, and expression with the general character of the
people--the only exceptions being the colored people.

CHAPTER VII. ARRIVAL OF THE JANSON.

ABOUT five o'clock on the evening of the 23d, the Janson passed Castle
Pinckney, ran up to the wharf with the flood-tide, let go her anchor,
and commenced warping into the dock. Her condition attracted sundry
persons to the end of the wharf, who viewed her with a sort of
commiseration that might have been taken for sincere feeling. The
boarding officer had received her papers, and reported her character and
condition, which had aroused a feeling of speculative curiosity, that
was already beginning to spread among ship-carpenters and outfitters.

Conspicuous among those gathered on the wharf was a diminutive little
dandy, with an olive-colored frock-coat, black pants, embroidered vest,
and an enormous shirt-collar that endangered his ears. This was secured
around the neck with a fancy neckcloth, very tastefully set off with a
diamond pin, He was very slender, with a narrow, feminine face,
round popeyes--requiring the application of a pocket-glass every few
minutes--and very fair complexion, with little positive expression of
character in his features. His nose was pointed; his chin, projected
and covered with innumerable little pimples, gave an irregular
and mastiff-shaped mouth a peculiar expression. He wore a very
highly-polished and high-heeled pair of boots, and a broad-brimmed,
silk-smooth hat. He seemed very anxious to display the beauty of two
diamond rings that glittered upon his delicate little fingers, made
more conspicuous by the wristbands of his shirt. Standing in a very
conspicuous place upon the capsill of the wharf, he would rub his hands,
then running from one part of the wharf to another, ordering sundry
niggers about making fast the lines, kicking one, and slapping another,
as he stooped, with his little hand. All paid respect to him. The
Captain viewed him with a smile of curiosity, as much as to say, "What
important specimen of a miss in breeches is that?" But when the little
fellow spoke, the secret was told. He gathered the inflections of his
voice, as if he were rolling them over the little end of a thunderbolt
in his mouth. As the vessel touched the wharf, he sprang to the corner
and cried out at the top of his voice, "Yer' welcome to Charleston,
Captain Thompson! Where did you get that knocking?--where are ye bound
for?--how many days are you