her's smile--they found an idiot's stare.
They cried: was it for their mother's embrace, or did they miss their
brother and sisters? Not even the piteous cry of motherless infancy
could light one spark of emotion in the widowed husband's breast--all
was one awful blank of idiocy. A wife and three children, buried beneath
piles of freight, had found a wretched grave; his heart and his reason
had fled after them--never, apparently, to return.

Surely this was a scene pre-eminently calculated to excite in those who
wore, by their very escape, living monuments of God's mercy, the deepest
feelings of gratitude and commiseration; yet, there stood the poor
idiot, as if he had not been; and the jest, the glass, and cigar went on
with as much indifference as if the party had just come out of a
theatre, instead of having providentially escaped from a struggle
between life and death. A more perfect exhibition of heartlessness
cannot be conceived, nor do I believe any other part of the world could
produce its equal.

The immediate cause of the wreck was the steamer "H.R.W. Hill" running
into us, owing to misunderstanding the bell signal; most providentially
she caught alongside of us after striking; if she had not done so, God
alone knows who could have been saved. As far as I could ascertain, all
the first-class passengers were saved. Do not stare at the word
first-class, for although in this country of so-called equality no
difference of classes is acknowledged, poor helpless emigrants are taken
as deck-passengers, and, as freight is the great object, no space is set
apart for them; they are stowed away among the cargo as best they can
be, with no avenue of escape in case of accidents, and with the
additional prospect of being buried beneath bales and barrels. I believe
fifteen passengers perished in this way: one poor English-woman among
the deck-passengers fought her way through the freight, and, after being
nearly drowned and trampled to death under the hoofs of the cattle,
succeeded in escaping. A slave-merchant with a dozen negroes managed to
save all of them, inasmuch as, being valuable, he had them stowed away
in a better place. The moment the wreck was completed, we proceeded up
the river, wasting no time in trying to save any part of the cargo or
luggage. My own position was anything but a pleasant one, though I trust
I was truly thankful for my preservation. I found I had managed to throw
my desk between the two steame