milk, with which Ifelt wonderfully refreshed. Almost directly afterwards we fell asleep.
It was already evening when the blacks awoke us, and placed before us amess of rice, pork, and bananas.
We slept soundly all night; and next morning, when I awoke, I felt quitea different creature to what I had been the day before. We thought itbest not to inquire too minutely who our good hosts were, though we hadlittle doubt that they were, as we at first supposed, runaway slaves.The first question we put was whether they had seen anything of ourfriends; to which they replied in the negative, and told us that we werestill nearly a day's journey from the river. One of them undertook toguide us to a part where he thought we might possibly find a canoe. Ifnot, he advised that we should descend the stream on a raft, until wereached some settlers' huts, which he told us we should come to in a fewhours. He begged us, however, not to mention, on any account, havingmet with him and his companions. This we willingly promised. Theblacks, unfortunately, could not supply us with powder and shot, thesmall quantity they possessed being barely sufficient for their ownwants; but they offered to give us enough of food to last us for acouple of days.
As we found ourselves utterly unable to travel, we were thankful toaccept of their invitation to remain with them until we had recoveredour strength.
CHAPTER TEN.
WE SET OFF FOR THE RIVER--APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY--ARRIVAL AT THE BANKOF THE SAINT JOHN--A CANOE DISCOVERED--STOPPING LEAKS--A SUGGESTION--DISTURBED NIGHT--OUR VOYAGE COMMENCED--RIVER SCENERY--PROVISIONS FALLINGSHORT--FISHING--JOURNEY CONTINUED--DOUBTFUL EGGS--RUINED HOMESTEAD--WESECURE SOME FRUIT--A SUPPLY OF POULTRY--DESERTED SETTLEMENT--SAD EFFECTSOF INDIAN WARFARE--A DISMAL SWAMP--THE INDIAN SCOUT--A PROOF OFHOSTILITY--LONG REST--OUR EVENING MEAL--PADDLING ON.
I had fortunately a few dollars, with which I was able to recompense ournegro hosts, who seemed, however, to expect no reward. With the one whohad undertaken to be our guide we set off at daybreak, in the hope ofreaching the River Saint John before dark. Though we were both, as Timsaid, "as thin as whipping-posts," we felt sufficiently strong toundertake the journey, and the fatigues we were likely to encounter,until we could fall in with some craft to convey us down the river toCastle Kearney.
The forest through which we passed consisted chiefly of cabbage-palmsand pines on the higher ground; but we saw marshes extending on eitherside, which our guide told us reached to the river. Had we possessedammunition, we could have shot deer, for numerous herds crossed ourpath. We saw also a few wild-fowl. Our guide said that in the winterthe marshes were full of them, and that any quantity might be shot in anhour. We caught sight also of a number of wild cattle; but they kept ata distance, as did the deer, both being equally afraid of man.Vegetation became more dense as, towards evening, we approached thelong-looked-for river, so that we had some difficulty in making our waythrough the thickly-growing cabbage-palms, live-oak, and water-oak, hungwith crimson and white air-plants, trumpet-flowers, wild-vines, andinnumerable other parasites. Our guide, however, soon discovered anarrow path, by which he led us, or otherwise our progress would havebeen altogether stopped, and we should have had to turn back and makeour way by a longer route. At length we saw an expanse of waterglittering brightly between the trees.
"Dere is de riber, sah!" exclaimed our guide. "Now we see if we findcanoe; him here not long ago."
We hurried eagerly forward, until we stood on the margin of the river,as near to the water as the tall grass would allow us to get. Our guidesearched up and down the stream, looking amid the grass and under everythick bush as a dog hunts for game. At length he shouted out, "Hurrah!me thought to find canoe."
We made towards him. There, sure enough, carefully concealed among thebrushwood, was a canoe capable of holding three or four persons, withseveral paddles inside it.
"But it may belong to others," I observed, "and it may be of seriousconsequence to them on returning not to find it."
"Sure we have a right to it, now it's deserted by its owners," observedTim; "maybe they'll never come back."
"What do you say?" I asked of our guide.
"Take him, massa," he answered; "me t'ink dose who come up in him nebergo back."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because de Redskins take dem scalps, an' dey all dead."
"That settles the question," said I. "But now let's look at the canoe."
On examining it, we found several ugly-looking cracks, which, had welaunched it, would have admitted the water in an inconvenient manner.With other articles in the canoe, we discovered a small iron pot, whichhad evidently been used for boiling pitch. We were not long in tappinga pine-tree, and obtaining as much pitch as we required, with some gumthe black collected.
We made up a fire on a mud-bank, left dry by the falling waters, fromwhich we disturbed half-a-dozen alligators who had been taking theirsiesta on it. It required our united strength to get the canoe up tothe spot, when, turning it up, we stopped the leaks in the best way wecould. Having done so, we launched it, and found that it floated verywell. The black suggested that we should supply ourselves with aquantity of pitch-pine-torches, which we would find useful should wewish to proceed by night, or to assist in keeping alligators and wildbeasts at a distance. He and Tim soon procured an ample supply. As itwas by this time almost dark, and too late to start, we agreed to sleepin the canoe alongside the bank. We proposed to have a fire burning allnight, to keep the alligators at bay. The black declared there was norisk; but Tim and I, not being so confident on that point, resolved tokeep watch, rather than trust to our black friend. As soon as supperwas served, he threw himself down in the bottom of the canoe, and wassoon fast asleep. It was providential that we did keep watch; forscarcely an hour had passed when a "'gator," as Tim called it, swimmingdown the stream, was attracted by the smell of the remains of oursupper, and, in spite of the fire, landed on the opposite side of thebank to which we were secured. Had we been all asleep, he would verylikely have snapped up one of us. We shouted at the top of our voices,and threw fire-brands at his ugly face, which compelled him to retreatto his native element. He and his relatives kept up a horrible roar forseveral hours. We could hear their jaws clashing together as theysnapped at their prey. Our shouts awoke the black, who, jumping up,very nearly tumbled overboard before he knew where he was.
"De 'gators no come here," he said, when we told him what had made uscry out.
"Don't they, my boy!" exclaimed Tim; "see! what's that?"
At this moment a huge alligator shoved his snout above the surface,eyeing the canoe as if he should like to snap up it and us together.The black after this did not sleep as soundly as before; and Tim and Iagreed that if the monsters abounded all down the river as they did nearits head-waters, we should have a wakeful time of it.
Morning, however, came at last. Our guide was as anxious to return homeas we were to proceed on our voyage. He again charged us before partingnot to mention having met with him and his companions, thus convincingus of what we had before suspected, that they were runaway slaves. Weshould have been very ungrateful had we not given him the requiredassurances, agreeing that we would merely state the fact that we hadfound the canoe on the bank of the river, and that as, from the time ithad been there, its owners were not likely to return, we hadappropriated it.
The black, having wished us good-bye, commenced his journey through theforest; while we, shoving off from the bank, began to paddle down thesluggish stream. We kept in the centre, where the current appearedstrongest, resolving to paddle all day so as to lose no time. Often ourprogress was stopped by immense quantities of water-lilies and otheraquatic plants which spread over the stream; and in many places it wasso shallow that we could touch the bottom with our paddles. Here thewater was of a rich brown colour, in many places with a green scum onit, which so completely concealed the alligators moving beneath thesurface that we ran against several of the monsters, the whisk of whosetails sent the water flying over us, and very nearly, on more than
oneoccasion, upset the canoe. How we longed for ammunition to kill some ofthe water-fowl which rose from the sedgy shores! Sometimes our courseled us through immense expanses of marsh covered with saw-grass, withhere and there islands formed by uprooted trees, brushwood, and reedsmatted together. In other places the vegetation which clothed bothsides of the river was rich and beautiful in the extreme. Sometimes wefound ourselves sweeping by the edge of a cypress swamp, huge trunks, or"knees," as the distorted stems are called, projecting far into thewater, and we had to keep a bright look-out not to run against them.
Though sleepy and tired enough, we agreed to paddle on all night, or aslong as we could keep awake. Often the river was not fifty yards wide,sometimes much less; then it would expand into lakes two or three milesin width. I was under some
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