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In the morning I pursued my journey, and, coming to the little Missouri,
found the waters much abated, and no ferryman within sight. I remembered
that the house was at some distance from the river, and could not be seen
from it, so taking a horn which I found suspended from a tree for the
purpose, I blew in vain for at least half an hour. Nobody coming to ferry me
across, I was reduced to the necessity of attempting to ford the river,
which was accomplished with great inconvenience; for Missouri having a great
aversion to passing streams, and not knowing the direction of the ford,
which was in an oblique line, I got completely wet. On reaching the house I
found two vulgar and very stupid white women, and a negress; being a little
out of humor I immediately began to reproach them with not sending somebody
down to point out the ford, when the old negress said she had told Miss
Brindley (her mistress, about 54 years old) that it would be best to let her
go down and see who was blowing the horn, but that she said, "She reckoned
it was no matter, she allowed they would find the way across somehow or
other." Upon this I said some very severe things to the young lady, and
begged she would never be so inconsiderate again, as it might be a child on
horseback, or an invalid incapable of assisting himself. She seemed sensible
of her fault, for she said if I would eat something I should have nothing to
pay for it.
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Excursion through the Slave States, (Travels In America), from Washington on
the Potomac to the Frontier of Mexico; with sketches of popular manners and
geological notices, by George William Featherstonhaugh, reprinted by Negro
Universities Press, New York, 1968. Chapter XXXV, pages 126-127.
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David Kelley 1997