66

endeavouring to entrap them, and of whose real object they must be in any case entirely ignorant. Fortunately, however, the love of gain inherent in human nature, particularly when it is impoverished, here comes to the rescue, and a liberal bribe bridges over most difficulties. These and some other circumstances which I shall mention as I proceed in the narrative of my underground journey," as getting from the Northern to the Southern lines is called, are serious obstacles in the way of a tour through the Confederate States; but, as I have before stated, the strong desire to obtain some personal acquaintance with the Secession leaders and generals was rather increased than otherwise by the difficulties to be encountered in doing so. To enter into particulars as to the exact route I took, the various houses I stopped at, or the point at which I crossed the Potomac, might compromise others. Suffice it to say, therefore, that I travelled in a twohorse waggon, doing about thirty miles a-day, until I reached the village from which I had arranged that my final start should be made; and where I was informed certain people, with whose names I had been furnished, would arrange all matters for me. The country I passed through was very picturesque, undulating, and well cultivated; but the roads were infamous, winding about from farm to farm, with gates to be opened and shut whenever you passed from one plantation to another. There were not any turnpikes, and no trouble seemed ever to have been expended in even repairing the farm communications that existed. As we approached the Potomac the land became much richer, and tobacco crops more numerous. This season has been a fine one for the "weed," but it was melancholy to see such quantities of it running to seed, and badly cared for, from the scarcity of farm hands, as the plantation slaves are called. Many farmers told me they

had not had such a fine crop for years past, but that they must lose a large portion of it from want of hands to cut and spear it. These men were the descendants of those who had joined the Union upon the stipulated faith of their slaves being guaranteed to them, and who would never have joined with any State which would have refused to surrender a fugitive slave. In the face, however, of this treaty, I may call it, the Northern States not only now refuse to give up these runaways, but actually do their utmost to seduce them from their owners. No cavalry patrol ever passes through a village or plantation in that part of the country without carrying away some negro, for whom perhaps a large price had been paid. I am not now going into the vexed question of slavery; no man abhors the institution more than I do; but I love justice, according to the established laws, more dearly than any wild theory regarding abolition of which all that we know is that, as carried out in our West Indian possessions, it has been a failure in every respect. I need scarcely add that, by all to whom I spoke in those districts, the Northern rule was detested. Every man now feels that the bayonet of the military despot is at his breast, that he is held in subjection against his will by force; and further, as it would seem, that the Lincoln Ministry are desirous of effacing still more completely any superstitious allegiance which he might be expected to owe the Stars and Stripes. The safe retention of personal property is made to depend upon the will and pleasure of some petty provost-marshal of the neighbourhood-a functionary who has also the power of consigning the owners, and perhaps their families, to the miseries of Fort Warren, where even the advice and aid of a lawyer will be denied them. I subsequently passed through districts in Virginia almost reduced by Yankee depredations to their primeval state of waste. But even there

I did not hear such expressions of deep hatred, and I may say intense longing for revenge, as in some of the slave-owning counties on the left of the Potomac. These sentiments were only expressed in secret, how ever. Gentlemen now fear to give their opinion at table, lest the slaves who stand behind them should desert, and play the intelligent contraband's part at the nearest Federal post, and there impeach their master's loyalty.

The white population look cowed. Tyranny and illegal arrests have stricken them with terror. Many will at first declare that death would be preferable. But though such lofty sentiments are very fitting for young men untrammelled by family ties, and have been often avowed by the bachelors in the border States, when a man has a wife and children, for whom he has no means of providing except by the produce of his farm, more matter-of-fact considerations naturally outweigh the heroic promptings of his nature, and he bridles his tongue in public, though with curses not loud but deep he speaks of his oppressor in private. If in the final settlement of this war the border States are retained in the Union, a very large number of these men will sell off their plantations and move south. The present state of affairs cannot exist much longer. Human beings may and do often submit quietly to coercion for years; but when such coercion descends from great to little matters, from depriving men of a voice in public affairs to all the little minor vexations which narrow-minded, short-sighted despots have resorted to from the era of curfew-bells down to the strictly-maintained passport system of the present day, the iron enters into the soul with such an irritating power that the recklessness of despair will often cause the meekest to turn round and strike his oppressor, even though perfectly aware that the blow must be followed by certain death. Every species of minor annoyance

has been resorted to by the Federal authorities, with the avowed determination of coercing men into the Union. Gentlemen cannot now buy boots, clothes, or supplies for their servants in Baltimore or Washington without taking the oath of allegiance; and when driving in their carriages from those cities, every parcel they may have with them is carefully searched. Whilst we were in the former place, no goods could be shipped from thence unless the buyer, seller, and captain of the ship took the oaths of allegiance, and swore that the goods were intended for loyal people. The slaves will not live upon fresh meat-nothing has a greater tendency to drive them to mutiny than cutting off their supplies of salt provisions; and the present Ministry, aware of this fact, hope by so doing to cause all the servants of men favourable to the South to desert, if not to rise against their masters. I know several instances in which violent Secessionists have, to prevent such a catastrophe, sworn the necessary oaths; which, however, from being taken, so to speak, nolens volens, they do not consider binding; and those of more rigid principles, who will not thus forswear themselves, suffer heavily in consequence.

The draft had not yet been enforced when we passed through the country, but preparations were being made everywhere for enforcing it. Provost-marshals were drawing up the rolls, and it was curious to hear of the various ailments and longstanding bodily injuries that men were urging as pleas for exemption. In some cases they escaped the enrolment on most frivolous pretences, whilst in others, men with so much stronger claims to exemption had their names inserted upon the drafting lists, that there were fair grounds for believing that the officials employed were not proof against the temptation of a bribe. The draft has since been enforced, and, although it has supplied the Northern ranks with some

men

hundreds of unwilling soldiers, it has also had the effect of swelling the Southern ranks; as all those not having large property at stake whose names were drawn, have fled across the Potomac who are naturally disinclined to fight, but who, if forced to do so, are determined at least not to carry a musket against the cause they love. For the first few nights of our journeyings we stopped at different gentlemen's houses, where we were entertained with patriarchal hospitality. It was interesting in some instances to hear the history of these old homesteads; many of them had been built before the declaration of independence, and more than one was of brick imported from England. All the proprietors boasted of their English descent from good families, and seemed to attach far greater importance to blood and ancient pedigree than even we do. The times have impoverished a vast number of families, so that, although you are still received with as much honest warmth as ever, their ability to entertain you is not the same as it was in former days. Indeed, some of them have been so reduced in circumstances that their children are unprovided with shoes, and the young sons of men, once wealthy, may in many places be seen running about barefooted. The internal appliances of comfort now to be found in the smallest English country houses are unknown amongst them; and in no case did there seem to be any attempt made to substitute modern furniture for the old uncomfortable chairs and sofas of the past generation. The only modern article I saw in any sitting-room in these old country houses was the Yankee rockingchairs-in which, in every part of the States, the mistress of the house is sure to be seen moving backwards and forwards, with the regularity of a pendulum. There, as in all other places that I visited in the South, hatred of Northern rule seemed to glow far more in

tensely in the breasts of the ladies than in those of the men. A lady told me that in Norfolk, when passing a Federal officer, every woman gathered up her skirts close to her side, lest they should be contaminated by even grazing a Yankee; and that all females, rich and poor, turned away their heads when a Northern soldier approached. Nothing tends to wound the sensibilities of an American more than such conduct, for the one soft point in his character is a sort of religious veneration for the fair sex, and a desire to be remarked, if not admired, by every one of them, young and old, alike in public and private.

The first night our fortunes led us to an inn, we were shown up to a dingy little sleeping apartment with only one bed in it. To expostulate, however, and assure the host that English gentlemen are always accustomed to the luxury of a bed each, would have been perfectly useless-it being an established custom of the country for two, and sometimes even three, men to sleep together. We consequently accepted what was provided for us without remark, and as soon as the landlord withdrew, we cut the Gordian knot of the difficulty by dividing the bed-clothes, which enabled one to sleep on the floor. But, unfortunately, the blankets were so thickly inhabited by a race of insects which shall be nameless, that I cannot say I "took mine ease in mine inn." My first night's experience of a Southern country hostel, therefore, was far from being agreeable.

On the following morning we started in a two-horsed waggon for the house of a gentleman who we were informed would instruct us as to our best means of getting across the Potomac. But when we arrived at his residence, he came out with terror depicted on his countenance, and, assuring us that he was in hourly expectation of a visit from the Yankees himself, he advised us to turn back, it being

perfectly useless, he said, to attempt a crossing in that neighbourhood, where every point was strictly guarded, and patrols always on the alert. This was sufficiently discouraging; but being determined not to be daunted by difficulties, we proceeded to an inn not far off, the landlord of which we knew was to be trusted. By his advice, we did not continue our journey until the next day, when he procured us a conveyance, which took us to a farm-house on the river, the owner of which was to provide us with a boat. But to get the boat proved a more difficult matter than we anticipated; and it was not until after a series of disappointments and fruitless endeavours that we were at length directed to a smuggler on the river, who had a craft of his own, in which he consented to take us over. We remained for a night at his abode, sleeping in a garret destitute of windows, but abounding with rats, which recreated themselves during the silent hours after such a noisy fashion that my friend's rest was sadly disturbed. Being myself accustomed to rough it in every part of the globe, and to sleep amid horrors of every description, I was soon in the arms of the twin brother, and did not awake until the sun, streaming in through the parts where windows ought to have been, warned me that it was time to be up and starting on our cruise.

It proved a most lovely morning, not a ripple on the water, not a cloud upon the bright blue sky, and with only just sufficient wind to stir the leaves gently without affecting the branches of the trees. The creek into which we had hoped to run on the Virginian shore was about a couple of miles higher up than the point from which we started, but, unfortunately, a gunboat lay off the entrance to it, and there were two others at no very great distance. After due deliberation, it was determined that we should make for a spot about five miles higher up, and endeavour to

get there by running close along the left bank of the river, so as not to attract attention, and, when clear of all gunboats, to push out into the centre of the stream, and then watch a favourable opportunity for steering into the desired haven. The tide being in our favour, we dropped slowly up on it, until about mid-day, when it turned, and, the wind dying away, we were obliged to make close in for shore, and anchor. My friend and I landed, and spent the day in an old ruined shed surrounded by reeds and rushes. Large steamers and gun-vessels of various sizes kept passing and re-passing all day; but none of them seemed to notice our little craft. On one occasion we saw a boat put off from one of the gunboats and come in our direction; but instead of visiting us, its crew boarded a small cutter which lay becalmed in the centre of the river, and then returned to their own vessel. At sunset a slight breeze arose, before which we glided gently up the river. Directly we passed the mid-stream and approached near the Virginian shore, the owner of the boat became quite nervous, and began lamenting his fate in having to turn smuggler; but the hard times, he said, had left him no alternative, his farm having been destroyed by the Northern troops. He seemed to have a superstitious awe of gunboats, too; and told us he had heard that the officers on board of them possessed telescopes through which they could see distinctly for miles at night. Several steamers passed us when we were about twothirds of the way over, but although the moon every now and then emerged brightly from behind the drifting clouds, we had got under the shade of the land, and managed so that she always shone upon our sails on the side away from the "enemy." We could hear the steamers for about twenty minutes before we caught sight of their light, and during that time the anxious face of the smuggler would have made a glorious study for an artist of the

:

Rembrandt school. The cargo consisted of coffee and sugar, and if safely landed would be in itself a small fortune to the owner of the boat; that he should feel alarmed for its safety, therefore, was not surprising. As we approached the shore, the wind died away, so we were obliged to punt the little craft along the men thus employed taking off their boots, lest they should make any noise in moving upon the deck. Now and then one of the gunboats, to which I have before alluded as being anchored off the neighbouring creeks, would, by means of a powerfully reflecting lantern, throw a light along the waters in all directions; and though we had fortunately passed beyond the distance to which such light could reach, still our old pilot invariably grew quite restless each time it appeared and once we all fancied that it was approaching nearer to us. On another occasion we thought we heard the sound of oars, and as there was not a breath of wind to help us along, and punting is a slow process, we felt far from comfortable, though it must be confessed that the amusement afforded us by the smuggler's undisguised and quaintly expressed fears, often served to render us forgetful of our own. Half-past ten found us safe in a little creek almost land-locked, so there was no danger of discovery there; and a run of about a mile and a half up it took us to the point of landing. After a dreary walk of five miles over a forest road, we reached a small village, and, having spent a considerable time in knocking at the door of the house to which we had been directed, we at last succeeded in gaining admittance. The landlord was absent, being in concealment at a farm-house in the neighbourhood; but his niece, a very nice girl, did the honours in his stead. She told us that the Yankees had made a descent upon the village, and carried off several of the inhabitants as prisoners to Washington. The place was sus

pected of containing smugglers, consequently the Federal troops frequently visited it in search of contraband goods.

The next day, after a long, tiresome drive in a cart without springs, and over the very worst road I ever travelled on, we reached Fredericksburg, crossing the Rappahannock river, upon the right bank of which the town is situated. It has a population of about six thousand inhabitants, and before "the troubles" was a place of rapidly increasing importance, from the establishment of cotton-mills, where a large number of white men and women found employment. The following morning we started, a little after daybreak, in a waggon drawn by two mules, and reached Beaverdam station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, in time for the afternoon train, which took us to Richmond. All the carriages, or cars, as they are called in America, were crowded with passengers, of whom a large proportion were the sick and wounded coming from General Lee's army at Winchester. They had been all day on the railroad, and some of the poor fellows seemed quite worn out with fatigue. But there were a few hale men amongst them who were going home for ten days' furlough, and even the most poorly clad of the number looked happy and confident, and all gave me the impression of being earnest men, fully satisfied of the importance of the cause to which they were devoted.

My friend and I stood on what is called the platform of the car, during the journey of two hours and a half, as the regular passenger-cars were full, and those containing the sick and wounded were anything but inviting. Men with legs and arms amputated, and whose pale, haggard faces assumed an expression of anguish at even the slightest jolting of the railway carriages, lay stretched across the seats-some accompanied by civilian friends who had gone from Richmond to the front to fetch them back, and