CONTENTS
| Page | |
| Alligators. | 2 |
| Stephen H. Branch’s Alligator. | 7 |
| Stephen H. Branch’s Farewell to his Country. | 10 |
| From the New York Times, of 1855. | 12 |
STEPHEN H. BRANCH’S
ALLIGATOR.
ALLIGATORS.
[From the New York Herald, of 1849.]
Chagres, New Granada, Jan. 2, 1849.
James Gordon Bennett: We left New Yorkamid the huzzas of friends, who bade us a mostaffectionate adieu. The passengers are fromevery section of the Union. There are menof talent and high integrity among us. Theemigrants in the Crescent City have neverbeen excelled, always excepting the PilgrimFathers. On leaving the Pier, I noticedbut two females, who waved their handkerchiefsmost gracefully, and imparted theirsweetest smiles. The stewardess is the onlyfemale on board, who is a legion, and hascontributed much to make us happy. Extraordinaryharmony has prevailed. All arearmed to the teeth, which warns us to respecteach other. I have not heard an unfriendlyword since I left New York, nor seen a wryface, save off Cape Hatteras and while crossingthe Gulf Stream in the trough of the sea,with the wind blowing very hard. Christmaswas the sickest and saddest day of mylife. Tho Crescent was a perfect hospital.All were sick, including some of the boat’sofficers, and extending even to the crew. Onthe first day out, the knives and forks rattledlike hail, but on Christmas, hardly a man madehis appearance at table. Such sighs andgroans, and anathemas of gold—such longingfor friends, and home and safety, and suchcontortions as on that unhappy Christmas, Ihave never seen. A countryman staggeredup and down the cabin, solemnly vociferatingthat he had vomited a fragment of his liver,and that he must soon die, and bade us all amost doleful farewell, and besought us tokindly remember him to his wife and children.But the surgeon came and analysed hisapparently ejected liver, which proved to bea huge junk of beef which he swallowed theday previous, without mastication. The sameverdant genius asked the Captain, during theawful gale, what he would charge to turnround and take him back to New York. TheCaptain screamed, and swallowed a large cudof tobacco, and seized a handspike and threatenedto dash the countryman’s brains uponthe deck if he didn’t go below. Amid thehorrors of the hurricane, the gentle and courageousstewardess gave us gruel, for whichwe rewarded her with a purse of gold. Thetempest was terrible. The ocean mountainssmote the frantic clouds, and the snowy sprayof the ocean vales resembled lakes of glitteringsilver. The Crescent’s stern was mutilated,the bulwarks stove, the wheel-houseinjured, and a man washed into the precarious[3]sea, who was miraculously rescued byfour