S80 
IMay i, 18^7. 
MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH, 
XL.— Delaware Bradbury. 
Near the jucction of those Virginia rivers, the Pamunky 
and the Matapony, ■which form York's broad stream, dwells 
•what is iett of the once powerful tribe of Pamunky Indians, 
and Delaware and his brother John were intehi.gent and in- 
fluential men among them. It is not at all certain that I 
have spelled their family name right, for it was spoken 
"Bradhy" and sometimes like "Bradley," and no doubt 
Eome Virginia sportsmen would call me down but for this 
explanation. The time was in the spring of '75, and the late 
Prof. Spencer F. J3aird, IT. S. Fish Commissioner, had sent 
me down Ibtre to see v bat could be done to increase the 
shad in the Pamunky Eiver, and by some good fortune 1 
became a guest of Delaware Bradbury's, on an island some 
distance below White House landing, which was then the 
head of navigation of the river and some ten miles above its 
confluence "with the Matapony. 
Delaware was then about f orty years old, above the middle 
height, and built like an athlete. As with most of his'tribe, his 
hair liad a tendency to curl; but bow could a small colony 
keep from mingling wiih its neighbors for a century or two? 
"We wfre friends from the start, and while education was 
very limited atcong my Pamunky friends, they were intelli- 
gent to a high degree. I had put up my old-style Green 
batchmg boxes down at a place called Fish Haul, which does 
not appear on my present maps nor in the Fosi Office Gaz- 
etteer; but as a part of my duly was to collect specimens for 
the Smithsonian Institution,' much time was spent with Del- 
aware, and when the hatching season vras over we were 
together daily. 
War time was not far back then, and Delaware was shy 
of the subject at lirst, but afterward told me that for services 
in the War of the Revolution his tribe had been relieved from 
taxation on theirproperty and had preserved it ; that it required 
a certain amount of Indian blood to be recognized as one of 
the tribe, but that during the Civil War many of th^m had 
been pilots on Union vessels, and for this reason some people 
were trying to have the law repealed which exempted them 
from taxation. How this turned out I don't know, as no 
correspondence has been held with any of the family since 
then. 
John and Delaware, as well as others, were in demand as 
guides and boatmen by the sportsmen from Richmond and 
other places. Tney knew every bit of snipe or woodcock 
ground within twenty miles, and when the flight of soras 
came on their services were in great demand. I use the 
Virginia name or "sera" for the bird we Northern gunners 
call "rail," because Delaware knew no other name for it. 
Perhaps you will call Delaware a pot-hunter and all kinds 
of bad names when you know him belter, but that's no fault 
of mine. To me he was a delightful study, because so un- 
conventional, honest and true. For instance: 
"What's that, Delaware?" I asked, as I saw a extra long 
double paddle lying alongside his fence. It was made of 
some light wood and abDut 18ft. long, too long to use in 
paddling a canoe, and it excited my curiosity. 
"That's my sorasia' paddle " 
We walked along lo-iv ard the housed for dinner was about 
due, and I overhauled my little knowledge of canoeingwhile 
listening to a mockingbird whistling in a tree by the front 
door. A "sorasin' paddle" was a huckleberry beyond my 
persimmon, but you know how one dislikes to expose his 
ignorance, especially on subjects of sport, if he pretends to 
any knowledge of if in a general way." 
"What kind of a paddle did you say that was?" 
"A sorasin' paddle; we use it when we goes a sorasin'." 
With no dictionaiy to consult, there was nothing to do 
but to revolve the strange verb, chew it and try to digest it; 
and then came the inspiration! "That's the longest sorasin' 
paddle I've seen, and I don't see just how you manage it, 
because it's so long." 
That brought the facts out, and for the benefit of sports- 
men, naturalists and pot-hunters, I'll give you the tale as 
'twas told to me. He said : 
"It's got to be long to reach 'em in the mud flats when the 
tide is down along the creeks. You see, we pushes the 
sportsmen at high tide among the reeds, and they shoots a 
lot, but don't get 'em all, ''cause it's hard to mark 'em down; 
but when a bright night comes we rows along the flats at low 
fide and spat« the sora,s with the paddle, an' then we reaches 
'em in on it, an' it's a heap more killin' than shootin', an' we 
get every one we spat, an' sometimes make more money in a 
night's sorasin' than in two days' poling for sportsmen." 
I took a good look at the paddle, now that its use was 
known, but the Standard Dictionary fails to describe Dela- 
ware's name for the killing of the sora. "What's a fair 
night's work with a sorasin'^paddle?" 1 asked. 
"Well, eight or ten dozen, accordin' as the flight is on. 
They're cur'us birds. They come an' go an' no one knows 
where. They don't make no nests, nor have any young ones. 
Some say thej^ turn into frogs, but if they do they don't all 
turn at once, for frogs are about when tbe soras are here. 
The soras come in spring and fall, here one day and gone 
the next, What you think?" 
"They probably breed in the North, like the geese; they're 
here one day and gone the next." 
"Yes, but you can see the geese go an'" hear 'em nights, 
but no man ever see a flock o' soras goin' overhead, an' in 
the winter the frogs go in the mud, but the soras have disap- 
peared long before, an' it's a mystery." 
The spring season for rail had passed or I should certainly 
have seen <^^he working of the "sorasin'' paddle," for much 
might be learned in a night when everything was right for the 
work; of course, it can't be called sport; but a lecture to Dela- 
ware on theiniquity of usinga "sora8ingpaddle"onagame bird 
would have been a waste of breath. The birds were worth 
a certain price, and methods were not to be considered. I 
would have poled or paddled him on such an expedition en- 
tirely in the Interest of gaining knowledge, and, as a man of 
the world, would never think of pointing out what I might 
think to be the error of his ways, because that is not to my 
taste. If that sort of market supply does not please the 
sportsmen of Virginia, they can argue the case through their 
Legislature and their game protectors. Delaware was my 
friend, and who knows'but his views on the killing of game 
biids- were not as correct as mine? Did it ever occur to you 
that your pet opinions might be all wrong, and that your 
opponent might be right after all? The best and coolest 
judg^s of huaian motives and actions try to see with the eyes 
of the other fellow, and put themselves in his place. 
Delaware was a very interesting man. He told me that 
his tribe had a tradition that centuries ago some of his peo- 
ple fi3hed in the sea and caught a man, who said : "Get back 
to your people and take your biggest boats, put in all your 
goods, for to-morrow the water shall ppvet the earth." 
"They did so," said Delaware, "and after many weeks they 
were left; on the top of the mountains by the Shenandoah 
River." 
• We gathered pottery made by his people in the days be- 
fore the white man came, and I well remember one frag- 
ment which had a drawing upon it that was like those of 
Egyptian make. These things- were sent to Washington. 
He showed the Indian as being destitute of humor or a sense 
of the ludicrous, qualities of mind not always found among 
Europeans and their descendants, but possessed by the 
richest intellects, who always realize that there is a grotesque 
side to everything, and that madness lies in too serious 
thinking. Yet serious fbols often pass for wise men. 
Charles Lamb once said : "Here comes a fool, let's be grave," 
but please do not think that I mean to insinuate that the 
American Indian is a fool because he seldom sees a joke, nor 
that some solemn men, who take the world and themselves 
seriously, are entirely deficient in intellect because they have 
no sense of humor. That is merely a deficiency which de- 
tracts from their personal enjoyment of life, but as they are 
not aware of it they are really not the losers. A man can 
not lose what he never had. The negro has a sense of the 
ludicrous, but has little humor; therefore the product of the 
two races can not be expected to do other than to take life in 
a seriou'=i way. 
At Fish Haul the shad fishing was run by A. B. Hill & 
Son, and it was almost a failure on the Virginia rivers that 
year, and it was late (May 11) when I arrived, but I spent a 
week in their cabin on West Island, and had a good time 
with Hill and his assistant, Mr. Waring. We had gone into 
our bunks on the first night, after spending the evening talk- 
ing about ;^shad and other fish, and I, at least, was drowsy, 
when Hill asked: 
"Where do you live when you're home?" 
"'Way back in the State of New York." 
"Never been down in Virginia before, I reckon?" 
"Yes, I've wandered over a portion of it while I was with 
the Army of the Potomac." 
"The you did! What corps?" 
"The Second; Hancock's." 
Two men jumped out of their bertha with a jar that made 
the shanty shake; and one said: "See here, Yank! If you 
were with Hancock, we met you often, for we were with 
ole Jube Early, and you've got to get out o' that bunk and 
take a drink to old acquaintance." 
It was near daylight before we again turned in and we had 
not fought half our battles over. When Delaware came to 
take my camp and garrison equipage to Indian Town my 
new friends gave me a good send-off, and came over to visit 
Indian Town several times while 1 was there. This was a 
common experience throughout the SDuth. The men who 
did the fighting always fraternize and respect each other, be- 
cause they realize that stubborn battles cannot be fought by 
one side alone. 
Mr. 'Waring wanttd to see the working of some trolling 
spoons and Delaware rowed us down the river. Holding 
the spoon close to the boat, he saw how beautifully it spun, 
and his face showed that he began to believe t hat a fish 
might be induced to take such a glittering thing, which now 
assumed a diiJerent aspect from when held in the hand. A 
beastly gar struck it first and was landed ; but it was a job 
to get the triple hook out of its jaws. 
"Them gars is tough," said Delaware, "an' their hides 
will turn duck shot. "They'll live out o' water longer than 
any fish in the river. " 
If my friends had been told that the gar was a ganoid, a 
survival of a type that existed before man was on earth, that 
their optic nerves do not cross and that the few existing 
species diiier in having bony or caitilaginous skeletons, they 
would have been no wiser, but when I said, "The scales on 
these gars are like flint, and you can't cut 'em with a knife," 
they both grasped this character of the gar. 
"Yes," said Delaware, "before the Yankees sent down 
plows with steel taculd-boards, the Virginia farmers used to 
tack the skin of a gar on their old wooden mould- board 
plows, and they were almost as good as steel " 
Waring indorsed this statement, and said that he had seen 
an old plow with a gar skin on it, when he was a boy. 
"And now, Delaware," said he, "we have been trying to see 
how long a gar can live out of water. How long do you 
suppose a full-grown one can live without water?" 
"Half a day, or more. " 
' We kept one on the sand back of our shanty for over 
three days, and a good part of the time it was in the blazing 
sun, and it might be living yet, only our friend killed it so 
as to stuff the skin before he left us, The fish was a little 
over 4ft. long, and it's over there now ; I'll bring it here in 
time to have it packed to go North." 
Delaware walched a buzzard sailing in the distance as he 
rowed while the spoon was spinning astern, but made no 
comment. His face gave no indication that he thought the 
yarn too tough for digestion, but his sudden interest in the 
buzzard cxeated a suspicion that he did not care to question 
the story, and, knowing it to be true, I came to Waring's 
relief, 
"Yes, Delaware," said I, "that fish did live for three days 
and a half, as Mr. Waring has said, but he neglected to men- 
tion that we had four thunder showers during that time— on 
two of the nights and on two of the days. The rain wet the 
gills of the fish and certainly helped it to live, and so the test 
was not a fair one, but it was a most surprising one, for I 
had no idea that any fish could live as that gar did." 
Delaware thought a moment, then replied: "Theysuttinly 
is tough. Our young boys hates 'em 'cause they is good for 
nothing on'y to eat other fish an' get kelched when the boys 
don't want 'em, I'll teJl you what they does to 'em; they 
opens their long, narr' bills as wide as they can an' then puts 
a piece of wood upright in it and lets 'em go. They don't 
eat no more fish nor steal no more bait then. I've seen a 
dozen of 'em gagged in that way bobbin' about at a time, I 
wonder what becomes of 'em, an' how long they'll live with 
a gag that they can't shake out." 
While revolving this problem in mind there came a good 
strike on the tiolling line, and after the hardest fight that a 
fish ever put up for me, in twenty minutes afterward I 
brought to boat a striped bass which weighed lOlbs , plump, 
on the grocer's scales, the largest fish of the kind that ever I 
■caught, before or since. 
"A mighty fine rock," said Mr. Waring, and I remembered 
hearing that name for the fish on the Potomac. Rock and 
Tockfish was the name of what north and east of Philadel- 
phia is called "striped bass," but the great market of New 
York city is slowly substituting its names for fishes wherever 
Southern fishermen supply it. My old friend Francis Eadi- 
cott used to tell this joke on a New York angler, who fished 
for striped bass from the islands of Martha's Vineyard, and. 
for blueflsh from Barnegat to Montauk Point. He had gone 
to North Carolina for duck shooting purposes, and in con- 
versation with a native bay man asked: "Is there any good 
fishing about here?" 
"No, nothing but rock and tayior, and no one fishes for 
'em but the darljies." 
That was perfectly satisfactory, and he spent his vacation 
in shooting, for which he cared but little; and one evening 
in New York at a cafe frequented by anglers, related his 
shooting experiences, and rtgretted that the Southern coast 
had no good game fishes. He is dead now, but while he 
lived he was often reminded that the "rock and taylor" 
which swarmed along the Carolina coast were his favorite 
striped bass and bluefish, and he never ceased to regret that 
his tackle box had not been opened on that trip. 
"Yank," said Waiing, "sell me that spoon and line, will 
yuu? That's a grand rig for trolling, an' you can get more 
when you go home." 
"Johnny, said I, "you haven't got money enough to buy 
that fishing tackle. I had mentally promised to give it to 
Delaware, and that settles it. In my box of tackle oq the 
island there are several duplicates of this outfit, and they are 
at your service." 
On another fishing trip a curious code of names for the 
mallard seemed worth recording, and my notebook says : A 
pair of mallards is called "a duels and mallard," the male 
only being known by the specific name. A black duck is a 
"gray duck." Delaware said : 
"There's a lot o' wing-tipped ducks that gunners don't 
get, and them that runs their chances o' hawks, gulls, minks 
and other duck-eaters mates up and breeds along the river. 
Sometimes it's duck an' mallard, or a duck an' he gray 
duck. They're putty much alike au' it don't seem to make 
any difference, but when we kill a he gray duck with curly 
feathers in .his tail we knows his daddy was a mallard. I 
'spect we can't, alius tell the half-breeds; an' what difference 
does it make if we can't?" 
This last remark showed a desire for knowledge, which 
seemed to him to be of no use; or did he mean to apologize 
for talking on what he thought to be a trifling subject? To 
tell him that all knowledge was useful would be to" talk over 
his head, so I answered : 
"I always lilie to know about such things. When I kill a 
bird I want ta know what it is. You surprise me with the 
number of half-brted ducks on this river, a-i you say you see 
broods in every bend in early summer, and what happens 
here must happen on the other rivers as well; and it brings 
the thought that these hybrid young would grow up and in 
time would so mix the two breeds of ducks that there would 
be but one, and that ooe a hybrid, psrhap5/the male being 
gray, with some green on its head, and Ihcj curly tail feath- 
ers of the mallard. There is such a bret,d of tame ducks 
called 'Cayuga black ducks,' very much larger than any of 
our wild ducks, and they claim to be improved wild black 
ducks, or gray ducks, as you call 'em, but the mark of the 
mallard is there in the curly feathers, which no plher wild 
drake has." 
"You call a half-breed a high-bred duck. I don't, any 
more 'n I'd call a mulatto man a high-bred man ; hut — " 
"I didn't mean it just that way, Delaware. 1 meant half- 
brerd; but go on." 
'Well, these here young half-breeds is putty plenty ev'ry 
fall; but, bless you, they're all killed off a^ore the Northern 
flight comes. This is their home, an' they ain't a-goin' to 
leave it till cold weather drives 'em South, and so they fly 
up an' down the river, halin' to leave it; an' I doubt if 
enough of 'em live through the early an' late shootin' to make 
any mark on the wild Northern birds. You see, these native 
ducks ain't wild when the shootin' opens; they've seen men 
in boats all summer an' don't get 'fraid of 'em, an' they hear 
guns before we begin to shoot ducks, an' thi. y get well killed 
off early. I tell you, they're fat an tender; ain't had to fly 
far an' get tough ' 
These men of the woods and waters are always close ob- 
servers. Delaware disprsed my no' ion that the hybrid 
progeny of wcunded ducks mightr contaminate the original 
stock. His view of the case seems correct. The prop- 
osition resolved itself into this: Given, a river so well cov- 
ered by gunners in the fall that enough wounded ducks 
should escape other enemies all winter, as well as the Epring 
gunners, that they were able to find mates, fit or misfit, in 
the spring and raise broods in every bend of the river or in 
every marsh, it was certain that the gunners of the next fall 
would harvest the home crop before the cold weather brought 
down the Northern fiocks. Figure it out on the blackboard. 
L it X represent 10 ducks reared on the Pamunky River and 
XI represent 11 gunners from Richmond, and each must 
take one duck home for Sunday dinner. The solution is 
easy. One gunner gets lett, but' the ducks come out even. 
1 never was brigtit in mathematics, but one never entirely 
forgets all that he once knew, and I am proud to think that 
a problem in algebra is not entirely beyond my present 
capacity. Delaware Bradbury never could have figured it 
out in that manner ,• he knew it in a general way, but his 
education was deficient in the matter of algebra. 
Some two years after this there came a letter from a Mr. 
L. P.. Smith, New Kent C. H , Va., in which he returned a 
little Masonic pin which had been lost in that great land of 
Somewhere, and forgotten. He said: "You may remem- 
ber that 1 visited your fishing camp the night you told the 
story of Cold Harbor, when we three were against you there, 
but were with you then. - * Come down again and 
hatch shad, we missed you last year, and we will get up an 
excursion to meet you and Hill, and Waring will entertain 
the whole crowd. Lately I came across a verse which I 
have altered a trifle to suit, It is: 
"1 tell yer, old boy, thar's er streak in us 
Old Rebels and Yanks thet is warm — 
It's er brotherly love tbet'll speak In us 
An' fetcb us together in storm; 
"We may snarl about 'niggers an' franeheese,' 
But ef a foreign war comes afoot, 
The two trees'll unite in the branches 
The same as they do at the root.' " t 
* During the war the Confederate soldiers called every Union sol- 
dier "Yank," no matter if be was from Callforaia or Tennessee. The 
name was generic, and was finally accepted by our boys, who, be- 
fore the svar, had never heard the name of "'Xankee'' applied to any 
man who was not a New Englander. In turn we first named our op- 
ponents "Rebs," then "Johnny Rebs." and finally boiled it down to 
■■Joimnies." It was forbidden for pickets of both sides to hold com- 
munication; but when close together they would swap coflee for to- 
bacco, and inTiolation of orders a picket would call: -'Hello, Yank." 
"Hello, Johnny." '-Qbt any coflCee." etc.; and the men who would 
be engaged in deadly conflict the next day, would agree to lay down 
their arms and exchange needful articles and newspapers. 
tl don't rercember meet iog this verse and can't say wherein Sir. 
Smith may have altered it, as be says he bas. The sencimenl is such 
a beauiitul one that no apology seems necessary for introducing it as 
he wrote it, 
