A large cotton warehouse, of all the buildings in Mobile, most excited my attention. This consists of a square yard, surrounded on three sides by massive arcades, where the cotton bales coming from the country are brought in, and preparatory to their shipment are again pressed, that they may occupy as little room as possible in the vessel. The bales were arranged on a layer of thick plank, between which there is room allowed to pass the ropes through. Above the bales, which are placed between four strong iron vices, is a cover, in which there is room left for the ropes as below. These covers have four apertures, with female screws, through which the vices pass. On every screw there is a face wheel. All these four face wheels are driven by a crown wheel, which is put in motion by a horse. The covers are thus screwed down on the bales, and their bulk reduced one-third. During the pressure, the negro labourers have drawn the ropes through the groves between the planks and fastened the bales with little difficulty. This warehouse or magazine has two such presses. It occupies three sides of the yard, the fourth contains a handsome dwelling house. The whole is built of brick, and has an iron verandah. It belongs to speculators in New Orleans, and is known by the name of the “fire proof magazine,” although the interior is of wood.
The weather was very fine, and as warm as we have it in summer: I felt it very much in walking, and most of the doors and windows in the houses stood open. On this account I seated myself in the piazza before the house. A number of Choctaw Indians, who led a wandering life in the woods around the town, went about the streets selling wood, which they carried in small billets, bound on their backs. They are of a darker colour, and, if possible, still dirtier than the Creeks, they wrap themselves also in blankets, and most of them wore round hats trimmed with tin rings and pieces of tin. I walked through the streets of the place, which contains several large stores, to all appearance well stocked. In these excursions I found an old Brunswicker, named Thomas, who kept a grog-shop here, and who showed me a young alligator, an ugly animal, at most three months old. It was about eight inches long, and was preserved in a tub of water, in which it was daily supplied with fresh grass. When it was taken out of the water and placed on the sand, it ran about with much alacrity. Its head was disproportionately large, and it had already double rows of sharp teeth.
In the afternoon we saw a volunteer company, of about twenty and upwards strong, pretty well equipped, turn out to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, the eighth of January, 1815. On the preceding day, being Sunday, this festival was not commemorated. They had erected a platform on an open spot of ground, and brought there three old iron pieces, with which a national salute of twenty-four guns was fired. Colonel Wool had many acquaintances and countrymen here, from the north, to whom he introduced me. Conversation, therefore, did not fail us, though many comforts of life are withheld for a period. Thus, for example, I was deprived of milk so long as I was in the Indian territory, as the cattle were driven into the woods during the winter, to support themselves.
I made an attempt to pass round the town, but was prevented on one side by woods, and on the other, by ditches and marshes, so that I found myself limited in my promenade to the streets. These, however, I measured to my heart’s content. There was nothing new to me but some fruit shops, in which were excellent oranges from Cuba, at six cents a piece, large pine apples, much larger than the finest I had seen in England, also from Cuba, at forty-two and three-quarter cents a piece, thus much dearer than in Charleston, where they cost but twelve and a half cents a piece, besides bananas and cocoa nuts in abundance.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
Travels to Pensacola.
Colonel Wool was obliged to go to Pensacola, in pursuance of his duty of inspection. I determined to accompany him with Mr. Huygens, as Pensacola was interesting to me as a military man. Mr. Bowdoin felt himself unwell, and was tired of travelling. He remained, therefore, in Mobile, with the intention of going to New Orleans by the first opportunity.
On the 10th of January, we left Mobile in the steam-boat Emeline. This vessel goes daily from Blakely, which lies on the left shore of the bay, to Mobile, and back again. The distance amounts, in a straight line, to about twelve miles; some marshy islands covered with cane and shallows, lengthen the passage to fourteen miles. The Emeline, Captain Fowler, is the smallest steam-boat that I ever saw. She is only of thirty-two tons burthen, is built of planks, which are laid over each other without ribs, like a skiff, and the engine, a low pressure, has only eight horse-power. The boat belongs to the captain, and, with its engine, was constructed in New York. When it left that city to sail for Mobile, no insurance company would undertake to underwrite it, and Mr. Fowler was compelled to come on his individual risk. His capital embarked in it, will, nevertheless, produce a very good profit. Yet the smallest steam-boats which navigate the Florida and Alabama rivers, are insured. Some are too old and rotten for any company to insure, especially as the navigation on these rivers is so dangerous, that the few good vessels must give one per cent. monthly, as a premium.
From the water side, Mobile, with its ships in harbour, has a pretty appearance. We had also a handsome view of Mobile Bay, in which we counted nine ships of various sizes stretching in. A number of wild ducks flew about among the islands. In two hours we crossed the bay, and landed at five o’clock in the evening at Blakely.