| In Louisiana | 8,065,000 | ||
| In Mississippi | 2,500,000 | ||
| In Arkansas | 2,000,000 | ||
| ———— | |||
| 12,565,060 | acres. |
The inundation, beginning two months ago, reached enormous and alarming proportions by April 16th, continued spreading until May 15th, and only began to show signs of receding about May 20th. Several weeks must pass before now submerged lands become tillable, perhaps one-third by June 20th, one-third more by the 10th July, the remainder in some indefinite time longer and too late for any crop this year.
As to the condition in which the subsiding flood will leave the sufferers, I quote from a recent published letter of the Hon. J. M. Sandidge, of our Relief Committee, who hears or reads the appeals of the distressed and who is well acquainted with the overflowed region and the situation of the inhabitants.
The few mules, horses and cattle preserved from the flood will be unfit for any immediate service, and must continue to live, if they live at all, upon the leaves, moss and cane tops, until such time as the grass can grow again.
The people, with nothing now, will have no more when the water subsides; and cannot have until the land can be made to yield its fruits. How are they to be fed and supported until such time?
Death by famine on the dry, but barren ground, would be quite as terrible as to have been swallowed up in the waters!
The Relief Committee see and understand all this, and it is a source of the most sickening anxiety to know that they will be impotent to avert what seems inevitable. The people, as rapidly as possible, and under whatever circumstances, hardships and sacrifices, must begin quickly to make arrangements for themselves by engaging for food and raiment alone, to work, wherever work on such terms can be had; and if not to be had in their present neighborhoods, to seek it in more distant places, if able to reach them. It is true that a great part of the most helpless and destitute would be, by such policy, left where they are, to live upon public charities, or perish in the swamps.
Nothing less than $1,000,000 in supplies will enable these people to re-commence and continue to labor where they are, until the earliest products of the soil can give subsistence, and if not sustained to that extent who shall say what crimes may not be committed, if crime it could be called, in the desperation of these starving thousands, thrown upon communities, now barely self-supporting? This is a gloomy picture truly, but it is best always to look dangers straight in the face, and see them in their full proportions, if they are to be averted. However generous the people of the country, and of the cities and towns might be, adequate relief from such quarters, could not be depended on; there can be no sufficient aid extended, except through the bounty of the General Government.
The contributions in money to our relief fund amount to about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Donations in provisions from Western cities received before May 29th were, 585 barrels of flour, 218 sacks flour, 54 barrels crackers, 13 half-barrels crackers, 239 barrels meal, 41 boxes crackers, 79 barrels pork, 74,631 pounds bacon, 23 barrels beef, 76 barrels beans, 41 barrels potatoes, together with a shipment from Lexington, Kentucky, of 25 barrels flour, 29 barrels of meal, 900 pounds bacon, 14 sacks of potatoes, 2 barrels sugar, 2 bales and 1 box merchandize, 2 boxes shoes, 1 box clothing. The list of donations includes many valuable articles not above given, consisting of garden seeds, cotton seed, seed corn, clothing, &c. Extensive shipments of provisions have also been announced from Cincinnati, making the total value of donations for relief, not cash, about thirty-five thousand dollars.