[Diary] June 8.
Set out for the village this morning and soon took boats for the Kingfisher. In our boat were Ellen and I with Captain Dutch; in the other, Nelly and Lottie with Mr. Rhodes. After spending some hours on the ship admiring the exquisite order and cleanliness, we took boat again and went to Edisto under charge of the mate, Mr. Rhodes, Captain Dutch not going. We landed at Eddingsville and went up to Seabrook’s house. The gentlemen, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Fairfield, and Mr. Rhodes, got supper with the help of Jim, the handsome young negro who was taken by Captain Dutch on Bailey’s Island and forced to act as guide to his master’s house, where they were all taken prisoners — eleven of the “big bugs of Edisto,” Rina calls them. He seemed sad, and when we talked to him and asked him if he were glad to be free, he said he loved his young master like a brother — that they were the same age and grew up together; that he wished his young master were back again, and he would not give up the wife and children now on the Main for all the freedom in the world. We slept on the floor upon shawls, boat cushions etc., and were run over by roaches and devoured by fleas and mosquitoes. In the morning we again took boat and followed the winding creek to Edding’s house. The gardens were beautiful and the house handsome, but stripped of everything. The night before, when we wanted a fire, Jim coolly knocked up the drawer of a mahogany bureau to make one. Soon after this visit to the house we went home. On board the Kingfisher I could only lie down, and could not go to the dinner provided. It was dusk when we reached the village and dark before we were at “The Oaks.”
An expedition has resulted in the arrival of five hundred refugees at Beaufort.
