University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XV.

April 18th.—It is as though we woke up in a barrack.
No! There is the distinction, that in the passages slaves are
moving up and down with cups of iced milk or water for their
mistresses in the early morning, cleanly dressed, neatly clad,
with the conceptions of Parisian millinery adumbrated to their
condition, and transmitted by the white race, hovering round
their heads and bodies. They sit outside the doors, and chatter
in the passages; and as the Irish waiter brings in my hot
water for shaving, there is that odd, round, oily, half-strangled,
chuckling, gobble of a laugh peculiar to the female Ethiop,
coming in through the doorway.

Later in the day, their mistresses sail out from the inner
harbors, and launch all their sails along the passages, down
the stairs, and into the long, hot, fluffy salle-à-manger, where,
blackened with flies which dispute the viands, they take their
tremendous meals. They are pale, pretty, svelte—just as I
was about to say they were rather small, there rises before me
the recollection of one Titanic dame—a Carolinian Juno,
with two lovely peacock daughters—and I refrain from generalizing.
Exceedingly proud these ladies are said to be—for
a generation or two of family suffice in this new country, it
properly supported by the possession of negroes and acres, to
give pride of birth, and all the grandeur which is derived from
raising raw produce, cereals, and cotton—suâ terrâ. Their
enemies say that the grandfathers of some of these noble
people were mere pirates and smugglers, who dealt in a cavalier
fashion with the laws and with the flotsam and jetsam of
fortune on the seas and reefs hereabouts. Cotton suddenly—

almost unnaturally, as far as the ordinary laws of commerce
are concerned, grew up whilst land was cheap, and slaves were
of moderate price—the pirates, and piratesses had control of
both, and in a night the gourd swelled and grew to a prodigious
size. These are Northern stories. What the Southerners
say of their countrymen and women in the upper part of this
"blessed Union" I have written for the edification of people
at home.

The tables in the eating-room are disposed in long rows, or
detached so as to suit private parties. When I was coming
down to Charleston, one of my fellow-passengers told me he
was quite shocked the first time he saw white people acting as
servants; but no such scruples existed in the Mills House, for
the waiters were all Irish, except one or two Germans. The
carte is much the same at all American hotels, the variations
depending on local luxuries or tastes. Marvellous exceedingly
is it to see the quantities of butter, treacle, and farinaceous
matters prepared in the heaviest form—of fish, of many
meats, of eggs scrambled or scarred or otherwise prepared,
of iced milk and water, which an American will consume in a
few minutes in the mornings. There is, positively, no rest at
these meals—no repose. The guests are ever passing in and
out of the room, chairs are forever pushed to and fro with a
harsh grating noise that sets the teeth on edge, and there is a
continual clatter of plates and metal. Every man is reading
his paper, or discussing the news with his neighbor. I was
introduced to a vast number of people and was asked many
questions respecting my views of Sumter, or what I thought
" old Abe and Seward would do? "The proclamation calling
out 75,000 men issued by said old Abe, they treat with the
most profound contempt or unsparing ridicule, as the case may
be. Five out of six of the men at table wore uniforms this
morning.

Having made the acquaintance of several warriors, as well
as that of a Russian gentleman, Baron Sternberg, who was
engaged in looking about him in Charleston, and was, like most
foreigners, impressed with the conviction that actum est de Republicâ,
I went out with Major Whiting [1] and Mr. Ward, the
former of whom was anxious to show me Fort Moultrie and
the left side of the Channel, in continuation of my trip yesterday.
It was arranged that we should go off as quietly as possible,
"so as to prevent the newspapers knowing anything

about it." The Major has a great dislike to the gentlemen of
the press, and General Beauregard had sent orders for the
staff-boat to be prepared, so as to be quiet and private, but the
fates were against us. On going down to the quay, we learned
that a gentleman had come down with an officer and had
gone off in our skiff, the boat-keepers believing they were the
persons for whom it was intended. In fact, our Russian friend,
Baron Sternberg, had stolen a march upon us.

After a time, the Major succeeded in securing the services
of the very smallest, most untrustworthy, and ridiculous-look
ing craft ever seen by mortal eyes. If Charon had put a two
horse power engine into his skiff, it might have borne some
resemblance to this egregious cymbalus, which had once been
a flat-bottomed, opened-decked cutter or galley, into the midst
of which the owner had forced a small engine and paddle-wheels,
and at the stern had erected a roofed caboose, or
oblong pantry, sacred to oil-cans and cockroaches. The crew
consisted of the first captain and the second captain, a lad of
tender years, and that was all. Into the pantry we scrambled,
and sat down knee to knee, whilst the engine was getting up
its steam: a very obstinate and anti-caloric little engine it
was—puffing and squeaking, leaking, and distilling drops of
water, and driving out blasts of steam in unexpected places.

As long as we lay at the quay all was right. The Major
was supremely happy, for he could talk about Thackeray and
his writings—a theme of which he never tired—nay, on
which his enthusiasm reached the height of devotional fervor.
Did I ever know any one like Major Pendennis? Was it
known who Becky Sharp was? Who was the O'Mulligan?
These questions were mere hooks on which to hang rhapsodies
and delighted dissertation. He might have got down as far as
Pendennis himself, when a lively swash of water flying over
the preposterous little gunwales, and dashing over our boots
into the cabin, announced that our bark was under way.
There is, we were told, for several months in the year, a brisk
breeze from the southward and eastward in and off Charleston
Harbor, and there was to-day a small joggle in the water
which would not have affected anything floating except our
steamer; but as we proceeded down the narrow channel by
Castle Pinckney, the little boat rolled as if she would can-size
every moment, and made no pretence at doing more than
a mile an hour at her best; and it became evident that our
voyage would be neither pleasant, prosperous, nor speedy.

Still the Major went on between the lurches, and drew his
feet up out of the water, in order to have "a quiet chat," as
he said, "about my favorite author." My companion and myself
could not condense ourselves or foreshorten our nether
limbs quite so deftly.

Standing out from the shelter towards Sumter, the sea
came rolling on our beam, making the miserable craft oscillate
as if some great hand had caught her by the funnel—
Yankeeicé, smokestack—and was rolling her backwards and
forwards, as a preliminary to a final keel over. The water
came in plentifully, and the cabin was flooded with a small
sea: the latter partook of the lively character of the external
fluid, and made violent efforts to get overboard to join it, which
generally were counteracted by the better sustained and
directed attempts of the external to get inside. The captain
seemed very unhappy; the rest of the crew—our steerer—
had discovered that the steamer would not steer at all, and
that we were rolling like a log on the water. Certainly
neither Pinckney, nor Sumter, nor Moultrie altered their
relative bearings and distances towards us for half an hour or
so, though they bobbed up and down continuously. "But it
is,"said the Major," in the character of Colonel Newcome
that Thackeray has, in my opinion, exhibited the greatest
amount of power; the tenderness, simplicity, love, manliness,
and—" Here a walloping muddy-green wave came "all
aboard," and the cymbalus gave decided indications of turning
turtle. We were wet and miserable, and two hours or more
had now passed in making a couple of miles. The tide was
setting more strongly against us, and just off Moultrie, in the
tideway between its walls and Sumter, could be seen the heads
of the sea-horses unpleasantly crested. I know not what ot
eloquent disquisition I lost, for the Major was evidently in
his finest moment and on his best subject, but I ventured to
suggest that we should bout ship and return—and thus aroused
him to a sense of his situation. And so we wore round—
a very delicate operation, which, by judicious management in
getting side bumps of the sea at favorable movements, we
were enabled to effect in some fifteen or twenty minutes;
and then we became so parboiled by the heat from the engine,
that conversation was impossible.

How glad we were to land once more I need not say. As
I gave the captain a small votive tablet of metal, he said,
" I'm thinkin' it's very well yes turned back. Av we'd gone

any further, devil aback ever we'd have come." "Why didn't
you say so before?" "Sure I didn't like to spoil the trip."
My gifted countryman and I parted to meet no more.

  *  *  *  *  *  *  

Second and third editions and extras! News of Secession
meetings and of Union meetings! Every one is filled with
indignation against the city of New York, on account of the
way in which the news of the reduction of Fort Sumter has
been received there. New England has acted just as was expected,
but better things were anticipated on the part of the
Empire City. There is no sign of shrinking from a contest:
on the contrary, the Carolinians are full of eagerness to test
their force in the field. "Let them come!" is their boastful
mot d'ordre.

The anger which is reported to exist in the North only adds
to the fury and animosity of the Carolinians. They are determined
now to act on their sovereign rights as a State, cost
what it may, and uphold the ordinance of secession. The
answers of several State Governors to President Lincoln's demand
for troops, have delighted our friends. Beriah Magoffin,
of Kentucky, declares he won't give any men for such a
wicked purpose; and another gubernatorial dignitary laconically
replied to the demand for so many thousand soldiers,
"Nary one." Letcher, Governor of Virginia, has also sent a
refusal. From the North comes news of mass-meetings, of
hauling down Secession colors, mobbing Secession papers, of
military bodies turning out, banks subscribing and lending.

Jefferson Davis has met President Lincoln's proclamation
by a counter manifesto, issuing letters of marque and reprisal
—on all sides preparations for war. The Southern agents are
buying steamers, but they fear the Northern States will use
their navy to enforce a blockade, which is much dreaded, as it
will cut off supplies and injure the commerce, on which they
so much depend. Assuredly Mr. Seward cannot know anything
of the feeling of the South, or he would not be so confident
as he was that all would blow over, and that the States,
deprived of the care and fostering influences of the general
Government, would get tired of their Secession ordinances,
and of their experiment to maintain a national life, so that the
United States will be reëstablished before long.

I went over and saw General Beauregard at his quarters.
He was busy with papers, orderlies, and despatches, and the
outer room was crowded with officers. His present task, he

told me, was to put Sumter in a state of defence, and to disarm
the works bearing on it, so as to get their fire directed on
the harbor-approaches, as "the North in its madness" might
attempt a naval attack on Charleston. His manner of transacting
business is clear and rapid. Two vases filled with
flowers on his table, flanking his maps and plans; and a little
hand bouquet of roses, geraniums, and scented flowers lay on
a letter which he was writing as I came in, by way of paper
weight. He offered me every assistance and facility, relying,
of course, on my strict observance of a neutral's duty. I
reminded him once more, that as the representative of an English
journal, it would be my duty to write freely to England
respecting what I saw; and that I must not be held accountable
if on the return of my letters to America, a month after
they were written, it was found they contained information to
which circumstances might attach an objectionable character.
The General said, "I quite understand you. We must take
our chance of that, and leave you to exercise your discretion."

In the evening I dined with our excellent Consul, Mr.
Bunch, who had a small and very agreeable party to meet
me. One very venerable old gentleman, named Huger (pronounced
as Hugeē), was particularly interesting in appearance
and conversation. He formerly held some official appointment
under the Federal Government, but had gone out with his
State, and had been confirmed in his appointment by the Confederate
Government. Still he was not happy at the prospect
before him or his country. "I have lived too long," he
exclaimed; "I should have died ere these evil days arrived."
What thoughts, indeed, must have troubled his mind when he
reflected that his country was but little older than himself;
for he was one who had shaken hands with the framers of the
Declaration of Independence. But though the tears rolled
down his cheeks when he spoke of the prospect of civil war,
there was no symptom of apprehension for the result, or indeed
of any regret for the contest, which he regarded as the
natural consequence of the insults, injustice, and aggression
of the North against Southern rights.

Only one of the company, a most lively, quaint, witty old
lawyer named Petigru, dissented from the doctrines of Secession;
but he seems to be treated as an amiable, harmless person,
who has a weakness of intellect or a "bee in his bonnet"
on this particular matter.

It was scarcely very agreeable to my host or myself to find
that no considerations were believed to be of consequence in
reference to England except her material interests, and that
these worthy gentlemen regarded her as a sort of appanage of
their cotton kingdom. "Why, sir, we have only to shut off
your supply of cotton for a few weeks, and we can create a
revolution in Great Britain. There are four millions of your
people depending on us for their bread, not to speak of the
many millions of dollars. No, sir, we know that England
must recognize us," &c.

Liverpool and Manchester have obscured all Great Britain
to the Southern eye. I confess the tone of my friends irritated
me. I said so to Mr. Bunch, who laughed and remarked,
"You'll not mind it when you get as much accustomed
to this sort of thing as I am." I could not help saying,
that if Great Britain were such a sham as they supposed, the
sooner a hole was drilled in her, and the whole empire sunk
under water, the better for the world, the cause of truth, and
of liberty.

These tall, thin, fine-faced Carolinians are great materialists.
Slavery perhaps has aggravated the tendency to look at all the
world through parapets of cotton bales and rice bags, and though
more stately and less vulgar, the worshippers here are not less
prostrate before the "almighty dollar" than the Northerners.
Again cropping out of the dead level of hate to the Yankee,
grows its climax in the profession from nearly every one of
the guests, that he would prefer a return to British rule to any
reunion with New England. "The names in South Carolina
show our origin—Charleston, and Ashley, and Cooper, &c.
Our Gadsden, Sumter and Pinckney were true cavaliers," &c.
They did not say anything about Pedee, or Tombigbee, or Sullivan's
Island, or the like. We all have our little or big weaknesses.

I see no trace of cavalier descent in the names of Huger,
Rose, Manning, Chestnut, Pickens; but there is a profession
of faith in the cavaliers and their cause among them because
it is fashionable in Carolina. They affect the agricultural
faith and the belief of a landed gentry. It is not only over
the wineglass—why call it cup?—that they ask for a Prince
to reign over them; I have heard the wish repeatedly expressed
within the last two days that we could spare them one
of our young Princes, but never in jest or in any frivolous
manner.

On my way home again, I saw the sentries on their march,
the mounted patrols starting on their ride, and other evidences
that though the slaves are "the happiest and most contented
race in the world," they require to be taken care of like less
favored mortals. The city watch-house is filled every night
with slaves, who are confined there till reclaimed by their
owners, whenever they are found out after nine o'clock, P. M.,
without special passes or permits. Guns are firing for the
Ordinance of Secession of Virginia.