Half an hour's start of our mail, whose pace was not over five or six miles per hour, enabled me to prolong my walk as far as I chose, and I enjoyed my freedom greatly; the perfect solitude of the scene; the absence of all trace of man, excepting the one narrow and seemingly interminable track, whose unvarying line might be traced as far as eye could reach; not a sound could be heard, only the low sighing of the breeze as it swept over the ocean of graceful pines whose spiry heads appeared to kiss the sky. In ten minutes after quitting the log-hut where the coach rested, I was in fact plunged in a solitude as complete as it was beguiling.
If you by any chance turned about to look back upon the line you had trod, or muse upon the scene, the only remembrance of your true course was the sun; and indeed more than once, as time wore on, did I halt struck with a sudden apprehension that I might have turned upon my steps, and it required some moments of consideration to reassure me. At length, seating myself upon a fallen pine within the shadow of a tall magnolia, I resolved to abide with patience the coming up of the coach.
Resting here, strange fancies connected with the forest and its savage denizens came thronging upon my mind. Here, within a very few years, the Choctaw alone had wandered, and the only path was the scarce traceable line leading to the village of his tribe. Where are these hunters now? gone swiftly away, borne like autumn's leaves, upon the irrepressible flood of enterprise and intelligence which is taming the wilderness with a rapidity Europe has yet no adequate appreciation of. The hunter and his prey have alike been scattered or rooted wholly out; the forest still remains to witness for their existence, and, although assailed in every quarter, the woodman's axe ringing from east to west, from north to south, it yet appears to defy the activity of its assailants.
So rapid is vegetation in this climate, so prompt is Nature to repair any waste in this favoured domain of hers, that even where places have been completely bared by the axe or by the whirlwind, a very few years of repose clothes them once more, a luxuriant growth of forest, vigorous and healthful, spreads rapidly over the waste, asserting its ancient claim, and eagerly repossessing itself of its heritage.
We reached Portersville at four o'clock, having been just six hours coming thirty-two miles: here we found the Government steamer, the Watchman, and five passengers, who had left Mobile on the 31st ultimo. They had been detained here two days, living in a log-house; their only amusement watching the ducks and snipe whirling in search of fresh feeding-ground over the dreary waters of Lac Pontchartrain.
Over a long fragile pier, carried far into the lake on piles, and breached in fifty places, we gained the deck of the Watchman, and in five minutes after were heading towards the setting sun, whose rays, brilliant though they were, failed to invest with cheerfulness this desolate, half-drowned land.
I walked to and fro upon the ample deck of the vessel until my limbs were fatigued and my eyes sick of the eternal sameness of the scene; and then sought my berth, a very comfortable one, where I lay till roused next morning with the intelligence that we were before the railroad.
Jan. 3rd.—On landing, we found the six o'clock train had just departed; we were afforded therefore half an hour to look about us. Here is a very large hotel, during the summer much frequented by the citizens of New Orleans, the offices connected with the railroad depôt, three or four little stores, together with a small range of dirty huts, including two or three cut-throat-looking sheds, bearing inscribed over the entrance, in large, ill-assorted characters, the word Tire; which immediately under is translated, for the benefit of country gentlemen, into "Shutting Galery." These little indications serve to remind the stranger that he is now in the land of the "duello," where each "captain of compliments" is reputed for "the very butcher of a silk button," and "fights as you sing prick-song,—rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom."
In little more than half an hour the cars returned from the city, and in about thirty minutes we were whirled under the covered depôt, where I was fortunate enough to get a hackney-coach, in which I proceeded at once to Mr. H——n's house in Rue Bourgogne, where I was received by his nephews with a heartiness of welcome that made me in one moment feel that I was at home.
The whole of this day was cloudy and cold; a good deal of rain had fallen during the night, and consequently the streets were nearly impassable for carriages: the side-walks were, however, very well kept; and I took a short stroll about the American quarter, finding on my return that already, with the prompt courtesy which distinguishes this country, several gentlemen had left cards of compliment and invitation.