University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXV.

The vessel was nothing more than a vast wooden house, of
three separate stories, floating on a pontoon which upheld the
engine, with a dining-hall or saloon on the second story surrounded
by sleeping-berths, and a nest of smaller rooms upstairs;
on the metal roof was a "musical" instrument called
a "calliope," played like a piano by keys, which acted on
levers and valves, admitting steam into metal cups, where it
produced the requisite notes,—high, resonant, and not unpleasing
at a moderate distance. It is 417 miles to Mobile;
but at this season the steamer can maintain a good rate of
speed, as there is very little cotton or cargo to be taken on
board at the landings, and the stream is full.

The river is about 200 yards broad, and of the color of
chocolate and milk, with high, steep, wooded banks, rising so
much above the surface of the stream that a person on the
upper deck of the towering "Southern Republic" cannot get a
glimpse of the fields and country beyond. High banks and
bluffs spring up to the height of 150 or even 200 feet above
the river, the breadth of which is so uniform as give the
Alabama the appearance of a canal, only relieved, by sudden
bends and rapid curves. The surface is covered with masses
of drift-wood, whole trees, and small islands of branches.
Now and then a sharp, black, fang-like projection standing
stiffly in the current gives warning of a snag, but the helmsman,
who commands the whole course of the river, from an
elevated house amidships on the upper deck, can see these in
time; and at night pine-boughs are lighted in iron cressets at
the bows to illuminate the water.

The captain, who was not particular whether his name was
spelt Maher, or Meaher, or Meagher (les trois se disent), was
evidently a character,—perhaps a good one. One with a

gray eye full of cunning and of some humor, strongly marked
features, and a very Celtic mouth of the Kerry type. He
soon attached himself to me, and favored me with some wonderful
yarns, which I hope he was not foolish enough to think
I believed. One relating to a wholesale destruction and massacre
of Indians, he narrated with evident gusto. Pointing
to one of the bluffs, he said that, some thirty years ago, the
whole of the Indians in the district being surrounded by the
whites, betook themselves to that spot, and remained there
without any means of escape, till they were quite starved out.
So they sent down to know if the whites would let them go,
and it was agreed that they should be permitted to move down
the river in boats. When the day came, and they were all
afloat, the whites anticipated the boat-massacre of Nana Sahib
at Cawnpore, and destroyed the helpless red skins. Many
hundreds thus perished, and the whole affair was very much
approved of.

The value of land on the sides of this river is great, as it
yields nine to eleven bales of cotton to the acre,—worth £10
a bale at present prices. The only evidences of this wealth
to be seen by us consisted of the cotton sheds on the top of
the banks, and slides of timber, with steps at each side down
to the landings, so constructed that the cotton bales could be
shot down on board the vessel. These shoots and staircases
are generally protected by a roof of planks, and lead to unknown
regions inhabited by niggers and their masters, the
latter all talking politics. They never will, never can be conquered,
—nothing on earth could induce them to go back
into the Union. They will burn every bale of cotton, and
fire every house, and lay waste every field and homestead,
before they will yield to the Yankees. And so they talk
through the glimmering of bad cigars for hours.

The management of the boat is dexterous,—as she approaches
a landing-place, the helm is put hard over, to the
screaming of the steam-pipe and the wild strains of "Dixie"
floating out of the throats of the calliope, and as the engines
are detached, one wheel is worked forward, and the other
backs water, so she soon turns head up stream, and is then
gently paddled up to the river bank, to which she is just kept
up by steam—the plank is run ashore, and the few passengers
who are coming in or out are lighted on their way by the
flames of pine in an iron basket, swinging above the bow by a
long pole. Then we see them, vanishing into black darkness

up the steps, or coming down clearer and clearer till they
stand in the full blaze of the beacon which casts dark shadows
on the yellow water. The air is glistening with fire-flies,
which dot the darkness with specks and points of flame, just
as sparks fly through the embers of tinder or half-burnt paper.

Some of the landings were by far more important than
others. There were some, for example, where an iron railroad
was worked down the bank by windlasses for hoisting
up goods; others where the negroes half-naked leaped ashore,
and rushing at piles of firewood, tossed them on board to feed
the engine, which, all uncovered and open to the lower deck,
lighted up the darkness by the glare from the stoke-holes,
which cried forever, "Give, give!" as the negroes ceaselessly
thrust the pine-beams into their hungry maws. I could
understand how easily a steamer can "burn up," and how
hopeless escape would be under such circumstances. The
whole framework of the vessel is of the lightest resinous pine,
so raw that the turpentine oozes out through the paint; the
hull is a mere shell. If the vessel once caught fire, all that
could be done would be to turn her round, and run her to the
bank, in the hope of holding there long enough to enable the
people to escape into the trees; but if she were not near a
landing, many must be lost; as the bank is steep down, the
vessel cannot be run aground; and in some places the trees
are in eight and ten feet of water. A few minutes would suffice
to set the vessel in a blaze from stem to stern; and if there
were cotton on board, the bales would burn almost like powder.
The scene at each landing was repeated, with few variations,
ten times till we reached Selma, 110 miles distance, at
11.30 at night.

Selma, which is connected with the Tennessee and Mississippi
rivers by railroad, is built upon a steep, lofty bluff, and
the lights in the windows, and the lofty hotels above us, put
me in mind of the old town of Edinburgh, seen from Prince's
Street. Beside us there was a huge storied wharf, so that our
passengers could step on shore from any deck they pleased.
Here Mr. Deasy, being attacked by illness, became alarmed
at the idea of continuing his journey without any opportunity
of medical assistance, and went on shore.

May 10th.—The cabin of one of these steamers, in the
month of May, is not favorable to sleep. The wooden beams
of the engines creak and scream "consumedly," and the great
engines themselves throb as if they would break through their

thin, pulse covers of pine,—and the whistle sounds, and the
calliope shrieks out "Dixie" incessantly. So, when I was up
and dressed, breakfast was over, and I had an opportunity of
seeing the slaves on board, male and female, acting as stewards
and stewardesses, at their morning meal, which they took
with much good spirits and decorum. They were nicely
dressed—clean and neat. I was forced to admit to myself
that their Ashantee grandsires and grandmothers, or their
Kroo and Dahomey progenitors were certainly less comfortable
and well clad, and that these slaves had other social advantages,
though I could not recognize the force of the Bishop
of Georgia's assertion, that from slavery must come the sole
hope of, and machinery for, the evangelization of Africa. I
confess I would not give much for the influence of the stewards
and stewardesses in Christianizing the blacks.

The river, the scenery, and the scenes were just the same
as yesterday's—high banks, cotton-slides, wooding stations,
cane brakes—and a very miserable negro population, if the
specimens of women and children at the landings fairly represented
the mass of the slaves. They were in strong contrast
to the comfortable, well-dressed domestic slaves on board, and
it can well be imagined there is a wide difference between the
classes, and that those condemned to work in the open fields
must suffer exceedingly.

A passenger told us the captain's story. A number of
planters, the narrator among them, subscribed a thousand dollars
each to get up a vessel for the purpose of running a cargo
of slaves, with the understanding they were to pay so much
for the vessel, and so much per head if she succeeded, and so
much if she was taken or lost. The vessel made her voyage
to the coast, was laden with native Africans, and in due time
made her appearance off Mobile. The collector heard of her,
but, oddly enough, the sheriff was not about at the time, the
United States Marshal was away, and as the vessel could not
be seen next morning, it was fair to suppose she had gone up
the river, or somewhere or another. But it so happened that
Captain Maher, then commanding a river steamer called the
Czar (a name once very appropriate for the work, but since the
serf emancipation rather out of place), found himself in the
neighborhood of the brig about nightfall; next morning, indeed,
the Czar was at her moorings in the river; but Captain
Maher began to grow rich, he had fine negroes fresh run on
his land, and bought fresh acres, and finally built the "Southern

Republic." The planters asked him for their share of the
slaves. Captain Maher laughed pleasantly; he did not understand
what they meant. If he had done anything wrong, they
had their legal remedy. They were completely beaten; for
they could not have recourse to the tribunals in a case which
rendered them liable to capital punishment. And so Captain
Maher, as an act of grace, gave them a few old niggers, and
kept the rest of the cargo.

It was worth while to see the leer with which he listened to
this story about himself. "Wall now! You think them niggers
I've abord came from Africa! I'll show you. Jist come up
here, Bully!" A boy of some twelve years of age, stout, fat,
nearly naked, came up to us; his color was jet black, his wool
close as felt, his cheeks were marked with regular parallel
scars, and his teeth very white, looked as if they had been
filed to a point, his belly was slightly protuberant, and his
chest was marked with tracings of tattoo marks.

"What's your name, sir?"

"My name Bully."

"Where were you born?"

"Me born Sout Karliner, sar!'

"There, you see he wasn't taken from Africa," exclaimed
the Captain, knowingly. "I've a lot of these black South
Caroliny niggers abord, haven't I, Bully?"

"Yas, sar."

"Are you happy, Bully?"

"Yas, sar."

"Show how you're happy."

Here the boy rubbed his stomach, and grinning with delight,
said, "Yummy! yummy! plenty belly full."

"That's what I call a real happy feelosophical chap," quoth
the Captain. "I guess you've got a lot in your country can't
pat their stomachs and say, 'yummy, yummy, plenty belly
full!'"

"Where did he get those marks on his face?"

"Oh, them? Wall, it's a way them nigger women has of
marking their children to know them; isn't it, Bully?"

"Yas, sar! me 'spose so!"

"And on his chest?"

"Wall, r'ally I do b'l'eve them's marks agin the smallpox."

"Why are his teeth filed?"

"Ah, there now! You'd never have guessed it; Bully
done that himself, for the greater ease of biting his vittels."

In fact, the lad, and a good many of the hands, were the
results of Captain Maher's little sail in the Czar.

"We're obleeged to let 'em in some times to keep up the
balance agin the niggers you run into Canaydy."

From 1848 to 1852 there were no slaves run; but since
the migrations to Canada and the personal liberty laws, it has
been found profitable to run them. There is a bucolic ferocity
about these Southern people which will stand them good stead
in the shock of battle. How the Spartans would have fought
against any barbarians who came to emancipate their slaves,
or the Romans have smitten those who would manumit slave
and creditor together!

To-night, on the lower deck, amid wood fagots, and barrels,
a dance of negroes was arranged by an enthusiast, who desired
to show how "happy they were." That is the favorite theme
of the Southerners; the gallant Captain Maher becomes quite
eloquent when he points to Bully's prominent "yummy," and
descants on the misery of his condition if he had been left to
the precarious chances of-obtaining such developments in his
native land; then turns a quid, and, as if uttering some sacred
refrain to the universal hymn of the South, says, "Yes, sir,
they're the happiest people on the face of the airth!"

There was a fiddler, and also a banjo-player, who played
uncouth music to the clumsiest of dances, which it would be
insulting to compare to the worst Irish jig; and the men with
immense gravity and great effusion of sudor, shuffled and cut
and heeled and buckled to each other with an overwhelming
solemnity, till the rum-bottle warmed them up to the lighter
graces of the dance, when they became quite overpowering.
"Yes, sir, jist look at them, how they're enjoying it; they're
the happiest people on the face of the airth." When "wooding"
and firing up, they don't seem to be in the possession of
the same exquisite felicity.

May 11th.—At early dawn the steamer went its way
through a broad bay of snags, bordered with drift-wood, and
with steam-trumpet and calliope announced its arrival at the
quay of Mobile, which presented a fringe of tall warehouses,
and shops along-side, over which were names indicating Scotch,
Irish, English, many Spanish, German, Italian, and French
owners. Captain Maher at once set off to his plantation,
and we descended the stories of the walled castle to the beach,
and walked on towards the "Battle House," so called from
the name of its proprietor, for Mobile has not yet had its

fight, like New Orleans. The quays, which usually, as we
were told, are lined with stately hulls and a forest of masts,
were deserted; although the port was not actually blockaded,
there were squadrons of the United States ships at Pensacola,
on the east, and at New Orleans, on the west.

The hotel, a fine building of the American stamp, was the
seat of a Vigilance Committee, and as we put down our names
in the book, they were minutely inspected by some gentlemen
who came out of the parlor. It was fortunate they did not
find traces of Lincolnism about us, as it appeared by the papers
that they were busy deporting "Abolitionists" after certain
preliminary processes supposed to—

The citizens were busy in drilling, marching, and drum-beating,
and the Confederate flag flew from every spire and
steeple. The day was so hot, that it was little more inviting
to go out in the sun than it would be in the dogdays at
Malaga, to which, by the by, Mobile bears some "kinder-sorter"
resemblance; but, nevertheless, I sallied forth, and
had a drive on a shell road by the head of the bay, where
there were pretty villarettes in charming groves of magnolia,
orange-trees, and lime-oaks. Wide streets of similar houses
spring out to meet the country through sandy roads; some
worthy of Streatham or Belham, and all surrounded in such
vegetation as Kew might envy.

Many Mobilians called, and among them the mayor, Mr.
Forsyth, in whom I recognized the most remarkable of the
Southern Commissioners I had met at Washington. Mr.
Magee, the acting British Consul, was also good enough to
wait upon me, with offers of any assistance in his power. I
hear he has most difficult questions to deal with, arising out
of the claims of distressed British subjects, and disputed
nationality. In the evening, the Consul and Dr. Nott, a
savant, and physician of Mobile, well known to the ethnologists
for his work on the "Types of Mankind," written conjointly
with the late Mr. Gliddon, dined with me, and I
learned from them that, notwithstanding the intimate commercial
relations between Mobile and the great Northern cities,
the people here are of the most ultra-secessionist doctrines.
The wealth and manhood of the city will be devoted to repel
the "Lincolnite mercenaries" to the last.

After dinner we walked through the city, which abounds in
oyster saloons, drinking-houses, lager-bier and wine shops, and
gambling and dancing places. The market was well worthy
of a visit—something like St. John's at Liverpool on a Saturday
night, crowded with negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, and
mestizos of all sorts, Spanish, Italian, and French, speaking
their own tongues, or a quaint lingua franca, and dressed in
very striking and pretty costumes. The fruit and vegetable
stalls displayed very fine produce, and some staples, remarkable
for novelty, ugliness, and goodness. After our stroll
we went into one of the great oyster saloons, and in a room
up-stairs had opportunity of tasting those great bivalvians
in the form of natural fish puddings, fried in batter, roasted,
stewed, devilled, broiled, and in many other ways, plus raw.
I am bound to observe that the Mobile people ate them as if
there was no blockade, and as though oysters were a specific
for political indigestions and civil wars; a fierce Marseillais
are they—living in the most foreign-looking city I have yet
seen in the States. My private room in the hotel was large,
well-lighted with gas, and exceedingly well furnished in the
German fashion, with French pendule and mirrors. The
charge for a private room varies from £1 to £1 5s. a day; the
bedroom and board are charged separately, from 10s. 6d. to
12s. 6d. a day, but meals served in the private room are all
charged extra, and heavily too. Exclusiveness is an aristocratic
taste which must be paid for.