Strange True Stories of Louisiana

  III.

  FAMINE AT SEA.

  These changes made new farewells and separations. Common aims, losses, andsufferings had knit together in friendship many who had never seen eachother until they met on the deck of the big Russian ship, and now not afew of these must part.

  The first vessel to sail was one of the two ships, the _Johanna Maria_.Her decks were black with people: there were over six hundred of them.Among the number, waving farewell to the Kropps, the Koelhoffers, theSchultzheimers, to Frank Schuber and to the Muellers, stood the Thomases,Madame Fleikener, as we have to call her, and one whom we have not yetnamed, the jungfrau Hemin, of Wuertemberg, just turning nineteen, of whomthe little Salome and her mother had made a new, fast friend on the oldRussian ship.

  A week later the _Captain Grone_--that is, the galiot--hoisted the Dutchflag as the _Johanna Maria_ had done, and started after her with otherhundreds on her own deck, I know not how many, but making eleven hundredin the two, and including, for one, young Wagner. Then after two weeksmore the remaining ship, the _Johanna_, followed, with Grandsteiner assupercargo, and seven hundred emigrants. Here were the Muellers and most oftheir relatives and fellow-villagers. Frank Schuber was among them, andwas chosen steward for the whole shipful.

  At last they were all off. But instead of a summer's they were now toencounter a winter's sea, and to meet it weakened and wasted by sicknessand destitution. The first company had been out but a week when, on NewYear's night, a furious storm burst upon the crowded ship. With hatchesbattened down over their heads they heard and felt the great buffetings ofthe tempest, and by and by one great crash above all other noises as themainmast went by the board. The ship survived; but when the storm was overand the people swarmed up once more into the pure ocean atmosphere and sawthe western sun set clear, it set astern of the ship. Her captain had puther about and was steering for Amsterdam.

  "She is too old," the travelers gave him credit for saying, when longafterwards they testified in court; "too old, too crowded, too short ofprovisions, and too crippled, to go on such a voyage; I don't want to losemy soul that way." And he took them back.

  They sailed again; but whether in another ship, or in the same withanother captain, I have not discovered. Their sufferings were terrible.The vessel was foul. Fevers broke out among them. Provisions becamescarce. There was nothing fit for the sick, who daily grew more numerous.Storms tossed them hither and yon. Water became so scarce that the sickdied for want of it.

  One of the Thomas children, a little girl of eight years, whose father layburning with fever and moaning for water, found down in the dark at theback of one of the water-casks a place where once in a long time a drop ofwater fell from it. She placed there a small vial, and twice a day boreit, filled with water-drops, to the sick man. It saved his life. Of thethree ship-loads only two families reached America whole, and one of thesewas the Thomases. A younger sister told me in 1884 that though the childlived to old age on the banks of the Mississippi River, she could neversee water wasted and hide her anger.

  The vessels were not bound for Philadelphia, as the Russian ship had been.Either from choice or of necessity the destination had been changed beforesailing, and they were on their way to New Orleans.

  That city was just then--the war of 1812-15 being so lately over--comingboldly into notice as commercially a strategic point of boundlesspromise. Steam navigation had hardly two years before won its firstvictory against the powerful current of the Mississippi, but it wascomplete. The population was thirty-three thousand; exports, thirteenmillion dollars. Capital and labor were crowding in, and legal, medical,and commercial talent were hurrying to the new field.

  Scarcely at any time since has the New Orleans bar, in proportion to itsnumbers, had so many brilliant lights. Edward Livingston, of world-widefame, was there in his prime. John R. Grymes, who died a few years beforethe opening of the late civil war, was the most successful man with jurieswho ever plead in Louisiana courts. We must meet him in the court-room byand by, and may as well make his acquaintance now. He was emphatically aman of the world. Many anecdotes of him remain, illustrative rather ofintrepid shrewdness than of chivalry. He had been counsel for the piratebrothers Lafitte in their entanglements with the custom-house and courts,and was believed to have received a hundred thousand dollars from them asfees. Only old men remember him now. They say he never lifted his voice,but in tones that grew softer and lower the more the thought behind themgrew intense would hang a glamour of truth over the veriest sophistriesthat intellectual ingenuity could frame. It is well to remember that thisis only tradition, which can sometimes be as unjust as daily gossip. It issure that he could entertain most showily. The young Duke ofSaxe-Weimar-Eisenach, was once his guest. In his book of travels inAmerica (1825-26) he says:

  My first excursion [in New Orleans] was to visit Mr. Grymes, who hereinhabits a large, massive, and splendidly furnished house.... In theevening we paid our visit to the governor of the State.... After this wewent to several coffee-houses where the lower classes amuse themselves....Mr. Grymes took me to the masked ball, which is held every evening duringthe carnival at the French theater.... The dress of the ladies I observedto be very elegant, but understood that most of those dancing did notbelong to the better class of society.... At a dinner, which Mr. Grymesgave me with the greatest display of magnificence,... we withdrew from thefirst table, and seated ourselves at the second, in the same order inwhich we had partaken of the first. As the variety of wines began to setthe tongues of the guests at liberty, the ladies rose, retired to anotherapartment, and resorted to music. Some of the gentlemen remained with thebottle, while others, among whom I was one, followed the ladies.... We hadwaltzing until 10 o'clock, when we went to the masquerade in the theaterin St. Philip street.... The female company at the theater consisted ofquadroons, who, however, were masked.

  Such is one aspect given us by history of the New Orleans towards whichthat company of emigrants, first of the three that had left the otherside, were toiling across the waters.