University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XIX.

April 27th.—Mrs. Trescot, it seems, spent part of her
night in attendance on a young gentleman of color, who was
introduced into the world in a state of servitude by his poor
chattel of a mother. Such kindly acts as these are more
common than we may suppose; and it would be unfair to put
a strict or unfair construction on the motives of slave owners
in paying such attention to their property. Indeed, as Mrs.
Trescot says, "When people talk of my having so many
slaves, I always tell them it is the slaves who own me. Morning,
noon, and night, I'm obliged to look after them, to doctor
them, and attend to them in every way." Property has its
duties, you see, madam, as well as its rights.

The planter's house is quite new, and was built by himself;
the principal material being wood, and most of the work being
done by his own negroes. Such work as window-sashes and
panellings, however, was executed in Charleston. A pretty
garden runs at the back, and from the windows there are
wide stretches of cotton-fields visible, and glimpses of the
river to be seen.

After breakfast our little party repaired to the river side,
and sat under the shade of some noble trees waiting for the
boat which was to bear us to the fishing grounds. The wind
blew up stream, running with the tide, and we strained our
eyes in vain for the boat. The river is here nearly a mile
across,—a noble estuary rather,—with low banks lined with
forests, into which the axe has made deep forays and clearings
for cotton-fields.

It would have astonished a stray English traveller, if, penetrating
the shade, he heard in such an out-of-the-way place
familiar names and things spoken of by the three lazy persons

who were stretched out—cigar in mouth—on the ant-haunted
trunks which lay prostrate by the seashore. Mr. Trescot
spent some time in London as attaché to the United States
Legation, was a club man, and had a large circle of acquaintance
among the young men about town, of whom he remembered
many anecdotes and peculiarities, and little adventures.
Since that time he was Under-Secretary of State in Mr.
Buchanan's administration, and went out with Secession. He
is the author of a very agreeable book on a dry subject, "The
History of American Diplomacy," which is curious enough as
an unconscious exposition of the anti-British jealousies, and
even antipathies, which have animated American statesmen
since they were created. In fact, much of American diplomacy
means hostility to England, and the skilful employment
of the anti-British sentiment at their disposal in their own
country and elsewhere. Now he was talking pleasantly of
people he had met—many of them mutual friends.

"Here is the boat at last!" I had been sweeping the
broad river with my glass occasionally, and at length detected
a speck on its broad surface moving down towards us, with a
white dot marking the foam at its bows. Spite of wind and
tideway, it came rapidly, and soon approached us, pulled by
six powerful negroes, attired in red-flannel jackets and white
straw hats with broad ribbons. The craft itself—a kind of
monster canoe, some forty-five feet long, narrow, wall-sided,
with high bow and raised stern—lay deep in the water, for
there were extra negroes for the fishing, servants, baskets of
provisions, water buckets, stone jars of less innocent drinking,
and abaft there was a knot of great strong planters,—Elliots
all—cousins, uncles, and brothers. A friendly hail as they
swept up along-side,—an exchange of salutations.

"Well, Trescot, have you got plenty of Crabs?"

A groan burst forth at his insouciant reply. He had been
charged to find bait, and be had told the negroes to do so, and
the negroes had not done so. The fishermen looked grievously
at each other, and fiercely at Trescot, who assumed an air
of recklessness, and threw doubts on the existence of fish in
the river, and resorted to similar miserable subterfuges; indeed,
it was subsequently discovered that he was an utter
infidel in regard to the delights of piscicapture.

"Now, all aboard! Over, you fellows, and take these
gentlemen in!" The negroes were over in a moment, waist
deep, and, each taking one on his back, deposited us dry in

the boat. I only mention this to record the fact, that I was
much impressed by a practical demonstration from my bearer
respecting the strong odor of the skin of a heated African. I
have been wedged up in a column of infantry on a hot day,
and have marched to leeward of Ghoorkhas in India, but the
overpowering pungent smell of the negro exceeds everything
of the kind I have been unfortunate enough to experience.

The vessel was soon moving again, against a ripple, caused
by the wind, which blew dead against us; and, notwithstanding
the praises bestowed on the boat, it was easy to perceive
that the labor of pulling such a dead-log-like thing through
the water told severely on the rowers, who had already come
some twelve miles, I think. Nevertheless, they were told to
sing, and they began accordingly one of those wild Baptist
chants about the Jordan in which they delight,—not destitute
of music, but utterly unlike what is called an Ethiopian melody.

The banks of the river on both sides are low; on the left
covered with wood, through which, here and there, at intervals,
one could see a planter's or overseer's cottage. The
course of this great combination of salt and fresh water sometimes
changes, so that houses are swept away and plantations
submerged; but the land is much valued nevertheless, on
account of the fineness of the cotton grown among the islands.
"Cotton at twelve cents a pound, and we don't fear the
world."

As the boat was going to the fishing ground, which lay
towards the mouth of the river at Hilton Head, our friends
talked politics and sporting combined,—the first of the usual
character, the second quite new.

I heard much of the mighty devil-fish which frequents
these waters. One of our party, Mr. Elliot, sen., a tall,
knotty, gnarled sort of man, with a mellow eye and a hearty
voice, was a famous hand at the sport, and had had some
hair-breadth escapes in pursuit of it. The fish is described
as of enormous size and strength, a monster ray, which possesses
formidable antennæ-like horns, and a pair of huge fins,
or flappers, one of which rises above the water as the creature
moves below the surface. The hunters, as they may be called,
go out in parties,—three or four boats, or more, with
good store of sharp harpoons and tow-lines, and lances. When
they perceive the creature, one boat takes the lead, and
moves down towards it, the others following, each with a

harpooner standing in the bow. The devil-fish sometimes is
wary, and dives, when it sees a boat, taking such a long spell
below that it is never seen again. At other times, however,
it backs, and lets the boat come so near as to allow of the
harpooner striking it, or it dives for a short way and comes
up near the boats again. The moment the harpoon is fixed,
the line is paid out by the rush of the creature, which is
made with tremendous force, and all the boats at once hurry
up, so that one after another they are made fast to that in
which the lucky sportsman is seated. At length, when the
line is run out, checked from time to time as much as can be
done with safety, the crew take their oars and follow the
course of the ray, which swims so fast, however, that it keeps
the line taut, and drags the whole flotilla seawards. It depends
on its size and strength to determine how soon it rises
to the surface; by degrees the line is warped in and hove
short till the boats are brought near, and when the ray comes
up it is attacked with a shower of lances and harpoons, and
dragged off into shoal water to die.

On one occasion, our Nimrod told us, he was standing in
the bows of the boat, harpoon in hand, when a devil-fish came
up close to him; he threw the harpoon, struck it, but at the
same time the boat ran against the creature with a shock
which threw him right forward on its back, and in an instant
it caught him in its horrid arms and plunged down with him
to the depths. Imagine the horror of the moment! Imagine
the joy of the terrified drowning, dying man, when, for some
inscrutable reason, the devil-fish relaxed its grip, and enabled
him to strike for the surface, where he was dragged into
the boat more dead than alive by his terror-smitten companions,
—the only man who ever got out of the embraces of
the thing alive. "Tom is so tough that even a devil-fish
could make nothing out of him."

At last we came to our fishing ground. There was a substitute
found for the favorite crab, and it was fondly hoped our
toils might be rewarded with success. And these were toils,
for the water is deep and the lines heavy. But to alleviate
them, some hampers were produced from the stern, and wonderful
pies from Mrs. Trescot's hands, and from those of fair
ladies up the river whom we shall never see, were spread out,
and bottles which represented distant cellars in friendly nooks
far away. "No drum here! Up anchor, and pull away a
few miles lower down." Trescot shook his head, and again

asserted his disbelief in fishing, or rather in catching, and indeed
made a sort of pretence at arguing that it was wiser to
remain quiet and talk philosophical politics; but, as judge of
appeal, I gave it against him, and the negroes bent to their
oars, and we went thumping through the spray, till, rounding
a point of land, we saw pitched on the sandy shore ahead of
us, on the right bank, a tent, and close by two boats. "There
is a party at it!" A fire was burning on the beach, and as we
came near, Tom and Jack and Harry were successfully identified.
"There's no take on, or they would not be on shore.
This is very unfortunate."

All the regret of my friends was on my account, so to ease
their minds I assured them I did not mind the disappointment
much. "Hallo Dick! Caught any drum?" "A few this
morning; bad sport now, and will be till tide turns again."
I was introduced to all the party from a distance, and presently
I saw one of them raising from a boat something in look
and shape and color like a sack of flour, which he gave to a
negro, who proceeded to carry it towards us in a little skiff.
"Thank you, Charley. I just want to let Mr. Russell see a
drum-fish." And a very odd fish it was,—a thick lumpish
form, about four and a half feet long, with enormous head and
scales, and teeth like the grinders of a ruminant animal, acting
on a great pad of bone in the roof of the mouth,—a very unlovely
thing, swollen with roe, which is the great delicacy.

"No chance till the tide turned,"—but that would be too
late for our return, and so unwillingly we were compelled to
steer towards home, hearing now and then the singular noise
like the tap on a large unbraced drum, from which the fish
takes its name. At first, when I heard it, I was inclined to
think it was made by some one in the boat, so near and close
did it sound; but soon it came from all sides of us, and evidently
from the depths of the water beneath us,—not a sharp
rat-tat-tap, but a full muffled blow with a heavy thud on the
sheepskin. Mr. Trescot told me that on a still evening by the
river side the effect sometimes is most curious,—the rolling
and pattering is audible at a great distance. Our friends were
in excellent humor with everything and everybody, except the
Yankees, though they had caught no fish, and kept the negroes
at singing and rowing till at nightfall we landed at the island,
and so to bed after supper and a little conversation, in which
Mrs. Trescot again explained how easily she could maintain
a battalion on the island by her simple commissariat, already

adapted to the niggers, and that it would therefore be very
easy for the South to feed an army, if the people were
friendly.

April 28th.—The church is a long way off, only available
by a boat and then a drive in a carriage. In the morning a
child brings in my water and boots—an intelligent, curly-headed
creature, dressed in a sort of sack, without any particular
waist, barefooted. I imagined it was a boy till it told
me it was a girl. I asked if she was going to church, which
seemed to puzzle her exceedingly; but she told me finally she
would hear prayers from "uncle" in one of the cottages.
This use of the words "uncle" and "aunt" for old people
is very general. Is it because they have no fathers and
mothers? In the course of the day, the child, who was fourteen
or fifteen years of age, asked me "whether I would not
buy her. She could wash and sew very well, and she thought
missus wouldn't want much for her." The object she had in
view leaked out at last. It was a desire to see the glories
of Beaufort, of which she had heard from the fishermen; and
she seemed quite wonderstruck when she was informed I did
not live there, and had never seen it. She had never been
outside the plantation in her life.

After breakfast we loitered about the grounds, strolling
through the cotton-fields, which had as yet put forth no bloom
or flower, and coming down others to the thick fringes of
wood and sedge bordering the marshy banks of the island.
The silence was profound, broken only by the husky mid-day
crowing of the cocks in the negro quarters.

In the afternoon I took a short drive "to see a tree," which
was not very remarkable, and looked in at the negro quarters
and the cotton-mill. The old negroes were mostly indoors,
and came shambling out to the doors of their wooden cottages,
making clumsy bows at our approach, but not expressing any
interest or pleasure at the sight of their master and the strangers.
They were shabbily clad; in tattered clothes, bad straw
hats and felt bonnets, and broken shoes. The latter are expensive
articles, and negroes cannot dig without them. Trescot
sighed as he spoke of the increase of price since the troubles
broke out.

The huts stand in a row, like a street, each detached, with
a poultry-house of rude planks behind it. The mutilations
which the poultry undergo for the sake of distinction are
striking. Some are deprived of a claw, others have the wattles

cut, and tails and wings suffer in all ways. No attempt
at any drainage or any convenience existed near them, and
the same remark applies to very good houses of white people
in the south. Heaps of oyster shells, broken crockery, old
shoes, rags, and feathers were found near each hut. The huts
were all alike windowless, and the apertures, intended to be
glazed some fine day, were generally filled up with a deal
board. The roofs were shingle, and the whitewash which
had once given the settlement an air of cleanliness, was now
only to be traced by patches which had escaped the action of
the rain. I observed that many of the doors were fastened
by a padlock and chain outside. "Why is that?" "The
owners have gone out, and honesty is not a virtue they have
towards each other. They would find their things stolen if
they did not lock their doors." Mrs. Trescot, however, insisted
on it that nothing could exceed the probity of the slaves
in the house, except in regard to sweet things, sugar, and the
like; but money and jewels were quite safe. It is obvious
that some reason must exist for this regard to the distinctions
twixt meum and tuum in the case of masters and mistresses,
when it does not guide their conduct towards each other, and
I think it might easily be found in the fact that the negroes
could scarcely take money without detection. Jewels and
jewelry would be of little value to them; they could not
wear them, could not part with them. The system has made
the white population a police against the black race, and the
punishment is not only sure but grievous. Such things as
they can steal from each other are not to be so readily
traced.

One particularly dirty looking little hut was described to
me as "the church." It was about fifteen feet square, begrimed
with dirt and smoke, and windowless. A few benches
were placed across it, and "the preacher," a slave from
another plantation, was expected next week. These preachings
are not encouraged in many plantations. They "do the
niggers no good "—" they talk about things that are going on
elsewhere, and get their minds unsettled," and so on.

On our return to the house, I found that Mr. Edmund
Rhett, one of the active and influential political family of that
name, had called—a very intelligent and agreeable gentleman,
but one of the most ultra and violent speakers against
the Yankees I have yet heard. He declared there were few
persons in South Carolina who would not sooner ask Great

Britain to take back the State than submit to the triumph
of the Yankees. "We are an agricultural people, pursuing
our own system, and working out our own destiny, breeding
up women and men with some other purpose than to make
them vulgar, fanatical, cheating Yankees—hypocritical, if as
women they pretend to real virtue; and lying, if as men they
pretend to be honest. We have gentlemen and gentlewomen
in your sense of it. We have a system which enables us to
reap the fruits of the earth by a race which we save from
barbarism in restoring them to their real place in the world as
laborers, whilst we are enabled to cultivate the arts, the
graces, and accomplishments of life, to develop science, to
apply ourselves to the duties of government, and to understand
the affairs of the country."

This is a very common line of remark here. The Southerners
also take pride to themselves, and not unjustly, for
their wisdom in keeping in Congress those men who have
proved themselves useful and capable. "We do not," they
say, "cast able men aside at the caprices of a mob, or in obedience
to some low party intrigue, and hence we are sure of
the best men, and are served by gentlemen conversant with
public affairs, far superior in every way to the ignorant clowns
who are sent to Congress by the North. Look at the fellows
who are sent out by Lincoln to insult foreign courts by their
presence." I said that I understood Mr. Adams and Mr.
Dayton were very respectable gentlemen, but I did not receive
any sympathy; in fact, a neutral who attempts to moderate
the violence of either side, is very like an ice between
two hot plates. Mr. Rhett is also persuaded that the Lord
Chancellor sits on a cotton bale. "You must recognize us,
sir, before the end of October." In the evening a distant
thunder-storm attracted me to the garden, and I remained out
watching the broad flashes and sheets of fire worthy of the
tropics till it was bedtime.