"yese don't git off dat a-way. I'se prepared fur de ockasun.
Nobody gits out ob dis room till I'se had my say. Jes you set down dar.
Now I'se goin' to do one ting, and it's dis: I'se goin' to spread de
Gospel all ober dis yere island of Doboy. Now's de time; talked long
'nuf, too long, 'bout buildin' de church. Whar's yere pride? whar is it?
Got none! Look at dis room for a church! Look at dis pulpit--one
flour-barrel wid one candle stickin' out ob a bottle! Dat's yere pulpit.
Got no pride! Shamed o' yeresefs! Here white men comes way from New York
to hear de Gospel in dis yere room wid flour-barrel fur pulpit, and
empty bottle fur candlestick. No more talk now. All go to work. De mill
people will gib us lumber fur de new church; odders mus' gib _money_.
Tell ebbry cullud pusson on de island to cum on Tuesday and carry
lumber, and gib ebbry one what he can,--one dollar apiece, or ten
cents if got no more. De white gemmins we knows whar to find when we
wants dar money, but de cullud ones is berry slippery when de hat am
passed round."

At the termination of the preacher's exhortation, I proposed to my
companion that I should present the minister with a dollar for his new
church, but with a look of dismay, he replied: "Oh, don't give it to the
_preacher_. Hand it to that other negro sitting near him. We never trust
the _preacher_ with money; he always spends the church-money. We only
trust him for _preaching_."

Monday, March 1st, opened fair, but the wind arose when the canoe
reached Three Mile Cut, which connects the Darien with Altamaha River. I
went through this narrow steamboat passage, and being prevented by the
wind from entering the wide Altamaha, returned to the Darien River and
ascended it to General's Cut, which, with Butler River, affords a
passage to the Altamaha River. Before entering General's Cut, mistaking
a large, half submerged alligator for a log on a mud bank, the canoe
nearly touched the saurian before he was roused from his nap to retire
into the water. General's Cut penetrates a rice plantation opposite the
town of Darien, to Butler's Island, the estate of the late Pierce
Butler, at its southern end. Rice-planting, since the war, had not
proved a very profitable business to the present proprietors, who
deserve much praise for the efforts they have made to educate their
freedmen. A profitable crop of oranges is gathered some seasons from
the groves upon Butler's Island.

From the mouth of General