Part 7

"Autumn had dressed the old town in sober suits of brown, laced with yellow and red; there was a sharp tang in the salt sea air that sent the blood dancing. The smell of the ripe apples, crushed by the cider-presses, pervaded the orchards, and in the fields the stacked dried corn showed the unsuspected wealth of golden pumpkins that grew between rows. Out in the woods the ferns had grown wan and pale, and the fading leaves began to carpet the dead summer's undergrowth. Day after day the officer and the lady rode away from the tree-shaded streets to the silent autumn forests where silver-gray oak-boles upheld canopies of brown velvet leaves. The gumtrees burned like fire, and the hickory and sassafras gleamed golden over the red sumach and whortleberry that made the old fields seem deluged with the blood of some mighty battle. At times the long lines of homing ducks would pass them, or a V of wild geese would sweep over their heads, crying 'honk-honk!'"

"Evening had come on, and the bare boughs were etched black against a lemon-colored sky, which melted into orange where it kissed the horizon."

"The rosy glow in the west faded to ashen gray as the day burned itself out."

"Autumn followed, spreading its rich India carpet of leaves before the retreating footsteps of the dying year."

"Again the dawn swept up out of the sea, rosy and clear; she could see the pink light of a new day on the western walls of the passage."

"He labored under the oppressive aloofness begotten by sorrow, which endows even the most familiar objects with a strangeness borrowed from the new relation that we thenceforth bear to our dead selves. The old landmarks seemed to be obliterated by the torrents of his anguish and he felt no more of the balm he anticipated from a sense of homecoming than he might have experienced in entering any wayside tavern. His disease created a spiritual alienation from all things, and in his heart, like the Jewish lepers, he cried out perpetually, 'Unclean! unclean!' proclaiming his eternal separation from humanity."

"There were all sorts of half-fledged thoughts nestling in his heart as he strode out into the night."

"A sudden apprehension shook her, every overwrought nerve in her body seemed strained to listen; the wind had risen since dark, and was moaning in the chimney. She heard him fumble with the bolts; it seemed an age before the door flew open with a crash, and the storm rushed in whooping, making the candles flicker and starting the smouldering logs into a blaze. Some one was talking to the Captain in the hall; now the door closed, and she heard his quick step coming back alone. The presentiment of impending evil that had oppressed her all day now took the form of anxiety for her husband; her fear grew into an awful certainty of misfortune as she listened for the Captain's return. Could Gordon have been taken ill? Was there an accident on the journey? Could he even be dead? 'Oh God,' she prayed dumbly, 'not without saying good-bye,--not angry with me, and without good-bye!'"

Finally, the moral of the book is one that has the sanction of the father of Greek tragedy; it is the familiar adage that wisdom comes through suffering. The strongest feature of the story is its interest; I could hardly put it down before I had finished it. This interest, which is inspired by its intrinsic merit, is increased by the fact that it is the work of 'The Daughter of the Confederacy.' While it is not a great book, it is well worth reading.

Next came many unsigned essays for different journals,--a Christmas story for 'The World,' and a pretty one called 'Maiblume' for 'Arthur's Home Journal.' Then followed a comprehensive article on 'The Women of the South before the War,'--before she was born. Mrs. Davis gave her the material, and her beautiful, pure soul shed upon it the moonlight of idealism. The piece last mentioned, as well as a remarkable paper on her father's character as she saw it, was published by McClure's syndicate.

Miss Davis was unusually well-versed in Chinese history, as she had spent two years reading it because of her intention of writing a Chinese novel. On this account 'A Romance of Summer Seas' has so strong a _vraisemblance_ that people thought the author had visited the scenes so vividly described. Her knowledge of the Chinese world is shown also in an article not yet published which has for its title, 'An Experiment in Chinese Money;' it was written at the time of the silver and gold contest.

It was a cherished wish of the dutiful daughter to put herself in a position to buy a little home in a beautiful country district and a little pony carriage for her mother and herself. With this in view she wrote 'A Romance of Summer Seas,'[20] which she had first intended to call 'An Unconventional Experiment.' She had contemplated writing a novel of which the scene should be laid at Hong-Kong,--a novel of a more ambitious nature than 'A Romance of Summer Seas.'

The 'unconventional experiment' consists in a young girl's being forced by circumstances to travel under the sole guardianship of a young Englishman from their home, Penang, off the coast of the Malay Peninsula, to Hong-Kong and Yokohama. The summer seas of the Orient and the two cities last named form the background of the story. The pair are very reserved and stand aloof from the other passengers until these begin to gossip about them and to whisper that the relations between them are not just what they should be. This causes two or three fights, two challenges, and one duel, all of which might have been avoided if the people on board had minded their own business. It also brings about a marriage between the young man and young girl in question, who have been awakened by these rude happenings to the consciousness that they love one another.

The characters are well-drawn and lifelike. Bush, the Globe Trotter, who tells the story, proves to be a very entertaining _raconteur_ in spite of the reputation he has of being an insufferable bore. He is loyal and true, and does not hesitate to risk his life for his new-found friend. Malcolm Ralstone and Minerva Primrose, the pair in whom the interest of the story centers, are not idealized but thoroughly human. Guthrie, the Kansas cattle king, is the best-drawn character of all; he is kind-hearted and manly, but the personification of vulgarity,--one of that type of Americans who travel much because they think it is the thing to do, make themselves very conspicuous by their loudness, bad manners, and ignorance, and do all they can to bring our country into disrepute. They are aided in this noble work by such vulgarians as the American consul at Hong-Kong,--these creatures who owe their prominence to the abuses of our consular system. Miss Edwina Starkey is a revised but unimproved edition of Mrs. Jellyby,--what Mrs. Jellyby might have been if she had become a sour old maid. Though an apostle of 'The Brotherhood for the Diffusion of Light,' Miss Edwina has about as much of the true spirit of Christianity as she has of personal beauty. Among the minor characters Doctor Clark is admirably drawn.

The book contains many charming bits of description; one has the feeling that Miss Davis must have visited these scenes which she so vividly paints. The life on shipboard seems very real. We find evidence of the closest observation of the world, and the results of this observation sententiously expressed. A quiet humor pervades the story, which is realistic in the best sense and quite healthy.

I insert a few extracts.

"We were all up on deck enjoying the black glory of the night,--stars set in a velvet pall overhead, and, below, the phosphorus fringes that edged every ripple in the water and made the ship's wake shine like a reflection of the Milky Way."

"As I sat there heedless of time, the light in the west faded, and the great blue dome blushed with a thousand delicate gradations of color, from the deep sapphire overhead, where the first stars twinkled, through fainter blues and apple greens, until everything melted into the gold of the horizon."

"So he went off, leaving me alone in the white glory of the tropic night. No words of mine can convey the magic of that moonlight, enveloping everything, and culminating in a glittering path across the water. Every now and then a fish jumped, and I could see its wet sides glitter; or a ghostly gull swept by on silent wings, for when the full moon rides in the southern sky, not even the birds can sleep, but wake and sing their songs fitfully throughout the night."

"They sat at the window waiting, and watching the heat-lightning play in the west and the reflection of the ships' lamps that lay in the water like long yellow smudges. As the night closed in the threatened storm swept up out of the sea, deluging the city and whipping the quiet harbor into a foam; the thunder crashed incessantly, and the flashes of lightning showed stooping figures running along the bund to shelter, and hooded jinrikishas tearing by, the coolies' grass cloaks dripping at every blade."

"When one woman wishes to wound another she always strikes at her heart."

"Black was very inky and white immaculate to this son of the prairies."

"People never relish life as they do when the taste of death is still bitter between their teeth."

"Her heart was as pure as crystal."

"Women are the most conservative things alive."

"The face he turned upon me was no more the face of Minerva's lover than the sea in December is like the sea in June."

"I venture to say that very few of the dead would be entirely welcome if they returned unexpectedly to their widowed affinities."

"Nothing is so perfect a guarantee of respectability in a chance acquaintance as the names of your own friends on his visiting-list."

"Many babies and Burmese summers had exhausted all the elasticity she had ever possessed."

On the whole, 'A Romance of Summer Seas,' while it is on a less ambitious scale than 'The Veiled Doctor,' seems more natural and shows a gratifying advance along several lines.

When Miss Davis was suffering intensely in her last illness, she would pat her mother's hand and say, "We shall have our carriage when my book sells." But her unselfish dreams were not to be realized. The career which seemed so full of promise was cut short by death. Now we see through a glass darkly; when we see face to face, we shall know why this life of usefulness ended in its morning. As long as the memories of the 'lost cause' linger in her beloved Southland, so long shall the name of Winnie Davis, 'The Daughter of the Confederacy,' remain unforgotten. She has passed away, but the perfume of her noble life will not pass away.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] The writer is indebted to the kindness of Mrs. Jefferson Davis for much of the information necessary in the preparation of this paper. Even Mrs. Davis, however, is unable to give the date when some of her daughter's minor pieces were published, and every effort to secure them has proved fruitless. They are either out of print or inaccessible.

[12] She was the only one of them he wished to have with him, as she alone would not understand that he was a prisoner.

[13] In 1892 she was queen of Momus,--an honor that has always been reserved for natives of New Orleans. Miss Davis is the only visitor upon whom it has ever been conferred.

[14] With their slender means the two women found it impossible to meet the interruptions and exactions of sight-seers at their home, so this too had something to do with the change of residence.

[15] John W. Lovell & Company, New York, about 1884 or 1885. Now out of print.

[16] February, 1888.

[17] March, 1891.

[18] 'The Veiled Doctor,' A Novel by Varina Anne Jefferson Davis, New York, Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1895.

[19] The following review is practically the same as one published by the author of this paper in 'The University of Mississippi Magazine,' April 1896.

[20] 'A Romance of Summer Seas,' A Novel. By Varina Anne Jefferson-Davis, Author of 'The Veiled Doctor,' New York and London, Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1898.

SIR WILLIAM DUNBAR--THE PIONEER OF SCIENTIST OF MISSISSIPPI.[21]

BY FRANKLIN L. RILEY, PH. D. (JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY)

William Dunbar was born in 1749 at the celebrated manor house of Thunderton, near Elgin in Morayshire, Scotland. He was the youngest son of Sir Archibald Dunbar, who was head of one of the most ancient and famous earldoms in his native country.[22] After William Dunbar's removal to America, he became head of this house in Scotland. Although he never assumed the title which he thus inherited, he is known in the history of his adopted state as Sir William Dunbar.[23]

After he had received a liberal education at Glasgow, his fondness for mathematics and astronomy led him to continue these studies in London. His health failed in the latter place and he decided to try his fortune in the New World.

He procured from the great house of Hunter and Bailey, London, an outfit of goods suitable for trading with the Indians. He reached Philadelphia in April, 1771, and immediately transported his goods, to the value of about £1,000, overland to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg).[24] Within two months he had exchanged them for furs and peltries, which he forwarded to London. He continued in this business for two years, when he formed a partnership with John Ross, a prominent Scotch merchant and capitalist of Philadelphia.

In order to establish a plantation in the British province of West Florida, Dunbar descended the Ohio and Mississippi in 1773, and selected a tract of land near Baton Rouge, then called by the English, New Richmond. He went to Pensacola, capitol of West Florida, where he received from Governor Chester permission to settle the tract selected, and thence to Jamaica, where he bought a large number of slaves, direct from Africa. With these, he returned to his new home, by way of Pensacola, the lakes, and the Amite.

He first directed his attention to raising indigo, but soon found that it was more profitable to manufacture staves for the West India market. These he exchanged for such commodities as were demanded by his neighbors along the Mississippi.[25]

From a document written in 1773, and found among the papers of George Chalmers, Secretary of Trade of Great Britain, we find that at this time there were only thirty-three settlements east of the Mississippi and between Natchez and what is now the state of Louisiana.[26] But from that date the streams of immigration began to flow steadily into this new country. This fact is shown by another contemporary manuscript, which was written by Gov. Chester, shortly after the Spanish conquest of West Florida. In it he says that in 1778, "considering the importance of the Western Parts of the Colony (of West Florida) lying on the River Mississippi which had so far increased in its inhabitants____that since the____last Assembly (held in 1772) it had been divided from the District of Mobile or Charlotte County and erected into Two Districts, viz.: The District of Manschack and the District of Natchez and contained a great number of respectable wealthy Planters and Settlers than either of the other Districts in the Colony" (Mobile and Pensacola).[27]

During the greater part of his first six years' residence near Baton Rouge, Dunbar suffered from a series of misfortunes which well-nigh destroyed all that he could accumulate through his industry and thrift. In 1775, he lost some of his most valuable slaves through a rebellion in which they were implicated. Three years later, his house and plantation were plundered by one Capt. James Willing,[28] who, although a commissioned officer in the continental army was really a freebooter. In speaking of Willing's visitation, Dunbar says, in his private Journal that "the houses of the British gentlemen on the English side were plundered, and among the rest, mine was robbed of everything that could be carried away--all my wearing apparel, bed and table linen; not a shirt was left in the house,--blankets, pieces of cloth, sugar, silverware. In short, all was fish that came in their net____I was plundered of £200 sterling value."[29] The year following, 1779, his plantation was again raided,--this time by marauding bands of soldiers from the Spanish army that subdued the district under their gallant leader, Galvez.

For several years after the last of these misfortunes, Dunbar was left undisturbed in his pursuits; and by constant application to business and the adroit management of the affairs of his firm, he accumulated a competency.

In 1787, he wrote to his partner, Mr. Ross, that the lands at Natchez were far preferable to their lands at Baton Rouge; that the Natchez soil was particularly favorable to the production of tobacco and that there were overseers in that part of the country who would engage to produce from two to three hogsheads to the hand besides provisions. His final settlement was at a place nine miles south of Natchez and four miles east of the Mississippi River. Here he opened the celebrated plantation called "The Forest," where he spent the remainder of his life.

On account of the competition from Kentucky and the Spanish restrictions on trade, he found the cultivation of tobacco unprofitable. He directed his attention to the raising of indigo, but was soon forced to abandon this also, because of the ravages of an insect. He then engaged in the cultivation of cotton, which proved to be a very remunerative crop. We are told that he became "the most extensive and successful planter" in this region, being one of the first to turn the attention of the planters of the Natchez District to the advantages which the cultivation of cotton afforded over other crops. In 1799 he wrote to Mr. Ross of Philadelphia that he continued to cultivate cotton with very great success and that it was by far the most remunerative staple that had been raised in this county.[30] In another letter, written while in the midst of the cotton harvest, he said that he had made "not less than 20,000 pounds of clean cotton worth in London £2,000." He also mentioned that he had helped to improve the method of packing cotton by the introduction of the square bale. In order to perfect this improvement, he requested his correspondent to have a screw press made in Philadelphia according to the specifications which were enclosed.[31] In a subsequent letter written to the same party, Dunbar expressed his surprise that the press should have cost him $1,000, but added that he would try "to indemnify" himself "by extracting an oil from the cotton seed." He requested to be informed what price such an oil would bring in the market, stating that it would probably be classed "between the drying and fat oils, resembling linseed in color and tenacity, but perhaps less drying."[32] Claiborne says that this was "the first suggestion of that product which has now become a great article of commerce, or indeed of utilizing cotton seed at all. At that period it was not dreamed of as a fertilizer, nor fed, in any shape to stock. It was usually burnt or hauled to a strong enclosure, at a remote part of the farm, to decompose, and was considered of no use whatever, and really a nuisance."[33]

These brief extracts, from the correspondence of Dunbar, show that he made a practical application of the scientific principles which he had learned in his native country. No comments are needed to show that he was a man of thought as well as of action.

Dunbar continued his business relations with Mr. Ross until the partnership was dissolved by the death of the latter in 1800. The interest of the heirs of the deceased was then bought by Mr. Dunbar for about $20,000.[34]

The remaining years of his life were devoted almost exclusively to scientific investigations, which he frequently characterized as his "favorite amusements." He seemed to be indifferent to political preferment, and though out of deference to the wishes of his people, he sometimes permitted an interruption of his scientific work in order to perform the duties of the offices which were more than once thrust upon him, such labors were not congenial to him. After the adjournment of the Territorial Legislature in 1803 of which he was a member, he wrote to President Jefferson expressing his delight upon being able to return to his scientific work.[35]

No greater injustice could be done Mr. Dunbar than to infer that his political indifference was due to lack of patriotism. His strong attachment to the home of his adoption is shown in the following extract from a letter to President Jefferson, written January 7, 1803:--"By a letter____from my much esteemed friend, Mrs. Trist,____she says that you had informed her it was my intention to remove shortly from this country; I beg leave to remove this impression. Since the country has been united to the American federation, I have never ceased to consider it as my own country which I hope never to be under the necessity of abandoning."[36] In another letter, written to the same great statesman six months later, Dunbar calls attention to the "renewed activity and immigration of the French to the Mississippi Valley," and expresses a fear of the consequences to follow therefrom. "It is desirable," he adds, "to preserve the whole of the Valley of the Mississippi for the spread of the people of the United States; who might in the progress of a century, plant the fine western valley of the Mississippi with many millions of inhabitants, speaking the same language with ourselves. It ought not to be objected that this object is too remote to merit contemplation of the present moment."[37] He then gives a discussion of the political methods of the French and Spaniards; also his ideas of the reason why the Spaniards had stopped the right of deposit at New Orleans, with circumstances to confirm the same.

He closes this letter by saying that politics is not a favorite subject with him, and that he would probably not introduce it again into their correspondence, unless in the view of communicating something which it might be important for Jefferson to know. However sincere may have been his intentions to abstain from writing on political matters, we find that in his next letter to Jefferson, written about four months later, he discusses at length the claim of Louisiana to West Florida, and gives a representation of the political outlook of Mississippi and of Louisiana.[38] In another letter, written three months later still, he opposes a resolution submitted to Congress "to deprive Jefferson College of thirty acres of land____and to give the same to the city of Natchez."[39]

Dunbar's greatest claim to prominence is based upon the results of his scientific investigations. His researches in this remote and then unexplored field of inquiry brought him into fellowship with the wise and learned of all countries, and gained for him a reputation wider perhaps than that of any other scientist in the history of the State. Col. Claiborne, writing in 1876, said of him that he "was not only the most learned man of his time on the Mississippi, but we have had no man his equal since."[40] Dunbar's fondness for mathematics and astronomy made him the friend and correspondent of Sir William Herschel. He also numbered among his correspondents some of the foremost scientists of his time,--Hunter, Bartram, Rittenhouse, and Rush.