The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-05-27
DOWN THE CAPE FEAR.
THE ROMANTIC RIDE FROM FAY
ETTENILLE TO WILMINGTON.
" hat We See and Hear We Wind
Down the River Around Bluffs. Cliffs
and Curves.
IStan Cor. STATE CHRoNIcLE

INDIAN ELIS, n G, May ~, Iscb-
say Indian Wells because, as | write, the
beautiful little steamer, ''Murchls0n, has
Just stopped at a landing by that name,
where a huge lighlwood torch on the river
bank reveals an almost Invisible roadway
leading out from the river and All OK cart
on which colored driver sits waiting 10
receive hundred or 50 pounds Of freight
that the steamer has for this landing
robust, dusky matron, with a torch III her
hand almost as big as herself has just stepp-
ed off the boat and is climbing up the cllff TO
a neighbOrins hut where a cOlOrd denlsOu OF
the forest and half dozen dusky juveniles
await her coming. Chatting with the Cap
tain Of the boat is DR.. DeNaughn, one of
Bladen county's most popular and most
influential citizens, whose hospitable home
is a mile in the distance. The night is not
yet two hours old and a half dozen passen-
gers have just finished devOuring one of
those sumptuouS suppers Tor which the
steamer Murchison is noted, and are stand
ing on the deck with cigars lighted, tax
ing in the evening breezes and the roman
! tic surroundings The banks of the river
on either side are lined with green foliage
above which u thousand giants of the
swamp tower against the evening sky. From
them long tasselS of white moss hang nearly
TO the ground, while in every direction
myriads of lightning bugs streak the man
tie of night, resembling a million minute
meteors as they penetrate the darkness
with their momentary flicker. Evening
zephyrs come laden with the perfume of
the bay tree the ivy and the violet, while
million crickets chant together their pc
cullar accompaniment to natures quiet
loyeliness. Did you think | was writing
fiction? Not a bit of it. This is life on
the Cape Fear, and Indian Wells is only
/ of. 10
tween Fayetteville and Wilmington. Have
you ever taken this trip? If you haven't
lay down everything, feign some excuse
and get aboard Cape Fear steamer. If
you have poetry way down in your soul
it will bring it to the surface. If you are
romantic you can take in enough to last
you a dozen years as you glide down by
cliffs, bluffs, landscapes and rugged banks.
If you are III love you will love a hundred
times harder, orif you are crusty and sour
it will soften your disposition and sweeten
your life. If you have headache, tooth
ache, backache, heartache or any other
ache they will Danish like the wind as you
| glide down this watery avenue, on each
side of which nature has woven bramblc
and bush into fringes of picturesque
beauty. How long boats have been ply
ing these waters don't know. 1t is said
that the Cape Fear vas the third river III
i the Cnitcd States upon which boats were
run. This must have been III the almost
forgotten long ago.
4 few miles below Haywood, in Chat
ham county, IIaw River and Deep River
run together, and from that point to the
coast, a distance Of 200 miles. the stream
is known us the Cape Fear. The name is
probably derived from the Cape below
Wilmington, known as Cape Fear,
which, like lIatteraS. has dashed many
boats into atoms and wrapped many ship
wrecked sailors into its fOamng, surglng
! pillows. This noted old stream runs down
through Cumberland and Bladen and di-
vides Columbus from Pender, and New
Hanover from Brunswick.
4 The boats have regular hours for leaving
Fayetteville and Wilmington, but that is
/ all they promise with reference to a Sched
ule. They promise tC land you sooner or
/ later and they take the best care of you in
/ the meantime. $500 pays your fare from
/ Fayetteville to Wilmington or from Will
mington TO Fayetteville, distance of 40
/ miles; and whether they be two days or
ten days making the trip, they give you
three square meals every day-sofas to
recline on during afternoons and comfor
table, coy staterooms at night, for which
they make the trip in about "A hours.
The MurchisOn, owned by the Express
| Steamboat Company, of which Capt. A. g.
Williams is President, and manned by a
gentlemanly crew, is one of the most com
Portable and conveniently arranged little
steamers on this or any other river. Capt
Jas. O. Smith is the tall, handsome, intel
ligent Captain and Mr.. Thomas S. Whitted
4 Il hn+o
capacity is l4G tons freight and 36 first
cabin and 25 storage passengers. 1t is
provided with sufficient number of life
boats and life preseryers, bat on these
| quiet waters it is unnecessary to do like
the Raleigh merchant who, when he first
went North over the Bay Line, buckled
on his life preserver and slept in it all
night. Steamers on this river never collide,
accidents seldom happen, but you better
not fall overheard for so treacherOuS are
the Cape Fear waters that very few who
fall overheard ever get out alive.
ElizabethtowIi, the county seat of Bla-
den, the native home OF BARLEY Camp
bells ''Esmeralda, is the most important
point between Fayetteville and Whining
ton. Here live a number of the sturdy
descendants Of noted old Bladen families
Names prominent in the history Of the
county and of the State. The town is hun
dred and twenty years old and 1t is moi
, very much bigger now than it was hun
dred and twenty years ago. Elizabeth
Haynes was dashing young Bladen beauty
of the olden time, and for her the town
| was named. Mr.. Thomas J. Norman al
present a worthy resident of the town, is
her grandson. Recorded land grants are
now in existence dating back as far as
1872, conveying lands in Bladen county
| province of North Carolina so Bladen's
birthday was away back yonder in the
colonial days.
) Williss Greek is another Cape Fear land
, ing here lives the CHRONICLES cupid
Major T. ID. Love. man of rare talent
and as Il harmonious writer, a second Bill
: Arp Prospect Hall is another place amos
as old as the River, the native home Of tn,
: Whitted's. owned at present by Mr.. VIM
t Whtted, one of Baden successful youn:
: business men The lands bordering on tn
: Cape Fear are productive, the people as
] general thing while more or les
5 inactive are independent At nearl
: every landing you can see boys Q
!. men standing on the banks, no
t with a blank look of curiosity or amaze
. ment, for !, hundred times they have see
i the boat before. They have basket 0
e eggs. a crate Of fruit. coop Of chicken
or something else for market or else the
are expecting keg of molasses, barre