Newspaper Page Text
Entered according to Act of Congress, in J une, 1868. by .1. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
VOL. 11.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
S A L-O-Q U A;
OR,
Boy-Life Among the Indians.
BY REV. F. R. GOULDING,
Author of “ Young Marooriers,” ” Marooner’
Inland,” etc.
CHAPTER 11.
THE BLUFF —RACE FOR LIFE —QUASH AND
THE ALLIGATOR.
I J WAS born at Baisden’s Bluff,
in the year 1810. My father,
John Woodruff, for whom I
Vt ‘ ~ *' was named, was a prosperous
cotton merchant in Darien, Georgia,
commanding an extensive custom
among the numerous wealthy planters
who cultivated the rich islands and del
tas of the Altamaha river. My mother,
Elizabeth Duncan, was the daughter of
a rice planter in the adjoining county of
Liberty. During the winter and spring
months the family resided in Darien,
convenient to my father’s business, but
during the summer and early autumn,
when the steaming malaria from the
neighboring rice plantations threatened
death to all white persons who spent a
night within their influence, the family
resided at Baisden’s Bluff, twelve miles
distant, and my father would ride home
every evening and back to his business
every morning.
I have travelled much in my day, but
in no part of the world have I known
more delightful summer breezes than
■we used to enjoy at the dear old bluff;
and almost the same may be said of its
water. Embosomed in a shady ravine,
near us was a cool spring, known as
“ the Dripping Spring,” which not only
refreshed us with delicious draughts, but
also gratified our ears with the incessant
tinkle as of waters falling in a cave. At
the foot of a bold bluff in front of my
father’s door, and down a sheer descent
of thirty feet, there gushed from amid
the sand rocks a spring of crystal water,
which, though sulphurous in odor, so
gained upon the taste of those who used
it that, they never ceased to prefer it
above all other waters. To this day,
MACON, GEORGIA, JANUARY 9, 1869.
when I read in the bible the story of
David longing for a drink from the well
at Bethlehem, I think of our delightful
old spring at Baisden’s Bluff.
Sitting m our piazza and looking sea
wards, the eye rested upon an immense
level of tall green grass, full eight miles
wide, interrupted here and there with
hammocks of dark cedars, and with
broad flashing reaches of the river.—
Twice every month this immense level
of grass was covered by the spring tides,
:
and at the full of the moon in Septem
ber it appeared as one unbroken sheet
of water, sometimes angry, but generally
placid as the surface of a lake.
In this marsh, or overit, various birds
of large size were to be seen ; and from
amid the thick grass, at every rising tide,
came the merry cackle of marsh hens ;
while from the river itself were to be
heard, with the incoming of summer
tides, the flutter of countless fish, the
heavy splash of the sturgeon, and the
business-like pus-s-s of the porpoise.
One of my greatest delights, when a
child,—and in that respect I am as
much a child now as ever, and I hope
to always continue so, —was to stand
where I could watch these tokens of life
in the water, and rejoice in the universal
joy of river and marsh.
The summit of the bluff was crowned
! with a dense growth of evergreens, con
! sisting principally of live oak, cedar
| and myrtle, from the intervals of which,
I for nearly a mile, there peeped out the
AFRI CA N ANTEI, OFE S .
snow-white houses of the residents. —
Among these houses, thus visible, was
the Academy building, where most of
the young folks from the neighboring
islands and plantations received their
education. Os this building there is
scarcely a relic left. In the terrible hur
ricane of September 14th, 1824. the
earth below' it was undermined by the
surf, and the site is now marked by a
chasm.
I recollect a scene of fearful interest
in connection with one of the boys of
this academy. In a pretty cove of the
river densely walled from sight by ever
greens, was a shore of clean sand slop
ing gradually into the stream. This
was a favorite bathing place, and a pret
tier could scarcely be found. But the
parents and guardians were reluctant to
allow the young folks free access to it,
because there was a horrible story of a
boy having been caught there and de
voured by a shark. Another cause of
dread wms from alligators, which in
fested the river in large numbers [and
were occasionally very saucy.
These dangers were how'ever laughed
at by the boys. As for the alligators,
nothing afforded them more sport than
to find one of these cowardly creatures
in the neighborhood of their swimming
ground, —they would drive it into open
water, surround it with a cordon of
swimmers, and amuse themselves with
it until they were weary. The alligator,
on finding itself surrounded, would im
mediately try to escape by swimming
first to one side then to another, of the
ring, having nothing visible above water
but the dark tips of its eyes and nose,
and the boy whom it approached, had
only to dash water at it, when it would
turn tail and try some other point. This
was dangerous looking sport, and was
probably dangerous in fact; for there
was no telling how soon an alligator of
more courage than the rest might avenge
the dishonor put upon its race by seizing
and destroying someone of its tormen
tors.
I recollect, one day, when I was quite
a little boy, standing upon the shore,
watching the movements of a sturdy
swimmer, who was leisurely returning
from an excursion up the river, when
of a sudden 1 saw an uncommonly large
alligator glide from the marsh and swim
rapidly after him. Supposing that the'*'
amount of fun would correspond to its
size, and having not a thought of danger,
I called to a large boy, and said :
“See yonder, a big alligator behind
Jimmy Johnson.”
The boy was immediately alar med
and hallooed :
“ Jimmy, take care ! There’s an al
ligator after you !”
No. 28.