…It was Thursday when we took our luggage aboard, and the ship did not sail till the Tuesday following, although the Friday before was the appointed day. Waiting in Liverpool for the sailing of a vessel after her time, was a source of no small expense, especially to such as had families; and although there were no fires or other lights allowed in dock, and this the month of March, many slept aboard and took their meals in town…
…The reality now began to press upon is that we were indeed about to bid – it might be – a very long farewell to our native island; and this along with the exhilarating feelings inspired by the beauty of the morning …Outside a small towing steamer With three cheers farewell to our countrymen on shore, and they returned the compliment with interest..Our shipping agent had us all called upon the quarter-deck, and a rope was stretched across. Our names were then called over, and each person as named “crossed the line.” We numbered in all 250 persons…
…We ran in to the south of Porto Rico, St. Domingo, and Cuba, by what is called the “south passage.” The trade winds, which had been steady before we neared the islands, after we got in among them became uncertain, and we were several times becalmed – once for two days within sight of Jamaica. On rounding Cape St. Antonia, the western point of Cuba, we saw a waterspout straight a-head, and another the next morning. Having got into the Gulf of Mexico, we encountered a furious storm of thunder, wind, and rain, which drove with it several small birds, which were readily caught by the hand as they alighted upon the ship…
…Our passage was now drawing to a close. We expected that in three or four days we should take on board a pilot; and we already observed the waters of the Gulf to be tinged of whitish hue, owing to the admixture of the waters of the Mississippi. We had had no sickness in all our company but sea-sickness; and no stormy weather but what we experienced in St. George’s Channel…
On the morning of the 28th of April we were informed that we should (all things going well) see American soil on the following day. It would not be easy to describe the excitement this announcement created among us. Although our voyage had been most agreeable, so far as favorable weather could contribute to it, there was still a feeling of uneasiness common to all travellers by sea – a desire to be again at large upon solid ground, where there is ample room for the free scope of all the physical powers, without that sickening odour peculiar to shipboard, which still operates to check the exhilaration which must at times be felt on a beautiful day upon the waters.
The rest of the day was spent in arranging matters for our landing – settling on future lines of procedure – and the formation of alliances, liable of course to be broken by the first unforeseen incident. I found that a great many had come out entirely trusting to circumstances for their future guidance when they should land. We had cotton-spinners, calico-printers, tailors, shoemakers, joiners, masons, potters from Staffordshire, letter-press printers, some discontented Chartists, and a host of day-labourers.
Add to these a few adventurous women, who had boldly set out alone with a part of their families, leaving a part with their husbands at home, to come out with them as soon as they could save as much as would pay the passage. One of these women, named Sarah Wamsley, had with her four children, two boys and two girls. The eldest, a girl, was about twelve. Her husband, who was a silk weaver in Leck, Staffordshire, had, by the united earnings of himself and her, been enabled, after a long struggle, to amass as much as would pay his wife and children’s passage out; and she, with a fortitude truly heroic, had ventured forth with her little flock, to seek a home in the wilds of America, leaving him to follow, as soon as he could obtain the means. She was a little woman, but the spirit which had induced her to set out on this, to her, huge adventure, was visible in everything she said and did. I felt an unusual admiration for the little heroine, and we soon got acquainted.
“Mr. —,” she would say, “America has long been the subject of my day-dreams, and now when I am about to enter upon the reality, I feel a joy and satisfaction, in spite of my poverty, which atones for all my past trials and troubles.”
“Well, Madam, I must say that I feel certain your satisfaction is not groundless, and if your husband possesses such a spirit as his wife, you cannot fail in a country like America to live comfortably, and bring up your children respectably.”
“There is one drawback to our progress, Sir, which I am afraid will not be easily overcome.”
“What is that?”
“My husband being a silk weaver, I doubt whether he will readily find employment?”
“Has he no knowledge of any other trade?”
“Yes, Sir, I think he once told me he had been for two years a carpenter, but you know he could not learn much in that time.”
“His knowledge will be useful to him in the woods, if he is handy.”
“Oh, as to that, Sir, he is remarkably so, and takes a great pleasure in making little nick-nacks when his day’s work is over.”
“You seem much concerned about your progress when your husband is with you: how do you feel about it while you are alone?”
“Ah, Sir, I am inclined, when I think on that, to shut my eyes upon it, and trust to God and my best endeavors for the consequences. I have suffered much at home, and I am willing to suffer again for my little family; and you know, Sir, I will have the prospect to look to, of making by and bye a better provision for them than I could at home.”
A very undefined and precarious hope, this, the prudent and calculating will say. I will not say it was the worst alternative…
The morning of the 29th came, and having had a fair wind during the night, every eye was directed forward in search of the land promised the day before. The water around had a still more decided yellow tinge, indicating the neighborhood of a vast river. On the larboard tack we spoke the Tombigbee, Captain Cade, a large ship from Mobile to New Orleans; and, about noon, we observed a neat little cutter making towards us. “A Pilot! A Pilot!” was the joyful exclamation of all on board, and a pilot it was. In about an hour after this important personage came on board, one of those strange looking steamers peculiar to the western waters made her appearance, emitting smoke from two funnels and snorting like a railway locomotive. She drew near, and made a graceful sweep to turn in the same direction as ourselves. A light rope to which a hawser was attached was presently thrown on board, and in another half hour we were towed into the stream, which was well defined, muddy, and broad; bordered with long lines of withered leaves and driftwood, to which the dirty greenish waters of the gulf on each side offered a marked contrast. With all these decided indications of proximity to land, the wonder of all was that there was none to be seen by the most sharp-sighted among us. By and bye, as if it had suddenly arisen from the sea, we describe near at hand low lines of reeds stretching in front of us to the east and west. This, then, was the American land. We had been looking for a high and mountainous country, and had literally overlooked this singularly low and marshy line of coast.
John Regan, Backwoods and Prairies (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, Tweeddale Court, 1852, 15-24.
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