lked half a mile while the
wagon was dragged up and down the deep gulley, and lifted bodily over some
huge trunks of fallen trees. The wood through which we now drove was all
on fire, smoking, flaming, crackling, and burning round us. The sun glared
upon us from the cloudless sky, and the air was one cloud of sand-flies
and mosquitoes. I covered both my children's faces with veils and
handkerchiefs, and repented not a little in my own breast of the rashness
of my undertaking. The back of Israel's coat was covered so thick with
mosquitoes that one could hardly see the cloth; and I felt as if we should
be stifled, if our way lay much longer through this terrible wood.
Presently we came to another impassable place, and again got out of the
wagon, leaving Israel to manage it as best he could. I walked with the
baby in my arms a quarter of a mile, and then was so overcome with the
heat that I sat down in the burning wood, on the floor of ashes, till the
wagon came up again. I put the children and M---- into it, and continued
to walk till we came to a ditch in a tract of salt marsh, over which
Israel drove triumphantly, and I partly jumped and was partly hauled over,
having declined the entreaties of several of the men to let them lie down
and make a bridge with their bodies for me to walk over. At length we
reached the skirt of that tremendous wood, to my unspeakable relief, and
came upon the white sand hillocks of the beach. The trees were all
strained crooked, from the constant influence of the sea-blast. The coast
was a fearful-looking stretch of dismal, trackless sand, and the ocean lay
boundless and awful beyond the wild and desolate beach, from which we were
now only divided by a patch of low coarse-looking bush, growing as thick
and tangled as heather, and so stiff and compact that it was hardly
possible to drive through it. Yet in spite of this several lads who had
joined our train rushed off into it in search of rabbits, though Israel
called repeatedly to them, warning them of the danger of rattlesnakes. We
drove at last down to the smooth sea sand; and here, outstripping our
guides, was barred farther progress by a deep gully, down which it was
impossible to take the wagon. Israel, not knowing the beach well, was
afraid to drive round the mouth of it; and so it was determined that from
this point we should walk home under his guidance. I sat in the wagon
while he constructed a rough foot-bridge of bits of wood and bro