"When the sale was completed, and the account settled, I found that I
had just five hundred pounds left. I had now some experience in
farming; and I resolved to move out to the West--into the great valley
of the Mississippi. I knew that there my five hundred pounds would
still set me up again in a farm as big as I wanted, where the timber was
still growing upon it.
"Just at this time my eye fell upon some flaming advertisements in the
newspapers, about a new city which was then being built at the junction
of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was called `Cairo,' and as it
was situated on the fork between two of the largest and most navigable
rivers in the world, it could not fail in a few years to become one of
the largest cities in the world. So said the advertisement. There were
maps of the new city everywhere, and on these were represented theatres,
and banks, and court-houses, and churches of different religious
denominations. There were lots offered for sale, and, along with these,
small tracts of land adjoining the town--so that the inhabitants might
combine the occupations of merchant and agriculturist. These lots were
offered very cheap, thought I; and I did not rest, night nor day, until
I had purchased one of them, and also a small farm in the adjacent
country.
"Almost as soon as I had made the purchase, I set out to take
possession. Of course, I took with me my wife and children. I had now
three--the two eldest being twins and about nine years old. I did not
intend to return to Virginia any more. Our faithful Cudjo accompanied
us to our far Western home.
"It was a severe journey, but not so severe as the trial that awaited us
on our arrival at `Cairo.' As soon as I came within sight of the place,
I saw, to use an expressive phrase, that I had been `sold' again. There
was but one house, and that stood upon the only ground that was not a
swamp. Nearly the whole site of the proposed city was under water, and
the part not wholly inundated consisted of a dark morass, covered with
trees and tall reeds! There were no theatres, no churches, no
court-houses, no banks, nor any likelihood there ever would be, except
such as might be built to keep back the water from the only house in the
place--a sort of rough hotel, filled with swearing boatmen.
"I had landed, of course; and, after putting up at the hotel, proceeded
in search of my `property.' I found my town-lot in a marsh, which took
me over the ankles in mud. As for my farm, I was compelled to get a
boat to visit it; and after sailing all over it without being able to
touch bottom, I returned to the hotel, heartless and disgusted.
"By the next steamboat that came along, I embarked for Saint Louis--
where I sold both lot and farm for a mere trifle.
"I need not say that I was mortified at all this. I was almost
heart-broken when I reflected on my repeated failures, and thought of my
young wife and children. I could have bitterly cursed both America and
the Americans, had that been of any use; and yet such a thing would have
been as unjust as immoral. It is true I had been twice outrageously
swindled; but the same thing had happened to me in my own country, and I
had suffered in the same way by those who professed to be my friends.
There are bad men in every country--men willing to take advantage of
generosity and inexperience. It does not follow that all are so; and we
hope far less than the half--for it must be remembered that the bad
points of one country are more certain to be heard of in another than
its good ones. When I look to the schemes and speculations which have
been got up in England, and which have enriched a few accomplished
rogues, by the ruin of thousands of honest men, I cannot, as an
Englishman, accuse our American cousins of being greater swindlers than
ourselves. It is true I have been deceived by them, but it was from the
want of proper judgment in myself, arising from a foolish and
ill-directed education. I should have been equally ill-treated in the
purchase of a horse at Tattersall's, or a pound of tea in Piccadilly,
had I been equally unacquainted with the value of the articles. We
both, as nations, have erred. Neither of us can, with grace, cast a
stone at the other; and as for myself, why, look there!" said Rolfe,
smiling and pointing to his family, "two of my children only are
Englishmen; the others are little Yankees. Almost every Englishman can
say something similar. Why, then, should we sow jealousy between them?"