Part 19

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:

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.