"Now, captain, I should be very happy to suppose that your stars and
stripes will fly to the end of the world; but I do not see why the
banner of old England should not be allowed to wave as long. There's
room for both of us, surely. It's my principle to live and let live."
"Why, stranger, because you are not a nation of free men, you don't know
what true liberty is," he replied, gnashing his teeth in a way which
made Ready show his in return.
"Our old obsolete government showed that it appreciated liberty when, at
a vast cost, it knocked off the shackles from every slave owned by a
Briton," I observed, calmly.
"I guess you'd better not touch on that there subject, stranger, when
you get to New Orle-e-ens, or Judge Lynch may have a word to say to
you," croaked out the skipper, curling his nose, and giving a malicious
wink at me while he squirted a stream of tobacco juice into the eye of
poor Ready, who went howling round the deck with pain.
I took the hint, and held my tongue on the dark subject. It's ill to
talk of the gallows to a man whose father has been hung, and none but a
Knight of La Mancha runs a tilt against windmills when travelling in
foreign lands. Still, I say, do not do at Rome as Rome does, but
protest, if not loudly, silently--by your conduct--against vice and
immorality, and all the abominations you may meet with.
We had a large number of emigrants on board, who were fully persuaded
that they were going to enjoy not only the most perfect government under
the sun, but every blessing this world can supply. Poor people! how
different did they find the reality. We kept to the southward of that
mighty stream which, coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, sweeps away
north, across the Atlantic, and, with its well-heated waters, adds
considerably to the warmth of our shores at home. We saw neither
floating icebergs, whales, nor sea serpents, but had several births and
deaths, and at last made the island of St. Thomas, which appeared
floating like a blue cloud on the ocean. As we drew nearer, a vast
mountain rose before us, seemingly, directly out of the water, having a
sterile summit, sprinkled round with spots of refreshing verdure. The
harbour is in the form of an amphitheatre, and the land round, with its
glittering white town on three hills, its old fort advancing into the
sea, its green valleys, groves of cocoa-nuts, and fields of sugar-cane,
is a highly picturesque spot. We put in to get a supply of water,
fruit, vegetables, and fresh provisions; but, as the yellow fever was at
the time carrying off about twenty of the inhabitants a day, negroes and
mulattoes as well as white people, I was satisfied with admiring its
beauties at a distance. Putting to sea again as fast as we could, we
weathered the north-western point of Cuba, and entered the Gulf of
Mexico, between that island and Florida.
About a week afterwards vast numbers of logs of wood, floating in yellow
water, indicated that we were at the mouths of the Mississippi, for, of
course, a mighty stream a thousand miles long, would not be content with
one mouth, like our poor little humble Thames. The scenery, consisting
of mud-banks and swamps, as far as the eye can reach, is not very
attractive. It is curious to look back after making numerous windings,
and to observe the sea over the mud-banks, considerably lower than the
water on which the ship is floating. With a fair wind stemming the
stream for a hundred and thirty miles, we found ourselves amid a crowd
of vessels of all nations off New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. It
is a large handsome looking city, but, as the ground on which it stands
is lower than the surface of the river, I could not help feeling, while
I was there, that some night I might find myself washed out of my bed by
its muddy waters.
Intending to return to New Orleans, I left my traps at my hotel, and
embarked with Ready on board a huge steamer bound up the Mississippi. A
cockney might describe her as like a Thames wherry with an omnibus on
the top of it, and vast paddles outside all. I found that passengers
could only ascend to the upper saloon, which ran the whole length of the
vessel, the roof being of necessity sacred to the officers and crew.
There were numerous galleries, however, on each side of the
paddle-boxes, and forward and aft, whence I could observe the scenery.
It was not very attractive, consisting chiefly of low swamps--the
habitations of alligators and rattlesnakes. Here and there were more
elevated spots, on which villages were perched, and patches where once
the forest grew, but which were now covered with fields of sugar-cane,
maize, and cotton bushes.
We were dashing on at a prodigious rate--I fancy the engineer must have
been sitting on the safety-valve--when, feeling a dreadful concussion,
and being thrown forward with my nose on the deck, I heard those around
me exclaim, "Snagged!" "We are sinking!" A snag is a log of timber
stuck sloping in the mud. Against one of these snags we had run. Down,
down sank the huge machine. "Aunt Becky forgot to mention this, among
the other modes of losing my life which she enumerated," I thought to
myself. "She forgot that Mississippi steamers could sink as well as
blow up." However, I had no intention of going out of the world just
then, if I could help it.
The river was at that part very wide and shallow; but I observed an
island not far off, and I hoped to reach it. If there were any boats
round the vessel, there was no time to lower them. The awful plunge
came. Some hundred human beings were hurled amid the turbid waters.
Many were carried down with the vessel; others were shrieking piteously,
and struggling for life. The weather was intensely hot. I had on but
little clothing. I struck out towards the island. As I did so, the
thought occurred to me, "For what purpose was my great strength given
me? Surely to be of use to my fellow-creatures. I can save one of
these poor people at all events." I turned back. The first person I
saw was a poor lad, who had been my fellow-passenger on board the
_Liberty_. I had more than once spoken to him. His name was Peter.
"Help, help!" he shrieked out. "Oh, Mr Skipwith, save me." I caught
him by the collar, and threw him on to my back. "There, Peter," said I,
"cling on, but don't touch my arms, and, with Heaven's support, I'll
carry you on shore." The lad made no answer, but did as I bade him, and
away Ready and I swam towards the island. I cannot forget the shrieks
and cries for help of the unfortunate beings drowning round me. Now an
arm was lifted up; now two hands in the attitude of supplication. Now
the countenance of some strong man full of horror and despair came into
view. Women and children were floating about, held up for a while by
their clothes, and others were clinging to chairs, and stools, and bits
of the wreck, which had risen to the surface. I felt many clutch at me.
A sad necessity compelled me to shake them off. I should have
endangered Peter's life, as well as my own, had I attempted to help
them.
It was no easy work. The current was strong, and there were eddies
which whirled me round and round, while Mississippi's muddy waters were
less buoyant than those of the ocean. The island for which I was making
was lower down than where the steamer had struck, or I doubt if I should
have been saved. As I approached the bank, I saw that there were
numerous reeds flinging it, which I doubted if I could penetrate. Still
the attempt must be made. I looked about, till I saw a space which
appeared more clear, and I swam at it to force my way through. The
reeds seemed to grow thicker and thicker. It became very heavy work,
and I feared that I should get my legs entangled, and be held fast. At
last I saw a thick log of wood floating a little way on.
"I will let Peter rest on it while I make my way to the shore, and,
after recovering my strength, I will go off and tow him in," I thought
to myself: and then I told him what I proposed doing. I swam up to the
log, lifted Peter off with my left hand, and had placed him on it, while
I kept myself afloat with my right, when Ready began to bark furiously,
turning round his head at the log, and swimming off in an opposite
direction. I thought this odd, when suddenly the log began to move. A
vast pair of jaws, with long rows of formidable teeth, opened, but
instead of snapping at me, the alligator (for such it was, and of
prodigious size) swam away after my faithful Ready. I eased poor Peter,
who, terror-stricken, was about to take a most uncomfortable ride on the
alligator's back, and dragging him off before the creature had towed us
many yards, I succeeded, by efforts which the greatest alarm alone could
have enabled me to make, in reaching the shore. I climbed up the bank
myself, and was dragging up poor Peter, when the alligator, disappointed
in catching the sagacious Ready, who was safe on land, furiously barking
at him, made a dash towards us. I had just time to draw the boy up by a
violent jerk, when the monster's long jaws closed with a loud clack
close to his heels. Peter shrieked out, believing that he was caught,
but I soon reassured him, and, by setting him on his legs, proved that
he had retained them. The alligator, or cayman, was, however, not to be
baulked of his prey, and, not being aware of the number of people
floating away helplessly down the stream, he began to climb up the bank
with the intention of catching one of us at least. The island was of
about twenty acres in extent, with a clump of cypress trees and a palm
or two in the centre; but the ground of the greater portion was soft and
boggy, and covered with reeds, and long grass springing up among logs of
timber, in all stages of decay, which had been washed up during the
floods of spring. This was not very convenient ground for active
operations; yet still the alligator took care that we should be actively
employed. As we had no arms with which to assail him, we could only act
on the defensive.
The alligator soon got up the bank, and then stopped and eyed us all
three, meditating, apparently, which he should first devour. I had made
Peter move a little way off on one side of me, while Ready ran about on
the other. The brute was hungry, and, seeing that I was the largest
animal, he made up his mind to have me first; so on he waddled through
the grass, at so rapid a rate, that the consequences, had I tumbled,
would have been very serious.
Ready played his part admirably, and directly he saw that the cayman was
running at me, he began to bark more furiously than ever, so as to
distract the monster's attention. He succeeded, for the alligator
stopped several times to look at him, but his mouth was watering with
the anticipation of the _bonne bouche_ my substantial carcass would
prove, and he again made chase after me. I shouted to the lad to run
for the clump of trees. He obeyed my directions as well as he could,
but twice he fell and disappeared between some logs, and I was afraid he
was lost, but he scrambled out and ran on. I had to keep my eyes about
me, as I leaped from log to log, watching the alligator, and looking to
see where I was going. I had got more than half way to the clump of
trees, when I heard a loud hissing, and looking down, I found that I was
about to leap into a nest of snakes. Mrs Snake put up her head, of
flat, venomous form, and I thought would have flown at me, but I sprang
on one side with more agility than ever. I had not much fear of the
cayman, but no courage, strength, or activity would avail against a
single serpent, and the island, I suspected, swarmed with them. It
would not, however, have done to stop, as the alligator, having no dread
of the snakes, did not. Peter had reached the clump, and had wisely
begun to climb a tree. I dashed after him, kicking up several
rattlesnakes who had not time to bite me, Ready running by my side, and
our pursuer, as the ground was smoother, following faster than ever. I
seized Ready in my arms, and threw him up to Peter, who caught him, and
placed him safely on a branch, while I sprang up after him, and the
alligator, who darted on, snapped his jaws within a foot of my legs as I
swung them up out of his way. A pretty predicament we were in, perched
on the branch of a cypress tree with the monster cayman leering up at us
from below, and thinking it very hard, after all the trouble he had
taken, that we should have escaped his jaws. Still I felt how much
better off we were than the several hundred human beings who had so
suddenly met a watery grave. I looked out from our perch towards the
spot where the steamer had gone down. Not a creature could I see: the
pieces of wreck, with people floating on them, had been carried out of
sight down the stream, but whether any were likely to reach the shore I
could not tell. I thought that some might; but I pictured them roaming
about through those vast swamps, without food, far from human
habitations, till at length they fell a prey to alligators, or were
killed by serpents, or sank down and died from hunger and fatigue. Our
position was not very pleasant either, for the river was so wide that I
was not at all certain that we should be seen by vessels passing up and
down; and I dreaded that we might be starved before we could get off. I
grew very hungry, for I had been waiting to rush into dinner when the
vessel sank. Peter had scarcely spoken; indeed, I was uncertain whether
or not he was grateful to me for saving him; but he was evidently not a
lad of words. I remarked that I had had nothing to eat since breakfast.
"What, haven't you had your dinner, sir?" he exclaimed, in a tone of
surprise. "Well, things always turn out lucky with me. Here, sir."
Diving into his coat-pockets, he produced some meat and cheese, and two
large lumps of bread, which, however, were rather mashed by the soaking
they had got.
"There, take that; it will do you good; you want something after that
long swim," said he.
"Thank you, I will take a piece of bread and meat gladly," I answered.
"You, Peter, keep the rest for yourself."
"No, no, it's yours, sir. I'll not touch it," he replied in a
determined, steady tone. I ate a small portion, and begged him to keep
the rest.
"There's another friend wants something," he remarked, cutting off a
piece of the cheese rind and some gristle from the meat, and giving them
to Ready, who had looked up wistfully at him as he was handing me the
food. "There, old fellow, you deserve it, I am sure you do," said he,
patting the dog's head.
I had little doubt after this that Peter's heart was in the right place.
Night, was coming on, and the danger of our position increased. When
the sun went down, the mosquitoes attacked us furiously, and ran their
huge probosces into our skins, till there was scarcely a spot without a
wound. The only satisfaction was that they kept us awake; for had we
gone to sleep, we might have fallen off the bough; and had we fallen off
the bough, we should have tumbled into the jaws of the alligator,
waiting anxiously below to devour us. Such were the not over-pleasant
prospects for the approaching night.