Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs.
Seacole in
by Mary Seacole

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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
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SEACOLE ***

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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'Hôte--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