Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/79

Rh sandbank sawyer and creek from New Orleans to St. Louis, and from St. Louis to St. Paul or Omaha. By their advice, we slipped up a retired creek three-quarters of a mile below the city, where we trusted to remain out of sight and knowledge of the foe.

The night passed quietly away. We had every reason to suppose that New Orleans, like the other cities on the river, was deserted. Not a light had been observed in its numberless buildings as we had floated past on the previous evening. Willing however to assure myself of the fact, I sent an exploring party under Gell to see if there were still any relics of its human occupants. There was, indeed, another and more important duty they had to undertake. It was no part of my plan to wait at New Orleans till idleness and panic had demoralized our little band, nor was I inclined, by staying on American soil an hour longer than necessary, to risk the danger of discovery and attack. My design, communicated to Gell and Aurelia alone, was to find some ship or ships of the United States' Navy in the dockyards, and to sail at the first possible moment for the Sandwich Islands. The native population of these fertile isles