136 LIFE OM THM MISSISSIPPI.

CHAPTER XIV.
RANK AND DIGNITY OF PILOTING.
IN my preceding chapters I have tried, by going into the minutiae of
the science of piloting, to carry the reader step by step to a compre-
hension of what the science consists of; and at the same time I have
tried to show him that it is a very curious and wonderful science,
too, and very worthy of his attention. If I have seemed to love my
subject, it is no surprising thing, for I loved the profession far better
than aay I have followed since, and I took a measureless pride in it.
The reason is plain: a pilot, in those days, was the only unfettered
and entirely independent human being that lived in the earth.
Kings are but the hampered servants of parliament and people;
parliaments sit in chains forged by their constituency; the editor of
a newspaper cannot be independent, but must work with one hand
tied behind him by party and patrons, and be content to utter only
half or two-thirds of his mind; no clergyman is a free man and may
speak the whole truth, regardless of his parish's opinions; writers of
all kinds are manacled servants of the public. We write frankly and
fearlessly, but then we * modify' before we print. In truth, every
man and woman and child has a master, and worries and frets in
servitude; but in the day I write of, the Mississippi pilot had none.
The captain could stand upon the hurricane deck, in the pomp of a
very brief authority, and give him five or six orders while the vessel
backed into the stream, and then that skipper's reign was over. The
moment that the boat was under way in the river, she was under the
sole and unquestioned control of the pilot. He could do with her
exactly as he pleased, run her when and whither he chose, and tie
her up to the bank whenever his judgment said that that course was