Manuel Pereira
by
F. C. Adams
Part 1 out of 5
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
The "legal small print" and other information about this book
may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this
important information, as it gives you specific rights and
tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used.
***
This etext was created by Charles Aldarondo (Aldarondo@yahoo.com)
MANUEL PEREIRA;
OR, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina.
WITH VIEWS OF SOUTHERN LAWS, LIFE, AND HOSPITALITY.
BY F. C. ADAMS.
WRITTEN IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. WASHINGTON, D. C.:
1853.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. THE Unlucky Ship
CHAPTER II. The Steward's Bravery
CHAPTER III. The Second Storm
CHAPTER IV. The Charleston Police
CHAPTER V. Mr. Grimshaw, the Man of the County
CHAPTER VI. The Janson in the Offing
CHAPTER VII. Arrival of the Janson
CHAPTER VIII. A New Dish of Secession
CHAPTER IX. A few Points of the Law
CHAPTER X. The Prospect Darkening
CHAPTER XI. The Sheriff's Office
CHAPTER XII. The Old Jail
CHAPTER XIII. How it is
CHAPTER XIV. Manuel Pereira Committed
CHAPTER XV. The Law's Intricacy
CHAPTER XVI. Plea of Just Consideration and Mistaken Constancy of the Laws
CHAPTER XVII. Little George, the Captain, and Mr. Grimshaw
CHAPTER XVIII. Little Tommy and the Police
CHAPTER XIX. The Next Morning, and the Mayor's Verdict
CHAPTER XX. Emeute among the Stewards
CHAPTER XXI. The Captain's Interview with Mr. Grimshaw
CHAPTER XXII. Copeland's Release and Manuel's close Confinement
CHAPTER XXIII. Imprisonment of John Paul, and John Baptiste Pamerlie
CHAPTER XXIV. The Janson Condemned
CHAPTER XXV. George the Secessionist, and his Father's Ships
CHAPTER XXVI. A Singular Reception
CHAPTER XXVII. The Habeas Corpus
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Captain's Departure and Manuel's Release
CHAPTER XXIX. Manuel's Arrival in New York
CHAPTER XXX. The Scene of Anguish
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX
INTRODUCTION.
OUR generous friends in Georgia and South Carolina will not add among
their assumptions that we know nothing of the South and Southern life. A
residence of several years in those States, a connection with the press,
and associations in public life, gave us opportunities which we did not
lose, and have not lost sight of; and if we dipped deeper into the
vicissitudes of life and law than they gave us credit for at the time,
we trust they will pardon us, on the ground of interest in the welfare
of the South.
Perhaps we should say, to support the true interests of the South, we
should and must abandon many of those errors we so strenuously supported
in years past; and thus we have taken up the subject of our book, based
upon the practical workings of an infamous law, which we witnessed upon
the individual whose name forms a part of the title.
Imprisoning a shipwrecked sailor, and making it a penal offence for a
freeman to come within the limits of a republican State, whether
voluntarily or involuntarily, seems to be considered commonplace,
instead of barbarous in South Carolina. This may be accounted for by the
fact that the power of a minority, created in wrong, requiring barbarous
expedients to preserve itself intact, becomes an habitual sentiment,
which usage makes right.
This subject has been treated with indifference, even by the press,
which has satisfied itself in discussing the abstract right as a
question of law, rather than by disclosing the sufferings of those who
endure the wrong and injustice. When we are called upon to support, and
are made to suffer the penalty of laws founded in domestic fear, and
made subservient to various grades of injustice, it becomes our duty to
localize the wrong, and to point out the odium which attaches to the
State that enacts such laws of oppression.
A "peculiar-institution" absorbs and takes precedence of every thing;
its protection has become a sacred element of legislative and private
action; and fair discussion is looked upon as ominous, and proclaimed as
incendiary. But we speak for those who owe no allegiance to that
delicate institution; citizens to all intents and, purposes
(notwithstanding their dark skins) of the countries to which they
severally belong; peaceable persons, pursuing their avocations, to
provide a respectable maintenance for their families, and worthy of the
same protective rights claimed by the more fortunate citizens of such
countries. In doing this we shall give a practical illustration of the
imprisonment of four individuals in South Carolina, and ask those who
speculate in the abstract science of State sovereignty, to reflect upon
the issue of that lamentable injustice which inflicts punishment upon
persons guiltless of crime. We prefer to be plain, and we know our
Southern friends will not accuse us of misconstruction, for we have
their interests at heart, as well as the cause of humanity, which we
shall strive to promote, in spite of the struggles of modern barbarism,
seeking to perpetuate itself. Fear, the inventor of such pretexts as are
set up, and mantled in Southern modesty, must remodel its code for South
Carolinians, before it can assert a power unknown to law, or trample
upon the obligations of treaty, or enforce nullification of individual
rights.
CHARLESTON, S. C., July 17,1852.
MANUEL PEREIRA.
CHAPTER I.
THE UNLUCKY SHIP.
THE British brig Janson, Thompson, master, laden with sugar,
pimento, &c. &c. left Kingston, Jamaica, in the early part of March,
in the present year, bound for Glasgow. The skipper, who was a
genuine son of the "Land o' Cakes," concluded to take the inside
passage, and run through the gulf. This might have been questioned
by seamen better acquainted with the windward passage; but as every
Scotchman likes to have his own way, the advice of the first
officer--an experienced salt in the West India waters--went to
leeward. On rounding Cape Antoine, it was evident that a strong blow
was approaching. The clouds hung their dark curtains in threatening
blackness; and, as the sharp flashes of lightning inflamed the
gloomy scene, the little bark seemed like a speck upon the bosom of
the sea. It was the first mate's watch on deck. The wind, then
blowing from the W.S.W., began to increase and veer into the
westward; from whence it suddenly chopped into the northward. The
mate paced the quarter wrapt in his fearnought jacket, and at every
turn giving a glance aloft, then looking at the compass, and again
to the man at the wheel, as if he had an instinct of what was
coming.
He was a fearless navigator, yet, like many others who had yielded
to the force of habit, was deeply imbued with that prevalent
superstition so common to sailors, which regards a particular ship
as unlucky. Imagine an old-fashioned boatswain, with north-country
features strongly marked, a weather-beaten face, and a painted
south-wester on his head, and you have the "Mister Mate" of the old
brig Janson.
"Keep her full, my hearty. We must take in our light sails and go on
the other tack soon. If we don't catch it before daylight, I'll miss
my calculation. She's an unlucky old craft as ever I sailed in, and
if the skipper a'n't mighty careful, he'll never get her across.
I've sworn against sailing in her several times, but if I get across
in her this time, I'll bid her good-by; and if the owners don't give
me a new craft, they may get somebody else. We're just as sure to
have bad luck as if we had cats and parsons aboard."
Thus saying, he descended the companion-way, and reported the
appearance of the weather to the skipper, who arose quickly, and,
consulting his barometer, found it had fallen to near the lowest
scale. After inquiring the quarter of the wind, and how she headed,
what sail she was carrying, and the probable distance from the cape,
he gave orders to call all hands to take in the topgallant-sails,
double reef the fore, and single reef the maintop-sails, and stow
the flying-jib--dressed himself, and came on deck. Just as he put
his head above the slide of the companion, and stopped for a minute
with his hands resting upon the sides, a vivid flash of lightning
hung its festoons of fire around the rigging, giving it the
appearance of a chain of livid flame.
"We'll catch the but-end of a gulf sneezer soon. Tell the boys to
bear a hand with them sails. We must get her snug, and stand by to
lay her under a double-reefed maintop-sail and jib, with her head to
the northward and eastward. We may make a clear drift--chance if it
lasts long," said Skipper Thompson, as he stood surveying the
horizon and his craft. Scarcely had he given the orders before the
storm burst upon them with all its fury. Its suddenness can only be
appreciated by those who have sailed in the West India passages,
where the sudden shocks of the short-chopping sea acts with a
tremendous strain upon the hull of a heavy-laden vessel. The captain
ran to the windward gangway, hurrying his men in the discharge of
their duty, and giving another order to clew up the coursers and
foretop-sail. Just as the men had executed the first, and were about
to pull on the clew-lines of the latter, a sudden gust took effect
upon the bag of the sail and carried it clean from the bolt-ropes.
The halyards were lowered and the yards properly braced up, while
the Janson was brought to under the canvas we have before described.
In a few minutes more the wind had increased to a gale, and, as the
sailors say, several times the old craft "wouldn't look at it."
Several times we had to put her helm up, and as many times she
shipped those forcing cross seas which drive every thing before
them, and sweep the decks. At length a piece of canvas was lashed to
the fore-rigging which gave her a balance, and she rode easy until
about five o'clock in the morning, when by a sudden broach the
canvas was carried away, and a tremendous sharp sea boarded her
forward; starting several stanchions, carrying away part of her
starboard bulwark and rail, and simultaneously the
foretop-gallant-mast, which snapped just above the withe. As a
natural consequence, every thing was in the utmost confusion--the old
hull worked in every timber. The wreck swayed to and fro, retarding
the working of the vessel and endangering the lives of those who
attempted to clear it from obstruction. Thus she remained for more
than half an hour, nearly on her beam-ends, and at the mercy of each
succeeding sea that threatened to engulf her.
As daylight broke, the wind lulled, and, as usual in those waters,
the sea soon ran down. Enabled to take the advantage of daylight,
they commenced to clear away the wreck. In the mean time it was
found necessary to remove the fore-hatch in order to get out some
spare sails that had been stowed away near the forward bulkhead,
instead of a more appropriate place. The mate, after trying the
pumps in the early part of the gale, reported that she had started a
leak; which, however, was so trifling as to require but one man to
keep her free, until she broached, and carried away her
topgallant-mast. The man on duty then reported the water increasing,
and another was ordered to assist him. On an examination in the
morning, it was found that she was strained in the fore-channels,
and had started a but.
"She's an unlucky concern, skipper," said the mate as he brought the
axe to take the battons off the forehatch. "A fellow might as well
try to work a crab at low tide as to keep her to it in a blow like
that. She minds her helm like a porpoise in the breakers. Old Davy
must have put his mark upon her some time, but I never know'd a
lucky vessel to be got as she was. She makes a haul on the
underwriters every time she drifts across; for I never knew her to
sail clear since I shipped in the old tub. If she was mine, I'd find
a place for her at somebody's expense."
The sea became smooth, the water was found to have receded, the
wind, light, had hauled to W.S.W., and Cape Antoine was judged by
dead reckoning to bear S.S.W. about thirty miles distant. The
larboard fore-shrouds were found to have been scorched by the
lightning, which had completely melted the tar from the
after-shroud. All hands were now busily employed repairing the
wreck, which by two o'clock P.M. they had got so far completed as to
stand on their course in the gulf, at the rate of six knots an hour.
The skipper now consulted in his mind as to the expediency of making
for Havana or proceeding on his cruise. The leak had materially
diminished, and, like all old vessels, though she gave a good
portion of work at the pumps, a continuation of good weather might
afford an opportunity to shove her across. Under these feelings, he
was inclined to give the preference to his hopes rather than yield
to his fears. He considered the interest of all concerned--consulted
his mate, but found him governed by his superstition, and looking
upon the issue of his life about as certain whether he jumped
overboard or "stuck by the old tub." He considered again the
enormous port-charges imposed in Havana, the nature of his cargo in
regard to tariff, should his vessel be condemned, and the ruinous
expenses of discharging, &c. &c. together with the cost of repairs,
providing they were ordered. All these things he considered with the
mature deliberation of a good master, who has the general interests
of all concerned at heart. So, if he put away for a port, in
consideration of all concerned, his lien for general average would
have strong ground in maritime law; yet there were circumstances
connected with the sea-worthy condition of the craft--known to
himself, if not to the port-wardens, and which are matters of
condition between the master and his owners--which might, upon
certain technicalities of law, give rise to strong objectionable
points. With all these glancing before him, he, with commendable
prudence, resolved to continue his voyage, and trust to kind
Providence for the best.
"Captain," said the mate, as he stood viewing the prospect, with a
marlinespike in one hand and a piece of seizing in the other--"I
verily think, if that blow had stuck to us two hours longer, the old
tub would a' rolled her futtocks out. Ye don't know her as well as I
do. She's unlucky, anyhow; and always has been since she sot upon
the water. I've seen her top-sides open like a basket when we've
been trying to work her into port in heavy weather: and a craft that
won't look nearer than nine points close-hauled, with a stiff
breeze, ought to be sent into the Clyde for a coal-droger. An old
vessel's a perfect pickpocket to owners; and if this old thing
hasn't opened their purses as bad as her own seams, I'll miss my
reckonin'. I've had a strong foreknowledge that we wouldn't get
across in her. I saw the rats leaving in Jamaica--taking up their
line of march, like marines on the fore. It's a sure sign. And then
I'd a dream, which is as sure as a mainstay--never deceives me. I can
depend on its presentiment. I have dreamed it several times, and we
always had an awful passage. Twice we come within a bobstay of all
goin' to Old Davy's store-house. I once escaped it, after I'd had my
mysterious dream; but then I made the cook throw the cat overboard
just after we left port, and 'twas all that saved us."
Thus saying, he went forward to serve a topgallant-stay that was
stretched across the forecastle-hatch from the cat-heads, and had
just been spliced by the men, followed by an old-fashioned
sea-urchin, a miniature of the tar, with a mallet in his hand. The
captain, although a firm, intelligent man, and little given to such
notions of fate as are generally entertained by sailors, who never
shake off the spiritual imaginings of the forecastle, displayed some
discomfiture of mind at the strong character of the mate's
misgivings. He knew him to be a good sailor, firm in his duty, and
unmoved by peril. This he had proved on several occasions when
sailing in other vessels, when the last ray of hope seemed to be
gone. He approached the mate again, and with a pretence of making
inquiries about the storage of the cargo, sounded him further in
regard to his knowledge of the Bahamas, and with special reference
to the port of Nassau.
"Six-tenths of her timbers are as rotten as punk," said the mate;
"this North American timber never lasts long; the pump-wells are
defective, and when we carry sail upon her, they don't affect the
water in the lee-bilge, and she rolls it through her air-streaks
like a whale. She'll damage the best cargo that ever floated, in
that way. Take my word for it, skipper, she'll never go across the
Banks; she'll roll to splinters as soon as she gets into them long
seas; and if we get dismasted again, it's gone Davy."
"I know the old scow before to-day, and wouldn't shipped in her, if
I hadn't been lime-juiced by that villanous landlord that advanced
me the trifle. But I seen she was as deep as a luggerman's
sand-barge, and I popped the old cat overboard, just as we rounded
the point coming out o' Kingston harbour," said a fine,
active-looking sailor, who bore every trait of a royal tar, and
boasted of serving five years in the East-India service, to his
shipmate, while he continued to serve the stay. His words were
spoken in a whisper, and not intended for the captain's ears. The
captain overheard him, however; and, as a vessel is a world to those
on board, the general sentiment carries its weight in controlling
its affairs. Thus the strong feeling which prevailed on board could
not fail to have its effect upon the captain's mind.
"Well, we'll try her at any rate," said the captain, walking aft and
ordering the cabin-boy to bring up his glass; with which he took a
sharp look to the southward.
"I'd shape her course for a southern Yankee port. I haven't been
much in them, but I think we'll stand a better chance there than in
these ports where they make a speculation of wrecking, and would
take a fellow's pea-jacket for salvage." "We're always better under
the protection of a consul than in a British port," said the mate,
coming aft to inform the skipper that they had carried away the
chains of the bobstay, and that the bowsprit strained her in the
knight-heads.
CHAPTER II.
THE STEWARD'S BRAVERY.
DURING the worst of the gale, a mulatto man, with prominent
features, indicating more of the mestino than negro character, was
moving in busy occupation about the deck, and lending a willing hand
with the rest of the crew to execute the captain's orders. He was
rather tall, well formed, of a light olive complexion, with dark,
piercing eyes, a straight, pointed nose, and well-formed mouth. His
hair, also, had none of that crimp so indicative of negro
extraction, but lay in dark curls all over his head. As he answered
to the captain's orders, he spoke in broken accents, indicating but
little knowledge of the English language. From the manner in which
the crew treated him, it was evident that he was an established
favourite with them as well as the officers, for each appeared to
treat him more as an equal than a menial. He laboured cheerfully at
sailor's duty until the first sea broke over her, when, seeing that
the caboose was in danger of being carried from the lashings, and
swept to leeward in the mass of wreck, he ran for that all-important
apartment, and began securing it with extra lashings. He worked away
with an earnestness that deserved all praise; not with the most
satisfactory effect for an angry sea immediately succeeding
completely stripped the furnace of its woodwork, and in its force
carried the gallant fellow among its fragments into the
lee-scuppers, where he saved himself from going overboard only by
clinging to a stanchion.
The second mate, a burly old salt, ran to his assistance, but,
before he reached him, our hero had recovered himself, and was
making another attempt to reach his coppers. It seemed to him as
much a pending necessity to save the cooking apparatus as it did the
captain to save the ship.
"He no catch me dis time," said he to the mate, smiling as he lifted
his drenched head from among the fragments of the wreck. "I fix a de
coffee in him yet, please God."
After securing the remains of his cooking utensils, he might be seen
busily employed over a little stove, arranged at the foot of the
stairs that led to the cabin. The smoke from the funnel several
times annoyed the captain, who laboured under the excitement
consequent upon the confusion of the wreck and peril of his vessel,
bringing forth remonstrances of no very pleasant character. It
proved that the good steward was considering how he could best serve
Jack's necessities; and while they were laboring to save the ship,
lie was studiously endeavoring to anticipate the craving of their
stomachs. For when daylight appeared and the storm subsided, the
steward had a bountiful dish of hot coffee to relieve Jack's
fatigued system. It was received with warm welcome, and many
blessings were heaped upon the head of the steward; A good "doctor"
is as essential for the interests of owners and crew as a good
captain. So it proved in this instance, for while he had a careful
regard for the stores, he never failed to secure the praises of the
crew.
"When I gib de stove fire, den me gib de Cap-i-tan, wid de crew,
some good breakfas," said he with a gleam of satisfaction.
This individual, reader, was Manuel Pereira, or, as he was called by
his shipmates, Pe-rah-re. Manuel was born in Brazil, an extract of
the Indians and Spanish, claiming birthright of the Portuguese
nation. It mattered but very little to Manuel where he was born, for
he had been so long tossed about in his hardy vocation that he had
almost become alienated from the affections of birthplace. He had
sailed so long under the protection of the main-jack of old England
that he had formed a stronger allegiance to that country than to any
other. He had sailed under it with pride, had pointed to its emblem,
as if he felt secure, when it was unfurled, that the register-ticket
which that government had given him was a covenant between it and
himself; that it was a ticket to incite him to good behavior in a
foreign country; and that the flag was sure to protect his rights,
and insure, from the government to which he sailed respect and
hospitality. He had sailed around the world under it--visited savage
and semi-civilized nations--had received the hospitality of
cannibals, had joined in the merry dance with the Otaheitian, had
eaten fruits with the Hottentots, shared the coarse morsel of the
Greenlander, been twice chased by the Patagonians--but what shall we
say?--he was imprisoned, for the olive tints of his color, in a land
where not only civilization rules in its brightest conquests, but
chivalry and honor sound its fame within the lanes, streets, and
court-yards. Echo asks, Where--where? We will tell the reader. That
flag which had waved over him so long and in so many of his
wayfarings--that flag which had so long boasted its rule upon the
wave, and had protected him among the savage and the civilized,
found a spot upon this wonderful globe where it ceased to do so,
unless he could change his skin.
CHAPTER III.
THE SECOND STORM.
ON the fourth night succeeding the perilous position of the Janson
off Cape Antoine, the brig was making about seven knots, current of
the gulf included. The sun had set beneath heavy radiant clouds,
which rolled up like masses of inflamed matter, reflecting in a
thousand mellow shades, and again spreading their gorgeous shadows
upon the rippled surface of the ocean, making the picture serene and
grand.
As darkness quickly followed, these beautiful transparencies of a
West-India horizon gradually changed into murky-looking monitors,
spreading gloom in the sombre perspective. The moon was in its
second quarter, and was rising on the earth. The mist gathered
thicker and thicker as she ascended, until at length she became
totally obscured. The Captain sat upon the companion-way, anxiously
watching the sudden change that was going on overhead; and, without
speaking to any one, rose, took a glance at the compass, and then
went forward to the lookout, charging him to keep a sharp watch, as
they were not only in a dangerous channel, but in the track of
vessels bound into and out of the gulf. After this, he returned
amidship, where the little miniature salt we have described before
lay, with his face downward, upon the main-hatch, and ordering him
to bring the lead-line, he went to leeward and took a cast; and
after paying out about twenty-five fathoms without sounding, hauled
aboard again. The wind was southward and light. As soon as he had
examined the lead he walked aft and ordered the sheets eased and the
vessel headed two points farther off. This done, he went below, and
shaking his barometer several times, found it had begun to fall very
fast. Taking down his coast-chart, he consulted it very studiously
for nearly half an hour, laying off an angle with a pair of dividers
and scale, with mathematical minuteness; after which he pricked his
course along the surface to a given point. This was intended as his
course.
"Where do you make her, Captain?" said the mate, as he lay in his
berth.
"We must be off the Capes--we must keep a sharp look out for them
reefs. They are so deceptive that we'll be on to them before we know
it. There's no telling by sounding. We may get forty fathoms one
minute and strike the next. I've heard old West-India coasters say
the white water was the best warning," replied the Captain.
"I'm mighty afraid of that Carysfort reef, since I struck upon it in
1845. I was in a British schooner then, bound from Kingston,
Jamaica, to New York. We kept a bright lookout, all the way through
the passage, and yet struck, one morning just about day-light; and,
five minutes before, we had sounded without getting bottom. When it
cleared away, that we could see, there was two others like
ourselves. One was the ship John Parker, of Boston, and the other
was a 'long-shoreman. We had a valuable cargo on board, but the
craft wasn't hurt a bit; and if the skipper--who was a little
colonial man, not much acquainted with the judicial value of a
wrecker's services--had a' taken my advice, he wouldn't got into the
snarl he did at Key West, where they carried him, and charged him
thirty-six hundred dollars for the job. Yes, and a nice little
commission to the British consul for counting the doubloons, which,
by-the-by, Skipper, belonged to that great house of Howland &
Aspinwalls. They were right clever fellows, and it went into the
general average account for the relief of the underwriters' big
chest," continued the mate.
"We must have all hands ready at the call," said the Captain. "It
looks dirty overhead, and I think we're going to catch it from the
north-east to-night. If we do, our position is not as good as
before. I don't feel afraid of her, if we only get clear of this
infernal coast," said the Skipper, as he rolled up his chart, and
repaired on deck again.
During this time, Manuel, who, had given the crew some very
acceptable hot cakes for supper, was sitting upon the windlass,
earnestly engaged, with his broken English, recounting an adventure
he had on the coast of Patagonia, a few years previous, while
serving on board a whaleman, to a shipmate who sat at his left. It
was one of those incidents which frequently occur to the men
attached to vessels which visit that coast for the purpose of
providing a supply of wood and water, and which would require too
much space to relate here.
"Did you run, Manuel?" said the listening shipmate.
"What else did me do? If I no run, I'd not be here dis night,
because I be make slave, or I be killed wid club. Patagonian don't
care for flag--nor not'in' else--I trust--e my leg, an' he get to de
boat jus' when cap-i-tan come to rescue."
"Was you on board an Englishman then, Manuel?" inquired the
shipmate.
"Yes, I'm always sail in English ship, because I can get protection
from flag and consul, where I go--any part of globe," said he.
"I never liked this sailing among barbarous nations; they've no
respect for any flag, and would just as lief imprison an Englishman
or an American as they would a dog. They're a set of wild
barbarians, and if they kill a fellow, there's no responsibility for
it. It's like a parcel of wolves chasing a lamb, and there's no
finding them after they've killed it. But they give a fellow his
rights in Old England and the States. A man's a man there, rich or
poor, and his feelings are just as much his own as anybody's. It's a
glorious thing, this civilization, and if the world keeps on,
there'll be no danger of a fellow's being imprisoned and killed
among these savages. They're a cowardly set, for nobody but cowards
are afraid of their own actions. Men neither imprison nor kill
strangers, that don't fear the injustice of their own acts. You may
smoke that in your pipe, Manuel, for I've heard great men say so.
But you'd been done making dough-nuts then, Manuel, if they'd got
hold o' you."
"Never catch Manuel among Patagonians, again; they not know what the
flag be, nor they can't read de registrum ticket, if they know'd
where England was," said Manuel; and just as he was concluding the
story of his adventure, the little sailor-boy put his arm around
Manuel's waist, and, laying his head on his breast, fondled about
him with an affectionate attachment. The little fellow had been a
shipmate with Manuel on several voyages, and, through the kindness
he had received at his hands, naturally formed an ardent attachment
to him. Taking advantage of the good treatment, he knew how to
direct his attention to the steward whenever he wanted a snack from
the cabin-locker of that which was not allowed in the forecastle.
After holding him for a minute, encircling his arm around the little
fellow's shoulder, he arose, and saying, "I know what you want,
Tommy," proceeded to the cabin and brought him several little
eatables that had been left at the captain's table.
The wind now began to veer and increase, her sails kept filling
aback; and as often as the man at the helm kept her off, the wind
would baffle him, until finding it would be necessary to go on the
other tack, or make some change of course, he called the Captain.
The moment the latter put his foot upon deck, he found his previous
predictions were about to be verified. The rustling noise of the
gulf, mingling its solemn sounds with the petrel-like music of that
foreboding wind that "whistles through the shrouds," awakened the
more superstitious sensations of a sailor's heart. The clouds had
gathered their sombre folds into potent conclaves, while the
sparkling brine in her wake, seemed like a fiery stream, rolling its
troubled foam upon the dark waters.
"Brace the yards up sharp-hard a-starboard!--and trim aft the
sheets," ordered the Captain, who had previously given the order,
"All hands on deck!"
The order was scarcely executed, before the noise of the approaching
gale was heard in the distance. All hands were ordered to shorten
sail as quickly as possible; but before they could get aloft, it
came upon them with such fury from E.N.E. as to carry away the
foretop-mast and topgallant-mast, together with its sails, and the
main-topgallant-mast with the sail. The foretop-mast, in going by
the board, carried away the flying-jib-boom and flying-jibs. Thus
the ill-fated Janson was doomed to another struggle for her floating
existence. The sea began to rise and break in fearful power; the
leak had already increased so, that two men were continually kept
working the pumps. The crew, with commendable alacrity, cut away the
wreck, which had been swaying to and fro, not only endangering the
lives of those on board, but obstructing every attempt to get the
vessel into any kind of working order. The main-sail had rent from
the leash to the peak of the gaff, and was shaking into shreds. The
starboard sheet of the maintop-sail was gone, and it had torn at the
head from the bolt-rope, flying at every gust like the shreds of a
muslin rag in a hail-storm. Without the government of her helm, she
lay in the trough of the sea more like a log than a manageable mass.
Sea after sea broke over her, carrying every thing before them at
each pass. The officers and crew had now as much as they could do to
retain their holds, without making any effort to save the wreck,
while the men at the pumps could only work at each subsiding of the
sea, and that under the disadvantage of being lashed to the frame. A
more perilous position than that in which the old brig Janson now
lay, it was impossible to imagine.
"'Tis the worst hurricane I've ever experienced upon the West India
coast, Captain, but it's too furious to last long; and if she don't
go to pieces before morning, I'll give her credit for what I've
always swore against her. She can't keep afloat though, if it hangs
on another hour in this way," said the mate, who, with the Captain
and Manuel, had just made an ineffectual attempt to rig a storm
stay-sail, to try and lay her to under it. For the mate swore by his
knowledge of her qualities, that to put her before it, would be
certain foundering. The gale continued with unabated fury for about
two hours, and stopped about as suddenly as it commenced. The work
of destruction was complete, for from her water-line to the stump of
the remaining spars, the Janson floated a complete wreck.
The captain gave orders to clear away the wreck, and get what little
sail they could patch up, upon her, for the purpose of working her
into the nearest port. The mate was not inclined to further the
order, evidently laboring under the strong presentiment that she was
to be their coffin. He advised that it was fruitless to stick by her
any longer, or hazard an attempt to reach a port with her, in such a
leaky and disabled condition. "If we don't abandon her, Skipper,"
said he, "she'll abandon us. We'd better make signal for the first
vessel, and bid the old coffin good-by."
The captain was more determined in his resolution, and instead of
being influenced by the mate's fears, continued his order, and the
men went to work with a cheerful willingness. None seemed more
anxious to lend a ready hand than Manuel, for in addition to is
duties as steward, he had worked at sail-making, and both worked at
and directed the repairing of the sails. Those acquainted with
maritime affairs can readily appreciate the amount of labor
necessary to provide a mess with the means at hand that we have
before described. And yet he did it to the satisfaction of all, and
manifested a restless anxiety lest he should not make everybody
comfortable, and particularly his little pet boy, Tommy.
"We'll get a good observation at meridian, and then we shall shape
our course for Charleston, South Carolina. We'll be more likely to
reach it than any other southern port," said the captain to his
mate. "That steward, Manuel, is worth his weight in gold. If we have
to abandon the old craft, I'll take him home; the owners respect him
just as much as a white man; his politeness and affability could not
but command such esteem, with a man that a'n't a fool. I never
believed in making equals of negroes, but if Manuel was to be
classed with niggers for all the nigger blood that's in him,
seven-tenths of the inhabitants of the earth would go with him. I
never saw such an attachment between brothers, as exists between him
and Tommy. I verily believe that one couldn't go to sleep without
the other. I should think they were brothers, if the lad wasn't
English, and Manuel a Portuguese. But Manuel is as much an
Englishman at heart as the lad, and has sailed so long under the
flag that he seems to have a reverence for the old jack when he sees
the bunting go up. He likes to tell that story about the Patagonians
chasing him. I have overheard him several times, as much amused in
his own recital as if he was listening to the quaint jokes of an old
tar. But he swears the Patagonians will never catch him on their
shores again, for he says he doesn't believe in making 'drum-head of
man-skin,'" said the Captain, evidently with the intention of
affecting the mate's feelings, and drawing his mind from its dark
forebodings.
"Well, Skipper, I pray for a happy deliverance," said the mate, "but
if we make Charleston with her, it'll be a luck that man nor mermaid
ever thought of. I hearn a good deal o' tell about Charleston, and
the Keys. That isn't one of the places our stewards are so 'fraid
of, and where owners don't like to send their ships when they can
find freight in other ports?"
"I expect it is, sir; but I apprehend no such trouble with any of my
crew," answered the Captain promptly. "I sail under the faith of my
nation's honor and prowess, the same as the Americans do under
theirs. We're both respected wherever we go, and if one little State
in the Union violates the responsibility of a great nation like
that, I'm mistaken. Certainly, no nation in Christendom could be
found, that wouldn't open their hearts to a shipwrecked sailor. I
have too much faith in what I have heard of the hospitality of
Southerners, to believe any thing of that kind."
"Talk's all very well, Skipper," said the mate; "but my word for it,
I know'd several ships lying in the Mersey, about three years ago,
bound to Southern ports for cotton. White stewards worth any thing
couldn't be had for love nor money, and the colored ones wouldn't
ship for ports in Slaves States. The Thebis got a colored man, but
the owners had to pay him an enormous advance, and this, too, with
the knowledge of his being locked up the whole time he was in port;
thus having to incur the very useless expense of supplying his
place, or find boarding-house accommodations for the officers and
crew. If it be true, what I've hearn 'em say in the Mersey, the man
doesn't only suffer in his feelings by some sort of confinement they
have, but the owners suffer in pocket. But it may be, Skipper, and
I'm inclined to think with you, our case is certainly deplorable
enough to command pity instead of imprisonment. The government must
be found cutting a dirty figure on the national picture, that would
ill-treat sailors who had suffered as much as our boys have. I would
hate to see Manuel shut up or ill-used. He's as brave a fellow as
ever buckled at a handspike or rode a jib-boom. Last night, while in
the worst of the gale, he volunteered to take Higgins's place, and,
mounting the jib-boom, was several times buried in the sea; yet he
held on like a bravo, and succeeded in cutting away the wreck. I
thought he was gone once or twice, and I own I never saw more peril
at sea; but if he hadn't effected it, the foot of the bowsprit would
have strained her open in the eyes, and we'd all been sharks'-bait
before this. The fellow was nearly exhausted when he came on board;
says I, its gone day with you, old fellow; but he come to in a
little while, and went cheerily to work again," continued Mr. Mate,
who though pleased with the Captain's determination to make the
nearest port, seemed to dread that all would not be right in
Charleston--that the bar was a very intricate one--water very shoal in
the ship-channel, and though marked with three distinctive buoys,
numbered according to their range, impossible to crops without a
skilful pilot. The mate plead a preference for Savannah, asserting,
according to his own knowlege, that a ship of any draft could cross
that bar at any time of tide, and that it was a better port for the
transaction of business.
The Janson was headed for Charleston, the queen city of the sunny
South, and, as may be expected from her disabled condition, made
very slow progress on her course. During the gale, her stores had
become damaged, and on the third day before making Charleston light,
Manuel Pereira came aft, and with a sad countenance reported that
the last cask of good water was nearly out; that the others had all
been stove during the gale, and what remained, so brackish that it
was unfit for use. From this time until their arrival at Charleston,
they suffered those tortures of thirst, which only those who have
endured them can estimate.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHARLESTON POLICE.
MR. DURKEE had said in Congress, that a negro was condemned to be
hung in Charleston for resisting his master's attempts upon the
chastity of his wife; and that such was the sympathy expressed for
the negro, that the sheriffs offer of one thousand dollars could
induce no one present to execute the final mandate. Now, had Mr.
Durkee been better acquainted with that social understanding between
the slave, the pretty wife, and his master, and the acquiescing
pleasure of the slave, who in nineteen cases out of twenty
congratulates himself on the distinguished honor, he would have
saved himself the error of such a charge against the tenor of social
life in Charleston. Or, had he been better acquainted with the
character of her police, he certainly would have saved the talent of
Mr. Aiken its sophomore display in that cumbrous defence. In the
first place, Mr. Durkee would have known that such attempts are so
common among the social events of the day, and so well understood by
the slave, that instead of being resented, they are appreciated to a
great extent. We speak from long experience and knowledge of the
connection between a certain class of slaves and their masters. In
the second place, Mr. Durkee would have known that any man connected
with the city police--save its honorable mayor, to whose character we
would pay all deference--would not for conscience' sake scruple to
hang a man for five dollars. We make no exception for color or
crime. A qualification might be called for, more adapted to our
knowledge of it as it has existed for the last four or five years;
but we are informed by those whose lives and fortunes have been
spent for the moral elevation of the city police, that it was even
worse at the time referred to.
The reader may think we are making grave charges. Let us say,
without fear of refutation, they are too well known in the community
that tolerates them. As a mere shadow of what lays beneath the
surface, we would refer to the only independent speech we ever
listened to in Charleston,--except when self-laudation was the
theme,--made by G. R--, Esq., in one of her public halls a few weeks
ago. Mr. R--is a gentleman of moral courage and integrity, and,
without fear or trembling, openly denounced the corruption and
demoralization of the police department. Even the enemies of his
party, knowing the facts, appreciated his candor as a man, while
they denounced the publicity, (for his speech was paraded by the
press,) lest the fair name of the queen city should suffer abroad. A
beautiful farce followed this grave exposition. The board of
aldermen, composed of fourteen men of very general standing,
remained mum under the accusation for a long time. Its object was to
show up the character of a class of officials, whose character and
nefarious arts have long disgraced the city. But in order to make a
display of his purity, Mr. C--, a gentleman entitled to high moral
consideration, chose to make it a personal matter; yet, not content
with a private explanation given by Mr. R--, he made a call through
the press. Mr. R--responded in a proper and courteous manner,
acknowledging the due respect to which Mr. C--'s private character
was entitled; thus increasing the ambition of the board generally,
who, with the expectation of Mr. R--making a like acknowledgment to
them as a body, (not excepting their honorable head,) made a demand
in joint-officio. This being duly signalized through the columns of
the Courier and Mercury, Mr. R--met it with a response worthy of a
gentleman. He referred them to the strongest evidence of his
assertions, in the countenance which they gave to a class of
officials too well known to the community for the honor of its name
and the moral foundation of its corporate dignity. Thus ended a
great municipal farce, to prolong which the principal performers
knew would disclose the intriguing scenes of their secondary
performers. The plot of this melo-comic concern was in the sequel,
and turned upon the very grave fact of Mr. C--having some time
previous withdrawn from the honorable board, to preserve some very
delicate considerations for conscience' sake.
How much spiritual consolation Mr. C--realized through the
acknowledgment of Mr. R--, or the honorable board in joint-officio
from the firm admonition, we leave for the secondary consideration
of proper wives and daughters.
But the reader will ask, what has this to do with poor Manuel
Pereira,--or the imprisonment of free citizens of a friendly nation?
We will show him that the complex system of official spoliation, and
the misrepresentations of the police in regard to the influence of
such persons upon the slave population, is a principal feature in
its enforcement. To do this, we deem it essentially necessary to
show the character of such men and the manner in which this law is
carried out. We shall make no charges that we cannot sustain by the
evidence of the whole city proper, and with the knowledge that truth
is stronger than fiction.
What will the reader say when we tell him that, among the leading
minds of the city--we say leading minds, for we class those who are
considered foremost in the mercantile sphere among them--are three
brothers, unmarried, but with mistresses bought for the purpose,
whose dark skins avert the tongue of scandal;--that, twice, men were
sold, because of the beauty of their wives, to distant traders, that
the brothers might cast off their old mistresses, and appropriate
new ones to an unholy purpose; that these men enjoy their richly
furnished mansions, are known for their sumptuous entertainments,
set an example of mercantile honor and integrity, are flattered
among the populace, receive the attentions of very fine and very
virtuous ladies, wield a potential voice in the city government, and
lead in the greatest development of internal improvements;--that
these men even whisper high-sounding words of morality, and the
established custom considers their example no harm when color is
modified.
What will the reader think, when we tell him that there is no
city-marshal in Charleston, but innumerable marshalled men,
supported by an onerous tax upon the people, to quiet the fears of a
few. And what will they think, when we tell them that the man whose
name is so frequently sounded through the columns of the press as
the head of police, and applauded for his activity among thieves, is
the well-known prince-officio of a voluptuous dwelling, where
dazzling licentiousness fills his pockets with the spoils of
allurement. This man has several counterparts, whose acts are no
secrets to the public ear, and who turn their office into a mart of
intrigue, and have enriched themselves upon the bounty of espionage
and hush-money, and now assert the dignity of their purse. It may be
asked, why are these men kept in office?--or have these offices
become so disgraced that honest men will not deign to accept them?
No! such is not the case. It is that moral integrity is not
considered in its proper light, and is not valued as it should be;
that these men have a secret influence which is well known, and are
countenanced and retained for the weight of their control among a
certain class; and, strange to say, that the party ex-officio make
these demoralizing things the basis of their complaints against the
"powers that be;" yet such is their feeble dependence, that no
sooner are they in office than we have the repetition of the same
things.
Now, how far his honor is answerable for these things we must leave
the reader to judge. The leading characteristics of his nature
conflict with each other; his moral character is what is considered
sound here; and truly he is entitled to much respect for his
exemplary conduct, whether it be only exerted as an example, or the
heartfelt love of Christian purity. Some people are pious from
impulse, and become affected when purpose serves to make it
profitable. We, however, are not so uncharitable as to charge such
piety to our worthy head of the city government, but rather to a
highly developed organ of the love of office, which has outgrown the
better inclinations of his well-established Christianity.
We must invite the reader's attention to another and still more
glaring evidence of the demoralization of social life in Charleston.
A notorious woman, who has kept the worst kind of a brothel for
years, where harlots of all shades and importations break the
quietude of night with their polluted songs, becomes so bold in her
infamy that she appeals to the gracious considerations of the city
council, (board of aldermen.) How is this? Why, we will tell the
reader:--She remained unmolested in her trade of demoralization,
amassed a fortune which gave her boldness, while her open display
was considered very fine fun for the joking propensities of
officials and gallants. With her wealth she reared a splendid
mansion to infamy and shame, where she, and such as she, whose steps
the wise man tells us "lead down to hell," could sway their victory
over the industrious poor. So public was it, that she openly boasted
its purpose and its adaptation to the ensnaring vices of passion.
Yes, this create in female form had spread ruin and death through
the community, and brought the head of many a brilliant young man to
the last stage of cast-off misery. And yet, so openly tolerated and
countenanced by leading men are these things, that on the 31st of
July, 1852, this mother of crime appeals to the honorable board of
aldermen, as appeared in the "Proceedings of Council" in the
Charleston Courier of that date, in the following manner:
"Laid over until a monied quorum is present.
"Letter from Mrs. G. Pieseitto, informing Council that having
recessed her new brick building in Berresford street at least two
feet, so as to dedicate it to the use of the citizens of Charleston,
if they will pave with flag-stones the front of her lot,
respectfully requests, that if accepted, the work may be done as
soon as possible. Referred to the Aldermen, Ward No. 4." The street
is narrow and little used, except for purposes known to the
lanterns, when honest people should sleep. The information might
have been couched with more modesty, when the notoriety of the woman
and the dedication of her tabernacle of vice was so public. How far
the sensitive aldermen of the fourth ward have proceeded in the
delicate mission, or how much champagne their modest consideration
has cost, the public have not yet been informed. Rumor says every
thing is favorable. We are only drawing from a few principal points,
and shall leave the reader to draw his own inference of the moral
complexion of our social being. We make but one more view, and
resume our story.
An office connected with the judiciary, so long held as one of high
responsibility and honorable position, is now held merely as a
medium of miserable speculation and espionage. It is an elective
office, the representative holding for four years. The present
incumbent was elected more through charity than recompense for any
amiable qualities, moral worth, or efficient services to party ends.
A more weak man could not have been drawn from the lowest scale of
party hirelings, though he had abdicated the office once before to
save his name and the respectability of the judiciary. It may be
said, he was elected in pity to speculate on misery; and thus it
proved in the case of MANUEL PEREIRA. This functionary was elected
by a large majority. Could his moral worth have been taken into
consideration? We should think not! For several times have we been
pointed to two interesting girls,--or, if their color was not
shaded, would be called young ladies--promenading the shady side of
King street, with their faces deeply vailed, and informed who was
their father. The mother of these innocent victims had been a mother
to their father, had nursed him and maintained him through his
adversity, and had lived the partner of his life and affections for
many years, and had reared to him an interesting but fatal family.
But, no sooner had fortune begun to shed its smiling rays, than he
abandoned the one that had watched over him for the choice of one
who could boast no more than a white skin.
If men who fill high places live by teaching others to gratify their
appetites and pleasures alone, instead of setting a commendable
example for a higher state of existence, by whom can we expect that
justice and moral worth shall be respected?
Connected with the city constabulary are two men whose duty it is to
keep a sharp lookout for all vessels arriving, and see that all
negroes or colored seamen are committed to prison. One is a South
Carolinian, by the name of Dusenberry, and the other an Irishman, by
the name of Dunn. These two men, although their office is despicable
in the eyes of many, assume more authority over a certain class of
persons, who are unacquainted with the laws, than the mayor himself.
The former is a man of dark, heavy features, with an assassin-like
countenance, more inclined to look at you distrustfully than to meet
you with an open gaze. He is rather tall and athletic, but never has
been known to do any thing that would give him credit for bravery.
Several times he has been on the brink of losing his office for
giving too much latitude to his craving for perquisites; yet, by
some unaccountable means, he manages to hold on. The other is a
robust son of the Emerald Isle, with a broad, florid face, low
forehead, short crispy hair very red, and knotted over his forehead.
His dress is usually very slovenly and dirty, his shirt-collar
bespotted with tobacco-juice, and tied with an old striped bandana
handkerchief. This, taken with a very wide mouth, flat nose, vicious
eye, and a countenance as hard as ever came from Tipperary, and a
lame leg, which causes him to limp as he walks, gives our man Dunn
the incarnate appearance of a fit body-grabber. A few words will
suffice for his character. He is known to the official department,
of which the magistrates are a constituent part, as a notorious--l;
and his better-half, who, by-the-way, is what is called a
free-trader, meaning, to save the rascality of a husband, sells
liquor by small portions, to suit the Murphys and the O'Neals. But,
as it pleases our Mr. Dunn, he very often becomes a more than
profitable customer, and may be found snoring out the penalty in
some sequestered place, too frequently for his own character.
Between the hours of ten and twelve in the morning, Dunn, if not too
much incapacitated, may be seen limping his way down Broad street,
to watch vessels arriving and departing, carrying a limp-cane in one
hand, and a large covered whip in the other. We were struck with the
appearance of the latter, because it was similar to those carried in
the hands of a rough, menial class of men in Macon, Georgia, who
called themselves marshals, under a misapplication of the term.
Their office was to keep the negro population "straight," and do the
whipping when called upon, at fifty cents a head. They also did the
whipping at the jails, and frequently made from five to six dollars
a day at this alone; for it is not considered fashionable for a
gentleman to whip his own negro. We noticed the universal carrying
of this whip, when we first visited Macon, some four years ago, and
were curious to know its purport, which was elucidated by a friend;
but we have since seen the practical demonstrations painfully
carried out. Those who visited Boston for the recovery of Crafts and
Ellen--whose mode of escape is a romance in itself--were specimens of
these "marshals." How they passed themselves off for gentlemen, we
are at a loss to comprehend.
During the day, the Messrs. Dusenberry and Dunn may be seen at times
watching about the wharves, and again in low grog-shops--then pimping
about the "Dutch beer-shops and corner-shops"--picking up, here and
there, a hopeful-looking nigger, whom they drag off to limbo, or
extort a bribe to let him go. Again, they act as monitors over the
Dutch corner-shops, the keepers of which pay them large sums to save
themselves the heavy license fine and the information docket. When
they are no longer able to pay over hush-money, they find themselves
walked up to the captain's office, to be dealt with according to the
severe penalty made and provided for violating the law which
prohibits the sale of liquor to negroes without an order. The
failure to observe this law is visited with fine and
imprisonment,--both beyond their proportionate deserts, when the law
which governs the sale of liquor to white men is considered. Things
are very strictly regulated by complexions in South Carolina. The
master sets the most dissipated and immoral examples in his own
person, and allows his children not only to exercise their youthful
caprices, but to gratify such feelings as are pernicious to their
moral welfare, upon his slaves. Now, the question is, that knowing
the negro's power of imitation, ought not some allowance to be made
for copying the errors of his master? Yet such is not the case; for
the slightest deviation from the strictest rule of discipline brings
condign punishment upon the head of the offender.
CHAPTER V.
MR. GRIMSHAW, THE MAN OF THE COUNTY.
ON the 22d of March last, about ten o'clock in the morning, a thin,
spare-looking man, dressed in a black cashmeret suit, swallow-tail
coat, loose-cut pants, a straight-breasted vest, with a very
extravagant shirt-collar rolling over upon his coat, with a black
ribbon tied at the throat, stood at the east corner of Broad and
Meeting street, holding a very excited conversation with officers
Dusenberry and Dunn. His visage was long, very dark--much more so
than many of the colored population--with pointed nose and chin,
standing in grim advance to each other; his face narrow, with high
cheek-bones, small, peering eyes, contracted forehead, reclining
with a sunken arch between the perceptive and intellectual
organs--or, perhaps, we might have said, where those organs should
have been. His countenance was full of vacant restlessness; and as
he stared at you through his glasses, with his silvery gray hair
hanging about his ears and neck in shaggy points, rolling a large
quid of tobacco in his mouth, and dangling a little whip in his
right hand, you saw the index to his office. As he raised his voice--
which he did by twisting his mouth on one side, and working his chin
to adjust his enormous quid--the drawling tone in which he spoke gave
a picture not easily forgotten.
"You must pay more attention to the arrivals," said he in a
commanding tone. "The loss of one of these fellers is a serious
drawback to my pocket; and that British consul's using the
infernalest means to destroy our business, that ever was. He's worse
than the vilest abolitionist, because he thinks he's protected by
that flag of their'n. If he don't take care, we'll tar-and-feather
him; and if his government says much about it, she'll larn what and
who South Carolina is. We can turn out a dozen Palmetto regiments
that'd lick any thing John Bull could send here, and a troop o' them
d--d Yankee abolitionists besides. South Carolina's got to show her
hand yet against these fellers, afore they'll respect the honor and
standing of her institutions. They can't send their navy to hurt us.
And it shows that I always predicts right; for while these
commercial fellers about the wharves are telling about digging out
the channel, I've al'ays said they didn't think how much injury they
were doing; for it was our very best protection in war-time. South
Carolina can lick John Bull, single-fisted, any time; but if that
pack of inconsiderate traders on the wharves get their own way, away
goes our protection, and John Bull would bring his big ships in and
blow us up. And these fellows that own ships are getting so bold,
that a great many are beginning to side with Mathew, the consul.
Yes, they even swear that 'tis the officials that stick to the law
for the sake of the fees. Now, if I only knew that the consul was
the means of that Nassau nigger getting away, I'd raise a mob, and
teach him a lesson that South Carolinians ought to have teached him
before. It took about seventeen dollars out of my pocket, and if I
was to sue him for it, I could get no recompense. The next time you
allow one to escape, I must place some other officer over the port,"
said our man whom, we shall continue to call Mr. Grimshaw.
"Sure I heard the same consul, when spakin to a gintleman, say that
the law was only an abuse of power, to put money into the pockets of
yourself and a few like ye. And whin meself and Flin put the irons
on a big nigger that the captain was endeavoring to skulk by keeping
him in the forecastle of the ship, he interfered between me and me
duty, and began talking his balderdash about the law. Sure, with his
own way, he'd have every nigger in the city an abolitionist in three
weeks. And sure, Mr. Sheriff, and ye'd think they were babies, if
ye'd see himself talk to them at the jail, and send them up things,
as if they were better than the other criminals, and couldn't live
on the jail fare," said officer Dunn, who continued to pledge
himself to the sheriff that the wharves should not be neglected, nor
a hopeful English darky escape his vigilant eye.
"For my own part, I think they're better off in jail than they would
be on the wharf," continued Grimshaw. "They're a worthless set, and
ha'n't half the character that a majority of our slaves have; and
instead of attending the captain on board, they'd be into Elliot
street, spending their money, getting drunk, and associating with
our worst niggers. And they all know so much about law, that they're
always teaching our bad niggers the beauties of their government,
which makes them more unhappy than they are. Our niggers are like a
shoal of fish--when one becomes diseased, he spreads it among all the
rest; and before you know where you are, they're done gone."
"They're not very profitable customers for us, Sheriff," said
Dusenberry. "We have a deal of watching, and a mighty smart lot of
trouble after we get them fellows; and if we get a perquisite, it
never amounts to much, for I seldom knew one that had money enough
to treat as we took him up. These Britishers a'n't like us; they
don't pay off in port and if the fellows get any thing in jail from
the consul, it's by drib-drabs, that a'n't no good, for it all goes
for liquor. And them criminals make a dead haul upon a black
steward, as soon as he is locked up. But if these sympathizing fools
follow up their bugbears about the treatment at the jail, they'll
get things so that our business won't be worth a dollar. For my own
part, I'm not so much beholdin', for I've made myself comfortable
within the last few years, but I want my son to succeed me in the
office. But if this consul of their'n keeps up his objections,
appeals, and his protests in this way, and finds such men as his
honor the district-attorney to second him with his nonsense and his
notions, folks of our business might as well move north of Mason and
Dixon's."
"I can wake him up to a point," said Grimshaw, "that that abolition
consul ha'n't learnt before; and if he'd stuck his old petition in
Charles Sumner's breeches pocket instead of sending it to our
legislature, he might have saved his old-womanish ideas from the
showing' up that Myzeck gave 'em. It takes Myzeck to show these
blue-skin Yankees how to toe the mark when they come to South
Carolina. If South Carolina should secede, I'd say give us Myzeck
and Commander to lead our war, and we'd be as sure to whip 'em as we
won the Mexican war for the Federal Government. There is three
things about an Englishman, Dusenberry, which you may mark for
facts. He is self-conceited, and don't want to be advised;--he
thinks there is no law like the law of England, and that the old
union-jack is a pass-book of nations;--and he thinks everybody's
bound to obey his notions of humanity and the dictates of his
positive opinions. But what's worse than all, they've never seen the
sovereignty of South Carolina carried out, and according to Consul
Mathew's silly notions, they think we could be licked by a gun-boat.
"It's no use arguing this thing, you must keep a keen eye upon the
English niggers; and when a man pretends to dispute the right, tell
him its 'contrary to law,' and to look at the statute-books; tell
him it costs more to keep them than they're all worth; and if they
say the law was never intended for foreign citizens, tell 'em its
'contrary to law.' South Carolina's not bound to obey the voice of
the General Government, and what does she care for the federal
courts? We'll pursue a course according to the law; and any thing
that is contrary to it we will take care of for the better
protection of our institutions. Now, don't let one pass, upon the
peril of your office," continued Mr. Grimshaw.
"It's not a button I'd care for the office," said Dunn. "Sure it's
yerself be's makin' all the fees, and ourselves getting the paltry
dollar; and yerself gives us as much trouble to get that as we'd be
earning two dollars at magistrate Jiles' beyant. Sure! himself's
liberal and doesn't be afraid to give us a division of the fees when
the business is good. And sure ye make yer ten times the fees on an
English nigger, and never gives us beyant the dollar," continued he,
moving off in high dudgeon, and swearing a stream of oaths that made
the very blood chill. There was a covert meaning about Mr.
Grimshaw's language that was not at all satisfactory to Mr. Dunn's
Irish; especially when he knew Mr. Grimshaw's insincerity so well,
and that, instead of being liberal, he pocketed a large amount of
the fees, to the very conscientious benefit of his own dear self.
The reader must remember that in Charleston, South Carolina, there
is a large majority of men who care little for law, less for
justice, and nothing for Christianity. Without compunction of
conscience, and with an inherited passion to set forward the
all-absorbing greatness of South Carolina, these men act as a check
upon the better-disposed citizens. The more lamentable part is, that
forming a large portion of that species of beings known as bar-room
politicians, they actually control the elections in the city; and
thus we may account for the character of the incumbents of office,
and for the tenacity with which those oppressive laws are adhered
to.
This almost incompatible conversation between a high sheriff and two
menial constables, may to many seem inconsistent with the dignity
that should be observed between such functionaries. Nevertheless,
all restraint is not only annihilated by consent, but so prominently
is this carried out, and so well understood by that respectable
class of citizens whose interests and feelings are for maintaining a
good name for the city and promoting its moral integrity, that in
all our conversation with them, we never heard one speak well of
those functionaries or the manner in which the police regulations of
the city were carried out.
CHAPTER VI.
THE JANSON IN THE OFFING.
AFTER several days' suffering for want of wafer and fatigue of
labor, several of the crew were reported upon the sick-list. Manuel,
who had borne his part nobly and cheerfully, was among the number;
and his loss was more severely felt, having done a double duty, and
succeeded, as far as the means were at hand, in making everybody on
board comfortable. He had attended upon those who gave up first,
like a good nurse, ready at the call, whether night or day, and with
a readiness that seemed pleasure to him. From the captain to the
little boy Tommy, his loss was felt with regret; and the latter
would often go into the forecastle where he lay, lean over him with
a child-like simplicity, and smooth his forehead with his little
hand. "Manuel! I wish poor Manuel was well!" he would say, and again
he would lay his little hand on his head and smooth his hair. He
would whisper encouragement in his ear; and having learned a
smattering of Portuguese, would tell him how soon they would be in
port, and what pleasant times they would have together.
On the 21st they descried land, which proved to be Stono, about
twenty-five miles south of Charleston. Tommy announced the news to
Manuel, which seemed to cheer him up. His sickness was evidently
caused by fatigue, and his recovery depended more upon rest and
nourishment than medical treatment. That night at ten o'clock the
wind came strong north-west, and drove the Janson some distance to
sea again; and it was not until the morning of the 23d that she made
Charleston light, and succeeded in working up to the bar. Signal was
made for a pilot, and soon, a very fine cutter-looking boat,
"Palmetto, No. 4," was seen shooting out over the bar in the main
channel. Manuel, somewhat recovered, had a few minutes before been
assisted on deck, and through the captain's orders was laid upon a
mattrass, stretched on the starboard side of the companion-way. By
his side sat little Tommy, serving him with some nourishment.
The boat was soon alongside, and the pilot, a middle-sized man, well
dressed, with a frank, open countenance, rather florid and
sun-stained, and a profusion of gold chain and seal dangling from
his fob, came on board. After saluting the captain, he surveyed the
weather-beaten condition of the craft, made several inquiries in
regard to her working, and then said in a sang-froid manner, "Well!
I reckon you've seen some knocking, anyhow." Then turning again and
giving some orders in regard, to getting more way upon her, he
viewed the laborious working at the pumps, and walking about
midships on the larboard side, took a sharp survey of her waist.
"Don't she leak around her topsides, Captain?" said he.
Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he gave a glance aloft, and
then at the sky to windward; asked how long he had worked her in
that condition, and where he took the gale. "It's a wonder she
hadn't swamped ye before now. I'd a' beached her at the first point,
if she'd bin mine; I'd never stand at slapping an old craft like
this on. She reminds me of one o' these down-east sugar-box crafts
what trade to Cuba," he continued. Then walking across the
main-hatch to the starboard side, he approached the men who were
pumping, and after inquiring about freeing her, suddenly caught a
glimpse of Manuel, as he lay upon the mattrass with his face
uncovered.
"Heavens! What! have you got the yellow fever on board at this
season of the year?" he inquired of the mate, who had just come aft
to inquire about getting some water from the pilot-boat.
"No, we've had every thing else but the yellow fever; one might as
well bin on a raft as such an infernal unlucky old tub as she is.
It's the steward, sir--he's got a touch of a fever; but he'll soon be
over it. He only wants rest, poor fellow! He's bin a bully at work
ever since the first gale. He'll mend before he gets to town," was
the reply.
"Ah! then you've had a double dose of it. It gives a fellow bringer
off them capes once in a while.--The steward's a nigger, isn't he?"
inquired the pilot.
"Nigger!--not he," said the mate. "He's a Portuguese mixed breed; a
kind o' sun-scorched subject, like a good many of you Southerners. A
nigger's mother never had him, you may bet your 'davie on that.
There's as much white blood in his jacket as anybody's got, only
them Portuguese are dark-lookin' fellers. He's no fool--his name's
Manuel, a right clever feller, and the owners think as much of him
as they do of the Skipper."
"Gammon," said the pilot to himself. "What would he think if we were
to show him some specimens of our white niggers in Charleston?" And
turning, he walked past Manuel with a suspicious look, and took a
position near the man at the wheel, where he remained for some time
fingering the seals of his watch-chain. The Captain had gone into
the cabin a few minutes before, and coming on deck again, walked
toward the place where the pilot stood, and took a seat upon an old
camp-stool.
"Cap," said the pilot, "ye'll have trouble with that nigger of
your'n when ye git to town. If you want to save yerself and the
owners a d--d site o' bother and expense, y' better keep him close
when y' haul in; and ship him off to New York the first chance. I've
seen into the mill, Cap, and y' better take a friend's advice."
"Nigger!" said the Captain indignantly, "what do they call niggers
in Charleston? My steward's no more a nigger than you are!"
"What, sir?" returned the pilot in a perfect rage. "Do you know the
insulting nature of your language? Sir, if the law did not subject
me, I would leave your vessel instantly, and hold you personally
responsible as soon as you landed, sir."
The Captain, unconscious of the tenacity with which the chivalrous
blood of South Carolina held language that mooted a comparison of
colors, considered his answer; but could see nothing offensive in
it.
"You asked me a question, and I gave you a proper answer. If you
consider such a man as my steward--poor fellow--a nigger, in your
country, I'm glad that you are blessed with so many good men."
"We polishes our language, Captain, when we speak of niggers in
South Carolina," said the pilot. "A South Carolinian, sir, is a
gentleman all over the world. It don't want nothin' further than the
name of his State to insure him respect. And when foreign folks and
Northerners from them abolition States bring free niggers into South
Carolina, and then go to comparing them to white folks, they better
be mighty careful how they stir about. South Carolina ought to've
seceded last year, when she talked about it, and sent every Yankee
home to make shoe-pegs. We wouldn't bin insulted then, as we are
now. I'll tell you what it is, Cap," said he, rather cooling off,
"if our folks was only as spunky as they were in eighteen hundred
and thirty-two times, them fellers what come here to feed upon South
Carolina, put the devil in the heads of the niggers, and then go
home again, would see stars and feel bullet-holes."
The Captain listened to the pilot's original South Carolina talk,
or, as the pilot himself had called it, polished language, without
exhibiting any signs of fear and trembling at its sublime dignity;
yet, finding that the pilot had misconstrued the tenor of his
answer, said, "You must have mistaken the intention of my reply,
sir; and the different manner in which you appropriate its import
may be attributed to a custom among yourselves, which makes language
offensive that has no offensive meaning. We never carry pistols or
any such playthings in my country. We have a moral security for our
lives, and never look upon death as so great an enemy that we must
carry deadly weapons to defend it. In fact, pilot," he said in a
joking manner, "they're rather cumbersome little bits for a feller's
pocket: I'd rather carry my supper and breakfast in my pocket. Now
tell us, who do you call niggers in South Carolina?"
"Why, Captain, we call all what a'n't white folks. Our folks can
tell 'em right smart. They can't shirk out if it's only marked by
the seventeenth generation. You can always tell 'em by the way they
look--they can't look you in the face, if they are ever so white. The
law snaps 'em up once in a while, and then, if they're ever so
white, it makes 'em prove it. I've known several cases where the
doubt was in favor of the nigger, but he couldn't prove it, and had
to stand aside among the darkies. Dogs take my skin, Cap, if
theren't a Jew feller in town as white as anybody, and his father's
a doctor. It got whispered round that he was a nigger, and the
boarders where he stayed raised a fuss about it. The nigger's father
had two of them sued for slander, but they proved the nigger by a
quirk of law that'd make a volume bigger than Blackstone; and
instead of the old Jew getting satisfaction, the judges, as a matter
of policy, granted him time to procure further proof to show that
his son wasn't a nigger. It was a very well-considered insinuation
of the judges, but the young-un stands about A 1 with a prime
nigger-feller."
"I should like to have 'em try me, to see whether I was a nigger or
a white man. It must be a funny law, 'nigger or no nigger.' If a
feller's skin won't save him, what the devil will?" said the
Captain.
"Why, show your mother and her generation were white, to be sure!
It's easy enough done, and our judges are all very larned in such
things--can tell in the twinkling of an eye," said the pilot.
"I should think the distinguishing points would be to show that
their mother had nothing to do with a nigger. Do your judges make
this a particular branch of jurisprudence? If they do, I'd like to
know what they took for their text-books. If the intermixture is as
complex as what you say, I should think some of the judges would be
afraid of passing verdict upon their own kin."
"Not a whit!" said the pilot; "they know enough for that."
"Then you admit there's a chance. It must be an amusing affair, 'pon
my soul! when a nice little female has to draw aside her vail before
a court of very dignified judges, for the purpose of having her
pedigree examined," said the Captain.
"Oh! the devil, Cap; your getting all astray--a woman nigger never
has the advantage of the law. They always go with the niggers, ah!
ha! ha!!"
"But suppose they're related to some of your big-bugs. What then?
Are your authorities so wise and generous that they make allowance
for these things," asked the Captain, innocently.
"Oh! poh! there you're again: you must live in Charleston a year or
two, but you'll have to be careful at first that you don't fall in
love with some of our bright gals, and think they're white, before
you know it. It doesn't matter seven coppers who they're got by,
there's no distinction among niggers in Charleston. I'll put you
through some of the bright houses when we get up, and show you some
scions of our aristocracy, that are the very worst cases. It's a
fact, Cap, these little shoots of the aristocracy invariably make
bad niggers. If a fellow wants a real prime, likely nigger wench, he
must get the pure African blood. As they say themselves, 'Wherever
Buckra-man bin, make bad nigger.'"
"Well, Pilot, I think we've had enough about mixed niggers for the
present. Tell me! do you really think they'll give me trouble with
my steward? He certainly is not a black man, and a better fellow
never lived," inquired the Captain earnestly.
"Nothing else, Cap," said the pilot. "It's a hard law, I tell you,
and if our merchants and business men had a say in it, 'twouldn't
last long; ye can't pass him off for a white man nohow, for the
thing's 'contrary to law,' and pays so well that them contemptible
land-sharks of officers make all the fuss about it, and never let
one pass. Just take the infernal fees off, and nobody'd trouble
themselves about the stewards. It all goes into old Grimshaw's
pocket, and he'd skin a bolt-rope for the grease, and sell the
steward if he could get a chance. He has sold a much nearer
relation. I'm down upon the law, you'll see, Cap, for I know it
plays the dickens with our business, and is a curse to the commerce
of the port. Folks what a'n't acquainted with shipping troubles, and
a shipowner's interests, think such things are very small affairs.
But it's the name that affects us, and when an owner stands at every
item in the disbursements, and a heavy bill for keeping his steward,
and another for filling his place, or boarding-house accommodations,
and then be deprived of his services, he makes a wry face, and
either begins to think about another port, or making the rate of
freight in proportion to the annoyance. It has an effect that we
feel, but don't say much about. I'm a secessionist, but I don't
believe in running mad after politics, and letting our commercial
interests suffer."
"But what if I prove my steward a'n't a colored man?" said the
Captain; "they surely won't give me any trouble then. It would pain
my feelings very much to see Manuel locked up in a cell for no
crime; and then to be deprived of his services, is more than I can
stand. If I'd known it before, I'd suffered the torments of thirst,
and put for a port farther north."
"It'll cost more than it's worth," said the pilot. "Take my plain
advice, Cap; never try that; our lawyers are lusty fellows upon
fees; and the feller'd rot in that old nuisance of a jail afore
you'd get him out. The process is so slow and entangled, nobody'd
know how to bring the case, and ev'ry lawyer'd have an opinion of
his own. But the worst of all is that it's so unpopular, you can't
get a lawyer worth seven cents to undertake it. It would be as
dangerous as an attempt to extricate a martyr from the burning
flames. Public opinion in Charleston is controlled by politicians;
and an attempt to move in a thing so unpopular would be like a man
attempting to speak, with pistols and swords pointed to his head."
"Then it's folly to ask justice in your city, is it?" asked the
Captain. "But your people are generous, a'n't they? and treat
strangers with a courtesy that marks the character of every
high-minded society?"
"Yes!--but society in South Carolina has nothing to do with the law;
our laws are gloriously ancient. I wish, Cap, I could only open your
ideas to the way our folks manage their own affairs. I'm opposed to
this law that imprisons stewards, because it affects commerce, but
then our other laws are tip-top. It was the law that our legislature
made to stop free niggers from coming from the abolition States to
destroy the affections of our slaves. Some say, the construction
given to it and applied to stewards of foreign vessels a'n't legal,
and wasn't intended; but now it's controlled by popular will,--the
stewards a'n't legislators, and the judges know it wouldn't be
popular, and there's nobody dare meddle with it, for fear he may be
called an abolitionist. You better take my advice, Cap: ship the
nigger, and save yourself and Consul Mathew the trouble of another
fuss," continued the pilot.
"That I'll never do! I've made up my mind to try it, and won't be
driven out of a port because the people stand in fear of a harmless
man. If they have any souls in them, they'll regard with favor a
poor sailor driven into their port in distress. I've sailed nearly
all over the world, and I never got among a people yet that wouldn't
treat a shipwrecked sailor with humanity. Gracious God! I've known
savages to be kind to poor shipwrecked sailors, and to share their
food with them. I can't, pilot, imagine a civilization so degraded,
nor a public so lost to common humanity, as to ill treat a man in
distress. We've said enough about it for the present. I'll appeal to
Mr. Grimshaw's feelings, when I get to the city; and I know, if he's
a man, he'll let Manuel stay on board, if I pledge my honor that he
won't leave the craft."
"Humph!--If you knew him as well as I do, you'd save your own
feelings. His sympathies don't run that way," said the pilot.
The Janson had now crossed the bar, and was fast approaching Fort
Sumpter. Manuel had overheard enough of the conversation to awaken
fears for his own safety. Arising from the mattrass, in a manner
indicating his feeble condition, he called Tommy, and walking
forward, leaned over the rail near the fore-rigging, and inquired
what the Captain and the pilot were talking about. Observing his
fears, the little fellow endeavoured to quiet him by telling him
they were talking about bad sailors.
"I think it is me they are talking about. If they sell me for slave
in Charleston, I'll kill myself before a week," said he in his
broken English.
"What's that you say, Manuel?" inquired the first mate as he came
along, clearing up the decks with the men.
"Pilot tell Captain they sell me for slave in South Carolina. I'd
jump overboard 'fore I suffer him," said he.
"Oh, poh! don't be a fool; you a'n't among Patagonians, Manuel; you
won't have to give 'em leg for your life. They dont sell foreigners
and outlandish men like you for slaves in Carolina--it's only black
folks what can't clothe the'r words in plain English. Yer
copper-colored hide wouldn't be worth a sixpence to a
nigger-trader--not even to old Norman Gadsden, that I've heard 'em
tell so much about in the Liverpool docks. He's a regular Jonathan
Wild in nigger-dealing; his name's like a fiery dragon among the
niggers all over the South; and I hearn our skipper say once when I
sailed in a liner, that niggers in Charleston were so 'fraid of him
they'd run, like young scorpions away from an old he-devil, when
they saw him coming. He sells white niggers, as they call 'em, and
black niggers--any thing that comes in his way, in the shape of
saleable folks. But he won't acknowledge the corn when he goes away
from home, and swears there's two Norman Gadsdens in Charleston;
that he a'n't the one! When a man's ashamed of his name abroad, his
trade must be very bad at home, or I'm no sailor," said the mate.
"Ah, my boys!" said the pilot in a quizzical manner, as he came to
where several of the men were getting the larboard anchor ready to
let go,--"if old Norman Gadsden gets hold of you, you're a gone
sucker. A man what's got a bad nigger has only got to say Old
Gadsden to him, and it's equal to fifty paddles. The mode of
punishment most modern, and adopted in all the workhouses and places
of punishment in South Carolina, is with the paddle, a wooden
instrument in, the shape of a baker's peel; with a blade from three
to five inches wide, and from eight to ten long. This is laid on the
posteriors--generally by constables or officers connected with the
police. Holes are frequently bored in the blade, which gives the
application a sort of percussive effect; The pain is much more acute
than with the cowhide; and several instances are known where a
master ordered an amount of strokes beyond the endurance of the
slave, and it proved fatal. at the workhouse. They tell a pretty
good story about the old fellow. I don't know if it's true, but the
old fellow's rich now, and he does just what he pleases. It was that
somebody found one of those little occasional droppings of the
aristocracy, very well known among the secrets of the chivalry, and
called foundlings, nicely fixed up in a basket.--It's among the
secrets though, and mustn't be told abroad.--The finders labelled
it, 'Please sell to the highest bidder,' and left it at his door.
There was a fund of ominous meaning in the label; but Norman very
coolly took the little helpless pledge under his charge, and, with
the good nursing of old Bina, made him tell to the tune of two
hundred and thirty, cash, 'fore he was two year old. He went by the
name of Thomas Norman, the Christian division of his
foster-father's, according to custom. The old fellow laughs at the
joke, as he calls it, and tells 'em, when they stick it to him, they
don't understand the practice of making money. You must keep a
bright look out for him, Manuel--you'll know him by the niggers
running when they see him coming."
The pilot now returned to the quarter, and commenced dilating upon
the beauty of Charleston harbor and its tributaries, the Astley and
Cooper Rivers--then upon the prospects of fortifications to beat the
United States in the event of South Carolina's seceding and raising
an independent sovereignty, composed of her best blood. The Captain
listened to his unsolicited and uninteresting exposition of South
Carolina's prowess in silence, now and then looking up at the pilot
and nodding assent. He saw that the pilot was intent upon
astonishing him with his wonderful advancement in the theory of
government, and the important position of South Carolina. Again he
looked dumbfounded, as much as to acknowledge the pilot's
profundity, and exclaimed, "Well! South Carolina must be a devil of
a State: every thing seems captivated with its greatness: I'd like
to live in Carolina if I didn't get licked."
"By scissors! that you would, Captain; you ha'n't an idee what a
mighty site our people can do if they're a mind to! All South
Carolina wants is her constitutional rights, which her great men
fought for in the Revolution. We want the freedom to protect our own
rights and institutions--not to be insulted and robbed by the
General Government and the abolitionists."
"Do you practice as a people upon the same principles that you ask
of the General Government!" inquired the Captain.
"Certainly, Captain, as far as it was intended for the judicious
good of all white citizens!"
"Then you claim a right for the whites, but withhold the right when
it touches on the dark side. You'll have to lick the Federal
Government, as you call it, for they won't cut the constitution up
to suit your notions of black and white." * * *
"That's just the thing, Cap, and we can do it just as easy as we now
protect our own laws, and exterminate the niggers what attempt
insurrections. South Carolina sets an example, sir, of honor and
bravery that can't be beat. Why, just look a-yonder, Cap: the
Federal Government owns this 'er Fort Sumpter, and they insulted us
by building it right in our teeth, so that they could command the
harbor, block out our commerce, and collect the duties down here.
But, Cap, this don't scare South Carolina nohow. We can show 'em two
figures in war tactics that'd blow 'em to thunder. Ye see yonder!"
said he, with an earnest look of satisfaction, pointing to the
south, "That's Morris Island. We'd take Fort Moultrie for a
breakfast spell, and then we'd put it to 'em hot and strong from
both sides, until they'd surrender Fort Sumpter. They couldn't stand
it from both sides. Yes, sir, they shut Fort Moultrie against us,
and wouldn't let us have it to celebrate independence in. There's a
smouldering flame in South Carolina that'll burst forth one of these
days in a way that must teach the Federal Government some
astonishing and exciting lessons. There's old Castle Pinckney, sir;
we could keep it for a reserve, and with Generals Quattlebum and
Commander, from Georgetown and Santee Swamp, we could raise an army
of Palmetto regiments that would whip the Federal Government troop
and gun-boat."
We have given this singular conversation of the pilot with a strange
Captain, which at the time was taken as an isolated case of
gasconade peculiar to the man; but which the Captain afterward found
to harmonize in sentiment, feeling, and expression with the general
character of the people--the only exceptions being the colored
people.
CHAPTER VII.
ARRIVAL OF THE JANSON.
ABOUT five o'clock on the evening of the 23d, the Janson passed
Castle Pinckney, ran up to the wharf with the flood-tide, let go her
anchor, and commenced warping into the dock. Her condition attracted
sundry persons to the end of the wharf, who viewed her with a sort
of commiseration that might have been taken for sincere feeling. The
boarding officer had received her papers, and reported her character
and condition, which had aroused a feeling of speculative curiosity,
that was already beginning to spread among ship-carpenters and
outfitters.
Conspicuous among those gathered on the wharf was a diminutive
little dandy, with an olive-colored frock-coat, black pants,
embroidered vest, and an enormous shirt-collar that endangered his
ears. This was secured around the neck with a fancy neckcloth, very
tastefully set off with a diamond pin, He was very slender, with a
narrow, feminine face, round popeyes--requiring the application of a
pocket-glass every few minutes--and very fair complexion, with little
positive expression of character in his features. His nose was
pointed; his chin, projected and covered with innumerable little
pimples, gave an irregular and mastiff-shaped mouth a peculiar
expression. He wore a very highly-polished and high-heeled pair of
boots, and a broad-brimmed, silk-smooth hat. He seemed very anxious
to display the beauty of two diamond rings that glittered upon his
delicate little fingers, made more conspicuous by the wristbands of
his shirt. Standing in a very conspicuous place upon the capsill of
the wharf, he would rub his hands, then running from one part of the
wharf to another, ordering sundry niggers about making fast the
lines, kicking one, and slapping another, as he stooped, with his
little hand. All paid respect to him. The Captain viewed him with a
smile of curiosity, as much as to say, "What important specimen of a
miss in breeches is that?" But when the little fellow spoke, the
secret was told. He gathered the inflections of his voice, as if he
were rolling them over the little end of a thunderbolt in his mouth.
As the vessel touched the wharf, he sprang to the corner and cried
out at the top of his voice, "Yer' welcome to Charleston, Captain
Thompson! Where did you get that knocking?--where are ye bound
for?--how many days are you out?--how long has she leaked in that
way?" and a strain of such questions, which it would be impossible
to trace, such was the rapidity with which he put them. The Captain
answered him in accordance with the circumstances; and supposing him
clothed with authority, inquired where he should find some hands to
work his pumps, in order to relieve his men. "By-Je-w-hu! Captain,
you must a' had a piping time, old feller. Oh! yes, you want help to
work your pumps. Get niggers, Captain, there's lots on 'em about
here. They're as thick as grasshoppers in a cotton-patch."
"Yes, but I want 'em now, my men are worn out; I must get some
Irishmen, if I can't get others at once," said the Captain, viewing
his man again from head to foot.
"Oh! don't employ Paddies, Captain; 'ta'n't popular; they don't
belong to the secession party; Charleston's overrun with them and
the Dutch! Why, she won't hurt to lay till to-morrow morning, and
there'll be lots o' niggers down; they can't be out after bell-ring
without a pass, and its difficult to find their masters after dark.
Haul her up 'till she grounds, and she won't leak when the tide
leaves her. We can go to the theatre and have a right good supper
after, at Baker's or the St. Charles's. It's the way our folks live.
We live to enjoy ourselves in South Carolina. Let the old wreck go
to-night." The little fellow seemed so extremely polite, and so
anxious to "do the genteel attention," that the Captain entirely
forgot the tenor of his conversation with the pilot, while his
feelings changed with the prospect of such respectful attention; and
yet he seemed at a loss how to analyze the peculiar character of his
little, pedantic friend.
"You must not think me intrusive, Captain," said he, pulling out his
segar-pouch and presenting it with at Chesterfieldian politeness.
"It's a pleasure we Carolinians take in being hospitable and
attentive to strangers. My name, sir, is--! My niggers call me
Master George. Yes, sir! our family!--you have heard of my father
probably--he belongs to one of the best stocks in Carolina--owns a
large interest in this wharf, and is an extensive cotton-broker,
factors, we call them here--and he owns a large plantation of niggers
on Pee-Dee; you must visit our plantation. Captain, certain! before
you leave the city. But you mustn't pay much attention to the gossip
you'll hear about the city. I pledge you my honor, sir, it don't
amount to any thing, nor has it any prominent place in our society."
"Really, sir," replied the Captain, "I shall do myself the honor to
accept of your hospitable kindness, and hope it may be my good
fortune to reciprocate at some future day. I'm only too sorry that
our wrecked condition affords me no opportunity to invite you to my
table to-night; but the circumstances which you see everywhere
presenting themselves are my best apology."
"Oh, dear me! don't mention it, I pray, Captain. Just imagine
yourself perfectly at home. We will show you what Southern
hospitality is. We don't go upon the Yankee system of Mr. So-and-so
and What-do-ye-call-'um. Our feelings are in keeping with our State
pride, which, with our extreme sensibility of honor, forbids the
countenance of meanness. South Carolinians, sir, are at the very top
of the social ladder--awake to every high-minded consideration of
justice and right. We are not moved by those morbid excitements and
notions that so often lead people away at the North. Make no
unnecessary preparation, Captain, and I will do myself the honor to
call upon you in an hour." Thus saying, he shook his hand and left.
The pilot had delivered his charge safe, and was about to, bid the
Captain good-by for the night. But in order to do the thing in
accordance with an English custom, that appears to have lost none of
its zest in South Carolina, he was invited into the Captain's cabin
to take a little prime old Jamaica. Manuel, who had somewhat
recovered, brought out the case from a private locker, and setting
it before them, they filled up, touched glasses, and drank the usual
standing toast to South Carolina. "Pilot," said the Captain, "who
is my polite friend--he seems a right clever little fellow?"
"Well, Captain, he's little, but he's first-rate blood, and a
genuine sprig of the chivalry. He's a devil of a secessionist, sir.
If ye were to hear that fellow make a stump speech on States'
rights, you'd think him a Samson on Government. His father is the
head of a good mercantile house here; 'twouldn't be a bad idea to
consign to him. But I must bid you good-night, Captain; I'll call
and see you to-morrow," said the pilot, leaving for his home.
The Janson was hauled well up the dock, and grounded on the
ebb-tide. Manuel prepared supper for the officers and crew, while
the Captain awaited the return of his new acquaintance. "Captain,"
said Manuel, "I should like to go ashore to-night and take a walk,
for my bones are sore, and I'm full of pains. I think it will do me
good. You don't think anybody will trouble me, if I walk peaceably
along?"
"Nobody would trouble you if they knew you, Manuel; but I am afraid
they will mistake you in the night. You had better keep ship until
morning; take a good rest, and to-morrow will be a fine day--you can
then take some exercise."
Manuel looked at the Captain as if he read something doubtful in his
countenance, and turned away with a pitiful look of dissatisfaction.
It seems that through his imperfect knowledge of English, he had
misconceived the position of the celebrated Thomas Norman Gadsden,
whom he imagined to be something like an infernal machine, made and
provided by the good citizens of Charleston to catch bad niggers.
"Nora-ma Gazine no catch-e me, Cap-i-tan, if me go ashore, 'case me
no make trouble in no part de world where me sail, Oh! no,
Cap-i-tan, Manuel know how to mine dis bisness," said he returning
again to the Captain.
"Yes, yes, Manuel, but we can't let the crew go ashore 'till we get
through the custom-house; you must content yourself to-night, and in
the morning 'twill be all right. I'm afraid you'll get sick
again-the night-air is very bad in this climate; old Gadsden won't
trouble you. He don't walk about at night."
Manuel walked forward, not very well satisfied with the manner in
which the Captain put him off. The latter felt the necessity of
caution, fearing he might infringe upon some of the municipal
regulations that the pilot had given him an account of, which
accounted for his refusal Manuel sat upon the main-hatch fondling
Tommy, and telling him what good things they would have in the
morning for breakfast, and how happy they ought to be that they were
not lost during the gales, little thinking that he was to be the
victim of a merciless law, which would confine him within the iron
grates of a prison before the breakfast hour in the morning. "I like
Charleston, Tommy," said Manuel; "it looks like one of our old
English towns, and the houses have such pretty gardens, and the
people they say are all so rich and live so fine. Tommy, we'll have
a long walk and look all around it, so that we can tell the folks
when we get home. The ship, owes me eleven pounds, and I mean to
take some good things home for presents, to show what they have in
South Carolina."
"You better buy a young nigger, and take him home as a curiosity to
show among the Highlands. You can buy a young Sambo for any price,
just the same as you would a leg of mutton at the butcher's; put him
in a band-box, lug him across, and you'll make a fortune in the
North country. But I'd rather buy a young wife, for the young
niggers are more roguish than a lot o' snakes, and al'a's eat their
heads off afore they're big enough to toddle. They sell gals here
for niggers whiter than you are, Manuel; they sell 'em at auction,
and then they sell corn to feed 'em on. Carolina's a great region of
supersensual sensibility; they give you a wife of any color or
beauty, and don't charge you much for her, providing you're the
right stripe. What a funny thing it would be to show the Glasgow
folks a bright specimen of a bought wife from the renowned State of
South Carolina, with genuine aristocratic blood in her veins; yes, a
pure descendant of the Huguenots!" said the mate, who was leaning
over the rail where Manuel and Tommy were seated, smoking a segar
and viewing the beautiful scenery around the harbor.
"Ah!" said Manuel, "when I get a wife and live on shore, I don't
want to buy one-it might be a dangerous bargain. Might buy the body,
but not the soul-that's God's."
CHAPTER VIII.
A NEW DISH OF SECESSION.
ABOUT a quarter past eight o'clock in the evening, Master George, as
he called himself, the little pedantic man, came skipping down the
wharf. As soon as he approached the brig, he cried out at the top of
his voice, "Captain! Captain!!"
The Captain stepped to the gangway, and the little fellow, who had
stood crossing and working his fingers, reached out his hand to
assist him ashore. This done, he took the Captain's arm, and
commencing a discourse upon the wonderful things and people of South
Carolina they wended their way to the Charleston Theatre. The
company then performing was a small affair, and the building itself
perfectly filthy, and filled with an obnoxious stench. The play was
a little farce, which the Captain had seen to much perfection in his
own country, and which required some effort of mind to sit out its
present mutilation. Yet, so highly pleased was Master George, that
he kept up a succession of applauses at every grimace made by the
comedian. Glad when the first piece was over, the Captain made a
motion to adjourn to the first good bar-room and have a punch. It
was agreed, upon the condition that the little man should "do the
honor," and that they should return and see the next piece out. The
Captain, of course, yielded to the rejoinder, though it was
inflicting a severe penalty upon his feelings. There was another
piece to come yet, which the little fellow's appetite was as ready
to devour as the first. The Captain, seeing this, could not refrain
expressing his surprise. This was taken as a charge against his
taste, and George immediately commenced a discussion upon the
subject of the piece, the intention of the author, and the merits of
the principal performers, whose proper adaptation he admired. The
Captain knew his subject, and instead of contending in detail,
advised him to take a peep into the theatres of New York and London.
Not to be undone, for he was like all little men, who insist upon
the profoundness of their own opinions, he asserted that it could be
only the different views which individuals entertained of
delineating character, and that the Charlestonians were proverbially
correct in their judgment of music and dramatic performances.
"I pity the judgment that would award merit to such a performance as
that," said the Captain.
"How strange, that you Englishmen and Scotchmen always find fault
with every thing we Americans do. Your writers manifest it in their
books upon us and the people seem of necessity to copy from them,
and echo their grumblings," rejoined Master George.
"You judge from the common saying, instead of a knowledge front
observation, I fear," said the Captain.
"Lord, sir! you must not judge me by that rule. Carolinians, sir,
always appreciate intelligent strangers, for they always exert a
healthy influence, and never meddle with our institutions; so you
see it wouldn't do to follow the pestilent notions of petty
scribblers, lest we should form wrong opinions."
"But tell me," said the Captain, "do you consider yourselves
Americans in South Carolina?--the pilot must have led me astray."
"Americans! yes, indeed, the true blood at that, and no man of
tip-top judgment ever questioned it. But you must mark the
difference; we ha'n't Yankees, nor we don't believe in their
infernal humbuggery about abolition. If it wasn't for South Carolina
and Georgia, the New-Englanders would starve for want of our cotton
and rice. It's the great staple what keeps the country together; and
as much as they talk about it, just take that away, and what would
the United States be? We South Carolinians give no symptoms or
expressions of what we mean to do that we cannot maintain. We have
been grossly insulted by the Federal Government, but it dar'n't come
at us and just give us a chance at fair fight. We'd show 'em the
thunder of the Palmetto, that they'd never trouble our sovereignty
again. Captain, I pledge you my honor that if there wasn't so many
infernal Yankees in Georgia, and she'd follow our lead in secession,
we'd just lick the whole North. Georgia's a big State, but she a'n't
pluck, and has no chivalry at all among her people. She allows such
privileges to them Yankees-gives them power to control her
manufacturing interests-and this is just what will uproot the
foundation of their slave institution. Georgians a'n't a bit like
us; first, they are too plebeian in their manners-have no bond of
guardianship for their laws, and exert no restraints for the proper
protection of good society. But, Captain, their stock has a
different origin, and the peculiarity which now marks our character
may be traced to the offspring of early settlement. We derived our
character and sentiments from the Huguenots; they, from an
uncharacterized class of coarse adventurers, whose honesty was
tinctured with penal suspicion. This, sir, accounts for the
differences so marked in our character."
The little fellow pressed this kind of conversation in the lobby of
the theatre, and at the same time took the very particular pleasure
of introducing the Captain to several of the young bloods, as he
called them, while they walked to and from the boxes. At length the
Captain found himself in a perfect hornet's nest, surrounded by
vicious young secessionists, so perfectly nullified in the growth
that they were all ready to shoulder muskets, pitchforks, and
daggers, and to fire pistols at poor old Uncle Sam, if he should
poke his nose in South Carolina. The picture presented was that of
an unruly set of children dictating their opinions to a hoary-headed
old daddy-accusing him of pragmatism, and threatening, if he was
twice as old, they'd whip him unless he did as they directed. The
knowledge of South Carolina's power and South Carolina's
difficulties with the Federal Government he found so universally set
forth as to form the atmosphere of conversation in the parlor, the
public-house, the school and the bar-room, the lecture-room and the
theatre.
The little man extended his invitation to a party of the bloods. The
Captain was taken by the arms in a kind of bond fellowship, and
escorted into Baker's eating-saloon, a place adjacent to the
theatre, and, to a man unaccustomed to the things that are in
Charleston, a very rowdy place. This is considered by Charlestonians
one of the finest places in the Southern country; where good suppers
and secession (the all-engrossing subjects with Charles-tonians)
form the only important element of conversation. It may be set down
as a fact, that among seven-tenths of the people of Charleston, the
standard of a gentleman is measured according to his knowledge of
secession and his ability to settle the question of hot suppers. We
say nothing of that vigorous patriotism so often manifested in a
long string of fulsome toasts that disgrace the columns of the
Back to Full Books
|