by thousands; seven steamers groaning, creaking,
hissing, and rattling; a noise and a heat that made our heads dizzy,
blinded our eyes, and took away our hearing. It was a gallopade, a
race between giants.

"We were close to the wood below Trinity--the race as good as won, for
Trinity was of course the winning post. Suddenly the captain cried
out, 'He is passing us!' and, as he said the word, he looked as wild
as a tortured redskin, and bit his lips more savage than ever, and
caught hold of the quarterdeck railing as if he would have torn it
down.

"'Captain,' said I, 'it's impossible--he is not passing us.'

"'Look yourself, Mr Doughby,' said he.

"The man was right. The old George is an almighty fast ship, that is
certain. I saw that in two minutes we should be beaten. We had not
even so long to wait.

"'By my soul he is passing us!' cried I.

"'He is passing us,' repeated the captain in a low voice. He was
deadly white. I couldn't say a word; and as for him, he was obliged to
support himself against the railing, or he would have fallen down.
There was no help for it, however; the Washington's figure-head was
already in a line with our stern--in ten seconds, a third of the
vessel's length was parallel with us--another ten seconds, two-thirds,
and in less than a minute he dashed proudly before us with a deafening
hurra from crew and passengers, which was echoed from the other five
steamers, till we heard nothing on all sides but hurras and hurras. I
would have given a thousand dollars down to have reached Trinity two
minutes sooner. Just then a number of voices cried out, 'The boiler's
bursting! The boiler's bursting!' And there was a cracking noise, and
then a loud rush. Here comes the hot bath, thought I, and wished
myself a pleasant journey out of the world. But it was nothing; the
cry came from a couple of negers, echoed by Miss Lambton and Mister
Lambton, and the rest of the old women folk from the ladies' cabin.
They had gone in a body to the engineer, and had so begged, and
prayed, and bothered him, that he had given in, and opened the valve,
and we only half a mile from Trinity. I am certain that if the
cowardly rascal had not done that, we should have made a drawn race
of it, for the Washington got in not two minutes before us. I fell
upon the engineer, and if it had not been for the captain, and one or
two old acquaintances, I should have leathered him upon the spot--ay,
if it were to have cost me a t