A spot of bother!

Saturday, September 20th, 1823 – [Douglas gets into a spot of bother in what is a more lawless 'frontier' region than he perhaps expecting]

Early in the morning I got a car and hired a man to conduct me up the country. I set out slowly, moving along the riverside, picking up anything which presented itself. After passing through a country of twelve miles from Sandwich, came then to a morass of two miles long, succeeded by a passage of sand along Lake St. Clair; rendered the horse so weak that I had to stop for a day [to rest the horse?].

I was glad to do so as there seemed to be a good field; accordingly towards midday I set off with the man I had taken with me.  Here I found……list of specimens he found….[but] during my day’s labour I had the misfortune to meet with a circumstance which I must record as it concerns not only my business but also my personal affairs.

I got up in [an] oak for the purpose of procuring seeds and specimens; the day being warm I was induced to take off my coat and in that state I ascended. I had not been above five minutes up when to my surprise the man whom I hired as guide and assistant took up my coat and made off with it as fast as he could run.

I descended almost headlong and followed, but before I could make near him he escaped in the wood. I had in my pockets my notes and some receipt of money, nineteen dollars in paper, a copy of Persoon’s ‘Synopsis Plantarum’, with my small vasculum. I was thus left five miles from where I had left the car, in a miserable condition, and as there was no remedy that could be taken to better myself, I tied my seeds in my neckcloth and made to my lodging.

I had to hire a man to take me back to Sandwich as I could not drive [this sounds a bit wimpish for Douglas; surely anyone living in that age would be able to make a stab at driving a carriage?]; and the horse only understanding the French language, and I could not talk to him in his tongue, placed me in an awkward situation. I had to borrow a coat as there was no tailor to make me one.

On my getting to Sandwich I remonstrated with the man who recommended my assistant to me, but he said that he never did so to his knowledge, and so on. However, I found my guide was a runaway Virginian.

This is interesting, and sheds some light on Douglas's state of mind. Normally robust and forthright in dealing with any difficulties he seems uncharacteristically feeble in his reaction to this incident. True, he hurtles down the tree and pursues the thief but after failing to catch him his actions seem implausibly weak. 

I'd be surprised if he weren't able to make some attempt at driving the car [a carriage or cart, I guess] and the notion that the horse only understood French is laughably implausible. I suspect the horse would understand a touch of the whip and a vigorous pull on the reins well enough. Come on Douglas, man up. 

And then he finds that his guide is a runaway Virginian, as if that explains all. Sandwich had indeed become an established black settlement, where thousands of freed and fugitive slaves took refuge from slavery in the United States via the Underground Railroad, but it seems a bit harsh of Douglas to attribute that cause to his own unfortunate circumstance. 

With hindsight, I suspect he has been more shaken and unsettled by this incident than he cares to admit, it being his first serious inter-personal challenge on this trip.