many of them appeared to be moving round us within a few yards distance, all was silent when we stopped our horses. At last, it flashed across my mind that these moving lights must proceed from the beautiful fire-flies we had often heard of, but which it had not occurred to me that we were likely to see in this country. Even at such a moment, I was delighted with their beauty, evanescent as it was; for they soon disappeared. Occasionally, we were again deluded by a solitary fire-fly at a distance, which twinkled like a light from a cottage-window, and to which we several times bent our steps, our spirits depressed by every successive disappointment.

At last, just as the moon rose, we reached an elevated spot, where we lighted our fire, toasted our bacon, and after securing our horses by a little fence of saplings, lay down on our blankets under the trees with no common satisfaction.

We started before four o'clock the next morning, and breakfasted at a house about ten miles distant. The settlement was established about 15 years since the Indians, contrary to their usual custom, having permitted it; but although the owner had more than 2000 head of cattle grazing in the woods, he had neither milk nor butter to give us to our coffee. This

is an extreme case; but it is not uncommon, in this part of the country, to be unable to procure either milk or butter where 18 or 20 cows are kept, solid animal food being much preferred. Humboldt, you will recollect, in the account of his journey from the mountains of Parapara to the banks of the Apure, mentions arriving at a farm where he was told of herds of several thousand cows grazing in the plains; and yet he asked in vain for a bowl of milk. At the house where we breakfasted, we saw the skin of a bear drying in the sun seven miles farther we passed a large panther, as it is called, which had been lately killed and stuffed. At the next house was the skin of a rattle-snake, which the the woman who lived there had killed a few nights before. At this retired house we were detained two or three hours by a violent thunder storm with extremely heavy rain. As soon as the rain abated we set off again in the midst of vivid lightning, which, in the darkness of the night, alone enabled us to keep our path to Blakeley, which we were anxious to reach, as it was Saturday night. Indeed, for the last three days, we had travelled 45 miles each day, in order to arrive before Sunday; but to our disappointment, we found there was no church or *See Note, page 123.

meeting-house there of any description; and we accordingly crossed the bay in the morning to go to church at this place (Mobile,) where we were equally disappointed; for, to the disgrace of Protestant America, no place of worship is established here except a Catholic church, built by the French or Spanish,

Letter IX.

Natchez, on the Mississippi, 24th April, 1820.

My thoughts, however, are much and very agreeably engrossed by the objects of interest which press upon me on every side; and I sometimes forget that I am so far from home. My solitary ride through the woods I enjoyed exceedingly; and except for my anxiety to be proceeding in the immediate objects of my journey, I should not have been tired if it had been twice as long. From Augusta and to Mobile, the way we came, was 460 miles nearly, which we accomplished in about 15 days, during two of which we rested. I left my horses at Mobile, in the care of a friend, to sell.

I mentioned, in my last letter, that after crossing the bay, on Sunday morning, to go to church, I was disappointed to find no Protestant place of worship at Blakeley. I understood, however, that a Protestant clergyman from the Eastern States had, for some Sundays preceding, been officiating alternately at Mobile and Blakeley. These towns are situated on opposite sides of the bay, and are contending vehemently for the privilege

of becoming that great emporium which must shortly spring up in the vicinity of this outlet for the produce of the young fertile State of Alabama. The surface drained by the rivers Tombigbee, Black Warrior, Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Cahawba, all of which fall into Mobile Bay, exceeds 26 millions of acres, possessing a very great diversity of soil and climate, and enjoying commercial and agricultural advantages, which are attracting towards them, with unprecedented rapidity, the wealth and enterprise of the older States.

Blakeley is a real American town of yesterday, with a fine range of warehouses; the stumps of the trees which have been felled to make room for this young city still standing in the streets. Mobile is an old Spanish town, with mingled traces of the manners and language of the French and Spaniards, and with an old fort, called Fort Condé, which is to be superseded by fortifications in a more formidable position.

The change from the quiet homely cabins in which we were entertained in the woods, to the noisy, dirty tavern of Mobile, was by no means an agreeable one. I sat down with about thirty or forty persons to every meal; but I saw much more of men than of manners, and was convinced that there was some truth in what I had been