Although the commandant had told Jimmy that the river was open, the ark had yet to hear from the Spanish intendant.
Marion Royce was down with the fever when he was helped aboard and the voyage resumed, and Jimmy took his place, in a measure, and there was no demur. Even Shadwell Lincoln showed him a sarcastic deference since the interview with the governor.
Night and a dense fog covered the river, when they reached the line of West Florida.
Suddenly, as the ark floated downward, its headway was slowly arrested, and they heard the jangle of a bell ashore. The ark came to a standstill.
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Lewis, who was leaning over the port bow, heard the dull swish of the current against a cable, and saw that a raft of driftwood had already collected against it. He dropped on his knees and started to crawl aft to report.
Before he was half-way there, however, there was a dull red flash in the fog, accompanied by a tremendous report, and a cannonball howled over the ark. So startling a salute might well have caused confusion, but the pioneer arksmen did not lack coolness in danger. The horses, indeed, jumped and made some noise, but not a man spoke; and Lewis, reaching Jimmy, whispered his news.
He had hardly done so when a second red flash and report followed. They heard this ball skipping on the water ahead of them. Still another gun roared its hostile salutation, soon followed by a fourth report; and but for the poor shooting of the Spanish
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gunners, it must have gone hard with the ark. But, meanwhile, Jimmy was not idle. Swinging down from the port bow, he found that he could touch the cable with his foot. It was a strong line; but glad to find that it was not a chain, as he had at first feared, he sent Moses for a large, sharp knife from the cook-room. Then, bidding Wistar and Lewis bear a hand at a line which he looped round his own body, he reached down, and after several efforts, cut the hawser.
It parted with a splash, and immediately the ark floated on, silently as before. Four or five more shots were fired, but all went wide of the ark; the gunners appeared to think that the enemy was farther down-stream.
After passing the Spanish battery, the ark floated on during the remainder of the night, and until eight or nine o’clock the following morning, when, the fog clearing
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away, they found themselves heading down a narrow passage between two islands. Being still apprehensive of capture, they tied up under cover of a wooded bank in this narrow arm of water.
No one came off to them here, although they saw several boats in the channel outside the islands; and that night they went on again by moonlight, but had much difficulty at a succession of great eddies in the river. In one of these the ark floated round and round for an hour or more before they could row out of it.
Very few boats were seen that day, and these few were mostly market-boats, plying to and fro between the city and the numerous large plantations on both banks. Moses and Lewis had never seen such fine places before. There were extensive gardens of vegetables and flowers, and the plantation houses looked palatial to their unaccustomed eyes.
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What astonished them still more was that the river was so much higher than the fields of cane and cotton on each side of it. When floating near the bank they could look down on the gardens from the ark roof.
Toward morning of the third night they arrived within a mile and a half of the city. As Jimmy had determined to go on in advance that day, to make inquiries as to the real condition of affairs, the ark was moored to what, in the dusk of the early morning, was believed to be a wild-wood bank.
After tying up, Lewis and Moses jumped ashore to look about them. They had gone but a few steps, however, when they found themselves in a grove of thick trees, with yellow balls showing amidst the dark-green, glossy leaves.
“Oranges, aren’t they, Lew?” Moses exclaimed.
“Guess so,” said Lewis, doubtfully.
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“Must be. Wonder if they are wild, or do they belong to somebody?”
They had heard oranges described, but had never tasted one. A few steps away there was what appeared to be a green hedge, having numerous gaps in it; beyond were more of the thick, dark-green trees with the scattered yellow fruit.
The two boys now advanced to one of the gaps in the hedge, but had scarcely peeped through when a little bareheaded lad and a tall, black-eyed girl stepped out from a covert.
The girl said something to them, laughing heartily; something in a rapid, tripping tongue, which they did not in the least understand. Moses afterward said that it sounded like, “Bonesure-messr-may-voo-venny-arboner!”—which may have been, “Good morning! You have called early!”
Like most boys in pioneer days, Lewis and Moses were not very bashful. Seeing
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that the girl was laughing, they laughed in turn, and pointed to the small yellow globes in the trees. Thereupon the little lad picked up several oranges, and gave them each one, with a bow and flourish of his hand. Moses thumbed his as if it had been an apple, then essayed to take a big bite from it, with the result that the juice flew, some of it into his own eyes!
Noting this, the girl laughed heartily. Moses, winking hard, was inclined to make angry remarks; but the boy, approaching with grave politeness, showed the newcomer how to pull off the peel. He also peeled an orange for Lewis, and invited them to be seated on a bench near by. There was a house not far off, half-hidden by trees.
A stout, dark-haired man appeared, with a huge yellow and white dog, that sniffed the strangers and then wagged his tail. The man drew near and said, “Buenas días!” and asked what appeared to be an abrupt question.
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Moses nodded at a venture, although he did not understand a word, but Lewis shook his head. The dark man looked perplexed and angry; but the girl said something about “Norah,” to which the man replied—still to quote from Moses—“Ah—see—Norah.”
The girl ran away again, but soon returned with a tall, austere woman, whose auburn hair was turning gray. The woman glanced hard at the boys, and with a strong Irish accent said:
“The señor general wishes to know where you came from and what you are doing here, for sure.”
Lewis replied that they had come down the river on an ark, and that they had seen the oranges on the trees.
“We did not come to steal them,” Moses added, honestly enough. “We will go right away if you say so.”
The woman smiled broadly, then turned
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and repeated what they said in Spanish. The small lad, meanwhile, was peeling more oranges for them. But the man cried out as if in much excitement, and the woman asked them gravely when they had come down the river.
“Last night,” replied Moses.
“We always float by night when there is a moon,” Lewis explained, to help out Moses’ statement.
“Norah” interpreted, and the man grew even more excited.
 
“HOW GOT YE BY THE FORT?”
The Irishwoman fell to laughing. “But, sure, his honor wants to know how ye got by the fort?” she said to the boys.
“Fort?” said Moses, inquiringly, and looking hard at Lewis. “‘Fort?’” he repeated. “We didn’t see any fort”—which was literally true; there was too much fog.
But the man fairly jumped at this reply, and sputtered angrily.
Little wonder, for this short, dark man
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was the Spanish intendant of New Orleans, Señor Morales himself, the same who had ordered the embargo! He had chanced to be spending the night at the up-river house of a French Creole friend, Doctor Lecassigne, whose children our youthful arksmen had found in the orange-orchard. That an ark had floated past his fortifications and never even seen them was not flattering to Señor Morales’ pride!
Doctor Lecassigne, a lean, sallow man, who had now come from the house, sought to soothe the irritation of his distinguished guest. Norah, meanwhile, was asking the boys what they had brought in their ark and what they had seen on the way.
“Sure I was once in Philadelphia mesilf,” she said. “And a fine, brave gintlemon was Gin’ral George Washington! Many’s the toime I’ve handed him his coffee. Ah, sure,” she added, “I’ve lived in ivery part of the world.”
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The boys rather liked old Norah. Lewis told her of their nocturnal battle with the alligators; and, not to be outdone, Moses threw in an account of his Indian “Gobbler,” and the great bones which they had brought for Doctor Buchat.
“Doctor Buchat!” cried Norah. “Sure, he must be a frind of me master here,” and she spoke to Doctor Lecassigne, who became interested at once.
He went to call Señor Morales again, and immediately they both expressed a great curiosity to see the bones. The boys, therefore, led the way back to the river, where the ark lay moored.
Jimmy had already set off along the levee for the city; but Shadwell Lincoln, who had as usual been left in charge, threw out a plank for them all to come on board. He was a good deal disturbed, however, when Lewis whispered to him that the short, dark man was the hated intendant.
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Of the mastodon skeleton on the ark roof, there still remained seven or eight of the long ribs, the huge skull, femur bones, one long, curved tusk and many of the smaller bones. Both Doctor Lecassigne and General Morales examined them in astonishment at their enormous size. They sent back to the house for Norah to interpret, and asked a great many questions. The intendant seemed now to forget his anger, and assented good-humoredly when Doctor Lecassigne proposed that the ark should be allowed to remain there till he could send for Doctor Buchat, who seems to have been a friend of both.
Doctor Lecassigne, who was a very genial, kind-hearted man, went into the cabin to see how Marion Royce and the other sick men were coming on, and his favorable report, especially of the captain, gave the utmost relief to the crew. He then showed them a better place to moor their craft, in
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a short canal which opened through the levee a little way below his house. A water-gate at the end of this little canal allowed a stream to flow from the level of the river down to a mill for grinding corn and sawing lumber. There were numbers of such mills along the levees, the millstreams flowing out of the river instead of into it, presenting the odd spectacle of creeks flowing backward from their mouths till their waters were lost in the swamps at a distance.
When Jimmy returned he was surprised and a little startled to learn that in his absence they had had Señor Morales for a visitor. The intendant had already returned to the city in his barge; but Doctor Lecassigne assured them that although the intendant was a somewhat choleric man and inclined to narrow political views, he would probably give them no farther trouble, particularly if they were to send him a present of a showy horse.
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This overture they concluded, rather reluctantly, to make; and since Lewis and Moses had seen and spoken with the general, it was judged best that they should take one of their handsomest animals to his house in the city that very afternoon.
They set off, accordingly, leading a large bay horse—one of their very best. Meanwhile Doctor Buchat had arrived to see his long-expected mammoth bones, which proved even bigger than he had been told. But his disappointment that the skeleton was not complete was keen, and he was willing to pay but four hundred francs for what Marion Royce had brought.
The New Orleans of that day extended for about a mile along the river-front, and was surrounded on the back or land side by a ditch or moat, filled with water, and inside this ditch by a row of tall pickets, consisting of cypress logs driven into the earth close together. On this side, leading
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out into the back country, were two gates with drawbridges; on the levee by the water there was another gate, both above and below the town.
The people were chiefly French and negroes, with a small Spanish and American population, and the number of inhabitants is said to have been ten thousand.
At each gate there was a battery of cannon, and along the river-front were a number of larger guns, deemed very heavy ordnance for the times. Negro slaves did the work of stevedores along the levee. Several hundreds of them were constantly to be seen at the latter place, and when not at work the rival gangs beguiled the time dancing, singing, and sometimes fighting pitched battles. It was all very novel to Moses and Lewis—the palisades, the cannon, the drawbridges, the long rows of houses and the gay shops. But, although strangers, they experienced little difficulty
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in finding the intendant’s house. For, on mentioning his name to a group of young darkies, the latter, mightily pleased at sight of the horse, led the way there of their own accord.
Señor Morales was not at home, however, and they had to content themselves with giving the horse in charge of his equerries, with Captain Royce’s compliments. Their errand accomplished, it would have been better if they had returned at once; but they wished to see the town, and set off on a long tramp through the streets.
Even in 1803, with a population of only ten thousand, New Orleans was a gay and picturesque little city. Lewis and Moses found so much to see that the shades of evening surprised them while they were still wandering along the streets.
It was no more than a mile and a half along the levee to the ark, however. The boys continued on, peeping into the candle-lit
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cabarets, coffee-houses and verandas, where gaily attired people were talking, singing and playing.
Presently, however, a sereno, or patrol, stopped them, on account of their pioneer dress, perhaps, and said a great deal which they did not in the least understand. His tone and manner were so censorious that Moses thought they had better turn back. Accordingly they hastened to the gate near Fort St. Louis, by which they had entered, but found it shut. A watch-fire burned in the street near it, and a soldier in uniform, with musket and bayonet, was walking up and down before it.
As they drew near this sentry, he shouted: “Centinela alerta!” at the top of his lungs—the usual fifteen-minute cry of a Spanish soldier on guard duty.
But the boys thought that he had shouted to them, and were startled by his vehemence.
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The soldier continued on his beat, but looked hard at them; and not to provoke him into shouting like that again, the boys went back a little way to see what would happen next.
Something happened immediately. From out a side street near the palisadoes they heard a little bell ringing, and saw a queer procession coming—two tonsured men in black robes, who bore a black banner and a kind of a tray; while behind them, at a rapid pace, trotted four or five attendants, each carrying a lantern. Bringing up the rear were twelve soldiers, having muskets and bayonets fixed.
These, most likely, were Spanish priests, proceeding to a military execution. Moses and Lewis were apprehensive lest the soldiers might be looking for them, and promptly scudded to the cover of several long tiers of molasses hogsheads on the levee.
The ominous procession passed, however;
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and, satisfied now that they were not objects of pursuit, Lewis and Moses came out from their hiding-place and followed. Walking rapidly, priests and soldiers proceeded to the Plaza de Armas (now Jackson Square), passed the Cabildo, aduana and barracks, and went to the calabozo, or prison, in the rear.
Several hundred people had collected here, and there were also numbers of soldiers and three serenos with torches. Way was made for the strange procession. When it stopped before the prison door the by-standers drew back, and every one sank on his knees with bowed head—every one except our two youthful pioneers from the Ohio. They had no idea what it was all about, and simply stood still.
Immediately attention was attracted to their irreverent attitude. One man whispered to them brusquely, and attempted to pull Moses down. Not understanding a
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word, and resenting having hands laid on him, Moses gave him a push. The stranger insisted. Moses pushed him headlong. Lewis, too, squared about to assist his companion. Thereupon two soldiers attempted to seize him. Lewis promptly clinched with the one nearest, and cross-locking his leg, threw him heavily to the ground. Moses, too, proved more than a match for the other.
Our two young arksmen broke away and ran through the crowd, shoving the people right and left. But a sereno caught hold of Moses, and as he was unable to break loose again, they secured him, and with many threats and buffets, hustled him away to a circular wooden structure, hard by the calabozo. This was the “little calabozo,” which the Creoles called the “calaboose,” answering to our lockup, or police-station. Moses was thrust in without ceremony, and found himself in very undesirable company.
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Lewis meanwhile had broken through the crowd and started off at a rapid run. Several soldiers, serenos and others, chased him hotly, and shouted savage orders after him in Spanish, none of which he in the least comprehended.
When it came to running, Lewis was quite at home; they could not catch him. All along the water-front the chase continued, and Lewis was getting well away when he came to the palisadoes, by Fort St. Louis, where they projected into the river.
Finding himself likely to be cornered here, he ............