er into all the
merits of this beneficent system, so productive of cheerfulness and
contentment in those whom it condemns to perpetual degradation.

Our night-wanderings were not yet ended, for the steamer in which we
were to proceed to Darien was to start at ten o'clock that evening, so
that we had but a short interval of repose at this same Pulaski House,
and I felt sorry to leave it, in proportion to the uncertainty of our
meeting with better accommodation for a long time. The _Ocmulgee_ (the
Indian name of a river in Georgia, and the cognomen of our steamboat)
was a tiny, tidy little vessel, the exceeding small ladies' cabin of
which we, fortunately, had entirely to ourselves.

On Sunday morning the day broke most brilliantly over those southern
waters, and as the sun rose, the atmosphere became clear and warm, as in
the early northern summer. We crossed two or three sounds of the sea.
The land in sight was a mere forest of reeds, and the fresh, sparkling,
crisping waters had a thousand times more variety and beauty. At the
mouth of the Altamaha is a small cluster of houses, scarce deserving the
name of a village, called Doboy. At the wharf lay two trading-vessels;
the one with the harp of Ireland waving on her flag; the other with the
union-jack flying at her mast. I felt vehemently stirred to hail the
beloved symbol; but, upon reflection, forbore outward demonstrations of
the affectionate yearnings of my heart towards the flag of England, and
so we boiled by them into this vast volume of turbid waters, whose noble
width, and rapid rolling current, seem appropriately called by that most
euphonious and sonorous of Indian names, the Alatamaha, which, in the
common mode of speaking it, gains by the loss of the second syllable,
and becomes more agreeable to the ear, as it is usually pronounced, the
Altamaha.

On either side lay the low, reedy swamps, yellow, withered Lilliputian
forests, rattling their brittle canes in the morning breeze.... Through
these dreary banks we wound a most sinuous course for a long time; at
length the irregular buildings of the little town of Darien appeared,
and as we grazed the side of the wharf, it seemed to me as if we had
touched the outer bound of civilized creation. As soon as we showed
ourselves on the deck we were hailed by a shout from the men in two
pretty boats, which had pulled alongside of us; and the vociferations of
"Oh, massa! how you do, massa? Oh, missis! oh! lily missis