Men
And Women Hailed Me From The Banks As I Glided
Along In My Canoe, With, "Say, Captain, Hab You
Eny 'bacca Or Snuff For Dis Chile?" Poor
Humanity!
The Cracker and the freedman fill
alike their places according to the light they
possess.
Do we, who have been taught from
our youth sacred things, do more than this?
Do we love our neighbor as ourself?
For twenty miles (local authority) I journeyed
down the stream, without seeing a human being
or a dwelling-place, to Stanley's house and the
bridge; from which I urged the canoe thirty-five
miles further, passing an old field on a bluff,
when darkness settled on the swamps, and a
heavy mist rose from the waters and enveloped
the forests in its folds. With not a trace of land
above water I groped about, running into what
appeared to be openings in the submerged land,
only to find my canoe tangled in thickets. It
was useless to go further, and I prepared to
ascend to the forks of a giant tree, with a light
rope, to be used for lashing my body into a safe
position, when a long, low cry engaged my
attention.
"Waugh! ho! ho! ho! peig - peig - pe-ig -
pe-ig," came through the still; thick air. It was
not an owl, nor a catamount that cried thus; nor
was it the bark of a fox. It was the voice of a
Cracker calling in his hogs from the forest.
This sound was indeed pleasant to my ears,
for I knew the upland was near, and that a
warm fire awaited my benumbed limbs in the
cabin of this unknown man.
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