About one o’clock, I found the governour, Don Carlos de Grand Pré at home. He gave me a polite reception, and while his written permission to remain six months in the country (a ceremony all strangers are obliged to go through, previous to making a permanent settlement) was preparing, he entered into a conversation on agricultural topicks, and appeared to be a well informed, and well bred man. He avoided touching on politicks, but Don Gilbert’s sentiments on {314} that subject are supposed to be his, he being a native of France, and of course naturally partial to his country, whether ruled by a Capet, by a mob, or by a Napoleon.[217]
After a friendly and unceremonious dinner with Mr. Egan, I left Baton Rouge on my return, not having any curiosity to explore any more of the country than I had hitherto seen, the cream of which I considered to be the Bayau Sarah settlements.
Returning again through Montesano, I arrived at Mrs. O’Brien’s a little before dark. It being too late to proceed any farther that night, I stopped and requested room for myself and horse until morning. My request was complied with according to the general custom of the country, but in such polite terms, and it introduced me to so agreeable a society at supper, that I congratulated myself for not having had time to go farther. The family consisted of Mrs. O’Brien herself, and her daughters Mrs. Flood, wife of doctor Flood of New Orleans, Mrs. Saunders, and Miss O’Brien. Two gentlemen from Orleans joined us after supper, which was an additional motive for self-congratulation. As they were travelling my road. They as well as me were strangers to Mrs. O’B.
It is impossible to travel in any part of this new country after dark, as the roads are only bridle paths, which are so darkened by the woods through which they lead, that the adventurous traveller must inevitably lose himself.
On Thursday, 8th September, I proceeded with my two companions before the family were stirring, and we arrived at Mr. Duwal’s on the Great Prairie, time enough to sit down with the family to breakfast. We afterwards stopped to bait at Mr. Carters, and then went on cross Thompson’s creek to Mr. Perry’s, where we found Messrs. Duncan and Gamble, lawyers from New Orleans, at dinner. Chairs were placed for us of course, and after partaking of Mr. Perry’s hospitable {315} meal, I went on to doctor Flowers’s—separating from my companions, who had each different friends to visit in that part of the country.
Next day, the 9th September, I went to Capt. Percy’s to dinner, and spent the remainder of that day and night there, and on the 10th, after dining at Mr. O’Connor’s I retraced my journey across the line into the Mississippi Territory, and passing through Pinckneyville, I entered Capt. Semple’s plantation, and rode nearly two miles through it before I came to the house of the proprietor—passing in the way two different negro quarters, and the whole road resembling several I have known through the demesnes of the nobility in Europe, in its variety—through woods, lawns, pastures and cultivated fields, on the whole the most beautiful plantation to ride through of any I had hitherto seen in this western country.
I had to regret the absence of my hospitable host and hostess, who were on a visit at Mrs. Trumbull’s, Mrs. Semple’s mother. I was however well taken care of—and proceeding next morning, I deviated a little from the road to visit the camp. As I approached it I met several negroes returning home from a market which is kept there every Sunday morning. On my arrival I was much surprised with a village, differing from any I had ever before seen. Twenty-four large huts faced a wide open space cleared for a parade, in front of which is held the market. In the rear of these, with a narrow street between, are ten very snug and well furnished cottages, appropriated for the officers, who reside in them, some with their families, and some en garçon. But the most remarkable circumstance is that the whole camp is constructed with cane (the large reed) in such a manner as to render every dwelling perfectly tight and warm. They are all floored with plank, and the officers’ quarters are glazed, and have each a little {316} garden; and there runs through the whole an air of neatness, propriety, and cleanliness, that I have seldom seen surpassed. The situation is on the slope of a very high hill, and the whole country for some miles round, particularly towards the Mississippi, is nothing but a continuation of steep and broken hills, covered with forest timber, and an impenetrable cane brake, except in a few places, where some adventurous settler has found a small spot, not too steep for the plough, or where narrow paths of communication have been cut through the canes.
Having gratified my curiosity with a view of this little encampment, I went on to Wilkinsonburg, and spent the rest of the day with my friend H——.
On Monday, the 12th September, proceeding at early dawn, I took a wrong trace about five miles from Fort Adams, by which I was taken two or three miles out of my road, but coming to a plantation, I had some compensation made me for my egarement, by receiving directions for another road to Buffaloe creek, by which I cut off five miles, with the additional satisfaction of having only eight miles without a house, instead of twelve by the main road. I had hills on my right hand, covered with the usual variety of forest trees, and a thick cane brake underneath, while on my left, a gloomy and malignant swamp extended to the Mississippi, some miles distant. I breakfasted at Smith’s who keeps a tavern, and a ferry over Buffaloe creek, three miles below the toll bridge on the other road. I had three short miles of a bad and miry road to Ellis’s plantation, and four from thence along a ridge to major Davis’s, where I again came into the main road. A mile farther brought me to Big Jude’s, a free negro woman, settled on one side of a broken plain, which seems to have been a plantation at some distant period back, but by the washing away of the soil, it now only affords nourishment to a short herbage, {317} seemingly very proper for sheep. From hence is a very extensive view over the surrounding forests—in which far to the westward may be seen a line formed by the Mississippi, making a great curve that way. Ellis’s heights and the chain of hills running from thence to the eastward of Natchez terminate the view to the northward, while Loftus’s heights do the same to the southward. Extensive prospects occur so rarely in this country of forests, that when a traveller happens to meet with one, he feels wonderfully cheered, although he sees nothing but a horizon of woods, which, particularly when without their leaf, in the winter season, have a very sombre and gloomy appearance, a little inequality of horizon where a hill happens to bound the view, being the only variety; but after emerging from the thick forests and cane brakes, in which he has been long buried, he feels an expansion of the whole system which is extremely pleasing.
The road is hilly but good, through a pleasant wood, chiefly of that superb tree the magnolia or American laurel, clear of underwood and cane, and passing several small plantations four or five miles from Jude’s to the Homochito.