It was not till the sixth day of my sojourn at Port Talbot that the good
Colonel could be persuaded to allow of my departure.
He told me, with good-humoured peremptoriness, that he was the grand
autocrat of the forest, and that to presume to order horses, or take any
step towards departing, without his express permission, was against "his
laws." At last he was so good as to issue his commands--with flattering
reluctance, however--that a vehicle should be prepared, and a trusty
guide provided; and I bade farewell to this extraordinary man with a
mixture of delighted, and grateful, and melancholy feelings not easily
to be described, nor ever forgotten.
My next journey was from Port Talbot to Chatham on the river Thames,
whence it was my intention to cross Lake St. Clair to Detroit, and there
take my chance of a vessel going up Lake Huron to Machinaw. I should,
however, advise any future traveller, not limited to any particular time
or plan of observation, to take the road along the shore of the Lake to
Amherstberg and Sandwich, instead of turning off to Chatham. During the
first day's journey I was promised a good road, as it lay through the
Talbot settlements; what was to become of me the second day seemed a
very doubtful matter.
The best vehicle which the hospitality and influence of Colonel Talbot
could provide was a farmer's cart or team, with two stout horses. The
bottom of the cart was well filled with clean soft straw, on which my
luggage was deposited. A seat was slung for me on straps, and another in
front for the driver, who had been selected from among the most
respectable settlers in the neighbourhood as a fit guide and protector
for a lone woman. The charge for the two days' journey was to be twelve
dollars.
As soon as I had a little recovered from the many thoughts and feelings
which came over me as we drove down the path from Colonel Talbot's
house, I turned to take a survey of my driver, and from his physiognomy,
his deportment, and the tone of his voice, to divine, if I could, what
chance I had of comfort during the next two days. The survey was, on
the whole, encouraging, though presenting some inconsistencies I could
by no means reconcile. His dress and figure were remarkably neat, though
plain and homely; his broad-brimmed straw hat, encircled with a green
ribbon, was pulled over his brow, and from beneath it peered two
sparkling, intelligent eyes. His accent was decidedly Irish. It was
indeed a brogue as "nate and complate" as ever was sent forth from Cork
or Kerry; but then his face was not an Irish face; its expression had
nothing of the Irish character; the cut of his features, and his manner
and figure altogether in no respect harmonised with his voice and
accent.