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Article THE BOATMAN'S RESCUE.* Page 1 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Boatman's Rescue.*
THE BOATMAN'S RESCUE . *
'Tis not fancy ' s sketch . A MIGHTY change hast thou witnessed upon thy shores , within the last twenty years , olcl " Father of AVaters ! " AVhere erst the deeptangled forest and the impervious cane-brake threw a sombre shadow upon thy turbid stream , there now smile the teeming fields of the husbandman ; ancl the waste places which but a few years since echoed only to the whoop of the Chickasaw and the horn of the occasional
flatboatman , now resound with the hum and industry of civilization . Rich and cultivated farms begem th y margin , and the "bluffs" ivhere once the owner of the " broadhorn " tied up to trade with the wild Indian , converted into depots for the wealth of western enterprize , have exchanged the homely names wherewith they were christened by the earlier navigators , for those of towns and cities , famed in the Prices Current for the abundance of their exports ancl the heaviness of their trade . The
" Chickasaw Bluffs , " and the " Walnut Hills , " are no longer heard of . These have passed away , with the hardy race of men whose adventures upon thy stream gave notoriety to these localities ; and in their stead we have Natchez , and Vicksburg , and Memphis , ancl Randolph , with their teeming population ancl rich export of cotton bales . The white man has " laid his hand upon thy mane , " and thou art subdued : his steamers plough thy bosom continually , while the axe of the wood-chopper hath
let in the sun upon the lair of the bear and the panther all along thy shores . Could ' st thou but speak , olcl Flood , what tales ivould thy murmuring waves babble to the wonder struck listener ! —of peril , of crime , of heroism , ancl of distress , exemplif ying the best and worst attributes of our nature . ' But thou art dumb , and tellest no story of human sympathy ; thy voice is lifted up only in utterance of that anthem in which all nature joins , to HIM whose might and poiver thou dost faintly shadow —and we must needs question of tradition the story of the events which have transpired within thy domains . The following is one of her revelations : —
It was in the winter of 182— , that two flat-boats or " broadhorns , " laden with produce from the Cumberland , were seen floating down the Mississipi . At the period of which I write , it was the custom of the farmers of that region to unite together ancl build boats , ivhich were to be the common receptacles of all the surplus produce of the neighbourhood . When the " boating season " came on , the little fleet was generally placed under the direction of some one of the oldest ancl most substantial farmerswho was made " captain "—the crew being made of the sons
, up of the neighbours who had produce to send to that far-distant market , New Orleans . Many was the strange story of peril ancl adventure which these simple inland mariners brought back , after a six months' absence : —of escapes from snags ancl " sawyers" on the voyage—of ' cute traffickings with the dusk y " Creole , " and amours with his dark-eyed daughters --and their sojourn among the Indians as they threaded the old " Notchy Trace " on their way homewardBut I must not follow this digression
. . It would lead me back to the " green pastures " of memory—the sunny days of boyhood—wherein the ' imagination so loves to revel ; and recal troops of recollections ivhich , however pleasant or sorrowful to the dreamer , have little to do with the true history he essays to write . Revenons ii nos moutons ! 1 ± was , as I said , in the winter of 18 * 3— , and towards the close of a cold
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Boatman's Rescue.*
THE BOATMAN'S RESCUE . *
'Tis not fancy ' s sketch . A MIGHTY change hast thou witnessed upon thy shores , within the last twenty years , olcl " Father of AVaters ! " AVhere erst the deeptangled forest and the impervious cane-brake threw a sombre shadow upon thy turbid stream , there now smile the teeming fields of the husbandman ; ancl the waste places which but a few years since echoed only to the whoop of the Chickasaw and the horn of the occasional
flatboatman , now resound with the hum and industry of civilization . Rich and cultivated farms begem th y margin , and the "bluffs" ivhere once the owner of the " broadhorn " tied up to trade with the wild Indian , converted into depots for the wealth of western enterprize , have exchanged the homely names wherewith they were christened by the earlier navigators , for those of towns and cities , famed in the Prices Current for the abundance of their exports ancl the heaviness of their trade . The
" Chickasaw Bluffs , " and the " Walnut Hills , " are no longer heard of . These have passed away , with the hardy race of men whose adventures upon thy stream gave notoriety to these localities ; and in their stead we have Natchez , and Vicksburg , and Memphis , ancl Randolph , with their teeming population ancl rich export of cotton bales . The white man has " laid his hand upon thy mane , " and thou art subdued : his steamers plough thy bosom continually , while the axe of the wood-chopper hath
let in the sun upon the lair of the bear and the panther all along thy shores . Could ' st thou but speak , olcl Flood , what tales ivould thy murmuring waves babble to the wonder struck listener ! —of peril , of crime , of heroism , ancl of distress , exemplif ying the best and worst attributes of our nature . ' But thou art dumb , and tellest no story of human sympathy ; thy voice is lifted up only in utterance of that anthem in which all nature joins , to HIM whose might and poiver thou dost faintly shadow —and we must needs question of tradition the story of the events which have transpired within thy domains . The following is one of her revelations : —
It was in the winter of 182— , that two flat-boats or " broadhorns , " laden with produce from the Cumberland , were seen floating down the Mississipi . At the period of which I write , it was the custom of the farmers of that region to unite together ancl build boats , ivhich were to be the common receptacles of all the surplus produce of the neighbourhood . When the " boating season " came on , the little fleet was generally placed under the direction of some one of the oldest ancl most substantial farmerswho was made " captain "—the crew being made of the sons
, up of the neighbours who had produce to send to that far-distant market , New Orleans . Many was the strange story of peril ancl adventure which these simple inland mariners brought back , after a six months' absence : —of escapes from snags ancl " sawyers" on the voyage—of ' cute traffickings with the dusk y " Creole , " and amours with his dark-eyed daughters --and their sojourn among the Indians as they threaded the old " Notchy Trace " on their way homewardBut I must not follow this digression
. . It would lead me back to the " green pastures " of memory—the sunny days of boyhood—wherein the ' imagination so loves to revel ; and recal troops of recollections ivhich , however pleasant or sorrowful to the dreamer , have little to do with the true history he essays to write . Revenons ii nos moutons ! 1 ± was , as I said , in the winter of 18 * 3— , and towards the close of a cold