The Americans as they are
Date: 2013-11-24T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: United States -- Social life and customs -- 1783-1865; Mississippi River Valley -- Description and travel; Ohio River Valley -- Description and travel

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Title: The Americans as they are

Described in a tour through the valley of the Mississippi

Author: Charles Sealsfield

Release date: November 24, 2013 [eBook #44268]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by KD Weeks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
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Transcriber’s Notes

Please note that the longitudes used in this text, which predates the establishment of Greenwich as the reference, used the nation’s capitol, Washington, D.C. (approx. W 77°) as its basis. Thus, Cincinnati, at W 84° 30′ on p. 1, is placed at a longitude of 7° 31′. Also, on p. 33, the location of the state of Indiana is mistakenly given using seconds (″) of longitude, rather than minutes (′). These were corrected.

The spelling of place names was fluid at the time and all are retained here.

Footnotes, which appeared on the bottom of pages, have been relocated to the end of the text. They have been lettered consecutively from A to K, and hyperlinked for ease of reference.

The cover of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

Please consult the transcriber’s end note at the bottom of this text for any other details.

THE
AMERICANS AS THEY ARE;
DESCRIBED IN
A TOUR
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

BY THE AUTHOR OF
“AUSTRIA AS IT IS.”

LONDON:
HURST, CHANCE, AND CO.
ST. PAUL’S CHURCH YARD.
1828.

LONDON:
Printed by Bradbury and Dent,
St. Dunstan’s-ct., Fleet-st.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The publication of this tour was intended for the year 1827. Several circumstances have prevented it.

The American is, as far as relates to his own country, justly supposed to be prone to exaggeration. English travellers, on the contrary, are apt to undervalue brother Jonathan and his country. The Author has twice seen these countries, of whose present state he gives a sketch in the following pages. He is far from claiming for his work any sort of literary merit. Truth and practical observation are his chief points. Whether his opinions and statements are correct, it remains for the reader to judge, and experience to confirm.

London, March, 1828.

PREFACE.

Upwards of half a century has now elapsed since the independence of the United States became firmly established. During this period two great questions have been solved, exposing the fallacies of human calculations, which anticipated only present anarchy and ultimate dissolution as the fate of the new Republics. The possibility of a people governing themselves, and being prosperous and happy, time, the sure ordeal of all projects, has at length demonstrated. Their political infancy is over, they are approaching towards manhood, and fully sensible of their strength, their first magistrate has ventured to utter those important words contained in his address of 1820: that “notwithstanding their neutrality, they would consider any attempt on the part of the European Powers, to extend their system to any portion of their hemisphere, as dangerous to their peace and safety; and that they could not admit of any projects of colonization on the part of Europe.” Thus, for the first time, they have asserted their right of taking a part DE FACTO in the great transactions of European Powers, and pronounced their declaration in a tone, which has certainly contributed to the abandonment of those intentions which were fast ripening into execution.

The important influence of American liberty throughout the civilised world, has been already apparent; and more especially in France, in the South American revolutions, and in the commotions in Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont. These owe their origin, not to any instigation on the part of the United States, but to the influence of their example in raising the standard of freedom, and more than all, to the success which crowned their efforts. Great has been on the other hand, the influence of European politics on the North American nation. A party, existing since the revolution, and extending its ramifications over the whole United States, is now growing into importance, and guided by the principles of European diplomacy, is rooting itself deeper and deeper, drawing within its ranks the wealthy, the enlightened, the dissatisfied; thus adding every day to its strength. We see, in short, the principle of monarchy developing itself in the United States, and though it is not attempted to establish it by means of a revolution, which would infallibly fail, there is a design to bring it about by that cunning, cautious, and I may add, American way, which must eventually succeed; unless the spirit of freedom be sufficiently powerful to neutralize the subtle poison in its progress, or to triumph over its revolutionary results. There have occurred many changes in the United States within the last ten years. The present rulers have succeeded in so amalgamating opinions, that whatever may be said to the contrary, only two parties are now in existence. These are the monarchists, who would become governors, and the republicans, who would not be governed.

The object proposed in the following pages has been to exhibit to the eyes of the European world, the real state of American affairs, divested of all prejudice, and all party spirit. Adams on the whole is a favourite with Great Britain. This empire however, has no reason to admire him; should his plans succeed, the cost to Great Britain would be the loss of her last possession in North America. But as long as the American Republic continues united, this unwieldy mass of twenty-four states can never become dangerous.

Of the different orders of society, there is yet little to be said, but they are developing themselves as fast as wealth, ambition, luxury, and the sciences on the one side, and poverty, ignorance, and indirect oppression on the other, will permit them. There, as every where else, this is the natural course of things. To show the state of society in general, and the relative bearings of the different classes to each other, and thus to afford a clear idea of what the United States really are, is the second object attempted in this work. To represent social intercourse and prevailing habits in such a manner as to enable the future emigrant to follow the prescribed track, and to settle with security and advantage to himself and to his new country; to afford him the means of judging for himself, by giving him a complete view of public and private life in general, as well as of each profession or business in particular, is the third object here contemplated.

The capitalist, the merchant, the farmer, the physician, the lawyer, the mechanic, cannot fail, I trust, to find adequate information respecting the course which, on their settling in the Union, will be the most eligible to pursue. Farther explanation I think unnecessary. He who would consider the following condensed picture of Trans-atlantic society and manners insufficient, would not be better informed, if I were to enlarge the work to twice its size. Such an objection would shew him to be unfit to adventure in the character of a settler in a country where so many snares will beset his path, and call for no small degree of natural shrewdness and penetration.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Cincinnati.—Parting glance at Ohio.—Its Government and Inhabitants.

CHAPTER II.

Tour through the state of Kentucky.—Bigbonelick.—Mammoths.—Two Kentuckian Characters.—Kentuckian Scenes.

CHAPTER III.

Vevay.—Geographical Sketch of the state of Indiana—Madison.— Charleston.—Jeffersonville.—Clarksville.—New Albany.—The Falls of Ohio.

CHAPTER IV.

Louisville.—Canal of Louisville.—Its Commerce.—Surrounding Country.—Sketch of the state of Kentucky, and of its Inhabitants.

CHAPTER V.

A Keel-boat journey.—Description of the preparations.—Fall of the Country.—Troy.—Lady Washington.—The River sport.— Owensborough.—Henderson.

CHAPTER VI.

Mr. Owen’s of Lanark, formerly Rapp’s settlement.—Remarks on it.—Keel-boat Scenes.—Cave in Rock.—Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.—Fort Massai.

CHAPTER VII.

The Mississippi.—General Features of the state of Illinois, and of its Inhabitants.

CHAPTER VIII.

Excursion to St. Louis.—Fall of the Country.—Sketch of the state of Missouri.—Return to Trinity.

CHAPTER IX.

The state of Tennessee.—Steam boats on the Mississippi.—Flat Boats.

CHAPTER X.

Scenery along the Mississippi.—Hopefield.—St. Helena.—Arkansas Territory.—Spanish Moss.—Vixburgh.

CHAPTER XI.

The city of Natchez.—Excursion to Palmira.—Plantations.—The cotton planter of the state of Mississippi.—Remarks.—Return to Natchez.

CHAPTER XII.

Arrival at New Orleans.—Cursory reflections.

CHAPTER XIII.

Topographical sketch of the City of New Orleans.

CHAPTER XIV.

The situation of New Orleans considered in a commercial point of view.

CHAPTER XV.

Characteristic features of the Inhabitants of New Orleans and of Louisiana.—Creoles.—Anglo Americans.

CHAPTER XVI.

Frenchmen.—Free people of colour.—Slaves.—Public spirit.— Education.—State of religious worship.—Public entertainments.— Theatres.—Balls, &c.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Climate of Louisiana.—The yellow fever.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Hints for Emigrants to Louisiana.—Planters.—Farmers.—Merchants.— Mechanics.

CHAPTER XIX.

Geographical features of the state of Louisiana.—Conclusion.

AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

Cincinnati.—Parting Glance at Ohio.—Character of its Government and its Inhabitants.

The city of Cincinnati is the largest in the state of Ohio: for the last eight years it has left even Pittsburgh far behind. It is situated in 39° 5′ 54″ north latitude, and 7° 31′ west longitude, on the second bank of the Ohio, rising gradually and extending to the west, the north, and the east, for a distance of several miles. The lower part of the city below the new warehouse, is exposed, during the spring tides, to inundations which are not, however, productive of serious consequences; the whole mass of water turning to the Kentuckian shore. The river is here about a mile wide, and assumes the form of a half moon. When viewed from the high banks, the mighty sheet of water, rolling down in a deep bed, affords a splendid sight. In 1780, the spot where now stands one of the prettiest towns of the Union, was a native forest. In that year, the first attempt was made at forming a settlement in the country, by erecting a blockhouse, which was called Fort Washington, and was enlarged at a subsequent period. In the year 1788, Judge Symmes laid out the town, whose occupants he drew from the New England States. Successive attacks, however, of the Indians wearied them out, and the greater part withdrew. The battle gained by General Wayne over these natives, tranquillised the country; and after the year 1794, Cincinnati rapidly improved. It became the capital of the western district, which was erected into a territorial government. When Ohio was declared an independent state, in the year 1800, Cincinnati continued to be the seat of the legislature till 1806.

Fort Washington has since made room for peaceful dwellings. Their number is at present 1560, with 12,000 inhabitants. The streets are regular, broad, and mostly well paved. The main street, which runs the length of a mile from the court-house down to the quay, is elegant.—Among the public buildings, the court-house is constructed in an extremely simple but noble style; the Episcopalian, the Catholic, and the Presbyterian churches, the academy and the United States’ bank, are handsome buildings. Besides these, are churches for Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Swedenborghians, Unitarians, a Lancasterian school, the farmers’, the mechanics’, and the Cincinnati banks, a reading room with a well provided library, five newspaper printing offices;—among these papers are the Cincinnati Literary Gazette, and a price current—and the land office for the southern part of the state. The colonnade of the theatre is, however, a strange specimen of the architectural genius of the backwoods. Among the manufacturing establishments, the principal are,—the steam mill on the river, a saw-mill, cloth and cotton manufactories, several steam engines, iron and nail manufactories, all on the steam principle. Cincinnati carries on an important trade with New Orleans, and it may be considered as the staple of the state. The produce of the whole state is brought to Cincinnati, and shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi. The only impediments to its uninterrupted trade, are the falls of the Ohio at Louisville, which obstruct the navigation during eight months in the year. These obstacles are now on the point of being removed. The exports from Cincinnati are flour, whisky, salt, hams, pork, beef, dried and fresh fruits, corn, &c.; the imports are cotton, sugar, rice, indigo, tobacco, coffee, and spices. The manufactured goods are generally brought in waggons from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and discharged there. In order to improve the commerce of Cincinnati, an insurance company has been formed. There is a committee established for the inspection of vessels running between New Orleans and this place. There are a number of steam and other boats building at the present time. For the benefit of travellers, &c., a line of steam boats is established between Cincinnati and Louisville; and they start regularly every second day, performing the voyage of 115 miles to Louisville in twelve, and back again in twenty hours.

There are in Cincinnati a great number of wholesale, commission, and retail merchants; but the want of ready money is as much felt here as anywhere else, and causes a stagnation of business. The inhabitants are chiefly American born, with some admixture of Germans, French, and Irish. As the former are mostly from the New England States, the general character of the inhabitants has taken an adventurous turn, which is conspicuous in their buildings. Most of the houses in the city are elegant, many are truly beautiful; but they belong to the bank of the United States, which possesses at least 200 of the finest houses in Cincinnati. The building mania obtained such strong hold of the inhabitants, that most of them forgot their actual means; and accordingly, having drawn money from the bank which they were unable to refund, they had at last to give up lots and buildings to the United States’ bank. Though this city possesses in itself many advantages over other towns of the Ohio, and has much the start of them in point of commerce and manufactures, yet there is little expectation of its increasing in the same proportion as it has hitherto done. Neither of the canals which are intended to join the Ohio, will come up as far as this town. The great Ohio canal is to run near the mouth of the Sciota river; the Dayton canal below Cincinnati; and these places will attract a considerable part of the population. The third canal, which is to connect the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and of the Ohio, will be more advantageous to the towns of Upper Ohio, Marietta, Steubenville, and Wheeling. Commerce will thus be more equally divided, and Cincinnati cannot always expect to continue as it has hitherto been, the staple of the trade to the southward of the Ohio. The merchant possessed of a moderate capital, if he consult his interest, will not establish himself at Cincinnati, but at one of the intermediate places of the above-mentioned three canals. The farmer has eligible spots in the Tuscarora valleys, about New Lancaster, Columbus, Franklintown, Pickaway, Chilicathe, and especially in the Sandusky counties on lake Erie. Mechanics, such as carpenters, cabinet makers, &c., will also find these new settlements more advantageous markets for their industry than the city of Cincinnati itself. The manufacturers, of every kind, will choose either Cincinnati or Pittsburgh, but still give the preference to the former, in spite of its smoke and dirt, as the place most favoured by natural position, which must necessarily become the first manufacturing town of the Union, notwithstanding the well-known inactivity of the Pennsylvanians. But as the state of Ohio must look to its manufactures, unless it chooses to continue a loser by the exchange of its raw produce; Cincinnati, whose manufactures have attained a high degree of perfection, favoured as it is by its coal mines, its water communication, and the fertility and consequent cheapness of the necessaries of life, must always possess very great advantages. Travellers arriving from the north, proceed to the south by way of Louisville on board a steam boat; and coming from thence, they go either to the eastward to Philadelphia by the mail stage, or by the same conveyance northward, through Chilicathe and Columbus, to lake Erie, where they embark for Buffalo.

During my stay, on the twenty-fifth of October, a question of some importance for the inhabitants of Cincinnati was to be decided. It was concerning a stricter police and its necessary regulations. The city council, with the wealthier class of inhabitants, had been for some time previous to the decision, engaged in preparing and gaining over the multitude. I went to the court-house in company with Mr. Bama, a wholesale merchant, and several gentlemen, to hear the speeches delivered on both sides, and the result of the motion. It was four o’clock when we arrived, and about 600 persons were assembled in and outside of the court-house. The noise, however, was such, that it was impossible to hear more than detached periods. At eight o’clock, when almost dark, they had gone through the business, and the poll was about to commence. The party for abridging public liberty was ordered to go out on the left:—those who insisted on the preservation of the present order of things, were to draw off to the right. On arriving before the court-house, they ranged themselves in two separate ranks, each of which was counted by the presiding judge. There was a majority of 72 votes in favour of the party which upheld the present system, and the question was, therefore, decided in favour of popular liberty. I found here, as well as everywhere else, that the freedom of a community is nowhere more exposed to encroachments than in large towns, where dissipation and occupations of every kind are likely to engross the attention of the people, who leave the magistrates to do what they please. The city council were on the point of obtaining the majority, had it not been for the farmers whom the market-day had drawn to town. These, of course, did not fail to open the eyes of the honest burghers; and the question was accordingly negatived.

The prevailing manners of society at Cincinnati, are those peculiar to larger cities, without the formalities and mannerism of the eastern sea ports. Freedom of thought prevails in a high degree, and toleration is exercised without limitation. The women are considered very handsome; their deportment is free from pride; but simple and unassuming as they appear, they evince a high taste for literary and mental accomplishments. The Literary Gazette owes its origin to their united efforts. There is no doubt that the commanding situation of this beautiful town, its majestic river, its mild climate, which may be compared to the south of France, and the liberal spirit of its inhabitants, contribute to render this place, both in a physical and moral point of view, one of the most eligible residences in the Union.

As much, indeed, may be said of the state of Ohio in general. It combines in itself all the elements that tend to make its inhabitants the happiest people on the face of the earth. Nature has done every thing in favour of this country. In point of fertility, it excels every one of the thirteen old states; and, owing to its political institutions, and the abolition of slavery, it has taken the lead among those newly created.

Ohio is bounded on the north by lake Erie, on the west by the state of Indiana, on the south by the river Ohio, and on the east by Pennsylvania, comprising an area of 4,000 square miles; it is divided into 71 counties, and has a population of 72,000 souls. This state forms the eastern extremity of the great valley of the Mississippi, which has the Alleghany for its eastern, and the Rocky Mountains for its western boundary, sinking by degrees as it approaches the Mississippi, and extending more than a thousand miles towards the south. The climate of this state, which presents for the most part the form of an elevated plain, running between the mountainous Pennsylvania and the swampy Mississippi states, is temperate, extending from 38° 28′, to 72° 58′ northern latitude, and from 3° 32′, to 7° 40′ west longitude. Its temperature varies less than that of other states. Its soil is inexhaustible; its fertility, especially in the northern and southern parts, being truly astonishing; and though some portions have been cultivated upwards of thirty years without being manured, the land still yields the same quantity of produce. The northern inhabitants of the state send their produce down to New York by lake Erie, and the Buffalo canal; the southern find a market in Louisiana and New Orleans. The middle part suffered greatly from the want of water communication, to which they are now on the point of applying a remedy, in order to obtain an intercourse with New York; which, as it is well known, has effected by means of a canal, a water communication with lake Erie. The Ohions commenced a canal in the year 1825, beginning at Cleveland on the shores of lake Erie, taking thence a southern course through Tuscarora county at Zanesville, turning to the right six miles below Columbus, and running down to the shores of the Ohio. It is intended to be completed in the space of three years. The state of Ohio expects from this canal, which if the pecuniary means be considered may be called a gigantic undertaking, a ready market for its produce in the city and state of New York; looking forward, at the same time, to become the staple for the trade between New York and New Orleans. It cannot fail, however, to be productive of still greater advantage to the United States in general, and to the cities of New York and New Orleans in particular, which will thus have the means of a land or water communication, over a space of nearly 3,000 miles. The first idea of this canal originated with the state of New York; the citizens of which, when they had finished their own, encouraged those of Ohio to enter upon a similar undertaking. Encouragement was not much wanting; the plan of joining the waters of the Hudson and the Mississippi was taken up with enthusiasm; canal committees were formed; most of the towns in the state sent their deputies, and after the customary debates, the resolution was adopted. The only difficulty was to raise the requisite funds. New York offered to defray the necessary expenses, if allowed the revenue arising from the new canal, for a certain period. The pride of the Ohions revolted against the proposition; they preferred raising a loan in New York. In this respect the government of the state committed a great error. A loan of three millions of dollars, and the necessary evils attendant upon it, are certainly a heavy burthen to a new state, which can scarcely reckon an existence of forty years, especially as the new canal may be considered a continuation of the great one of New York, and as the advantage resulting from it to the state can bear no comparison with that which New York derives from its own.

New York, already the most important commercial city of the Union, will, after the completion of this canal, enjoy the trade of the western and south-western states, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Mississippi, &c.; and thus the Ohio canal will rather contribute to the aggrandizement of New York, than to that of Ohio. Their debt, so out of proportion with the resources of the state, made the people of Ohio relax in their ardour for carrying this project into effect, and gave rise to discontent against the administration of the state. But the same case happened in New York, and the exultation of the inhabitants of Ohio, when they see the work accomplished, will scarcely yield to that which was manifested by the people of the former state. There is, nevertheless, not any city in the state of Ohio to be compared with New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, nor is it probable there will be. At the same time this want is largely compensated by the absence of immorality and luxury—evils necessarily attached to large and opulent cities—which may be said to attract the heart’s blood of the country, and send forth the very dregs of it in return. In Ohio, wealth is not accumulated in one place, or in a few hands; it is visibly diffused over the whole community. The country towns and villages are invariably constructed in a more elegant and tasteful manner than those of Pennsylvania, and the Northern states. There is something grand in their plan and execution, though the prevailing want or insufficiency of means to carry them through, is still an obstacle in the way. The farms and country houses are elegant; I saw hundreds of them, which no English nobleman would be ashamed of. They are generally of brick, sometimes of wood, and built in a tasteful style. The turnpike roads are in excellent order. It is astonishing to see what has been done during a few years, and under an increasing scarcity of money, by the mere dint of industry. The traveller will seldom have reason to rail at bad roads or bad taverns; I could only complain of one of the latter, which stands upon a road that is seldom travelled. In every county town there are at least two elegant inns, and the tables are loaded with such a variety of venison and dishes of every kind, that even a gourmand could not justly complain.

The whole state bespeaks a wealthy condition, which, far removed from riches, rests on the surest foundation—the fertility of the soil, and the persevering industry of its cultivators. Although behind-hand, perhaps, with the Yankees in literary accomplishments, they are far more liberal, and intelligent, being endowed with a strong and enterprising mind. Crimes are here less frequently committed, the inhabitants consisting of the most respectable classes of the eastern and foreign states. Only men of moderate property came into the state; the wealthy were deterred by the difficulties attending a new settlement; the indigent by the impossibility of getting vacant lands, and thus the state remained equally free from money-born aristocrats, (certainly the worst in the world), and from beggars. Its form of government bears internal evidence of this, the governor of Ohio having neither the revenue, nor the power of the eastern governors. He is elected for the term of two years. The constitution bespeaks independence and liberality. The number of senators cannot exceed thirty, nor the representatives seventy-two. The general assembly has the sole power of enacting laws, the signature of the governor being in no case necessary. The judges are chosen by the legislature for seven years, and the justices of the peace for the term of three years, by their respective townships. The resolutions of their assembly are quite free from that narrow-minded prejudice found in Pennsylvania and the southern states, which sees in the law of Moses the only rule for direction, and loses sight of that liberal spirit which pervades the law of Christ. The inhabitants of Ohio are not, however, so religious as their neighbours, the Pennsylvanians. Their ministers exercise little influence; and numerous sects contribute greatly to lessen their authority, which is certainly not the case in the north. The people of Ohio are equally free from the uncultivated and rude character of the western American, and from the innate wiliness of the Yankees. This state is not unlike a vigorous and blooming youth, who is approaching to manhood, and whose natural form and manner excite our just admiration.

CHAPTER II.

Tour through Kentucky.—Bigbonelick.—Mammoths.—Two Kentuckian Characters.—Kentuckian Scenes.

After a stay of six days in Cincinnati I departed; crossed the Ohio in the ferryboat, and landed in the state of Kentucky, at Newport, a small country town of Campbell county. It contains, besides the government arsenal for the western states, a court-house, and about 100 buildings, scattered irregularly upon the eminence. From thence to Bigbonelick, the distance is 23 miles; the country is more hilly than on the other side of the river; it is, however, fertile, the stratum being generally limestone. The growth of timber is very fine; the trees are beech, sugar-maple, and sycamore. The contrast between Ohio and Kentucky is striking, and the baneful influence of slavery is very soon discovered. Instead of elegant farms, orchards, meadows, corn and wheat fields carefully enclosed, you see patches planted with tobacco, the leaves neglected; and instead of well-looking houses, a sort of double cabins, like those inhabited in the north of Pennsylvania by the poorest classes. In one part lives the family, in the other is the kitchen; behind these, are the wretched cabins of the negroes, bearing a resemblance to pigsties, with half a dozen black children playing about them on the ground.

About three o’clock I arrived at Bigbonelick, well known for its Mammoth bones. The lands ten miles on this side of Bigbone are of an indifferent character, dreary and mountainous. The valley of Bigbone is about a mile long, and of equal breadth; it no doubt has been the scene of some great convulsion of nature. The water is seen oozing forth from the many bogs, and has a saltish taste, impregnated with saltpetre and sulphur. These quagmires are covered with a thin grass, which has the same taste. Their depth is said to be unfathomable. Whether the Mammoth bones which are found here, were brought into the valley by a convulsion of the earth, by an inundation, or whether the animals sunk down when in search of food, remains to be decided. The first two suppositions seem authorised by the circumstance, that bones were found, not on their carcases, but scattered, which could not be the case if they were swallowed up alive. The same revolution of nature which carried elephants and palm-trees to Siberia and Lapland, and the lions of Africa to the coast of Gibraltar, may, in like manner, have brought these animals to Bigbonelick. The tradition handed down to us by the Indians respecting them, is remarkable. “In ancient times, it is said, a herd of these tremendous animals came to the Bigbonelicks, and commenced an universal destruction among the buffaloes, bears, and elks, which had been created for the Indians. The Great Spirit looking down from above, became so enraged at the sight, that taking some of his thunderbolts he descended, seated himself on a neighbouring rock which still bears the print of his footsteps, and hurling down the bolts among the destroyers, killed them all with the exception of the big bull, which, turning its front to the bolts, shook them off; but being struck at last in the side, he turned round, and with a tremendous leap bounded over the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, and the great lakes, beyond which he is still living at the present day.”

Some few weeks later, I spoke with an Indian trader at Trinity. According to his account, he found in one of his excursions, traces of a large animal, belonging to none of the species known to him, and equal in size to the elephant. On making inquiries of an old Indian, the latter ascribed the traces to an immense, but very rare animal, the race of which was almost destroyed by the Great Spirit; there remaining but very few on the other side of the lakes. He also pretended that he had seen one of those animals: whether the tale of the Indian, or that of the trader, a class of people somewhat prone to exaggeration, be true or not, I am incapable of deciding. I afterwards met this man at New Orleans, and requested him to go along with me to one of my acquaintances, in order to furnish further information on this subject, and enable me to give publicity to it, but he pretended business, and refused to accompany me. The researches which were undertaken here, were amply rewarded. The greatest part of the early discoveries has been transmitted to London; a fine collection is exhibiting in the Museum at Philadelphia, and in the Levee at New Orleans.

The road from Bigbonelick is, for the distance of ten miles, dreary and the country barren. I arrived late at a farm-house, of rather a better appearance, where I intended to stop the night. The first night’s lodging convinced me but too plainly, that the inhabitants of this state, justly called in New York, half horse and half alligator, had not yet assumed a milder character. The farmer, or rather planter, was absent with his wife; and his brother, who took care of the farm, was at a horse race; an old man, however, with his daughter, answered my application for a lodging, in the affirmative. I was supping upon slices of bacon, roasted corn bread, and some milk, when the brother of the farmer returned from the races with his neighbour. Both had led horses besides those on which they rode. Before dismounting they discharged their pistols. Each of the Kentuckians had a pistol in his girdle, and a poniard in the breast pocket. Before resuming my supper I was pressed to take a dram. With a quart bottle in one hand, and with the other drawing the remains of tobacco from his mouth, in rather a nauseous manner, the host drank for half a minute out of the bottle; then took from the slave the can with water, and handed the bottle to me, the mouth of which had assumed, from the remains of the tobacco, a brownish colour. The Kentuckian looked displeased when I wiped the bottle. I however took no notice of him, but presented it, after having drunk, to his friend. We sat down.

“How far are you come to day?” asked the landlord.

“From Cincinnati.”

“You don’t live in Cincinnati, I guess, do you?”

“No, sir.”

“And where do you live?”

“In Pennsylvania.”

“A fine distance!” exclaimed my host, “I like the people of Pennsylvania better than those G——d d——d Yankees, but still they are no Kentuckians.” I gave my full and hearty assent.

“The Kentuckians,” continued my landlord, “are astonishingly mighty people; they are the very first people on earth!”

“Yes, sir.”

“They are immensely great, and wonderfully powerful people; ar’nt they?”

“Yes, sir.”

“They are ten thousand times superior to any nation on earth.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How do you like Kentucky?”

“Very well, sir; I travelled through it four years ago.”

“G—d d—n my s—l t——e——l d——n!” roared he. “The Pennsylvanians have not a square mile of land in their state, equal to our poor lands. Bill,” turning now to his neighbour on the left, “Bill has been marked in a mighty fine style. G—d d—n, &c., he blooded like a hog.”

“Yes,” replied the neighbour, “Sam has stabbed exceedingly well, I presume. Bill has to wait four weeks before he may be on his legs again, if he will be at all. G—d d—n! but to tell Isaac, his horse, which he thinks so much of, is a poor beast compared with his—and so to give him the lie. I would have knocked him down, come what might out of it. But Dick and John!”—and now these two fellows broke out into roaring shouts of horse laughter. “How his eyes twinkled, he looked quite as squire Toms, when laying all night over the bottle; I guess he never will be able to set his eyes a-right.”

“He does not see,” said the neighbour; “the one is quite out of its socket, and Joe was obliged to carry him home.”

“Why, the seconds are wonderfully lovely fellows, I warrant you; they did not spoil the sport with interfering.”

“Yes, they bore John an old grudge.”

“Oh, certainly—it was a mighty fine sport; I would not for the world have missed it. G—d d—n! Dick is a fine gouger—the second turn—John down—and both thumbs in his eyes.—I presume you have races in Pennsylvania?” turning to me.

“Yes, sir.”

“And fightings and gougings?”

“No, sir.” With an expressive look towards his neighbour, he continued: “Yes, the Pennsylvanians are a quiet, religious sort of people; they don’t kill anything but their hogs, and prefer giving their money to their parsons.” The evening passed in these and similar conversations, of which the above are mere specimens; and it was eleven o’clock before the interesting pair separated.

Some miles below Mr. White’s farm, the road divides into two, the one leading to Newcastle, the other to the Ohio. I stopped at a farm fifteen miles from my former night’s lodging. The landlord was mounting his horse for Newcastle; his wife sat in the kitchen, surrounded by eight negro girls, all busy knitting and sewing. The girls seemed to be in excellent spirits, and were tolerably well dressed; the house rather indicated affluence, though it was far from possessing the order and cleanliness of a few of only half its value in Ohio. It was a simple brick house; but constructed without the least attention to the rules of symmetry. The fields were in a very indifferent state. Behind the dwelling, were seen some negro infants at play, while an old negro woman was preparing my breakfast. The family had thirty-five slaves, both young and old, forming a capital of at least 10,000 dollars. “Was not I a fool?” asked the open-hearted landlady, “to marry Mr. Forth, who had but twelve slaves, and a plantation, with seven children; but they are provided for;—whereas I had fourteen slaves, and a plantation too, after my first husband’s decease, and no children at all.”—“I don’t know,” was my reply, afraid of engaging the old lady in further discussion. While descanting upon this theme, and on the advantages resulting to her happy husband from a match so disparaging on her part, I was allowed to take my breakfast, when some yells and hallooing called us to the door. A troop of horsemen were passing. Two of the party had each a negro slave running before him, secured by a rope fastened to an iron collar. A tremendous horsewhip reminded them at intervals to quicken their pace. The bloody backs and necks of these wretches, bespoke a too frequent application of the lash. The third negro had, however, the hardest lot. The rope of his collar was fastened to the saddle string of the third horseman, and the miserable creature had thus no alternative left, but to keep an equal pace with the trotting horse, or to be dragged through ditches, thorns, and copsewood. His feet and legs, all covered with blood, exhibited a dreadful spectacle. The three slaves had run away two days before, dreading transportation to Mississippi or Louisiana. “Look here,” said Mrs. Forth, calling her black girls, “what is done with the bad negroes, who run away from their good masters!” With an indifference, and a laughing countenance, which clearly shewed how accustomed these poor children were to the like scenes, they expressed their sentiments at this disgusting conduct.

The road from Mr. Forth’s plantation runs a considerable distance along ridges, descending finally into the bottom lands along the Ohio. These are exceedingly fertile. The growth of timber is extremely luxuriant. I measured a sycamore of common size, and found it seventeen feet in diameter; their height is truly astonishing. The soil is of a deep brown colour, and where it is turned up, proves to be blackish. The stratum is generally limestone. I crossed the Ohio at Ghent, in Kentucky, opposite to Vevay, in Indiana.

CHAPTER III.

Vevay.—Geographical Sketch of the State of Indiana.—Madison.— Charlestown—its Court.—Jeffersonville.—Clarksville.—New Albany.—The Falls of the Ohio.

Vevay, in Indiana, became a settlement twenty years ago, by Swiss emigrants, who obtained a grant of land, equal to 200 acres for each family, under the condition of cultivating the vine; they accordingly settled here, and laid out vineyards. The original settlers may have amounted to thirty; others joined them afterwards, and in this manner was founded the county town of New Switzerland, in Indiana, which consists almost exclusively of these French and Swiss settlers. They have their vineyards below the town, on the banks of the river Ohio. The vines, however, have degenerated, and the produce is an indifferent beverage, resembling any thing but claret, as it had been represented. Two of them have attempted to cultivate the river hills, and the vineyards laid out there are rather of a better sort. The town is on the decline; it has a court-house, and two stores very ill supplied. The condition of these, and the absence of lawyers, are sure indications of the poverty of the inhabitants, if broken windows, and doors falling from their hinges, should leave any doubt on the subject; they are, however, a merry set of people, and balls are held regularly every month. In the evening arrived ten teams laden with fifty emigrants from Kentucky, going to settle in Indiana; their reasons for doing this were numerous. Although they had bought their lands in Kentucky twice over, they had to give them up a third time, their titles having proved invalid; but still they would have remained, had it not been for the insolent behaviour of their more wealthy neighbours, who, in consequence of these emigrants having no slaves, and being thus obliged to work for themselves, not only treated them as slaves, but even encouraged their own blacks to give them every kind of annoyance, and to rob them—for no other reason than their dislike to have paupers for neighbours.

My landlord assured me that at least 200 waggons had passed from the Kentucky side, through Vevay, during the present season, all full of emigrants, discouraged from continuing among these lawless people.

The state of Indiana, which I had now entered, begins below Cincinnati, running down the big Miami westward to the big Wabash, which separates this country from the Illinois. To the south, it is bounded by the Ohio; to the north, by lake Michigan; thus extending from 37° 50′, to 42° 10′, north latitude; and from 7° 40′, to 10° 47′, west longitude. Like the state of Ohio, it belongs to the class coming within the range of the great valley of the Mississippi. It exhibits nearly the same features as the state of Ohio, with the exception, that it approaches nearer to the Mississippi than its eastern neighbour, and is the second slope of the eastern part of the valley of the Mississippi: it declines more than Ohio, being but 250 feet above lake Erie, and 210 feet above lake Michigan, which is one hundred feet less in elevation than the state of Ohio. Two ridges of mountains, or rather hills, traverse the country; the Knobs, or Silver-hills, running ten miles below Louisville, in a north-eastern direction, and the Illinois mountains appearing from the west, and running to the north-east, where they fall to a level with the high plains of lake Michigan. These hills have a perfect sameness. The climate is rather milder than that of Ohio. Cotton and tobacco are raised by the farmers in sufficient quantities for their home consumption. The growth of timber is the same as in Ohio. The vallies are interspersed with sycamores and beeches; and below the falls, with maples, and cotton and walnut-trees. The hills are covered with beech, sassafras, and logwood. This state, though not inferior to Ohio in fertility, and taken in general, perhaps, superior to it, has one great defect. It has no sufficient water communication, and thus the inhabitants have no market for their produce. There is not in this state any river of importance, the Ohio which washes its southern borders excepted. A scarcity of money therefore is more severely felt here, than in any other state of the Union. This want of inter-communication, added to the circumstance that the state of Ohio had already engrossed the whole surplus population from the eastern states, had a prejudicial effect upon Indiana, its original population being in general by no means so respectable as that of Ohio. In the north-west it was peopled by French emigrants, from Canada; in the south, on the banks of the Ohio, and farther up, by Kentuckians, who fled from their country for debt, or similar causes.

The state thus became the refuge of adventurers and idlers of every description. A proof of this may be seen in the character of its towns, as well as in the nature of the improvements that have been carried on in the country. The towns, though some of them had an earlier existence than many in Ohio, are, in point of regularity, style of building, and cleanliness, far inferior to those of the former state. The wandering spirit of the inhabitants seems still to contend with the principle of steadiness in the very construction of their buildings. They are mostly a rude set of people, just emerging from previous bad habits, from whom such friendly assistance as honest neighbours afford, or mutual intercourse and good will, can hardly be expected. The case is rather different in the interior of the country, and on the Wabash, the finest part of the state, where respectable settlements have been formed by Americans from the east. Wherever the latter constitute the majority, every necessary assistance may be expected.

For adventurers of all descriptions, Indiana holds out allurements of every kind. Numbers of Germans, French, and Irish, are scattered in the towns, and over the country, carrying on the business of bakers, grocers, store, grog shops, and tavern keepers. In time, these people will become steady from necessity, and consequently prosperous. The number of the inhabitants of Indiana amounts to 215,000. Its admission into the Union as a sovereign state, dates from the year 1815 to 1816; its constitution differs in some points from that of Ohio, and its governor is elected for the term of three years.

Madisonville, the seat of justice for Jefferson-county, on the second bank of the Ohio, fifty-seven miles above its falls, contains at present 180 dwelling-houses, a court-house, four stores, three inns, a printing office—with 800 inhabitants, most of them Kentuckians. The innkeeper of the tavern at which I alighted, does no credit to the character of this people. He was engaged for some time in certain bank-note affairs, which qualified him for an imprisonment of ten years; he escaped, however, by the assistance of his legal friends, and of 1000 dollars. The opportunity of testifying his gratitude to these gentlemen soon presented itself. One of his neighbours, a boatman, had the misfortune to possess a wife who attracted his attention. Her husband knowing the temper of the man, resolved to sell all he had, and to move down to Louisville. Some days before his intended departure, he met Sheets in the street, and addressed him in these words: “Mr. Sheets, I ought to chastise you for making such shameful proposals to my wife;” so saying, he gently touched him with his cane. Sheets, without uttering a syllable, drew his poniard, and stabbed him in the breast. The unfortunate husband fell, exclaiming, “Oh, God! I am a dead man!”—“Not yet,” said Sheets, drawing his poniard out of the wound, and running it a second time through his heart; “Now, my dear fellow, I guess we have done.” This monster was seized and imprisoned, and his trial took place. His countrymen took, as might be expected, a great interest in his fate. With the assistance of 3000 dollars, he even this time escaped the gallows. I read the issue of the trial, and the summons of the jury, in the county paper of 1823, which was actually handed to me in the evening by one of the guests. But a more remarkable circumstance is, that the inhabitants continue to frequent his tavern. At first they stayed away for some weeks; but in less than a month the affair was forgotten, and his house is now visited as before.

The road from Madison to Charleston, leads through a fertile country, in some parts well cultivated. The distance from Madison is twenty-eight miles. It is the chief town of Clark county, and seems to advance more rapidly than Madison, the country about being pretty well peopled, and agriculture having made more progress than in any part of the state through which I had travelled. I found it to contain 170 houses and 750 inhabitants, five well stored tradesmen’s shops, a printing office, and four inns. The town is about a mile distant from the river, on a high plain. When I arrived, the court was going to adjourn, and I hastened to the court-house. The presiding judge and his two associate judges were in their tribune, and the parties seated on boards laid across the stumps of trees. One of the lawyers having concluded his speech, the defendant was called upon. The gentleman in question, whom I took for a pedlar, stood close by my side in conversation with his party, holding in his hand half an apple, his teeth having taken a firm bite of the other half. At the moment his name was called, he walked with his mouth full, up to the rostrum, and kept eating his apple with perfect indifference. “Well,” interrupted the judge impatient of the delay; “what have you to say against the charge? You know it is high time to break up the court, and I must go home.” The gentleman at the bar now pocketted his apple, and having thus augmented the store of provision which he probably kept by him, looked as if he carried two knapsacks behind his coat. “It strikes me mightily,”—was the exordium of this speech, which in point of elegance and conciseness was a true sample of back-wood eloquence. Fortunately the speaker took the judge’s hint; in less than half an hour he had done—in less than one hour the jurymen returned a verdict, the county transactions were finished, and the court broke up.

From Charleston to Louisville, the distance is fourteen miles. The lands are fertile. Several very well looking farms shew a higher degree of cultivation, especially near Jeffersonville. There the road turns into an extensive valley formed by the alluvions of the Ohio. Jeffersonville, the seat of justice for Floyd-county, three quarters of a mile above the falls of the Ohio, was laid out in 1802, and has since increased to 160 houses, among which are a bank, a Presbyterian church, a warehouse, a cotton manufactory, a court-house, and an academy, with a land office, for the disposal of the United States’ lands. The commerce of the inhabitants, 800 in number, is of some importance, though checked by the vicinity of Louisville, and by the circumstance, that the falls on the Indiana side are not to be approached, except at the highest rise. Two miles below this town, is the village of Clarksville, laid out in 1783, and forming part of the grant made to officers and soldiers of the Illinois regiment. It contains sixty houses and 300 inhabitants. New Albany, a mile below Clarksville, has a thousand inhabitants, and a great deal of activity, owing to its manufactory of steam engines, its saw mills, and the steam boats lying at anchor and generally repairing there. It is a place of importance, and though hitherto the resort of sailors, boatmen, and travellers, who go down the river in their own boats, it is annually on the increase.

The Ohio is generally crossed above the falls at Jeffersonville. The sheet of water dammed up here by the natural ledge of rocks which forms the falls, expands to 5,230 feet in breadth. The falls of the Ohio, though they should not properly be called falls, cannot be seen when crossing the river, and the waters do not pour like the falls of Niagara over an horizontal rock down a considerable depth, but press through a rocky bed, about a mile long, which spreads across the river, and causes a decline of twenty-two feet in the course of two miles. When the waters are high, the rocks and the falls disappear entirely. Seen from Louisville at low water, they have by no means an imposing appearance. The majestic and broad river branches off into several small creeks, and assumes the form of mountain torrents forcing their way through the ledge of rocks. When the river rises, and only three islands are to be seen, the immense sheet of water rushing down the declivity at the rate of thirteen miles an hour, must afford a magnificent spectacle. At the time I saw it, the river was lower than it had been for a series of years.

CHAPTER IV.

Louisville.—Canal of Louisville—its Commerce.—Surrounding Country.—Sketch of the State of Kentucky and its Inhabitants, &c.

The road from the landing-place to Louisville, leads through one of the finest and richest alluvial bottoms on the banks of the Ohio. They are here about seventy feet above the level of the water, and sufficiently high to protect the town from inundation, but there being no outlets for stagnant waters and ponds, epidemic diseases are frequent. A lottery is now established for the purpose of raising the necessary funds for draining these nuisances. Louisville extends in an oblong square about a mile down the river, and may be considered as the natural key to the Upper and Lower Ohio, and the most important staple for trade on this river, not excepting the city of Cincinnati. The commodities coming during the summer and autumn from southern states are landed here. Travellers who arrive by water, whether from the north or south, engage steam boats at this place either for New Orleans or for Cincinnati. These advantages made the inhabitants less desirous of having a canal, notwithstanding the solicitations of the states watered by the Ohio. The Congress has, at last, interposed; the canal is now contemplated. Probably this undertaking, in which not only the Upper states of the river Ohio, but the Union at large, are very much interested, is already commenced. By means of this canal, steam vessels will be enabled to avoid the falls, and to proceed to the upper Ohio at every season of the year. It is to be two miles and a half long; to open at the mouth of Beargrasscreek and to terminate at Shippingport. The highest ground is twenty-seven feet; upon an average twenty feet; and it is of a clayey substance, bottomed upon a rock. The expences are estimated at about 200,000 dollars, a trifle compared with the object to be accomplished.

Louisville, the seat of justice for Jefferson county, in Kentucky, in 38° 8′ north latitude, is about half the size of Cincinnati, and lies 105 miles below that city, by the Kentucky road through Newcastle, and 125 miles by the Kentucky and Indiana road. It is 1500 miles northeast of New Orleans. The town is laid out on a grand scale, the streets running parallel with the river, and intersected by others at right angles. The main street, about three quarters of a mile long, is elegant; most of the houses are three stories high; those of the other streets are of course inferior in size. The number of dwelling houses amounts to 700, inhabited by 4,500 souls, exclusive of travellers and boatmen. Louisville has no remarkable public buildings; the court-house and the Presbyterian church are the best. Besides these, the Episcopalians, Catholics, and Unitarians have their meeting houses. There are now three banks, including a branch bank of the United States, an insurance company, and four newspaper printing offices. A quay is now constructing which will greatly contribute to the security of the middle part of the town, opposite to the falls. The manufactories of Louisville are important; and the distilleries and rope walks on a large scale. Besides these there are soap, candle, cotton, glass, paper, and engine manufactories, all on the same principle, with grist and saw mills. The commerce of Louisville is still more important. Of the hundred steam boats plying on the Mississippi and Ohio, fifty at least are engaged during six months in the year in the trade with Louisville. They descend to New Orleans in six days, returning in double the time. Though the town is but half as large as Cincinnati, the credit of the merchants is more substantial, and the inhabitants are in general more wealthy. Luxury is carried to a higher pitch than in any other town on this side of the Alleghany mountains. Here is the only billiard-table[A] to be met with between Philadelphia and St. Louis. The owner has to pay a tax of 563 dollars—an enormous sum.

Notwithstanding the circulating library, the reading-room, and several houses where good society is to be met with, Louisville is not a pleasant town to reside in, owing to the character of the majority of its inhabitants, the Kentuckians. Louisville has an academy, but sends its youth to the college of Bairdstown, thirty miles to the southwest, where lectures are given by some French priests. Below Louisville, are the two villages of Shippingport and Portland; the former is two miles from the town, with 150 inhabitants, the latter at the distance of three miles, with fifty inhabitants, mostly boatmen and keepers of grog shops, for the lowest classes of people. The environs of Louisville are well cultivated, Portland and Shippingport excepted, the inhabitants of which are said to extend their notions of common property too far. Behind Louisville the country is delightful; the houses and plantations vying with each other in point of elegance and cultivation. The woods have greatly disappeared, and for the distance of twenty miles, the roads are lined in every direction with plantations. This town holds the rank of the second order in Kentucky, a country which, in latter times, has obtained a renown of somewhat ambiguous nature. It extends to the south, from the river Ohio, to the state of Tennessee, having for its eastern boundary the state of Virginia; and to the west, the river Mississippi, which separates it from the state of Missouri. It extends from 36° 30′ to 39° 10′ north latitude, and from 4° 78' to 12° 20′ west longitude. It embraces an area of 40,000 square miles. Though under a southern degree of latitude, it enjoys a moderate temperature, which is also less variable than in the more eastern states. The two great rivers of the Mississippi and the Ohio, forming the boundary of this state, secure to it no inconsiderable trade.

The productions of this beautiful country might, if properly cultivated, become inexhaustible sources of wealth and prosperity to its inhabitants; tobacco is a staple article, excelling in quality even that of Virginia, if properly managed: cotton thrives well in the southern parts of the state. Corn yields from forty to ninety bushels; wheat from thirty to sixty; melons, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, plumbs, &c., attain a superior degree of perfection. One of the principal articles of trade is hemp, the culture of which has been brought to a high state of improvement; it constitutes one of the chief articles of export to New Orleans. Kentucky has not such extensive plains as Ohio, but is equally fertile, and less exposed to bilious and ague fevers. The stratum, which is generally limestone, is a sure sign of inexhaustible fertility. Hills alternating with valleys form landscapes, which though consisting of native forests, are in the highest degree picturesque. There are parts about Lexington and its environs, which nothing can exceed in beauty of scenery. Even Louisville, with its three islands, the majestic Ohio, and the surrounding little towns, possesses charms seldom rivalled in any country. Kentucky is, without the least exaggeration, one of the finest districts on the face of the earth. The climate is equal to that of the south of France; fruits of every kind arrive at the highest perfection; and it would be difficult to quit this country, did not the character of the inhabitants lessen one’s regret at leaving it. But notwithstanding these natural advantages, the population has not increased either in wealth or numbers, in proportion to the more recent state of Ohio. The inhabitants consist chiefly of emigrants from Virginia, and North and South Carolina, and of descendants from back-wood settlers—a proud, fierce, and overbearing set of people. They established themselves under a state of continual warfare with the Indians, who took their revenge by communicating to their vanquishers their cruel and implacable spirit. This, indeed, is their principal feature. A Kentuckian will wait three or four weeks in the woods, for the moment of satiating his revenge; and he seldom or never forgives. The men are of an athletic form, and there may be found amongst them many models of truly masculine beauty. The number of inhabitants is now 57,000, including 15,000 slaves. Planters are among the most respectable class, and form the mass of the population. Lawyers are next, or equal to them in rank, no less than the merchants and manufacturers. Physicians and ministers are a degree lower; and last of all, are those mechanics and farmers not possessed of slaves. These are not treated better than the slaves themselves. The constitution inclines towards federalism, landed property being required to qualify a man for a public station. Ministers, of whatever form of worship, are wholly excluded from public offices. Kentucky is not a country that could be recommended to new settlers; slavery; insecure titles to land: the division of the courts of justice into two parts, furiously opposed to each other; an executive, whose present chief is a disgrace to his station, and whose son would be hung in chains, had he been in Great Britain; the worst paper-currency, &c., are serious warnings to every lover of peace and tranquillity. We abstain from farther particulars, as our purpose is to give a characteristic description of the Union, which would assuredly not gain by a faithful representation of the state of things in this country, during the last ten years. The Desha family, the emetic scene, the proceedings of the legislature, and of the courts of justice, Sharp’s death, &c., are facts which belong rather to the history of the tomahawk savages, than to that of a civilised state. Passions must work with double power and effect, where wealth, and arbitrary sway over a herd of slaves, and a warfare of thirty years with savages, have sown the seeds of the most lawless arrogance, and an untameable spirit of revenge.

The literary institutions, the Transylvanian university of Lexington, and the college of Bairdstown, have hitherto exercised very little influence over these fierce people. But a still worse feature observable in them, is an utter disregard of religious principles. Ohio has its sects, thereby evincing an interest in the performance of the highest of human duties. The Kentuckian rails at these, and at every form of worship; certainly a trait doubly afflicting and deplorable in a rising state.

CHAPTER V.

A Keel-boat Voyage—Description of the Preparations.—Face of the Country.—Troy.—Lady Washington.—The River Sport.—Owensborough.—Henderson.

The Ohio still continuing low, and there being no prospect of proceeding to New Orleans by a steam boat, I resolved to embark on board a keel boat, in company with several ladies and gentlemen, who were returning to their plantations and their homes. The preparations in such a case, are to dispose of horse and gig, where one does not choose going by land through Nashville, and Natchez. There is not much pleasure to be derived from a passage on board a keel boat—a machine, fifty feet long and ten feet broad, shut up on every side; with two doors, two and a half feet high. It forms a species of wooden prison, containing commonly four rooms; the first for the steward, the second a dining room, the third a cabin for gentlemen, and the fourth a ladies’ cabin. Each of these cabins was provided with an iron stove, one of which some days afterwards was very near sending us all to heaven, in the manner which the most Catholic king has been pleased to adopt in regard to us heretics. On the sides were our births, in double rows, six feet in length and two broad. In former times this manner of travelling was generally resorted to on the Ohio and Mississippi; the application of steam, however, has superseded these primitive conveyances, and I hope to the regret of no one. Our passage to Trinity, 515 miles by water, including provisions, &c., was twenty-five dollars. We were sure of meeting there with steam boats. The company consisted of two ladies with their families, returning to Louisiana; two others were going to Yellow-banks, with several governesses, nieces, &c.; in all ten ladies, with eleven gentlemen, considered a happy omen. Amongst the men were three planters from Louisiana and Mississippi; three merchants, one a Yankee, the other a Kentuckian, the third a Frenchman; a lawyer, from Tennessee; two physicians, one from the same state, the other from Kentucky, with a Kentuckian six and a half feet high. Of these persons the Kentuckian doctor was the most to be pitied. He was in the last stage of a pulmonary affection, and expected relief from the mild climate of Louisiana; but much as we did to alleviate the fate of this man, whose perpetual cough was as insufferable to us, as the constant fire he kept up in the stove, and which at last communicated to our boat, the poor fellow died three days after his arrival at New Orleans. Four individuals of less note joined the company, consisting of three slave-drivers, and a Yankee who travelled to make his fortune. We resigned ourselves to our lot, with as good a grace as we could, the Frenchman excepted, who found fault with every thing but the dinner, when he handled his knife and fork with uncommon activity. A captain, a mate, and a steward, composed the officers, twelve oarmen formed the crew, and forty slaves, who were to be transported to the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, were a sort of deck passengers, so that the whole cargo, inside and out, amounted to ninety persons. As long as the weather continued fine, the poor negroes had a tolerable lot, but when afterwards it began to rain, and they continued on a deck seven and a half feet broad, and forty-two long, without any covering over their heads, or being able to move, our kitchen being likewise upon deck, their situation became truly distressing, and one of the infants died shortly afterwards; another, as I was informed, fell into the Mississippi above Palmyra settlements.

We took our meals in three divisions; the first consisting of the ladies and five gentlemen, who were helped by the other six gentlemen; afterwards the six remaining sat down with the three drivers, and the Yankee; the latter personages were, however, excused from helping the ladies. After them came the captain, with his boatmen. Our dinner was very good, because we took the precaution of making it part of our agreement that we should purchase such provisions as we thought proper. Our breakfast at the hour of eight, consisted of pigeons, ducks, sometimes opossum, roast beef, chickens, pork cakes, coffee and tea. Our dinner at three o’clock, in the same manner, with the addition of a haunch of venison or a turkey. Our supper at six, was the same as our breakfast. To fill up the intervals, we took at eleven a lunch, consisting of a doddy; at nine at night we had a tea party given by the ladies, and the said ten gentlemen alternately. We started the 7th of November, at four o’clock in the afternoon, instead of nine in the morning. The cause of this delay was the alteration which had to be made in the births; for it appeared that two of the Kentuckians were considerably longer than the space allotted to them. They were therefore to be made more lengthy at the expense of the dining rooms. When every thing was ready we started, heartily tired of this delay. We had taken the precaution to provide ourselves with powder and shot, in order to make shooting excursions, having a skiff along side the boat. The landscape on both banks of the Ohio was still hilly, the shores varying from bottom lands to moderate hills, thus forming a boundary line between the interior of Kentucky which lay to our left, and Indiana and the river lands on our right. The cotton tree is almost the only one here, with the exception of beeches and sycamores. The first do not quite attain the height of the sycamore, but still they are seldom less than 140 feet high. The forests assume a more southern character; the shrub-grass, thistles and thorns, are stronger, and the vines of an astonishing size. At several places we were unable to land from the thickness of the natural hedges which lined the banks, presenting an impenetrable barrier. Pigeons now appeared in flocks of thousands and tens of thousands. On the morning of the following day we shot seventy-five, and in the afternoon seventy, without any difficulty.

Troy, the seat of justice for Crawford county, in Indiana, was the first place we visited. It has a court-house, a printing-office, and about sixty houses. The inhabitants seem rather indolent. On our asking for apples, they demanded ten dollars for half a barrel; the price for a whole one in Louisville being no more than three dollars. We advised them to keep their apples, and to plant trees, which would enable them to raise some for themselves; and to put panes of glass in their windows, instead of old newspapers. The surrounding country is beautiful and fertile. Farms, however, become more scarce, and are in a state of more primitive simplicity. A block cabin not unlike a stable, with as many holes as there are logs in it, patches of ground planted with tobacco, sweet potatoes, and some corn, are the sole ornaments of these back-wood mansions. We purchased, below Troy, half a young bear, at the rate of five cents per pound. Two others which were skinned, indicated an abundance of these animals, and more application to the sport than seems compatible with the proper cultivation of these regions. The settlers have something of a savage appearance: their features are hard, and the tone of their voice denotes a violent disposition. Our Frenchman was bargaining for a turkey, with the farmer’s son, an athletic youth. On being asked three dollars for it, the Frenchman turned round to Mr. B., saying: “I suppose the Kentuckians take us for fools.” “What do you say, stranger,” replied the youth, at the same time laying his heavy hand across the shoulders of the poor Frenchman, in rather a rough manner. The latter looked as if thunderstruck, and retired in the true style of the Great Nation, when they get a sound drubbing. We remarked on his return, the pains he took to repress his feelings at the coarseness of the Kentuckians. He was, however, discreet enough to keep his peace, and he did very well; but his spirit was gone, and he never afterwards undertook to make a bargain, except with old women, for a pot of milk, or a dozen of eggs, &c.

Below Lady Washington, or Hanging Rock, as it is called,—a bare perpendicular rock a hundred feet above the water on the right side of the river, the mountains, or rather hills, cease by degrees, and are succeeded by a vast plain on both sides the high banks of the Ohio. We had here the enjoyment of some sport on the water: a deer was crossing the river, contracted in this place to about a thousand feet, when it was discovered by three Kentuckians, who were going to do the same. Our boat was about half a mile above the spot when we discovered the game. Four of us leaped into the skiff in order to intercept it. The deer continued its course towards the Indiana side, and it was easy for us to intercept its path. As soon as we were near enough, we aimed a blow at it with our oars, having in the hurry forgotten our guns. The deer then took the direction of the boat—we followed—the Kentuckians approached from the other side: full thirty minutes elapsed before these could come up with the animal and give it a blow. Though its strength was on the decline, it did not relax its efforts, but advanced again towards us without our being able to reach it. A second blow on the part of the Kentuckians, who were more expert in handling their oars, seemed to stun the noble animal; yet, summoning up its remaining strength, it went up the stream on the Kentucky side, and reached the shore, but so exhausted by long swimming and the two blows from the powerful Kentuckians, that on landing it staggered and fell, without being able to ascend the high bank. Instantly one of the Kentuckians rushed upon it, cutting asunder its knee joints. The deer, taking a sudden turn, made a plunge at the Kentuckian, tearing away part of his trowsers, and lacerating his leg. So sudden was the last effort of this animal, that but for the speedy arrival of his companion, who had been assisting the third Kentuckian in drawing the skiff closer to the shore, it would infallibly have ripped up its aggressor’s bowels. The dirk of the second Kentuckian ended the sport, which had terminated in a rather serious way. By this time we had also reached the field of battle. “What do you want, gentlemen?” said the wounded Kentuckian, accosting us with his poniard in his hand. “Part of the deer, which you know you could not have got without our assistance?” They first looked at our party of four, then at our boat, which was already at the distance of a mile and a half from us. The wounded man seating himself, asked again, “What part do you choose?” “Half the deer, with the bowels, and tongue for our ladies.” “Have you ladies on board your vessel?” “Yes, sir.” Without uttering a word more, they skinned the venison, cleaned, and divided it. We stepped aside meanwhile, collected a couple of dollars, and offered them to the wounded man. He took the money, thanked us, and the other two carried the venison to our boat. We parted after cordially shaking hands. There was now an abundance of pigeons, venison, and bear’s flesh on board our boat; the latter, when young, is delicious, having a very fine flavour, with rather a sweet and luscious taste. We were all partial to it except the Frenchman, who most likely took us for a species of these animals. But as thoughts are free, even in the most despotic countries, he had the privilege of thinking, without daring to utter a syllable—assuredly the severest punishment upon one of the Great Nation. On the third day we lost part of our company, as two of the ladies landed on the Yellow-banks, so called from the yellow colour of the shores, which formerly gave the name to the county town of Davies county, now Owensborough. It contains eighty buildings, including a court-house, a newspaper printing office, and three stores. The distance hence to Louisville, is 170 miles. From this village, down to the mouth of the Green river, wild vines grow very luxuriantly, forming a continued series of hedges. The grapes are used for wine, which is of a hard taste, but not a bad flavour; if properly attended to they would certainly yield an excellent produce. We gathered in a few minutes abundance of grapes, and found them juicy and very good. Near the mouth of the Green river, and up its banks, are several ponds of bitumen, a material which is used by the inhabitants for lamp oil. The country abounds in saltpetre, and saltlicks. On the same side, sixty miles below Owensborough, is laid out Henderson, the seat of justice for the county of the same name. It contains 500 inhabitants, 90 dwellings, and a courthouse. Some of the houses are in tolerable order, but the greatest part in a shattered condition, and the town has a dirty appearance. The Ohio forms a bend between Owensborough and Henderson, thus making the distance by water sixty miles, which by land-travelling would not exceed twenty. A species of the mistletoe here makes its appearance for the first time. The trees are covered with bunches of this plant, its foliage is yellow, the berries milk white, and so viscous as to serve for bird lime; when falling they adhere to the branches, and strike root in the bark of the trees.

In the morning of the sixth day we arrived at Miller’s Ferry, twenty miles above the mouth of the Wabash. As the Ohio makes a great bend in this place, and our navigation was very slow, Messrs. B——, R——, and myself, determined on taking a tour to Harmony, now Owen’s settlement, fifteen miles distant from the ferry. The guide we took led us through a rich plain, with settlements scattered over it; the road was excellent, though a mere path, and we arrived at half-past ten.

CHAPTER VI.

Mr. Owen’s of Lanark, formerly Rapp’s Settlement.—Remarks on it.—Keel-boat Scenes.—Cave in Rock.—Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.—Fort Massai.

About a hundred and fifty houses, built on the Swabian plan, with the exception of Mr. Rapp’s[B] former residence—a handsome brick house—presented themselves to our view. We were introduced to one of the managers, a Mr. Shnee, formerly a Lutheran minister, who entered very soon into particulars respecting Mr. Owen’s ulterior views, in rather a pompous manner. This settlement, which is about thirty miles above the mouth of the big Wabash, in Indiana, was first established by Rapp, in the year 1817, and was now (in the year 1823), purchased by Mr. Owen, of Lanark, for the sum of 150,000 dollars. The society is to be established on a plan rather different from the one he has pursued in Scotland, and on a larger scale. Mr. Owen has, it is said, the pecuniary means as well as the ability to effect something of importance. A plan was shown and sold to us, according to which a new building of colossal dimensions is projected; and if Mr. Owen’s means should not fall short of his good will, this edifice would certainly exhibit the most magnificent piece of architecture in the Union, the capitol at Washington excepted. This palace, when finished, is to receive his community. According to his views, as laid down in his publications, in the lectures held by him at Washington and at New York, and as stated in the verbal communications of the persons who represent him, he is about to form a society, unshackled by all those fetters which religion, education, prejudices, and manners have imposed upon the human species; and his followers will exhibit to the world the novel and interesting example of a community, which, laying aside every form of worship and all religious belief in a supreme being, shall be capable of enjoying the highest social happiness by no other means than the impulse of innate egotism. It has been the object of Mr. Owen’s study to improve this egotism in the most rational manner, and to bring it to the highest degree of perfection; and in this sense he has published the Constitution, which is to be adopted by the community. It is distributed, if I recollect rightly, into three subdivisions, with seventy or more articles.—Mechanics of every description—people who have learned any useful art,—are admitted into this community. Those who pay 500 dollars, are free from any obligation to work. The time of the members is divided between working, reading, and dancing. A ball is given every day, and is regularly attended by the community. Divine service, or worship of any kind, is entirely excluded; in lieu of it, moreover, a ball is given on Sunday. The children are summoned to school by beat of drum. A newspaper is published, chiefly treating of their own affairs, and of the entertainments and the social regulations of the community, amounting to about 500 members, of both sexes, composed almost exclusively of adventurers of every nation, who expect joyful days. The settlement has not improved since the purchase, and there appeared to exist the greatest disorder and uncleanliness. This community has since been dissolved as was to have been expected. The Scotchman seems to have a very high notion of the power of egotism. He is certainly not wrong in this point; but if he intends to give still greater strength to a spirit which already works with too much effect in the Union, it may be feared that he will soon snap the cords of society asunder. According to his notions, and those of his people, all the legislators of ancient and modern times, religious as well as political, were either fools or impostors, who went in quest of prosperity on a mistaken principle, which he is now about to correct. Scotchmen, it is known, are sometimes liable to adopt strange notions, in which they always deem themselves infallible. I am acquainted with an honorable president of the quarter-sessions, who, as a true Swedenborghian, is fully convinced that he will preside again as judge in the other world, and that the German farmers will be there the same fools they are here, whom he may continue to cheat out of their property. Great Britain has no cause to envy the United States this acquisition. We stayed at this place about two hours, crossed the Wabash, and took the road to Shawneetown, through part of Mr. Birkbeck’s settlement. The country is highly cultivated, and the difference between the steady Englishman of the Illinois side, and the rabble of Owen’s settlement, is clearly seen in the style and character of the improvements carried on.

We arrived at Shawneetown, where our boat was waiting for us, having travelled since seven o’clock in the morning a distance of forty miles. We found our boat’s company in the utmost confusion. Our ladies had hitherto given a regular tea party at nine o’clock, out of their own stock of provisions. With the exception of guns, powder, shot, some hundred cigars, a few bottles of wine, the gentlemen were furnished with nothing. They went therefore to Shawneetown, a village twelve miles below the mouth of the Wabash, with sixty houses, and 300 inhabitants, of a very indifferent character, mostly labourers at the salt works of the Saline river. The party however were not so fortunate as to procure anything except a dried haunch of venison. On their return, the invalid doctor missed the negro girl he had brought to wait upon him, intending to sell her along with a male slave. She was gone. A search was commenced, but the honest inhabitants declared, with many G—d d—ns, that they did not know anything about her. The company discovered what was wanting, and persuaded the physician to offer a reward for her recovery. In less than half an hour, one of the worthy inhabitants came up with the run-away girl, leading her by a rope. He had shortly before assured some of the inquirers, under the pledge of a round oath, of his utter ignorance of the matter, whilst at the same time the slave was concealed in his kitchen. The second physician from Tennessee had the benevolent precaution of suggesting to the patient to keep himself cool. But every advice was thrown away. The Kentuckian could not resist striking the girl. With the utmost pain he raised himself up in his bed, to give her blows, which did himself infinitely more harm. When called upon to pay the reward of twenty dollars, his wrath rose to the highest pitch, and if he had had strength we should have witnessed a strange scene. He paid, however, and contented himself with binding her arms, and fastening her to the door-post, from which she was released by the following accident, which took place about eight o’clock, just as we returned from our excursion. One of the planters, a Kentuckian by birth, made a regular excursion, twice a day, to fetch milk and eggs for the company. The captain refused to dispatch the skiff for him, but the rest of the company sent it without asking the captain’s leave. Some hours after the Kentuckian’s return he heard of the captain’s refusal, and immediately accused him of negligence, &c. The captain gave him the lie, and hardly was the word spoken, when the Kentuckian rushed upon the young man with a dirk in his hand. He was, however, prevented, when turning round, he ran to the other side to fetch an axe, declaring at the same time, with a G——d d——n, he would knock down any body who dared to oppose him. I stood with Mr. B. at the door. A quarrel ensued, and he was going to force it open, when several gentlemen came to our assistance. During this riot the stove became heated to such a degree, as unobserved by any one, to set fire to the wood beneath it, so that the birth of our patient was in flames in a moment. Quarrelling, and murderous thoughts gave way to the danger of being roasted alive. All hands, even the Kentuckian, were assiduous in their endeavours to extinguish the fire; but this could not be so easily accomplished, the boat being extremely crowded. At last we succeeded; the poor doctor had almost been forgotten, and was very near being burnt alive, had it not been for his second servant, who immediately laid hold of a bucket full of water, and poured it over his master. The behaviour of this invalid was strange beyond description, and shewed a degree of passion, at once ludicrous and pitiable. “For heaven’s sake,” exclaimed he, “I am roasting! no, I am drowning! the wretch has poured a whole bucket of water over me. Come hither, rascal!” The servant was obliged to approach, and tender his face to receive a box on the ear, certainly the most harmless he ever got; the master at the same time reproaching him with his villainy, and lamenting the consequences which this bath would bring upon him, such as rheumatism, fever, &c. We stood astonished and confounded at this man, the living image of a burnt-out volcano. “But for heaven’s sake,” said Mr. B., “Doctor, you would have been roasted alive but for your slave, and you have been the only cause of the fire, by the unsupportable heat you kept up in the stove; you must not do that again.” “He is my slave,” was the answer, “and should have stayed with me, instead of listening to your ungentlemanly disputes; then the fire would not have broken out.” We assented to this, and peace was fully restored.

The next day we proceeded on our journey, having the state of Illinois on our right, and Kentucky on our left. Thirteen miles below Saline river we visited the cave of Rock Island. The limestone wall, 120 feet high, runs for about half a mile along the right bank of the Ohio; nearly at its end is the entrance to the cave. A few steps bring you at once into the grotto, which is about sixty-five feet wide at the base, narrowing as you ascend, and forming an arch, the span of which is from twenty-five to thirty feet, extending to a length of 120 feet. Marine shells, feathers, and bones of bears, turkies, and wild geese, afford ample testimony that this place has not been visited by the curious alone, but has been the resort of numerous families, which had taken temporary refuge here.

Our sporting excursions had generally pigeons, turkies, or opossums, for their object; below the cave, in the rocks, wild geese and ducks become very plentiful. Flocks of from forty to one hundred were flying over our heads in every direction, and augmenting in numbers as we approached the Mississippi. We shot this day seven geese and ducks, and passed the small villages of Cumberland, at the mouth of the river of that name, and Smithland, three miles below. Both villages are now springing up. The Cumberland is 720 feet wide at its mouth. The river Tennessee, thirteen miles below, is 700 feet. Eleven miles lower down, on the Illinois side, is fort Spassai, erected on a high bank and in a commanding position, which overlooks the Ohio, here a mile wide. The prospect for a distance of forty miles, is charming. The extraordinary beauty of the river, which the French very properly called la belle rivière, on both sides the majestic native forests, clad in their autumnal foliage, here and there an island in the midst of the stream, with its luxuriant growth of trees, not unlike enchanted gardens. The charm which is diffused over the whole scene can scarcely be described. The fort is garrisoned by a captain, with a company of regulars, who, however, suffer much from swamps in the rear of the fort.

On the two following days we passed the county towns of Golconda, the seat of justice for Pope county; Vienna, for Johnson; and America, for Alexander county; villages which have nothing in common with the cities of which they remind you but the name. They are inhabited by some Kentuckians and loiterers, who spend part of their time in bringing down the Mississippi the produce of the country, for the transport of which they demand double wages, and are thus enabled to spend the rest of their time sitting cross-legged over their whiskey. The ninth day, about noon, we arrived at Trinity. I was heartily tired of this manner of travelling, and resolved to wait here with Mr. B., and Mrs. Th—— and family, for a steam-boat from St. Louis. The rest of the company went on in the boat, after an hour’s stopping. Trinity, or as it was formerly called, Cairo, is situated four and a half miles above the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, consisting only of a tavern and a store, kept by a Mr. Bershoud. The inundations occurring regularly every year, have hitherto prevented the formation of settlements at this place. Though these inundations rise every year from four to ten feet above the banks, as may be seen from the weeds remaining in clusters on the trees, the inhabitants of these two houses have, if we except the trouble of transporting their effects and goods to the upper story, but little to apprehend, the rise of the river being gradually slow, and its power being lessened by its circuitous course, and by the trees on its bank.

From Trinity down to Baton Rouge, a distance of 900 miles, the houses are constructed in such a manner as to be secured against accidents; the foundations are stumps of trees, or low brick pillars, four feet high. The houses are so built, or rather laid upon these pillars, as to allow the water to pass beneath. Notwithstanding this precaution, the flood generally reaches to the lower apartments, and passengers coming from Trinity to New Orleans last February, had to get into the skiff sent for them, through the window of the second story.

From Trinity to the mouth of the Ohio, are reckoned four and a half miles. We visited on the following morning, this remarkable spot, where two of the most important rivers unite.

CHAPTER VII.

The Mississippi.—General Features of the State of Illinois and its Inhabitants.

The nearer we approached the Mississippi, the lower the country became, and the more imposing the scenery. By degrees the river Ohio loses its blue tinge, taking from the mightier stream a milky colour, which changes into a muddy white when very near the junction—this junction itself is one of the most magnificent sights. On the left hand the Ohio, half a mile wide, overpowered, as it were, by its mightier rival—in front the more gigantic Mississippi, one mile and a half broad, rolling down its vast volumes of water with incredible rapidity. Farther on, the high banks of the state of Missouri, with some farm buildings of a diminutive appearance, owing to the great distance; in the back ground, the colossal native forests of Missouri; and lastly, to the south, these two rivers united and turning majestically to the south-west. The deep silence which reigns in these regions, and which is interrupted only by the rushing sound of the waves, and the immense mass of water, produce the illusion that you are no longer standing upon firm ground; you are fearful less the earth should give way to the powerful element, which, pressed into so narrow a space, rolls on with irresistible force. I had formerly seen the falls of Niagara; but this scene, taken in the proper point of view, is in no respect inferior to that which they present. The immense number of streams which empty into the Mississippi, and caused it to be named, very appropriately, the Father of Rivers, render it powerful throughout the year; it generally rises in February, and falls in July. In September and October the autumnal rains begin; and they continue to swell it through the winter. When it overflows its banks, the Mississippi inundates the country on both sides, for an extent of from forty-five to fifty miles, thus forming an immense lake. From the mouth of the Ohio to Walnut hills, in the state of Mississippi, the difference between the lowest water and the highest inundation, is generally sixteen feet. The nearer it approaches the gulph of Mexico, the less is the flood. The water leaving its bed on the west side never returns, but forms into lakes and marshes. On the east side they find resistance from the high lands, that follow the meanderings of the river. Above Natchez, the river inundates the lands for a space of thirty miles. At Baton Rouge, the high lands take on a sudden a south-eastern direction, while the river turns to the south-west, thus leaving the waters to form the eastern swamps of Louisiana. It rises to thirty feet at that place; whilst at New Orleans it scarcely attains the height of twelve feet, and at the mouth no difference between a rise and fall is perceptible. Whoever comes to the Mississippi with the expectation of beholding a sea-like river flowing quietly along, will find himself disappointed. The magnitude of this river does not consist in its width but in its depth, and the immense quantity of water it pours out into the sea. At the mouth of the Ohio it is a mile and a half wide. This moderate breadth rather diminishes as it proceeds in its course. At New Orleans, after receiving the waters of some great tributary streams, it is not more than a mile in width, and in some places three quarters of a mile. Its depth, however, continues to increase; below the Ohio it is reckoned to be from thirty-five to fifty feet deep. Below the Arkansas to Natchez, from 100 to 150. From Natchez to New Orleans, from 150 to 250 feet. At its mouth, owing to the sand bar at the Paliseter, the depth greatly diminishes, and it is well known that vessels drawing eighteen feet of water can hardly enter the mouth of the stream. The waters of the Mississippi are not clear at any period of the year. This was the second time I saw it, when it was said to be very low; still its waters were of a muddy turbid appearance. When rising it changes to a muddy yellow. A glass filled with water from the Mississippi, deposits in a quarter of an hour a mass of mud equal to one tenth of the whole contents. But when clear, it is excellent for drinking, and superior to any I have tasted. It is generally used by those who inhabit its banks.

The accommodations in Trinity are comfortable, and the tables are well furnished, but the prices exorbitant. It cannot, however, be expected to be otherwise, owing to the new settlers, whose anxiety never permits them to neglect an opportunity of improving their means on their first outset. We found this to be the case on all occasions. Whenever some of our passengers made purchases of trifles, such as cigars, &c., they had to pay five times as much as in Louisville. It is therefore advisable to provide oneself with every thing, when travelling in these backwoods; the generality of the settlers on these banks being needy adventurers, partly foreigners, partly Kentuckians, who, with a capital of not quite 100 dollars, with which they purchase some goods in New Orleans, begin their commercial career, and may be seen with both hands in their pockets, their legs on the table or chimney-piece, and cigars in their mouths, selling their goods for five hundred per cent above prime cost. Towards the north on the banks of the Mississippi, the settlers are generally Frenchmen, who now assume by degrees the American manners and language. Many of them are wealthy store-keepers, merchants, and farmers; but for the most part, however, a lightfooted kind of people, who, from their fathers, have inherited frivolity, and from their mothers, Indian women, uncleanliness. The towns of Kaskakia, Cahokia, &c., as well as several villages up the Mississippi to the Prairie des Chiens, owe their origin to them. The solid class of inhabitants live on the big and little Wabash, and between these two rivers and the Illinois. This is, no doubt, the finest part of the state, and one of the most delightful countries on the face of the earth. It is mostly inhabited by Americans and Englishmen. Agriculture, the breeding of cattle, and improvements of every kind, are making rapid progress. The settlements in Bond, Crawford, Edward’s, Franklin, and White Counties, are to be considered as forming the main substance of the state. A number of elegant towns have arisen in the space of a few years: among others, Vandalia, the capital, and for these three years past the seat of government, with a state house and a projected university, for which 36,000 acres of land have been assigned. An excellent spirit is acknowledged to prevail among the inhabitants of this district. Still, however, the style of architecture—if the laying of logs or of bricks upon each other deserves this name—the manners, the attempted improvements, every thing announces a new land, which has only a few years since started into political existence, and the settlers of which do not yet evince any anxiety for the comforts of life. Illinois has now 80,000 inhabitants, 1500 of whom are people of colour; the rest are Americans, English, French, and a German settlement about Vandalia. The state was received into the Union in the year 1818. The constitution, with a governor and a secretary at its head, resembles that of the state of Ohio. In the year 1824, the question was again brought forward concerning the possession of slaves: it was, however, negatived, and we hope it will never be pressed upon the people. The state is much indebted in every point to the late Mr. Birkbeck, who died too soon for the welfare of his adopted country. He was considered as the father of the state, and whenever he could gain over a useful citizen, he spared no expense, and sacrificed a considerable part of his property in this manner. The people of Illinois, in acknowledgment of his services, had chosen him for secretary of the state, in which character he died in 1825. He was generally known under the name of Emperor of the Prairies, from the vast extent of natural meadows belonging to his lands. It is to be regretted, however, that Mr. Birkbeck was not acquainted with the country about Trinity. His large capital and the number of hands who joined him, would no doubt succeed in establishing a settlement here. This will sooner or later take place, and will eventually render it one of the finest towns in the United States, as the advantages of its situation are incalculable. Illinois is, in point of commerce, more advantageously situated than any of the Ohio states; being bounded on the west by the river Mississippi, which forms the line between this state and that of Missouri, to the east by the big Wabash, and to the south by the Ohio, the river Illinois running through it with some smaller rivers; thus affording it an open navigation to the north-west, the west, the south, and the east. Towards the north the banks of the Upper Mississippi form a range of hills which join the Illinois mountains to the east, and lowering by degrees lose themselves in the plains of lakes Huron and Michigan. The country is, on the whole, less elevated than Indiana, and forms the last slope of the northern valley of the Mississippi, the hills being intersected by a number of valleys, plains, prairies, and marshes. The fertility of this state is extraordinary, surpassing that of Indiana and Ohio. In beauty, variety of scenery, and fertility, it may vie with the most celebrated countries. Wheat thrives only on high land, the soil of the valleys being too rich. Corn gives for every bushel a hundred. Tobacco planted in Illinois, if well managed, is found to be superior to that of Kentucky and Virginia. Rice and indigo grow wild, their cultivation being neglected for want of hands. Pecans, a product of the West Indies, grow in abundance in the native forests. This state having a temperate climate, possesses many of the southern products. The timber is of colossal magnitude. Sycamores and cotton trees of an immense height, walnut, pecan trees, honey-locusts and maples, cover the surface of this country, and are the surest indications of an exceedingly rich soil. The most fertile parts of the state are the bottom lands along the Mississippi, Illinois, and the big and little Wabash. The country is complained of as being sickly. There is no doubt that a state which abounds in rivers, marshes, and ponds, must be subject to epidemic diseases, but the climate being temperate the fault lies very much with the settlers and the inhabitants themselves. The settler who chooses for his dwelling-house a spot on an eminence, and far from the marshes, taking at the same time the necessary precautions in point of dress, cleanliness, and the choice of victuals and beverage, may live without fear in these countries. All agree in this opinion, and I have myself experienced the correctness of it. The greatest part, however, of the new comers and inhabitants live upon milk or stagnant water taken from the first pond they meet with on their way, with a few slices of bacon. Their wardrobe consists of a single shirt, which is worn till it falls to pieces. It cannot, therefore, be matter of astonishment if agues and bilious fevers spread over the country, and even in this case a quart of corn brandy is their prescription. This being the general mode of living, and we may add of dying, among the lower classes, disease must necessarily spread its ravages with more rapidity.

CHAPTER VIII.

Excursion to St. Louis.—Face of the Country.—Sketch of the State of Missouri.—Return to Trinity.

The steam-boat, the Pioneer, having come up to Trinity the following day, on its way to St. Louis, Mr. B. and I resolved to take a trip to the latter place, as the best chance that offered to get away as soon as possible. We started at ten o’clock in the morning, turned round the fork, and ascended the muddy Mississippi. The first town we saw was Hamburgh, on the Illinois side, consisting of nineteen frame dwellings and cabins, and four stores. On the left, in the state of Missouri, is Cape Girardeau. The settlement mostly consists of Frenchmen, and German Redemptioners. The town has not a very inviting appearance. One hundred and six miles above the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, we landed at St. Genevieve to take in wood. This town is the principal mart for the Burton mines; it has a Catholic chapel, twenty stores, a printing office, 250 houses, and 1600 inhabitants. Twenty-four miles farther up the same side, is Herculaneum, with 300 inhabitants, a court-house, and a printing office. The town had been laid out and peopled by Kentuckians. There are several villages on the right and left bank, and some good-looking farms. On the third day, at twelve o’clock, we reached the town of St. Louis, 170 miles above the mouth of the Ohio, and thirteen miles below the junction of the Mississippi, and the Missouri. This town extends, in a truly picturesque situation, in 38° 33′ north latitude, and 12° 58′ west longitude, for the length of two miles along the river, in three parallel streets, rising one above the other in the form of terraces, on a stratum of limestone. The houses are for the most part built of this material, and surrounded with gardens. The number of buildings amounts to 620, that of the inhabitants to 5000. Its principal buildings are, a Catholic, and two Protestant churches, a branch bank of the United States, and the bank of St. Louis, the courthouse, the government-house, an academy, and a theatre; besides these, there are a number of wholesale and retail stores, two printing offices, and an abundance of coffee-shops, billiard-tables, and dancing-rooms. The trade of St. Louis is not so extensive as that of Louisville, and less liable to interruption, as the navigation is not impeded at any season of the year, the Mississippi, being at all times navigable for the largest vessels. An exception, indeed, occurred in 1802, when the Ohio and other rivers were almost dried up. The inhabitants of St. Louis and of Missouri, have therefore a never-failing channel for carrying their produce to market. This they generally do, when the rivers which empty themselves into the Mississippi, are so low that they have no apprehension of finding any competition in New Orleans. Last year, the market of New Orleans was almost exclusively supplied with produce from St. Louis and Missouri. Eighty dollars was the general price for a bullock, which at a later period would not have obtained twenty-five dollars; flour was at eight dollars, whereas, two months afterwards, abundance could be had for two and a half dollars. In the same proportion they sold every other article. It is this circumstance which contributes to the wealth of St. Louis, and of Missouri in general, to the detriment, on the other hand, of the Ohio States, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. At the time of our arrival at St. Louis, there were in its port, five steam vessels, and thirty-five other boats. St. Louis is a sort of New Orleans on a smaller scale; in both places are to be found a number of coffee-houses and dancing rooms. The French are seen engaged in the same amusements and passions that formerly characterised the creoles of Louisiana, with the exception, that the trade with the Indians has given to the French backwoods-men of St. Louis, a rather malicious and dishonest turn—a fault from which the creoles of Louisiana are free, owing to the greater respectability of their visitors and settlers, from Europe, and from the north of the Union. The majority of the inhabitants of this town, as well as of the state, consists of people descended from the French, of Kentuckians, and foreigners of every description—Germans, Spaniards, Italians, Irish, &c. Kentucky manners are fashionable. Not long before my arrival, there occurred a specimen of this, in an open assault and duel between two individuals in the public street. For the last five years, men of property and respectability, attracted by the superior advantages of the situation, have settled at St. Louis, and their example and influence have been conducive of some good to public morals. The enterprising spirit of the Americans is remarkable, even in this place and state. Within the twenty-three years that have elapsed since the cession of this country (part of the former Louisiana) to the Union, much more has been achieved in every point of view, than during the sixty years preceding, when it was in possession of France and Spain. Streets, villages, settlements, towns, and farms, have sprung up in every direction; the population has augmented from 20,000 to 84,000 inhabitants; and if they are not superior in wealth to their neighbours, it is certainly to be attributed to their want of industry, and to their passing the greater part of their time in grog-shops, or in dancing-companies, according to the prevailing custom. Slavery, which is introduced here, though so ill adapted to a northern state, contributes not a little to the aristocratic notions of the people, the least of whom, if he can call himself the master of one slave, would be ashamed to put his hand to any work. Still there is more ready money among the inhabitants, than in any of the western states, and prices are demanded accordingly. Cattle that fetch in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, ten dollars per head, are sold in Missouri for twenty-five dollars, and so in proportion. The country about St. Louis to the north, south, and west, consists of prairies, extending fifteen miles in every direction, with some very handsome farm houses, and numerous herds of cattle. Though in the same degree of northern latitude as the city of Washington, the climate is more severe, owing to the two rivers Missouri and Mississippi, whose waters coming from northern countries greatly contribute to cool the air. The cultivation of tobacco has not succeeded, and the produce chiefly consists of wheat, corn and cattle;—equally important is the profit from the lead mines, and the fur trade. The most improved settlements are those along the Mississippi, and on the Missouri they are beginning to be formed.

Missouri was received into the Union in 1821, and is, with the exception of Virginia, the largest state of the Union, its area exceeding 60,000 square miles. To the north and west it borders on the Missouri territory; towards the east the Mississippi is the boundary between this state, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee; the Arkansas territory lies to the south. It extends from 36° to 40° 25′ north latitude, and from 12° 50′ to 18° 10′ west longitude. The country forms an elevated plain, sloping considerably to the south, where it is crossed by the Ozark mountains. Marshes and mountains prevail more in the southern parts, high plains in the northern. Along the Mississippi and Missouri, the bottom lands are generally extremely fertile. The soils, however, cannot be altogether compared with that of Illinois. The possession of slaves is allowed by the constitution of this state, and their number amounts to 10,000; that of the rest of the inhabitants to 70,000. The form of government approaches very nearly that of Kentucky. We remained one day at St. Louis, and returned in the steam-boat, General Brown, to Trinity, where we took on board the ladies and some new passengers, returning from thence to the Mississippi. We passed several small islands, and a large one (Wolf’s Island), and landed at New Madrid at midnight, for the purpose of taking in wood. This place is the seat of justice for the county of the same name; it has, however, no court-house, and is a rather wretched looking place, containing about thirty log and shattered farm houses, with 180 inhabitants, Spaniards, French, and Italians. The two stores being open, we visited them. They were but poorly provided, having about a dozen cotton handkerchiefs, one barrel of whiskey, and a heap of furs. Two Indians were stretched on the ground before the door, and in a sound sleep, with their guns by their side. The Mississippi is continually encroaching upon the town, and has already swept away many intended streets, as the inhabitants say, obliging them to move back to their no small disappointment. The surrounding country is highly fertile, and in the rear of the town there are several well cultivated cotton and rice plantations. A rich plain stretches along to the west, behind New Madrid, as far as the waters of Sherrimack.

CHAPTER IX.

The State of Tennessee.—Steam-boats on the Mississippi.—Flat-boats.

We had now passed the western extremity of Kentucky, and had the state of Tennessee on our left. The eastern banks of the Mississippi, viz. on the Tennessee side, are throughout lower than the western or Missouri shores; presenting a series of marshes from which cypress trees and canebrack seem just emerging, lining them for hundreds of miles to the southward. Farther eastward, towards the rivers Tennessee and Cumberland, the soil is overgrown with sugar-maples, sycamore trees, walnuts, and honey-locusts; the mountains with white and live oak and hickory. The eastern part of the state resembles North Carolina. The middle part is by far the best. Cotton and tobacco are staple articles. Rice is cultivated with success. Hemp is not considered of the same quality as the Kentuckian, the climate being too warm. The tropical fruits, such as figs, thrive well; chesnuts are superior to those of the other states. Melons, peaches, and apples, are abundant. Tennessee is considered altogether a rich and fertile land. The inhabitants are liberal, noble hearted, and noted for their good conduct towards strangers. Several foreigners settled in the state, have attained a high degree of wealth and prosperity. There is no state in the Union where slavery has had less pernicious effects upon the character of the people. The inhabitants are mostly descendants of emigrants from North Carolina, and their hospitality is without bounds. This state extends, in an oblong square, from the shores of the Mississippi towards Virginia and North Carolina, in 35° to 36° 30′ north latitude, and 4° 26′ to 13° 5′ west longitude. It is bounded on the east by Virginia and North Carolina; on the south by Georgia, Albania, and Mississippi; on the west by the river Mississippi, and on the north by Kentucky, comprising altogether 40,000 square miles. East Tennessee partakes more of the sandy character of North Carolina. West Tennessee of the marshes of the Mississippi valley. Its principal rivers are the Cumberland and Tennessee, with the Mississippi on the west, where however, with the exception of some very small settlements, there are no improvements of any kind. The canal proposed by Governor Troup, of Georgia, to Governor Carrott, of Tennessee, which is to bring this state into immediate connection with the Atlantic, will have a very beneficial effect, these two rivers being navigable for steam-boats only during three months in the year, and New Orleans being the only market for Tennessee. Notwithstanding its straitened commerce, the state is rapidly improving, and several of its towns, though not large are yet very elegant. The chief wealth of the state, however, consists in the plantations, and the farmer and planter live in a style, which at least in point of eating, cannot be exceeded by the wealthiest nobleman in any country. Among the towns of the state, Nashville holds the first rank. This town occupies a commanding situation, on a solid cliff of rocks on the south side of the Cumberland, 200 feet above the level of the banks. The river is navigable here during three months in the year for steam-boats of 300 tons burthen. Besides the court-house, three churches, two banks, including a branch bank of the United States, three printing offices, and a great number of wholesale and retail merchants, there is the seat of the district court for the western part of Tennessee. Several literary institutions, such as Cumberland college, a ladies’ school, and reading-room with a public library, are evident proofs of a liberal spirit. This spirit is combined with unbounded hospitality. There is a number of houses, such as those of Governor Carrott, Major General Jackson, &c., where every respectable stranger is welcome, and may be sure of meeting with a select company. The surrounding country is beautiful, cotton plantations lining the banks of the river, and extending in every direction hither. The wealthier inhabitants generally retire during the summer months, from the stifling heats prevailing on the barren rocks upon which Nashville stands. Knoxville in east Tennessee, with 400 houses and 2,500 inhabitants, is of less importance; it is the seat of the supreme district court for east Tennessee, and has a bank, a college, and two churches. The country about Knoxville is far inferior to that round Nashville. The capital of Tennessee, Murfreesborough, has 1500 inhabitants, with a state-house, a bank, two printing-offices, &c. It communicates by water with Nashville, through Stonecreek. The situation seems not to be very judiciously chosen for a chief town. This was the state of things four years ago, when I passed through the place; but doubtless it has since proportionably increased. Our company being on this occasion of a less mixed, and a less troublesome character, we sailed down the majestic father of rivers, with minds well disposed to acknowledge our obligations to Mr. Fulton, for his happy idea of applying the power of steam to navigation. The settlers of the Mississippi valley, are in duty bound to raise a monument to the memory of a man, who has effected in their mode of conveyance so adventurous, and so successful a change. Not ten years have elapsed since the inhabitants of the west were used to toil like beasts of burden, in order to ascend the stream for a distance of ten or fifteen miles a day; and when in 1802, some boats belonging to Mr. R., of Nashville, arrived from New Orleans in eighty-seven days, this passage was considered the ne plus ultra of quick travelling by water, and was instantly made known throughout the Union. A passenger now performs the same voyage in five days, sitting all the while in a comfortable state-room, which in point of fitting-up vies with the most elegant parlours, writing letters, or reading the newspapers, and if tired of these occupations, paying visits to the ladies, if he be permitted to do so; or otherwise pacing the deck, where his less fortunate fellow passengers are hanging in hammocks—an indication to many of what may be their future state. There is certainly not any nation that can boast of a greater disposition for travelling, than Brother Jonathan; and there is again nobody more at home than he, whether in a tavern, or on board a vessel; as he is in the habit of considering a tavern, a vessel, or a steam-boat, as a kind of public property. Yet on board a vessel, or a steam-boat, he is very tractable. The great difference of fare between a cabin and a deck passage, from Louisville to New Orleans, being for the former forty dollars, and for the latter eight dollars, contributes to establish a distinction in this assemblage of people, placing those who are found too light in the upper house, and the more weighty in the lower. The first have to find themselves, the others are provided with every thing in a manner which shows that private institutions for the benefit of the public, are certainly more patronised here than in most other countries. If the pecuniary resources of the citizen of the United States do not reach a very low ebb, he will certainly choose the cabin, his pride forbidding him to mix with the rabble, though the expence may fall too heavy upon him. That economical refinement which the French evince on these occasions, is not to be seen in America. When I proceeded four months ago from Havre to Rouen, in the Duchess of Angouleme steam-boat, among the 100 passengers who were on board, more than fifty well-looking people were seen unpacking their bundles, and regaling themselves with their contents—bread, chicken, cutlets, wine, &c., &c., a frugality which will hardly be found to contribute to the improvement of a spirit of enterprise. The Americans would be ashamed of this kind of parsimony, which must ever impede all public undertakings. Owing to this cause, the American steam-boats are in point of elegance superior to those of other nations; and none but the English are able to compete with them. The furniture, carpets, beds, &c., are throughout elegant, and in good condition. Some of the new steam-boats are provided with small rooms, each containing two births, which passengers may use for their accommodation in shaving, dressing, &c. The general regulations are suspended above the side board in a gilt frame, and are as binding as a law. They prohibit speaking to the pilot during the passage—visiting the ladies’ state-room, without their consent—lying down upon the bed with shoes or boots on—smoking cigars in the state-room—and playing at cards after ten o’clock. The first transgression is punished with a fine; if repeated, the transgressor is sent ashore. The fare is excellent, and the breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, are provided with such a multiplicity of dishes, and even dainties, as would satisfy the most refined appetite. The beverage consists of rum, gin, brandy, claret, to be taken at pleasure during meals; but out of that time they are to be paid for. Distressing accidents will of course occasionally occur; the last of this kind was of a truly heart-rending nature: it happened four years ago, above Walnut-hills, in the steam-boat Tennessee. The night was tempestuous, the rain fell in torrents, and the captain, instead of landing and waiting until the weather cleared up, lost his senses, and ran on a sawyer[C]. The steam-boat was not sixty feet distant from the bank, which could not be distinguished, and she went down in a few seconds, together with 110 passengers, save a few who by accident reached the shore. Since that time, although steam-boats have sunk, no such loss of lives has occurred. This, however, is not to be compared with the hardships, the toils, the loss of health and life, to which the navigators of flat and keel-boats were formerly, and are still exposed, when going down the Mississippi. Nothing more uncouth than these flat-boats was ever sent forth from the hands of a carpenter. They are built of rude timber and planks, sixty feet in length, and twenty-five feet in breadth, and so unmanageable, that only the strong arm of a backwoodsman can keep them from running upon planters[[D], sawyers, wooden-islands, and all the Scyllas and Charybdes, that are to be met with on the voyage. We found numbers of them along the Ohio, detained by low water; and from St. Louis down to New Orleans, sometimes fifteen, twenty, and thirty together. Their uncouth appearance, the boisterous and fierce manners of their crews, the immense distance they have already proceeded, make them truly objects of interest. One of these flat-boats is from the Upper Ohio, laden with pine-boards, planks, rye, whisky, flour; close to it, another from the falls of the Ohio, with corn in the ear and bulk, apples, peaches; a third, with hemp, tobacco, and cotton. In the fourth you may find horses regularly stabled together; in the next, cattle from the mouth of the Missouri; a sixth will have hogs, poultry, turkeys; and in a seventh you see peeping out of the holes, the woolly heads of slaves transported from Virginia and Kentucky, to the human flesh mart at New Orleans. They have come thousands of miles, and still have to proceed a thousand more, before they arrive at their place of destination.

CHAPTER X.

Scenery along the Mississippi.—Hopefield.—St. Helena.—Arkansas Territory.—Spanish Moss.—Vixburgh.

We pursued our course at the rate of ten miles an hour, passing the Chickasaw Bluffs, Memphis, a small settlement on the Tennessee side, and a number of smaller and larger islands, from two to six miles in length, but seldom more than one in breadth. The sediment of the Mississippi is continually forming new sand banks, at the same time that its irresistible power carries away old ones. That river was, as I have already mentioned, very low, and the numerous sand banks on both sides contracted its channel into a bed scarcely more than half a mile broad. On these banks numberless flocks of wild ducks, geese, cranes, swans, and pelicans, stationed themselves in rows, extending sometimes a mile in length. As soon as the steam boat approaches, dashing through the water with the noise of thunder, and vomiting forth columns of smoke, they fly up in masses resembling clouds, and retire to their covers in the marshes and ponds contiguous to the banks of the Mississippi. They abound most 150 miles above Natchez, and hundreds of thousands are seen crossing the river in every direction. The scenery in view is an immense valley, with banks sixty feet above the water, forests of colossal trees on both sides, and the vast expanse of waters rolling with a velocity the more surprising, as the country stretches in a continued plain, with scarcely any perceptible decline. The rural scenery of the regions consists of detached cabins raised on huge stumps of trees; instead of windows there are the natural apertures of the logs joined together; in front of them woodstacks, for the use of the steam boats; ten or twelve deer, bear, or fox skins drying in the open air; some turkies and hogs, scattered over a corn patch, &c. Farms, or plantations, properly so called, are seldom to be met with here; the chief object of these settlers being the breed of cattle and poultry, for the use of steam-boats. The only trace of agriculture is a small tract of cotton field, which the settlers endeavour to improve.

We stayed an hour and a half in Hopefield, opposite to the Chickasaw Bluffs, the chief village of Hempstead county, with ten houses. There are two taverns, such as may be expected in these parts, a store and a post office. Two hours later we saw the mouth of the Wolf river; the beautiful President’s island, ten miles long, which with its colossal forests presents an imposing sight, with several small islands in its train. Among these is the Battle island, taking its name from a battle fought here between two Kentuckians, who compelled their captain to land them, and returned after half an hour, the one with his nose bitten off, the other with his eyes scooped out of their sockets! This night we arrived in the county town of St. Helena, ninety-five miles above the mouth of the Arkansas. The place was laid out a few years ago, and bids fair to become of some importance, from the extreme scarcity of spots adapted for towns on the banks of the Mississippi. The village is situated a quarter of a mile from the west bank. The cabin houses are built upon dwarfish round hills, resembling sugar loaves. Viewed from a distance they have a handsome appearance, which, however, considerably diminishes on approaching nearer to them. The spot is quite broken land. Two hundred yards further up, a ridge eighty feet above the level of the water, extends about a quarter of a mile, and six other houses are built upon it, amongst which is a tavern and store, with few articles besides a barrel of whisky for their Indian guests. A heap of furs, of every description, indicates that this trade is a very lucrative one. About thirty miles to the westward are the military lands, granted as a reward to the soldiers who served in the last war; only a few of them have come to settle on these grants. The distance from the eastern cities being so immense, the expenses of the journey, compared with the object they were about to attain, were so great, that most of them remained in the east.

On the following morning we passed the mouth of the White river, and thirteen miles lower down the river Arkansas, a beautiful, wide, and very important stream, next in size to the Ohio, which after a course of 2,500 miles, 900 of which are navigable for steam-boats, empties itself into the Mississippi at this place. From this river the territory of Arkansas has taken its name. It was formerly part of Louisiana, then of Missouri, and has since 1819, been separated from the latter, and now forms a distinct territory extending from 33° to 36° north latitude, and from 11° 45′ to 23° west longitude. Its area is computed to be above 100,000 square miles. With the exception of a few towns, such as Arkopolis, Post Arkansas, Little-rock, &c., and some other settlements of less note, it is not otherwise known than from the reports of the expeditions sent into the interior at various times. According to their accounts it differs in some essential points from the eastern states. The eastern part of this vast territory bears the character of the Mississippi valley, and abounds in well wooded plains, prairies, and marshes, in alternate succession, the latter occupying almost exclusively the tract of land situated between the rivers Arkansas and St. Francis towards the Ozark mountains. There the country rises; rocks and mountains become visible, announcing the approach to the Rocky mountains. Between these and the Ozark mountains are vast plains covered with salt crusts, imparting to the rivers flowing through the country a brackish taste. There have also been discovered valleys competing in point of fertility with the valley of the Mississippi; eminences covered for a distance of many miles with vines, whose grapes are said to be equal to the best produce of the Cape. In other places are vast plains, which owing to their stratum being gravel, produce but a short and dry grape, without any trees. The territory in the interior contains important mineral and vegetable treasures. The Volcanos, the Hotsprings, the Ouachitta lake, and other natural wonders, will soon attract general attention. From what was related to me by an eye witness who bestowed all his attention on them, they are undoubtedly of the first importance. The springs are six in number, and they are situated about ten miles from the Ouachitta, near a volcano. Their temperature being 150°, the use which visitors make of them consists in exposing themselves to the vapour. They are impregnated with carbonic acid, muriate of soda, and a small quantity of iron and calcareous matter. Hitherto, besides Indians and hunters, but few persons resorted to them until the last two years, when several gentlemen went thither for the recovery of their health. But the present total want of ready money in these deserted parts has prevented a more rapid improvement. The population amounts to 18,000 souls, 2,000 of whom are slaves. Mental improvement is here sought for in vain. The American reads his Bible, and if opportunity offers, he visits once a year a Methodist Missionary. The French care as little for one as for the other. Colleges, academies, or literary institutions there are none, but in Post Arkansas, Arkopolis, and Little-rock, schools are established. Those cannot be expected from a country without any political importance, and with a population scattered over such an immense extent. An extract from a newspaper published in Arkopolis, which I found in St. Helena, may give some idea of the honourables of these parts: “Mr. White respectfully begs leave to announce himself as candidate for their Representative, &c.—N.B. Tailoring business done in the best manner, and at the shortest notice!!”

Arkansas has hitherto been the refuge for poor adventurers, foreigners, French soldiers, German redemptioners, with a few respectable American families; men of fortune preferring the state of Mississippi or Louisiana, where society and the comforts of life can be found with less difficulty. It is certain, however, that the western part of this territory is healthier than the western states of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, and that the Rocky and Ozark chain, running from east to west, obviates one great evil—the sudden change of temperature, caused by the want of high mountains to resist the power of the north and south winds.

A traveller who first visits the valley of the Mississippi, is led to believe that the waters of this immense river rise above the trees along its banks, leaving the branches covered with weeds and mud when they retire to their bed. It is Spanish moss or Tellandsea which presents that appearance to the traveller. It is firmly rooted in the apertures of the bark, and hangs down from the trees, not unlike long rough beards. This plant has a yellow blossom, and a pod containing the seed. It is found along the coast of the Mississippi, from St. Helena to below New Orleans, and is universally applied to all those purposes for which curled hair is used in the north. It is gathered from the trees with long hooks, afterwards put into water for a few days in order to rot the outer part, and then dried. The substance obtained by this simple process is a fine black fibre resembling horse hair. A mattrass stuffed in this manner may serve for a year, if not wetted; it then becomes dusty and requires that the moss should be taken out, beaten, and the mattress filled again, by which means it becomes more elastic than it was before.

We passed several settlements and islands, the mouth of the Yazoo rivers, and on the third day we arrived at Vixburgh, or Walnut-hills. We were now 600 miles from the mouth of the Ohio, and in that whole distance had not seen either a hill or mountain, with the exception of a few mole-hills at St. Helena, which rose, perhaps, to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet above the endless plain. The first objects which interrupt the sameness of this grand but rather uniform scenery, are the Walnut-hills, on the east bank of the river, in the state of Mississippi. They rise singly and perfectly detached. There may be eight or nine in number, with a small house on the top of each. Close to the landing-place is the warehouse of Mr. Brown; and farther back, some merchant’s stores, and two taverns. Half a mile from the bank rises a ridge about four miles long, and 300 feet high. This hill, notwithstanding its inconvenient situation, will probably be selected for the site of part of Vixburgh town, which was laid out two years ago, and is now the seat of justice for Warren county. It has already fifty houses and three stores. Several steam-boats are regularly employed in the cotton trade. As there is not a single place on the banks of the Mississippi, where a town of some extent could be built without being exposed to the floods, Vixburgh must very soon become a place of great importance for the upper part of the state of Mississippi. The surrounding country begins to be rapidly settled; and civilization, which is almost extinct for more than a 1000 miles up the Mississippi and the Ohio, here resumes its power, and increases the farther you descend towards New Orleans.

On the following day we passed Warrington, Palmyra, Davies’, Judge Smith’s settlements, the Grand and Petit Golfe, and Gruinsburgh, and arrived at five o’clock in the evening at Natchez.

CHAPTER XI.

The Town of Natchez.—Excursion to Palmyra Plantations.—The Cotton Planters of the State of Mississippi.—Sketch of the State of Mississippi.—Return to Natchez.

Rain, and a subsequent frost, had a week before our arrival dispelled that scourge of the south—the yellow fever. The inhabitants had returned from the places of safety, to which they had fled in every direction, and intercourse was again re-established, the town having resumed all the activity I had found in it three years before. The road to the town, properly so called, leads through a suburb, known by the name of Low Natchez, consisting of some warehouses and shops of every description. This place deserves, in every respect, the epithet of Low Natchez, being a true Gomorrha, and containing an assemblage of the lowest characters. Although fifteen years ago, a great part of the bluff buried in its fall, several of these wretches, and every rainy season exposes the survivors to the same fate, yet they seem unconscious of their danger. The road ascends to the town on both sides of these liquor shops, built as it were on the brink of a precipice. Natchez is situated on a hill, 250 feet above the level of the water. The prospect from this hill, or bluff, as it is called, is beautiful. At your feet you behold this nest of sinners, close to it four or five steam-boats, and thirty or forty keel and flat-boats anchoring in the port, with the bustle and noise attendant on these wandering arks. On the opposite bank of the Mississippi, which is here one mile and a quarter wide, you see the county town of Concordia, and on both sides of this little town, numerous plantations, with the stately mansion of the wealthy cotton planter, and the numerous cabins of his black dependents; and in the background, the whole scenery is girded by an immense ring of cypress forests, which seem, as it were, to bury themselves in the flats below the Mississippi. To the right and left a charming elevated plain extends, with numerous gardens, which, though it was then the end of November, still preserved their verdure, faded, indeed, into an autumnal hue. In the rear is the town of Natchez, of moderate dimensions; but elegant and regular as far as the broken ground would admit. The dwelling-houses, several of them with colonnades, exhibit throughout a high degree of wealth. The court-house, an academy, the United States’ branch bank, and the bank of Natchez, three churches, three newspaper printing offices, one of which publishes a literary journal (the Ariel), a library and reading-room, are the public institutions, and they are very liberally patronised. Neither during my former journey, nor in the present visit, could I discover any foundation for the charge of narrowness of mind, which is made against the inhabitants. Their number amounts to 3,540, and their houses to 600. They are mostly planters, merchants, lawyers, and physicians, of Anglo-American extraction, with the exception of ten or twelve German families.

Natchez is considered as a port, and on this ground the representative of the state obtained the most useless grant of money ever made—1500 dollars—for the purpose of erecting a light-house, at a place 410 miles distant from the sea. This town had been considered a healthier spot than New Orleans, until the two last years, when it was repeatedly visited by the yellow-fever, from which New Orleans remained free. It is yet doubtful whether this evil is to be ascribed to the dissolute life prevailing in lower Natchez, or to the oppressive heat which prevails on these high plains. The distance, however, from the cooling current of the Mississippi, short as it is, and the unwholesome rain-water, which is used for drinking, must contribute to create bilious fevers. The great pecuniary resources which the inhabitants of Natchez have at command, would make it an easy matter for them to obtain their water for drinking from the Mississippi, in the same manner as the inhabitants of Philadelphia have raised the waters of Schuylkill. The country about Natchez is an extensive and elevated plain, 200 feet above the level of the Mississippi, stretching 130 miles from north to south, and about forty miles to the eastward. Although a fertile tract of land, it is far inferior to the Mississippi bottom-lands. The upland cotton grown upon it, is inferior in quantity and quality to that of Mississippi growth. The soil, however, produces corn, vegetables, plumbs, peaches, and figs in abundance. I stayed two days in Natchez, and rode with a friend to the distance of fifty-five miles above Natchez, on the Mississippi, passing through Gibsonport, twenty-five miles from Natchez, and six miles from the Mississippi, a town having a court-house, a newspaper printing office, and about sixty houses, with 1100 inhabitants. The following day we arrived at Messrs. D.’s plantation. These two brothers having purchased, three years ago, 6500 acres of land, at the rate of two dollars an acre, landed with their slaves at their new purchase, from their former residence in Kentucky. The lands being a complete wilderness, their first occupation was to raise cabins for themselves and their slaves. This was accomplished in four weeks. They succeeded during the first year in clearing fifty acres of land, twenty-five of which were sown in the month of February with cotton seed, the rest with corn. This was was sufficient to defray the expense of the first year. The clearing of woods, however, in this country, if not canebrack bottom, is not so easy a matter as in the northern states. Numerous shrubs, thistles, and thorns, of an immense size, form hedges, which it is almost impossible to penetrate. To these obstructions may be added, snakes, muskitoes, and in the marshes, alligators, which, though not so dangerous as the Egyptian crocodile, are still a great annoyance. The trees are here destroyed in the same manner as in the north, by killing them. Shrubs, underwood, canebrack, are burnt, and the corn or cotton is planted instead. This is the work of the negroes, who labour under the superintendence of their masters, or, if he be a wealthy man, of his overseer. In the months of June or July, the ground is ploughed or turned up; the weeds and shrubs are cleared away, as is done in the case of Indian corn; the cultivation of cotton, though more troublesome, being conducted much in the same manner. In the month of October, the cotton begins to ripen, the buds open, and the white flower appears. The present is the season for gathering cotton. Three kinds of cotton seeds are now sown in the southern states; the green, the black, and the Mexican seed, which latter is considered to be the best. Of the green seed cotton, a slave may gather 150 pounds a day, of the other two kinds, the utmost that can be collected is 100 pounds. The buds are broken from the plants, and the cotton, with the seed, taken out and put into round baskets, which when filled are brought into the cotton yard, and spread along planks, for the purpose of drying. The cotton is from thence carried to the cotton gin, the machinery of which is put into motion by three or four horses. The cotton is thrown between a cylinder moving round a projecting saw; by this process the seed is separated from the cotton, which is then thrown back into a large receptacle, and afterwards pressed into bales. These are laid in stores and kept ready for shipping, in steam or flat boats to Natchez or New Orleans. The two brothers in this, the third, year from the date of their establishment, raised 200 bales of cotton from 200 acres of cleared land. According to their own estimation, and from what I know, they might have raised 350 bales, had it not been for a disaster which befel them in the spring of the year 1825. They were visited with a hurricane, which lifted their dwelling-house from the ground, carried it to a considerable distance and completely destroyed it, with the entire furniture. Mr. D——, who was at the plantation at the time, had great difficulty in escaping with his wife and child, though not without a fractured leg, from the effects of which he was still suffering. Not even a chair had been spared. The immense trees torn up by the roots and still lying in every direction upon the ground, the shattered cabins of his negroes, every thing presented indications of the havoc made in this disastrous night. Happily no human life was lost. This misfortune had, of course, considerably retarded the improvements in progress, and thrown them back for at least a twelvemonth. Still the planters calculated this year upon a profit of 10,000 dollars from their plantation; 4000 dollars may be deducted from this for household and other necessary expenses, leaving a clear profit of 6000 dollars. The original capital of the two brothers consisted, (including the value of their slaves), of 20,000 dollars. They paid half the purchase money when they took possession, and the rest in the present year. Their plantation is now worth 60,000 dollars. In the state of Mississippi, the principal article of cultivation is cotton, as it is the staple article of its commerce; corn and the breeding of cattle are considered as secondary objects, though many plantations reckon from 100 to 300 head of cattle, which have a free range in the vast forests in quest of food. Only those intended for fattening are kept at home and fed with cotton seed, which in a few weeks will make them exceedingly fat. Turkeys and poultry in general are found in abundance, and constitute with firewood the articles which are sold to steam-boats passing on their way. Indian corn supplies in these parts the place of rye or wheat. The slaves live exclusively on corn bread; their masters vary it with wheat cakes. Wheat, flour, whiskey, articles of dress, sacking, and blankets, come from the north, or from New Orleans. The dress of the planter during the summer months consists of a linen jacket, pantaloons of the same, Monroe boots, and a straw hat. During the winter he wears a cotton shirt and a cloth dress. That of his slaves during summer is a coarse cotton shirt and trowsers, with shoes called mocasins. In winter they are furnished with cotton trowsers, and a coat made of a woollen blanket. The females have dresses of the same materials. The manner of living of the southern planter differs little from that of the northern; he likes his doddy, which the northern planter or farmer is also known to be fond of; he lives on wheat cakes or Indian corn bread, and superintends his slaves at their work, as the northern does his hands. Of the effeminate and luxurious style in which the southern planters are said to indulge—of their pretended fondness for female slaves, without whose assistance they cannot find their beds, I have never had any proofs, though in both my journeys I have not passed less than a year in Mississippi and Louisiana, and know one half of the plantations. The American planter lives in a higher style than his northern fellow citizen: this is quite natural, considering that his income is very large, and his taxes trifling. His chief expense, however, consists in his travels or summer excursions to the north, where he is pleased to shew his southern magnificence in a display of pompous dissipation. This fault, with few exceptions, is general with southern planters. They save at home, and renounce the very comforts of life in order to have the means of spending more money during the summer at Saratoga, Boston, or New York. The slave always rises at five o’clock, and works till seven, then breakfasts—generally upon soup with corn bread, baked on a pan, and eaten warm with a piece of bacon or salt-meat. Their tasks are assigned to them by the master of the plantation, or if he has been settled for some years, by an overseer. Part of the negroes are engaged in the cotton gin, others in carpenters’ or in cabinet work, each plantation having two or three mechanics among the slaves. A third part works in the cotton or corn fields. The females have likewise their tasks. One or two of the girls are housemaids; two more are cooks, one for the white, the other for the black family. The old negro women have the washing assigned to them. The dinner of the slaves consists of corn bread, a pudding of the same stuff, and salt or fresh meat. It is usual to give them a piece of meat, in order to keep them in good condition. The supper is of corn bread again, and a soup without meat. They seldom get any whiskey, and tavern keepers are prohibited by law from selling it to them. The first transgression is punished with a fine, the second with the loss of the tavern licence. On Sundays the slaves are exempt from working for their master, and permitted to attend to their family or their own concerns. Many of them are seen gleaning the cotton fields, collecting this way from eighty to a hundred pounds of cotton in one day. They are not, however, so well treated as in the northern slave states, where they are rather considered as domestics, who in many cases would not exchange their condition for that liberty which is enjoyed by the German peasantry. The northern slave is, for this reason, extremely afraid of transportation, which is a sort of punishment. The southern blacks frequently run away, and there is not a newspaper published, in which some escapes are not announced. The Anglo-Americans, however, treat their slaves throughout better than the French and their descendants, with whom the wretched blacks, (their general allowance being ten ears of Indian corn a day), experience a treatment in few respects better than that of a beast. The principle upon which the French descendant acts, is, that the slave ought to repay him in three years the expense of his purchase. But, strange to say, the worst of all are the free people of colour, who are equally permitted to possess slaves. To be transferred into the hands of their own race, is the most dreadful thing which can happen to a slave. Formal marriages rarely take place between slaves: if the negro youth feels himself attracted by the charms of a black beauty, their master allows them to cohabit. If the female slave is on a distant plantation, the youth is permitted to see her, provided he be trustworthy, and not suspected of an intention to effect his escape. The children belong to the mother, or rather to her master, who is not permitted to dispose of them before they are ten years of age. The punishment which masters are allowed to inflict on their slaves at home, is a flogging of thirty-nine lashes. The huts of these people are of rough logs; lower down the river they are of regular carpenter’s work. The mansions of the American planters are in the easy American style—sometimes frame, mostly, however, brick-houses, constructed on four piles in the manner already described. Below Natchez, the dwelling houses of the planters are in the old-fashioned Spanish style, with immense roofs, but comfortable and adapted to the climate. The windows are high and provided with shutters. They have a summer dining room to the north, open on all sides so as to admit of a free current of air. In the southern parts, the planter is the most respectable and wealthy inhabitant. He lives contented, though his domestic peace is sometimes troubled by the accidents inseparable from the state of bondage in which his black family is kept. If he manages his affairs well, for which very little is wanting beyond common sense and activity, he cannot fail to become wealthy in a few years. I am acquainted with several gentlemen, who settled in these states ten years ago, with a capital of from 10 to 20,000 dollars. They are worth now at least 100,000 dollars. The great difference between these plantations and the northern farms, is the ready mart they are sure to find, and the high price they obtain for their produce. Though the prices of cotton are considerably reduced, yet the profit which is derived from a capital employed in a plantation is superior to any other. The price of a well-conditioned plantation is enormous. I can instance Mr. B., who having inherited one half of a plantation, bought the other half for 32,000 dollars. The failures in crops are of very rare occurrence in these parts, and generally in the fourth year after a plantation has been begun, the produce is equal to the capital employed in the establishment. The management of these plantations requires by no means a very enterprising turn of mind. I know some ladies who have established cotton plantations, and raise from four to five hundred bales a year, being assisted only by their overseer. Mrs. Barrow, Mrs. Hook, &c., &c., are instances in proof of what I advance. Those who are unable to bear the summer heats, or are not inured to the climate, reside in the north, leaving a trusty overseer in charge of the plantation. The distance from Natchez to Louisville or Cincinnati, between 11 and 1200 miles, may be performed in nine or ten days. The journey is a pleasant one, and is amply rewarded by the purchases which planters generally make in the north for themselves, their families, and their slaves. Indolence, luxury, and effeminacy, are vices that are but seldom to be met with in the American planter. He does not yield to the northern farmer in activity or industry. He cannot work in person without exposing himself to a bilious fever; but this is not necessary; the superintendence of his affairs is a sufficient occupation for him. In this state I found matters: after a serious and practical investigation, and much experience, I can pronounce it to be a safer way of employing a moderate capital in an advantageous manner, than any other which offers itself in the United States.

There can scarcely be a country where there is greater facility for hunting than in these parts. Mr. D. being still lame from his late accident, was obliged to remain at home, but he provided us with a guide, in the person of the overseer of the Palmyra plantation, five miles above Mr. D.’s settlement. We mounted our horses, and arrived in a few minutes on the outside of the cotton-fields, a tract of canebrack bottom, extending about ten miles, where we expected to start a deer or a bear. We had not ridden above half an hour when we discovered a bear, which was killed. We proceeded afterwards to a marsh two miles behind the plantation, the resort of flocks of ducks and wild geese. We found about 300 of them, and having shot nine returned home. The bear was found to be a young one, weighing 150 pounds:—its flesh was excellent. These animals, as well as every description of game, are found in such prodigious numbers, that our landlord thought it not worth while sending his slaves such a distance for the ducks and geese we had shot in the pond; and they were, therefore, left for birds of prey to feast upon. The following day we made a shooting excursion with the overseer of Palmyra plantation. After partaking of some refreshments at his dwelling, we proceeded in his company. He superintends the plantation of Mrs. Turner, for an annual salary of 1500 dollars, with board, lodging, &c.; a sum which would be considered in the north as a first rate salary, suitable to any gentleman. Seven wild turkeys were the spoils of this day; we divided them equally amongst us, reserving the seventh to be roasted at Warrington for our dinner. Warrington, formerly the seat of justice for Warren county, which is now transferred to Vixburgh, though situated sixty feet above the water level of the Mississippi, is regularly inundated by the spring floods. This town is on the decline, owing to the removal of the seat of justice. It contains 200 inhabitants, with forty houses, five of which are built of brick, the rest of wood. Two lawyers, who are now on the move, two taverns, and two stores, are to be found here. The two store-keepers, who were extremely poor when they first settled here, eight years ago, are now worth above 20,000 dollars; one of them is going to establish a plantation. We returned in good time, being here at a distance of twenty miles from the plantation. Although the tract of country we came through is extremely fertile, yet there is a great difference in the soil. The plantation of Mr. D——, has undoubtedly the advantage over the six which came under our notice; his cotton is of a superior quality. The richness of the soil depends on the stratum. The best is considered to be that which is found to have three or four feet of river sediment on a red brownish earth; where sand or gravel forms the stratum, the land, though fertile, is not of so durable a quality. The growth of timber is generally the surest mode of ascertaining the nature of the soil; we measured on the plantation of Major Davis, some sycamores torn up by the hurricane, which were not less than 200 feet in length; and cotton trees of 170 feet. Where such a gigantic vegetation is seen, one may rely on the fertility and inexhaustible quality of the soil. Our guide gave me a proof of this: in one of his fields, he raised tobacco for ten successive years, without doing more than ploughing the earth; the produce, instead of diminishing, has rather increased both in quantity and quality. One can hardly conceive how a soil, apparently sandy, can be of a nature so inexhaustibly productive; the overflowing of the Mississippi, and the sediment left on the banks, account, however, sufficiently for it.

The following day we took leave of our hospitable landlord, and returned. The country we passed through is one continued range of the most beautiful forests, opening some times to give place to a rising plantation. I counted between Palmyra and Natchez, twenty-five.

The State of Mississippi was received into the Union in the year 1817. It extends from 30° 10′ to 35° north latitude, and from 11° 30′ to 14° 32′ west longitude; and is bounded on the north by Tennessee, on the west by Arkansas and Louisiana, on the south by Louisiana and the gulf of Mexico, and on the east by Alabama. It comprises an area of 15,000 square miles. Though this state has acquired, this ten years past, a political existence, and in point of fertility is far superior to Missouri and Indiana, yet its population has not increased in the same proportion;—it does not exceed 80,000 souls, including 34,000 slaves. The emigrants to Mississippi, are either men of fortune, or needy adventurers. The middle classes, having from 2 to 3,000 dollars property, seldom chose to settle there, having no prospect of succeeding by dint of personal industry. The fatigue and labour in these hot and sultry climates, can only be borne by slaves; a white man who should attempt the same labour which kept him stout and hearty in the north, would soon be overcome by the heat of the climate. Most of the respectable settlers are therefore from Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky; having sold their property there, and emigrated with their slaves into this country. The North American, properly so called, from New England, New York, &c., seldom ventures so far. Owing to this cause, the towns in Mississippi and Louisiana, are neither so elegant nor so wealthy as those of the north. With the exception of places of commerce, such as New Orleans and Natchez, the towns of the state of Mississippi cannot be compared to those of other states of more recent date. These smaller towns of Mississippi and Louisiana, are generally inhabited by mechanics, tradesmen, tavern-keepers, and the poorer classes of the people. Those who have any fortune, prefer laying it out on plantations,—a sure and infallible source of wealth, and the most respectable occupation in the country. Merchants who have succeeded in making a fortune in these small towns, remove to more convenient places. The traveller who judges of the wealth of the country from the mean appearance of these villages and towns, would be greatly mistaken. In order to form a correct opinion he must visit the plantations, and he will be surprised at the high degree of prosperity and comfort enjoyed by the possessors.

After a stay of three days in Natchez, I took a passage on board the steam-boat Helen MacGregor, which had lately returned from New Orleans to Walnut hills, and was on its way to the capital of Louisiana. The intercourse between Natchez and New Orleans is by water, travellers naturally preferring this easy and comfortable mode of conveyance by steam-boats to land journeys, rendered disagreeable by the wretchedness of the roads, and the still worse condition of the generality of inns. This evil has been occasioned by the former hospitality of the French creoles. Any one calling at a plantation was sure of a welcome reception. This hospitality has ceased, and the most respectable traveller is now likely to have the door shut in his face, owing to the misconduct of the Kentuckians. It was the practice of these gentlemen to call on their rambles at these plantations, where plenty of rum and brandy, with other accommodations, could be had for nothing. They behaved with an arrogance and presumption almost incredible, not unfrequently calling the creoles in their own houses French dogs, and knocking them down if they presumed to shew the least displeasure. These people are the horror of all creoles, who when they wish to describe the highest degree of barbarity, designate it by the name of Kentuckian. The worst of it is that the creoles, who are far from being eminent scholars, comprehend the whole north under the appellation of Kentucky. We started from Natchez at nine o’clock in the evening, took in 300 bales of cotton at Bayon Sarah[E], and some firewood a few miles below, and then passed Baton Rouge, the Bayons Plaquimines, Manchac, Tourche, both sides of the river being lined with beautiful plantations, and arrived on Sunday, at four o’clock, above New Orleans.

CHAPTER XII.

Arrival at New Orleans.—Cursory Reflections.

It is certainly mournful for a traveller to dwell among the monuments of Pompeii, of Herculaneum, and of Rome. There, if he feels at all, he feels among these wrecks of past grandeur, that he is nothing. A totally different sensation possesses the mind on entering an American city. In these man beholds what he can contend with, and what he can accomplish, when his strength is not checked by the arbitrary will of a despot. New Orleans, the wet grave[F], where the hopes of thousands are buried; for eighty years the wretched asylum for the outcasts of France and Spain, who could not venture 100 paces beyond its gates without utterly sinking to the breast in mud, or being attacked by alligators; has become in the space of twenty-three years one of the most beautiful cities of the Union, inhabited by 40,000 persons, who trade with half the world. The view is splendid beyond description, when you pass down the stream, which is here a mile broad, rolls its immense volume of waters in a bed above 200 feet deep, and as if conscious of its strength, appears to look quietly on the bustle of the habitations of man. Both its banks are lined with charming sugar plantations, from the midst of which rises the airy mansion of the wealthy planter, surrounded with orange, banana, lime, and fig trees, the growth of a climate approaching to the torrid zone. In the rear you discover the cabins of the negroes and the sugar-houses, and just at the entrance of the port, groups of smaller houses, as if erected for the purpose of concealing the prospect of the town. As soon as the steam-boats pass these out posts, New Orleans, in the form of a half moon, appears in all its splendour. The river runs for a distance of four or five miles in a southern direction; here it suddenly takes an eastern course, which it pursues for the space of two miles, thus forming a semicircular bend. A single glance exhibits to view the harbour, the vessels at anchor, together with the city, situated as it were at the feet of the passenger. The first object that presents itself is the dirty and uncouth backwoods flat boat. Hams, ears of corn, apples, whiskey barrels, are strewed upon it, or are fixed to poles to direct the attention of the buyers. Close by are the rather more decent keel-boats, with cotton, furs, whiskey, flour; next the elegant steam-boat, which by its hissing and repeated sounds, announces either its arrival or departure, and sends forth immense columns of black smoke, that form into long clouds above the city. Farther on are the smaller merchant vessels, the sloops and schooners from the Havannah, Vera Cruz, Tampico; then the brigs; and lastly, the elegant ships appearing like a forest of masts[G].

What in Philadelphia and even in New York is dispersed in several points, is here offered at once to the eye—a truly enchanting prospect. Most of the steam-boats were kept back by the lowness of the Ohio, at Cincinnati, Louisville, and Nashville; we landed, therefore, close to the shore without encountering any impediment. In a moment our state room was filled with five or six clerks, from the newspaper printing offices, and a dozen negroes; the former to inspect the log-book of the steam-boat, and to lay before their subscribers the names of the goods, and of the passengers arrived; the latter to offer their services in carrying our trunks. After labouring to climb over the mountains of cotton bales which obstructed our passage, we went on shore. The city had increased beyond expectation, within the last four years. More than 700 brick houses had been erected; a new street (the Levee), was already half finished; the houses throughout were solid, and more or less in an elegant style. It was on a Sunday that we arrived; the shops, the stores of the French and creoles, were open as usual, and if there were fewer buyers than on other days, the coffeehouses, grog-shops, and the estaminets, as they are called, of the French and German inhabitants, exhibited a more noisy scene. A kind of music, accompanied with human, or rather inhuman voices, resounded in almost every direction. This little respect paid to the Sabbath is a relic of the French revolution and of Buonaparte, for whom the French and the creoles of Louisiana have an unlimited respect, imitating him as poor minds generally do, as far as they are able, in his bad qualities, his contempt of venerable customs, and his egotism, and leaving his great deeds and the noble traits in his character to the imitation of others better qualified to appreciate them.

To a new comer, accustomed in the north to the dignified and quiet keeping of the Sabbath, this appears very shocking. The Anglo-Americans, with few exceptions, remain even here faithful to their ancient custom of keeping the Sabbath holy. I had many opportunities of appreciating the importance of the keeping of the Sabbath, particularly in new states. A well regulated observance of this day is productive of incalculable benefits, and though it is sometimes carried too far in the northern states, as is certainly the case in Pennsylvania and New England, still the public ought firmly to maintain this institution in full force. The man who provides in six days for his personal wants, may dedicate the seventh to the improvement of his mind; and this he can only accomplish by abstaining from all trifling amusements. In a despotic monarchy the case is different; there the government has no doubt every reason for allowing its slaves, after six toilsome days of labour, the indulgence of twenty-four hours of amusement, that they may forget themselves and their fate in the dissipation of dancing, smoking, and drinking. The case ought to be otherwise in a republic, where even the poor constitute, or are about to constitute, part of the sovereign body. These ought to remember to what purposes they are destined, and not to allow themselves, under any circumstances, to be the dupes of others. The keeping of the Sabbath is their surest safeguard. If there were no opportunities offered for dancing, their sons and their daughters would stay at home, either reading their Bible, or attending to other appropriate intellectual occupations, and learning in this manner their rights and duties, and those of other people. The American has not deviated in this respect from his English kinsman. If you enter his dwelling on the Sabbath, you will find the family, old and young, quietly sitting down, the Bible in hand, thus preparing themselves for the toils and hardships to come, and acquiring the firmness and confidence so necessary in human life; a confidence, which we so justly admire in the British nation; as far distant from the bravado of the French, as the unfeeling and base stupidity of the Russians; and which never displays itself in brighter colours than in the hour of danger. We are in this manner enabled to account for those high traits of character in moments full of peril—traits not surpassed in the most brilliant and the most virtuous epochs of Greece or of Rome. A single fact will speak volumes—the Kent East Indiaman, burning and going down in the bay of Biscay, in 1825. Ladies, gentlemen, officers, and soldiers, all on board exhibited a magnanimity of heart, and a truly Christian heroism, which must fill even the most rancorous enemies of the British people with admiration and regard. What a different picture would have been presented to us, if half a regiment of Bonaparte’s soldiers had been on board the ship!

CHAPTER XIII.

Topographical Sketch of the City of New Orleans.

The city of New Orleans occupies an oblong area, extending 3960 feet along the eastern bank of Mississippi, embracing six squares, 319 feet in length, and of equal breadth. Above and below this parallelogram are the suburbs. Higher up is the suburb of St. Mary, still belonging to the city corporation; farther up, the suburbs Duplantier, Soulel, La Course, L’Annunciation, and Religieuses; below, the suburbs of Marigny, Daunois, and Clouet; in the rear, St. Claude and Johnsburgh. The seven streets, named Levee, Chartres-street, Royal-street, Bourbon, Burgundy, Toulouse, and Rampart, run parallel with the river, and are intersected at right angles by twelve others, running from the banks of the Mississippi, called the Levee, in the direction of the swamps, the Custom-house-street, Brenville, Conti, St. Louis, and Toulouse. The city, with the exception of Levee and Rampart-streets, is paved, an improvement which occasions great expense to the corporation, as the stones are imported; flags, however, are not wanting even in the most distant suburbs. The ground on which New Orleans is built, is a plain, descending about seven feet from the banks of the river, towards the swamps; and it is lower than the level of the Mississippi. It is secured by a levee, which would afford very little resistance 400 miles higher up; but here, where numerous bayons and natural channels have carried off part of the waters to the gulf of Mexico, it answers every purpose. About the city, the breadth of this plain is half a mile, and above it three-quarters of a mile, terminating in the back-ground in impenetrable swamps. The city and suburbs are lighted with reflecting lamps, suspended in the middle of the streets. Between the pavement and the road, gutters are made for the purpose of carrying off the filth into the swamps, of refreshing the air with the water of the Mississippi, with which these gutters communicate, and of allaying the dust during the hot season. There are now about 6000 buildings, large and small, in New Orleans. In the first mentioned three streets, and the greater part of the upper suburb, the houses are throughout of brick; some are plastered over to preserve them from the influence of the sultry climate. Though building materials of every kind are imported, and consequently very dear, yet the houses are rapidly changing from the uncouth Spanish style, to more elegant forms. The new houses are mostly three stories high, with balconies, and a summer-room with blinds. In the lower suburbs, frame houses, with Spanish roofs, are still prevalent. Two-thirds of the private buildings may at present be said to rival those of northern cities, of an equal population. The public edifices, however, are far inferior to those of the former, both in style and execution. The most prominent is the cathedral, in the middle of the town, separated from the bank of the Mississippi, by the parade ground. It is of Spanish architecture, with a façade of seventy feet, and a depth of 120, having on each side a steeple, and a small cupola in the centre, which gives an air of dignity to a heavy and ill-proportioned structure. All illusion, however, is dispelled on entering the church. The Catholics had the strange notion of painting the interior, taking for this purpose the most glaring colours that can be found—green and purple. The church is painted over in fresco, with these colours, and presents at one view a curious taste of the creoles. The interior is not overloaded with decorations, as Catholic churches generally are. The high altar, and two side ones, are, with an organ, its only ornaments. Two tombs contain the remains of Baron Carondolet and Mr. Marigny. On one side of the cathedral is the city-hall, and on the other, the Presbytire. The former, erected in 1795, presents a façade of 108 feet, in which the meetings of the city council are held. The Presbytire, 114 in front, was built in 1813, and is the seat of the supreme District Court, and of the Criminal Court of New Orleans. These two edifices, and the cathedral between them, form together a dignified whole. The government-house, at the corner of Toulouse and Levee-streets, is an old and decaying edifice, where the legislature of the state holds its meetings. In point of situation, (among grog shops), and of style, it may be considered the poorest state-house in the Union.

The Protestants have three churches. The Episcopalian, at the corner of Bourbon and Canal-streets, is an octagon edifice, with a cupola, in bad taste. Out of gratitude to the late governor Clayborne, the inhabitants have erected in the church-yard, a monument to his memory, with the following inscription:

THE
CITIZENS OF NEW ORLEANS,
TO
TESTIFY THEIR RESPECT FOR THE VIRTUES
OF
W. C. C. CLAYBORNE,
LATE
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA,
HAVE
ERECTED THIS MONUMENT.

The Presbyterian church, in the suburb of St. Mary, is a simple, but chaste building, the expense of which amounted to 55,000 dollars. The congregation being unwilling to defray the cost of its erection, it was sold by the sheriff, and is now the property of Mr. Levy, an Israelite, who leases it out to the congregation for 1500 dollars. The Methodist church is a frame building, erected in 1826.

The public hospital, in Canal-street, consists of two square buildings, with wards for fever maladies; for dysentery; one for chronic diseases; another for females; a third for convalescents; a bathing-room, an apothecary’s-room, and a room for the physicians and assistants. Out of 1842 patients who were received into this hospital in the year 1824, 500 died, and the rest were discharged; out of 1700 received in 1825, 271 died, the others recovered. The accommodations in this house seem to be respectable; it has one thing, however, in common with all hospitals, that no one is tempted to return to it a second time.

There are now four banks in New Orleans; the United States Bank, with a capital of one million of dollars; the Bank of the State, the Louisiana Bank, and the Bank of New Orleans, each having likewise a capital of one million of dollars. The insurance offices are five in number: the Louisiana State Insurance Company, with a capital of 400,000 dollars; the Fire Insurance Company, with 300,000; the Mississippi and Marine Insurance Company, with 200,000; and the London Phoenix Insurance Company. New Orleans has no less than six masonic lodges, including the grand lodge of Louisiana; a French and an American theatre. The latter was built by a Mr. Caldwell, from Nashville, in Tennessee, who has also the management of it. It has the advantage in point of architecture, and the French theatre in the selectness of its audience. Close to the latter are the ball-rooms, where are given the only masked balls in the United States. Among the public buildings may be reckoned the three market halls, for the sale of provisions of every kind; one of them is in the city, the two others on the upper and lower suburbs, on the Levee.

The nuns have removed two miles below the town, and this convent is now the residence of the Roman Catholic bishop. In the chapel divine service is performed; this chapel, and the cathedral, are the places of worship belonging to the Catholics.

The cotton-pressing establishments deserve to be mentioned. These are now nine in number; the most important is that of Mr. Rilieux, at the corner of Poydras-street. It has three presses; one worked by steam, another by an hydraulic machine, and the third by horsepower. For the security of cotton bales, eight wells, a fire-engine, &c., are within the range of buildings; the expenses of which amounted to 150,000 dollars. The cotton press formerly belonged to a German commission merchant, who failed in consequence of his extravagant cotton speculations; it is simple, but of solid construction. It can receive 10,000 bales. The expenses of the building amounted to 90,000 dollars. Besides these are the presses of Shiff, a Jew from Germany, Debays, Lorger, &c. A steam saw-mill on the bank of the Mississippi, in the upper suburb, with a few iron foundries, are the only manufacturies in New Orleans; every thing being imported from the north.

Carondolots canal is in the rear of the town, towards the marshes. The entrance is a basin, containing from thirty to fifty small vessels, and opening into a canal, or rather a ditch, which has been cut through the swamps, in order to join the Bayon St. John with New Orleans.

Small vessels drawing no more than six feet of water, arrive from Mobile and Pensacola[H], through lake Pont Chartrain, Bayon St. John, and the above-mentioned canal at New Orleans, performing only a third of the way they would otherwise have to make by going up the Mississippi. They are in general freighted with wood, planks, bricks, cotton, &c.; and take in goods in return. This canal, which is of great importance for the part of the city lying contiguous to the swamps, was commenced by Baron Carondolet, but given up at a subsequent time, and resumed in the year 1815. Its cost was trifling compared with the advantages resulting to this city, and the salutary effects it must have in draining off part of the swamps.

The president of the city council is a mayor, or Maire, a creole. His police regulations deserve every praise, and New Orleans, which less than fifteen years ago was the lurking hole of every assassin, is now in point of security not inferior to any other city. The revenues of the city corporation amount to 150,000 dollars, which are, however, found to be insufficient, and loans are resorted to in order to cover the expenses.

When the United States took possession of New Orleans, this town consisted of 1000 houses, and 8000 inhabitants, black and white. In the year 1820, it amounted to near 27,000; namely, 8000 white males, 5314 white females, 1500 foreigners, 2500 men, and 400 women of colour, 3000 male, and 4,500 female slaves; the population of the parish being then 14,000. In the year 1821, the population was 29,000; in 1822 it had risen to 32,000; in the present year 1826, it amounts to upwards of 40,000; to be distinguished as follows: 14,500 white males, and 7500 white females, 1300 foreigners, 3690 free men, and 800 free women of colour, 5500 male, and 6300 female slaves. The population of the parish is 15,000.

As New Orleans, notwithstanding its being 109 miles distant from the sea, is considered as a seaport, all the officers necessarily connected with a place of that description reside there, as well as consuls from every nation, having commercial intercourse with it;—from England, Russia, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, Hamburgh, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, with others from the Southern Republics.

CHAPTER XIV.

The situation of New Orleans considered in a commercial point of view.

New Orleans groaned for a long time under the yoke of the most wretched tyranny; its crowned possessors so far from doing any thing towards the improvement of a plan which, considered in a commercial light, has not its equal on the face of the earth, contributed as much as was in their power to circumscribe it. After two hours rain, every kind of communication in the city itself was quite impracticable; paving or lighting the streets was of course out of the question; assassinations were of almost daily occurrence: but this was not all—the place was to be a fortress in spite of common sense. It was thought proper to surround it with a wall eighteen feet wide and pallisadoes, five bastions, and redoubts, upon which some old cannon were mounted, perhaps for the purpose of keeping the Indians at a proper distance. The Americans pulled down those pitiful circumvallations which could have no other effect than to impede commerce, and erected others in a situation where they are likely to be of more advantage—along the passes of the Mississippi and of lake Pontchartrain. The city has improved in an astonishing degree during the twenty-three years that it has been incorporated with the United States; indeed much more in proportion than any other town of the Union, in spite of the yellow fever, the deadly miasmata, and the myriads of musquitoes; and it has now become one of the most elegant and wealthy cities of the republic. If, however, we consider its situation, it is susceptible of still greater improvements, and it must eventually become, what nature destined it to be, the first commercial city, and the emporium of America, notwithstanding the concurrence of many unfavourable circumstances, and the gross selfishness of its inhabitants. The incredible fertility of Louisiana, the Egypt of the west, and the fertility of the states of the valley of the Mississippi in general, which can be duly appreciated only by personal observation, must render New Orleans one of the most flourishing cities in the world. There is not a spot on the globe that presents a more favourable situation for trade. Standing on the extreme point of the longest river in the world, New Orleans commands all the commerce of the immense territory of the Mississippi, being the staple pointed out by nature for the countries watered by this stream, or by its tributaries—a territory exceeding a million of square miles. You may travel on board a steam-boat of 300 tons and upwards for an extent of 1000 miles from New Orleans up the Red river; 1500 miles up the Arkansas river; 3000 miles up the Missouri and its branches; 1700 miles on the Mississippi to the falls of St. Anthony; the same distance from New Orleans up the Illinois; 1200 miles to the north-east from New Orleans on the big Wabash; 1300 on the Tennessee; 1300 on the Cumberland, and 2300 miles on the Ohio up to Pittsburgh. Thus New Orleans has in its rear this immense territory, with a river 4200 miles long, (including the Missouri)[I]; besides the water communication which is about to be completed between New York and the river Ohio. The coast of Mexico, the West India islands, and the half of America to the south, the rest of America on its left, and the continent of Europe beyond the Atlantic. New Orleans is beyond a doubt the most important commercial point on the face of the earth[J]. Although the states along the Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, the territories of Missouri, and Arkansas, undoubtedly the finest part of the Union, have not yet a population of 3,000,000 inhabitants, their trade with New Orleans may be estimated by the fact, that not less than 1500 keel and flat boats, with nearly a hundred steam vessels, are engaged every year in the trade with this city. The capital laid out on these steam-boats amounts alone to above two million of dollars. The number of vessels that clear out is upward of 1000, which export more than 200,000 bales of cotton, 25,000 hogsheads of sugar, 17,000 hogsheads of tobacco, about 1250 tons of lead, with a considerable quantity of rice, furs, &c. Besides these staple articles, the produce of the northern states is exported to Mexico, the West Indies, the Havannah, and South America. The commerce of New Orleans increases regularly every year in proportion with the improvements in its own state, and in those of the Mississippi. The wealth accruing to the country and to the city from this commerce, is out of proportion with the number of inhabitants. There are many families who, in the course of a few years, have accumulated a property yielding an income of 50,000 dollars, and 25,000 is the usual income of respectable planters. No other place offers such chances for making a fortune in so easy a way. Plantations and commerce, if properly attended to, are the surest means of succeeding in the favourite object of man’s great pursuit,—“money making.” This accounts for the avidity with which thousands seek New Orleans, in spite of the yellow fever again making room for thousands in rapid succession.

CHAPTER XV.

Characteristic features of the Inhabitants of New Orleans and Louisiana.—Creoles.—Anglo-Americans.—French.—Free People of Colour.—Slaves.

At the time of the cession of Louisiana to the United States (1803), this country with its capital was inhabited by Creoles—descendants of French settlers. Many reasons as they may have to congratulate themselves upon their admission into the great political Union, whether considered in a religious or political point of view, there were, however, several causes which contributed to render them disaffected to the measure. This repugnance is far from being removed. The advantages on both sides were equal, or perhaps greater on the part of the United States. The central government and the generality of Americans behaved towards Louisiana in a becoming manner. But there is in the character of American freedom, especially in the deportment of an American towards foreigners and strangers in his own country, something repulsive. It is not the pride of a nobleman accustomed to be obeyed, nor the natural pride of an Englishman, who carries his sulky temper along with him, and finds fault with every thing: it is rather the pride of an adventurer—of an upstart, who exults at his not being a runaway himself, although the descendant of one. Louisiana immediately after its cession, was admitted to the full enjoyment of all the advantages connected with its prerogative, as one of the states of the Union, and its white natives, the Creoles, were considered as citizens born of the United States. But the moment the cession was made, crowds of needy Yankees, and what is worse, Kentuckians, spread all over the country, attracted by the hope of gain; the latter treating the inhabitants as little better than a purchased property. Full of prejudice towards the descendants of a nation, of which they knew little more than the proverb, “French dog,” they, without knowing or condescending to learn their language, behaved towards these people as if the lands, as well as the inhabitants, could be seized without ceremony. This was certainly not the way of thinking, or the conduct of all the northern new comers, there being amongst them many a useful mechanic, merchant, planter, or lawyer; but the greater number came with a degree of presumption, which was in an inverse ratio with their unbounded and absolute ignorance. The creoles, with a proper sense of their own independence, naturally retreated from the intercourse of these intruders. On the other hand, the consequences of an oppressive colonial government, the natural effects of an enervating and sultry climate, could not fail giving to the character of the creoles, a certain tone of passiveness, which makes them an object of interest. They are not capable either of violent passions, or of strong exertions. Gentle and frugal, they abhor drunkenness and gluttony. Their eyes are generally black; but without fire or expression. Their countenances evince neither spirit nor animation; they can boast of very few men of superior talents. Their gait and figure are easy, and their colour generally pale. Though unable to endure great hardships, they are far from being cowards, as the events of the year 1815, and the numerous duels, sufficiently attest. The drawbacks from their character are, an overruling passion for frivolous amusements, an impatience of habit, a tendency for the luxurious enjoyment of the other sex, without being very scrupulous in their choice of either the black or the white race. Their greatest defect, however, is their indifference towards the poor, and towards their own slaves. They treat the former with cold contempt, and cannot easily be induced to assist their fellow-creatures. In this respect they are far inferior to their fellow-citizens of the north, whose example they may follow with much advantage in many things. The Union has already changed much, and the restless and active spirit of their northern fellow-citizens has altered their character, which now partakes much less of the Sybarite, than it formerly did; still, they can never be brought to exercise a mechanical trade, which they consider as below their dignity. The female sex of Louisiana, (the creoles), have in general an interesting appearance. A black languishing eye, colour rather too pale, figure of middle size, which partakes of en bon point, and does not exhibit any waist, are the characteristics of the fair sex. With a great deal of vivacity, they show, however, a proper sense of decorum. Adultery is seldom known among the better classes, notwithstanding the many grounds afforded to them by the infidelity of their husbands. As wives and mothers, they are entitled to every praise; they are more moderate in their expenses than the northern ladies, and though always neat and elegantly dressed, they seldom go beyond reasonable bounds. Several instances are known of their having displayed a high degree of fortitude. In sickness and danger, they are the inseparable assistants and companions of their husbands. In literary education, however, they are extremely deficient; and nothing can be more tiresome than a literary tête a tête with a Creole lady. They receive their education in the convent of the Ursalines, where they learn reading, writing, some female works, and the piano-forte. It is superfluous to observe, being descendants from the French, that they are the best dancers in the United States. Americans from other parts of the Union, may be considered as constituting about three-eighths of the present population of the state, and of New Orleans. Brother Jonathan is to be found in all parts of the Union, and properly speaking, nowhere at home. After having settled in one place, at the distance of 1000 miles from his late residence, cleared lands, reared houses, farms, &c., he leaves his spot as soon as a better chance seems to offer itself. He is an adventurer, who would as soon remove to Mexico, or New South Wales, provided he could “make money” by the change. Most of those who settled in Louisiana grew wealthy either as planters or merchants, and really the wealthiest families of Louisiana are at present Americans from other parts of the Union, who likewise hold the most important public stations. The governors, as well as the members of congress, and senators, have hitherto been Americans, from the very natural reason, that the creoles could not speak the English language, although some important offices are filled by the latter. Nothing can exceed or surpass the suppleness of the Yankey; and the refined Frenchmen, with all their dexterity, may still profit from them and their kindred.

The emigrant French are numerous in New Orleans. Among them are many very respectable merchants, some lawyers, physicians, &c., the greater part, however, consists of adventurers, hair-dressers, dancing-masters, performers, musicians, and the like. The French are of all men the least valuable acquisition for a new state. Of a lavish and wanton temper, they spend their time in trifles, which are of no importance to any but themselves. Dancing, fighting, riding, and love-making, are the daily occupation of these people. Their influence on a new and unsettled state, whose inhabitants have no correct opinion of true politeness and manners, is far from being advantageous. Without either religion, morality, or even education, they pretend to be the leaders of the bon ton, because they came from Paris, and they in general succeed. As for religion and principles, except a sort of point d’honneur, they are certainly a most contemptible set, and greatly contribute to promote immorality. There are a great number of Germans in New Orleans. These people, without being possessed of the smallest resources, embarked eight or ten years ago, and after having lost one-half, or three-parts of their comrades during the passage, they were sold as white slaves, or as they are called, Redemptioners, the moment of their arrival. Thus mixed with the negroes in the same kind of labour, they experience no more consideration than the latter; and their conduct certainly deserves no better treatment. Those who did not escape, were driven away by their masters for their immoderate drinking; and all, with few exceptions, were glad to get rid of such dregs. The watchmen and lamp-lighters are Germans, and hundreds of these people fell victims to the fever, between the years 1814 and 1822. The rest of the white population consists of English, Irish, Spaniards, and some Italians, amongst whom are several respectable houses.

The free people of colour consist of emancipated slaves; but chiefly of the offspring of an intercourse between the whites and blacks, the cause of which is to be sought in the nature of the climate, where sensual passions are so easily excited. Of these descendants, the females in particular are very handsome, and generally destined for the gratification of the wealthier class of the French and the creoles, as their mothers had been before them. The American seldom or never indulges in such unrestrained pleasures. He usually marries early, and remains faithful to his wife. Of a more steady and religious turn, he pays strict attention to decorum and appearances, with certain isolated exceptions of course; but in general he is more solicitous and careful of his public character than the Frenchman, or foreigner, who has seldom any reputation to lose.

The negroes form the lowest class. There are certainly found some amongst them who are entitled to praise for their honesty and fidelity towards their masters; but thousands, on the other hand, will exhibit the vicious nature of a debased and slavish character. There is no doubt, that a malignant and cruel disposition characterises, more or less, this black race. Whether it be inborn, or the result of slavery, I leave to others to decide.

All that can be said in favour of emancipation, may be reduced in the compass of these few words: In the present state of things, if the general cultivation of Louisiana, and the southern states, is to proceed successfully, emancipation is impossible. In this climate, no white person could stand the labour; the act of emancipation itself, treacherous and barbarous as the slaves are, would subject their former masters to certain destruction and death. We are, indeed, very far behind hand in the study of the human character, and of the different gradations of the human species. Unjust, as it assuredly was, to traffic in fellow-creatures, as though they were so many heads of cattle, it is equally unjust now to infringe upon a property which has been transmitted from generation to generation, and which time has sanctioned, without adopting some method of public compensation. All that should be required is, that the slaves be treated with humanity—a law might be enacted to that effect. The slaves will then be improved, and become ripe for a state of emancipation, which may be granted at a future period, without danger or inconvenience to their masters.

It is, however, to be regretted, that the slave population of Louisiana are not so well treated as in the north. The cupidity of their masters, and their solicitude to make a rapid fortune, subject those poor wretches to an oppressive labour, which they are hardly able to endure. They revolted in Louisiana on three occasions, and several white persons fell victims to their vengeance; they were, however, easily subdued, and the example set by the executions, contributed to restore tranquillity. It is impossible to form an idea of the degree of jealousy with which the southern population watch and defend their rights, touching this point. A question upon the right of a slave, as a human being, is almost one of life and death; and lawyers, whenever they presume to defend slaves, and to hint at their rights, are in imminent danger of being stoned like Jews. Not long ago, a gentleman of the bar, Mr. D—e, was very near meeting this fate.

CHAPTER XVI.

Public Spirit.—Education.—State of Religious Worship.—Public Entertainments, Theatres, Balls, &c.

Heterogeneous as this population may seem, and as it really is, in manners, language, and principles, they all agree in one point—the pursuit after—“money.” Americans, English, French, Germans, Spaniards, all come hither—to make money, and to stay here as long as money is to be made. Half the inhabitants may be said to be regularly settled; the rest are half-settlers. Merchants, store-keepers, remain only until they have amassed a fortune answering their expectations, and then remove to their former houses. Others reside here during the winter, to carry on business, and retire to the north in the month of May. That is the case with all the Yankee commission merchants. This has, of course, a sensible and an extensive influence upon the public, and may explain why New Orleans, though one of the wealthiest cities of the Union, is so backward in mental improvement. Even the better Anglo-American families disdain to spend their money in the country where they have earned it, and prefer removing to the north. The institutions for education are consequently inferior to those of any city of equal extent and less wealth, such as Richmond, and even Albany. The only literary institution in the state of Louisiana, the college of New Orleans, is now established, and is intended to be revived at some distance from the capital. Free schools are now (1826) formed in the city, after the manner of the northern states, with a president and professors; and by and bye they will be extended to the rest of the state. Another college, still inferior to the above-mentioned, is superintended by the Catholic clergy. Excepting the elements of reading, writing, mathematics, and latin, it affords no intellectual information. The best of these schools is kept by Mr. Shute, rector of the Episcopalian church, an enlightened and clever man, who fully deserves the popularity he has acquired. Reading, writing, geography, particular and universal history, are taught under his tuition, and in his own rectory. This school, and other private ones where the rudiments are taught, comprehend all the establishments for education in the state.

With respect to the female sex, the creoles are educated by the nuns; the Protestant young ladies by some boarding-school mistresses, partly French, partly Americans, who come from the north. The better classes of the Anglo-Americans, however, prefer sending their daughters to a northern establishment, where they remain for two years, and then return to their homes. Among the charitable institutions must be mentioned the Poydras Asylum for young orphan girls, founded in 1804, by Mr. Poydras. The legislature voted 4000 dollars towards it. Sixty girls are now educating in this asylum. Upon the same plan, is a second asylum for boys, where, in 1825, forty were admitted. These, besides the hospital, are the only public institutions for the benefit of the poor. New Orleans has eight newspapers; among these the State, and two other papers, are published in English and French, a fourth in the Spanish, and the rest in the English. The best of them is the Louisiana Advertiser.

There is not a place in the Union where religion is so little attended to as in New Orleans. For a population of 40,000 inhabitants, it has only four churches; Philadelphia, with 120,000 inhabitants, reckons upwards of eighty; New York upwards of sixty. The city of Pittsburgh, with a population of 10,000 souls, has ten churches, far superior to those in New Orleans. Among the Protestant churches, the high church is best provided for, and the members of this congregation are said to be liberal, which they are generally found to be. They have recently finished a rectory for their minister, and show that liberality which so eminently distinguishes them. Of the Presbyterians we have spoken before. Though they would run ten times on a Sunday to church, and hear even as many sermons, yet they neither pay their minister, who by the bye is far from being an amiable character, nor redeem their church out of the hands of Israel, but prefer keeping their money to contributing towards such objects.

The creoles, who are Catholics, seldom visit their church, and when they do, it is only at Easter. They have a very learned bishop, named Dubourgh, a Frenchman, who is not however very popular, and is spoken of for his gallantries, though a man of sixty. It is whispered about that there is a living proof of this. A more religious character is Pere Antoine, a highly distinguished old Capuchin friar, enjoying universal love and popularity. The manner in which I saw the Governor and the city authorities, with the most respectable persons of the county, behave towards him, does as much credit to them as to the object of their consideration.

Of the two theatres, the American is open during five, and the French during eight months in the year. The American theatre has the advantage of becoming more and more national and popular, although at present it is only resorted to by the lower class of the American population; boatmen, Kentuckians, Mississippi traders, and backwoods-men of every description. The pieces are execrably performed. The late Charles Von Weber would not have been much delighted at witnessing the performance of his Der Freyshutz, here metamorphosed into the wild huntsmen of Bohemia. Six violins, which played any thing but music, and some voices far from being human, performed the opera, which was applauded; the Kentuckians expressed their satisfaction in a hurrah, which made the very walls tremble. The interior of the theatre has still a mean appearance. The curtain consists of two sail cloths, and the horrible smell of whiskey and tobacco is a sufficient drawback for any person who would attempt to frequent this place of amusement. The French theatre performs the old classic productions of Corneille, Racine, Voltaire, with the addition of some new ones, such as Regulus, Marie Stuart, and William Tell. The best performer of this theatre, is Madame Clauzel.

Towards the close of December, the carnival commences; society balls, masquerades, or routs, besides a number of private balls, are then the order of the day. The first, the third, and the last masquerade, and the society balls, are the most splendid. They are regularly attended by the daughters of the merchants and planters, who at this time come to the city. There is, however, nothing more tiresome than a masked ball in New Orleans. Some young merchants, and sons of planters, took it into their heads to assume the character of poor paddies, and they dressed themselves accordingly. This would have been for the most unaccomplished American or English Miss, a fair opportunity for displaying at least some wit. But the creole Demoiselles, when addressed by their lovers, had not a word to say, except, “Oh, we know that you are no Paddies—You are very respectable—You are the wealthy C.” Another would say, “Oh, I know that you are not an Irishman—You are the rich Y.” This was the conversation all round. Still more tedious are the public balls given in commemoration of the eighth of January, on the anniversary of the birth-day of Washington, &c. Until last year, and owing to the shyness of the creoles towards their new brothers, the Americans and creoles stood with their ladies apart, neither speaking nor dancing with one another. Last year both parties seemed willing to draw nearer to each other. Even these entertainments, as well as more important affairs, are very subordinate to the all-powerful desire of “making money.” This is the final object of every one, and on every occasion. Any pursuit of a different tendency than that of gaining money, is neglected, and deemed unworthy of consideration. That which every town of 2000 inhabitants is now provided with, a reading-room and circulating library, you would seek in vain at New Orleans. Though the Anglo-Americans attempted to establish such an institution, which is indispensable in a great commercial city, it failed through the unwillingness of the creoles to trouble their heads with reading. Churches or theatres are not more patronised. To improve the moral condition is far from their thoughts, every one being bent upon—making money, as quickly as possible, in order the sooner to leave the place. New Orleans, considering its situation, should again be what it was lately, were it not for the detestable selfishness which pervades all classes, and has established a dominion over the mind, as painful as it is disgusting. The complaints about luxury are unfounded. The wealthy inhabitants live by no means in such high style as they do at New York, Boston, and even Richmond, upon a less income. There is no cause for finding fault with their extravagance, or their dissolute manners, not because they have better moral principles, but because they are too selfish to indulge in pleasures that would cost “money,” and would mar their principal object, which is to amass it. The American from the north, whilst he inhabits New Orleans, lives in a style far inferior to that in which he indulges at home; and even if he be a permanent settler, he chooses rather to go to the north in order to spend his money there. Only three American houses can be said to receive good company, the rest are creoles. The living in New Orleans, however, is good, though expensive. Board and lodging in a respectable house, will cost sixty dollars a month; in an inferior one, forty. The proper season of business for strangers, and those not accustomed to the climate, is the winter. In the summer, every one retires to the north, or across the lake, only such persons remaining as are compelled from circumstances to do so.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Climate of Louisiana.—The Yellow Fever.

That a country, the fourth part of which consists of marshes, stagnant waters, rivers, and lakes, and which is so near the torrid zone, cannot be altogether healthy, is not to be denied. Although Louisiana is not so salubrious a country as the creoles or settlers inured to the climate, would persuade us that it is; on the other hand it is not the seat of the plague, or of continued disease, as the North Americans or Europeans imagine. Louisiana is no doubt a most agreeable country during the winter and spring. The former commences in December, and continues through January. Rains and showers will sometimes fall, during several successive weeks, snow very seldom. North and north-east winds prevail; a south wind will occasionally change the temperature, on a sudden, from a northern April day to the heat of summer. The coldest winter experienced for twenty years past, was that of the year 1821; the gutters were choked up with ice, and water exposed in buckets, froze to the thickness of an inch and a half. Fahrenheit’s thermometer fell to 20° below zero. In this year, the orange, lime, and even fig-trees were destroyed by the frost.

Towards the close of January the Mississippi rises, and the ice of the Ohio breaks up. This river, seldom, however, causes an inundation. This is generally reserved for the Missouri, the principal river that empties itself into the Mississippi. With the month of February the spring breaks forth in Louisiana. Frequent rains fall in this month, the vegetation advances astonishingly, and the trees receive their new foliage. On the 1st of March we had potatoes grown in the open fields, pease, beans, and artichokes. South winds prevail alternately with north-west winds. The month of March is undoubtedly the finest season in Louisiana; there are sometimes night frosts, though scarcely felt by any one except the creoles, and the equally tender orange flowers. The thermometer is in this month at 68°–70°. At this time prevails a disease, the influenza, which arises from the sudden alternations of cold and warm weather; it has carried off several persons. It is always necessary to wear cotton shirts, whether in cold or warm weather. Towards the close of March, the fruit-trees have done blooming, the forests are clad in their new verdure, and all nature bursts out in the most exuberant vegetation; every thing develops itself in the country with gigantic strides. Already the musquitoes are beginning to make their troublesome appearance, and musquito bars become necessary. Still the heat is moderate, being cooled by the north winds and the refreshing waters of the Mississippi. May brings with it the heat of a northern summer, moderated however, by cooling north and north-east breezes. The thermometer is at 78° to 80°. At this season, frequent showers and hurricanes coming from the south, rage with the utmost fury in those extensive plains. With the month of June the heats become oppressive; there is not a breath of air to be felt; the musquitos come in millions; one is incessantly pursued by those troublesome insects. The worst, however, is, that they will sometimes force their way through the musquito bars. Nothing is more disagreeable than this buzzing sound, and the pain occasioned by their sting; they keep you from sleeping the whole night. Still they are not so troublesome as the millepedes, an insect whose sting causes a most painful sensation. In the month of July the heat increases. August, September, and October, are dangerous months in New Orleans. A deep silence reigns during this time in the city, most of the stores and magazines are shut up. No one is to be seen in the streets in the day time except negroes and people of colour. No carriage except the funeral hearse. At the approach of evening the doors open, and the inhabitants pour forth, to enjoy the air, and to walk on the Levee above and below the city. The yellow fever has not made its appearance since 1822. It is not the extraordinary heat which causes this baneful disease, the temperature seldom exceeding 100°. In the year 1825, when the thermometer rose in New York and Boston above 108°, it was in New Orleans, no more than 97°. It is the pestilential miasmata which rise from the swamps and marshes, and infect the air to a degree which it is difficult to describe. These oppressive exhalations load the air, and it is almost impossible to draw breath. If a breeze comes at all, it is a south wind, which, from its baneful influence, exhausts the last remaining force after throwing you into a dreadful state of perspiration. The years 1811, 1814, and 1823, were the most terrible of any for New Orleans. From sixty to eighty persons were buried every day, and nothing was to be seen but coffins carried about on all sides. Whole streets in the upper suburb, (inhabited chiefly by Americans and Germans) were cleared of their inhabitants, and New Orleans was literally one vast cemetery. Among the inhabitants, the poorer classes were mostly exposed to the attacks of the unsparing and deadly disease, as their situation did not permit them to stay at home; thus women were for this reason, less exposed to its effects; and least of all the wealthiest inhabitants, who were not compelled to quit their dwellings. The creoles and others who were seasoned to the climate, were little affected. The creole, mulatto, and negro women, are said to be the most skilful in the cure of the disease. In 1822, hundreds of patients died under the hands of the most experienced physicians, when these old women commonly succeeded in restoring their own patients. Their preservatives and medicines are as simple as they are efficacious, and every stranger who intends to stay the summer in New Orleans, should make himself acquainted with one of these women, in case a necessity should arise for requiring their attendance. They give such ample proofs of their superior skill, as to claim in this point a preference over the ablest physicians.

The inhabitants are in general forewarned of the approaching disease, by the swarms of musquitoes; although they come in sufficient quantity every summer, they make their appearance in infinitely greater numbers previously to a yellow fever.

This is said to have been the case on the three occasions already mentioned. At such a time all business is of course suspended. The port is empty, the stores are shut up. Those officers alone whose presence is indispensable, or who have overcome the yellow fever, will remain with a set of wretches, who, like beasts of prey feed upon the relics of the dead, speculating upon the misery of their fellow creatures so far, as not unfrequently to buy at auctions the very beds upon which they have been known to expire in a few days afterwards. The first rain, succeeded by a little frost, banishes the deadly guest, and every one returns to his former business.

It is to be hoped, that this scourge of the land, if it should not be wholly extirpated, will at least become less prevalent for the future. The police regulations adopted during the last four years, have proved very effectual. Among these are a strict attention to cleanliness, watering the streets by means of the gutters, shutting up the grog-shops after nine o’clock; and removing from the city all the poor and houseless people, at the expense of the corporation, as soon as the least indication of approaching infection is perceived. These, and several other wise regulations will, it is hoped, contribute greatly to increase the population, and to give the new comers a firmer guarantee for their lives, than they have hitherto found. When the plans in contemplation shall have been carried into effect, and the swamps behind the city drained, a measure the more beneficial, as the soil of these swamps is beyond all imagination fertile; then the surrounding country, and the city itself, will become as healthy as any other part of the Union. With the increasing population, we have no doubt, that Louisiana will present the same features, as Egypt in former days, bearing, as it does, the most exact resemblance to that country. During six months, and already at the present time, it is a delightful place, successfully resorted to from the north, by persons in a weak state of health. The mildness of the climate, which even during the two winter months, is seldom interrupted by frost, the most luxuriant tropical fruits—bananas, pine-apples, oranges, lemons, figs, cocoa-nuts, &c., partly reared in the country, partly imported in ship loads from the Havannah, a distance of only a few hundred miles; excellent oysters, turtle of the best kind, arriving every hour; fish from the lake Pontchartrain; game, venison of all sorts; vegetables of the finest growth,—all these advantages give New Orleans a superiority over almost every other place. Sobriety, temperance, and moderation in the use of sensual enjoyments, and especially in the intercourse with the sex, with a strict attention to the state of health, and an instant resort to the necessary preservatives in case of derangement in the digestive system,—such are the precautions that will best enable a stranger to guard against the attacks of the disorders incident to this place.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Hints for Emigrants to Louisiana.—Planters, Farmers, Merchants, and Mechanics.

Whoever emigrates from a northern to a southern climate, experiences more or less a change in his constitution; his blood is thinned, and in a state of greater effervescence, and his frame weakened in consequence. The least derangement in the digestive system in this case, produces a bilious fever.

The new comers emigrating to Louisiana, are either planters, farmers, merchants, or mechanics. The former, being more or less wealthy, come for the purpose of establishing themselves, and usually buy sugar or cotton lands, on the banks of the Mississippi, or Red-river, which, though in general healthy, are, on the other hand, a sure grave to those who neglect taking the necessary precautions. Planters descend to Louisiana in the winter months; but as the heat increases every moment, and has a debilitating effect upon their bodies, accustomed to a cold climate, they attempt to counterbalance this weakness by an excessive use of spirituous liquors, to promote digestion. Notwithstanding bad omens, and in spite of the advice of their more experienced neighbours, their mania for making money keeps them there during the summer, and they fall victims to their avidity for gain.

Whoever intends to establish a plantation in Louisiana, has the free choice between the low lands on the Mississippi, or the Red-river. There are upwards of 200,000 acres of sugar lands still unoccupied. He may settle himself on the banks of the above-mentioned rivers, without the least fear, the yellow fever seldom or never penetrating to the plantations. Thousands of planters live and continue there without experiencing any attack of sickness. After having bought his lands, and obtained possession, he may stay till the month of May, taking the necessary measures for the improvement of the plantation, leave his directions with his overseer, and remove to the north. His house, if along the banks of the Mississippi, should be built not far from the river, in order that he may enjoy the cooling freshness of its waters. In the rear of his plantation, and about his house, he sows the seed of sun-flowers, to preserve his slaves from the morning and night exhalations of the swamps; a measure which, trifling as it may seem, will have an incredible effect in improving the air.

With a capital of 25,000 dollars, 5,500l. sterling, he may purchase at the present time, 2,000 acres of land, for a sum of from 3 to 4,000 dollars, and thirty stout slaves for 15,000 dollars; there will remain 7,000 for his first year’s expenses. The establishment of a sugar plantation amounts to not more than the above stated sum of 25,000 dollars. The produce of the third year, if the plantation be properly managed, amounts to 150,000 pounds of sugar, valued at 12,000 dollars, besides the molasses, the sale of which will cover the household expenses; each negro, therefore, yielding a clear annual income of 400 dollars.

Failures in sugar crops in plantations along the banks of the Mississippi, never occur, except beyond 30° 30′ of north latitude. The planter, however, cannot expect any thing in the first year from his sugar fields; the canes yielding produce only eighteen months after having been planted. The planting takes place from August until December, by means of eye-slips. The process at the sugar-houses is sufficiently known. These plantations, if well managed and well attended to, are, owing to the great and constant demand for sugar, the surest way of realising a capital, though the management requires considerable care and attention.

Cotton plantations are not to be judged according to the same estimate. A cotton plantation may now be established by means of a capital of 10,000 dollars. 3000 dollars for the purchase of 1500 or 2000 acres of land, on the banks of the Mississippi, from Baton Rouge up to the Walnut-hills, on both sides of the river; or what is still preferable, on the banks of the Red-river. Ten slaves at 5000 dollars, leaves 2000 for the first year’s current expenses. The beginner will not find it difficult to clear fifty acres in the first twelve months; and to raise from twenty-five acres, thirty bales of cotton, the produce of which will, with the crop of corn from the remaining twenty-five acres, keep him for the first year, the cotton alone being worth 1500 dollars, independently of the corn. The following year he may raise sixty bales, giving an income of 3000 dollars, every slave thereby yielding about 300 dollars; proceeding thus in a manner which in a few years more will render his income equal to his original capital.

There are still unappropriated above two millions of acres of cotton lands, of the very first quality, in the state of Louisiana; and though it sometimes happens that the plants are killed by the frosts, as was the case in the spring of 1826, these accidents seldom affect the profits. The management of a cotton plantation is by no means difficult, as it differs but little from that bestowed upon Indian corn, and requires only a strict superintendence over the negroes.

The cultivation of indigo has latterly been neglected, though 200,000 acres of land in the state of Louisiana are well adapted for it. This neglect was occasioned by the injurious effects produced upon the labourer by the watering of the plants, and the exhalations from them.

The cultivation of rice is more extensive. There are 200,000 acres unoccupied. Planters generally combine the cultivation of this plant with that of cotton or sugar. Tobacco of a superior quality is reared about Natchitoches and Alexandria; the produce is little inferior to that of Cuba. The price of a stout male negro is 500 dollars; if a mechanic, from 6 to 900 dollars; females from 350 to 400 dollars; so that 5000 dollars will purchase five men, two of them mechanics, and five stout women, and enable their master at once to set about a plantation, which will, in the course of three years, double the capital of the owner, without his exposing himself to any risk.

The easy way in which the planters of Louisiana are found to accumulate wealth, excites in every one the desire of pursuing the same road, without having the necessary means at command. Hundreds of respectable farmers have paid with their lives for a neglect of this truth. Instigated by the anxiety to become rich, and unable withal to purchase slaves, they were under the necessity of labouring for themselves. The consequence was, they shortly fell victims to their mistaken notions. One can only be seasoned by degrees to the climate of Louisiana. To force the march of time and habit, is impossible. The more stout and healthy the person, the greater the risk. People who, allured by the prospect of wealth, would attempt to work in this climate as they were used to do in the north, would fall sick and die, without having provided for their children, who are then forced upon the charity of strangers. There are many tracts of second-rate land, equal to land of the best quality in the northern states, in the west and east of Louisiana, which are perfectly healthy, and where farmers of less property may buy lands, and establish labour and corn farms, or raise cattle in abundance. Those who have proceeded in this way, which is more proportioned to their means, have never failed to acquire in the course of time, a large fortune, as by the open water communication the produce can easily be conveyed to New Orleans, where, in the summer, they find a ready and advantageous market. These parts have hitherto been too much neglected, to which circumstance it is greatly owing that New Orleans, at certain seasons, is almost destitute of provisions, when the waters of the tributary rivers of the Mississippi, Ohio, &c., are low.

A third class of settlers in Louisiana are merchants. New Orleans has unfortunately the credit of being a place to which wealth flows in streams, and it is consequently the resort of all adventurers from Europe and America, who come hither in the expectation, that they have only to be on the spot to make money. Thousands of these ill-fated adventurers have lost their lives in consequence. It is true, that most of the wealthy merchants were needy adventurers, who began with scarcely a dollar in their pockets, as pedlars, who sold pins and glass beads to the Indians. But the surest way for the merchant who wishes to begin with a small capital, will always be to settle in one of the smaller towns, Francisville, Alexandria, Natchitoches, Baton Rouge, &c. Those who have followed this course grew wealthy in a short time. I admit there is an exception with respect to such as have a sufficient capital to begin business with in the city itself, or to embark in commercial relation with Great Britain, the north of the Union, or the continent of Europe.

The commission trade is advantageous in the extreme; and the clear income realised in commercial business by several merchants, amounts to 50,000 dollars a year. All the French, English, and Spaniards, who have established themselves in this place, have become rich, especially if the individuals of the latter nations were conversant with the French language.

For manufacturers, there is in New Orleans little prospect. In a slave state, where of course hard labour is performed only by slaves, whose food consists of Indian corn, and at the most, of salt meat, and their dress of cotton trowsers, or a blanket rudely adapted to their shapes, the mechanic cannot find sufficient customers. Half of the inhabitants have no need of his assistance; and as he cannot renounce his habits of living on wheat flour, fresh meat, &c., provisions which at certain seasons are very dear in New Orleans, his existence there must be very precarious. The charges are proportionably enormous. The price for the making of a great coat, is from fourteen to sixteen dollars; of a coat, from ten to twelve dollars. The greatest part of the inhabitants, therefore, buy their own dresses ready made in the north. The wealthy alone employ these mechanics.

There are yet several trades which would answer well in New Orleans, such as clever tailors, confectioners, &c. But as almost every article is brought into this country, the mechanics have rather a poor chance of succeeding, and if not provided with a sufficient capital, they are exposed to great penury until they can find customers. This class of people are very little respected, and hardly more so than the people of colour in Louisiana.

CHAPTER XIX.

Geographical Features of the State of Louisiana.—Conclusion.

Louisiana lies under the same degree of north latitude as Egypt, and bears a striking resemblance to that country. Their soil, their climate, and their very rivers, exhibit the same features, with the exception, that the Mississippi runs from north to south, whereas the Nile takes an opposite course. Close to the eastern bank of the former, we find a continued series of Cyprus, swamps, and lakes, sometimes intersected by a tributary stream of the Mississippi, with elevated banks or hills. Farther towards the east are large tracts of lands, with pinewoods stretching towards the river Mobile, which resembles the Mississippi in every thing, except in size. Further southward, between the Mississippi and Mobile, we find the rivers Amite, Tickfah, Tangipao, Pearl, Pascagola, emptying themselves into a chain of lakes and swamps, running in a south-east direction from the Mississippi to the mouth of the Mobile. Further to the westward is the Mississippi in its meandering course, its banks lined with plantations from Natchez to New Orleans, each plantation extending half a mile back to the swamps. South of New Orleans, is another chain of swamps, lakes, and bayons, terminating in the gulf of Mexico. West of the Mississippi, a multitude of rivers flow in a thousand windings, lined with impenetrable forests of cyprus, cotton trees, and cedars, intermixed with canebrack and the palmetta. In this labyrinth of rivers, the Red-river, the Arkansas, the White-river, and Tensaw rivers are seen meandering. Farther east are the immense prairies of Opelausas, and Attacapas, interspersed here and there with rising farms, forests along the banks of the Red-river, and more to the westward the great prairies, the resort of innumerable buffaloes and of every kind of game. The Red-river, like the Mississippi, forms an impenetrable series of swamps and lakes. Beyond this river are seen pinewoods, from which issues the Ouachitta, losing itself afterwards in the Delta of the Mississippi. Beyond these pine woods, in a north western direction, rise the Mazernes mountains, extending from the east to west 200 miles, and forming the boundary line between east and west Louisiana. To the north and west of the Red-river, the country is dry and healthy, but of inferior quality; to the east we find a chain of lakes; to the south another chain. In summer they dry up, thus affording fine pasturage to buffaloes. In autumn, with the rising of the rivers, they again fill with water. Southward is a continued lake, intermixed with swamps, which terminate at last in the gulph of Mexico.

Louisiana, though the smallest of the states and territories formed out of the ancient Louisiana, is by far the most important, and the central point of the western commonwealth. Its boundaries are, on the south, the Gulph of Mexico; on the west, the Mexican province of Tecas; on the north, the Arkansas territory, and the state of Mississippi; and on the east, the state of Mississippi, and Mexico. The number of inhabitants amounts to 190,000, 106,000 of whom are people of colour. The constitution of the state inclines to Federal. The governor, the senators, and the representatives, in order to be eligible, must be possessed of landed property—the former to the amount of at least 5000 dollars, the next 1000, and the latter 500. Every citizen of the state is qualified to vote. The government in this, as well as in every other state, is divided into three separate branches. The chief magistrate of the state is elected for the term of four years. Under him he has a secretary of state. The present governor is an Anglo-American; Mr. Johnson, the secretary, is a Creole.

The legislative branch is composed of the senators, and of the house of representatives. The former consists of sixteen members, elected for the term of four years. They choose from among themselves a president, who takes the place of the governor, in case of the demise of the latter.[K] The house of representatives consists of forty-four members, headed by a speaker; the court of justice of three judges of the district court, a supreme judge of the criminal court of New Orleans, and eight district judges, with an equal number of district attorneys. The sessions are held every Monday. The parish and county courts have twenty-eight county or parish judges, twenty-six sheriffs, and 159 lawyers, to assist them in their labours. In a political view, the acquisition of Louisiana is no doubt the most important occurrence in the United States since the revolution; and, considered altogether, it may be called a second revolution. Independently of the pacific acquisition of a country containing nearly a million and a half of square miles, with the longest river in the world flowing through a valley several thousand miles in length and breadth, their geographical position is now secured, and they form, since the further acquisition of Florida, a whole and compact body, with a coast extending upwards of 1000 miles along the gulph of Mexico, and 500 miles on the Pacific ocean. Whether the vast increase of wealth amassed by most of those who settled on the banks of the Mississippi will prove strong enough to retain this political link unbroken, is very much to be doubted. It is very clear that the inhabitants of the valley of the Mississippi, and especially of Louisiana, entertain a feeling of estrangement from their northern fellow citizens.

With the exception of a number of respectable Americans, Louisiana and the valley of the Mississippi have hitherto been the refuge of all classes of foreigners, good and bad, who sought here an asylum from oppression and poverty, or from the avenging arm of justice in their native countries. Many have not succeeded in their expectations—many have died—others returned, exasperated against a country which had disappointed their hopes, because they expected to find superior beings, and discovered that they were men neither worse nor better than their habits, propensities, country, climate, and a thousand other circumstances had made them. The fault was theirs. Though there exists not, perhaps, a country in the world where a fortune can be made in an easier way, yet it cannot be made without industry, steadiness, and a small capital to begin with—things in which these people were mostly deficient. And there is another circumstance not to be lost sight of. Whoever changes his country should have before him a complete view and a clear idea of the state in which he intends to settle, as well as of the rest of the Union: he ought to depend upon his own means, on himself in short, and not upon others. Upon no other terms will prosperity and happiness attend the emigrant’s exertions in the United States. The foreign mechanic who, emigrating into the United States, selects the states of New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio, will find sufficient occupation, his trade respected, and his industry rewarded by wealth and political consequence. The manufacturer with a moderate capital, will choose Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and the like places. The merchant who is possessed of 2 or 3000 dollars, and settles in Ohio, in the north western part of Pennsylvania, or over in Illinois, will, if he be prudent and steady, have no reason to complain of the Yankees. The farmer, with a capital of from 3 to 4000 dollars, will fix upon the state of Ohio, in preference to any other, especially if he comes accompanied only by his own family, and is therefore obliged to rely on the friendly assistance of his neighbours. He will there prefer the lands adjacent to navigable rivers, or to the rise of the new canal. If he goes beyond Ohio, he will find eligible situations in Illinois, and in Missouri. Any one who can command a capital exceeding 10,000 dollars, who is not incumbered with a large family, and whose mind does not revolt at the idea of being the owner of slaves, will choose the state of Mississippi, or of Louisiana, and realize there in a short time a fortune beyond his most sanguine expectations. He has his choice there of the unsold lands along the Mississippi, and Red-river, in the parishes of Plaquemines or Bayon Bastier; in the interior, of La Fourche, Iberville, Attacapas, Opelousas, Rapides, Nachitoches, Concordia, New Feliciana, and all the way up the Mississippi, to Walnut-hills, four hundred miles above New Orleans. All that has been urged against the unhealthiness of the country may be answered in these few words. Louisiana, though not at every season of the year equally salubrious, is far healthier than Cuba, Jamaica, and the West Indies in general. Thousands of people live free from the attacks of any kind of fever. On the plantations there is not the least danger.—In New Orleans the yellow fever has not appeared these four years past, and the place is so far from being unhealthy now, that the mortality for the last three years was less in this place than in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Cleanliness, sobriety, a strict attention to the digestive system, and the avoiding of strong liquors, and exposure to heat, or to the rising miasmata, will keep every one as healthy in Louisiana as any where else. The neglect of proper precautions will cause as serious inconvenience in Louisiana as in any other country. This is the real condition of the state, and those acquainted with it will readily bear testimony to the correctness of my opinion, that it holds out not only to British emigrants, but also to capitalists of that country, advantages far surpassing those of their own vast dominions in any quarter of the globe.

In Louisiana they should embark a part of their capital, not in land speculations, or in buying extensive tracts, which they have to sell in the course of time in small parcels, but in plantations. These are sources of wealth far superior to the gold mines of Mexico, and are guaranteed by a firm constitution, and by the character and the habits of a liberal people, taken in the whole, whatever John Bull may have to say against it. In this manner may the said John Bull still reap the reward of his having formed and maintained the first settlements in the United States, at a vast expense of blood and treasure.

This would be the means of drawing closer the now rather relaxed ties which formerly united him with his kinsman, for Brother Jonathan is neither so bad as John Bull supposes him to be, nor so faultless as he fancies himself.—Medium tenuere beati.

THE END.

TABLE
OF THE
STATES, COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES.

Pittsburgh, county town of Alleghany county.

Alleghany (river), Monongehela (river).

Oeconomy, Rapp’s Settlement in Beaver county.

Zanesville, capital of Muskiagum county.

New Lancaster, capital of Fairfield county.

Columbus, capital of the State of Ohio.

Chilicothe, capital of the Sciota county.

Franklintown, capital of Franklin county.

Cincinnati, capital of Hamilton county.

Newport, capital of Campbell county, in Kentucky.

Vevay, capital of New Switzerland county, in the State of Indiana.

Madisonville, capital of Jefferson county.

Charlestown, capital of Clark county.

Jeffersonville, capital of Floyd county.

Clarkesville and New Albany, villages of Floyd county.

Louisville, capital of Jefferson county, in Kentucky.

Shippingport and Portland, villages.

Troy, capital of Crawford county.

Owensborough, capital of Henderson county.

Harmony, in Indiana, second settlement of Rapp, purchased 1823, by Owen, of Lanark.

Shawneetown, in the State of Illinois.

Fort Massai, in the State of Illinois.

Golconda, capital of Pope county.

Vienna, capital of Johnson county.

America, capital of Alexander county.

Trinity, village of Alexander.

Kaskakia, Cahokia, towns of Illinois.

Vandalia, capital of the State of Illinois.

Hamburgh, village in Illinois.

Cape Girardeau, capital of the county of the same name.

St. Genevieve and Herculaneum, towns of the State of Missouri.

City of St. Louis, capital of Missouri (the state).

New Madrid, capital of New Madrid county.

Tennessee, State of

Nashville, Knoxville, towns of Tennessee, and New Ereesborough, capital of the State.

Hopefield, capital of Hempstead county.

St. Helena, village of Arkansas territory.

Vixburgh, capital of Warren county.

Warrington, village of Warren county.

Palmyra Plantations, Bruinsburgh, Natchez (city of), in the State of Mississippi.

Gibsonport, capital of Gibson county.

Baton Rouge, Plaquemines, Manchac, Bayon, Tourche, the former the capital of the county, and the latter bayons.

New Orleans (city of), the capital of Louisiana.

In Chapter xix. the following Rivers occur.

Mobile—the rivers Amite, Tickfah, Tangipao, Pearl, Pascaguala, Arkansas, White and Red-River, Tensaw.

Plaquemines, Interior of la Tourche, Iberville, Attacapas, Opelousas, Rapides, Natchitoches, Concordia, Avoyelles, New Feliciana, Parishes of Louisiana.

N.B. The Counties in the State of Louisiana, are called Parishes.

Printed by Bradbury & Dent, Bolt-court, Fleet-street.

Footnotes

[A] Of course this billiard table is not mentioned as a matter of importance, but merely to give a characteristic idea of the state of society in these parts.

[B] Eighteen miles from Pittsburgh on the road to Beaver, the new and third settlement of the Swabian separatists, called Economy, was established two years ago by Rapp, a man celebrated in the Union for his rustic sagacity. This man affords an instance of what persevering industry, united with sound sense, may effect.—When he arrived with his 400 followers from Germany, twenty years ago, their capital amounted to 35,000 dollars; and so poor were they at first, that their leader could not find credit for a barrel of salt. They are now worth at least a million of dollars. Their new settlement promises to thrive, and to become superior to those which they sold in Buttler County, Pennsylvania, and in Indiana on the Wabash. Nothing can exceed the authority exercised by this man over his flock. He unites both the spiritual and temporal power in his own person. He has with him a kind of Vice-Dictator in the person of his adopted son, (who is married to his daughter), and a council of twelve elders, who manage the domestic affairs of the community, now amounting to 1000 souls. When he was yet residing in Old Harmony, twenty-eight miles north of Pittsburgh, the bridge constructed over a creek which passes by the village, wanted repair. It was winter time; the ice seemed thick enough to allow of walking across. The creek, however, was deep, and 100 feet wide: Master Rapp, notwithstanding, ventured upon it, intending to come up to the pier. He was scarcely in the middle of the river, when the ice gave way. A number of his followers being assembled on the shores, were eager to assist him.—“Do you think,” hallooed Rapp, “that the Lord will withdraw his hands from his elect, and that I need your help?” The poor fellows immediately dropped the boards, but at the same time Master Rapp sunk deeper into the creek. The danger at last conquered his shame and his confidence in supernatural aid, and he called lustily for assistance. Notwithstanding the cries of the American by-standers, “You d—d fools, let the tyrant go down, you will have his money, you will be free,” they immediately threw boards on the ice, went up to him, and took him out of the water, amidst shouts of laughter from the unbelieving Americans. On the following Sunday he preached them a sermon, purporting that the Lord had visited their sins upon him, and that their disobedience to his commands was the cause of his sinking. The poor dupes literally believed all this, promised obedience, and both parties were satisfied. Several of his followers left him, being shocked at his law of celibacy, but such was his ascendancy over the female part of the community, that they chose rather to leave their husbands than their father Rapp, as they call him. Last year, however (1826), he abolished this kind of celibacy, hitherto so strictly observed, and on the 4th of July, eighteen couples were permitted to marry. This settlement is one of the finest villages in the west of Pennsylvania. A manufactory of steam engines, extensive parks of deer, two elks, and a magnificent palace for himself, splendidly furnished, show that he knows how to avail himself of his increasing wealth. The inhabitants of Pittsburgh make frequent excursions to this settlement, and though his manners savour of the Swabian peasant, yet his wealth and his hospitality have considerably diminished the contempt in which he was formerly held by the Anglo-Americans.

[C] Sawyers are bodies of trees fixed in the river, which yield to the pressure of the current, disappearing and appearing by turns above water, like the rotatory motion of the saw-mill, from which they have derived their name. They sometimes point up the stream, sometimes in the contrary direction. A steam-boat running on a sawyer, cannot escape destruction.

[D] Planters are large bodies of trees, firmly fixed by their roots to the bottom of the river, in a perpendicular manner, and rising no more than a foot above the surface at low water. They are so firmly rooted, as to be unmoved by the shock of steam-boats running upon them.

[E] Bayons, outlets of the Mississippi, formed by nature. They are in great numbers, and carry its waters to the gulph of Mexico. Without these outlets, New Orleans would be destroyed by the spring floods in a few hours.

[F] In New Orleans, water is found two feet below the surface. Those who cannot afford to procure a vault for their dead, are literally compelled to deposit them in the water.

[G] The whole number of vessels then in port was 100 schooners, brigs, and ships.

[H] Pensacola has been established as a port for the United States navy: 1825–1826.

[I] The whole course of the Mississippi exceeds, the Missouri included, 4200 miles. This latter is its principal tributary stream, and superior in magnitude even to the Mississippi.

[J] Below New Orleans there is no place well adapted for the site of a large city.

[K] The governor of Louisiana has 5000 dollars a year: the governors of other states either 2 or 3000 dollars. According to the American money, four dollars forty-four cents make a pound: a dollar has 100 cents.

Transcriber’s Note

Minor errors in punctuation are corrected silently.

In the final table of place names, ‘New Ereesborough’ is referred to as the state capital of Tennessee. This seems a corruption of ‘Murfreesborough’, which was the capital until 1826.

The following issues, which were deemed printer’s errors, and their resolutions are described here:

p. ii | [t]hroughout] | Added.
p. 80 | approach[e]d | Added.
p. 82 | Baton [D/R]ouge | Corrected.
p. 99 | hickor[i]y | Removed.
p. 108 | backswood-man / backwoods-man | Corrected.
p. 206 | Fran[s]cisville | Removed.

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Table of Contents

- Transcriber’s Notes

- THE AMERICANS AS THEY ARE; DESCRIBED IN A TOUR THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

- ADVERTISEMENT.

- PREFACE.

- CONTENTS.

- CHAPTER I.

- CHAPTER II.

- CHAPTER III.

- CHAPTER IV.

- CHAPTER V.

- CHAPTER VI.

- CHAPTER VII.

- CHAPTER VIII.

- CHAPTER IX.

- CHAPTER X.

- CHAPTER XI.

- CHAPTER XII.

- CHAPTER XIII.

- CHAPTER XIV.

- CHAPTER XV.

- CHAPTER XVI.

- CHAPTER XVII.

- CHAPTER XVIII.

- CHAPTER XIX.

- TABLE OF THE STATES, COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES.

- Footnotes
- Transcriber’s Note
- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE