CHAP. XXXV.] NIGHT-WATCH FOR STEAMERS. 2G7 



the Nirnrod, and I afterwards learnt, that in the 

 course of her voyage she was snagged, both her 

 chimneys thrown down, and her boiler pierced, so 

 that we had a narrow escape. I now gave the 

 keeper of the wharf-boat to understand that the 

 whole town of New Madrid should be informed next 

 day in what manner their night-watches were kept, 

 which piqued him, and lie then lighted a large fire on 

 the bank ; but having no longer any faith in the sen 

 tinel, I could not sleep, so I determined to keep a 

 look-out myself. Fortunately another steamer soon 

 appeared ; and, almost before she was fairly alongside, 

 a party of active negroes leapt upon our deck, each 

 snatching up an article of our luggage, while the 

 clerk ushered us over the plank into a brilliantly 

 lighted saloon. The change of scene to travellers 

 who had been roughing it for several days under a 

 humble roof, talking with trappers about the watery 

 wilderness of the &quot; sunk country,&quot; and who had just 

 stepped out of a dark half-furnished wharf- boat, was 

 more like the fiction of a fairy-tale, than a real in 

 cident in an ordinary journey. Some musicians 

 were playing at one end of the room, which was 150 

 feet long, and a gay young party from New Orleans 

 were dancing a quadrille. At the other end we were 

 delighted to see a table covered with newspapers, for 

 we were nearly a week in arrear of news, and their 

 columns were filled with the recent debates of the 

 English House of Commons. There were also 

 many articles reprinted from the best European pe 

 riodicals, quarterly and monthly, besides those pub 

 lished in New England and New York. Nor were 



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