I took the hint thus disinterestedly given, and walked forward, passing over one of the primitive bridges common in this section of the country, where swamps and watercourses are frequent; these are commonly overlaid also, as far as may be necessary, by a back-wood railway; that is, by trunks of trees packed closely side by side, over which the machine is dragged at a trot: in Canada this sort of road is termed a corduroy.

Half an hour's start of our mail, whose pace was not over five or six miles per hour, enabled me to prolong my walk as far as I chose, and I enjoyed my freedom greatly; the perfect solitude of the scene; the absence of all trace of man, excepting the one narrow and seemingly interminable track, whose unvarying line might be traced as far as eye could reach; not a sound could be heard, only the low sighing of the breeze as it swept over the ocean of graceful pines whose spiry heads appeared to kiss the sky. In ten minutes after quitting the log-hut where the coach rested, I was in fact plunged in a solitude as complete as it was beguiling.

If you by any chance turned about to look back upon the line you had trod, or muse upon the scene, the only remembrance of your true course was the sun; and indeed more than once, as time wore on, did I halt struck with a sudden apprehension that I might have turned upon my steps, and it required some moments of consideration to reassure me. At length, seating myself upon a fallen pine within the shadow of a tall magnolia, I resolved to abide with patience the coming up of the coach.

Resting here, strange fancies connected with the forest and its savage denizens came thronging upon my mind. Here, within a very few years, the Choctaw alone had wandered, and the only path was the scarce traceable line leading to the village of his tribe. Where are these hunters now? gone swiftly away, borne like autumn's leaves, upon the irrepressible flood of enterprise and intelligence which is taming the wilderness with a rapidity Europe has yet no adequate appreciation of. The hunter and his prey have alike been scattered or rooted wholly out; the forest still remains to witness for their existence, and, although assailed in every quarter, the woodman's axe ringing from east to west, from north to south, it yet appears to defy the activity of its assailants.

So rapid is vegetation in this climate, so prompt is Nature to repair any waste in this favoured domain of hers, that even where places have been completely bared by the axe or by the whirlwind, a very few years of repose clothes them once more, a luxuriant growth of forest, vigorous and healthful, spreads rapidly over the waste, asserting its ancient claim, and eagerly repossessing itself of its heritage.

We reached Portersville at four o'clock, having been just six hours coming thirty-two miles: here we found the Government steamer, the Watchman, and five passengers, who had left Mobile on the 31st ultimo. They had been detained here two days, living in a log-house; their only amusement watching the ducks and snipe whirling in search of fresh feeding-ground over the dreary waters of Lac Pontchartrain.

Over a long fragile pier, carried far into the lake on piles, and breached in fifty places, we gained the deck of the Watchman, and in five minutes after were heading towards the setting sun, whose rays, brilliant though they were, failed to invest with cheerfulness this desolate, half-drowned land.

I walked to and fro upon the ample deck of the vessel until my limbs were fatigued and my eyes sick of the eternal sameness of the scene; and then sought my berth, a very comfortable one, where I lay till roused next morning with the intelligence that we were before the railroad.

Jan. 3rd.—On landing, we found the six o'clock train had just departed; we were afforded therefore half an hour to look about us. Here is a very large hotel, during the summer much frequented by the citizens of New Orleans, the offices connected with the railroad depot, three or four little stores, together with a small range of dirty huts, including two or three cut-throat-looking sheds, bearing inscribed over the entrance, in large, ill-assorted characters, the word Tire; which immediately under is translated, for the benefit of country gentlemen, into "Shutting Galery." These little indications serve to remind the stranger that he is now in the land of the "duello," where each "captain of compliments" is reputed for "the very butcher of a silk button," and "fights as you sing prick-song,—rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom."

In little more than half an hour the cars returned from the city, and in about thirty minutes we were whirled under the covered depot, where I was fortunate enough to get a hackney-coach, in which I proceeded at once to Mr. H——n's house in Rue Bourgogne, where I was received by his nephews with a heartiness of welcome that made me in one moment feel that I was at home.

The whole of this day was cloudy and cold; a good deal of rain had fallen during the night, and consequently the streets were nearly impassable for carriages: the side-walks were, however, very well kept; and I took a short stroll about the American quarter, finding on my return that already, with the prompt courtesy which distinguishes this country, several gentlemen had left cards of compliment and invitation.

Sunday, 4th.—A lovely day. Mr. B——e having planned a ride as far as the lake, I saw after breakfast three or four good-looking horses arrive, caparisoned with showy, coloured, housings and demi-pique Spanish saddles: shortly after, their masters appeared, and off we pushed through mud knee-deep; we soon gained the shell road however, and found it as good as the streets of Mobile, hard, smooth, and binding as lime. It is a pity, as this material is to be procured in abundance, that it is not more generally applied: paving the streets with heavy stones, which soon sink deep in the alluvial soil, is, I fear, likely, without vast outlay, to prove labour lost; besides that these have to be imported from the North or from England, not a pebble existing here over the whole surface of the country.

At five o'clock, met a large party at dinner at Mr. B——'s; Madame B——e, a lady of the country, doing the honours with that vivacity and grace which is said to distinguish the French creoles of New Orleans: the dinner was excellent, a mixture of English and French cooking, both good, and admirably served; whilst for wines, we had Chateau Margarot of 1825, with frozen champagne, and Madeira, such as can only be produced in this country. The dinner party, with the exception of a couple of creole French gentlemen, was composed of my own countrymen; and little was here to remind one of a strange land, save the plates of clear ice sparkling on the table, and the faces of ebony shining behind our chairs.



NEW ORLEANS.

AMERICAN THEATRE.

On Monday the 5th I attended rehearsal at the American Theatre, and was pleased to find it a large, well-proportioned house, with three rows of boxes, a pit, or parquette, as it is termed, subdivided as in the French Theatre: each seat is numbered, and, being taken at the box-office, is secured to the purchaser for any part of the evening. The company was a very tolerable one; and in the person of a nephew of Mr. W. Farren's, I found an adjunct of much importance to me—an excellent old man.

My next anxiety was about my audience, not its numbers, as I was assured every seat in the house was disposed of, and this as far as could be allowed, for every night I might perform; but I felt solicitous with respect to its character and composition, of which I had received very discouraging reports. I kept however my apprehensions to myself, resolved to do my best after my own fashion, and abide the result as I best might.

On Tuesday I made my debut; and never was man more agreeably surprised than myself when, after making my bow, I for the first time took a rapid survey of the aspect of the house: the parquette and dress-boxes were almost exclusively filled by ladies, coiffees with the taste which distinguishes Frenchwomen in every country, and which becomes peculiarly striking here, where are to be seen the finest heads of dark hair in the world; many wore bonnets of the latest Parisian fashion, and all were more dressed than it is usual to be at theatres in America. This attention to costume on the part of the ladies, added to their occupying the pit, obliges the gentlemen to adopt a correspondent neatness; and hence it occurs that, when the New Orleans theatre is attended by the belles of the city, it presents decidedly the most elegant-looking auditory of this country.

For myself, I found them in manner equal to their appearance; a greater degree of repose and gentility of demeanour I never remember to have noticed in any mixed assembly of any place. So much for report, which informed me I should find the American house here filled by noisy planters from the up-country and boisterous Mississippi boatmen. Let me however add, that my personal friends assure me a class of families attend my performances that is but rarely seen within this theatre, which the creoles do not usually patronize; and that this extreme decorum and exclusive appearance are assured by the places being all secured by families.

This may in some sort be true; but at most can only apply to the parquette, dress, and private boxes; the mixed population is still here; and, after nightly observation, rendered acute by interest and anxiety, I must assert that, taken generally, I do not desire to meet an audience whose behaviour more decidedly justifies the terms respectable and intelligent.

The least prolonged tumult of approbation even is stilled by a word to order: and when it is considered that here are assembled the wildest and rudest specimens of the Western population, men owning no control except the laws, and not viewing these over submissively, and who admit of no arbiter elegantiarum or standard of fine breeding, it confers infinite credit on their innate good feeling, and that sense of propriety which here forms the sole check on their naturally somewhat uproarious jollity.

Let me add, that my first engagement was for twelve nights, four nights per week; that I, on my return from Natchez, acted a like number, with equal patronage; and that on no one night was I afforded an occasion of making an exception to the opinion I have above honestly recorded, certainly with greater pleasure, because in asserting the truth I feel I am at the same time performing an act of justice.



FRENCH THEATRE.

The Opera, or French Theatre, which I visited several times, is an exceedingly well-appointed, handsome place, with a company very superior to the American one, and having its pieces altogether better mounted. It is to this house the creole families chiefly resort, as well indeed as the American ladies of the best class, most of whom are good French scholars; and within this salle on any Sunday evening may be seen eyes as bright and forms as delicately proportioned as in la belle France itself.

The building, whereof this theatre forms a part only, is a very extensive one, having as a part of its establishment a large ball-room, with supper-rooms attached; and, in addition to this, a variety of hells, where gambling nourishes in full practice, from the salon where the wealthy Creole plays his five-hundred-dollar coup, to the obscure den where roulette does its work, with a pace slower but as sure, at the rate of half-dollar stakes. I have looked in on these places during the performances, and never without finding them full.

Such establishments, ruinous and detestable under whatever guise or in whatsoever place they are permitted, become doubly dangerous when placed under the same roof and carried on in obvious connexion with what should be at all times an innocent recreation, and which ought and might be one of a refined and moral tendency.

The scenes of desperation and distress which gambling yearly gave rise to in this place amongst a people whose temperament is peculiarly excitable, coupled with a recent and terrible exposee, have at length roused the legislature of Louisiana to release themselves from the stigma of owing any portion of their revenue to a tax which legalised this worst species of robbery and assassination. This very session I had the gratification of seeing a bill brought into the House, and promptly carried through it, making gambling felony, and subjecting its followers to corresponding punishment.

The French Theatre will henceforward, I hope for ever, be freed from the disgrace which such an association necessarily reflected upon the drama and all concerned with it.

I had the pleasure of meeting at a large dinner-party at my hospitable friend's, Col. D——'s, the gentleman who brought this bill into the House, and never did I drink to any man's health with more perfect sincerity: may he live to see his bill render gambling unknown in his country, and to be looked upon as its greatest benefactor!



NEW ORLEANS.

JOURNAL.

From the 6th of January till the 29th, the weather continued uniformly fine, but very hot; the mercury in our drawing-room ranging from 70 to 75 degrees, whilst in the sun the heat precludes violent exercise.

29th.—The morning sultry to a degree; continued so until noon, when the wind suddenly rose until it blew a perfect hurricane from about S.W., the rain meantime descending in a deluge; the streets were quickly changed into the beds of rivers, whilst peals of thunder kept rolling from one quarter of the heavens to another, heralded by incessant flashes of red lightning of the most vivid kind. I had promised to dine with a family whose dwelling was in the next street; but to have gotten thither without a canoe was out of the question. About six o'clock P.M. it cleared off, the wind veering round to the north-east, when it became cold; the glass falling to 45 degrees.

February 1st.—Weather continues fine; clear, sunny days, but agreeably cold, with slight frosts each night. Musquitoes have disappeared, although I yet keep under a net at night by way of making assurance "doubly sure." The vegetation fine and uninjured; the orange-trees on Mr. H——'s plantation, where I this day dined, all alive, throwing out fresh shoots in every direction; in two days the roads too have become dry and hard, with dust in clouds; the new moon sets in well for a continuance of fine weather.

Monday, 2nd.—Attended to see Governor White installed in office. The city artillery roared, and the ceremony was made brilliant by the presence of the staff, as well of the regular American army stationed here as of the numerous local corps of the city; of these volunteers, were officers of all arms exceedingly well-appointed; they had also a more military air, and were better set up, than their fellow-soldiers of the North. The French citizen, in fact, acquires a more soldierly appearance, and takes greater pains to fit himself for these holiday doings, than either John Bull or brother Jonathan. A great number of ladies also graced the hall of assembly with their presence, and were, as on all public occasions, privileged persons. "Place aux dames" rendered the possibility of one of the masculine gender's approach all but impracticable.

Certainly in no country is there such universal and exclusive homage extended to the softer sex: no matter at what expense of his convenience, or circumscription of privilege, man must give way on all occasions where the ladies may have a caprice to indulge in, or any curiosity to gratify.

Dined with Colonel D——k, and sat next to a fine old Irishman, General M'L——n, who had passed some of sixty years in Louisiana, yet preserved his brogue and his ruddy complexion as freshly as though the time had been spent on the hills of Wicklow; he had arrived here under the Spanish government when a young man, and spoke of all the changes since as events of yesterday.

Tuesday, 3rd.—A curious scene began this morning at the State House. Mr. Grimes, one of the late candidates for the Senate of the United States, encountering Mons. La Branche, the Speaker of the Louisianian legislature, in the hall of the Senate, according to report, struck him with his whip on account of some unsettled dispute, and in return received a bullet from the Speaker's pistol, which took effect in the breast of the great-coat he wore, but failed to penetrate it. Mr. Grimes, upon this, fired his pistol, loaded with ball and buck-shot, at Mons. La Branche, wounding him slightly in the hand, and leaving one or two of the conscript fathers, standing near, in doubt whether they were shot or no, so disgustingly close was the whiz of the passing lead.

Dined with Messrs. T——n, where the affray of the morning was duly discussed; some of the parties present alleging that the quarrel arose from political, others from personal motives. It appeared, however, that Mons. La Branche, after retiring until his hand was dressed, immediately returned to the hall, and resumed his duties as the presiding judge of the highest deliberative assembly of this great State; whilst, within an hour, Mr. Grimes, who is an able advocate in great practice, was pleading a cause on which he was retained in one of the civil courts.

The duel is here a matter of such frequent recurrence, that any event of the kind hardly excites an hour's notice; the question is merely "which of them got off?" and with that inquiry the affair usually ends. A Court of Honour, having for its end and aim the amelioration of this system, if not its suppression, has been instituted this very year, and pretty generally subscribed to amongst the young Creoles; but I believe its regulations have not proved very efficacious.

At nine o'clock P.M. left Mr. T——s; and walking to the near Levee, got on board the Superior, bound for Cincinnati, but chartered to stop at Natchez. The night was clear, but by far the coldest we have yet had here: the crown of the Levee, thronged with its busy crews, was lighted up by numerous fires, reflecting the hundred great steam-boats loading and unloading here, whilst the air resounded with the cheer of the negro gangs, given in unison to a few low simple notes, but full of wild animation, and, to my thinking, exceeding musical.

As we cast off into the midst of the wide stream, the whole bank of the Levee, with the warehouses bordering upon it, looked as though illuminated.

Wednesday,4th.—Up early in my little stateroom, where I have a small French bed, a table, a chair, with a sash-window that opens on to the gallery going round the boat. I find my quarters exceedingly comfortable; but the vibration, owing to the power of the engines, renders it difficult to read, and puts all writing quite out of the question.

The river banks are well cleared and very thickly populated, exclusively by French. Passing Donaldsonville, where the bayou la Fourche quits the main river to fall into the Mexican Gulf farther to the southward, we saw the capitol designed for the use of the legislature of Louisiana, but which, after being tenanted for a single session, was left for New Orleans, and is now falling to ruin.

Many of the planters' seats are large, well-looking buildings, but they appear neglected and badly kept; indeed the climate renders it very difficult to keep a house in decent order unless it is inhabited all the year round, in which case it stands a chance of as many changes of tenants as a Turkish caravansary. These lands have a reputation for prodigious fertility; at one place, belonging to a General Hampton, two schooners were loading molasses: here I was informed a thousand slaves find employment, bringing in to their employer an enormous revenue.

At Baton Rouge a military post of the United States' army, we came upon the first rise in the banks: this place looks over a noble reach and bay; the barracks appeared roomy and outwardly in good order.

We frequently drew alongside the forest for a supply of wood, which the proprietors keep ready prepared in piles for the use of boats, being paid for it by the cord. The consumption is of course enormous, and in any other region would remind one that a scarcity must speedily ensue; here, however, the supply appears exhaustless.

I always landed at these places; and above Baton Rouge, where the French population is less general, I commonly found the labouring woodcutters to be North-country men, or from the western part of Michigan. They informed me that they can clear fifty dollars a month for the seven months they can work in this region, and that four or five seasons are sufficient to enable a saving man to buy a farm in the West.

These men uniformly agreed that, on returning home, they sorely missed the water of the Mississippi. "I'll tell you, sir," said one very intelligent fellow, within whose hut I walked to light my cigar; "there's no pith in any other water after one's bin' used to drink o' this; it seems as though a man couldn't work on water alone anywhere else."

Whether this is fancy, or whether it arises from the regular and abstemious habits they generally observe whilst working here, I cannot tell; but the notion I found was universal throughout Louisiana.

I had frequent applications for a charge of fine powder for priming; game, as they informed me, (that is, deer,) being in abundance. I was greatly pleased with many of these men; they are hardy, industrious fellows, and suffer much during the season of their stay from bad quarters and bad diet: they said, nevertheless, it was a good place to come down to, but spoke with infinite dislike of the dirk and rifle practice of the neighbourhood.

Whilst passing Fort Adams after dark, our boat was hailed, signal fires lighted, and at length rifles fired to bring us to; but all in vain, our pilot held on his way, unheeding these pressing invitations. On my observing to him that I conceived it a little hard not to touch for passengers when apparently so near to them, he informed me that the river was in rapid rise, and a current setting on that shore that might ground the boat.

Friday, 6th.—My servant awoke me with the tidings that our voyage was complete, and we at Natchy-under-hill, where all things destined for the upper region are landed. It was about six o'clock A.M., the rain coming down merrily, when I took leave of the Superior and her captain, much pleased with both, and landed ankle-deep in choice mud.

Three or four negroes followed with my baggage to the nearest store, where I got a two-horse car, or dray, just put upon duty for the day. In common with one or two other persons, I engaged the machine; and packing my trunks and myself upon it, was dragged up the steep bluff, and so made my first entrance into Natchez in a right Thespian conveyance, but which assuredly required all the authority of antiquity to make it respectable.

At noon the wind chopped about to north-east; and off went rain and cloud, to be succeeded by a cold as cuttingly severe as any I ever encountered in the North. Before dark the mud was converted into solid ridges, and thick ice coated each astonished puddle.

My chamber, the only single one in the house, was furnished with appliances that, in summer, must have rendered it delightful; facing the east, and opening on the road, were a door and window, neither of them particularly close-jointed; and, exactly vis-a-vis, another door, with a keyhole as large as the bore of a four-pounder; this was flanked by a third, which in its turn was set to by a huge open chimney; and, all combined, they rendered my quarters more airy than was at this crisis agreeable.

Saturday, 7th.—Cold and wind unabated: walked in search of the theatre, and found it was not in the town, but standing about half a mile off, like a solitary vidette, in a grave-yard too! Got through the rehearsal of "Born to Good Luck," and inwardly resolved that the best fortune that could befall any player on this day would be to get off acting for the night. This was in due time happily accomplished without stir of mine; for the oil for our lamplighter being just landed, after the night's frost, from the deck of the Abeona steamer, refused to burn at a short notice; a resolution which, when communicated to me, I very much applauded, declining with many thanks the manager's kindly tendered substitute of candles; the appearance was therefore of necessity put off, and the audience, as well as myself, granted a respite until Monday.

Never did I feel cold so penetrating; they say, however, that it never lasts longer than a couple of days, and is now more severe than is usual; we therefore know the worst, and may live in hopes.

Sunday, 8th.—Undertook, in company with a Boston friend, to walk out to the seat of Colonel Wilkins, where I was invited to dine; a conveyance had been sent for me; I was, however, desirous to see if exercise would warm me, and set off under the guidance of my Yankee companion, in whose good company I had the year before taken many an excursion through the pleasant lanes of New England.

We, in the first place, overshot our mark; then, in trying across a country gloriously broken and thickly timbered with a variety of trees, we lost our way, keeping Mrs. Wilkins' excellent fare at the fire, and ourselves away from it, some two hours longer than was needed.

Despite of a cart-load of blazing wood, it was impossible to keep comfortably warm: the wine too partook of the common discomfort, and was cold and cloudy; the champagne alone was fit to drink, being sufficiently iced without much trouble.



THE THEATRE.

Monday, 9th.—The weather a little milder: took a gallop into the country; dined early, and about six walked out of town to the theatre, preparatory to making my bow. The way was without a single passenger, and not a creature lingered about the outer doors of the house: the interior I found in the possession of a single lamplighter who was leisurely setting about his duties; of him I inquired the hour of beginning, and learnt that it was usual to commence about seven or eight o'clock—a tolerable latitude; time was thus afforded me for a ramble, and out I sallied, taking the direction leading from the town. I had not proceeded far when I met several men riding together; a little farther on, another group, with a few ladies in company, passed leisurely by, all capitally mounted: others, I perceived, were fast approaching from the same direction. It now occurred to me that these were the persons destined to form the country quota of my auditory: upon looking back, my impression was confirmed by seeing them all halting in front of the rural theatre, and fastening their horses to the neighbouring rails and trees.

I now hastened back to take a survey of the scene, and a very curious one it was: a number of carriages were by this time arriving from the town, together with long lines of pedestrians; the centre of the wide road was however prominently occupied by the horsemen; some, dismounted, abided here the coming of their friends, or exchanged greetings with such of these as had arrived but were yet in their stirrups, and a finer set of men I have rarely looked upon; the general effect of their costume, too, was picturesque and border-like: they were mostly clad in a sort of tunic or frock, made of white or of grass-green blanketing, the broad dark-blue selvage serving as a binding, the coat being furnished with collar, shoulder-pieces, and cuffs of the same colour, and having a broad belt, either of leather or of the like selvage; broad-leafed white Spanish hats of beaver were evidently the mode, together with high leather leggings, or cavalry boots and heavy spurs. The appointments of the horses were in perfect keeping with those of these cavaliers; they bore demi-pique saddles, with small massive brass or plated stirrups, generally shabracs of bear or deer-skin, and in many instances had saddle-cloths of scarlet or light blue, bound with broad gold or silver lace.

The whole party having come up, and their horses being hitched in front of the building to their satisfaction, they walked leisurely into the theatre, the men occupying the pit: whilst in the boxes were several groups of pretty and well-dressed women. The demeanour of these border gallants was as orderly as could be desired; and their enjoyment, if one might judge from the heartiness of their laughter, exceeding.

After the performance there was a general muster to horse; and away they rode, in groups of from ten to twenty, as their way might lie together. These were the planters of the neighbouring country, many of whom came nightly to visit the theatre, and this from very considerable distances; forming such an audience as cannot be seen elsewhere in this hackney-coach age; indeed, to look on so many fine horses, with their antique caparisons, piquetted about the theatre, recalled the palmy days of the Globe and Bear-garden.



JOURNAL.

Tuesday, 10th.—Cold, cold; mercury below zero; every one complaining of the unusual duration of a temperature rarely encountered here. I am fast screwing my relaxed fibres up to their ancient Northern pitch of hardihood, and begin to face this nipping air with pleasure. Out early for a long ride: towards noon the wind shifted a little to the west, when it became perceptibly milder, the sun shining brightly and the sky cloudless. Dined in the country at Mr. M——'s; where I had a long conversation with Colonel W——s on the former and present condition of these frontier states, and derived much in the way both of information and amusement from this intelligent and well-informed gentleman.

Wednesday, 11th.—Wind north-west; sun warm; day glorious; in saddle early, and away to the forest. In the afternoon visited the plantation of Colonel B——n, where I saw three or four very likely racers at exercise; amongst others, a horse called Hard-heart, whose time for a mile, they declare here, has never been matched. The passion for the turf is, I find, yet stronger here, if that be possible, than in the North. One or two persons are this very year going to Europe for the sole purpose of importing horses of high reputation: a larger sort of broodmare would, I think, be of more service to them.

In whatever direction I ride here, I find the country beautifully diversified; a succession of hill and dale, with timber-trees of the noblest kind. The magnolia grandiflora is found in groves absolutely, and growing from forty to fifty feet high.

This night, after the play, an old acquaintance, Mr. Howard Payne, came to see me: he had just descended the Mississippi from St. Louis; his object in travelling being, as he informed me, to obtain subscriptions for a journal he purposes to establish in London; its object, to cultivate and sustain an exchange of literary opinions, and a more liberal and generous intercourse in literature than at present exists. His success, as might be expected, has been most encouraging.

Thursday, 12th.—Weather balmy and genial; took a very long walk by the Mississippi, following the course of the stream through a country wild and beautiful; and on my way back, encountered a party of the Choctaw tribe, a miserable sample of this once powerful people. The two men, who appeared the leaders of the party, were both naked, their faces daubed here and there with lines and circles of red and black paint: they bore long rifles over their shoulders; and, buckled about their loins, were deer-skin pouches, containing their ammunition, pipes, &c. Several children were nearly or quite in a state of nature, and the squaws themselves scantily robed in dirty blankets, without a single ornament, dearly prized as is all finery by these coquettish children of nature.

The best of this tribe are now away south, about the head of the Red River: those yet lingering near this place, although numerous, are considered the outcasts of the nation. The appearance of such as I have encountered is squalid and filthy in the extreme.

Friday, 13th.—A clear windy day, but sufficiently mild: a boat up from New Orleans, with a mail; the first received since my arrival; latest date from England, December 23rd. Walked down to Natchy-under-hill, to inquire about a boat to New Orleans: saw one monster come groaning down the stream, looking like a huge cotton-bale on fire. Not a portion of the vessel remained above water, that could be seen, excepting the ends of the chimneys: the hull and all else was hidden by the cotton-bags, piled on each other, tier over tier, like bricks. When the boat headed the current, in order to steer in for the wharf, she was swept down bodily; and even after swinging into the eddy, I did not think she would ever muster way enough to fetch up the few yards she required to reach a berth. After a deal of hard puffing and groaning however, she gathered headway, and slowly crept alongside the bank.

I next strolled through the lane which composes the town, and is occupied by a succession of bar-rooms, dancing-shops, and faro-banks or roulette-tables: they were each in full operation, although it was not yet two o'clock P.M.

These dens all stood open to the street, and were more obscene in their appointments than the lowest of the itinerant hells found at our races. Upon the tables however lay piles of silver, and behind them the ready croupiers administered. I observed wretched devils playing here, whose whole standing kit would not have brought a picaroon at vendue. Numbers of half-dressed, faded young girls lounged within the bar-rooms or at the doors, with here and there a couple of the same style of gemman to be met with about the silver hells of London; having, however, a bolder and more swash-buckler-like air than that of their mere petty-larceny European brotherhood.

From no party, however, did our company meet the slightest observation; although, a very few years back, for strangers to have strolled about here, without other purpose than spying into the nakedness of the land, might have proved, to say the least of it, a perilous adventure; as it is more than probable they would have been followed by a long shot, likely enough to bring a book of travels to an abrupt conclusion; but even at Natchy-under-hill, manners, if not morals, are improving. Murder is not nigh so common here as it was a few seasons back; although now and then one of an extraordinary nature does take place; a few months back, for instance, an up-river boat brought-to here, as is usual, and several of her passengers were landed: just as she was leaving the wharf, the crack of a rifle was heard, and one of the passengers, who had just gained the upper-deck after his shore-visit of an hour or so, fell dead, pierced through the head. The wheels were backed, the corpse laid on the nearest wharf by the captain, with an account of the manner of his death, and, this done, off went the steamer. An inquest returned a verdict of murder against some person unknown, which was duly reported in the journal, together with the unfortunate man's name, and an inventory of such things as were found upon him.

It was presumed, as he was a stranger from the West country, that in a play dispute he had excited a spirit of revenge amongst some of these desperadoes, which was thus promptly gratified.

The impunity with which professed gamblers carry on their trade, and the course of crime consequent upon it, throughout these Southern countries, is one of the most crying evils existing in this society. The Legs are associated in gangs, have a system perfectly organized, and possess a large capital invested in this pursuit; they are seldom alone, always armed to the teeth, bound to sustain each other, and hold life at a pin's fee. Upon the banks of these great waters they most commonly rendezvous; and not a steamboat stirs from any quarter, but one or more of the gang proceed on board, in some guise or other, according to the capability or appearance of the agent; thus every passenger's business and means become known—no difficult matter amongst men whose nature is singularly simple and frank, and who are as prompt to detail their own affairs as they are curious to know those of their fellows—a little play carried on during the passage opens to the observant gambler the habits of his prey, chiefly the planters of the up-country. These planters arrive in New Orleans or some other entrepot, settle with their agent or broker, and often receive very large sums in balance of the crop of the past season, or in advance upon the next, intended for the purchase of slaves, &c. Meantime the sharper is on the pigeon's track; the toils are spread abroad by the gang, some of whom inhabit the same hotel probably, drink at the same bar, or, it may be, occupy the same chamber; thus, with nothing to do, and his naturally excitable mind fired by an addition of stimulant, if the victim escapes, it is by miracle. Hundreds are plundered yearly in this systematic way: nor, if at all troublesome, does the affair end here; for these gamblers are no half-measure men; they have a ready specific to silence noisy pigeons, and are right prompt in applying it.

No persons are better aware of the existence of this fraternity, and of its great influence all over these countries, than the people themselves; but partly from custom, and more through fear, it is permitted to exist: a false feeling of honour also prevails, which interferes to prevent the plundered taking active measures lest their informing might be attributed to the circumstance of their having lost alone. The limitless extent of thinly populated border facilitates escape, even when the laws are awakened; whilst the funds of the community are always lavishly used to screen a comrade, and at the same time conceal the working of the system. The people themselves will, no doubt, one day interfere to abate this terrible scourge, which exists amongst them only for their ruin; and when the cry is once afoot, the retribution will be awful.[1]

After dinner rode out to the race-course, and saw Pelham, who is in training to run a mile with Hard-heart. Pelham is a handsome little chestnut, with a perfectly thorough-bred air, and gallops like a witch.

From the course, rode to the mansion of Mrs. M——r, the very beau ideal of a Southern dwelling, having on either front very deep porticoes opening into a capacious hall, with winding stairs of stone outside leading on to a gallery twenty feet wide, which is carried round the building on a level with the first-floor story, and is covered by a projecting roof supported by handsome pillars: by this means the inner walls are far removed from the effect of either sun or rain, and the spacious apartments kept both cool and dry. The kitchen and other offices are detached, forming two sides of a quadrangle, of which the house is the third, and the fourth a garden.

Here I saw a negro whose age was supposed by Mrs. M——r to be about one hundred and twenty. He had been in her husband's house, who was an officer in the Spanish service, when she married, and first came here half a century back, and was then considered past labour. The old boy was quite a wag; cracked several jokes, as well as his want of teeth would let him, upon one of the company about to be married; and, on being shown a lump of fine Cavendish tobacco he had asked for, his eye sparkled like a serpent's. Mr. M——r assured me his appetite was good; and that when supplied with abundance of tobacco, he was always as at present, cheerful.

After eleven o'clock P.M. put on my cloak, and, tempted by the fineness of the night, accompanied my friend T——r on his way to his own quarters; returning along the edge of the lofty bluff between whose foot and the river is squeezed the town of Natchez.

Whilst smoking my cigar here, the murmur of a fray came to me, borne upon the light breeze: my curiosity was excited by the indistinct sounds, and I walked along in the direction whence they came for a couple of minutes. As I neared it, the tumult grew in loudness and fierceness; men's hoarse and angry voices, mingled in hot dispute, came crashing upwards as from the deeps of hell. I bent anxiously over the cliff, as though articulate sounds might be caught three hundred feet above their source;—a louder burst ascended, then crack! crack! went a couple of shots, almost together;—the piercing shrieks of a female followed, and to these succeeded the stillness of death.

I lay down upon the ground for several minutes, holding my ear close over the edge of the precipice, but all continued hushed. I then rose, and seated myself upon one of the benches scattered along the heights, almost doubting the evidence of my senses—which told of a wild brawl and probable murder as having had place beneath the very seat I yet occupied—so universal was the tranquillity.

On one hand lay the town of Natchez, sunk in repose; the moon at full, was sleeping over it, in as pure a sky as ever poet drank joy and inspiration from; far below, wrapt in shade, lay the scene of my almost dream, the line of houses denoted by a few scattered lights, and in its front was the mighty Mississippi; rolling on in its majesty through a dominion created by itself, through regions of wilderness born of its waters and still subject to its laws; I could distinctly hear the continuous rush of the strong current; it was the only sound that moved the air. I hearkened intently to this rushing; it had indeed an absolute fascination for the ear: it was not like the hoarse roar of the ocean, now breaking along a line of beach, then again lulled as though gathering breath for a renewed effort; it was a sound monotonous and low, but which filled the ear and awed the very heart. I felt that I was listening to a voice coeval with creation, and that ceased not either by night or day! which the blast of winter could not rouse, or the breath of summer hush; a voice which the buzz and bustle of noon might drive from the ear, but which the uplifting of the foundations of the world alone could silence.

Saturday, 14th.—This being my last day in Natchez, I employed it in visiting any lions that might hitherto have escaped me; amongst other unlooked-for wonders, was an exhibition of pictures advertised from England, and purporting to be a choice collection of ancient and modern masters. One picture, a Bacchus and Ariadne, was finely painted; but had suffered a good deal from time and travel, combined with a dip in the Mississippi. The remainder of the collection was composed of worse pictures than are offered to connoisseurs at a pawnbroker's sale in London. The proprietor informed me that they were to be brought to the hammer and sold without reserve in a few days, when he anticipated a lively sale for the large pictures, the quantity of raw material used up in the work being a great consideration with the lovers of art here. I looked upon the mere fact of such a speculation being made in these countries as creditable to the people and worthy of notice. Natchez will, no doubt, one day have an academy of her own; men can hardly fail to paint where nature offers so much that is beautiful for their imitation; and, indeed, I have in the remotest places seen attempts by self-taught artists that have convinced me example and encouragement alone are needed.

Learning that the steamer Carolton was to sail this afternoon, I once more descended into Natchy-under-hill, where I had an interview with the captain, who was, I found, a worthy legitimate follower of old Father Ocean, recently transferred to the service of one of his greatest tributaries: he readily promised to delay sailing for a couple of hours for me, until the play was over; this point being settled, I felt at ease, and accompanied Mr. M——r to his mother's place to dinner. The wind came from the south, and was indeed as perfumed as though blowing "o'er a bed of violets." The perfume of early spring began to exhale from the magnolia and Cape jasmin, to a degree that rendered distance necessary to prevent its being over cloying. I felt my spirits bound within me, as on a half-wild, little thorough-bred Mississippi nag, I rattled up and down the well-turfed slopes lying along the edge of the forest.

After dinner took a spot, called the Devil's Punch-bowl, en route; it is formed by a vast sinking of the river-bank, trees and soil all have gone down together, forming an immense wooded basin of great depth and extent. As the stream undermines these forest bluffs, which it is ever acting against either on one side or other, these fallings-in must occur; indeed great changes are constantly taking place on the river; many of a very striking kind are pointed out as having occurred within the memory of persons yet living.

As we rode hence to the town, a distance of four or five miles, the wind shifted to the west, and a smart shower commenced; an hour later, and this lovely day set amidst a violent storm of rain, lightning, and wind; so I was fated to descend the bluff by water, as I first mounted it: my vehicle was improved though, for I had this time procured a comfortable carriage. By half-past ten I was snugly stowed away, bag and baggage, on board the Carolton; and by eleven we were following the eternal current amidst a deluge of rain, and a gale of wind blowing from N.W., with a cold which, falling suddenly upon one's fibre, unstrung by three or four warm days, was positively paralyzing. I occupied a stateroom by favour; but, a couple of panes of glass being out of the window, I suffered for my exclusiveness.

Sunday, 15th.—Snow falling, the first I have seen in the South; our boat constantly stopping to load cotton, so that we, at the close of the day, have made only some twenty miles: the night came on clear, and tolerably mild. By eight o'clock P.M. we had received from our several halts one thousand bales of the staple, all of which were stowed away upon our deck, galleries, &c. till daylight could no longer be expected to visit us—even the doors were blocked up, as in the Alabama. Thank Heaven! our present imprisonment is for a shorter period, our worthy captain assuring us that by daylight on Tuesday we shall be alongside the Levee.

At one of our landing-places we found a couple of outcast-looking white-men bivouacking beneath a tree before a half-burned log, with a couple of tin saucepans standing near: one of the precious pair was extended on the damp soil, bare-headed, with a blanket rolled about him; the other sat, Indian-like, wrapped in a similar robe. For the three hours we were delayed, whilst loading three hundred bales of cotton, I do not think either of them moved; they were as miserable specimens of humanity as might be met with. I could not help contrasting these members of the privileged class with a gang of stout slaves who were employing their Sunday's leisure in assisting to load the boat, for which service they each received about two shillings sterling: I need hardly say the contrast was decidedly in favour of the negroes.

Monday, 16th.—Day fine, and not so cold: passed Bayou Sarah, as high up as which the tide flows, rising about six inches once in twenty-four hours.

Opposite Prophet's Island saw a large square ark, moored to the bank, surmounted by a pole from which a white flag was fluttering. I was in great hopes this was the Mississippi theatre, which I knew from report to be somewhere in this latitude on its annual voyage to New Orleans; but it turned out to be the store of a Yankee pedlar on a trading voyage.

This floating theatre, about which I make constant inquiry, and which I yet hope to fall in with, is not the least original or singular speculation ventured on these waters. It was projected and is carried on by the Elder Chapman, well known for many years as a Covent Garden actor: his practice is to have a building suitable to his views erected upon a raft at some point high up the Mississippi, or on one of its tributaries, whence he takes his departure early in the fall, with scenery, dresses, and decorations, all prepared for representation. At each village or large plantation he hoists banner and blows trumpet, and few who love a play suffer his ark to pass the door, since they know it is to return no more until the next year; for, however easy may prove the downward course of the drama's temple, to retrograde, upwards, is quite beyond its power. Sometimes a large steamer from Louisville, with a thousand souls on board, will command a play whilst taking in fuel, when the profit must be famous. The corps dramatique is, I believe, principally composed of members of his own family, which is numerous, and, despite of alligators and yellow fever, likely to increase and flourish. When the Mississippi theatre reaches New Orleans, it is abandoned and sold for fire-wood; the manager and troop returning in a steamer to build a new one, with such improvements as increased experience may have suggested.

This course Mr. Chapman has pursued for three or four seasons back, and, as I am told by many who have encountered this aquatic company, very profitably. I trust he may continue to do so until he makes a fortune, and can bequeath to his kin the undisputed sovereignty of the Mississippi circuit.

Tuesday, 17th.—At six A.M. was once more safely landed upon the already busy Levee of New Orleans; here I rested until the 22nd; on which day I took steam direct to Mobile, accomplishing the trip in forty-eight hours, one night of which we passed grounded on the Rigolets, a sandy difficult pass connecting Lac Pontchartrain with Lac Borgne.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This period has arrived, and hardly before I expected, from all I had gathered on the subject; for since this work has been in the press, I have read of an attack made upon a known rendezvous of gamblers by a party of neighbour planters near this place, by whom, after a smart action, the hold was forced and carried by assault; when, according to the usage of war, for which exceeding respectable authorities might be quoted, the garrison was immediately hanged. A proceeding of this nature reads very queerly in the London Journals, but drawing inferences from it after the rules applicable to the County Middlesex, is laughable; these civil rules might be applied with more justice to the condition of the Scottish frontier in James the First's time. In my eyes these popular movements are not only natural, but wholesome; speaking favourably for the growing morals of the people, and, in the position they occupy, the only way of eradicating speedily an association as atrocious as it is wide-spread and powerful. I have gathered much singular information on this subject, and may in some other shape, when the opportunity occurs, make it public.



MOBILE.

This little city was to me one of the most attractive spots I visited south of the Potomac. I came upon it at my first visit after a severe roughing, and found a fine climate and old friends, whose warm welcome could not have come in better time. I found here also the best conducted and best appointed hotel in the Southern country, and society congenial and amiable: all these combined go a good way to prejudice a man in favour of a place which in itself may have little to recommend it. Mobile, however, has claims which are rapidly increasing its population and its trade; indeed the ratio of advance in both is equal to that of any other place in the States; in proof of which, I find by a report just issued of the returns of the foreign trade, exclusive of the coasting business, which is considerable, that the increase has been gradual and steady, and in five years stands thus:

In the year 1830, the total value of the importations to the port of Mobile was 1,044,135 dollars: the value of the exports for the same year was 1,994,365 dollars. In 1834, the value of the imports is stated at 3,088,811 dollars: the exports for the same year at 6,270,197 dollars. For the current year, I am credibly assured that an addition of one-third to these last amounts will not much overrate the enormous increase to which, should peace continue, each year must add for many seasons to come, since the influx of planters to Alabama is clearing the cane-brake with a rapidity unprecedented even in this country: the Indian reserves are all coming into cultivation as fast as they are vacated; and, in fact, Alabama at this day may be said to present a spectacle of successful energy and industry not to be surpassed. A railroad is now in progress, the prospectus for which was in circulation during my visit, which is to connect North and South Alabama, commencing in the valley of Tennessee, and running to some navigable point of the harbour of Mobile. A glance at a map of the States will at once render obvious the immense importance such a line of communication will be of to this city, concentrating on this point the trade, not only of North Alabama and the Tennessee valley, but some of the most fertile portions of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi.

By this railway the great obstacle in the way of the trade of the Tennessee valley, the muscle shoals, will be avoided, whilst, at a fair calculation, it is expected that the increase of cotton received into Mobile will amount to one hundred thousand bales: besides a vast quantity of pork, beef, bacon, flour, lard, whisky, &c. that now seeks a market at New Orleans, through those great natural channels, the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers: to the navigation of the first-named river the shoals have hitherto been a serious drawback, detaining laden craft of all kinds for weeks, and even months, until, late in winter or early in spring, a rise in the river enabled them to float over into the highway of the Western world, the Mississippi.

The grounds on which the vast and seemingly extravagant increase of the cotton crop of this State of Alabama may be justified, are to be found, not only in the great fertility of the virgin soil yearly brought under cultivation, but in the unprecedented increase of population. This very year, it is calculated, not less than twenty-five thousand slaves have been brought into this country from the older States on the Atlantic; this amount will, in all probability, be exceeded by the increase of next season, as there are many millions of acres of the most fertile land in the Union yet in the hands of Government for sale, lately conceded in exchange by the Indians of the Creek and Cherokee tribes.

The great cause of emigration from the Atlantic States is to be looked for in the temptation offered the planter by a soil of vastly superior fertility. In South Carolina and in most parts of Georgia, it will appear that a good average crop will give one bale or bag of cotton, weighing 310 lbs. for each working-hand employed on the plantation; now, in Alabama, four or five bales, each weighing 430 lbs. is a fair average for an able-bodied slave engaged in the cultivation; and I have conversed with many planters, holding places upon the bottom-lands of the river, who assured me their crop was yearly ten bales of cotton for each full-grown hand.

When it is considered that this season the value of cotton has been ranging from sixpence-halfpenny to ninepence per pound, the enormous receipts of some of these persons, who make from four hundred to three thousand bales of 430 lbs. weight each, may be imagined.

These are the men who have been my companions on all my late steamboat trips, for this is the season that affords them relache and brings them together; and in this city especially, as at Natchez, it is by this singular class I am surrounded: they are not difficult to comprehend, and a slight sketch of their condition and habits may not be uninteresting, as they form the great mass now inhabiting this mighty region, and it is from them a probable future population of one hundred million of souls must receive language, habits, and laws.

We generally associate with the Southern planter ideas of indolence, inertness of disposition, and a love of luxury and idle expense: nothing, however, can be less characteristic of these frontier tamers of the swamp and of the forest: they are hardy, indefatigable, and enterprising to a degree; despising and contemning luxury and refinement, courting labour, and even making a pride of the privations which they, without any necessity, continue to endure with their families. They are prudent without being at all mean or penurious, and are fond of money without having a tittle of avarice. This may at first sight appear stated from a love of paradox, yet nothing can be more strictly and simply true; this is, in fact, a singular race, and they seem especially endowed by Providence to forward the great work in which they are engaged—to clear the wilderness and lay bare the wealth of this rich country with herculean force and restless perseverance, spurred by a spirit of acquisition no extent of possession can satiate.

Most men labour that they may, at some contemplated period, repose on the fruits of their industry; adventurers in unhealthy regions, generally, seek to amass wealth that they may escape from their penible abodes, and recompense themselves by after enjoyment for the perils and privations they have endured. Not so the planters of this south-western region; were their natures moulded after this ordinary fashion, these States, it is true, might long continue mines of wealth, to be wrought by a succession of adventurers; but never would they become what Providence has evidently designed they shall be,—great countries, powerful governments, and the home of millions of freemen yet unborn.

These men seek wealth from the soil to return it back to the soil, with the addition of the sweat of their brows tracking every newly-broken furrow. Their pride does not consist in fine houses, fine raiment, costly services of plate, or refined cookery: they live in humble dwellings of wood, wear the coarsest habits, and live on the plainest fare. It is their pride to have planted an additional acre of cane-brake, to have won a few feet from the river, or cleared a thousand trees from the forest; to have added a couple of slaves to their family, or a horse of high blood to their stable.

It is for these things that they labour from year to year. Unconscious agents in the hands of the Almighty, it is to advance the great cause of civilization, whose pioneers they are, that they endure toil for their lives, without the prospect of reaping any one personal advantage which might not have been attained in the first ten years of their labour.

It is not through ignorance either that they continue in these simple and rude habits of life. Most of these planters visit the Northern States periodically, as well as New Orleans; their wealth, and the necessity the merchant feels to conciliate their good-will, makes them the ready guests at tables where every luxury and refinement abounds: but they view these without evincing the least desire to imitate them, prefer generally the most ordinary liquids to the finest-flavoured wines, and, as guests, are much easier to please than to catch; for not only do they appear indifferent to these luxuries, but they seek to avoid them, contemn their use, and return to their log-houses and the cane-brake to seek in labour for enjoyment.

There must, however, be a great charm in the unrestrained freedom of this sort of life; since I have frequently met women, who were bred in the North, well educated, and accustomed for years to all the agremens of good society, who yet assured me that they were happiest when living in the solitude of their plantation, and only felt dull whilst wandering about the country or recruiting at some public watering-place.

The great drawback to these frontiers, and one which will, I fear, exist for some time, unless the citizens of the towns take the law into their own hands, and execute it in a summary manner, is to be found in the presence of certain idle ruffians who exist here. The only matter of surprise to me is, that there are so few of the description, and that in such a country crime is so rare, where the facility afforded for escape is great, and where the laws view with such reverence the liberty of the subject.

One or two anecdotes of recent occurrence will, however, do more to put the reader in possession of the true state of the case than a volume of unsupported reasoning.

During the last night I acted in Mobile, whilst on the stage, I heard a slight noise in the upper boxes; a rush was made to a particular point; then a moment's scuffle, and all was silent. The ladies in the dress-boxes had not moved, and very little sensation was communicated to the crowded pit: the whole thing, in fact, was over in as short a time as I have occupied in the telling of it.

After the play I accompanied a party of ladies to the house of Mr. M——e to sup, and here, for the first time, learned, through an inquiry casually made, that during that slight scuffle a citizen had been killed by the blow of a knife, given by an intemperate ruffian named M'Crew, who had quietly descended the stairs afterwards, accompanied by his brother. These men were from the country, were known disturbers of the peace, and rarely made their appearance without bloodshed following.

The next morning I inquired as to the result, when it appeared the homicide was adjudged manslaughter in a chance-medley; and the ruffian, who had voluntarily appeared before the magistrate, was admitted to bail. Now here was a case where Lynch law might have been most beneficially employed: the citizens should have caught both these ruffians, and hung them at their gates in terrorem.

I may add here, that, within a month of this time, these fiends atrociously murdered the child of a planter, out of revenge for some real or fancied affront; and, finding the exploit likely to prove serious, fled to Texas.[2]

My next illustration is of a kind so little in keeping with the year 1835, that it would be a better story if dated from the debateable land, anno Dom. 1535. The hero of the fight I am about to narrate is as fine a specimen of an old Irishman as ever I met with, and I have seen him frequently: his name is Robert Singleton, and his residence is Baldwin county, in this State.

It appears that Mr. Singleton had lent to a Mr. English four or five negroes, whom at a certain time he claimed, according to agreement, and took back to his own place: hence arose a dispute as to the right of possession; which dispute the sons of Mr. English decided upon settling in a right border fashion.

Accompanied by three of their white neighbours, and three of their father's slaves, the two Englishes repaired to the plantation of Mr. Singleton. He was absent; but they surrounded the house, and, after a resistance on the part of the slaves, which cost one of them his life, the number claimed were made prisoners, and marched off for the country of their captors.

Meantime, a lad who had escaped from the house on the first attack, found, and communicated the surprisal and the result to his master, Mr. Singleton, who, accompanied by his eldest son, without a moment's hesitation put spurs to horse, and took the line of country likely to cut off the retreat of the enemy.

Early on the next morning, July 4th, the Singletons came upon a bridge they knew the Englishes must cross; and, not discovering new tracks, decided to halt here: they had not waited half an hour, when the other party came in sight.

A parley was called. Singleton, senior, declared himself and son resolute to maintain the bridge against all comers, unless his slaves were restored.

The elder brother, W. English, begged the Singletons not to fire, as they would surrender the negroes: at the same time, the party alighted; but as Singleton turned his head to desire his son to stand fast, he received a shot in the left shoulder; and, on a second, saw his son fall dead across his feet. Clapping his gun to his shoulder, he shot David English through the brain; a barrel was at the same moment levelled against him by Wm. English, but snapped: again he called on Singleton not to shoot; but he this time called in vain. Taking up his son's loaded piece, he shot his adversary whilst in the act of stooping to lift his dead brother's rifle.

One more shot was discharged from the English party, and Singleton received a second ball in his side. The assailants then fled, leaving the resolute old planter master of the field, with his eldest son, a young man of the best habits, dead at his feet.

His wounds did not prevent his collecting his negroes after the flight of his enemies; he then walked back half a mile to where he had left his horse, mounted, and rode home, although upwards of fifty years of age. Mortification was for some time apprehended; but he at last recovered perfectly, and was, when I left Mobile, in robust health.

The detail of this affair, as it stands in the journal, is concluded by a regular list with the names of killed and wounded; but not one word of comment. It is now in my possession, and the account may be relied upon as authentic in every particular.

The streets of Mobile are covered over with a kind of shell that abounds in the neighbourhood: this binds with the fine sand, and makes the cleanest, best road possible, and is besides, I believe, very durable. Since the swampy ways have been replaced by good roads of this material, the health of the city has never been attacked by fever, which was frequent before. The cholera is unknown here, although its ravages in the south-western country were, and in fact are, terrible.

The market is abundantly supplied with provisions, fish, and game of every variety. Here is one of the best-ordered hotels in the States, and altogether as many inducements to the visitor or settler as any place I saw. The summer I had no means of proving; but from all hands learn that the heat, although continuous, is by no means excessive; whilst, within five miles, on the heights of Springhill, the nights are, at the hottest season, absolutely cold.

A ball, given in honour of the birth-day of Washington, by the volunteer corps of the city, afforded me an admirable occasion of seeing the people, since the committee was kind enough to send me a ticket.

Here, to the number of six hundred, was assembled all of the democracy of Mobile having a claim to the term respectable, properly applied to habit and character, not to calling or wealth. I have seldom seen a better dressed, and never a better conducted assembly, whilst nothing could be more perfectly democratic.

Here you might see the merchant's lady, whose French ball-dress cost one hundred and fifty dollars, dancing in the same set with the modiste who made it up; whilst the merchant changed hands with the wife of his master-drayman, and the wealthy planter's daughter footed to her brother's schneider, himself tricked out in some nondescript uniform of his own making. Yet were all perfectly well conducted, and equally happy: nor is it found that any ill consequence or undue familiarity continues after these public occasions restore each to his, or her, own sphere, or pursuit.

The supper was laid out most tastefully upon the galleries surrounding the inner court of the hotel, enclosed for the occasion with canvass, and the pillars wreathed with shrubs and flowers. At the upper end was an ugly, ill-dressed picture, which, I was informed, represented Liberty; a proof how the imagination can deify its own object of veneration, for a less inviting gentlewoman it would be difficult to conceive.

On the 7th of March I returned to New Orleans, via Portersville; and, on halting at the house midway the forest, was advised by my countryman the landlord to dine, by all means, if I was hungry; for he had "an illegant turkey, a wild one, and a Tennessee ham, with a lump of roast beef, rare and tinder." I followed his counsel, and made a most excellent meal on the wild turkey, a bird of which I should never tire. I set it down as the foremost of all winged things yet appropriated to the use of the kitchen.

I arrived at New Orleans, and again passed three weeks amidst attentions that never wearied, and the most flattering professional success. I will here, as I have before done, drop my Journal, and put my Impressions together in a less desultory form.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] Since this sheet has been in the course of printing, I have received an account of the capture of the murderers, from a correspondent at Mobile. The State had offered a large reward, and taken active measures for the M'Crews' detection. The retreat of one was traced out in the Mexican territory; and the details of his surprisal and capture, whilst resident amongst the Comanche Indians, are absolutely romantic, and highly creditable to the courage and patience of the captor, a private individual. I have to regret that these details are too long to be inserted by way of note. The murderers (or one of them at least) are now at Mobile awaiting trial.



NEW ORLEANS.

The day of my first arrival at this capital of many waters, this city sui generis, was one to which I had looked forward with much impatience and highly-roused expectations.

The disastrous affair of 1812 had made New Orleans a name familiar to Britain, and given to it a celebrity more general amongst all sorts of men than its vast trade alone would have achieved for it in double the time.

From the day also of my landing on the continent I had never heard this city named without accompanying remarks being elicited descriptive of its rapid increase, its singular position, and motley population, together with the speculations founded on the promise of its future greatness derived from its present healthful condition; that is, its political and commercial sanity; since no term can be worse applied, as illustrative of the views entertained of it by the North, whether physically or morally considered; views however that, on both these points, I have decided are singularly overcharged, even by persons one would conceive possessed of the information likely to lead to a correct judgment. This I attribute partly to the habit we are in of taking reports of places for granted, and repeating them from father to son without much personal examination, or rather comparison, and partly to the changes constantly operating upon society here, with a rapidity at least equal to the growth of building or the increase of produce and population; changes which come like Duncan's couriers, "thick as hail," the last giving the flat lie to the truth just told; to be, in turn, proved false by a successor.

To a stranger, the point of observance most original and striking, and which will at once inform and interest him, is the view from the Levee, with a walk along this artificial embankment, which commencing a hundred miles above New Orleans, and thence waiting on the stream whose rule it circumscribes, here bends like a drawn bow about the city, forming a well-frequented quay of some seven miles.

For three miles of this, the Levee is bordered by tiers of merchant shipping from every portion of the trading world, and close against it, those of the greatest tonnage, having once chosen a berth, may load or unload without shifting a line; a facility derived from nature that no port in the world can rival.

Along the whole extent of this line situated below the Levee, but at a distance of some two hundred feet, runs a range of store-houses, cotton-presses, and shops, connected by tolerably well-flagged side-walks; and certainly in no other place is such accommodation more absolutely required, the middle space or street, so called, being, after rain, a slough, to which that of Despond, as described by Bunyan, was a bagatelle; and floundering through, or pounded in which, are lines of hundreds of light drays, each drawn by three or four fine mules, and laden with the great staple, cotton.[3]

At both extremities of the tiers of shipping, but chiefly at the south, lie numberless steamboats of all sizes; and yet again, flanking these, are fleets of those rude rafts and arks constructed by the dwellers on the hundred waters of the far West; and thence pushed forth, freighted with the produce of their farms, to find, after many days, a safe haven and a sure market here.

Let it not be forgotten that many of the primitive-looking transports lying at this point have performed a drift of three thousand miles. Their cargoes discharged, they are immediately disposed of to be broken up; their crews working their way back on board the steamers, to return in the following year with a vessel and a freight, both of which are at this time flourishing in full vegetation in field and in forest.

The interest with which I looked upon these far-travelled barks I dare hardly trust myself to declare or to describe; they told me of men and of their increase, who, only for the waters on which they live, would be as little known and quite as uncivilized as the Indian whose land they have redeemed from the wild beast or more savage hunter, to bid it teem with abundance, and to be a refuge and a home for millions to rejoice in.

The appearance of the Levee during this season is most animated. At the quarter occupied by the great Western steamboats, the lading and discharging cargoes seldom ceases during the busy months, when each hour appears to be grudged if not devoted to toil. At night, fires mark the spots where work is most brisk, and the warehouses along the line are frequently illuminated from the street to the upper story: crowds of labourers, sailors, bargemen, and draymen cheer, and order, and swear in every language in use amongst this mixed population; and, above all, at regular intervals, rises the wild chorus of the slaves labouring in gangs, who, if miserable, are certainly the merriest miserables in existence.

No scene is more likely to impress a stranger with a full knowledge of the vast deal of trade transacted here in a few months than this prolonged bustle at a time when the rest of the city sleeps; and, as he pursues his way amongst tens of thousands of bales of cotton that actually cover the Levee for miles, he will cease to doubt of the wealth which he learns is on all hands accumulating with a rapidity almost partaking of the marvellous.

I had heard in the North much said about the great danger incurred by a night-stroll in New Orleans, and so will the stranger who next follows after me: but do not let these bug-a-boo tales deter him from a walk upon the Levee after ten P.M. It is not amongst these sons of industry, however rude, that he will encounter either insult or danger: I have traversed it often on foot and on horseback, and never met with the first, or had the slightest cause to apprehend the latter.

In a city like this, amongst a concourse of strangers, the worst sort of men are doubtless to be met with, as in all large cities; but surely not in greater numbers. I question whether London or Paris can boast of less crime in proportion; certainly, not fewer felonies. Here, it is too true, a quarrel in hot blood is often followed by a shot or a stroke with the ready poniard; but for this both parties are equally prepared, and resolute to abide the issue: and for the stranger, all he has to do is to keep out of low places of gambling and dissipation, and, if in a large hotel, to keep his door locked; a precaution which would be as much called for at Cheltenham or Spa, were the congregated numbers equally great; although, in the latter places, I admit, the thieves might be nicer men, better dressed, and not chewers of 'baccy.

The streets, after nightfall, are the very quietest I ever saw in any place possessing one-third of the population. The theatres, I repeat, as far as my observation goes, might serve as models to cities boasting greater claims to refinement.

As a set-off, however, let the stranger visit the gambling tables, which are numerous; the low balls, masked or other, occurring every night, for whites or quadroons, or both; let him visit the low bar-rooms, or even look into that of the first hotel, which bar forms a half-circle of forty feet, yet is, during ten hours of the twenty-four, only to be approached in turn, and whose daily receipt is said to exceed three hundred dollars for drams; and he will, if such be his only sources of information, naturally come to conclusions anything but favourable to the moral condition of New Orleans.

The crowd so occupied, however, be it remembered, is composed of strangers, or what is here called the transient population, at this season counting at least forty thousand persons, the greatest proportion of whom are here without a home except the bar-room of a public-house, or a shelter save the bedchamber which they have in common with from three to twenty companions, as luck or favour may preside over their billet.

This assemblage is compounded of men from every section of the Union,—the quiet Yankee, cautiously picking his way to fortune, with small means and large designs; the gay Virginian, seeking a new location on the rich land of Mississippi or Alabama; the suddenly enriched planter of Louisiana, full of spare cash, which can only be got rid of in a frolic, having settled with his merchant and purchased the contemplated addition to his slave stock, and resolute to enjoy his holiday after his own fashion; the half-civilized borderers from the banks of the Gazoo, or the prairies of Texas, come hither with the first produce ever won by industry from the swamp or the forest, to see New Orleans, form connexions, and arrange credit for future operations.

Numerous as are these classes, they are yet readily distinguished by one who has seen and observed them in turns, and noted their characteristics, which are indeed sufficiently distinct.

The Yankee, slow, observant, concentrated, with thin, close-compressed lips, bilious complexion, and anxious countenance, may be picked out amidst a hundred other men, edging cautiously from place to place, scanning every group, and having, as it were, eyes and ears for all present.

The Virginian, tall of stature, thin and flexile of form, of an easy carriage, with an open up-look, and an expression at once reckless and humorous, talking rapidly and swearing loudly, frank in his abord, of engaging deportment, and assuming as though there were no country so good as the "Old Dominion," and no better man than her son.

The Kentuck farmer—whose marked characteristics are pervading all the States bordering on the Mississippi, and who, together with the Buck-eye of Ohio, will ultimately give tone and manner to the dwellers on its thousand streams—of a stronger outline and coarser stamp, as is fitted to and well-becoming the pioneer of the grandest portion of the continent, and of one who is putting forth the thew and sinew of a giant, to benefit posterity; his only present recompense the possession of a rude independence, and the consciousness of increasing wealth, to add to which his energies are unceasingly devoted; his relaxation, meantime, an occasional frolic or debauch, which he grapples with, as his father did with fortune and the forest, closely and constantly, only pausing for breath through sheer exhaustion, or prostration rather. His person is square, and better knit together than most men's; his complexion clear, though bronzed by exposure to sun and storm; his manner rustic, but not rude; with a self-possession that is evident at a glance, and which makes him at all times equal to any chance or change that may cross him. Good-humoured, sociable, and very observant, his confidence is quickly won, or lost, according to a first impression. Proffering largely, yet ever ready to more than make his words good; full of kindliness to those he loves or esteems; boisterous, rude, and ill to deal with, where he dislikes; capable withal of rapid refinement, and having a ready perception of its advantages.

The Creole of Louisiana forms another distinct specimen to be met with here, though seldom mixing much with either of the first named classes. He invariably conserves much of the air and appearance of la belle France, and can never be mistaken, offering, according to his disposition, all the varieties of his original stock, from the amiable deportment and companionable bonhommie of the well-bred Frenchman, to the fierce brusquerie and swaggering sneer of the gallant of the estaminet.

What will be the result of a complete amalgamation of all these classes, which one day must arrive, together with an admixture yet more opposed,—an admixture as certain nevertheless as is the march of time, but which cannot now be named, and which these classes would each and all shudder to contemplate,—an amalgamation that has already begun, and is in truth in full progress; and this increase a falling-off in the price of cotton, so as to render slave-labour less valuable, will infallibly hasten in a ratio perfectly geometrical.

Time is the surest emancipator after all; for proof of which look not to the prospect presented here, but turn back on the old States. At what period did philanthropy triumph there? why exactly at that point where interest joined issue with its dictates; the slave was, in fact, admitted as a hired labourer, when he ceased to be profitable as a bondsman: and that day will arrive here also, as surely as that the sun shines on Louisiana; and the lower valley of the Mississippi will yet be peopled by a free and hardy race, born on the soil made each year more fruitful and less pestilential, until it shall rival the valleys of the Ganges or the Nile, if not in the splendour of art, at least in the more solid and enduring possessions,—education, intelligence, and freedom; for only whilst so sustained can the institutions of democracy exist; these once failing to advance hand-in-hand with population, the whole fabric will, with inconceivable rapidity, be resolved into a rude anarchy for some bold mind to re-form and re-model.

One of the greatest works now in progress here, is the canal planned to connect Lac Pontchartrain with the city. In the month of February it was completed to within three miles of the lake; and as it was a pleasant ride to the point where the digging was in progress, I two or three times visited the scene, after its bearings had been explained by the two intelligent persons under whose guidance I first penetrated the swamp.

I only wish that the wise men at home who coolly charge the present condition of Ireland upon the inherent laziness of her population, could be transported to this spot, to look upon the hundreds of fine fellows labouring here beneath a sun that at this winter season was at times insufferably fierce, and amidst a pestilential swamp whose exhalations were foetid to a degree scarcely endurable even for a few moments; wading amongst stumps of trees, mid-deep in black mud, clearing the spaces pumped out by powerful steam-engines; wheeling, digging, hewing, or bearing burdens it made one's shoulders ache to look upon; exposed meantime to every change of temperature, in log-huts, laid down in the very swamp, on a foundation of newly-felled trees, having the water lying stagnant between the floor-logs, whose interstices, together with those of the side-walls, are open, pervious alike to sun or wind, or snow. Here they subsist on the coarsest fare, holding life on a tenure as uncertain as does the leader of a forlorn hope; excluded from all the advantages of civilization; often at the mercy of a hard contractor, who wrings his profits from their blood; and all this for a pittance that merely enables them to exist, with little power to save, or a hope beyond the continuance of the like exertion.

Such are the labourers I have seen here, and have still found them civil and courteous, with a ready greeting for the stranger inquiring into their condition, and a quick jest on their own equipment, which is frequently, it must be admitted, of a whimsical kind.

Here too were many poor women with their husbands; and when I contemplated their wasted forms and haggard sickly looks, together with the close swamp whose stagnant air they were doomed to breathe, whose aspect changeless and deathlike alone met their eyes, and fancied them, in some hour of leisure, calling to memory the green valley and the pure river, or the rocky glen and sparkling brook of their distant home, with all the warmth of colouring the imaginative spirit of the Irish peasant can so well supply, my heart has swelled and my eyes have filled with tears.

I cannot hope to inspire the reader with my feelings upon a mere sketch like this; but if I could set the scene of these poor labourers' exile fairly forth, with all the sad accompaniments detailed; could I show the course of the hardy, healthy pair, just landed, to seek fortune on these long-sighed-for shores, with spirits newly lifted by hope and brighter prospects from the apathy into which compulsory idleness and consequent recklessness had reduced them at home; and then paint the spirit-sinking felt on a first view of the scene of their future labour,—paint the wild revel designed to drown remembrance, and give heart to the new-comers; describe the nature of the toil where exertion is taxed to the uttermost, and the weary frame stimulated by the worst alcohol, supplied by the contractor, at a cheap rate for the purpose of exciting a rivalry of exertion amongst these simple men.

Next comes disease, either a sweeping pestilence that deals wholesale on its victims, or else a gradual sinking of mind and body; finally, the abode in the hospital, if any comrade is interested enough for the sufferer to bear him to it; else, the solitary log-hut and quicker death. Could these things with their true colours be set forth in detail before the veriest grinder of the poor that ever drove the peasant to curse and quit the soil of his birth, he would cover his eyes from the light of heaven, and feel that he yet possessed a heart and human sympathy.

At such works all over this continent the Irish are the labourers chiefly employed, and the mortality amongst them is enormous,—a mortality I feel certain might be vastly lessened by a little consideration being given to their condition by those who employ them. At present they are, where I have seen them working here, worse lodged than the cattle of the field; in fact, the only thought bestowed upon them appears to be, by what expedient the greatest quantity of labour may be extracted from them at the cheapest rate to the contractor. I think, however, that a better spirit is in progress amongst the companies requiring this class of labourers; in fact it becomes necessary this should be so, since, prolific as is the country from whence they are drawn, the supply would in a little time cease to keep pace with the demand, and slave labour cannot be substituted to any extent, being much too expensive; a good slave costs at this time two hundred pounds sterling, and to have a thousand such swept off a line of canal in one season, would call for prompt consideration.

Independent of interest, Christian charity and justice should alike suggest that the labourers ought to be provided with decent quarters, that sufficient medical aid should always be at hand, and above all, that the brutalizing, accursed practice of extorting extra labour by the stimulus of corn spirit should be wholly forbidden.

Let it be remembered that, although rude and ignorant, these men are not insensible to good impressions, or incapable of distinguishing between a kindly and paternal care of their well-doing, and the mercenary cold-blooded bargain which exacts the last scruple of flesh it has paid for.

I have inquired much, and have heard many worthy, well-informed men comment upon this subject, and feelingly regret the existing system; but it is only by the close supervision of the Directors of Public Works that this crying evil can be effectively checked, and the condition and character of the labourer improved.[4]

At present the priest is the only stay and comfort of these men; the occasional presence of the minister of God alone reminds them that they are not forgotten of their kind: and but for this interference, they would grow in a short time wholly abandoned and become uncontrollable; unfortunately of these men, who conscientiously fulfil their holy functions, there are but too few,—the climate, and fatigue soon incapacitates all but the very robust. Those who follow the ministry of God in the swamp and in the forest must have cast the pride of flesh indeed out from them, since they brave the martyr's fate without a martyr's triumph.

If a few of our goodly Cheltenham Parsons, the non-resident gentlemen, who so laudably desire to uphold their church, were to come here, they would find ample employment for their leisure, and might make hosts of converts; for courage and kindliness of heart are irresistible in appeal; and it is on these foundations, whether amongst the bogs and mountains of Ireland, or in the wilderness of America, that the Catholic priest of our days has built the unimpeachable influence he exercises over his people.

The gloomy picture of the labourer's condition, which my mention of this canal has drawn from me, may by some be considered overcharged; but I protest I have, on the contrary, withheld details of suffering from heat, and cold, and sickness, which my heart at this moment aches when I recall.

To return to the canal. It in all probability will never be used for the purpose designed, even when completed; it was, in fact, the bonus proffered to the legislature by a bank which required a certain charter; it will, at least, answer the purpose of a great drain, and so far must prove of infinite local importance, the more especially since it is in contemplation to redeem the whole of the surrounding swamp,—a measure that, if effectually carried out, will probably render New Orleans as healthy as any city south of the Potomac.

The police of this place I should imagine at present better than in the Northern cities, since noise or disturbance in the streets is a thing unknown, and after ten at night everything is usually still and quiet, excepting upon the Levee, where work at this season appears to go on by night as by day.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] These ways oftimes, in continued wet weather, become impassable, to the great injury of business: but remedy there is none, save patience; for any animal under the size of an elephant would be lost in the mud, swallowed wholly up.

[4] That this task would not be difficult I have the best authority for asserting,—the experience of one of the ablest and most honourable-minded men of this or any other country, Captain R. S——n. Finding on the great work, in the conducting of which he was a principal, the usual number of riots and disputes, he, with the practical good sense for which he is distinguished, applied himself to discover the cause: this he generally traced up to some real or fancied injustice complained of by the labourer, and quickly resented by outrage on his part. He next personally interfered, heard patiently, decided fairly, and in a kind manner made clear the ground of every decision for or against the labourers. In a short time he by this course completely won the confidence of these poor fellows, and not another riot occurred. In his absence even, however prolonged, any dispute growing to violence was quieted in a moment by one of the elders suggesting that they should wait quietly till the Captain came home.

No decision, however, against their views was ever objected to; and it was most gratifying to me to hear Captain S——n assert that he had never met with any class of men whose regard for even-handed justice appeared so strong as that of these poor Irish labourers.



THE LEVEE MARKET.

Viewed at an early hour, the large market-place on the Levee is a lounge of a most amusing kind, exhibiting at one glance a more striking picture of the variety of people to be found here than might be attained in any other place.

Here may be seen the Spanish creole, cloaked and capped, followed by a half-naked slave, making, with a grave quiet air, and in slow deliberate speech, his frugal market. Bustling along directly in his wake, but with frequent halts and crossings from side to side, comes a lively daughter of France, her market-slave leading a little boy fancifully dressed a la hussarde; with these she holds a running fire of chatter, only interrupted by salutations to passing friends, or nods and smiles to those more distant. Look yet a little longer, and, yawing along in squads of three and four abreast, you will see sailors of all kinds cheapening fruit and vegetables, together with cooks, stewards, and all their dingy subordinates. Here is the up-looking, dare-devil Jack of Old England; the clean, holiday-looking, well-dressed seaman of Marseilles, with large gold ear-rings twinkling beneath the rim of his high-crowned bright glazed hat. Next, moving stealthily by, with an uneasy, restless look, notice a couple of low-built, light-limbed, swarthy fellows, moustached and bearded, one wearing a red shirt and a broad-leafed Panama hat, the other clad in a white blouse with a scarlet worsted sash drawn about his hips, a Montero cap, naked legs, and white canvass slippers.