The town had increased very much since my former visit, and was improved in its appearance. It extends above seven miles along the bank of the river, where it is interesting to observe all sorts of shipping, steamers and sailing vessels arriving or departing every hour of the day. In other respects the town offers nothing noticeable beyond straight handsome streets, with large clean looking houses, and tastefully ornamented shops. It is still more interesting to observe the people, who throng the streets in all, even the hottest, hours of the day, where every shade between white and black is to be seen. The spot most attractive to me was the lower market, close to the levée, where every kind of article to be found in America was for sale. The fruit stalls looked especially inviting, and so did the fish-stalls, where great varieties of fish were to be seen. In the midst of all the bustle and crowding, there are quiet retreats, where a brilliant and colossal coffee machine stands always on a table, surrounded by chairs, cups, and plates filled with every kind of bread and cake are at hand; a pretty looking girl performs the part of Hebe. At all hours of the day and night, hot coffee, and in many of these places tea and chocolate, are always ready; and almost every night, when I could not prevail on myself to retire to the hot, close room without a breath of air, I have walked about the ever thronged streets, and drank coffee, until fatigue drove me to bed. At daybreak I was in the market again, among the crowds of Americans, French, Creoles, English, Germans, Spaniards, Italians, Negroes, Mulattoes, Mestizoes, Indians, &c., &c., and returned to breakfast, at which I drank, Creole fashion, red wine iced, instead of coffee, and then went to bed for a few hours. Kean joined me whenever his business would permit; and many an hour passed in agreeable conversation.
At length, after a space of three weeks, the “Olbers” was cleared, and ready to start. My effects were embarked, leave taken of all my friends, a most hearty one of Kean, whom I loved as a brother, and who had always behaved like one, and at ten at night the steamer “Porpoise” made herself fast alongside, having besides a French brig, three schooners in tow, and we started like a small fleet down the dark stream. We reached the mouth of the Mississippi about noon the next day, and anchored. In all directions thin green reeds were growing out of the water, giving only a representation of land, the yellow river flowing through them, and not a foot of solid ground anywhere visible. The Mississippi is here a river but without any banks, though looking as if still enclosed in its bed. To my great astonishment, houses were seen above this waste of reeds and water, with living beings moving about them. As the pilot said that we must wait till tomorrow for broad daylight and the flood tide, to cross the bar, and we had nothing to do this afternoon, the captain took two other passengers and myself to the row of houses, to see if we could get oysters, or any thing else eatable. After half an hour’s sharp rowing, we reached a platform resting on piles. A more uninviting place to live in, I never saw. The water flows under the houses of this outpost of American felicity, leaving at low-water a loose slimy mud, which would engulf any one attempting to tread on it, and which swarms with creeping things innumerable. I recollect an American saying that Louisiana was not fit for the abode of man, but only for mosquitoes, bullfrogs, and alligators, and certainly here there seemed to be reason in his words, for how a human being could be induced to settle in such a place is still a mystery to me. The inhabitants catch oysters at no great distance from their houses, sell some of them to the ships, and carry the rest in their boats to New Orleans, to exchange them for provisions and necessaries for their families, yes, families, – for women and children were there too. When we arrived, there was not an oyster left in the place, nor any thing else eatable to be had, and they told us that they were anxiously looking out for a boat with provisions. A glass of brandy adulterated with a little vitriol was all that we procured, and we returned on board, rejoicing to escape the frantic mosquitoes of the little settlement.
At nine the next morning we weighed anchor, and the “Porpoise,” which, meantime, had taken some smaller vessels over the bar, now took us in tow, and with some trouble, dragged us over, the keel scraping occasionally. She carried us several miles out into the gulf, and then left us to make our way alone as well as we could, which, as there was very little wind, was slow work enough; and at length we were quite becalmed.
My fellow-passengers were, a Hamburgh merchant, an American landholder, who possessed thousands of acres in Texas, which he wished to dispose of, (I never knew any one from Texas, who did not possess at least ten thousand acres of good land;) and a citizen of Lübeck, who had married in America, and who was taking his wife and his two children to live in his native country.
July 25th, during a perfect calm, I jumped overboard to bathe in the crystal waters. A more delightful feeling is hardly to be described than that of diving, swimming, splashing in the warm waters of the gulf; it almost seemed impossible to sink, the body being so buoyant in the salt water. I felt a longing desire to become a dolphin in the transmigration of souls, and to settle in the gulf of Mexico. I remained in the water till I was quite tired, and was obliged to lie down. Moreover, sea bathing never agreed with me, and on the morrow I felt rather unwell. In New Orleans I was not quite right, but would not take any medicine; now I thought it was time to do so, and swallowed a dose of tartar emetic I had had the precaution to bring with me, mixing in it a glass of Madeira. The dose was rather strong, and its effect excessive; yet I was better after it.
On the 28th and 29th July, two sharks were caught, and eaten; but I could not join in the feast, for I was now really ill with a fever, and sharp pains in the chest, and every movement was attended with great suffering. There was also cause for disquietude, in five sailors being taken ill, and their disease assuming an extraordinary character.
One evening as I was lying shaded from the moonbeams, I heard the mate talking with the American passenger, who was also unwell, and he told him, in a friendly way, that before we were clear of the gulf, at least five men would have to be sewn up in sailcloth and dropped overboard; and among them he named my worthy self. This was rather more than a joke; after escaping all the dangers and toils of the land, to be pitched over the side like a dead dog: and I was resolved to prove the old proverb: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” and to get well again. I took a glass of excellent arrack, and had a quantity of it rubbed on my chest and shoulders. I fell asleep in a few minutes, and in the morning I felt lighter and better. By the 1st August I was able to crawl about, and decidedly improving. On the 3rd, we came in sight of Cuba, and passed close enough to the shore to make out the palm-trees and country houses.
The sick sailors were still dangerously ill, and though there was a medicine chest, yet there was no doctor on board, nor any one who understood its contents; so there was little hope for the poor fellows. One died that same evening, another on the 6th, another on the 7th. There were no stones or weights on board to sink the corpses, and they swam about the ship, as if they wished to be taken on board again, and not to be left in this waste of waters. The moon was shining clear, and we looked long in silence at the melancholy spectacle, not knowing whose turn might come next.
It was possible that we should be obliged to return to an American port for men to navigate the ship, for six seamen had deserted at New Orleans, and one had died, and the captain had replaced them by two Americans, one Frenchman, and one Italian, altogether too few when we first started. However, soon after the third corpse was thrown overboard, a fresh breeze sprang up from the westward, and on the 9th we entered the Atlantic. The patients improved, and by the 11th all were well and fit for work.
Leaving the Gulf stream as soon as possible, to avoid the thunder-storms so frequent there, we had the most beautiful weather in the world, with a fresh S. W. wind, inspiring cheerfulness and good spirits. We amused ourselves in the mornings with books or chess, and in the evenings playing whist with a dummy, the time passing rapidly and agreeably. Sometimes, by way of a change in our amusements, the American wife cuffed her Lübeck husband, or threw some household utensil at his head; sometimes the Texan landholder got drunk, and talked all kinds of nonsense. Thus there was no awful pause in our entertainments, up to the time of arriving in the channel on the 1st of September, when a cutter came alongside, and sold us fresh fish and potatoes, which we enjoyed very much after all the salt provisions.
It was too thick to see the land, but after dark we made out a light-house on the coast of England, and afterwards another on that of Normandy. The next day was still foggy, and the wind against us; later, a pleasant breeze sprung up from the westward, dispersed the fog, displaying the chalky cliffs of Albion in all the splendor of the setting sun; – hundreds of vessels were in sight, while the sea was almost as smooth as a lake. I mounted aloft to feast my eyes undisturbed, on old, beloved, long-desired Europe, which seemed to open her arms with a friendly smile to welcome back the wanderer.
I remained till the darkness hid the prospect from my sight. At midnight the wind changed again, and we had to beat to windward; as the day was clear, we could make out people walking at Brighton, and the long rows of bathing-machines on the beach. We also came close in to Dover, and then over to Calais, after which we cleared the land, and stood into the North Sea.
On the 17th September, a pilot came on board, and on the evening of the 18th we were off Bremerhafen, and anchored about a quarter of a mile from the entrance on account of the ebb. Here, to our great consternation, the pilot informed us that we should be put in quarantine, on account of the deaths which had occurred. This was a woful stop to all our hopes of soon treading on terra firma, and it was in a very ill humor that I watched the dread flag flying from the foremast.
On the following morning we moved close to the Hanoverian fort. A boat with a flag uniting the Hanoverian and Bremen colors, put off and came alongside, holding on by a boat-hook, and refusing to touch a rope, for fear of infection. Two carefully enveloped figures sat in the stern; one of these was a doctor, who made us all look over the ship’s side, that he might behold and study our physiognomies, and see if they looked at all suspicious. We were mustered, to show that all were present, and then he inquired into all the particulars of the deaths. After gaining all the information he desired, he noted it in a book, and said quite coolly that he would send a report to Bremen, and that we should hear again in a few days. Here was precious felicity! We had just time to call out to the boatmen the names of various articles we wished them to procure us, such as fresh meat, bread, butter, potatoes, &c. a good sign how ill we all were – ere the boat pushed off, made sail, and disappeared in the harbor.
The Lübecker’s American wife, the only woman on board, had in the mean time had many a dispute with her husband, whom she shamefully tormented; yet he bore it all with inconceivable patience. She struck him, bit him, hid his things, or threw them overboard, abused him, and in short, behaved in a manner that would have exposed her to the roughest treatment from many others; but her good man bore it all with a “What can I do?” This was his answer to the advice of everybody on board, all wishing that she should meet the reward of her infamous conduct; but it was always, “What can I do? I cannot strike her.” His better half happened to hear the word strike (schlagen), and although she did not understand German, she knew what that meant; so springing on him like a fury, and holding her fist in his face, she told him in unmistakable terms that if he once attempted to raise his hand to her, she would plunge a knife between his ribs, and scratch out his eyes. She was a little frightened by one of the party telling her that if she did not treat her husband better, he had the right in Germany of selling her to anybody who would buy her – a statement which I confirmed: this startled her; but if she had had any reflection, she must easily have known that no one would buy such a termagant.
She behaved better during the time we were in quarantine, perhaps feeling that she was alone among foreigners, and would be quite helpless without her husband.
Ten days passed away, and we only saw the boat when she brought the letters or provisions; at length one of the party wrote a request to the principal authorities in Bremerhafen, that the passengers at least, who had nothing to do with the cargo, might be permitted to land. Contrary to expectation, the answer was favorable, and next morning a barge, of blessed memory, came alongside, “in which the passengers and baggage” – so ran the order – “were to be thoroughly smoked.”
All our baggage was removed to the barge; the contents were unpacked and spread out, the hatches laid on, a dark powder thrown in, and then something liquid, and the hold was instantaneously filled with a thick smoke. As soon as all the goods’ were smoked, the passengers were required to undergo the same process; and we walked about in this dreadful smoke for about a quarter of an hour: my lungs did not get rid of the effects of it for three days after. This ordeal past, we repacked our clothes, and prepared, after our long absence, to tread once more on German ground. We waved a last adieu to our good captain, his officers, and crew, whose conduct could not be too highly praised; and in a few minutes, with light and joyful hearts, we stepped on the soil of our native land.