Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands | Page 2

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 167
CHAPTER XVIII.
Holiday in the Camp--A New Enemy, Time--Amusements in the
Crimea--My share in them--Dinner at Spring Hill--At the
Races--Christmas Day in the British Hotel--New Year's Day in the
Hospital 177
CHAPTER XIX.
New Year in the Crimea--Good News--The Armistice--Barter with the
Russians--War and Peace--Tidings of Peace--Excursions into the

Interior of the Crimea--To Simpheropol, Baktchiserai, etc.--The Troops
begin to leave the Crimea--Friends' Farewells--The Cemeteries--We
remove from Spring Hill to Balaclava--Alarming Sacrifice of our
Stock--A last Glimpse of Sebastopol--Home! 188
Conclusion 197

ADVENTURES OF MRS. SEACOLE IN MANY LANDS.
CHAPTER I.
MY BIRTH AND PARENTAGE--EARLY TASTES AND
TRAVELS--MARRIAGE, AND WIDOWHOOD.
I was born in the town of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, some time
in the present century. As a female, and a widow, I may be well
excused giving the precise date of this important event. But I do not
mind confessing that the century and myself were both young together,
and that we have grown side by side into age and consequence. I am a
Creole, and have good Scotch blood coursing in my veins. My father
was a soldier, of an old Scotch family; and to him I often trace my
affection for a camp-life, and my sympathy with what I have heard my
friends call "the pomp, pride, and circumstance of glorious war." Many
people have also traced to my Scotch blood that energy and activity
which are not always found in the Creole race, and which have carried
me to so many varied scenes: and perhaps they are right. I have often
heard the term "lazy Creole" applied to my country people; but I am
sure I do not know what it is to be indolent. All my life long I have
followed the impulse which led me to be up and doing; and so far from
resting idle anywhere, I have never wanted inclination to rove, nor will
powerful enough to find a way to carry out my wishes. That these
qualities have led me into many countries, and brought me into some
strange and amusing adventures, the reader, if he or she has the
patience to get through this book, will see. Some people, indeed, have
called me quite a female Ulysses. I believe that they intended it as a
compliment; but from my experience of the Greeks, I do not consider it

a very flattering one.
It is not my intention to dwell at any length upon the recollections of
my childhood. My mother kept a boarding-house in Kingston, and was,
like very many of the Creole women, an admirable doctress; in high
repute with the officers of both services, and their wives, who were
from time to time stationed at Kingston. It was very natural that I
should inherit her tastes; and so I had from early youth a yearning for
medical knowledge and practice which has never deserted me. When I
was a very young child I was taken by an old lady, who brought me up
in her household among her own grandchildren, and who could
scarcely have shown me more kindness had I been one of them; indeed,
I was so spoiled by my kind patroness that, but for being frequently
with my mother, I might very likely have grown up idle and useless.
But I saw so much of her, and of her patients, that the ambition to
become a doctress early took firm root in my mind; and I was very
young when I began to make use of the little knowledge I had acquired
from watching my mother, upon a great sufferer--my doll. I have
noticed always what actors children are. If you leave one alone in a
room, how soon it clears a little stage; and, making an audience out of a
few chairs and stools, proceeds to act its childish griefs and
blandishments upon its doll. So I also made good use of my dumb
companion and confidante; and whatever disease was most prevalent in
Kingston, be sure my poor doll soon contracted it. I have had many
medical triumphs in later days, and saved some valuable lives; but I
really think that few have given me more real gratification than the
rewarding glow of health which my fancy used to picture stealing over
my patient's waxen face after long and precarious illness.
Before long it was very natural that I should seek to