University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXV.

June 7th.—The Confederate issue of ten millions sterling,
in bonds payable in twenty years is not sufficient to meet the
demands of Government; and the four millions of small Treasury
notes, without interest, issued by Congress, are being rapidly
absorbed. Whilst the Richmond papers demand an
immediate movement on Washington, the journals of New
York are clamoring for an advance upon Richmond. The
planters are called upon to accept the Confederate bonds in
payment of the cotton to be contributed by the States.

Extraordinary delusions prevail on both sides. The North
believe that battalions of scalping Indian savages are actually
stationed at Harper's Ferry. One of the most important
movements has been made by Major-General McClellan, who
has marched a force into Western Virginia from Cincinnati,
has occupied a portion of the line of the Baltimore and Ohio
railway, which was threatened with destruction by the Secessionists;
and has already advanced as far as Grafton, Gen.
McDowell has been appointed to the command of the Federal
forces in Virginia. Every day regiments are pouring down
from the North to Washington. General Butler, who is in
command at Fortress Monroe, has determined to employ negro
fugitives, whom he has called "Contrabands," in the works
about the fort, feeding them, and charging the cost of their
keep against the worth of their services; and Mr. Cameron,
the Secretary of War, has ordered him to refrain from surrendering
such slaves to their masters, whilst he is to permit
no interference by his soldiers with the relations of persons
held to service under the laws of the States in which they
are in.

Mr. Jefferson Davis has arrived at Richmond. At sea the
Federal steamers have captured a number of Southern vessels;

and some small retaliations have been made by the
Confederate privateers. The largest mass of the Confederate
troops have assembled at a place called Manassas Junction,
on the railway from Western Virginia to Alexandria.

The Northern papers are filled with an account of a battle
at Philippi, and a great victory, in which no less than two of
their men were wounded and two were reported missing as
the whole casualties; but Napoleon scarcely expended so
much ink over Austerlitz as is absorbed on this glory in the
sensation headings of the New York papers.

After breakfast I accompanied a party of Mr. Burnside's
friends to visit the plantations of Governor Manning, close at
hand. One plantation is as like another as two peas. We
had the same paths through tasselling corn, high above our
heads, or through wastes of rising sugar-cane; but the slave
quarters on Governor Manning's were larger, better built,
and more comfortable-looking than any I have seen.

Mr. Bateman, the overseer, a dour strong man, with spectacles
on nose, and a quid in his cheek, led us over the ground.
As he saw my eye resting on a large knife in a leather case
stuck in his belt, he thought it necessary to say, "I keep this
to cut my way through the cane-brakes about; they are so
plaguey thick."

All the surface water upon the estate is carried into a large
open drain, with a reservoir in which the fans of a large wheel,
driven by steam-power, are worked so as to throw the water
over to a cut below the level of the plantation, which carries it
into a bayou connected with the lower Mississippi.

In this drain one of my companions saw a prodigious frog,
about the size of a tortoise, on which he pounced with alacrity;
and on carrying his prize to land he was much congratulated
by his friend. "What on earth will you do with the horrid
reptile?" "Do with it! why, eat it to be sure." And it is
actually true, that on our return the monster "crapaud" was
handed over to the old cook, and presently appeared on the
breakfast-table, looking very like an uncommonly fine spatchcock,
and was partaken of with enthusiasm by all the company.

From the draining-wheel we proceeded to visit the forest,
where negroes were engaged in clearing the trees, turning up
the soil between the stumps, which marked where the mighty
sycamore, live oak, gum-trees, and pines had lately shaded the
rich earth. In some places the Indian corn was already waving

its head and tassels above the black gnarled roots; in other
spots the trees, girdled by the axe, but not yet down, rose up
from thick crops of maize; and still deeper in the wood
negroes were guiding the ploughs, dragged with pain and difficulty
by mules, three abreast, through the tangled roots and
rigid earth, which will next year be fit for sowing. There
were one hundred and twenty negroes at work; and these,
with an adequate number of mules, will clear four hundred
and fifty acres of land this year. "But it's death on niggers
and mules," said Mr. Bateman. "We generally do it with
Irish, as well as the hedging and ditching; but we can't get
them now, as they are all off to the wars."

Although the profits of sugar are large, the cost of erecting
the machinery, the consumption of wood in the boiler, and the
scientific apparatus, demand a far larger capital than is required
by the cotton planter, who, when he has got land, may
procure negroes on credit, and only requires food and clothing
till he can realize the proceeds of their labor, and make a certain
fortune. Cotton will keep where sugar spoils. The
prices are far more variable in the latter, although it has a
protective tariff of twenty per cent.

The whole of the half million of hogsheads of the sugar
grown in the South is consumed in the United States, whereas
most of the cotton is sent abroad; but in the event of a blockade
the South can use its sugar ad nauseam, whilst the cotton
is all but useless in consequence of the want of manufacturers
is the South.

When I got back, Mr. Burnside was seated in his veranda,
gazing with anxiety, but not with apprehension, on the marching
columns of black clouds, which were lighted up from time
to time of heavy flashes, and shaken by rolls of thunder.
Day after day the planters have been looking for rain, tapping
glasses, scrutinizing aneroids, consulting negro weather prophets,
and now and then their expectations were excited by
clouds moving down the river, only to be disappointed by their
departure into space, or, worse than all, their favoring more
distant plantations with a shower that brought gold to many a
coffer. "Did you ever see such luck? Kenner has got it
again! That's the third shower Bringier has had in the last
two days."

But it was now the turn of all our friends to envy us a
tremendous thunder-storm, with a heavy, even downfall of
rain, which was sucked up by the thirsty earth almost as fast

as it fell, and filled the lusty young corn with growing pains,
imparting such vigor to the cane that we literally saw it
sprouting up, and could mark the increase in height of the
stems from hour to hour.

My good host is rather uneasy about his prospects this
year, owing to the war; and no wonder. He reckoned on an
income of £100,000 for his sugar alone; but if he cannot
send it North it is impossible to estimate the diminution of
his profits. I fancy, indeed, he more and more regrets that
he embarked his capital in these great sugar-swamps, and that
he would gladly now invest it at a loss in the old country, of
which he is yet a subject; for he has never been naturalized
in the United States. Nevertheless, he rejoices in the finest
clarets, and in wines of fabulous price, which are tended by
an old white-headed negro, who takes as much care of the
fluid as if he was accustomed to drink it every day.