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MISCELLANEOUS.

REMARKS DURING A JOURNEY French and Spaniards, and with an

THROUGH NORTH AMERICA.

(Continued from p. 699.)

Natchez, State of Mississippi, 6th May, 1820.

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. I had travelled hard to reach Blakeley or Mobile on Saturday night; and could I have supposed that I should find no Protestant church in so numerous a society of American Protestants, I should have preferred a solitary Sabbath in the woods to the melancholy prospect of a community where its solemnities are despised. 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 twenty-six 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 enterprize 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 o the

old fort, called Fort Condé, which is to be superseded by fortifications in a more formidable position.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 told, that in travelling westward in this country, you may take your longitude by observing the decrements of the time occupied at meals. At Mobile five or six minutes might possibly be the average, and yet we accuse the Americans of being indolent and prodigal of time! Generally speaking, the company at the taverns consists of agents and clerks, and the mass of the population is of a most miscellaneous kind. The aspect of society, as it presents itself to the superficial eye of a stranger, is such as might be expected where public worship is totally disregarded. Profaneness, licentionsness, and ferocity, seemed to be characteristic of the place; and the latter, as manifested in barbarity to the Negro servants, was beyond even what I had anticipated. You continually hear the lash upon their backs, with language which would shock you, even if applied to brutes; and the easy and intelligent expression which I had observed in the countenances of many of the Slaves in Carolina and Georgia, had here given place to the appearance of abject timidity or idiotic vacancy. I have seen men, after receiving a severe flogging, and uttering the most piercing cries, the moment their tyrant's back was turned, burst into a loud laugh, dancing about the room, and snapping their fingers, like a school

boy who wishes to appear as if he "did not care."

The ravages of the fever. here last year were perhaps proportionably more severe than at any other place. In July the population was 1300 soon after the appearance of the fever in September, it was reduced by migrations to about 500, of which number 274 died, including 115 permanent inhabitants. I never left a place with more satisfaction. We embarked on board a small schooner on the evening of the 4th, and remained on deck till it was dark. The islands in the middle of the bay, covered with reeds four or five feet high, and their shores loaded with raft-wood, which was then floating down the bay in im mense quantities, had a most desolate appearance. In the morning we found ourselves in the Gulph of Mexico, but within sight of land, and with a number of pelicans flying around us. As the wind was fair, we stood out longer than usual on the outside of a chain of low flat islands, which forms with the main land a channel, through which ves sels drawing not more thau six feet water may reach New Orleans by Lake Borgne and Lake Portchartrain, without entering the Mississippi. On the 5th we saw the sun rise and set with cloudless splendour in the Gulph of Mexico; and I could not help reflecting how ill the moral darkness of this abandoned region accorded with the clear sky which was spread over us, and the glassy surface of the vast expanse in which we were encircled. On the 6th, we sailed between the islands I have alluded to and the main shore, which was a dead flat, of little interest, except towards the beautiful bay of St. Louis, to which the more opulent inhabitants of Louisiana retire during the sickly season. The shores are for the most part covered with fine forests, which stretch to the water's edge. Indeed, it is observed by Derby, that considerably more than one half of all that part of the United

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States south of latitude 35 deg.
east of the Mississippi river, and
bounded south by the Gulph of
Mexico and Florida, is covered with
pines. It is a common opinion in
many parts of America, that these
pine lands are incapable of cul-
tivation, and are destined to con-
tinue for ever in their native con-
dition. The fallacy of this opinion
has been demonstrated by success-
ful experiments in the northern
states, where verdure and fertility
now cover large tracts which had
been thus hastily condemned to
perpetual sterility. We had beau-
tiful weather, and, after coasting
along what is now the State of Mis-
sissipi, but was formerly part of
West Florida, and passing the
mouths of Raseagoala and Pearl
rivers, we reached New Orleans
early on the 7th. There was no-
thing interesting in our passengers.
One of them was from Bermuda.
His ship and cargo were seized at
Mobile, because he had brought a
Black servant, without a certificate
of his parents' freedom. As the
boy was originally from New Or-
leans, his master was obliged to
go thither to obtain the certificate
before he could release his vessel.
I mention this merely as an instance
of the vigilance with which the smug-
gling of Slaves is watched; and I am
happy to say, from all I can learn
from the inhabitants of Florida on
St. Mary's river, and from the com-
manders of vessels on that coast and
in the Gulph of Mexico, that I be-
lieve slave-smuggling in this quarter
is at present extremely limited. The
piratical establishment at Galveston,
which was one of the principal
channels for the introduction of
Slaves, has solicited and obtained
permission to sail out of the Gulph.

My impressions of New Orleans were of the most uncomfortable kind; but they were a little reliev ed by the beautiful orange-groves in the suburbs, and far more by the extensive meadows of deep rich wild clover through which we ap. proached the town from the Bayou

St. John, after sailing through Lake Borgne and Lake Portchartrain. These meadows, with the numerous herds of cattle which were grazing in them, had a more English appearance than any views we have yet seen; the absence of a rich green surface, clear of wood, being to us one of the most constant peculiarities of the American scenery through which we have yet passed. The prairies were the nearest approach to our home views. It was not until I had crossed the city, that I first caught a glimpse of the noble Mississippi. It was in flood, rising and flowing rapidly, but majestically, to the ocean. I cannot describe my sensations when I found myself actually on the banks of a river which had so long and so powerfully impressed my imagination. At dinner we had the water of the river in the decanters; and, muddy as it was till it had deposited its copious sediment, I -looked at it with no common interest, and was elated with the idea that I was drinking water from a stream which, rising in the northern regions in the same Table-lands from which more wintry currents flow to Hudson's Bay and Niagara, and actually freezing near its source on the bottom of the canoes in the middle of summer, traverses this western continent for nearly 3000 miles, and after watering the orange groves and sugar plantations of Louisiana, and spreading itself far and wide over an immense delta of alluvion, falls into the Gulph of Mexico under nearly the same latitude as the waters of the Nile.

After perambulating the city, my former unpleasant impressions returned in their full force, and were confirmed by every day's residence. The first thing which struck me was the French names of most of the streets, an old French theatre, and an old French or Spanish fort. The advertisements on a large proportion of the shops were in French: many of the shopkeepers spoke French only; and the dress of the

ladies was French altogether. The population is of every complexion from the most beautiful white and red, through all the various shades of brown and yellow to jet black. Indeed, perhaps no city in the world exhibits a more miscellaneous collection of inhabitants ;-Americans from every State from Maine to Georgia; English, French, Spanish, Creole, Indian and African;and it is not always, as you will readily believe, the best of their respective nations who have chosen to place themselves on the forlorn hope in this pestilential region. My stay was too short to authorize me to pretend to describe the state of society. I will only say therefore, that the impressions which I carried with me from England and the northern States, were by no means effaced by the opportunity of actual observation.

I took up my abode at Madame

-'s, where there were several gentlemen whom I knew, Judge

General ——, and a Captain of the American Navy, whose liberal sentiments, general information, and gentlemanly manners, would have done no discredit to the captain of a British frigate. My quarters, therefore, might have been very agreeable, if my landlady, who keeps by far the best boardinghouse in New Orleans, had been of a different character. Unfortu nately, my room adjoined hers; and I heard her at four or five o'clock in the morning calling for her cowskin to square the preceding day's account with her Negroes. She was in bulk like a large English landlady; and I have heard the heavy blows of her brawny arm and the piercing cries of the wretched slave succeed each other till she was completely exhausted. Had I had reason to believe that I should avoid such disgusting occurrences by removing, I would have left immediately; but such exhibitions were too general to be escaped.

I have no doubt, however, that the moral aspect of the town is im

others from the western country. At the boarding-house I found the Governor of the state; a worthy old gentleman of handsome property, and of a highly respectable family in Virginia. He took his meals at the common table, where there was a promiscuous assemblage of merchants, agents, and clerks; and I kept my letter of introduction to him in my pocket two days, little aware that I was in his company. I mention the circumstance, as a trait of the manners of this part of the country, which surprized me a little, as I had met at Washington Governors of other States, with far less solid titles to personal and he reditary respectability, aristocratical enough in their behaviour. When I had delivered my letters to him, he insisted on sending his servant and horses with me in my calls on some of the principal planters in the neighbourhood, for the roads through the forests are intricate, and you seldom meet any one to set you right, if you take a wrong

direction.

Our boarding house is near the Mississippi, which is now falling a foot every day; the spring flood having reached its height while I was at New Orleans; but the flood from the Missouri has not yet arrived. Nearly opposite the windows of the room in which I am writing, the river takes one of its noblest sweeps under what are called the Bluffs, from which you look down over it upon a dense forest, which stretches to the horizon, and in which the sun seems to extinguish his latest rays. On these Bluffs I generally take my evening walk, and please myself with the idea that a few hours previously you may have been watching the setting of this glorious luminary behind our favourite hills; for in

"These lands, beneath Hesperian skies, Our daylight sojourns till your morrow rise."

Indeed there is something in the vicinity of Natchez which perpe

tually reminds me of home. The thick clover, the scattered knolls with their wood-crowned summits, differing only from those most familiar to me in the magnificence of the foliage with which they are shaded, and the neat husbandry of the intervening plantations, give the whole country the appearance of an English park. An Irishman with whom I was riding last night remarked, that the roads strongly resemble those through the large domains in Ireland. I leave you to make due allowance for our anxiety to trace every little resemblance to our native land. At this distance from home we are not solicitous by too accurate a discrimination to dispel an illusion, if it be one, which affords us so much pleasure. You remember Humboldt's beautiful observation: "If amid this exotic nature, the bellow of a cow or the roaring of a bull were heard from the depth of a valley, the remembrance of our country was awakened suddenly at the sound. They were like distant voices resounding from beyond the ocean, and with magical force transporting us from one hemisphere to the other." But the gigantic plane and maple trees, a large proportion of the seventy or eighty different species of the American oak, theSassafras, the Hiccory, the Pride of India, the Catalpa, the Liquid Amber Styraciflua,the Liriodendron Tulipifera, above all, the Magnolia Grandiflora, one hundred feet high, with its deep green leaves and broad white flowers expanded like a full-blown rose, remind us that we are far from home, while at night the brilliancy of the stars, the delicious fragrance of the surrounding woods, and especially the fireflies which sparkle on every side, seem almost to transport us into the regions of eastern romance. We are also often gratified with the sight of many beautiful birds which are strangers to us, and sometimes catch a glimpse of the wild deer, A day or two since, I rode close past a rattlesnake in the woods

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which we afterwards killed, and cut off its rattle. It was about four and a half feet long.-There is much in the plain friendly manners of many of the planters in this neighbourhood with which I have been greatly pleased; and if slavery were banished from their domestic and agricultural economy, I should envy their retired, unostentatious, and independent mode of existence. The men are generally hospitable and well informed as respects the common concerns of life, and the women modest and obliging, although cold in their manners at first acquaintance. Many persons with incomes of 2000l. to 30001. per annum, live something in the style of our second and third rate farmers; the White joiners and artificers whom they may be employing eating with them, and forming part of the family. If you take them by surprize they make you welcome, but offer no apology for their common fare. They generally, however, offer you a bed; and if you remain till the next day, assiduously furnish you with a most plentiful table. I visited an old couple who had settled nine children in their neighbourhood (a term which here often comprizes a large district), giving each of them about 1000 acres of land and a stock of Negroes, and retaining for themselves only just sufficient for their wants, and to supply a little occupation, In the higher ranks of the plain planters, you find a state of society which I think must strongly re semble that of our second rate country gentlemen or yeomanry seventy or eighty years since; the females being brought up strictly, with little knowledge, and great attention to personal neatness and propriety, and the men filling alternately the situation of soldiers, justices, and planters. There are, however, some families in the neighbourhood of Natchez, who live much in the style of the higher classes in England, possessing polished manners, and respectable literary acquire. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 252.

ments. Their houses are spacious and handsome, and their grounds are laid out like a forest park. In the society of some of these families I passed a few days very agreeably; and while listening to some of our own favourite melodies on the harp and piano forte, I could have fancied myself on the banks of the Lune or the Mersey, rather than on those of the Mississippi.

The younger branches of many of these families have been educated, the young men at the colleges in the northern and eastern States; and the young ladies at boarding schools in Philadelphia; and some of them have formed matrimonial connections with northern families. The tastes and feelings, as well as the accomplishments and literature, of the north, are thus gradually introduced into these southern regions; and one happy consequence is a degree of repugnance to the slave system on the part of some of the younger members of the community, and a growing desire to mitigate its severities on the part of others. Indeed, it is impossible that, assimilated as many of them must be in mental habits and moral feelings to the society in which they were educated, and in which slavery is an object of abhorrence, they should become reconciled at once to the violation of the natural rights of an unoffending class of their fellow-creatures, or capable of witnessing, without horror, the dreadful scenes occasionally exhibited here. The other day I passed a plantation whose owner a few months before had shot one of his slaves; and I conversed with a mild young planter, I think not 22 years old, who had also shot a slave within a year. The offence, in both cases, was stated to be running away, and no notice whatever was taken of either of the murders. A friend of mine who has resided here some time, told me that calling one morning on a most respectable planter, a man of eminently humane and amiable manners, 5 H

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