Jefferson's America by Julie M. Fenster

Author:Julie M. Fenster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2016-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

The force of the explosion even burst a powder horn lying on a table nearby. Dunbar made sure that Hunter was not seriously hurt and then turned his attention to something more interesting to him: the gunpowder on the table went the wrong way. He couldn’t help considering the dynamics of the “concussion of the air”—how transferred energy opened the horn and scattered the powder in a reverse direction from what might be expected. Hunter was musing on the same phenomenon, but from a different perspective, behind burnt eyebrows. Even in the aftermath of “an accident that had nearly cost me my Life,” he recognized that if the spilled gunpowder “had taken fire (& it was a miracle it did not) the cabin & all the people in it would have been destroyed.”

To recover from the incident, Hunter lay in bed a full day. The next morning, sporting two black eyes, he slowly reclaimed his duties, circulating on the deck with his ghoulish face a reminder of the cataclysm that had visited the barge and nearly incinerated it.

Within two days, the expedition was tested in a more familiar way, as the Ouachita River once again fell apart, flopping its way through shoals and rocks. The barge floated easily over some of the obstacles that would have ensnared the Chinese boat, but the advantage was limited. Through the last leg of the journey to the hot springs, the Ouachita may have looked slovenly, but it was cunning nonetheless, raising the difficulty of its hazards, until it presented its ultimate expedition killer: the Chutes.

From November 27 until December 6, the barge was in trouble every day, as it had to be extricated from gravel, wrestled into abruptly rushing currents, or eased between jagged rocks—or all three at once. Dunbar’s record of the daily mileage indicates the growing resolve of the Ouachita River:

November 27—13 miles, 39 perches

November 28—12 miles, 255 perches

November 29—8 miles, 2 perches

November 30—7 miles, 28 perches

December 1—7 miles, 148 perches

December 2—6 miles, 118 perches

December 3—7 miles, 218 perches

December 4—4 miles, 164 perches

December 5—3 miles, 128 perches

December 6—2 miles, 32 perches

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