_Oct. 9._ We need people at headquarters who understand the details of
plantation work. There is no one now who knows anything about the
plantations except Hooper,[62] and he knows very little. He confesses
and mourns at it himself; but he has done nothing but go back and
forth between the Oaks and Beaufort ever since he came down. There is
a general want of concerted system on all the places. Each
superintendent has to do as he thinks best in all cases himself.
General plans are usually determined on just too late.
_Oct. 14._ The steamer which brought your letter brought also the
General. It is said that he comes with additional powers.[63] This
question will probably be settled soon, as a difficulty has already
arisen between him and his old antagonist, Brannan, on a point of
authority, and our General has gone to Hilton Head, probably to see
Mitchel about it. This interference of the military authorities with
our work and our privileges is going to make trouble. One of Mitchel's
first acts was to send to Judd, as Superintendent of Port Royal
Island, for 10,000 bushels of corn for army purposes. Poor Judd had
been rationing his people for some time, owing to a lack of provisions
occasioned by the depredations of the soldiers. We have none too much
provision now, and any considerable drain must throw the plantations,
sooner or later, upon the Government for support.
In the next letter (October 21) Mr. Philbrick says that the
corn harvest, which is so light on St. Helena as a whole
that it will hardly feed the people in the interval between
old and new potatoes, will nevertheless amount to a surplus
at Coffin's, adding:
I attribute the greater comparative success on my plantations to my
having abandoned the system of working a common field early in the
season.[64] I now measure the yield of each family's corn-patch
separately, with a view to pay them for it, if they have enough for
their support in their private fields, or to regulate their allowance,
if they need any, by the quantity they raise.
We had a case of imprisonment here last week. I learned that old Nat's
boy, Antony, who wanted to marry Phillis, had given her up and taken
Mary Ann, July's daughter, without saying a word to me or any other
white man. I called him up to me one afternoon when I was there and
told him he must go to church and be married by the minister according
to law. He flatly refused, with a good deal of impertinence, using
some profane language learned in camp. I thereupon told him he must go
home with me, showing him I had a pistol, which I put in my outside
pocket. He came along, swearing all the way and muttering his
determination not to comply. I gave him lodging in the dark hole under
the stairs, with nothing to eat. Next morning old Nat came and
expostulated with him, joined by old Ben and Uncle Sam, all of whom
pitched into him and told him he was very foolish and ought to be
proud of such a chance. He finally gave up and promised to go. So I
let him off with an apology. Next Sunday he appeared and was married
before a whole church full of people. The wedding took place between
the regular church service and the funeral, allowing an hour of
interval, however.
Cato never went back to Rose as he promised. 'Siah tells me he is
afraid of his father, old Toby, who has been in a state of chronic
feud with Rose's father, old Alex, and does all in his power to make
trouble. Cato has gone over to Pine Grove and begun to build a house.
I daresay he will take Rose into it bye and bye, when it is done.
I have been very busy lately weighing pease and cotton and measuring
corn. The latter is not very pleasant, for I have to stay in the
corn-house and keep tally from nine to three o'clock, and the weevils
are more numerous than were the fleas the first week we came here to
live. Mosquitoes are about gone, but we have sand-flies again. No
fleas yet that I am aware of.