206 



AMERICAN JO URNE Y. 



[Chap. V. 



days went by rail to Richmond, Virginia (afterwards the capital 

 of the Confederacy). Its situation charmed him, and the James 

 river, with its rapids, was in all its grandeur from the rains. 

 He noticed here "that the whites and blacks seem to mingle 

 much more freely than at the North : " but, upon a hill over- 

 looking the city, " stands the gaol, where lies the man who 

 helped Box Brown to escape; and several others are confined, 

 and rotting away their days, for helping fugitives. These are 

 the true patriots of the country : I should like to have visited 

 them, but presume that I should [not be allowed to speak my 

 mind.' 7 In the City Directory, he found the names of fourteen 

 " negro-traders ; " and in the next morning's papers were ad- 

 vertisements of five slave-sales — 120 of both sexes and all 

 ages. 



He went by way of Liberty (!) to the Peaks of Otter — be- 

 tween four and five thousand feet high. Starting from the inn in 

 the twilight, he ascended the rocks at the mountain-top soon 

 after sunrise, and was rewarded by the most extensive view he 

 had ever seen : " It looked as if the horizon were a boundless 

 distance, and you saw a whole kingdom stretched out around 

 you : it was only in the direction of one other peak that you 

 could not see a complete horizon panorama : stretching off to 

 the north-east in regular parallel lines were the great Blue 

 Ridges, the backbone of Eastern America, — blue in the haze of 

 distance, else deep green from the woods that covered them : 

 it looked as if the surface of the earth had been wrinkled up, 

 as you furrow your brow ! " He was struck with the absence 

 of towns and villages : and on his journey he had noticed the 

 neglect and sterility with which slavery had cursed Eastern 

 Virginia. He came back to breakfast, and after a short rest 

 set out for the Natural Bridge. His landlady told him that 

 the shortest way was through the woods, following the course 

 of the Otter, which, however, he would have to cross thirty-two 

 times. He found it at first very charming and refreshing to go 

 through the woods, with their new foliage, new flowers, new 

 insects, and new birds with new notes ; and at first he did not 

 mind wading through the little stream, though he was surprised 



