es around which they
cling, and from which they gradually suck the vital juices; but they, at
least, adorn the forest-shafts round which they twine, and hide, with a
false, smiling beauty, the gradual ruin and decay they make. Not so this
dismal moss: it does not appear to grow, or to have root, or even
clinging fibre of any sort, by which it attaches itself to the bark or
stem. It hangs in dark gray, drooping masses from the boughs, swinging
in every breeze like matted, grizzled hair. I have seen a naked cypress
with its straggling arms all hung with this banner of death, looking
like a gigantic tree of monstrous cobwebs,--the most funereal spectacle
in all the vegetable kingdom.

After emerging from the cut, we crossed another arm of the Altamaha (it
has as many as Briareus)--I should rather, perhaps, call them mouths,
for this is near its confluence with the sea, and these various branches
are formed by a numerous sisterhood of small islands, which divide this
noble river into three or four streams, each of them wider than
England's widest, the Thames. We now approached the low, reedy banks of
Butler's Island, and passed the rice-mill and buildings surrounding it,
all of which, it being Sunday, were closed. As we neared the bank, the
steersman took up a huge conch, and in the barbaric fashion of early
times in the Highlands, sounded out our approach. A pretty schooner,
which carries the produce of the estate to Charleston and Savannah, lay
alongside the wharf, which began to be crowded with negroes, jumping,
dancing, shouting, laughing, and clapping their hands (a usual
expression of delight with savages and children), and using the most
extravagant and ludicrous gesticulations to express their ecstasy at our
arrival.

On our landing from the boat, the crowd thronged about us like a swarm
of bees; we were seized, pulled, pushed, carried, dragged, and all but
lifted in the air by the clamorous multitude. I was afraid my children
would be smothered. Fortunately, Mr. O----, the overseer, and the
captain of the little craft above-mentioned, came to our assistance, and
by their good offices the babies and nurse were protected through the
crowd. They seized our clothes, kissed them--then our hands, and almost
wrung them off. One tall, gaunt negress flew to us, parting the throng
on either side, and embraced us in her arms. I believe I was almost
frightened; and it was not until we were safely housed, and the door
shut up