The 4th of July was to be celebrated as usual in Little Rock by a grand barbecue, or banquet, at the public expense. I went to the appointed place out of curiosity, and found a dozen black cooks, busily preparing for the grand affair. Two trenches, about two yards long and four wide, were dug in a garden near the town, the bottom of each was filled with red-hot charcoal, the supply being kept up from a large fire near at hand. Pieces of wood were laid across the trenches, and on the wood immense quantities of meat; two halves of an ox, a number of pigs, calves, deer, bears, sheep, &c., were roasting and stewing, while people with bottles or jugs full of whiskey went about offering it to all present. The meat itself was not particularly inviting, everybody going up and cutting off what he wanted, and holding it in his hand to eat, some standing, some walking to and fro. At a camp-fire this is all very well, but such a multitude with greasy hands and mouths is not attractive.
I did not remain long, but returned to the town, sleeping at the house of a German settler; and on the following morning proceeded on board the boat, which contrary to the usual custom, was punctual to her time and went off blustering down the river.
CHAPTER XII.
LOUISIANA—NEW ORLEANS, AND HOME.
Bayou Sara—German settlers—Jews—Pointe Coupée—My engagement at the hotel—Levées, or dams, on the banks of the Mississippi—Slave auction—Treatment of the slaves—Guinea negroes—Alligator shooting—Flesh of the alligator, and prejudices against it—Habits of the alligator—Scenes on the Mississippi—New Orleans; variety of its inhabitants—Coffee-houses—The “Olbers” clears for Bremen—The mouth of the Mississippi—My fellow-passengers—Sharks—Sickness and death on board—The English channel—Bremerhafen—Quarantine—The Lübecker and his unruly American wife—Fumigation—Arrival at home.
We entered the Mississippi the second day, and soon left the State of Arkansas far behind us. Of all I had seen in America it was the one which pleased me most; I may perhaps never see it again, but I shall never forget the happy days I passed there, where many a true heart beats under a coarse frock or leather hunting-shirt.
The boat went flying past the green banks, and on the third night, she set me ashore at Bayou Sara, in Louisiana. It may have been about one o’clock when I landed with my baggage. The little boat which brought me from the steamer pushed off, flying back to the smoking Colossus. The pilot gave the signal to go ahead, and, smoking and clattering, she soon vanished from my sight.
All was dark in the town, not a single light to be seen. Being quite a stranger in the place, I rolled myself in my blanket and lay down on the bank of the river. The night was warm and pleasant, but repose was out of the question. Millions of mosquitoes were swarming furiously around, and only left me in peace when I pulled the blanket over my head; but as that excluded air, and I removed it to breathe, it was a signal for all the swarm to fall upon me with renewed fury.