54 THE IHLAND PASSAGE. 



before a passenger steamer came in sight going the 

 same way. This vessel gradually gained on us, and 

 when she was close at hand, finding there was no 

 room to pass, as the cut is extremely narrow near 

 its outlet where we were, ran deliberately between 

 our yacht and the tug, cutting our stern line away 

 and nearly sinking us. This was an occasion, in 

 which we should have been justified in shooting the 

 pilot at his post, but we were in a foreign country, 

 so to speak, and all we did was to cast loose our 

 lines and get clear the best we could. The whole 

 performance was the less excusable, because the 

 wheelman saw there were ladies on board our boat, 

 and that we were strangers. As this was the only 

 piece of discourtesy shown us on our entire trip, I 

 give the name of the vessel which was guilty of it, 

 and warn all passengers to shun the "Pilot Boy." 

 It was by good luck alone that we escaped, for 

 hardly had we got clear, than the two steamers 

 jammed together, filling the cut from side to side, 

 so that both were aground, and we heard the crash- 

 ing of timbers and saw them fast there for nearly 

 an hour. Had the "Heartsease" been between 

 them, she would have been crushed. If any of our 

 readers go South by the inland passage from Charles- 

 ton, and it is a pleasant way of travel, we hope they 

 will in a measure revenge our wrongs, and give a 

 brutal captain a lesson in decent behavior, by refus- 

 ing to patronize the " Pilot Boy." 



One of the most interesting features of the coun- 

 try we were now passing was the rice fields. These 



