I changed my mind.  I will start telling my adventure today. I hope that you enjoy it!

Bertie.

April 27, 1882

It was our last day on the SS British King…

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“See that river over there? That is the Schuylkill river. Indians used to hide up there,” said the Captain.

“Really? Do you think that there are any there now?”, exclaimed Bertie. He stood up on his tiptoes and stared up the dark river trying to see if there were any Indians. “I do not see any Indians.”

“That is because they are hiding. Just give it some time they may appear”

Together Bertie and the Captain scanned the shore looking for Indians.

“There are lots of trees and bushes along the shore of the Schuylkill where any number of Indians could be hiding,” said Bertie. He stared at the banks of the river.

“We will never see one.” Bertie scanned the shoreline looking for an Indian as the British King continued its slow slog upstream.

“No wait, I see an Indian!”, said Bertie as he pointed out over the port bow.

The Captain looked over at the Indian and then smiled at Bertie. After a second or two the Captain asked, “What makes you think that fellow is an Indian? Have you ever seen an Indian?”

“No, but I saw a picture of one in the book that you loaned me. The Indian in the picture was quite majestic with all of his feathers, hoops, and the red skin. Do they all have red skin like in the drawing?”

“I do not know for sure mate, the ones that I have seen did have the red skin. However, I have been told that some of them look like mulattos.”

“Were the Indians that you met friendly? In the picture they look like they would be friendly. They would take me to their house and we would play hoops. Then go out in the street and chase the pigeons. Do they have pigeons here in America?”, asked Bertie excitedly.

“Yes, they do have pigeons here in America. But I do not know if your Indian friend would want to go out and chase pigeons. The few Indians that remain in this area do not live in Philadelphia. They moved west of the city and do not live in houses on streets like you are used to seeing in Leeds. They live out west where pigeons are scarce. Plus, they do not live in houses or on streets.”

“Where do they sleep if they do not have a house?

“Well, some of the times they sleep outdoors. But most of the times they sleep in tents. They call their tents ‘wigwams’”, explained the Captain.

“But this is the city of Philadelphia. Why would they sleep outdoors? Philadelphia is a large city; there must be some houses that the Indians could find to sleep in.”

“They might find a house, but they may not be familiar or comfortable in that strange dwelling, and as for the Americans, who wants a savage sleeping next to them?” winked the Captain.

“They are not all savages! That is not possible!”, said Bertie .

“You have not met any yet. The ones that I have met were savages. They lived in the woods, they ate raw meat, and collected the scalps of their enemies. That is a savage as far as I am concerned.”

“But not all of them are that bad. My friend in America said that Indians visited them in their house. If they were so bad, my friend would not have them over to play or eat or visit.”, said Bertie.

“Well, even so,” the captain paused, “I would not want to have them in my house. Your friend must be very brave. Will you be visiting him when you get to shore?”.

“Yes, I hope so. I sent a letter to my friend right before we left, but I did not get an answer. I guess that he did not have a chance to reply before we left. It would be nice to visit him.”

“Where does your friend live?”

“He lives in Springfield. He is a member of the Springfield Friends Meeting.”

“Would that be the part of the Religious Society of the Friends of Jesus Christ?”, the Captain looked a little askance.

“Yes. He is a Quaker. Are you a Quaker? My friend became one on the way from Leeds to the United States. My father says that his family had a conversion on the trip over the ocean. Maybe that is why they came over here. Papa does not like that they changed from the Church of England.”

“People come here for all sorts of reasons, some good and some bad,” pointed out the Captain.

“Papa says that we are going to have a better life here in the United States. He once told me that weavers are no longer needed in Leeds. Something about machines taking all of the jobs. He says that there are more opportunities here in the United States. But are there not machines here too? I do not know the opportunities that he speaks of.” Bertie sounded a little worried.

“Aye, there are opportunities, just not so many in Philadelphia. For that you will have to go west. I have been told that there are many opportunities out there, but I would never go out west. Not enough oceans.”

“Are there not lakes and rivers. You could be a captain on one of them, could you not?”, asked Bertie.

“Lakes and rivers are too small. If I am to sail again, I need lots of room. No river or pond would suffice. Plus, I have no desire to go overland just to get to the Pacific. If I were to go to the Pacific again, I would get on a boat and sail there. But I am not going to do that. I am getting too old and sailing ships are starting to disappear,” stated the Captain as he looked forlornly downstream.

“But we are on a sailing ship. See those are sails”, Bertie pointed to the sails in the bow of the British King.

“Does it look like the sails are propelling us forward? They are furled, so they cannot do that job. The King is also a steamship. Can you not hear the din of the engine? Soon, boats will not even need the sails. It will all be steamships. No more sailing ships, they are dying off. Just like me.”

“No. You are not dying off. The sailing ships are not dying off,” exclaimed Bertie.

“Sorry to tell you lad, but I am a dying breed. I have watched the decline of the U.S. Navy. Many of my friends were sailors like me and they have all left the Navy. Sailing ships are being replaced everywhere all over the world by these damnable steamships. I see their value, but I am too old to learn a new way to captain such a ship. Besides, I have been all over the world.”

“I know. You told me when we got on the ship. I am still amazed that you have been to so many places.”

“Fifty years is a long time to be on the sea.”

“What was the most faraway place that you ever went?” asked a wide-eyed Bertie.

“Hmm, that would have to be Japan. I sailed with Commodore Perry’s fleet back in ’53 and ‘54. My ship, the USS Susquehanna, set anchor in Edo Bay. We showed the Emperor and the Tokugawa Shogunate what a real warship looked like. We made them mad as a nest of hornets. I will bet that they thought ‘how dare they enter the forbidden waters of Edo bay?’ But we did not care. We had better ships and guns!” laughed the Captain.

“What is a Tokugawa Shogunate? I have never heard of such a thing.”

“Well, the Shogunate is like all of the knights of your England combined together. An individual knight is called a shogun. They wear armor, but the armor looks nothing like what your knights wear.”

“That sounds fascinating! Are there any shoguns in Philadelphia? I would like to meet one,” Bertie asked excitedly.

“None that I know of. There might be some, but I have not seen any. But I do not go into the parts of town where they might live.”

“But will we see some in Philadelphia. I would really like to see one. Where might I find them? Do you know where they might live?” asked an excited Bertie.

“I thought that you wanted to meet some Indians,” asked the Captain.

“Oh, yes, I want to meet them too. Do they live in Philadelphia? Where could I go to meet one of them?”

“Slow down…” laughed the Captain just as Bertie’s father joined them.

“Are you pestering the Captain for stories again?” Bertie’s father smiled.

“No, not at all. The lad is just curious,” the Captain smiled and slapped Bertie on the back. “He was just asking me about Indians and Shoguns, ships and rivers. I was telling him all that I knew about these things…”

“And I was showing the Captain where the Indians were living in that river that we just passed, the skoo-kill,” Bertie interrupted with a smile.

“Yes, you were. But you would do best to not mention these things when we get ashore,” pointed out the Captain.

“I agree. We are new to this city and country. People may tease you or worse if they find out that you like Indians or shoguns,” Bertie’s father paused and looked at the Captain. “Just what is a shogun?”

“A Japanese knight!” exclaimed Bertie before the Captain had a chance to answer.

“A Japanese knight. I did not know that any of those lived in Philadelphia….”

“I do not know if any shoguns are living in Philadelphia either. Bertie asked me what was the most exotic place that I have been to and I told him Japan. So I told him about the Emperor and the Shogunate. He is a very curious boy,” The Captain looked down and smiled at Bertie.

“Well, we will find out soon enough,” Father looked at the shore and pointed, “there is the Port of Philadelphia right there and one of those docks is going to be where we will land in America. Our future home,” Father stared hard at the docks.

“Where in America do you think you will live,” asked the Captain.

“Oh, I do not know exactly. But we are going to a homestead in Texas. I have been told that I can start a new life there. I can start a small farm with a sheep herd and when I am settled, I can bring over my wife and other children.” Father said a little wistfully. “But first, I am going to take Bertie and the other children to see their friends in Springfield. The children have been writing to the Binns family.”

“Yes, Bertie here has told me all about his friend Dawsey.” The Captain looked down and smiled. Bertie smiled back. The Captain then looked at Father, “But how much do you know about this Binns family? Bertie tells me that they are Quakers.”

“Yes, it is true that they are Quakers. But that does not bother me much. I am much more worried about the Irish immigrants that are infesting Philadelphia.”

“Aye, the Irish are the scum at the bottom of a pickle barrel,” the Captain agreed.

Just then Arthur walked up. “Pickles, did you say that you have pickles? I could go for some pickles right now. They stopped serving breakfast by the time that I got to the galley.”

“I am surprised you are awake at all. You can sleep through a gale and be hungry when wake up,” observed Father.

“So where are we? Are we finally going to get off this boat?” Arthur wanted to know.

“We just passed this Schuylkill river. If you had been here, you would have seen the Indians,” pointed out Bertie.

“Indians? I thought they were all gone. Besides, how would you know what an Indian looks like?” Arthur asked derisively.

“I have seen pictures of them in a book. They are big and beautiful with their feathers and shells and red skin. The captain told me all about them. He saw the Indians too.”

“That is right. Bertie and I were here on the deck looking to port when we passed the Schuylkill river. That is when Bertie saw his Indian.”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “I hope that is all that you told him. He does not need any more crazy ideas rolling around in his head.”

“That is not a crazy idea! I did see an Indian and if you had been here you would have seen him too. But you were too lazy to get out of bed.”

“Was that Indian like the giant sea squid that you saw a couple days ago?” Asked an incredulous Arthur.

“I did see a giant squid! It was easily 20 feet long and I saw it! I saw it just off the port bow. The Captain was here, he can tell you all about it.”

“Aye, Bertie is correct, squids can easily get up to 20 feet long. I myself have seen several giant squid,” the Captain pointed out.

“And when did you see these so-called giant squid?” sneered Arthur.

“Arthur, you should watch your tone of voice young man,” quickly pointed out Father.

“Aye, you should,” agreed the captain as he glared at Arthur. “That is, if you do not want a tanned hide. I am not so old that I cannot still do that job!”

“I am sorry. But the stories that Bertie tells me are just so unbelievable. One day it is giant lizards, another day it is giant squids, a third it is giant fish. Now he is telling me about Indians that he saw. How am I to believe what he says is true?”

“You should believe your brother. What Bertie says is true. There are or were giant lizards called dinosaurs. If you had ever been to London, you would have seen some of the dinosaurs in the museum. Also, they would have told you about giant sea squids and whales. Have you ever been to the museum?”

“No, I have never been to the Museum of London. But you told me about the sea squids, the whales, and the Indians,” interjected Bertie.

The Captain smiled at Bertie. “Well, maybe you can go to the Museum of Philadelphia. I imagine that they have dinosaurs, squids, and whales too.”

“Can we go to the museum? Please!” begged Bertie.

“Yes, of course we can go to museum. But first, we have to get off this boat, er, I mean ship.” Father looked sheepishly at the Captain.

The Captain looked at father, smiled and winked. “It looks like we are almost at the dock. I can see the dock to port, just over there. You should probably go down below and get your things together”…