Class ^ok COPYRIGHT DEPOSll /« u %> TOTING. RECOLLECTIONS RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. BY FATHER WILLIAM. w PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS. SUSn.VY-SCIIOOL VXIOX, iOO MULBERRY-STREET. ISoL .W7 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by CARLTON & PHILLIPS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of NeAv-York. ^ .oi TO THE READER. The following narrative of one of my early journeys is true to the life. I sometimes wish, it were less so. It is because it is true, and because its truths are likely to do the young good, that I publish it. I have been many years preparing it. That it may lead you to confess yourselves pil- grims and strangers on the earth, and to seek a better country — even a heavenly — is the prayer of The Writer. # |lUt5tniti0tt5, PAGB TOTING 2 DOGS AT THE GATE 76 PAMUNKEY INDIANS 131 BOATING THROUGH THE ICE 158 TALL OF THE CHIMNEY 177 CONTENTS. - CHAPTER I. SETTIKG OUT. A desire to ramble — Opposition from my friends — Other difficul- ties — Conclude to go South — A traveling companion — My pa- rents' fears— My plan of operation— Journey to New-Haven — Engage my passage — Attempts to discourage us— These attempts unsuccessful — Fears of the water Page 13 CHAPTER n. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND NEW-YORK BAY. Sailing along the Sound— Bad weather— Beating— Hnrlgate—New- Tork — Accident there — Trying to get to sea — Difficulties — An- choiing in Now- York Bay for the night 20 CHAPTER ni. ON THE MAIN OCEAN. Morning — The wind favorable — Out of sight of land— Seasickness — The hold— Eheumatism — Eapid sailing — Trouble with the captain— OflF Cape Charles and Cape Henry — In the Gulf-stream — Huge waves— Sweeping the deck — Getting wet— Sleeping in the midst of danger — Pseudo resignation— A great curiosity at sea — Its supposed cause— The temperature of the Gulf-stream — How to avoid seasickness, or at least to mitigate it — Oflf Cape Hat- teras 25 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. How I spent my time— Why I had no books— Bad books and foul conversation — Blackguards, mimics, and buffoons — Playing at cards— Catching fish — The dolphin — Boiling it with silver — "Schools" of tortoises — A turtle sleeping on the waves — Sea birds — The stormy petrel — A shark following the vessel night and day — Attempts to take him — Evening serenading at sea — Sight of land— No pilot obtained— Driven off — Eeturn — A pilot on board— Description of him Page 84 CHAPTER V. ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. Sailing up the harbor— Sullivan's Island— Landing— Getting off our sea legs— Appetite— Walking about tlie city— A Sunday in Charleston — Jewish synagogue — The market — The yellow fever —Escaping shipwreck on the land 41 CHAPTER VI. CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. "Ways and means of traveling iu Carolina — Countrymen's wagons — Engage a passage with one of these— Description of our cara- van—My companion and I— Oddity of our appearance— State of our health— Slow traveling 49 CHAPTER VII. CAMPING OUT. Five miles out from Charleston— The "camping ground"— De- scription-Building fires— Eefreshment— Manner of sleeping — Eeasons why they camped out — Bed of pine needles — Noisy companions — Rum on board the wagons — Suffering from cold — The burnt coat— Breakfasting— Going to the spring— Ginger and water— Unsound advice 53 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. TRAVELIXG IX CAEOLIKA. Eesuining our journey — Face of the country — Saucy dogs— Birth- place of President Jackson— Slaves picking cotton — Laborers at Monk's Corner— Their food— Sickness in the country— No fruits except the persimmon — Description of the persimmon — Oranges — The three kinds of cotton— Mode of picking it — Eice and rice fields — Indigo at Granby — Arrival at Columbia. Page 59 CHAPTER IX. COLUMBIA AND ITS VICIXITY. Columbia, its situation and beauty — The canal works — Dangers encountered there — Getting lost in the -woods — Going round and round in a circle — Final return to the shanty to lodge — Un- interesting state of the country 67 CHAPTER X. ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. Face of the country— Spring Hill— Dr. Schraits— Arrival at "New- berry — Description of the place— Division of this state into dis- tricts — No townships — Few villages— A chestnut-tree— Peculiar appearance of the country to a traveler — Their churches and church services — Their school-houses, internally and externally — Antiquated customs — Mode of driving steers— Carolina horse- men — Cattle, sheep, and goats • 72 CHAPTER XI. JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. School-keeping in South Carolina — Difficulties — Set out for Nor- folk, in Virginia— Obstacles— Sand, and rivers without bridges — Winnsborough — Bleauford's Battle Ground — An adventure — Peter May's — Fayetteville — Tarborough — The nor'ard man — Our danger— Value of a friend— Minding our business— Pitch and tar— North Carolina pork 81 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. ARErVAL AT NORFOLK. The Pwoanoke— Great field of corn— Portsmouth— Arrived at Nor- folk— Our stopi)ing-place— A great mistake— The dangers to which we were exposed— Thoughts for young men— A quota- tion Page 94 CHAPTER Xin. FOOL-HARDINESS. An excursion— Putting up at Anthony's— My companions— Tho tumbler of whisky —Danger of rohbery — Providential escape — Eeflectious on drinking whisky 102 CHAPTER XIV. THE SHIPWRECK AND OTHER ADVENTURES. Description of Suffolk— Voyage to that place— A snow-squall — Driven on a sand-bar — Detention — Arrived in Suffolk — Brandy at dinner— The toddy-stick- The slave beaten— Lorenzo Dow — Keturn to Norfolk— Perils by land— My French friend lOS CHAPTER XV. MY IMPRISONMENT AND SINGULAR LIBERATION. A trading excursion — Being taken up— Pity excited — My singular liberation — Arrive safely at Norfolk— Eeflcctions 116 CHAPTER XVI. STORY OF TOM COOKE. A Virginia family— Introduction to Uncle Tom Cooke— His tin- pleasant familiarity — Suspicions excited — Sleep with him — His wakefulness— My presence of mmd — All safe in the morning- Took my leave— Inquiries further on — Developments — Escape — Keflections on such characters as that of Tom Cooke 122 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER XVII. THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS AND THEIR DOGS. Location of these Indians — Tlieir character — Fierce dogs — Fond- ness of the Virginians for dogs and hunting — Their troublesome- ness to sti-angers Page 129 CHAPTER XVin. THE CHURCH FOX AND VIRGINIA HUNTING, The old Protestant churches — Good places for wild animals— The church fox— The public regard for hunting in general— Squirrels — Their abundance — Shooting birds 135 CHAPTER XIX. A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. The wealthy— Sojourning a night with them— Peculiar hospitality — The card-table — A man and his three sons — His regularity — Hunting and card-playing his only business 139 CHAPTER XX. A SABBATH IN AIRGINIA. Late on Saturday night— Siiccced at length in finding lodgings— Sundaj% how kept— A scene after supper— Eeflections—Eemarks on the character of young men when they first break away from home 146 CHAPTER XXI. PERILOUS ADVENTURE AT GWYN's ISLAND. Crossed over to Gwyn's Island — Description of the island — Mr. Gwyn— His dogs— The extreme cold— Freezing up in the river —My hazardous escape— A second escape from freezing to death — AiTival at the house of a friend 153 CHAPTER XXII. VISIT TO YORKTOWN. Present condition of Yorktown — Former condition — The excava- tions and forts— Cornwallis's Cave — Did Cornwallis really occu- py it?— Christmas and Jfew Year's— Condition of the colored people 161 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. MY SICK COMPANION. Friend ill— Serious trouble— Claims of duty— Providential sup- port Page 166 CHAPTER XXIV. A GREAT FIRE. Portsmouth on fire — Danger of Norfolk, a mile distant— One house there actually set on fire — A visit to the ruins — The half-naked children — The state of the gardens — Burnt domestic animals — A narrow escape from death — Eeflections — Return to Norfolk 172 CHAPTER XXV. THE STEAMBOAT AND THE SHIPWRECK. The old steamboat in Hampton Eoads— Danger of going to pieces — Arrival at Old Point Comfort — The captain puts back — We are transferred to a schooner — Pass over in safety — Shipwreck of the sloop Kising Sun, at Lyunhaveu Bay ISl CHAPTER XXVI. SICKNESS AND DISEASE. Sickness at the South— Its causes— Joshua Ellis— "Wrong treat- ment — Various other causes more rife than climate — Eeflections on the liabilities to disease in a Southern climate generally . . 185 CHAPTER XXVII. THE COCK-FIGHT. Setting sail for New-York — Detained in Hampton Eoads— A Sab- batli on the water — Visited Hampton on Monday — Eowing against the captain — Eetum without loss, and with some gain 189 CHAPTER XXVIII. GOING HOME. Quick passage to New- York — Journey to Connecticut — Eeacb my father's house — A joyful meeting of those who were alive— Ee- flections 194 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER I. SETTING OUT. No New-England boy ever had a happier home, or kinder parents, and other friends, than I. With them I lived and labored, cheerfully and happily, till I was almost as large as I am now, before I ever went thirty miles from my father's chimney. True, I had my seasons of discontent, like many other boys. I wanted to be a printer — I wanted to be a professional man — I wanted to travel — I wanted to do (at times, I mean) sundry other things. But my strongest de- sire, after all, was to ramble. This desire to ramble had been excited, somewhat, by reading books of travel and wild adventure, such as Robinson Crusoe, 14 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. and Lewis and Clark's travels up the Missouri Eiver. It had also received an increased impulse from the repeated saying of an old lady in the neighborhood, that because I had two ** crowns," I was destined to " eat my bread in two kingdoms.'' I was now more than twenty years of age. I had long been a schoolmaster in the win- ter, when we could do nothing of consequence on the farm ; and I had been permitted, af- ter the termination of my winter's campaign in teaching, to make two little journeys — one to see the "Bay State," and some other objects ; and another to see " York" State. Still I was not satisfied with seeing. In general, as I suppose, the more we see the more we wish to see. It was certainly so with me, at this early period. I was all on tiptoe to visit the Southern States. I had seen a little of the North and the West — that is, I had been a hundred miles west — and now I was anxious to make a trip to the South. There was a " gold fever" prevailing in Connecticut just at this time — not a little like the great California gold fever that has SETTING OUT. 15 prevailed of late all over the Union. I mean this : The young men, by hundreds, had begun to travel to the Middle and Southern States, every winter, with combs, clocks, and tin-ware, which they sold rapidly, at large prices and great profits ; and some of them appeared to be getting rich. True, there was not a little dishonesty connected with the traffic ; for some of these peddlers boasted that they had sold common tin lan- terns for silver ones ; and a lady in Suffolk, in Virginia, afterward showed me a " toddy stick,'^ worth, perhaps, twelve and a half cents, for which she said she paid twelve dollars. Now the end of this fever about gold had not arrived at the time of which I am speak- ing, and I was greatly moved by the anec- dotes which many of these young adventu- rers related, and by reading Morse's Geog- raphy on the subject, to desire to see for myself — especially South Carolina. Gold I was not after, but the gratification of that strong desire to see, of which I have before spoken. But my .relatives and friends were opposed 16 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. to my traveling abroad, especially such a distance. It was as mucli as they could well endure to bear my absence long enough to go a hundred miles north or west ; but a thousand miles — why, they could not hear a word about it ! My father, in particular, was distressed beyond measure at the thought of it. I was sorry, greatly sorry, to oppose such a current of feeling; but my mind was pretty nearly made up. There was, how- ever, one serious difficulty. How could I meet the expenses? I had but thirty or forty dollars I could call my own, and this would go but a little way toward maintain- ing me during a long autumn and winter and spring. Something, therefore, must be done, on my arrival at the South, or I should soon be out of funds. I was not willing to sell tin, or combs, or clocks, if I could help it. Be- sides, I had no horse and wagon with which to carry my wares about in, had there been no other difficulty. I had heard much of school-keeping in that country — how profitable it was; but SETTING OUT. 17 could a stranger, like myself, succeed in introducing himself, at once, as a teacher? Would it not require several months, or, at least, several weeks of probation? Some, indeed, could carry with them written rec- ommendations from learned and great men ; but of these I was wholly destitute. I was a teacher, but I was unknown — almost so. Nevertheless, I had determined to adven- ture, and therefore all difficulties soon van- ished. A schooner was about sailing from New-Haven to Charleston, in South Carolina, with some fifty to one hundred young men who were to be employed in digging a canal near Columbia ; and their fare from New- Haven to Charleston was to be only ten dol- lars a piece. I will go in this vessel, I said to myself ; and if I can get a school, I will ; and if not, why then I will work on the canal. Another young adventurer, with views similar to my own, but who had traveled more, both at the South and elsewhere, agreed to accompany me. With heavy hearts we set out, on the third day of Octo- ber. But heavy as our hearts were, those 18 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. of others were heavier. My aged father and mother could hardly bear the sight. Their eyes, suffused with tears, followed me as I passed over " the hill," when they re- tired to weep alone, hardly expecting ever to behold me more. In a drenching rain I went from my home to New-Haven, a distance of about twenty-five miles. The schooner was nearly ready to sail, and we went on board. It was evening, however, and the captain con- cluded not to sail till next morning. Going on shore that evening, and con- versing with some of the citizens, they en- deavored to dissuade us from our underta- king. One man, in particular, with whom I was slightly acquainted, assured us that the yellow-fever was prevailing in Charles- ton, and it would be exceedingly hazardous to the life of any northern person to land there at such a season. But we had paid our fare, and the rest of the company were going, and we resolved to proceed with the rest. It cost me a slight effort to surmount my natural dread of water. Hitherto I had SETTING OUT. 19 only crossed a river or two, like the Hudson or the Connecticut ; and my sufferings, in doing this, had been extreme. What shoukl I do now? However, we soon became rec- onciled to our condition, in such circum- stances ; and I found a reconciliation much easier than I had expected, 2 20 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER II. LONG ISLAND SOUND AND NEW-YORK BAY. On the morning of October 4:tli we set sail. Our progress was slow, for two or three reasons. First, there was not much wind. Secondly, our vessel, though large and dr^^ was a dull sailer. Thirdly, she was, as I afterward found, rather heavily laden. I have already said that our vessel was a schooner. Her name was " Enterprise.'^ She had been built in Eden, Maine, and the captain was going south to sell her. To defray his expenses he had taken passengers and freight. We were a whole day and night in pass- ing the southern shore of Connecticut. The next day the wind blew, but it was " ahead.'' Of course, we had to " beat," as the sailors say. That is, we had to tack this way and that, so as to bring the sides of the vessel alternately toward the wind. In this way we gained something; but it seemed, at LO^TQ ISLAND SOUND. 21 times, very little. We were almost all that daj in reaching New-York, and glad were Ave to get there at all. I do not suppose, indeed, that we were, at any time, in much danger; hut to us, who were most of us mere landsmen, it seemed as if the danger was, occasionally, imminent. In running close to the wind, the schooner sometimes appeared about to dash on a precipice or rock, on a hold shore, when suddenly the sails would flap and swell in another direc- tion, and away the vessel would go, to run within a few feet, perhaps, of some rock or bluff on the other side. The Sound, when we have passed Connecticut, and are ap- proaching New- York, becomes quite narrow, so that this beating against the wind, of which I have been speaking, if not danger- ous, is at least difficult. But the greatest danger we encountered was in passing through Hurlgate, or, as it was formerly called. Hell-gate. This is a narrow place, a little way east of New- York, which is beset with rocks — or once was — so that, at low tide, it is full of whirlpools, and is not passed without difficulty and 22 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. danger, even by the oldest and most skillful pilots. The waters, when we passed, whirl- ed and foamed and roared ; hut we passed through safely. Of late, as I understand, some of the rocks of this dangerous pass have been removed. In these days of rapid traveling, when Long Island Sound may be traversed, even against wind and tide, in a few hours, the journey I have just spoken of would hardly be thought worthy of notice. But it was then very different; and to me, especially, it seemed, as it were, a little life. We arrived at New- York just at evening ; but as we were not to make a long stay there, the captain said we must none of us go ashore, except to remain a few moments. Most of us kept within sight of the ship ; but a few wandered so far into the city that they did not return till the vessel had sailed. Whether they all got on board, in the end, I never knew, as we were almost all stran- gers to each other. I believe, however, that they came on board that night, or the next morning. Just at dark we set sail for Charleston. NEW-YORK BAY. 23 But tlie wind was unfavorable, and it was next to impossible to get out of the bay. And yet several other vessels found their way out. What was the matter with ours ? I have already told you she was a dull sail- er. But she was old and decrepit, as well as dull. In truth, she was totally unfit for the voyage which had been undertaken, es- pecially in the case of high winds and tem- pestuous weather. But there was another difficulty. She was not well manned. Some of us had reason to believe, in the end, that neither the captain nor the mate knew much about commanding a vessel. But, however 'this may have been, they certainly had too few hands to assist them. Seeing this to be the fact, some of us volunteered our aid to assist in getting out of the bay. It was all to no purpose, however. We toileii half the night, and yet were as far from having accomplished our purpose as when Ave started. We were, indeed, worse off, in one particular. In attempting to get out we had struck on a sand-bar, and con- siderably injured the vessel. At last we gave all up, and anchored in 24 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. a safe place till morning. Those of us who could, went to sleep. It was not so easy to sleep, however, as you may imagine ; for, in order to go " cheap," we had nothing hut the hold of the vessel to sleep in; and landsmen do not hecome at once reconciled to naked floors, with trunks, or billets of wood, for pillows. Besides, some of us were too much excited, or, at least, too much fa- tigued, to sleep well. It is an ill wind, however, that blows nobody any good. Our delay enabled some of our tardy associates to join us. ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 25 CHAPTER III. ON THE MAIN OCEAN. Morning at length came, and with it a fa- vorable wind. We were soon under weigh for Charleston. The scenery was grand as we passed out of the bay — the city in our rear, Staten Island on our right, and Long Island on our left. But we gradually lost sight of them all, and of Sandy Hook and Jersey shore besides. Those who have never been in similar circumstances will find it not a little diffi- cult to understand, merely from being told, what our feelings were, when, for the first time in our lives, we saw no land — the sky and ocean appearing to meet all around us. New troubles now arose. The passengers began to be seasick — myself among the rest; for though the wind was fair, yet it blew pretty hard, and the sea was rough. Before sunset, nearly every one on board was pale and helpless, or sick and vomiting. 26 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. Our habitation — the steerage, or hold — was more like a hospital than like a sleepi no- room. Some of the old sailors were as sicli as the passengers. As may he supposed, I slept hut little that night. How could I, in the midst of forty or fifty sick men, and severely sick myself? I did not, indeed, vomit as much as some of my companions ; for I found that by lying still on my back, I could, in part, suppress it. To add to my trouble, I suffered considerably from rheumatism. One of my lower limbs I could hardly move ; I could only drag it in a particular direc- tion ; and even this movement was painful. The wind, however, continued fresh, and we were wafted onward, during the night, at the rate of nearly ten miles an hour — which, considering the dullness of the schooner, was thought to be very tolerable progress- At length the day broke in upon us again, to show us nothing, however, but sky, clouds, and water, with here and there another vessel under full sail. Nothing new or strange occurred the next day. Most of us kept our places in ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 27 the hold. We had little disposition to eat or drink ; nor were our desires to eat great- ly increased by the reports which came to our ears concerning the badness of our pro- visions. It was now generally believed, among the passengers, that the captain had bought spoiled meat, and other injured ar- ticles, for our use, to save expense. One thing which tended to confirm our suspicions was, the irritability of the captain when the subject was mentioned to him. If he had intended to furnish good provisions, and a mistake had been made, why did he not say so ? This would have satisfied us far better than angry words and vile oaths. The captain was a bad man, as was obvi- ous from his whole conduct. He was al- most constantly in a passion, at one thing or another. But what grieved me most was — when I had strength to get on deck — to see his treatment of a colored cabin boy. He seemed, in truth, to vent half his dis- pleasure toward others on this poor lad. Once I saw him seize him by the collar of his jacket, and then kick him off the quar- ter-deck — which was several feet higher than 28 BAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. the main-deck — with so much violence as to leave the jacket in his hand. Such oaths I had never heard before. Sometimes I suspected strongly that he drank spirituous liquors ; and I have seen men, since I became more acquainted with the world, on whom rum and brandy, and even cider and wine and ale, had precisely this effect. He was, however, a tyrant, whether he drank rum or not ; and we could hardly bear the sight of him. The mate was a better man. All day long, during this second day of our progress from New- York, the wind blew fresh and strong, so that, by evening, we were in the latitude of Cape Charles and Cape Henry, in Virginia. Of course, we were not near them ; for the captain had purposely stood off at sea, a long distance from any known capes, shores, islands, or sand-bars. At evening the sea became still more rough than before, and the wind more \\o- lent. But our vessel, though dull and heavy, was, as I said before, quite dry. It was seldom that the deck was wet all over. ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 29 Sometimes, however, as I must confess, the seas ran over us, and if the "hatchway'^ was not closed, gave us a fine sprinkling below. Nor did those above wholly escape. One huge wave, as I was standing on the deck, wet me almost to my hips, and, per- haps, would have swept me away, had I not clung to the ropes with all my might. The second night from New- York, though the sea was raging, and the people all around me were sick, I slept quite soundly. How strange ! Six days before, I should have been terrified at the bare thought of cross- ing a river ; now, here I was, on the tem- pestuous ocean, nearly a hundred miles from land, with nothing between me and a wa- tery grave but a plank or two, and yet sleeping as quietly as a lamb. Something is said of the divine hand — that it " tempers the wind to the shorn lamb ;'' and I have no doubt it is so. Many people, in circumstances like these, however, think themselves wonderfully resigned to the will of God; when all their apparent resignation grows out of a tendency in our nature to submit, of necessity, to what we 30 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. cannot avoid. Mj su"bmission, at the time of which I am speaking, was, I dare say, of this description. But though I slept quietly enough this night, I rose once or twice, and, despite of sea sickness, rheumatism, wind and storm, crept upon deck. We were now in the Gulf- stream, and the wind unfavorable, so that we were making but little progress. The Gulf-stream runs northeastward, at the rate of three miles an hour, which was as much as our vessel knew how to contend with, had the wind been right. On reaching the deck, and approaching the bow of the vessel, a scene presented itself of which I had read, but which I had never expected to witness. The schooner seemed to be actually ploughing her way through waves of fire. Now, to see the water thus sparkling like fire, was to me, I assure you, a most novel aifair. It almost repaid the trouble of one day's sea sickness. What may be the cause of this strange appearance — phosphorescence in the water — is beyond my power to determine. Some naturalists say it is caused by certain small ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 31 animals which, like the glow-worm and fire- fly, are phosphorescent. I know not why sea animals may not be phosphorescent, as well as land animals ; but I think it more likely that the phenomenon arises from the agitation of phosphorescent pustules in the water. Morning came at length, but with it no better weather. Indeed, the weather was worse. The wind became very strong against us, and, together with Uie opposing current of the Gulf-stream, drove us back- ward instead of helping us forward. During the next twenty-four hours we fell to the northeast — to leeward, as sailors say — a whole degree of latitude. You may wonder why we sailed so far from shore as to carry us into the Gulf- stream ; and so did I, then. But the mate of the vessel said it was in order to keep clear of shoals and bars, which abound off the coast of North Carolina. The water in the Gulf-stream is warmer than it is in other parts of the ocean. If you thrust your hand into a pailfull of it, Avhen first drawn up, you will tind it almost o2 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. as warm as the fresh-drawn blood of an ordinary animal, wliich is about 98° or 100° of the common thermometer. It is, moreover, as blue, or nearly so, as the sky. The wind continuing unfavorable, we went on heavily many days. Most of our sick slowly recovered, though a few did not till they reached the land. They looked pale, and had no appetite all the rest of tho voyage. I was one of this number. I was obliged to keep still more than nine-tenths of the time ; for, if I did not, my sea sick- ness would return. Tlie best thing I could do, I found, was to lie still on my back, and abstain almost wholly from food. Sometimes I would have given all the world — had it been mine to give — to have been on shore again, and at my father's farm. But I had adventured, and I must now abide the consequences. " It is an ill wind,'' I repeatedly said to myself, " that blows nobody any good ;" and perhaps the voyage will be useful to me. after all. At length we found ourselves in the lati- tude of Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina. ON THE MAIN OCEAN. 33 This is a stormy and wincly place. Many sailors say the}' have never passed it except in a thunder storm ; and though it was now almost the middle of October, it thundered and lightened when we passed it ; but the storm was not very severe. 34 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER IV. EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. You will be curious to know, perhaps, how I spent my time on the voyage. Not very agreeably, I assure you ; for, in the first place, I was sick, more or less, as long as the voyage lasted. But, secondly, when I was able to do anything, it was not easy to employ myself very profitably or very use- fully. At this period of my life I had no books, or none worth mentioning ; and what I owned were left at home. Then it was in vain to look for books on board sueli a ves- sel, either among the ofiicers and crew, or the passengers. Some of the latter had, indeed, a few bad books ; but for these 1 had no relish. Of conversation — agreeable, profitable conversation — I had almost as little as of profitable reading. I love conversation, dearly, when it is anything worthy of the EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. oO name; but 1 do not love the conversation of blackguards, mimics, or buffoons ; or of those who choose to make beasts of them- selves. There were, it is true, one or two intelligent young men on board, but they were nearly all the while extremely sick. Many of the young men spent their time in playing cards ; but for such amusement I never had any relish. Indeed, although I have been much among people who played cards, I never paid any attention to them ; and never in my life so much as knew their names. To tell you the truth, I always desj^ised a pack of cards, ever since I saw one. But, sometimes, when the sea was calm, we amused ourselves by going upon deck, and looking at the dolphins, which came around the vessel as thick — almost so — as bees in a swarm. They are among the most beautiful fish in the world. Some would have found it an amnsement to catch them. In truth, the sailors did take some of them: for I remember that when they came to boil tliom they threw a piece of silver into the vessel, to see whether 36 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. it would be safe to eat them. They say that if the silver turns black, in such cases, the fish has been poisoned by sucking up copper, on the copper banks. I do not know how this notion originated. That the dolphin is sometimes poisonous is well understood ; but so are several other fishes that have never been near the copper banks. I did not amuse myself in any attempts to catch them, for several reasons. The principal of these, however, was sufficient to preclude all others. Once I had been ad- dicted to trapping, snaring, angling, &c. ; but moral considerations, at the early age of eleven years, had compelled me to aban- don all such cruel sports — and tliat for- ever. It was amusing to see the porpoises. They are a heavy, clumsy fish ; but to be- hold them, when the waves are rolling like mountains, leaping from the margin of a mighty wave, to fall, with a heavy splash, into the deep valley that yawned beneath it, was, to say the least, quite curious. Sometimes you will see them in large com- EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. 37 panics, called schools ; and the water will appear to be full of them. One day we saw a huge tortoise floating on the top of the rolling waves. Was he dead? The sailors said he was alive, but fast asleep. A singular place to sleep, you will say ; and so did I. Perhaps the state- ment of the sailors was without authority, for sailors are a class of people very wise in tlieir own estimation. They would think it beneath their dignity not to be able to ex- l?lain everything. Science sometimes dares to say, " I do not know ;" but ignorance seldom, if ever. We saw birds occasionally, even at great distances from the land. Apparently very much fatigued, they would sometimes alight on various parts of the vessel. A hawk seated himself at mast-head one day, when a sly sailor w^ent softly up the ropes and caught him in his hand. While sitting on deck, in another in- stance, a small bird alighted on my knee ; but as I put out my hand to take it, away it flew, and perched upon the rigging. The stormy petrel, or, as the seamen call 38 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. liim, "Mother Carey's Chicken/' is a won- derful bird. We saw him often. He is about as large as a robin, and is found in every part of the world, and at the great- est distances from land, on the wide ocean. Where he builds his nest I never heard. He can almost live on the water himself; but how can his young be raised there? But I do not know that anything of the kind interested me more than the fact that we were followed, night and day, for many days, by a shark. Do you ask why he fol- lowed us ? I can only tell you, as sailors say, that sharks follow vessels to get j^ieces of meat, or the dead bodies of men, or other animals, that happen to be thrown over- board. But this one did not appear to be hungry ; for the sailors baited a large hook with a piece of pork, in hopes to catcli him ; and yet he would not bite. Had they taken him it must have cost them much time and trouble to get him on board; for, judging from the appearance of his fins, which pro- jected always from the water, lie must have been from twelve to fifteen feet in length. EMPLOYMENTS AT SEA. 39 He was always at just about the same dis- tance from tlie vessel. One of our amusements I forgot to men- tion. There were several musicians on hoard who had their musical instruments. When the wind was not too violent, those of them who were well enough to do so, would form a little hand and go upon the deck, in the evening, and give a sort of ser- enade. Music on the water, especially du- ring a moonlight evening, is delightful. After being out of sight of land ten days and eleven nights, the captain told us we were not far from Charleston. Indeed, we could see land in the distance, very plainly ; but we were ignorant what it was, and there were doubts whether the captain knew much better than we, only he must have been better able to tell the latitude and lono-itude. There was a large dog on board that seemed to know nearly as much about it as any of us ; for he would go to the side of the vessel, look to^vard the land, and wag his tail ; and sometimes even utter a low moan. But so ignorant were our officers concern- ing the coast, that they did not know where 40 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. to look for the harbor ; and we were off and on till almost night ; and though our colors were set for a pilot, none came till we were enveloped in thick darkness and fog. Nor was this the worst. A gale came on, and we were driven off the coast, a long way toward Bermuda. Next day the wind abated, and the cap- tain made another effort to find Charleston harbor. Before night we were again near it, and our colors were reset. A pilot at length came on board and took the com- mand. He was the first South Carolinian I had ever seen ; but I dared to indulge the hope that he was not a fair sample of his countrymen ; for he was a profane swearer, and, in many respects, a very vulgar man. Some pilots on our coasts, both north and south, as I have since found, are very wor- thy citizens. ARRIVAL AT CIIARLESTOX. 41 CHAPTER V. ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. Our pilot, tliongh a vulgar and profane man, knew his duty, and we were now being safely conducted into tlie harbor of Charles- ton. You may easily suppose that we were not sorry to approach land again, after hav- ing been more than two weeks in coming from New- York — a distance often traversed by steamboats, at present, in about two days ; and by other vessels, in three or four. In entering Charleston harbor we passed, on our riglit hand, Sullivan's Island, a place famous in the history of the American Rev- olution. It is noAv simply a barren plain, with a few evergreens upon it, and a small number of light, airy, but oddly-constructed dwellings, where many of the wealthy in- habitants of the city come to reside during the hot season, partly on account of its su- perior healthfulness, and partly that they 42 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. may enjoy the delightful sea breezes which prevail here. We were now fairly in sight of Charles- ton, and under full sail. In a little time we were approaching one of the wharves. But before we were permitted to land, a health officer came on board to examine us. Seasickness had, indeed, blanched some of our ruddy northern cheeks ; but the doctor knew the cause, and pronouncing us healthy, we were permitted to land. It was the twentieth day of October. We had become so accustomed, during a voyage of about seventeen days from New- Haven, to the rocking motion of the vessel, that it was next to impossible for us, at first, to realize that we were on the firm earth again. The wharf seemed to swing to and fro, and we staggered about like drunken men. Even for a day or two, you would have laughed at my rocking gait, had you seen me. I had learned, more than two weeks before, how difficult a thing it was to "put on sea legs,^' as it is called : I was now learning the difficulty of putting them off. ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 43 Not a little surprise was expressed, bj some of the people of Charleston, on seeing us arrive ; for it had been so long since the vessel left New- York that she was supposed, by most, to be lost. Several vessels had, indeed, been lost on the coast during the storms and gales we had encountered; and, considering all the circumstances, it was a wonder of divine mercy that we had es- caped. I had been so ill, and our food and water had been so bad, that I had scarcely eaten anything while on board. ' I was still sick and weak ; but my strength was returning, and so was my appetite. Seeing some beautiful New- York pippins for sale, I in- quired the price, and was told it was six cents each. This was the first time in my life that I had known apples sold for such a price. However, I soon found that three could be bought for twelve and a half cents. The truth was they did not use any copper change ; a thing was six and a quarter cents, or it was nothing. The half-dime, or five- cent piece, had not then been coined. After several attempts at eating, I began 44 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. to conclude that the restoration of mj ap- petite must be the work of time, and could not, after all, be very much hastened by particular or favorite dishes. Weak though I was, I walked about the city with my companion, a little while, be- fore retiring to rest, and visited several of the principal streets. Charleston is a beau- tiful place, but not large ; it was scarcely larger than Providence or Salem now is. The streets are broader and handsomer than those of Boston ; but the buildings, both public and private, are not so good. There are, liowever, a few very elegant buildings. The city is on a tongue of land lying be- tween Ashley and Cooper rivers, and the streets run from river to river, and are in- tersected by others running across them at right angles. The market in Charleston is very liber- ally supplied with fish of all kinds, as well as with most of the vegetables, both of the south and the north. The market building is very long — some say nearly a mile. It is, however, a very miserable concern — a mere shanty, as western people would call it. ARKIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 45 How difiPerently everything — or almost everything — in Charleston, appears, from what is seen in northern cities ! I had never before seen colored people more numerous in the streets than whites ; nor had I ever before seen people carrying all sorts of lug- gage — pails and tubs of water, chairs, bas- kets of fruit, vegetables and meat, beds, tables, sofas, and even coffins — on their heads.'" The white citizens of Charleston resemble very nearly those of Boston, only that they seem a little more attentive to strangers. The Sabbath — -judging from a single day spent there — is as well observed as in northern cities. I had arrived in Charleston on Saturday, and, of course, I was there on Sunday. On inquiry about the various denominations of Christians, and their churches, I learned that there was, among other places of wor- ship, a Jewish synagogue. Having not a little of Yankee curiosity, the thought struck me, I will, for once in my life, go to the synagogue. But then, upon second thought, '"•' See Frontispiece. 46 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) was already over; so I attended at the church of the denomination to which I was accustomed at home ; which was, doubtless, better for me, all things considered. I was the more gratified, and, as I trust, edified, by attending public worship, from the fact that everything pertaining to the Sabbath, and to the duties of religion, externally, had been wholly neglected while we were on board the vessel. In truth, had we not known by the calendar which day of the week it was, Sunday could not have been distinguished from any of the other days. I had not learned, at this time, a most painful fact that further observation and travel forced upon me, viz., that people are very apt to leave their good habits at homo when they travel abroad. They seem tc think it is of less consequence how they be- have w^ien they are where none but stran- gers see them, than at home. Some young men who, while at home, are regarded as of the very best habits — perhaps members of some Christian Church or other — will ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 47 even travel all day on Sunday, or give and receive visits, or sell or buy goods. Alas ! do they not know that though no earthly eye, fou which they have any particular re- gard, is upon them, yet the great God sees them, and will one day bring them into judgment for these very things? The yellow fever, of which so much was feared when I left New-Haven, scarcely pre- vailed. There had, indeed, been a few cases of it, but only a few. For anything which I could learn, I see no reason why I could not spend the season as safely in Charleston as in New-Tork or Boston. Even the heat of Charleston is not greater than that of Boston ; it is onlv a little lonoer con- tinned. While my companion and I were in Charleston, gazing about — far from friends to advise or control us — we were beset with many of those temptations to vice to which young men, glowing with curiosity — who have never before visited a city — are pecu- liarly exposed. We remembered, however, a word of advice which we had been accus- tomed to read in a famous school-book, viz., 48 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. "Every one should mind his own business ;'' and gave heed to it. And it was well for us that we did ; for thus, after being pre- served by a kind Father in heaven from shipwreck at sea, we escaped a worse than shipwreck on the land. CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. 49 CHAPTER VI. CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. We now wished to go to Columbia, about one hundred and twenty miles to the north- west. Hoiv shall we go? was the great practical question. There were no stage coaches running in that direction ; and as for railroads, these were scarcely known at that time, and not at all in this region. Since that period a railroad has been con- structed from Charleston to Hamburg — one hundred and thirty-five miles ; but had it been in existence when we were there, it would not have conducted us in the right direction. There was, indeed, a steamboat running from Charleston to Columbia, through the Santee Eiver ; but it only went once a week or so, and the fare was very high. Some of the passengers in the " Enterprise" went in her, on Saturday, the day we arrived ; but they were tliose who had an abundance 50 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. of money. The state of our funds admon- ished us to be more economical. The more common method of getting to Columbia, at that season, as I found, was to procure a passage with some wagoner. These wagoners, after having come from the upper country, with their vehicles heav- ily loaded with cotton, and sold it, purchase West India goods, such as rum, sugar, mo- lasses, &c., to carry back. Yet, loaded as they are w^ith goods of this sort, they will not, in ordinary circumstances, refuse to carry a traveler's trunk or two. My companion and I at length contracted with one of these wagoners to take our trunks — of which we had one each — to Co- lumbia. As for ourselves, we were to walk, as he did. It was not usual for the wagon to travel more than twenty miles — or, at most, twenty-five — a day ; and this, we thought, would not be difficult. On Monday, therefore, just at sunset — having put our trunks safely on board a huge wagon — we set out on our journey. I was so feeble, from long seasickness, that 1 could hardly walk ; yet necessity compelled CHARLESTON TO COLUMBIA. 51 me to attempt it. Besides, I hoped that air and exercise would gradually restore me, as eventually they did, though not so soon as I had expected. There were other wagons in company with that to which we were attached, so as to make up quite a " caravan." Some of them were drawn by mules — others by horses ; generally by two pairs each ; though some by three. Each one was under the care of two persons — a man and a boy. Oar group was of Dutch descent, and their home was beyond Columbia, near the Saluda River. There were many peculiarities about our " caravan.'^ One horse or mule connected with each wagon wore bells, and was guided either by the man or the boy, who sat astride, while his companion trudged along on foot, usually at his side. My traveling companion and I followed behind, now re- marking on the oddity of our appearance, and now, in silent retrospect, turning our thoughts back to the land of our fathers. My friend was in good spirits, but I was dejected. I had little strength and some 52 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. disease. But the teams traveled slowly, and I took courage in the belief that as it was growing dark we should soon put up for the night. So we followed on, as pa- tiently as w-e could, asking no questions, and fully determined to make the best of everything. CAMPING OUT. 53 CHAPTER VII. CAMPING OUT. At length, after traveling four or five miles, we inquired of one of our Dutclmien, — "Where are "\ve to put up for the night?'' "At tlie camping ground," was the reply. " Where is that ?" we asked. " 0, we shall soon come to it,'' was the reply. To the camping ground we accordingly soon came. It was just five miles from Charleston. Our teams were driven out of tlie road, into a large, thick pine grove, where the ground was tolerably dry, and arranged in a circle around a spot of ground wliich strongly resembled a place where charcoal had been burnt. We soon learned that it was a place where travelers were accustomed to stop ; and that, when it was cold, they built fires. It was now cold weather, and white frosts had commenced. Of course, fires were deemed necessary. While, therefore, a part 54 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. of the men and boys were unliarnessing the horses, the rest went in pursuit of fallen wood for fuel. They soon collected a quan- tity of dry pine, which they called liglit- wood — or, in their provincial brogue, UgJitiid — and built a huge fire. Then they took from their wagon a kettle, and made some coffee. These people, you know, can hardly make a meal — so they think — without cof- fee. Having made a heavy repast of hoe-cake (corn bread) and bacon, and drank their coffee, the next thing was to prepare their beds. Each wagon carried a feather-bed and a blanket. Their custom was to spread the blanket on the ground, and lie down upon it, and cover themselves with the bed. This, thought we, is an odd way; but we soon learned that it was the custom of the Dutch inhabitants of that part of the coun- try, either to sleep in this way, or witli two feather-beds — one above and one below them. You wonder, perhaps, why these people, in traveling along, slept in the woods. There were three reasons. 1. There were CAMPING OUT. 55 no public houses, or almost none, on the road. 2. It was very sickly in the country, and, on this account, we could not get ac- commodated at private houses. 3. The lionest Dutchmen wanted to be economical, and save their money. While my companion and I were half disposed to smile at the oddity of the ar- rangements for sleeping, the question came across our minds, for the first time. Where are tve to sleep ? So we asked counsel of our Dutch friends. They would gladly have allowed us to sleep with them, but a single feather-bed would not serve as a covering for more than two persons. So they advised us to collect pine needles — the dried leaves of the pine — and make ourselves a bed of them. Necessity compelled us to follow their advice, and we soon collected a large heap of pine needles, and laid ourselves down for repose. We lay down, I said ; but it was not so easy to sleep. The Dutchmen were alter- nately lying down and getting up again, till nearly midnight. Sometimes they were telling stories, and laughing and shouting ; 56 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. sometimes thej were dancing; sometimes, as a change, thej were silent for a while. On occasions they would halloo at their horses — " Pied/^ " Jim/^ " Larry," &c. — for every horse had a familiar name. By the way, it should he ohserved that our friends, the Dutchmen, had New-Eng- land rum on board their wagons, and we could not refrain from thinking, from their noise and tricks, and antic gestures, that they removed some of it, to lighten their loads. But we had other troubles. As the air w^as damp and chilly, our " pine-needle'^ beds did not suffice to keep us warm ; and we found our situation very uncomfortable. We turned first one side to the fire, and then the other; and while half the body was greatly heated, the other half would seem to be almost frozen. However, the night, at length — like all former nights — passed away, and the day began to dawn. It dawned, however, to us on a land of masters and slaves — a thing entirely new to me, till I landed at Charles- ton. CAMPING OUT. 57 The only very strange thing that hap- pened during the night was, that by getting too near the fire, in order, if possible, to keep warm, I burned a large hole in the skirt of my coat. But a hole of equal size, burned in the skin, would have been a more serious evil. We rose early ; not because we were suf- ficiently rested and restored by sleep, but because it was time to prepare for our jour- ney. After eating a few mouthfuls — for my appetite was not yet as good as formerly — we went to the spring and drank some water. These springs, however, in Carolina, are mere brooks or creeks — ver}^ sluggish ones, at that ; and yet they call them springs ; and it is true that they afford the best water they have in the country. The ponds are stagnant and poisonous, and the wells are little better. We had taken the precaution to carry with ns a little ginger, to mix with our water, to prevent its hurting us ; so wc mixed some with it that morning. We had been advised to take a quantity of Lee's pills with us, and to swallow one of them 58 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. every otlicr day, in order to prevent the fevers ; but this we would not do. And I would not do it if I was to travel the coun- try again, a thousand times over. I would not even mix ginger with my water. I would drink the water very sparingly ; but what I drank should be water only, as God gives it. Bad as it is, it is not so bad as water and medicine. TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 59 CHAPTER VIIL TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. When our company, and their horses and mules, had breakfasted, and everything was in readiness, we resumed our journey. When we first began to move, I was so weak that I verily thought I should not be '^ble to walk a mile ; but, having dragged myself along one mile, I found myself no worse for it ; so I persevered, from mile to mile, till, at sunset, we had traveled about twenty miles. Our course was through a flat country — half wilderness, half cultivated — with here and there a small cotton or rice-field, and occasionally, at long intervals, a house. The houses were, usually, at a considerable distance from the road — sometimes quite out of sight — and we only knew where they were by the barking of a pack of saucy dogs, or by the appearance of gates and lanes, which we knew led to them. 60 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. The second day we passed a place usually known by tlfe name of Monk's Corner. It is about fifteen miles from Charleston. Here, or near this place, it is said, President Jackson was born. It is a mere country neighborhood — a few houses only ; no church — not even a school-house. We saw something of slavery on the plan- tations. The colored men and women were in the fields, picking cotton ; but their mo- tions were so slow that they seemed to us more like so many old stumps than like living men ; except that, occasionally, they moved about a little ; whereas, old stumps do not move at all. A little way beyond Monk's Corner we saw a large number of slaves employed in building a new road. Did I say employed? They were hardly so. While actually threat- ened by their overseer, or smarting under the whip, they would occasionally throw a few shovels full of earth or mud ; but as soon as the overseer's back was turned to- ward them, they did little or nothing. I took notice of the preparations for their dinner. The women w^ere preparing it by TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 61 fires built at the road side. It consisted of rice — say two-thirds of a pint, after it was boiled, to each laborer ; and some of them had little, if anything, else. The. people of the country through which we were passing were very sickly. We scarcely found a house, whenever we in- quired, in which there was not one or more persons sick with the fever. When I asked what sort of a fever it was, some said it was a bilious fever ; but others said it was the " cold plague." Sometimes nearly the whole family was sick with it ; and those who were not sick looked as yellow as if they had suffered from a long course of yel- low fever. In Iraveling almost anywhere else in tlie United States, at this season, fruits are to be seen — especially the apple ; but here we saw no apples at all, nor but few pears and peaches. There had, indeed, been a few peaches, but they were ripe and gone. Keither were there any nuts in the woods ; or, at least, but few — some coarse acorns. One fruit there was, in abundance — the persimmon. The tree which bears it is of 62 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. medium size, and somewhat resembles the white or pig-walnut. The fruit is about the size of a wild-plum, or, perhaps, a little larger. Until perfectly ripe, it is one of the most bitter things in the world ; and it never gets ripe till frost comes. After one or two sharp frosts, the persimmons turn yellow, and become soft, and drop from the trees. They are then almost as sweet as a lump of sugar, and dissolve in the moutli almost as easily. Eaten in small quanti- ties, they are, like most other fruits, whole- some enough ; but in large quantities they are apt to cloy, and derange the stomach. I ate them so freely, at first, that I made my stomach acid, and did not get over it for a week. I forgot to say that I saw a few oranges and limes growing in the gardens of Charles- ton ; but the oranges were of a very inferior kind. They were neither so large nor so perfect as those which grow in warmer countries. One of the greatest curiosities in all Car- olina is the immense fields of cotton. A large field of this plant, just ripe enough TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. 63 for picking, — tliat is, when the pods are hurst open, — is a heaiitiful sight. Before we reached Columhia we saw fields of it containing several hundred acres each. The weather was chilly, and the slaves engaged in picking the cotton had fires in the old stumps, which were smoking like so many- chimneys. Some of the negroes were shiv- ering around these fires. They were thinly clad ; besides, they cannot endure the cold as well as the whites. There are three kinds of cotton: 1. The sea-island. 2. The green-seed. 3. The Nankeen cotton. The first kind is the best, but is not very much raised, except along the sea-shore, among the islands, and near the rivers. It is much taller than the other kinds, and its price is nearly twice as high. The green-seed or upland cotton is raised in greatest abundance. It is planted in rows, and hoed several times. It grows to the height of two or three feet. The flowers are of a pale yellow color, with five red spots at the bottom. The pods are rather triangular in shape, and have each three cells. These, when ripe, burst open, G4 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. and show their contents, in the midst of which are the seeds, somewhat resemhling grape seeds, only much larger. When the cotton has been collected, it is picked in a mill, turned by horses or mules. The pro- cess of cleaning the sea-island cotton con- sists in tearing the pods in pieces, and blow- ing or brushing away the cotton, while the seeds fall below, and are piled away for manure. This method of picking it was invented by Mr. Eli Whitney, of New-Ha- ven, Connecticut, and was a most valuable discovery. Before that it liad to be picked out with the hand, which was a very slow and tedious process. The upland cotton is picked in nearly the same manner. Of the Nankeen cotton there is not much raised. We passed, also, a few rice-fields ; and, if I had space, I should like to describe to you the process of raising this curious grain, which feeds half the world. Kice birds sometimes' attack it, while it is unripe, and is in a milky state, and almost destroy it. It is also liable to a disease, which is mani- fested by black spots on the kernel, and which renders it exceedingly poisonous. TRAVELING IN CAROLINA. G5 Those who eat it are attacked with a dis- temper which resembles the i\.siatic cholera, and often carries them off in a very few hours. The best rice land will produce about two thousand four hundred pounds, to the acre ; but the average produce is much less. There are five kinds — the white, gold- Guinea, bearded, short-grained, and high- land. Eice was brought to Carolina above one hundred and sixty years ago, from the island of Madagascar. Near Granby, not many miles from Co- lumbia, we saw indigo growing ; or, rather, we saw the fields in which it had been raised that season. Very little of it, however, is cultivated in the vicinity. We traveled about twenty miles a day, on the average, which brought us to Colum- bia in about six days. Much of the way the road was partially or wholly overflowed by water. In some instances we were obliged to wade a quarter of a mile, or more, at a depth of from two to twelve inches. Sometimes we could avoid the wa- ter by walking on logs, or clinging to the QQ RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. wagon, or to fences — at least, in part. Travelers say they are sometimes obliged to swim ; but we found no such necessity. I have not attempted to describe all our various encampments ; nor is it necessary, since tliey were all similar to the first. We slept in the fields or woods five nights before we reached Columbia; but the pine-knots and logs furnished us with good fires. It was a wonder that we did not take cold in going, so much of the time, with wet feet ; but we contrived to dry them every night. COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY. 67 CHAPTER IX. COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY. We reached Columbia about noon. This is a pleasant place, being much more elevated than the country around it, and pleasantly laid out into squares. It is on a plain of two or three miles in extent, gently slo- ping on every side, especially toward the south and east. The town was not large. It scarcely contained three thousand people. It is a pleasant place ; and yet you, of the Northern and IMiddle and Western States, w^ould not like it. The houses are not beautiful, and there is none of the sprightliness which you find in your own villages. Everything seems dull and stu- pid ; hardly anybody is stirring in the streets ; no stage-coaches, and but few pri- vate carriages. But worse than this, the water is bad, and the town is unhealthy, especially to us more northern people. 68 EAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. I did not stay long in Columbia. We took up our march, almost immediately, for the canal works. These were at the falls of the Saluda Eiver, a little above the town. Some of our companions on board the " En- terprise" had already gone there, and we had other Northern friends on the spot. We found them drilling rocks, digging, blasting, &c. While roaming about the works we were, at first, exposed to accidents. Coming near a place where they were blasting rocks, but of which I had not been informed, the rocks exploded most violently, filling the air, as it were, with fragments. I ran be- hind a shanty — one of the huts there — to shelter myself from the falling pieces of rock ; and, to my surprise, saw near me the stump of a tree, somewhat decayed, but more than half a foot in diameter, whose trunk had been cut in two by a fragment from the quarry, and whose top had been precipitated into the river, on tlie bank of which it stood ! Suppose, said I to myself, it had been my trunk, instead of the trunk of the tree ! COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY, 69 After this, wlien I came to understand fully the nature of the dangers which beset me, I was more careful where I went, though I did not wholly escape accidents. One of the company — for we stayed, during the night, with our friends at the works — was going out, in the evening, to a distant spring, in the woods, for a pail of water, and I volunteered to accompany him. We found the spring and procured our water ; but on our return, although my companion and guide had been to the spring in the night many times before, and though we had a lantern, we lost ourselves in the woods. Long and anxiously did we search for our shanty, and many and loud were our calls to the company ; but it was all in vain. No huts could be found, and no voice or sound could be heard, save that of the screech- owl. I had heard, or read in books, that people, when lost, are apt to go round and round in a circle, without making any real prog- ress on their way ; and I now found it true ; for, in one instance, after traveling a long 70 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. time, in hopes of reaching our hut, we came round to a place where we knew, perfectly well, we had been about half an hour be- fore, but which we vainly supposed we had now left far behind us. However, we at length found our way out of the woods, and returned to our lodgings. Our companions at the "camp'' were sur- prised at our long absence, and almost out of patience in waiting for us. We told them our story, and joined in the general laugh at getting lost, so near home, and in a place with which one of us had so long been familiar. After a quiet night's rest we left the camp, to journey westward in search of schools. We set out on foot, which gave us a fine opportunity to see the country, had there been anything in it which was peculiar, to render it worthy of observation. But it is not there as it is in most parts of the United States, that we find, every two, three, four, or five miles, little villages ; and sometimes large ones. You may travel there fifty miles, in almost any direction, and not meet with a single village of any COLUMBIA AND ITS VICINITY. 71 size. All the way from Charleston to Co- lumbia — a distance of nearly one hundred and twenty miles — we saw nothing of the kind, except a few houses at Monk's Cor- ner, and the remains of an old village, called Granby, near Columbia. 72 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER X. ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. Our journey westward from Columbia lay through a curious country, consisting of a mere succession of sand-hills, at first, as it had been about Columbia, but gradually changing into a pleasant hilly country, not unlike the Northern states. The inhab- itants were less sickly here than in the country further east and southeast. We stopped, during the night, at a place called Spring Hill. It was only a small neighborhood of three or" four houses, and perhaps a post-office. There was not even an inn at the place. We lodged with one Dr. Smith — or Schmitz, as the Dutch call it — a physician. The doctor received us kindly, gave us plenty of soup for supper, and a good feath- er-bed for a covering, while we slept. Be- fore we retired he asked us a thousand questions about the North, or, as he was ac- ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 73 customed to saj, the ^^norracV^ He was very attentive and hospitable, in his way ; and, on the whole, we were much more comfortable with him than when on board the vessel, or sleeping on pine needles. Next morning we had soup again for breakfast, with a little sour milk and some cold Indian bread which had been baked in loaves. It was rather dry eating to us; but might have been worse. The next day we reached Newberry. This was a decent little village, with a court- house and several shops and stores. It is forty-three miles from Columbia and nearly one hundred and sixty from Charleston. Newberry is the only place, except Columbia and Granby, that deserves the name of vil- lage, in all our way from Charleston. Instead of being divided into counties, as most of the states are, further north, this state is divided into districts. Near the center of each district is a court-house, and sometimes, though not always, a village. The districts are not subdivided into town- ships, as our counties are ; though you may occasionally find small towns or villages 74 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. scattered up and down tlie country ; but, as I have before said, they are few and far be- tween. We stopped a day or two only in New- berry, and tben proceeded westward into Laurens District. When about one hundred and eighty miles from Charleston we saw a large chestnut-tree — the first we had met with in all that country. The timber con- sists chiefly of pine, oak, black-jack, &c. But we had now arrived in a hilly country, much like New-England. As I have before intimated, there is little to interest the traveler in this part of the country. There are scarcely any curiosi- ties, either of nature or art. In most parts of the country the eye is relieved by occa- sional dwellings ; but here you seldom see a dwelling from the road in which you are traveling. You only see the signs of a hab- itation. You see a gate of a particular kind, lead- ing to a path which conducts through some grove, or forest, or peach-orchard, to a plan- tation. If you enter the gate a group of fierce dogs fly at you, to bark, or perhaps ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 77 tear your skin. Your only safe way is to wait at the gate, when the dogs begin to threaten, till some colored man, or a com- pany of men, come out to meet you, and keep off the dogs, and " carry " you, as they call it, safely to the house of the mas- ter or mistress. Churches are as seldom seen as dwelling houses. When seen, however, they are in the woods, often at a long distance from any dwelling whatever; though, occasion- ally, there is near them a little grocery store, a post-office, or a court-house. They are small, unfinished, without floors often; and sometimes without anything in the shape of a pulpit. The seats are mere plank benches, and there are seldom enough of even these to accommodate more than two hundred people. Som e of these ch urches are frame buildings ; but others are built of logs. I have attended church in these buildings. Of course, they have no bell to call the people together. When the hour arrives the minister comes in and takes his seat, with a few persons around him. Others 78 RAMBLES IN THE SOUTH. come in, one after another, till, in about half an hour, they are nearly all assembled, and the service begins. In this there is nothing very peculiar, except, perhaps, that the discourses, which are usually extem- pore, are delivered in a sing-song tone. Their school-houses, which we saw occa- sionally, were more amusing than even the churches. They were generally built of logs, and without floors. The fire-place was at the end, and occupied the whole of that part of the house. The chimney had very little draft, and the house was generally smoky. In passing a school-house, several boys might often be seen out of doors, either with or without their books, wandering to and fro, climbing the trees, or, in some few instances, studying their lessons. Looking in you might see them standing or stalking about, or, perhaps, reading or reciting. When the smoke was not too thick you might, perhaps, discover a class standing up for spelling. We were disposed to laugh at a few of their peculiarities. We had heard from our ADVENTURES IN THE COUNTRY. 79 fathers that q was once called cufe, and z iz- zard; but were no t aware that the custom still remained in any part of the United States. But here we found it in full force. Thus, in spelling the word gizzard, and pronounc- ing each syllable as they went along, they would say, g-i-izzard, Giz ; izzard-a-rd, zard, GIZZARD. Some of the schools, it is true, were much better than others ; and so of the churches — particularly in the towns and villages and cities. I have seen as good churches in some parts of the southern states as at the north ; though not so good school-houses. We were greatly amused, too, with their manner of driving oxen, or, as they call them, steers. When there was but one dri- ver, if it happened that the steers turned away from him, instead of making them come back again by means of his voice and the motion of his whip, he would go round the opposite side of them, and drive them back again. Sometimes he held in his hand a rope, the other end of which was tied to the horns of one of the steers, by means of which he would pull him into the 80 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. right direction. Occasionally I have seen two persons employed with a single yoke of steers — one to pull, the other to drive. We were glad, however, to find that the people of South Carolina, though very awk- ward teamsters, were excellent horsemen. I speak now, however, of the English popu- lation. I mean that which is descended from the English ; for it is not so with the Dutch, Irish, and Scotch. Some of the people whom I met with would shoot a deer, or almost any other wild animal, while their horses were carrying them at full speed. They would leap over ditches and fences on horseback, with surprising skill. They are very fond of hunting, and their horses seem to be well trained for the purpose. Their cattle and sheep, in this country, are very inferior. Indeed, they have but few sheep. They have more goats than sheep. What they keep the goats for I do not know, unless for their milk. The cows of the country are small, and give but little milk — that is, comparatively — and what they do give is, very often, of an inferior quality. JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 81 CHAPTER XL JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. I TOLD you that we came to Soutli Carolina to teach school. But we had arrived at an improper time, in one respect. It was early in November ; w^hereas, the schools of that country usually end at Christmas, and be- gin at New Yearns. So that it was not easy to procure a situation till the lapse of almost two months. And what should we do in the mean time ? When we left home it was our intention, if we failed of procuring schools, to work at the canal, near Columbia ; and we began now to think of doing so. But just as we were on the point of coming to such a de- termination, we learned that the contractors there had failed, and that there was, at present, no opportunity to secure wages for our labor. We thought it better, therefore, and even indispensable, to pursue some other course. 82 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. . My traveling companion was slightly ac- quainted in Norfolk, Virginia ; and if we were there he thonght we could get employ- ment. But Norfolk was five hundred miles distant; and how could we go there? To return to Charleston and proceed by water, or to go from Columbia or Charleston by stage-coach, would be quite beyond our means ; for our little stock of money did not exceed thirty dollars. To walk thither would take a long time, but would be cheaper. Our decision was finally made. ^Ye re- solved on going by land, and on foot, to Norfolk. We packed all our effects which we could not carry in our hands, into one trunk, and left it at Dr. Smith's, at Spring Hill, to be sent to Charleston, and thence, by water, to Norfolk ; and having disposed of the balance, we set out on our long jour- ney. Two obstacles we had to encounter which travelers on foot do not usually meet with at the North and East. These were the deep sand, found almost everywhere, and numerous rivers and creeks without bridges. JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 83 There was but one bridge, at that time, in traveling the whole distance from Newberry, in South Carolina, to Norfolk, in Virginia ; and that was over the Cape Fear, at Fay- ettevillo, in North Carolina. And then, too, there were scarcely any regular ferries over the rivers. As a consequence, we were sometimes obliged to wade through the streams, even in the cold month of Novem- ber. Luckily it was at a season when the water was low. Among the rivers and creeks we passed in traveling to Virginia, were the Catawba, Lynch's Creek, Little Lynch's Creek, Black River, and the Great and Little Pedee, in South Carolina ; and the Cape Fear, Neuse, Tar, Roanoke, and Chowan, in North Caro- lina. Some of these, in spring and winter, are large rivers ; but in summer and au- tumn the most of them become quite shal- low. The Neuse, for example, which is usually reckoned a considerable river, was at this time only a few feet deep. The country through which we traveled was exceedingly uninteresting. In the first place, there were no towns or villages — or 84 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. almost none. Winnsborough, in Soutli Car- olina, is a small place, but by no means in- viting to the stranger. This was almost the only village we passed in going through the whole state, from Newberry to Fayette- ville, in North Carolina. Then there were no natural curiosities. I know of no place in the United States where a person can travel five hundred miles, in a straight direction, and meet with so few curiosities of nature or art. The only thing I now recollect which arrested our attention, as a curios it}^, was a place which is famous in the annals of American history, called Bleauford's Battle-Ground. Had there been mountains — a high bluflP — in sight, to break the monotony now and then, it would have been different ; but it w^as one continual succession of pine plains, and corn and cotton fields, and gates guard- ed by surly dogs; witli here and there, as I have before said, a log school-house, or a miserable church ; and, in a very few in- stances, a post-ofiice, and a dirty grocery or grog-shop. We traveled at the rate of about two JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 85 hundred miles a week, or thirty-three and one third miles a day ; which, considering how deep the sand was, may be considered as pretty hard traveling. It took our time from the earliest hours of the morning to dark, or sometimes, when the moon shone, an hour or two afterward. Occasionally we were compelled to travel late, in order to find a stopping place ; for there were no taverns, and sometimes, for ten or twelve miles, no dwellings to he found or heard from. One night, in traveling after dark, we came to a considerable stream, where there was neither ferry nor bridge, and, strangers as we were, we were uncertain about the depth of the water. Had it been daylight we might have ventured to grope our way along through it. We hesitated for a mo- ment. We were anxious to go further, and still more unwilling to go back. At last we determined to retreat. It proved a long way back to a house ; and when we reached one, and attempted to gain admittance through the gate, we were assailed, most furiously, by the dogs. But 6 86 BAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. the servants at length came, and we were admitted to the house. It was a small dwelling, occupied by a large family ; but, after a little hesitation and delay, they re- ceived us. There was but one room in the whole house, and that, like many others in that part of the country, had no floor. There were but three beds. One of them was oc- cupied by the heads of the family, and a babe or two; another by the eldest son and ourselves ; and the third by a part of the children. The rest, with several very young slaves, slept around the fire, which was at a remote end of the building. I have spoken of the small size of the house ; but you must know that the houses in the Southern States are not used for the same purposes, in all resjoects, as our houses at the North and East are. The slaves usually live in small huts or cabins, at a little distance from their master's dwelling: and in these all tlie cooking, washing, &c., are done ; so that no kitchen or sink is needed in connection with the former. In the morning, after breakfast, the gen- JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 87 tleman of the house went with iis to the creek, and taking us, one at a time, behind him, on his horse, carried us safely across it. For all his trouble, including our lodg- ing'^ and entertainment, he charged us noth- ing, and actually refused to receive any- thing. The only return he permitted iis to make was a few trifling presents to his children. This kind of treatment is by no means uncommon at the South. We were, at length, fairly within the limits of North Carolina. We stopped for the night at a kind of public house, famil- iarly known, all over that region, as Peter May's, near the state line. " You can throw a rock from my porch into South Carolina,^^ said our good-natured landlord. And we could do so, for it was only a few rods. However, by a rock he only meant a stone, or a mere fragment of rock ; for this is the usual manner of speaking in that vi- cinity. From Peter May's we went toward Fay- etteville. We were in Anson County ; but it made little difference to us where wo were, as there was nothing to interest us. 88 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. It M^as a mere alternation of sandy plains, more or less covered with pine, with occa- sional corn-fields. We sometimes traveled eight or ten miles without meeting with a single house, or avenue leading to one. And when w^c came to one, it was, in gen- eral, a miserable log house, and without a floor. For many miles before we reached Fay- etteville the country was peculiarly sandy and poor, and thinly inhabited. Most of the few people we met with were, moreover, of Scotch descent. They w^ere too poor to own slaves. They had come in emigrant vessels to Wilmington, on Cape Fear Piiver, below Fayetteville, and had come up to the latter place, and thence scattered themselves over the adjacent pine forests. They lived in mere cabins ; but most of them contrived to have a garden, and to raise a pig or two, and some corn ; and occasionally they kept a cow. The best food we could procure of them was a little corn-bread, or " hoe-cake ;" a little pork, or bear's meat, or venison ; with a little honey, or perhaps a tumbler of sour JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 89 milk. Their corn-bread was good and wholesome, but I did not like their milk or their meats — especially their dark-brown bear's meat. Custom, however, soon recon- ciled me to sour milk. One kind of bread they had which I never saw before, and which I have never met with anywhere else except in Carolina. It w^as called " crackling-bread." It was sim- ply Indian cakes, with a mixture of chopped lean meat. We came, at length, to Fayetteville. It was pleasant to see a " town'' once more. Fayetteville, at that time, contained three thousand five hundred inhabitants, and many good buildings. Among these were a court-house, town-house, academy, masonic hall, three banks, and three houses for pub- lic worship. But most of these last, and many of the dwellings, have, since that time, been destroyed by a great fire ; though the place has been, in part, rebuilt. Fayetteville is regularly and handsomely laid out, and the principal streets are at least one hundred feet wide. It was one of tlie best villages we saw in all that country. 90 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. We did not stop liere long. We crossed the Cape Fear Eiver on a fine bridge, about a mile beyond Fayetteville. The river here is narrow, but deep, and very dark colored. It is a noble stream, however. Steamboats from Wilmington — eighty or one hundred miles distant — come as far as this bridge. The next village of any note we saw was Tarborough. It stands on Tar Eiver, and contains, perhaps, a hundred houses. Like most of the villages in those states, how- ever, it has a dull aspect, and is far enough from being flourishing. It is about sixty miles eastward of Ealeigh. Here a circumstance occurred which may be worth relating. As we turned a corner we saw several men in a grocery, drinking and smoking. Stopping a moment to in- quire about the road, one of them said, " That man is a nor^ard man ;'' and turning to me, "A'n't you a nor'ard man ?'^ says he. I told him I was. "So am I," said he. " Two jolly fellows well met," he added. " Come, stranger, brotlier nor'ard man, what will you have to drink ?" I told him I did not wish for anything to drink. JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 91 ^'Wliat, not drink with a brother nor^'ard man !" said he. " But you must, and you shall. Landlord, give us something to take." By this time my fellow-traveler, who knew the world — at least this part of it — better than I, began to be uneasy ; and finding me lingering, as if to drink with the man, he almost forced me away. " Strange," said he, " that you should enter into conversation, and, above all, think of drinking with such wretches. That drunk- o ard only calls himself a northward man to lure you into the company, and, perhaps, rob you of your money." These words, uttered in a low voice, were sufficient. The single word rob had opened my eyes, and I was as glad to proceed as he was. But, in order to succeed in breaking the spell completely, my friend added: "We may think ourselves well off if those vil- lains do not waylay us to-night, and rob us of all we have." That " all," it is true, was not very much ; nevertheless, it could not very conveniently be spared. But he needed to say no more. 92 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. I saw my folly. We traveled now with greater speed than before ; so that, though it was nearly night, we stayed at a consid- erable distance from Tarborough ; indeed, so far that w^e did not believe any villains would follow us. It was well for me that I had a friend with me at Tarborough. I do not think I should, otherwise, have been murdered ; and yet there is no certainty that I might not have been. I should, very likely, have been plundered. As I have before intima- ted, my companion had been in that coun- try before. Such a friend, in our first adventures in the world, is of great service to us ; and I do not wonder that those wealthy fathers who are about to send out their sons to Europe, Asia, or Africa, for the benefits of travel, so often accompany them. My friend, moreover, had learned, better than I, one of the great lessons of life which, above almost all others, we must learn, viz., to " mind well our own business,'^ both at home and abroad ; but especially in the latter case. Many of the evils which JOURNEY TO VIRGINIA. 93 young men fall into, among bad or doubt- ful company, migbt be avoided, would they give heed to it. Great quantities of pitch and tar are manufactured in these forests, from the abundance of pine trees. There are also large quantities of hogs raised for the mark- et, and the pork is, by many, considered as peculiarly excellent. It goes to New- born, Norfolk, and other markets. 94 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XII. ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. We were, at length, approaching the confines of the " Old Dominion ;" I mean, of course, the state of Virginia. We had crossed the Eoanoke, on whose banks we saw a field of corn which was said, by some, to be a mile square; and, by others, to contain at least a thousand acres. We had seen corn so tall that a very tall man could not reach the ears while standing on the ground near them. We had also crossed the Chowan, near the boundary of the states of Virginia and North Carolina. We had been more than two weeks on our journey, and were much fatigued. Most glad were we to see, in the distance, the spires of a village which we soon learned was Portsmouth, directly opposite to Nor- folk, where is a navy-yard. We crossed Elizabeth River at Portsmouth, and soon found ourselves in the borouoh of Norfolk. ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 95 Norfolk stands on Elizabeth Eiver, about eight miles from its entrance into Hampton Eoads, and contains about ten thousand in- habitants. It has several churches, two or three banks, a marine hospital, a theater, an academy, an orphan asylum, and an athenaeum. It also contains many good dwelling-houses, especially in the northern part of it; but the houses in general are not elegant, by any means. Some of the streets are low and dirty. AVell, here we were in Norfolk. Our first inquiry was for our trunk, which we had ordered from Spring Hill for this place ; but it had not arrived. Our next step was to seek for employment ; for our purses were getting very low indeed. But, pre- liminary to all this, we needed a boarding- house. There lived in the borough, in one of the low, dirty streets, an elderly gentleman from the North, who kept a grocery store, and a few boarders. He was a kind old man, but not very respectable; though of this latter circumstance I was ignorant till some time afterward. My friend was aware 96 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. of tlie fact, but, in his zeal and haste to economize, he quite overlooked it. This old gentleman I shall call Mr. Brown, and pro- ceed to give you a few facts concerning him. Mr. Brown, in his early days, had been one of those traveling tin-peddlers of whom I have before spoken. He had been, at first, industrious and virtuous, temperate and happy. He had even been prudent and economical, and, in tin-peddlers' style of speaking, had " made money." But, being greatly solicitous of getting money faster than he could as a common mechanic, and the tin-peddling business coming on, and inducing, at first, a kind of gold fever, Mr. Brown embarked in it. In other words, away he went to the Southern States, where he spent his winters, and sometimes his sum- mers, for many years. Por a time, too, he " made money.'' But " light come, light go," is an old proverb, and one which very often proves to be true ; and his easily-gained money was as easily lost. He acquired a habit of spending money three or four times as readily as be- ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 97 fore, and also of spending a great deal of time in idleness and amusement. At home at the North he had been accustomed to 0:0 twice or three times a year to " trainings'' — militia musters ; once to " Independence,'^ and once or twice " a fishing," or " a squir- reling ;" and these were his only holidays. But now he had some forty or fifty holidays, or rather play-days, every year. There was the " horse-race," or the " cock-fight,'^ or " a treat ;" or some great personage was coming along, like " the President," or ''Lafayette ;" or there was to be a party for sailing, riding, or hunting, or for card-play- ing or gambling, or something still worse. Mr. Brown, I say, like many easy young Northerners, soon fell into these wretched habits ; and it was not long before he began to lose ground, both in property and repu- tation. In short, he became, in a few years, quite reduced, and was obliged to keep a few boarders, and sell a few groceries, just to gain a livelihood. A few Northern people who pitied him, and a few people of low reputation, would board with him ; and a few of the meanest citizens, who were 98 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. half ashamed to show their heads anywhere else, would trade with him. Of the class of Northern friends who boarded with him — partly out of pity to him — my friend and traveling companion had formerly heen one. He therefore pro- posed to take me with him, and go there again ; to which I unwittingly, or rather unwisely assented. But I soon found we had made a very serious mistake. The house, which had never been reputable, as I have already said, was fast losing the little credit it had once sustained. It was frequented by very few but the worthless, the intemperate, and the licentious. True, it was not a very expen- sive house ; and this, in our circumstances, was a matter of some importance. The question became a serious one — what should we do ? It was at length concluded to engage in an employment which would, for the most part, lead us away from Nor- folk ; except that we should, occasionally, return there, as a sort of home ; and as a rallying point, or home, Mr. Brown's would do very well. ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 99 It would have "been better for us, no doubt — better for our credit, if not for our ]3urses — had we abandoned Mr. Brown^s at once and forever; and, with my present knowledge of men and things, I certainly should do so. And I advise every reader who may be similarly situated, where the question is one of economy merely, to waive all considerations of this kind, if the eco- nomical course is likely, in any way, to en- danger his reputation. Lost money is much more easily replaced than lost reputation. It is indeed true that I was absent, the greater part of the time, for three or four months ; so that I escaped the sight of much which I might otherv/ise have witnessed. And yet, as will be seen in another place, unforeseen circumstances compelled me to behold much which was shocking to any but the most hardened. Eor how many scenes of Sabbath-break- ing have I witnessed from the window of my chamber at Mr. Brown's ! How many have I seen strolling the streets on this day, conversing on the lightest, if not the most foolish matters, and in the lightest possible 100 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. manner ! Nay, more ; how often have I witnessed, on Sunday, smoking, swearing, and staggering ! And how often, on other days, have these eyes of mine beheld scenes at which unperverted humanity and un- contaminated purity must recoil and even shudder ! You may say, perhaps, " But you were not injured by the misconduct of others. You were not obliged to have anything to do with them.'^ No, I was not ; and yet I was injured, more or less. It could not have been otherwise. No young man of only twenty-two years of age — let his habits be ever so correct or well-established — can witness these things, and yet remain unin- jured. He may think so, and even his friends may think so ; but they are mis- taken. Some think the army and the navy — perhaps, too, the city — a fine school for the young — the best in the world. How strange ! Hovr many thousands have been ruined by the prevalence of this mistaken notion ! No doubt some persons are made better by any or all these things, just as ARRIVAL AT NORFOLK. 101 some children are hardened by being da3dy plunged, from their very birth, in cold water, even in midwinter. In either case, however, evil is done ten times as often as good. There is quite enough of temptation and trial connected with the most virtuous and quiet home of the j^oung, without send- ing them to the army, navy, or city. There are a few lines in print somewhere, which are very much in point, and which, if you have never seen, you may do wisely to con over, at your leisure ; and if you have any friends or neighbors who believe that the army is the best school in the world, it may be useful for you to repeat them in their hearing. They are these : — " Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen ; — Yet seen too oft, familiar to the face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.^'' 7 102 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XIII. FOOL-HARDINESS. You have heard, perhaps, of fool-hardiness. Do you know what it is? I hope you do not know by experience. I hope you have never been guilty of it. And yet I have been, in at least one instance. Mr. Brown's being my home, as I have before told you, I made excursions from Norfolk into the country, during the winter and spring. Sometimes I rambled away a hundred miles or more ; sometimes not more than twenty or thirty, or forty. One of the first of these journeys was toward North Carolina. It was about twenty-five miles. When night came on I stopped at an inn, kept by a colored man whose name was Anthony. It was the only public house for many miles round ; so that I had " Hobson's choice " — that or none. This colored man was, in general, consid- ered respectable. He had once been a FOOL-HARDINESS. 103 slave, but by hard work had bought his free- dom, and that of his family. By continued industry he had also acquired considerable property, all of which he had invested in a house for the accommodation of travelers. It was by the wayside, and in a lonely place ; but had given rest and entertainment to many a weary traveler besides myself Among those who stopped there that night were several North Carolina team- sters. Some of them were noisy and clamor- ous. They had taken too much rum, or some other intoxicating drink, and were neither disposed to be quiet themselves, nor to suf- fer others to be so. The house was not such a house as you generall}^ see in the Northern States. It was made of logs, and had but few rooms. The best room for travelers was what you would have called the bar-room. It was a large hall, with a number of beds at one end, and a fire-place at the other. Between the beds and the fire-place were several long seats, or settees. Some, however, were mere wooden benches. I was directed to occupy a bed in the cor- 104: RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. iier of this apartment. When I was ready to retire I set down my effects — for I had a trunk of valuable goods with me — near the head of my bed, and, as if I had no fears for my safety, threw down my clothes upon them, and tumbled into bed. The wagon- ers, who were telling stories and singing- songs around the fireside, appeared to take no notice of me. I spoke of appearing to have no fears. The truth is I was not a little apprehensive of danger ; but then I thought it would do no good, and, on the contrary, very much harm, to have my fears known to the rest of the company. I remembered well the story of a man in Connecticut whom, in early life, I well knew. He had been to Ohio, and was on his return to the east with a large sum of money. The safest way he could think of was to put it in an old pair of saddle-bags, and when he stopped for the night at a place, just throw down the saddle-bags in the corner of the room, or kick them under the table, and leave them there till morning. The plan succeeded most admirably. FOOL-HARDINESS. 105 I did not fall asleep immediately after retiring, I assure you. . But finding that no one took any notice of me, my fears at length diminished, and finally subsided. I hegan to think, moreover, that the danger was far less than I had supposed. And then, in addition to all this, I was greatly fatigued and quite stupid. And, to crown the whole, I had made one capital error ; and it was in this that I was guilty of fool-hardiness. Just before I retired, I had called for a draught of whis- ky. The landlord brought me a tumbler- ful, and I swallowed nearly the whole of it. You shudder, perhaps, at the thought; and so do I. But it was before the days of temperance came on, when it was very generally thought that alcoholic drinks, to persons over-fatigued, were useful ; and I had, inadvertently, fallen into this popular error. It was wrong in me, however, to drink the whisky, for two reasons. First, I did not need it to cure fatigue, when I had a good bed before me. Besides, had I needed any, I could not have required so much; 106 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. for such a large dose, when its immediate efiPects were over, must have made me very- stupid ; so that had any one attempted to rob me, he might have easily succeeded. Half a dozen robbers would hardly have aroused me. However, as a kind Providence would have it, no one meddled either with me or my effects. I slept soundly and sweetly. How long the noise and confusion continued, I never knew. When I opened my eyes in the morning, no one had stirred from his slumbers. I had now not only a fine opportunity, but a good disposition to. look over the con- duct of the preceding evening. I remem- bered the many stories I had previously heard of robberies and murder in this very region, and I wondered that I was still in the land of the living. I wondered, at least, that I had not been robbed of every- thing I had. But I wondered, most of all, at my fool- hardiness in drinking such a large draught of whisky. And I wonder now that I, then a young man, should have drank any. It did me no good in the end, but much FOOL-HARDINESS. 107 hurt. I wonder, also, that I did not make my arrangements so as to prevent the ne- cessity of stopping at a public house which had not so good a reputation as it should have had. I refer not here to the fact that it was kept by a colored man, for that had nothing to do with its reputation. But Anthony was not a man of order, and his house was a disorderly house, to say nothing of its intemperance. And though it was generally counted a reputable house, it ought not to have been. 108 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XIV. THE SHIPWRECK AND OTHER ADVENTURES. In another instance I made an excursion to Suffolk, a village twentj-eiglit or thirty miles westward of Norfolk. Suffolk is on the Nansemond Eiver, a small stream emptying into Hampton Eoads ; so that vessels of considerable size may go down the Elizabeth River from Norfolk to Hampton Roads, and thence up the river Nansemond to Suffolk. The jour- ney by water is a little longer than by land ; but as a vessel was about ready to sail, I concluded to take passage in her. We set out toward night, and had a pleasant time till we got into Hampton Eoads, and had begun to ascend Nansemond River. Then we encountered head winds and a somewhat strong current, with a re- ceding or ebbing tide. Our progress, there- fore, was slow. Darkness at length came on and found us only half-way up the river, THE SHIPWRECK. 109 and the wind not only " dead aliead," as the sailors say, but very strong. It soon blew a 2:ale, and embarrassed us exceedino-lv. There was quite a snow-storm. The captain and sailors did all they could to " beat" their way against wind and cur- rent ; but it was all to no purpose. Hour after hour they toiled without gaining a single mile. At length we were driven up- on a sand-bar, where we could neither go forward nor backward ; and the passengers cried out that we were shipwrecked. It was, indeed, a sort of shipwreck ; and yet it was not accompanied by very much danger; for, as the vessel was not injured, all we had to do was to wait patiently till the tide should rise, when it would be easy to get off; and if the wind was at all favor- able, we should soon be in Suffolk. We therefore went to bed, and were soon asleep. The next morning the wind had subsided and the tide had risen ; so that all we had to do was to make the best of our way up the river. Our progress was very slow ; but before noon we found ourselves safely at 110 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. anchor in Suffolk harhor, close by one of the principal wharves. We landed safely, and went to our re- spective places of destination. I went to a public house, kept by Captain Smith, a jSTorthern man. Here I stayed several days ; and here, being in the midst of fashionable company, I fell into another practical error. It was the custom at Captain Smith's to drink a little French brandy at dinner. Such a thing I had never before witnessed. It was quite a curiosity, and I had a strong desire to make an experiment. Besides, it was quite a current maxim in the world at that time, as I greatly fear it still is. When you are among Eomans you must do as the Eomans do. I concluded, therefore, to take a little brandy. It was only a short time — a week or two — that I persisted in this foolish cus- tom ; and after I left Captain Smith's I never returned to it. I do not know that I experienced any personal inconvenience from it ; and yet, to this hour, I shudder at the thought of the risk I run. THE SHIPWRECK. Ill Do you ask what the risk was? Why, in few words, that of becoming a drunkard. Men do not become drunkards at once, any more than a river begins, at once, to be a river. The latter begins by a great many little streams ; and so, in general, does the river of intemperance. And if I had gone on in the habit of drinking a little French brandy at dinner, I might, probably, have increased the quantity by degrees, till I had become quite enslaved to it ; and then, when enslaved to the habit of drinking freely at dinner, I should most certainly have fallen into the habit of drinking at other times ; and it is highly probable I should have ended a drunkard. It was while I was in Suffolk, at this time, that a woman there showed me the silver toddy-stick, of which I have elsewhere spoken, for which she paid a peddler twelve dollars. If it ever had any silver about it, the value of the whole could not have been twenty-five cents. It must have been a mere wash, or, as the books would say, a thin coating. While I was boarding at Captain Smith's, 112 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. I witnessed a scene wliicli was new to me entirely. I had been in the country many months, and seen many things very un- pleasant, in connection with slavery ; but I had never before seen a slave cruelly beat- en. The case was as follows : — A boy, fourteen or fifteen years of age, had been sent to the spring for a tub of water. He was gone longer than Captain Smith had expected, and probably long- er than was necessary. At last he came in, with the tub of water on his head, and his master inquired why he had been gone so long. "Another boy came," said he, "and would not let me go to the spring.'^ " You have been at play, then, you rascal," said Captain Smith. " I ^11 teach you to come directly back when I send you for water." So saying, he took a whip, and with the heavy but-end beat him over the head till I thought he would break his skull ; and I was obliged to leave the room. In my agony I went into the garden. My distress had been observed, and Cap- tain Smith soon followed me. His ra^e had subsided in part but he still quivered, THE SHIPWRECK. 113 *^ If I am miserable in the next world/' said he, " it will be because I have these crea- tures to deal with.'' " But is there no other way of getting along than this ?" I said. " No other," was the reply. I did not be- lieve it ; and I still have the same opinion. I have seen too much of slaves and slavery to doubt at all on this subject. However, it was difficult for Captain Smith, with his ungoverned temper, to avoid such acts of cruelty. But he should have kept his body in subjection. He should not have been a master till he could control his temper. You have heard, perhaps, of Lorenzo Dow, the traveling preacher. He was a very eccentric man. He not only preached in all parts of the United States, but went several times to Europe. While I was in Suffolk he came there, with his wife Peggy, and preached several times. The greatest crowds of old and young, but especially the latter, flocked to hear him. There was little in his preaching, however, that was. pecul- iarly striking and important. He was oft- en witty, and made people laugh. What 114 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. was most striking, in regard to liim, was Lis eccentric manner. I returned from Suffolk to Norfolk bj land. It was not a part of my plan to go back in a day ; but I was sorry I did not ; for the public bouse wbere I put up bad a very suspicious appearance, and, as I after- ward learned, was of a very suspicious char- acter. My suspicions were excited by what I saw during the evening, much more than by the many flying reports which prevailed abroad; for these, at that time, had hardly reached my ears. A young Frenchman, who had also stopped there, had fears, as well as my- self. When we came to retire, we were shown to rooms which opened into a "com- mon hall; and though, till now, we were perfectly strangers to each other, we under- stood each other's feelings perfectly well, and mutually agreed to leave our doors open, that we might render aid to each other, if necessary. Happily we were not disturbed. Nothing further occurred, during this tour to Suffolk, worthy of notice. I returned to THE SHIPWRECK. 115 my lodgings in Norfolk, where I remained a day or two, and tlien took my departure in quite another direction, and on a much longer excursion. It is surprising to observe how deep and lasting impressions on the human mind sometimes are. I met the young French- man of whom I have spoken, several weeks afterward, in Norfolk ; and no man, I am sure, ever seemed more joyful at meeting another than he was at meeting with me. He shook me by the hand till his friendly salutations almost fatigued me. Mutual danger had bound us together — the French- man, at least, to the American — with a cord not easily broken. 116 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XV. MY IMPRISONMENT AND SINGULAR LIBERATION. On one occasion I went about fifty or sixty miles into the interior of Virginia, to sell some goods for a man. At that time I was ignorant with regard to the law of licenses — as much so as a mere child — and my employer had given me no particular infor- mation. All I thought of was to avail my- self of any lawful and honest means which offered for procuring a livelihood, and en- abling me to get safely home again to the North. I had traveled a few days, in pursuance of my employment, when, one Saturday even- ing, I found myself at the house of a very worthy family, on the banks of one of the streams that enter into the Chesapeake Bay, quite to the north of York Eiver. Here 1 received an invitation to spend the Sabbath, which I gladly accepted. Just after breakfast was finished, on- MY IMPRISONMENT. 117 Monday morning, my kind host said to me, "Have you a license to sell these goods ?'^ I frankly told him no ; and that I did not know that any license was needed. " O yes," said he, " most certainly it is. You cannot sell goods not manufactured in the state without a license, even if the quantity is ever so small." I was agitated exceedingly. He perceived my agitation. I said, "Then, sir, I must stop my busi- ness ; for I cannot afford to buy a license. I will go home to Norfolk, I think, and discontinue at once. I thank you for all your hospitalities. Good morning, sir." I was about to take my leave — abrupt as it would have been, for I was greatly agi- tated — when he stopped me. " You must not go," he said. " I am a custom-house officer, and am under oath to take notice of all infractions of our laws ; and you have broken the law in regard to licenses, and must remain with me a prisoner." As you may easily suppose, I was much alarmed. He endeavored, in a very gentle- manly manner, to soothe me, as well as he could ; for, though stern, he was kind. He 8- 118 RAMBLES IN THE SOUTH. said, at length, that if I would go with him to the court-house that day, and purchase a license of the sheriff of the county, he would let the past go ; but, otherwise, I must sub- mit to the righteous sentence of the law, whatever that might be. He then left me with his family, and went out. As soon as my feelings would permit, i told them the history of my disappointments in South Carolina, and of my return home- ward as far as Norfolk ; that I had ordered ni}' trunk of clothes to be sent, by way of Charleston, to Norfolk, but had not received them ; and that I feared they were in the ship " Ocean," from that port, which had just been lost. In short, without the slightest exaggeration, my story was such as to ex- cite pity. They gathered around me, and, notwithstanding the stern tenor of the law, I sold them, most readily, many dollars* worth of my goods ; and one of the young ladies actually put a considerable sum of money in my hand over and beyond my de- mands. Their conduct surprised me ; but my sur- prise was to be excited still more, ere long; MY IMPRISONMENT. 119 for the father now came in and said that I must cross the river, in his boat, to the court-house, and see the sheriff; and what- ever lenity he chose to exercise, I should be welcome to. " But,'^ said he, " you must be in haste ; my boat is ready, and there is no time to be lost/' When I lingered a little, to return my thanks, they only took me by the arm, and hurried me along to the boat. I was soon seated, and the boatmen were plying their oars. I saw, at a distance, a vessel under sail, but I had not the least thought we were going to her. I supposed we were going to the other side, to see the sheriff of the county. In truth, I was surprised almost beyond measure when I found them approaching the vessel with all speed. I was about to ask an explanation, but the boatmen made signs to have me remain silent, saying they were only executing their master's orders. We were soon alongside of the vessel, and I was put on board, with all my effects. And now, reader — will you believe it ? — this vessel was a well-known packet, bound 120 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. from that neighborhood to Norfolk ; and, under pretense of carrying me to the sheriff, they had been privately ordered to send me off to Norfolk ! Was not this a most sin- gular escape? We were in Norfolk early next morning — all safe. The whole of the circumstances, however, seemed to me like a dream. I could not account for it, except on the sup- position that my story had excited the pity of the family, and the young people had prevailed with their father to permit them to send me away. I never saw them more, except a single member of the family — a young man — though I never shall forget them, I assure you. I met the young man of whom I have just spoken in Norfolk, some two months afterward, who kindly inquired if I had ever received my trunk, and seemed sorrowful when I answered him in the neg- ative. In fact, I never did receive the trunk at Norfolk. Dr. Smith, with whom I left it, was not careful to forward it, and it re- mained under his roof for almost a year. MY IMPRISONMENT. 121 At last, a gentleman from the North un- dertook to look it up for me, and forward it to me at my home at the North ; for which very kind and praiseworthy conduct he received my thanks, and a reasonable re- ward. Thus ended a very unusual adventure ; — unusual, at least, with me. It was the first time — as it proved to be the last — of my being threatened with arrest as a criminal, and deprived of my liberty to go Avhere I pleased. It should have taught me wisdom. How poor a scholar I was will be seen here- after. 122 KAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XVI. STORY OF TOM COOKE. I AM not fond of nicknames ; but the per- sonage to whom I have applied one, at the head of this chapter, was so unworthy of a better, that I have ventured for once. The circumstances occurred about a hundred miles from Norfolk, when I was on one of mj longest excursions. It was nearly sunset when I came, one day, to a small, neat plantation, a little way from one of the branches of York Eiver, near its source. It was in a part of the state which was very thinly settled, and, as I was afraid I could not reach another plantation before dark, I called and asked for accommodations for the night. The people at first hesitated, but at length com- plied with my request. The family was small, but, for anything I could discover, was respectable. Like other Virginia families, they were, at all STORY OF TOM COOKE. 123 events, very sociable, and disposed to treat me with as mucli apparent kindness as if I liad not been a stranger. But I had not been half an hour in the house before an old man was seen approach- ing, through the lane ; and, on looking out of the window, attentively, for several sec- onds — " 0,'^ said my host — whom, for the present, I shall call Mr. Lee — " it is uncle Tom Cooke." Presently the stranger arrived. A ser- vant was sent — as one had been when I ar- rived — to keep the dogs away ; and the old gentleman was hospitably received and kind- ly treated. He certainly could put on a very venerable appearance, as well as be truly polite. I could not, however, help observing that Mr. and Mrs. Lee did not treat him with all that fondness which he manifested wdth regard to them ; though I did not so much as suspect the true reason. And why should I have been suspicious ? They called him uncle, very familiarly ; and I supposed the word uncle, out of the pre- cints of New-England, meant something. How little I then thought that the foolish 124 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. practice of calling almost every old man — even tlioiigli he is an old villain — by this title, had reached Virginia. In the progress of the evening, the old man became quite communicative; and I could not help being pleased, in general, with his conversation. But he proved, in the end, as disagreeable as he had been at first amiable. He became quite too inquisi- tive. He asked me too many questions about my business and my circumstances. Through mv own weakness — for I was at that time much younger and less guarded, in such circumstances, than I now am — he found I had with me several hundred dol- lars' worth of property, besides a little money. This was of no great consequence to a robber, I knew ; but it was something. His manner, at length, made me very sus- picious ; and, I must confess, I could not help wishing I was fairly clear of him. Yet, after all, I could hardly believe him to be a villain. How could the people — I said to myself — permit him to stay in the house, if he was a bad man ? Besides, he was really intelligent. His handwriting — STORY OF TOM COOKE. 125 which, in the progress of the evening, he took pains to exhibit — was, for a person fifty years of age, uncommonly excellent. The hour of retiring to rest at last came, and, as I was greatly fatigued, I was not sorry. But judge of my surprise, reader, if you can, when uncle Tom Cooke and I were requested, if willing, to sleep in the same hed. ! To consent was, as I thought, to expose myself to he plundered, and per- haps murdered. And yet I dared not re- fuse, lest it should excite suspicion of my fears, and bring on me the very evil I most feared. To add to my fears, moreover, the room which was assigned us was not only on the ground-floor of the building, but was quite at one end, and had a sort of back door, through which its occupants might easily retreat, without disturbing those who slept in other parts of the house. But we went to bed. As my custom was, I took my effects — all I had with me — to my room, and set them down near the foot of the bed. On them, and a chair that stood near them, I threw my clothes ; endeavoring 126 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. to act as tliougli I had no suspicion what- ever. I did not easily sleep, as you may guess. I ruminated long on the conversation and conduct of the evening, and watched, with almost hreathless anxiety, the time when my companion would get to sleep. At last he appeared to have given the reins, very fairly, to Morpheus; and it was not long after this before I followed his example. About the middle of the night I heard him up, and groping about the room. "What do you want?'^ I said, very boldly. He made an apology for disturbing me — said he wished to go out a moment, but could not readily find the door, &c., &c. At last the door was found, and he went out. He was out a considerable time. When he came in he seemed disposed to play his old game again — that of feeling about the room. But when I spoke boldly, and asked him some question or other, he immediately came to bed. There was no more disturb- ance till morning ; neither was there, on my part, at least, much more sleep. When we rose in the morning, I embraced STORY OF TOM COOKE. 127 an early opportunity to examine my effects. Nothing was gone. Everything was just as I left it at the moment of retiring. And if I was ever thankful for what I regarded as a hair-breadth escape, it was on that oc- casion. We breakfasted in due season — uncle Tom Cooke and all. Having done so, I bade them all good-morning, thanked Mr. and Mrs. Lee for their hospitality, — for they refused all pecuniary compensation, — and proceeded on my journey. At the distance of a mile or so I came to Mr. White's. The thought struck me, as I approached the house, I will go in and ask them to explain, if they can, the riddle. So I went in, and began, very cautiously, to make inquiries about uncle Tom Cooke. No words can express the apparent sur- prise, at Mr. White's, when I told them I had just -come from Mr. Lee's, and had slept, during the night, with uncle Tom. " It is a wonder of mercy," said they, " you are alive. Why, that old wretch of whom you speak, and with whom you say you slept, is one of the greatest villains in the 128 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. whole State of Virginia. He is only just now out of the state-prison. Why, he will take a man's life, at any time, for six- pence.'^ Suspicious though I had all along heen of the old man, I was hardly prepared to believe all this. They seemed, at first, like those that mocked. But, on a little further inquiry, I was compelled to the belief that they told me nothing more than the naked truth, and that I had, indeed, escaped by the merest hair's breadth. What has become of uncle Toih Cooke, or of the family who entertained him and me, I do not know. It is more than probable that uncle Tom himself has ere this time fin- ished his earthly career of iniquity ; for he was then an old man, and many long years have passed away since I saw him. Alas ! what an account must such a man have to render, if he comes to the bar of God with- out repentance. THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS. 129 CHAPTER XVII. THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS AND THEIR DOGS. Not very far distant from the place where I met with uncle Tom Cooke, I visited the miserable remains of an ancient tribe of Indians, called the Pamunkey Indians. My readers may know, already, that York Eiver, in Virginia, is formed by two princi- pal branches — the Pamunkey and the Mat- topany ; but they are not, probabl}^, all of them aware that along the banks of these rivers, in the very heart of the state, there are, even now, the remnants of several tribes of Indians. Few of them, however, deserve the name of Indians, so mingled are they with other nations by intermarriage. Some are partly African, others partly Eu- ropean, or rather, as I should say, Virginian. The Pamunkey s are among these old tribes. They reside on the Pamunkey Eiv- er. Their place of residence is called Old- town. It is almost an island, formed by a 130 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. bend of the river; for the river, at the place, winds ahout in such a manner that there is only a narrow neck, of a few rods in width, across to the island, or, as I should perhaps call ■ , peninsula. I entered^ the town about one o'clock in the afternoon. The following are extracts from the journal which I kept of the visit : — " This island, or peninsula, consists of several acres of land, some of which is very good indeed ; and it is all very level. It is quite populous, containing more than thirty log huts, or rather cabins ; and is inhabited by the most curious intermixture of every color and class of people. " They are generally very poor, and live much on fish, wild fowls, and quadrupeds ; though a few of them raise corn, cotton, &c. In truth, several families among them live much in the style and manner of the lower class of the Virginians ; but are most mis- erably dissipated. They are not only bad themselves, but they have very many bad neighbors among the whites. They are hospitable and social, but are much addicted to drunkenness." MOMKET INDIANS. THE PAMUNKEY INDIANS. 133 I have since seen remnants of Indian, tribes in nearly all parts of the United States ; but I do not now recollect of any other which appeared to me quite as vicious as the Pamunkeys. What a pity it is that these few relics of a great nation — now fast disappearing — cannot be preserved pure. They had fierce dogs, in great numbers ; for I well remember how they annoyed me when I approached a house ; and I verily thought, more than once, that they would tear my clothes, if not my limbs. The dogs in Virginia are generally very large and fierce, and it would often be dangerous to attempt to open a gate, and go to the house of a planter, without somebody to guide you. But of this I have told you before. Some of these fierce Virginia dogs are bull-dogs ; others are hounds. Of the lat- ter, in particular, many of the planters keep great numbers. They are very fond of the chase. I have even seen ministers of the gospel whose attachment to hunting Avas extremely strong. One whom I knew, about seventy years of age, would shoot down a deer — so I was told — while sitting 134 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. on a horse, and the horse and deer both at full speed. But I was speaking of the dogs. There is a wide difference among travelers in re- gard to managing these dogs, as they coine in contact with them. Some are among them for many years, and are never so much as touched by a single dog; while others can hardly be among them a single day without being bitten, or having their clothes torn. I suffered less than many do from their attacks ; yet, with all my non-resist- ance principles, they sometimes came so near me that I was glad to take a position of self-defense. THE CHURCH FOX. 135 CHAPTER XYIII. THE CHURCH FOX AND VIRGINIA HUNTING. Before I conclude my remarks concerning dogs and hunting, I must tell you about the church fox, as he was called by hunters in that part of the Old Dominion. Almost all over the lower or eastern counties of Virginia may be seen, in ruins, what the present inhabitants of that region call Protestant churches. They were built by the early English colonists ; many of them in the form of a cross — as may be seen by the walls, which are still, in part, standing. Now these old churches have become nice places for animals to burrow or hide in — such as rabbits, woodchucks, and foxes. Foxes, however, have become so scarce all over Lower Virginia, that it is seldom the hunters find one. Deer are scarce enough ; but foxes are still scarcer. In one of the counties where I traveled — 136 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. I believe it was not far below Eichmoncl — I heard much said about the church fox. It seems there was but one fox left of all the tribe of foxes that once inhabited those parts. This fox had his home under an old church. It was "great fun'^ to chase him, though no one was permitted to hurt him. Every few days, at certain seasons of the year, the sportsman's horn sounded, and away went thirty, fifty, or eighty horsemen, with perhaps two or three hundred hounds, in pursuit of the church fox. This fox, at the time I heard of him, had been treated in this unceremonious way for years ; and I do not know but he is still pursued in the same way ; for I am not cer- tain how long foxes live. That they have not killed him I am pretty sure, unless by accident; for I verily believe that at the time of which I have been speaking, when I traveled there, any person who should have shot down the old church fox would have been challenged. What a strange sport this is ! How can it be tliat full-grown men — some of them professedly good men ; nay, here and there, THE CHURCH FOX. 137 a minister of the gospel — can take pleasure in torturing a poor fox, every now and then, in setting a pack of hounds on his track, and making him scud for his life ! Would our Saviour, if he were on earth, and trav- eling or residing in a fox-hunting country, take pleasure in such cruel sports ? Would he not, on the contrary, condemn them ? Whether they have much else to hunt in Virginia — or, rather, whether they hunt anything else — I am not informed. There is a good deal of entrapping and insnaring, in some places. Such animals as the mink, muskrat, &c., are taken for their furs. The Indians at Oldtown procure a great many furs of these and other animals, which they sell to the whites. I wondered, sometimes, why there was not more squirrel-hunting done in Virginia ; but I came at length to the conclusion that the people were too lazy to walk around and hunt such small animals as squirrels. It is quite an amusement with them to mount their horses, and let loose their dogs, and chase a poor animal that they do not want to kill; but as to laborious hunting 138 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. on foot, it would probably be irksome to them. Our Northern people would think it fine times — those, I mean, who love to make war on the unoffending animals — if they could have such an abundance of squirrels to at- tack as they have in Virginia; for, to say nothing about the common striped and red squirrels, which are very numerous every- where, in the fields and forests, the gray squirrel and the black squirrel are found, in some parts of the country, as thick almost as grasshoppers. There is much more of hunting birds — especially sea-birds — than of hunting squir- rels ; and perhaps there is a very good rea- son for it. The birds, many of them, such as the duck, can be shot from a boat, while sitting in it, and being rowed about by ser- vants : which comports much better w^ith the genius of Virginians than the sports which are more laborious. A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 139 CHAPTER XIX. A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. One of my excursions in Virginia was made in company with a young man who repaired time-pieces. I usually separated myself from him by day, but met and lodged with him at night. In this way each could pur- sue his business, and then, when the day was over, fall again into each other's society, and spend together the long evenings. This journey was made through such counties as Gloucester and Matthews, where are found many very wealthy families, con- stituting quite a considerable part of the aristocracy of the Old Dominion. Here were the Tabbs, the Taliafeuos, the Van Bibbers, the Armstrongs, &c., &c. It was the lot of my companion to repair a watch or clock at the house of one of the greatest, or rather the richest of the rich, in all this region ; whose name, for the present, I will call Sloan e. Colonel Sloane 140 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. was llo^y about seventy years of age, was universally known, and his old-fashioned Virginia hospitality was unbounded. In short, the two young Northern men were invited to spend the night at Colonel Sloane^s. I felt like a cat in a strange garret, all the while I sat at the tea-table. But I felt still more the awkwardness of my situation when, as soon as tea was over, and the table removed, the company began to prepare for the evening. The preparation consisted in arranging a table, and duly furnishing it with cards, for card playing. While the arrangement was being made, Colonel Sloane came to us and said, " Gen- tlemen, you are young and have warm blood ; besides, you wish, doubtless, to bo by yourselves this evening ; you can, there- fore, sit back at the further extremity of the room, quite away from us and the fire, and spend the evening in your own way. If y m want anything, the servants will wait on you.'' This was not exactly the kind of treat- ment we had expected ; but it was of no use A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 141 to remonstrate ; tlie matter was settled — as much so as if it bad been a law of the ancient Modes and Persians. So, like good republicans, who should yield as cheerfully as they can to what they cannot help, we submitted to our fate. It was curious to witness the devotion of the family to this most stupid and unmean- ing game — the men, I mean ; for though the wives and daughters sometimes play cards, they did not in the present instance. The father, who was oftener called Uncle Phil than Colonel Sloane, sat on one side of a square table, while his three sons — Phil, (Pliilip,) Thomas, and Stephen, oc- cupied the other sides. They did not play for money, they said ; so each man only laid down his half-eagle — making, in all, twenty dollars, to be won or lost at each game. I have told you, already, tliat I know very little about card playing ; but I sup- pose it is common for real gamblers — black- legs, as they are sometimes called — to lay down fifty, or a hundred, or a thousand dollars each ; so that to lay down five dol- 142 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. lars merely, especially for wealthy men, was considered as nothing at all. If they gained it, they did not value so small a sum ; and if they lost it, they did not suffer materially for the loss of so small a sum. They played till nine o'clock precisely, when a servant opened the door and told the colonel what the hour was — upon which he immediately retired. We were shown the way to bed soon afterward, having spent a long winter's evening in witnessing one form of Virginia life, and one species of Virginia manners. I will not find too much fault with Colo- nel Sloane. He certainly had the merit of going to bed early. Many of the Virginia families sit up, like the English, till twelve or one o'clock ; while all this family, as well as the head of it, retired early — let who would be present — and then rose early in the morning. But to what purpose did they rise ? Let me tell you. The colonel's dayly business was hunting and card playing. The former occupied most of his days — the latter his evenines. I did not learn that he labored A FAMILY OF HUNTERS. 143 at all, or even that lie spent any time in reading. Indeed, I do not know that he had any books. We saw none. He may have been the owner of a Bible and prayer- book. No Bible, however, was read in the family at morning and evening prayer ; for no family prayer, as I am bold to affirm, was heard in his house. How strange it is to think of a being endowed with an immortal spirit — a man, in sliort, seventy years of age — soon to en- ter the eternal world — spending his precious hours either in riding round after a pack of a hundred hounds, or sitting at a table, handling over and over a parcel of papers with spots on them ! How strange, to see the father of a nu- merous family, instead of holding sweet conversation with his wife and children and friends, on various topics of common inter- est and importance, only talking of the speed and other merits of dogs and horses, and of cards. It is said that " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," but if it be true that our hearts are shown by our words, then the heart of this old 144 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. man must surely "be set, preeminently, on the beasts that perish. One thing, in particular, gave me pain. It was not that I was obliged, with my com- panion, to sit a whole evening almost unno- ticed, but that the females and children w^ere also. For aught I could discover, the ao^ed mother and her matronlv dauo'hter, with two or three grand-daugliters, were about as much thought of as the cat in the corner, or the parrot sleeping in its cage. If this is true Virginia hospitality and Virginia life, I said to myself, then I am truly glad I was not born in Virginia. Never, I am sure, in my whole life, did I sit down to amuse myself a whole evening, or to amuse my clan or party, to the neg- lect of everybody else in the room, or in the company ; above all, to the manifest neglect of my own wife and family. When these gentlemen appeared abroad, in Norfolk or Eichmond, or elsewhere — for some of them were merchants at these places, and were only at home now on a visit — nobody could exceed them in atten- tions to their relatives and friends. They A FAMILY OP HUNTERS. 145 were tlie politest of the polite. But here, at home — out of sight of the crowd, as it were — how different ! Surely these things ought not so to be ! But is it so in Virginia, and nowhere else ? Alas ! I knew less of the busy world when I was at Colonel Sloane's, than I now do. I have since found that human nature, in high or low life, is nearly the same in the Old Dominion and in the New. It is acted out, in all its deformities — in all its native selfishness — in New-England and New- York, and the West, as well as in the South. No apology was made, when we left in the morning, for inattention or neglect. Of course we expected none — wanted none. The apology was due much more to the female part of the family, who were treated, all the live-long evening, like so many cats; or, worse still, like so many ciphers. The apology, however, was principally due, after all, to Him who has said, " Son, give me thy heart f but who has not said. Set thy heart on a pack of cards, or on a pack of hounds, or kennel of bull-dogs. 146 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XX. A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. In one of these excursions from Norfolk to the interior of Virginia, I sought for an ohl friend — a resident in that country — with an intention to spend the Sabbath with him. But Saturday night came, and as the dis- tance was yet considerable, the night dark, and the roads difficult, I gave up all hope of finding him, and inquired for a public house. The answer, as usual, was, " We have none.'' I was, however, referred to a hospitable gentleman, a mile from the road, who, it w^as said, sometimes entertained travelers, and who would probably receive and entertain me, I reached his house just after dark ; but, to my surprise and extreme mortification — for I was greatly fatigued — he was absent, and his wife refused to receive me. She was kind enough, however, to direct me to the house of one of her husband's friends, A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 147 and to suffer her servant to put me on the road. It was a long distance, and m j guide was slow and awkward ; but we at length reached a certain fork of the road, when he left me, saying that such a road would con- duct me safely to the place desired. Just after he left me, I came to another division of the road, which had not been mentioned to me. It was dark, quite dark, but I could distinctly observe two men standing there, conversing together. Judge of my surprise, especially when I had but lately escaped from the merciless fangs of nncle Tom Cooke. I verily believed, for the moment, that the men were robbers, and that I was anticipated and waylaid. But what could I do? Go back I must not ; for where could I go ? There was no way but to go forward. Should I go boldly along, or timidly — slowly, or swiftly? Quick as the lightning's glance — almost so, for there was no time to be lost — I decided. So, taking the road which appeared to me to be the true one, I walked boldly on, passing within a few feet of the men who were conversing together. 148 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. The men did not appear to notice me, and I began to take courage. As soon as I was so far beyond them that I thought they could not hear my footsteps, I began to run ; and I doubt Avhether, to save my life, I could have run much faster. When I had run a little way,' I discovered a light in the field, to which I bent my course, and where I soon arrived. It proved to be the house which had been pointed out to me ; but my troubles were not yet over, for the owner could not enter- tain me, even for the night. His house was small, and his family were sick. He did what he could, however. Though dark, and now raining, he took a lantern and conduct- ed me through the fields, half a mile or more, to the residence of his father, who consented to entertain me till the Sabbath was over. You may easily imagine my joy, that af- ter wandering an hour or two in the dark to find somewhere to lay my head, I had found such comfortable lodgings. The per- son at whose house I had stopped was a deacon in the neighboring church ; and A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 149 tliougli by no means as grave a man as some deacons are, lie was, nevertheless, regarded as a very good sort of man. He had a large family. As they lived in a part of the country which was but little frequented by travelers, they crowded round me, eager to hear my story ; but I was too much fa- tigued to gratify them fully, at that time ; and I soon obtained permission to retire for the night. The Sabbath, by most of us, was spent at home — the deacon himself alone attending at the church. My own time was chiefly spent in reading ; and I found, in the family library, several good books. It was, how- ever, rather a tedious day. The members of the household seemed to take up their time chiefly at the toilet, and in cheerful conversation. In short, they made it a complete holiday. Dinner came after church — that is, nearly night. Indeed, the people of Virginia — the wealthy families, at least — are quite apt to be late about dinner. At dinner, several of their friends were present — es- pecially the young and gay. 150 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. How different, thought I to myself, from the manner of keeping the Sabbath in the region where I was brought up ! And yet a change was going on there, and has been going on ever since. The Sabbath is be- coming more and more like a holida}^, eve- rywhere. It is not even, by some, regarded as a day for doing good. I could bear to dismiss the staidness and stiffness which characterized the Puritans, in this particu- lar, if we would but retain the great idea that it is not only " lawful/' but desirable, to make this blessed day a day for doing good, specially and directly, to our fellow creatures. One thing there was to be observed, which reflected credit on the family of Dea- con F. All their mirth and hilarity was of the quiet kind. There were no noise and confusion ; there was no loud or boisterous laughing. Above all, there was no intem- perate eating and drinking; unless it is proper to say that an extra dinner — one that keeps several cooks employed all day, and prevents their attending church — is in- temperance. A SABBATH IN VIRGINIA. 151 There was, however, one thing which I did not like at all. Deacon F., though he did not keep tavern exactly, accommodated the few travelers who came that way. There was with him, at this time, a peddler of fancy goods. He did not sell them on Sunday, however, as I was glad to observe. He did, however, that which was next to it. For the young gentlemen and ladies who were present at dinner asked him, after- ward, to allow them to see his goods. He consented, only saying he could not sell them on the Sabbath. But I think it would have been far nobler and better had he re- fused even to exhibit them ; for they in- quired the prices, and the whole affair was of such a worldly character as to remind one of what is sometimes called a " shop- ping scene," in New- York or Boston. I wondered very much that the deacon per- mitted anything of the kind. A single word from him, and the trunks and boxes would not have been opened. But tliis peddler did not go so far, after all, as some Northern people do in his cir- cumstances. Not a few of them go and act 10 152 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. among " Eomans/' as " Eomans do." If the people among whom they are traveling visit places of amusement on Sunday, they do not hesitate to do the same. If it is customary to perform journeys on Sunday, they do the same ; or if the " Eomans'^ buy and sell on this day, they buy and sell with them. What they do with their consciences I do not undertake to say ; or whether they have any. One is almost compelled, at times, to think there is but little conscience in the world, either toward God or toward man. PERILOUS ADVENTURE. 153 CHAPTER XXI. PERILOUS ADVENTURE AT GWYN'S ISLAND. Oi'f Monday morning, very early, I left the hospitable mansion of Deacon F. to visit Gwyn's Island, a small spot in the Chesa- peake Bay, near the mouth of the Pyanke- tank River. It was only about a mile from the main land to the island. This island contains, perhaps, one thous- and acres of land, and is owned by about ten or twelve planters. One of them, an aged man — in all probability not now liv- ing — was a bachelor by the name of Gwyn ; from whose paternal ancestry, I suppose, the island took its name. It was a beautiful morning when we passed over. The boat carried us very near Mr. Gwyn's mansion, and as I had heard much about him and his dogs, barrels of money, &c., I had a desire to see him. As I have intimated, Mr. Gwyn was sup- posed to be immensely rich, and to have in 154: RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. his possession several barrels of dollars. To secure himself against robbery, he kept a pack of fierce dogs. One, in particular, ^yas very large and formidable. Indeed, he was said to be so trained as to seize by the throat and hold fast the strongest man. In the midst of my curiosity to see the man, however, I forgot the dangerous dog ; and as the dogs did not, for once, happen to see me, I soon found myself knocking at the door of his apartment. A servant oj)ened the door, expressing the greatest surprise that the dogs had not seen me and torn me in jjieces. But it so turned out that 1 did not see the dogs, the dollars, or the owner. Where any of them were I am as ignorant as be- fore I visited the island. Mr. Gwyn, in all probability, was occupied in his own selfish pursuits, and had no wish to see a stranger who had no special business with him, and who only called to look at him. I visited several places on the island, and, as the day was far spent, I concluded, at length, to remain during the night. It liad been mild and pleasant during the day, PERILOUS ADVENTURE. 155 but it was no\y cold ; and, for that part of the country, very cold. The changes of weather in Virginia are apt to be sudden and great in winter; but this was more sudden than nsual. The night which fol- lowed was one of the coldest I ever knew, either in Virginia, New-England, or any- where else. In the morning, to the surprise of every- body, the sheet of water between the island and the main land south of it was found fast freezing over. The side, in fact, which was toward the island — the northern side — was already frozen quite hard, and at some points the ice extended quite across. As it was an uncommon occurrence for this body of water to freeze over — and when once frozen, it might remain frozen many days, and thus prevent my speedy return to the main-land, (which was to me highly im- portant,) — I determined to return, if possi- ble, immediately. In truth, I was under a positive engagement to be at a certain place on a day which was not very far distant, and which would not permit of any delay on the island. 15G RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. It was, however, with very great difficulty that anybody could be procured to convey me over ; first, because it was so cold ; sec- ondly, because it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get a boat through the ice. It was not till I had offered a considerable sum that a white man and two negroes were employed to make the attempt. We were at length seated in a boat, and were attempting to proceed. At first the ice was so thin as not to impede, greatly, the progress of the boat ; and in truth there were places — breathing holes, as it were — in which there was no ice at all. . By fol- lowing the line of these openings, and by making a little extra effort, we succeeded in getting about half-way across the stream, with as little difficulty as could reasonably have been expected. But now came the " tug of war.'^ The ice became so thick, in many places, that it was next to impossible to force the boat through it. Our only way was to thrust her forward end, or bow, upon the top of the ice, and then step forward, and by means of our united weight — four of us — VISIT TO YORKTOWN. 163 a great number of little pits or cavities, all over the public green or common, which somewhat resembled the places where our Northern people have once buried apples or potatoes. The hollows were, indeed, thickly covered with sward as old and as firm as the rest of the ground ; still they looked like potato holes, and were about as large. On asking the cause of this singular ap- pearance, I was told that the pits were places where the bomb-shells burst which General Washington and his men threw into the village, to annoy Lord Cornwallis and his army. Some of them were thrown, I be- lieve, a distance of two miles ; that is, from Gloucester, on the north side of the river — where, too, as in the village of York town, are still found many embankments. There is one thing more in connection with York town which seems to me worth relating. The village, as has been said al- ready, is on the south bank of York Eiver. The banks of the river here are quite high, and seem to consist of a kind of rock, made up of petrified sand, sea-shells, &c. It is very soft, and may be easily cut with an 1G4 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. old ax or hatchet. In some places the bank is thirty feet high, and even more, and exactly perpendicular. Here, in one of these perpendicular places, not far from the water's edge, is a sort of cave, which the people of Yorktown call " Cornwallis's Cave.'' It consists of two rooms, adjoining each other, cut out of the soft rock. One of them is as large as an ordinary sleeping chamber ; the other is much smaller, and seems like a closet. The tradition at Yorktown is that this cave was made by Cornwallis's men, and that he made it his head-quarters, at least a part of the time, while Washington was besieging. But I do not know how this was. I have used the word tradition, for, strange to say, I could find nobody in York- town who lived there during the Eevolution- ary War. The people of Lower Virginia are not long-lived, by any means ; besides, it is a good while since the Kevolutionary War took place. I was at Yorktown during the season which intervenes between Christmas and New Year's. The colored people use this VISIT TO YORKTOWN. 165 period as a continued holiday ; and they are as merry, I assure you, as if they were free- men. One who should see them, at this season, and at no other, would think them the happiest people in the world. Well, perhaps, it is so ; for their condition would be far less tolerable, had it no such alle- viations, than it now is. 166 BAx^IBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XXIII. MY SICK COMPANION. On returning from one of my journeys to the interior, I found the young man who had accompanied me from home to Norfolk, and who was my fellow-boarder at Mr. Brown's, quite ill. Hoping the disease would not be serious, I remained at home a few days, to take care of him. It was the fourteenth day of February when I found him sick. But instead of any improvement in his condition, matters every day grew worse. There was a continued fever, and the phy- sician did not give us any reason to hope for its immediate remission. How long it would run, as the saying is, we could not, of course, determine. What now was to be done ? For though Ave were bound to hope still for the best, we were also under equally strong obligations to prepare for the worst. Our chamber — MY SICK COMPANION. 167 the only one to be had in the house, and hardly fit for the healthy — was quite too narrow ; and, besides, there was no oppor- tunity to ventilate it, except by raising a single window. And then, again, it was in an upper story of the house, and almost in- accessible. There was another diflSculty, greater still. How was he to be taken care of? The only female domestic in the house was fully oc- cupied, and there were no males ; and as to employing an assistant, or nurse, from abroad, that was impossible, for there was no place for another individual to sleep. Could I leave my business, and take' care of him myself? By laboring hard, I was earning some fifteen or twenty dollars a month. Must I relinquish this, and not only earn nothing, but give up my time to aid my companion ? When the question came to this, I could not long hesitate. I could not bear to leave him. I had a conscience. That conscience bade me do my duty ; or, at least, do as I would be done by. It was in vain to remind my companion 1G8 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. of his repeated imprudences, while traveling about the city, and elsewhere ; — how he drank large quantities of bad water to slake his thirst, for example, against all my remonstrances, when smaller quantities w^ould have done just as well ; nay, would have quenched his thirst better than large ones. He was now sick ; and though his sickness was the just punishment of his mismanagement, he must nevertheless be taken care of. And he must be taken care of v>diere he w^as, too ; for he was too ill to be removed. Besides, we had not the means of defraying his expenses at an advanced price. His disease became dayly more and more severe, and at last produced a degree of mental derangement. I took the care of him night and day, both because I was un- willing to trust him to others, and also be- cause no one whom I would trust could be obtained. There were many Northern men in the borough, but when I applied to them I found them either cold and heartless, or afraid of taking the disease. The result was, that I was obliged to MY SICK COMPANION. 169 watcli liim by night and by day — make his bed, administer his medicines, and perform the most menial services, for about five weeks, with the exception of two nights, when I had a little relief from friends. Why I did not get sick myself I cannot now understand, especially as the air was very impure. His insanity, at times, made my task much more severe than otherwise it would have been. It was not always easy to gov- ern and control him. His resistance to my commands would sometimes rise to open rebellion ; and in one instance he struck me so hard on the head as almost to bring me to the floor. Sometimes I contrived to sleep two or three hours in the twenty-four; but it was difficult to do so, on account of administer- ing the medicine. But there was one thing quite in m.y favor : my aj^petite usu- ally held out ; and as long as we can pre- serve a good appetite, we need not greatly fear. I have said that my appetite usually held out. One exception may be mentioned. In 11 170 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. the midst of my sore trial with my com- panion, news came from my home at the North, of sudden, severe, and fatal sickness among my relatives and friends. Two or three of them — a brother and sister and an aged grant-parent — one after another, were laid in the grave. My mother's life, too, was not expected. This, as might well he supposed, greatly added to my burden of woe ; and my appetite almost sunk under it. Here was danger ; yet out of even all this I was delivered. Nor could I quite forget the unseen hand that sustained me, though as yet I did not recognize it as became me. I was still too thoughtless on religious sub- jects. I was, I confess, a little troubled about expenses. For board, indeed, no extra charges were being made, and we knew it ; and this was a great favor. But the pliy- sician came once a day always, and some- times twice; and had a long distance to walk ; and we feared his charges would bo extravagant. Yet here, too. Providence was in our favor. For attendance about a month, and for some medicine, there was MY SICK COMPANION. 171 only tlie very moderate charge of thirty-five dollars. The truth is, we had fajien into the hands of a gentleman and a Christian ; for there are such in the profession, both at the North and at the South. 172 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XXIY. A GREAT EIRE. Just as my friend was recovering, and was in a condition to be left during the day, a most destructive fire took place in the vi- cinity of Norfolk, which had well nigh de- stroyed both Norfolk and Portsmouth. The fire was in Portsmouth, a village of some two hundred houses, (with a navy-yard annexed,) about a mile southward of Nor- folk, directly opposite to it, on the other side of Elizabeth Eiver. It was about two o'cloclv in the morning when the fire broke out, about the middle of March ; and a March wind was blowing fresh and strong from south to north. The conflagration began at the market- house, near the center of Portsmouth vil- lage, and extending northward, consumed about one-fourth of the whole village, or fifty-nine houses. It also destroyed several vessels which lay at anchor there, and, on A GREAT FIRE. 173 account of low tides at the time, could not be removed. One house onlj, in all this quarter of the village, escaped destruction ; and this was the very one which all good people would most willingly have seen de- stroyed, as it was occupied by the abandoned of both sexes. Why, in the Providence of a holy God, this worse than any ordinary pest-house should have been left, no one could conjecture ; especially as it was very much exposed to the ravages of the fire. The navy-yard, and all that pertained to it, was uninjured, on account of the course of the wind, which carried the fire in quite another direction. One or two of the ves- sels which were burnt belonged, I believe, to the naval department. I was aroused at half past two, to witness the most terrible fire I ever wish to see. I had seen many fires before that time, as well as many others since ; but I have never, either before or since, seen anything half equal to it for awful sublimity. Fifty- nine buildings, and three or four vessels, on fire, nearly at the same time, and burning, by reason of the wind, with great fury, is a 174 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. scene wliicli I cannot wish ever to witness again. During the progress of the fire, which was a mile distant, and rather more, not a few of the citizens of Norfolk were obliged to ascend to the roofs of their houses, to prevent their own destruction ; for pieces of shingles came over, wafted by the wind, so large and so much on fire as to endan- ger the roofs on which they fell. I saw, with my own eyes, one house take fire in this way ; and it cost a good degree of efibrt to extinguish it. As soon as it was day, all the boats which could be used were loaded to the water's edge with people who were going over to see the ruins which the fire had made. Among the rest, another person and myself went over. We crossed in a frail boat, and the wind still blew fresh ; but what do people care about safety in such cases, where curiosity loudly demands gratifica- tion? We were a long time in passing over, so strong and so directly " ahead" was the wind. At length, however, we arrived in A GREAT FIRE. 175 safety, and were strolling about among the ruins. The first thing that attracted our atten- tion was the multitude of naked, or, at least, half-naked children, peeping out of the shops and stores, to which, in the moment of alarm, they were glad to escape, to save their lives. One would have thought there were hundreds of this description. I sup- pose that a large part of the sufferers were poor before the fire ; but this sad visitation swept away what little they had. Many, both adults and children, hardly saved all their clothes ; and few families had time to save their furniture. We pitied, but could not help them. They had bread for the present, but what became of them afterward I never knew. However, I have no idea that they were suf- fered to starve. There are benevolent peo- ple in Virginia, as well as elsewhere. It was sad to witness the desolation in the gardens, as well as the destruction which, as a besom, had swept away the houses. There were some very beautiful gardens in Portsmouth, and they were as / 170 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. forward at that time (say March twentieth) as they usually are in Northern or even Middle New-England, the first of May— perhaps even more so. The fruit-trees and shrubs, the nice things in their hot-houses, the neat hedges of box and thorn, were either partly or wholly destroyed ; most of them wholly so. Here and there, too, were seen smoking among the ruins a domestic animal, as a cow or a pig. Some of the horses in the stables escaped uninjured, while some had their manes and tails burnt, or were otherwise disfigured. There are other dangers in the world, as well as danger from fire. One of these was discovered here, though it was occasioned by the fire. As we walked here and there, observing the ruins, we could not help no- ticing the many tall chimneys that had not fallen, and wondering how they happened to be left standing. By and by we heard something crash down into the road, just behind us ; and on turning our eyes, lo ! one of these chimneys had fallen across the street. Had it fallen but a second or two sooner, it must have crushed us to ALL OF THE CHIMNEY. A GREAT FIRE. 179 atoms. There could have been no possible escape. It is sometimes said that there is but a step, a plank, a hair's breadth, &c., between us and death. Here, in any event, there was only a few steps between us and death. We were struck with the thought of our escape, at first ; but it was soon partially forgotten. Mankind do not remember such things as they ought. They are warnings, and should be heeded. Alas ! when will men be wise ? O ! how many hair-breadth escapes I have had, during a somewhat long life ! Few, I think, have had as many. The Apostle Paul recounts a large number. He was, as you know, a great traveler. I sometimes think I have had nearly as many. Nor have they always been, as lessons, wholly unprofitable. They have made me more wary, and it may be they have awakened in my heart emotions of gratitude to my great Preserver. If not, however, they must have hardened me ; for all these things prove either a savor of life unto life, or of death un- to death. There is no middle way or effect. 180 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. We were, at length, tired of the painful scene of desolation and destruction, and re- turned to Norfolk. Our passage over the river was quite as dangerous as before ; in- deed, the danger was increased, by having one of the hands who was set to row for us sadly intoxicated. How long will the lives of sober men be intrusted to drunkards ! THE STEAMBOAT. 181 CHAPTER XXV. THE STEAMBOAT AND THE SHIPWRECK. I WAS at Hampton one day, and wished to go to Norfolk. The distance was fourteen miles. A steamboat runs dayly between the two places ; but at the moment when I wished to go, she was delayed by a strong head-wind. True, she could go, as it was supposed, in the teeth, as it were, of the wind ; but not so well ; so the captain wait- ed a little. Several hours of suspense having elapsed, and no prospect existing of any abatement of the wind, it was decided to go. Our course was by way of a place called Old Point Comfort, where we were to touch and take in passengers. The wind was not so much against us till we had reached the Point ; so that we got along, thus far, very comfortably. But after we had passed the Point, and were obliged to go directly across the Eoads 1(S2 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. — for tliis is the name usually given to an expansion of the James and Elizabeth Pav- ers, here at their junction — the wind and tide were so strongly against us that we could scarcely go forward at all. In a whole hour we did not gain over two miles. But this was not all. The steamboat was an old, crazy vessel, and the waves strong and high ; and it happened occasion- ally, that when a heavy sea, as the sailors say, struck us, it seemed as though the boat would actually break in two. Indeed, some of the passengers were excessively frighten- ed, and thought the boat would part the very next moment. They expressed their fears to the captain ; but that did no good. He only laughed at their timidity, as he called it. However, he at last was frightened himself — or at least we thought so — and concluded to put back. We had been out four or five hours, and were not as many miles from Hampton wharf. On reaching Hampton there was a small sloop ready to sail, and we all went on board of her. She could cross very well, THE STEAMBOAT. 183 either by lying close to the wind or heating. She was under weigh soon after dark. We had a rough time of it, I assure you ; hut in less than two hours were safely landed in Norfolk. I like a steamboat, but not in circum- stances like this. I would not again be placed in such circumstances for the price of my life. It is possible there was less of danger than the passengers supposed ; but I have no doubt there was great danger, or the proud and headstrong commander of the boat never would have yielded to their importunity. There is danger, however, everywhere. It was but recently that I had narrowly es- caped losing my life at Portsmouth ; then, again, I had escaped the dangers of Hamp- ton Eoads, in a crazy steamboat ; and now, again, I had avoided certain dangers on which others had, at the same time, split. I will relate briefly the story to which I al- lude. Captain Wagner, of the sloop Eising Sun, of Middletown, in Connecticut, in coming up the Roads to Norfolk, just behind us, 184 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. liad struck, in a place on the north-east side of the river, called Lynnhaven Bay; and his vessel had gone to pieces. The passen- gers and hands, including a lady, were all saved, though not without difficulty. The news of the shipwreck produced quite a sensation in Norfolk ; for a shipwreck in that place, even in a blustering time, was not common. SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 185 CHAPTER XXVI. SICKNESS AND DISEASE. Much is said about the Southern States, especially the region where I traveled, as being sickly. You remember the cautions I received about going to Charleston, just at the time I ventured there ; and the silly advice of a friend to take with me some jiills, and swallow one every other day. I will tell you how it is about sickness. In some of the largest towns and cities there is more danger of contracting fevers than with us ; and in some parts of the country the danger is slightly increased by stagnant water, or by the effluvia which passes into the atmosphere from swamps, marshes, and ponds, when the water has just dried up. Certain it is that they have a vast amount of sickness among them, from one cause or another. You find, from the grave-stones, that they have very few old people there, except, perhaps, here and there, an aged 186 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. slave ; and on going around the country where you had become acquainted but a year before, it would seem, at first inquiry, as if almost everybody was dead. I have said this mortality must have one cause or another. I doubt not it has many ; though I think it has far less to do with climate than is generally supposed. It has more, much more, to do with the habits of the people. In the first place, they expose themselves to the damp night air, after their long hot days, and without a sufficient regard to a proper change of clothing. If they are too hot, they cool themselves as suddenly as they can ; if too cold, they are as anxious to get warm suddenly. Secondly, their food is not good. They eat too much pork, and use too much hot bread, both of Indian and wheat flour. Then they use too much strong coffee. They are also more irregular about their meals than they ought to be ; and they are in the habit of eating too late in the evening. Thirdly, they use too much medicine. SICKNESS AND DISEASE. 187 One man, a minister of the gospel, said to me, " If anything ails me or my family, we take down the calomel/^ This is as wrong, with their hahits and tendencies, as if the whole aim were to break down the constitu- tion. Whatever may he thought of the oc- casional use of calomel, in other complaints, in cooler countries, it is not safe to use it inuch in Lower Virginia and the Carolinas. Nobody that uses it freely has much force of constitution. I met with one Ellis, a Northern man, who had been treated for ague and fever, some ten years before, as the custom is^to treat it all over that country. But his dosing and drugging for it had completely destroyed his health. He had never seen a healthful hour afterward; probably never has seen one to this day. I have told you already that since the time of my first rambles in the South, I have been a great traveler ; and yet, in no part of the country I have seen, have I ob- served so many diseased people. Nowhere have I seen so many weak eyes, sore throats, sore ears, fever sores, chilblains, &c. No- 12 188 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. where have I seen so many spectacles worn, so many artificial teeth, or so much false hair. All this implies erroneous hahits — physical transgression somewhere, in pa- rents or children, or both. I do not mean to say, or even to intimate, that they are greater transgressors than we should probably be, in their circumstances ; unless, perhaps, in one single thing — the habit of taking medicine. We do immense mischief everywhere, from the cradle to the grave, by injudicious and excessive medica- tion, especially when unprescribed. But in this particular the Southern people outdo us, and reap for themselves and their pos- terity the consequences. If people wish to go to the South for any noble or worthy purpose, I know of but few places where they may not reside the whole year — ay, and for life — almost as w^ell as at the North, provided they will but obey tlie laws of health and life. These laws, however, must be known, before they will be obeyed, either there or here ; and hither- to, most persons have only been partially enlightened concerning them. THE COCK-FIGHT. 189 CHAPTER XXVII. THE COCK-FIGHT. Some time in May I embarked in a packet for New- York. We sailed on Saturday, but as the wind was unfavorable for putting to sea, we anchored in Hampton Roads for the night. The next day (Sunday) the wind was, if possible, still more unfavorable. It was actually out of our power to get beyond the capes, if we had desired. There were as many as thirty vessels detained in the Roads, as we were ; forming quite a beauti- ful sight. It was a bad place to spend Sunday ; but we had no alternative. We did the best we could. We could read our Bibles — those who had them. There is no place where a person cannot keep the Sabbath, if he is disposed to. keep it. Even if he has no Bi- ble, he has before him the great open vol- ume of nature, and the volume of his own 190 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. heart. This last, however, is a volume which most people dislike to study ; though to all, or nearly all, nothing is or can be more needful. The Sabbath, though on ship-board, at length wore away. Monday morning came, but it brought with it no better prospect of our getting to sea. The wind was as unfa- vorable as ever. Some of our passengers, tired with waiting, returned to Norfolk, to proceed to New- York, perhaps, in some other vessel. What they expected to gain by the exchange, however, it was difficult to conjecture ; for our own vessel would be as likely to sail as soon as any vessel could*; and few could outsail her. Most of us, therefore, chose to remain, and take our chance with Captain Skidmore. It was now recollected by the captain and crew, that they had seen advertisements, a few days before, for a cock-fight at Hamp- ton, to take place that day. "I should like to go to that fight,'' said the captain. " So should I," said one and another of the crew. The passengers were silent ; partly because they supposed the boat could not take them, THE COCK-FIGHT. 191 and partly because of the roughness of the water: for the wind, which I have told you al- ready, was ahead, blew very strongly, and, to mere landsmen, it seemed as though a common boat, or even the hughest long-boat, could hardly live in such a sea. The cap- tain, however, said there was no danger, though it would be tedious to row two o or three miles against such a strong wind. They had lowered the boat, and were about to get into it, when I said, '' Captain^ is there room for me ?" " Yes,'^ said he, " if you will row, and row against me/^ I told him I was not at all used to a boat ; but as he was an old man, and I a young one, I ought to be able to row with him. " Come, then," said he, smiling, " and see what you can do." We were soon on the great deep, in our little bark, and I was rowing with Captain Skidmore — he on one side of the boat, and I on the other. Now the boat was on the top of a huge wave — a little mountain, as it were — and now it was in a valley, be-"* tween two waves, so large that you could 192 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. scarcely see over them. It was a long time before we could discover that we had made much progress. At length, however, as we forced away toward the land, the wind seemed to blow less violently, and falling under a lee-shore, we soon made consider- able progress. The worst of it was, I was blistering both my hands. After much toil, we reached Hampton ; and if no one else was glad, I am quite sure I was. The cock-fight, however, to our sur- prise, had been postponed. Thus I fortu- nately lost the opportunity of witnessing so demoralizing a scene, and lost it forever. I could not now, with Christian principles, be present at a scene so repulsive to every humane and ennobling sentiment. We spent a few hours at Hampton, and then made the best of our way to the ves- sel. We carried back with us one of the largest collections of eggs I ever saw in a j|. single boat. They seemed to load her ■ down, without any hands or passengers. Virginia is a famous place for eggs. They cost but a mere trifle. It was much easier to get back to the THE COCK-FIGHT. 103 vessel than it liad been to get to Hampton. I do not say it was safer, however ; for the boat rolled about much worse. The wind and tlie tide being with us, neither the cap- tain's oar nor my own was needed. We were soon on board, in all our former mo- notony. Night came on, with prospects no better ; but next morning the wind had subsided, and appeared to be getting round. The captain said we must go, and immediately began to prepare for sailing. I could not help wishing that our companions who had gone back to Norfolk were on board ; for we had every reasonable prospect of a good voyage ; whereas, it was possible they might not get away that day, or be in New- York before the next week. 194 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. CHAPTER XXVIII. GOING HOME. The scene which presented itself in Hamjv ton Roads was one of the finest of the kind my eyes ever witnessed. Nearly fifty sail of vessels that had been detained, were now ready to sail, and were s^oreading their white canvass to the breeze. Far as the eye could reach they were to be seen, their colors set and their bows pointing in the same outward direction. It is hardly necessary for me to say, that my good friend and traveling companion, with whom I had held much excellent coun- sel, and with whom I had often sympathized, both in health and sickness, did not return with me. He remained behind to " occupy" till he had paid his bills for his long sick- ness. He returned, however, the ensuing summer. Never, perhaps, since the world began, did a vessel glide along more pleasantly GOING nOME. 195 from Norfolk to New- York than did our little sloop Magg. In less than twice twenty-four hours, and without a single mishap worth mentioning, we found our- selves alongside of one of the wharves in New-York. With a breeze equally prosperous, I was soon wafted sixty miles further, to a small port called Mill Eun, on the southern shore of Connecticut. Thence I walked, some twenty-five or thirty miles, to the residence of my father and mother. These I found — and all others now in the land of the living — in tolerable health. They were, doubtless, as glad to meet with me, as I was to see again their own smiling faces. They had buried me, in anticipation, long ago ; but I still lived, while others of whose demise they had not so much as thought, when I left them, had been called away. Thus it sometimes happens. A young man breaks away from the paternal circle, and goes to California. A score or two of deeply-affected friends weep over him, ex- pecting to meet him no more on this side 196 RAMBLES AT THE SOUTH. / '" " ^^ the world eternal. Meanwhile, it scarcely' enters their minds that, perchance, in the ^'' counsels of high heaven, the young man, though exposed to a thousand dangers, seen and unseen, will in due time return ; but they shall be missing. But thus it is or- -. dered. The young man returns in a year -^ or two, or three ; but half a dozen of the circle that wept over him have gone a long- er journey than that to California — one from which no traveler returns. Are we not all travelers to a distant land — pilgrims to a better country ? If not, we ouglit to be. Travelers and pilgrims we most certainly are. No one of us has here an abiding place, a continuing city. Happy they who not only admit in theory, but in practice also, their pilgrim character, and seek for themselves a city which hath foun- dations — is permanent — whose builder and maker is God. THE END. ■mr^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 369 930 4