CHAP. XXXI II.] NEW MADRID. 227 



friends had tried to dissuade us from sojourning in 

 so rude a place, that we were prepared for the worst. 

 In the wharf-boat, at least, I expected to find a bed 

 for the first night, and proposed to seek accommo 

 dation elsewhere the next day ; but, to my dismay, 

 the keeper of this floating tavern told me, when I 

 landed, that he had just come there, had nothing as 

 yet &quot; fixed,&quot; and could not receive us. I also learnt 

 that the only inn in New Madrid had been given up 

 for want of custom. Leaving, therefore, my wife 

 sitting by the stove in the wharf-boat, and taking a 

 negro as my guide, I began to pace the dark and 

 silent streets. First I applied in vain for admittance 

 at the old tavern, then to a store-keeper in the neigh 

 bourhood, who informed me that a German baker, 

 near the river, sometimes took in lodgers. I next 

 roused this man and his wife from their slumbers; 

 their only spare room was occupied, but they asked 

 their lodger if he would give it up to us. No sum of 

 money would have bribed him to comply, as I was 

 satisfied when I knew him better, but his good na 

 ture led him at once to assent cheerfully. We were 

 soon shown into the apartment, a kind of scullery, 

 with a mattrass on the floor, on which we slept, and 

 did not make our appearance next morning till half 

 past eight o clock. We then apologised, fearing we 

 had kept them waiting for breakfast. They said, 

 good humouredly, they had indeed waited from six 

 o clock, and it was now near their dinner time ! The 

 young German, originally from near Strasburg, a man 

 of simple manners, regarded himself as belonging to 

 a different station in society, and would have acted 



L 6 



