A Dream of Empire | Page 9

the boat
off.
This prompt stroke of executive policy had a salutary effect.
Recalcitrant subjects had warning that the little man wearing the queue

and the small, shiny boots, could not be bluffed.
The boat, once in midstream, was easily managed by the use of long,
spiked poles, and, now and then, of an oar. The captain kept his station
at the stern of the uncouth craft, handling the steering-pole. The two
travellers, standing upon the roof of the ark, admired their pilot's skill,
and freely exchanged comments regarding him. To their murmured
conversation, the steersman seemed dumb, deaf and indifferent;
nevertheless, he gave the closest attention to every word, and his sense
of hearing was as keen as that of a wildcat.
The scenery along the upper Ohio River is pleasing in any season of the
year; no wonder that, in early May, the travellers were enchanted by its
picturesque beauty. To this day, in many places, the hills, vales, and
woods on either bank, retain almost the original wildness of primeval
Nature. The river winds among high limestone hills, which are carved
in frequent deep ravines, by tumbling brooks, or trickling rills. Low,
green islands rise magically upon the forward view of the voyager, then
vanish in the receding distance, like fairy worlds withdrawn.
The real and the imaginary became strangely blended in Arlington's
mind. He could hardly distinguish the substantial from the visionary,
while he gazed on cloudlike bluffs in Ohio and dim highlands in
Virginia. The boat drifted on without sound or jar, and he easily fancied
himself at rest on a surface of water, while the woody shore swam by in
slow panorama.
Chester Arlington was the son of a wealthy citizen of Richmond, and a
graduate of the College of William and Mary. He had studied law, and
was beginning life on his own account. Entrusted with a commission to
collect some claims held by his father against a merchant in Cincinnati,
he was on his way to that metropolis of the Miami country. His
acquaintance with Burr dated from a day in the middle of April, when
the two got into the same coach to journey from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg. A difference of twenty-five years in their ages was cancelled
by the art, which the elder possessed, of maintaining perpetual youth.
And Burr's genial conversation won his companion's confidence and
friendship before they had crossed the Alleghanies. Thus it came about,

that the Virginian had been invited to share the conveniences of the
flatboat, a courtesy which he had accepted, on condition that he might
share the expenses.
Toward the close of the fourth day of the voyage, as the two sat on the
top of their drifting domicile, smoking cigars, they fell into a discussion
concerning the Great West, and the prospects of new States and
Territories.
"To me," said the Virginian, in the slightly florid style habitual to him,
"this wonderful new country into which we are sailing is attractive
beyond my power to express. This river, the Oyo of the Indian, La
Belle of the romantic La Salle, excites my imagination and recalls
interesting legends and historic facts. How many keels have plowed
these waters--the canoe of the Iroquois, the peroque of French explorers,
the batteau of early English traders, the boats of the Spaniards coming
up from the Gulf region."
"The boat of the Spaniard has not yet abandoned our western waters,
Mr. Arlington."
"No, not yet. Twenty years have not elapsed since the first white
settlement was made on the soil of Ohio, at Marietta, a town we are
now approaching."
The smokers lapsed into a silence of many minutes. Burr resumed
conversation abruptly:
"Arlington, you are not a Federalist?"
"Could you imagine that a son of my father, Major Arlington, would
hold the principles of Adams and Jay?"
"You are not, you say, an admirer of Adams, the arch-Federalist. Do
you worship his successor? Are you an unconditional Jeffersonian?"
"No, I am not. It seems to me that Jefferson aids the cause of
centralization, with the same motive that moved Adams, but with less

boldness. What do you think, Colonel Burr, of the temporizing policy
of the administration in regard to Spain?"
"In regard to Spain?" echoed Burr, blowing a ring of smoke from his
lips, "what do you think, yourself?"
"I think it infamous! It disgraces this nation to submit to exactions and
insults from the Spaniards. Why don't the Government declare war, and
conquer Mexico?"
"Would you be in favor of that?" asked Burr, lightly touching the ashes
of his cigar with the tip of his little finger--so lightly that the ashes did
not fall.
"Would I be in favor of it? I am in favor of it. Are not you, Colonel
Burr?"
The politician again barely grazed