University of Virginia Library

8. VIII.

So things stood, when, one day, what should
appear in the Port of St. Mary's — the Pioneer
of the Line — but a vessel — a schooner — a
brightly painted, sharp, cunning looking craft, all
the way from the eastern waters, and commanded
by one of that daring tribe of Yankees, which
will one day control the commercial world. Never
had such a craft shown its face in those waters, and
great was the excitement in consequence. The
people turned out, en masse, — men, women, and
children, — all gathered upon the sands at the
point to which she was approaching, and while
many stood dumb with mixed feelings of wonder
and consternation, others, more bold and elastic,
shouted with delight. Ned Johnson led this latter
class, and almost rushed into the waters to meet
the new comer, clapping his hands and screaming

like mad. Logoochie himself, from the close
hugging branches of a neighboring tree, looked
down, and wondered and trembled as he beheld
the fast rushing progress toward him of what
might be a new and more potent God. Then,
when her little cannon, ostentatiously large for the
necessity, belched forth its thunders from her side,
the joy and the terror was universal. The rude
divinity of the red men leaped down headlong
from his place of eminence, and bounded on without
stopping, until removed from the sight and the
shouting, in the thick recesses of the neighboring
wood; while the children of the squatters taking
to their heels, went bawling and squalling back
to the village, never thinking for a moment to
reach it alive. The schooner cast her anchor,
and her captain came to land. Columbus looked
not more imposing, leaping first to the virgin soil
of the New World, than our worthy down-easter,
commencing, for the first time, a successful trade
in onions, potatoes, codfish, and crab-cider, with
the delighted Georgians of our little village. All
parties were overjoyed, and none more so than our
young lover, Master Edward Johnson. He
drank in with willing ears, and a still thirsting appetite,
the narrative which the Yankee captain
gave the villagers of his voyage. His long yarn,
be sure, was stuffed with wonders. The new
comer soon saw from Johnson's looks how greatly
he had won the respect and consideration of the
youthful wanderer, and, accordingly, addressed
some of his more spirited and romantic adventures
purposely to him. Poor Mary Jones beheld,
with dreadful anticipations, the voracious delight
which sparkled in the eyes of Ned as he listened
to the marvellous narrative, and had the thing
been at all possible or proper, she would have insisted,
for the better control of the erratic boy,
that old Parson Collins should at once do his duty,
and give her legal authority to say to her lover—
“obey, my dear, — stay at home, or,” etc. She
went back to the village in great tribulation, and
Ned — he stayed behind with Captain Nicodemus
Doolittle, of the “Smashing Nancy.”