Chapter X: B. Randolph to V. Chevillere

"Savannah, 18--.

"DEAR FRIEND,

"After despatching my last letter, not knowing exactly what else
to do with myself in the present state of affairs, I set out on
horseback, telling the family that I wished to see a little more
of Carolina, but inwardly resolved to follow the horse's nose
wherever he might lead, and continue thus to ride and thus to be
led until I might gather up my scattered thoughts and determine
what course to pursue.

"I will not deny, that on the second day in the afternoon, about
three o'clock (truth is always precise, you know), I discovered in
one corner of the storehouse of my thoughts a secret design to try
'Bell' by a leave-taking, absence, and reappearance. If you had
been upon the ground to charge me with the intention, I should no
doubt have sworn upon a stack of Testaments that it was not so;
and I could have done so honestly. You have looked inwards too
often not to know, that in wandering through the dreary passages
of one's own mind, we blunder by accident upon many obscure
motives, which, if boldly charged with them before we set out on
such a pilgrimage, we should stoutly deny.

"When the horses were brought up on the gravelled road, and all
things in readiness for my departure, I cast a furtive glance at
that too-knowing and too-beautiful little brunette, who calls you
cousin, to see how she was about to feel on the solemn occasion.
Her looks were perfectly inexplicable. I have thought of them ever
since, but for my life I cannot say in what feelings they had
their origin. There was neither sorrow, joy, love, hatred,
revenge, hope, despair, nor any other definable emotion. There was
a scarcely perceptible smile, a slight shutting of the corner of
one eye, and a mock solemnity of the other unruly features, as if
one was winking to the other rebels as much as to say, 'wait till
he's out of hearing, and we will have a rare laugh at his
expense.' It was just such a look as would make a man say, 'Zounds
and fury, madam, you'll never see me again; farewell, for ever;'
and then be laughed at for his pains.

"But what sort of a look was it? It was a very knowing look, I am
sure of that. She looked as if she read all the inward workings of
my moral machinery. It was a serio-comic look; produced, no doubt,
by the idea that she was scanning me thoroughly, while I imagined
that I could see just as clearly through her. In other words, as I
have somewhere else beautifully expressed it, she thought me
'pretty considerable much of an ass,' and I am pretty considerable
much of her opinion, at least before ladies. It is somewhat
singular that this tendency to display my weak side should have
developed itself at the very time when I most desired to appear to
advantage.

"At last the parting moment came. I had bidden your mother
farewell in the breakfast-room, and then proceeded to the front
door, where stood Virginia Bell.

"'I think it very doubtful,' said I, 'whether I shall be enabled
to take your aunt's house in my route home.'

"'You are not going to run away with cousin's favourite horse, are
you?' said she.

"By the Great Mogul! in my earnestness to invent a pathetic lie, I
forgot to arrange the consistency of the plot.

"'True, true!' said I, stammering; 'then I must indeed run my head
into danger again!' saying which I sprang upon your horse, and
rode like a country doctor who has no practice. By-the-by, that
was nearer to an avowal than I have ever come yet; your joyous,
fun-loving creatures are the most difficult to address in the
world.

"Oh! if I only had such a one in love with me, what a race I would
lead her! I would punish the whole class of unapproachable little
mischievous misses! I would make her ogle me at church; hang on my
arm to the theatre; sigh by the fire-side, and weep when she went
to bed; I would almost break her heart before I would take the
least pity upon her.

"I am curious to know what sort of wives these same little romps
make. Do they romp it through life, or do they settle down into
your miserable, sad, melancholy drones, who greet their husbands
when they come home with a sigh, or inexpressible look, that
drives more men to the bottle than all the good wine and good
company in the world?

"You ask me, at least I know you would ask me, what I saw, or what
occurred on the road to the place from which this letter is dated.
I will tell you what I have not seen since I entered this land of
nullification. I have not seen a clear limpid river that could be
forded on horseback. Your water-courses are dark, deep, still, and
gloomy. The foliage on their banks is superlatively rich and
abundant, but it is occasionally interspersed with a species of
natural beauties which I don't admire, namely, little alligators;
by-the-by, I never see alligators, lizards, or tadpoles, that I do
not think of those weary days when we read together Ovid's
Metamorphoses.

"Of a southern swamp I had no proper conception. I thought they
were black, dismal holes, covered with old black logs, and black
snakes, and frogs, and vapours; instead of which, they bear a
nearer resemblance, in the summer, to a princely (or _Prince's_)
botanical garden. The very perfume upon the olfactories is far
more delightful than the greatest assemblage of artificial
odours. Then there are the rich and variegated flowers of all
hues, sizes, and colours, set amid the deep green of the rich
shrubbery. The soil of which these swamps are composed is as black
as tar, and pretty much of the same consistence.

"I observe, as I travel farther south, that bread is seldom seen
upon the table. What is called here _small homminy_ is used in its
place, at breakfast, dinner, and supper.

"I saw no ploughs in your fields. Horses seemed to be used only
for carriages, racing, and for the private use of gentlemen and
ladies. I saw no brick houses; your mother's and that of Col. S.
being the only two I saw in the whole state. I saw many private
mansions very tastefully built and ornamented; some of them were
splendid, but mostly built of wood and painted white.

"After three days pretty constant riding after my horse's nose, he
brought me to the banks of the Savannah, at a little
miserable-looking town, or village, called Purysburg. Here I found
a steamboat just about to depart for Savannah. I immediately
engaged passage for myself, servant, and two horses (one of which
is yours; confound him, I say, for betraying me). I amused myself
by shooting at the alligators, as we glided along the water, and
had kept up the sport some time, when a mellow distant sound came
along the surface of the water, like an exquisitely played Kent
bugle. It was decidedly the most enchanting music I ever heard,
and seemed nearer and nearer until it appeared to rise from under
the very bow of the boat. You will be surprised when I tell you
that it was made through a straight wooden tube, about five feet
long. The musician was a tall, ebony-coloured old African, who
stood up in one of your singular-looking batteaux, amid
half-a-dozen other negroes, who seemed to be at their luncheon. It
looked much like a boat on the Niger; indeed, I found my
imagination carrying me into such distant regions, that I
instinctively bit my lip to see whether I was awake or dreaming.

"The city of Savannah became distinctly visible at a distance of
about seven miles. A brilliant city indeed it is. You cannot
imagine any thing finer than the view from the river. It is
situated on a high bluff, and commands an extensive view up and
down the stream. In the latter direction, on a clear day, you can
see, without glasses, the lighthouse on the island of Tybee.

"By-the-by, I have been down among those islands; they are all
inhabited, and by a class of men as much like our real
old-fashioned Virginia gentlemen as can well be imagined. This
city is nobly built, and is laid out on a magnificent scale,
having a public square, containing a grove of pride of India
trees, in the centre of every four squares, and a row of the same
along each side of every street.

"Talk of Philadelphia, and New-York, and Boston, and Richmond, and
New-Haven--Savannah outstrips them all, both in artificial and
natural beauty. It seems the residence of the prince of the world
and his nobility.

"Yours, most truly,

"B. RANDOLPH."