_June 10._ As we drove up under the shade of a buttonwood-tree [at
Fripp Point] we found a group of children under it, three or four boys
and girls washing at wash-tubs, others sitting round taking care of
younger children. They were just like children all over the
world,[131] playing and teasing each other, but very good-naturedly,
and as happy as you please. This weather the children wear nothing but
a shift or shirt, and the other day Lewis and Cicero appeared in the
yard entirely naked. Aunt Sally, from Eddings Point, amused us with
her queer, wild talk a long time. The story is that she was made crazy
by her master's whipping her daughter to death, and very sad it was to
hear her talk, though it was funny. She knows any number of hymns and
parts of the Bible, and jumbles scraps and lines from the one with
Genesis and Revelation in the most extraordinary manner, talking about
Mr. Adam and Madam Eve, who brought her and her race all their woe,
whom she knows but will never forgive. She stands and reads everything
out of her "heart-book," which she says tells her everything, looking
all the time at her left hand, which she holds out like a book. Her
epithets against her old master and the rebels were voluble and
denunciatory in the extreme, and she left us with many warnings to
remember "Det and de Jugment." I had sent for the "Widow Bedotte," to
whom I presented some tobacco and who was very funny indeed. She is in
her right mind and delights in making herself agreeable. I wish I
could describe to you this extraordinary specimen of humanity--a short
little old body with an intelligent face--all her wool carefully
concealed by an enormous turban, from beneath each side of which hung
four black strings, looking like an imitation frisette of false
curls, her odd figure enveloped in shawl and cape, rubbing her hands
nervously and sinking into the floor, as it seemed, as she curtseyed
to us lower than I ever saw anybody go and get up again straight. And
then her conversation and manner were as comical as her appearance.
Another characteristic of the "Widow Bedotte" H. W.
describes elsewhere.
She prides herself upon her good manners, which she says she gets
because she belongs to the church, which every now and then she joins
again. She has just done so here, so is full of extra flourishes.
On June 12 Hunter was replaced by Brigadier-General Quincy
A. Gillmore.[132] Here follow comments on Hunter's last acts
before leaving, as well as on the impression made by his
successor.