The evening of the 31st I passed with Mrs. B——r, where in a glass of good poteen we drank a good bye to the year 1834, and a welcome to the stranger.
JOURNAL.
January 1st, 1835.—Still detained at Mobile: the sun shines powerfully, and the sky is pure and clear. After breakfast lounged about the very clean streets of this pretty city; then procured a neat turn-out, and drove Mr. H——n, he acting as pilot, as far as Choctaw Point, whence we had an extensive view of the Bay of Mobile with the south-west coast of Florida. Our way lay through a forest of pine and oak; many little rivulets crossed our path, the sides of which were decked by a hundred different shrubs and plants, from the magnificent grandiflora, here growing eighteen and twenty feet high, to the lowly rose: the vegetation is rich, winter though it is; the beauty of the spring amongst these noble woods I can only imagine at present, but hope, before I again look northward, to know more of that season.
The presence of the ghostly-looking cedar, with its funereal draperies of unwholesome moss, so common throughout Carolina and Georgia, is here unknown; the forest is a series of regular avenues pillared by the loftiest pines; and there is no undergrowth, except in little dingles through which a brook may creep its way: the rides in this vicinity are therefore most attractive. At one point during our ramble we suddenly came to an abrupt sandy hill, at whose foot ran a sparkling little rivulet, in the midst of which one of the aborigines stood in a state of nature, raising water in the hollow of a gourd, and laving with it his coal-black shining hair. As we descended, he stood erect and looked towards us, but without exhibiting the least symptom of either surprise or embarrassment: his form was light but perfectly proportioned, with small thorough-bred knees and feet; he looked like a new bronze cast from the antique: the graceful repose of the attitude he maintained during our approach was perfect. Mr. H——n asked him if he was Choctaw; he replied to the question by a slow nod of the head and a brief 'yah!'
Continuing our ride along the sea-bank, we arrived at a large establishment where oil is extracted from the seed of the cotton-plant: this is a recent discovery, and likely to prove a most profitable one to the proprietors of this mill.
In the afternoon, accompanied Mr. H——n to the northern extremity of the city, where we found broad streets already marked out: plunging deep into the forest, many scattered houses of brick were springing up on sites where barely trees enough had been cut down to afford elbow-room for the builders.
January 2nd.—Quitted Mobile on the box of the mail for Portersville: our way lay over Spring Hill and through the Pine-barren; the road was a track cleared by the woodman's axe; the stumps were not as yet macadamized by time, still the horses picked their way amongst them at a very fair pace. At a single log-house, situated about mid-way, we pulled up to change horses; here too I perceived, by the array of a table placed in the open hall, dinner was provided. On my asking the landlord, who was a countryman, how soon dinner would be ready, he replied with a friendly confidential air, "Almost immediately, but unless you're cruel sharp-set, I'd recommend you not to mind it, sir."
I took the hint thus disinterestedly given, and walked forward, passing over one of the primitive bridges common in this section of the country, where swamps and watercourses are frequent; these are commonly overlaid also, as far as may be necessary, by a back-wood railway; that is, by trunks of trees packed closely side by side, over which the machine is dragged at a trot: in Canada this sort of road is termed a corduroy.