Part 9

There are few proprietors, at this day, more to be pitied than the large planters of Virginia and the Carolinas; as high-spirited, generous a race as may anywhere be encountered, but much weighed down of late by the pressure of circumstances which they cannot control, and which every year threatens to render more heavy, unless, through some miraculous interposition, the growing causes be removed or checked. The very slave property, for the inherited possession of which they are abused, is becoming in many cases a burthen. Their more southern rivals can grow cheaper, and, having a fresher soil, produce larger crops and outsell them in the market; whilst, with a slave population, they have no chance of ever becoming manufacturers.

From City-point, a well-horsed coach took us fourteen miles, under two hours, to the busy little city of St. Petersburg; where, over a cup of tea, and a good Virginy coal fire, I reviewed this journey of a couple of days, which had afforded me many subjects for admiration and reflection. I smoked my cigar, and, at an early hour, retired to my bed, of which I had a choice, there being three in the room, although, at this time, exclusively appropriated to me. I soon was fast asleep, dreaming confusedly of Captain Smith, Pocahontas, Lord Cornwallis, Queen Elizabeth, Powhatan, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir George Cockburn.

IMPRESSIONS OF PETERSBURG.

VIRGINIA.

"And here I am," said I to myself, on waking, and finding the high sun dancing the hays over the floor, as his beams stole in through the jalousies of my windows.

"Here I am in Virginia, the scene of so much suffering and so much gallantry,--the Eldorado of Raleigh, the refuge of the Cavalier, and the birth-place of George Washington."

After walking through the little city, I next betook me to the bank of the gentle Apotomax, up which stream, we read, Captain Smith was first conveyed by his captors, and close by high-water mark was he landed, preparatory to his being burned pour amuser le roi.

The tide flows just above the town; and to this spot I strolled, and sat me down where the velvet sward rests on the stream. "And to this very spot, perchance," said I, "did the canoes of the warriors of Powhatan bring their most dreaded, and, consequently, best esteemed enemy, to die the death of a thrice-honoured Brave, or, in terms more homely, to be put to as much torture as the utmost of savage ingenuity could devise; and this prolonged as far as the nature of the captive might endure."

A RHAPSODY.

"And as I sat, the birdis harkening thus, Methought that I herd voicis suddainly." CHAUCER.

Here, closing my eyes on the sloops, lighters, and schooners lying at no great distance, and barring my ears against the cries of busy carmen and wharfingers, and the clanging of steam-engines, I calmly set about surveying in my mind's eye the group which ready imagination conjured up in colours, if not as true, at least as glowing, as the by-gone reality.

About rose the forest-crowned slopes,--for this is a region of hill and dell,--with small green belts of meadow drawn between: along the river glided, with an arrow-like track, the light canoes, when, as they touch this sylvan harbour, the until now well-suppressed joy of victory bursts out in exulting shouts and yells wildly terrific;--the solitude is awakened, the slumbering villages are roused, and the well-known cry of Indian triumph comes back from every teeming hill; whilst the roused deer springs trembling, from his covert, and the fierce panther crouching seeks his gloomiest lair.

The adventurous captain, to whom peril was as a household word, and fear a term unknown, is now unbound, and led on shore, walking with a free step among his captors and with a cheek unblanched, casting proud scornful looks upon forms and faces which might have scared the devil; for the roused Indian--cowed as is his present nature by a hard-bought conviction of his inferiority--is yet a fearful object to behold when decked in paint and plume and all his horribly fantastic war array.

The next scene presented the assembled council and the prolonged debate; the warriors' detail of their long secret marches, continued hunger, and anxious ambush, until the moment arrived of the Pale-face's security, and the Indian war-whoop, surprise, and triumph. The continued massacre is next detailed; ending with the settlement being left a reeking charnel-house, and its best champion led captive to crown the triumph with his death, the last and proudest sacrifice to Indian vengeance.

The last change was to the ready stake, near which stood the unshaken captive and the eager warriors, encircled by an admiring crowd--and woman, too, was there, lovely woman! whose angel heart no custom, however barbarous and time-honoured, can wholly harden against that tender sympathy which forms at once her highest pleasure and her most dangerous snare.

Amongst the eager crowd stood one admiring, and pitying whilst admiring, till nature, stronger than the ties of country and of custom, spurning their control, armed with irresistible persuasion the Indian maiden's tongue, and touched a new chord in the stern breast of her sire and king; at once giving to the hopeless captive life and freedom, and winning for the name of Pocahontas the immortality of a nation's gratitude: and never, surely, did nature show more beautiful than when it thus rose superior to the force of habit long confirmed; nor ever did mercy achieve a prouder triumph than when, animating woman's voice, it reprieved from the fire of the Indian warrior a captive so feared and so honoured.

* * * * *

I had, in this place, the pleasure of passing an evening with a descendant of this princess, rendered more famous by her compassionate nature than though her father had worn the diadem of the Caesars. This is the third female I have encountered in society claiming the like honourable descent; they have each been distinguishable both in physiognomy and manner; right gentle ladies all, as ever sprung from royal lineage, savage or civilized: one of them, lately married to a northern gentleman, possesses in a remarkable degree the traits of Indian blood and beauty, with much simplicity and grace of manner, and a freshness and warmth of feeling as delightful as it is natural and original.

IMPRESSIONS OF PETERSBURG.--THE DESERTED CHURCH.

Upon a steep hill, situated about half a mile from the hotel, and bearing from it about south-east, stand the ruins of a well-built church, surrounded by a large grave-yard, thickly tenanted by the once citizens of Petersburg: numerous tombs, of a respectable and, indeed, venerable appearance, contribute to invest the spot with quite an Old-country character; and, viewed from the high stone wall which surrounds it, the setting sun is glorious.

To this place my first visit was one of mere chance, but each evening after saw me at the same calm hour taking my walk amongst the tombs. I discovered that by far the greatest number of these decent dwellings of the dead were inscribed to Europeans, chiefly from Ireland and Scotland: very few were dated past the middle age of life, the majority were indeed young men,--enterprising adventurers, who had wandered hither to seek fortune, and had found a grave, the consummation of all wants and desires.

Upon many of these grave-stones were displayed evidences of the lingering pride of gentle birth; recollections which, suppressed, or perhaps forgotten in the land of equality during life, seemed to have survived the grave, stronger than death. Here were set forth in goodly cutting the coat armour, crest, and motto of an old Scots or Irish house, from which the junior branches had probably received no other inheritance save this claim to gentillesse, with liberty to bear it to some distant soil.

How favoured was the French gentleman of whom we read, who, resigning his sword, sailed in search of gain, and was permitted to return and reclaim it before time had rusted its bright blade! How many young hearts, that, quitting home, have beat high with the prospect of an equally happy return, have been doomed to waste and wither in all the misery of hope deferred, which maketh the heart sick indeed, until care and climate closed the protracted weary struggle, and the fortune-seeker was laid to moulder in some stranger grave.

I trust that, amidst the changes each day brings forth here, this ruined church will be left unprofaned, and that the tenants who sleep within its little inclosure may be left undisturbed. And I would further counsel any gentle traveller who rests for a sunset in Petersburg, to walk to this church, and contemplate its going-down from off the lofty stile leading over the western wall of the grave-yard: and when he shall behold the forest vale below changed--as I have more than once beheld it--into a lake of living gold, and over this shall watch the shadows of evening steal till the last bright fringe is withdrawn, and the brown forest again is seen to cover all the land--when, I say, this has been witnessed, the stranger (if a woman, certainly) will hardly fail to thank me for this discovery; for such I do verily consider it to be, as much as was Colon's first lighting on this huge sliver of our nether world.

I visited this little city at a period when cholera was making frightful ravages on every side, and a consequent depression was to be expected amongst the community. I was nevertheless greatly pleased with the situation of the place, and with the air of business that appeared to animate its citizens despite the frightful disease by which they were assailed; and indeed, so far as a sojourner of five days may be permitted to express an opinion, I should say that the evidences of the city's prosperity and growing prospects were many and cheering.

I in this place and in the neighbourhood saw a good deal of slavery, and heard much more: the victims themselves (so called) seem here a merry, light-hearted, and lightly-worked race, and I was a good deal surprised to find that in many instances their possessors were looked upon as the real sufferers.

Some of these, it is certain, are not to be envied this description of property, for they are often compelled to keep many active mouths for one useful hand: yet here are numbers of such persons who do not like to sell these household knaves, familiar as they have been from the cradle to the day of inheritance, and mixed up with every recollection of home and its inmates, although they would gladly renounce the present possession to be assured against all after claims.

Nov. 5th.--Quitted Petersburg on a delightful morning, and as far as Norfolk made a quick trip; but, shortly after leaving this place, we encountered a very heavy gale of wind that endured all night, and compelled us next evening to put into Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, for a fresh supply of fuel: that night, the gale moderating, we reached Baltimore about fourteen hours later than was anticipated.