BUILDING SPECULATION--LIFE IN GORGONA--SYMPATHY WITH
AMERICAN SLAVES--DR. CASEY IN TROUBLE--FLOODS AND
FIRES--YANKEE INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM.

I remained at Cruces until the rainy months came to an end, and the
river grew too shallow to be navigable by the boats higher up than
Gorgona; and then we all made preparations for a flitting to that
place. But before starting, it appeared to be the custom for the store
and hotel keepers to exchange parting visits, and to many of these
parties I, in virtue of my recent services to the community, received
invitations. The most important social meeting took place on the
anniversary of the declaration of American independence, at my
brother's hotel, where a score of zealous Americans dined most
heartily--as they never fail to do; and, as it was an especial
occasion, drank champagne liberally at twelve shillings a bottle. And,
after the usual patriotic toasts had been duly honoured, they proposed
"the ladies," with an especial reference to myself, in a speech which
I thought worth noting down at the time. The spokesman was a thin,
sallow-looking American, with a pompous and yet rapid delivery, and a
habit of turning over his words with his quid before delivering them,
and clearing his mouth after each sentence, perhaps to make room for
the next. I shall beg the reader to consider that the blanks express
the time expended on this operation. He dashed into his work at once,
rolling up and getting rid of his sentences as he went on:--

"Well, gentlemen, I expect you'll all support me in a drinking of this
toast that I du----. Aunty Seacole, gentlemen; I give you, Aunty
Seacole----. We can't du less for her, after what she's done for
us----, when the cholera was among us, gentlemen----, not many months
ago----. So, I say, God bless the best yaller woman He ever made----,
from Jamaica, gentlemen----, from the Isle of Springs----Well,
gentlemen, I expect there are only tu things we're vexed for----; and
the first is, that she ain't one of us----, a citizen of the great
United States----; and the other thing is, gentlemen----, that
Providence made her a yaller woman. I calculate, gentlemen, you're all
as vexed as I am that she's not wholly white----, but I du reckon on
your rejoicing with me that she's so many shades removed from being
entirely black----; and I guess, if we could bleach her by any means
we would----, and thus make her as acceptable in any company as she
de