University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.

“After despatching my last letter, not knowing
exactly what else to do with myself in the present
state of affairs, I set out on horseback, telling the
family that I wished to see a little more of Carolina,
but inwardly resolved to follow the horse's
nose wherever he might lead, and continue thus to
ride and thus to be led until I might gather up my
scattered thoughts and determine what course to
pursue.

“I will not deny, that on the second day in the
afternoon, about three o'clock (truth is always precise,
you know), I discovered in one corner of the
storehouse of my thoughts a secret design to try
`Bell' by a leave-taking, absence, and reappearance.
If you had been upon the ground to charge me
with the intention, I should no doubt have sworn
upon a stack of Testaments that it was not so;
and I could have done so honestly. You have
looked inwards too often not to know, that in wandering
through the dreary passages of one's own
mind, we blunder by accident upon many obscure

motives, which, if boldly charged with them before
we set out on such a pilgrimage, we should stoutly
deny.

“When the horses were brought up on the gravelled
road, and all things in readiness for my departure,
I cast a furtive glance at that too-knowing
and too-beautiful little brunette, who calls you
cousin, to see how she was about to feel on the
solemn occasion. Her looks were perfectly inexplicable.
I have thought of them ever since, but
for my life I cannot say in what feelings they had
their origin. There was neither sorrow, joy, love,
hatred, revenge, hope, despair, nor any other definable
emotion. There was a scarcely perceptible
smile, a slight shutting of the corner of one eye,
and a mock solemnity of the other unruly features,
as if one was winking to the other rebels as much
as to say, `wait till he's out of hearing, and we will
have a rare laugh at his expense.' It was just
such a look as would make a man say, `Zounds
and fury, madam, you'll never see me again; farewell,
for ever;' and then be laughed at for his
pains.

“But what sort of a look was it? It was a
very knowing look, I am sure of that. She looked
as if she read all the inward workings of my moral
machinery. It was a serio-comic look; produced,
no doubt, by the idea that she was scanning me
thoroughly, while I imagined that I could see just
as clearly through her. In other words, as I have
somewhere else beautifully expressed it, she thought

me `pretty considerable much of an ass,' and I am
pretty considerable much of her opinion, at least
before ladies. It is somewhat singular that this
tendency to display my weak side should have developed
itself at the very time when I most desired
to appear to advantage.

“At last the parting moment came. I had
bidden your mother farewell in the breakfast-room,
and then proceeded to the front door, where stood
Virginia Bell.

“`I think it very doubtful,' said I, `whether I
shall be enabled to take your aunt's house in my
route home.'

“`You are not going to run away with cousin's
favourite horse, are you?' said she.

“By the Great Mogul! in my earnestness to invent
a pathetic lie, I forgot to arrange the consistency
of the plot.

“`True, true!' said I, stammering; `then I must
indeed run my head into danger again!' saying
which I sprang upon your horse, and rode like a
country doctor who has no practice. By-the-by,
that was nearer to an avowal than I have ever
come yet; your joyous, fun-loving creatures are
the most difficult to address in the world.

“Oh! if I only had such a one in love with me,
what a race I would lead her! I would punish
the whole class of unapproachable little mischievous
misses! I would make her ogle me at church;
hang on my arm to the theatre; sigh by the fire-side,
and weep when she went to bed; I would

almost break her heart before I would take the
least pity upon her.

“I am curious to know what sort of wives these
same little romps make. Do they romp it through
life, or do they settle down into your miserable,
sad, melancholy drones, who greet their husbands
when they come home with a sigh, or inexpressible
look, that drives more men to the bottle than
all the good wine and good company in the
world?

“You ask me, at least I know you would ask me,
what I saw, or what occurred on the road to the
place from which this letter is dated. I will tell
you what I have not seen since I entered this land
of nullification. I have not seen a clear limpid
river that could be forded on horseback. Your
water-courses are dark, deep, still, and gloomy.
The foliage on their banks is superlatively rich
and abundant, but it is occasionally interspersed
with a species of natural beauties which I don't
admire, namely, little alligators; by-the-by, I never
see alligators, lizards, or tadpoles, that I do not
think of those weary days when we read together
Ovid's Metamorphoses.

“Of a southern swamp I had no proper conception.
I thought they were black, dismal holes, covered
with old black logs, and black snakes, and
frogs, and vapours; instead of which, they bear a
nearer resemblance, in the summer, to a princely
(or Prince's) botanical garden. The very perfume
upon the olfactories is far more delightful than the

greatest assemblage of artificial odours. Then
there are the rich and variegated flowers of all
hues, sizes, and colours, set amid the deep green
of the rich shrubbery. The soil of which these
swamps are composed is as black as tar, and pretty
much of the same consistence.

“I observe, as I travel farther south, that bread
is seldom seen upon the table. What is called
here small homminy is used in its place, at breakfast,
dinner, and supper.

“I saw no ploughs in your fields. Horses
seemed to be used only for carriages, racing, and
for the private use of gentlemen and ladies. I saw
no brick houses; your mother's and that of Col. S.
being the only two I saw in the whole state. I
saw many private mansions very tastefully built
and ornamented; some of them were splendid,
but mostly built of wood and painted white.

“After three days pretty constant riding after
my horse's nose, he brought me to the banks of the
Savannah, at a little miserable-looking town, or
village, called Purysburg. Here I found a steamboat
just about to depart for Savannah. I immediately
engaged passage for myself, servant, and
two horses (one of which is yours; confound him,
I say, for betraying me). I amused myself by
shooting at the alligators, as we glided along the
water, and had kept up the sport some time, when
a mellow distant sound came along the surface of
the water, like an exquisitely played Kent bugle.

It was decidedly the most enchanting music I ever
heard, and seemed nearer and nearer until it
appeared to rise from under the very bow of the
boat. You will be surprised when I tell you that
it was made through a straight wooden tube, about
five feet long. The musician was a tall, ebony-coloured
old African, who stood up in one of your
singular-looking batteaux, amid half-a-dozen other
negroes, who seemed to be at their luncheon. It
looked much like a boat on the Niger; indeed, I
found my imagination carrying me into such distant
regions, that I instinctively bit my lip to see
whether I was awake or dreaming.

“The city of Savannah became distinctly visible
at a distance of about seven miles. A brilliant
city indeed it is. You cannot imagine any thing
finer than the view from the river. It is situated
on a high bluff, and commands an extensive view
up and down the stream. In the latter direction,
on a clear day, you can see, without glasses, the
lighthouse on the island of Tybee.

“By-the-by, I have been down among those
islands; they are all inhabited, and by a class of
men as much like our real old-fashioned Virginia
gentlemen as can well be imagined. This city is
nobly built, and is laid out on a magnificent scale,
having a public square, containing a grove of pride
of India trees, in the centre of every four squares,
and a row of the same along each side of every
street.

“Talk of Philadelphia, and New-York, and
Boston, and Richmond, and New-Haven—Savannah
outstrips them all, both in artificial and natural
beauty. It seems the residence of the prince of
the world and his nobility.