University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXVI.

June 8th.—According to promise, the inmates of Mr.
Burnside's house proceeded to pay a visit to-day to the plantation
of Mr. M'Call, who lives at the other side of the river
some ten or twelve miles away. Still the same noiseless plantations,
the same oppressive stillness, broken only by the tolling
of the bell which summons the slaves to labor, or marks
the brief periods of its respite! Whilst waiting for the ferryboat,
we visited Dr. Cotmann, who lives in a snug house near
the levee, for, hurried as we were, 'twould nevertheless have
been a gross breach of etiquette to have passed his doors
and I was not sorry for the opportunity of making the acquaintance
of a lady so amiable as his wife, and of seeing a
face with tender, pensive eyes, serene brow, and lovely contour,
such as Guido or Greuse would have immortalized, and
which Miss Cotmann, in the seclusion of that little villa on
the banks of the Mississippi, scarcely seemed to know, would
have made her a beauty in any capital in Europe.

The Doctor is allowed to rave on about his Union propensities
and political power, as Mr. Petigru is permitted to indulge
in similar vagaries in Charleston, simply because he is
supposed to be helpless. There is, however, at the bottom of
the Doctor's opposition to the prevailing political opinion of
the neighborhood, a jealousy of acres and slaves, and a sentiment
of animosity to the great seigneurs and slave-owners,
which actuate him without his being aware of their influence.
After a halt of an hour in his house, we crossed in the ferry
to Donaldsonville, where, whilst we were waiting for the carriages,
we heard a dialogue between some drunken Irishmen

and some still more inebriated Spaniards in front of the public house
at hand. The Irishmen were going off to the wars, and
were endeavoring in vain to arouse the foreign gentlemen to
similar enthusiasm; but, as the latter were resolutely sitting
in the gutter, it became necessary to exert eloquence and force
to get them on their legs to march to the head-quarters of the
Donaldsonville Chasseurs. "For the love of the Virgin and
your own sowl's 'sake, Fernandey, get up and cum along wid
us to fight the Yankees." "Josey, are you going to let us be
murdered by a set of damned Protestins and rascally niggers?"
"Gomey, my darling, get up; it's eleven dollars a
month, and food and everything found. The boys will mind
the fishing for you, and we'll come back as rich as Jews."

What success attended their appeals I cannot tell, for the
carriages came round, and, having crossed a great bayou
which runs down into an arm of the Mississippi near the sea,
we proceeded on our way to Mr. M'Call's plantation, which
we reached just as the sun was sinking into the clouds of another
thunder-storm.

The more one sees of a planter's life the greater is the conviction
that its charms come from a particular turn of mind,
which is separated by a wide interval from modern ideas in
Europe. The planter is a denomadized Arab;—he has fixed
himself with horses and slaves in a fertile spot, where he
guards his women with Oriental care, exercises patriarchal
sway, and is at once fierce, tender, and hospitable. The inner
life of his household is exceedingly charming, because one is
astonished to find the graces and accomplishments of womanhood
displayed in a scene which has a certain sort of savage
rudeness about it after all, and where all kinds of incongruous
accidents are visible in the service of the table, in the furniture
of the house, in its decorations, menials, and surrounding
scenery.

It was late in the evening when the party returned to
Donaldsonville; and when we arrived at the other side of the
bayou there were no carriages, so that we had to walk on foot
to the wharf where Mr. Burnside's boats were supposed to be
waiting—the negro ferry-man having long since retired to
rest. Under any circumstances a march on foot through an
unknown track covered with blocks of timber and other impedimenta
which represented the road to the ferry, could not
be agreeable; but the recent rains had converted the ground
into a sea of mud filled with holes, with islands of planks and

beams of timber, lighted only by the stars—and then this in
dress trousers and light boots!

"We plunged, struggled, and splashed till we reached the
levee, where boats there were none; and so Mr. Burnside
shouted up and down the river, so did Mr. Lee, and so did
Mr. Ward and all the others, whilst I sat on a log affecting
philosophy and indifference, in spite of tortures from mosquitoes
innumerable, and severe bites from insects unknown.

The city and river were buried in darkness; the rush of the
stream which is sixty feet deep near the banks, was all that
struck upon the ear in the intervals of the cries," Boat ahoy!"
" Ho! Batelier!" and sundry ejaculations of a less regular
and decent form. At length a boat did glide out of the darkness,
and the man who rowed it stated he had been waiting all
the time up the bayou, till by mere accident he came down to
the jetty, having given us up for the night. In about half an
hour we were across the river, and had per force another interview
with Dr. Cotmann, who regaled us with his best in
story and in wine till the carriages were ready, and we drove
back to Mr. Burnside's, only meeting on the way two mounted
horsemen with jingling arms, who were, we were told, the
night patrol;—of their duties I could, however, obtain no
very definite account.

June 9th.—A thunder-storm, which lasted all the morning
and afternoon till three o'clock. When it cleared I drove, in
company with Mr. Burnside and his friends, to dinner with
Mr. Duncan Kenner, who lives some ten or twelve miles
above Houmas. He is one of the sporting men of the South,
well known on the Charleston race-course, and keeps a large
stable of racehorses and brood mares, under the management
of an Englishman. The jocks were negro lads; and when
we arrived, about half a dozen of them were giving the colts
a run in the paddock. The calveless legs and hollow thighs
of the negro adapt him admirably for the pigskin; and these
little fellows sat their horses so well, one might have thought,
till the turn, in the course displayed their black faces and grinning
mouths, he was looking at a set of John Scott's young
gentlemen out training.

The Carolinians are true sportsmen, and in the South the
Charleston races create almost as much sensation as our Derby
at home. One of the guests at Mr. Kenner's knew all about
the winners of Epsom Oaks, and Ascot, and took delight in
showing his knowledge of the "Racing Calendar."

It is observable, however, that the creoles do not exhibit
any great enthusiasm for horse-racing, but that they apply
themselves rather to cultivate their plantations and to domestic
duties; and it is even remarkable that they do not stand prominently
forward in the State Legislature, or aspire to high
political influence and position, although their numbers and
wealth would fairly entitle them to both. The population of
small settlers, scarcely removed from pauperism, along the river
banks, is courted by men who obtain larger political influence
than the great land-owners, as the latter consider it beneath
them to have recourse to the arts of the demagogue.

June 10th.—At last venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus.
I had seen as much as might be of the best phase of the great
institution—less than I could desire of a most exemplary,
kind-hearted, clear-headed, honest man. In the calm of a
glorious summer evening we crossed the Father of Waters,
waving an adieu to the good friend who stood on the shore,
and turning our backs to the home we had left behind us. It
was dark when the boat reached Donaldsonville on the opposite
"coast."

I should not be surprised to hear that the founder of this
remarkable city, which once contained the archives of the
State, now transferred to Baton Rouge, was a North Briton.
There is a simplicity and economy in the plan of the place
not unfavorable to that view, but the motives which induced
Donaldson to found his Rome on the west of Bayou La
Fourche from the Mississippi must be a secret to all time.
Much must the worthy Scot have been perplexed by his
neighbors, a long-reaching colony of Spanish creoles, who toil
not and spin nothing but fishing-nets, and who live better than
Solomon, and are probably as well-dressed, minus the barbaric
pearl and gold of the Hebrew potentate. Take the
odd, little, retiring, modest houses which grow in the hollows
of Scarborough, add to them the least imposing mansions in
the town of Folkstone, cast these broadsown over the surface
of the Essex marshes, plant a few trees in front of them, then
open a few cafés billard of the camp sort along the main
street, and you have done a very good Donaldsonville.

A policeman welcomes us on the landing, and does the
honors of the market, which has a beggarly account of
empty benches, a Texan bull done into beef, and a coffee shop.
The policeman is a tall, lean, west-countryman; his
story is simple, and he has it to tell. He was one of Dan

Rice's company—a travelling Astley. He came to Donaldsonville,
saw, and was conquered by one of the Spanish
beauties, married her, became tavern-keeper, failed, learned
French, and is now constable of the parish. There was,
however, a weight on his mind. He had studied the matter
profoundly, but he was not near the bottom. How did the
friends, relatives, and tribe of his wife live? No one could
say. They reared chickens, and they caught fish; when there
was a pressure on the planters, they turned out to work for
6s. 6d. a-day, but those were rare occasions. The policeman
had become quite gray with excogitating the matter, and he
had "nary notion how they did it."

Donaldsonville has done one fine thing. It has furnished
two companies of soldiers—all Irishmen—to the wars, and
the third is in the course of formation. Not much hedging,
ditching, or hard work these times for Paddy! The blacksmith,
a huge tower of muscle, claims exemption on the
ground that "the divil a bit of him comes from Oireland:
he nivir hird af it, barrin' from the buks he rid," and is
doing his best to remain behind, but popular opinion is
against him.

As the steamer could not be up from New Orleans till
dawn, it was a relief to saunter through Donaldsonville to see
society, which consisted of several gentlemen and various Jews
playing games unknown to Hoyle, in oaken bar-rooms flanked
by billiard tables. Dr. Cotmann, who had crossed the river
to see patients suffering from an attack of euchre, took us
round to a little club, where I was introduced to a number
of gentlemen, who expressed great pleasure at seeing me,
shook hands violently, and walked away; and, finally, melted
off into a cloud of mosquitoes by the river-bank, into a box
prepared for them, which was called a bedroom.

These rooms were built of timber on the stage close by the
river. "Why can't I have one of these rooms?" asked I,
pointing to a larger mosquito box. "It is engaged by ladies."
"How do you know?" "Parceque elles ont envoyé leur butin."
It was delicious to meet the French "plunder" for baggage—
the old phrase, so nicely rendered—in the mouth of the Mississippi
boatman.

Having passed a night of discomfiture with the winged
demons of my box, I was aroused by the booming of the
steam drum of the boat, dipped my head in water among
drowned mosquitoes, and went forth upon the landing. The

policeman had just arrived. His eagle eye lighted upon a
large flat moored alongside, on the stern of which was inscribed
in chalk, "Pork, corn, butter, beef," &c. Several
"spry" citizens were also on the platform. After salutations
and compliments, policeman speaks—"When did she come
in?" (meaning flat.) First citizen—"In the night, I
guess." Second citizen—"There's a lot of whiskey aboord,
too." Policeman (with pleased surprise)—"Yeu never
mean it?" First citizen—"Yes, sir; one hundred and
twenty gallons!" Policeman (inspired by patriotism)—
"It's a west-country boat; why don't the citizens seize it?
And whiskey rising from 17c. to 35c. a gallon!" Citizens
murmur approval, and I feel the whiskey part of the cargo
is not safe. "Yes, sir," says citizen three, "they seize all our
property at Cairey (Cairo), and I'm making an example of
this cargo."

Further reasons for the seizure were adduced, and it is
probable they were as strong as the whiskey, which has, no
no doubt, been drunk long ago on the very purest principles.
In course of conversation with the committee of taste which
had assembled, it was revealed to me that there was a strict
watch kept over those boats which are freighted with whiskey
forbidden to the slaves, and with principles, when they come
from the west country, equally objectionable. "Did you hear,
sir, of the chap over at Duncan Kenner's, as was caught the
other day?" "No, sir; what was it?" "Well, sir, he was
a man that came here and went over among the niggers at
Kenner's to buy their chickens from them. He was took up,
and they found he'd a lot of money about him." "Well, of
course, he had money to buy the chickens." "Yes, sir, but
it looked suspeec-ious. He was a west-country fellow, tew,
and he might have been tamperin' with 'em. Lucky for him
he was not taken in the arternoon." "Why so?". "Because,
if the citizens had been drunk, they'd have hung him
on the spot."

The Acadia was now along-side, and in the early morning
Donaldsonville receded rapidly into trees and clouds. To bed,
and make amends for mosquito visits, and after a long sleep
look out again on the scene. It is difficult to believe that we
have been going eleven miles an hour against the turbid river,
which is of the same appearance as it was below—the same
banks, bends, driftwood, and trees. Large timber rafts, navigated
by a couple of men, who stood in the shade of a few

upright boards, were encountered at long intervals. White
egrets and blue herons rose from the marshes. At every
landing the whites who came down were in some sort of uniform.
There were two blacks placed on board at one of the
landings in irons—captured runaways—and very miserable
they looked at the thought of being restored to the bosom of
the patriarchal family from which they had, no doubt, so
prodigally eloped. I fear the fatted calf-skin would be applied
to their backs.

June 11th.—Before noon the steamer hauled along-side a
stationary hulk at Baton Rouge, which once "walked the
waters" by the aid of machinery, but which was now used as
a floating hotel, depôt, and storehouse—315 feet long, and
fully thirty feet on the upper deck above the level of the
river. The Acadia stopped, and I disembarked. Here were
my quarters till the boat for Natchez should arrive. The
proprietor of the floating hotel was somewhat excited because
one of his servants was away. The man presently
came in sight. "Where have you been you—?" "Away
to buy de newspaper, Massa." "For who, you—?" "Me
buy 'em for no one, Massa; me sell 'um agin, Massa." "See
now, you—, if ever you goes aboard them steamers to
meddle with newspapers, I'm—but I'll kill you, mind
that!"

Baton Rouge is the capital of the State of Louisiana, and
the State House thereof is a very quaint and very new example
of bad taste. The Deaf and Dumb Asylum near it is in
a much better style. It was my intention to have visited the
State Prison and Penitentiary, but the day was too hot, and
the distance too great, and so I dined at the oddest little creole
restaurant, with the funniest old hostess, and the strangest
company in the world.

On returning to the boat hotel, Mr. Conrad, one of the citizens
of the place, and Mr. W. Avery, a judge of the district
court, were good enough to call and to invite me to remain
some time, but I was obliged to decline. These gentlemen
were members of the home guard, and drilled assiduously
every evening. Of the 1300 voters at Baton Rouge, more
than 750 are already off to the wars, and another company
is being formed to follow them. Mr. Conrad has three sons
in the field, and another is anxious to follow, and he and his
friend, Mr. Avery, are quite ready to die for the disunion.
The waiter who served out drinks in the bar wore a uniform,

and his musket lay in the corner among the brandy bottles.
At night a patriotic meeting of citizen soldiery took place in
the bow, with which song and whiskey had much to do, so
that sleep was difficult.

Precisely at seven o'clock on Wednesday morning the Mary
T. came alongside, and soon afterward bore me on to Natchez,
through scenery which became wilder and less cultivated as
she got upwards. Of the 1500 steamers on the river, not a
tithe are now in employment, and the owners of these profitable
flotillas are "in a bad way." It was late at night when
the steamer arrived at Natchez, and next morning early I
took shelter in another engineless steamer beside the bank of
the river at Natchez-under-the-hill, which was thought to be
a hotel by its owners.

In the morning I asked for breakfast. "There is nothing
for breakfast; go to Curry's on shore." Walk up hill to
Curry's—a bar-room occupied by a waiter and flies. "Can
I have any breakfast?" "No, sir-ree; it's over half-an-hour
ago." "Nothing to eat at all?" "No, sir." "Can I get
some anywhere else?" "I guess not." It had been my belief
that a man with money in his pocket could not starve
in any country soi-disant civilized. I chewed the cud of
fancy faute de mieux, and became the centre of attraction to
citizens, from whose conversation I learned that this was
" Jeff. Davis's fast-day." Observed one, "It quite puts me in
mind of Sunday; all the stores closed." Said another,
"We'll soon have Sunday every day, then, for I 'spect it
won't be worth while for most shops to keep open any
longer." Natchez, a place of much trade and cotton export
in the season, is now as dull—let us say, as Harwich without
a regatta. But it is ultra-secessionist, nil obstante.

My hunger was assuaged by Mr. Marshall, who drove me
to his comfortable mansion through a country like the wooded
parts of Sussex, abounding in fine trees, and in the only lawns
and park-like fields I have yet seen in America.

After dinner, my host took me out to visit a wealthy planter,
who has raised and armed a cavalry corps at his own
expense. We were obliged to get out of the carriage at
a narrow lane and walk toward the encampment on foot in the
dark; a sentry stopped us, and we observed that there was a
semblance of military method in the camp. The captain was
walking up and down in the veranda of the poor hut, for
which he had abandoned his home. A book of tactics—Har

dee's—lay on the table of his little room. Our friend was
full of fight, and said he would give all he had in the world to
the cause. But the day before, and a party of horse, composed
of sixty gentlemen in the district, worth from £20,000
to £50,000 each, had started for the war in Virginia. Everything
to be seen or heard testifies to the great zeal and resolution
with which the South have entered upon the quarrel.
But they hold the power of the United States, and the loyalty
of the North to the Union at far too cheap a rate.

Next day was passed in a delightful drive through cotton
fields, Indian corn, and undulating woodlands, amid which were
some charming residences. I crossed the river at Natchez,
and saw one fine plantation, in which the corn, however, was
by no means so good as the crops I have seen on the coast.
The cotton looks well, and some had already burst into flower
—bloom, as it is called—which has turned to a flagrant pink,
and seems saucily conscious that its boll will play an important
part in the world.

The inhabitants of the tracts on the banks of the Mississippi,
and on the inland regions hereabout, ought to be, in the
natural order of things, a people almost nomadic, living by
the chase, and by a sparse agriculture, in the freedom which
tempted their ancestors to leave Europe. But the Old World
has been working for them. All its trials have been theirs;
the fruits of its experience, its labors, its research, its discoveries,
are theirs. Steam has enabled them to turn their rivers
into highways, to open primeval forests to the light of day and
to man. All these, however, would have availed them little
had not the demands of manufacture abroad, and the increasing
luxury and population of the North and West at home,
enabled them to find in these swamps and uplands sources of
wealth richer and more certain than all the gold mines of the
world.

There must be gnomes to work those mines. Slavery was
an institution ready to their hands. In its development there
lay every material means for securing the prosperity which
Manchester opened to them, and in supplying their own countrymen
with sugar. The small, struggling, deeply-mortgaged
proprietors of swamp and forest set their negroes to work to
raise levees, to cut down trees, to plant and sow. Cotton at
ten cents a pound gave a nugget in every boll. Land could
be had for a few dollars an acre. Negroes were cheap in proportion.
Men who made a few thousand dollars invested them

in more negroes, and more land, and borrowed as much again
for the same purpose. They waxed fat and rich—there
seemed no bounds to their fortune.

But threatening voices came from the North—the echoes
of the sentiments of the civilized world repenting of its evil
pierced their ears, and they found their feet were of clay, and
that they were nodding to their fall in the midst of their
power. Ruin inevitable awaited them if they did not shut out
these sounds and stop the fatal utterances.

The issue is to them one of life and death. Whoever raises
it hereafter, if it be not decided now, must expect to meet the
deadly animosity which is now displayed towards the North.
The success of the South—if they can succeed—must lead
to complications and results in other parts of the world, for
which neither they nor Europe are prepared. Of one thing
there can be no doubt—a slave state cannot long exist without
a slave trade. The poor whites who have won the fight will
demand their share of the spoils. The land for tilth is abundant,
and all that is wanted to give them fortunes is a supply of
slaves. They will have that in spite of their masters, unless
a stronger power than the Slave States prevents the accomplishment
of their wishes.

The gentleman in whose house I was stopping was not insensible
to the dangers of the future, and would, I think, like
many others, not at all regret to find himself and property safe
in England. His father, the very day of our arrival, had proceeded
to Canada with his daughters, but the Confederate
authorities are now determined to confiscate all property belonging
to persons who endeavor to evade the responsibilities
of patriotism. In such matters the pressure of the majority is
irresistible, and a sort of mob law supplants any remissness on
the part of the authorities. In the South, where the deeds of
the land of cypress and myrtle are exaggerated by passion,
this power will be exercised very rigorously. The very language
of the people is full of the excesses generally accepted
as types of Americanism. Turning over a newspaper this
morning, I came upon a "card" as it is called, signed by one
"Mr. Bonner," relating to a dispute between himself and an
Assistant-Quarter-Master-General, about the carriage of some
wood at Mobile, which concludes with the sentence that I
transcribe, as an evidence of the style which is tolerated, if
not admired, down South:—

"If such a Shylock-hearted, caitiff scoundrel does exist,
give me the evidence, and I will drag him before the bar of
public opinion, and consign him to an infamy so deep and
damnable that the hand of the Resurrection will never reach
him."