rewarded, and soon we, buggy and all, were
safely placed on board a broad flat-bottomed
boat, manned by six likely negroes, who, standing
up and rowing with a forward movement,
recommenced to the motion of their oars their
chant. I could only catch thus much of it:
O! I don't like dar lowland gal,
Tell yer dar reason why;
(All push together.)
She comb her har wid der herren-bone,
An' her mobements am so shy.
(All push together.)
O! yes I like dar mounten gal,
Tell yer dar reason why?
(All push together.)
She comb her har wid de torter-shell
An' her mobements am so spry.
(All push together.)
Zing-a-boom, a-boom-boom niggar work,
Zing-a-boom, a boom-boom bar,
Zing-a-boom, a-boom-boom niggar work,
Zing-a-booin, a-boom-boom bar.
(Da capo until they are hoarse.)
Twenty minutes saw us safely across the river,
and with a liberal fee to the "boss niggar" we
once more mounted our buggy, and dashed off
without caring to listen to the grateful speech
of the loquacious darkey.
Another day's rapid travelling brought me
to the banks of the Potomac, the real
boundary of the Southern and Federal States.
Once across, my difficulties would be nearly
vanquished. Leonard's Town was the point
selected as the best place for embarkation,
and there the river could not have been less
than nine or ten miles in width, with an
additional inlet of some seven miles to navigate
before reaching the river itself.
On my arrival at Leonard's Town, early in
the morning, a council of secession magnates,
advised by my secret committee of management,
met in consultation, and it was determined that
so soon as the evening had closed in, I should
make my first attempt to cross. The day was
passed in a continual reception of visitors,
many of them being anxious, knowing my
destination, to entrust me with messages to
husbands, brothers, sons, or lovers, who were
either struggling in the Valley of Virginia, or
scouting in the forests of the south-west. These
messages showed the depth and intensity of the
strife, and the domestic and personal sacrifices
that were made to maintain it.
There were some twenty of them, and they
proved to me that the heroism of the women
of the South had not been exaggerated;
for though all were couched in terms of endearment
and womanly affection, yet, so far from
disheartening the soldiers to whom they were
addressed, they were rather intended to nerve
them to renewed efforts.
The excitement of my departure, and perils to
come, procured for me the escort to Britain's
Bay of at least a dozen ladies, whose interest
in my future had determined them to indulge
me with a God's speed and a waving of pocket-
hankerchiefs, as I embarked from the shores of
Maryland for those of Virginia. To my shame
be it said, I faltered at the last moment, causing
the ladies to look blank and astonished, and
impressing them with the belief that their
messages had been entrusted to the most
ignoble of bearers. I found the bark, that was
destined to carry me and my limited fortunes
over some sixteen miles of deep water, by far
too much "a thing of life," for it was dancing
like a cork on the gentle ripple of the bay, and
at a glance I, in horror, perceived that it was
nothing more than the hollowed trunk of a tree,
graphically termed a "dug-out." To sit in
such a boat is about as difficult as keeping one's
equilibrium on a tight rope, without the
advantage of a pole to balance with, making it a
matter of such nicety that I determined, for the
first time in my life, on parting my hair in the
centre. Turning to the gentleman that had me
in charge I expostulated with him, declaring it
was nothing more than manslaughter to send
me afloat in such a craft, especially as when I
and the limited crew of one "buck" negro took
our places the gunwale was immersed almost to
the water's edge. "We have no other means
of helping you," answered my friend. "The
Federals, to keep back such as you, have
destroyed every boat on the coast, and we
should not even have this if it had not been
hidden in the swamps. Besides, there is no
positive danger, for if she capsizes she is so
light she will right again almost immediately,
and a good ducking or two will be rather
agreeable than otherwise this sultry evening."
Cringing to my place amidships, and too
greatly preoccupied by the difficulties of my
position to return with anything like grace the
kerchief-waved farewells, for no sooner did I
lift my right hand than we had a list to
starboard, and then, trying if it were safer to
raise my left, had a tremendous lurch to port.
So, clutching the sides tightly, I nodded my
ghastly thanks; and, at the same time, old Jeb,
plunging his paddle into the water, and working
it swiftly on alternate sides, we shot like an
arrow through the rushes, and were soon out of
hearing of the chorus of "Good-byes."
When I became more accustomed to my
position, and dared to move a little in my seat,
I found time to look around me. We were
speeding along between marshy banks, with here
and there a solitary knoll on which some
fisherman`s hut was perched, the stove-in boats
blistering on the mud-banks, and the nets
hanging from the palings rotting in the sun.
It was Jeb's purpose to reach the mouth of the
bay at dusk, so that we might cross the Potomac
under cover of the night, and as the sun was
sinking behind the forest-covered hills of
Virginia, nothing more now than a purple
outline, dimly shadowed in the rising mists of
evening, we emerged on the broad bosom of the
river. Everything seemed to favour us; heavy
clouds were banking up, veiling the dull red
hues of the western sky, and night, as is
usual in that part of America, was setting in
with rapidity. More and more indistinct
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