strength and courage, that overbore fear, 
 doubt, hesitation, and .suppressed all contemptible repinings and all 
 the agitations, even of hope. There was no moving object in sight. 
 Ai'ound 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 thino- save that of the occasional wanderer, had 
 ever printed its moving sands. I was alone, but I vv^as free ! Once 
 I was alone upon the sea, but how different this soHtude of the 
 desert. There I was the slave of circumstances, here then: 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. 
 
HBIRIE RIDING — A BEDOUIN BOAST. 2'?3 
 
 The rapid motion of my heirie exhilarated me. To skim along 
 on a dromedary, at a steady pace of ten miles an hom% produces a 
 feeling as 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 falhbility of horse-flesh. 
 By steamer or rail -car, one may travel much faster, but in straight 
 Imes, and on given courses. Stick to the track, is the law of such 
 motion, and a sense of confinement the result. But with the lithe 
 frame and indefatigable sinews of a thorough-bred dromedary be- 
 neath you, and the broad desert around you, there is besides the 
 full joy of rapid motion, a deep sense of freedom in a2dmuth that is 
 perfectly enchanting, and a most refreshing feehng of reliance upon 
 the inexhaustible energies and unfailing wind of the animal you be- 
 stride. You need not trouble yom-self about yom* beast. Be 
 assured that he can stand it, as long as his rider. Be assm'ed that 
 he will almost jolt the heart out of you, make your chylopoietic 
 viscera " chassz 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 heuie 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 aromid my face to keep off the sand vnnd, 
 and took a steady strain upon the halter that seiTed 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 hom's we kept imder way, until just at nightfall we 
 arrived at a small hollow^where grew a few bushes — the extreme 
 out-posts of the oasis. Here I decided to stop for the night, and 
 allow my heirie an opportunity of nibbling a few mouthfuUs, the 
 last that he would most probably get for many days. 
 
 12^ 
 
274 KALOOLAH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX, 
 
 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 run-away heirie. — Finding a well. — A loaded camel bu- 
 ried in the sand. — Examination of his load. — A complete outfit. 
 
 The first glimmerings 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 before. The 
 short-lived crepuscidum 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 anything 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 debauchee, who had been keeping late hours and bad company. 
 
 As he rose the Avind rose : the sharp, fine grains of sand, flew 
 with such force as to make the skin tingle severely where they im- 
 pinged, but it was some comfort to reflect, that the wind would 
 have the eff"ect of obliteratino- our track. As we were travellincr di- 
 rectly 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 burn- 
 ing rays, heating 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 glow^ed through the refracting cur- 
 rents of the air, like objects seen through the waving vapor sur- 
 rounding a hot stove-pipe, and suggested, more than once, the idea 
 of the country school house in winter, the huge stove with its basin 
 
SUNSET. — A GOOD DAYS TRAVEL. 275 
 
 of water oa 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 thinking of the frosty Caucasus ; so, neither could my recol- 
 lections of red noses and cold feet, or any of the " please-let-me-go- 
 to-the-stove-and-warm-niyself " associations of boyhood modify the 
 oppressive influences of the sun, wind and dust. 
 
 Something crackled beneath the feet of my dromedary ; it was 
 the fleshless skeleton of a camel, half buried in the sand — some 
 luckless wayfarer, who had, at last, succumbed to the depressing 
 power of heat, thirst and fatigue ! 
 
 Towards night the wmd ceased entirely, but, although a per- 
 fect 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, Avith 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, hke a great rim of red-hot copper, bound- 
 ed 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 tempta- 
 tion 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 
 offing from the oasis, I had judged it best to husband the powers 
 of the heirie, and, accordingly, had reduced his pace to one at which 
 he woidd 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 
 
276 KALOOLAH. 
 
 dead calm. The surface and soil was 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 gi-anite 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 nu- 
 merous and so uniform, in size, as to put me in mind of a ploughed 
 sandy clearing, with the dark stumps standing in it. Several frag- 
 ments 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 cin-iosity, and the monster 
 was allowed a wide berth, of wliich he gladly availed himself, to 
 make liis escape. 
 
 Encamped again at night on the open plain, having made about 
 one hundred miles. The evening breeze came fitfully, and with a 
 peciiliar heaviness, that was attributable more to its electrical state, 
 than to any change in temperature. For several houi's there was a 
 succession of flashes of electricity, without thunder. Any one 
 would have sworn that we were to have a shower, but, before morn- 
 ing, all indications of it liad disappeared. 
 
 The third day passed, with no unusual occurrence. Nothuig 
 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 mj^ 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 gratify- 
 ing 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. Wlien we 
 stopped, which w^e did, after having achieved a distance of one hun- 
 dred miles, he evinced a degree of restlessness and mitability, that 
 alarmed me not a little for the state of his health. 
 
 According to the most accurate computation that the circum- 
 ctnnres of the case would permit, we had travelled a distance of 
 
THKEATENING APPEARANCES. 277 
 
 three hundred miles from the douah of Sidi Mohammed, and were 
 now somewhere near the usual caravan route, from Timbucto to 
 TafFalet, in Morocco ; and Avithin at least thi-ee days' journey, or sixty 
 miles, of the town of Toudeney, 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, mhabited by the Wolled 
 slem errife; to the north-west, 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 miderstood 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 
 localities. 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 pre- 
 ceding ones. Shortly after sunrise the wind increased in violence, 
 lifting immense clouds of sand, and hurrying them with a gyratory 
 motion across the plain. P'or some time we straggled on, but in a 
 few hours the sun became hidden and the horizon completely shut 
 out. The movements of my beast plainly indicated his desire to 
 stop, and as the only object of moving now, was the chance of fall- 
 ing 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 sweepino- 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 oppression of the chest — the accumulation of sand 
 
278 KALOOLAH. 
 
 in the lungs and air passages — the lieat — the thirst — were ter- 
 rible. 
 
 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 darkness, and shaking it off, resume our prosti-ate 
 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 was night ; but 
 there was no moderation in the force of the gale. The light re- 
 turned, and I concluded that it was again day ; but fiercer flew the 
 sands, and louder howled the whistling blasts. I had tasted noth- 
 ing now, for nearly tAventy-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 evident that the water was evtiporating 
 beneath the extreme aridity of the air ! "0 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 under 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 barbari- 
 ties of Mohammed and the hatred of his wives ! Besides the sen- 
 sation of thirst, there was the prostration of strength, the exhaus- 
 tion and agony of obstructed respiration. An occasional low moan 
 from my companion added to my own sufferings the awful appre- 
 hension of losing in him my only earthly dependence. 
 
 Night again came and passed, and no change in the force of 
 the wind, although it had varied in direction, until about the mid- 
 dle 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 physi- 
 
A RUN-AWAY HEIRIE. 279 
 
 cal 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 mouth- 
 fuls of the comparatively clear air, my strength began to return. 
 My friend and companion was also much weakened, but after per- 
 forming the same kind offices for him that I had for myself, and 
 ginng 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 sometliing 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 south-east. Recollecting the wonder- 
 ful 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, with- 
 out seeing anything 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 simset, 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 conster- 
 nation, when, wliile standing carelessly 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 
 startUng wliir, the flock of hopes, that, through all difficulties 
 and dangers, had liitherto 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 am\ang 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 decUvity and secure the fellow, was the work of an 
 instant. Having tied up his fore leg, I had leism'e to look around 
 
280 KALOOLAH. 
 
 while seating myself upon the ground to recover my breath, and 
 was at once cominced that the hollow contained water, the scent 
 of which had led my heirie into his alaiming but lucky escapade. 
 The formation of the ground favored the idea, and if any further 
 proof were wanting, there were signs ai-ound of its having been, 
 not long since, visited by camels. 
 
 Upon examination, it was not difficult to select from several in- 
 dications, 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 sim 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 from beneath the ledge. At a depth of 
 four or live feet a little moisture began to show itself, and upon 
 penetrating a foot or two further the water began to percolate slow- 
 ly 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 seciu-ed 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 per- 
 son, and eating an unusual liberal breakfast of meal, dates and sour 
 milk, the important 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 stonn, was ht- 
 tle enough to recruit exhausted natui'e, and it was not until the next 
 day that we got under- weigh. 
 
 " 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 thy- 
 
A LOADED CAMEL BURIED IN THE »AND. 281 
 
 self. Oh, thou Avho driuketh 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, 
 retm-ning in time upon our track to the cool well for a starting point. 
 The south-east ? Well, away ! — lu-la ! lu-lu ! — away !" 
 
 Three hours travel, with a good look-out all aroimd 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 com'se a httle more 
 to the east. 
 
 Shortly after, while windmg along between the sand-hills, my 
 attention 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 round, 
 at some little distance, 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 putrefaction, and the ravens had not yet had 
 time to pay the body a visit. The conclusion was in-esistible, that 
 it was one of a caravan wliich had been overwhelmed by the recent 
 sand stomi. 
 
 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 in- 
 teresting objects to me, were several pairs of pistols, single and 
 double-barrelled ; half a dozen canisters of best English powder, so 
 highly valued by the Arabs for priming, and a mahogatiy case with 
 the key attached to the lock. Let it be recollected that my chief 
 
282 KALOOLAH. 
 
 trouble had been the want of arras, and the delight ma\' be ima- 
 gined with which, upon opening the case, my eyes fell upon a double- 
 barrelled gun, of French manufacture. Had I needed any guaran- 
 tee 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 furnish- 
 ed with all its appurtenances, such as flints, flask and bullet-moulds, 
 and in addition, a bag containing fom- or five pounds of leaden 
 balls ; an exceedingly lucky circumstance, as without it, the gun 
 would have been comparatively useless. 
 
 It was quite late before my examination of all the packages 
 Avas finished, giving me good opportunity, during the night, of 
 making my plans for a disposition of the treasure. In the morn- 
 ing, 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, consequent- 
 ly, I had examined the camel's pack, and had secreted any of its 
 contents. I then selected a pair of Enghsh 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 awhile 
 at least, or until it had been ascertained how much temptation 
 to robbery and murder the virtue of my next fiiends could withstand. 
 
 The remaining powder and ball, with two pairs 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 
 compact package. The remainder of the goods I re-arranged as 
 they were before, lea\ang 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, 1 mounted, gun in hand, 
 
A COMPLETE OUTFIT. 283 
 
 and set out. Fortmie, as if determined to smile her sweetest, con- 
 ducted me, a little further on, to another member of the unfortimate 
 kaffila, to whose saddle-bow was attached a large bag of dates. 
 There was no use in stopping 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 either 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 mys- 
 terious orderings of Providence, of which the misfortunes of the 
 kaffila, and my consequent good luck, afforded such a striking 
 example. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 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 ill-timed compliment. — 
 The Muezzin's morning-call. — An effective speech. — Setting off for the 
 buried caravan. 
 
 After a hard ride of several hours we emerged from the sand- 
 hills, and arrived at the borders of an extensive plain that was co- 
 vered 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 observation at a 
 distance, I dismounted, and using the wooden bowl, scooped out a 
 
284 KALOOLAH. 
 
 liole 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 secure my treasm-e from the cupidity of the people I was ap- 
 proaching. I had feai*s that even my heirie and gun would prove a 
 strong temptation to a violation of the laws of hospitahty. 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 appearance of the spot, and its bearmg 
 from the hills. 
 
 Upon remounting my heirie, and issiung from the hollow, I was 
 not a little startled by the apparition of two mo'viug figures at a 
 very httle distance. 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 timiditj^ 
 afforded a still fuither proof that the neighboiing countiy was in- 
 habited. 
 
 The rough, pebbly plam, extended on the side that we were ap- 
 proaching, quite up to the foot of the hills. Reaching these I dis- 
 mounted, and ascended their acchAaties on foot, for a reconnaisance 
 of the coimtry beyond. 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 protected by them from the blasting 
 south-east sand winds, there stretched a magnificent expanse of 
 gently undulating stony surface, more than half of which was co- 
 vered with a pleasing variety of thorns and brambles. Where the 
 bushes could not grow, the naked granite rocks, or perchance a 
 patch of dark sand, served to relieve what would otherwise ha\'e 
 been a monotony of beauty. A few scraggy acacias, with two or 
 three stunted date palms, materially added to the picturesqueness 
 of the view. Several camels, and a flock of goats were scattered 
 over the plain. I stood entranced, so much so, that it was some 
 time before I obsei"ved at my feet a douah of a dozen tents. Ap- 
 parently'' none of its inhabitants had yet got sight of me. 
 
 Hastening at once to my heirie, and inountmg him, we took 
 
AKABIC GRKETINGS. ggS 
 
 our course through a liollow between the hills, and debouched on 
 the other side, in full A'iew of the douah. According to the eti- 
 quette in such cases, I moved up to within thirty or forty rods 
 of the tents, and then dismounting, 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 to- 
 wards me. When Avithin half a dozen yards, he stopped, and after 
 a moments scrutiny saluted me Avith " Salam Ailekom f" 
 
 " Ailekom Essalam" I replied. 
 
 " Is it peace ?" he demanded. 
 
 " It is peace," I rephed. 
 
 Upon this we advanced towards eacli other, touched our hands 
 together, 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 
 others hand, which was modestly withdrawn, as if the honor was 
 considered loo great to receive. The courteous contest Avould have 
 lasted a long time, had I not at last cut it short by grasping a por- 
 tion of his dirty haick, and applying it to my lips. All this time 
 there was a rapid interchange of complimentaiy 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 compli- 
 ment which he can well afford to pay, inasmuch as he never pays 
 any thing else. 
 
 Our Q-reetmcfs 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 belong- 
 ed to the Beni Zebis, a tribe of Mongea.rts, in the neighborhood of 
 Cape Bojador, and that I was almost the only one living of my im- 
 mediate family, which had been nearly extirpated in a death feud 
 with a family of the Beni Zosh. That recently I had taken signal 
 
286 KALOOLAH. 
 
 vengeance for the death of my relatives, by murdering my chief 
 enemy, with two of his wives and three of his children, besides kill- 
 ing 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 inrited me, with many protestations 
 of \mdying friendship, to make his tent my home. He informed 
 me that the country was called the Waddy Messir, and that 
 it contained niimerous douahs, inhabited by the members of his 
 tribe — the Beni Hareh. I also gathered from the 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 pUgrimage to Mecca. Upon the whole I rather hked his 
 appearance, but there was something exceedingly repulsive and si- 
 nister in the manners and appearance of his sons, and other 
 relations. 
 
 At night All's wives presented us with a large dish of cooscoo- 
 soo. With a " Bishmallah errachman errachman /" — In the name 
 of God, all powei-ful and merciful ! — I thrust in my hand and made 
 a hearty meal. " Elhayned lilah .^" — God be praised ! — I exclaimed, 
 finishing, and throwing myself upon the ground just within the 
 edge of the tent, but in such a situation that I could command a 
 good A-iew outside. In a few minutes my eyes closed in a pretend- 
 ed sleep. A number of suspicious circumstances, which it is need- 
 less to particularize, now occured to convince me that some of the 
 Arabs, with Hassan, the Sheikh's oldest son at their head, were plot- 
 ting mischief. Until late at night, my weary and 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 cur- 
 tain dinding the tent. It was so dark that the bodies of Ali 
 and several of his sons, who were stretched around in the same 
 apartment, could not be distinguished ; but my ears were so close 
 
A STARTLING WARNING. 287 
 
 to the curtain, that it was easy to perceive that it had been raised, 
 and that somebody was creeping from beneath. Cautiously, and 
 without the least noise, my knife was drawn from its sheath, and 
 held in my right hand, whUe 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 cm-tain to me was not more than three or four feet, taking at 
 least twenty minutes to creep it. Imagine my anxiety and sus- 
 pense. At last a hand was laid upon my arm, and passing down- 
 wards, my hand was gently grasped by a set of small fat fingers, 
 that, it was plain enough belonged to no man, and which, upon se- 
 cond thought, were clearly referable to no woman aboiit the encamp- 
 ment, except to AU's youngest wife. A prompt attack ! thought I, 
 recollectmg sevei-al amiable glances which the young Arab beauty 
 had bestowed upon me. But I was doing the benevolent Mrs. Ah, 
 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 1" and my visiter reached forward, so as to bring her mouth 
 close to my ear. 
 
 " Listen," she said, " but don't speak. You are in great dan- 
 ger. 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 yom- hehie to Ali, and your gun to Hassan, and all will 
 l)e well. If you won't, you must stay by the tent until I get a 
 chance to drive your dromedary up into the gorge of the hills, and 
 when I give you the signal you must wander towards him, and 
 without loosing an instant, mount and be off. Hish! Don't speak." 
 
 Forbidden to speak, it was yet necessary to make my visiter 
 some acknowledgment of her kindness. Her hps were in tempting 
 proximity — I recollected that they were smooth and pouting, and en- 
 closed a row of pearly teeth — so turning my head, I brought my 
 own lips smartly in contact with them. A stinging slap in the face, 
 and then a sound like a suppressed laugh, and a parting squeeze of 
 
288 KAT-OOT,AH. 
 
 the hand, showed that Mrs. Ali, while slie could resent anything of 
 impertinence in the kiss, was not wholly insensible to its propriety as a 
 token of gratitude, and an expression 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 Ah in the Muezzen's usual foi-m of in^'o- 
 cation, resounded through the douah, calling the faithful to morn- 
 ing prayer. After which, I arose, stepped forward in front of the 
 tent, and speaking to Ali in a loud tone, in\nted him and all within 
 hearing to listen to me. I then commenced — addressing my dis- 
 course chiefly to Ali. I observed that " hospitality to the stranger 
 was the great virtue of the Arab character ; that it was enjoined by 
 the Koran, and universally practiced and esteemed, except by un- 
 believers and idolaters. That the life and property of one to whom 
 we were offering the rights of hospitaUty was, and ought to be, held 
 sacred." 
 
 To this proposition Sheikh Ali audibly assented, while Hassini 
 and his companions looked on, with increasing marks of surprise. 
 
 " Now you must know that, here in yom- 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 pimish the crime, had it been consummated. Listen to me, and 
 mark how wonderful are the ways of God, and what risks we run 
 
AN KFFECTIVE SPEEr^H. 289 
 
 when we deviate in the slightest degree from the plain track of the 
 law ! Your best heirie is lame — I can cure him. If I had been 
 mm-dered last night, you would never have ridden him an-ain. 
 Your brother is sick — I am a Tibib — with the blessing of Allah I 
 can cure him — without my skill he vnW soon die. But Hsten still 
 further ! Listen, and open your eyes with wonder at jowi stupidity, 
 and God's goodness. My gun and camel, and this old haick, are 
 all the property that could be got by taking my Ufe, while with 
 me would have perished the knowledge of the spot in the desert, 
 where lie, overwhelmed with the sands, the richly laden camels of 
 a kaffila from Teffilet. You would have robbed a poor man, and 
 at the same time have destroyed the only guide to wealth that Avill 
 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 then- friend and 
 guest, and that they never had an idea of harming a hah- of my 
 head. Old Ah 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 hfe, 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 ha^^ng mistaken his inten- 
 tentions ; but to all questions as to the locality of the buried cara- 
 van, 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 estabUshing, as far as possi- 
 ble, habits of command and obedience, which might be available 
 at some futiu-e 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 observa- 
 tion, until, at last, compliance becomes a stringent custom, and ex- 
 action, oppression and tyranny, a right. 
 
 At night, the camels having been watered, and everything pre- 
 13 
 
290 KALOOLAH, 
 
 pared, 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 Avere wonderful, and they were even able to go two or 
 three days without drink. Hadji Ali loudly vaunted their qualities, 
 assiu-ing me that they were of the pure blood of the Frajiye — the 
 best family of the Koheije in Yeman — and that he could produce 
 their pedigree for more than two thousand years. " But know, oh ! 
 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 XXXII. 
 
 The buried caravan. — Moving a donah. — A feast. — A conversazione. — The 
 wells of Bonlag. — Schools and scholars. — Arts and artizans. — A Tibib. — 
 Epaoedopathy. — Stoiy-telling. — Music. — The song of the Bedouin. — Fears 
 and doubts. 
 
 I 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 imfortunate masters. After an absence of twenty days we 
 returned to Waddi Messer, bearing with us an amount of wealth 
 that more than realzed the expectations my report had excited. 
 
 Shortly after this, the water of tlie wells beginning to fail, it 
 
MOVING A DOUAH. — A FEAST. 291 
 
 was resolved to break up the douah, and remove to the well of 
 Boulag, about forty railes to the north-west, and not far from Tou- 
 dena, to which town the Arabs proposed to caiTy 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, pre- 
 ceded 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 encoun- 
 tered several douahs, by whose inhabitants we were politely greet- 
 ed, and, in several instances, hospitably entertained. On the third 
 night we fell in with a family, en route, hke ourselves. We en- 
 camped together, and having purchased two kids, and a sack of 
 rice, I issued a general invitation to a feast. My wishes were admi- 
 rably seconded in he department of the cuisine, by young Mrs. Ali, 
 and in two or three hours after simset, the senses of my dark, dirty, 
 and hungry guests, were delighted with several dishes of smoking 
 pUaw. " Bishmilla /" I exclaimed, " in the name of God, fall to," 
 and upon the word, at least forty hands were plunged simultane- 
 ously 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 Pro- 
 phet !" indicated that there were limits to the capacity of even an 
 Arab's stomach. Generally, 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 gourmandise that would compoi't with the umbilical ex- 
 pansion of a Samoied or an Esquimaux, but which one would hardly 
 expect to find within that spare and attenuated frame in which it 
 lies, most of the time, in abeyance. 
 
 After supper pipes were produced and passed around, and the 
 conversation became general and animated. The subject of horses 
 and camels Avas discussed — the state of the markets at Sweirah and 
 Timbuctoo was introduced, with the, rate of a camels' freight across 
 
292 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the desert, and tlie 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 volun- 
 teered to give them the stoiy of Aladdin and his lamp. My offer 
 was received with a round of compliments, which, upon the conclu- 
 sion of the stor)', 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 Avell of Boulag, 
 which we found already suiTounded by several families, but there 
 was water enough for all, and oiu* tents were erected without any 
 objections from the first comers, who were all either relations or 
 friends. We were now a large and fonnidable party, consisting of 
 at least two hundred men, and numbering 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 mstruction 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 groimd, each one with his board, and all of them violently 
 working their bodies backwards and forwards, as if upon the indus- 
 trious flexure of their vertibral articulations depended the pro- 
 per articulation of their words. 
 
 I Avas not a little siu'prised to see so many artizans in full em- 
 ployment. A number of weavers were daily engaged in turning 
 into cloth the yarn of camel 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 bitts and shoes. 
 The latter were exceedingly skilful : with a small charcoal fire, and a 
 bellows made of a couple of bladders, they contrived to do very 
 
 i 
 
EPA.KDOPATHV. 293 
 
 difficult work, with neatness and despatch. There were even jewel- 
 lei-s, who exhibited no small degree of taste and dexterity in the 
 manufacture of gold and silver rings, ornaments for the hah-, and 
 studs for head stalls and reins. 
 
 It soon became known that I was a Tibib, and the fame of the 
 cui-e effected in the case of Hadji AU's brother, brought me repeat- 
 ed apphcations for medical advice. As the cases where my medical 
 skill was mvoked were, mostly, either imaginary, or such as re- 
 quired time, the expectant plan, luckily, inasmuch as there were 
 few or no medicines to be had, was the true plan; but, instead of 
 the bi-ead pills of the allopath, or, what is the same thing, the infi- 
 nitesimal doses of the homoeopath, my usual prescription was a writ- 
 ten charm. It was wonderful, the success that attended my prac- 
 tice. Pity it is that I have not preserved a record of my cm-es, and 
 that I am unable, now, to present a detailed statement of all the pa- 
 thognomonic signs, and theraupeutic indications that were met and 
 fulfilled by this one infaUible specific. Science suffers — and still more 
 bequacked Christendom suffers — for then had the medical quidnuncs 
 revelled in a new system of practice with a hard name, and the cre- 
 dulous public had tickled itself for a time, at least, with the 
 beauties of epacedo'pa.ihy . A com-se of Koran would have become, 
 perhaps, in time, the fashionable alterative, and the writings of the 
 Arabian prophet, turned to theu- true accoimt — 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 rac(mteur, rather than as a phvsician, that my 
 reputation attamed its widest range. Fortunately, the Arabian 
 Nights was a book that had been a favorite, and my memory was 
 charged Avith 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 fixvor. for the 
 reason that, in addition to all the fanciful embelUshments of the 
 
294 KALOOLAH. 
 
 eastern autliors, I did not hesitate to add a few grotesque inven- 
 tions and ridiculous exaggerations of my own. The fame of our 
 entertainments soon spread, and attracted visiters 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 sing- 
 ers, with a stock of songs that seemed perfectly inexhaustible. The 
 smger generally accompanied himself upon a rude guitar, or a tam- 
 bom-ine, and frequently several instruments would join in the chorus. 
 The airs were, 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 intro- 
 duced the horse, the heirie, or some allusion to the happy lot of 
 the Bedouin. A few were exclusively patriotic, and devoted to 
 celebrating the pleasures and comforts of the desert, and the cou- 
 rage 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 through tlie 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 joys, crushed and cramped within walls; 
 Of the Mufti's weak laws, or the Kadi's stern frown ; 
 
 The bazars, 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. 
 
THE SONG OF THE BEDOUIN. 295 
 
 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 I 
 With what thrilling delight do my quick pulses beat, 
 
 As like to some wild flyuig demon in wrath. 
 My gallant steed swallows the ground with his feet, 
 
 And swift as a bird, through the air cleaves his path I 
 
 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, 'tis vain 
 
 That with rapid feet casting the dusty clouds back, 
 In circles wide wheeling, thou scourest the plain. 
 
 For Ayoud, uutiruig, 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: 
 One more spring I 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 fill 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? 
 'Tis the breath of Azrael — prepare, oh I 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 I 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. 
 
296 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Behind the dark sand-hills we quietly sit: 
 
 Ilusii! 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 8iroc we dash on our prey. 
 
 At the gleam of our spear-poiuts 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 barnouse, and kaftan, 
 Rings, anklets, and bracelets from famed SackatoOf 
 
 And jewels, and ingots from golden Soudan. 
 
 Now, glory to Allah I who sends us the prize ; 
 
 To Allah, unstinting, who loads us with spoil ; 
 Unto Him, 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, oh I glory thou dear desert land ; 
 
 For thy joys, though they're few, are the joys of the free." 
 
 My skill as a marksman contributed not a little to the conside- 
 ration and influence that 1 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 ene- 
 mies. Among these, the principal one was the truculent Hassan, 
 son of Ah. 
 
 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 recognised as that of the 
 fugitive slave. The dread of such a misadventure compelled me to 
 the precaution of scrutinizing any new comers before showing my- 
 self, 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 opportunity of returning to civilized hfe. 
 
FEARS AND DOUBTS. 89? 
 
 Sometimes, however, I had a mind to set out for the south, and vi- 
 sit the negro countries, and even attempt penetrating the Djebel 
 Kurari — 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 curios- 
 ity 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 disposi- 
 tion to relate to sympathising eare the curious adventures that I 
 had encountered: on the other hand was the unquenched thirst for 
 adventure; the glittering allurements of a terra incognita; the am- 
 bition 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 woi'ld ; and more than all, the hope of agam seeing Kaloo- 
 lah, 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 re- 
 mained three or four months at the well of Boulag, little dreaming 
 that circumstances were maturing that would turn the scale in fa- 
 vor of the south, and leave country, home, and kindred dangling in 
 the distant perspective. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 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. — Tiie bivouac. — Astrolo^j' and its truths. — A happy ren- 
 contre. — Kaloolah's story. — Jennie. — Timbuctoo. 
 
 One day the news arrived in camp, that a caravan from Tim- 
 uctoo was attempting the direct northern route, without having 
 
 13* 
 
298 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 fool-hardiness of 
 its conductors, who believed that the oasis of the Messer had been 
 deserted for the valleys of Hareb, and the plams of Tuat, the expe- 
 dition would certainly fail ; and that, instead of ha\ang an opportu- 
 nity of joining the kaffila, I should probably see it attacked and 
 plundered — a catastrophe that might have been easily prevented, 
 bv the payment of the usual tolls to the wild masters of the coun- 
 try through whicli 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 aroimd of a hundred miles, 
 pom-ed forth its horsemen ; all nishing with the instinctive eagerness 
 of the Ishmaelite, at the first intimation of spoU. The rendezvous 
 was appointed at Boiilag, 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 senor 
 chief of the whole tribe. 
 
 The Sheikh, a Httle withered fellow, was nearly ninety years of 
 age, but he sat his horse with the grace and \ngor of early man- 
 hood, and e\4nced an uncommon degree of A-ivacity and energy in 
 all his movements. The first day of his arrival he dashed into the 
 encampment, with a few followers, at fuU speed ; checked his horse 
 instantaneously, bringing his haunches almost to tlie ground, and 
 then foi'cing him to perform a number of lofty croupades, marked 
 upon his sides with the points of the heavy iron spurs the initial 
 letters of the Mohammedan confession of faith. 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 Avere given with promptness and precision. Scouts 
 were despatched to watch the movements of the kaffila, which was 
 struggling along at the slow pace of the loaded camel ; and, in the 
 mean time arrangements were made to meet our prey at the well 
 
TEE LAB EL BARODE. 299 
 
 of the Waddy el bahr nile, or the valley of the dry river, which was 
 about three day's journey to the soutliwest. 
 
 Besides Mahmoud, there were several other Sheikhs of nearly 
 equal authority ; the most active of whom was Kaid Hassen Ibin 
 Salech el Achmer, Sidi Achmed iben Ah 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 ex- 
 travagantly fond. It consists in several horsemen placing them- 
 selves in a luae abi'east, and dashing forward for a few rods, all the 
 while twii'ling 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 cliecked, 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 hav- 
 ing obtained acciu-ate information of the movements of the kaffila, 
 we set out, and in three days, without any adventure of interest, 
 reached the banks of the rocky ravine, where Ave proposed to con 
 ceal ourselves. Next day we remained, quietly couching among the 
 sand-hills, bordering a flinty plain of several mQes in extent — the 
 hot sun beating down upon our unsheltered heads, and occasional 
 eddies of impalpable dust, making resphation, which, in a pure air 
 is decidedly the most pleasing function of the body, a positive mise- 
 ry. A few dates, equally shared between man and steed, and a sin- 
 gle 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 nu- 
 merous plans that occuired 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 compromise, 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 
 
300.: KALDOLAH. 
 
 arrived Avith information tliat at once excited a commotion in our 
 ranks. Orders were pixssed to mount, and taking up our line of 
 march in an oblique direction towards the level plain we had crossed 
 the day befoie, 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 several places orders 
 were passed for the men to di.smount and lead their horses, until a 
 higher cover had been attained. 
 
 The sun was al>out tliree hours high when we reached a posi- 
 tion 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 emi- 
 nences. By stretching our necks a little, we had a good view of 
 the plain, quite to the distant horizon. All eyes were at once di- 
 rected 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 airay 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 footsteps 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 hue, two deep. This manoeuvre 
 was executed with vmexpected precision. 
 
 About 6fty of our men were armed with guns, and these occu- 
 
THE ATTACK. 301 
 
 pied the front rank, the remainder were armed witli spears, which, 
 with wild shouts were twirled high in the air above their heads. 
 Allah Ackbah ! Allah Ackhah! Allah illah Allah! Rasoul Mo- 
 hammed Allah F' was loudly shouted along the ranks, mingled 
 with the strongly aspei*ated and encoiu'aging " Hah-hahlHah-hahr'' 
 of the Arabic horseman to his steed. It was easy to perceive, how- 
 ever, that amid all the bustle and excitement, there was an mten- 
 tional illustration of the adage, " the more haste the less speed," 
 and that, notwithstanding om* yelling and spurring, we were far 
 from charging at om- fastest pace. Our horses were forced into 
 lofty and violent action, while in reahty they covered the ground 
 slowly, and by this plan the panic was allowed time to spread, and 
 afibrded to many an opportunity of flying, who would othei"wise 
 have fought in sheer desperation. 
 
 The instant our first shout broke upon the stillness of the plain, 
 the whole kaffila 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 
 fonned part of the riches of the cai'avan. The few who were in the 
 van goaded then- weary beasts into a trot, and pressed onwards, 
 regardless of those behind, while those in the rear collected their 
 beasts and tm^ned back among the sand-hills, from which they had 
 just emerged. Others, who were too far advanced to escape, 
 deserted their property, and fled wildly on foot across the open 
 country, while others stood then- groimd and made what prepara- 
 tions they could for resistance. These last, however, were few in 
 niunber, and they had hardly time to uncover their long guns or 
 to unsheath their scimeters before we were upon them. 
 
 Without combination or order, they could make but little re- 
 sistance, and in a few minutes they were all overpowered, disarmed, 
 and compelled to seat themselves upon the groimd, while the vic- 
 tors proceeded to collect the spoil. The last rays of the short twi- 
 light of southern latitudes were now illuminating the scene, showing 
 with wonderful distinctness the wild groups of horsemen, as they 
 
302 KALOOLAH. 
 
 galloped about after the fugitive camels. In a few moments the glow- 
 ing red was succeeded by the cold gray of night, and the Bedouins 
 began to gather in, with the animals they had captm*ed, leaving 
 fully one-half of the scattered caravan to make its escape under 
 the friendly cover of the darkness. It was arranged to bivouack 
 upon the spot, and await the hght 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 thei*e was but httle 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 tlieir 
 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 imagi- 
 nations had been filled. A few low voices in conversation, in the 
 liquid languages of the Soudan, i-ose and fell upon the gentle night 
 wind, interrupted, perhaps, now and then, by the deep guttural ex- 
 clamation of an Arabic voice, at a restive camel. One of tliese ani- 
 mals exhibited siorns of restlessness, and risino- to his feet, evinced a 
 disposition to press in upon the enclosed slaves. Leaving my horse 
 at a httle 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 be- 
 tween 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 bi\'ouac grew less and less ; the night 
 
A HAPPY RENCONTRE. 303 
 
 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 intentness, and with an mqviiring expression, as if 
 their wondering owners were trying to pry into the deep physical, 
 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 hosts ot 
 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 hfe." I gazed upward, steadily, in a deep and absorbing 
 revery, and as I gazed the stars seemed to grow brighter and 
 largei*, 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 spirituahzing influences of nature in any of her 
 highest moods, will imderstand the sensation with which I gazed, 
 while almost a conviction sprang to 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 belief 
 respecting your aspects and influences, once so firmly and so gene- 
 rally held, were utterly vain and untrue. Say, were all the dreams 
 and dogmas of astrology, 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 satis- 
 fied me as to the present and the past. I Avould 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 iipon the air dii-ectly above me. I 
 could not but smile at the intensity of imaginings that could 
 thus so impudently attempt an imposition upon my senses, but at 
 the thought, the words came again, and with a clearness of enun- 
 
304 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ciation that made me start, almost with alarm lest my senses them- 
 selves might be joining in the league against my reason. "I like 
 to give fancy fair play," said I, to myself, " but this is carrying the 
 joke a Uttle 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 mys- 
 tery 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!" Her 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 Arcturas, who was peering down from the 
 zenith. There could be no room for doubt. 'Twas she ! Kaloolah! 
 I pi'essed her closely to my breast. For a moment she lay, unre- 
 sisting 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 neces- 
 sary to sit very close, and whisper low, to avoid attracting attention 
 from the drowsy slaves, or the more distant, but Avakeful 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 ?" 
 
KALOOLAH S STORY. 305 
 
 " Ah, mine is a long story ; tell me first Low you came to re- 
 cognise me, and to call my name?" 
 
 " The heai-t — the heart, Jon'than, has keen senses. I saw you 
 as you stood over the wounded man, and turned aside the sword.s 
 that were seeking his life. The idea that it was you was too im- 
 probable 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 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 muttermg words that sounded like English. 
 How my heart struggled with its rushing tide. I pronoimced your 
 name — an Arab would not have noticed the soimd — you started. 
 I repeated yom* 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 adventm-es 
 after leaving Sierra Leone. Her story was longeand interesting, but 
 for reasons, that perhaps the reader is fully prepai-ed to appreciate, 
 it must be condensed into the fewest possible words. 
 
 Leaving Freetown, the Mandingo kaffila, with whom, it will be 
 recollected, Kaloolah and Enphadde were to travel, made its way 
 through the country of the Timanees. Beyond this the road be- 
 came exceedingly rough and difficult, until they had reached Kissa, 
 where the kaffila 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 Chris- 
 tians, allowed them to pass without detention. At Kissa, however, 
 symptoms of difficulty began to show themselves. For some time 
 they were closely confined, while councils were held respecting 
 them. The party of Mandingos, who had sworn to protect them, 
 now deserted them, carrying off a large portion of their property, 
 and leaving them to the tender mercies of the rapacious king and 
 
306 KALOOLAH. 
 
 nobles of Kissa. After much difficulty and trouble, Enphadde suc- 
 ceeded at last in procuring admission to set out on his jom-ney for 
 Time. Two surly Foulah guides were obtained, by whom the tra- 
 vellers were conducted to a small village nearly four days' journey 
 beyond Kissa. The village was situated upon the banks of a plea- 
 sant stream, and consisted of about thirty mud huts, affording ac- 
 commodation to a pastoral and iiioft'cnsi\e people. The appear- 
 ance of the travellers excited no little sm-piise, but they were re- 
 ceived 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 behind — a cotton paigne thro^vn over her 
 head and t-wisted almost to suffocation. Her hands and feet were 
 then tied together, irhen 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 fe- 
 males, recently captured, and in the course of the night were joined 
 by two more of the slave-hunting gang, Avho brought with them a 
 boy of about five years of age. 
 
 Before day-light 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 avoid- 
 ing 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 molestation from either. At last they 
 reached a large and populous town, which proved to be an exten- 
 
KALOOLAH's story — JENNIE. 307 
 
 sive slave-mart. Here the females were exposed for sale — the blacks 
 readily finding purchasers, but the whiteness of Kalookh's skin, and 
 her slender figure, worn down by her long and fatigueing 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 performing the duties enjoined by the Koran, this 
 pious Musselman, in his reverence for the words of the sacred book 
 had bowed in humble submission to its less stringent suggestions. 
 With him, permissions were recommendations ; recommendations 
 commands, and four wives in consequence rivalled each other in 
 their attempts at his domestic fehcity. To one of these ladies Ka- 
 loolah 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 fatigueing, but dignified 
 labor of the household drudge. 
 
 To assist at the toilet of ci\alized beauty ; to adjust the grace- 
 ful 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, fanes, and queens, and illus- 
 trious ladies of all ranks have condescended to, without derogation to 
 then- dignity and grace ; but to perform the like offices for an Ethi- 
 opean belle — to rub in the rancid mutton-tallow and palm-oQ, with 
 which her whole person has to be anointed ; to drape her reeking 
 form in dingy and imctuous finery ; or to wield the fan for hours 
 over her heavy post prandial slumbers ; is a very different matter. 
 The truth of this observation will explain the feeling of pleasure 
 with which I found 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 biing water in a calabash 
 
K ALGOL AH. 
 
 for domestic purposes from the river, and that she never assisted in 
 anointing, or abluting either of the obese beauties of Kaid 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 cross- 
 ed the desert to Timbuctoo on a trading specidation, and thence had 
 pushed on up the Niger to Jennie. He was now about to return, 
 and after making some inquiries, proposed to Eanka to purchase her 
 with the intention 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 eyes of Muly Addarrhaman 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, pistachios, colat-nuts, presei-ved 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 journey 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 ap- 
 peared 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 journey across the 
 great desert. But little preparation on her part was necessary, her 
 whole wardrobe consisting of a long, loose cotton robe, a cotton 
 
EL AROUAX. 309 
 
 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 siin, or the keen airs of the night. 
 As her beauty was the chief subject of the specidation, 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 fatigueing 
 journey. A matting of coarse wool was provided for her repose at 
 night, and the large pannier in which she rode was so stuflfed 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 fallen into the ambuscade, which the at- 
 tempt 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 XXXIV. 
 
 Kaloolah and Jonathan en route. — A dissatisfied Arab. — Reasons for flight. — 
 Unrequited affection. — Buried stores. — Hurrah ! for Fraraazugda. — Pillars 
 of sand. — The mirage. — The Fata Morgana. — A party of travellers. — 
 A cup of tea. — Hahnemann and homoeopathy. 
 
 It 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, biUoAved 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 moimted upon camels. 
 One, perched upon his high and narrow saddle, with his feet upon 
 
310 KALOOLAH. 
 
 the animal's neck, after the usual manner of " camelestrians," The 
 other seated m a pannier, which was balanced by a weight of pro- 
 visions, water and baggage. The difference in position would at 
 once have indicated the difference of sex, and it needed not the 
 gun, slimg across his back, and only partially concealed by the folds 
 of his haick — or the long, slender spear, serving also as a goad for 
 his companion's beast — to enable any one to pronoimce 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 imnecessaiy, therefore, to stop 
 longer than to explain that it was the enmity of Hassan, and the jea- 
 lousy 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 assigned, 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 tm-n of fortime, which threat- 
 ened 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 won't she eat and talk ! They all eat and talk. I take 
 a club sometimes and knock them doAvn; beat them; break their 
 bones ; but they still eat 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 " — show- 
 ing him tlu-ee 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 
 concluded, with all legal forms, just as Hassan interfered with a 
 higher offer : but he was too late. 
 
REASONS FOR FLIGHT. 311 
 
 Upon returning to the douah, at Boulag, I purchased a small tent 
 for Kaloolah, to which she closely con6ned 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 annoyance and discomfort. In addition to this, there 
 was the settled enmity of my old enemy, Hassan, with whom I had 
 already had several altercations ; and who, as was frequently inti- 
 mated to me by several of his friends, and even by old AU himself, 
 only waited a convenient opportunity 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 ex- 
 tinguished the feeling — but the imcertainty 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 decidmg the ques- 
 tion, as to his life or mine, upon the spot. As it was, however, 
 prudence dictated an immediate flight — a course that was still fur- 
 ther 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 gen- 
 tlemanly delicacy, which the reader will appreciate, prevents me 
 from dwelling upon the story at length. It was wrong, undoubt- 
 edly, 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. True, I might 
 
312 KALOOLAH. 
 
 have treated her affection vitli more tenderness ; T might have 
 mirsed 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 no right to throw stones at 
 Kaloolali. 
 
 These last — the stones I mean — could be received only as an inti- 
 mation 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 Avater — we silently left 
 the douah just after night-fall, and proceeding to where I had sta- 
 tioned 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 liills where I had first come upon the 
 douah of Sidi Hadji Ali. It will be recollected that in a small hol- 
 low of the desert-plain, stretching off 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 observation, and an attentive comparison of 
 the salient points, if sahent they could be called, when all but the 
 distant hill-tops was nearly imvarying \miformity, 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 obser- 
 ■ vation, 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 
 
hurrah! for framazugda. 313 
 
 poTich with the munitions of war, I remade the package, and placed 
 it upon the back of my heirie with a sentiment of confidence in for- 
 tune 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 i-eady to buy, or fight my way through the darkest portions 
 of the Ethiopean world? What more can I ask? Hurrah for 
 Framazugda !" 
 
 " Hm-rah for Framazugda !" said Kaloolah, repeatmg the ex- 
 clamation that had unconsciously escaped me, and at the same time 
 thrusting her tiny hand from the folds of her haick, and waving it 
 with inimitable gi-ace. 
 
 There is nothing more fascinating in female manner to many 
 temperaments, than that compound expression of tenderness, inte- 
 rest, and mirth, expressed, though but poorly, by tlie term " arch- 
 ness." When founded in a delicate appreciation of the ludicrous, yet 
 modified, and accompanied by a deep sympathy Avith the sentiments 
 to which it is a response, it goes at once to the core of the heart. The 
 proudest man bows without a murmur to the implied superiority ; 
 the most sensitive man fears not the gentle smile, or laugh, when 
 accompanied by the eager eye, or the bluslung 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 ac- 
 complish. 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 suf- 
 
 14 
 
314 KALOOLAH. 
 
 fers no shadows. You are my sun ; in the light of your eyes dan- 
 gers draw off Uke tlie 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 Kaloo- 
 lah in her pannier, I mounted my heirie, and gave to our camels the 
 signal to set out. 
 
 Om' route for several hours lay over a hard pebbly plain, 
 boiinded 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 secm-ed ; a 
 small tent of goat skins, as a bed-room for Kaloolah, was speedily 
 pitched, into which I insisted she should rethe 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 hea^'y, 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 strength. I had but to throw 
 myself on the ground and intimate my desire to sleep, to secure 
 obedience to my injunctions. Kaloolah withdrew to her tent and I 
 saw no more of her until the grey and purple coated avant-couriers 
 of Apollo's chariot annoimced 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 httle fellow, stood 
 sohtary, 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 hann it. 'Tis but a 
 mouthful, and existence must be sweet, or it could not cling to life 
 
PILLARS OF SAND. — THE MIRAGE. 315 
 
 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 phe- 
 nomena of the desert. There first appeared on our left hand several 
 gigantic pillars of sand. At one time we counted a dozen. Some- 
 times almost stationary, yet with a very evident rotary motion, at 
 others trailing over the groimd with an irregular pace, and swaying 
 backwards and forwards, and gliding round and round each other in 
 all possible curves, they could not but suggest 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 antedilu- 
 vian quadrille. 
 
 As the sun rose in the heavens the whu'ling pillars slackened in 
 their gp-ations, and one after the other disappeared, to be succeed- 
 ed by that most cmious phenomenon, the mirage. Not a breath of 
 air disturbed the profoimd calm of the plain, though in the upper 
 regions of the atmosphere there floated lazily a few vapory films, 
 attenuated to the verge of impalpability. Around, all was still — 
 the stillness of the desert — a stillness which, if the reader Avill par- 
 don the paradox, one can hear — when silence becomes audible — 
 when the impact of the simbeams upon the sand becomes a sound 
 — when the auricular nerves, imsupported by their accustomed 
 stimulus, vibrate without sound, producing a sensation as if one 
 were listening to the very first beginning of a mighty, ever-threaten- 
 ing, 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 
 
316 KALOOLAH. 
 
 advanced, until we were presented with a wa\T, and somewhat in- 
 distinct, view of a large sheet of water. Gradually the scene be- 
 came more clear and steady, imtil at last there lay stretched before 
 us a beautiful lake, than which no lake ever seemed more inviting 
 or more real. 
 
 " WoUo, wollo !" exclaimed Kaloolah. How beautifvd. 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 disappomtment when she learned that 
 the whole was an illusion, and saw in a few minutes the enchantuig 
 scene dissolving away. For some time we rode on in silence, with 
 the veils of cotton cloth drawn over om* 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 companion 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 httle to the 
 west of the point whither we were tending. The spots were in 
 motion relatively as to each other, and were also movuig 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 tradei-s, 
 coming from the north-east, and proceeding 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 num- 
 
A CLP OF TEA. Sll 
 
 bers excited tlie greatest astonishment, and at once elevated me in 
 their estimation to the rank of a magician. 
 
 The story tliat I was moving to the Negro country, on account 
 of a blood-feud, and in the expectation of trading advantageously 
 a few 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 tiibe 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 a willingness to accommodate my motions to the slow paces 
 of a loaded camel. 
 
 Two of the party retui'ning 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, 
 jaelded a full supply of very pure and sweet water. Around tliis 
 "gem of the desert" we encamped; the camels were Avatered — 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 im- 
 portance and gravity, about haK a teaspoonfid of green tea. 
 
 " Taste this," said he, offering me some of the colorless infusion ; 
 " it is the great medicine of the Nazarins. 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 doc- 
 trine of infinitesimals ! It may do when the p-itient needs no medi- 
 cine, but not when he is dying for a full, sti • )ng dose ! Oh ! for an 
 honest christian cup, big, black, and steaming with odors, consecrat- 
 ed to the worship of the Dii Penates, and suggestive of the sweetest 
 
 r -cn^intinns of home !" 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 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 story. — Hope for the renegade. 
 
 "El Garwan! El Garwan!" shouted my companions, as a col- 
 lection of clay houses, and low round huts broke upon our \iew. 
 Situated in tlie open plain, with no green thing about it, nothing 
 could be more dreary and unpicturesque. The moveable douahs of 
 the Bedouin seemed, in comparison, almost beautiful; yet here 
 could be foimd men — some of them from the semi-civilized towns 
 of the Mediten-anean states — who, for the sake of money, were 
 willing to spend their hves in this awful, miserable, hot, dry, dusty 
 and dirty hole. " Drop a dollar into a potter's furnace, and you'll 
 biu-n a Barbary Moor to death," is an adage of the Bedouin, 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 durable as those constructed of rub- 
 ble work, or of siui-burned brick. 
 
 Having hired a house — consisting of only one apartment, about 
 four feet wide, eight feet long, and as many high, into which Ka- 
 loolah withdrew from the heat of the sun, and the impertinent ob- 
 servation 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 aflford rehef. I had 
 not forgotten Jack Thompson, and there was a bare possibility that 
 he might be among them. A thorough search, however, dissinjit'^d 
 
A BEGGAR. 310 
 
 the hope, and, in answer to my mqiiiiics, I was assured that there 
 were no slaves but the wooUey-headed, ebony-skinned beings be- 
 fore me. 
 
 " But are there no christians ?" I demanded. 
 
 " None now," replied my infoiTnant ; " we often have them, but 
 they are not good for much : they cannot stand the heat." 
 
 " You are right," I replied ; " they are worthless dogs for Avork, 
 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 christian slave, for I saw him working in a salt-pit, not one 
 moon ago." 
 
 " How old is he ?" 
 
 "He is not young — his hah- is gray ; but I should think that he 
 has twenty years j^et in his body." 
 
 The description given me by my informant answered very well 
 for Thompson ; but I knew that there were too many christian pri- 
 soners in the desert, who were supposed, by theh friends, to have 
 been lost at sea, to feel much confidence of finding him in the 
 slave at Marbash. Whoever he was, however, he was evidently 
 some one demandmg my services, and I at once resolved to visit 
 him, and, if possible, purchase him of his barbarous masters. 
 
 Retm-ning through the nan-ow and filthy streets, to the door 
 that opened, ipto the httle court in front of my house, I was struck 
 with the appearance of a ragged and squalid figure that accost- 
 ed 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, wliich were disgustingly 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 
 Mahommedan town, but there was something in this fellow's appear- 
 ance that at once arrested mv attention. There was a familiar look 
 
320 KALOOLAH. 
 
 iiboui him, and there was a melancholy 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 Musseiman's usual refuge — a 
 stupid indiflFerence to hfe, with its miseries and its pauis. 
 
 He said that he had not tiisted 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, appa- 
 rently awaiting my exit. In the meantime he was amusing himself 
 with singing and talking to himself, and in poking a pile of offal 
 with his staff. There was no one but myself wnthin 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 lan- 
 guage that no citizen of El Garwan could have understood. My sur- 
 prise may be imagined, when I heard tlie fellow talking m good, plain 
 Enghsh, though with certain peculiarities of accent and pronuncia- 
 tion that spoke strongly of that gem of the ocean, the Emerald 
 Isle. His words ran nearly as follows : — 
 
 " Sure, its in luck you are to-day, Mr. Hugh Doyle ! Taint 
 every d-iy 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'll 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 desarve it, ye vagabond ? Didn't 
 ye desart yer country in anger, and haven't ye i-enounced your 
 God in fear ? — Are ye a true man, Hugh Doyle ? Devil the bit of 
 it ! Ye're a cowardly, lying, skulking thief of a rcnegado ! — Can you 
 pray ? Yes, ye can, to Allah and Mahomet ! Allah, illah, Allah ! 
 Mohammed rasuul Allah ! And is that yer creed ? Ye've sworn 
 
AN IRISH SOLILOQUY, 321 
 
 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, couldn'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 haythen 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-communings. 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 beach — ' 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 
 anything of the water of Cavan ? had they ever fallen in rain upon 
 the Ballyneegeerah ? Had they ever himg 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, mavoiu-neen, 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'nt, 
 
 but I did, and now here sits Hugh Doyle among haythens, himself 
 as big a haythen as can be found in the four quarthers of Asia, 
 
 Africa and Amhica 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 
 
 er soul for notliing at all. Small price, ye may say ; and so it 
 
 14* 
 
822 KALOOLAH. 
 
 would be for a dacent soul, but yer's is worth no more, and ye 
 can't complain, for has'nt the divil paid ye up Uke a jintleman, 
 
 and a man of his word ? Hugh, Hugh Doyle, ye'll 
 
 starve in this world and roast m the next, ye poor, mane, unfor- 
 tunate vagabond !" 
 
 " Hugh Doyle !" I exclaimed in a loud voice from the top of 
 the wall directly over his head, "Hugh Doyle, are you a tme 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 — Hiven presarve us, but this is a manifestashun ! 
 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-toy, 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 tliat served to heighten the tragic interest of 
 his appearance by contrast. He could sec no one but, as he sup- 
 posed, a grave mussulman, who commenced asking the particulars 
 of his history, to which he at once replied in voluble and exceed- 
 ingly 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 discovered by some of the tribes who wander up and 
 down the coast in search of wrecks ; seized as a slave, carried into 
 
HUGH DOYLE 'S STORY. 323 
 
 the interior, and sold. In a short time the cruel treatment he was 
 compelled to endure on the one hand, and the promises and per- 
 suasions of the Arabs on the other, induced him to renounce his 
 religious principles and jjrofess a belief in the creed of Mohammed. 
 For a little while lie 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 — camiot 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 contempt invariably felt for any one who changes his 
 opinions or renoimces his principles from the force of external cir- 
 cumstances, 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 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 hke an opportunity of escaping from this horrible 
 hole, would you not ? You've had enough of the Prophet and his 
 followers. Nay, nay," I continued, speaking for the first time to 
 hun in Enghsh, " speak the truth, Hugh Doyle." 
 
 The poor fellow, pale and trembling, sunk upon his knees. 
 
 " You wonder who I am — no matter, you'll 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 impUcitly, 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 
 
324 K ALGOL, AH. 
 
 advantage of the mystery in which, to his apprehension, I was en- 
 shrouded, to enforce obedience, 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, 'Tis 
 a wide path, and no turns in it." 
 
 " Well, then, listen to my plan. 1 intend going to Marbash, and 
 shall want a guide, and some one to look after the camels. We 
 must contrive it so that you shall be the man. I will go into the 
 street just before starting, 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 tei-ms. In the midst 
 of our wrangling you must come forward 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 haiek, and pressed it to his lips, 
 while sobs prevented a reply. 
 
 " Well, what do you say. Do you hesitate ?" 
 
 " Hesitation ! yer honor ; would a man hesitate to draw his 
 hand from the fire ? Oh, no, 'tis only the suddenness of it — like a 
 flash of lightning to a man who has lost his road in the night — 'tis 
 the unexpectedness of it." 
 
 " We wUl 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 suffermg wholly from want of food. But it 
 will not do for you to be seen with money, and to avoid all suspi- 
 cion, 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 vou do or 
 
HOPE FOR THE RENEGADE. 325 
 
 say nothing that will attract attention ; follow your usual habits, 
 and mind how you ever address me in EngUsh." 
 
 Having reiterated my directions in the minutest manner, and en- 
 forced upon him the necessity of extreme caution, I opened the 
 door of the coiirt 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 raismg 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 stem tone, " that you obej^ 
 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 lor two days longer ? Go, sir. I shall keep watch of you, and 
 if you venture to attract attention, by word or deed, or by any al- 
 teration in look, manner, gestm^e, or gait, I'll leave youi- 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 with- 
 in sight when you chose to insult the Prophet with yom* christian 
 prayers in the streets of a Mahommedan town." 
 
 Without a word Hugh slunk away, but it was easy to see, that, 
 however he might imitate it, his gait had no longer the natural and 
 painful slouchness of one without hope. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 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. 
 
 The 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 inhabitants of the town, 
 none of whom offered any opposition to my taking Hugh with me 
 to Marbash, or expressed any doubt of our return. Indeed, 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 
 necessary 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 soutliern border of the desert. The two animals that 
 I had added to my party were both heiries, and althougli 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 as- 
 serted were the two or thi-ee dozen hovels that composed the town 
 of Marbash. No one, who has not experienced the feeling, at a dis- 
 tance from home, and in barlxu'ous lands, can understand the force 
 with which a man is attracted 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 lo a degree of tenuity which prevents 
 
JACK THOMPSON. 327 
 
 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 compo\mded of his distance from his old stupid conven- 
 tionalities and selfishisms, and his nearness to his sympathizing kind. 
 
 The next moiTiing we momited 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 depopu- 
 lated by the superior attractions of the mines at El Garvvan, and 
 by the frequent visits of a tribe of marauding Tuarics. 
 
 Without circumlocution I stated the object of my visit. The 
 consequence was, as we had 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 assent- 
 ing "Yea! yea!''' 
 
 " He has all the knowledge of the christians. He is as strong 
 as a Hon. 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 English- 
 man I will give you a good price, if not he won't be worth taking 
 as a gift !" 
 
 A short walk brought us into the salt-pits. At the first glance 
 I recognized the familiar form and face of Jack. He was working, 
 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 anything he looked in i-ather 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 
 coimtenance 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, oui* bargain. Ex- 
 
328 KALOOLAH. 
 
 pressing myself satisfied with his appeanince, and with the Moor's 
 assui-ances that he was an Englishman, 1 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 ? Nay, nay, hold on ; if you lurch so you'll be over- 
 board. Steady man. Mind your helm. If you yaw your craft 
 about in that way you'll broach to, or come by the lee, and have 
 your decks swept before you know it !" 
 
 " Bless ray 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 distillmg the 
 diamonds of sympathy. Hugh's inflamed eyes were overflowing, 
 and there was a very perceptible sense of moisture in my own. 
 
 " 'Tis 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 
 dift'erence in the world between the top and bottom of sorrow." 
 
 " Don't think that I'm astonished to see you, Mr. Romer," in- 
 terposed Thompson. " I knew that you would come ; I have 
 dreamed it a hundred times. If it hadn'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 j^arted. But come, while we are talking we 
 may as well be moving. We must put thirty miles between us and 
 
A PARTY OF TUARICS. 329 
 
 this spot before night. Hugh Doyle, you -will attend to this hidy'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 
 whoUy without interest, it is needless to note the long, rambhng 
 conversation m which they were told. His had been the monotonous 
 life of a slave in a salt mine, undistui'bed by events of higher im- 
 portance than occasional beatings, frequent attempts at proselyting, 
 and once a change of masters, and a journey from the Waddy 
 Sebah to ^larbash. 
 
 Om* conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a com- 
 pany 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 gim, and held it conspicuously, 
 with the muzzle projecting above my head. The Tuarics, upon 
 siglit of our party clianged theu- course, and came towards us at a 
 rapid pace. There were but six of them, and, ai-med as we were, 
 there was but Utile to fear. Still, a battle was to be avoided, if 
 possible, and as nothing invites an attack so much as an appearance 
 of hiu'iy and fear, w^e closed up our ranks in compact order, and 
 moved on steadily, but with slow and deliberate steps. Some- 
 thing in our motions or equipment e\idently had a discouraging 
 effect ; for, after advancing so closely that I was just beginning to 
 entertain the question of emptying a couple of their saddles before 
 allowing them to come any further, they halted, and, after a brief 
 consultation, wheeled their heuies and made oft". 
 
 " Perliaps," 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 haven't tasted water for a w^eek." 
 
 We encamped a httle before sunset, in order to have hght for 
 selecting an outfit for my companions from my stores. Each was 
 
330 KALOOLAH. 
 
 furnished with a new su'dham, cap and turban, a pair of pistols, with 
 a supply of ammunition, and a small quantity of coral, amber and 
 glass beads, which, as having .a readily exchangeable value, would 
 answer for money, in case anything should happen to separate us. 
 
 When the division was made, and our packages done up and 
 stowed, I addressed my companions, explaining to them ray deter- 
 mination to proceed due south, through the Negro countries of 
 Afiica ; that it was a long journey, filled with difficulties and dan- 
 gers, 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 hun- 
 dred miles from the Atlantic coast : that, if they chose to under- 
 take the journey across the desert to Mogador, 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'll tell you, on'st for all, Mr. Romer, it can't be 
 done ! Ye may say the word, and I'll creep on my knees ; but, 
 by jappers ! I'll follow ye. A pvuty business we should make of 
 it, to start for Mogador, full fifteen hundred miles, and us not know- 
 ing 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 lono-itude ? — us, wlio 
 haven'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 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 on a 
 reef, it's the best plan, sometimes, to crack on all sail, and force her 
 
ESTABLISHING A WATCH. 331 
 
 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, speaking the language as he does, to 
 get through ; but for you. Jack, the chances would be that you'd 
 run agroimd before the voyage was half over. For my own part, I 
 am glad of your company. You wiU be able to render me the 
 greatest assistance ; and, if this lady ever sees her country again, 
 she and her friends wUl be imder no small obligations to you." 
 
 " Will she ? By the powers, I'm thinking that it is just the re- 
 varse ! 'Tis 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 won't 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'll call 
 himself the starboard watch, I'U take the larboard ; or vice varse, 
 it's all the same to me." 
 
 To this proposal Hugh readily assented, and even warmly in- 
 sisted upon it, when I suggested that his sti-ength would hardly 
 permit him to keep watch, for several days yet. It was astonishmg 
 what wonders five days of food and hope had done for him. He 
 was no longer the same bemg. There began to be a degree of 
 steadiness and strength in his gait, a certain 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 
 
332 KALOOLAH. 
 
 digestive organs. Even his sores had put off their indolent and 
 malignant character, and were rapidly assuming a healthy appear- 
 ance. 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, who are suffeiing the pangs of hunger — who 
 are dying of diseases engendered of famine — who are grovelhng 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 consola- 
 tions of religion, the incitements of virtue, the hopes of heaven, any- 
 thing better than miserable and empty sounds, signifying nothing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 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. — Leech- 
 mg a camel. — A Negro ploughman. — A chase and a capture. — Hassan 
 and the Tuarics. — A supply of provisions. — An addition to the party. 
 
 Five days of weary travelling, and the character of the country 
 began to change. The sand-hills no longer lay so heav)' nor so 
 steep ; the desert-thistle began to appear in great abundance, and, 
 farther on, numerous specimens of the acacia, and a tree, bearing an 
 agreeable red fruit, like the cranberry ; tracks of the jackall 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 
 
THE LIMIT OF THE DESERT, 333 
 
 come upon the inhabitants of these parts. God send us a safe de- 
 liverance 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 repUed. You ought to know the 
 Moors too well to take their word for anything. We know that 
 they will lie ; what the Tuarics wiU do, we have yet to learn. The 
 Tuarics are no worse, I'll answer for it, than fifty other nations that 
 we shall have to pass before we reach the end of our journey," 
 
 " Don't ye think, yer honor," said Hugh, after a pause, " it 
 might be as well to fortify ourselves a little, in case of accidents ?" 
 
 " Fortify oiu'selves ! — 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 park in Ireland, 
 or England either, that has a finer taste of venison than this same 
 countiy, and divil the game- keeper within twenty miles of us !" 
 
 " You seem to think of nothing but eating." 
 
 " And with rason, yer honor. Isn't evey man bom to ate a 
 sartain amount in this world ? and haven't I starved so long that I 
 must make my jaws do double duty to make up for lost time ? 
 Sure, I've enousjh to answer for, without laveino- the world with a 
 long account of unaten dinners 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 Uve upon air, nor upon date-stones, baring the leather- 
 skinned beauty we have left behind us. Sure, one chi-istian 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 om* 
 path. Look, your honor, what a nice shade from the hot sun, be- 
 neath this clump of trees ! and here, too, is green herbage for the 
 poor bastes to moisten their mouths with : and see, there is diy 
 sticks enough for a bonfire ! Sure, if ye would move along to the 
 back of that liillock ye could get a shot at those beauties !" 
 
334 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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. Gi\'ing them the strictest orders not to 
 Avander far from the camp, and to keep a good look-out around the 
 homon for Aasiters, I took my gun, and started oflf 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 
 w'indward of them, I crept doAvn slowly towards them, and, by 
 taking advantage of all the little inequalities of the groimd, was en- 
 abled to approach wathin 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, trembUng 
 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, commenced kicking the ground from beneath 
 them, in a succession of wonderfully vigorous and spiteful jimips. 
 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 ef- 
 forts of departing A-itality,) he fell hfeless upon the plain. Under 
 Hugh's energetic superintendence, a large fire was awaiting the re- 
 sult of my expedition. It did not take long to dress the animal, 
 portions of whose carcass were soon roasting, frying, and stewing 
 before a fierce fire of diy sticks. When done, I served up a portion 
 to Kaloolah, upon a platter of fresh leaves, and was exceedingly 
 
A PLEASANT MEAL, 335 
 
 gratified to see her, although endowed with as much real delicacy 
 as any heroine of romance, make a good, soUd, sensible meal, Uke a 
 himgry traveller in reality. 
 
 We had, of com-se, no forks, but, despite the manipular necessi- 
 ties 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 mastication and deglutition, but a little more 
 experience, and there comes to a man the conviction, that women, 
 however angelic, are not wholly spuitual in their natures, and that 
 food is essential to all of the sex, as well as to grandmothers and 
 old maiden aimts. With this conviction, he learns to extract 
 pleasure from what at first gave him pain. The prickle that 
 pierced the tender pappilla of his unsophisticated sensibihty, be- 
 comes 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 wreath, as it were, with cypress and 
 yew the portico of the temple of Love — forbid the burnt-offerings 
 and hbations, and hterally stai've 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 coolness, 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, indi- 
 cating 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 successfully. 
 
 Withdrawing a few yards into the shade of a clump of trees, I 
 took a look at the scene. It was striking and picturesque. Kaloo- 
 lah sat on a piece of carpet at the door of her goat-skin tent be- 
 neath the scanty branches of a scraggy acacia — on either hand at a 
 respectful distance sat my two followers, dressed alike in theh new 
 
336 KALOOLAH. 
 
 moorish garments, with the exception of the tnrban — Hugh having 
 laid his aside; and Jack's twist being a kind of ad libitum perform- 
 ance, 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 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 
 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 Avith unction, and his damp tones, 
 redolent of spoon-drift, fiiirly brought the brme 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 mito a crew 
 
 Of joyous hearts, and free 
 As ever, in a right trim ship, 
 
 Sailed o'er a tropic sea. 
 
THE HURRICANE. 337 
 
 And while he spake, the sun his rays 
 
 Poured down like melted gold, 
 And lazily our gallant bark 
 
 In noou-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 — arid 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, 
 
 WTien sudden through the gloom 
 We heard the whirlwind's awful roar. 
 
 The crashing thunders boom. 
 
 And at the sound the demon blast 
 
 Leapt on our quivering bark, 
 And bore her down till her yard-arras 
 
 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. 
 15 
 
338 KALOOLAH. 
 
 But still on our broadside we lay, 
 
 Amid the wild uproar, 
 And buried deep in showers of drift 
 
 That hurtled fiercely o'er. 
 " Ho I axes for the mizzen-mast," 
 
 Our first lieutenant cries. 
 ♦' Hold on ! Hold on ! One moment hold I" 
 
 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, 
 Slie swiftly flies, with no sail set, 
 
 To urge her on her track. 
 With no sail set — but hark ! that sound ! 
 
 It is the main-course driven 
 
 From out the doubled gasket's gripe 
 
 And into fragrnents riven. 
 
HYENA MUSIC. 839 
 
 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 sohd breakfast, after the same fashion, completed 
 Hugh's plan of fortification, and, mounting, we moved on, prepared 
 for the worst, confident that only with hfe could we be deprived of 
 the alterative and 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 weigh, a party 
 of the gamit, 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 circumstances, 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 
 
340 KALOOLAH. 
 
 attention was aroused by the shouts and gestures of Jack, who had 
 ridden on some 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 oflP, we could hear his 
 stentorian shout of " Water ! water !" and, as we came up, a charm- 
 ing 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 suiface, and far out Avas a mo\-ing object, that 
 we concluded to be a man in a canoe ; he was standing up, but 
 whether paddling or poUng his boat we could not decide. 
 
 We soon stood upon the flat shore, and convinced oui-selves, by 
 copious draughts, that it was no mirage. After satisfying our own 
 appetites, and allowing our camels to drink their fill, it was resolv- 
 ed, unanimously, that we should indulge in the luxxuy of a bath. 
 The propriety of an ablution, m 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 clarifying influences. 
 
 Around a projecting point, covered with thick brushes, lay a 
 beautiful httle bay, which I selected as a bathing spot for Kaloolah, 
 The beach was shelving and sandy, the water shallow, and a sin- 
 gle 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 retiuned to a little knoll 
 that commanded a \ie\v of all the approaches to the spot. Further 
 down the beach, Hugh and Jack had selected a bathing place, and 
 were soon busily engaged in unearthing their long buiied cuticular 
 strata. 
 
 For some time I sat watching the movements of the distant boat- 
 man, who seemed, from his motions, to be spearing fish — or noting 
 
A V18JT FU( M A CKOCODILE. 341 
 
 the manoeuvres of the vast squadrons of Avater-fowl — or gazing at 
 the odoi"Ous, and infinite])" varied beauties of the lotus fields, that 
 lay basking in the full sun upon the surfiice 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 roimd her limbs, and someAvhat impeded her 
 movements, but stiU 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 adnaire her graceful paces, I rushed to the 
 shore, and soon ascertained the cause of her alarm. As I came in 
 sight, Kaloolah herself turned, and finding herself, as the phrase is, 
 "more frightened than hm't," 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 unioerceived, 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 lonCT, 
 the splashing that incontinently took place may be more easily 
 imagined than described. Kaloolah seemed to enjoy the terrors of 
 this novel aquatic combat, for, although 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 retaming 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 industri- 
 ously paddled himself off into deep water. The haick was of 
 course somewhat injm-ed in the contest, having numerous marks of 
 the monster's teeth, but as Hiigh obsen^ed, " It was such a blessing 
 that Kaloolah's body was not wrapped in it when the marks were 
 
342 KALOOLAH. 
 
 made," that the injury to the gannent could hardly be considered 
 a matter of regret. 
 
 It was now my tuni to bathe, so intrusting Kaloolah to the ward 
 of Hugh and Jack, I sought a retu-ed 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 remoimt, Jack made a characteristic propo- 
 sition. 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 propose ?" 
 
 " Why, surely," he replied, "we shall be able to find something 
 that we can make a raft of at least. Or, why couldn'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 na^agable 
 river, and that it could be nothing more than the marshy terminus 
 of a few short water coiirses from the distant hills, to convince him 
 that his proposition was impracticable. " The boat you see yon- 
 der," 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 feAv days it is quite probable that 
 the whole lake will disappear " 
 
 " In which case," interposed Hugh, " we shall cut a mighty 
 quare figure, all ileganlly 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 heme 
 began to give symptoms of uneasiness. He tui'ned his head about, 
 and champed his teeth as if in pain, and at length blood was ob- 
 served to issue from his mouth. Our alarm may be imagined; a 
 worse accident coiild hardly befall us than that one of our beasts 
 should give out. We held an anxious consultation. At last I be- 
 
A NEGRO PLOUGHMAN. 343 
 
 thought me of makbg a close examination, and endeavoring to as- 
 cei-tain the cause and nature of the complaint, and commencing with 
 his mouth, our investigations were at once rewarded with success. 
 
 " I see him ! I see him !" exclaimed Hugh, and suiting the ac- 
 tion to the word, he plucked from beneath the heme'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 trian- 
 gular disposition of our forces was the best we could adopt to 
 guard agamst surprise, and to command an extensive view of the 
 country, which, as we advanced, became more and more irreo-ular 
 in its surface, and more thickly dotted with trees. 
 
 We moved on for about half an hour, when suddenly Jack stop- 
 ped, and upon coming up to him, he pointed to the tracks of men 
 and camels. The tracks were numerous, and of different acres, 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 ar- 
 rested 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 kneelmg camel, creep cautiously along to 
 the typ of the ridge. In a moment he retiu-ned and made mo- 
 tions to us to join him. Upon coming 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 discovered a black man 
 ploughing in the field beyond. As he spoke a loud shout came 
 over the crest of the ridge. I at once dismoimted, and crept 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 cot- 
 ton tied round his loins. He was engaged in lazily turning up the 
 thin soil for a crop of some kind of grain. A crooked stick of tim- 
 ber cut from the body, and one of the branches of a small tree. 
 
344 KALOOLAH. 
 
 answered for a plough ; to tliis rude instrument 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 tlian two or three inches deep. It was evident 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 heuie, 
 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 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 as- 
 sume 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 
 m Tuaric he answered readily, and upon assurance that we wanted 
 nothing of him but a little infoimation in relation to the country, 
 he laid aside his fears and became quite communicative. 
 
 He informed us that we were about six days' journey east of 
 Timbuctoo, and that we were clear of the desert, and just upon the 
 edge of a country inhabited by Tuarics, but that at present njpst of 
 the men were away, engaged in an attack upon a large negro town 
 in the south-west, the inhabitants of which had refused to pay the 
 customary tribute. We could not have arrived at a moi-e 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 
 favilt. We were a little further east from Timbuctoo tlian by my 
 estimation, but that might be explained upon the ground of the 
 strong probability that tlie city is situated at a less distance from 
 l-he ocean than is generally indicated upon the maps. At any rate, 
 
A SUPPLY OF PROVISIONS. 345 
 
 we were just where I wished to be, and so near to our estimated po- 
 sition, as to warrant a very comfortable degree of confidence in the 
 correctness of my dead reckoning for the futm-e. 
 
 The negro informed us that Agades, a large caravan station, was 
 due west of us, from whence a frequent communication was kept 
 Tip with Sackatoo, the great capital of Housa, and with the flourish- 
 ing city of Kano, \nsited and described by Captain Clapperton. 
 Our informant seemed to vmderstand the country well. He told us 
 that he belonged to a tribe of Kerdies, or Kaffirs, inhabiting a chain 
 of hills in the south of Mandara ; that he had been captured, and 
 taken from place to place imtil he reached Kano, where he hved for 
 three or four years, until purchased 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 coiu-se we should get clear 
 of the Tuaric country in three days, and that when once among the 
 negi'oes, travelling would be comparatively safe, and that it would 
 be easy to fall into some of the Kaffila tracks leading to Sackatoo. 
 In reply to questions about a guide, he shook his head, and inti- 
 mated 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 pos- 
 sible, giving a wide berth to any Tuaric village we might encoimter, 
 for, although the wamors 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 en- 
 camp in the hollow and keep out of sight, he would go and get 
 •••ome provision and ivtm-n in the course of the night. As an earnest 
 
 his intention, he insisted upon milking his cows into our bowl, 
 
 15* 
 
346 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and giving us a good draught 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 om* camels and preparing to en- 
 camp, while the negro, who gave his name as Hassan Haboo, un- 
 yoked 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 re- 
 solved 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 sovmd of footsteps. By putting my 
 ear close to the ground I coidd 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. De- 
 scending into the hollow the stranger halted, appar-ently 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 fm'ther 
 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 rhomboidal 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 fii-e, carefidly baisting them the while with butter and 
 flavoring them with salt and the bruised seeds of a species of pun- 
 gent 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 objected that we could not find our way in the dark, he an- 
 nounced his determination to act as a guide. To all oiu- questions 
 
AN ADDITION TO THE PARTY. 347 
 
 his replies were vague and iudetinite, but still there was something 
 in his manner — an an- of sincerity, and an unafiected expression of 
 uneasiness and fear that compelled 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 move- 
 ments. 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, came, noiseless, but with a capacity and 
 a longing for sound, until catching the echoes of our footsteps it 
 bore them murmming 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 oiu' 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 tlie 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 plain ; it is 
 singular that the fellow evinces yet no disposition to leave us. At 
 that moment the idea occui'red 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 wlien he 
 found that we were going in the direction of his coimtry, he had made 
 up his mind on the spot to go with ixs. 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 we would be beyond reach. 
 
 "Do with me as you please," he continued, taking my hand 
 
348 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and putting it upon 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 runnino- some risk for, so we determined, without much 
 hesitation, to enlist him into our ranks, and to accept his supply of 
 provisions without inquiring too curiously Avhether he had been 
 fully justified in steahng them or not. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 The editor here takes the liberty of suppressing six long chap- 
 ters of Mr. Romer's manuscript, which are devoted to a description 
 of the journey through the negro countries that lie between the 
 northern frontiers of Houssa and the extreme southern boundary 
 of Mandara. He does so, not because they are not sufficiently in- 
 teresting to his taste, but because they would make the woi'k too 
 long for the general reader, and because they are not essential to 
 the current of the story. To the curious in the geography of cen- 
 tral Africa, some apology would be perhaps due, were it not that 
 the omitted portion, like the rest of tlie book, is occupied mainly 
 with details of personal adventure ; and that it adds nothing of any 
 material importance to the information already furnished us by the 
 travels of Clapperton, Lang, Denman, Cillie and Lander. It will be 
 seen by the concluding remarks of Mr. Romer's manuscript that he 
 intends to supply this deficiency by a further work upon the 
 geography, ethnology, botany and geology of his present resi- 
 dence, and of some of the most interesting negro countries that he 
 passed. Should that work ever come to hand it will of course 
 
SACKATOO. 349 
 
 obviate any objections to the liberty tliat the Editor has taken. 
 Shovdd it not, why then in a second edition, perhaps ; should a 
 second edition be called for, the suppressed chapters may be re- 
 stored. In the meantime the editor cannot doubt that the public 
 will be fully as well satisfied to be hurried over a long and com- 
 paratively monotonous journey, and safely landed upon the boun- 
 dary of that vast, unknown region into which the travellers, m the 
 commencement of the next chapter, are about to enter. A few 
 words will answer for this editorial hop, skip and jump. 
 
 Owing to the fortunate circumstance of the absence of the 
 greater portion of the Tuaric population; and the rapidity with 
 which our travellers moved, they met with no obstacles and en- 
 countered no dangers except those arising from the natural fea- 
 tures of the country, and the immense quantities of wild animals 
 with which it abounds. Stopping at a little town called Dirkim, 
 they succeeded in exchanging their camels for four fine horses, and 
 a couple of mules to carry their baggage. From this place they 
 went on, under a succession of guides, until they reached the great 
 city of Sackatoo, which place they entered on the thutieth day 
 after leaving the desert. Twenty days of the time having been 
 days of travel, would make the distance about four hundred miles. 
 
 This city is the capital of the Fellatah dominions, as is generally 
 known from the accounts of Captain Clapperton, who describes it as 
 being one of the most populous towns he had seen. It stands upon 
 a high ridge which slopes towards the north, is compactly built, 
 and surroimded by a high wall. " The dwellings of the principal 
 people are flat-roofed, in the Moorish style, and are furnished with 
 numerous water-spouts of baked clay, which, projecting from the 
 eaves, resemble at first sight a tier of guns. The inhabitants are 
 principally Fellatahs, who have numerous slaves. Such of the 
 latter as are not employed in domestic duties reside in houses by 
 themselves, where they follow various trades, the master of course 
 reaping the profit. Their usual employments are wea\ing, house- 
 building, shoe-making, and iron work. Those employed in raising 
 
350 KALOOLAH, 
 
 grain and tending cattle, of which the Fellatah's have immense 
 herds, reside in viUages without the city." A large socco or mar- 
 ket-place occupies the centre of the city. Here are bought and 
 sold a variety of articles, consisting chiefly of blue tobes manufac- 
 tured by the slaves from NifFee, who are esteemed the most expert 
 weavers and spinners in Africa, calico and woollen cloths, with 
 brass and crockery, and iron wares, which find their way from the 
 Atlantic coast, and from the gulf of Benin up the Niger. From 
 Tripoli, and other places north of the desert, the Arab traders bring 
 unwrought silk, spices, beads, coral, amber, small mirrors ; and from 
 the salt mines of the desert the Tuarics bring the only supplies of 
 that precious mineral. 
 
 The arrival of our travellers excited no particular attention. 
 They were taken for a party of floors, and, after paying a moderate 
 duty upon their goods, were allowed to take up their quarters in 
 the house of a negro woman who kept a fonda^, or inn, for the ac- 
 commodation of travellers. Here they had apartments, and stabling 
 for their horses, but were compelled to send out for their meals. 
 They found the markets well supplied with a variety of fruits, 
 vegetables, and meats of an excellent quahty. Milk, butter and 
 honey abounded, with plenty of fine bread and beef, and an abun- 
 dant supply of excellent fish. 
 
 The day after their anival Mr. Romer, with Hugh and Hassan, 
 went into the market. The large square was crowded with buyers 
 and sellers, and their beasts. Immense droves of camels, some 
 kneeling and some standing upon three legs beside their loads upon 
 the ground, great numbers of horses and mules, and crowds of 
 asses with pack-saddles almost as large as their bodies, were hud- 
 dled together in apparent confusion, yet with some degree of order, 
 which was preserved with difficulty by officers armed with long 
 whips. Certain portions of the socco were allotted to particular 
 kinds of merchandise. At one part were arranged gangs of naked 
 slaves ; in another were piles of salt ; in another, sacks of graui, 
 donkey-loads of firewood, or the more valuable goods of the 
 
SOCCO OF SACKATOO. 351 
 
 Moorish traders. The crowd was made up of men of almost 
 every nation and tribe : copper-skinned Fellatahs, tall, keen-eyed 
 Tuarics, thick-lipped Mandingo merchants, Bedouins from the 
 desert, and Moors from Barbary, with an infinite variety of slaves 
 from all quarters of the interior, pushed and hustled then* way 
 about, with an air of eagerness and energy that would have done 
 honor to any exhibition of the money-getting spirit in a christian 
 community. From all sides arose the din of human voices engaged 
 in the general melee of traffic. Loud-mouthed criers moved about 
 through the crowds, holding up their goods above their heads and 
 vociferating the bids as they were made. Several horse -jockeys, 
 mounted upon the horses they were selling, were continually riding 
 through the socco and the neighboring streets, shouting with sten- 
 torian voices as they passed, their praises of the animal, and the last 
 price that had been offered for him. 
 
 Without difficulty Mr. Romer succeeded in disposing of certain 
 portions of his goods, at a very advantageous rate, taking, in part 
 payment, a quantity of cowrie-shells, which, further south, are the 
 current coin of the country, and purchasing three ]\Ioorish muskets, 
 with very long bari'els, and with stocks curiously inlaid with pieces 
 of ivory. The great length of barrel in this kind of gun is ad- 
 mirably suited to the coarse-grained and slow-burning powdei- of 
 the Moors, and enables it to throw a ball to an immense distance. 
 At first, Hassan was somewhat afraid of his weapon, and could with 
 difficulty be persuaded to fire it ; but he soon got rid of his fears, 
 and then could hardly be kept from blazing away at every object 
 that crossed his path. With a string of Arabic charms round his 
 waist, a Negro fetish hanging from his neck, and the white man's 
 sammer flack, or lightnmg-stick, in his hand, he felt himself thrice 
 armed — trebly panoplied, as it were, in the, to his mind, typical re- 
 presentatives of the spirit and essence of the three great religions, 
 Paganism, Mahommedanism and Christianity. 
 
 Among the females exposed for sale in the slave-market, there 
 was one young, bright-eyed Negress, whose looks pleased our ad- 
 
352 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ventui-er so much that he purcha.sed her, although at a high price, 
 for an attendant upon Kaloolah. Her name was Clefenha, and she 
 proved a very useful acquisition to the party. 
 
 The market of Sackatoo afforded an admirable opportunity of 
 renewing the wardrobe of Kaloolah, of which Mr. Romer gladly 
 availed himself. It is pretty evident that he had a taste for the 
 picturesque ; it is pretty evident, also, although he says but little of 
 his feelings towards Kaloolah, that he was deeply impressed with a 
 full sense of her manifold charms. It is not surprising, therefore, 
 that he should take pleasure in decking her out, in garments belter 
 befitting her rank, her beauty, and the place she held in his affections. 
 When in full travelling toilet, her dress — aU of which was obtained, 
 ready-made, in the market — consisted of a closely-fitting shirt of 
 fine Unen, the collar of which was worked with small buttons of 
 variegated snail-shells, and turned over a silk cord and tassels ; a 
 pair of trowsers, of bright blue cotton, cut full, and gathered about 
 the ankle in the Turkish style ; over these came a garment of deep 
 blue sUk, much like a Spanish shirt, or a blouse — it was open at the 
 breast, and from the elbow down to the wrist, and across these 
 openings were laced cords of yellow silk ; the collar and breast 
 were liberally worked with gold-tlii-ead and beads ; a sash of scar- 
 let silk confined this garment closely to the waist. For a head- 
 dress, she had a small, red, Fez cap, with a tassel. In the process 
 of fulhng — in which the Moors of Fez and Morocco, are exceedingly 
 skilful — the lower edge had been thickened mto a kind of brim ; 
 around this was fastened a veil of green crape, m such a manner as 
 to make the cap the apex of a hollow cone. When the veil was 
 down, it completely enveloped the head and shoulders before and 
 behind ; when rolled up and looped in front, it made a graceful 
 drapery, that fell adown the back from either shoulder. Her feet 
 were encased in a kind of buskin, made of morocco, which had been 
 dyed a brilhant yellow with the i-ind of the pomegranate. A gray 
 Avoollen outside garment, not unlike a clergyman's gown, cornploted 
 her attire. It came down to the ground, was fiu-nished with large 
 
DEPARTURE FOR KANO. 353 
 
 loose sleeves and a hood, that folded back, like a cape : in front of the 
 sleeves were slits, tlirough which the arms could be passed, and 
 thus enable the gown, sleeves and all, to fall almost wholly behind 
 the figiu-e. The texture was of the finest kind, and so closely woven 
 as to be almost impervious to water. 
 
 The Editor has particularized each article of Kaloolah's dress in 
 justice to the author, who dwells upon the subject at great length, 
 and with pecuhar gout, dilating upon the general effect, and specu- 
 lating upon the sensation that would be excited in New- York upon 
 the first mtroduction of the Kaloolah toilet, or the mode d la Sac- 
 katoo, with a degree of unction that would seem to indicate that, 
 while walking the hospitals, he had occasionally taken a promenade 
 in Broadway, and that single and double-headed rollers, many-tailed 
 and T bandages, were not the only articles of dress that had come 
 under his observation. 
 
 Upon leaving Sackatoo, our travellei's, in company with a large 
 party of traders, took the road to Kano. From this place they pur- 
 sued a south-eastern course, passing a good many small tribes and 
 nations, whose names were never before heard by a christian ear, 
 notwithstanding the active, although generally round-about, com- 
 mercial communication of almost all parts of the interior with the 
 great centres of trade. The incidental notices, in our Author's 
 manuscript, fully confirm what has been supposed, from the obser- 
 vations of other travellers, that the spirit of trade has developed 
 itself, in a remarkable mamier, thi-ougliout the wliole of Negro-land, 
 and that nothing but the intestine contests, wholly occasioned by 
 the slave-trade, prevents travelling and trafficing from being as safe 
 as in any Christian country. 
 
 It was full four months from the time of their departure from 
 Sackatoo, before they reached the Kerdie country, to the south of 
 Dah Koollah. Here they found an agreeable change in the charac- 
 ter of the country ; vegetation began to be even richer and more 
 luximant ; the surface more hilly and undulating ; the streams more 
 rapid and clear, and the scenery bolder and more picturesque. Dis- 
 
354 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tant mountciin peaks, the lofty summits of the Djebcl el Kumri, or 
 Mountams of the Aioon, peered one above the other in the south- 
 east, and as they ad\-anccd it was evident they were ascending the 
 gently inclined side of an elevated plateau. The inhabitants that 
 they encountered were Kaflirs, or Kerdies ; that is, Pagans, living in 
 huts, generally occupying the summits of the hills, who, as soon as 
 they found the travellers were not slave-hunters, received them 
 kindly, and furnished them Avith pro^'isions and guides. 
 
 There was every indication now of speedily reaching the border 
 of Framazugda, which, according to the best information they could 
 procure, was not more than three or four hundred miles off. This 
 distance, to people who had already travelled two thousand miles, 
 seemed short. Already they fancied they could see its mountain- 
 peaks, and with hearts full of joy and hope they were pressing on, 
 when their course was arrested by a broad and rapid river. Upon 
 the banks of this stream they had to remain a week, in order to 
 construct a raft on which to cross. While here, Jonathan and Ka- 
 loolah met with an adventtire which came near putting an unhappy 
 end to their travels. But, from this point, w^e must let our Author 
 speak for himself. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 Forest sights aud sounds. — Kaloolah's feelings. — The great river. — A fine pros- 
 pect. — The froulbell. — A strong camp. — Constructing a raft — ^A stroll in 
 the forest. — A lion in the path. — The boa. — Crossing the Yah'nel nebbe. 
 
 For a long time had we pursued our way thiough the sombre 
 forest, all silent — subdued in spirit, and disposed to bow reveren- 
 tially to receive the blessing which the religious old trees, with 
 
FOREST SIGHTS Ax\D SOUNDS. 355 
 
 outstretched arms seemed invoking upon our heads. From all 
 sides arose curious and hoiiid noises, that, like the grotesque grin- 
 ning faces of gothic architectui'e, seiTed only to increase the per- 
 vading solemnity — the screeching of parrots, paroquets and an 
 infinite variety of birds unknown to natui'ahsts even by name ; the 
 chattering 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, nisthng 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 tliinking of?" I de- 
 manded. 
 
 " I am not thinking," replied Kaloolah, " I am only feeling." 
 
 "And how are you feeling, pray?" 
 
 " As I did once Avhen I stood in the inner hall of the great 
 mound temple of Kiloam. There, however, all was silence — with 
 nothing to distm'b 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 startled by such terrible sights and sounds — so strange, 
 yet so familiar — familiar, yet none the less horrible. They do not 
 frighten me so much 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 throuo-h this 
 
 o O 
 
 wood. WeU, 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 
 
35C KALOOLAH. 
 
 banks. There lay the broad stream, some fifty or sixty feet beneath 
 us, and beyond it a vast expanse of open, rolling coimtry, dotted 
 with clumps of trees, and undulating with rounded hills, through 
 which opened up long vistas of sm-passing beauty. In the middle 
 ground the hills grew more varied in then- forms, and more abrupt, 
 serving to link, by an easy transition, the milder beauty of the 
 river's bank with the lofty grandeur of a chain of towering moun- 
 tains in the back ground. 
 
 From the foot of the bank upon wliich 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 extended as far up and down as the 
 eye could reach. Gigantic flowering creepers, splendid specimens 
 of the rock huofffino- ceres, and 'a masfnificent flower, like a morning 
 glory, but as large as a man's hat, and of a brilliant blue and gold, 
 covered and concealed the angular points and rough projections of 
 the chflfs. Among these, as in the forest we had passed, rebelled a 
 thousand different kinds of bu'ds 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 Ka- 
 loolah clapped her hands at the sight of, and called the hhikapal, 
 or gem-bird. Around its head and neck were httle tufts of plumage 
 of difterent hues, that reflected the sunlight as brightly as a bril- 
 liant 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 
 coi-selet of diamonds, rubies and opals. Here, too, floated several 
 specimens of i\\e froulhell, 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 
 
THE FKOULBELT.. 357 
 
 lightness of this large mass of plumage in which the little body of 
 the bird is concealed. The finest feathers of the ostrich, or the bird 
 of paradise, are coarse in comparison. The outer extremity of each 
 feather is of a pm-e wliite, but towards the body glow the brightest 
 hues of green, blue, pm-ple and gold, so that the wind, parting the 
 masses of graceful plumage as the bu'd floats slowly along, reveals 
 each moment new combinations of color to the delighted eye. Bui 
 not the least cmious part of the fi-oulbell's structure is the ma 
 chinery with which, in the absence of wings, it is furnished foi 
 locomotion. The bill is simply a tube, open at both ends, and ex- 
 tending directly through the head, so that one orifice is directly in 
 front, the oLher behind. From the middle of this tube, or from 
 the top of the head, rises a hollow, cartilaginous globe, capable of 
 expansion and contraction ; 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 alter- 
 nate 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 of small insects 
 and animalculte, which, when sucked into the globe, are retamed 
 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-hke 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 ecstacies 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 ques- 
 tioned our two ajuides, but they were firm in the assertion that we 
 
358 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 ap- 
 peared 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 jagged, 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 afforded a full defence towards the land. 
 The area of the peninsvila was just sufficient to accommodate our 
 party, beasts and all. Here we picketed our steeds, pitched Ka- 
 loolah'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 description, we should perhaps have been disturbed by the 
 loud whinning and plashing of the crocodile, the deep breathing 
 and floundering of the hippopotamus, the bark of the jackall and 
 hyena, or the thimdering roar of the lion that occasionally rever- 
 berated along tlie cliffs, startling for a while to silence the inferior 
 beasts. We slept, however, Avith an unusual feeling of security. 
 Our position was a strong one, in fact perfectly impregnable — a 
 real little Gibraltar of an encampment to our proAvling and growl- 
 ing 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 al- 
 
CONSTRUCTING A RAFT. 359 
 
 though decayed near the roots, so as to expose its holloAv-hearted- 
 ness, it stUl 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 foiu* lengths, with any way of stop- 
 ping 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 Ave shall need lashing to hold the pieces together, you shall 
 manufactiu-e the necessary rope out of the skins that I will furnish, 
 and Hugh shall superintend 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 simset 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. 
 
 It was early on the morning of the sixth, that, accompanied by 
 Kaloolah and the lively 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 oiu- camp. At this point the hne of the bank cun^ed to- 
 wards the river so as to make a beetling promontory of a hundred 
 feet perpendicular descent. The gigantic trees grew quite on the 
 brink, many of them throwing their long arms far over tlie shore 
 below. The trees generally grew wide apart, and there was little 
 
360 KALOOLAH. 
 
 or no underwood, but many of the trunks were wreathed with the 
 verdure of }Darasites and creepers so as to shut up, mostly, tlie 
 forest vistas with 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 un- 
 frequently, 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, 
 embracmo- several trees in its folds, mat them tocjether 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 coidd 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 
 gathering, 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 broad daylight that poured down from above on flood and field. 
 There was the same bright smile on the distant fields and hills ; the 
 same clear sheen m 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. Coimtless herds of animals, composed 
 of quaggas, zebras, gnus, antelopes, hart-beasts, roeboks, spring- 
 boks, 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 but rapid pace, across the plain. 
 
A LION IN THE PATH. 361 
 
 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 further 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 httle promontory 
 I have mentioned, where her maid was standing, and pointed to 
 something over the edge of the cliff. 
 
 " Oh, Jon'than I"' she exclaimed, "what a curious and beautiful 
 flower ! Come, and trj' if you can get it for me I" 
 
 Advancing to the crest of the cliff, we stood looking doAvn its 
 precipitous sides to a point some twenty feet below, where grew a 
 bunch of mid honeysuckles. Suddenly a startling noise, like the 
 roar of thunder, or Uke the boom of a thirty-two pounder, rolled 
 through the wood, fairly shaking the sturdy trees, and hterally 
 making the ground quiver beneath our feet. Again it came, that 
 appalling and indescribably awfiil sound ! and so close as to com- 
 pletely stun us. Roar upon roar, in quick succession, now an- 
 nounced the coming of the king of beasts. " The lion ! the Hon ! — 
 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 crouclung his 
 huge carcass close to the ground, uttered a few deep snuffling 
 sounds, not unlike the prehminary 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 
 specimen 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 capacity and the disposition for evil of a 
 dozen thunder-storms into a round globe, about two feet in diarae- 
 
362 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ter, and one would then be able to get an idea of the terrible ex- 
 pression 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 gimis, 
 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 wrinkles, in the centre of which 
 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 satis- 
 fied with the result of his close scrutmy, he began to shde 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 hke the falling of heavy clods upon a cofl&n. 
 There could be no doubt of his intention to charge us, when near 
 enough for a spring. 
 
 And was there no hope ? Xot the slightest, at least for myself. 
 It was barely po.ssible that one victim would satisfy him, or that, in 
 the contest that was about to take place, I might, if he did not kill 
 me at the first blow, so woimd him as to indispose him for any fur- 
 ther exercise of his power, and that thus Kaloolah would escape. 
 As for me, I felt that my time had come. With no weapon but 
 mj'^ 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 impossi- 
 ble 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 stretched out her hand, as if to pull me back. Behind her 
 crouched the black, whose features were contracted into the awful 
 
A LION IN THE PATH. 863 
 
 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 intimated to Kaloolah that the lion would, probably, be satisfied 
 with attacking me ; that she must run by us as soon as he sprang 
 upon me, and, retiu-ning 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 tmned towards him, and my left arm raised, to guard as 
 much as possible against the first crushing blow of his paw. Far- 
 ther 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 mus- 
 cles ; 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. 
 
 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 con- 
 viction of the immediate inevitableness of death that represses fear ; 
 we are then compelled to take a better look at the king of terrors, 
 and we fiiid 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 life. 
 
 I had time to think of many things, although it must not be 
 supposed, from the leisurely Avay 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 
 
864 KALOOLAH. 
 
 path by a woodman's axe ; and ahead ! ah, there was not much to 
 see ahead ! 'Twas 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, deatli 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 vip muscular energy within : " He has shut 
 the steam 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 Ka- 
 loolah rushed past me : " Fly, fly, Jon'than !" she wildly exclaimed, 
 as she dashed forward directly towards the lion. Quick as thought, 
 I divmed 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, crouching 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. 
 
 " 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!" 'Twas no time for gentleness. Roughly- 
 shaking her relaxing gi-asp 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. 
 
THE BOA. 365 
 
 He WHS in the very act of springing ! His huge carcass was 
 even risuig 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 per- 
 fect 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 suddenly quitted the canopy above, 
 and, endowed with life and a huge pair of widely distended jaws, 
 had darted w"ith the rapidity of lightning upon the crouching beast. 
 There was a tremendous shaking of the ti"ee 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, appeared 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 through- 
 out the woods. It was the presence of the boa that had frightened 
 the monkey and feathered tribes into silence. How opportunely 
 was his presence manifested to us ! A moment more, and it woidd 
 have been too late. 
 
 Gallantly did the lion struggle in the folds of his terrible enemy, 
 whose grasp each mstant grew more firm and secure, and most as- 
 tounding 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 cmious appearances, and in such 
 qmck succession that the eye could scarcely follow them. At one 
 moment smooth and flexile, at the next rough and " stiflened, or 
 contracted into great knots — at one moment overspread with a 
 thousand tints of reflected color, the next distended so as to trans- 
 
366 KALOOLAH. 
 
 mit, through the skin, the golden gleams of the animal lightning that 
 coursed up and do\vn within. 
 
 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 deep moan, 
 his tongue protruded from his mouth, and his fetid breath mingled 
 •with a strong, sickly odor from the serpent, diffused itseK 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 ne- 
 gress insensible upon the groimd a few paces behind her. A sen- 
 sation 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, 
 
 Dai'ting 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 huiTy. Tlie recovery of my gun altered 
 the state of the case, and my curiosity was excited to witness the 
 process 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 steppmg up closer to the animals for one good 
 look, I reluctantly consented to turn back. 
 
 The Hon was quite dead, and, with a slow motion the snake 
 was uncoiling 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 of Regulus had its famous bat- 
 tle, 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 
 
CROSSING THE YAH'NIL NEBBE. 367 
 
 meal. Had I been alone I should have done so. As it was, curi- 
 oshy had to yield to my own sense of prudence, and to Kaloolah's 
 fears. ' 
 
 We returned to om* camp, where we foimd our raft all ready. 
 The river was fully half a mile wide, and it was necessary to make 
 two trips ; the first with the Avomen and baggage, and the last 
 with the horses. It is umiecessary 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 sup- 
 per and a good night's sleep, and early in the morning resumed 
 our march through the most enchanting country in the world. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Beyond the Yah'nil nebbe. — An alarmed town. — An expressive pantomime. — 
 A friendly reception. — The Matcham. — Habits versus principles. — A 
 Kyptily breakfast. — The town of Soconale. — The Matcham's foreign 
 relations. — Departure from Soeonale. 
 
 The first day there appeared no signs of human life. Countless 
 herds of wild animals roamed over the plains. Sometimes we were 
 completely sun-omided, as far as the eye could extend, with herds 
 of quagas, gnus, antelopes of five or si.'c different species, buffalos, 
 wild boars, giraffes, ostriches and elephants. Each moment as Ave 
 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. Tlie 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 
 
3G8 KALOOLAH. 
 
 dangerous, and repeatedly we liad 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, thi'ough which mean- 
 dered a shallow tributary of the YaKnil nebbe, the great river that 
 we had just crossed. The scenery along its banks Avas singularly pic- 
 turesque and imposing. Sometimes the valley spread itself out so as 
 to leave a space for fertile savannahs along the ri\^er's banks, where 
 grew clumps of palms, with a pecidiar variety of the Boabab, and 
 a tree that I took to be a species of the Indian Banian. Nume- 
 rous fruit-bearing trees were scattered about ; one of them pro- 
 ducing a fruit like a large green-gage, but without a seed stone. 
 The flavor Ayas 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 
 margaux and a taste resembling champagne punch. It was pre- 
 cisely similar in its effects to the latter drink. Luckily we were 
 cautioned in time by Kaloolah, and indulged no further than to a 
 little pleasant elevation of the spirits. 
 
 The fifth day we got sight of several stone huts erected upon 
 the jutting promontory of rock that overlooked the level savannah. 
 The inhabitants 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 ap- 
 proach 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 e.xcited their alarm. 
 
AN EXPRESiSlVE PANTOMIME. SQ9 
 
 We were now thinking about encampmg for the night when 
 Hugh rode up and informed us that just beyond a thicket of aca- 
 cias he had discovered 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 be- 
 yond 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, gaUoping 
 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 flou- 
 rished over their heads with furious gestures and cries, intended to 
 intimidate us and encourage themselves. It is to be hoped that 
 they succeeded better in doing the last than they did m their at- 
 tempts at the first. 
 
 Halting at a proper distance, I directed Hassan to ride forward 
 and make signals of fiiendship to them. He advanced until withm 
 a bow-shot, when he dismounted, and laying his gun upon tiie 
 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 gesticulations recommenced, and, the 
 arrows beginning to fall about him, Hassan was compelled to make 
 a rapid retreat. 
 
 " It is clear enough they don't Uke 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." 
 
 Dismounting and taking the emblem of peace in his hand, he 
 went forward on foot. Arrived to within a proper distance, he com- 
 menced a long oration in the language of sign&. There was a co- 
 piousness and profusion of imageiy in Jack's style that would have 
 made his fortune in pantomime. It had its effect upon the inhabi- 
 
SVO KALOOLAH. 
 
 tants of the toAvn. 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 tnie quarter-deck style. 
 
 We were growing a httle impatient at the length of the col- 
 loquy, 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 ^vith 
 a peculiar expression of interest. At this moment Kaloolah threw 
 back her veil. The movement quite dehghted them, seeming to in- 
 spu*e them with confidence in the honesty of om- intentions. " Fra- 
 mazug ! Framazug !" they exclaimed, and two or three running to- 
 wards the gate, which was now partially open, returned with an 
 old man who at once addressed us in the Framazug tonffue. 
 
 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 Fra- 
 mazugs, 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 anything further in relation to the internal affairs of 
 Framazugda, the speaker knew nothing. 
 
 Two dignified personages, armed with whips of bull's-hide, with 
 which they kept back the crowd, now in\ited us, in the name of 
 the MatcJiam, or king of the town, to enter and enjoy the hospi- 
 talities 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 buU's-hide, seemed to act as guards. The king was quite old, 
 and, unlike many of his subjects, was very fat. Oiu* conversation 
 
A KYPTILE BREAKFAST. 371 
 
 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, sun-ounded with a picket fence, in the centre of which 
 stood 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 vnih. 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 tlie thickness of 
 a foot a layer of the freshly hatcheled 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 fii'st two or three nights we were compelled 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 neglected, 
 and that many sensible people, parents and teachers, should confine 
 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 healths, and shortly he himself appeared, followed by two or 
 three servants bearing a fresh supply of provisions. The remains of 
 our supper were removed, and a profusion of good things arranged 
 for breakftist 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 fioiits that no Christian e\er 
 heard of before. In the centre of the table Avas an immense egg- 
 shfll, about a foot in diameter, which, furnished with a rim and 
 feet of gold, answered for a punch- bowl. Into this the Matcham 
 em{)tied the contents of several of the red penduncles of the good 
 
372 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and e^■il 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 en- 
 chanting fragrance was exhaled from the little vermilion, lily-shaped 
 anthers, that far surpassed the mingled perfumes, while it excited 
 the heart-tilling memories, of musk, patchouli and eau de cologne. 
 Following the example of the Matcham, we dipped om* flower-cup 
 into the egg-shell and finished our breakfast by sucking up two or 
 three diaughts of neclar, such as was never oft'ered by Gcmymede 
 to Jove. 
 
 After breakfast we walked out to see the town. There was no- 
 thing, however, of much interest in the view. The houses were all 
 of one story, generally surrounded by a stone fence, and scattered 
 aiound without any regard to regularity, except on the borders of 
 the large avenue which ran from gate to gate. 
 
 The uihabitants 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 aquiUne. Their dress consisted mainly of a loose shirt 
 of linen, confined to the waist with a wooUen sash. Sandals of un- 
 tanned skin protected their feet, and strips of feather-cloth adorned 
 their heads and necks. 
 
 Aftei' our walk we stopped at the palace and were invited to a 
 seat beneath a shady arbor in front of the porch. Several dignita- 
 ries of the court here joined us, while the cmious 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 re- 
 presented the country, between his dominions and Framazugda, to 
 
THE MATCHAAI S FOREIGN RELATIONS. 373 
 
 be thinly inhabited by other tribes of the same people, who all hved 
 in walled to^vns, and who were more or less dependants of the great 
 Sultan Shomise, whose power, however, was inadequate to their 
 protection from the attacks of a very barbarous white people who 
 lived about ten days' joiuney east of his, the Matcham's towns. 
 
 " And what is the name of this people ?" I inquu'ed. 
 
 "They call themselves the Jalla," rephed the king. "They are 
 exceedingly 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 could'nt 
 stand before their gims ; and after fightmg 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 countiy quite to the borders of Framazugda. 
 
 " To the south-west there used to hve 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 Koolla blacks on the 
 north, and the PhoUo 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 oiu* 
 quarters. 
 
 It was nearly a week before the hospitable king and people of 
 Soconale woidd consent to our departure. We were compelled to 
 demand an audience of leave, at which I distributed a quantity of 
 beads, coral and amber, to the difi'erent 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 ^vith an expression of reverence and awe. 
 
374 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 con- 
 sisted 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 animals, 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 
 accompanied us to the banks of a little stream : here our final adieus 
 were exchanged. 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 Kyptiles, and spurred up the steep banks of the 
 ripphng brook. If Framazugda 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 XLI 
 
 The Dj^bel 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. — Plan- 
 ning and ambuscade. — Caught in our own trap. — A charge and repulse. — 
 The Kimboos' revenge. 
 
 Ten days brought us to the base of a lofty chain of mountains — 
 a spur of the Djebel el Kumri, or Lunoe Monies — stretching to the 
 south-west. On either hand the peaks shot up to a veiy great 
 height, and were covered with snow ; but in front of us, to the 
 
SLAVE-HUNTERS ABROAD. 375 
 
 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 meandered throvigh it, and, away in the distance, a 
 broad silver lake gUttered in the noontide sun. This plain, once 
 populous, was now, our guides informed us, almost uninhabited — 
 the Foota Jals having nearly exterminated the Kerdie population. 
 
 At the banks of a large river, flowing in a northerly course, oiu" 
 route turned, due south, into the mountains. A succession of 
 beautifid valleys opened up an easy and pleasant path. As we 
 advanced, we fell upon a broad traQ of men and horses, going 
 south. We followed it for several hours, until we came to the re- 
 mains 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 h\nng beings in sight, 
 but, upon riding up to the top of the hill, upon which the village 
 was buUt, we discovered half-a-dozen bodies, honibly mutilated, 
 and within the huts, the half-roasted remains of several more. 
 The bodies were neither Kyptiles nor jSTegroes, but apparently Mu- 
 lattoes, or a mixed race. 
 
 Thus, then, was confirmed the story Avhich some herdsmen had 
 told us the day before ; that several parties of slave-hunters were 
 abroad. Our Kyptiles were tembly frightened. " We shall all be 
 captured and killed !" exclaimed Sooloo Phar, the captain of our 
 escort, in a verv doleful tone. 
 
 " Silence !" I exclaimed, with a voice and look that made Sooloo 
 almost 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 be- 
 fore their guns?" 
 
376 KALOOLiAH. 
 
 " That, for their guns !" I exclaimed, snapping my fingers with 
 as contemptuous 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 a 
 thousand Footas were in the way ! Ask Mr, Thompson, there — he 
 knows all about guns — what he thinks of turning back, because 
 there is a chance of meeting with a party of slave-himters, armed 
 with their rusty old guns, and powder that won't send a bullet as 
 far as you can throw a long spear ?" 
 
 " My opinion !" rephed 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'll take their guns away, and put plugs in their muz- 
 zles — 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 quizical proposition, when translated, with all gravity, 
 into the language of our friends, seemed to please them mightily, 
 and, added to ray own assurances, restored a degree of confidence, 
 that made them quite willing to push on. There could be no doubt 
 of their natvn-al courage, and their readiness to fight on even tei-ms ; 
 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 oiu* halting-places, our guards would place 
 themselves at some distance, and eyeing them with an air of venera- 
 tion, mutter charms and praj^ers. I almost wished for a brush with 
 a party of slave-hunters, in order to disabuse them of their paralyzing 
 prejudice. 
 
 Upon dismounting, and closely examining the ruins, and the de- 
 caying bodies, it became evident that not more than three days had 
 elapsed since the visit of the Foolas ; and that, consequently, their 
 
A KIMBOO SCOUT. 3l1 
 
 parties had not yet i"eturned from the south, in which dii'ection a 
 a broad ti-ail indicated that they had gone after firing the village. 
 It was necessary to move Avith caution to guard against surprise. 
 Jack, with one of the guides and two other Kyptiles, lead the way ; 
 Hugh and two Kyptiles brought up the rear ; whQe, with Hassan, 
 Kaloolah and the mam body of the army, including the buffaloes 
 and baggage, I occupied the centre. Nor were our flanks neglected. 
 A scout moved along the liver's bank, so as to command 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 soon occmred that proved the value of my pre- 
 cautions. It was gratifying, inasmuch as I was beginning to re- 
 proach 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 romantic display of strategic-generalship, in a 
 remarkably small way. Watching the motions of the scout, who 
 was about a quaiter of a mile from us, on the elevated groimd to 
 our left, and at the base of a sleep range of rocky hills, 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 gulley, 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 wheehng my steed instantly, was, in another 
 jump, right over the crouching body of a man. The poor wretch 
 expected nothing but mstant death. 
 
 He was a tall,- well-made young mulatto, of a light yeUow com- 
 plexion, and with thin hps and prominent nose. His dress consisted 
 of a ragged linen shirt, with the eternal red sash, and around his 
 shoulders some tatters of a robe of bird-skins ; his thick bushy hair 
 was cropped close behind and on the top of his head, but was al- 
 lowed to grow long in front, and to project horizontally, hke a shaggy 
 pent-house, over his eyes — a style of head-dress which, as may be 
 supposed, was decidedly more of the usefid than the ornamental. 
 
378 KALOOLAH. 
 
 When assured that he was among friends, he readily told his 
 story, in the Kyptile tongue, wth which he seemed perfectly fa- 
 miliar. He said that he belonged to the village that we had seen 
 in ruins ; that the Footas had 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 running to the town, were 
 attacked by parties of Foota horsemen, and cut down, in every di- 
 rection, in the fields ; not more than thirty, out of a \-illage of three 
 or four hundred, had made their escape. 
 
 He could give no definite idea of the number of the Footas, but, 
 from 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 liiding behind the bushes for, he re- 
 pUed, 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 Hke a tiger's, and a 
 convulsion of rage and anguish passed over his features ; but his 
 <30imtenance fell, and a melancholy shake of his head was his only 
 reply. 
 
 " Have youi' countrymen no weapons ?" I continued. " Have 
 they no hearts — no coui-age ? Are you all cowards, that you thus 
 suffer your wives and children to be earned off, without resistance ?" 
 
 " We have weapons," he rephed ; " 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 anything, 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." 
 
A CdUNCIL OF WAR. 879 
 
 " Go, then, and collect your countrymen, and bring them to me 
 this evening. I will pitch my camp in that grove, and will wait for 
 you. We'll see if we can't teach these Footas a lesson that they 
 will remember ! Go, bring your friends, and let as many as possi- 
 ble 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 om- camp 
 for the night. 
 
 Two or three hours after dark om- outposts heard and answered 
 the signals agreed upon. Our messenger had collected about forty 
 of his countrymen, one-third of whom were moimted. 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-fii-e burned brightly, and before it, 
 and upon the glowing coals, roasted the carcass of a wild hog, and 
 several specimens of smaller game. It was a pleasure to see our 
 half-starved visiters eat. After their appetites were satisfied, I took 
 then* 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 descrip- 
 tion, I was convinced that it would be just the place for an ambus- 
 cade. The only question was, could we reach it before the Footas 
 should have passed. Tlie strangers assm'ed me that they knew, 
 from the smoke of burning villages, that the enemy were now en- 
 gaged in the valley, beyond the pass, and that, if we pressed for- 
 ward we should be in time to occupy it, as the Footas would, neces- 
 
380 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Sillily, 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," repUed 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, 
 won't you, Jon'than?" 
 
 " Certainly, I shall never be taken alive." 
 
 " And I," replied 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 visiters, that another body of Footas were in 
 our rear, so that there was no tm'ning 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 gmis. 
 
 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 readily understand that, considering the disparity of 
 force in men and weapons, and the important issues at stake, 
 it is no reproach to my coolness 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 uj) and down be- 
 
PliAXNING AM AMBUSCADE. 881 
 
 we the flickering fire, in an oratoi-ical tone that started Hugh and 
 lack from their slumbers, and. which would have brought three 
 •ounds in Tammany Hall, " No ! a prospect of the biggest empire 
 ;hat ever dazzled the vision of blood-stained ambition could add 
 lothing to the interest of a contest when the issues are victory and 
 iberty 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 stait. I see the first blush 
 )f daylight, and the sun, you know, gives short warning in these 
 atitudes." 
 
 The word was spread throughout the camp, and in ten minutes 
 he whole army, now amounting to about sixty- five men was ready 
 o start. A scouting party of our new friends, the Kimboos, led 
 he way. Close behind I followed with a small party of Kyptiles, 
 md at a Uttle distance in the rear came the three guns and the 
 nfantry, cavalry, and baggage in close order. 
 
 The sun had risen a couple of hours when we came to a great 
 )lain, intersected by several streams, and encircled by bold and 
 ofty hills. In shape it resembled an elUpse, our path coirespond- 
 ng to the conjugate diameter, which might be about eight miles, 
 rhe transverse diameter was fully twenty. The sm'face, which ap- 
 jeared quite smooth and level, though we afterwards found some 
 ;onsiderable elevations, was covered with a rich clothing of grass. 
 !^o trees, however, afforded a shelter from the sun, or a cover from 
 m enemy. 
 
 For a few minutes I hesitated about committing my party to 
 he open prauie, and proposed that we should skirt the circle of 
 liUs, where we could, if attacked, make a better defence against the 
 fnemy's cavalry, but the Kimboos assured us that this was impossible 
 )y reason of several deep and impassible ravines which projected 
 ar out into the plain. Our only chance was to take the direct 
 oute along the banks of the river, and to press on so as to reach 
 he pass before the Footas. 
 
 We stopped a few minutes for bi'eakfast, and to water our 
 
KALOOLAH. 
 
 horses, and then, leanng the friendly cover of the trees and rocks, 
 launched out into the open plain. 
 
 While toiling on through the rank herbage, occasionally de- 
 scending into Avater gullies and crossing the beds of several small 
 streams, my eyes 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 flat, and without shelter of any kind. 
 
 It was within about a mile of the rugged liills 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 eyes 
 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 beating high with a hope which was 
 destined to a most cruel disappointment. 
 
 Our advanced 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 ap- 
 peared in sight and galloped down towards us. When within fifty 
 rods they wheeled their horses 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 coxild scatter and run, there was 
 no chance for a successful resistance. The danger was imminent. 
 Fortxmately there was no time lost. My decision was made at once, 
 and, riding back, I gave orders to retreat upon the peninsula already 
 
SQUARE AGAINST CAVALRY. 383 
 
 mentioned, which was a little distance 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 perpendicular to the main river until within a hundred feet, sud- 
 denly turned at right angles, and, running parallel with the river, 
 emptied into it tliree 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 mo\'ing. We could perceive a large 
 party, which was gradually increased in number 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 baggage and our horses. By rolling down the banks a few 
 loose stones, I shortened the breadth of the nan'ow isthmus from 
 one hundred to eighty feet. This line I filled up with a rank of 
 tAventy-five men, making them kneel and present their spears, with 
 the butts resting upon the ground, after the manner of the roAvs 
 of an infantry square. Behind these I placed another rank of 
 twenty-five men, with their long spears projecting over the heads 
 of the fu-st. 
 
 As soon as my men caught the idea, they formed the hues as 
 accurately and a.s 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 fuU speed ; but I knew the necessity of an ap- 
 pearance of coolness to encourage my men, and deliberately pass- 
 ing up and down in front of them, I adjusted the spear heads to 
 their proper elevation. When all was arranged I made a brief ad- 
 dress, to the effect, that if they were perfectly 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 
 
384 KALOOLAH. 
 
 once to the very foundation of discipline, " if you do not stand firm, 
 you see this," showing them une of my pistols, " well, I shall keep 
 it charged, and will blow the brains out of the first man that moves 
 from his position ; 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 hke so many fiends. There were at least a hun- 
 dred and fifty of them, and one-third were armed with muskets. 
 These came first, followed 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 others movements ; but still they kept at full 
 gallop, and for a few minutes I was apprehensive, that, not know- 
 ing their danger, and ignorant that mihtary etiquette requires that 
 cavalry should check their horses in front of a square of infantiy, 
 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 rank beginning to draw reins, while the rear ranks were closing 
 up in great confusion, and forming a fine compact mass of human 
 flesh for my batteries. 
 
 " Oh ! for a long eighteen," exclaimed Jack to his companion, 
 " and a stand or two of grape shot ! " 
 
 " You may say that. There could'nt be a more beautifiil 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 wdiose spear head 
 wavers shall have a bullet through his head !" 
 
 The Footas were now five or six rods oflf, when they simultane- 
 ously brought the butts of their long guns against their breasts and 
 
A CHARGE, 385 
 
 fired, but with a very bad aim, or rather without any aim — many of 
 them who were in the rear lirmg their guns into the air. Tiie balls 
 whistled over our heads, but not a man was struck." 
 
 " See," I exclaimed, " their gims do you no harm. Steady 
 there ! keep m your places and hold your spears firmly ! Recollect 
 the man who stirs from his position or whose spear head wavers, 
 I'll 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 de- 
 liver 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 fur- 
 nished 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 
 movement of the whole mass was 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 !" 
 
 " Fire, then !" 
 
 Bang ! went my throe muskets simultaneously, and at the same 
 instant twanged the bow-strings of Sooloo Phar and his Kvptiles. 
 
 11 
 
386 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Not a shot was thrown away, which, as soon as I saw, I threw 
 in my reserved fire, and knocked over a couple of prominent looking 
 individuals with ostrich plumes in their hair. 
 
 Our guns were dischai-ged 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 
 utmost confusion. They fought and struggled with each other ; 
 horses reared and plunged, and several were forced down the preci- 
 pices on either side. For some minutes they seemed utterly inca- 
 pable of making any properly du-ected efforts to escape, while we con- 
 tinued to pour in our fire with the utmost coolness and precision. 
 At last they got their horses' heads round, and began to make ofi^, 
 many of them severely wounded, and leaving about thhty-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 rider- 
 less 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. 
 
 Givinsf 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 FU 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 
 
THE KTMBOOS' REVENGE. 387 
 
 streamed in a visible streak from the strained eyes and dilated nos- 
 trils of the Kimboos. 
 
 " Ha, ha ! Ha, ha !" laughed the old Kyptile guide and inter- 
 preter, Avho 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'll 
 drink the Foota river up." 
 
 The Footas had separated into several small parties, some of 
 them flying back to their companions vrho 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 om* object to intercept them. Every nerve was strained for 
 that purpose, and it was soon evident that we should succeed. 
 
 We were close to them 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 tliis 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 form- 
 ing my men into close order. Below us were our enemies, appa- 
 rently 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 um-esisting slaughter as that which had just been 
 enacted. 
 
 Tlie Footas were flving like scud in a gale, and the Kimboos 
 
388 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 himdred prisoners, the greater number of 
 whom were women and large children. The smaller children, the 
 sick and the aged, had all been slaughtered by the Footas. Who 
 could wonder at the pertinacity with which the victorious Kimboos 
 kept wheehng 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 XLII, 
 
 A sight for the reader. — Hospitality of the Kyptiles. — A volcano. — A wakeful 
 night. — Kaloolah in tears. — Stories of the guides. — Origin of the Frama- 
 zugs. — The Jiggers. — The Jouacks. — The Serpent-men. — The Jalla. — 
 The Footas. — A snail-field. — A rhinoceros. — The Nourwall. — Garazha. — 
 The captain of the port. — Whamba Donga's town, — A message to the 
 Governor. — Crossing the Nourwall. — A triumphal reception. — The Da- 
 gash. — A new view of Kaloolah. 
 
 Had 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 compeers, served as 
 a beacon to the country for a hundred miles round, he might, per- 
 haps 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, Avould have been, probably, profoundly ignorant of the 
 
HO.SriTALrJ'V OF THE KVI'TILES. 389 
 
 character and objects 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 hun- 
 dred 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 up- 
 on inntation poured in vipon 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. Thro' the night the lightning plavt-d 
 in broad sheets of 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 Noitrwall, a stream separat- 
 ing the Kyptiles from Framazugda. No sleep had A-isited my eyes. 
 an indescribable whirl of emotions had compelled me to pace away 
 the midnight watch in front of om- camp-fije. Hugh and Jack were 
 alike wakeful, and till a late hour were anxiously hstening to the 
 stories told by om- 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 famoxisly, 
 as if in rivahy of the blushing morn, that came bounding along the 
 tops of the hills. I took Kaloolah's hand, and, bidding her good 
 
390 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 ai-m 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 sm-e of his safety, I think that 
 I shoidd weep this morning. Why ? I know not, unless it is be- 
 cause 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. Om* journey has been long 
 and wearisome, and dangerous, but still I do not wish it finished. 
 I could think of nothmg all night but the past, and there were 
 moments when I almost wished that we were back in the desert. 
 But here comes the sun ; heed not my foolish tears, they wUl dry 
 in his beams hke dew on the flowers." 
 
 But despite the enlivening influences of the sun-light, 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 precision and truth. This, however, did not surprise 
 
STORIES OF THE GUIDES, 39X 
 
 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 
 communication kept up between your countrymen and the Frama- 
 zugs ?" 
 
 " The Framazugs do not like the visits of strangers," was the 
 reply. " 'Tis true, that we ai-e now upon good terms, and our 
 people even pay a trifling tribute to the Emperor Shounse as an 
 acknowledgment for the protection that he has aftbrded us against 
 the Jalla; but for many centuries the Kyptiles and Framazugs 
 were bitter enemies. 
 
 " You must know that the Kyptiles came from the north many 
 hundred years ago, but still long after the Framazugs, who, com- 
 ing from the east, across a great water, had taken possession of the 
 coimtry. Om- people displaced a portion of the Framazugs and 
 drove them south into their present country, where the main por- 
 tion of them had taken up then- residence. From that tune there 
 was a constant succession of wars along the borders, which inter- 
 rupted 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 tenns for so long a time ?" 
 
 " They had enemies on eveiy side of them. Away to the south- 
 west 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 hke the wind, and they have wings with which, 
 although they cannot fly, yet, with a man on then- backs, they can 
 skip along over rocks twenty feet high. 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 Ms bird brood upon 
 the ground with outstretched wings and tail, beneath which he and 
 
892 KALOtJLAH. 
 
 his family find shelter. Tiie Jiggers have always been teirible ene- 
 mies to the Fraraazugs. 
 
 " Besides these, there are the Jouaks who inhabit the hills and 
 mountains on the south-east. They are a wild race, who are cover- 
 ed all over with hair, go naked, and fight with clubs. These peo- 
 ple often descend into the plains of the Framazugs, destroy the 
 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 bi'easts, and constantly 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, in- 
 habited by terrible animals, part man and part beasts. 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 mUes round." 
 
 " Then in the north-east, 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, to the borders of the Kyptiles. 'Twas 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 neigh- 
 bors ; for the KoUah and Mendi negroes, armed with hghtning 
 sticks, came upon us from the north, and drove us from the banks 
 of the Yah'nil nebbe, 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 ene- 
 mies." 
 
 " So our people thought ; and, notwithstanding our many wars. 
 
A SNAIL-FIELD. 393 
 
 the Framazugs were very Avilling 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 
 foimtains, and dance, and feast, and bathe. The Jalla and the 
 Koolah made us peaceable, and then came the Footas and made 
 us firm friends. Two or three times the Emperor Shounse 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 mountainous 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 twenty and thirty thousand men into the 
 field, all armed with guns ; and before them the combined forces of 
 the Framazugs, and cm- people, have always been compeEed to fall 
 back. The Footas have continued to advance, imtil 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 then- plundering expeditions. 
 
 For several hours we had been riding through a rough and rocky 
 district, in many places almost bare of vegetation, and apparently 
 destitute of inhabitttnts, 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 snails that covered the stalks of a species 
 of coarse furze. Beyond the plain the ground became low and 
 marsliv, and covered with clumps of mangroves, 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 hoin. We heard the noise of some animals floun- 
 dering and wallowing in the mud among the reeds. 1 supposed 
 
394 KALOOLAH. 
 
 tliera to be hippopotami, but was undeceived by the sudden appear- 
 ance, 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 fijred 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 httle 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 curante air of their profession. Our arrival excited some sen- 
 sation, and in a few minutes the little island was alive with women 
 and children. 
 
 Across the stream (which was about three hvmdred yards broad) 
 the 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 toAvers. The terraced 
 ascent was without trees, or any imevenness 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 oc- 
 cupied 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 raAine, 
 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 
 
GAKAZHA. 395 
 
 indicated the position of a town, whicii, for some reason, had been 
 abandoned. Two 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 acrostohcon of the ancient 
 triremus. These served for ornament, and also answered to suspend 
 an awning of red cotton, that was stretched on a frame-work of 
 reeds. 
 
 We soon opened a commmiication 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 httle surprise when they saw 
 Kaloolah, and heard her speak ; but my appearance and manners 
 seemed to puzzle them the most. It was cuiious to witness the res- 
 pect with which they looked upon our gims — the fii-st 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, however, 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 xmtil the next morning. The idea was not 
 a pleasant one, inasmuch as we should have to encamp upon low 
 flat ground, exposed to the \-isits of the crocodiles and hippopotami 
 of the river, on the one side, and the rhinoceroses 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) mitil they landed, and, draw- 
 ing up then* boat, proceeded beneath the terraces, which began 
 now to be covered with spectators, aromid 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, m two rows, all of them in red 
 shirts, and wide-brimmed, high-peaked, palm-leaf hats. In the 
 
396 KALOULAH. 
 
 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 bm-nished 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 go- 
 vernor, 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 fellow's manner. There was an assumption of superiority that 
 I felt a strong disposition to put down on the first favorable oppor- 
 tunity, 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 demanded. 
 
 " Oh ! no, no ! — impossible !" chorused the whole body of fish- 
 ermen, 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 astonisiied at the outbreak 
 of voices. 
 
 " 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 tlie tools with 
 which they worked were carried over tlie river, to wliere Garazha 
 now is, by sphits. 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 diaboUcal 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 possessit)n of it. Any one who 
 ventures among those riuns after dark is strangled and eaten by 
 Whamba Donga and his imps." 
 
 " More likely by Uons and leopards from the jungle," 1 leplied. 
 " Come : I'm not afraid of Whamba Don<ra. Let us ao and find 
 some snug corner where a single fire will protect us !" But not a 
 
A MESSAGE TO THE GOVERNOR. 39*7 
 
 Kyptile would consent, and, to my utter astonishment, even Huu-h 
 and Jack seemed to think it better to run our chance with the rhi- 
 noceroses and elephants in the open ground, than to provoke the 
 devil by an invasion of premises whicli 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 vmtil 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 se- 
 cure 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 
 official, and backing him with a number of majestic flourishes to his 
 boat, " it is not impossible. We will cross ; back, su-, 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 
 Shounse 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 Killoam in despite of him !" 
 
 The announcement of Kaloolah's birth and rank created no small 
 sensation. Making a low salam, the old Framazug jumped quite 
 nimbly into his boat, and pushed off without sajnng a word. 
 
 It was not long before he reappeared, followed by several large 
 boats. 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 captain's barge. 
 
 On the other side we found quite a crowd, and were received by 
 
398 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 every thing 
 curious and strange, I had been prepared by my long conversations 
 with Kaloolah, her brother, and the Kyptiles ; and that, there- 
 fore, there was nothing, in the universal red, to surprise me, know- 
 ing 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, tui-ning 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 
 machecolated gate- way. 
 
 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 tloated upon the air, 
 startlmg our steeds, and producing in me a degree of " all-overish- 
 ness " that was quite refreshing. 1 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 o-raceful and diunified firmness that I had never 
 before noticed. 
 
 Slowly we moved up a wide straight street, fined on either side 
 with stone houses, which were generally of two stories, and fur- 
 nished with deep receding balconies, and shaded with rows of ma- 
 jestic 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 disgracefully 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 
 
A TRIUMPHAL RECEPTION. 899 
 
 govei'nment of Garazha, for keeping even one street in passable 
 order. 
 
 We arrived at the foot of the hill, upon which was the castle 
 and residence of the governor. A winding road led upward. As 
 we ascended 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, eUiptical 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 Avhich grew the richest 
 flowers, new to me, and exhaling perfumes to which my olfactories 
 were wholly unaccustomed. Several pau's 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 spread- 
 ing the floor with melted asphaltum, and then dotting it with va- 
 riously 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 sim. At the upper end of the room, beneath 
 the windows, were five or six figures of lions crouching. These 
 were lion skins stufl"ed with wool, and intended for seats. In the 
 corners were large flower stands, and depending from the ceihng 
 was an immense bouquet. The walls and I'oof 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 ghttering 
 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 Soolo Phar to arrange themselves near the entrance, I 
 led Kaloolah to the upper end of the room and looked out upon 
 
400 KALUOLAH. 
 
 the river, where boats were now bringing the main body of my 
 Kjptile guard. 
 
 We stood thus, for a few minutes, when the wide doors were 
 flung open — two officials entered, followed by a venerable, dignifies' 
 man, with a long white beard and with no covering upon his head 
 but a single plume of the froulbell gracefully interwo\ en 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 face, looked steadily 
 at her for a moment, and then attempted to prostrate himself be- 
 fore her. But Kaloolah was too quick for him — she darted for- 
 ward and seized his hand. 
 
 " Rise," she exclaimed with a right royal air, " Rise, worthy 
 Lord of Goul ; the old confident and friend of Shounse must not 
 kneel to his daughter." 
 
 If the dagash had had any doubt before of the identity of Ka- 
 loolah it was now removed, and he threw himself upon the floor in 
 a perfect agony of loyal and aflfectionate respect. 
 
 At last we got the old gentleman on his feet again, and Kaloo- 
 lah, taking his arm, made him conduct her to the Hons. 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 
 ma'nitien of high breeding — that certain indescribable something 
 beyond what is expressed by the mere term refinement — that 
 air of lofty self-possession, of habitual repose in a serene social 
 atmosphere, above the reaking fogs and fumes that envelope the 
 struggling vulgar, little and great, which is to men who can appre- 
 ciate it, so overwhelmingly fascinating, and without vvhich 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 througli the magnifying 
 glass of the imagination. She had been too near to admit of it, but 
 
A NEW VIEW OF KALOOLAH. 401 
 
 now that there was evidently a distance growing between us, my 
 fancy began to have more scope. For the fust time I took a fair 
 look at her through my mental telescope, adjusting the focus for 
 parallel rays and putting on a high power, so as to iill the field of 
 view with her manifold perfections. As I sat and watched her 
 lithe figure, swaying with every emotion — one tiny hand half hid- 
 den in the lion's mane, the other gracefully moving in expressive 
 gestm'e — her black eyes now beaming, now melting — her fruity 
 mouth — her rich hair wavin<j in clustered rinij'lets — and her lauo-h 
 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 shght 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 inchnation 
 as to put the chance of its intersectmg my orbit again, out of 
 the question entirely. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 Garazha. — A ride. — Suppiug in a cavern. — New notions of noses. — A sump- 
 tuous repast. — A hunt. — Rousing a lion. — A desperate ride. — The Cha 
 Donga-troll. — Death of the lion. — Large bird's nests. — The Sempersough. — 
 Waiting for news. — The change in the princess. 
 
 By means of posts at short intervals it was possible to convey 
 a letter from Garazha to Killoam, 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. 
 
 Everything was done which the worthy Dagash could do, that 
 
402 KALOOLAH. 
 
 would minister to our comfort and pleasure. A 6ne suite of rooms, 
 looking out upon tlie nver, 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 ap- 
 pointed 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 enameled 
 with the iris, daffodil, lotus, crocus, narcissus, and a dozen flower- 
 ing bushes, trees and creepers that put my slight smattering of 
 botany completely at fault. On our return we visited a magnificent 
 lime-stone 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 
 saloon three hundred feet long, about one hundred feet in breadth, 
 and about sixty feet in height to the lower points of the stalactites 
 with which the roof was incmsted. Innumerable lamps, concealed 
 in the crevices and angles of the roof, lighted up the saloon with 
 the brilliancy of day. A small stream of cool water ran through 
 the centre of the room ; and along its banks, 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 rolling and re- 
 verberating among the arches and interstices of the fretted roof with 
 wonderful efiect. We wei-e conducted to the upper end of the room, 
 where a row of calcarious concretions, slightly fashioned by the 
 hand of man, sen'ed 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 with- 
 out food as without flowers." 
 
 " Ah ! yes," said I, " they are very beautiful, and aff'ord great 
 
NEW NOTIONS OF NOSES. 403 
 
 delight by their brilliant colors and graceful forms, but I cannot 
 understand the expression of extatic pleasure with which your peo- 
 ple seem to inhale their fragrance. Tell me," said I, turning to the 
 dagash, " to which of the senses, sight or smell, do flowers cliiefly 
 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 combina- 
 tions 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 harmonies of scentdom — to the million cor- 
 respondences and difierences — 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 artifi- 
 cially developing their natural capabilities !" 
 
 The dagash gave me another look of astonishment, as much as 
 to say, what on earth were noses in yom* 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 acknowledged ?" 
 
 " 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 develope its latent capacities." 
 
 " How is that ? Do you not cultivate the eye, the ear ! why not 
 the nose ?" 
 
 " I don't know ; imless it is that in om* cities, particularly the 
 great commercial capital that I came from, there are not unfre- 
 quently odors that would render the exercise of a delicate nasal sen- 
 sibility anything but agreeable. It may be that a secret conviction 
 
404 KALOOLAH. 
 
 of expediency has held the higher and more refinable powers of 
 the olfactories in abeyance." 
 
 " 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 Ka- 
 loolah, laughing. " 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 Shounse !" exclaimed the 
 dagash, " and did you encounter many bad smells !" 
 
 There was something in the old man's tone and look, of respect- 
 ful pity, that made me, too, feel sorry for Kaloolah's nasal afflic- 
 tions, and I rapidly ran over in ray mind all of the principal 
 stenches that we had been called upon to endiue, to see if there 
 were any that some exertion on ray part might not have dispersed 
 or neutralized. " No," said I, upon reflection, " I am free from re- 
 proach. A gross of the best double distilled cologne could not 
 have saved us ; but most illustrious princess, I can readily under- 
 stand now what you must have suffered." 
 
 A crowd of servants in the universal red cotton shirts and fea- 
 ther cloth jackets, now came bearing trays of roasted meats, fish, 
 flesh and fowl. To these succeeded vegetables, most of which were 
 new to me ; among others, was the custard plant, belonging to the 
 cucurbitacious family, and numerous specimens of the solanum ge- 
 nus — one a magnificent variety of the lycopersicum, and another, a 
 large tuberosum growing above ground, that far surpassed the ordi- 
 nary potato. A desert of fruit, flowers and conserves followed, with 
 the delicious juice of the red pepper-looking pendants of the cham- 
 paign-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 oft" the top thei-e ap- 
 peared a pink-colored fluid of the consistence of thick cream, which 
 
A SUMPTLTOUS REPAST. 405 
 
 was scooped out, and eaten -with spoons, fasliioned from the daz- 
 zling white teeth of the hippopotamus. 
 
 " How beautiful is natuie in this country," thought I. " DeU- 
 cacies that in poorer countries are the products of art, here grow 
 spontaneously. Champagne and ice cream ! Well, 1 shouldn't be 
 surprised to be ofiered a finishing glass of natural marischino." 
 
 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 mountains. As we came out I noticed that the long 
 low entrance was plentifully encrusted with saltpetre — an observa- 
 tion that was afterwards to prove of the greatest utility. 
 
 On our way home the conversation turned upon fire-arms, and 
 the dagash and his officers expressing a wish to see an exhibition 
 of their power, it was decided to make a hiinting excm-sion to the 
 other side of the river the next day. 
 
 A hurried breakfast, al fresco, in the court of the foimtain, and 
 we descended by a steep path along the terraces to the shore of 
 the Nom-wall. We crossed in company with the dagash and his offi- 
 cers, and found assembled, on the other side, a body of two hun- 
 dred men, all armed with bows and arrows and long spears. Sus- 
 pended from different parts of theu- persons, each one wore what 
 looked at first to be small wisps of straw, but, upon closer exami- 
 nation, they proved to be bunches of dry i-ushes, soaked in some 
 very inflammable fluid. These were intended as a means of defence 
 against the rhinoceros, and were to be used by attaching them to 
 the end of the spears, hghting them by means of a match, carried 
 for that pm-pose, 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 liis body, and the animal, after 
 running a few rods, and dashing, in his stupid rage, against trees 
 and rocks, and sometimes, giving with his monstrous horn a death- 
 thrust to his nearest relatives, falls and expires. The sport requires 
 skill, activity and nerve. The hippopotamus is sometimes killed in 
 
40v> KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 faggot, and presses on to the charge. Fortunately his 
 skin is not so tliick as that of the rhinoceros, and poisoned arrows 
 bring his stately carcass slowly, but surely to the ground. 
 
 We had not proceeded far down the river when we roused from 
 his lab" 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 Avide, 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 great. A yard fuilher, 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 trembling 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 spui", leaped him on to the crumbling and narrow path. 
 Straight and swift as-an arrow he sped along the cracked and jag- 
 ged wall, dashing aside the loose stones, toppling over large masses 
 of masonry, and, at the end, safely leaping a chasm of ten feet be- 
 tween the wall and the bank. 
 
 I wheeled my steed, and looked back, but not without a shud- 
 
THE CHA DONGA-TROLL. 407 
 
 der, and a feeling of thankfvdness at my lucky escape. The Frama- 
 zugs had reached the top just as my horse was clambering 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 mquu-ing of the Framazugs, 
 none of them knew anything 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 
 shelvmg, 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 hon. The few palmettos and tufts of flowery 
 shmbs that grew m the crevices of the rocks were insufficient 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 varymg 
 effects the light from their green and yeUow-tinted upper and un- 
 der surfaces, grew upon the very edge, and threw a shade upon 
 the rock below. The lion paused, snufted 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 in- 
 clined bank. 
 
 As soon as he had settled himself for his siesta, I dismoimted, 
 and crept along the bank, imtil withm about three rods of him. 
 Crouching low, I could see his whole carcass except his head, and, 
 of course, without being seen myself. The question noAv was, 
 whether upon raising my eyes so as to get a view of his, he mif/ht 
 
408 KALOOLAH. 
 
 not start before a sure aim could be taken. There was no use in 
 mentally revolving a point that could be settled only by experi- 
 ment; 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 quali- 
 ties of man's meat, in them. I raised the gun slowly to mj^^ shoul- 
 dei*, and deliberately looked along the sights right into the mon- 
 ster's eye. 
 
 Ha ! there goes a lurid flash across that yellow optic — wave 
 upon wave of pinky light, like the vibratoiy flashings of the aurora 
 borealis ; like the half advancing, half retreating colors of the 
 dawn ; like the deepening blushes of beauty, when awaking to the 
 first consciousness of the heart ; like the pulsatory gleamings of a 
 puddling furnace in 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 de- 
 scent from the identical stone into which, according to Ovid, Juno 
 tm-ned her loquacious handmaiden. At the same instant the lion 
 tore up the bank with a furious boimd, 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 fore legs, 
 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 ges- 
 tures and words. " Balak wen/ p'rh'sah hoo-hoo waddenF^ "What 
 
LARGE BIRDS NESTS. 409 
 
 a man ! What courage, to attack a lion!" exclaimed the dagash, 
 and " Balak loen ! gWKsah hoo-koo wadden /" replied his 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 performance as a matter 
 of course, and, with a politic disingenuousness, did not explam that 
 my ride had been involuntary, and that my attack upon the Hon 
 had been by stealth, and not an open, fair fight. 
 
 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 
 anything the hkes o'that?" said Hugh, pointing to tvro 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 inquuing of the natives, 
 they wei'e represented to belong to a monstrous bird with a body 
 as large as an elephant, and standing almost twenty feet hioh. 
 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 removed, and that I have had opportunities of verifying 
 the existence of an animal, alongside of which the Arabian roc 
 would sink into msignificance, and wliich is as large as, if not larger 
 than, the monstrous bird of New Holland, w-hose existence has 
 been put beyond a doubt, by the frequent discovery of nests, 
 twenty-five and thiity 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 his- 
 tory of Framazugda. In that work, too, will figvu'e to better ad- 
 vantage, in full detail, the many curious smaller animals that we 
 
 18 
 
4lO KALOOLAH. 
 
 encountered, not forgetting various specimens of flying serpents, a 
 lai-ge wmged alligator, and an animal that I at once recognised as 
 a dragon, from its correspondence to the descriptions in that stand- 
 ard work, " The Seven Champions." Another 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 
 tlie 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, per- 
 pendicular to its plain of revolution, and enable the animal to grasp 
 its prey, and draw it into its voracious mouth. It attacks the la)-gest 
 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. For- 
 tunately 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 mto a hard and intricate knot. In 
 this situation they remain, 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 now 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 arri-^'al of a messenger 
 from Killoam. None came, and even the dagash could not conceal 
 his surprise and disappointment. 
 
WAITING FOR NEWS. 411 
 
 " Perhaps he has been delayed by some accident," I observed. 
 
 " No," replied the dagash, " it is hardly possible ; the ninners 
 go in pairs, and the day's journey is dJAaded into twenty stages. 
 The road is smooth, and there are never any accidents. I know not 
 what to think." 
 
 " Well, I do," exclauned Kaloolah, jumping up and clapping 
 her hands with ghlish glee, in utter contempt of all regal dignity, 
 and to the great astonishment of the worthy dagash. " I under- 
 stand ; Enphadde is coming, and the runners are stayed that he may 
 announce himself. How long wUl it take him to come after receiv- 
 ing the news of our arrival ?" 
 
 " Four or five days ; depending upon the sharpness of his 
 spurs." 
 
 " Then I'm sm-e 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 huiTv, though, of course, full 
 of cm'iosity ; for, somehow, there was something uncommonly plea- 
 sant in the vievr by moonhght, 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 hum- 
 bug of " fatherly care," and " brotherly affection," was all gone, and 
 in its place there had got to be a most mdubitable, lovei'-Uke feel- 
 ing of sympathy, anxiety and respect. The change in me was but 
 a natural response to a change I have already mentioned, hi Ka- 
 loolah's appearance and manners. 
 
 I remarked to Kaloolah how much she had altered ; how sud- 
 denly 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." 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Arrival of Enpliadde. — The Prince's stoiy. — Setting out for Killoam. — A buf- 
 falo and his trappings. — A weatherly craft. — Jack in the howdah. 
 
 Garazlia was a scene of excitement. The unusual detention of 
 the royal massengers had aroused curiosity, and now it was an- 
 nounced 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, grace- 
 ful figure, dressed in a blue shirt, and over it a closely fitting gar- 
 ment that came down to the knees, composed of fine feathers 
 worked into a kind of cloth. The prominent color was a deep daz- 
 zling blue, bordered with a bright yellow. His legs were bare, ex- 
 cept 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, Avith a fillet of gold and silver fiUigree, 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 loncjer to recognize, in the 
 full, manly figure, the strippling Enphadde. Disengaging himself 
 from his sister's arms he flew towards me and gave me a most cor- 
 dial embrace. 
 
 We shortly retired from the gaze of the crowd of officers, who 
 filled the lower end of the long saloon, to the quiet of the terrace, 
 where we seated om-selves upon the sward just as the sun was bid- 
 ding good night to the blushmg clouds that hung in silent admira- 
 tion of their own beautiful images, gleaming far doAvn in the depths 
 of the purple Nom-wall. 
 
 As may be supposed, we had long stories to tell — many a 
 question to ask — many a question to answer. Mine and Kaloolah's 
 
TIIK PI?IXCK.S STORY. 413 
 
 tlie reader understands. Eiiphadde'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 com- 
 plaints and lamentations. All hands turned out in search ; which 
 was continued during the night. It was at last concluded that she 
 had been killed and carried 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 imable to go on 
 with the Mandingos, and for two or three weeks he remained, wish- 
 ing and inviting death ; his misfortunes excited the sympathy of 
 the humane villagers, and he received the kindest nursing and 
 attendance. 
 
 When able to walk he joined a kaffila going east. For about a 
 month they got on very well ; passing through several populous 
 countries, imtil at last, while fording a broad stream the kaffila was 
 attacked by a party of armed negroes. The Mohammedan members 
 of it were killed or dispersed, and the Kaffirs were seized as slaves. 
 Great was Enphadde 's joy when he found that his captors were 
 marching him to the south-east. In fact, what seemed at first a 
 misfortune, proved the safest and most direct means of his restora- 
 tion to his own country. 
 
 Three weeks' travel brousrht him and his masters to a larffs 
 town. Here he was exposed in the socco and immediately pur- 
 chased by a slave»dealer, who put him, with others, on board of a 
 large canoe and ascended, (five or six days' journey) a stream ninning 
 from the east. They then landed, and striking off through a hilly 
 ooimtry in a southerly course, amved 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. 
 
414 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Enplaadde's complexion and features excited their curiosity, and 
 upon questioning him, and finding that he was the son of the Ger- 
 boo king, they offered to purchase him, and take him home for ran- 
 som. For a whole Imiar 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 jomney, sold him to a 
 Foota chief, who promised to take him to Framazugda, but who, iu 
 the meantime, put him to work in his lice and cotton fields. En- 
 phadde endeavored by promises of a high ransom to induce some 
 one else to purchase him, but his master refused all oiTers. 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 ob- 
 tainmg it, Enphadde secured a small bundle of provisions and a 
 spear, and boldly plunged into a wild rocky country to the 
 south-east. 
 
 For ten days he endured the extremes of hunger and fatigue ; 
 besides being several times attacked by wild animals. Once a lion 
 bounded at him from the sergy margin of a small water course. 
 Enphadde had barely time to scramble to the top of a high rock, 
 when the lion gave a jump, just reaching with his fore feet the edge 
 of the rock, and slipping back, without getting a foot-hold. The 
 animal tm-ned back, and deliberately placing himself in the samo 
 spot from whence 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. Uufortu- 
 nately 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 pro- 
 posed dinner was beyond his grasp, the fellow had the impudence 
 to stretch himseK out upon the ground and keep Enphadde broil- 
 ing in the hot sun upon the rock until sunset, when, with a deep 
 roar of disappointment and impatience that made the boulders in 
 the bed of the river rattle like pebbles on the sea-shore, he boimd- 
 ed off in search of a less piquant, but more come-at-able supper. 
 
THE PRINCE S STORY. 415 
 
 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 comfortable meal, when he was alarmed by a 
 wild i-ushing 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. As- 
 cending it to Lake Tsamsa, they arrived at the last town of the 
 Foota Jals, named Goolah. From this place messengers were des- 
 patched across the lake to a Framazug town, and from thence 
 word was sent to Killoam, 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 
 
416 KALOOLAH. 
 
 negro of Goolah, as the master of Enphadde. A delay of two or 
 three days now occuired in consequence of the commissioners not 
 having more than half the requisite number of rings for his mon- 
 strous fingers. But at last a supply was procured — the giant's 
 digits were sheathed in gold, and Enphadde was restored to the 
 bosom of a doating father and to the affections of an admiring peo- 
 ple. Great was the joy upon his return ; but it was qualified by 
 the profound regrets for the supposed cruel fate of his beloved sis- 
 ter. " 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 ! flyl Enphadde, said the great Shounse, 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 saviour 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 extatic odors, 
 shaken from ten thousand flowers. 
 
 In his hurry to get back to Killoam, 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 ten 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." 
 
A SADDLE-BUFFALO. 4l7 
 
 Enphadde was thus compelled to submit to a delay of two 
 days, which was little enough time for his exhausted horses to re- 
 cruit their strength. The time, however, soon passed, and 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 hea\y stone gateway, and set out diagonally 
 across the pleasant valley through which ran the little tributaiy to 
 the Nourwall. 
 
 A monstrous buffalo had been prepared for the use of the prin- 
 cess. 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 
 shghtest intimations of the voice. Upon his back was erected a 
 framework of canes, and this was covered with curtains of the 
 finest muslin, worked in a kind of arabesque, 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 no- 
 tions of comfort or grace. Bands of ghttering snake- skin confined 
 the structure upon the back of the bufialo, whose horns, neck and 
 tail were bedecked with garlands of flowers. The animals 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 gesta- 
 tion, Kaloolah expressed her preference for the saddle, and, after 
 parting Avith the dagash and his guards, she insisted upon mounting 
 her horse, and resigning the buffalo to Jack, who loudly expressed 
 his deliofht 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 hke a lubber on a yard-arm. I roll, and pitcli, and 
 send hke 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 
 
 18* 
 
418 KALOOLAH. 
 
 looked out from a angel's head — and those are your'n, marm ! I 
 never see'd such a regular ship-shape ambulation on foiu- 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 
 smi, and yet we never sprung a spar, opened a jeam, stramed a 
 bulkhead, or shipped as much water as you could put in yom* 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 httle snuff of 
 tar and bOge 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 veiy well 
 together. They had become great friends, and were very fond of 
 holding long conversations, when Jack would spin his yarns with a 
 profusion of gestures and grimaces that never failed to please the 
 princess much, and which, not unfrequently, made it difficult for me 
 to preserve a proper gra^nty of countenance. 
 
 At fii-st I objected to the manifest impropriety of Jack's mount- 
 ing 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 ah of deference and respect by her 
 brother and guards, that alone would have prevented me from in- 
 terposing any serious objections to her will, and I was, therefore, 
 obhged to permit Jack to occupy his elevated position, where he 
 stretched himself out with the most insoucient air imaginable — pre- 
 senting a figure that would have furnished an artist with a good life 
 model of Neptime on the couch of Amphitrite. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Character of the Country. — Houses. — Monuments. — Fountains. — A touch of 
 PoHtics. — First sight of Killoara. — Kaloolah's emotion. — Reception at 
 Jellalob. — A separation. — An entertainment. — Feats of jugglers. 
 
 Our 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 famihar to me — such as the olive, the almond, 
 the orange, the fig, and the cactus opimtia or prickly pear. These 
 were all public property, and afi"orded the traveller both refresh- 
 ment and shade. The trees were very flourishing ; and, upon en- 
 quiry, I found that it Avas a matter of emulation among the owners 
 of property, along the road, as to which should tlius 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 owners' 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 appear- 
 ance. Generally they were half biu"ied in masses of rich verdure, 
 which served to give them a degree of breadth and dignity, and to 
 very much assist their architectural efiects. Numerous aqueducts 
 of freestone work could be seen crossing the country in every 
 direction ; and spanning the rivers and water-courses 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 
 
420 KALOOLAH. 
 
 for the purpose of giving it sufficient head, crowned the summits 
 of the hills and frowned in massive majesty, like the feudal castles 
 of christian countries, 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 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 numberless refreshing jets and coohng 
 cascades, and graceful fountains ; the other to afford security to 
 violence, vantage to rapine and slaughter — to give to human sel- 
 fishness, strongholds from which, with irresistible momentum it 
 might descend and deluge the lower lands with blood. Suppose 
 that all the dwellings of cniel, brutal, ignorant, short-sighted ty- 
 ranny and superstition that dot the surface of Europe, had been 
 for ages merely fountain heads of water — prisons only for Undines 
 and Neiiedes, who, when released from confinement had danced and 
 sung, ever and for ever appeahng 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 fmther, that instead of being mere 
 reservou's of water, these old castles, and towers, and convents, had 
 been reservoirs of virtue — strongholds of honest human sj-mpatliy, 
 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 in\-iting 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 imagina- 
 tion can hardly compass the then glories of Christendom, viith its 
 ten or twenty thousand milhons of happy and comfortable people. 
 And how has the world been thus cheated of its inheritance, 
 and, possible, yet \mborn, millions deprived of their rights in eter- 
 nity, 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-existant causes — the natural and 
 
THE VALLEY OP WOLLOSAB. 421 
 
 ine\itable evolution of the germs of evil, implanted fi-ora the begin- 
 nino-, in the human heart — somethino- over which man, from the 
 laws of his nature, could have exercised no control. Or, is it the re- 
 sult 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 tram- 
 ple 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 tlie glowing 
 hopes of the political reformer ; if the second, who can set bounds 
 to the constantly accelerated rush of political and social im- 
 provement ? 
 
 But to return to my sheep, from which the water tanks have 
 taken me a long way, and which were literally gamboling by my 
 side. There were, as I have mentioned, several varieties of them, 
 but the most curioiis 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 substantial cities of twenty and thirty thousand inhabi- 
 tants. 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 your- 
 selves," said Enphadde, " for a fine view. In a moment more you 
 will see Killoam. We are on the very brink of the great valley of 
 the Wollosab !" 
 
 At this instant our vanguard raised a great shout, and flourished 
 
422 KALOOLAH. 
 
 their spears over their heads. All stepped where the road made a 
 sharp turn, and eagerly looked duvvn at something on their left. 
 Hugh stretched himself up in his stirrups, and gazed fixedly. Jack, 
 finding the curtains of his howdah impede his view, jumped nimbly 
 from the back of his buffalo, and ran out to the side of the road ; 
 and Hassan, as was his custom whenever anything 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 to- 
 wards me, as deprecating the anger that he knew he had justly 
 aroused. " You've fired your last charge of powder, my good fel- 
 low !" said I, looking and speaking somewhat sternly to the fright- 
 ened 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, jumping 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 
 Killo am, 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 1 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. 
 Nothing 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 frightened 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 vou sure that it is there ?" said Kaloolah. " It seems to 
 
FIRST SIGHT OF KILLOAM. 423 
 
 me as though the whole might be a dream. Here, pinch my fingers," 
 said she, naively throwing out her hands, " and see if I am awake." 
 
 I took one hand, and was giving it a gentle squeeze, when she 
 suddenly 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 won't be waked from it ; come, let us go;" and 
 putting her arms within ours, we slowly advanced to the crown of 
 the liill. 
 
 Despite her assumed vivacity and calmness, I could feel her 
 frame tremble, and could perceive the increasing pallor of her 
 cheek. With 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 before us. 
 
 " Loo, loo, hil sa Wollosab, bah loo, loo bil sa mahrah Kil- 
 loam /" exclaimed Enphadde. 
 
 Kaloolali 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 sym- 
 pathizing lover would be de troj). There were thronging associa- 
 tions which I could not share — \'ibrating 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 se- 
 lect out for his own exclusive use some of the heavier articles, such 
 as sheetings, shutings, flannels, trace-chains, hobby-horses and 
 goose-yokes, but that is no reason why the neighbore should be at 
 once cut off from their accustomed supply of small wares. 
 
424 KALOOLAH. 
 
 I withdrew a few yards, to a hio^her and more projecting crag, 
 not to obtain a more extensive new, for the character of the scene 
 by no means excited that desu-e to see further and still further be- 
 yond 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 combination of these qualities, may 
 be complete, entire, mind-filling and soul-satisfying, because the 
 causes may be perfect, and incapable of improvement or augmenta- 
 tion. Their power cannot be increased by adding a little more form, 
 a little more color, or a httle more motion. But, when extension is 
 the only or the predominent element of the new, the mind is at 
 once dissatisfied, and demands more and more, boimding its desires 
 not even by the limits of human reason. 
 
 Now, in the new before me, there was wonderful extension — 
 an almost limitless expansion ; but it was subordinate to the mag- 
 nificent combination of form, color and motion. 
 
 Sheer down went the precipice a thousand feet, and from its 
 base the coxmtry descended, by gentle slopes and wide terraces, a 
 thousand feet farther, to the banks of the WoUosab, 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 could be caught the glitter of smaller bodies of water. The 
 mountain dividing the valleys ran boldly down to the lake, bear- 
 ing upon its crest a stream, that, descuding by two successive leaps, 
 five hxmdred 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 wallo. Ten miles below this, and in 
 front of us, where the river issued from the lake, was the great city 
 of Killoam, and more than fifty other cities could be seen at a glance. 
 
 Beyond the WoUosab, there stretched a plain fifty miles broad, 
 traversed by numerous streams, and bordered by a sea of purple- 
 
RECEPTION AT JELLALOB. 425 
 
 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 phiin extended, until the hazy cones closing in, left 
 barely a passage for the majestic river. 
 
 Back of us the scene was equally gorgeous. There lay the rich 
 rolling countiy that we had passed, bordered by hills, which, in the 
 north-east and east, grew into mountains, among which, proudly 
 conspicuous, stood the ever-flaming Kchbi. 
 
 The small chain of hills upon which Ave stood were 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 alto- 
 gether by a slight detour; but Enphadde had chosen the path over 
 the highest peak, in order to give us a more striking and compre- 
 hensive \iew of his country. 
 
 There was a wonderful clearness and transparency of the air, 
 that more than doubled the limits of oi'dinary vision. Cities, palaces, 
 aqueducts, bridges, monuments, stood forth, at a distance of leagues, 
 with telescopic distinctness. I gazed as one entranced. 
 
 My revery Avas 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 emo- 
 tions of the scene, until suddenly, far below us, the spear-points of 
 our escort oleamed from the o'erarchincj trees — " Come !" ex- 
 claimed 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 de- 
 scended 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, Avhere 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. 
 
426 KALOOI-AH. 
 
 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 innumerable 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 inter- 
 woven, leaving, at intervals, dependant garlands and Avreaths. The 
 balconies and porticos wei-e also wreathed with flowers, and filled 
 witli beautiful women. Thousands of lamps, torches and lanterns 
 dift'used as intense a light as the full brightness of day. In front 
 of us danced a dozen girls, in picturesque costume, with musical 
 instruments, like a tamborine, with which they accompanied their 
 voices ; and on either 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 having been issued that our journey should be conducted 
 with all privacy, we were not prepared for such a display, En- 
 phadde, however, was the only one of the party displeased ; and 
 he sicrnified as much to the dag-ash 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 fright- 
 ened ofiicials, 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 court-yard paved in mosaic — in the centre of which 
 played an illuminated fountain — to a flight of low broad marble steps : 
 ascending these, we wei'e conducted through a wide hall to a lofty 
 saloon, hung in blue and gold, and furnished with curiously sculp- 
 tured alabaster pedestals, containing lamps, and wreathed on the 
 
A SEPARATION. 427 
 
 outside with flowers. In a few minutes we were shown to our 
 sleeping rooms. Mine led from the further 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 travelhng dresses, 
 and apparently ready to i-esume 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 hom's 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 majestj^ at Killoam. I had no right to 
 object to this arrangement, but I could not refrain from expressing 
 my regrets at parting. 
 
 " 'Tis only for a day," whispered Kaloolah, as I assisted her 
 into a curtained palanquin. 
 
 " True, 'tis only for a day," said I, smiling, and wa\'ing 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 hfetime. 
 
 " 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 several complete suits of dress. There were garments of 
 fine Unen, shawls like those of cashmere, figured muslins, and robes 
 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 compa- 
 
428 KALOOLAH. 
 
 nions, 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 the 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 wath 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 bal- 
 loon, 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 admu-e the skill with 
 which the tricks were performed, although I was too much of a 
 Yankee to be much astonished at anything in the Hey! Presto! line. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Departure from Jellalob. — Pholdefoos. — Approach to Killoam. — Entrance into 
 the city. — Novel pavement. — The acropolis. — The palace. — A bouquet 
 from the princess. — The hall of the fountains. — The throne room. — Audi- 
 ence of the sultan.^^ — The great Shounse. — A royal feast. 
 
 We set out, the next day, with an immense escort, and were 
 followed hj large crovrds of people from Jellalob and tlie 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. 
 
PHl.LDEFOOS. 429 
 
 On either side of us were footmen, who supported over oiu* 
 heads, by long slender poles, awnings of pure linen. These were 
 bedecked with streamers of variously colored mushn, 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 bar- 
 row was frequently raised aloft to aflbrd the people an opportunity 
 of seeing the wonderful machines, wliich, in the hands of the Foo- 
 tas were begiiming to threaten theu' existence as a nation. 
 
 We passed several of the columns that I have mentioned, sur- 
 mounted with the usual cube of lava. A very lofty one having 
 attracted my attention, Seywacl 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 mementoes of the Pholdefoos, or the ' Seekers of Truths " 
 
 " True," I replied, " the young prince, Enphadde told me as 
 much, but I do not vmderstand, precisely, who these ' seekers of 
 truth ' are." 
 
 '• They are," said the seywad, " a class of pm-e, holy, and wise 
 enthusiasts, who withdraw from their fellow men and the common 
 concerns of life, and devote themselves solely to the search for the 
 genns of moral, religious and political truth, and to the ine\'itable 
 fate that awaits them at the end of their search." 
 
 " An exclusive caste or order?" I demanded. 
 
 •' No, any one can become a seeker, provided he gives e\'idence 
 of the proper intellectual and moral qualities, and of those spiritual 
 promptings which are necessary to carry him in trimnph to the 
 end. Such a one is permitted to take the vows of his order on his 
 thirtieth bh-th-day. From that time he devotes himself to medita- 
 tion and study. A small stipend from the government barely sup- 
 pUes him with the necessaries of life. Part of the time he wanders 
 about the country, studying human natm-e, investigating the laws 
 of social organization, inquirmg into the histoiy, antiquities, and 
 jurisprudence of past generations, and collecting from the monu- 
 
430 KALOOLAH. 
 
 ments of departed ' seekers ' the germs of trutli for which they 
 had sacrificed their hves. The rest of the time he devotes to medi- 
 tation in some retired spot, afar from the bustle and tm-moil of the 
 world. Here he prepares himself for his fate, and ehminates the 
 apothegm upon which his reputation for wisdom and virtue is to 
 depend. 
 
 " A few days before his fortieth birth-day, the annoimcement is 
 made throughout the country, of the approaching sacrifice of a 
 ' seeker.' People collect from all parts — the seeker, attended by 
 the proper officers, appears, arrayed in white linen. Alone he 
 mounts upon a lofty staging, erected over an immense pile of fag- 
 gots. A chaplet of roses adorns his head — flowers bedeck the 
 funeral pile beneath. A hundred virgins chaimt to the music of 
 sweet-toned instruments, the praises of Truth and her heroic ' seek- 
 ei-s.' He now proclaims aloud the one single short apothegm ot 
 maxim, to the discovery, or enforcement of which he has resolved 
 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 
 envelope the 'seeker,' who, waving his arms, triumphantly leaps 
 into the glowing fvu"nace below. 
 
 " A monument is at once erected to his memory, and ornament- 
 ed, as you see, by a cube of lava, typical in its shape of the per- 
 fectly symmetrical form of a fundamental truth, viewed in whatever 
 aspects, and in its compositioi;! of the refining fiery influences under 
 which the truth has been sought and obtained." 
 
 " How is it ?" I demanded, " that while most of these monu- 
 ments 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 permit- 
 ted to the people at the end of five hundred years after the death 
 of the ' seeker,' to tear down his monument, if time has demon- 
 strated the fallacy of his dogma, or to enlarge it, if public opinion 
 
DAL GOUK. 431 
 
 SO decrees. This high monument 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 tr-uth-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 disputation? are all admitted, at once, as truth?" 
 
 " Certainly not," replied Dal Gouk, •' some are of questionable 
 truthfulness under any interpretation, and others give rise to sects. 
 For instance, there is one expressing a moral con-elative 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 
 ai-ose, ' 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 par- 
 ties 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 develope it in a new form. But it is not alone 
 moral and theological truths that furnish grounds for dispute — po- 
 litical and social maxims are equally prolific. Fortunately, the ex- 
 pounders and commentators, and disputers are held in the greatest 
 contempt, and although some few may for awhile be led astray, 
 the people vdtimately put the polemics with their dogmas, and half 
 
432 KALOOLAH. 
 
 truths, and false facts wholly aside, and steadily adhere to the 
 stately, strong, slow cuirent 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 shall have Dal Gouk turning pholdefoo one of these 
 days," interposed a young noble, shrugging his shoulders at the 
 Seywad's rising enthusiasm. 
 
 Dal Gouk shook his head, but made 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 Me advanced, the glittering towers and domes, and lofty bat- 
 tlements of the great city grew more distinct. A three hour's ride 
 brought us to a long stone bridge of twenty arches, leading across 
 the Wollosab. Crossing tliis, we wheeled along the river for a few 
 rods to the left, and then traversing a small promontory, came to 
 a broad straight road, bovmded by lofty walls, which put me in 
 mind of the fJLoL^fen. tsUv by which Themistocles connected his fa- 
 mous city with its Piraeus. Entering 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, suiTounded by massive 
 stone buildings, and ornamented with marble columns and foim- 
 tains. The square was crowded with people, who received us with 
 shouts and a miiversal waving of bouquets. 
 
 Several streets led off from the sides. Om* escort took its 
 course across the square and up a broad straight street, the pave- 
 ment of which struck me as being considerably superior to the 
 bai'barous rubble work of Broadway. It was composed of large 
 stones four and five feet square, and six or eight inches thick. 
 Across the smiace of each ran grooves half an inch in depth and Miidih, 
 and four inches apart, affording a foothold for horses, donkeys and 
 
THE ACROPOLIS. 433 
 
 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 propor- 
 tioned 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 du'ectly with a slight ascent for a distance of 
 two miles, up to the face of a precipice of rock three hundred feet 
 hiffh. Then dividins:, it turns at riorht ana^les, 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 eight hundred feet in length, cut out of the sohd rock. We 
 entered this, and at the end of it came to a circular shaft, or well, 
 that extended to the top of the acropohs, a height of more than 
 three hundred feet. Upon looking up, the clear sky could be seen 
 resting hke 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 emermno- 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 sur- 
 rounded on three sides with a parapet, from whence one could look 
 down on the city and its beautiful enmons, and upon the vast 
 expanse of country beyond. The fourth side was bounded by a 
 range of buildings connected by teiTaces and balconies, the whole 
 presenting one of those confused, irregular architectural masses, of 
 not much pretension or promise externally, but which at once sug- 
 
 19 
 
434 KALOOLAH. 
 
 gests the idea of long winding conidors, interminable halls, count- 
 less courts, private staircases and secret passages, and excites a 
 longing to explore the presumed labyrinthian mysteries. 
 
 Passing from the gaze of the coimtless 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 Ka- 
 loolah. 
 
 " She is well," replied the prince, " although still suffering 
 from the agitation of meeting her father. Joy almost killed the 
 great Shounse. 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 replied to Enphadde, who 
 ofi"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 descended 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 
 meanwhile we had time for a delicious bath and an elaborate toilet, 
 in which 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 diffi- 
 cult to please, rejecting each garment off"ered him, and making his 
 comments upon the "monkeyfied, sodger-looking " dresses with an 
 expression of the highest disgust. At last I had to interfere, and 
 actually order him into a picturesque-looking costume. 
 
 " Well, if I must, I must !" said Jack ; " but I'm blessed if it 
 
THE PALACE, 435 
 
 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 
 de-vil the thing that looks like a pea-jacket, or a pair of duck trow- 
 sers, have these fellows got in all this pile of fimfine toggery ! 
 Civilized! They don't know the rudiments ! I'm blessed if I be- 
 lieve they could teU a piece of black ribbon a yard long, if they 
 should see it. And as for a tarpauhn ! — just think of a fellow's 
 hauling out the weather-earing in a sou'-wester with one of these 
 feather things on his head !" 
 
 We were aU 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 sphals, and the capitals 
 Avere elaborate imitations of bunches of flowers. The bases and en- 
 tablature were nearly pm-e Corinthian, and the general eff"ect was 
 very much the same as of that order. 
 
 The room was filled with ofiicials, in rich di-esses, 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 foimtain 
 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 bm'st of dehcious music, from 
 a hundred soft-toned instruments, greeted us as we stepped into the 
 great haU 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, theh 
 intertwined tails coUed up for a base, from which their huge heh- 
 coidal 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 approached the other, describing 
 
436 KALOOLAH. 
 
 a heart-sliaped curve, and, bending downwards, took a single twist- 
 from which the heads diverged in every variety of action and ex- 
 pression. These columns were of carved cedar, inkiid, 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 entablatm*e rested 
 upon the cun'ed necks of the serpents. Along the frieze ran a bas- 
 relief of vines, with fruits and flowers of burnished gold, silver and 
 precious stones ; and in the mouths of many of the serpents were 
 branches of gilded fruit. 
 
 Tlie whole length of the hall was about four hundred feet ; its 
 width, between the rows of pillars, about fifty feet. Between the 
 pillars and the walls, on either side, Avas 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 uni- 
 forms. The floor of the centre, between the colonades, 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 ghttering 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 fallmg into the op- 
 posite 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 con-espond- 
 ing streams, there was supported a continuous canopy of water 
 the whole length of the hall. 
 
 A flood of light was poured from myriads of imseen lamps upon 
 
THE HALL OF THE FOUNTAIXS. 437 
 
 the upper surface of this sparkling roof, while below, numberless 
 hidden tapers were so an-anged in tubes as to throw their rays 
 against the under surface of the watery arch, from whence they 
 were returned, after countless refractions and reflections, to the de- 
 lighted eye. A wonderful variety of eflPects 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 assuming 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 perfumed an*. The glowing pillars seemed animated, as 
 the bright and flickering light played upon their burnished surfaces. 
 The \Tne3 of the mosaic pavement, and the fruits and flowers of the 
 frieze, waved as if in obedience to the breeze ; while the green, yel- 
 low and scarlet monkeys gambolled among the branches, and dia- 
 mond-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 \nsta. 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 theu- necks." 
 
 "Why, its then- edication ! What makes a soldier so straight? 
 What takes the kinks out of the back of a corporal of marines ? 
 Isn't it edication ? 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.'" 
 
438 KALOOLAH. 
 
 "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 shan't be aten up 
 by these creatures ! Never you mind, honey ! its just follow the 
 captain, that's all. When he's swallowed you may begin to look 
 out for Jonah's lodgings for yom'self ; 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 sohd pavement beneath our feet. For a moment I 
 thought that it was an earthquake, but Enphadde and the Frama- 
 zug nobles behind us were perfectly composed. The next instant I 
 perceived my mistake, and discovered the cause of the sounds. 
 The double row of guards behind the pillars, upon some signal, 
 had sprung simultaneoiisly from their cushioned seats, each one 
 with an enoimous gong in his hand, upon which he proceeded to 
 dnim as energetically as if announcing dinner to the hungry board- 
 ers of a New- York hotel. Five himdred large R-ontrs sounding to- 
 gether ! Can any one conceive of a more hoirrible 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 survive to describe the effect ? 
 
 The dnim of my ear was just giving way, when the noise began 
 to subside — it fell to the gentlest iiunbUng of distant thunder, and 
 then rose, loud, fierce, furious, as the very " crack of doom." 
 Agam it subsided, and again it rose — three times — a royal salute, 
 and an annoimcement that the great Shoimse had taken his seat 
 upon the throne. 
 
 Slowly we moved up the gorgeous hall, which now seemed, by 
 contrast, as silent as death. The guards on either side presented 
 their gongs, which proved to be shields, and stood with their 
 heads bowed low, immoveable as statues. We reached the upper 
 end, and, emerging through an arched doorway, hung with hea\ily 
 embroidered curtains, entered a large circular room of at least a 
 
THE THRONE-ROOM. 439 
 
 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 chrystal, and gold, which dif- 
 fused a brilliant but mellow light around. A large carved and 
 gilded ring ran roimd the room for a cornice, and from this depend- 
 ed curtains or hangings of crimson and gold, which, at equal dis- 
 tances were pulled aside and looped up, disclosing the walls, em- 
 pannelled 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 portion of the room was ornamented 
 with vases of flowers, and was occupied by several groups of dig- 
 nitaries, 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 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 des- 
 cribed. 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, ninning the whole length. From 
 this platform arose a curiously constructed wide cushioned chair. 
 The legs and arms were made of sohd 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 Uons 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 neg- 
 ligently in flowing folds — on one side, half hiding the lion supporting 
 the shield — and falling away to the right and left, in graceful ampli- 
 tude, rested far out upon a carpet to which it was firmly anchored 
 by tags of sohd gold, about the size and shape of a six-pound shot. 
 
 From the ceiling depended a lustrous canopy, formed by eight 
 winged serpents. They were represented as twisting their tails 
 
4-10 KALOOLAH. 
 
 aiound 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 dhections, served to support long pendant 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 rela- 
 tion to any circumstances about which my curiosity has chosen to 
 make an mquiry. 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, 
 Avould have been quite overwhelming, had it not been, that amid so 
 much that was grand and gorgeous, I could perceive some evi- 
 dences of a barbaric taste. This quite reassured me. I braced my- 
 self at once with the pride of superior civilization ; and, although 
 wholly unused to the glare of royalty, I felt my responsibilities as 
 a representative 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 b}' the requisite dignity 
 and composure. 
 
 As we entered the room the groups of dignitaries I have men- 
 tioned, as occupying the paved portion of the lloor, 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 liis 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 
 
THE GREAT SHOUNSE. 441 
 
 upright position. I could not but admii-e this new mode of saluta- 
 tion — it was so gi-aceful, such a pleasing exemplification of the line 
 of beauty, such a beautiful combination of natural htheness ■vrith 
 acquired dexterity, and so profoundly respectful ! 
 
 Arrived at the steps that divided the room, I directed my three 
 followers 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 head was covered only by a few strag- 
 gling locks, as colorless as snow, but his eyebrows were remarkably 
 heavy and black. He was of the middle size — his figxue rather full 
 — his features large, but regular, and his whole face square and 
 massive, with an expression that reminded me at once of the por- 
 traits of Washington. 
 
 We reached the ivory steps, where pausing, Enphadde ad- 
 dressed the monarch, but in a voice so clear and distinct as to be 
 heard by the listening courtiers in every pai't of the room. He men- 
 tioned my name and the name of my coimtry ; alluded to the hard- 
 ships 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 transcendant 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 Shounse rose from his throne, and 
 stepped down upon the ivory platform. " The sa\-iour of my chil- 
 dren is welcome !" he exclaimed, stretching forth his hand, as I 
 thought, for me to kiss. Instinctively I took a step upwards and 
 forwards, and bomng 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 r he ex- 
 
442 KALOOLAH. 
 
 claimed, " 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 then- feet into the air, 
 and the infernal noise of the gongs rolled adown 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 o"\vn per- 
 sonal history, avoiding, as I could perceive, any allusion to the agi- 
 tating subject of his daughter's adventui'es. 
 
 A shght 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 fe- 
 male 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 did, m 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 ivoiy 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 corridor 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 pom'ed from the ceiling, which consisted of a sheet of 
 rock crystal, set in burnished copper, and supported upon pilasters 
 of carved ebony and cedar. There was music and incense, and wine, 
 and crowds of menials, and all, and more than all of the conven- 
 tional accompaniments and accessaries of an ostentatious oriental 
 entertainment, biit which I have not now space to describe. 
 
APARTMENTS OF THE PRl^fCESS. 448 
 
 The monarch arose, and aflFectionately embracing me. bade me 
 good night. Enphadde assisted his trembUng steps. At this mo- 
 ment an officer of the court presented me a Httle bouquet, which, 
 in an instant, I saw was an exact counterpart of the one I had re- 
 ceived 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 XLVII. 
 
 Apartments of the princess. — An embarrassing position. — A view from the bal- 
 cony. — 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. 
 
 There was a low, large irregular room, divided into several por- 
 tions by groups of slender columns. It was carpeted with the soft- 
 est stuffs, hung with rich crimson drapery, suiTOunded 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 gaily 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 
 
444 KAI.OOLAH. 
 
 started to their feet, and for a moment I was apprehensive that I 
 was about to be edified with a specimen of feramine litheness and 
 agihty, 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 moment 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 reassiu'ed by the 
 glimpse of a female figure through a curtained window in the fur- 
 ther end of the room ; with noiseless steps I crossed the tufted car- 
 pet, and passed into a balcony that on one side looked down into a 
 little parterre of flowers, and on the other almost overhung the per- 
 pendicular 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 naptha. The yellow light 
 streamed down in heavy masses upon the flat roofed houses, or 
 poured in full radiance into the numerous open squares, or strug- 
 gled from side to side of the balconied walls to the smooth pave- 
 ments of the nan'ow streets. There was a breadth, and a strength 
 of light and shade, a wonderfulness of cluaroscuro — a deep juicy 
 jelliness of tone, that Avould 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 femnle figure, that, habited 
 in a robe of white, was leaning upon the marble ballustrade 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, unmistakeable lover's caress. Often had my arm been in the 
 same place, but always with some reference to protection or 
 
THE LOVERS INTERVIEW. 445 
 
 support. My face was so close to hers, that, ahhough 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 you ? What were you thmking 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 se- 
 cret passages, and half-shaded, half -illuminated avenues and hidden 
 chambers, where lurk thoughts and feelings unknown to oui'selves. 
 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 
 wlien that heart is our own. And that led me to thmk, Jon'than, 
 that — that — after all, we might both be mistaken in believing that 
 you loved me." 
 
 " You mean that the last thought came fii-st, and that it led 
 you to your comparison. But come, tell me, what first put the 
 thought into yovu* 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 
 decree of coldness inconsistent with love. Tnie, you have been 
 kind, oh ! how kind, but when I have felt that I could throw my- 
 self upon your bosom, Aveep 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." 
 
 " 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 pecu- 
 liar circumstances of our relative positions." 
 
 " Yes, Jon'than, I know what vou would sav ; think not that I 
 
446 KALOOLAH. 
 
 do not iindei-stand your kindness, your generosity ; you were afraid 
 that with the smallest encouragement I would forget myself, my 
 sex, my birth, all, everything, but you, as I did once beneath the 
 palm grove on the banks of the Sierra Leone ; say, was it not so ?" 
 
 " I confess it, but, believe me, that which is sometimes a re- 
 proach to unbridled passion is oft times the highest compliment 
 that man can paj'^ 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 too passionate, yet too pure, to permit its expression in the cir- 
 cumstances in which we were placed. I could not trust myself, and 
 I did not like to run the risk of sidlying the lustre of that senti- 
 ment, of Aihich you were the object. Do you understand me, Ka- 
 loolah ?" 
 
 " I do," whispered Kaloolah, " and oh ! — how foolish not to 
 have understood you before ; but I am so weak and ignorant, while 
 you are so wise and good !" 
 
 " I wish," I exclaimed, with a gentle tightening of ray grasp 
 upon her slender, but well rounded figure, " that I were a thou- 
 sandth part as wise or as good as you are lovely." 
 
 " And you i*eally 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, hke 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 associations came thronging to mv mind. Could 
 I give them all up, and that, too, for ever ? Could I hnk myself 
 to Framazugda for life? Could I curb, always, the strong yearn- 
 
A SPIRITUAL VISITATION. 44,'7 
 
 ings 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 heai't is capable of that ; men can merely die for the ob- 
 ject of their affections — they cannot hve on through aU chcum- 
 stances solely for love. Man's vigorous, coarse, sensual and selfish 
 nature, requu-es more solid and varied food. Love has been said 
 to be an episode in the hfe of man, but to be woman's whole ex- 
 istence. I prefer to carrj'^ out my metaphor, and say that to men 
 love is always a condiment — an entremet — a kind of anti-prandial 
 lemon and oysters ; but to women 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 himg upon my arm, felt sym- 
 pathetically the doubtful feehng 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 incredulous readers will pronoimce 
 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 figvu-e swept past 
 and around us, and in fact, for a moment, seemed to envelope us 
 Hke a wreath of thin vapor. I felt myself gently compressed, as if 
 in the embrace of some spiritual being, and at the same time 
 softly forced closer to Kaloolah by some power, which, although 
 almost imperceptible, was clearly external to us, and independent 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, Avere " 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. 
 
448 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Enough for me, that whether foncy 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 \'isit me in the heart of central Africa, why should not Frama- 
 zugda become my coimtry 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 culti- 
 vated nation ; and it was questionable whether, 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 something in the way of 
 war. I could give them discipline, and a system of tactics that 
 would 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 manufactur- 
 ing gunpowder ; an art which has been often anathematized, but 
 which may justly be pronounced the best boon of science to a com- 
 bative world, the greatest blessing to humanity, the supporter and 
 protector of civihzation, the spreader of tru.e i-eligion — an art, by 
 the aid of which, ignorance, superstition, and idolatrj^ 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 mj^ own en- 
 lightened country — the barbarous darkness of Atlas pierced by the 
 brilliant beams of French faith and politeness — the ferocious Mo- 
 hammedanism of the Caucasus compelled to give way to the bless- 
 ing of the Greek Patriarch and the benign growls of ihe 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 
 grbimd between the Euphrates and the Blue Sea, between the In- 
 dian Ocean and the peaks of the Altai, shall drown with his roar 
 the groans of Gooroo,Brahma and Fo, and wagging Jiis tail in pious 
 
AMBITIOUS REVERIES. — GOGO. 449 
 
 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 fei'tile portion of the globe — sup- 
 pressing the ^dle traffic in human flesh, and extending the domain 
 of Framazuarda from the Indian Ocean to the Bio^ht of Benin, 
 floated through my mind. In a glow of love and ambition I 
 pressed the princess to my lieart, and anxiously inquired whether 
 her father would have any objection 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 
 hke opinion, 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 pro- 
 posed that we should descend the marble steps, and take a turn or 
 two in the garden. I at once complied, and leaning upon our arms, 
 she led us to a large marble tank of water, in which were swimming 
 a number of lightning-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 startled 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 ap- 
 peared 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 ai-ms. It was Gogo — yellow-haired Gogo — a diminu- 
 tive specimen of the ourang-outang. He was, when standing per- 
 fectly erect, about six inches liigh, and covered with a long silky 
 fur, of a bright golden hue, except about the shoulders and arms, 
 
450 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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. Nesthng in K;iloolah's arms, he grinned 
 and chattered his deliglit ; 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, 
 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, 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, sup- 
 ported a graceful canopy of feathers and artificial flowers. Small 
 stands, bearing golden trays, were placed before us, and were served 
 with confectionary, sweetmeats, and a variety of liqueurs and cordials. 
 Of the liqueui's, one, in particular, 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 digesting 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 alcove, was drawn aside, displaying a musical instrument re- 
 sembling a chvirch-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 piano- 
 forte, enabled the composer to change the whole, or any number of 
 the dnims, from stringed to muffled, at pleasure. A performer now 
 
A NOVEL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. 451 
 
 stepped from a side door, and placed himself at the instmment. 
 His first notes were electric, and fairly startled me from my seat, in 
 delight and surprise at the astonishing fulness and richness of tone. 
 No stringed instrument ever produced anything hke the eflPect, A 
 few preliminary flourishes were followed by a grand piece, composed 
 in honor of Kaloolah's return. The musical reader will, perhaps, 
 regret that my ignorance of the technicahties 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 that the execution, in some passages, was truly 
 wonderful ; particularly in a number of brilliant nins, and in an oc- 
 casional powerful and prolonged shake upon the big bass-drum, 
 which was positively awful. It may, perhaps, 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 un- 
 geering, 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 run- 
 ning to a shaft, tunied by a donkey in the court below ; so that it 
 is the donkey that makes the mvisic. Of course there is nothing 
 very novel about this instniraent, it being simply the application of 
 well-known principles ; but I mention 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, ex- 
 cept a couch in the centre, upon which we seated ourselves. At 
 one end of the hall there were two large cii'cular apertures, the open 
 ends of pipes leading to a centiifugal 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 cun-ent. The upper end wall of the hall was studded with 
 
4-^ KALOOLAH. 
 
 tlie open mouths of veiy small tubes, the other ends of which com- 
 mimicated with resen'oirs of perfume without the room. Below 
 these projected from the wall a carved shelf, or rather box, support- 
 ing 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 througli 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 dif- 
 ferent parts of the scale in music. The harmonic combinations of 
 these were infinite. There are also several fundamental and con- 
 trolling odors, by which the whole scale can be modified at pleasiu-e. 
 The three principals of these are garlic, musk and sulphurated hy- 
 drogen. The garlic, which corresponds to the minor key in music, 
 is exceedingl}^ plaintive and affecting. Compositions in this ke)'^ al- 
 most invariably excite the smeller to tears. Compositions in the 
 musk key are very varied in their expression ; sometimes grave and 
 solemn, like chiu-ch music ; at other times gay, lively, and redolent 
 of chalked floors and gas lights. 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 imeducated sense of smell, may, 
 perhaps, turn up his nose (in profound ignorance of his nose's ca- 
 pacities) at the instrument I am describing ; but if he should ever 
 have an opportunity of snixffing the melodious streams and har- 
 monic accords evolved by a good performer, upon a properly con- 
 structed instrument, he will be compelled to admit that his nasal 
 organ was given to him for a higher purpose than to take snuff, 
 support spectacles, or express contempt. True, at first he may not 
 appreciate the more recondite combinations and delicate afperfumes 
 any more than a novice in music appreciates the scientific arrange- 
 ment of notes in Italian or German opera, but he will at once be 
 
THE KiyrUM-KlTHELlUM. 453 
 
 able to understand and admire the easy melodies — the natmal suc- 
 cession of simple fragrances, and, in time, the cultivated sensibility 
 of his nasal organ will enable him to comprehend the moa-e elabo- 
 rate harmonies — the most subtile and artificial odoriferous coiTes- 
 pondences 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 sheep skins, and, although hardly quahfied 
 to judge, I had no hesitation in setting him down as equally a mas- 
 ter of both. 
 
 For some time I sat, the complete verification, notwithstanding 
 the presence of the princess, of an observation, I think by Hazlet, 
 that odors better than the subjects of the other senses, sei-ve as 
 links in the chain of association. A series of staccato passages amid 
 bergamot, lemon, orange, cinnamon and other familiar perfumes, 
 quite entranced me, while a succession 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 briar bush into the open window of my chamber at O . 
 
 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 
 hke hght or sound, mere vibrations propagated m an elastic me- 
 dium, 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 veiy closely. I plucked a cluster of 
 
454 KALOOLAH. 
 
 roses and seated myself upon a marble slab beneath an umbrella 
 tree, and beside a fountain composed of a dozen bronze monkeys, 
 tbat 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, 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 com- 
 posed a few verses, which, although in Enghsh, dehghted Kaloolah 
 very much. I give them here, because they really were expressive 
 of my feehngs for the princess, and because they indicate my no- 
 tions of her style and character. Elaborate versified sentiment re- 
 quires a higher inspiration than mere good looks. Many a man's 
 fancy is taken with nothing but a pretty face, or a fine figui*e ; but 
 in all such cases the captive wUl, 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. 
 
 Musiug 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 flowrets springing, 
 Nor yet the odors they were flinging, 
 Nor yet the warblers that were singing, 
 
 Nor sight, nor sound 
 Of .Slolus, from the tree-tops crying. 
 Or Zephyr, through the fresh blooms sighing. 
 Or lights or shadows ever flying 
 
 Along the ground. 
 
 'Tvvas thus mechanically walking. 
 Quite heedless whither I was stalking 
 That sudden a sound of voices talking 
 Startled my ear — 
 
TO KALOOLAH WITH FLOWERS. 455 
 
 Arousing me from my fond dreaming, 
 With tones like moonlight, fitful gleaming, 
 O'er rufHed waters, ever seeming 
 
 Distant, yet near. 
 I turned me whence those tones were flowing, 
 And, turning, tiirned 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 I me, to find such feelings dweUing 
 
 In things so fair. 
 They told of the fickle south wind's sighing. 
 Of dew drops 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'll take you where, in her smiles lying. 
 No more shall ye have cause for sighing. 
 Or love-lorn tears. 
 
456 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Beneath her soft and kindly smiling 
 Ye'Il bloom a time, pale memories wiling 
 With fondest hopes, and life beguiling 
 
 Of doubts and fears — 
 And death I Ah ! what more pleasant feeling 
 To die ! when Death, his form revealing 
 'Mid floods of light from Her eyes stealing, 
 
 All bright appears. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 Royal festivities. — Latitude of Killoam. — A transit circle. — Situation of the 
 city. — Houses. — Flower-garden roofs. — Streets. — Municipal hygiene Sew- 
 ers. — New mode of cooling houses. — Markets. — Bath-houses. — Public 
 squares. — Rate of mortality. — Temples. — Religious notions. — The govern- 
 ment. — Social distinctions. — The origin of the Framazugs. 
 
 Never 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 cuiTent of affection — not 
 a cloud lowered in the horizon of love. The old king readily gave 
 his consent to our xmion ; the court approved, and the people were 
 well pleased. 
 
 Three or four months glided by in a round of festivities and re- 
 joicings. 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 WoUo. In this way I enjoyed 
 not only opportunities of gratifying cuiiosity, but also of collecting 
 materials for my proposed work upon the poUtical and natm-al his- 
 tory of the country. 
 
 Several weeks of this time were given to sight-seeing alone, in 
 
LATITUDE OF KILLOATjI. — A TKA.\S1T CIRCLE. 4o7 
 
 the great city, to which it will be, perhaps, thought pardonable if 
 I devote a page or two of my present manuscript. 
 
 Killoam, according to the most accurate observations that I 
 have been enabled to make, is situated in 32' north latitude, and 
 somewhere between 25° and 30° of 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 in- 
 strument employed is one that, notwithstanding its rudeness, I have 
 great confidence in. It consists of a large circle, six feet in diameter, 
 made of a very hard, dense, highly pohshed 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 hne of a diameter, 
 and, as near as possible, like the telescope of a mural cu-cle. On 
 either side a cui-ved bracket, projecting from the tube, grasps the 
 periphery of the wheel, and by turning a screw the tube and cir- 
 cle 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 puz- 
 zled me a good deal. I had no practical knowledge of astronomy; 
 no nautical almanac or catalogue of the stars ; and, although hap- 
 pening to recollect the declination of two fixed stars, I had no- 
 thing like an accurate idea of the right ascensions of a smgle one, 
 and I was too far south to avail myself of the upper and lower tran- 
 sits of the circumpolar stars. My only resource was in repeated ob- 
 servations upon the shadows of perpendiculars. 
 
 It may be asked how I got along without a table of declination? 
 fortvinately 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, 
 
 20 
 
458 KALOOLAH. 
 
 there were two fixed stars, whose decUnation I had in mind, name- 
 ly, Arctm-us and Alpha Lyra, upon them I have made many obser- 
 vations, sometimes for altitude, and sometimes, 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 in- 
 strument, 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 architec- 
 tural elegance of its public and private edifices, the beauty of its 
 parks, or the number of its population. Situated on a peninsxda, 
 formed by a bend of the Wollosab, it is surrounded on three sides 
 by water. The city proper, however, does not come down to the 
 water's edge, but is separated by a wall, and a wide open piece of 
 ground, across which run several roads, enclosed by high walls, and 
 terminating at httle 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 main land. 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 which, according to the official re- 
 gisters of the census, is contained a population of six hundred and 
 twenty-three thousand souls. 
 
 The houses are mostly built of a cream-colored free-stone, al- 
 though there are some of marble and granite, and even some of 
 brick. They are invariably large quadrangular edifices with mas- 
 sive 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 tim- 
 
FLOWER GARDEN ROOFS. — MUNICIPAL HYGIENE. 459 
 
 bers of a species of cyprus, wiiicli 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 ; while inside a hght 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 boimdless 
 contiguity of flower gardens from the palace on the rock. 
 
 Some of the pubic thoroughfares are very broad, but in general 
 the streets are of a moderate width, paved, as 1 have mentioned, 
 with large grooved stones, and kept scrupulously clean. Indeed, 
 what would strike a visiter, 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 munici- 
 pal hygiene. The general health of the city, the people of Kil- 
 loam, consider to be the first great object of police regulations ; the 
 protection of property, and the facihtation 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 pur- 
 suit 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 assemblage of men in cities as an admirable modifica- 
 tion of social life ; but admirable only as it affords an opportunity of 
 attaining many of the higher objects of humanity. The elevation 
 and pohsh of intellect — the cultivation of taste — the refinement of 
 manners — the development of the social sympathies and philan- 
 throphic emotions of the heart, are the great objects among the 
 Framazugs of city life. To these they add, as lying at the founda- 
 tion of mental and moral, as well as physical activity and power, 
 the preservation of health. 
 
 To secm-e this last great end, every means has been adopted. 
 The streets are not only swept, but washed every day — a complete 
 
460 KALOOLAH. 
 
 system of sewerage, serving to carry off the refuse water and mate- 
 rials. With regard to dust, the Framazugs are very particular. 
 Never was the governor of Killoam more astonished than when, in 
 the course of conversation, one day, I told him that 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 
 I that is not the worst of it ; several hundred thousand dollars' worth 
 of property 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 ii'on 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 tip the earth of the street, and if one happens to 
 bm'sl, 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 
 ever}'- room and nook in the house. A small wheel, turned by a jet 
 of water, communicates motion by a band to the fan, which, in its 
 revolutions, sucks into the blower all the foul air in the chambei"s, 
 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 
 
f 
 
 KEW MODE OF COOLING HOUSES. 461 
 
 a liberal use of quick-lime in the tubes leading into the sewers, pre- 
 vents the accumulation of foul air, so that when the stones stoppino- 
 the ordinary street openings are removed, the eye and not the 
 nose takes cognizance of the fact. The mode, too, of coohng apart- 
 ments 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 condens- 
 ing apparatus, ah- is forced into copper reservou's, capable of resist- 
 ing a great pressure : in this way it is compelled to give up a large 
 portion of its caloric. When this condensed air is suddenly tmned 
 into a room, it enters with a wonderful capacity for caloric that ena- 
 bles it instantly to reduce the temperatui-e of all the air in the 
 apartment. Besides 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 fuiTiished with side walks, 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 sti-eets, 
 and those which are offensive to the senses or 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 imhealthy effluvium and the disgusting associations, the 
 danger of dii\ing herds of cattle through the streets is wholly 
 obviated. 
 
 The same care is exliibited in the construction and management 
 of the market. These are immense squares with roofs, supported 
 upon columns of marble, and with smooth stone pavements, laid in 
 asphaltum. The fish, meat, and even fi-uit-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 vege- 
 tables, and unhealthy meats are rigidly excluded. Numerous foun- 
 tains play in the broad lanes and passages, and several little rivers. 
 
462 * KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 of the magistrates of Killoam, that personal cleanliness is 
 essential to health. At these baths an artizan 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 sen- 
 tenced to a douche bath, and to be pubhcly scrubbed from head 
 to foot by men appointed for that purpose. The penalty is, in re- 
 ality, mu^ch more severe than might at first be supposed, inasmuch 
 as the sufferer, however hard he may have been scrubbed, invaria- 
 bly comes out from his forced ablution with the reputation of a dirty 
 fellow for life. 
 
 The law may seem arbitrary, but it is foimded upon the justi- 
 fiable assumption, 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 putiifying secretions — to turn his body into a 
 generator of the miasms of typhus fever, plague, scrofula, and a 
 host of cutaneous diseases — to perambvdate 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 res- 
 ponsible for the cleanliness of the premises. In cases where there is 
 a suspicion of dirt or bad ventilation, the pohce make sudden and 
 unexpected domiciliary visits, and immediately order the necessary 
 alterations, repairs and ablutions, charging the owner with the ex- 
 pense. 
 
PUBLIC SQUARES. — TEMPLES. 463 
 
 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 develope 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 so much importance, the city of Killoam 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 4ike re- 
 sults 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 pubHc edifices Killoam proba- 
 bly siu-passes 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 Pholde- 
 foos, are a peculiar and striking feature. Besides these, there are the 
 royal buildings upon the acropolis; the numerous pubhc 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 tot- 
 tering bridge spanning a deep pit. A solitary lamp throws its feeble 
 light but a short distance into the black obscurity of the hall, faintly 
 
4G4 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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, 
 like the vapoiy 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 stsmds, the single dim lamp, and the silent 
 priest — his guide. 
 
 But few worshipers visit this central hall. Most are content to 
 stop in a large vaulted room near the portal, where they listen to 
 discourses upon morahty, and occasionally to an exposition of reli- 
 gious doctrine. They are taught that there is but one God, the 
 ci-eator of all things ; that in making man he implanted in him cer- 
 tain religious instincts, which he intended should be developed in a 
 variety of ways, and that thus every religious system, including the 
 idolatry of the KyptUes, the Mohammedanism 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, there being an infinite 
 ascending series of conditions, or modes of life, in each of which our 
 happiness or misery depends upon om* conduct in the one just pre- 
 ceding. 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 passmg sentiments, will stand forth clear as day, in all their 
 moral beauty or deformity, and that there will be no divertuig the 
 mind from the sight. 
 
 At the end of one hundred thousand years the soul will be 
 refui'nished with a body, and again make its appearance upon 
 the earth, where it will remain in the enjo}Tnent of the highest 
 happiness until the final destruction and annihilation of all mun^ 
 dane things, both spiritual and material. The new body will 
 
BELIGION AND GOVERNMENT. 465 
 
 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 bound- 
 ing our hearing, reason and feehng. As to the final destruction of 
 the world, the Framazug divines do not, like some christian theolo- 
 gians, attempt to settle the exact day and horn- in which it is to 
 take place— although they have quite definite ideas upon the sub- 
 ject. 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 measured by years, that of the nation is by 
 generations ; or what amounts to the same thing, by social and poli- 
 tical revolutions ; and that of the world by the astronomical cycles 
 
 that are marked out by a complete retrocession of the equinoxes 
 
 making periods of twenty-five thousand years each. They believe, 
 that as the dm-ation of a generation is about forty years, the ave- 
 rage existence of large and healthy nations is about forty genera- 
 tions ; 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 estimated, 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, perhaps, unnecessary to inquu-e minutely into 
 the accuracy of the calculation. 
 
 The enlightened christian may, perhaps, say that in some parti- 
 culars these views are unscriptural ; and that they are wholly insuf- 
 ficient to salvation, but he can hardly deny that if the doctrines of 
 tlie Framazugs won't ensure them salvation in the next world, 
 they offer strong incentives to virtue in tliis. 
 
 The government of the city of Killoam is administered by a da- 
 gash appointed by the king, and ten assistants selected by himself, 
 fi-om among the Uterary men of the city. Only those who have 
 written a book, or perpetrated something in the literary wav, are 
 
 20* 
 
466 KALOOLAH, 
 
 considered eligible to the ofl&ce, for two reasons. The first is, that 
 an opportunity is thus afforded the people of judging of the gene- 
 ral capacity, the mental and moral tone of their rulers ; and the 
 second is, that contrary to the opinion that obtains in some coun- 
 tries, literary men, particularly the poets, are considered to be the 
 best qualified for almost any kind of public business. 
 
 The general government of the country is equally opposed to the 
 received notions and definitions of christian nations. It may be said 
 to be an hereditary, elective, democratic, despotic monarchy. The 
 king inherits 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 duties of his ofl&ce. If two-thirds vote in 
 the negative, he is compelled to resign, and his hen* takes his place. 
 In everything, except in relation to this one constitutional provi- 
 sion, the king has unlimited power, with the understanding, how- 
 ever, that it is derived solely from the consent of the people, and 
 that the great object of its exercise is the comfort and happiness of 
 the great masses of his subjects. There is no hereditary aristocracy 
 — ^the honors and dignities granted by the king being only for life. 
 
 Such dignities, however, are merely political, and confer no so- 
 cial distinction. 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 in- 
 stitution, which may be called the Board of Commissioners of Po- 
 sition, and also by the suflFrages of society 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 favora- 
 ble, the commissioners examine the candidate as to her social expe- 
 rience and qualifications, and issue a patent of position, accompa- 
 nied with a medal, made of the tanned hide of the hippopotamus, 
 colored to correspond to the rank assigned. In case her social am- 
 bition prompts to a higher flight, she wears for some time a party- 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE FRAMAZUGS. 467 
 
 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, inasmuch as a 
 red medal can be seen talking to a green medal, or even smelling at 
 the same bouquet, without any apprehension of losing caste. It 
 strikes me that this custom might be advantageously transferred to 
 America, 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, altliough 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 equili- 
 brium. There is one obstacle, however, in the way of introducing 
 the use of the medal, and that is the difficulty, or, perhaps, impos- 
 sibility 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 des- 
 cent. Moreover, tradition ascribes their origin to a country due-east, 
 and across a great water. But there are so many points of diflTer- 
 ence, that upon fuller investigation the notion has to be given up. 
 They have nothing of the Chinese physiognomy, nothing of the an- 
 gular eyes and high cheek bones of tlie 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, development of the Egyp- 
 tian, Drove them to be of a diiferent race. 
 
 Some circumstances would lead one to infer that thev were a 
 
468 KALOOLAH. 
 
 colony of Hindoos, who had migrated before the division of people 
 into castes, but their light complexions and \agorous frames, to say 
 nothmg of other points, belie the idea. 
 
 Their aquiline features and fine Egyptian heads, would indicate 
 an origin from the banks of the NUe, 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. Tlie chief ground for the opinion is in certain gram- 
 matical affinities between the Framazug and 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 neces- 
 sary 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 XLIX. 
 
 A marriage. — Public curiosity. — The Hall of Doubt. — A chorus. — An idle cere- 
 mony. — Queer notions of marriage. — The princess' toilet. — A curious veil. — 
 A marriage procession. — Sculptured nondescripts. — The mound temple. — 
 The marriage ceremony. — Buried alive. 
 
 Six months passed, when one day all Killoam Avas 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 Franiazugda. If marriage in 
 
THE HALL OF DOUBT. 469 
 
 the upper cii-cles 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 cidtivated community for a week — if bridal 
 presents, consisting of a few pieces of plate, a solitary 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 profovuid admii-ation of the wealthy community gene- 
 rally — it cannot be considered strange that the elegant and refined, 
 but still barbarous quidnuncs of Ealloam, 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 piincess had taken her 
 seat in the Hall of Doubt — a dismal looking chamber, hung with 
 gray. Her sisters — not the children of the great Shounse, 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 saddened faces, ever and anon they 
 sang, with plaintive voices, a melancholy chorus, portions of which 
 ran thus : — 
 
 Stay, sister, stay ! 
 
 Why should'st thou go away? 
 AVhy withdraw thy maiden hand 
 From the warm claspings of thy sister band ? 
 
 Stay, sister, stay 1 
 
 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 ! 
 
 Take heed, Ah ! take heed ! 
 Thy step is in the flowery mead ; 
 Why ? oh ! why should the happy maid 
 Seek the unknown paths amid the forest's shade ? 
 Take heed, Ah I take heed I 
 
470 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Doubt, sister, doubt ! 
 
 Oft the fire of love goeth out ; 
 Flames it now? erewhile thou'lt find, 
 Nothing but cinders and ashes are left behind. 
 
 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 cere- 
 mony," said the princess. 
 
 " Not so," said her father, " the custom comes from the olden 
 time, and it has ever been considered a good ceremonial enforce- 
 ment 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 sohcitations 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 uncom- 
 mon 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 con- 
 tract between two co-equal sovereignties — a limited partnership for 
 the common carrying on of some of the duties of Ufe, in which 
 special provisions are necessary to guard the respective indepen- 
 dent rights of the parties — a convenient mode of assuring the pa- 
 ternity of children — a respectable mode of obtaining a livelihood." 
 
 " And is that all ?" interrupted the king. 
 
 " All !" said I, " what moi^e would your majesty have ?" 
 
 " Ah !" replied the king, " our notions are very different. We 
 believe tha^ marriage is not a common contract, and that there can 
 
QUEER NOTIONS OF MARRIAGE. 471 
 
 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, marriage and death, and that the first is by far the 
 most important. At marriage, two single souls become one soul. 
 This one soul is no longer hke a single soul, but its component ele- 
 ments, united by the power of love, become a very different kind 
 of spiritual entity ; and this union is so intimate as to admit be- 
 tween its parts only the relations of duty and privilege, not of 
 right. No marriage is valid — no marriage is a marriage without 
 this fusion of the duahty into unity." 
 
 It was evident that the great Shounse was growing a little tran- 
 scendental : 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 fami- 
 liarly on my shoulder, but of the head ; or, rather, I have for her." 
 
 "And in what respect does your majesty doubt ?" I demanded. 
 
 " Yoiir age," repUed the king. " You are either too young or 
 too old ; younger, you would more easily forget your country and 
 early associations, 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 re- 
 visit 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 wed- 
 ding, which was to take place the coming day. 
 
472 KALOOLAH. 
 
 The reader need not be afraid that I am going into a minute 
 detail of all the circumstances and ceremonies, but I must dwc^ll on 
 Kaloolah's appearance 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, eme- 
 ralds and opals — a gorget of amethyst's encircled her throat. Her 
 rich dark hair hung naturally in thick clusters do^vn her 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 fore- 
 head terminating in a slender crescent of gems, encircling a sun, 
 the centre of which was a large brilhant yellow diamond. From the 
 top of this crest arose a golden staff, or standard, three inches 
 high, surmounted by a plume of the froulbell. Around this staff 
 was twisted the middle of a long veil of spiders' 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 beauty 
 of workmanship, to this veil, which was made, not as has been fre- 
 quently 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 em- 
 ployed for this purpose is of a peculiar species — being very docile 
 and easily governed by its master by means of a small twig of bam- 
 boo, so as to be made to work out any figure designed. The only 
 difficulty is, that in Avorking large articles, the spider is apt to spin 
 himself out before his work is finished, and it is impossible to get 
 another spider to caiTy out the same design. This enliances the cost 
 enormously — I am soiTy that I cannot give the exact expense of 
 Kaloolah's veil in dollars and cents, but a rough estimate will, per- 
 haps, do something towards satisfying the enlightened curiosity ge- 
 nerally felt on such subjects. Taking the average price of wheat in 
 
A MARRIAGE PROCESSION. 473 
 
 New- York at ninety cents a bushel, and estimating tlie busliel in 
 Killoam to be wortli as much as the bushel in New-York, the veil 
 must have cost, say at fifteen thousand bushels, thirteen thovisand 
 five hundred dollars ! My estimate may be wrong, as to the pi-ice of 
 wheat, but if so, some of my female readers, whose fathers are in 
 the flour trade, can easily correct the mistake. 
 
 The morning dawned brightly, as all the mornings in Frama- 
 zugda 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 de- 
 scribe, I descended, with my suite, to the vestibule of the great 
 central pavilion, where, in a short time, I was joined by the prin- 
 cess. After some little delay, Kaloolah and myself took our seats 
 beneath a canopy of flowers, supported upon an immense gilt ma- 
 chine, like an ancient triumphal chariot. To this car were harnessed 
 eight pairs of buftaloes by strips of burnished snake skin. These buf- 
 faloes were of a spotless white ; their horns were wreathed with 
 flowers, and each one bore on his back two tiimi peters, 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 Kaloolah's companions ; and on either side of 
 our car paced a stately escort of young nobles, mounted upon gi- 
 raffes. Farther in the rear came another magnificent chariot, bear- 
 ing the great Shounse. 
 
 A tremendous salvo of gongs, and a flomish of trumpets, drums 
 and cymbals, mingled with the shouts of the vast multitude, an- 
 nounced 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 fore legs were precisely like those 
 
474 K ALGOL AH. 
 
 of the domestic, cat. A long tail like a monkey, but terminating in 
 a hard homy sting like a scorpion, completed the form of these 
 stone nondescripts. I have seen noticing 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 ia 
 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 ^vere conducted, on foot, by a com- 
 pany of yellow robed priests, into the great central hall — a vast 
 gloomy apartment lighted by colorless flames, like those from burn- 
 ing alcohol. The contrast between the light, noisy joyousness that 
 we had just left, and the dismal stillness of the temple was almost 
 appaUing. No one, with the exception of the king and his privy 
 council, Kaloolah's sisters, and my immediate attendants, had en- 
 tered 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 be- 
 neath the weight of a hundred years, we advanced to the great 
 altar. A deep pit, into wliich 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 liv- 
 ing 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 com- 
 pletely was my reason and imagination mastered by the dismal 
 mummery going on around, I led Kaloolah down the steps. We 
 
BURIED ALIVE. 4Y5 
 
 seated ourselves upon a projecting ledge of stone, and in an instant 
 the heavy marble slab vras 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 upon the marble covering — 
 fainter and fainter came the choral wailing, and then all was still. 
 We were bmied 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 superstition ? 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 forehead — 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, " Off ! off with the 
 stone ! Let me out ! Priests ! villains ! dogs ! I'll throttle the 
 whole of ye ! Let me out !" Madly I struggled to raise the stone. 
 Ah ! confirmation 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 immovea- 
 ble marble, until completely exhausted, I 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 re- 
 vulsion of feeling took place — " At least," said I, throwing my 
 arms around her, " we will die together." 
 
 At this moment their 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 tem- 
 ple, to the eyes of the shouting multitudes crowding the vast 
 court below. 
 
476 KALOOLAH. 
 
 If attitude is graceful in proportion as it is unstudied, ours 
 must liave been the impersonation of Hogarth's spiral. The prin- 
 cess was seated on the floor supporting my head, which was still 
 throbbing with its wild excitement, while I was stretched at length 
 with my arms around her waist. For a moment I was somewhat 
 stupified by the glare, the crowd and the noise — the next, a feeling 
 of indignation at the barbarous ceremony and the ridiculous expo- 
 sure, to the eyes of the crowd, so strangely in contrast to the quiet 
 privacy, the refined delicacy, the reserved dignity with which mar- 
 riages are always conducted in Chi'istian countries, nerved me for 
 the finishing performance, Avhich consisted simply of a procession 
 to the garden of the Wollo, outside of the city, accompanied by 
 the whole population of Killoam ; and a grand feast, of which all 
 partook, amid its shady avenues and around its gleaming fountains. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 T})e honey-moon. — News from the borders. — Ravajres of the Jalla. — Alkafuz. — 
 A night's reconnoissance. — Riding a boa. — A battle. — Marching into the Jalla 
 country. — A novel batteruig-ram. — Jebha. — A strong position. — Enphadde's 
 plans. — Capitulation of Jebha. — The Grand Shocoo. — The source of the 
 Nile. — Origin of the Jalla. — Queer people. — Gourd huts. — A country of 
 snakes. — Return to Killoam. 
 
 It was three or four days after our marriage, that the princess 
 was seated upon a bank of tiuf in the great garden of tlie Wollo, 
 engaged in the interesting employment of twisting my long hair 
 and beard with the flowers that Gogo industriousl}^ gathered. Tlie 
 deep sounds of the great cataract wei-e borne upon the scent laden 
 
NEWS FROM THE BOllDERS. 477 
 
 breeze, mingling, in luscious hai-mony, with the rustling of the 
 leaves, the melodious strains of innumerable bii-ds, 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 ex- 
 quisite happiness came over me, marred, hoAvever, 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 confii-mation of the reflection, Enphadde made his 
 appearance, with a command for my immediate attendance upon 
 the king. 
 
 We foimd his majesty, with his countenance troubled by news 
 just brought from the eastern border of his domains, of an eruption 
 of the fierce Jalla, who were desolating with fire and sword a fertile 
 and populous tract, not more than two hundred miles from Killoam. 
 We had hardly entered the coimcil room when another messen- 
 ger Avas announced, with news from the north-west, of an expedi- 
 tion of Footas into the country of the Kyptiles. The foreign re- 
 lations of Framazugda were endently getting into a bad way. 
 
 In a short speech, I proposed a plan of operations which met 
 with instant and unanimous approval. I explained that, as far as 
 regards the Footas, we must meet them with their own weapons, 
 and that some time would be required to make the necessary pre- 
 parations, 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 messengei-s should be des- 
 patched to the cave, near Garazha, to collect the saltpetre 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 
 mean time 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 
 
478 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Jalla. Upon our return I would commence the necessary prepara- 
 tions for carrying fire and sword into the heart of the Foota 
 country. 
 
 Early the next morning we left Killoam, and took the road for 
 Alkafuz, which city we entered on the fourth day, with a body of 
 eight hundred 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 
 inhabitants, but containing for the time being double that number of 
 people, who had been compelled to take refuge within the walls, 
 from the attacks of the Jalla. Situated at the edge of a lofty pla- 
 teau 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 groimd between the 
 Jalla and the Framazugs ? 
 
 According to the best information we could get from the fright- 
 ened people of the country, there were two bodies of these sava- 
 ges, numbering 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 parties, laden with spoil, had commenced a re- 
 treat, 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. 
 
 Lea\'ino; the besieofed 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 re- 
 treating partj'. Our army, amountmg to about twelve hundred horse 
 and a thousand foot, Avell armed with spears and bows, was in 
 capital spirits, and animated with the highest confidence in the in- 
 vincibility of its christian allies, and in the gallantry of its youthful 
 prince. 
 
 At the close of the fii-st day word was brought, by the scouting 
 
A NIGHT RECONNAISSANCE, 479 
 
 parties 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 feAv 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 himdred 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 smoul- 
 dering fires of the unsuspicious JaUa. 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 En- 
 phadde would be in his position, in a closer examination of the Jalla 
 camp. 
 
 It was a clear, starlight night, and as there were no obstruc- 
 tions, we made our way without difficulty to within twenty rods of 
 their fires. I could see the tall forms of the savaofes flittinof about 
 among the crowds of crouching captives, and the long hnes of 
 horses, picketed by ropes to pegs driven into the ground. Occa- 
 sionally the guards would stir up the embers, and throw on an arm- 
 ful 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 
 
480 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 rustling, 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 double-baiTcled pis- 
 tols, 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 ser- 
 viceable sword, that by daylight would have been a very dangerous 
 weapon for any animal, not even excepting a lion, to run upon. 
 
 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 luuTy back 
 and lead on my troops to the attack, I thought that I would ven- 
 ture a few yards further, and finish my reconnoissance from the 
 knoll. 
 
 I had advanced, perhaps, a dozen steps, when I encomitered 
 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 httle to my Aveight, like many an old half-rotten trunk that my 
 feet have pressed in the forests of the St. LaAvrence. It seemed so 
 much decayed as hardh' to be able to bear me — as if it were about " 
 to break asunder, and let me down into its spongy mterior. My foot 
 slipped upon the yielding smface — 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 w^hich way my body Avas go- 
 ing, but a twist of the animal soon settled the point by letting me 
 down upon my head and shoulders, and leaAUig my feet eleA^ated 
 on his back in the ah". 
 
RIDING A BOA. — A BATTLE. 48i 
 
 I fell partly on my right side ; my sword flcAv 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 enoi'mous head with jaws outstretched wide enough 
 to engulph an elephant ! Instinctively 1 stretched out my left 
 hand. The pistol bari-els rattled against some hard bony substance, 
 and at the mstant my fingers contracting upon the triggers, both 
 charges exploded simultaneously with a loud report, and with a re- 
 coil 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 pro- 
 jected through an indeterminate series of ground tumblings to the 
 foot of the knoU. 
 
 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 ray bones. A tremendous floundering about a 
 hundred yards off", on my rights, that made the ground tremble 
 like the shocks of an 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 ene- 
 my by surprise at an end ; so, following the example of my com- 
 panion, I commenced 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 pai-ty of three 
 or four hundred Jalla drew out from the main body, and ad- 
 vanced towards us. It was evident that they were not so easily 
 frightened, and that they were determined to fight, if necessary, to 
 
 21 
 
482 KALOOLAH. 
 
 cover the retreat of the guards in charge of the captives and spoils. 
 
 Seeing them so Avell -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 En- 
 phadde. 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 
 unnecessary fighting ; and finding that we were not about to charge 
 them, they drew back, and followed slowly their main body. Occa- 
 sionally 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 filing in this way, we followed them for nearly an 
 hour, until tlie sim was up, and pouring the full light of day into 
 the lovely little valley. Suddenly there was a tremendous commo- 
 tion in their ranks, theu" van recoiled upon their plunder-laden 
 centre, and all was confusion. At this moment there came the re- 
 port of a musket, and the next instant another which I knew must 
 be from the guns of Hassan and Jack, who were vnth Enphadde. 
 Soon the fierce sounds of strife came roUing towards us, and finding 
 that Enphadde was fully engaged, and that a panic was extending 
 through the ranks of oui* 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 J alia fought bravely, although the occa- 
 sional discharge of our fire arms deprived them of their usual con- 
 fidence. About two hundred and fifty were left dead upon the field, 
 two hundred were made prisoners, and two or three hundred, de- 
 serting their horses, clambered up the sides of the hollow, and made 
 their escape across the level country. On our side we lost a hun- 
 dred and fifty men, some of whom were killed by being ridden over 
 by the charging squadrons, or knocked down and trampled to 
 
MARCHING INTO THE JALLA COUNTRY. 483 
 
 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 chil- 
 dren, 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 re- 
 quisition, and for two or three hours I was employed in dressing 
 wounds. It struck me at the time, that were princes, prime minis- 
 ters, 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 httle distance. We went to see it, and found that it was the very 
 fellow who, resenting my familiarity, had compelled me to my 
 involuntar}'- somerset. My pistol had been fired into his open 
 mouth, and the balls, penetrating diagonally upwards and back- 
 wards, had passed through the palital bones, and lodged in the 
 brain. He was truly a monster, measui-ing full 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 stUl higher point in pubhc estimation when it was under- 
 stood 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 expectation of coming up with them before 
 they reached the friendly shelter of their hills. Our plan, there- 
 fore, 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 
 
484 KALOOLAH. 
 
 country. This done, I was determined to attempt inspiring the 
 Jalla with wholesome terror, by a vigorous, offensive war, carried 
 into their strongholds in the hills. 
 
 It made it very inconvenient to us, that they would not keep to- 
 gether in one body, and allow us to defeat them in a lump. En- 
 phadde and Thompson, however, succeeded in intercepting a party of 
 five or six hundred, when a desperate fight ensued, in which we lost 
 two hvmdred 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 plun- 
 der and escape with their lives. 
 
 It was now our tui'n to assume the ofiensive. 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 pro- 
 visions. 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 distinguislied bravery, so that its moral 
 influence was not lost to the army. 
 
 A march of three days to the north-east 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. Col- 
 lecting 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 untU 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, 
 
BRAVADO OF THE ENEMY. 485 
 
 several untenanted villages, the Jalla ha\ing had notice of our ap- 
 proach ; but we found great stores of wheat, barley, rice, honey and 
 oil, in caves in the ground. 
 
 Burning the \'illages, which were composed of reed houses, 
 plastered with mud and thatched with straw, and destroymg 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 appearance 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 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 oc- 
 curred to me of collecting 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 second, 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 made. A 
 thorough-bred Yankee, I take it, can make anything, 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 cahbre ! 
 
 Something must be done, and that quickly, if we wished to 
 press matters home to the Jalla in the hills. At last a plan oc- 
 curred to me, which we at once proceeded to carry into execution. 
 
 The town was of an eUiptical shape, and covered an ai-ea of 
 
486 KALOOLAH. 
 
 about one hundred acres. Two gates, opposite to each otlier, were 
 the only means of entrance or egress. These w^ere evidently old, 
 and very weak, and in front of them the ditch, instead of continu- 
 ing on, stopped short, on either side, leaving a broad, level path 
 leading up to them. Our forces were divided mto four divisions, 
 two of these were stationed opposite the walls, at an equal distance 
 from either gate. Each of these divisions was furnished 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 bimdle of dry grass, which 
 was to be set on fire, and thrust over the wall, on long spars, to dis- 
 order 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 powerfid diversion in favor 
 of the other two divisions that were destined to attack the gates. 
 One of these divasions was under the immediate command of En- 
 phadde, 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. 
 
 Oiu" battering machines, two in number, were now prepared 
 and levelled for the charge. They consisted of three horses each. 
 The animals being fii-st bhndfolded, 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 attached 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 
 veiy quiet ; they were beginning to feel a little dubious as to our 
 intended movements. Retm-ning by a circuit of the walls to my 
 pqst at the northern gate, I gave a sign to Hugh, who fired liis 
 
A NOVEL BATTERING RAM. 48T 
 
 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 gate-s. 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 Corse 
 in a Roman horse race, and were precipitated dead or dying inlo 
 the town. 
 
 Charging at a full run, we reached the gates before the aston- 
 ished 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 divi- 
 sions came pouring in, driving the enemy before them, and slaugh- 
 tering 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 succeeded 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 hut of the Shocco, or 
 chief. All the rest were killed, with the exception of about fifty, 
 who in the confusion of the meUe had jumped the walls, and elud- 
 ing our outposts, made their way to the hills. 
 
 Tliere remained now no obstacle to our march into the moun- 
 tains, 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 assistance could be collected from the more dis- 
 tant tribes. If we could not succeed in taking it, we could at least 
 
488 KALOOLAH. 
 
 desolate the environs, and perhaps frighten the Grand Shocco into 
 1 treaty of peace. 
 
 At the first view of this stronghold of the Grand Shocco, I gave 
 jp 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, 
 apon 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 cliff. Ten men could easily de- 
 fend 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 naiTow 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 
 that was our only plan, for they appeared capering upon the edge 
 of the cliff, with loaves of bread on the points of tlieir 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 
 presented itself. I had examined the whole circumference of the 
 mountain without being able to find any point at Avhich 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 
 
JEBHA. 489 
 
 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, trembhng to a fall. From the nature of the groimd, 
 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, xmtil 
 I led up our men in full force, when we could descend the ravine 
 to a proper distance, take up a position, and open our batteries of 
 slings, aiTOws, and fire-arms from a commanding height. 
 
 I gave my assent to this proposition. Taking with him the lad- 
 ders, 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 them- 
 selves around them, as if constructing 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, by blowing horns, beating drums, and danc- 
 ing 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 sm'prise, a group of figures upon the highest rock. 
 One of them came forward 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 
 
 21* 
 
490 KALOOLAH. 
 
 attacks upon as many masses of over-hanging 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 receiv^e no proposition. We waved a white flag to them; 
 they answered by 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 ap- 
 pearance of our men on the peak, it was e\ident that they had no 
 idea of the intended plan of attack. With a feeling, compounded of 
 anger at their stupidity and obstinacy, and sorrow for their im- 
 pending fate, I was compelled to give the signal to Enphadde to 
 let fall. 
 
 Instantly his men threw their full strength upon the levers be- 
 neath the tottering masses, which, slowly yielding to the force, 
 hung, for a moment, as if trembling at the fearful leap, and the 
 next, like the stone of Syssiphus " resulting with a bound," thun- 
 dered impetuously down the precipitous ravine directly into the 
 town. One of these masses, in leaping from a projecting ledge, was 
 broken into a thousand pieces. A second was diverted somewhat 
 from its course by the inequalities of the gromid, so as to strike 
 only a couple of houses at the side, but the thh'd, a huge rock of 
 ten tons, rolled straight through the town, carrying everything be- 
 fore it ; prostrating twenty houses, killing and wounding more than 
 fifty people ; among the latter of whom was the Grand Shocco him- 
 self ; and leaping from the edge of the inclined plane with a force 
 that projected 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. 
 
 *' Ok heo lu ! Oic hi heo lu !" yelled the frightened Jalla. 
 " Zi-le — li-e — li-e-e P' screamed the women and children at the top 
 of their slu'ill voices. The men leaped about like so many monkeys. 
 
CAPITULATION OF JEBHA. 491 
 
 gesticulating furiously, throwing themselves upon the ground, and 
 tearing their long hair, which, frizzled and stiffened with a compo- 
 sition of bee's wax and mutton tallow, had very much the look 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 
 expressed 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 sur- 
 render. 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 complicated diplomatic forms to be gone 
 through Avith, the business was soon settled. My ultimatum was stat- 
 ed without ch'cumlocution. Immediate surrender, the Grand Sliocco 
 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 consist of about three hundred dwelhng houses, and a dozen 
 large stores fiUed 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 molest- 
 ed 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, 
 
492 KALOOLAH. 
 
 and found him with a dislocated shoulder and two or three frac- 
 tured ribs. He could not conceal his astonishment, when he sud- 
 denly found himself treated as a patient — his broken bones ban- 
 daged 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 cui'e 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 compel him to keep the peace. We told him that the Great 
 Shounse 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 lie had to quarter a perma- 
 nent army in their country, desolate 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 mus- 
 kets; which would reach him, even if he built his town upon the 
 apex of the Peak, and that I should tlien have to exterminate him 
 and all his people. 
 
 Reinforcements of both Framazugs and Kyptiles, among which 
 was my old friend Soloo 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 came forward, and submitted without opposition, pledg- 
 ing 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 shoidd hardly have noticed, had not the inhabitants called 
 our attention to it, asserting that it was the beginning of the great- 
 est river in the world. That after running an immense distance, re- 
 ceiving streams from every direction, it joined itself to a great river 
 
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 493 
 
 farther to the east, and that both together ran on for several moon's 
 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 
 foimtains 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 coiirse on their winding way, for thou- 
 sands of miles, until, leaping the catai-acts of Syene, and passing the 
 palaces of Luxor and the pyramids of Geeza, they reach the Medi- 
 terranean, and lave the keel of some one of the many ships, bear- 
 ing 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 bairen deserts, and dense forests, in others, 
 through countries inhabited by w^ild 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 joiirney, 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 me against a people who had their 
 faces, arms and breasts, all covered with blue lines, or, if we 
 
494 KALOOLAH. 
 
 pleased, he would make an expedition with us to the east, where 
 lived a nation of 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 Sliocco, " they are human beings, 
 speak a language that sounds like the whistling of arrows; are go- 
 verned by chiefs, and when caught, as they sometimes are by the 
 D'jhas'r'huc Jalla, they make good slaves. But why should I talk 
 when I can show you one of them. Here Syedge ! Galloom ! Mie- 
 frah !" shouted the Shocco, calling to his slaves, " run up the 
 mountain to the goats' valley, and tell Jicric that I want him !" 
 
 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 shoulders, 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, with a protuberant abdomen, and his 
 lower limbs slender, but strong and sinewy. He had no clothing, 
 but, instead, was covered with a thick coating of long coarse hair, 
 of a light pea-green tint. What was my- surprise to find such an 
 animal speaking Jalla fluently, and answering, through an interpre- 
 ter, 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 fi-uits, and edible roots ; and also upon in- 
 sects, locusts and serpents. That their chief enemies were a white 
 people on the east, with long hair, who annually made an incui-sion 
 into their country for slaves ; and on the north a nation of red men, 
 who painted their faces, and hved in gourds. 
 
 Not understanding what Jicric meant by a people living in 
 gourds, I demanded an explanation. 
 
GOURD HUTS. — THE SNAKE COUNTRY. 495 
 
 "You must know," said he, "that these red men live in a coun- 
 try that produces a vine that bears a goui'd as large as a Jalla hut. 
 The stalk of this vine is frequently more than two hands' breath in 
 diameter, and the fruit that hangs from it is sometimes more than 
 five paces through. These Aones 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 pendant dwell- 
 ings, where they are seciu*e from the attacks of the numerous ser- 
 pents that infest their country. You will sometimes 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 chmbing the trunk of the 
 tree and stepping down round the outside of the gourd." 
 
 " Capital houses they must be for the rafey 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. Sometimes, when you look over this snake coun- 
 try you Avould 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 assent- 
 ing, made a bai'gain for him with his master. The little fellow has 
 been ynth me ever since, and has grown to be a great favorite with 
 Kaloolah, although at first she could hardly bear him in her sight. 
 
 Having now ventured as far from home as prudence would per- 
 mit, with so small an army, we set out on our return to Jebha. 
 
496 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Here we picked up the Grand Shocco, with his twelve principal 
 men, and started for Alkafiiz. 
 
 At Alkafuz we left him to come on by Utter, and the prince 
 and myself, mounting the fleetest horses, set out for the capi- 
 tal. In four days we reached the city, and such a time as we 
 had in making our way through the crowds in the streets, and in 
 the great square into the palace ! — there was nothing like a regu- 
 lar procession, and no parade of captives or spoils ; but our recep- 
 tion was a complete impromptu popular triumph. I thought of 
 Bacchus on his retm-n from his Indian expedition ; but Bacchus, 
 if I recollect aright, was accompanied 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 
 of 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 decided sentiment of the reverential, qualified 
 the embiace with which I received her, as she threw herself into 
 my arms. 
 
 CHAPTER LIT. 
 
 Preparations for war. — Organizing an army. — The march. — Crossing the 
 Queal. — A grand battle. — Siege of Goolah. — A new method of scaling 
 walls. 
 
 Several months elapsed from the time of our triumphant return 
 before all our preparations were completed for my proposed system 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 497 
 
 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 Thompson, 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, al- 
 though 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, imder my own personal superin- 
 tendence, with the utmost vigor. Every means in the kingdom was 
 placed at my disposal, and the most stringent orders issued by the 
 great Shounse, 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 gimpowder. 
 Fortunately I recollected the proportionate numbers of the ingre- 
 dients, 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 char- 
 coal, sulphur or saltpetre, was a point which had wholly escaped 
 my memorv. It did not, however, require a long course of experi- 
 ment to determine the matter ; the powder Avas at last produced, 
 and that, too, of a veiy excellent quality. A large manufactory was 
 now established, and a himdred hands set to work at the several 
 processes ; some pulverized the materials, others mixed the paste in 
 large wooden bowls, and others granulated it by passing it through 
 sieves of copper. 
 
 The next thing, was to make the machines in which the pow- 
 der was to be 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 hollow piece, and then work 
 
498 ■ KALOOLAH. 
 
 the bore as smootli ;ind as straight as possible. We tried this, but with 
 many difficuKies and accidents. Tlie artists in my employ were un- 
 used to casting in such large masses, their bronze work, of even 
 their largest statue, being all done in small pieces. We could not 
 vindertake, therefore, anything 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 me- 
 tal. 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 se\ eral others. 
 
 After a great deal of trouble in this way, and ha'snng succeeded 
 in making only three small pieces that were good for anything, I 
 concluded to adopt an entirely different plan, and to go back to 
 first principles, or rather to first practices. It occurred to rae that 
 I had read, somewhere, of wooden guns being used in the infancy of 
 artillery science, and ev^en 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 gun 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 
 
WOODEN ARTILLERY. 499 
 
 been able to form any notion on the subject, about the size of a 
 twenty-four pound howitzer. 
 
 Great was our delight, upon trjnng this piece, to find that it 
 fully answered our purposes. More than forty rounds of leaden 
 grape-shot were fired from it before it was materially injm'ed, and 
 even then it was serviceable for thirty or forty charges more. The 
 action of the powder upon the wood hardened it almost to the den- 
 sity of iron. Another piece stood more than thirty discharges of 
 round shot, and we found, that by taking the precaution of wrap- 
 ping the ball in greased cloth, more than a hundred rounds could be 
 fii-ed, 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 artizans were at once em- 
 ployed in preparing the palm trunks, making the iron work, casting 
 balls, making up stands of grape and cannister, 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 Hmit, 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 rmgs 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 
 caiTy 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 of the personel of my army was conducted 
 pari passu with the preparation of the materiel. A hundred thou- 
 sand men were anxious to serve, but I was determined not to em- 
 barrass myself with a horde that it would be impossible to reduce 
 to discipline, or to find any use for. I resolutely insisted on Umit- 
 ing the whole number to twenty-foiu- thousand men. These I 
 
600 KALOOI.AH. 
 
 divided into eight brigades, each brigade into three regiments, and 
 each regiment into ten companies of one hundred 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 
 innovations, that excited any question as to its propriety ; but my 
 orders had to be obeyed, and twenty-four thousand broad-bladed, 
 sharp-pointed weapons, 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 tac- 
 tics beyond what any 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 supei-fluities of drill. In the school of the soldier a sim- 
 ple 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 command. 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 enthe 
 superintendance of the manual exercise, wished to introduce several 
 other commands, such as " carry arms," " present arms," &c. and 
 had the men had anything 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 
 important points necessary for our purposes to be attended to. 
 
ORGAN IZIXG AN ARMY. 501 
 
 Marching by whole front or platoons, wheeling, changing face, and 
 halting, were all that we attempted, and these were not performed, 
 as Hugh loudly protested, secundem artem ; but as he could not de- 
 monstrate that the practice 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 estabUshed. 
 
 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 e\ident 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 seiies of 
 evolutions, by which each regiment could be thrown into square, 
 solid or hollow, according to the exigencies of the case and the ex- 
 tent 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\Tes, and, besides, I have 
 no wish to shock the professional sensibilities of any of the accom- 
 plished tacticians and martinets of the New- York militia. 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 new combinations of 
 movement — to teach them the more effective christian mode of 
 fighting. This was accompHshed in a wonderfid short space of time, 
 by collecting all the officers of the army into a battahon about eight 
 hundred strong, and dialling them first. They were then dismissed 
 
602 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 encamped apart, and for thi-ee 
 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 
 performed their exercises woidd receive marks of the royal bounty. 
 It must be understood, that the army was composed of picked 
 men, men chosen for their mtelligence and activity, and that the spirit 
 of emulation had been carried to the highest pitch in order to com- 
 prehend the wonderful progress that they had made. The emperor 
 was in raptures, and ordered tliat 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 decorations and orders. Cap- 
 tains 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 en- 
 couraging expressions to their men, and the firmness of the kneeUng 
 ranks was assured by the repeated charges of squadrons of cavalry 
 up to the very spear-heads. No militaiy manoeu\Te, when well 
 performed, can be more beautiful. Upon the word, each regiment 
 rapidly closes into a sohd mass; the men, with their polished 
 spears and their light red uniforms, and tlie 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 
 
THE MARCH. — CROSSING THE QUEAL. 503 
 
 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 tliistle. 
 
 At length all was ready, and early one beautiful morning in the 
 beginning of the dry season the army commenced its march for the 
 Queal — which river was reached without any difficulty, the roads 
 being good, and everything 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, there- 
 fore, 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 Enphadde 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 coun- 
 try — the Foota horsemen appearing in great numbers, but retreat- 
 ing 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 sig^ht 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 rocky and wooded hiUs. At one place 
 
504 KALOOLAH. 
 
 these hills came down to within half a mile of the water, so as al- 
 most to cut the plain in two, and then fell away again, with a bold 
 sweep aromid the town. A thorough reconnoissance satisfied us 
 that the hills were uninhabited, and that it was possible, although 
 difficult, to pass along through them, and reach the narrowest part 
 of the plain ; thus cutting the Footas off from their town, and com- 
 pelling them to a general engagement at once. 
 
 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 detom*, 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 im- 
 practicable. As it was, it was very heavy work, carrying our light 
 guns up and down precipices, and over jagged rocks; but perseve- 
 rance conquered all obstacles ; and at nightfall, after a terrible day's 
 march, we reached a point still covered by the hills, bixt whence we 
 could at once debouche upon the narrow portion of plain before 
 mentioned. Little did the Footas, who were assembled some thirty 
 thousand strong, at the upper pail of the small prairie in front of 
 Dal Gouk's lines — httle did they dream that their flanks had been 
 turned, and that their enemy, with a di"vided force, it is true, but 
 still a sufficient one, had reached their rear. And just as little did 
 they dream of the death-dealing properties of the formidable ma- 
 chines 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 dis- 
 tance 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 artiller)^, con- 
 sisting of twelve pieces, I drew up under my ovm personal super- 
 
A GRA.XJD BATTLE. 505 
 
 intendence, upon our left flank, at the base of the hills, and three 
 or four hundred yards in rear of Jack's masked demi-batterv. 
 
 It was the middle of the forenoon when all our positions were 
 taken, and by that time the enemy were fully informed of our move- 
 ments. In fact, our operations had been conducted after daylight, 
 directly under the supervision of bodies of horsemen, who, how- 
 ever, 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 camp, to the barrier so suddenly 
 raised in their rear. They were not long in coming to the conclu- 
 sion 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 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. On they came, twii-hng their muskets and 
 spears high above theu- 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 trap- 
 pings 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. 
 
 22 
 
506 KALOOLAH. 
 
 Suddenly the roar of the batteries on our left was added to the tu- 
 mult. 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 de- 
 molished by our first discharge, Avhen, 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 guns came into play, and the rapid discharges of 
 grape and cannister, 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 Kyptiles and Kimboos, under Sooloo Phar, from Dal Gouk's 
 camp. At a word they threw themselves upon the struggling and 
 reelmg masses, and the rout was complete. Five thousand Avere 
 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, Ave 
 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 Aveakness, and it was evident that another 
 day's cannonade would use tliem up entirely. 
 
 For three weeks we lay before Goolah, suffering many inconve- 
 niences, especially from want of provisions, the remnants of the de- 
 feated Foota army occupying our rear, and cutting off our com- 
 munications. And there we might have staid until the present 
 day, had I not thought of a plan for taking the tOA\'n, which, if not 
 as ingenious as that adopted by Cyrus for the capture of Babylon, 
 was at least as noA^el, and as successful. 
 
 On the east side of the town, the wall, crossing between tAvo 
 elevations of ground, had been carried to the same height as upon 
 
A NEW METHOD OF SCALING WALLS. 507 
 
 the eminences, the consequence was, that at this point it was more 
 than sixty feet from top to bottom, and that this very height ren- 
 dering it unhkely 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 ne- 
 glected it, while at the gates and walls generally, they kept them- 
 selves pretty wide awake. 
 
 My plan once formed, I instantly set about preparing the ma- 
 chinery for carrying it into execution. Two large strong concave 
 disks of copper, about the size of soup plates, were first made. 
 Aroimd 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 horizon- 
 tally when the disk was placed against a perpendicular surface, 
 served as a projection for the hand to grasp — while from each de- 
 pended a loop or stirrup for the feet. The method of using this 
 apparatus is simple enough : all that is necessary is to place one 
 disk against a smooth wall, as high as the arm can reach — the pis- 
 ton 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 ex- 
 ternal air. Upon standing up in the stirrup, the other disk is ap- 
 plied higher up, and fastened in the same manner, and so on alter- 
 nately. 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 expecta- 
 tions perfectly. Reaching the top without any difficulty, and with- 
 out exciting any alarm, I drew up, by means of a cord, a ladder of 
 ropes. Up this quietly crept a body of tvv'o 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 
 
508 KALOOLAH. 
 
 descending, took possession of it almost witliout 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 LIII 
 
 Return from the wars. — Hammed Benshoolo. — Message from Kaloolah. — Mys- 
 terious indications. — Gogo in chains. — An infant phenomenon. — Conclusion. 
 
 It was about three weeks after the capture of the city that, ac- 
 companied by Hammed Benshoolo, a Moorish trader from Morocco, 
 whom we had found in Goolah, and a small escort, I started on my 
 return to Killoam. The main body of the army, under the command 
 of the prince, was to remain for awhile 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 Shoun.se. 
 
 The lofty acropolis of Killoam 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 i-umors 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 further than any Moorish tra- 
 der ever came before, if it had not been in hopes of seeing some- 
 thing of the great unknown land." 
 
MYSTERIOUS INDICATIOXS. 509 
 
 " You are determined to return ?" I demanded. 
 " With your permission," replied Hammed. " It will be a long 
 and difficult journey, but, with the blessmg of God, I shall get back 
 as I came, in safety." 
 
 A capital opportunity, thought I, of sending some news to my 
 christian friends of my where-abouts and prospects. At this mo- 
 ment my attention was taken by the flutter of a royal banner from 
 the turret of a chateau we were approacliing, and in a few moments 
 we encountered messengers, 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 messengers may be 
 imagined ; but they had nothing to tell, except that the prmcess 
 had been ill, but was now much better ; and that she was awaiting 
 me at the neighboring chateau. There was an air of constraint ia 
 their manner and answers that I thought a httle 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 Avith 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 Go"-o — poor 
 fellow ! — he was seated in a corner in a very despondino- 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 !" 
 
510 KALOOLAH. 
 
 But the negress intercepted me, sputtering out in broken sen- 
 tences of Framazug her indignation at some offence Gogo had been 
 committing. As she spluttered and shook her hand at him, lie chat- 
 tered 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, contrived to intersperse her indefinite admi- 
 ratory exclamations of something that was " WoUo ! WoUo ! how 
 beautiful ! and how fat !" 
 
 Kaloolah stood beneath a curtained arch-way 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 
 mj' arms. 
 
 "Kaloolah! Lolo Yarra ! Lolo Semah! My life ! my heart! 
 What is this '? Wliat has happened ? Are you ill ? Has any acci- 
 dent befallen the great Shounse ? And, Clefenha, what is the mat- 
 ter with her — has she gone crazy ?" 
 
 The princess looked up, with a smile, in my eyes, 
 
 " And Gogo — what is the matter with Gogo, that he is banish- 
 ed from your presence in chains ?" 
 
 " Oh, the naughty little wretch !" said Kaloolah, shuddering. 
 " And yet, I ought not to say so. Poor fellow, 1 pity him." 
 
 " Why so ? What is the matter with him ?" 
 
 " He is jealous." 
 
 " Jealous ! of what ?" 
 
 " I'll show you," said Kaloolah, looking up in my face with an 
 expression 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 
 
AN TXFAXT PHENOMENON. 611 
 
 princess of Framazugda, back to the little slave gii-l on the banks 
 of the Congo. 
 
 " I'll show you," said Kaloolah, and leading me along the pas- 
 sage, 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 en- 
 gaged in the investigation of some mystery hidden in the drapery, 
 that he did not perceive my approach ; while on the other stood 
 Clefenha, still dancing, and wriggling, and rolling her eyes and mut- 
 tering " 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 re- 
 ceive his first paternal kiss — a performance which he took quietly 
 enough, but which nearly threw Clefenha in convulsions. " Wollo ! 
 W^ollo !" she shouted, dancinoj about the room — " so biar — 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 httle fiend, and before Jicric 
 coidd come to my assistance, inflicted the wound you see." 
 
 After sufficiently condoling with Kaloolah upon Gogo's ras- 
 cality — admiring the points of little Jon'than, and amusing myself 
 with the odd sound of my own voice in EngUsh 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. 
 
 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 pouting mouth, just like any christian born baby — there he 
 
512 KALOOLAH. 
 
 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 American 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 bom, 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 thmg 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 de- 
 manded. 
 
 •' 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 
 Taffilet to Morocco." 
 
 " I intend to return, God willing, to my native town of Alkassar, 
 near the citj^ of Fez/" 
 
 " From thence to some of the sea-ports of Morocco will be but 
 two or three days' journey." 
 
 " A mere step, your highness, to one who has visited the Djebel 
 Kurari, traversed the Soudan and crossed the desert." 
 
 " And will you undertake to deliver a parcel of manuscripts into 
 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 jour- 
 neying." 
 
 " No fear of that ; it will cost you notliing ; and, beside, I will 
 fill your hollow staff with more gold dust than you could collect in 
 
ro\-rr,T-SToiv. 513 
 
 ten trading trips across the desert — Avill j^ou promise to cany what 
 I entrust to you, with care, and to dehver it faithfully ?" 
 
 " I swear it," exclaimed Benshoolo, solemnly ; " by Allah and 
 Mohammed !" 
 
 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 intelli- 
 gence — dearest reader, the preceding pages are the manuscript so 
 intrusted to the Moor, in the not very confident hope that it will 
 reach the eye of some one, who, considering 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 Httle, 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 sen- 
 timent 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 
 gentleman 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 r 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 unim- 
 portant 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 vou — that to 
 
514 KALOOLAH. 
 
 such of my fair country women as may take any interest in this 
 tale of my journeyings, she sends a thousand kisses each. As 
 there is such uncertainty of their reaching their destination in this 
 way, it will be best, perhaps, for me to receive Kaloolah'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 or 50, I shall hold myself ready to deliver them most 
 faithfully to all claimants, in the promptest manner, and upon the 
 slightest demand. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LayarcVs great Work on Nineveh 
 
 NINEVEH AND ITS KEMAINS ; 
 
 With an Account of a Visit to the ChaldsBan Christians of Kurdistan, and thtt 
 
 Tezidis, or DevU-V/orshippers ; and an Inquiry into the Manners 
 
 and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians. 
 
 BY AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD, ESQ , D.C.L. 
 In two Volumes — With numerous Illustrations. 
 
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 " We cannot close without once more congratalatin^ Mr. Layard on his success as a wiiter, 
 as well as a discoverer ; we repeat, that taking this only as a book of travels, we have read none 
 for a long time more interesting and instructive. In his dissertations he is fnll and copious with- 
 out being tedious ; his style is plain, vigorous, and particularly unaffected ; it is the natural 
 language of a strong mind fully master of its subject, and warmed, and enlivened, withiiDl 
 being inflated or kindled into rhapsody by the enthusiasm, without which he would never have 
 conceived or achieved his wonderful task." — Quarterly Review. 
 
 " There is a remarkable and delightful combination in the work before us, of valuable dis- 
 covery and interesting personal narration, such as we remember in no similar work of travel or 
 discovery. * * Mr. Layard is not surpassed by the best of the old travellers. In the wonders 
 of the story he has to tell, he very much surpasses them all. 
 
 " We repeat that there has been no such picture in any modem book of travels. Park i« 
 not braver or more adventurous, Burkhardt is not more truthful, Eothen not more gay or pic- 
 turesque, than the hero of the book before us." — London Examiner. 
 
 " This is, we think, the most extraordinary work of the present age, whether 
 ■with reference to the wonderful discoveries it describes, its remarkable verification of our early 
 biblical history, or of the talent, courage, and perseverance of its Author. We have had our 
 Bruces and Mungo Parks, as well as our Parrys, Franklins, Backs, and Rosses, but we question 
 whether a more enlightened or a more enterprising traveller than Mr. Layard, is to be met with in 
 the annals of onr modern English History. Is it impossible to read his work, without finding our 
 minds absorbed in wonder at the development of that period, and of its works of art, where one of 
 tl^e early descendants of Noah " built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen 
 between Nineveh and Calah, the same being a great city," (Genesis 10, 11th and 12th ven.es.) 
 One ot these cities, or at least a portion of it, has now been e.xplored ; but before we give some 
 account of its prolific contents we may interest our readers, by laying before them a short nar- 
 rative of the extraordinary person to whom this country is under such deep obligations. * * * 
 We will only add in conclusion, that in these days when the fulfilment of prophecy is engaging 
 so much attemion, we cannot but consider that the work of Mr. Layard, will be found to afford 
 many e.xtraordinary proofs of the truth of biblical history, and of the e.vtreme accuracy of the 
 denunciations of the prophets Isaiah and Ezeliiel, against the kings of Assyria, and of the de- 
 struction of Nineveh in particular. Even the colors and decorations, as found in the palace of 
 Nimroud, agree exactly with those described by the prophet Ezekiel. The circumference of 
 Nineveh, as mentioned by the prophet Laiah, was found by iMr. Layard to be extremely accurate, 
 and the connection of the Assyrians wilh the Jews was clearly ascertained. The history also 
 ol the Kings of Assyria, as shown on the various sculptures, is highly interesting, and throws 
 great light on the manners of that ancient people," — The Times, (London,) Feb. 'J, le49 
 
G. P. Putnam's New Publications. 
 
 Miss Sedgwick's Works. 
 
 G. P. Putnam has the pleasure of announcing that he has made 
 an arrangement to publish in a series of handsome duodecimos, 
 
 Uniform with the new edition of Irving's Works, 
 
 Wnth of Cnt^arinE 3E, lAgmirk, 
 
 THE AUTHOR S REVISED EDITION. 
 
 To be published at intervals, commencing on the 15th day of May, 
 
 The first volume will be : 
 
 Clarence ; 
 
 A TALE OF OUR OWN TIMES. Complete in 1 vol. 
 
 To be followed by 
 
 Re dwo d . 
 
 1 vol. 
 
 Hop e Le s lie ; 
 
 OE, THE EARLY TIMES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 1 vol. 
 
 The Linwoods; 
 
 A TALE OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 voL 
 
 A New England Tale, 
 
 1 vol. 
 
 Ho me ; 
 
 AND OTHER WORKS FOR THE PEOPLE. 1 vol. 
 
 Etc. etc. etc. 
 
 Believing that the writings of Miss Sedgwick, collected in a nniform and suitable edition, will be, 
 •s American classics, scarcely less acceptable than those of Geoffrey Crayon, the pablisher has in- 
 duced Miss S. to prepare this edition to be published in a similar form with Irving's Works. All 
 Americans who appreciate pure taste unalloyed by prudery, sterling genius united with good sense, 
 unobtrusive morals, and unaffected patriotism, will warmly approve of the collected edition of tha 
 works of Miss Sedgwick. 
 
 G. P. Putnam has also the pleasure of announcing a new series of 
 attractive and useful books by Mrs. L. C. Tuthill, entitled : 
 
 SUCCESS IN LIFE : 
 
 Elustrated by a Series of Popular volumes, founded on the biography of an emi- 
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 Etc. etc. etc. 
 *,* This Series will be admirably adapted for Public School Libraries, and for presentation. 
 
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