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Paternoster Row London. 
 
AN ENGLISHMAN'S 
 
 TRAVELS IN AMERIl 
 
 HIS OBSERVATIONS OF 
 
 fife attir paws in % Jra attfo Slate Slates. 
 
 BY J. BENWELL, 
 
 LONDON: 
 BINNS AND GOODWIN, 44, FLEET STREET, 
 
 AND 19, CHEAP STREET, BATH. 
 EDINBURGH : OLIVER AND BOYD. DUBLIN : J. M'GLASHAN, 
 

 BATH . PRINTED BY BINNS AND GOODWIN. 
 
/ /*? 
 
 
 PBEFACE. 
 
 Personal narrative and adventure has, of late 
 years, become so interesting a subject in the 
 mind of the British public, that the author feels 
 he is not called upon to apologize for the pro- 
 duction of the following pages. 
 
 It was his almost unremitting practice, during 
 the four years he resided on the North American 
 continent, to keep a record of what he considered 
 of interest around him ; not with a view to pub- 
 lishing the matter thus collected, for this was 
 far from his thoughts at the time, but through 
 a long contracted habit of dotting down trans- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 piring events, for the future amusement, com- 
 bined, perhaps, with instruction, of himself and 
 friends. It therefore became necessary, to fit it 
 for publication, to collate the accumulated memo- 
 randa, and select such portions only as might 
 be supposed to prove interesting to the general 
 reader. In doing this he has been careful to 
 preserve the phraseology as much as possible, 
 with a view to give, as far as he could, some- 
 thing like a literal transcript of the sentiments 
 that gave rise to the original minutes, and 
 avoid undue addition or interpolation. 
 
 It was the wish and intention of the writer, 
 before leaving England, to extend his travels by 
 visiting some of the islands in the Caribbean Sea, 
 a course which he regrets not having been able 
 to follow, from unforeseen circumstances, which 
 are partially related in the following pages. He 
 laments this the more, as it would have added 
 considerably to the interest of the work, and 
 enabled him to enlarge upon that fertile subject, 
 the relative position at the time of the negro 
 
/ 
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 race in those islands, and the demoralized con- 
 dition of their fellow-countrymen, under the 
 iniquitous system of slavery, as authorized by 
 statute law, in the southern states of America. 
 As it was, he was enabled to travel through 
 the most populous parts of the states of New 
 York and Ohio, proceeding, via Cincinnati, to 
 the Missouri country ; after a brief stay at St. 
 Louis, taking the direct southern route down 
 the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to New 
 Orleans in Louisiana, passing Natchez on the 
 way. The whole tour comprising upwards of 
 three thousand miles. 
 
 From New Orleans he crossed an arm of the 
 Gulf of Mexico to the Floridas, and after re- 
 maining in that territory for a considerable time, 
 and taking part under a sense of duty in a 
 campaign (more to scatter than annihilate), 
 against the Seminole and Cherokee tribes of 
 Indians, who, in conjunction with numberless 
 fugitive slaves, from the districts a hundred 
 miles round, were devastating the settlements, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 and indiscriminately butchering the inhabitants, 
 he returned to Tallahassee, taking stage at that 
 town to Macon in the state of Georgia, and from 
 thence by the Greensborough Railway to Charles- 
 ton in South Carolina, sailing after rather a 
 prolonged stay, from that port to England. 
 
 Some of the incidents related in the following 
 pages will be found to bear upon, and tend 
 forcibly to corroborate, the miseries so patiently 
 endured by the African race, in a vaunted land 
 of freedom and enlightenment, whose inhabi- 
 tants assert, with ridiculous teuacity, that their 
 government and laws are based upon the princi- 
 ple, " That all men in the sight of God are equal/' 
 and the wrongs of whose victims have of late 
 been so touchingly and truthfully illustrated by 
 that eminent philanthropist, Mrs. Stowe, to the 
 eternal shame of the upholders of the system, 
 and the fearful incubus of guilt and culpability 
 that will render for ever infamous, if the policy 
 is persisted in, the nationality of America. 
 
 Well may the benevolent Doctor Percival in 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 his day have said, when writing on the iniquitous 
 system of slave holding and traffic, that " Life 
 and liberty with the powers of enjoyment de- 
 pendent on them are the common and inalien- 
 able gifts of bounteous heaven. To seize them 
 by force is rapine ; to exchange for them the 
 wares of Manchester or Birminghan is improbity, 
 for it is to barter without reciprocal gain, to 
 give the stones of the brook for the gold of 
 Ophir." 
 
THE ENGLISHMAN IN AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Adieu, adieu ! my native shore 
 
 Fades o'er the waters blue ; 
 The night- winds sigh, the breakers roar, 
 
 And shrieks the wild sea-mew. 
 Yon sun that sets upon the sea 
 
 We follow in his flight ; 
 Farewell awhile to him and thee, 
 
 My native Land — Good night ! " — Byron. 
 
 Late in the fall of the year 18 — , I embarked on 
 board the ship Cosmo, bound from the port of 
 Bristol to that of New York. The season was 
 unpropitious, the lingering effects of the autumnal 
 equinox rendering it more than probable that the 
 passage would be tempestuous. The result soon 
 proved the correctness of this surmise, for soon 
 after the vessel departed from Kingroad, and 
 before she got clear of the English coast, we ex- 
 
 B 
 
2 IN PERIL FROM ICEBERGS. 
 
 perienced boisterous weather, which was followed 
 by a succession of gales, that rendered our situa- 
 tion perilous. But a partial destruction of the rig- 
 ging, the loss of some sheep on the deck of the 
 vessel, and a slight indication of leakage, which 
 was soon remedied by the carpenter of the ship 
 and his assistants, were happily the only detri- 
 mental consequences arising from the weather. 
 
 Our progress on the whole was satisfactory, 
 although, when we arrived between 48 and 
 52 degrees north latitude, we narrowly es- 
 caped coming in contact with an enormous ice- 
 berg, two of which were descried at daybreak by 
 the " look-out/' floundering majestically a little' 
 on the ship's larboard quarter, not far distant ; 
 the alarm being raised by an uproar on deck that 
 filled my mind with dire apprehension, the lee 
 bulwarks of the vessel were in five minutes 
 thronged with half-naked passengers, who had 
 been roused unexpectedly from their slumbers, 
 staring in terror at the frigid masses which we 
 momentarily feared would overwhelm the ship. 
 The helm being put up, we were soon out of the 
 threatened danger of a collision, which would have 
 consigned us to a grave in the wide wide waters, 
 without the remotest chance of escape. This 
 consideration was, to all on board, a matter of 
 deep thankfulness to the mighty Author of such 
 stupendous wonders, who had so miraculously pre- 
 
DANGER OF COLLISION. 6 
 
 served our lives. Had the adventure occurred in 
 the night, our destruction must have been in- 
 evitable, as the ship was sailing under heavy 
 canvas, within a single point of the wake of one 
 of the icebergs, which was drifting before a stiff 
 breeze. 
 
 Although this encounter proved harmless, 
 we shortly after had another to dread of a fearful 
 nature. The number of fishing-boats off the 
 coast of Newfoundland, makes the navigation 
 perilous at almost any time to vessels approaching 
 too near the banks, and after night-fall, the 
 vessel going at the rate of ten knots an hour with 
 a smacking breeze, we passed many of these at 
 anchor, or rather, I suppose, riding on the waves ; 
 they displayed lights, or serious consequences 
 might have ensued. Some of the skiffs w^ere so 
 near to us, that as I leaned over the ship's 
 quarter-rail, dreading, and every moment expect- 
 ing, that we should run one down, I could 
 distinctly hear the crews hailing us to shorten 
 sail and keep off. By adopting this course our 
 vessel cleared the danger, and after slightly touch- 
 ing the banks, which caused the vessel to heel, 
 and created a momentary panic on board amongst 
 the passengers, she was steered more out to sea, 
 and by the following morning nothing was to be 
 seen but a boundless waste of waters, extending 
 as far as the eye could reach. 
 
4 A FRACAS ON BOARD. 
 
 After these temporary alarms, with the ex- 
 ception of baffling winds, which impeded the 
 progress of the ship, and lengthened the duration 
 of our confinement ten days or a fortnight, our 
 voyage was prosperous, little occurring to break 
 the monotony of confinement on ship-board that 
 is experienced in sea-passages in general; the only 
 excitement being a fracas between the captain 
 and cook, owing to complaints made by the 
 middle-cabin and steerage passengers, which 
 nearly ended fatally to the former, who would 
 have been stabbed to a certainty, but for a 
 bystander wresting the knife from the hand of the 
 enraged subordinate, who had been supplied 
 too liberally with spirits by the passengers ; a 
 predominating evil on board all emigrant ships, 
 from the drawback of duty allowed on spirits 
 shipped as stores, and which are retailed on the 
 voyage to the passengers. The culprit was confined 
 below during the remainder of the voyage, and 
 when we arrived at New York presented a 
 pitiable sight, having been rigidly debarred by the 
 captain's orders of many of the commonest neces- 
 saries, I believe, the whole time. Here he was 
 released and discharged from the ship, glad enough 
 to escape further punishment, "prosecution" 
 having been, since the occurrence, held in ter- 
 ror em over him. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon of an intensely 
 
SANDY HOOK. 5 
 
 cold day, "which caused the spray to congeal as it 
 dashed against the bulwarks and cordage of the 
 vessel, that we descried with great pleasure loom- 
 ing indistinctly in the distance, the shores of 
 Sandy Hook, a desolate-looking island, near the 
 coast of New Jersey, about seven miles south of 
 Long Island Sound. This the captain informed 
 me was formerly a peninsula, but the isthmus 
 was broken through by the sea in 1767, the year 
 after the declaration of American independence, 
 an occurrence which was at the time deemed 
 ominous of the severance of the colonies from 
 the mother country, and which proved in reality 
 to be the precursor of that event. 
 
 The sight of terra fir ma y though at a distance 
 and but gloomy in aspect, put all on board in 
 buoyant spirits ; but these were but transitory, 
 our enthusiasm being soon damped by a dense fog, 
 resembling those the Londoners are so accustomed 
 to see in the winter, and which in an incredibly 
 short space of time, in this instance, obscured 
 everything around. Our proximity to the shore 
 rendered the circumstance hazardous to us, and it 
 appeared necessary that the vessel's head should 
 be again put seaward ; but this the captain was 
 evidently anxious to avoid, as it involved the risk 
 of protracting the voyage. A general rummage for 
 ammunition was therefore ordered, and a supply 
 of this necessary having been obtained, the ship's 
 
6 THE PILOT. 
 
 carronade was after considerable delay put in 
 order, and minute guns were fired After dis- 
 charging some thirty rounds or more, we were 
 relieved from the state of anxiety we were in 
 by a pilot hailing the ship, and in a minute 
 after he was on deck issuing orders with great 
 pertinacity. 
 
 It is impossible for any one unaccustomed to 
 sea voyages to form a just conception of the relief 
 afforded by the presence of that important func- 
 tionary, a pilot. Perhaps a captain's greatest 
 anxiety is, when his vessel, having braved a 
 thousand perils on the deep, is about to enter on 
 the termination of its voyage. On the broad 
 expanse of ocean, or, in nautical phrase, with 
 plenty of sea-room, if his bark is in good con- 
 dition, he fears little or nothing, but when his 
 vessel approaches its goal, visions of disaster arise 
 before him, and he becomes anxious, thoughtful, 
 and taciturn. 
 
 The pilot informed us that he had kept our 
 vessel in chase for a considerable time, and had 
 burnt a number of newspapers on the deck of his 
 cutter to attract attention, but ail his efforts 
 proved unavailing, when just as he was about to 
 abandon the pursuit, he descried and hailed the 
 ship. This being the first specimen of an 
 American whom many of the passengers had seen 
 in his native climate, their curiosity was aroused, 
 
A LION. 7 
 
 and they crowded round him, regarding every 
 word and movement with the greatest attention 
 and interest. The pilot was evidently displeased 
 with being made " a lion " of, and gave vent to 
 his feelings rather freely, while there was a curl 
 of hauteur on his lip, that indicated a species of 
 contempt for the company he was in. This dis- 
 position did not convey a very favourable idea 
 of his countrymen, and was, to say the least of it, 
 an ill-judged display before strangers ; coming, 
 however, as it did, from an illiterate man, be- 
 longing, as I knew from previous inquiry, to 
 rather an exceptional class of individuals in 
 America, I did not suffer my mind to be biassed, 
 although I could see that many of the passengers 
 were not disposed to view the matter in the same 
 light. He was a brusque and uncouth man, of 
 swaggering gait, about forty years of age, above 
 the middle stature, and soon let the captain and 
 crew know, by his authoritative manner and 
 volubility of tongue, that he was chief in com- 
 mand on the occasion. No one seemed, however, 
 to dispute this, for the passengers looked on him 
 as a sort of divinity sent to their rescue ; the 
 ship's hands were implicitly obedient, and the 
 captain very soon after his arrival retired into 
 the cabin, glad to be relieved from a heavy 
 responsibility. 
 
 The following morning, the haze having cleared 
 
8 QUARANTINE. 
 
 off, we could again see the Jersey shore. The sea 
 in every direction was now darkened with 
 millions of black gulls, wild ducks, and other 
 aquatic birds ; we shot many of these from the 
 ship's deck, but were, much to our mortification, 
 obliged to see them drift away, the pilot, seconded 
 by our austere captain, strenuously objecting to a 
 boat being lowered ; this was very discouraging, as 
 such a change in our diet would, after a rather 
 prolonged voyage, have been acceptable. 
 
 A favourable breeze soon carried our good 
 ship to the quarantine ground, where we dropped 
 anchor, in no little anxiety lest we should be 
 detained. The medical officers from the college, 
 or rather sanatory establishment, on shore, 
 almost immediately came on board. All hands 
 were mustered on deck, and ranged like soldiers 
 on parade ground by these important function- 
 aries, who, I may remark by the way, appeared 
 like our pilot to be possessed of considerable 
 notions of power and authority. After taking 
 a rather cursory inspection they left the vessel, 
 and we, to our great joy (a case of small 
 pox having occurred during the passage), were 
 allowed to proceed towards New York, which 
 we did under easy sail, the breeze rendering a 
 steam-tug unnecessary. 
 
 The scenery as we passed up the river was cal- 
 culated to give a good impression of the country, 
 
NEW YORK HARBOUR. ^ 
 
 the zest being, however, without doubt, greatly 
 heightened by the monotonous dreariness of a 
 tempestuous voyage. The highlands and valleys, 
 as we sailed up, had a verdant woody appear- 
 ance, and were interspersed with rural and 
 chateau scenery ; herds of cattle remarkable for 
 length of horn, and snow-white sheep, were 
 grazing placidly in the lowlands. • The country, 
 as far as I could judge, seemed in a high state of 
 culture, and the farms, to use an expression of 
 the celebrated Washington Irving's, when de- 
 scribing, I think, a farm-yard view in England, 
 appeared " redolent of pigs, poultry, and sundry 
 other good things appertaining to rural life." 
 
 On arriving at the approach to the entrance or 
 mouth of the river Hudson, which is formed by 
 an arm of the estuary, we turned the promon- 
 tory, leaving Jersey on the left, the battery as 
 Ave entered the harbour being in the foreground. 
 The guns bristled from this fortress with 
 menacing aspect, and the sentinels, in light blue 
 uniforms and Kosciusko caps, silently paced the 
 ramparts with automatic regularity. This for- 
 tification, though formidable in appearance, and 
 certainly in a commanding position, I was sub- 
 sequently informed is little more than a mimic 
 fort ; this arises from the w^ant of attention paid 
 to defences of the kind in America, the little 
 existing chance of invasion, perhaps, causing the 
 
10 FIRST IMPRESSION OF NEW YORK. 
 
 indifference to the subject. If, however, the 
 spirit of aggressive conquest shown by the federal 
 government, of late years, of which the invasion 
 of Mexico is a fair specimen, should continue to 
 develop itself, it is not difficult to foresee that it 
 will be necessary policy to pay greater attention 
 to the subject, and to keep in a more effective 
 state the seaboard defences of the country, as 
 well as their army, which is at present miserably 
 deficient. This has heretofore been so far neg- 
 lected, as regards the marine, that not long before 
 I arrived the commander of a French ship of Avar 
 was much chagrined, on firing a salute as he 
 passed the battery at New York, to find that his 
 courtesy was not returned in the customary way. 
 He complained of the omission as either a mark 
 of disrespect to himself, or an insult to his 
 nation, when it came out in explanation that 
 the garrison was in such a defective state that 
 there were not the appliances at hand to observe 
 this national etiquette. 
 
 The city of New York is built almost close to 
 the water's edge, with a broad levee or wharf 
 running round a great portion of it. Its general 
 appearance gives to a stranger an impression 
 of its extent and importance. It has been 
 aptly and accurately described as a dense 
 pack of buildings, comprising every imaginable 
 variety, and of all known orders of modernized 
 
GOING ASHORE. 1] 
 
 architecture. The tide flows close up to the 
 wharves which run outside of the city, and 
 differs so little in height at ebb or flow, that 
 vessels of the largest class ride, I believe, at all 
 times as safely as in the West India docks in 
 London, or the imperial docks of Liverpool. 
 Here was assembled an incalculable number of 
 vessels of all sizes and all nations, forming a 
 beautiful and picturesque view of commercial 
 enterprise and grandeur, perhaps outvying every 
 other port in the world, not excepting Liverpool 
 itself. 
 
 As our vessel could not at once be accom- 
 modated with a berth, owing to the crowded state 
 of the harbour, she was moored in the middle of 
 the stream, and being anxious to go on shore, I 
 availed myself of the captain's offer to take me 
 to the landing-place in his gig. We went on 
 shore in an alcove, at the foot of Wall-street, and 
 I experienced the most delightful sensation on 
 once more setting foot on terra firma, after our 
 dreary voyage. The day, notwithstanding it was 
 now October, was intensely hot (although a 
 severe frost for two or three days before gave 
 indications of approaching winter, and the streets 
 being unmacadamized, had that arid look we 
 read of in accounts of the plains of Arabia, the 
 dust being quite deep, and exceeding in quantity 
 anything of the kind I had ever seen in Euro- 
 
12 AN AMERICAN AUCTIONEER. 
 
 pean cities : clouds of it impregnated the air, 
 and rendered respiration and sight difficult. 
 
 Hundreds of rudely-constructed drays were 
 passing to and fro, heavily laden with merchan- 
 dize, many of them drawn by mules, and the 
 remainder by very light horses of Arabian build ; 
 the heavy English dray horse was nowhere to be 
 seen, the breed as I afterwards learned not being 
 cultivated, from a dislike to its ponderousness. 
 
 The lower part of Wall-street presented a busy 
 mart-like appearance, every description of goods 
 being piled heterogeneously before the warehouse- 
 doors of their respective owners in the open 
 thoroughfare, which is at this part very wide. 
 Auctioneers were here busily engaged in the dis- 
 posal of their merchandise, which comprised every 
 variety of produce and manufacture, home and 
 foreign, from a yard of linsey-woolsey, "hum 
 spun " as they termed it, to a bale of Manchester 
 long cloth, or their own Sea-Island cotton. The 
 auctioneer in America is a curious specimen of 
 the biped creation. He is usually a swaggering, 
 consequential sort of fellow, and drives away at 
 his calling with wondrous impudence and perti- 
 nacity, dispensing, all the while he is selling, the 
 most fulsome flattery or the grossest abuse on 
 those who stand around. One of these loquacious 
 animals was holding forth to a crowd, just below 
 the Courier and Inquirer newspaper office, where 
 
SENATOR HUFF. 13 
 
 the street widens, as a preliminary introduction 
 to the sale of a quantity of linen goods that had 
 been damaged at a recent fire in the neighbour- 
 hood. I could not help admiring the man's tact. 
 Fixing his eyes on an individual in a white dress, 
 with an enormous Leghorn hat on his head ; who 
 was apparently eagerly listening, while smoking 
 a cigar, to the harangue, he suddenly exclaimed, 
 " There now is Senator Huff, from the State of 
 Missouri, he heerd of this vendue a thousand 
 mile up river, and wall knows I'm about to oifer 
 somethin woth having ; look at him, he could 
 buy up the fust five hunderd folks hed cum across 
 anywhar in this city, and what's more, he's a true 
 patriot, made o' the right kinder stuff, I guess." 
 He followed up the eulogium at great length, 
 and after liberally dispensing " soft soap " on the 
 listeners, declared the auction had commenced. 
 I stood by for some minutes, gazing around and 
 watching the operations, and was not long in dis- 
 covering that Senator Huff kept running up the 
 articles by pretended bids, and was evidently 
 in league with him, in fact a confederate. This 
 auctioneer was the very emblem of buffoonery and 
 blackguardism ; the rapidity with which he re- 
 peated the sums, supposed by the bystanders to 
 be bid, the curt yet extravagant praise bestowed 
 on his wares, and his insulting and unsparing 
 remarks if a comment were made on the goods he 
 
14 MOCK AUCTIONS. 
 
 offered, or if the company did not respond in 
 bidding, stamped him as one of the baser sort of 
 vulgarians. 
 
 Sales of this description were going on in 
 every direction, and the street rang with the 
 stentorian voices of the sellers. Many of these 
 were mock auctions, as an observer of any intelli- 
 gence would detect, and as I ascertained beyond 
 doubt almost directly after leaving this man's 
 stand ; for, stepping into an open store close at 
 hand, of which there are ranges on either side of 
 the street, a sale of jewellery and watches was 
 going on. A case of jewellery, containing, among 
 other things, a gold watch and chain, apparently 
 of exquisite workmanship, was put up just as I 
 entered, and was started at six cents per article. 
 Bid after bid succeeded, until, at last, the lot was 
 knocked down to a southern gentleman present 
 at fifty cents per item. On making the purchase, 
 he naturally wished to know how many articles 
 the box contained. This information, on the plea 
 that it would delay the sale, was withheld. The 
 auctioneer, however, insisted on the payment of 
 a deposit of fifty dollars, in compliance with the 
 published conditions of the sale, which sum, after 
 a demur on the part of the purchaser, was paid. 
 I could see, however, that he was now sen- 
 sible he had been duped, and I afterwards 
 learnt that some forty or fifty articles, of almost 
 
EMIGRANTS BEWARE ! 15 
 
 every fancy description, many of them worthless, 
 such as pins, knives, tweezers, and a variety 
 of other knick-knacks, were artfully concealed 
 from view, by means of a false bottom to the 
 case ; this being lifted up revealed the truth. 
 The man was greatly enraged on finding he had 
 been cheated, but was treated with the most 
 audacious coolness, and after some altercation 
 left the store, as he said, to seek redress else- 
 where, but I have no doubt he went off with 
 the intention of losing his deposit. 
 
 This occurrence put me on my guard, and 
 made me very wary of buying articles at such 
 auctions during my stay in New York, although 
 the apparent beauty and cheapness of many of the 
 articles I saw offered, especially of French manu- 
 facture, were sufficient to decoy the most wary, 
 and I did not wonder at people being victimized 
 at such places. Emigrants are the chief sufferers, 
 I was told, by such transactions, from their want 
 of caution, and ignorance of the arts of the 
 accomplished deceivers who conduct them. 
 
 Proceeding up Wall-street in the direction of 
 Broadway, I reached that portion of it frequented 
 by stock and real-estate brokers. Here crowds 
 of gentlemanly-looking men, dressed mostly in 
 black, and of busy mien, crowded the thorough- 
 fare with scrip in hand. Each appeared intensely 
 absorbed in business, and as I gazed on the 
 
16 NEGROES IN NEW YORK. 
 
 assemblage, I could discover unmistakable symp- 
 toms of great excitement and mental anxiety, the 
 proportion of rueful countenances being much 
 greater than is usually seen in similar places of 
 resort in England ; a sudden depression in the 
 market at the time might, however, account 
 for much of this, although it is well known that 
 brokers and speculators on the American conti- 
 nent engage in the pursuit with the avidity of 
 professed gamblers 
 
 Hundreds of Negroes were hurrying to and fro 
 through the streets , these were chiefly labourers, 
 decently dressed, and employed either as draymen 
 or porters. They looked happier than labourers 
 in England ; and, being bathed in a profuse per- 
 spiration from the heat of the weather, their faces 
 shone almost like black satin or patent leather. 
 
 After a few days' rest at my boarding-house, to 
 which I was recommended by a touter, and which 
 was in Canal-street, and was kept by a "cute" 
 Down-easter, or native of the New England 
 States, with whom I engaged for bed and board for 
 eight dollars per week, I sallied forth to make 
 my intended observations, preparatory to leaving 
 for the west Everything wore a novel aspect. 
 The number of foreigners seen in the thorough- 
 fares, the tawdry flimsily-built carriages, which 
 strangely contrast with the more substantial ones 
 seen in England, and the dresses of the people, all 
 
STRANGE COSTUMES. 17 
 
 seemed strange to me. The habiliments of one or 
 two in particular rivetted my attention. The first 
 was a Kentuckian, who was dressed in a suit of 
 grey home-spun cloth, and wore on his head a 
 fantastical cap, formed of a racoon-skin, beauti- 
 fully striped, the ears projecting just above his 
 forehead on each side, while the forefeet of the 
 animal, decorated with red cloth, formed the ear- 
 laps, and the tail depended over his back like a 
 quieu, producing a ludicrous effect. His appear- 
 ance as he passed along attracted little notice, 
 such vagaries being common in America. My 
 attention was also arrested by a person who was 
 arrayed in a hunting suit of buck-skin, curiously 
 wrought with strips of dyed porcupine-quill, and 
 who wore an otter-skin cap and Indian moccasins. 
 There, is, however, little novelty in this costume, 
 which I frequently saw afterwards. Caps of the 
 description I have mentioned are commonly worn 
 in the interior. I subsequently donned one 
 myself, and found it an admirable adjunct to 
 easy travelling. 
 
 During my stay at New York, I found the 
 heat almost overpowering, the Indian summer 
 (as the period between autumn and winter is 
 there termed) having set in. An umbrella was 
 quite a necessary appendage at times, to avoid its 
 effects, which are often fatal to Europeans at the 
 time of the summer solstice. 
 c 
 
1 8 BROADWAY. 
 
 In perambulating the city of New York, its 
 appearance is prepossessing to a visitor ; the 
 streets are well laid out, and are wide and regular, 
 the houses being for the most part of the better 
 class. The white or red paint (the latter pre- 
 dominates), and the green and white jalousie, 
 Venetian, and siesta blinds, giving a picturesque- 
 ness to the scene. Handsome mats lie outside 
 the doors of many of the better description of 
 houses. 
 
 Broadway is the principal place of attraction 
 in New York, but it has so often been described 
 by visitors, that it is a work of supererogation to 
 comment much upon it here ; as, however, every 
 tourist can see and describe differently the same 
 objects, I must not pass it in silence, especially as 
 it ranks in the view of the New Yorkers, 
 something as Bond-street and Regent-street do in 
 the metropolis of England. It is, however, far 
 inferior to these ; it is not one, but a continuous 
 line of streets, and, including Canal-street, ex- 
 tends about three miles in length. The Haarlem 
 Railway comes down a considerable portion of 
 the upper part, the rails being laid in the centre 
 of the street. The lower end of Broadway 
 merges into the Battery Park, which is situated 
 at the water's edge. In Broadway are to be seen 
 magnificent hotels, theatres, magazines-de-mode, 
 and all the etceteras of a fashionable mart, not 
 
ASTOR'S HOTEL AND DANIEL WEBSTER. 19 
 
 omitting to mention crowds of elegantly dressed 
 ladies and exquisitely attired gentlemen, including 
 many of colour ; the latter appearing in the 
 extreme of the fashion, with a redundancy of 
 jewellery which, contrasting with their sable 
 colour, produces to the eye of a stranger an 
 unseemly effect. The shops and stores are fitted 
 up in the Parisian style, appear well attended by 
 customers, and are crowded with the choicest 
 description of goods. 
 
 Astor's Hotel, built by the so-called millionaire 
 of that name, is a large but rather heavy -looking 
 pile of building, and forms a conspicuous object 
 in the park. Here many of the elite from the 
 provinces sojourn on visiting the city. The 
 accommodations are stated to be of the first order, 
 and, from a cursory inspection, I should imagine 
 this to be true, the only drawback being the enor- 
 mous prices charged, exceeding, I was told, the 
 ordinary run of first-class houses of that descrip- 
 tion. Noticing from the opposite side of the street 
 that the entrance was much crowded, curiosity 
 led me to cross over and ascend the steps and 
 listen to what was going on, supposing it some 
 political demonstration ; in this, however, I was 
 mistaken, for I found that the cause of the 
 commotion was the recent arrival and presence 
 of the celebrated statesman and lawyer, Daniel 
 Webster, en route to Washington, whither he was 
 
20 DEMOCRATIC EXCLUSIVENESS. 
 
 called by Congressional duties. I pressed forward 
 to shake hands with this great expounder of 
 American laws, as he is called by the citizens, 
 who seemed, by the way, on the occasion I refer 
 to, to regard him as a sort of divinity. I could 
 not, however, succeed in getting near enough to 
 accomplish my object, although I strove hard for 
 it. It was quite amusing to see the anxiety shown 
 by some of those present to effect the same pur- 
 pose. The senator kept shaking hands with all 
 around, repeating over and over again, " Glad to 
 see you, citizens, glad to see you." Amongst 
 others, a gentlemanly-dressed negro with a gold- 
 headed cane pressed forward and held out his 
 hand. There was, however, no chance for 
 him in the throng, for he was rudely pushed 
 back, and I heard several angry exclamations 
 of disapprobation from the crowd, at the liberty 
 he had taken, one individual in particular 
 crying out, " Kick that nigger off, what has he to 
 do here/' These exclamations caught the ear of 
 the negro gentleman, and he shrunk back in an 
 instant, as if electrified. Mr. Webster was a 
 yeoman-like looking person, of rather a muscular 
 build, and at one time of life was, no doubt, as I 
 have heard, possessed of great physical powers ; 
 he had a heavy and rather downcast turn of 
 features, which were not improved by a pair of 
 enormous black eyebrows ; there was, however, 
 
THE TOWN-HALL. 2 J 
 
 an expression in his physiognomy that indicated 
 deep thought, and a degree of intelligence above 
 the mediocrity. In addition to this, there was 
 also a pleasing urbanity in his manner that 
 was certainly contrary to what might have been 
 expected from his personal appearance and known 
 burly character in business. He gradually re- 
 treated up the steps towards the interior of the 
 hotel, the excessive attentions paid by the crowd 
 appearing troublesome to him. He was closely 
 followed, however, by his admirers, whose bois- 
 terous behaviour savoured much more of enthu- 
 siasm than deference or politeness. I had heard 
 that the Americans profess never to do things by 
 halves, and so set this instance down as a proof 
 of their propensity to " go the whole hog/' as they 
 are wont to term their extremes and eccentri- 
 cities. 
 
 The Town-hall, situate at the base of the Park, 
 which is a triangular piece of land, well laid out 
 and neatly kept, is a light edifice of some taste 
 and architectural merit, its chief attraction being 
 the white marble of which it is constructed, and 
 which is brought from the quarries at Sing-Sing, 
 some miles up the river Hudson. The effect, how- 
 ever, is not good ; its exposure to the elements 
 having given it a blurred or chalky appearance. 
 It is surmounted by a small but elevated cupola, 
 constructed of wood, which some time ago, I was 
 
22 PRIVATE EXECUTIONS. 
 
 informed by a citizen, caught fire at a pyrotechnic 
 exhibition, and endangered the whole edifice, 
 since which, displays of fire-works have been pro- 
 hibited in the Park by the civic authorities. At 
 the entrance there is a spacious vestibule, but 
 this, as well as the interior, though elegant in its 
 simplicity of style, is meagre of ornament. Pro- 
 ceeding to the interior, I reached the criminal 
 court, where a squalid-looking prisoner was 
 undergoing trial for murder. The judges and 
 officers of the court were almost entirely without 
 insignia of office, and the counsel employed, I 
 thought, evinced much tact in their proceedings, 
 especially in the cross-examination of witnesses, 
 although they manifested great acerbity of feeling 
 towards each other, and their acrimonious re- 
 marks would not, I imagine, have been allowed 
 to pass without remonstrance in an English court 
 of justice. I was told by a by-stander, with 
 whom I entered into conversation, that if found 
 guilty, the prisoner would be conducted to an 
 underground apartment used for the purpose, and 
 privately executed, the law of the State of New 
 York, from motives that ought to be appreciated 
 in England, prohibiting public executions. It is 
 also customary there to allow criminals more 
 time than in England, to prepare for the awful 
 change they are doomed to undergo. 
 
 I was informed by a friend that there are 
 
AMEK1CAN LAW. 23 
 
 some very astute lawyers in America, and I sub- 
 sequently had opportunities to test the accuracy 
 of the remark. Their code, however, differs 
 materially from the English, although professing 
 to be based upon its principles ; and has the pre- 
 eminent advantage of being pretty free from the 
 intricacies and incongruities that so often tend 
 to defeat justice in the mother-country, and 
 render proceedings at law so expensive and per- 
 plexing. The slave laws (called the " code noir "), 
 adapted for the Southern States, must, however, be 
 excepted, for it is notorious, that to subserve the 
 ends of interested parties, they have been framed 
 so as to present what may with propriety be 
 termed a concatenation of entanglement and in- 
 justice to the slave subjects ; the very wording 
 of many of these enactments, carrying unmis- 
 takable evidence of their being concocted for the 
 almost sole protection of the slave-owners. 
 
 Adjoining the Town-hall, or separated only by 
 an avenue, is a heavy, monastic-looking building, 
 used as a bridewell, and called the City Peniten- 
 tiary. Having remained a considerable time in 
 the hall where the trial was going on, the agonized 
 state of the prisoner and sickening details of the 
 murder caused a disinclination for the present to 
 continue my perambulations, so I stepped into 
 the Cafe de Y Independence, in Broadway, and 
 called for a port-wine sangaree, endeavouring, 
 
24 THE MARINE BATTERY PROMENADE. 
 
 while I sipped it, smoked a cigar, and read the 
 Courier and Inquirer, to forget the scene I had 
 just witnessed. Leaving soon after, I pursued my 
 way down Broadway, passing Peel's Museum and 
 the Astor House, to the Battery Marine Promen- 
 ade. This is a delightful spot, the finest in point 
 of situation (although not in extent) of the kind 
 I ever saw, the Esplanade at Charleston in South 
 Carolina, of which I shall have by-and-by to 
 speak more particularly, being excepted. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen were promenading up 
 and down, under the umbrageous foliage of 
 the lofty trees which skirt the Battery Park, 
 and which were as yet unscathed by the recent 
 frosts, forming a delightful retreat from the 
 scorching rays of an American sun. The sea view 
 from this point, with the adjacent scenery, is 
 interesting and attractive ; the broad expanse of 
 ocean in the distance, the highlands looming in 
 the perspective, the numerous aquatic birds 
 skimming the surface of the estuary, and the 
 picturesque fort and woody shores of New Jersey, 
 all tending to diversify the scene and add to its 
 natural beauty. I afterwards visited this place 
 over and over again, and every succeeding visit 
 added to my admiration and enhanced its attrac- 
 tions. To the left lies, in panoramic grandeur, 
 the harbour, literally teeming with ships of all 
 sizes and all nations ; while, on the right, the 
 
BROOKLYN AND THE NAVY- YARD. 25 
 
 entrance of the majestic Hudson or north river, 
 with crowds of magnificent steamers, traders to 
 Troy, Albany, and the West, forms a prominent 
 feature in that direction. The passing and repass- 
 ing of steamers and other vessels of home-traffic, 
 and the more exciting arrival of ships from 
 foreign parts, give a zest to the scene which must 
 be witnessed to be fully appreciated. 
 
 A day or two after, having obtained, through 
 a • friend, leave of admission, I crossed over to 
 Brooklyn, and visited the Navy-yard. The docks 
 of this establishment contained, at this time, 
 many specimens of American naval architecture 
 of choice description ; amongst the rest, a frigate 
 and several other ships of war lying in ordinary. 
 Everything appeared to indicate good manage- 
 ment and efficiency, as far as a landsman could 
 judge. This was very discernible on board the 
 vessels we were allowed to inspect, where the 
 utmost order and cleanliness prevailed. The 
 officers, I thought, seemed to exact great defer- 
 ence from the men, and their martinet bearing 
 ill accorded with a republican service, being 
 decidedly more marked than on board British 
 ships of war which I had visited at Deptford, 
 Chatham, and elsewhere in England. Probably a 
 stricter discipline may be found necessary, on 
 account of the equality that exists in America, 
 which might operate to render those under com- 
 
26 HOBOKEK 
 
 mand more difficult of control, if such indepen- 
 dence were allowed to be manifested. 
 
 I found that the army and navy, in America, 
 are chiefly manned by English, Dutch and Irish, 
 not a few Poles being in the ranks of the former ; 
 these are impelled, through lack of employment, 
 and the additional inducement of a tolerably 
 liberal pay, to join the service. The Americans 
 themselves are too sensible of the inconveniences 
 attending public services, as well as too acute, to 
 follow such occupations in time of peace, though 
 when danger has threatened, they have always 
 shown themselves at the instant service of the 
 State, and as citizen soldiers are not, perhaps, to 
 be equalled in any other country. 
 
 From the Navy-yard I proceeded to Hoboken ; 
 this is a place of great resort in fine weather, and 
 is situate nearly opposite the city of New York, 
 or rather the eastern part of it. Here I found 
 assembled a large company of pleasure-seekers in 
 holiday attire, some lounging under the trees, 
 others in groups at pic-nic, and not a small pro- 
 portion of the gentlemen regaling themselves at 
 the refreshment stalls or temporary cafes, erected 
 on the grounds, on mint juleps and iced sanga- 
 rees. The grounds are interspersed with park, 
 woodland, and forest scenery, and are kept in 
 admirable order, the managers studying to main- 
 tain the appearance of original nature, and to 
 
THE DUELLING GKOUND. 27 
 
 impress on the mind of the visitor, that he is 
 ruralizing, far from city life, amongst primeval 
 forest shades ; the contiguous scenery is not, how- 
 ever, calculated to carry out the idea. It is 
 quite the custom for American husbands to leave 
 their families for the day, and enjoy relaxation in 
 their own 'way, a practice that I apprehend 
 would not be sanctioned by our English ladies, 
 any more than it would be resorted to by English 
 gentlemen, from motives of kindly and very 
 proper feeling. Here, in a retired spot, is the 
 duelling ground, which has attained no little no- 
 toriety in that latitude, as the spot where many 
 a knotty point has been quietly solved by the aid 
 of a pair of pistols or Colt's rifles; although, for 
 the credit of the citizens of New York and its 
 neighbourhood, it must be recorded that they are 
 not so ready to fly to this disgraceful alternative 
 as their ensanguined brethren in the Southern or 
 Slave States. 
 
 My stay in New York being limited by pre- 
 vious arrangements, I was anxious to get back to 
 the city, although a day might well be taken up 
 in ruralizing, and exploring the Arcadian beauties 
 of Hoboken, the favourite resort of the citizens of 
 New York. So, after a pretty general though 
 cursory survey of its attractions, I recrossed, as 
 I had come, in a ferry propelled by steam. The 
 construction of this boat, a whole fleet of which 
 
28 NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA. 
 
 description were busily plying to and fro, being 
 unique, and unlike any I had seen before, I 
 must not pass it over without remark. In prin- 
 ciple it consisted of two barge-like vessels placed 
 side by side, a platform being laid on the top, for 
 the engine, passengers, and steersman ; the latter, 
 as in all American steam-vessels, of whatever 
 size, being perched in an elevated round-house 
 on deck. The stem and stern of this vessel were 
 alike, the necessity of turning being thus al- 
 together obviated, as in some of the steam-boats 
 on the Thames. 
 
 A practice prevails amongst newspaper pub- 
 lishers in America, which is, I believe, only re- 
 sorted to in England in cases of public emergency 
 or unusual excitement, and that but seldom ; I 
 mean that of posting on large placards the latest 
 arrival of news, home or foreign ; thus, whenever 
 you return home after a sojourn in the city, the 
 eager inquiry is sure to be, " Any news up town? " 
 This custom keeps up a lively interest in passing 
 events, and disseminates amongst the citizens at 
 large, the current news of the day, and if it has 
 no other beneficial effects, prevents rumours, 
 that commonly circulate in times of public ex- 
 citement to the detriment often of many in- 
 dividuals in crowded communities. I noticed the 
 walls of New York thickly posted with placards 
 chiefly of an inflammatory political character. 
 
AMERICAN PECULIARITIES. 29 
 
 Many of these breathed agrarian principles, that 
 would in Europe have been inadmissible, and 
 would, without doubt, have led to the immediate 
 arrest and imprisonment of the authors. Here, 
 however, they are but little noticed by the popu- 
 lace, and not at all, I believe, by the authorities. 
 Cheap newspapers are pushed into the face of 
 the passer-by, at the corner of every principal 
 thoroughfare, the prices varying from two to six 
 cents. These, as may be supposed, contain, to- 
 gether with the current news, every description 
 of scandal and trash imaginable, their personality 
 being highly offensive, injurious, and reprehen- 
 sible. Thus the freedom of the press is abused 
 in every part of America, and this powerful en- 
 gine of "good or ill" converted from a benefit (as 
 it is if managed with propriety) into a public 
 nuisance. 
 
 One peculiarity, exceedingly annoying to an 
 Englishman, which is observable even in good 
 society in New York and elsewhere in America, 
 is a prying curiosity as to the affairs of those 
 •with whom they converse. Their habits at table 
 also often fill one with disgust, and the want of 
 good-breeding I witnessed on more than one 
 occasion w^ould have been resented in England. 
 This is the more remarkable, as the Americans 
 entertain high notions of refinement, and yet, 
 paradoxical as it may appear, seem to glory in 
 
30 COMMERCIAL LIFE. 
 
 their contempt of good manners. I do not, how- 
 ever, include the ladies in this remark ; on the 
 contrary, I must unequivocally assert, that I 
 always observed in them, not only in New York, 
 hut in every other part of the North American 
 continent which I visited, the greatest disposition 
 to cover the misdoings of the opposite sex, and a 
 great degree of cultivation and politeness ; al- 
 though they are perfectly freezing in their 
 manners before formal introduction, I do not 
 doubt that there are' many among them of great 
 refinement and powers of intellect, their personal 
 appearance being also consonant with their 
 known amiability. 
 
 The bustle and drive in the trading quarters 
 of the city is very great. The merchants and 
 their assistants have a hurried manner of doing 
 business, discernible in a moment to a stranger, 
 which is much to be deprecated, and too often 
 leads, as I afterwards found, to disastrous results. 
 Business with these men is in general quite a " go- 
 a-head " sort of affair, and not being accompanied 
 with method, in many cases leads to an embar- 
 rassed state of circumstances. Thus it frequently 
 happens, that on investigation, the assets of a 
 merchant who has stopped payment and is a sup- 
 posed bankrupt, realize more than enough to 
 pay the creditors, and the party finds to his 
 
NO CHURCH-GOING BELLS. 31 
 
 agreeable surprise, that his position is not so bad 
 after all. 
 
 The churches and other places of public wor- 
 ship in New York have a temporary appearance, 
 the steeples of the former being, when I visited 
 the city, chiefly of painted wood. This, I believe, is 
 partly the reason why bells are not used, although 
 a friend in whose presence I noticed this, stated 
 that contempt for so English a custom had much 
 to do with their disuse. If so, the prejudice is 
 not confined to New York alone, for I was not 
 cheered by the inspiriting sound of a peal in any 
 other part of the Union I visited, although I 
 think I have heard they are in use in Phila- 
 delphia and some of the eastern cities. 
 
 The time I had allotted to remain in New 
 York having expired, and being anxious to pro- 
 ceed on my route before the close of navigation, I 
 reluctantly bade adieu to my kind friends in that 
 city, and made preparations to pursue my way to 
 the more western part of the Union, hoping to 
 reach the Mississippi country before the season 
 when the rivers and canals leading to it would be 
 locked up in ice. 
 
32 I START FOR ALBANY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " See how yon flaming herald treads 
 The ridged and rolling waves, 
 As, crashing o'er their crested heads, 
 
 She bows her surly slaves ; 
 With foam before and fire behind, 
 
 She rends the clinging sea, 
 That flies before the roaring wind, 
 Beneath her hissing lea." 
 
 Holmes — The Steam Boat. 
 
 My first stage, in proceeding to the interior of 
 the country, was to Albany, 160 miles north of 
 New York. To effect this, I took passage on 
 board a splendidly-equipped steamer, called the 
 Narraganset, and esteemed at the time the 
 swiftest boat on the Hudson River. I must 
 confess I was rather timid when I did so, for the 
 reckless manner in which the crack boats are 
 run, in order to maintain their character for 
 
PITCH FOR FUEL. 33 
 
 celerity, is proverbial, and, as may be supposed, 
 is little consonant with safe travelling. The 
 almost constant recurrence of steam-boat ex- 
 plosions and consequent sacrifice of life, reports 
 of which are daily to be seen in the newspapers, 
 weighed somewhat heavily on my mind, and the 
 latent fear was not lessened by seeing four 
 barrels of pitch rolled on board, the very 
 moment I set foot on the deck of the Narra- 
 ganset I had to console myself, however, as I 
 best could under the circumstances, and trust to 
 Providence ; but had it not been for the payment 
 of my fare, which had previously been arranged, 
 and its inevitable loss if I stopped behind, I 
 believe I should have declined the passage, from 
 my horror of a race. Although, before the boat 
 got under weigh, my lurking fears of explosion 
 were great, they were much enhanced just after 
 starting, in consequence of an opposition boat 
 being loosed from her moorings at the same 
 minute that our vessel got clear of the levee. 
 This accounted for the barrels of pitch I had 
 seen on deck, the heads of which were knocked 
 out just as we entered the Hudson, and a portion 
 of the contents thrown with the fuel into the 
 roaring furnaces ; this powerful generator of 
 caloric of course gave increased rapidity to the 
 motion of the engines, and in a couple of hours 
 we left our opponent far behind. 
 
 D 
 
34 FURIOUS DRIVING. 
 
 It is remarkable that, although the Americans, 
 as a people, travel more, perhaps, than any other 
 nation, so little attention is paid by them to 
 safety in transit. It is openly avowed that 
 nothing is more common than steam-boat ex- 
 plosions and steam disasters of various kinds 
 throughout this vast continent ; and where boats 
 are constructed to carry 1000 or 1200 passengers, 
 as is usual on the American rivers, the loss of 
 life, in case of accident, is fearful to contemplate. 
 I am aware that the subject has been discussed 
 in Congress, and that the question of remedial 
 measures has occupied the attention of the 
 Executive during several successive President- 
 ships ; but still the evil remains, and the public 
 mind in America is almost daily agitated by 
 disasters of this nature. As long as the rampant 
 spirit of competition and desire to outvie their 
 fellows, which prevails amongst a large class of 
 Americans, is tacitly, if not openly, encouraged 
 by the governing powers, such a state of things 
 must exist, and will probably increase ; but it 
 is a positive disgrace to a country possessing 
 great natural attractions, and, on this account, 
 visited by many foreigners, that they should by 
 this system be exposed to daily peril of their 
 lives. The acts of Congress lately promulgated, 
 although apparently stringent, are virtually a 
 dead letter, in consequence of the facilities for 
 
ARRANGEMENTS OF RIVER-STEAMERS. 35 
 
 evasion, and the ingenuity of the offenders. The 
 effort to outrun a rival is attended by an insane 
 excitement, too often participated in by the 
 passengers, who forget for the time that they are 
 in a similar situation to a man sitting on a barrel 
 of gunpowder within a few feet of a raging 
 furnace. I frequently found myself in such a 
 position, in consequence of this dangerous pro- 
 pensity, and the remedy suggested to my mind, 
 and which I recommend to others, was never to 
 take a passage, on American waters, in a first- 
 class steam-boat, as the principle acted upon is 
 to maintain the character of a first-rater at all 
 hazards, regardless of the life or limbs of the 
 helpless passengers. 
 
 The Narraganset, like most of the large river 
 steamers, was constructed with three decks, and 
 fitted up in sumptuous style. One large saloon, 
 with a portion partitioned off for the ladies, serv- 
 ing as a cabin and dining apartment. There is 
 no professed distinction of class in the passengers 
 on board steam-boats in America. I found, how- 
 ever, that the higher grades, doubtless from the 
 same causes that operate in other parts of the 
 world, kept aloof from those beneath them. 
 
 The scene from the upper or hurricane deck 
 (as it is called) was very attractive. Flowing, as 
 the river Hudson does, through a fine moun- 
 tainous country, the magnificent scenery on the 
 
36 THE PASSENGERS. 
 
 banks strikes the observer with feelings allied 
 to awe. The stream being broad and tortuous, 
 beetling crags, high mountains and bluffs, and 
 dense forests, burst suddenly and unexpectedly 
 into view ; fearful precipices abound here and 
 there, amidst luxuriant groves and uncouth pine 
 barrens, forming altogether a diversity that gives 
 the whole the character of a stupendous pano- 
 rama. 
 
 Before we were out of the tide, which for 
 miles flows up the river, our vessel grounded three 
 times, but after puffing and straining for a con- 
 siderable time, she got off without damage and 
 pursued her onward course. Most of my fellow- 
 voyagers were disposed to be distant and taci- 
 turn, and so I enjoyed the grandeurs of the scene 
 in solitary musings, to which the steamers, sloops 
 under sail, and other vessels proceeding up and 
 down the river, gave a pleasant enlivenment. 
 The promenade deck, crowded with lady passen- 
 gers and beautiful children, under a gay awning, 
 added to the cheerfulness of the surrounding 
 aspect, and the fineness of the weather, but for 
 the fear of collapsing boilers, would have made 
 the trip one of great enjoyment. 
 
 Another drawback I had nearly forgotten, and 
 as it serves to illustrate steam-boat and indeed 
 all other travelling inconveniences in America, I 
 must not pass it over ; I refer to the vulgarity of 
 
MILITARY COLLEGE. 37 
 
 the men passengers, who, in default of better 
 occupation, chew tobacco incessantly, and, to the 
 great annoyance of those who do not practise 
 the vandalism, eject the impregnated saliva over 
 everything under foot. The deck of the vessel 
 was much defaced by the noxious stains ; and 
 even in converse with ladies the unmannerly 
 fellows expectorated without sense of decency. 
 The ladies, however, seemed not to regard it, and 
 one bright-eyed houri I saw looking into the face 
 of a long sallow-visaged young man, who had the 
 juice oozing out at each angle of his mouth with 
 disgusting effect, so that enunciation was dif- 
 ficult. 
 
 Some miles up the Hudson, on a high piece of 
 table-land, amidst romantic scenery, stands in 
 prominent relief the military college of West 
 Point. It commands an extensive view, and, 
 was, I believe, an important outpost during the 
 late war. The young graduates were exercising in 
 parties on the parade ground under officers, and 
 appeared dressed in dark jackets with silver- 
 coloured buttons, and light blue trowsers. We 
 saw the targets used by the graduates in artillery, 
 who practise on the river banks ; at least, it was 
 so stated by a fellow-passenger, who either was, 
 or pretended to be, acquainted with all the affairs 
 of that college. 
 
 Beneath the summit of a high bluff, covered 
 
38 KOSCIUSKO. 
 
 with wood, contiguous to the college, I observed 
 a monument or obelisk, which I ascertained to 
 have been erected to the memory of Kosciusko, 
 a Polish patriot, who took a prominent part in 
 the annihilation of British rule in America, 
 It had a very picturesque effect, and was re- 
 garded with feelings of veneration by many of 
 the American passengers, one of whom paid a 
 tribute to the departed hero, which he wound up 
 by observing with nasal emphasis and lugubrious 
 countenance, " If twarnt for that ere man, wher'd 
 we be, I waunt to know ; not here I guess/' This 
 sentiment, although I could scarcely see the point 
 of it myself, elicited half-a-dozen " do tells " and 
 " I waunt to knows " from those around ; expres- 
 sions which, foolish as they sound to English ears, 
 are in common use in the northern and eastern 
 states, when an individual acquiesces in, or is 
 anxious to know more about, what is stated. 
 
 As the scenery on the Hudson, although pictu- 
 resque and highly romantic, savours somewhat of 
 sameness, I shall forbear any further description 
 of it. No one visiting America should omit, if 
 possible, a passage to Albany, in order to enjoy, 
 perhaps, the finest natural scenery in the world. 
 
 The individual who delivered the eulogium I 
 have noted on Kosciusko, stated, that at the time 
 of the war, an immense chain cable was thrown 
 across the river at- West Point, to prevent the 
 
ALBANY. 39 
 
 British vessels proceeding to the interior, and this 
 they in vain tried to destroy by firing chain or 
 bar shots. 
 
 After a favourable passage, we at length reached 
 Albany, which is an extensive city, and the depot 
 for produce, especially wheat, brought via the 
 Erie Canal from the interior ; being, in fact, the 
 storehouse of the trade to and from the interior 
 States of the Union, west, as well as from Canada 
 and the Lakes. It is finely situated on the west 
 bank of the Hudson ; many of its inhabitants are 
 descended from the first colonists, especially the 
 adventurous and persevering Dutch, who, like 
 the Scotch, cling with tenacity to the spot they 
 fix upon, and quickly accumulate property. This 
 city is continually growing in importance, from 
 the vast number of small capitalists who flock 
 there and settle ; and it will eventually, no doubt, 
 vie with New York itself in wealth and im- 
 portance. As I determined to make no stay 
 here, but to proceed up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, 
 I did not see much of this place, and must there- 
 fore omit any lengthened description of it. From 
 what I did see, it appeared a densely-populated, 
 well-built city, laid out with much regularity, and 
 boasting of many substantial buildings, several 
 of the edifices being constructed of white marble. 
 
 Having secured a passage on board a canal 
 packet about to start, I at once embarked, and 
 
40 AN EBIE-CANAL BOAT. 
 
 in a few hours after was running up the Erie 
 Canal at the rate of six miles an hour, the boat 
 being towed by four light horses of high mettle. 
 The trappings of these animals were of a novel 
 description, bells being appended to various parts 
 of the harness, and streamers, or plumes of white 
 hair and gaudy ribbons, floating in the air from 
 the bridle of each. A postilion, in a suit of grey, 
 with an otter-skin cap, rode on the rearmost or 
 saddle horse, and his nonchalance and perfect 
 command of his team were surprising. This boat 
 was some sixty yards in length, and constructed 
 only for passengers and their luggage. The in- 
 terior formed a long saloon in miniature, fitted 
 up with lounges, and tastefully decorated ; a 
 promenade on the deck or top furnishing a good 
 place for exercise. At night our saloon was con- 
 verted into a general dormitory, a portion being 
 partitioned off for the ladies, by ranges of shelves 
 being suspended from the sides, on which were 
 laid the mattresses, &c. Owing to the number of 
 locks and stoppages at the miserable towns and 
 villages on the canal banks, our passage to Buffalo 
 took several days ; and the country being flat and 
 uninteresting, although divided into farms, which 
 in general appeared to be in a state of tolerable 
 cultivation, I was not a little relieved when we 
 began to approach the city. 
 
 The formation of the Erie Canal was one of 
 
BUFFALO. 41 
 
 those grand internal improvements frequently to 
 be met with in that country, and which have 
 contributed to its general prosperity in no small 
 degree. The projector of this vast undertaking, 
 De Witt Clinton, is justly esteemed by American 
 citizens, who regard him as a public benefactor, 
 and his name ranks with the founders of their 
 independence. The canal runs, for a considerable 
 distance before it reaches Buffalo, parallel with 
 the lake, but separated from it by a sort of arti- 
 ficial sea-wall. As we merged into the vicinity of 
 this magnificent inland sea, the sun was shining 
 brightly, and gave it the appearance of molten 
 silver. As far as the eye could reach, a wide 
 expanse of water presented itself, and the distant 
 shores of Canada gave beauty to the scene. At 
 Black-rock we could distinguish the sites of the 
 British fortifications, from which in the last war 
 red-hot cannon-balls were ejected, to the dismay 
 of the terrified Americans, and the destruction of 
 many of their houses. 
 
 Buffalo is a flourishing city on the border of 
 Lake Erie, and about twenty miles south of the 
 Falls of Niagara. It is within the boundary 
 of the state of New York, and has of late years 
 greatly increased in extent, wealth, and popula- 
 tion. The old town, quite an inconsiderable place, 
 on the site of which the present city has risen, 
 phcenix-like, was burnt to the ground during the 
 
42 CANADA. 
 
 late war, by some British officers, who made a 
 sortie from the Canada shores ; which circum- 
 stance, having been handed down from father to 
 son, still rankles in the bosoms of many of the 
 older inhabitants, who do not fail to state their 
 belief that retributive justice will eventually be 
 administered by the entire subjugation of Canada. 
 During my rather prolonged stay in Buffalo, I 
 had frequent opportunities of discovering that 
 the most rancorous feelings exist on the subject ; 
 and in proof of this it may be remembered by the 
 reader that the Canadian insurgents were assisted 
 at the late insurrection by supplies of stores from 
 this city. These were conveyed to Navy Island 
 by the steamer Caroline, which was subsequently 
 seized, and sent over the Falls of Niagara by the 
 British troops, a number of the crew being cruelly 
 massacred. 
 
 From inquiries made of parties well informed 
 on the subject, both in Canada and the United 
 States, I am convinced that the public act of Sir 
 John Colborne, before quitting the governorship 
 of the province, in 18.35, viz., the allotment or 
 appropriation of 346,252 acres of the soil, as a 
 clergy reserve, and the institution of the fifty- 
 seven rectories, was the chief predisposing cause 
 of the insurrection. By this Act a certain por- 
 tion of land in every township was set apart for 
 the maintenance of " a Protestant clergy/' under 
 
TENDENCY TO REBELLION. 43 
 
 which ambiguous term, the clergy of the Church 
 of England have always claimed the sole enjoy- 
 ment of the funds arising from the sale of such 
 portions of land. This is looked upon by dis- 
 senters of all denominations as a direct infringe- 
 ment of the original intention of the Act, which 
 they maintain was for the purpose of aiding the 
 Protestant cause at large against the innovations 
 of the Eoman Catholic Church. Much ill-will 
 and sectarian prejudice are the natural conse- 
 quence ; in fact, the Act is a perfect apple of 
 discord throughout the Canadas, and has en- 
 gendered more animosity and resentment than 
 any one legislative act, sanctioned by the Home 
 Government, since the acquisition (if so it can be 
 called) of the country. It is an indelible disgrace 
 to England, that such a manifestly bigoted and 
 narrow-minded policy should have been allowed 
 to continue so long ; and I am fully persuaded 
 that this enactment, which, there is little doubt, 
 originated in sectarianism, perpetuates a degree 
 of rancorous feeling in the minds of people there, 
 that is sufficient to account for the disaffection 
 and tendency to rebellion that ever and anon 
 displays itself; and that to remove this blister, 
 and allow the application of these funds to all 
 creeds alike, would be to restore peace, and con- 
 vert doubtfully-affected communities to allegiance. 
 If there is one consideration that ought to weigh 
 
44 POPULATION AND TRADE OF BUFFALO. 
 
 in the minds of the British as a people, to en- 
 deavour to rivet the affections of the Canadians, 
 more than another, and prevent the ultimate 
 cession of that country to the Americans, it is, 
 that the dependency affords now the only asylum 
 for those persecuted outcasts of humanity, the 
 slaves of the United States. Canada, the land 
 of freedom, is associated in their minds with 
 paradisaical thoughts of happiness — and many 
 a heart-stricken creature in the Southern States 
 of America, as I had many opportunities of as- 
 certaining, toils on in content, with " Canada n 
 in view, as the ultimatum of his hopes and the 
 land of his redemption. 
 
 The population of Buffalo is fluctuating, owing 
 to the vast number of emigrants who are con- 
 stantly arriving, en route to Ohio, Michigan, 
 and the far West, It averages in population, 
 about ten thousand. The city is not of great 
 extent, and consists in chief of one principal 
 thoroughfare, called Maine-street, which is wide, 
 the lower part terminating at the water's edge, 
 along which spacious stores are erected for the 
 reception of wheat and goods in transit. The 
 harbour is formed by an arm of Lake Erie uniting 
 with Buffalo river. Here are always congregated 
 a large fleet of steamers, many of them of levi- 
 athan dimensions, which are employed in running 
 to and from Detroit, in Michigan, and the inter- 
 
NIAGARA. 45 
 
 mediate ports, as well as in the Upper Lake 
 trade. Being quite a depot, Buffalo bids fair, 
 ere the lapse of many years, to be the grand 
 emporium of the West. The public buildings do 
 not deserve much notice ; the Eagle Theatre, a 
 joint-stock concern, being the only building of 
 much interest. There are, however, several spa- 
 cious hotels, and two or three banks, that boast 
 some architectural merit, although much, I be- 
 lieve, cannot be said as to their stability. The 
 lateral streets are rather obscure, and, not being 
 regularly built upon, give the city an unfinished 
 look. These are, however, dotted here and there 
 with chateaux, having good gardens well ar- 
 ranged. The Niagara Railway station is situated 
 to the left of Maine-street, about half-way up 
 that premier thoroughfare. 
 
 At night the distant moan of the Niagara falls 
 was audible, and this, together with what I had^ 
 heard and read, made me very anxious to visit 
 the spot. Accordingly, one splendid morning I 
 started by train for the purpose. For some miles 
 before we reached Niagara, we constantly heard 
 the roar of the rushing waters, and were thus 
 prepared for the stupendous scene that burst 
 upon the view, as we alighted at the doors of 
 that ne plus ultra of modern hostelries, the 
 Pavilion Hotel. 
 
 My powers of description will fall short of 
 
46 THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 
 
 conveying to the mind of the reader the awful 
 grandeur of this cataract, so often commented 
 upon by travellers. The first impression felt by 
 me was, that the whole substratum on which I 
 stood, which seemed to tremble, was about to be 
 swept away by the vast inundation. It was not 
 the height of the falls, but the immense body of 
 water, which comprehends, with constant accu- 
 mulations from the tributaries on the way, the 
 overflowings of Lakes Erie, Superior, Michigan, 
 and Huron. The astonishing effect of such a 
 body of water, dashed abruptly over a precipice 
 of 150 perpendicular feet, may be conceived; 
 such is the momentum of this immense volume 
 of fluid, that, when it strikes the rocky bed at 
 the base of the cataract, it rebounds in a thick 
 cloud of vapour — and when the sun's rays inter- 
 cept it, as was the case when I arrived there, a 
 ^beautiful rainbow of vivid colours encircles the 
 area of the chasm, and, together with the natural 
 curiosities and situation of the entire scene, pre- 
 sents to the amazed beholder, the effect of a 
 highly-executed picture in a frame of sun-light, 
 although far surpassing the productions of human 
 skill, which may well be said, in comparison, to 
 sink into utter insignificance. 
 
 A large company of visitors were assembled at 
 the time of my arrival, probably from all parts 
 of the world — so that I found it impossible to 
 
AN INDIAN VILLAGE. 47 
 
 get a bed, unless I penetrated into the interior 
 with a view to obtain accommodation at some 
 farm-house, or crossed to the Canada side ; but, 
 feeling too tired, after the day's excitement, to 
 pursue either such course, I took an evening 
 train and returned to Buffalo the same day, 
 where I arrived at 9 p.m. 
 
 About three miles from Buffalo is an Indian 
 village, called Tonawanda. I frequently saw 
 parties of the inhabitants, who resort to the city 
 to dispose of their wares and produce. Some of 
 the warriors were fine athletic fellows, of great 
 stature, the lowest I saw being over six feet in 
 height. They were clothed in tanned buck-skin, 
 curiously fringed and ornamented with porcu^ 
 pine-quills richly dyed ; their squaws (wives) 
 being enveloped in fine Canadian blue broad 
 cloth, their favourite costume ; the crimson or 
 other gaudy-coloured selvedge forming a con- 
 spicuous ornament. 
 
 Like all the aborigines of America, they cling 
 with tenacity to primeval habits and customs, 
 resisting every attempt made by the white popu- 
 lation, to make or persuade them to conform to 
 civilized life. The ill-usage they have been sub- 
 jected to by the Americans, may, however, 
 account for this in a great measure. They were 
 described to me by one of the residents as a 
 dissipated set of fellows, who squandered all they 
 
48 DRUNKEN INDIANS. 
 
 got in " fire-water/' as they term ardent spirits, 
 and when inebriated are so quarrelsome that it 
 is dangerous in the highest degree to irritate 
 them. 
 
 Not very long after I arrived, a circumstance 
 occurred that threatened most fearful conse- 
 quences. The Indians whom I have before re- 
 ferred to were in the frequent habit, when they 
 came to the city, to dispose of their produce (for 
 many of them followed husbandry) of getting so 
 tipsy, that there was continual danger of blood- 
 shed ; their natural animosity on such occasions 
 being roused with fearful vehemence, so that the 
 authorities were compelled to adopt some steps 
 to remedy the evil. It was no uncommon oc- 
 currence to see an Indian waggon by the road- 
 side, with its pair of horses sans driver, who 
 might have been found either drunk or quarrel- 
 ing at the other end of the city. And although 
 the horses were always impounded, and a fine 
 inflicted, still the nuisance continued without 
 abatement, in fact, was rather on the increase. 
 The new Mayor, being a man more alive than his 
 predecessor to this evil, caused a regulation to 
 be passed by the Civic Council, that any Indian 
 found so far the worse for liquor in the streets of 
 Buffalo as to be incapable of taking care of 
 himself, should be punished by being made to 
 work on the high roads for a short period, with 
 
INDIANS TO THE RESCUE. 49 
 
 an iron ball and chain attached to his leg. When 
 this law was promulgated, there was a strong 
 impression <that the Indians would show resist- 
 ance. This was soon found to be a correct view 
 of the case, for not a week had elapsed before 
 two warriors were brought before the Mayor, 
 and sentenced to ten days' probation at road- 
 mending, in pursuance of the decree. They had, 
 however, only been at work two days in the 
 upper part of Maine-street, in charge of two 
 constables, when a large body of their fraternity, 
 armed cap-a-pie, entered the city, and, with 
 horrid yells and brandished tomahawks, rescued 
 the culprits, knocked off their chains, and carried 
 them in triumph to the Indian village, amidst 
 fearful threats of fire and blood. As this attack 
 was unexpected, no resistance was offered ; and 
 although there was much discussion afterwards, 
 about the laws being vindicated and an example 
 being made, the matter, from motives, no doubt, 
 of public safety, was allowed to drop, and for 
 the future the red men had it all their own way, 
 although there were certainly signs of amend- 
 ment, and the evil decreased to a very great 
 extent. The Indian maxim being, "Finn in 
 friendship but ruthless in war/' there is little 
 doubt that the course pursued on this occasion 
 by the city authorities, was the best under such 
 circumstances. 
 
 E 
 
50 LAKE ERIE. 
 
 Lake Erie is a fine piece of water, being 
 265 miles long, from Buffalo to Detroit, the two 
 extreme ends, and averaging about 60 miles 
 broad. At its north-east end it communicates 
 with Lake Ontario and the Canadian shores, by 
 the gut or strait of Niagara. Towards the west 
 end are numerous islands and banks, which are 
 furnished with light-houses for the guidance of 
 the mariner. Its waters wash the foot of Maine- 
 street (Buffalo) where they meet the river from 
 which that city takes its name. It is frequently 
 visited by furious gales, which play havoc with 
 the steamers, many of which are annually 
 wrecked. 
 
 While I remained in Buffalo, I took several 
 excursions to the towns that skirt this beautiful 
 inland sea. On one of these occasions, the 
 steamer was driven by stress of weather to take 
 shelter in the small harbour of Huron, some 
 distance up the lake ; this we reached with 
 much difficulty, the violence of the sea threaten- 
 ing every moment the total destruction of the 
 vessel. As we entered the harbour, the air rang 
 with a shout of welcome from the inhabitants of 
 the place, who had been watching our perilous 
 progress in great anxiety, and were assembled at 
 the end of the little pier. Here we remained for 
 two days and nights, the wind blowing all that 
 time with the fury of a hurricane ; the lake, 
 
 
HURON. 51 
 
 during the storm, presenting the appearance of 
 the sea in a stiff north-wester, the white-crested 
 waves rising in violent commotion to a fearful 
 height. 
 
 Huron is but a small and uninteresting place, 
 situate in a most unwholesome locality, lying 
 opposite to a murky swamp, whose poisonous 
 vapours spread disease and death around. It is 
 the highway to Sandusky city, an inland border 
 town, rendered famous for the obstinacy with 
 which the inhabitants and a body of U. S. In- 
 fantry defended a fort there against the attacks 
 of the British troops in 1812. Having ascer- 
 tained the captain's intention not to sail until 
 the day following, and it being described as a 
 very attractive spot, I hired a horse, and, after 
 a seven miles' ride through a country dotted with 
 farm houses, which had a desolate look, and the 
 lands appertaining to which w^ere subdivided by 
 zigzag log fences (hedges being unknown in the 
 back settlements), I reached the so-called city, 
 which is built in nearly the form of a parallelo- 
 gram, the area of greensward having a pretty 
 effect. Here are some good hotels, and a semi- 
 nary or college for young ladies, which is much 
 patronized by the better classes of the northern 
 and eastern states, especially New York. I 
 looked in vain for the Fort, which has, since the 
 war, been demolished ; but the landlord of the 
 
52 ACCIDENT TO A CANOE, 
 
 hotel at which I afterwards dined, took me to its 
 site, and related several incidents that occurred 
 in connection with the fortress, and the struggle 
 between the belligerent parties at the time. As, 
 however, I considered these somewhat apocry- 
 phal, from several of his relations failing to hang 
 together, and his decided bias against the 
 Britishers, as he called the English, I shall not 
 trouble the reader with the details. After view- 
 ing the place and its suburbs to my satisfaction, 
 and after an excellent dinner of green maize and 
 venison, I rode back to the steamer. 
 
 It was towards evening when I arrived ; and, 
 as I approached Huron, by the banks of the creek 
 that divides the swamp I have mentioned, and 
 which was unusually swollen, I noticed a canoe 
 that had broken loose from its moorings, drifting 
 clown the current ; a moment afterwards the 
 owner arrived in breathless haste, to endeavour 
 to save it from destruction ; his exertions were, 
 however, useless, and, finding there was no alter- 
 native, he hailed the bystanders, and offered the 
 reward of a dollar to any one who would swim 
 to and paddle the canoe on shore ; this offer was 
 eagerly caught at by a tall man, of great mus- 
 cular power, who was amongst the crowd, and 
 who at once threw off his coat and plunged into 
 the stream. This was very rapid, and, after a 
 few moments battling with the turbid current, 
 
AND A MAN DROWNED. 53 
 
 he was overpowered ; uttering a loud cry for 
 assistance, which I shall never forget and which 
 rang in my ears like a death knell, he dis- 
 appeared from the view of the spectators, and, 
 being probably entangled in the trees and debris 
 that were floating down the torrent, he did not 
 rise again. A loud wail arose from the terrified 
 assemblage, who were unable to render the poor 
 fellow any assistance, and who ran about in 
 frantic excitement The canoe was lost, being 
 carried at a rapid rate into the open lake, where 
 it capsized, and sunk immediately. After drag- 
 ging for the body for upwards of an hour, it was 
 fished up from under some logs of timber moored 
 some distance below w T here the catastrophe oc- 
 curred. The body being landed and placed on 
 the bank, a loud altercation ensued as to the 
 means to be used to attempt resuscitation — a vain 
 hope — but still persisted in by those assembled. 
 Some wanted to roll it on a barrel, others to 
 suspend it by the heels, that the water might be 
 voided. At length a doctor arrived, and, after 
 some inquiry, pronounced effort useless, from the 
 time the body had been under water. This at 
 once damped the ardour of the crowd, although 
 it did not discourage a female, who had taken a 
 prominent part in the operations, and who, with 
 that true womanly tenderness and solicitude 
 which do honour to her sex, and which are 
 
54 BULL-FROGS. 
 
 nowhere more conspicuous than in America, in- 
 sisted upon the corpse being taken to a neigh- 
 bouring house, where, like a ministering angel, 
 she persevered in her efforts for a considerable 
 time, although of course without effect. 
 
 The banks of Lake Erie, in the vicinity of 
 Huron, are thickly studded with small trees and 
 coppice wood. This scenery, being interspersed 
 with open natural meadow-land, gives it a park- 
 like aspect, and several spots would, graced with 
 a mansion, have formed an estate any nobleman 
 in Europe might have been proud of, the shores 
 of Canada, looming in the hazy distance, giving 
 a fine effect to the scene. 
 
 The noise and disagreeable odour arising from 
 the bull-frogs and other reptiles that infest the 
 swamp opposite the village at night, filled the 
 air, and rendered it impossible for me to sleep. 
 As I lay restless on my bed, I suddenly heard a 
 gun fired, and, starting up in some alarm, I 
 hastily put on my clothes and descended to the 
 bar of the hotel. Here several of the inmates 
 were assembled, and were preparing to cross the 
 creek with lanterns, to explore the swamp, cries 
 of distress having been distinctly heard, as of 
 some benighted traveller who had lost his way. 
 After listening intently, and firing several rifles 
 to guide the wanderer or apprize him that assis- 
 tance was at hand, the party crossed the creek 
 
PERISHED IN THE SWAMP. 55 
 
 in a canoe, and moved along the skirts of the 
 morass, hallooing loudly all the time ; the cries, 
 however, heard only at intervals at the com- 
 mencement, became gradually indistinct, and at 
 last ceased altogether. After an ineffectual search 
 for an hour or more, the party again turned 
 towards Huron, strongly impressed with the be- 
 lief, that the unfortunate being had sunk with 
 his horse in the soft bed of the swamp, which is 
 some miles in extent, and had perished miserably. 
 The day following, I visited the nearest point 
 from which the cries were heard, but I could 
 discern no sign of the sufferer, nor could I even 
 trace footmarks ; this, however, is not remarkable, 
 as they would speedily be obliterated by the many 
 reptiles nurtured in the morass. It was after- 
 wards questioned, whether the supposed wanderer 
 was only a catamount, a species of jaguar that 
 emits doleful cries at night. 
 
 The storm having abated, I soon after returned 
 on board, and in due course reached Buffalo, 
 where I had the pleasure of meeting with an old 
 acquaintance, from whom I had long been sepa- 
 rated, and who had delayed his intended voyage 
 up the lake, to await my return. A large pro- 
 portion of the population of Buffalo are people 
 of colour^ and one quarter of the town is almost 
 exclusively inhabited by them ; many of these, I 
 regret to add, are living in a state of degradation 
 
56 
 
 pitiable to behold, apparently without the least 
 endeavour being made by their white fellow- 
 citizens to improve their condition. Some of these 
 coloured people keep eating-houses, for the ac- 
 commodation of those of their own complexion, 
 but the greater number are employed as stokers 
 and steam-boat hands. A few of these men, des- 
 pite the prejudice that exists (and it is nowhere 
 in the Union more marked than in Buffalo), rise 
 above the common level, and by that probity of 
 character and untiring energy, which I believe 
 to be inherent in the race, become men of sub- 
 stance. 
 
 One instance of this deserves especial notice, 
 as the subject of it had, entirely by the good 
 qualities mentioned, amassed a fortune, and had 
 married a woman of English birth. I was in- 
 troduced to this individual some time after my 
 arrival in Buffalo, and his singularly correct views 
 and uprightness of character made me partial to 
 his company. His wife was a notable, well-in- 
 formed, good-looking woman, about forty years 
 of age. Irrespective of colour, I certainly admired 
 her discrimination in the choice of a partner, al- 
 though she was looked down upon by the wives 
 of the white citizens, and, in common with her 
 husband, was almost entirely shunned by them. 
 There may, perhaps, have been a higher con- 
 sideration than that of a good settlement to cause 
 
MAPJUED TO A WHITE WOMAN. 57 
 
 an English woman in this instance to marry a 
 dark mulatto ; but I was always of opinion, and 
 she confirmed this by hints dropped casually, that 
 the consideration of a fortune had more to do 
 with the alliance than love. This gentleman kept 
 a good house, and had many servants. His wife 
 being fond of amusements, he hired a box for 
 her use at the Eagle Theatre, which she always 
 attended alone, the etiquette of the white citizens 
 not permitting his attendance with her. He ap- 
 peared almost always in a desponding mood, a 
 tendency arising entirely from the insulting de- 
 meanour used towards him by the citizens ; and 
 he frequently talked of removing to Canada, or 
 the far West, to avoid the treatment he was sub- 
 jected to at the hands of a pack of young scoun- 
 drels, who took every opportunity to annoy and 
 treat him with indignity for marrying a white 
 woman. The consequence was, that neither he 
 nor his wife scarcely ever ventured out. If they 
 did so, it was never in company, and usually 
 after dark. I was politely offered the use of their 
 box at the theatre during my stay, and on one 
 occasion availed myself of the offer. But I never 
 ventured again — the box was evidently marked, 
 and during the performance I was subjected to 
 the most disgusting remarks and behaviour from 
 the audience. Indeed, this was carried so far, 
 that I retired long before the curtain dropped. 
 
58 ANTI-AMALGAMISTS. 
 
 So intent were his fellow-citizens on annoying 
 this inoffensive man, that soon after he was 
 mobbed in Maine-street by the young despera- 
 does I have referred to, who, from their deter- 
 mined opposition to intermixed marriages, were 
 known in the place as " anti-amalgamists." 
 
 On this occasion poor P nearly lost his 
 
 life, and, but for running, would, no doubt, 
 have done so ; as it was, he was much burnt 
 about the head and neck, the ruffians in the 
 scuffle having set fire to his frock-coat, which 
 was of linen. 
 
 It is rather remarkable that, at St. Louis, on the 
 Missouri, some ten months afterwards, 1 met this 
 very man, he having purchased some government 
 land in a remote part of that state. Our meet- 
 ing was quite accidental, for I crossed the street 
 and accosted him as he was hurrying along. In 
 the course of our interview he pressed me ear- 
 nestly to go up the country with him ; but this 
 I declined from motives of prudence, the route 
 lying through a slave-holding state, where a white 
 and coloured man travelling on terms of equality, 
 would be sure to excite suspicion. He had a 
 small bundle of papers under his arm, and on my 
 remarking he appeared intent on business, he 
 stated they were his free papers, and that not 
 ten minutes before he had been challenged to 
 produce them ; but this, he said, would not have 
 
A NIGGER BOARDING-HOUSE. 59 
 
 prevented his arrest and detention in the city 
 gaol until the authorities of Buffalo had been 
 written to under suspicion of his being a fugitive, 
 had he not taken the precaution, before he left 
 that city, to obtain from the mayor a certificate of 
 his intention to proceed to the Missouri country, 
 and the object of his visit. He told me that 
 if he liked his purchase, he should build a house 
 on it, and cultivate the land as a farm, as his 
 continued residence in Buffalo, after the dispo- 
 sition to annoy him shown by the citizens, ren- 
 dered his stay there out of the question. I 
 afterwards dined with him at his " hotel/' which 
 was an obscure tavern in an unfrequented part 
 of the city, in and about which I saw several 
 coloured people. I afterwards ascertained that 
 this was what is there derisively termed a " nig- 
 ger boarding-house/' and that the keepers of 
 superior hotels would not think of accommo- 
 dating a coloured person even for a night. From 
 subsequent experience in such matters, I have 
 no doubt that this version was a true one. 
 
 The hotels and cafes in the Slave States are all 
 frequented by slave owners and dealers ; these 
 would not think of putting up at quarters where 
 " coloured folks" were entertained. This distinc- 
 tion is so marked, that no negro would attempt 
 to apply for refreshment at the bar of such places, 
 as the inevitable consequence of such a liberty 
 
60 RESURRECTION OF TWO BRIGS. 
 
 would be refusal, if not summary ejectment. It 
 is therefore the custom, in all southern towns 
 and cities, for the negro population to resort to 
 places kept expressly for the accommodation of 
 coloured people. These are not always kept by 
 men of their own complexion, but often by 
 white men, who, having become friendly with 
 them, have lost caste with the whites, and are in 
 fact discarded by them. 
 
 In the harbour of Buffalo, I saw tw T o brigs, 
 that during the war in 1812 had been captured 
 by the Americans, and sunk somewhere up the 
 lake on the American side. These had recently 
 been raised by means of apparatus invented by 
 an ingenious American. They were strong, 
 substantially-built brigs, of about 250 tons bur- 
 den each. I was surprised to find what a pre- 
 serving effect the lake water had upon the 
 timber, the wood being almost black in colour, 
 and so hard that it was difficult to make an 
 impression upon it even with an axe. These 
 vessels had been sold to a shipping company, and 
 were at the time employed, I think, in the 
 Chicago or Upper Lake trade. 
 
 I had frequently heard of the number of 
 rattle and other snakes to be met with on the 
 banks of the lake, but these have been nearly 
 exterminated by the settlers. During my stay 
 in the suburbs I only found a few water-snakes, 
 
CLIMATE OF BUFFALO. 61 
 
 basking in the sun amongst the wilderness of 
 aquatic plants that cover the surface of the water 
 in the creeks. 
 
 The superstitious dread of inhaling the east 
 wind blowing from the mouth of the lake, is 
 now exploded, and is considered in the light of 
 a bygone tale ; although, for three-quarters of 
 a century, it was considered baneful even to the 
 healthy. Consumptive patients are, however, 
 soon carried off, the biting blasts from the 
 Canadian shores proving very fatal in pulmo- 
 nary complaints, and the winters being very 
 severe. 
 
 A plentiful supply of excellent fish of various 
 sorts, is procured from the lake. These are 
 salted in barrels, and find a ready market in the 
 northern and eastern states. 
 
 My abode in the city of Buffalo extended over 
 the greater part of a year, and during this period 
 I had frequent opportunities of witnessing that 
 tendency to overreach that has, perhaps, with 
 some justice, been called a disposition in the 
 generality of Americans to defraud. I do not 
 mean to stygmatize any particular class of men 
 in this imputation, but I must record my decided 
 conviction, arising from transactions with them, 
 that business with the mass of citizens there is 
 not that upright system that obtains with such 
 successful results in the mother country, amongst 
 
62 FOR SALE. 
 
 those engaged in commercial relations. Perhaps 
 it would be but fair to make some excuse for 
 men of this class, in a country whose hetero- 
 geneous population, and consequent exposure to 
 competition, renders it a struggle to obtain a 
 livelihood. It is notorious that thousands of 
 men in America are obliged, as it were, to 
 succumb to this influence or become paupers, 
 and are thus driven out of the paths of strict 
 rectitude and honesty of purpose, and compelled 
 to resort to all sorts of chicanery to enable them 
 to make two ends meet. In no instance is this 
 more observable than in the " selling " propensi- 
 ties of the Americans. " For sale " seems to be 
 the national motto, and would form an admirable 
 addendum to the inscription displayed on the 
 coins, " E pluribus unum" Everything a man pos- 
 sesses is voluntarily subjected to the law of in- 
 terchange. The farmer, the land speculator, and 
 the keeper of the meanest grocery or barber's 
 stall, are alike open to " a trade/' that is, an ex- 
 change of commodities, in the hope or prospect 
 of some profit, honestly or dishonestly, being 
 attached to the transaction. This induces a 
 loose, gambling propensity, which, indulged in 
 to excess, often leads to ruin and involvement, 
 and, if absolute beggary is deferred, causes 
 numerous victims 'to be perpetually floundering 
 in debt, difficulty, and disgrace. 
 
DEPARTURE FOR CLEVELAND. 63 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 8 ' Then blame me not that I should seek, although I know not 
 thee, 
 To waken in thy heart its chords of holiest sympathy ; 
 It is for woman's bleeding heart, for woman's humbled 
 
 form, 
 O'er which the reeking lash is swung, with life's red current 
 warm." 
 
 E. M. Chandler. 
 
 On a fine morning in June, I took my departure 
 from Buffalo, in the lake steamer Governor Porter, 
 for the port of Cleveland in the state of Ohio. 
 The sun was shining on the silvery bosom of the 
 lake, which in a dead calm gave it a refulgent 
 glassy appearance. We had not, however, been 
 two hours at sea before the clouds began to collect, 
 and a heavy gale came on with rapidity. This 
 continued to increase until the day following, 
 during which the vessel had passed Cleveland, 
 
64 DETROIT. 
 
 the place of my destination, and was driving 
 before a furious north-wester towards Detroit, 
 at the head of the lake. The captain stated that 
 all his endeavours to make the landing-place at 
 Cleveland had been unavailing, but if those 
 passengers whom he had engaged to land there 
 would proceed with him on the voyage to his 
 destination, he would land them on his return, 
 which he said would probably be in three or four 
 days. As this offer necessarily included board, 
 the three passengers, who were in the same pre- 
 dicament as myself, after a short consultation 
 agreed to accept it ; and as time was not an 
 object to me, I did not demur, for I much wished 
 to have a view of the country in that direction. 
 Had either of us dissented, the captain would, 
 probably, have landed us at the next port, a 
 result that would have involved the expense and 
 inconvenience of a thirty miles' ride, or there- 
 abouts, to Cleveland, in a rough stage, over 
 rougher roads. 
 
 The weather moderated towards sunset, and we 
 had a very favourable passage to the head of the 
 lake, and entering Detroit harbour, which lies at 
 the foot of the town, I soon after landed,and took 
 a stroll into it, It is not a very populous place, 
 the inhabitants being, I should say, under 4000. 
 The houses are in general, heavy dirty-looking 
 buildings, though the streets are tolerably wide, 
 
HAGGARD EMIGRANTS. 65 
 
 and built with regularity. It is, I believe, peo- 
 pled principally by French and Dutch, who 
 appeared to be in low circumstances, and who 
 follow the usual town occupations. 
 
 This town, which is essentially Gaelic in appear- 
 ance, is situated on the west side of the strait, 
 between Lakes St. Clare and Erie, and is within 
 sight of Maiden in Canada, with the shores of 
 which province a constant trade or communica- 
 tion is kept up by steam. Here is situated an 
 extensive government agency for the sale of land 
 in Michigan ; whither, at the time, vast numbers 
 of new settlers were daily proceeding in search 
 of homes and happiness. I saw many of these 
 on their way, and as they toiled to their new 
 homes, they looked haggard, forlorn, and abject ; 
 and I thought I could distinguish in almost all, 
 especially the women, an aspect of grief that 
 indicated they were exiles, who had left behind 
 all that tended to make life joyous and happy, 
 to seek a precarious existence in an unknown 
 wilderness. As the town afforded few attractions, 
 the only place of amusement being a temporary 
 theatrical exhibition, I was not a little rejoiced 
 when the vessel again started down the lake, 
 which she did with every advantage of favourable 
 weather. In due course we reached Cleveland, 
 and, as I was anxious to proceed onwards, I took 
 but a cursory view of the place ; which is, like 
 
66 a hornet's nest. 
 
 Detroit, situated on a somewhat rising ground. 
 It appeared a thriving town, and the hotels 
 were in general superbly fitted up. 
 
 As I was strolling towards the canal to take 
 my passage to the Ohio river, a little incident 
 occurred, which, as it illustrates a very old adage, 
 I will not omit. Passing some low-built houses 
 near the canal, my attention was arrested by the 
 screams of a female, who uttered loud cries for 
 assistance. 
 
 Hastening to the door of the house from which 
 the alarm proceeded, I lifted the latch in great 
 trepidation, when I saw a man just about to strike 
 a woman (who proved to be his wife) with an up- 
 lifted chair. The fellow was vociferating loudly, 
 and appeared in a towering passion. My first 
 impulse was to cry out "Drop it \" when, lo ! as 
 if I had, like Katerfelto, the by-gone professor of 
 legerdemain, cried "Presto," the scene changed, 
 and both man and woman, who were Americans 
 of the lower class, commenced bullying me in 
 right earnest. I made my retreat with some 
 difficulty, as they seemed, both of them, inclined 
 to serve me roughly for my well-intentioned, 
 though, perhaps, mistimed interference. As I 
 made my escape, however, I intimated, pretty 
 loudly, that I should at once apply to a magis- 
 trate on the subject, a threat, by-the-bye, that was 
 little regarded, and only increased the showers of 
 
JOE SMITH. 67 
 
 abuse levelled at me. As my appealing to a 
 magistrate would be of little avail in the case of 
 a family jar, and would certainly have entailed 
 inconvenience and delay, I did not carry my 
 threat into execution, wondering, at the same 
 time, at my temerity in interfering in a quarrel 
 between man and wife, which I now practically 
 learnt, for the first time in my life, was to incur 
 the unmitigated anger of both, and to learn how 
 true it is that 
 
 " Those who in quarrels interpose, 
 Must oft expect a bloody nose." 
 
 I visited the portion of the town appropriated 
 by the Mormons as a residence. Here, in the 
 midst of their dwellings, they had erected a' 
 temple for worship, which, on their emigrating 
 west, their arch-leader, Smith, prophesied would, 
 by the interposition of heaven, be destroyed by 
 fire. The prophecy was verified as to the fact, 
 but heaven had, it appeared, little to do with it ; 
 for it was ascertained to be the work of an in- 
 cendiary of their sect, who was detected and 
 brought to condign punishment. 
 
 I w^as afterwards informed by an American 
 gentleman, to whom I had a letter of introduc- 
 tion, and who had been a great suiferer by these 
 impostors, that some time before the great body 
 of Mormons migrated to the interior, they started 
 
68 A MORMON BANK. 
 
 a bank. Having managed to put a vast number 
 of their notes in circulation, for which they re- 
 ceived produce, they closed the doors, and left 
 the public to be losers by their nefarious schemes. 
 I had the misfortune myself, in my ignorance, to 
 take from a dishonest store-keeper a ten-dollar 
 bill of this spurious currency, and did not detect 
 the imposture until I offered it to the captain of 
 the boat I had engaged a passage in to La Belle 
 Riviere, as the Ohio is called. I must mention, 
 however, that I took it previously to the interview 
 with the gentleman I have adverted to, and ac- 
 tually, without knowing it, had the note in my 
 pocket-book when he mentioned the default of 
 these pseudo bankers. I paid ten dollars for a 
 useful lesson. 
 
 The passengers from Cleveland formed a motley 
 group ; for, irrespective of French, Dutch, Ameri- 
 cans, and Canadians, we had on board eight or 
 ten families of the Mormon sect, following in the 
 wake of their leaders, Smith and Bigdon, to 
 their new settlement in the far west. These 
 people were very reserved, and seemed inclined 
 to keep aloof from their fellow-passengers. This, 
 however, may be accounted for by the prejudice 
 so justly existing at the time against them, as a 
 body, from the causes I have already mentioned ; 
 in fact, the indignation of the people could hardly 
 be kept in check by the authorities, and lynching 
 
MASS1LL0N. 69 
 
 was resorted to on more than one occasion. The 
 men were clothed in drab broad-cloth, and wore 
 large white hats ; their garb altogether resembling 
 that of the more respectable Society of Friends, 
 in America. The resemblance, however, ceases 
 with the dress, for, if reports speak true, and 
 they are many-tongued, they are very excep- 
 tionable in their morality and general principles, 
 amongst other peculiarities, polygamy being al- 
 lowed, for the avowed purpose of extending and 
 perpetuating the sect. 
 
 Our progress was pretty rapid, though it lay 
 through an uninteresting country, in many parts 
 uncultivated and barren-looking. Massillon is a 
 very flourishing town, with some good stores and 
 two or three hotels. As the captain was obliged 
 to make a short stay here, I went into the town 
 and, stepping into an hotel to procure a cigar, 
 I found a company engaged in earnest conversa- 
 tion, interrupted at intervals by loud laughter. 
 On inquiry, I was told that the landlord had that 
 morning been played a Yankee trick by a travel- 
 ling pedlar, who had stopped the previous night 
 at his house. It appeared that the same man 
 had some months before practised on the land- 
 lord .; but, either supposing the matter blown 
 over and forgotten, or, what is more likely, 
 with a view to put another of his arts into 
 exercise, he again put up at the same house. 
 
70 AN AMERICAN PEDLAR, 
 
 The proprietor, however, at once recognized the 
 pedlar, and after taxing him with the cheat 
 he had practised on the former occasion, wound 
 up his lecture by stating, in true American style, 
 that if he again succeeded in cheating him he 
 would forego the amount of his tavern expenses. 
 The man exclaimed, " Done/' and at once it 
 appeared set his wits to work to obtain the object, 
 A few hours after the conversation, the fellow 
 brought in from his waggon some boxes of fancy 
 goods, and endeavoured to induce the landlady 
 to purchase. This, however, no doubt prompted 
 by her husband, she resolutely refused, and he 
 had them removed to his room upstairs, as is 
 customary. After breakfast, the following morn- 
 ing, he called the landlady aside and said he 
 forgot the day before to show her a fancy quilt of 
 superior workmanship, and if she would only look 
 at it he would be satisfied, as it was one of great 
 beauty. She consented to this, and the man at 
 once went to his waggon, which was now at the 
 door, he being about to start, and brought in a 
 box which contained, amongst numerous other 
 articles, the quilt he had been eulogizing. The 
 landlady was much taken with its appearance, 
 and after some little persuasion consented to be- 
 come the purchaser. Accordingly, the bargain 
 was concluded, and the balance between his 
 tavern bill and the article in question was 
 
WHO LIVED BY HIS WITS. 71 
 
 handed over at the hotel bar to the pedlar, who 
 at once started from the house, the landlord on 
 his doing so jocosely remarking on the conversa- 
 tion of the previous day, in reply to which the 
 wily pedlar observed, that " he guessed it was all 
 right/' Soon after the man left, the landlady 
 called her spouse to the inner room, and showing 
 him her bargain, said she had been induced to 
 buy the quilt, because it was an exact match for 
 the one in the large room up-stairs. This led to 
 a female help (as servants are there called), being 
 despatched to the room to fetch and compare the 
 original with that newly purchased. The girl 
 speedily returned in the greatest consternation, 
 saying it had vanished. The truth now became 
 apparent ; the artful pedlar had actually sold 
 the landlady her own quilt ! 
 
 This ludicrous circumstance led to the confu- 
 sion I had noticed when I arrived ; the man had 
 gone they knew not whither, and had it been 
 possible to overtake him, I question whether he 
 would have been pursued, the cleverness of the 
 trick being highly applauded by the company, 
 and the landlord feeling, perhaps, ashamed of 
 being outwitted a second time, after himself 
 giving the challenge. The ingenuity of American 
 pedlars in cozening their countrymen, has long 
 been proverbial, and in general, people are wary 
 of them ; they have, however, I suppose by long 
 
72 A FIELD OF PIGEONS. 
 
 practice, become such adepts at roguery, that 
 however alive to their propensities, folks are 
 daily victimized by such men. It was nothing 
 new to hear a roguish action applauded, but on 
 this occasion the company were vociferous in his 
 praise, and declared they would certainly patro- 
 nize him when he came that way again, for he 
 deserved encouragement. 
 
 After strolling through the town, which pre- 
 sented little worth recording, I again returned 
 to the boat, which proceeded on its way. I had 
 frequently heard and read of those vast flocks of 
 wild pigeons which periodically pursue their 
 flight to milder latitudes : and, as the boat was 
 now approaching the centre of the state of Ohio, 
 where myriads of these birds were seen the year 
 before, I anxiously watched the horizon for their 
 appearance. For several days, however, I was 
 doomed to disappointment, and gave it up in des- 
 pair ; but a day or two after, when in the vicinity 
 of the Tuscarawas river, it being about noon, 
 the helmsman suddenly called out, " A field of 
 pigeons/' This announcement called all hands 
 to the promenade deck of the packet. Looking 
 in the direction indicated, a heavy black cloud 
 appeared in the far horizon ; this seemed to 
 extend from right to left, and was so dense that 
 the novices amongst us at once pronounced it, 
 either a mistake or a hoax. The helmsman 
 
PLYING IN CLOUDS. 73 
 
 declared that it was 'neither, and that we should 
 soon be convinced of it. The cloud seemed now 
 gradually and visibly to spread ; in truth, the 
 whole firmament in that direction was totally 
 obscured. By this time a general rummage had 
 commenced in the boat for fire-arms ; the captain 
 hailed the driver on the towing path, who pulled 
 up, and the boat was moored by the canal side. 
 We now landed, intending to replenish the larder 
 of the vessel with what, to most of the passen- 
 gers, was a rare treat. On the left bank of the 
 canal, and on the banks of the river, which here 
 ran parallel with it, was a forest of gigantic 
 trees; and, as the birds were evidently making 
 in that direction, it was decided that all those 
 who wished to take part in the expected sport ? 
 should proceed, and wait their passing this spot, 
 in the hope that some would settle on the 
 branches of the trees. Accordingly, after cross- 
 ing the river by a rude bridge, which was very 
 nearly half a quarter of a mile in length, we 
 reached the intended spot after wading up to 
 our knees in a swamp or turbary, and getting 
 miserably bemauled by the briars and cane 
 vines. We had not to wait long ; the birds, 
 wearied by a long flight, were evidently attracted 
 by the favourable resting-place, and in less than 
 a quarter of an hour, the air was darkened with 
 the hosts hovering over our heads ; the sound 
 
74 PIGEON-SHOOTING EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 of their wings defies description, those of my 
 readers who remember the peculiar noise made 
 by a single pigeon in its flight, may form a faint 
 idea by multiplying the sound a million times. 
 It in fact filled the air, and produced a startling 
 effect. Thousands of the birds alighted on the 
 trees, the branches of which snapped and crackled 
 fearfully under the superincumbent load ; those 
 of our party who were armed, continued to fire 
 and load as fast as they possibly could. They 
 brought hundreds to the ground, but still, 
 through weariness, perhaps, the rest kept their 
 station on the branches, and did not appear to 
 heed the attack much — shifting their position 
 or only flying off for a moment and then again 
 alighting. By this time many of the settlers 
 from the surrounding districts had arrived to 
 share in the quarry. Thousands of birds were 
 brought to the ground ; in fact, every discharge 
 of the guns and rifles brought down showers to 
 our feet; and the noise seemed to resemble our 
 being engaged in action with a foe ; without, 
 however, the dire effects of such a rencontre to 
 ourselves. After bagging our game, of which 
 we secured nearly two hundred brace, we re- 
 turned to the boat, leaving the rest of the sport 
 to those who chose to continue it. We had 
 enough, and, for the remainder of the passage, 
 were completely surfeited with pigeon fare, 
 
THE INDIAN-KILLER. 75 
 
 administered by the boat's cook in all sorts of 
 outlandish forms. In our progress onward through 
 the state, we saw many carcases of these birds 
 outside the villages, such numbers having been 
 destroyed, that the inhabitants could not con- 
 sume them, and they were accordingly thrown 
 out as refuse. These birds were in good con- 
 dition, and w r ere excellent eating. 
 
 As the packet was likely to be detained for 
 some hours at Zoar, a settlement about two miles 
 beyond Bolivar, owing to a dispute between the 
 captain and some officers connected with the 
 canal, I availed myself of the opportunity, on the 
 invitation of a very gentlemanly fellow-passenger 
 from Connecticut, to visit a farm a few miles in 
 the interior, where resided a celebrated character, 
 named Adam Poe, surnamed by the inhabitants, 
 the " Indian-killer/' who had acquired the sum- 
 mit of a backwoods-man's fame, by some forty 
 years ago shooting "Black-foot," a formidable 
 Indian marauder, who, for a long period, spread 
 consternation and alarm among the early settlers. 
 As this exploit (whether justified by the circum- 
 stances and times or not, I cannot pretend to 
 say) was one that restored security among the 
 settlers, and dispersed a body of Indians, who 
 destroyed every white inhabitant they encoun- 
 tered, and laid waste their farms, it is no wonder 
 that Adam Poe was regarded as a great man. 
 
76 AN AGED SINNER. 
 
 On arriving at the farm-house, which was one of 
 the better description in that region, we were 
 kindly welcomed by the son of the hero I have 
 mentioned, who bore the father's patronymic, 
 and after the usual hospitality, were ushered into 
 an adjoining apartment, and introduced to the 
 object of our visit. He was sitting in an arm- 
 chair by the side of his wife, who, like himself, 
 was far advanced in years, their united ages 
 numbering 173. The old man, who was so feeble 
 as to be unable to rise when we entered, saluted 
 us with the usual " Glad to see you, strangers/' 
 his spouse at the same time advancing tow T ards 
 us to shake hands. He was evidently used to 
 such intrusions ; for, after inquiry where we came 
 from and whither bound, he began, in a tremu- 
 lous voice, which, from his extreme age, was 
 scarcely intelligible, to narrate his early adven- 
 tures. It was absolutely shocking, as he became 
 more animated by the subject, to hear the cool- 
 ness with which the veteran related some of his 
 bloody combats ; so much so, indeed, that I and 
 my companion at once cut short his narration, 
 being horrified at the turpitude of the aged sinner, 
 who, although gasping for breath, and evidently 
 on the verge of the unseen world, talked of his 
 deeds of violence with an ardour that befitted 
 a better cause. 
 
 The old man dwelt at great length on his hair- 
 
WATCHING FOR BLACK-FOOT. 77 
 
 breadth escapes and deeds of prowess ; but the 
 destruction of the implacable "Black-foot/' was 
 the absorbing subject. This chief, it appeared, 
 had, with a small party, been hovering round 
 Poe's farm for several nights, and the inmates 
 were in great terror of a midnight attack ; the 
 principal aim of the chief, being, it is supposed 
 to despatch a man, whose activity had rendered 
 him particularly obnoxious to his tribe, and whose 
 bravery was acknowledged by the settlers far and 
 jsaid near. 
 
 After several nights passed in anxiety, every 
 little circumstance, any unusual noise, the baying 
 of a dog, a disturbance in the hog-pens, exciting 
 the greatest apprehension, Poe determined on 
 stealthily watching the enemy under covert of a 
 hillock or embankment on the farm. He accord- 
 ingly sallied out with his Indian rifle, in the haze 
 of the evening, taking with him a supply of aqua 
 vitce, as he facetiously said, to keep up his "dander." 
 After watching a considerable time, every now 
 and then applying his ear to the ground to listen 
 for approaching footsteps (a plan invariably 
 followed by Indians themselves), he ascertained 
 that an Indian was in the vicinity ; again intently 
 listening, he soon satisfied himself that the alarm 
 he had experienced was occasioned by one indivi- 
 dual only. Instantly on the qui-vive, he full- 
 cocked his rifle, and, just as he descried the 
 
78 THE WAR-SCALP. 
 
 Indian's head above the embankment he pulled 
 with unerring aim the fatal trigger, when with an 
 agonizing howl, the Indian toppled backwards 
 down the embankment, and all was silent. Poe 
 now sprang forward, and with his knife severed 
 the "war scalp" from the head of the savage, and 
 after securing his knife and rifle, returned to his 
 home in high glee to announce the horrid achieve- 
 ment. It was, however, deemed unsafe to venture 
 out again that night, for fear of other Indians of 
 Black-foot's band, who it was well known were in 
 the neighbourhood. 
 
 In the morning Poe sallied out to the place of 
 reconnoitre with some of the inmates of the farm. 
 Here they found,, stretched on the ground, welter- 
 ing in gore, the vanquished warrior, who was now, 
 for the first time, from a plume he wore, and some 
 other peculiarity in his equipments, identified as 
 the veritable " Sachem/' who had for months 
 kept that settlement in a state of alarm. Poe 
 was soon complimented by the settlers around, 
 and from that day forward became a celebrated 
 character. 
 
 I was subsequently told on board the canal 
 packet, that the Indian referred to, was not the 
 notorious chief of that name, but a second-rate 
 warrior, who, having headed a band of marauders, 
 assumed the soubriquet. How far this may be 
 correct, I cannot determine. I, however, fre- 
 
A CAMP-MEETING. 79 
 
 quently heard Poe's name mentioned as a brave 
 defender of the hearths and homes of the early 
 settlers in the remote districts of Ohio. 
 
 I could perceive that his son's wife (a matronly 
 dame of about sixty), was adverse to such inter- 
 views, as, to use her expression, " they brought 
 the old man back to this world again, when he 
 should be pondering on the next/' and that she 
 was grieved at the recital of them ; indeed, she 
 several times checked his expressions, when they 
 bordered, as they not unfrequently did, on im- 
 piety. She acted rightly, for there was evidently 
 much more of the soldier than the Christian 
 about the old man, and before we left I ex- 
 pressed a hope that such visits would be dis- 
 couraged, a suggestion that was received in a 
 kindly spirit. 
 
 After inspecting the farm, which was well 
 stocked, and appeared to be cultivated in the 
 most approved modern style, and was w r ell fenced 
 with the usual rails, we started on our return to 
 Zoar, where the packet had halted. On our way 
 thither, we passed through a hamlet of primitive 
 appearance, consisting of some half-dozen houses 
 built of logs, at one end of which was a rudely- 
 constructed meeting-house, belonging to the sect 
 of Whitfieldite Methodists. The congregation was 
 assembled, and the horses and vehicles belonging 
 to those who resided at a distance, were tethered 
 
80 LOCUSTS. 
 
 to the trees in the vicinity of the chapel. As I 
 and my companion passed, the occupants were 
 chanting a hymn previous to the discourse, which 
 it appeared was a valedictory one, the minister 
 being about to leave this for a more extensive 
 field of pastoral labour. Having time to spare, 
 and such an assembly on a week-day attracting 
 our attention, from its rarity, we stepped in, and 
 remained during the whole of the service, arriving 
 at Zoar a few minutes before the boat started. 
 
 As we passed through a densely-wooded district 
 between Bolivar and Chillicothe, I observed that 
 for many miles the trees were denuded of every 
 green leaf, from the devastating effects of millions 
 of locusts, which periodically visit the western 
 states of the Union, to the dismay of the settlers. 
 The trees in many places were at the time covered 
 with these destructive insects. I went on shore 
 and procured several, with the intention of pre- 
 serving them. They were beautiful creatures, 
 about ten times the size of an ordinary field 
 grasshopper, and, except that their hind legs 
 were longer in proportion to their size, the exact 
 shape of that harmless little insect. Their colours 
 are brilliant green, slate, and flamingo red, beau- 
 tifully lined and variegated. The humming noise 
 produced by these insects is very disagreeable, 
 and fills the surrounding air with murmurs, while 
 the wilderness look of the scene of their depreda- 
 
GAMBLING. 8 L 
 
 tions has a depressing effect on the mind of the 
 traveller. Their visits are much dreaded, as they 
 are followed by the total destruction of foliage in 
 the district, and in many instances, the young 
 saplings die in consequence of their attacks. 
 
 After a pleasant passage of four or five days, 
 the packet arrived at the river junction ; and 
 taking passage at once in a steamer which was 
 waiting its arrival in the Ohio river, I was soon 
 rapidly on my way to that fairy city of the west, 
 Cincinnati. This is the largest city in the state 
 of Ohio, and is the capital of Hamilton county. 
 Fort Washington, a defence of some renown 
 during the war, is two miles above, and opposite 
 to the mouth of the Licking river. The broad 
 bosom of th^e Ohio was here covered with steam- 
 boats, employed in the Virginia, Missouri, and 
 New Orleans trade. The wharves are com- 
 modious, and a broad inclined plane, from the 
 city to the water's edge, gives the former a fine 
 appearance, as it rests majestically in the back- 
 ground. 
 
 As I was anxious to proceed to the State of 
 Missouri, with as little delay as possible, I at 
 once engaged a passage to St. Louis, and the 
 following morning was steaming in the direc- 
 tion of the falls, of St. Anthony. The passengers 
 in this boat employed themselves nearly the 
 whole of the route at games of cards, faro being 
 
 G 
 
82 ST. LOUIS. 
 
 the favourite. This predilection for gambling, 
 which is generally carried to great extremes on 
 board southern boats, was not, however, confined 
 to the cabin, for I noticed the crew, at every 
 spare interval, sitting about on deck, with packs 
 of cards, completely absorbed in the game. The 
 negro hands were particularly addicted to this 
 vice, and a gentleman who was proceeding in the 
 boat informed me that but a trifle of the earn- 
 ings of boat-hands in general was spared from 
 their devotedness to this ruinous practice. The 
 effect of association with, and the example set 
 by, white men given to gambling, will account, 
 perhaps, for the habit. This moral pestilence is 
 in vain prohibited by the state, and is pursued by 
 all classes in the south with frenzied avidity. 
 
 After twice running on shore, and meeting 
 with sundry other stoppages and minor mishaps, 
 through the mismanagement of the two engi- 
 neers, we reached the city of St. Louis, to the 
 gratification of myself and fellow-passengers. 
 This is a place of considerable extent, although 
 awkwardly built, and for the most part irregu- 
 larly laid out. It is a considerable fur depot of 
 the Hudson Bay Company ; and there is a re- 
 cruiting station, from whence start expeditions 
 of trappers to the Rocky Mountains. I saw a 
 large party of these adventurers, who were about 
 to start on an expedition to these remote con- 
 
A PARTY OF TRAPPERS. 83 
 
 fines. It consisted entirely of young Frenchmen 
 and Hollanders, who are preferred for the service 
 by the company. They were of slight make, and 
 little calculated, from their appearance, to en- 
 counter the hardships of such a life ; but I was 
 told they soon become hardened, and return 
 strong, athletic men. The employment is, how- 
 ever, beset with danger, from the hostile dispo- 
 sitions of the various tribes of Indians in the 
 western wilds, who view their intrusion with 
 vindictive feelings, and seize every opportunity 
 of attacking and annihilating small parties, 
 notwithstanding their professions of friendship. 
 Not long after my arrival, a party of trappers 
 arrived from the Upper Missouri in two boats, 
 which were loaded with buffalo and other furs. 
 The stalwart look of these hardy mountaineers 
 proved the hardening effect of their mode of 
 life. They were brawny fellows of a ruddy 
 brown complexion, of the true Indian hue, and 
 habited in skins. These men, I ascertained, had 
 been in the mountains for four or five years, 
 during which time they had subsisted entirely 
 on Buffalo and other meat, bread not being used 
 or cared for. Their healthy look under such 
 circumstances completely shook my faith in the 
 Brahminical vegetarian theory, and goes far, I 
 think, to prove that man was intended by his 
 Maker to be a carnivorous animal. 
 
84 A FATAL FRAY. 
 
 Just before the steamer approached the city, 
 a circumstance occurred on board that filled me 
 and my fellow-passengers with horror. We were 
 taking breakfast in the cabin, congratulating 
 each other on the near termination of our tedious 
 passage, when a sudden shriek, followed by 
 shouts from the deck-hands of the vessel, dis- 
 turbed our meal. Hastening in great pertur- 
 bation to the deck, we soon discovered the cause 
 of the disturbance. One of the white waiters 
 was lying on the deck, with a frightful gash in 
 his side, from which the blood was fast oozing. 
 Our first care was to attend to the sufferer, and 
 a surgeon being fortunately amongst the passen- 
 gers, the hemorrhage was soon abated, but the 
 wound was pronounced to be of a fatal character. 
 The poor fellow, who was a lad of about eighteen 
 years of age, moaned piteously. Every attention 
 that skill and kindness could suggest was paid 
 to him. He was immediately carried to a state- 
 room in the cabin, where he remained in great 
 agony until the vessel was moored alongside the 
 levee, when he was carefully removed on a litter 
 to a hospital on shore. The perpetrator of the 
 savage act proved to be a negro, filling the office 
 of assistant cook. The passengers were very 
 clamorous, and would, without doubt, have 
 hanged the culprit immediately, had it not been 
 for the interference of the captain, who, after 
 
HOW JUSTICE IS DEFEATED. 85 
 
 a curt examination, had him pinioned and taken 
 below. From the version given of the affair by 
 the negroes who witnessed it (but which was 
 contradicted by two white men Avho were on the 
 spot), I was inclined to think the crime was 
 committed under feelings of great provocation, 
 the negro, as is commonly the case on board 
 steam-boats, having been for a long time brow- 
 beaten by the victim of the sad catastrophe, and 
 subjected to very insolent and overbearing treat- 
 ment at his hands. The culprit, who was a very 
 sullen, stolid-looking, full-bred negro, refused to 
 answer the questions put to him on the subject, 
 and certainly manifested a careless indifference 
 to consequences that was not in his favour; his 
 fierce scowl denoting great ferocity, in all pro- 
 bability induced by long ill-treatment. As soon 
 as convenience allowed, some officers from the 
 shore came on board and secured the prisoner, 
 who was conveyed by them to the city gaol, to 
 await the investigation of the outrage by the 
 civic authorities and the result of the injury 
 committed. The victim of revenge died a few 
 days after the occurrence in excruciating agony. 
 It will scarcely be believed that the perpetrator 
 of the deed, after a short confinement, was 
 spirited away up the country, no doubt at the 
 connivance of the authorities, and sold ! 
 
 Thus, justice is often defeated, from pecuniary 
 
86 THE ABORIGINES. 
 
 considerations in the Slave States of America, 
 where, if a slave commits even the heinous crime 
 of murder, the ordinary course of the law is in- 
 terfered with to save the owner from loss. This 
 of itself is sufficient to stamp for ever as infamous 
 the social cancer of slavery, and brands as ridi- 
 culous, the boasted regard for justice, so prag- 
 matically urged in the southern states of the 
 American continent. 
 
 A mile or two from St. Louis, on the Carondelet 
 road, are situated spacious infantry barracks, 
 named after Jefferson, one of the former pre- 
 sidents of the Union, where troops are stationed 
 in readiness to act against the various tribes of 
 Indians in the Upper Missouri country, who 
 sometimes show a disposition to be hostile. A 
 reserve of troops is more particularly needful 
 for the protection of the inhabitants ; for, either 
 from mismanagement or an aggressive spirit, the 
 Government is continually embroiled with the 
 aboriginal tribes in harassing and expensive war- 
 fare. This state of things acts as a perpetual 
 blister, and has engendered a rancorous enmity 
 between the Indians and their white neighbours, 
 to the great detriment of peaceful agricultural 
 pursuits by the latter, and the periodical per- 
 plexity of the Chancellor of the American Ex- 
 chequer ; whereas, a conciliating policy would 
 not only keep the tribes in close friendship, but 
 
A FRIEND. 87 
 
 secure their services as valuable allies in case of 
 emergency — a point that may possibly suggest 
 itself eventually to the executive, if the rampant 
 spirit of aggrandisement now abroad continues 
 to govern the public mind in America. 
 
 Soon after landing, I was accosted by a middle- 
 aged gentlemanly man, on the subject of the 
 outrage on board the boat, and as he appeared 
 to have less of that swaggering air about him 
 than most men in the south possess, I entered 
 freely into conversation with him, and in a very 
 short time our interchange of sentiments created 
 a mutual partiality, that led to his inviting me to 
 pass the following evening at his house, a result 
 I rather wished for, as he manifested a disposition 
 to inform me fully on several questions I put to 
 him relative to the state I was now in and my 
 future movements ; moreover, he seemed some- 
 what attached to the English, or rather was not 
 strong in his prejudices against them. 
 
 I accordingly repaired to his residence at the 
 time appointed. This was situated in one of the 
 lateral streets of the city leading to the outskirts, 
 and, although not large, was furnished with great 
 taste and elegance. His lady, who was, I think, 
 from Illinois, made herself very agreeable, her 
 kind attentions tending to confirm the impression 
 I already entertained of her countrywomen ; they 
 had no children, and the husband was engaged 
 
88 SCENES IN THE AMERICAN WAR. 
 
 in some way with the Fur Company established 
 St. Louis. I was entertained with great hos- 
 pitality ; my kind host materially assisting me 
 by information, &c. in my intention to pursue 
 my route south. 
 
 He was the son of a New Englander, or native 
 of one of the eastern states ; his father having 
 fought at Bunker's Hill, and otherwise taken an 
 active part in the struggle for independence, be- 
 tween the years 1776 and 1785. This made it 
 the more extraordinary that he should treat an 
 Englishman with the courtesy he showed to me, 
 especially as under such circumstances a bias is 
 in general handed down from father to son, 
 which operates prejudicially to my countrymen. 
 
 After putting a variety of questions, as to the 
 " old country " as he termed Great Britain, on 
 which I readily satisfied his curiosity, he entered 
 into a detail of some of the stirring events relating 
 to the period of his father's career in arms against 
 the British ; some of these were of a thrilling 
 character, and strongly depicted the miseries of 
 war, presenting a lamentable picture of the de- 
 basing influence of sanguinary struggles on the 
 human mind. The barbarous mode of harassing 
 the British troops, by picking ofi° stragglers, 
 which the lower orders of Americans pursued, 
 in most instances for the sake of the wretched 
 clothing and accoutrements of the victims, the 
 
A SOLDTEK OFF HIS GUARD. 89 
 
 former being dyed of a dark colour, and sold for 
 a dollar per set (as lie called the military suit), 
 to the American citizen-soldiers, fairly made my 
 blood creep ; one instance in particular filled me 
 with horror, for it was a cold-blooded murder of 
 the deepest dye. I must, however, do the narrator 
 the justice to say that he viewed the atrocity in 
 the same light as I did. 
 
 The occurrence I am about to relate, took place 
 somewhere on the banks of the Hudson, below 
 West Point, where a force of British troops were 
 encamped or pursuing their operations under the 
 protection of some vessels of war lying in the 
 stream. He mentioned the exact spot where it 
 occurred, but I have forgotten it. It appeared 
 that this force was harassed and beset by parties 
 of citizens, who, by pursuing a guerilla system 
 of warfare, surprising small parties, and firing 
 entirely in ambush, made great havoc amongst 
 the rank and file of the invaders, almost every 
 straggler falling a victim. One evening, during 
 this state of things, two of the citizens, whilst 
 prowling in a coppice, within a few miles of the 
 camp, on the look-out, came suddenly upon an 
 infantry soldier, who was off his guard at the 
 moment, and whose firelock was resting against a 
 tree ; the foremost of the Americans darted for- 
 ward and seized the weapon, while the second 
 captured the wretched soldier. Under ordinary 
 
90 A CAPTIVE SOLDIER SHOT. 
 
 circumstances, and in more honourable hands, 
 the man would have been conveyed as a prisoner 
 of war to the American camp, but plunder 
 being their object, this would not answer the 
 purpose of the miscreants, the most resolute 
 of whom ordered the captive (who was a lad of 
 seventeen or eighteen), to take off his jacket. 
 Knowing this was a preliminary step to his being 
 shot, he fell on his knees and implored mercy. 
 His captors were, however, inexorable, and he 
 began to cry bitterly, and besought them to 
 spare his life ; these manifestations had, however, 
 no effect on his deadly foes, who now threatened 
 to fell him with the butt end of a fusee if he did 
 not comply : this had the effect, and the poor 
 captive reluctantly pulled off the jacket and 
 threw it on the ground ; this was immediately 
 picked up by one of the party, to avoid its being 
 stained with the life-blood of the victim. With- 
 drawing now a few paces, one of the Americans 
 took a deliberate aim ; the young soldier instantly 
 turned to run, but as he wheeled round for the 
 purpose (for his enemies were facing him), a ball 
 entered his left side, just under the armpit, and 
 springing frantically several feet into the air, he 
 fell dead to the ground. He was then stripped, 
 and left on the spot, 
 
 This horrid relation I should have thought, for 
 the credit of his country, an American would 
 
A SUPERSTITION. 91 
 
 have kept secret ; but as I before observed, lie 
 was by no means disposed to take the part of 
 these so-called patriots, although he stated that 
 many atrocities were committed by the British, 
 some of which he related, and which were, he 
 said, never recorded ; these, I fear, if exposed, 
 would not much redound to their credit with the 
 present generation. 
 
 At first I could not understand why the soldier 
 was ordered before being shot to pull his jacket 
 off ; this he explained by saying, that a rent in 
 the garment made by the ball of a fusee, would 
 have lessened its value ; and further, that the 
 American soldiers were averse, from superstitious 
 fear at the time, to wearing any article of dress 
 in which an enemy had yielded his breath ; not- 
 withstanding which repugnance, the American 
 soldiers not long after dismissed the objection, 
 from the extreme scantiness of the clothing 
 afforded them. 
 
 On my intimating the abhorrence I felt 
 at the relation, my entertainer informed rne 
 that it was impossible at the time to prevent such 
 occurrences, the annihilation of the invaders was 
 the prirnum mobile of all Americans, and many 
 citizens harassed the enemy on their own ac- 
 count, the principle being the same on which 
 European vessels bearing letters of marque, are 
 suffered to waylay and seize, for the purpose of 
 
92 • A SLAVE-HOLDING MAJOR. 
 
 private gain, the merchant vessels belonging to 
 the country with which they are at war. Such 
 atrocities, as he remarked, however horrifying in 
 times of peace, are of every-day occurrence be- 
 tween contending armies. 
 # Amongst those I had occasion to call on at 
 
 St. Louis, was a Major . He had formerly 
 
 been engaged in Indian warfare, and, having 
 received a wound from a rifle-ball, that incapa- 
 citated him for active military duty, he was 
 living as a retired citizen — his wife's jointure, 
 and an allowance from Government, allowing 
 him to keep up a tolerably good establishment. 
 He was the owner of several slaves, and, amongst 
 the rest, a young woman who was employed as 
 nursemaid in the family. The first time I called 
 at his residence, I thought him a man of superior 
 manners and education, and was much pleased 
 with the visit, which was concluded with a pro- 
 mise to renew it on a future day. When, how- 
 ever, I repeated my visit soon after, I found him 
 alone in his study, and his constrained manner 
 soon led me to perceive that something unusual 
 perturbed his mind. The cause was soon after 
 explained, for, the negress, before mentioned, 
 coming into the room on some trifling errand, 
 to my surprise accosted him rather freely. Her 
 master suddenly broke out in a paroxysm of 
 rage, swore at her awfully, and accused her in 
 
DRAWING BLOOD FROM A SLAVE. 93 
 
 a ruffianly way of being insolent to her mistress. 
 Then, violently ringing a bell which stood on the 
 table, he summoned a negro lad into the room, 
 and at once despatched him to a neighbour's 
 house to borrow a new raw-hide whip, threaten- 
 ing all the while to flay her alive. In vain the 
 terrified creature pleaded innocence ; he would 
 take no excuse, and, although I begged earnestly 
 for him to pass over the offence, and the poor 
 slave fell on her knees in the greatest terror, he 
 vowed vengeance with dreadful imprecations. At 
 last the whip came, and, disregarding alike the 
 presence of a stranger, and the entreaties of a 
 woman, he began the flagellation with murderous 
 earnest. My interference only added to his un- 
 governable rage. The raw-hide was new, and the 
 major being a strong, muscular man, every stroke 
 told. The blood soon flowed from the back, neck, 
 and breasts, of the poor victim, whose cries, as 
 she writhed under the savage infliction, entered 
 my soul They, however, made no impression on 
 her brutal tormentor, who kept vociferating with 
 all his energy to keep her quiet. It was with 
 some difficulty I stood by and witnessed the 
 assault, but I well knew my life would be in 
 jeopardy if I attempted to interfere. I, however, 
 screwed up my courage to stay, in the hope that 
 some sense of shame might induce the fellow to 
 hold his hand. This was, however, a delusive 
 
94 AN EVERY-DAY OCCURRENCE. 
 
 hope, for he continued to lay on the whip until 
 he was exhausted. 
 
 The girl was now on the floor of the room, 
 moaning piteously, and a stream of blood was 
 flowing from her lacerated person, which soaked 
 the matting that covered the floor. Her dress 
 was hanging in tatters, and the blood trickling 
 down her cheeks had a horrifying effect. As 
 soon as the ruffian was tired, he bid the woman 
 get down stairs and wash herself. The miserable 
 creature arose with difficulty, and picking up her 
 apron and turban, which were in different parts 
 of the room, she hobbled out crying bitterly. 
 As soon as she was gone, the major pointed to 
 the blood, and said, " If we did not see that 
 sometimes, there would be no living with the 
 brutes f to which I replied in terms he could not 
 misunderstand, and at once left the house, deter- 
 mined never again to enter it — a resolution I 
 religiously kept. I afterwards heard that this 
 miserable creature was pregnant at the time, a 
 circumstance that would have induced at least 
 some regard to leniency in any man not utterly 
 debased. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with southern scenes 
 will see nothing extraordinary in this recital, 
 for they are every-day occurrences, and scarcely 
 elicit a remark, unless the perpetrator should 
 happen to be a slave-holding Wesleyan or Whit- 
 
THE DUTCH IN ST. LOUIS. 95 
 
 fieldite, when, perhaps, he would be called to 
 some account — his own version of the affair 
 being of course admitted in limine. Many of 
 the slaveholders are an incorrigibly degraded set 
 of men. It is by no means uncommon for them 
 to inflict chastisement on negresses with whom 
 they are in habitual illicit intercourse, and I 
 was credibly informed that this cruelty was often 
 resorted to, to disabuse the mind of a deceived 
 and injured wife who suspects unfair treatment. 
 This attested fact, disgraceful as it is, can scarcely 
 be wondered at in men who mercilessly subject 
 defenceless women to the lash without a spark of 
 human feeling, or compunction of conscience. It 
 is little to the credit of United States senators 
 that they have not at least made laws to protect 
 women from the barbarous usage of flogging. One 
 would imagine that men, who, perhaps, above all 
 others in the world, pay homage to the sex, 
 would have, established a distinction in this re- 
 spect ; but I apprehend the truth to be, that 
 they are so far influenced by their wives, who 
 are notoriously jealous of their sable rivals, that 
 they have succumbed to their sentiments and 1 
 dictation. 
 
 There are many Dutch in St. Louis, and along 
 the levee you perceive boarding-houses and 
 groceries kept for their accommodation. These 
 men are generally great drinkers, and think as 
 
96 TARRING AND FEATHERING 
 
 little of quaffing at a few draughts half-a-pint 
 of whiskey, as an Englishman would the same 
 quantity of malt liquor. They consume, also, 
 vast quantities of claret. I have frequently seen 
 a couple of these men at a cafe, drink five or six 
 bottles without betraying any ill effects. It must, 
 however, be remembered that claret is not so 
 potent as the heavier wines. 
 
 A few days after my arrival, while standing in 
 the vestibule of my hotel, my attention was drawn 
 to a loud altercation going on at the bar, and as 
 it was evident, from the manner of the parties, 
 that some public question was being discussed, 
 I listened, and ascertained that an obnoxious 
 citizen had been seized for perpetrating a petty 
 act of revenge on a neighbour by damaging his 
 horse, and was that day to be publicly tarred, 
 feathered, and escorted out of the city, as they 
 said, bag and baggage. Having ascertained the 
 spot selected for the scene, I determined to witness 
 it. Accordingly, at noon, the appointed hour, 
 I repaired to an open spot of building-land on 
 the Carondelet side of the city. Here I found 
 assembled a motley assemblage of citizens, negroes, 
 steamboat-hands, and the general riff-raff of the 
 place. Although the crowd was not so great, the 
 meeting strongly reminded me of those scenes of 
 infamy and disgrace in England — public execu- 
 tions ; the conduct of the assembled throng on 
 
AN OBNOXIOUS CITIZEN. 97 
 
 this occasion being the more decorous of the two. 
 Precisely at twelve, the mob made a rush towards 
 one corner of the open space, from which direc- 
 tion I saw the culprit advancing, in charge of 
 thirty or forty well-dressed people (the committee 
 appointed for the occasion being among the num- 
 ber). He was a stout man, and described to me 
 as a great bully ; but now he looked completely 
 crest-fallen. As the party came on, he was hissed 
 by the mob, who, however, kept at a good distance 
 from his guard. A man, with a large tin can of 
 smoking pitch, a brush of the kind used in apply- 
 ing the same, and a pillow of feathers under his 
 arm, followed immediately behind the prisoner, 
 vociferating loudly. Arrived at the spot, the 
 poor wretch was placed on a stool, and a citizen, 
 who had taken a very prominent part in front of 
 the procession, and who, I was told, was the chief 
 cause of this outrage, stepped in front of him, 
 and pulling out a sheet of paper, read a lecture 
 on the enormity of his crime, which wound up 
 with the sentence about to be enforced. When 
 this was finished, the man who carried the tar- 
 vessel stepped up, and began, with a scissors, to 
 cut off the culprit's hair, which he did most 
 effectually, flinging portions amongst the crowd, 
 who scrambled after them. As soon as this was 
 finished, and the man was stripped to the waist, 
 the brush was dipped into the pitch, and the 
 
 H 
 
98 AMERICAN LYNC1I-LAW. 
 
 upper part of his person lathered therewith. Not 
 a word escaped him, but the individual who had 
 taken so prominent a part in the punishment, 
 kept giving directions to the operator to put it 
 on thick. Even his eyes and ears were not spared. 
 As soon as this part of the operation was com- 
 plete, the bag of feathers was ripped open by 
 a by-stander, and the contents stuck thickly on 
 the parts besmeared with tar, amidst the deafen- 
 ing cheers of the spectators, who were by this 
 time in such frantic excitement that I began to 
 fear a tragedy would ensue, especially as many 
 of them shouted, " Now hang the varmint ! hang 
 him!" This proposal was eagerly seconded by 
 the mob. This was, however, resolutely overruled 
 by his keepers. The appearance presented by the 
 victim, in this peculiarly American dress, was 
 ludicrous in the extreme, and looked very com- 
 fortable. As soon as this part of the exhibition 
 was finished, a man, with a small drum, followed 
 by the mob, with yells and execrations drove the 
 culprit before them at a run. The poor wretch 
 ran like a deer from his pursuers, who followed 
 at his heels, shouting frantically, until he reached 
 the brink of the river, where a boat was waiting 
 to take him off. He dashed into it, and was 
 at once rowed into the middle of the stream, out 
 of reach, of his tormentors, who, I quite believe, 
 would have administered more severe lynch-law 
 
A SLAVE-VENDUE. 99 
 
 if they could have got hold of him, for their 
 passions were wrought up to the highest pitch 
 of excitement. One feature in the scene I could 
 not help remarking — the negroes all appeared in 
 high glee, and many of them actually danced 
 with joy. I did not wonder at this, for the 
 negroes always seemed to exult if a white man 
 was in disgrace ; which, after all, is no more than 
 might be expected from a class of men tyrannized 
 over as the coloured people are there, and is one 
 of the results of the oppressive system that exacts 
 everything that human labour can furnish, with- 
 out remuneration, and without (in by far the 
 greater number of instances) any approach to 
 sympathy or grateful feeling. This alone, with- 
 out taking into consideration the outrages in- 
 flicted on the race by their cruel oppressors, 
 supplies a sufficient cause for such a tendency, 
 if every other were wanting. 
 
 Passing through the principal street the day 
 before I left St. Louis, an assembly of men, chiefly 
 overseers and negro dealers, who stood at the 
 entrance of a large store, attracted my attention. 
 Large placards, with a description of various lots 
 of negroes to be submitted to public competition, 
 soon told me I should now be able to gratify my 
 curiosity by witnessing a Missouri slave-vendue. 
 A man with a bell, which he rang most energeti- 
 cally at the door, shortly after summoned the 
 
100 A USED-UP LOT OF HUMAN GOODS. 
 
 company, the auction being about to commence. 
 On a table inside, a negress, of a little over 
 middle age, was standing, vacantly gazing with 
 grief-worn countenance on the crowd that now 
 thronged to the table. On the floor stood two 
 children, of about the ages of ten and thirteen 
 respectively. The auctioneer, with the custom- 
 ary volubility of such men in America, began by 
 stating, that the lots now to be offered were the 
 remnants of a preceding sale, which he gratui- 
 tously observed had been a most satisfactory one, 
 and after dilating with some energy on the good 
 qualities of the woman before us, whose face 
 brightened up a little on hearing such a flattering 
 account of her good qualities, he earnestly re- 
 quested a bidding. The poor creature was 
 evidently in ill-health. After the most revolting 
 questions had been put to her, and her person 
 examined by the competitors with disgraceful 
 familiarity, she was pronounced all but worthless, 
 " used up/' as one of the company observed, and 
 was, after much demur on the part of the auc- 
 tioneer, knocked down for two hundred dollars ; 
 this sum being, as he remarked, but the moiety 
 of what she ought to have realized. She was then 
 roughly told to get off the table, and take her 
 stand near it, at a place pointed out by her pur- 
 chaser, who was a rollicking-looking, big-whiskered 
 fellow, with an immense Leghorn hat, the brim of 
 
SOLD AND SEPARATED. 101 
 
 which was lined with black, and having a broad 
 black ribbon round the crown. As the poor woman 
 got down, she cast a furtive glance at her chil- 
 dren, who, although the auctioneer certainly tried 
 to prevent it, were sold to two individuals, neither 
 of whom was the purchaser of the parent. The 
 poor woman looked about in great despair while 
 the bidding was going on. It was in vain I 
 sought one sympathizing look in that company ; 
 but how could it be expected, when it consisted 
 of men long inured to such heartless scenes — men 
 whose hearts were case-hardened by the impious 
 traffic they were now engaged in. I was, how- 
 ever, pleased to hear afterwards that the pur- 
 chasers all resided in St. Louis, and that the 
 woman would often see her children — poor amends 
 it is true for a cruel separation, but more satisfac- 
 tory than such cases generally are. 
 
102 STUCK FAST. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Where Will-o'-the-wisps and glow-worms shine, 
 
 In bulrush and in brake ; 
 Where waving mosses shroud the pine, 
 And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine 
 
 Is spotted like the snake." — Longfellow. 
 
 From St. Louis, on the Missouri river, I took 
 passage to New Orleans, in one of those mag- 
 nificent steamers that crowd the inland waters 
 of the American continent, and which, sump- 
 tuously furnished as they are, have not inaptly 
 been termed " floating palaces/' We had a 
 prosperous passage as far as the junction of the 
 Ohio with the Mississippi, where the boat struck 
 the branches of a large tree, that had been 
 washed into the bed of the stream, and was there 
 stuck fast, root downwards. This formidable 
 chevaux-de-frise (or snag, as it was termed by the 
 
THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE ILLINOIS. 103 
 
 captain) fortunately did not do much damage to 
 the vessel, although at first an alarm was raised 
 that she was sinking, and much confusion ensued 
 This apprehension was, however, soon dissipated 
 by the report of the carpenter, whose account of 
 the damage was so far favourable, that after ex- 
 trication by backing the vessel, and a few tempo- 
 rary repairs, she was again got under headway. 
 
 The pellucid waters of the Ohio, as they enter 
 the turbid rushing current of the Mississippi, 
 which is swollen by the Illinois and other tribu- 
 taries, has a remarkable eifect, the clear current 
 of the former river refusing, for a considerable 
 distance, to mingle with the murky stream of the 
 latter, and forming a visible blue channel in its 
 centre — a phenomenon I thought allegorical of 
 the slave-stained condition of the one state, and 
 the free soil of the other ; for while Ohio is free 
 from the curse of slavery, the banks of the 
 Mississippi have for centuries been deep dyed in 
 the life's blood of the oppressed African. 
 
 Our vessel was borne on the rushing waters 
 with great impetuosity, the maddening current 
 of the Mississippi seeming to carry everything 
 before it. As we proceeded we constantly saw 
 trees topple over into the river, the banks of 
 which are continually widening, and which in 
 many parts has the appearance of a lake after a 
 storm, impregnated with debris. The trees, thus 
 
10-1 COMPULSORY REMOVAL OF INDIANS. 
 
 washed into the bed of the river, sink root 
 downwards and make the navigation perilous, 
 as I have before described. We met numerous 
 steamers coming up the stream, one of them 
 having a freight of Indians from Florida, re- 
 moving to the western frontier, under the sur- 
 veillance of U. S. soldiery and government agents. 
 The compulsory removal of Indians, from one 
 remote state to another, whenever new territory 
 is needed, forms a disgraceful feature in internal 
 American policy. Transported to new hunting 
 grounds, the poor Indians are brought into con- 
 tact with other tribes, when feuds arise from 
 feelings of jealousy, and the new-comers are 
 often annihilated in a few years. Many tribes 
 have thus become totally extinct, and the remain- 
 der are rapidly becoming so. As the steamer 
 passed us with her freight of red men they set up 
 a loud yell, which reverberated through the 
 forests on the river-shores. It sounded to me 
 very much like defiance, and probably was, for 
 they execrate the white men as hereditary 
 enemies, and feel deeply the wrongs inflicted on 
 their people. 
 
 All the steamers we met were more or less 
 crowded with passengers, the visages of many of 
 whom bore traces of fever and ague, and who 
 were, doubtless, removing to a healthier climate. 
 This insidious disease often terminates fatally in 
 
THE BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 105 
 
 the cities and districts skirting the swamps of 
 Louisiana, and, to avoid its baneful effects, the 
 more affluent people migrate south-west or north 
 when the sickly season sets in. The yellow fever 
 is also very fatal in such situations, and annually 
 claims numbers of victims. 
 
 We had by this time reached that latitude 
 where perpetual summer reigns. The banks of 
 the mighty Mississippi, which has for ages rolled 
 on in increasing grandeur, present to the eye a 
 wilderness of sombre scenery, indescribably wild 
 and romantic. The bays, formed by the cur- 
 rent, are choked with palmetto and other trees, 
 and teem with alligators, water-snakes, and fresh- 
 water turtle, the former basking in the sun in 
 conscious security. Overhead, pelicans, paro- 
 quets, and numberless other 
 
 " Strange bright birds on their starry wings, 
 Bear the rich hues of all glorious things ; " 
 
 while the gorgeous magnolia, in luxuriant bloom, 
 and a thousand other evergreens, on shore, vie 
 with voluptuous aquatic flowers to bewilder 
 and delight the astonished traveller, accustomed 
 hitherto only to the more unassuming produc- 
 tions of the sober north. Everything here was 
 new, strange, and solemn. The gigantic trees, 
 encircled by enormous vines, and heavily shrouded 
 in grey funereal moss, mournfully waving in the 
 
106 GANGS OF NEGROES AT WORK. 
 
 breeze — the doleful night-cry of the death-bird 
 and the whip-poor-will — the distant bugle of the 
 advancing boats — the moan of the turbid current 
 beneath — the silent and queenly moon above, ap- 
 pearing nearer, larger, and brighter than in our 
 cooler latitudes — the sultry atmosphere — and most 
 of all, perhaps, the sense of the near vicinity of 
 death in this infected region — oppressed my 
 spirit with an ominous feeling of solemnity and 
 awe. 
 
 As we passed the plantations which here and 
 there varied the scene, gangs of negroes could 
 be seen at labour — their sturdy overseers, of 
 ruffianly mien, prowling sulkily about, watching 
 every motion of the bondsmen, whip in hand ; 
 which weapon they applied with the most wanton 
 freedom, as if the poor sufferers were as destitute 
 of physical sensation, as they themselves w T ere of 
 moral or humane feeling. Armed with a huge 
 bowie-knife and pistols, these embruted creatures 
 were very cut-throats in appearance ; and it is 
 well known there, that their conduct in general 
 towards those they lord over, justifies the appel- 
 lation I have given them. 
 
 The steamer halted at intervals to take in 
 wood, which is invariably used, instead of coal 
 as in England This is piled in parrallelograms 
 on the banks — the logs being split longitudinally. 
 This forms a source of good profit, and is, in 
 
GIBBETS. ] 07 
 
 many instances, the chief maintenance of the 
 squalid settlers of these plague-stricken and un- 
 wholesome places. After the measurement of 
 the pile by the mate or captain, the deck- 
 passengers and boat-hands stow it away in the 
 vicinity of the furnaces — it being part of the 
 terms of passage, that the lower order of pas- 
 sengers shall assist in the operation. This is 
 much disliked by the latter, and many of the 
 Germans of this class on board, endeavoured to 
 escape the laborious duty by hiding amongst the 
 packages on deck. A general search was, how- 
 ever, instituted by the officers of the vessel, just 
 before it stopped at a wooding-station — and the 
 skulkers were brought out, amidst the clamorous 
 jeers of their fellows. The class of passengers I 
 have just referred to, consisted chiefly of Germans 
 and Irish, who, although there is no professed 
 distinction, bargain for a deck-passage, the charge 
 being better suited to their means. Amongst the 
 objects that arrested my attention, as our vessel 
 floated majestically down the turbid current, were 
 gibbets standing on the banks, depending from 
 several of which were short chains, doubtless 
 required occasionally in carrying out this kind 
 of discipline. As the horrifying objects occurred 
 at intervals of a few miles, I at first imagined 
 they were cranes used to lower bales of cotton 
 into the holds of vessels, and addressing a pas- 
 
108 AX AMERICAN REMEDY 
 
 senger whose physiognomy prepossessed me in 
 his favour, and who had several times shown a 
 disposition to impart the knowledge he possessed 
 concerning the objects around, he soon con- 
 vinced me of my mistake, adding, that such 
 engines were as necessary to the proper disci- 
 pline of the negroes in that latitude as the over- 
 seer himself. He then proceeded to detail several 
 instances of fugitive negroes being dragged in 
 capture to the foot of the gallows, where, with 
 halter-encircled necks, they were made not only 
 to acknowledge the error committed and expose 
 accessories, but " pumped dry/' as he facetiously 
 termed it, as to the intended flight of other 
 negroes on the estate. Sometimes, he said, it 
 was necessary to suspend the culprit for a 
 moment or so, to intimidate, but this was only 
 in cases where the victim (he used the word 
 rascal) was inclined to be sullen, and refused 
 readily to give the required information. I in- 
 quired whether it ever occurred that actual 
 execution took place ; to this my new acquaint- 
 ance replied, "Wall, yes, where the nigger had 
 dar'd to strike a white man:" but that it was 
 usual to go to a magistrate first, in such cases. 
 The appearance of these gibbets, after the in- 
 formation I had received respecting them from 
 my slaveholding acquaintance, made my flesh 
 creep as we steamed onwards, the more so as, 
 
FOR REFRACTORY NEGROES. 109 
 
 in many of the grounds skirting the river, where 
 these sombre murky-looking objects presented 
 themselves to the gaze of the traveller, gangs of 
 negroes were at work, looking up complacently 
 for a moment as the vessel glided by. I was 
 subsequently told by a gentleman who had been 
 long resident in the state of Louisiana, that no 
 punishment so effectually strikes with terror 
 the negro mind, as that of hanging, the very 
 threat being sufficient to subdue (in general) the 
 most hardened offenders. This I do not wonder 
 at, for perhaps there are few field-hands living in 
 the south but have, at some time or other, wit- 
 nessed the barbarities used at a negro execution, 
 sudden death by pistol or bowie knife being far 
 preferable to the brutal sneers and indignities 
 heaped upon the victim by the cowardly assassins 
 who superintend such operations. 
 
 The monotony of the scenes which had for a 
 thousand miles rendered the passage irksome, 
 began to break as we approached Natchez. This 
 place takes its name from the Natch-i-toches, or 
 Red River, which falls into the Mississippi, the 
 abbreviation being a corruption of the original 
 Indian name, which is as above stated. The 
 town stands on a declivity or bluff, and is of 
 considerable extent. I did not visit it, although 
 the boat halted for a considerable time, to land 
 letter-bags and passengers. I was informed by 
 
110 NATCHEZ AND NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 a fellow-passenger of gentlemanly bearing, who 
 resided in the vicinity, that it was a dissipated 
 place, and gambling the chief occupation of its 
 inhabitants. The locality has been remarkable 
 for landslips, owing to the siliceous nature of the 
 soil ; I saw traces of a fearful catastrophe of the 
 kind which had, some time before, buried or 
 destroyed many of the houses and their occu- 
 pants, the enormous mass having also sunk 
 several steam-boats and other vessels which were 
 moored at the foot of the bluff under the town. 
 
 After leaving Natchez, we steamed away with 
 renewed vigour towards that centre of slavery 
 and dissipation, New Orleans, and were in due 
 course moored to the levee, which extends the 
 whole river-length of the city, and is about 
 a mile in extent. The first news I heard, and 
 which alarmed me not a little, was that the 
 yellow fever was at this time raging in the city. 
 New Orleans is just fifty-four miles from the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and being built at the 
 time of the Orleans Regency, contains many 
 ancient structures. Its inhabitants, even to 
 this day, are to a great extent either French or 
 of Gaelic origin. It lies exceedingly flat, which 
 causes the locality to be unhealthy and illsuited 
 to European constitutions ; the soil is, however, 
 fertile and rich ; this is, perhaps, to be accounted 
 for by the constant irrigation it undergoes from 
 
GANGS OF CAPTURED FUGITIVES. 1 J 1 
 
 the overflowing of the Mississippi, which, like 
 another Nile, periodically submerges the country 
 around its banks. The town is situated on the 
 east side of the river. 
 
 The vast quantity of shipping of all classes in 
 the harbour is a very striking feature in this 
 extensive and wealthy city. The bad eminence 
 to which New T Orleans has attained is painful to 
 contemplate. Its wealth is purchased by the 
 blood and tears of thousands of slaves, who are 
 daily exposed like cattle in its markets ; and 
 this fact operates on the mind of an Englishman 
 to the prejudice of its inhabitants. I was myself 
 filled with disgust towards the whites, as well as 
 pity towards the blacks, on beholding, imme- 
 diately on our arrival, a gang of forty or fifty 
 negroes, of both sexes, and nearly all ages, work- 
 ing in shackles on the wharf. These, I was in- 
 formed, were principally captured fugitives ; they 
 looked haggard and care-worn, and as they 
 toiled with their barrows with uncovered heads, 
 under a burning sun, they were mercilessly 
 lashed with a heavy slave-whip, by a tall, athletic 
 negro, who acted as overseer, and who, with 
 refined cruelty, dispensed the punishment alike 
 on stout men, slender youths, and thin atten- 
 uated females. Our arrival having attracted 
 the notice of the gang, and induced a momentary 
 halt in their work, the unfeeling wretch com- 
 
112 ANTI-ABOLITION SPIES. 
 
 menced a furious onslaught with the whip, each 
 crack of which, followed, as it was, by the groans 
 or cries of the sufferer, roused the indignant 
 feelings of the passengers, many of whom were 
 from the free states, and who simultaneously 
 raised a yell of execration which made the 
 welkin resound, and caused the cruel driver to 
 stand aghast. This demonstration drew a re- 
 monstrance from the captain, who represented to 
 the passengers the danger of such conduct, and 
 concluded by observing that if it was repeated, 
 it would probably arouse the indignation of the 
 citizens, who were very bigoted. He should be 
 sorry, he added, to be obliged to put the vessel 
 about again, a proceeding that might be neces- 
 sary for the safety of all on board, unless they 
 were more cautious. Some of the jmssengers 
 seemed disposed to dispute this argument, but 
 they were overruled by~ the majority, who, better 
 acquainted with southern usages, prejudices, and 
 barbarities, thought that discretion under the 
 circumstances would be the better part of valour. 
 I afterwards found that the captain's view was 
 a strictly correct one, for so jealous are the citi- 
 zens of men entertaining hostility to the pro- 
 slavery cause, that spies are often sent on board 
 newly-arrived boats, to ascertain if missionaries 
 are amongst the passengers. These spies, with 
 Jesuitical art, introduce themselves by making 
 
THE BLACK POPULATION. 113 
 
 apparently casual inquiries on leading topics of 
 those they suspect, and if their end is subserved, 
 basely betray them, or, what is more usual, 
 keep them under strict surveillance, with a view 
 to their being detected in disseminating abolition 
 doctrines amongst the slaves, when they are 
 immediately made amenable to the laws, and are 
 fined or imprisoned. 
 
 On landing, I hired a sorry conveyance, driven 
 by a Creole and drawn by a mule, and had my 
 luggage taken to a house in the suburbs, where I 
 had been recommended to take up my residence 
 during my stay, which, owing to the presence 
 of the yellow fever, that daily carried off num- 
 bers of victims, I had determined, contrary to 
 my original intention, should be short. 
 
 The crowds of people on the levee, attracted 
 by the constant arrival of steam-boats, had a 
 motley appearance ; many of these were rough- 
 looking fellows, fit for any occupation, most of 
 them being armed with bowie knives, the silver 
 hilts of which could often be seen peering suspi- 
 ciously from under the waistcoat, in the inner 
 lining of which a case or scabbard of leather is 
 sewn for the reception of the weapon. The vast 
 proportion of blacks in the streets soon struck me. 
 I should think they were five to one of the white 
 population. These, for the most part, were in 
 wretched plight ; many of them begged of the 
 
114 THE CALABOOSE. 
 
 passers-by, which practice I found afterwards to 
 be very general, especially in the suburbs of the 
 city. 
 
 Amongst the passengers on our boat, was a per- 
 son, apparently of the better class, who was met 
 at the levee by two black servants with a carriage. 
 I noticed particularly, that, although the negroes 
 touched their hats, and inquired how he was (by 
 wdiich I concluded he had been absent for some 
 time), he did not deign to answer their inquiries. 
 From their timidity, it w-as evident that he was 
 an overbearing man, and the imperial haughti- 
 ness manifested in giving them his orders, 
 confirmed this impression. This individual was 
 one of those who condemned the demonstration 
 I have noticed, when the boat first approached 
 the levee. 
 
 After a day's rest at my boarding-house, I 
 w T alked through the city, and afterwards visited 
 the calaboose, which in New Orleans is a mart 
 for produce, as well as a place of detention 
 and punishment for slaves. Here those owners 
 who are averse to correcting their slaves in a 
 rigorous manner at home, send them to be flogged. 
 The brutal way in which this is done at the 
 calaboose, strikes terror into the negro mind, and 
 the threat is often sufficient to tame the most 
 incorrigible. Instances, I was told, have often 
 occurred of negroes expiring under the severity 
 
CHARACTER OF NEW ORLEANS. 115 
 
 of the discipline here ; but it was remarked 
 that the pecuniary loss attendant on such casual- 
 ties made the keepers careful not to exceed the 
 physical endurance of the sufferer, and that they 
 were so well acquainted with negro constitutions 
 that it was a rare exception for death to ensue. 
 The punishment, however, almost always re- 
 sulted in the victim being invalided and unfitted 
 for exertion for a considerable time. 
 
 I believe New Orleans to be as vile a place as 
 any under the sun : a perfect Ghetto or cursed 
 place ; in fact, it is the rendezvous of renegades 
 of all nations, and hordes of negro traders and 
 planters are to be seen flocking round the hotels. 
 These are extensive patrons of the gambling- 
 houses ; and the faro, rouge-et-noir, roulette, and 
 other establishments, fitted up with gorgeous 
 saloons, are generally crowded with them. As 
 you pass, you may observe the frequenters of such 
 places in dozens, deeply engaged in play, while 
 the teller of the establishment sits at a table 
 with a huge heap of Spanish doubloons or Mexi- 
 can mill dollars before him, which he adds to 
 or takes from with the tact of a banker's clerk, 
 as the chances of luck may arise. Violence and 
 bloodshed have been indigenous to this city from 
 time immemorial, and feuds are instantly settled 
 by an appeal to the bowie knife, or ever-ready 
 revolver. Highway robberies are very frequent, 
 
116 CLIMATE. 
 
 and I was told it was more than your life was 
 worth to be out after dark, in certain localities, 
 unless armed and on your guard. The police 
 authorities are, nevertheless, vigilant, and the 
 magistrates severe, so that many desperadoes are 
 brought to justice. 
 
 The suburbs of New Orleans lie low, and the 
 swampy soil emits a poisonous miasma. This is, 
 without doubt, the cause of virulent epidemics 
 that visit the city annually with direful effect. 
 Thousands fly to the northern states, to escape 
 the contagion ; but there are many who, for want 
 of means, are obliged to risk a continued resi- 
 dence at such periods, and it is amongst those 
 that the yellow fever, the ague, or the flux, 
 plays dreadful havoc. It is the custom for the 
 small store-keepers, as well as the more affluent 
 merchants, to confide their affairs at such seasons 
 to others, and I have frequently seen advertise- 
 ments in the Nevj Orleans Picayune, and other 
 papers, offering a gratuity to persons to under- 
 take the charge in their absence. 
 
 The heat, although the summer -was not far 
 advanced, was excessive, and the thousands of 
 mosquitoes that filled the air, especially after a 
 fall of rain, when they seemed to burst into life 
 in myriads spontaneously, kept up an increasing 
 annoyance. At night this was ten-fold, for not- 
 withstanding the gauze awnings, or bars, as they 
 
QUADROON FEMALE SLAVES. 117 
 
 are called, which completely enveloped the bed- 
 stead, to the floor of the room, they found 
 admittance with pertinacious audacity, and kept 
 up a buzzing and humming about my ears that 
 almost entirely deprived me of rest. This un- 
 ceasing nuisance in the hot season, makes it 
 difficult to keep one's equanimity of temper, and 
 has, probably, much to do with that extreme iras- 
 cibility shown by the southern inhabitants of 
 the American continent. 
 
 The appearance and situation of h unclreds o 
 quadroon females in this city, soon attracted my 
 attention, and deserve notice. I saw numbers 
 of them not only at the bazaars or shops making 
 purchases, but riding in splendid carriages through 
 the streets. So prodigal are these poor deluded 
 creatures of their money, that, although slaves 
 and liable to immediate sale at the caprice of 
 their keepers, they have often been known to 
 spend in one afternoon 200 dollars in a shopping 
 excursion. Endowed with natural talents, they 
 are readily instructed in every accomplishment, 
 requisite to constitute them charming companions. 
 Often as a carriage dashes by, the pedestrian is 
 able to catch a glimpse of some jewelled and 
 turbaned sultana, of dazzling beauty, attended 
 by her maid, who does not always possess a sine- 
 cure, for the mistress is often haughty, proud, 
 and petulant, very hard to please, and exacts 
 
118 PROFLIGACY AND HEARTLESSNESS. 
 
 great deference from her inferiors. Many of 
 them live in regal splendour, and everything that 
 wealth and pampered luxury can bestow is theirs, 
 as long as their personal charms remain ; but 
 when their beauty has ceased to gratify the pas- 
 sions of their masters, they are, in most instances, 
 cast off, and frequently die in a condition which 
 presents the greatest possible contrast to their 
 former gay but not happy life. 
 
 " Oh that they had earlier died, 
 Sleeping calmly side by side, 
 Where the tyrant's power is o'er, 
 And the fetter galls no more." 
 
 Many of such poor outcasts are to be found 
 scattered all over the slave states, some employed 
 as field hands, but in general they are selected 
 as domestics, their former habits of luxury and 
 ease rendering their constitutions too delicate 
 for the exposure of ordinary field labour. It 
 is not, however, as the reader will have observed, 
 commiseration that saves them from that de- 
 gradation. As soon as beauty begins to fade, 
 which in southern climes it does prematurely, 
 the unfeeling owners of these unfortunates suc- 
 ceed in ridding themselves of what is now con- 
 sidered a burden, by disposing of the individual 
 to some heartless trader. This is done unknown 
 to the victim, and the news, when it reaches her, 
 drives her almost frantic : she at once seeks her 
 
ST. MARKS. 119 
 
 perfidious paramour, and finds to her dismay, 
 that he has been gone some days on a tour to 
 the provinces, and is, perhaps, a thousand miles 
 off. Tears and protestations avail her nothing, 
 the trader is inexorable, she belongs to him by 
 law, and go she must ; at length, having vainly 
 expended her entreaties, she becomes calm, and 
 submits in sullen apathy to her wretched fate. 
 This is the ordinary history of such cases. 
 
 Considering it unsafe to remain longer in this 
 infected city, from the reports that the fever 
 was gaining ground, I now made preparations 
 for leaving New Orleans, and as I had made 
 an engagement to manage the affairs of a gentle- 
 man in Florida, during his, absence at Washing- 
 ton, I determined to proceed thither with the 
 least possible delay. In furtherance of this 
 object I made inquiries for a conveyance by 
 water to St. Marks, giving the preference to 
 steam. In this object I was, however, disap- 
 pointed, and was obliged to take a passage on 
 board a brig, about to sail for that obscure port. 
 The vessel was towed down to the balize or 
 mouth of the Mississippi, in company with two 
 others, by a departing steamer, which had on 
 board the mail for Bermuda and St. George's 
 Island. Arrived at the balize, whose banks for 
 several miles are overflowed by the sea, I saw a 
 small fleet of vessels, some outward and some 
 
120 CROSSING THE GULF OF MEXICO. 
 
 inward bound. Amongst these was a United 
 States ship of war, of great beauty, carrying 
 heavy guns. A boat from this vessel, in charge 
 of an officer, boarded us, and delivered to the 
 captain a sealed packet, which I understood to 
 be a dispatch, addressed to General Taylor, the 
 officer in command of the troops operating 
 against the Indians in Florida. 
 
 The coast about the balize is low and swampy, 
 and everywhere abounds in rush and cane brakes 
 which give its sea-beach a desolate appearance. 
 These morasses harbour thousands of alligators, 
 whose roar had a singular effect as it rose above 
 the breeze. Flocks of aquatic birds were to be 
 seen on every side, the most numerous being the 
 pelican, and a bird of the cotinga species, about 
 the size of an English throstle, the plumage of 
 which, being jet black and flamingo red, had a 
 beautiful effect in the sunshine, as they flew or 
 settled in thousands on the canes. 
 
 Our passage across the Gulf of Mexico was a 
 favourable one, but when within forty miles of 
 our destination, the vessel struck on a hidden 
 sand-bank. The fog was so dense, that the 
 captain had been mistaken in his reckoning, 
 and had taken a wrong course. For a con- 
 siderable time we were in great jeopardy, and 
 every attempt to get the ship again afloat was 
 unavailing ; and, had not the weather been 
 
FOREBODINGS. 121 
 
 moderate, there is little doubt but that she would 
 have been lost, and our lives placed in great peril. 
 After some hours' exertion, during which an an- 
 chor was lost, and a quantity of iron thrown 
 overboard, we had the satisfaction to find that 
 the vessel was adrift. This was a great relief to 
 us, for had a gale sprung up in the night, which 
 was closing in, we must have taken to the boat, 
 and abandoned the vessel, a perilous undertaking, 
 from which we all felt too happy to have escaped. 
 I was told by the captain that the coast here 
 abounds with hidden sand-banks of the descrip- 
 tion we had encountered. This, perhaps, together 
 with the poor harbour accommodation in Florida, 
 accounts for the small size of the vessels which 
 generally trade there. 
 
 The desolate look of the coast from the deck 
 of the vessel, did not convey to my mind a very 
 favourable impression of the country, and the 
 hostile disposition of the Indians tended not a 
 little to excite forebodings of evil, that at one 
 time almost induced me to abandon my intention, 
 and return to the north. These apprehensions 
 were, however, allayed by the representations of 
 the captain of the vessel, who stated that the 
 Indians seldom attempted to molest armed 
 parties, and that an understanding with the 
 government was daily expected, through the re- 
 cent capture of some important sachems or chiefs, 
 
122 TALLAHASSEE. 
 
 under whose influence and leadership hostilities 
 had been carried on. This information reassured 
 me, and I determined to proceed, although I 
 found afterwards that it was almost entirely a 
 misrepresentation, which, however, I cannot be- 
 lieve was wilful, as the captain would have had 
 me for a passenger on the return voyage. 
 
 I soon after landed in a boat from the shore. 
 The bay or harbour of St. Marks is not attractive, 
 neither is the town, which presents a desolate 
 appearance. The houses or stores are chiefly of 
 wood, painted white, the Venetian blinds of the 
 houses being green, as in most parts of the United 
 States. The hotel-entrances were crowded with 
 loungers, in snow-white clothing, large Leghorn 
 or palmetto hats, and fancy-coloured shirts, who 
 smoked cigars incessantly, and generally discussed 
 with energy the inroads of the Indians, or other 
 leading topics of the day. The houses are low 
 and irregularly built, and the appearance of the 
 whole place and its inhabitants, as far as I could 
 see, wore a forbidding aspect, and was indicative 
 of anything but prosperity. 
 
 My next stage was to Tallahassee by railroad, 
 through a desolate-looking country, whose soil 
 was sand, and whose vegetation looked stunted, 
 presenting little to cheer the senses, or call forth 
 remark ; in fact, everything around told of a 
 country whose centre is flourishing, but whose 
 
COLONEL GAMBOLE. 123 
 
 frontiers are a wilderness. Just before we started, 
 a well-dressed negro, apparently a footman or 
 butler, applied for a seat in the carriage. He 
 was told by the station-keeper, that there was no 
 conveyance for " niggers " this train, and he must 
 wait for the following one. He at first disputed 
 his right to refuse him a passage in the carriage, 
 which roused the ire of the station-keeper, who 
 threatened to kick him if he was not soon off. 
 This seemed to awe him, for he quietly left the 
 station, muttering, however, as he went, his in- 
 tention of reporting the circumstance to Colonel 
 Gambole. This caused me to make some inquiry 
 about the colonel whose name he had mentioned, 
 and who I learned was his master. I was also in- 
 formed that no negroes in that district were so 
 insolent, owing to the indulgence with which all 
 his hands were treated. I could see, however, 
 that the negro had different men to deal with 
 here, and if he had not taken his departure, he 
 would, without a doubt, have been kicked or 
 felled to the ground, on the least further provo- 
 cation — a course pursued without hesitation in 
 cases where a negro assumes anything like equality 
 in the south. 
 
] 24 FLORIDA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " The fragrant birch above him hung 
 
 Her tassels in the sky, 
 And many a vernal blossom sprung, 
 
 And nodded careless by. 
 But there was weeping far away ; 
 
 And gentle eyes for him, 
 With watching many an anxious day, 
 
 Were sorrowful and dim." — Bryant. 
 
 Florida, in which state I now found myself, is 
 divided into East, West, and Middle. It is a 
 wild extent of country, about 300 miles from 
 north to south. The king of Spain held posses- 
 sion of the territory in 1810, but it was after- 
 wards ceded by treaty to the Federal Government. 
 It was discovered in 1497 by Sebastian Cabot. 
 St. Augustine is the capital of East, and Pensacola 
 of West, Florida. This country is, for the most 
 part, a howling wilderness, and is never likely 
 to become thickly populated. The dreary pine- 
 
deadman's bay. 125 
 
 barrens and sand-hills are slightly undulating, 
 and are here and there thickly matted with pal- 
 metto. 
 
 In pursuance of my original design, I had now 
 to penetrate nearly a hundred miles into the in- 
 terior; and, as the Indians and fugitive negroes 
 were scouring that part of the country in hostile 
 bands, I contemplated this part of my route with 
 no little anxiety. I determined, however, to 
 proceed. The journey lay through a wild country, 
 intersected with streams and rivers, every one of 
 which swarmed with alligators. This, although 
 not a very pleasant reflection, did not trouble me 
 much, as I had by this time become acquainted 
 with the propensities of these creatures, and knew 
 that they were not given to attacking white men, 
 unless provoked or wounded, although a negro 
 or a dog is never safe within their reach. They 
 are, however, repulsive-looking creatures, and it 
 is not easy to divest the mind of apprehension 
 when in their vicinity. 
 
 My destination was an inlet of the sea, called 
 Deadman's Bay, from whence it was my intention, 
 after transacting some business I had undertaken, 
 to take passage by steamer to Cuba, intending to 
 return to the continent, after a limited stay there, 
 and on some of the adjacent islands. In this, 
 however, I was disappointed, as I shall by-and-by 
 show. My plan was to travel by easy stages 
 
126 OUR BIVOUAC. 
 
 under escort, and encamp out at night ; so, 
 having secured the services of six men, who were 
 well armed and mounted on horseback, and having 
 furnished ourselves with a tent and other necessa- 
 ries, which were carried by individuals of the 
 party, we left Tallahassee, on our way inland, 
 under a scorching sun. We could proceed but 
 slowly after reaching the pine-barrens, the soil 
 of which is loose sand, and at every step the 
 animals we rode sank to the fetlock, which caused 
 them to be greatly fatigued at the close of the 
 day. 
 
 At night-fall, after selecting our ground ad- 
 jacent to a river, we pitched our tent, and supper 
 was prepared. This consisted of jerked venison 
 (dried by a slow fire), broiled turkey, two of 
 which we had shot upon our way, bread, and 
 coffee. One of our party walked round our posi- 
 tion as a sentinel, and was relieved every two 
 hours ; it being necessary to keep a vigilant look 
 out, on account of the Indian and runaway negro 
 marauders, who roam through these wilds in 
 bands, and subsist chiefly in plundering farms 
 and small parties. A huge fire of resinous pine 
 branches (which are plentiful in these solitudes, 
 and strew the ground in all directions, blackened 
 with fire and age) was blazing to keep off the 
 wolves and catamounts, whose terrific yells, in 
 conjunction with other beasts, prevented our 
 
ANNOYANCES OF TRAVEL. 127 
 
 sleeping. They did not, however, venture within 
 rifle shot. The Indians, on attacking small parties, 
 have a practice of imitating the cry of the wolf, 
 and this circumstance being known to us, tended 
 not a little to raise our suspicions on hearing the 
 fearful bowlings that rang through the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 In the morning, we proceeded through barren 
 sandplains, skirted with dense hammocks (jungles) 
 and forests. We were much annoyed by mosqui- 
 toes and sand-flies, which kept the whole party 
 in discomfort from their attacks. Dusky-looking 
 deer-flies constantly alighted on our faces and 
 hands, and made us jump with the severity of 
 their bites, as did also a large fly, of brilliant 
 mazarine blue colour, about the size of a humble 
 bee, the name of which I have forgotten. 
 
 In crossing one of the numerous streams, we 
 had to wade or swim our horses over, an incident 
 occurred which rather alarmed me. I was on a 
 horse of that Arabian blood, build, and spirit, so 
 common in saddle-horses in America, and a little 
 in advance of the party, when I reached a river 
 that intersected our track, and which we had to 
 cross. After allowing the animal to quench its 
 thirst, I applied spurs and urged it into the 
 stream ; it being averse from some cause to take 
 the water. The stream was, however, deeper 
 than I anticipated, and the horse immediately 
 
128 AN ALLIGATOR. 
 
 began to stumble and flounder in an alarming 
 manner, showing that the river bed was uneven 
 and rocky. About half-way across was a small 
 island, that divided the stream, which after much 
 difficulty he reached ; resting here about a min- 
 ute, I again urged him forward, but the animal 
 seemed very reluctant to go. He wheeled short 
 round, snorted loudly as if in fear, and was evi- 
 dently in unusual alarm. After some coaxing, 
 he, however, plunged into the water, and I ex- 
 pected to be able to gain the opposite shore in 
 advance of my companions, but just as we were 
 half-way between the little island and the oppo- 
 site bank, which was very steep, the horse again 
 became restive, rearing as if dreadfully frightened. 
 I had the greatest difficulty to keep the saddle, 
 which was a high Mexican one, covered with 
 bear-skin, and as easy to ride in as a chair. I 
 now began to suspect the cause of his alarm. The 
 stream was one of those black-looking currents 
 that flow noiselessly along, and which in Florida 
 always harbour the largest-sized alligators. When 
 I first came to it, I remembered this, and thinking 
 to frighten off any of these lurkers that might be 
 in the vicinity, I had dashed precipitately into 
 the stream. This practice, or shouting loudly and 
 firing a pistol into the water, usually succeeds. 
 I soon found out, however, that the presence of 
 one of the ugly creatures was the cause of the 
 
THE CAYMAN. ] 29 
 
 horse's trepidation, for, within six feet of us, I 
 discerned a pair of eyes, set in huge brown ex- 
 crescences, fixed intently on me and my horse, 
 with malicious gaze. I knew they belonged to a 
 veteran, and dreading lest its snout might be 
 within two feet of my leg, for the old alligators 
 boast enormous length of jaw, I sat tailor-wise 
 in my saddle, and levelled my rifle at the horrid 
 object ; the reptile had, however, observed my 
 movements, and disappeared beneath the surface ; 
 I instantly discharged my piece in the direction 
 he had taken, and certainly gave him a lesson, 
 for the water around me was directly after tinged 
 with blood ; he was probably hurt severely, or 
 he might have resented my temerity. I soon 
 after reached the shore in safety, where I was 
 speedily joined by the escort, who saw nothing of 
 the reptile in their way across, and who, being 
 men bred amongst such scenes, and totally 
 divested of fear, at once took the water, although 
 they had witnessed the encounter. 
 
 The cayman of South America is very ferocious, 
 and is popularly styled the hyena, of the alligator 
 tribe. This savage creature will instantly attack a 
 man or ahorse, and on this account the Indians of 
 Chili, before wading a stream, take the precaution 
 of using long poles, to ascertain its presence or to 
 drive it away. Naturalists assert that the cay- 
 man is not found in the North American rivers, 
 
 K 
 
130 FORT ANDREWS. 
 
 and I should imagine this to be correct, for, 
 although engaged in many alligator hunts, I found 
 from personal experience and minute inquiry 
 that the species found in North America is harm- 
 less if unmolested. 
 
 After a laborious ride we arrived at Fort An- 
 drews, where we found a military station of U.S. 
 Infantry. We halted here for several days, I 
 having business requiring my attention, and our- 
 selves and our beasts needing to recruit our 
 strength, before continuing our route to tlfe Bay. 
 The forest scenery here almost defies descrip- 
 tion. Immense cedars, and other lordly trees, 
 rear their gigantic and lightning-scathed heads 
 over their smaller and less hardy but graceful 
 neighbours ; cactuses, mimonias, and tropical 
 shrubs and flowers, which at home are to be seen 
 only in conservatories or green-houses are here 
 in profusion, 
 
 " And plants, at whose name the verse feels loath, 
 Fill the place with a monstrous undergrowth, 
 Prickly, and pulpous, and blistering, and blue, 
 Livid, and starred with a lurid hue ; " 
 
 while innumerable forms of insect and reptile 
 life, from the tiny yellow scorpion to the murky 
 alligator of eighteen feet in length, give a for- 
 bidding aspect to the scene. Racoons, squirrels, 
 wild turkeys, pelicans, vultures, quails, doves, 
 wild deer, opossums, chickmuncks, white foxes, 
 
GENERAL TAYLOR. 131 
 
 wild cats, wolves, — are ever and anon to be seen 
 among the high palmetto brakes, and the alli- 
 gators in the bayous and swamps, u make night 
 hideous " with their discordant bellowings and 
 the vile odour which they emit. The tout ensemble 
 of the place brings to recollection those striking 
 lines of Hood, 
 
 " O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear, 
 A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, 
 And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, 
 The place is haunted." 
 
 During my stay at Fort Andrews, a large 
 detachment of U. S. trQops arrived, continuing 
 a campaign against the recreant Indians and 
 negroes. The appearance of the men and officers 
 was wretched in the extreme; they had for weeks 
 been beating through swamps and hammocks, 
 thickly matted with palmetto bush, which had 
 torn their undress uniforms in tatters, searching 
 for an invisible enemy, who, thoroughly acquainted 
 with the everglades, defied every attempt at cap- 
 ture. The whole party looked harassed, disap- 
 pointed, and forlorn. General Taylor was with 
 and had command of this detachment, which was 
 about 400 strong. As I had heard this man 
 vauntingly spoken of in the north, as the brave 
 cotemporary of Scott, I felt no little curiosity to 
 see him. His appearance surprised me. He was 
 a burly, unmilitary-looking man, of most for- 
 
132 CRIES OF DISTRESS. 
 
 bidding aspect, and much more like a yeoman 
 than a soldier. A sword, much out of place, 
 dangled awkwardly by his side, and was the only 
 badge of his profession about him, except a black 
 leathern cap ; otherwise, he was habited as a 
 private citizen. His small army encamped below 
 the fort; and, as I thought, in most un-general 
 style, he superintended the erection of his own 
 marquee. He had with him several negroes, who 
 were his body servants ; and the coarse epithets 
 he applied to them during the operation did not 
 prepossess me in his favour, or, I thought, reflect 
 much credit on his refinement. 
 
 At nightfall cries of distress arose from the 
 marquee, and as I approached it I could distinctly 
 hear one of the bondsmen earnestly pleading for 
 mercy. Listening for a moment, I heard this dis- 
 tinguished general exclaiming vociferously, and 
 belabouring the poor negro heavily with a raw- 
 hide whip ; most likely venting the spleen he felt 
 at his non-success against the Indians, the ex- 
 pedition having hitherto been unsuccessful. The 
 poor negro had offended his master, by some 
 trivial act, no doubt, and in southern style he 
 was correcting him, without much regard, it is 
 true, to publicity. This, in southern latitudes, is 
 so common, that it is thought little of; and the 
 occurrence caused on this occasion only a passing 
 remark from those present. The negro was his 
 
A RAGGED REGIMENT. 138 
 
 own, and he had a right, it was stated, to correct 
 him, as and when he pleased ; who could dispute 
 it ? For my own part, I entertained the most 
 abhorrent feelings towards a man, who, without 
 sense of shame, or decent regard for his station, 
 thus unblushinglv published his infamy amongst 
 strangers ; and this man a would-be patriot, too, 
 and candidate for the Presidential chair, which, 
 it will be remembered, he afterwards obtained. I 
 was told that flogging his negroes was a favourite 
 pastime with this eminently-distinguished general, 
 and that he was by no means liked by his officers 
 or men. His appearance bespoke his tyrannical 
 disposition ; and this, coupled with incapacity, 
 there is little doubt, conduced to make it neces- 
 sary for him to relinquish his command of the 
 army of the south, which he did not long after, 
 being succeeded, I believe, by General Armstead. 
 As I mentioned before, the force that accom- 
 panied him was in forlorn case, reminding me 
 strongly of Shakspere's description of Falstaff's 
 ragged regiment. It consisted chiefly of raw, 
 undrilied troops, quite unused to discipline, but, 
 perhaps, as effective as veterans in the service 
 in which they were employed, the adroitness 
 of the enemy, accustomed to the interminable 
 swamps, hammocks, and cane-brakes which abound 
 in this country, quite paralyzing the energies of 
 the men, and destroying that esprit du corps 
 
134 INDIAN SACHEMS. 
 
 without which no success can be expected in an 
 army. 
 
 Several Indian sachems or chiefs accompanied 
 the command ; these were fine-looking fellows, 
 but appeared exhausted from long marching 
 through the wilderness. One of these, named 
 Powell, particularly attracted my notice ;. he was 
 a very interesting young man, of feminine aspect, 
 and little resembling his stalwart companions. 
 He had originally been captured, but by kind 
 treatment had been brought over to friendly 
 views, and was now acting as a guide. It was 
 stated that his father was much incensed against 
 him, and had employed emissaries to despatch 
 him secretly. A few months after this campaign I 
 heard that he was shot while out hunting ; no 
 doubt, at the instigation of his unnatural parent, 
 who preferred his death to his continuing in 
 league with white men. 
 
 Leaving Fort Andrews, I now pushed onward 
 to Deadman's Bay. The country we passed 
 through was much the same as I have before 
 described ; the journey took us the better part 
 of two days. On the way we saw a herd of wild 
 cattle, which scoured the plain in consternation 
 on espying our party ; urging on our horses, we 
 tried to bring one down, but they outstripped us. 
 Some miles farther on, and near a thick ham- 
 mock, about a quarter of a mile a-head, a huge 
 
WOLVES. ] 85 
 
 black bear stood snuffing the air ; we again put 
 spurs to our horses to try to intercept his retreat, 
 but he was too quick for us, and made at his 
 utmost speed (a sort of shambling trot) for the 
 coppice or jungle, which he soon entered, and 
 disappeared from our sight. At nightfall, a pack 
 of ravenous wolves, headed by a large white one, 
 serenaded us, and came near enough to our camp- 
 fire to seize a small terrier belonging to one of 
 the party. The poor animal, unused to the dan- 
 gers around, had the temerity to run out and 
 bark at the pack — he soon after gave one agoniz- 
 ing yelp, and we never saw him again. As a 
 reprisal, three of the party fired, and brought one 
 of the wolves to the ground ; he was of great 
 size, and, I should say, could have carried away 
 a sheep, or a good sized hog (of which they are 
 very fond), with ease. We could not, however, 
 skin him — he was so infested with fleas. In the 
 settlements they often seize and carry off chil- 
 dren, but they do not molest adults. 
 
 As we proceeded, we kept a vigilant look-out 
 for Indians, a number of whom, we had heard 
 at Fort Andrews, had been driven in the direc- 
 tion we were travelling. We fortunately escaped 
 molestation, but saw in several places human 
 bones, probably the relics of a former combat 
 between the United States troops, or travellers 
 like ourselves, and Indians or negroes. One 
 
136 UNTRODDEN SOLITUDES. 
 
 skull I picked up had been split with a toma- 
 hawk, besides having a bullet-hole in it about 
 the region of the left ear. Our situation was one 
 of great peril, but I had made up my mind to 
 proceed at all hazards, despite the opposition 
 shown by two or three of the settlers composing 
 my escort, who, on more than one occasion, 
 pointed out Indian camp-grounds of only a few 
 days' age. At one of these we found a quantity 
 of Indian flour or arrowroot, part of a bridle, 
 and the offal of a calf; but we left the former, 
 imagining it might be poisoned, the latter was of 
 no use, our only dog having been devoured by 
 the wolves. Passing through a dense hammock, 
 of a quarter of a mile in width, through which 
 the pioneers of the American army had recently 
 cut a rough road, I dismounted, to take a view 
 of these sombre shades on either hand. The 
 solemn stillness around seemed to me like the 
 shadow of death — especially so, from the peril 
 we were in through the deadly feud existing at 
 the time between the Indians and white men. 
 I penetrated for full a quarter of a mile into this 
 fastness in a lateral direction, and, in doing so, 
 suddenly startled two immense white birds of 
 the adjutant species, which were standing in a 
 swamp surrounded by majestic cedar trees. I 
 could easily have brought one down with my 
 rifle, but I thought it wanton cruelty to do so. 
 
DREAD OF MOLESTATION. 137 
 
 They were, I should think, quite six feet high, 
 and beautifully white, with a yellow tinge. The 
 head of one, which, I suppose, was the male bird, 
 was surmounted by a golden crest. They sailed 
 quietly away over my head, not appearing much 
 alarmed by the intrusion. 
 
 In these primeval shades, where, perhaps, the 
 foot of man never before trod (for I looked in 
 vain for such traces), are many beasts, birds, 
 and reptiles, which live in perfect security ; for, 
 although the Indian dwells here, and subsists by 
 hunting, yet the territory is so vast, and the red 
 men are so few in proportion, that there can be 
 little doubt that many places are untraversed. 
 
 Emerging on the open sand-plain somewhat 
 unexpectedly, I caused my party no little alarm ; 
 they instinctively grasped their rifles, imagining 
 the approach of a party of hostile Indians. 
 
 The constant dread of molestation causes the 
 traveller here to be ever on the qui-vive, the pre- 
 caution being highly necessary, to prevent sur- 
 prise. The least movement in a coppice excites 
 apprehension, and fills the soul of both the reso- 
 lute and the timorous with anticipations of danger. 
 Nor are these fears groundless, for the treacherous 
 Indian crawls stealthily to the attack, and, with- 
 out a moment's warning, two or three of a 
 party may fall to the earth, pierced by rifle- 
 balls, or rearing horses may throw the riders, 
 
138 SNAKES 
 
 and leave them at the mercy of these ruthless 
 assassins. 
 
 Arriving at length at the Bay in safety, I was 
 accommodated in the officers' quarters of a tem- 
 porary fort or stockade, erected there. The 
 steamer had left, so that I was compelled to 
 remain here longer than I had intended, await- 
 ing the arrival of the next boat. To beguile 
 the time, I went for miles into the forests, 
 looking for game, often coming back disappointed 
 and weary ; at others rewarded by, perhaps, a 
 racoon, or, what I valued more, a fawn or wild 
 turkey. There was, however, plenty of sport 
 on the river, and thousands of wild ducks, gan- 
 net, and pelicans, inhabited the little islands in 
 the vicinity, and reared their young there ; some 
 of these islands being covered with their eggs. 
 Large numbers of alligators infested the streams 
 adjacent, and their bello wings, in concert with 
 bull-frogs and other reptiles, often banished 
 sleep for nights together, although I was pretty 
 well accustomed to such annoyances. Snakes 
 were often to be met with, although harmless if 
 unmolested ; amongst these, the moccason, hoop, 
 and garter snakes, of which I procured several 
 specimens, were the most common to be met 
 with. Rattle-snakes exist in rocky districts, but 
 I saw none of them here. 
 
 The steamer not arriving as I anticipated, after 
 
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE INDIANS. 139 
 
 remaining for a considerable time, and getting 
 tired of so solitary a life, I determined to retrace 
 my steps to Tallahassee. 
 
 While remaining at this post, a party of mounted 
 volunteers arrived from Georgia. These men 
 were mostly sons of farmers, who had suffered 
 from the unceasing attacks of the Indians on 
 their farms, in many instances accompanied by 
 the butchery of some members of their families. 
 It was arranged that a company of U.S. Infantry, 
 stationed at the fort, should act in concert with 
 these men, and scour the country for twenty miles 
 round, to search for Indians, traces of whom had 
 been seen, and who, it was very certain, were 
 encamped not many miles off. As I felt desirous 
 of observing the operations of these little cam- 
 paigns against so wily a foe, I intimated to a 
 major, my intention of accompanying the expedi- 
 tion. He was pleased with the proposal, and 
 furnished me with a splendid rifle and other 
 equipments, from the stores of the depot. After 
 a short delay, owing to the non-arrival of some 
 waggons that were intended to accompany the 
 expedition, the whole force mustered in front of 
 the stockade enclosure, and being furnished with 
 ten days' provisions for man and horse, started 
 under command of the major aforesaid, across 
 the sand-plains, in order to reach a dense cedar 
 and cypress swamp, ten miles distant, where it 
 
140 PARLEY WITH THE ENEMY. 
 
 was suspected the enemy was concealed. After a 
 tedious march through a wild country, so over- 
 grown with saw palmetto and underbrush, that 
 our horses had great difficulty to get through it, 
 we arrived at the skirts of the swamp; here a 
 consultation took place between the officers 
 present, and it was arranged that an Indian 
 guide whom we had with us, should go in and 
 hold a parley with the Indians, to induce them if 
 possible, to surrender. The guide went into the 
 hammock, which extended along the edge of the 
 swamp as far as the eye could reach, right and 
 left. I should have mentioned, that this man, 
 with the usual Indian acuteness, had discovered 
 indubitable signs that the enemy was in the 
 vicinity, long before we reached the spot. After 
 an absence of about an hour, during which time 
 we refreshed ourselves, and made preparations for 
 an expected struggle, our guide returned, bring- 
 ing with him a bow and quiver of arrows, as 
 proofs of his interview with the secreted Indians. 
 The account he gave, which was interpreted by a 
 half-bred Indian who accompanied the expedi- 
 tion for the purpose, was, that after penetrating 
 some distance into the fastness, he came to the 
 encampment of the enemy, and was instantly sur- 
 rounded by warriors, who seized him, but after 
 parleying for a considerable time, let him go, pre- 
 senting him with a bow and arrows, as a symbol 
 of their unflinching resolve to continue the war. 
 
ATTACK. 141 
 
 On hearing this, it was at once determined by 
 the officer in command that the whole force 
 (except a guard for the horses and waggons) 
 should go in and surprise them. The guide shook 
 his head at this, and, pointing towards the swamp, 
 said, " That is the way. I have shown it to you ; 
 follow it if you will ; I do not go/' It was, 
 however, of no use to dally, and orders were 
 given for all hands to follow into the swamp. 
 For my own part, I wished to stay behind, but 
 was told that such a course was attended with 
 danger, as the Indians would most likely emerge 
 from another part of the hammock, and endeavour 
 to seize the horses, and ransack the waggons. 
 This decided my adopting the least of the two 
 evils, although I fully expected we should have 
 a battle. After penetrating for I should think 
 upwards of two miles, sometimes up to our knees 
 in miry clay, and often stopped by impassable 
 barriers of wild vines and other prehensile plants, 
 which annoyed us greatly, and made me regret 
 a thousand times that I had courted such dangers 
 and inconveniences, the sound of two rifle-shots 
 threw the whole party into indescribable com- 
 motion. Supposing we were attacked, all hands 
 flew as quick as thought to the trees around, 
 where each one, peeping from behind the trunks 
 which were sought as a shelter against the rifle- 
 balls of the expected foe, waited for a few 
 
142 THE ENCAMPMENT. 
 
 moments in great suspense, when, suddenly, a 
 loud cheer from the party in advance, followed 
 by several rifle-shots, told us they had come upon 
 the encampment As the firing ceased, I knew 
 the Indians had fled; this seemed also the opinion 
 of the volunteers near me, who simultaneously 
 left their hiding-place, and pushed forward to 
 the scene. On arriving at the spot, I found the 
 soldiers around a large Indian fire, over which 
 was suspended a boiling cauldron, filled with 
 venison, the Indians having been, no doubt, pre- 
 paring a meal when disturbed by us ; by the side, 
 and not far from the fire, was a large trough, 
 made out of a fallen tree, in which was a quantity 
 of arrowroot in course of preparation. This plant 
 grows plentifully in this latitude, and is the 
 principal fare of the Indians, their squaws super- 
 intending the management of it. The remains 
 of a fine buck lay near, and also some moccasons, 
 leggings, and other Indian gear. 
 
 The enemy we had so unceremoniously dis- 
 turbed had, as usual, taken flight ; but we found 
 traces of blood, and the advanced party stated 
 that they had fired on two warriors, who, with a 
 woman and two children, were on the spot when 
 they came up. 
 
 As it was deemed quite useless to pursue them, 
 from their being, no doubt, well acquainted with 
 the intricacies of the fastness, and, therefore, sure 
 
A MERRY EVENING. 143 
 
 to evade us, we regaled ourselves on the venison, 
 of which some refused to partake, lest it should 
 be poisoned. It was decided that the force should 
 emerge from the swamp to the open plain about 
 a mile above the spot where we had left the 
 waggons, by a circuitous route ; this was accord- 
 ingly done, but our progress was so difficult, that 
 the Indians had ample opportunity to fly before 
 us, and we saw no further traces of them. 
 
 On reaching the waggons, we found, to our 
 great satisfaction, that all was safe, and as night 
 was approaching, it was decided to encamp there, 
 a spring of turbid water being in the vicinity 
 A cordon of sentinels was accordingly placed 
 around our resting-place, and some tents were 
 pitched for a portion of the party ; the remainder, 
 wrapped in blankets, sleeping on the sand. After 
 the whiskey had passed round, the jocular little 
 major in command proposed a song, and as one 
 of the infantry soldiers was an adept at the art, 
 he was invited to our marquee. Although in the 
 very midst of danger, for we knew not how for- 
 midable in number the Indians were, we passed 
 a merry evening. 
 
 Soon after this affair, the party returned to 
 the bay, and in a day or two I started on my 
 return to Tallahassee. About twenty miles from 
 Deadman's Bay, we overtook a fugitive negro, 
 and as we came upon him unexpectedly, when 
 
144 A FUGITIVE NEGRO. 
 
 turning the edge of a hammock, he had not time 
 to retreat, being within rifle-range, or he would 
 doubtless have done so. He threw up his arms, 
 and gave a piercing shriek (an unvariable custom 
 of Indians when in danger), expecting to be in- 
 stantly shot. He had, however, nothing to fear, 
 having fallen in with friends and not foes. As 
 I saw he Avas without a rifle, I dashed forward 
 and accosted him first. He was soon assured, 
 by my manner of addressing him, and begged 
 earnestly that we would not detain or hurt him. 
 This I at once promised, if he would inform us 
 whether Indians were near. He said no, they 
 had left that country two suns (days) ago, taking 
 an easterly direction, and we might proceed to 
 Fort Andrews in safety. 
 
 After putting several other questions to him, 
 I inquired if the Indians would cross our path to 
 Tallahassee from that post, He said no, they were 
 far off in another direction, having gone to East 
 Florida, eighty miles distant. The fellow was in 
 poor case, and begged for food, saying he was 
 starving. I, therefore, desired the men to supply 
 him with some dried venison and bread, which 
 he ate with avidity. He refused to tell me his 
 master's name, but said there were hundreds of 
 negroes fighting with the Indians, six from the 
 same plantation as himself. My companions were 
 at first intent upon securing him, but being 
 
CAPTURED INDIAN WOMEN. 145 
 
 averse to that course, I dared them to do it ; 
 when, seeing I was fully determined on this 
 point, they did not insist. Pointing to the ham- 
 mock, after giving him a dram of brandy, I bid 
 him be off, when he darted like a deer into the 
 thicket, and disappeared from our view, with a 
 loud shout of exultation. 
 
 About ten miles further on, as we passed the 
 edge of a dense hammock, we heard the bay of 
 an Indian dog, and fearing the proximity of a 
 party of marauders, we were instantly on the 
 alert. The dog did not, however, come out of the 
 wood, and we rode from the dangerous vicinity 
 with all dispatch. Arrived again at Fort An- 
 drews, without any further adventure worth re- 
 cording, we found a party of volunteers about to 
 proceed to Fort Pleasant, in the direction we 
 were going. After recruiting my now almost 
 exhausted strength by a refreshing sleep, I went 
 down to their encampment, by the river's edge. 
 They had the day before encountered a strong 
 party of Indians, whom they repulsed with loss. 
 Some of the party showed me several bloody 
 scalps of warriors they had killed. I could not 
 help remarking the beauty of the hair, which 
 was raven-black, and shone with a beautiful gloss. 
 They had several captured Indian women with 
 them, and half-a-dozen children; the former were 
 absorbed in grief, and one in particular, whose 
 
 L 
 
146 TERTIAN AGUE. 
 
 young husband had been shot in the fray, and 
 whose scalp was one of those I have just men- 
 tioned, was quite overwhelmed. The children, 
 little conscious of the misery of their parents, 
 swam about and dived in the river like amphi- 
 trites ; they each carried a small bow and quiver 
 of arrows. There is no doubt the Indians these 
 volunteers had fallen in with and routed, were 
 the identical party referred to by the negro we 
 had met some forty-eight hours before. 
 
 I had made up my mind to stay at Fort An- 
 drews for a time, partly to fulfil an engagement 
 with a friend whom I had arranged to meet here, 
 and to whom I shall shortly have to refer more 
 at length, and partly to recruit my strength, a 
 tertian ague having seized me, which much de- 
 bilitated my frame, and made travelling very 
 irksome. My accommodation was indifferent, but 
 medical assistance, which I needed most, was 
 not wanting, and I shall never forget the courtesy 
 of the officers. 
 
 I employed my time chiefly in rambling the 
 woods, when health would permit, and had a boat 
 lent to me, with which, in company, I several times 
 penetrated the tortuous river, Esteenahatchie, to 
 the bay, some miles distant. At night the boats 
 were all sunk, or they would have been stolen 
 or destroyed by the Indians, who hovered round 
 and committed petty depredations at every oppor- 
 
AN INDIAN WARRIOR. 147 
 
 tunity. Below the fort, was a ruinous mill, in a 
 gloomy dell, through which the river wended its 
 silent course. This had once been tenanted, but 
 the inhabitants were murdered some years before 
 by the Indians, who afterwards (as is their almost 
 unvarying custom), added to the atrocity by set- 
 ting fire to the building. 
 
 Sitting one day, after a lengthened ramble, in 
 solitary meditation on my position and the sur- 
 rounding scenery, I saw a fine Indian, who ap- 
 peared greatly fatigued, emerge from the adjoining 
 hammock, and walk to the edge of the stream, 
 and there, after glancing round him with eager 
 eye and air, he laid down his rifle, and stepping 
 on to a tree which debouched into the stream 
 (lying as it had been struck down by a tornado), 
 he crouched down at the end of it, and com- 
 menced laving himself with the water. His ap- 
 pearance was romantic, and there is no doubt, 
 from his dress, he w^as a warrior of some note, 
 probably following his wife, one of the squaws 
 captured by the volunteers I have before men- 
 tioned, and who were still at Fort Andrews, 
 awaiting orders from General Taylor. I could 
 have shot him to a certainty, had I been armed, 
 which was not the case. Had it been so, how- 
 ever, I was predetermined never, unless in self- 
 defence, to imbrue my hands in Indian or negro 
 blood while in the territory, neither was I dis- 
 
148 A PLEASANT COMPANION. 
 
 posed to betray him, for I deeply sympathized 
 with the misfortunes of his race, and well knew 
 that an inexcusable spirit of aggrandizement on 
 the part of the Federal Government had in the 
 first place roused the indignation of both negroes 
 and red men, and provoked hostilities. After per- 
 forming his ablution, the Indian stalked like a 
 deer into the recesses of the forest, I having in 
 the mean time, as a matter of policy, moved out 
 of danger, for he was no doubt animated with 
 feelings of dire revenge, and in a very different 
 mood from that in which I have described myself 
 to have been at the time. 
 
 During my visit to Deadman's Bay, I had 
 become acquainted with a Scotch gentleman, 
 who was employed on the medical staff of the 
 U.S. army, I believe, as a supernumerary, or can- 
 didate for a commission as a surgeon. He was 
 a most agreeable companion, of good natural 
 parts, fluent in conversation, intelligent in re- 
 mark, free from egotism, and well educated, I 
 believe, at Cambridge, in England. We soon 
 became attached to each other. He accompanied 
 me in my rambles, and we were almost insepa- 
 rable companions during my stay. He was one 
 of those beings, in fine, who seem to be sent at 
 times to cheer the darkened highway of existence 
 under gloomy circumstances ; and I fondly hoped 
 to enjoy with him a lengthened period of vir- 
 
ARRIVAL OF MY FRIEND^ ESCORT. 149 
 
 tuous intimacy, and close, unalloyed friendship, 
 on more propitious soil. 
 
 But the decrees of Providence are inscrutable, 
 and " his ways/' indeed, " past finding out/' This 
 was certainly strikingly exemplified by the catas- 
 trophe I am about to relate, which deprived me 
 for ever of my friend. 
 
 When at the bay, he expressed a wish to visit 
 St. Marks, Tallahassee, and Apalachicola, and 
 stated his intention, as soon as his engagements 
 permitted, to proceed thither by steamer, if oppor- 
 tunity offered — or failing this, to go overland, 
 availing himself of some escort which might be 
 proceeding in that direction. As I felt desirous 
 to have his company, on my route to South Caro- 
 lina, I arranged to halt at Fort Andrews, as 
 before stated, that he should join me there in a 
 week, and then proceed in company with me to 
 Fort Pleasant, forty miles distant, and thence to 
 Tallahassee. 
 
 The time having now come at which I was ex- 
 pecting his arrival, I was one morning anxiously 
 looking out through the long vista of pine trees 
 and barrens, when I descried in the distance two 
 horsemen approaching at their greatest speed ; I 
 at first imagined them to be, as they indeed 
 proved, an advanced party of my friend's escort 
 — but, on their coming up, I could see, from the 
 agitation they were in, and the foaming state of 
 
150 THE MURDERED TRAVELLER. 
 
 their horses, which were quite white and in a 
 dreadfully exhausted state, that something alarm- 
 ing had happened. 
 
 The tale was soon told : — It appeared, that 
 about midway between the two settlements, or 
 stations, a party of Indians in ambush had fired 
 upon the party, and my friend had been treacher- 
 ously murdered. I was much affected by this 
 intelligence, and, after some consultation with a 
 gentleman there, determined to get up a pretty 
 strong party, and proceed to the scene of the 
 murder, to collect the remains of my poor friend, 
 whose bones would otherwise be left, as I had 
 seen others in those regions, to bleach on the 
 sand hills. We soon started, the party consisting 
 of fourteen men, well armed with rifles, bowie 
 knives, and pistols, accompanied by a waggon, 
 drawn by four stout mules and driven by a negro, 
 to convey back the remains. The expedition was 
 attended with no little danger, from the prox- 
 imity of a newly-discovered party of Indians, 
 who were committing dreadful ravages in the 
 district — but whether in large or small force, was 
 uncertain ; they were, probably, the party I have 
 before adverted to, lingering about the vicinity. 
 
 After a melancholy journey, during which we 
 were so absorbed by our feelings, that little was 
 said; we reached the fatal spot, it being pointed 
 out by one of the party who formed my friend's 
 
INDIANS IN AMBUSCADE. 151 
 
 escort. It was on the edge of a dense hammock, 
 by the skirts of which lay some enormous trees, 
 which had been levelled by a recent tornado. 
 From behind this barricade the Indians had un- 
 expectedly fired on the party — the attack was so 
 sudden, that they appeared to have been quite 
 taken by surprise. This was the more extraor- 
 dinary, as the whole neighbourhood was of a 
 description likely to be chosen by the red men 
 for an ambuscade. The party attacked must 
 have been in great trepidation, for, from what I 
 could glean, the survivors put spurs to their 
 horses' flanks, and galloped off to Fort Andrews, 
 leaving my poor friend entirely at the mercy of 
 the enemy. The survivor, who accompanied us, 
 stated, that they were riding in Indian file, as 
 
 is customary there ; that poor H was in front 
 
 of him ; and that, directly the Indians gave their 
 fire, he saw him fall backwards from his horse, 
 at the same time raising his left hand to his 
 head. He could tell no more, the horse he was 
 on having wheeled round suddenly, and been 
 urged on in retreat by its rider, who was in the 
 greatest imaginable terror. Had the party halted, 
 and returned the fire, for they were well armed, 
 in all probability some of the marauders would 
 have been laid low, or, if the Indians were but 
 few, they might at least have rescued my poor 
 friend. 
 
152 THE REMAINS OF MY FRIEND. 
 
 We found foot-marks of Indians, which we 
 traced ; by these it appeared that they were in 
 
 small force, and that when H fell from his 
 
 horse he recovered his feet, and ran from the 
 enemy, in the direction of the plain, for about 
 two hundred yards — here it was evident he had 
 been overtaken, and his skull cloven with a toma- 
 hawk from behind. We soon discovered his 
 remains in the sand, denuded of every particle 
 of flesh and muscle by the vultures and the 
 ravenous wolves. We collected the bones with 
 reverential care, and placed them in the waggon, 
 for transit to Fort Andrews. 
 
 On the bones of the little finger of the left 
 hand was an emerald ring, which I had often 
 seen the murdered man wear, and which, being 
 covered with blood and sand at the time of the 
 catastrophe, no doubt escaped the attention of 
 the villians who perpetrated the atrocious act. 
 The left jaw was fractured by a rifle-bullet, which 
 knocked him off his horse backwards, as described 
 by one of the survivors. 
 
 In the pines opposite the place of ambush, we 
 found several balls imbedded, and one had lodged 
 in the pummel of the saddle of the man who 
 was present, and who formed one of our party. 
 It appeared probable that there were not more 
 than four or five Indians engaged in the attack ; 
 a force which might easily have been repelled 
 
THE GRAVE. 153 
 
 and annihilated with ordinary courage, but for- 
 midable enough to men wanting the presence 
 of mind which is necessary under such circum- 
 stances. 
 
 After a fatiguing journey, for which I was at 
 the time almost totally unfitted by ill-health, our 
 party reached Fort Andrews, with the mangled 
 remains of the victim. A short time afterwards 
 these were committed to the sand, a military 
 salute being fired over the grave by some soldiers 
 at the garrison. On an elevated slab of wood, 
 to the north of Fort Andrews, may be seen a 
 zinc plate, erected by me to the memory of my 
 friend, with his name, the date of his death, and 
 an epitome of the circumstances attending it. 
 This memento of regard has, in all probability, 
 escaped the cupidity of the Indians, for I took 
 the precaution to have it placed as much out of 
 sight as possible, and the place of burial was off 
 the beaten track. 
 
 Thus perished miserably, one whose generous 
 openness and manly virtues rendered him dear 
 to all who had the privilege of his acquaintance. 
 He was a native of somewhere near Arbroath 
 in Scotland, but his accent did not betray his 
 nativity. 
 
 In traversing the sandy deserts of West Florida, 
 I had frequent opportunities of tracing the devas- 
 tating effects of those awful visitations in tropical 
 
]54 FROM DEADMAN'S BAY TO TALLAHASSEE. 
 
 climates — hurricanes, or tornadoes ; and, notwith- 
 standing I had the good fortune to escape the 
 danger of being exposed to one, I more than 
 once prepared for the worst. One of these was 
 accompanied with phenomena so unusual and 
 striking to a native of Europe, that I must not 
 omit some notice of it, if for no other purpose 
 than to convey to the mind of the reader one 
 of the many unpleasant but wonderful accom- 
 paniments of a residence in these latitudes, so 
 poetically, and indeed so truthfully, apostrophized 
 as "the sunny south/' 
 
 It was while on a journey (accompanied by 
 two yeomen from East Florida, who were pro- 
 ceeding to join an expedition against the Indians 
 to defend their hearths, and by the friend whose 
 melancholy loss I have adverted to) from Dead- 
 man's Bay towards Tallahassee, that the occur- 
 rence I am about to mention took place. It was 
 in the height of summer, and for several days 
 Fahrenheit's barometer had ranged from 84 to 90 
 degrees, the temperature being occasionally even 
 higher, by some degrees, than this. We started 
 soon after eight in the morning, and had ridden 
 all day under a scorching sun, from the effects of 
 which Ave were but ill-defended by our palm-leaf 
 hats, for our heads were aching intensely — my 
 own being, in common parlance, "ready to split/' 
 not an inapt simile, by the way, as I often ex- 
 
ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 155 
 
 perienced in the south. Towards evening, the 
 sultriness increased to a great degree, and re- 
 spiration became painful, from the closeness of 
 the atmosphere. A suspicious lull soon after 
 succeeded, and we momentarily expected the 
 storm to overtake us. It was not, however, one 
 that was to be relieved by an ordinary discharge 
 of thunder, lightning, and rain — deeper causes 
 being evidently at work. The denseness of the 
 air was accompanied by a semi-darkness, similar 
 to that which prevails during an eclipse of the 
 sun, which luminary, on the occasion I refer to, 
 after all day emitting a lurid glare, was so shrouded 
 in vapour as to be scarcely discernible, even in 
 outline — while a subterranean noise added to the 
 terrors of our situation, which strongly called to 
 mind the accounts we read of earthquakes and 
 similar phenomena. 
 
 We moved slowly on, as people naturally would 
 who were about to be overwhelmed in a calamity 
 that threatened their annihilation, while an in- 
 definable sensation of sleepiness and inertia seized 
 the whole of the party. Vultures and other birds 
 of prey screamed dismally, as they hovered round 
 our heads in the greatest excitement, arising 
 either from terror or the anticipation of a rich 
 repast, we could not tell which. These voracious 
 creatures, with great audacity, often descended to 
 within a few feet of the heads of our horses, which 
 
156 THE IMPENDING TORNADO. 
 
 seemed terror-stricken at their near approach. I 
 took aim at one of the largest of them with my 
 rifle, and it fell a little to my left, with an im- 
 petus I can only compare to the fall of a human 
 being. Directly it touched the ground, it vomited 
 carrion and died. It was many feet in breadth 
 from tip to tip of wing, but we were too perturbed 
 to stop and measure it. When I discharged the 
 rifle, the report was unusually faint, owing to 
 the state of the air ; so much so, that my com- 
 panions, who were not fifty yards behind, scarcely 
 heard it. The wild animals in the jungle which 
 skirted the road, and which, in general, skulk in 
 silence and secresy in their haunts, rent the air 
 with their howlings. The very order of nature 
 seemed about to be reversed, while the long 
 streamers of grey moss swayed backwards and 
 forwards mournfully from the trees, adding to the 
 solemnity of the scene. As the party slowly 
 wended its way through the wilderness, each in- 
 dividual looked round with suspicion, exchanging 
 furtive glances, or now and then uttering some 
 exclamation of alarm — their manner and bearing 
 indicating minds ill at ease. 
 
 This dismal state of things lasted nearly an 
 hour, after which time nature seemed to re- 
 cover herself by a sudden throe, for a brisk 
 breeze, which was highly refreshing to our senses, 
 and which w r as attended by the loud hollow sub- 
 
UNEXPECTED DELIVERANCE. 157 
 
 terranean sound I have before referred to, unex- 
 pectedly sprang up, and swept off, as if by magic, 
 the inertia of nature. What made the phenomenon 
 more extraordinary, was the total absence of 
 thunder or lightning. My companions shouted 
 for joy when the hollow moan of the embryo tem- 
 pest was heard to move off* to the eastward (for, 
 as they informed me, it told of deliverance from 
 peril); I felt a sensation of delight I cannot 
 describe, and heartily responded to the noisy 
 demonstration of satisfaction raised by my com- 
 panions. 
 
 Our horses, apparently participating in our 
 delight, pricked up their ears, and snorted, fairly 
 prancing with pleasure, tired and jaded as they 
 were after thirty miles' travel through sand, into 
 which they sank at every step fetlock deep, often 
 groaning pitifully. 
 
 I noticed that, during the impending storm, they 
 hung down their heads in a listless manner, and 
 sighed heavily, a circumstance that to our minds 
 presaged calamity, and which, I may add, was 
 altogether unlike the usual indication of fatigue 
 in animals which have travelled a great distance. 
 Had the tornado burst upon us, instead of passing- 
 off as it did, it is very doubtful whether the hand 
 that writes this would not have been mingled 
 with its native dust, in the arid sands of Florida ; 
 for, as we rode on, we saw gigantic pine, cedar, 
 
158 EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE. 
 
 and hiccory trees, torn up by the roots, and scat- 
 tered over the surrounding country, by by-gone 
 hurricanes, many of them hundreds of yards 
 from the spot that nurtured their roots — while 
 the gnarled branches lying across our track, 
 scorched black with the lightning, or from long 
 exposure to a burning sun, impeded our advance, 
 and made the journey anything but pleasant. 
 
 The occurrence I have mentioned formed a topic 
 of conversation for some miles as we journeyed 
 to our destination ; and one of my companions 
 stated, that a few months before, when in the 
 neighbourhood of Pensacola, a hurricane came 
 on unexpectedly, and caused great devastation, 
 unroofing the houses, tearing up trees, and filling 
 the air with branches and fragments of property. 
 He happily escaped, although his little estate, 
 situated at Mardyke Enclosure, some short dis- 
 tance from the town, was greatly injured, and 
 some six or eight people were crushed to death 
 by the falling trees and ruins of houses. 
 
PRODUCTIONS OP FLORIDA. 159 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Before us visions come 
 Of slave-ships on Virginia's coast, 
 
 Of mothers in their childless home, 
 Like Rachel, sorrowing o'er the lost ; 
 The slave-gang scourged upon its way, 
 The bloodhound and his human prey." — Whittier. 
 
 Florida produces oranges, peaches, plums, a spe- 
 cies of cocoa-nut, and musk and water-melons 
 in abundance. The more open portions of the 
 country are dotted over with clumps of gnarled 
 pines, of a very resinous nature, white and red 
 oak, hiccory, cedar, and cypress, and is in general 
 scantily clad with thin grass, fit only for deer to 
 browse upon. The dreary sameness of the in- 
 terior of this desolate country is distressing to 
 the traveller ; and the journey from one settle- 
 ment to another, through pine -forests, seems 
 almost interminable. 
 
 One morning, a short time prior to my intended 
 
160 INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 
 
 departure for Tallahassee, I was roused before 
 daybreak by a rifle-shot, which was instantly 
 followed by the cry of " Guard, turn out!" and 
 much hubbub. As this was no unusual occur- 
 rence, from the constant apprehension we were 
 in of an attack by the Indians on the stockade, 
 and as it had several times occurred before during 
 my stay, I resolved to lie and listen awhile be- 
 fore I rose. The earnest conversation and the 
 noise of horses soon after satisfied me it was only 
 a friendly arrival. I, however, felt anxious to ob- 
 tain intelligence as to the success of a treaty then 
 pending between the United States Government 
 and the Indians ; the favourable termination of 
 which would not only render my return to Talla- 
 hassee more safe, but put a stop, perhaps for ever, 
 to those constant scenes of blood and depredation 
 that were by this time become quite sickening to 
 me. This feeling was much enhanced at the time 
 by the express between Fort Andrews and Dead- 
 man's Bay, being shot by a party of the common 
 enemy. The body of this poor fellow was never 
 found, but traces of blood were to be seen near 
 the spot where he had been attacked ; and the 
 saddle and bridle of his horse were found cut 
 into a thousand pieces ; the probability being 
 that he was wounded and taken prisoner, doubt- 
 less to be tortured to death, a practice common 
 with all Indian tribes in time of war. 
 
BLOODHOUNDS TO HUNT SLAVES. 161 
 
 On my proceeding to a house used as officers' 
 quarters, outside the stockade, I found the stir 
 had been caused by the arrival of two companies 
 of light-horse soldiers from St. Marks, escorting 
 several couples of bloodhounds, to aid the army, 
 operating in that part of Florida, to exterminate 
 the Indians. These dogs were very ferocious, and, 
 on approaching the leashmen, who had them in 
 charge, they opened in full yell, and attempted to 
 break loose. The dogs had just arrived from Cuba 
 with their keepers, their importation having been 
 caused by the supposition, that, like the Maroons 
 in Jamaica, who, for nearly thirty years, defied 
 the colonists there, the Indians would be terrified 
 into submission. This, however, turned out to be 
 erroneous ; for, on their first trial, the Indians 
 killed several, and the scheme was very properly 
 abandoned a short time after. 
 
 Such barbarous means were very unjustifiable, 
 although many (to use the language of the Earl 
 of Chatham, when deprecating a similar course 
 in the English House of Lords) considered that 
 every means that God and nature had placed in 
 their hands, were allowable in the endeavour to 
 bring to a close a war that had cost the Federal 
 Government an immense amount of blood and 
 treasure, I am of opinion, however, from what 
 I afterwards heard, that the step was not 
 an altogether popular one in the eastern and 
 
 M 
 
162 THE TOBACCO PLANT. 
 
 northern states, although it certainly was so in 
 the southern ; it being argued in the public prints 
 there, that as dogs had been used in hunting 
 down fugitive negroes from time immemorial, the 
 mere fact of bloodhounds being used instead of 
 mastiffs was a peccadillo unworthy of name. 
 
 The tobacco plant, though growing in many 
 parts of Florida spontaneously, like the broad- 
 leafed dock in England, is often cultivated in 
 garden-ground for domestic use, some of the finer 
 kinds being as aromatic as those of Cuba. The 
 soil in such places is rich ; indeed, the plant will 
 not thrive in many parts where this is not the 
 case. The method of propagation, generally fol- 
 lowed by the large growers, is that recommended 
 by Loudon, in his incomparable Encyclopedia of 
 Agriculture, and is as follows : — The soil selected 
 is in general loamy and deep ; this is well broken 
 up before planting, and frequently stirred to free 
 it from the rich growth of weeds that, in Florida 
 in particular, choke the growth of all plants if 
 neglected. The seeds being small, they are lightly 
 covered with earth, and then the surface is pressed 
 down with a flat instrument used for the purpose. 
 In two months after, the seedlings are ready to 
 transplant, and are placed in drills, three feet 
 apart every way. These are frequently watered, 
 if there happens to be but little rain, which, in 
 that arid climate, is often the case for weeks 
 
MODE OF CULTIVATION. 163 
 
 together, and the plants regularly looked over, to 
 destroy a species of worm which, if not removed, 
 plays great havoc with the young buds. When 
 four inches high, the plants are moulded up like 
 potatoes in England ; when they have six or seven 
 leaves, and are just putting out a stalk, the top 
 is nipped off, to make the leaves stronger and 
 more robust. After this, the buds, which show 
 themselves at the joints of the leaves, are plucked, 
 and then the plants are daily examined, to destroy 
 a caterpillar, of a singular form and grey in colour, 
 which makes its appearance at this stage, and is 
 very destructive to narcotic plants. When fit for 
 cutting, which is known by the brittleness of the 
 leaves, the plants are cut close to the ground, and 
 allowed to lie some time. They are then put in 
 farm-houses, in the chimney-corner, to dry ; or, 
 if the crop is extensive, the plants are hung upon 
 lines in a drying-house, so managed that they 
 will not touch each other. In this state, they 
 are left to sweat and dry. When this takes place, 
 the leaves are stripped off and tied in bundles ; 
 these are put in heaps, and covered with a sort 
 of matting, made from the cotton-fibre or sea- 
 weed, to engender a certain heat to ripen the 
 aroma, care being taken lest a fermentation 
 should occur, which injures the value of the 
 article ; to avoid which the bundles are exposed 
 and spread about now and then in the open air. 
 
I6i DISTRICTS DEVASTATED BY INDIANS. 
 
 This operation is called ventilating by the planters, 
 and is continued until there is no apparent heat 
 in the heaps. The plant is quite ornamental, and 
 its blossoms form a pleasing feature in a garden 
 of exotic productions. 
 
 After a brief stay at Fort Andrews, subsequent 
 to the last sad offices for my deceased friend, I 
 left that spot on horseback for Tallahassee, in 
 company with four settlers. We soon reached 
 the more populated districts, without being mo- 
 lested by the Indians. Here they had committed 
 sad devastations ; we saw many farms without 
 occupants, the holders having been either mur- 
 dered by midnight assassins, or having fled in 
 alarm. Adjoining these habitations, we found 
 fine peach orchards, teeming with fruit of the 
 richest description, which lay in bushels on the 
 ground, and with which we regaled ourselves. 
 Enclosed maize fields overgrown with brambles, 
 and cotton fields with the gins and apparatus 
 for packing the produce in bales for the market, 
 presented to the eye the very picture of desola- 
 tion. 
 
 Owing to cross roads we were at one time com- 
 pletely at fault, and there being no house in sight, 
 I volunteered to ride off to the right and endea- 
 vour to obtain the information we were in need 
 of. After riding about half-a-mile, I heard voices 
 through a road-side coppice, which I took to be 
 
AN IGNORANT NEGRO. 165 
 
 those of field-hands at work ; going farther on I 
 dismounted, and climbing the zigzag rail fence 
 approached a negro at work in the field. I in- 
 quired if he could put me on the road to Talla- 
 hassee ; he appeared much frightened at the 
 intrusion, but stated he did not know, but his 
 mas'r did, at the same time pointing to the plan- 
 tation-house, situate the greater part of a mile 
 distant ; being averse to going there, for fear of 
 impudent interrogation, I offered him money to 
 go with me to the point where I had left my 
 companions, and show us the way to the next 
 house ; he did not even know what it was I 
 offered him, and in apparent amazement inquired 
 what that was for ; I explained, buy tobacco, 
 buy whiskey ; he appeared totally ignorant of its 
 use, and I have no doubt he had never had money 
 in his possession, or learned its use. Still, he re- 
 fused to leave the field, a wise precaution, as I 
 afterwards found, both for himself and me. The 
 negro being resolute, there was now no alterna- 
 tive but to go to the house, on arriving at which, 
 I met with such a reception as I had feared and 
 anticipated. Three fierce dogs of the mastiff' breed, 
 regularly trained to hunting fugitive negroes, 
 rushed out upon me. I had only a small riding 
 whip with me, having left my fire-arms with a 
 friend at Fort Andrews, and much dreaded lacer- 
 ation. Their noise soon brought out a ferocious, 
 
166 A HOUSE OF CALL. 
 
 lank-visaged-looking man, about forty years of 
 age, who immediately called off the dogs ; but be- 
 fore I had time to make the inquiry that brought 
 me there, he began in about the following strain, 
 
 " What dye yer waunt up yar, stranger ? Arter 
 no good, I guess ; you'd better put it 'bout 
 straight. I see'd yer torking to the hands yonder 
 — none o' yer 'mancipator doctrines yar/' 
 
 The fellow's address " struck me aU of a heap," 
 as he would himself have said, had he been in 
 my situation ; he spoke so fast, that I could not 
 edge in a word ; at last I stated the cause of my 
 intrusion, but he would not believe a word, 
 ordered me to quit the plantation or he would 
 set the dogs on me, and was getting into such an 
 ungovernable rage, that I thought it would be 
 wise to follow his advice. So I slowly retreated 
 to the yard entrance by which I had come in. 
 Returning to my companions at the cross-roads, 
 I found that, in my absence, a passer-by had 
 given them the wished-for information, and we 
 pushed on to a house of call, a few miles distant. 
 
 As the ride was a long one, we halted at this 
 house for refreshment, and, after baiting our 
 horses, regaled ourselves upon some choice ham 
 and eggs. At the table, three little negroes, 
 one girl and two boys, under fourtren years of 
 age, served as waiters. Their clothing was sup- 
 plied by nature, being solely the primitive habi- 
 
A BRUTE. 167 
 
 liments worn in Eden before the fall. This is 
 quite customary in the south, where the rules of 
 decency are commonly set at defiance, as if the 
 curse of Adam's transgression applied not in this 
 respect to the African race. The little creatures 
 did not seem to be in the least aware of their 
 degraded state ; they were as agile as fawns, and 
 their tact in administering to the wants of the 
 company was quite remarkable. 
 
 Just as we were about to proceed on our 
 journey, a party of some half-a-dozen planters or 
 overseers of neighbouring estates, mounted on 
 fine mules, who had been searching for fugitive 
 field-hands, rode up. I could see they were greatly 
 excited, and one of them had a negro lassoed by 
 the neck, one end of the rope being fastened to 
 his high Spanish saddle. On coming up to the 
 entrance gate, the one most in advance dismounted 
 to open it ; the mule, eager, perhaps, to get to 
 a crib, or, what is more likely, to evade a brutal 
 kick or blow, trotted through ; this did not please 
 its owner, who bellowed loudly to it to stop. 
 The mule, however, still kept on, when the 
 ruffian, in demoniac anger, drew from his belt 
 a long bowie knife, and darting after the animal, 
 hurled it at him with all his force. The blade of 
 the weapon, which was six or seven inches long, 
 entered and stuck fast in the abdomen of the 
 agonized creature, which, for about twenty yards, 
 
168 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 
 
 ran on furiously, with the murderous knife in its 
 vitals. It then fell with a deep groan, while the 
 fiend who had perpetrated this wanton act of 
 barbarity and his companions watched its fall, 
 and loudly exulted in it. I noticed that there 
 was a deep scowl of hatred on the countenance 
 of the negro prisoner as this drama was being 
 enacted, and when the knife struck the poor 
 mule he cried out, " Oh, mas'r, rnasr ! " Societies 
 for the suppression of cruelty to animals, are, as 
 might be supposed, unknown in such remote 
 situations, nor do they exist in any of the slave 
 states and territories of America ; so that redress 
 in such a case was out of the question. I there- 
 fore consoled myself that the outrage had brought 
 its own punishment in the loss of the mule, 
 which was at least worth from eighty to one 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 Passing onwards, we reached Tallahassee by 
 rather a circuitous route, via Mount Pleasant. 
 Although in an indifferent state of health, from 
 exposure to the poisonous miasma of the country, 
 I, on the whole, felt pleased with my journey, 
 now that its dangers were over, and grateful to 
 the great Dispenser of all good, who had safely 
 conducted me through them. At Tallahassee I 
 saw in the streets, in charge of a ruffianly-looking 
 fellow, two negroes, with heavy iron collars round 
 their necks. These were captured run-aways ; the 
 
GENERAL MURAT. 169 
 
 collars, which must have weighed seven or ten 
 pounds, had spikes projecting on either side. 
 One of the poor creatures had hold of the spikes 
 as he walked along to ease the load that pressed 
 painfully on his shoulders. 
 
 General Murat resided at the time in this 
 neighbourhood ; he is the brother of Jehoiachin, 
 ex-king of Naples, and owns a large plantation, 
 and, I was told, upwards of two hundred negroes, 
 who were described as being humanely treated by 
 him. This, however, is a very indefinite term, 
 where all slave-owners profess to do the same, 
 though the poor wretches over whom by law 
 they impiously assume God's heritage, in ninety 
 cases out of every hundred, are scantily clothed, 
 worse fed than horses or mules, and worked to 
 the utmost extent of human endurance, the 
 humanity being, in most cases, left to the tender 
 mercies of a brutal overseer, who exacts all he 
 can. If the poor, tattered, squalid-looking beings 
 I saw in Tallahassee be a fair specimen of the 
 " humane treatment " I have referred to, heaven 
 help them. 
 
 General Murat, some years ago, married an 
 American lady, who delighted in being called the 
 " princess/' a little piece of vanity quite in keep- 
 ing with the aristocratical prejudices of American 
 females in the south, who are devoted worship- 
 pers of lordly institutions and usages. I did not 
 
170 PLEASANT SPORT 
 
 see the general myself, but was told he was often 
 to be met lounging about the bars of the prin- 
 cipal hotels (being quite Americanized in this 
 respect). He was described as a very garrulous 
 old gentleman, extremely fond of recounting his 
 adventures, particularly his escape when the allied 
 troops entered Paris, about the year of Bonaparte's 
 subjugation. 
 
 After remaining a few days in Tallahassee, I 
 took the conveyance to Macon in Georgia, in- 
 tending to pursue my route overland to Charles- 
 ton in South Carolina. In the diligence (a 
 clumsy apology for a coach) from Tallahassee to 
 Macon, were several loquacious passengers. One 
 of these amused and disgusted us by turns ; for, 
 after giving an epitome of his career, which 
 was a chequered one, he related an incident that 
 had recently occurred on a plantation he had 
 been visiting, and, as it presents a novel feature 
 in the asserted rights of slave-holders — how pro- 
 fane, I will not stop to inquire — I think it worth 
 recording. After a recital of a drunken debauch, 
 in which he had taken a part, described by him 
 as a frolic, and which had been kept up for several 
 days, his host, he said, anxious to show the high 
 sense he entertained of the honour of the visit 
 by making almost any sacrifice (this was said 
 with great conceit), proposed to put a negro up 
 with an apple on his head, in imitation of the 
 
AT A NEGRO'S EXPENSE. 171 
 
 ordeal imposed on William Tell, the Swiss patriot, 
 declaring that he who divided the apple, or per- 
 forated it with a rifle-ball, should own the slave. 
 This proposal, the gentleman very facetiously ob- 
 served, the party jumped at, expecting some good 
 sport ; but added, " The fellow spoilt it, for he 
 refused to stand still, although we c used up' a 
 cowhide over him for his obstinacy/' The frivo- 
 lous manner in which this intended outrage was 
 related, filled me and my fellow-passengers with 
 disgust, I thought it was not safe to remark on 
 the proceeding, for I could see he was a very 
 strenuous upholder of that disgraceful system of 
 oppression, which stigmatizes and degrades the 
 Americans as a people, and will continue to do 
 so, until it is utterly abrogated, and their charac- 
 ters retrieved. 
 
 This would-be patrician was a pedantic, swag- 
 gering bully, who, it Avas evident, entertained high 
 notions of his importance, and owned, perhaps, 
 large possessions, — in a word, he was an American 
 aristocrat, and the description I have given is a 
 fair one of his class in the south. Pointing to a 
 hill, as we entered a little settlement on our way 
 to Macon, he exclaimed, " See there, gentlemen, 
 twenty years ago I toiled up that hill without a 
 cent in my wallet (purse), but now " he continued, 
 with the air of a potentate, " my niggers are the 
 sleekest in our country. In those days/' he 
 
172 MACON. 
 
 went on, " glass inkstands stood on the desks of 
 the bank I now am chief proprietor of; we have 
 nothing but gold ones now/' The fellow's bom- 
 bast lowered him in the esteem of the passengers, 
 who seemed indisposed to listen to him, and the 
 latter part of the journey he said little, being in 
 fact regularly sent to Coventry by us all. He 
 afterwards amused himself much to our annoy- 
 ance by whistling airs and singing snatches of 
 songs, which caused one of the passengers, a lady, 
 to leave the diligence at the next change of 
 horses. He was quite an adept at whistling the 
 air of " Yankee doodle/' This want of deference 
 to the sex, which I must say is an exception to 
 the general behaviour of men there and in other 
 parts of the Union I visited, did not fail to call 
 forth animadversion ; the remarks at one time 
 being so pointed, that I began to feel uneasy lest 
 the pugnacious spirit might be aroused in him, 
 which leads so often in the south to serious en- 
 counters. 
 
 Our conveyance, which more resembled a wag- 
 gon than a stage-coach, having by this time 
 stopped at a large hotel at Macon, I alighted 
 with much pleasure, for the roughness of the 
 road, the disagreeable loquacity of the passenger 
 I have described, and the recklessness of the 
 driver, made the journey excessively unpleasant. 
 
 The negro population in Georgia is very nume- 
 
NEGROES TRAVELLING BY RAIL. 1 73 
 
 rous, and their constant attempts to escape to the 
 everglades in Florida, make unceasing vigilance 
 on the part of their owners necessary for the 
 safety of their oroperty. In many instances 
 where suspicion exists, they are never allowed on 
 any pretence, to leave the estate or residence of 
 the owner. 
 
 At the Greensborough Railway Terminus, I 
 noticed two negroes on their way to Charleston. 
 Before being allowed to take their seat in an open 
 carriage in the rear of the train, the clerk at the 
 station stepped up to them, and with an air of 
 great effrontery demanded to see their passes; these 
 were instantly shown with an alacrity that plainly 
 indicated fear ; they were then shut in a box 
 in the rear of the train, in which I could see no 
 sitting accommodation. The way in which these 
 men were treated presented nothing new r , for I 
 had invariably noticed that coloured people in 
 the south, whether bond or free, w^ere spoken to 
 with supercilious haughtiness, which I never once 
 saw them openly resent. 
 
 On arriving at the next station a trader got 
 into the carriage. He had with him two negro 
 men and a boy ; these were secured to each other 
 by hand-cuffs and a slight negro chain. 
 
 For the last forty miles of my journey, I had 
 a very pleasant companion in a gentleman from 
 the state of Alabama. He was a most agreeable 
 
174 HOW NEGROES ARE MARRIED 
 
 and intelligent young fellow, but invalided like 
 myself through the poisonous miasma of the south. 
 I entered freely into conversation with him on 
 general matters, in the course of which I intro- 
 duced slavery in several of its bearings. I soon 
 discovered by his bias, that he was decidedly in 
 favour of " things as they are/' 
 
 Being anxious to obtain some information as to 
 the observance of the nuptial tie amongst slaves, 
 I touched upon that subject, when he told me the 
 ceremony was mostly a burlesque, and that 
 unions were in general but temporary, although 
 he had known some very devoted couples. But he 
 proceeded to state that there was much room 
 for reform in this respect. " I will relate to you 
 an instance/' said he, "of the manner in which 
 this, as we white people consider it, solemn 
 compact, is entered into amongst field-hands. 
 When a couple wish to live together as man 
 and wife, the male nigger mentions it to the 
 overseer, and if there are no impediments, they 
 have a cabin assigned to them/' He described 
 a scene of this kind, which J will endeavour to 
 give verbatim. He said it occurred on his father's 
 estate, some years before, and that he was standing 
 by at the time, " although," he continued, " 'tis 
 done the same now in most instances." A negro 
 approached where the overseer was standing, 
 apparently, by his sidling manner, about to 
 
IN THE SOUTH. 175 
 
 ask some favour, when the following colloquy 
 ensued. 
 
 Overseer. — "Well, you black rascal, what do you 
 stand grinning there for ? 
 
 Negro.- — Please, mas'r, want Lucy for wife. 
 
 Overseer. — Wife, you scoundrel, what do you 
 want a wife for ; be off with you, and mind your 
 horses. (He was employed as a teamster on the 
 estate.) 
 
 Negro.— Oh, mas'r, I loves Lucy. 
 
 Overseer. — And she loves you, 1 suppose. A 
 fine taste she must have, indeed. Where are you 
 going to live ? 
 
 Negro. — Got room in No. 2 cabin, if mas'r 
 please let urn. 
 
 Overseer. — Well, now listen; go along, and take 
 her, but, you lazy dog, if you get into any scrapes, 
 and don't work like live coals, 111 send her to the 
 other estate (which was situated forty miles 
 distant), and flay you alive into the bargain. 
 
 The poor fellow, after thanking the overseer 
 (not for his politeness, certainly), darted off to 
 communicate the joyful intelligence to his affi- 
 anced, making the welkin ring with his shouts. 
 The gentleman who described this scene said that 
 it was always the custom on his father's estate to 
 give a gallon or two of whiskey for the attendant 
 merry-making. 
 
 After numerous stoppages, the train at length 
 
176 CHARLESTON. 
 
 reached Charleston. The journey from Greens- 
 borough had been a tedious one ; besides the an- 
 noyance of slow travelling, through the inefficient 
 state of the line, which was so defective that the 
 carriages frequently left the rails, the noisome 
 effluvia arising from the swamps we had to pass 
 through, which harbour innumerable alligators 
 and other reptiles, had the most debilitating effect 
 on the frame, which was increased by the extreme 
 sultriness of the weather After leaving my 
 ticket at the terminus, I disposed of my baggage 
 by hiring a negro to carry it to my boarding- 
 house, and slowly wended my way into the city. 
 
 A spacious public square at the end of King- 
 street, through which I had to pass to my table 
 d'hote, presented an animated view, the citizens 
 being assembled to celebrate the anniversary of 
 the Independence conferred by Washington and 
 his compatriots by the solemn declaration of the 
 4th July, 1776. Long tables, under gay awnings, 
 to shield the company from the burning rays of 
 the sun, which at the time were intense, groaned 
 with every luxury the climate afforded ; but the 
 banquet was not furnished by this alone, for 
 Cuba and some of the neighbouring islands, it 
 was stated, had been ransacked for delicacies. 
 Crowds of elegantly-dressed ladies (in general of 
 very sallow look and languid air) and spirit-like 
 children, with swarthy-looking men, many of 
 
THE MODEL WAITER. 177 
 
 whose visages bore evident traces of exposure to 
 the ill effects of the climate and of dissipation, 
 crowded the festive board. The negro attendants 
 in dozens moved about with automatic order, 
 as is characteristic of all the race on such occasions, 
 for the negro is a " model waiter" at a banquet 
 Their snowy costumes contrasting strongly with 
 their black visages and the jovial scene around. 
 The merry peals of laughter, as some unlucky 
 wight upset a dish, or scattered the sauce in 
 everybody's face within reach, indicated light- 
 ness of heart, and merriment and conviviality 
 seemed the order of the day. 
 
 The imposing scene before me, after a long 
 absence from social meetings in civilized life, 
 was very cheering, and, had it not been for the 
 inertia I felt at the time, arising from a fatiguing 
 journey and the tertian ague, I should have felt 
 disposed to participate in the day's enjoyment. 
 Other considerations might, however, have pre- 
 vented this : I was a stranger to all around, and 
 knew that I should be either subjected to imper- 
 tinent interrogations, or become the object of 
 invidious remark — this, in my debilitated state 
 of health, I felt anxious to avoid, as calculated 
 to impede my restoration. My joining the assem- 
 bled party might also have involved the chance 
 of surveillance during my stay, which, before my 
 departure for Europe, I intended should be rather 
 
178 INSURRECTION OF THE SLAVES. 
 
 protracted. I may have been mistaken in this 
 view, but, from the character I had heard of the 
 place, I felt justified in giving way to the sus- 
 picion. 
 
 I was beguiled into the erroneous idea that 
 a sense of happiness and security reigned in the 
 assembled multitude, a notion quite fallacious, 
 from attendant circumstances, as I shall directly 
 explain. Troops were stationed at a guard-house 
 in the vicinity, and the sentinels paced in front 
 of the building, as if in preparation for, or in 
 expectation of, a foe, affording a great contrast 
 to the apparent security of the inhabitants as- 
 sembled in the square. Before reaching Charles- 
 ton, I had been apprised of the state of jeopardy 
 the citizens were in from the possibility of a 
 recurrence of those scenes of anarchy enacted at 
 the insurrection of the slaves some time before — 
 scenes which had filled every heart with dismay, 
 and spread ruin and desolation on every side. 
 From what I could glean of that fearful drama, 
 the slaves in the surrounding districts, on a con- 
 certed signal from their confederates in Charles- 
 ton, made a descent upon the city, and, rendered 
 furious by long oppression, proceeded to fire it 
 and massacre the inhabitants. No language can 
 convey an accurate idea of the consternation of 
 the white inhabitants, as it was described to me. 
 The tocsin was sounded, the citizens assembled, 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S HEALTH. 179 
 
 armed cap-a-pie, and after much hard fighting, the 
 rebellion was crushed, and large numbers of the 
 insurgents were slain or arrested. Then came the 
 bloody hand of what was impiously termed retri- 
 butive justice. A court, or sort of drum-head 
 court-martial, not worthy to be called a trial, 
 condemned numbers of the slaves to death, and 
 they were led out instantly to execution. My in- 
 formant told me that many a brave, noble-hearted 
 fellow was sacrificed, who, under happier circum- 
 stances, though in a cause not half so righteous, 
 would have been extolled as a hero, and bowed 
 down with honours. Many a humble hearth was 
 made desolate, and, in the language quoted by 
 my informant, " as in the days of the curse that 
 descended on the people of the obdurate Pharaoh, 
 every house mourned its dead/' Still, there was 
 a strong lurking suspicion that the entente of the 
 negroes had only been temporarily suppressed, 
 and awful forebodings of fire and of blood spread 
 a gloom on the minds of all. This was the 
 version given to me by a friend, of what he 
 described as the most fearful rising amongst the 
 negroes ever before known in the southern states 
 of America. 
 
 As I passed up the long range of tables, the 
 health of the President of the Republic was 
 responded to by the company. The cheers were 
 deafening, and, what most surprised me was, 
 
180 THE SHOPS IN CHARLESTON. 
 
 that the negro waiters joined heartily, I may 
 say frantically, in it, and danced about like mad 
 creatures, waving their napkins, and shouting 
 with energy. Some of the elder ones, I noticed, 
 looked mournfully on, and were evidently not 
 in a gay humour, seeming a prey to bitter re- 
 flections. Notwithstanding the curse of slavery, 
 which, like a poisonous upas, taints the very 
 air they breathe with the murdered remains of 
 its victims, the white citizens of the south are 
 extremely sensitive of their civil and political 
 rights, and seem to regard the palladium of 
 independence secured by their progenitors as an 
 especial benefit conferred by the Deity for their 
 good in particular. Actuated by this mock 
 patriotism (for it is nothing less), the citizens 
 of the south omit no opportunity of demon- 
 strating the blessings they so undeservedly in- 
 herit, and which, if I am not mistaken, will, 
 ere many years elapse, be wrested from them, 
 amidst the terrible thunders of an oppressed 
 and patient people, whose powers of endurance 
 are indeed surprising. 
 
 Leaving the square, I passed up King-street, 
 at the top of which was my intended boarding- 
 house. The shops in this fashionable resort are 
 fitted out in good style, and the goods are of 
 the best description. After sunset the streets 
 are often lined with carriages. The city lies 
 
EPISCOPALIANS IN AMERICA. 181 
 
 flat, like the surrounding country, and, owing 
 to this, is insalubrious ; stagnant water collects 
 in the cellars of the houses, and engenders a 
 poisonous vapour, which is a fertile source of 
 those destructive epidemics, that, combined with 
 other causes, are annually decimating the white 
 population of the south of the American con- 
 tinent in all parts. 
 
 At the top of King-street, facing you as you 
 advance, is a large Protestant episcopal church. 
 I went there to worship on the following Sunday, 
 but was obliged to leave the building, there 
 being, it was stated by the apparitor, no accom- 
 modation for strangers, a piece of illiberality that 
 I considered very much in keeping with the slave- 
 holding opinions of the worshippers who attend 
 it. This want of politeness I w T as not, however, 
 surprised at, for it is notorious, as has been 
 before observed by an able writer, that, excepting 
 the Church of Rome, "the members of the un- 
 established Church of England — the Protestant 
 Episcopalian, are the most bigotted, sectarian, 
 and illiberal, in the United States of America. 
 Being fully persuaded/' to follow the same writer, 
 "that prelatical ordination and the three orders 
 are indispensable to their profession, they are, 
 like too many of their fellow professors in the 
 mother country, deeply dyed with Laudean prin- 
 ciples, or that love of formula in religion and 
 
182 PUSEYISM. 
 
 grasping for power which has so conspicuously 
 shown itself among the Oxford tractarians, and 
 which, it is to be feared, is gradually under- 
 mining Protestant conformity, by gnawing at its 
 very heart, in the colleges of Great Britain/' 
 Vital piety, or that deep sense of religious duty 
 that impels men to avoid the devious paths of 
 sin, and to live " near to God/' is, I am inclined 
 to believe (and I regret it, as a painful truth), 
 by no means common in America. There are, 
 however, many pastors who faithfully warn their 
 flocks of the dangers of the world, and who 
 strenuously advise their hearers to take warning 
 lest they be over-captivated with the "Song of 
 the Syrens/' These, however, I must say, are 
 chiefly in the free states, for I cannot regard 
 southern ministers in any other light than phar- 
 isaical, while they continue openly (as is their 
 constant practice) to support from their pulpits 
 the institution that is the main stay of the 
 southern states ; I mean slavery. In my inter- 
 course with serious individuals with whom I 
 came in contact during my stay on the continent 
 of America, the doctrines of Dr. Pusey and his 
 confederates were often referred to; and although 
 I believe "the Association for restoring the an- 
 cient powers of the Clergy, and the primary 
 rites and usages of the Church," does not acknow- 
 ledge the Protestant Episcopalians in America 
 
FIRE ! 183 
 
 (owing, perhaps, chiefly to the invidious position 
 the latter stand in with the state, and the little 
 chance of their views being universally embraced 
 by them, but partially^ no doubt, to the evan- 
 gelical principles of most of the ministers offi- 
 ciating in that Church), yet the subject has 
 excited much interest there, and the Romish 
 propensities of many pastors plainly indicate that 
 inherent love of power that invariably, and, it 
 may be said, necessarily, developes itself in hier- 
 archical institutions — a propensity that ought to 
 be closely watched by Protestant lay congrega- 
 tions, as being not only innovating and danger- 
 ous in its tendency, but calculated to foster that 
 superstition which is at once the fundamental 
 principle of the faith of the city of the seven 
 hills, and the power of that triple-crowned mon- 
 ster, Popery. 
 
 I afterwards Avent into a large Independent 
 chapel in another part of the town, where I was 
 more courteously treated. Here was a very elo- 
 quent and noted preacher, a Dr. Groyard, from 
 Mobile. He was delivering a very eloquent har- 
 angue, interspersed with touches of pro-slavery, 
 sentiment alism and rhetorical flourish, the former 
 especially directed to the negroes in the gallery, 
 when, suddenly, a cry of " Fire ! fire ! " was raised 
 in the street. The learned Doctor stood as if elec- 
 trified, and the instant after his hearers rushed 
 
184 AN INEXORABLE LAW. 
 
 pell-mell out of the chapel, amidst the shrieks 
 of the females, and the consternation of the men, 
 caused, without doubt, by a lurking suspicion ol 
 impending evil from the negroes which I have 
 before referred to. On ascertaining that the alarm 
 was caused by a house being on lire in the vicinity, 
 the service was abruptly terminated. 
 
 The following day I continued my perambula- 
 tions ; to the left of the episcopal church I have 
 already mentioned, and surrounded by umbra- 
 geous trees in a park-like enclosure, is the Town- 
 hall. I entered this building, where I found a 
 bench of magistrates, the mayor of the city being 
 amongst them, adjudicating on the cases brought 
 before them. These consisted chiefly of negroes 
 apprehended in the streets after nine o'clock the 
 previous night ; they were in all cases, except 
 where their owners paid the fine, sentenced to 
 receive from ten to twenty lashes, which were 
 administered at once by the city gaoler, in a 
 yard at the rear of a building, near which officers 
 were in attendance for the purpose. I must 
 mention, in explanation, that one of the laws 
 passed directly after the insurrection, was to 
 prohibit negroes, on any pretence, to be out 
 after nine, p.m. At that hour, the city guard, 
 armed with muskets and bayonets, patrolled the 
 streets, and apprehended every negro, male or 
 female, they found abroad. It was a stirring 
 
JUSTICE FALSELY SO CALLED. 185 
 
 scene, when the drums beat at the guard-house 
 in the public square I have before described, pre- 
 paratory to the rounds of the soldiers, to witness 
 the negroes scouring the streets in all directions, 
 to get to their places of abode, many of them in 
 great trepidation, uttering ejaculations of terror 
 as they ran. This was an inexorable law, and 
 punishment or fine was sure to follow its dere- 
 liction, no excuse being available, and as the 
 owners seldom submitted to pay the fine, the 
 slaves were compelled to take the consequences, 
 which, in the language that consigned them to 
 the cruel infliction, " consisted of from ten to 
 twenty lashes, well laid on with a raw-hide/' a 
 murderous whip, which draws blood after the first 
 few strokes, and is as torturing,. I should imagine, 
 as the Russian knout, certainly proving in many 
 instances as fatal as that odious instrument. The 
 crowning severity of the enactments I have re- 
 ferred to, remains, however, to be told. So hei- 
 nous in a negro, is the crime of lifting his hanc 
 in opposition to a white man in South Carolina, 
 that the law adjudges that the offending membei* 
 shall be forfeited. This is, or was, quite as inex-t 
 orable as the one I have before spoken of, and 
 when in Charleston, I frequently, amongst the 
 flocks of negroes passing and repassing, saw indi- 
 viduals with one hand only. Like the adminis- 
 tration of miscalled justice on negroes in all 
 
186 LEGAL BARBARISM. 
 
 slave-holding states in America, the process was 
 summary ; the offender was arrested, brought 
 before the bench of sitting magistrates, and on the 
 ex parte* statement of his accuser, condemned to 
 mutilation, being at once marched out to the rear 
 of the building, and the hand lopped off on a block 
 fixed there for the purpose. I noticed a block 
 and axe myself in the yard of a building near the 
 town-hall, and on looking at them closely, saw 
 they were stained almost black, with what I have 
 little hesitation in saying was human blood. My 
 conductor, however, tried to divert my attention 
 from the object, and knowing I was an English- 
 man, refused to enter on the subject. 
 
 Another of the many cruel laws put in force 
 after the emeute of the negroes, was to prohibit 
 any coloured person from walking on the pave- 
 ments, and forcing all males to salute every w r hite 
 they met. These distinctions, although falling 
 into disuse, are not even yet abolished, but still, 
 with many others equally odious, disgrace the 
 Carolinean statute book. I saw several negroes 
 from the plantation districts, walking in the road 
 instead of on the pavement, in accordance with 
 this law, touching their hats to every white 
 passer-by ; they were consequently oblige^ to be 
 continually lifting their hands to their heads, 
 
 * The writer was assured, when in Charleston, that this was 
 the case in five out of every six cases. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF "YANKEE DOODLE." 187 
 
 for they passed white people at every step. | Al- 
 though I believe no punishment is now enforced 
 for the omission of this humiliating homage to 
 colour, the men I have referred to were doubt- 
 less afraid to disregard the ceremony. 
 
 A partiality exists in every part of America 
 for music ; indeed, so strongly is this developed, 
 that in almost all the towns, and even in some 
 hamlets in the western states, subscription bands 
 are kept up — these play every evening, when the 
 weather admits, in the centre of the public square, 
 the citizens the while promenading round with 
 their wives and families. 
 
 But, although a decided penchant prevails for 
 music, the preference is given by the mass to a 
 few ordinary airs, calculated to inspire that 
 love of country which every reminiscence of the 
 struggle for independence calls forth. The 
 favourite air is the so-called national one of 
 " Hail, Columbia/' although this is but second 
 to the fantastic drollery of "Yankee Doodle;" 
 the latter is vociferously called for at all places 
 of amusement, and excites in the audience, at 
 such places of resort, almost frantic sensations. 
 This is the more remarkable, as it was originally 
 composed by an Englishman, and, as it is so in- 
 timately connected with Americanism, I shall, 
 perhaps, be excused for introducing here what 
 may be termed its history. 
 
188 A HOAX 
 
 In the attacks made upon the French posts 
 in America, in 1755, those against Niagara and 
 Frontenac were made by Governor Shirley, of 
 Massachusetts, and General Jackson, of New 
 York. Their army during the summer lay on 
 the eastern bank of the Hudson, a little south 
 of Albany. Early in June, the troops of the 
 eastern provinces began to pour in company 
 after company, and such an assemblage never 
 before thronged together on such an occasion. "It 
 would have relaxed the gravity of an anchorite/' 
 says the historian, " to see the descendants of the 
 Puritans marching through the streets of the 
 ancient city, and taking their stations on the 
 left of the British army — some with long coats, 
 and others with no coats at all, and with colours 
 as various as the rainbow ; some with their hair 
 cropped like the army of Cromwell, and others 
 with wigs, the locks of which floated with grace 
 round their shoulders. Their march, their ac- 
 coutrements, and the whole arrangement of the 
 troops, furnished matter of amusement to the 
 British army. The music played the airs of two 
 centuries ago ; and the tout ensemble, upon the 
 whole, exhibited a sight to the wondering stran- 
 gers to which they had been unaccustomed." 
 
 Among the club of wits that belonged to the 
 British army, there was a Doctor Shackburg 
 attached to the staff, who combined with his 
 
AND ITS DESTINY. 189 
 
 knowledge of surgery the skill and talent of a 
 musician. To please the new-comers, he com- 
 posed a tune, and, with much gravity, recom- 
 mended it to the officers as one of the most 
 celebrated airs of martial music. The joke took, 
 to the no small amusement of the British. Brother 
 Jonathan exclaimed, it was "nation fine;" and 
 in a few days, nothing was heard in the pro- 
 vincial camp but the air of " Yankee Doodle/' 
 
 Little did the author, in his composition, then 
 suppose, that an air, made for the purpose of 
 levity and ridicule, should be marked for such 
 high destinies. In twenty years from that time, 
 the national march — now universally recognized 
 by the patriots — inspired the heroes of Bunker's 
 Hill ; and, in less than thirty, Lord Cornwallis 
 and his army marched into the American lines 
 to the tune of " Yankee Doodle/' 
 
190 AVHAT TO EXPECT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Woe worth the hour when it is crime 
 
 To plead the poor dumb bondman's cause, 
 When all that makes the heart sublime, 
 The glorious throbs that conquer time, 
 Are traitors to our cruel laws." — Lowell. 
 
 The general appearance of the majority of the 
 coloured people in the streets of Charleston 
 denoted abject fear and timidity, some of them 
 as I passed looking with servile dread at me (as 
 they did at almost every one who happened to 
 pass), so that I could read in many of their looks 
 a suspicion of interference, which, commiserating 
 their condition as I did, was quite distressing. 
 
 It is impossible to form a correct estimate of 
 what the perpetuators of slavery have to expect, 
 if once the coloured population obtain a dominant 
 position. The acknowledged gradual depopula- 
 tion of the whites in the slave states, through 
 
AUCTIONEERING. 191 
 
 sickness, exhaustion of the land, and consequent 
 emigration, united with other causes, there is no 
 doubt will eventually result in a great preponder- 
 ance of coloured people, who, aroused by the 
 iniquitous treatment they undergo, will rise 
 under some resolute leader, and redress their 
 wrongs. I was quite struck to see in Charleston 
 such a disproportion of the colours, and, with- 
 out exaggerating, I can say, that almost if not 
 quite three-fourths of those I met in the streets 
 were, if not actually of the negro race, tinged in 
 a greater or less degree with the hue. 
 
 Pursuing my perambulations, I came to the 
 slave and general cotton place of vendue, to the 
 left of the General Post-office, which building 
 is a very substantial edifice of stone. Here a 
 dozen or twenty auctioneers were loudly holding 
 forth to the assembled crowds, and cracking up 
 their wares in New York style. The most inde- 
 scribable scene of bustle and confusion prevailed, 
 the whole street being covered with open bales 
 and boxes of goods. In one part of the street 
 was a slave warehouse, and advertisements w^ere 
 placarded outside of the particulars of the various 
 lots to be offered for competition, and now on 
 view. As the privilege of viewing in this in- 
 stance was confined to those who possessed 
 tickets, I did not apply for one, as I knew that 
 the wish would be attributed to curiosity, and 
 
192 AN UNTKUSTY OVESEER. 
 
 possibly a worse construction be put upon it, 
 through my being a stranger in the place. 
 
 Passing onwards through the assembled throng, 
 I got into a more secluded part of the city, and 
 came upon a large burial-ground, in which many 
 of the monuments erected to the memory of the 
 dead were of a very expensive description. One 
 in particular attracted my notice ; this, on in- 
 quiry of a gentlemanly-looking man, who, like 
 myself, was inclined to " meditate among the 
 tombs, " I ascertained had been erected by the 
 relatives of a planter, who had resided in an 
 adjoining state, but who had several cotton plan- 
 tations within ten miles of Charleston ; these 
 he occasionally visited, but in general confided 
 to the care of an overseer, who lived with 
 his family on one of them. The season anterior 
 to his last visit had been a very unpropitious 
 one, and he was much dissatisfied with the 
 management. To prevent a recurrence of this 
 loss, and, under the strong impression that the 
 hands were not worked as they should be, he re- 
 solved to inspect the plantations himself, and 
 administer some wholesome discipline in 'propria 
 persona ; for this purpose, he visited one of the 
 plantations, intending afterwards to proceed to 
 the others in rotation. It so happened that he 
 arrived when not expected ; and, finding his 
 overseer absent, and many of the hands not as 
 
DEVOTEDNESS OF NEGKOES. 193 
 
 closely engaged as he wished, he became violently 
 enraged. Summoning the overseer, he ordered 
 all hands in front of the house to witness a 
 punishment, and causing eight or ten of those 
 whom he pointed out to be tied up at once and 
 well whipped, stood by the while in uncontrol- 
 lable anger to give directions. In the midst of the 
 scene, and while urging greater severity, he was 
 seized with a fit of apoplexy, which was of such 
 a nature, that it at once closed his career, and he 
 died instantaneously. Directly the man fell, the 
 negroes collected round him and uttered cries 
 and lamentations, and the poor wretch who w T as 
 at the moment the victim of his brutality, on 
 being untied, which was immediately done, joined 
 in it. Notwithstanding that my companion had a 
 decided leaning towards the extinction of slavery, 
 (although he started various objections to its abo- 
 lition,) I was quite inclined to believe his relation, 
 having, when in Florida, met with a somewhat 
 similar instance of the devotedness of the negro 
 race, in an old woman who was bitterly bewail- 
 ing the loss of her deceased mistress. The latter 
 was an English lady, but not over kind to her, 
 and reflected no credit on her countrywomen. 
 The poor creature in touching strains enlarged 
 upon her beauty and accomplishments, but when 
 I questioned her as to her treatment of the 
 negroes in general belonging to the estates, would 
 
 o 
 
194 A COLOURED GENTLEMAN. 
 
 say little on the subject, and shook her head ; in- 
 deed it was plain that, like most females living in 
 the south, she was a pampered worldling, entirely 
 engrossed by principles of self-interest, and little 
 regarding the welfare of her dependents, if not, 
 as I have before observed, very severe towards 
 them. She died prematurely, from the effects of 
 one of those virulent fevers, that in southern 
 latitudes are so often fatal to the inhabitants, 
 especially to those who have been nurtured in 
 Europe. Her encoffined remains were shipped 
 on board a vessel, to be conveyed to England for 
 burial, in accordance with her expressed wish. 
 When the poor creature came to that part of 
 her piteous tale, when, as she called her, her 
 " beautiful angel of a mistress " was put in the 
 coffin, and the estate hands were called in to take 
 a last view of her (a custom in vogue there some- 
 times), she was overpowered with grief, and her 
 utterance was so choked, that she could scarcely 
 proceed. 
 
 During my stay in Charleston, I became ac- 
 quainted with a gentleman of colour, w^ho fol- 
 lowed a lucrative business as a dealer of some 
 kind, and who had formerly been a slave. The in- 
 troduction arose in rather a singular way, it being 
 through a proposition made to open a school for 
 the education of coloured children, in which I 
 took an interest. 
 
TOUSSAINT i/oUVERTURE. 195 
 
 Great opposition was offered to the scheme by 
 the white rulers of the place, who declared the 
 project illegal, the enactments passed subsequent 
 and prior to the insurrection stringently forbid- 
 ding it, or any attempt to impart secular know- 
 ledge to the slaves. Notwithstanding the violent 
 threats used to prevent it, a meeting was how- 
 ever convened to be held at the house of the 
 gentleman referred to, and which I resolved, 
 though not unaccompanied with danger to my 
 person, to take an active part in. I accordingly 
 went to his home on the evening appointed ; this 
 was a spacious house, furnished in sumptuous 
 style, with extensive premises adjoining, con- 
 tiguous to the north end of the levee. I noticed 
 that the walls were hung with good oil paintings 
 gorgeously framed, principally family portraits, 
 but the most prominent in position was that of 
 the unfortunate Haytian chief, Toussaint I/Ouver- 
 ture, whose cruel end, at the instigation of the 
 vindictive Bonaparte, will for ever reflect shame 
 on the French name as long as a sense of justice 
 and love of virtue and probity exists in the bosom 
 of mankind. Far be it from me to trample on 
 the name of one whom retributive justice has 
 consigned to the dust, but the cruelty of Napo- 
 leon towards this magnanimous prince, and his 
 final barbarity in consigning him to a damp dun- 
 geon in a fastness amongst the Alps, where he 
 
196 A NEGRO-EDUCATIONAL MEETING. 
 
 perished in exile from his subjects and family 
 after ten months' miserable endurance of the 
 hardships wrongfully imposed on him, almost 
 causes a feeling of exultation at the downfall of 
 a despot, who, aiming at the sovereignty of the 
 world, scrupled not to sacrifice virtue and good 
 faith at the shrine of ambition. The fate of both 
 chiefs was similar, for both perished in captivity 
 — the one the victim, perhaps, of inordinate am- 
 bition, the other of unscrupulous avarice and 
 envious malignity. The misfortunes of Toussaint 
 I/Ouverture have indeed with justice been pro- 
 nounced the " history of the negro race/' for, 
 in almost every instance where coloured men 
 have pushed themselves above the common level, 
 they have incurred the envy of white men, and, 
 in too many instances, have been crushed by 
 their overbearing tyranny. 
 
 The meeting was conducted with religious de- 
 corum, most, if not all, of the coloured gentlemen 
 present being members of the Wesley an con- 
 nection. I was pleased with the temperate spirit 
 in which their wrongs were discussed ; and, after 
 drawing up the rules, forming a committee, 
 and arranging other necessary preliminaries, the 
 meeting broke up. 
 
 On reaching my hotel on my return, I was at 
 once waited upon by the landlord, who, in cer- 
 tainly a respectful manner, informed me that 
 
MOB LAW. 197 
 
 the interest I had the day before incautiously 
 expressed regarding the school, had led to my 
 being watched to the house where the meeting 
 was held ; and that, to avoid the unpleasantness 
 which would result from my continuing to take 
 any steps in the matter, and which might ensue, 
 he said, from the suspicions excited, he strongly 
 advised that I should the next day address a 
 letter to the editor of the principal newspaper 
 in the city, repudiating all connection with a 
 movement calculated, he said, to disturb the 
 public mind, and, perhaps, cause disturbance. 
 This I refused to do, but told him I did not in- 
 tend to figure prominently in the matter, and 
 that my stay in the city would be very limited. 
 He then related several instances of mob law, 
 which had been enacted within the twelve 
 months preceding, which, he said, were quite 
 necessary to maintain southern rights, and which 
 he did not fail to let me know he fully concurred 
 in. After this hint, conveyed, I must say, in a 
 friendly spirit, whatever my private opinion was 
 as to the occasion of it, I mingled, during the 
 remainder of my stay, very little with the fre- 
 quenters of his establishment — a policy which 
 I considered necessary from personal considera- 
 tions ; and, owing to this cautious behaviour, I 
 was not afterwards interfered with, though often 
 eyed with suspicion. 
 
198 PERSECUTION OF A FREE NEGRO. 
 
 The school was opened during my stay, but 
 continued so but a short time, the virulent con- 
 duct of the constables, supported by some of the 
 citizens and the civil authorities, compelling its 
 discontinuance. This is not to be wondered at, 
 when it is remembered that the old statute law 
 of South Carolina prohibits the education of 
 negroes, bond or free, under a penalty of fine 
 and imprisonment ; and, although before the 
 recent emeute it was falling into disuse, that 
 event revived its enforcement with ancient 
 malignity. 
 
 The free negro gentleman, at whose house the 
 preliminaries for opening the school referred to 
 were gone through, informed me, on a subsequent 
 occasion, that the constant vexations and annoy- 
 ances he was subjected to, owing to the prejudice 
 in the minds of southern people regarding colour, 
 would compel him to relinquish his business, and 
 proceed either to Canada or to the free states. 
 He deplored the alternative much, as he had 
 been born and bred a slave in Carolina, and, 
 by untiring assiduity, had saved money enough 
 to emancipate himself and his wife ; " In fact/' 
 he added, " I feel this is my country, and leaving 
 it will come hard/' He had a numerous family, 
 which he maintained in great respectability, and 
 his business being a profitable one made him 
 more reluctant to abandon it and the advantages 
 
THE MARINE PARADE. 199 
 
 that otherwise would attend his continuance in 
 Charleston. He hospitably entertained me at his 
 home, and appeared highly gratified at meeting 
 with a white man who felt disposed to regard 
 him with equality. 
 
 After dining at his house one day, he took me 
 a ride round the suburbs of the city, which I 
 noticed were flat and exceedingly uninteresting. 
 We ret urned byway of the Marine Parade, which 
 is certainly a chef d'oeuvre of its kind. This is on 
 the south side of the city, and commands a mag- 
 nificent sea-view. It is raised far above the sea, 
 and laid out with carriage-drives and paths for 
 pedestrians. Far out, looking towards Cape Hat- 
 teras, is a fort on an island ; this is always gar- 
 risoned by a detachment of U. S. troops, and of 
 late years has been used as a receptacle for those 
 daring chiefs among the Indians, who, by their 
 indomitable courage, have been the terror of the 
 United States frontier. Here that hero, Oceola, 
 chief of the Seminoles, died not long before, in 
 captivity, from excessive grief, caused by the 
 treachery of certain American officers, who, 
 under a pretended truce, seized him and his 
 attendant warriors. Below us in the bay we 
 could see the fins of several sharks, ploughing 
 the waves in search of prey ; while the constant 
 sailing to and fro of Cuba fruit -boats, laden with 
 bananas, pawpaws, pine-apples, and every luxury 
 
200 INFRA DIG. 
 
 that and contiguous islands afford, enlivened the 
 scene, which altogether was one of extraordinary 
 beauty. 
 
 There was a large assemblage of ladies and 
 gentlemen promenading, and, as I rode with my 
 friend, I had some very furtive glances from the 
 crowd, which were intended, no doubt, to remind 
 me that my keeping such company was infra dig., 
 if not open to suspicion. There was in truth no 
 little hazard in riding about in public with a man 
 against whose acquaintance I had a short time 
 before been cautioned, and I felt my position 
 rather an uncomfortable one. 
 
 Had some of the young blood of Charleston 
 been up, there is little doubt but that I must 
 have left the place sans ceremonie. Possessed of 
 a natural urbanity, or, what in elevated society 
 amongst white people, would be termed true 
 politeness, the manner of the well-bred negro 
 is prepossessing. This was very remarkable in 
 my coloured friend, who was well informed, and 
 possessed a refinement and intelligence I had 
 never before met with in any of his race. On 
 the subject of enslavement he would at first 
 venture few observations, confining himself to 
 those inconveniences and annoyances that affected 
 him individually ; he, however, became, after a 
 time, more communicative. 
 
 On the whole, at first, I was not a little 
 
PUBLIC CORRECTION OF A NEGRO. 201 
 
 apprehensive that my coloured acquaintance was 
 under the impression that my friendship was not 
 sincere, although he did not say as much in 
 his conversation ; the impression, however, soon 
 left me, after a further intimacy. I considered 
 then, and do now, that the suspicion was quite 
 excusable, the Jesuitical practices and underhand 
 trickery descended to by the white population 
 in the slave states, in order to ascertain how 
 individuals stand affected, are so numerous, that 
 the coloured people are obliged to be wary of 
 those they either suspect, or of whom, being 
 strangers, they know little. 
 
 I remember well, whilst riding with him on 
 the occasion I have already referred to, we drove 
 past a white man on horseback, who (as is common 
 in Charleston), was correcting his negro in the 
 street. The poor fellow was writhing under the 
 cruel infliction of a flagellation with a raw-hide, 
 and rent the air with his cries. This only in- 
 creased the rage of his master, who seemed to 
 take delight in striking his face and ears. I 
 eagerly watched the scene, and, as we passed, 
 leaned over the back of the gig. My companion, 
 fearing, I suppose, lest the sight might provoke 
 in me some exclamation, and thus get us into 
 notice, nudged me violently with his elbow, say- 
 ing at the same time, hurriedly, " Don't heed, 
 don't heed/' My blood was getting hot, and but 
 
202 DEPRESSION. 
 
 for my companion, my passion would, in all 
 probability, have got the better of my discretion, 
 and I should without remedy have been involved 
 in a dispute, if not immediately apprehended. 
 As we rode on, I adverted to this barefaced 
 exhibition of tyranny in an open thoroughfare, 
 which, I remarked, was sufficient proof of the 
 iniquity of the system, in spite of the assertions 
 made by the southerners to the contrary. In 
 reply to this, all my companion remarked was, 
 " Did you never see that done before ? " My 
 answer was, I had seen negroes cruelly treated 
 on estates, and elsewhere, but that this scene 
 was the more revolting from its being enacted 
 in the open highway. Seeing that he was anxious 
 to avoid the subject, and that the observations 
 he had made were drawn from him by my remarks, 
 I remained silent, and, wrapped in deep reflec- 
 tions on the outrage we had witnessed, at length 
 reached his dwelling. The occurrence I suppose 
 somewhat affected my spirits, for soon after we 
 got into the drawing-room, no one else being 
 present, my friend addressed me, no doubt ob- 
 serving my depression, nearly as follows. " Sir, 
 you seem to have a tender compassion for my 
 poor countrymen ; would to Grod white men were 
 all as feeling here. The system is an accursed 
 one, but what can we do but bear it patiently? 
 Every hand seems against us, and we dare not 
 
VULTURES IN CHARLESTON. 203 
 
 speak for ourselves/' I told him I deeply sym- 
 pathised with his oppressed countrymen, and 
 lived in hope that before long the public mind 
 in America would be aroused from its apathy, 
 and the accumulated wrongs of the race be re- 
 dressed. His only reply was, " God grant it, I 
 hope so too/' 
 
 In Charleston there exist several charitable 
 institutions, but these, I believe, with only one 
 exception, are for the benefit of poor white people. 
 The innate benevolence of the human heart is 
 thus, in the midst of dire oppression, wont to 
 hold its sway, notwithstanding the poisonous 
 influences that surround. But the pro-slavery 
 business neutralizes these would-be benefactors, 
 and taints all their endeavours, under the cloak 
 of benevolence, to remove the odium it so justly 
 incurs. " Liberate your slaves, and then I will 
 talk to you about religion and charity/' were the 
 emphatic words of an eminent northern divine 
 in his correspondence with the committee of a 
 benevolent institution in the south, some years 
 ago, and the admonition speaks as forcibly now 
 as it did then. 
 
 As you walk the streets of Charleston, rows 
 of greedy vultures, with sapient look, sit on the 
 parapets of the houses, watching for offal. These 
 birds are great blessings in warm climates, and 
 in Carolina a fine of ten dollars is inflicted for 
 
204 INDOLENCE. 
 
 wantonly destroying them. They appeared to be 
 quite conscious of their privileges, and sailed 
 down from the house-tops into the streets, where 
 they stalked about, hardly caring to move out 
 of the way of the horses and carriages passing. 
 They were of an eagle-brown colour, and many 
 of them appeared well conditioned, even to obesity. 
 At night scores of dogs collect in the streets, and 
 yelp and bark in the most annoying manner. 
 This it is customary to remedy by a gun being 
 fired from a window at the midnight interlopers, 
 when they disperse in great terror. I should 
 remark that this is a common nuisance in warm 
 latitudes. Some of these animals live in the 
 wilds, and, like jackals, steal into the towns at 
 night to eke out a scanty subsistence. At first 
 my rest was greatly disturbed by their noisy 
 yelpings, but I soon became accustomed to the 
 inconvenience, and thought little of it. 
 
 The warmth of the climate induces great lassi- 
 tude and indisposition to exertion, alias in- 
 dolence. I began to experience this soon after 
 arriving in the south. This, which in England 
 would be called laziness, is encouraged by the 
 most trifling offices being performed by slaves. 
 The females in particular give way to this inert- 
 ness, and active women are seldom to be met 
 with, the wives of men in affluent circumstances 
 being in general like pampered children, and 
 
MATRIMONIAL LAT1TUD1NARIANISM. 205 
 
 suffering dreadfully from ennui. On one occasion 
 an English gentleman at Charleston, with whom 
 I became acquainted, and whose hospitality I 
 shall never forget, when conversing on the sub- 
 ject, addressed me thus : " Good, active wives 
 are seldom to be met with in this state, amongst 
 the natives; I may say, hardly ever; the females 
 are nurtured in indolence, and in seeking what 
 they term a settlement, look more to the man's 
 means than the likelihood of living happily with 
 him. There is no disguising it — the considera- 
 with them is a sine qua non. Few girls would 
 refuse a man who possessed a goodly number 
 of slaves, though they were sure his affections 
 would be shared by some of the best-looking 
 of the females amongst them, and his conduct 
 towards the remainder that of a very demon/' 
 These sentiments I very soon ascertained to be 
 in no way libellous. A southern wife, if she is 
 prodigally furnished with dollars to "go shopping/' 
 apparently considers it no drawback to her happi- 
 ness if some brilliant mulatto or quadroon woman 
 ensnares her husband. Of course there are excep- 
 tions, but the patriarchal usage is so engrafted in 
 society there, that it elicits little notice or com- 
 ment. Nor, from what I gleaned, are the ladies 
 themselves immaculate, as may be inferred from 
 the occasional quadroon aspect of their progeny. 
 The Jews are a very numerous and influential 
 
206 JEWS IN CHARLESTON. 
 
 body in Charleston, and monopolize many of its 
 corporate honours. They were described as very 
 haughty and captious ; this, however, is saying 
 no more of the stock of Israel than is observable 
 all over the world, when they are in prosperous 
 circumstances, although, when this is not the 
 case, perhaps none of the human family are so 
 abject and servile, not excepting slaves them- 
 selves. In process of time, these people bid fair 
 to concentrate in themselves most of the wealth 
 and influence of Charleston. If their persever- 
 ance (which is here indomitable) should attain 
 this result, they will be in pretty much the same 
 position there that Pharaoh occupied over their 
 race in Egypt in olden time, and, if reports 
 speak true, will wield the sceptre of authority 
 over their captives in a somewhat similar style. 
 Avarice is the besetting sin of the Israelite, and 
 here his slaves are taxed beyond endurance. To 
 exact the utmost from his labour is the constant 
 aim, and I was informed that many of the slaves 
 belonging to Jews were sent out, and compelled 
 on the Saturday night to bring in a much larger 
 sum than it was reasonably possible the poor 
 creatures could earn, and if not successful, they 
 were subjected to the most cruel treatment. 
 
 Not long after my arrival in Charleston, I 
 several times met a young coloured man, who 
 was of so prepossessing an appearance, that I felt 
 
FAMILIARITY WITH A SLAVE. 207 
 
 desirous to become acquainted with him, and, 
 as I was at a loss to find my way to the residence 
 of the mayor, a good opportunity one day offered, 
 and I addressed him. He very courteously took 
 me to the street in which the house was situated, 
 and we talked on general topics as we went — in 
 the course of which he stated, he was saving 
 money for his ransom, and in two years intended 
 to proceed to Montreal, in Canada. I could see, 
 however, that the free manner in which we con- 
 versed attracted the attention of three or four 
 individuals as we passed them — these would stop 
 as if to satisfy their curiosity, some even took 
 the trouble to watch us out of sight ; looking 
 back, I several times saw one more impertinent- 
 looking than some others eyeing us intently, and 
 once I fancied I saw him turn as if to overtake 
 us. This curiosity I had often perceived before, 
 but, as disagreeable results might follow, I in- 
 variably made a practice to take no notice of it 
 when in the company of a coloured individual. 
 A smile played upon the features of my dusky 
 companion, as I turned to observe the inquisitive 
 fellows I have referred to ; perhaps I was taken 
 for a negro-stealer, but, as I treated my companion 
 with equality, I was most likely set down as one 
 of those dangerous personages, who, through zeal 
 in the cause of emancipation, sometimes pene- 
 trate into the slave districts, and are accused 
 
208 A DEGRADING PHRASE. 
 
 (with what degree of justice I cannot tell) of 
 infusing into the minds of the slaves discontented 
 notions and agrarian principles. 
 
 As I met, on the occasion I have just referred 
 to, an individual who knew I had felt an interest 
 in endeavouring to establish the school for the 
 education of negro children, the result of which 
 I have already mentioned, I was apprehensive 
 that the contretemps would have exposed me to 
 the unpleasantness of at least being shunned 
 afterwards as a man entertaining principles in- 
 imical to southern interests — and, however reso- 
 lute I felt to pursue an independent course while 
 I remained in Charleston, I could not shake off 
 a fear I vaguely entertained of a public recog- 
 nition by a deeply prejudiced and ignorant popu- 
 lace, who, once set on, do not hesitate to proceed 
 to disagreeable extremes. This fear was enhanced 
 in no little degree by the operation I had wit- 
 nessed, of the tarring and feathering process 
 practised by enraged citizens in the Missouri 
 country, which I have before described. 
 
 The most degrading phrase that can be applied 
 in the south to those white individuals who sym- 
 pathize in the wrongs inflicted on the African 
 race, I soon found to be, that "he associates 
 with niggers/' Thus a kind-hearted individual 
 at once " loses caste " among his fellow-citizens, 
 and, invidious though it certainly is, many slave- 
 
ABSOLUTE POWER OE SLAVE-OWNERS. 209 
 
 owners are deterred by this consideration, blended 
 w r ith a politic regard for their own safety, from 
 exercising that benevolence towards their depen- 
 dents which they sincerely feel ; placed, as it were, 
 under a sort of social ban, such men artfully con- 
 ceal their sentiments from the public, and, by a 
 more lenient treatment of their own hands, quiet 
 their consciences ; while, at the same time, they 
 blunt their sense of what is honest, upright, just, 
 and manly. Instances have occasionally occurred 
 where men of correct principles have so far suc- 
 cumbed to this sense of duty, as to liberate their 
 slaves. These are, however, rare occurrences, and, 
 when they do happen, are usually confined to men 
 of sterling religious principles, who, like that 
 great exception, the respectable class of people 
 called Quakers, in America, refuse, from a con- 
 viction of the enormity of the evil, to recognize 
 as members those who hold or traffic in slaves. 
 
 It is through the influence of such men that 
 the iniquities of the system become exposed to 
 public view, and remedies are sometimes, in 
 flagrant cases of cruelty, applied. The legisla- 
 tures of the several slave states, however, have 
 given such absolute dominion, by a rigorous code 
 of laws, to the owner, that the greatest enor- 
 mities may be committed almost with impunity, 
 or at least with but a remote chance of justice 
 having its legitimate sway. 
 
 p 
 
210 LOUNGERS AT HOTELS. 
 
 The mass of slave-owners are interested in 
 concealing enormities committed by their fellows, 
 and are backed by a venal press, which, whether 
 bribed or not (and there is every reason to sus- 
 pect that this is often the case), puts such a con- 
 struction on outrage, by garbled reports, as to 
 turn the tide of sympathy from the victim to the 
 perpetrator. No editor, possessing the least leaven 
 of anti-slavery principles, would be patronized ; 
 and it not infrequently happens that such men 
 are mobbed and driven perforce to leave the 
 slave, for the more northern or free, states. Here 
 they stand a better chance, but, in many in- 
 stances, the prejudice, it is said, follows their 
 course, and southern influence occasions their 
 bankruptcy or non-success. 
 
 The practice, so common in the slave states, 
 of the citizens congregating at the bars of hotels 
 or cafes in the towns and cities to while away 
 the time, renders attendance at such places the 
 readiest means of ascertaining the state of the 
 public mind on any engrossing subject, opinions 
 being here freely discussed, not, however, without 
 bias and anger ; on the contrary, the practice is 
 most sectarian, and frequently involves deadly 
 feuds and personal encounters, these latter being 
 of every-day occurrence. Ever since I had been 
 in the southern states, my attention had been 
 attracted to the swarms of well-dressed loungers 
 
THE PLACE FOR NEWS. 211 
 
 at cafes and hotels. At first, like many other 
 travellers, I was deluded by the notion that these 
 idlers were men of independent means, but 
 my mind was soon disabused of this fallacy. I 
 ascertained that the greater portion of these 
 belong to that numerous class in America known 
 as sporting gentlemen ; in plainer terms, gam- 
 blers. Some of these men had belonged to the 
 higher walks of life; these were the more "re- 
 tiring few " who (probably through a sense of 
 shame not quite extinguished) felt rather dis- 
 posed to shrink from than to attract attention. 
 The majority of these idlers were impudent- 
 looking braggarts, who, with jaunty air and cox- 
 combical show of superiority, endeavoured to en- 
 force their own opinions, and to silence those 
 of every one else. 
 
 There was also another class of frequenters 
 at such places ; this consisted of tradesmen who 
 pass much of their time hanging about at such 
 resorts, to the great detriment of their individual 
 affairs ; and, lastly, such travellers as might be 
 stopping in the town, who, through ennui and 
 inveterate habit, had left their hotels, and saun- 
 tered "up town" (as they call gadding about), 
 to hear the news of the day. 
 
 Soon ascertaining that such places were the 
 best, and, excepting the public prints, the only 
 resort to ascertain the latest intelligence, and 
 
212 LAX MORALITY. 
 
 to collect information respecting the movements 
 of the black population, and the company, how- 
 ever exceptionable, being termed there respect- 
 able, I adopted the plan, on several successive 
 evenings, of quietly smoking a cigar and listening 
 to passing observations and remarks. Some of 
 these were disgusting enough ; so much so, that 
 I will not offend my readers by repeating them. 
 Suffice it to say, that any individual possessing 
 the slightest pretensions to the name of gentle- 
 man, in any hotel I had visited in England, on 
 indulging in the indecorous language I heard at 
 these places, would, by a very summary process, 
 have met with ejectment, without ceremony. 
 Here, however, a laxity of moral feeling prevails, 
 that stifles all sense of propriety ; and scurrility, 
 obscene language, and filthy jests, of which the 
 coloured population are, I suppose, per force of 
 habit, the principal butts, form the chief attrac- 
 tions of such places of resort to their vitiated 
 frequenters. 
 
 In the course of these visits I was present 
 at some angry altercations ; one of these referred 
 to the recent visit of an individual who was 
 termed by the disputants an " incendiary aboli- 
 tionist/' and who, it appeared, had been detected 
 in the act of distributing tracts, which had been 
 published at Salem, in Massachusetts, exposing 
 the disabilities the African race were labouring 
 
SOUTHERN RIGHTS. 213 
 
 under. Extracts from one of these tracts were 
 read, and appeared very much to increase the 
 violence of the contending parties, one of whom 
 insisted that the publication contained nothing 
 but what might be read by every slave in the 
 sacred Scriptures, and that, therefore, it could 
 not be classed as dangerous, although he ad- 
 mitted that it contained notions of "human 
 rights " that were calculated to imbue the mind 
 of the " niggers " with unbecoming ideas. These 
 sentiments did not at all accord with those of 
 the company, and several expressions of doubt 
 as to the soundness of the speaker's own pro- 
 slavery principles, together with the increasing 
 excitement, caused him to withdraw from the 
 contest. His immediate antagonist, who was evi- 
 dently the leading man on the occasion, enlarged 
 on the danger attending the sufferance of such 
 men at large in the slave states, and proceeded, 
 with great volubility, to quote various passages 
 from the Black Code to show that the Legislature 
 had contemplated the intrusion of such pestilent 
 fellows, and had, in fact, given full power to 
 remedy the evil, if the citizens chose to exercise 
 it ; and went on to observe, that the rights of 
 southern people were now-a-days invaded on every 
 hand, and it behoved them to stand in their own 
 defence , his advice, he said, was, if the municipal 
 authorities let the fellow go, to form a committee 
 
214 SOCIAL POLICE. 
 
 of justice to adjudicate on the case, and if it was 
 considered conducive to the public weal, to ad- 
 minister salutary punishment. This proposal was 
 uproariously applauded, and four of the citizens 
 present, with the last speaker for chairman, were 
 named on the spot to watch the case. " And 
 now/' added this gentleman, "well have a gin 
 sling round for success/' I heard the day follow- 
 ing that the individual who was the subject of 
 the foregoing proceedings, was accused before the 
 mayor, who dismissed the case with a caution, 
 advising him to leave the city with all dispatch, 
 to avoid disagreeable consequences. This the 
 man, by the aid of a constable, managed to do, 
 that functionary, no doubt for a consideration, 
 taking him to the city prison, and locking him 
 up until nightfall, when he was assisted to leave 
 the place, disguised as a soldier. This, I was 
 informed by a friend, to whom I afterwards 
 related it, was one of those commotions that 
 occur almost daily in southern towns and cities. . 
 
 Such lawless frequenters of hotels, taverns, and 
 cafes, form a kind of social police, and scarcely a 
 stranger visits the place without his motives for 
 the visit being canvassed, and his business often 
 exposed, much to his great annoyance and incon- 
 venience. 
 
 So accustomed do American travellers in the 
 south appear, to this system of internal sur- 
 
PAUL PRY IN AMERICA. 2.15 
 
 veillance, that I several times noticed strangers 
 at the hotel or cafe counters openly explaining 
 the object of their visits, and if there is nothing 
 to conceal, however annoying the alternative 
 appears, I am convinced the policy is not bad, 
 a host of suspicions being silenced by such a 
 course. 
 
 In my travels on the whole route from New 
 York to Charleston, I discovered a most unjustifi- 
 able and impertinent disposition to pry into the 
 business of others. If I was questioned once, I 
 am sure I was at least fifty times, by my fellow- 
 travellers from time to time as to my motive for 
 visiting America, and my intended proceedings. 
 I found, however, that a certain reserve was an 
 efficient remedy. Captain Waterton, of South 
 American celebrity, as an ornithologist, and who 
 visited North America in his travels, mentions 
 that if you confide your affairs and intentions 
 when questioned, the Americans reciprocate that 
 confidence by relating their own. My own ex- 
 perience, however, did not corroborate this view 
 of the case, for, though loquacious in the ex- 
 treme, and gifted, so that to use a Yankee phrase, 
 they would "talk a dog's hind-leg off/' they 
 are in general cautious not to divulge their 
 secrets. To say the least of it, the habit of 
 prying into the business of others, is one totally 
 unbecoming a well-ordered state of society, 
 
216 ANGRY ALTERCATIONS. 
 
 which the American, speaking generally, is de- 
 cidedly not. It is extremely annoying, from the 
 unpleasant feeling it excites, that you are sus- 
 pected if not watched (this applies forcibly to 
 the slave districts) ; and it is a habit that has 
 arisen purely from the incongruity of society at 
 large on the American continent, and a want of 
 that subdivision of class that exists in Europe. 
 
 During my visits to the various hotels while I 
 remained in Charleston, for the purpose of collect- 
 ing information, I was several times interrogated 
 in a barefaced manner by the visitors who 
 frequent those places, as to my politics, and 
 especially as to my principles in regard to the 
 institution of slavery ; now, as I was not un- 
 aware that my intimacy with the gentleman of 
 colour, which I have already referred to, had got 
 abroad, I was obliged to be extremely guarded in 
 my replies on such occasions. It was on one of 
 these that I felt myself in great hazard, for two 
 individuals in the company were discussing with 
 much energy, the question of amalgamation (that 
 is, marriage, contracted between black and white 
 men and women), and I was listening intently to 
 their altercation, when suddenly one of them, 
 eyeing me with malicious gaze, no doubt having 
 noticed my attention to the colloquy, said, 
 
 " Your opinion, stranger, on this subject ; I 
 guess you understand it torrably well, as you 
 
ESCAPE ER0M AN UNPLEASANT ARGUMENT. 217 
 
 seem to be pretty hard on B 's eldest daugh- 
 ter/' This unexpected sally rather alarmed me, 
 for the name he mentioned was that of my 
 coloured friend I have before alluded to, and 
 whose daughter I had only met once, and that at 
 her father's house. 
 
 I scarcely knew what to reply, but thought it 
 best to put on a bold face, so facing the man, I 
 thanked him with much irony for the inuendo, 
 and said, it was a piece of impudence I thought 
 very much like him from what I had overheard. 
 
 This was said in a resolute tone, and the fellow 
 quailed before it, his reply being, " Now stranger, 
 don't get angry, I saw you the other day at 
 
 B 's house, and could not tell what to make 
 
 of it, but I hope you don't think that I was in 
 arnest." 
 
 I replied to this, that I knew best what busi- 
 ness I had at B — 's house, and that his plan was 
 to mind his own business. I then left him, 
 apparently highly indignant, but in fact glad to 
 make my escape. Like bullies all the world over, 
 the southern ones are cowards ; there is, however, 
 great danger here in embroiling yourself with 
 such characters, the pistol and bowie knife being 
 instantly resorted to if the quarrel becomes serious. 
 I saw this braggart on several occasions after- 
 wards, but he evidently kept aloof, and was 
 disinclined to venture in the part of the room I 
 
218 FREE EXPRESSION OF OPINION. 
 
 occupied. I ascertained that he kept a dry goods 
 store in King-street, and was a boisterous fellow, 
 often involved in quarrels. 
 
 The discussion on amalgamation, which is a 
 very vexed one, was again introduced on a sub- 
 sequent occasion ; a planter from the north of 
 the state having (as is sometimes the case) sold 
 off everything he possessed, and removed to the 
 State of Maine, taking with him a young quadroon 
 woman, with the intention of making her his 
 lawful wife, and living there retired. After the 
 expression of a variety of opinions as to what 
 this man deserved, some being of opinion that the 
 subject ought to be mooted in the legislature at 
 "Washington — others, that his whole effects ought 
 to be escheated, for the benefit of the public 
 treasury — and by far the greater number that 
 he ought to be summarily dealt with at the 
 hands of the so-considered outraged citizens, 
 which, in other language, meant "lynched," — it 
 was stated, by a very loquacious Yankee-looking 
 fellow present, who made himself prominent in 
 the discussion, that it was the opinion of the 
 company, that any man marrying a woman with 
 negro blood in her veins, should be hanged, as a 
 traitor to southern interests and a bad citizen. 
 This sentiment was loudly applauded, and, had 
 the unfortunate subject of it been in Charleston 
 or near it, he would, in all probability, have been 
 
CAPTURED RUNAWAYS. 219 
 
 called to account. To me it appeared remarkable, 
 that men, who are always boasting of the well- 
 ordered institutions of their country (slavery 
 being a very important one, be it remembered), 
 should be ever ready to set aside all law, and, 
 as it were, by ex parte evidence alone, inflict 
 summary vengeance on the offender ; I was, how- 
 ever, always of opinion, when amongst them, that 
 four-fifths of the men would rejoice if all law 
 were abrogated, and the passions of the people 
 allowed to govern the country, thus constituting 
 themselves judges in their own case, and tramp- 
 ling under foot every semblance of justice, equity, 
 and common propriety. As it is, in many parts 
 of the Union, the judges and magistrates are 
 notoriously awed by the people, and the most 
 perfidious wretches are suffered to escape the 
 hands of justice. A full confirmation of this is 
 to be found in the frequent outrages against law 
 and order reported in the newspapers, and which 
 there elicit little regard. 
 
 Walking for a stroll, a day or two after, in the 
 vicinity of the Marine-promenade, I saw a strange- 
 looking cavalcade approaching. Two armed over- 
 seers were escorting five negroes, recently cap- 
 tured, to the city gaol. The poor creatures were 
 so heavily shackled, that they could walk but 
 slowly, and their brutal conductors kept urging 
 them on, chiefly by coarse language and oaths, 
 
220 
 
 now and then accompanied by a severe stroke 
 with a slave-whip carried by one of them. The 
 recovered fugitives looked very dejected, and 
 were, no doubt, brooding over the consequences 
 of their conduct. The elder of the party, a stout 
 fellow of about forty-five years old, of very sullen 
 look, had a distinct brand on his forehead of 
 the initials S. T. R. I afterwards inquired what 
 these brand-marks signified, supposing, naturally, 
 that they were the initials of the name of his 
 present or former owner. My informant, who 
 was a by-stander, stated that he was, no doubt, 
 an incorrigibly bad fellow, and that the initials 
 S. T. R. were often used in such cases. I inquired 
 their signification, when, to my astonishment, he 
 replied it might be, " Stop the rascal/' and added 
 that private signals were in constant use among 
 the inland planters, as he called them, who, he 
 said, suffered so much by their hands running 
 away, that it was absolutely necessary to adopt 
 a plan of the kind for security. He further 
 stated, that such incorrigibles, when caught, were 
 never allowed to leave the plantations, so that 
 if they ventured abroad, they carried the warrant 
 for their immediate arrest with them. " But/' 
 he went on, " people are beginning to dislike 
 such severity, and a new code of regulations, 
 backed by the Legislature, is much talked of 
 by the innovators, as we call them, to prevent 
 
A MISREPRESENTATION. 221 
 
 such practices/' I have no doubt this man owned 
 slaves himself. 
 
 I said I thought myself that the policy of kind- 
 ness would answer better than such severities, 
 and it would be well if slave-holders generally 
 were to try it. 
 
 "Ah, stranger/' he replied, "I see you don't 
 understand things here, down south. Don't you 
 know that people who are over kind get imposed 
 on ? This is specially the case with slaves ; treat 
 them well, and you'll soon find them running 
 off, or complaining. The only way to manage 
 niggers is to keep them down, then you can 
 control them, but not else." 
 
 It has been urged a thousand times in defence 
 of the upholders of slavery in its various ramifi- 
 cations, that they are in reality, as a body, 
 opposed to the system, and would readily con- 
 form to any change that would be sufficiently 
 comprehensive to indemnify them from present 
 and future loss. From conversations heard in 
 South Carolina, and other slave districts, I am 
 quite satisfied that this is a misrepresentation, 
 and that the generality of proprietors regard any 
 change as a dangerous innovation, and that, far 
 from reluctantly following the occupation of 
 traders in flesh and blood, it is quite congenial 
 to the vitiated tastes of the greater portion 
 of southern citizens, whose perverted notions of 
 
222 THE NEGRO THE CONNECTING LINK 
 
 justice and propriety are clamorously expressed 
 on the most trivial occasions. In whatever sphere 
 of society amongst them you go, you find the 
 subject of " protecting their rights " urged with 
 impetuosity ; the same rancorous feeling towards 
 men of abolitionist sentiments, and the same 
 deprecation of the slave race. To decry the 
 negroes in public opinion is one of their constant 
 rules of action, and if an individual attempts to 
 assert their equal rights with mankind at large, 
 he is considered as disaffected towards southern 
 interests, and, if not openly threatened, as I have 
 before observed in this work, is unceremoniously 
 talked down. It is thus often dangerous to 
 broach the subject, and if an individual, more 
 daring than people generally are when in the 
 plague-infected latitudes of slavery, attempts to 
 repudiate the views so unhesitatingly expressed 
 by the pro-slavery advocates, that the ne<rro race 
 is but the connecting link between man and the 
 brute creation, -he is looked upon with disgust, 
 and his society contemned. This overbearing 
 conduct is so ingrained, that it shows itself on 
 the most trifling occasions, in their intercourse 
 with their fellow-citizens. 
 
 Argumentative facts might be produced ad 
 infinitum to prove that the legal enactments for 
 the government of the slave states of America 
 have been framed so as to vest in the proprietor 
 
BETWEEN MAN AND THE BRUTE. 223 
 
 as much control over the lives and persons of 
 those they hold in servitude as any animal in 
 the category of plantation stock. This in my 
 tour through that region of moral darkness and 
 despair, the state of Louisiana, I had numberless 
 opportunities of observing, which would not fail 
 to convince the most sceptical ; and if I have 
 passed over many of these in the foregoing pages, 
 it is because the incidents themselves (though 
 proving that the slightest approach to indepen- 
 dent action, or opposition to the depraved wills 
 of their tyrannical superiors, is at once visited 
 with consequences that make me shudder to 
 reflect upon) were of too trivial a nature to 
 interest the general reader. I will, however, 
 copy here an extract from a paper published 
 in Virginia, the Richmond Times for August, 
 1852, which must, I think, tend to remove any 
 doubts, if they exist in the mind of the reader, 
 that the conclusions I have come to from personal 
 observation are correct, and sufficient to prove 
 that the despotic Nicholas of Russia himself does 
 not exercise more absolute control over the lives 
 and liberties of the degraded serfs he rules, than 
 the slave-appropriators of America do over their 
 victims. 
 
 The newspaper in question is a highly popular 
 one with the aristocratical slave-ow^ners of Vir- 
 ginia, and the editor one of those champions of 
 
224 MURDER OF A SLAVE. 
 
 the unjust and iniquitous system who invariably 
 meet with extensive patronage in every part of 
 the southern states. 
 
 "A Field-hand Shot. — A gentleman named 
 Ball, overseer to Mr. Edward T. Taylor, finding it 
 necessary to chastise a field-hand, attempted to 
 do so in the field. The negro resisted, and made 
 fight, and, being the stronger of the two, gave 
 the overseer a beating, and then betook himself 
 to the woods. Mr. Ball, as soon as he could do 
 so, mounted his horse, and, proceeding to Mr. 
 Taylor's residence, informed him of what had 
 occurred. Taylor, in company with Ball, repaired 
 to the corn-field, to w^hich the negro had re- 
 turned, and demanded to know the cause of his 
 conduct. The negro replied that Ball attempted 
 to flog him, and he would not submit to it. 
 Taylor said he should, and ordered him to cross 
 his hands, at the same time directing Ball to 
 seize him. Ball did so, but perceiving the negro 
 had attempted to draw a knife, told Mr. Taylor 
 of it, who immediately sprang from his horse, 
 and, drawing a pistol, shot the negro dead at 
 his feet." 
 
 The Richmond Reporter, a contemporary of 
 the Times, commented on this impious affair as 
 follows : — " Mr. Taylor did what every man who 
 has the management of negroes ought to do ; 
 enforce obedience, or kill them." 
 
HACKNEY-SLAVES. 225 
 
 It is the practice of the inhabitants of Charles- 
 ton, in common, I believe, with all owners of 
 slaves in towns or cities in the slave states, who 
 have not employment sufficient for them at home, 
 or when the slave is a cripple, to send them out 
 to seek their own maintenance. In such cases the 
 slave is compelled to give an account of what he 
 has earned during the week, at his owner's house, 
 where he attends on Saturday evenings for the 
 purpose. A fixed sum is generally demanded, in 
 proportion to the average value of such labour at 
 the time. I was informed that it frequently 
 happens, that the master exacts the utmost the 
 slave can earn, so that the miserable pittance left 
 is scarcely sufficient to sustain nature ; this, no 
 doubt, accounts for the haggard, careworn appear- 
 ance of such labourers, for, with few exceptions, I 
 found hands thus sent out, more miserably clad 
 and less hale than the common run of slaves. On 
 the other hand, if a slave is a good handicrafts- 
 man, he is able to earn more than his master 
 demands ; such instances are, however, rare. 
 These are the men who, by dint of hard work 
 and thrifty habits, accumulate sufficient eventu- 
 ally to obtain manumission. There is, in most 
 cases, a strict eye kept on such hands, and if 
 the boon is attained, it is in general by stealthy 
 means. 
 
 At my boarding-house in Charleston, I often 
 Q 
 
226 A DISTRESSED LAUNDRESS. 
 
 saw negro laundresses who called for linen ; one 
 of these in particular, I noticed, seemed to be in 
 habitual low spirits ; on one occasion she ap- 
 peared to be in unusual distress, in consequence 
 of one of the boarders leaving the house in her 
 debt. She said that her owner would certainly 
 punish her if she did not make up the required 
 sum, and where to procure it she could not tell. 
 I was touched by her tale, and immediately 
 opened a subscription amongst the boarders in 
 the house, and succeeded in collecting a trifle 
 over the amount she had lost ; this I handed 
 her, and she went on her way rejoicing. 
 
 I was told by a Carolinian who lodged at this 
 house, that the practice of sending out slaves 
 to earn money in the way I have described, has 
 been in vogue from time immemorial, and that 
 it was such a profitable mode of realizing by slave 
 labour, that it was followed more extensively in 
 that state now than formerly. 
 
 I will conclude this part of my narration, by 
 quoting the words of a powerful writer on the 
 subject of slavery as I have witnessed its operation 
 in America. 
 
 " Amongst the afflicting ills which the wicked- 
 ness of man has established upon earth, the 
 greatest beyond compare is slavery. Indeed, its 
 consequences are so dreadful, the sins which it 
 engenders are of such gigantic proportions, and 
 
THE HORRORS OF SLAVERY. 227 
 
 all its accompaniments are so loathsome and 
 hideous, that the minds of benevolent per- 
 sons revolt from contemplating it, as offering a 
 spectacle of crime and cruelty, too deep for a 
 remedy, and too vast for sympathy. Slavery is 
 an infinite evil, the calculations of its murders, 
 its rapine, its barbarities, its deeds of lust and 
 licentiousness, though authenticated by the most 
 unquestionable authorities, would produce a 
 total of horrors too great to be believed ; and to 
 narrate the history of these cruelties which have 
 been perpetrated by American slave-masters 
 within the last five years alone, would be to 
 tell idle fables in the opinions of those who have 
 not deeply studied the tragical subject. If we 
 take the United States of America, where the 
 outcry against slavery is greater than in any other 
 country under heaven, and where we hear more 
 of religion and revivalism, more of bustle and 
 machinery of piety, a country setting itself up as 
 a beacon of freedom ; then does slavery amongst 
 such a people appear transcendently wicked ; a 
 sin, which, in addition to its usual cruelty and 
 selfishness, is in them loaded with hypocrisy and 
 ingratitude. With hypocrisy, as it relates to their 
 pretensions to liberty, and with ingratitude, as it 
 relates to that God who gave them to be free. 
 This, indeed, makes all the institutions of 
 America, civil and religious, little better than a 
 
228 RETURN HOME. 
 
 solemn mockery, a tragical jest for the passers-by 
 of other nations, who, seeing two millions and 
 a half of slaves held in fetters by vaunting free- 
 men and ostentatious patriots, wag the head at 
 the disgusting sight, and cry out deridingly to 
 degraded America, ' The worm is spread under 
 thee, and the worms cover thee/ ' ; 
 
 My original intention of settling in America 
 having been frustrated by ill health and other 
 causes, I embarked on board a fine barque bound 
 for Liverpool, where, after a favourable run of 
 three weeks, we arrived in safety. Nothing worth 
 noting occurred on the passage, except a fracas 
 between the captain and the first mate, whom 
 the former had discovered to be ignorant of the 
 art of navigation, and who had, it appeared, been 
 engaged in a hurry on the eve of the vessel's de- 
 parture from Charleston. 
 
 One day, comparing the result of a solar obser- 
 vation with the mate, and finding him out in 
 his calculations, the captain accused him, in 
 great anger, of imposition, in offering his services 
 as an efficient person to navigate the ship. On 
 my endeavouring to pacify him, he turned to me, 
 in a violent passion, and exclaimed, " This man, 
 sir, is 400 miles out in his reckoning — and where 
 would you and the ship be, do you think, if I 
 were washed overboard ! " this argument was too 
 cogent to be combated, and so I interfered no 
 
PISTOLS AND BLUNDERBUSS. 229 
 
 more. He ordered the mate to go to the fore- 
 castle, and refused to admit him to the cabin 
 during the remainder of the passage. The mate 
 was much irritated at this treatment, and, after 
 a violent altercation, one day rushed to his chest 
 and brought up two pistols, one of which he 
 presented in the face of the captain, daring him 
 at the same time to utter another word. The 
 captain, highly incensed, instantly descended the 
 companion-way to the cabin, and shortly after 
 appeared with a blunderbuss, which he proceeded 
 to prime. I was in a terrible state of mind at 
 this juncture, and fully expected a fearful tra- 
 gedy ; this, however, was averted by the inter- 
 ference of another passenger, who stood between 
 the parties. 
 
 A violent storm overtook us in doubling Cape 
 Hatteras soon after we sailed, which, besides 
 damaging the bulwarks of the vessel, tore some 
 of the sails to shivers ; our ship stood it, how- 
 ever, gallantly, and, after that occurrence, we 
 had favourable weather the remainder of the 
 voyage. 
 
 I was awaked early in the morning of the 
 twenty-first day we had been at sea, by a cry 
 from the man at the helm, of "Great Ormes 
 Head/' and, hurrying on my clothes, I gained 
 the deck. The high hills could be indistinctly 
 seen through the morning haze, and the sight 
 
230 LAND AHEAD. 
 
 was accompanied with joyful feelings to all on 
 board. This enthusiasm was even communicated 
 to the captain himself, who, since the affair with 
 the mate, had been very much disposed to be 
 sullen and unfriendly. 
 
 I never could form a correct estimate of this 
 man's character, but it was very evident he 
 wished to pass for a pious man. He was a 
 native of the eastern state of Massachusetts, 
 and told me he had a family there. As to re- 
 ligion, I believe he had none, though he was a 
 Methodist by profession. I could often hear him 
 praying audibly in his state-room on board, with 
 much apparent feeling — but so little did these 
 devotional fits aid him in curbing his wicked 
 temper, that, even when engaged in this manner, 
 he would, if anything extraordinary occurred on 
 deck to disturb him, rush up the companion-way, 
 and rate and swear at the sailors awfully. 
 
 Soon after making Ormes Head, a pilot came 
 on board, and, with a fair wind, we proceeded 
 towards the river Mersey. 
 
 After my wanderings in the slave-stricken re- 
 gions of the south, and my escapes in Florida, 
 the sight of the hospitable shores of my native 
 country did more, I think, to renovate my in- 
 jured health, than all the drastics of the most 
 eminent physicians in the world ; certain it is, 
 that, from this time, I gradually recovered, and, 
 
 JAN 281949 
 
CONCLUSION. 231 
 
 by the blessing of the Great Giver of all good, 
 have been fully restored to that greatest of sub- 
 lunary benefits — vigorous health ; a consumma- 
 tion I at one time almost despaired of. 
 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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