but little
vegetation on the banks; but as we neared the shore, we saw that they
were covered with forests of pine, live-oak, magnolia, and laurel, with
occasional cypress swamps in the lower ground. The current was so
sluggish that it impeded us very little; and as we made good way, the
judge expressed a hope that we should reach his house--Roseville--early
the next day. My uncle's estate was only a few miles farther on, and
the judge invited us to go on shore at his house, and to proceed there
by land; but as my father was anxious to see his brother, he thanked the
judge, and got the skipper to undertake to convey us thus far in the
schooner, which was afterwards to go on to Bluespring, the most southern
settlement then existing on the river.

As night approached, the weather suddenly changed, dark clouds gathering
in the sky. The thunder roared, the lightning flashed, and the wind
blew with a force which threatened to drive the schooner on the
tree-fringed shore. We shortened sail, and endeavoured to gain the
eastern bank, where we might have anchored in comparative safety. The
generally calm surface of the river was broken into foaming seas, which
dashed up over us, while the schooner heeled over to the blast.
Sometimes I thought that our voyage would end in our being carried to
the bottom to become the food of alligators. Before, however, so
undesirable a catastrophe happened, our skipper bore up and ran for a
creek on the western shore, with the navigation of which he was
fortunately acquainted. After tearing along for a few minutes before
the wind, we saw by the fast waning light an opening in the trees,
towards which we steered, the branches almost catching our rigging.
After lowering every stitch of canvas, we ran on a short time longer,
and, rounding a point, brought up in what had the appearance of a
lagoon, under the lee of some tall trees. Darkness suddenly came down
upon us,--such darkness as I had never before witnessed, making the
flashes of lightning which darted through the air, and crackled among
the cypress-trees, appear still more vivid. The thunder crashed louder
than ever; the wind roared and howled through the forest. The judge's
wife sat in her cabin, holding her boy in her arms and trying to quiet
his alarm, while she herself retained her composure. Black Rosa,
however, looked dreadfully frightened, and, crouching at the feet of her
mistress, hid her eyes whenever a louder crash of