owner for care and superintendance. In the progress towards this state of things, manumissions would multiply rapidly, for they would cost little; experiments would be made favourable to the freedom of the Negro; many slaves would become free labourers, and slavery would verge towards its termination.

Does not this view of the subject throw a gleam of hope over the dark picture? But it is not from free labour alone that the West India and American planters have much to fear. They have already most formidable competitors in those foreign colonies into which the importation of slaves is still admitted. But I will not pursue the subject. I will only add that the great revolutions which the natural course of events is silently effecting in the West, are calculated to rivet the attention both of the planter and of the philanthropist, and to inspire each of them with feelings of the most intense interest, though not a little differing in their complexion.

I must not forget to tell you, long as my letter is, that this place derives its name from the Natchez, a celebrated tribe of Indians, extinguished some time since with circumstances of peculiar cruelty. Dr. Robertson describes them as distinguished from the other southern

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tribes by hereditary rank, and the worship of the sun. The Choctaws, of whom there are nearly 20,000 in this State, often pay us a visit. A friend of mine who was present, lately mentioned to me a circumstance strongly indicative of the equivocal transitive nature of their present state. As soon as the warriors had assembled to meet the deputation from the Government of the United States, for the usual distribution of presents, &c. and all was prepared, the principal chief addressed the American agent, and said, "Well, I see every thing is ready;-I just take my little frolic for three days, and "then we proceed to business." The agent remonstrated sharply, observing, that he and his people had come a great way to meet the warriors in their own land, and that it would be extremely inconvenient to them to be detained; that if he was determined to have a frolic, he had better wait till the distribution was over, and then he might frolic as long as he chose. The chief replied, that pleasure was no pleasure, unless a man might have it at his own time and in his own way ;-that if they were distributing whiskey or dollars, he could not trust his people, and would keep as sober as any body; but the implements of husbandry were safe, and a frolic he would have. He then drank furiously of

P

whiskey, and remained in a state of brutal intoxication for three days; after which he came out, to use my friend's expression, as bright as a dollar, and proceeded to business, with an alertness and sagacity, to all appearance, unimpaired by his excesses.-I have not mentioned, that in consequence of the fever last year, more than half of the families seem to be in mourning; and instances have been stated to me of great generosity on the part of the planters towards those whom the ravages of death have deprived of their natural protectors, and left orphans and destitute.

We hope to set out in a few days on horseback, through the Indian country, to Richmond, in Virginia.

Letter XH.

Missionary Settlement of Elliot, in the Yaloo Busha.
In the Indian Nation of the Choctaws,

19th May, 1820.

My last letter was from Natchez, of the 8th instant. The same day I went to visit a very pleasant family, residing eight miles from Natchez, the family of the late Mr. W. D. He was, I believe, the son of Sir A. D, of T-, in Scotland; and coming to this country in early life, he accumulated a large fortune, by judicious cotton planting. With the superiority of the cotton from his plantation, our English cotton-spinners are well acquainted. He also made considerable literary acquirements; and was denominated by Mr. Jefferson, the philosopher of the woods. His widow lives in a very handsome house, in the middle of the woods, near the centre of their cotton plantations; and her eldest son, who studied medicine in the North, that he might practise gratuitously among the Negroes of the various branches of the family, lives with her. His wife is a young lady from the neighbourhood of Philadelphia;

and some female friends from that city were staying with her. The interior of the house, and the domestic economy, resembled that of the family of one of our wealthy country gentlemen; and the manners of the inmates were such as you expect to meet with in well-educated and well-bred society in England. I spent two days there very agreeably. The mornings were devoted to riding with the ladies, or inspecting the cotton plantations with the gentlemen, and the evenings to music and conversation. The morning after I arrived, we started at four o'clock on a deer hunt. I was stationed with my horse and gun at a particular pass in the woods, where I was told the deer was sure to come; and I was directed how to conceal myself behind the trees, so as to have the opportunity of shooting it as soon as it should appear. I waited in vain for nearly three hours, wet and cold with the morning dew, but all in vain; for although the hounds often seemed to be in full cry, and very near me, my friends who had hunted them, at last came reluctantly to tell me that the day was now so far advanced, that there was no chance. On our return, the ladies, who walked a little way to meet us, gave us a hunter's breakfast, although we had not quite earned it. As I was to set off on my journey