Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in?by Mary Seacole

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in
Many Lands, by Mary Seacole This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
Author: Mary Seacole
Commentator: W. H. Russell
Editor: W. J. S.
Release Date: October 14, 2007 [EBook #23031]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. SEACOLE ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sam W. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF MRS. SEACOLE IN MANY LANDS
EDITED BY W. J. S.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE
BY
W. H. RUSSELL, ESQ.,
THE "TIMES" CORRESPONDENT IN THE CRIMEA.
LONDON: JAMES BLACKWOOD, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1857.

[Illustration: MRS. SEACOLE'S HOTEL IN THE CRIMEA.]

LONDON: THOMAS HARRILD, PRINTER, 11, SALISBURY SQUARE, FLEET STREET.

DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION,
TO
MAJOR-GENERAL LORD ROKEBY, K.C.B.,
BY HIS LORDSHIP'S
HUMBLE AND MOST GRATEFUL SERVANT,
MARY SEACOLE.

TO THE READER.
I should have thought that no preface would have been required to introduce Mrs. Seacole to the British public, or to recommend a book which must, from the circumstances in which the subject of it was placed, be unique in literature.
If singleness of heart, true charity, and Christian works; if trials and sufferings, dangers and perils, encountered boldly by a helpless woman on her errand of mercy in the camp and in the battle-field, can excite sympathy or move curiosity, Mary Seacole will have many friends and many readers.
She is no Anna Comnena, who presents us with a verbose history, but a plain truth-speaking woman, who has lived an adventurous life amid scenes which have never yet found a historian among the actors on the stage where they passed.
I have witnessed her devotion and her courage; I have already borne testimony to her services to all who needed them. She is the first who has redeemed the name of "sutler" from the suspicion of worthlessness, mercenary baseness, and plunder; and I trust that England will not forget one who nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead.
W. H. RUSSELL.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
My Birth and Parentage--Early Tastes and Travels--Marriage, and Widowhood 1
CHAPTER II.
Struggles for Life--The Cholera in Jamaica--I leave Kingston for the Isthmus of Panama--Chagres, Navy Bay, and Gatun--Life in Panama--Up the River Chagres to Gorgona and Cruces 6
CHAPTER III.
My Reception at the Independent Hotel--A Cruces Table d'H?te--Life in Cruces--Amusements of the Crowds--A Novel Four-post Bed 17
CHAPTER IV.
An Unwelcome Visitor in Cruces--The Cholera--Success of the Yellow Doctress--Fearful Scene at the Mule-owner's--The Burying Parties--The Cholera attacks me 23
CHAPTER V.
American Sympathy--I take an Hotel in Cruces--My Customers--Lola Montes--Miss Hayes and the Bishop--Gambling in Cruces--Quarrels amongst the Travellers--New Granadan Military--The Thieves of Cruces--A Narrow Escape 34
CHAPTER VI.
Migration to Gorgona--Farewell Dinners and Speeches--A Building Speculation--Life in Gorgona--Sympathy with American Slaves--Dr. Casey in Trouble--Floods and Fires--Yankee Independence and Freedom 46
CHAPTER VII.
The Yellow Fever in Jamaica--My Experience of Death-bed Scenes--I leave again for Navy Bay, and open a Store there--I am attacked with the Gold Fever, and start for Escribanos--Life in the Interior of the Republic of New Granada--A Revolutionary Conspiracy on a small scale--The Dinner Delicacies of Escribanos--Journey up the Palmilla River--A Few Words on the Present Aspect of Affairs on the Isthmus of Panama 59
CHAPTER VIII.
I long to join the British Army before Sebastopol--My Wanderings about London for that purpose--How I failed--Establishment of the Firm of "Day and Martin"--I Embark for Turkey 73
CHAPTER IX.
Voyage to Constantinople--Malta--Gibraltar--Constantinople, and what I thought of it--Visit to Scutari Hospital--Miss Nightingale 82
CHAPTER X.
"Jew Johnny"--I Start for Balaclava--Kindness of my old Friends--On Board the "Medora"--My Life on Shore--The Sick Wharf 92
CHAPTER XI.
Alarms in the Harbour--Getting the Stores on Shore--Robbery by Night and Day--The Predatory Tribes of Balaclava--Activity of the Authorities--We obtain leave to erect our Store, and fix upon Spring Hill as its Site--The Turkish Pacha--The Flood--Our Carpenters--I become an English Schoolmistress Abroad 102
CHAPTER XII.
The British Hotel--Domestic Difficulties--Our Enemies--The Russian Rats--Adventures in Search of a Cat--Light-fingered Zouaves--Crimean Thieves--Powdering a Horse 113
CHAPTER XIII.
My Work in the Crimea 124
CHAPTER XIV.
My Customers at the British Hotel 135
CHAPTER XV.
My First Glimpse of War--Advance of my Turkish Friends on Kamara--Visitors to the Camp--Miss Nightingale--Mons. Soyer and the Cholera--Summer in the Crimea--"Thirsty Souls"--Death busy in the Trenches 146
CHAPTER XVI.
Under Fire on the fatal 18th of June--Before the Redan--At the Cemetery--The Armistice--Deaths at Head-quarters--Depression in the Camp--Plenty in the Crimea--The Plague of Flies--Under Fire at the Battle of the Tchernaya--Work on the Field--My Patients 154
CHAPTER XVII.
Inside Sebastopol--The Last Bombardment of Sebastopol--On Cathcart's Hill--Rumours in the Camp--The Attack on the Malakhoff--The Old Work again--A Sunday Excursion--Inside "Our" City--I am taken for a Spy, and thereat lose my Temper--I Visit the Redan, etc.--My Share of the Plunder