Many came with their household stuff, which was to be embarked in arks
and flat boats. The children of Israel could scarcely have presented a
more motley array of men and women, with their "kneading troughs" on
their backs, and their "little ones," than were there assembled, on
their way to the new land of promise.
To judge by the tone of general conversation, they meant, in their
generation, to plough the Mississippi Valley from its head to its foot.
There was not an idea short of it. What a world of golden dreams
was there!
I took passage in the first ark that attempted the descent for the
season. This ark was built of stout planks, with the lower seams
caulked, forming a perfectly flat basis on the water. It was about
thirty feet wide and sixty long, with gunwales of some eighteen inches.
Upon this was raised a structure of posts and boards about eight feet
high, divided into rooms for cooking and sleeping, leaving a few feet
space in front and rear, to row and steer. The whole was covered by a
flat roof, which formed a promenade, and near the front part of this
deck were two long "sweeps," a species of gigantic oars, which were
occasionally resorted to in order to keep the unwieldy vessel from
running against islands or dangerous shores.
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