LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 4 305 
To-morrow, if all be well, I expect to sail for 
England, ,tlie dear home to which, in all my wan- 
derings, my heart ever turns. I have, in fact, 
said adieu to the land, having taken my place on 
board a large cotton ship, which is now in the bay, 
some fifteen or twenty miles from the city. 
I have been amused by observing the crew 
stowing the cargo. After what I said of the way 
in which the cotton is screwed into the bales, 
you would suppose that these were incapable of 
further compression. But it is not so. When 
the stowed bales in the hold are in contact with 
the upper deck, another layer has to be forced 
in. This is effected, bale by bale, by powerful 
jack-screws, worked by four men. When you 
see the end of the bale set against a crevice, into 
which you could scarcely push a thin board, you 
think it impossible that it can ever get in; and, 
indeed, the operation is very slow, but the screw is 
continually turned, and the bale does gradually 
insinuate itself. 
The men keep the most perfect time by means 
of their songs. These ditties, though nearly mean- 
ingless, have much music in them, and as all 
Join in the perpetually recurring chorus, a rough 
harmony is produced, by no means unpleasing. 
I think the leader improvises the words, of which 
the following is a specimen ; he singing one line 
alone, and the whole then giving the chorus, which 
is repeated without change at every line, till the 
general chorus concludes the stanza 
I think I hear the black cook say, 
Fire the ringo, fire away ! 
They shot so hard, I could not stay ; 
Fire the ringo ! fire away 1 
X 
