21st.—Again a delay, and a put-off till to-morrow; three of our passengers now deserted, taking the steamer up the river for Louisville; was half tempted to follow their example, but don't like to cut my Shakspeare. I verily think, were the ship called by any other name, I would quit the mess. The bard was wrong when he made Juliet say "what's in a name?"
The city is hot and humid, as though it were washing-day above, and the sun's rays intercepted by wet blankets. In the evening, strong symptoms of a refreshing thunder burst: sat till after midnight sans coat or cravat, striving to keep cool; about that time the rain began to descend, and soon after up came a breeze, under whose influence I crept beneath my musquito curtain to fall sound asleep in five minutes.
Sunday.—Called up early. Shakspeare about to quit the Levee: find out that I have slept through a regular tornado, for to that complexion am I informed the night breeze came at last. Day clear, fresh, and pure, like a fine June morning at home; a difference of twenty-eight degrees between to-day and yesterday; got a hasty breakfast, and learned that the wind "sits in the shoulder of our sail," or rather of our steam, since under such convoy do we seek the sea.
At eight A.M. got on to the Levee, and found the Shakspeare already linked to her fiery mate; bade farewell to the many friends who have daily attended to add a last link to the chain of kind recollections in which they have bound my memory.
The market, close by which we lay, was, being Sunday morning, crowded by a chequered assemblage of European, Quadroon, Negro, and Indian, all gabbling, pushing, and purchasing in company. We unmoored in very capital style, though pretty closely jammed, for a ship of seven hundred tons, and in one minute after were whirled into the mid current of the Mississippi: the vast crescent of the water-front of the city showing through a curtain of thick masts, the hulls belonging to which floated level with the roofs of the highest houses: for the river, at this period, ran in its course far raised above the city.
The wind blows hard, but a clearer or more bracing day heart could not desire; and, contrasted with the horrid yesterday, it is indeed most welcome.
We found some difficulty, owing to the violence of the breeze, in getting into that extraordinary bend called the "English turn;" but afterwards we rushed past the fine sugar plantations lying along our course with great velocity: we had a powerful steam-boat, and wind and current with us.
About sunset passed Fort Jackson, occupying a well-selected bend of the river, and commanding a long reach either way. This is one of the works projected and finished by French engineers, and is said to be of a first-rate description.
Shortly after passing this fort, a sight of unparalleled grandeur broke upon us. The western horizon was yet ruddy with the last light of sunset, and was attracting my attention, contrasted as it was with the dull stream and dismal jungle around us. Suddenly I observed a bright flame rush, as it were, over the distant surface of the swamp: at the same moment we opened a noble reach of the river, and a vast fire was perceived, steadily advancing over the prairie land on our left, which character of surface is continued from here to the Balize, covered by a rank growth of lofty cane or reeds.