Cadron settlement—Arrive at Arkansas—Continue to the Mississippi—The wandering fanatics—Pirates—Natchez—stratification of its site, and remarks on its agricultural productions—The Choctaws—Fort Adams—Point Coupé—Baton Rouge—Opulent Planters—New Orleans.

On the evening of the 18th of December, I again arrived at the Cadron,⁠[212] where four families now resided. A considerable concourse of travellers and some emigrants begin to make their appearance at this imaginary town. The only tavern, very ill provided, was consequently crowded with all sorts of company. It contained only two tenantable rooms, built of logs, with hundreds of crevices still left open, notwithstanding the severity of the season.

Every reasonable and rational amusement appeared here to be swallowed up in dram-drinking, jockeying, and gambling; even our landlord, in defiance of the law, was often the ring-leader of what it was his duty to suppress. Although I have been through life perfectly steeled against games of hazard, neither wishing to rob nor be robbed, I felt somewhat mortified {220} to be thus left alone, because of my unconquerable aversion to enter this vortex of swindling and idleness.

From the 18th to the 27th we had frosty nights; and on the 28th a fall of snow that continued throughout the day, and which still (January 3d) remained on all northern exposures; considerable sheets of ice, near three quarters of an inch in thickness, now began to invade the still water of the river, but were generally broken up by evening.

In one of the beds of grauwacke slate, which form the picturesque cliffs of the Cadron, I observed articulations of a species of orthoceratite, apparently belonging to the genus Raphanister of Montfort. Above this bed, and forming the summit of the hills, occurs a massive laminated sandstone of a grey colour and inconsiderable dip.

On the 4th of January, 1820, after waiting about a month for an opportunity of descending, I now embraced the favourable advantage of proceeding in the boat of Mr. Barber, a merchant of New Orleans, to whose friendship and civility I am indebted for many favours.

5th.] This morning we again passed the outlet of the river called La Feve’s Fork, coming in on our right. It sources with the Pottoe, the Kiamesha, Little river of Red river, and with the Petit John forms an irregular and acute triangle, affording a large body of good land, and, as well as the latter, is said to be navigable near 200 miles, including its meanders. Its entrance is marked by a concomitant chain of hills and cliffs, which border the Arkansa, and proceed in a north-westerly direction. For about a mile and a half, these hills, of grauwacke slate, present the appearance of an even wall coming up to the margin of the river, and owe this singular aspect to their almost vertical stratification. Their summits are tufted with pine, and the opposite alluvial point, which was sandy, {221} and to appearance scarcely elevated above inundation, possessed also a forest of similar trees.

This evening we again arrived at Piat’s, and in view of the pyramidal Mamelle; its extraordinary appearance, elevation, and isolation arises from the almost vertical disposition of its strata, which are probably of the same nature as those we passed to-day near the Petit John. Not far above inundation, on the same side of the river, three miles above Piat’s, these vertical rocks form a very curious and crested parapet.

6th.] This evening we arrived at Mr. Daniel’s, an industrious farmer, and provided with a rough-looking, but comfortable winter cabin. About two miles from hence, Mr. D., who lives upon a confirmed Spanish right, had erected a grist mill. Saw-mills were also about to be built at the Cadron, and two or three other places. The establishment of a town was now contemplated also at the Little Rock, by colonel Hogan, and some others. They had not, however, sufficient capital, and no doubt expected to derive some adventitious wealth from those speculators who were viewing various parts of the newly-formed territory.

7th.] We again arrived at the lower end of the Eagle’s-nest bend, from whence commenced the uninhabited tract of 60 or 70 miles.

8th.] To-day we passed seven bends, making about 28 miles. The water at this, its lowest stage, appears to be perfectly navigable for the larger boats from the Little Rock to the Mississippi. By the cane which occurs in all the bends, and indeed by the apparent elevation, there are here great bodies of good land, free from inundation. The soil in some of the banks consists of an uncommonly rich dark Spanish brown loam.

9th.] This forenoon we passed the fourth Pine Bluff, at the base of which we observed abundance of earthy iron ore, in flattened, contorted, and cellular {222} masses, scattered about in profusion; much of it appeared to be pyrites, other masses more or less argillaceous and siliceous. Here, on the portions of the high bank which had sunk down by the undermining of the current, we saw the wax-myrtle of the Atlantic sea-coast.

10th.] This evening we arrived near to the termination of the second Pine Bluffs, which continue along the river for nearly two miles. We passed through seven bends of the river, and came about 27 miles. The frost was now succeeded by mild and showery weather, and the bald eagles (Falco leucocephalus) were already nestling, chusing the loftiest poplars for their eyries.

11th.] Soon after breakfast we came again in sight of the houses of the French hunters Cusot and Bartolemé, and found also two families from Curran’s settlement encamped here, and about to settle. I here obtained two fragments of fossil shells, apparently some species of oyster, one of which was traversed with illinitions of crystallized carbonate of lime, and contained specks of bovey coal, from which I concluded them to have been washed out of the Bluffs above. Besides these I was also shewn a small conch-shell, not apparently altered from its natural state, and probably disinterred from some tumulus. Some time after dark we arrived at Mr. Boun’s, a metif or half Quapaw, and interpreter to the nation, who lived at the first of the Pine Bluffs. Two or three other metif families resided also in the neighbourhood.

On the 12th we arrived at Monsieur Dardennes’, and to-day experienced a keen north-western wind. Water froze the instant it touched the ground.

13th.] The weather still freezing. In the evening we passed Mr. Harrington’s, a farmer in very comfortable circumstances. Betwixt Morrison’s and this {223} place, the river makes two cuts, through two bends of about eight miles each.

14th.] This evening we arrived at the residence of the late Mr. Mosely, and about 20 miles below Harrington’s. His estates were said to be worth not less than 20,000 dollars, which had all been acquired during his residence in this territory. A proof that there is here also scope for industry, and the acquisition of wealth.

About noon we landed at one of the Quapaw or Osark villages, but found only three houses constructed of bark, and those unoccupied. In the largest of them, apparently appropriated to amusement and superstition, we found two gigantic painted wooden masks of Indians,⁠[213] and a considerable number of conic pelt caps, also painted. These, as we learnt from an Indian who came up to us from some houses below, were employed at festivals, and worn by the dancers, a custom which was also probably practised by the Natchez, in whose temple Charlevoix observed these marmosets. At the entrance of the cabin, and suspended from the wall, there was a female figure, with a rudely carved head of wood painted with vermillion. Being hollow, and made of leather, we supposed it to be employed as a mask for one of the musicians, having in one hand a pendant ferule, as if for the purpose of beating a drum. In the spring and autumn the Quapaws have a custom of making a contribution dance, in which they visit also the whites, who live in their vicinity, and the chief alms which they crave is salt or articles of diet.

On the 15th we again arrived at the post of Osark, or as it is now not very intelligibly called, Arkansas, a name by far too easily confounded with that of the river, while the name Osark, still assumed by the {224} lower villagers of the Quapaws, and in memory of whom this place was first so called, would have been perfectly intelligible and original.

In the evening we had a storm of melting snow and hail, which, on the following morning was succeeded by a north-west wind, accompanied by a severe frost. The river was now, however, beginning to rise and assume a muddy tinge from the influx of the lagoons, and lower rivulets. A more extensive fresh cannot now be expected before the commencement of milder weather, and the thawing of the river towards its sources. The oldest settlers affirm, that the Arkansa had not, during their knowledge of it, ever been so low as before the present rise. The Ohio and Mississippi also continued too low for the navigation of the steam-boats.

16th.] This morning we observed the newly appointed governor, general Miller,⁠[214] going up to the town from his boat, which appeared to be very handsomely and conveniently fitted up, bearing for a name and motto “I’ll try,” commemorative of an act of courage for which the general had been distinguished by his country.

On arriving in the town, we found the court engaged in deciding upon the fate of a criminal, who had committed a rape upon the unprotected, and almost infant person of a daughter of his late wife.⁠[215] The legal punishment, in this and the Missouri territory, for this crime, castration! is no less singular and barbarous, however just, than the heinous nature of the crime itself. The penitentiary law of confinement, so successfully tried in the states of Pennsylvania and New York, for every crime short of murder, is an improvement in jurisprudence, which deserves to be adopted in every part of the United States. It often reclaims the worst of the human race, learns them habits of industry with which they had been unacquainted, and corrects those vices which perhaps ignorance {225} and parental indulgence had fostered. There is certainly a flagrant want of humanity in the multiplicity of sanguinary and stigmatizing punishments. To sacrifice all that portion of the community to infamy, who happen to fall beneath the lash of the law, is incompatible with the true principles of justice. Maim a man, or turn him out with the stigma of infamy into the bosom of society, and he will inevitably become a still greater scourge to the world, in which he now only lives to seek revenge by the commission of greater but better concealed crimes.

Interest, curiosity, and speculation, had drawn the attention of men of education and wealth toward this country, since its separation into a territory; we now see an additional number of lawyers, doctors, and mechanics. The retinue and friends of the governor, together with the officers of justice, added also essential importance to the territory, as well as to the growing town. The herald of public information, and the bulwark of civil liberty, the press, had also been introduced to the Post within the present year, where a weekly newspaper was now issued.⁠[216] Thus, in the interim of my arrival in this country it had commenced the most auspicious epoch of its political existence.

17th and 18th.] I again paid a visit to the prairie, which, as well as the immediate neighbourhood of the town, is in winter extremely wet, in consequence of the dead level, and argillaceous nature of the soil. The interesting plants and flowers which I had seen last year, at this time, were now so completely locked up in the bosom of winter, as to be no longer discernible, and nearly disappointed me in the hopes of collecting their roots, and transplanting them for the gratification of the curious.

On the 19th, I bid farewell to Arkansas, and proceeded towards the Mississippi, in the barge of Mons. Notrebé, a merchant of this place, and the day following, without any material occurrence, arrived at {226} the confluence of the Arkansa, a distance of about 60 miles. The bayou, through which I came in the spring, now ran with as much velocity towards White river, as it had done before into the Arkansa, its current and course depending entirely upon the relative elevation of the waters of the two rivers with which it communicates. The large island, thus produced, possesses extensive tracts of cane land, sufficiently elevated, as I am told, above inundation, as does also the opposite bank of the Arkansa. About 12 miles above the mouth, the site first chosen for the Spanish garrison, and which was evacuated in consequence of inundation, was pointed out to me. A house now also stands on the otherwise deserted spot, where once were garrisoned the troops of France, at the terminating point of the river. We now found ourselves again upon the bosom of one of the most magnificent of rivers, which appeared in an unbroken and meandering sheet, stretching over an extended view of more than 12 miles, and decorated with a pervading forest, only terminated by the distant horizon.

21 st.] I now embarked for New Orleans in a flat boat, as the steam boats, for want of water, were not yet in operation.

Not far from this place, a few days ago were encamped, the miserable remnant of what are called the Pilgrims, a band of fanatics, originally about 60 in number. They commenced their pilgrimage from the borders of Canada, and wandered about with their wives and children through the vast wilderness of the western states, like vagabonds, without ever fixing upon any residence. They looked up to accident and charity alone for support; imposed upon themselves rigid fasts, never washed their skin, or cut or combed their hair, and like the Dunkards wore their beards. Settling no where, they were consequently deprived of every comfort which arises from {227} the efforts of industry. Desertion, famine, and sickness, soon reduced their numbers, and they were every where treated with harshness and neglect, as the gypsies of civilized society. Passing through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, they at length found their way down the Mississippi to the outlet of White river and the Arkansa. Thus ever flying from society by whom they were despised, and by whom they had been punished as vagabonds, blinded by fanatic zeal, they lingered out their miserable lives in famine and wretchedness, and have now nearly all perished or disappeared. Two days after my arrival in the territory, one of them was found dead in the road which leads from the Mississippi to Arkansas. If I am correctly informed, there now exists of them only one man, three women, and two children. Two other children were taken from them in compassion for their miserable situation, and the man was but the other day seized by a boat’s crew descending the river, and forcibly shaved, washed, and dressed.

Down to the year 1811, there existed on the banks of the Mississippi, a very formidable gang of swindling robbers, usually stationed in two parties at the mouth of the Arkansa, and at Stack island. They were about 80 in number, and under the direction of two captains. Amongst other predatory means of obtaining property, was that of purchasing produce from boats descending the river, with counterfeit money. Clary and his gang of the Arkansa, had, some time in the autumn of 1811, purchased in this way some property from a descending flat boat. The owner, however, before leaving the shore, discovered the fraud, and demanded restitution, but was denied with insolence; and they proceeded, at length, so far as to fire upon his boat. These circumstances being related to the companies of several other flats who very opportunely came up at this time, and 12 of them being now collected, they made up a party to {228} apprehend this nest of pirates. It was nearly night when they landed, and were instantly fired upon by the robbers. They at last arrived at the house which they occupied, broke it open, and secured Clary and two others who had attempted to hide themselves. A court martial was held over them, which sentenced Clary to receive a number of lashes from the crew of each boat, and the two other delinquents were condemned to confinement, and to work the boat in the place of two of the boatmen who were wounded. These men, on arriving at Natchez, were committed to prison, but no one appearing against them, they were of course acquitted. Clary confessed, that he and his crew had, within the week previous to his apprehension, bought and transmitted up the Arkansa, with counterfeit money, 1800 dollars worth of produce. It was also known that he had been a murderer, and had fled to the banks of the Mississippi from justice. The Stack island banditti have never been routed, and some of their character were still found skulking around Point Chicot and the neighbouring island, always well supplied with counterfeit money.

22d.] This morning we were visited by three Choctaws in quest of whiskey. Their complexions were much fairer than most of the Indians we meet with on the Mississippi. Two of them were boys of about 18 or 19, and possessed the handsomest features I have ever seen among the natives, though rather too effeminate. About 20 miles below the Arkansa, in the Cypress bend, we saw the first appearance of Tillandsia or Long moss.

On the 24th, we arrived at Point Chicot,⁠[217] which is included in the Arkansa territory; the boundary being the Big Lake, about 20 miles below. From one of the settlers, living a few miles below Point Chicot, I learn, that on the eastern side of the Mississippi, the high lands are here from 15 to 20 miles distant. {229} The reaches and bends, in this part of the river, are hardly less than six miles in length. Toward the centre of the bends considerable bodies of cane appear, indicative of an elevation above the usual inundations; it is, however, probable that these tracts are narrow, and flanked at no great distance by lagoons and cypress marshes subject to the floods. Many bends indeed presented nothing but cypress and black ash.

From the Chicasaw Bluffs downward, along the banks of the Mississippi, we perceive no more of the Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), and but little of the Platanus, greatly reduced in magnitude, compared with what it attains along the Ohio. The largest tree of the forest here is that which is of the quickest growth, the Cottonwood poplar (Populus angulata).

27th.] The whole country, generally speaking, along the river, appears uninhabited, though vast tracts of cane land occur in the bends. I am, however, informed that the cane will withstand a partial inundation. Since we left Point Chicot the river presents us with several magnificent views, some of 8, some of 12, and even 15 miles extent; but the absence of variety, even amidst objects of the utmost grandeur, soon becomes tiresome by familiarity. As above the Arkansa, the river still continues meandering. The curves, at all seasons washed by a rapid current, present crumbling banks of friable soil more or less mixed with vegetable matter. By the continued undermining and removal of the earth, the bends are at length worn through, the former tongue of land then becomes transformed into an island, and the stagnation and partial filling of the old channel, now deserted, in time produces a lake. Some idea of the singular caprice of the Mississippi current may be formed, by taking for a moment into view the extraordinary extent of its alluvial valley, which below {230} the Ohio is from 30 to 40 miles in width, through all which space it has from time to time meandered, and over which it will never cease to hold occasional possession. On the opposite side of all the bends there are what are called bars, being platforms of sand formed by the deposition of the siliceous matter washed out of the opposite banks by the force of the current. These sand flats, sometimes near a mile in width, are uniformly flanked by thick groves of willows and poplars, the only kind of trees which survive the effects of the inundation to which these bars are perpetually subject.

28th.] This morning we passed the settlement called the Walnut Hills,⁠[218] a situation somewhat similar to that of Natchez, consisting, however, of a cluster of hills of 150 or 200 feet elevation, laid out in a chain of agreeable farms. The banks, along the river, though not near so elevated as those of the Chicasaw Bluffs, are still far enough above the reach of inundation, and present a stratification and materials entirely similar: the same friable ferruginous clays, and also one or two beds of lignite, the lower about a foot in thickness, very distinct at this low stage of the water, and about three feet from its margin. The declivity for near half a mile back presents innumerable slips parallel with the river, and in one of the ravines large masses of sandstone were washed out towards the river.

In the evening we arrived at a small town called Warrington,⁠[219] containing two inns and as many stores. The land appeared low, but was secured from inundation by a levee or embankment carried out for two or three miles below the town. Out of its small quota of population, 37 individuals last summer died of the yellow-fever, said to have been introduced by the steam-boat Alabama. The gloomy mantling of the forest communicated by the Tillandsia usneoides or long moss, which every where prevails, is a never-failing {231} proof of the presence of an unhealthy humidity in the atmosphere. The stagnating lagoons and bodies of refluent water also largely contribute to the unhealthiness of the climate. The vast extent and depth of this inundation is sufficiently evident by the marks along the banks of the river, which in places exhibited a rise of 50 feet above the present level!

29th.] To-day we passed the grand Gulf or eddy, near to which enters Big Black river.⁠[220] Here again the friable hills of the high land make their appearance on the borders of the river, on and around which there are settlements. At the base of the hills loose heaps of sandstone lie scattered. A thin stratified bed of the same was now also visible. In high water a violent and dangerous eddy sweeps along these rocks. On the declivity of this hill we see the first trees of the Magnolia grandiflora. The small palmetto (Sabal minor) commences about Warrington. The distance to high land on the opposite or western side of the river is said to be little less than 30 miles.

30th.] This morning we came to what is called the Petit Gulf,⁠[221] where another cluster of hills appears scattered with settlements. Here the banks present nothing but friable materials, still also similar to the Chicasaw Bluffs. Beds of very white sand, intimately mixed with argillaceous earth, appear in prominent cliffs. One of the houses which we visited is apparently built upon an aboriginal mound, and there are two others about a mile distant, in which have been found bones and pot-sherds. Last evening we passed bayou Pierre,⁠[222] 30 miles up which stream, and 15 by land, is situated the thriving town of Gibsonport.⁠[223]

31st.] To-day we arrived at the well known and opulent town of Natchez,⁠[224] situated on the summit of a hill which forms part of the same range and primitive soil as the Petit Gulf. The port was crowded with flat-boats, produce bearing a reduced {232} price in consequence of the low rate of, and small demand for, cotton.

The cliffs of Natchez appear more elevated than those of the Petit Gulf. The lands, of an inferior soil, are also remarkably broken and deeply undulated. The crumbling precipice, of about 150 feet elevation, is continually breaking, by the action of springs and rain-water, into gullies and frightful ravines; the whole visible matter which composes the hills consisting of clays, ferruginous sand, and quartzy gravel. A few years ago, the undermining of the current swept down a considerable part of the bank with several houses upon it. From the irregularity in the thickness of this ancient maritime alluvion, arises the great difference of depth at which water is here obtained. In the same vicinity water has been found at 35, and then again at 110 feet from the surface.

The day after my arrival I waited upon Saml. Postlethwaite, Esq., related by marriage to the late Mr. Dunbar. From Mr. P. and his amiable lady, I met with every attention and kindness which friendship, hospitality, and politeness could have possibly dictated.

To my enquiries concerning the horticulture and agriculture of Natchez, Mr. P. informed me, that the peach and fig, as well as the pear and the quince, succeed extremely well. The apple trees also, introduced from Kentucky, afforded nearly equal success. The cherry, the gooseberry, and the currant, though thriving, scarcely produce at all. The pomegranate, and the myrtle, grow and fruit almost as in their native climate. The orange and lemon require some shelter from the prevailing winter. Grapes attain to tolerable perfection, but the clusters are often blighted, apparently by the humidity of the atmosphere. The kernels of dates which have been planted, germinate and grow with considerable vigour. The olive, {233} which so many years ago was introduced by the first French settlers, and said, by Du Pratz, to have succeeded, is now entirely lost.

Cotton, which constitutes the staple commodity and wealth of this country, has, like all other crops, a considerable tendency to impoverish the soil; before the settlement became so much condensed, and land so advanced in value, no method of improving the worn out lands was ever thought of. Such fields were then left waste, and new lands still continually cleared. Of late years some attention has been paid towards renovating the soil, by plowing in the herb of the cotton, after being thrashed to pieces as it stands in the field. A much more convenient and expeditious method, however, is that which Mr. P. has practised, who employs a loaded harrow or a roller armed with knives, which divides the plant also into much smaller pieces. The seed, which forms three-fourths of the crop in weight, being very oleaginous, would likewise return to the soil a considerable share of nourishment, as appears by the experiment of applying it to maize, which, thus treated, grows as luxuriant as when manured with gypsum. The seed of the cotton also, when scalded, and mixed with a little salt, forms a nourishing and agreeable food for cattle.

Of late years, a prevailing disease has injured the crops of this plant. From what I learn, it appears to be of the same nature as that which destroys the grapes, and depends apparently upon the state of the atmosphere, progressing with more or less rapidity in proportion to its humidity. The disease in question attacks the extremity of the peduncle, appearing, at first, like a moist or oily spot, which is succeeded by a sphacelous state of the integuments, and an abortion of the capsule.

Although we perceive but little attention paid to science or literature in this territory, it does not by {234} any means appear to be destitute of public patronage, as there is a very handsome endowment in lands appropriated by the state for the building and support of a college. Some difficulty, now nearly obviated, as I understood, had been the means of retarding the progress of the institution.⁠[225] The inhabitants of Natchez, generally speaking, as in most of the southern states, live in ease and affluence.

To my enquiries concerning the aboriginal Natchez, Mr. P. said, he was inclined to believe them now extinct, as some years ago he had heard that only two or three individuals of them then remained. Their first flight, after the cruel defeat and massacre which took place in their fort, was across the river, to what is now called Sicily island, a body of land at this time settled, of about five miles in width, partly insulated by the overflows of the Tensaw, and rising into a hill considerably above the reach of inundation. The unfortunate Natchez were not, however, suffered to remain in peace, and being again routed by the French and their Indian allies, were, on the verge of extermination, driven to seek refuge among the neighbouring Indians.⁠[226] From my friend, Mr. Ware, of the Mississippi Territory, I learn, that there still exists a small village of the Natchez on the banks of the Tallipoosee, in Alabama, governed by a chief, named Coweta, who joined the United States against the Lower Creeks in the late war.

Mr. P. informs me, that in digging, some time ago, into a neighbouring mound, to the depth of a few feet, fragments of a sword blade, and some other relics of European warfare, were found, together with beads and remains which appeared to have accompanied an aboriginal interment. From these circumstances, it would appear, that some courageous opponent of the French had made a desperate stand upon this sacred ground, in order to annoy his enemies, {235} and to sell his life as dear as possible upon the tomb of his ancestors. I am the more inclined to hazard this opinion, not only from the circumstances related (of the broken fragments of European weapons, and the decorations of a warrior), but likewise from the assertion of the aged Illinois chief, made at Kaskaskia, who, on being interrogated as to the use and origin of the lofty mounds in that neighbourhood, answered, that his forefathers had employed them as situations of defence against their enemies the Iroquois.

Mr. Ware informs me, that aboriginal remains abound in the vicinity of Natchez. Twelve miles above the town there is a square fort of three or four acres area, furnished with several gateways, and erected on a commanding situation. About 12 miles below the town there is likewise a group of mounds.

Considerable numbers of Choctaws appeared at this season straggling through the streets of Natchez, either begging or carrying on some paltry traffic, but chiefly for the sake of liquor. I am informed that civilization is making some advances among those who live in the nation, and who have consequently abandoned their ancient wandering habits. Those of them we see here are meanly dressed and of a swarthy complexion. Their ancient mode of exposing the dead upon scaffolds, and afterwards separating the flesh from the bones, is falling into disuse, though still practised, as Mr. Ware informs me, by the six towns of the Choctaws⁠[227] on the Pascagoula. They still entertain the same tradition of their origin which was current in the time of Du Pratz, though he believes them to have emigrated into the country which they now possess. The legend is, that they sprung out of a hill, situated contiguous to Pearl river, which, Mr. Ware tells me, they still visit and venerate. The Creeks entertain a tradition⁠[228] of coming from the west side of the Mississippi, and that too at so recent a date, as to have heard of the landing of White people {236} on the Atlantic coast soon after their arrival. The Seminoles, Utchis, and Yamasees are a portion of those more ancient people whom they found in possession of the country, and with whom they carried on an exterminating warfare. Indeed, many of the people of that country discovered by Soto, and some of them numerous and powerful, are now no longer in existence. Those whom he calls the Cutifa-chiqui, then governed by a female, held a court equally as dignified as that of Powhatan in Virginia.

The Choctaws possess in an eminent degree that thirst for revenge, which forms so prominent a trait in the disposition of the man of America. By far too indiscriminate in its object, murder and accidental death are alike fatal to the perpetrator, and scarcely any lapse of time, or concession short of that of life, is taken. It is but a few years ago, that two Choctaws in the town of Natchez, firing at each other, in the same instant, fell both dead on the spot: one of them, in defence of a life which he had forfeited; the other, in quest of revenge for the death of a relative.

By a recent treaty,⁠[229] effected through the influence of general Jackson, the Choctaws are now about to relinquish the east side of the Mississippi, and to exchange their lands for others in the territory of Arkansa, situated betwixt Arkansa and Red rivers, and extending from the Quapaw reservation to the Pottoe. In consequence of this singular but impolitic measure of crowding the aborigines together, so as to render them inevitably hostile to each other, and to the frontier which they border, several counties of the Arkansa territory will have to be evacuated by their white inhabitants, who will thus be ruined in their circumstances, at the very period when the general survey of the lands had inspired them with the confident expectation of obtaining a permanent and legal settlement.

{237} February 4th.] To-day we left Natchez, and in the distance of 15 miles passed Ellis’s Cliffs, another portion of re-entering high land, broken into a very picturesque landscape, decorated with pines and magnolias. These cliffs, no way essentially different from those above, present here, immediately above the carbonaceous bed, a very thick stratum of white sandy clay, so far indurated as to withstand the washing which has carried away the superincumbent soil.

In the course of the night we arrived at Fort Adams,⁠[230] another spur of the high land; a term which can only be used in reference to the alluvion, as the apparent undulation is here nothing more than an adventitious subsidence or washing of the soil, the ravines and gullies being occasioned by its friable nature. Rock, however, appears at the base of the lofty hill, on which stands a block house of the late garrison.⁠[231] A tavern, a store, and two or three other houses are here established for the convenience of the interior.

7th.] To-day we arrived at the settlement of bayou Sarah, a mile up which stream is situated the town of St. Francisville,⁠[232] and passed a line of opulent plantations on the Louisiana bank of the river called Point Coupée.⁠[233] From hence we begin to perceive the orange, though not very thriving. Sugar is also planted thus far, and appears to succeed. Mons. Poydras,⁠[234] a bachelor 80 years of age, owns and employs in this settlement betwixt 4 and 500 negroes, which, together with property in New Orleans, amounts to an estate of several millions of dollars. His plantations at Point Coupée are principally employed in the lucrative business of planting and making sugar.

8th.] We again obtained sight of the high land in {238} the cliffs near Thompson’s creek,⁠[235] and, as usual, on the eastern side of the river. About three feet above the present level, we also observed the occurrence of the bovey-coal or lignite, overlaid by massive beds of ferruginous clays and gravel. This high land, without again approaching to the immediate margin of the river, continues at no great distance from hence to Baton-Rouge.

9th.] Early this morning we passed the thriving town of Baton-Rouge,⁠[236] where a garrison has been established ever since its cession. Not far from hence, the high lands or primitive soil terminates, beyond which, to the sea, the whole country is alluvial and marshy. Continued lines of settlements still present themselves on either bank, and cotton and sugar are the great articles of their agricultural opulence.

About 3 o’clock in the morning, we experienced a heavy squall from the north-east, accompanied by torrents of rain, and were in considerable danger of losing the flat, with all our property and baggage. Ever since leaving Natchez, we have had weather like summer, and vegetation already advances.

10th and 11th.] We have in view an almost uninterrupted line of settlements on either hand which continue to New Orleans. These planters are nearly all of French or Spanish extraction, and, as yet, there are among them but few Americans. Their houses are generally built of wood, with piazzas for shade in the summer. Notwithstanding their comparative opulence, they differ little either in habits, manners, or dress from the Canadians. Dancing and gambling appear to be their favourite amusements. The men, as usual, are commonly dressed in blanket coats, and the women wear handkerchiefs around their heads in place of bonnets. The inhabitants do not appear to be well supplied with merchandize, and the river is crowded with the boats of French and Spanish {239} pedlars, not much larger than perogues, but fitted up with a cabin, covered deck, and sails.

Another vast monopolizer of human liberty, along the coast (as the borders of the Mississippi are termed by the French), is general Wade Hampton,⁠[237] who possesses upwards of 400 slaves, and has obtained at one crop 500 hogsheads of sugar, and 1000 bales of cotton, then collectively worth upwards of 150,000 dollars: in the United States an immense fortune, without any additional property, and equal to that of almost any English nobleman. But, with the means of being so extensively useful, I do not learn that either this gentleman or Mons. Poydras,⁠[238] expend any adequate part of their immense property to public advantage. And, more than that, these unfortunate slaves, the engines of their wealth, are scarcely fed or clothed in any way bordering on humanity. Their common allowance of food, is said to be about one quart of corn per day! Thus miserably fed, they are consequently driven to theft by the first law of nature, and subject the country to perpetual depredation. How little wealth has contributed towards human improvement, appears sufficiently obvious throughout this adventitiously opulent section of the Union. Time appears here only made to be lavished in amusement. Is the uncertainty of human life so great in this climate, as to leave no leisure for any thing beyond dissipation? The only serious pursuit, appears to be the amassing and spending of that wealth which is wrung from the luckless toil of so many unfortunate Africans, doomed to an endless task, which is even entailed upon their posterity. “O slavery, though thousands in all ages have drank of thee, still thou art a bitter draught!”

An evil, however, which has been so long established, {240} cannot be eradicated at a single blow. The abolition of domestic slavery must be a work of time. Let an age be chosen at which it shall cease to operate; say a limit of 28 or 30 years. Let the negroes be sent into the civilized world with the rudiments of education, and the means of obtaining a livelihood. After acquiring their freedom, it is highly probable, that they would still continue to seek the employment of their former masters, and the neighbourhood in which they were born. The project of transporting the free negroes to the country in which they originated appears extremely rational, and ought to be promoted by every means in the power of the public. We are sensible that the negroes who remain in the society of the whites, must ever be subjected to the degradation of an inferior cast. They were not formed to mingle indiscriminately amongst us; but though they may be inferior to us in intellect and civilization, they were undoubtedly born to the possession of rational liberty.

In the contiguous country of Opelousa,⁠[239] so called from the Indians who formerly lived in it, there are extensive and fertile prairies, where great herds of cattle are raised for the market of New Orleans. A year ago, about 12,000 head were sold on the banks of the Mississippi, at the rate of from 30 to 35 dollars each.

From hence to New Orleans, now 86 miles distant, the whole coast is defended from inundation by an embankment or trench of earth, thrown up with about the same labour as that which is bestowed upon a common ditched fence. In this simple way, millions of acres of the richest land, inexhaustible by crops, is redeemed from waste, and we have now the pleasure of viewing an almost uninterrupted line of opulent settlements continued from Baton-Rouge, to more than 50 miles below New Orleans.

{241} Among the more common reptiles of this country, already beginning to appear abroad, I know of none more curious, than a kind of Cameleon lizard, of frequent occurrence, and in some measure related to that celebrated species, excepting that the colours which it assumes are only those with which it is familiar in nature; such as ash-colour in the vicinity of a pale object, dark brown upon the ground, or on the trunks of trees, and a bright green amidst verdant herbage.

17th.] After another detention of two days by the prevalence of a strong south-west wind, we continued our voyage, and early this morning passed the great plantation of general Hampton, situated about 70 miles from New Orleans, at Ouma point, the name of a nation or tribe of Indians now nearly extinct, and who, with the remains of the Chetimashas, once living nearly opposite to bayou la Fourche, are at this time existing in a partly civilized state on the bayou Plaquemine.⁠[240] The learned Peter S. Duponceau,⁠[241] Esq. informs me, that the language of the Chetimashas, a people said, by Du Pratz, to be a branch of the Natchez, appears to be radically distinct from that of the other aborigines of the southern states. From hence the banks of the river are lower, and the labour of keeping up the levees greater, though the rise of the river is slower, its width and uniformity of channel more considerable, and now almost destitute of islands or bars. The river is very probably influenced in this respect by the embankments, which are continued almost without interruption from Fort Adams nearly to Fort Placquemine.⁠[242] We had now in view a perpetual succession of the habitations of the richest planters, surrounded with groups of negro cabins. They are almost exclusively engaged in the planting of sugar, and possess establishments no way inferior to those of the West India Islands, some of them being valued at as much as 100,000 dollars, every {242} thing included. As the settlements are chiefly in single lines along the bank of the river, the land is commonly sold by the measurement in front, running back about 40 arpents,⁠[243] and have been disposed of at as much as 3000 dollars per arpent in front, or 75 dollars per arpent actual measurement.

Notwithstanding the fearful tyranny exercised over the slaves on these large plantations, the annals of this settlement are not without the remembrance of serious symptoms of revolt. About nine years ago, a party of negroes, equipped with arms, liberated themselves, after destroying their master with two or three other individuals who attempted to oppose them, and were not subdued until totally destroyed by the neighbouring militia. There were of them 300, who were routed near to Red Church, about twenty-four miles above New Orleans; so that, betwixt the fears of inundation, the efforts of the enslaved Africans to emancipate themselves, and the fatality of the climate, the opulent planters of Louisiana possess no enviable advantage over the happy peasant, who dwells in the security which honest industry and salutary frugality afford him.⁠[244]

The excessive attachment to gambling which characterises the inhabitants of Louisiana, and the love of speculation, exhibited in the great and transitory influx of foreigners and citizens from the northern states, is now ostensibly checked by a species of taxation called license. Thus, every store-keeper pays an annual assessment of 110 dollars to the commonwealth. Every pedlar 12 dollars. Every Pharo bank and Roulette table 500 dollars a year, and every Billiard table 50 dollars. In excuse for thus tolerating the Pharo bank and the Roulette, the legislature affirm their inability to check the evil by punishment.

{243} 18th.] This morning we arrived at New Orleans,⁠[245] now said to contain about 45,000 inhabitants, a great proportion of whom are of French extraction and retain their mother tongue. The situation of the town, which was begun in 1718, is rendered unhealthy by the swamp which circumscribes its western suburb, and which continues at all seasons totally impassable. A short canal crosses it, forming a communication with the bayou St. John, and lake Ponchartrain, by which means a commercial communication is opened to Mobile, Pensacola, and the Alabama territory.

In the neighbourhood of the city, and along the coast, the beautiful groves of orange trees, orchards of the fig, and other productions of the mildest climates, sensibly indicate our approach to the tropical regions, where the dreary reign of winter is for ever unknown. But little pains as yet have been taken to introduce into this country, though so thickly settled, the ornamental and useful plants which it is calculated to sustain. We yet neither see the olive, the date, nor the vineyard, notwithstanding the adaptation of the climate to their culture. That the date itself would succeed, an accidental example in the city renders probable. This palm, which grows in Orleans street, has attained the height of more than 30 feet, with a trunk of near 18 inches in diameter, and has flowered annually for the space of several years. The period of inflorescence appears to be about the commencement of April, but being only a staminiferous plant, it has not consequently produced any fruit.

That fatal epidemic, the yellow fever, was last summer unusually prevalent, and carried off probably 5 or 6000 individuals, a great part of whom were, as usual, emigrants from the northern states, and different parts of Europe. By what I can learn, the hospital in this place is very ill suited to the recovery of those patients who are hurried to it during the rage {244} of this disease. They are crowded almost to contact; so that the contagion acquires force and fatality in the very institution formed for its recovery. Many, however, flock to this last refuge for the indigent and miserable, in a state which precludes all hopes of recovery.

The expense of medical assistance, the difficulty of obtaining attendance, and the selfish and fearful supineness which seizes upon all classes at this awful season, serves to increase the fatal gloom which surrounds the unhappy stranger, thus often inhumanly abandoned by all society, and left, before the approach of the fatal moment, like a carcase to the vultures!

The scene of crowded graves which appals the eye in the general burying-ground, marked by boards, or covered tombs, inscribed with mournful remembrances; the hosts which are swept off, also, interred in forgotten crowds, and consigned to relentless oblivion, appeared thickly to chequer the whole surface of the earth, and warn the stranger, in no ambiguous phrase, of the fatal climate in which he sojourns. These crowds of sepulchres are not the slow accumulation of an age, as a section of these remains is frequently dug up and consumed, to give place to the renewed harvest of death.⁠[246]

The prevailing religion is that of the Catholics; though there is also a handsome church erected by the Presbyterians.⁠[247]

Science and rational amusement is as yet but little cultivated in New Orleans. There are only three or four booksellers to supply this large city and populous neighbourhood. The French inhabitants, intermingled with the African castes in every shade of colour, scarcely exceed them, generally speaking, in mental acquirements. Every thing like intellectual improvement appears to be vitiated in its source, nothing exists to inspire emulation, and learning, as in the West {245} Indies, has no existence beyond the mechanism of reading and writing. Something like a museum was begun in the city a few years ago, but by a protean evolution it has been transformed into a coffee-house for gambling. In another part of the city, an assemblage of specimens of the fine arts, busts, medallions, mosaics, and paintings, is also associated with the dice and bottle.

The market, at this season, by no means dear, or bearing any thing like a reasonable proportion with the extravagant charges of the public entertainers, appeared to be tolerably well supplied, though singularly managed, and that entirely by negro slaves, who spread out the different articles in petty quantities, like the arrangement of an apple stall, charging, however, at the rate of about 100 per cent for the trouble. Superfine flour now sold at the low rate of six dollars per barrel; bacon and cheese at 10 cents the pound, salt butter at 25 cents; sugar at seven dollars per cwt.; coffee 25 to 30 dollars per cwt.; rice seven dollars per cwt. Fresh beef, however, and that by no means good, sold at 25 cents per pound. As in the West Indies, the principal market appears to be on Sunday in the forenoon. In the afternoon the negroes assemble in the suburbs of the city, and amuse themselves by dancing. When thus assembled by common friendship, if they have any reflection, they must be convinced of the efficient force which they possess to emancipate themselves; they are, however, strictly watched by the police, and the sole object of their meeting appears to be amusement.

Some idea of the extensive commerce carried on in the western states and territories with New Orleans, may be formed from the number of steam-boats alone, now 75 in number, besides other craft and shipping, which navigate the Mississippi and its numerous tributary streams. But in consequence of the general {246} and unfavourable fluctuation in the commerce of the United States, the number of these vessels is become greater than their actual employment will warrant. A majority also of the steam-boats have this year lain unemployed for more than six months, in consequence of the extraordinary lowness of water; but the valuable staple produce of Louisiana, must always insure to its inhabitants a preponderating balance of wealth.