There is a regular communication, by means of steam-boats and other vessels, between New Orleans and the towns on the banks of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and other rivers, in the distant parts of North America.
The scenery of the Mississippi, to the distance of one hundred and fifty miles and upwards, from New Orleans, is very uninteresting. The country is a dead flat; so that the banks of the river, and most of the adjacent grounds, are annually overflowed. In the vicinity of Natchez it becomes more varied and pleasing.
Natchez is a town in the state of Mississippi, near the banks of the river, and about four hundred miles from its mouth. It contains about thirty dwellings, most of which are whiskey-shops, gambling, and other houses, where an excess of profligacy prevails, which is not usual in the United States.
Mr. Fearon visited Natchez in the year 1817; and in the port there were twenty-five flats, seven keels, and one steam-vessel. The flats are square covered vessels, of considerable capacity, used for carrying freight from Pittsburgh, on the Ohio, and other places below that town, down to New Orleans. Their construction is temporary and of slight materials; for they are broken up at New Orleans, as not sufficiently strong to be freighted up the river. The keel is a substantial, well-built boat, of considerable length; and, in form, somewhat resembles the floating-bath at Blackfriars' Bridge.
Observing a great many coloured people in these boats, Mr. Fearon concluded that they were emigrants, who had proceeded thus far on their route towards a settlement. The fact, however, proved to be, that fourteen of the flats were freighted with human beings intended for sale. They had been collected in the United States, by slave-dealers, and shipped, up the Mississippi, to Kentucky for a market.
There are, at Natchez, numerous stores, and three-fourths of the goods at every store are articles of British manufacture. Shopkeeping is here profitable, and mechanics are highly paid. Lotteries are very prevalent at Natchez. When Mr. Fearon was here, there was a lottery for building a Presbyterian church; and the scheme was preceded by a long address, on the advantages of religion, and the necessity of all citizens supporting Christianity, by purchasing tickets in this lottery!
The streets of Natchez were literally crammed with bales of cotton for the Liverpool market. These are carried to the water-side in carts, each drawn by two mules, horses being here little used. During Mr. Fearon's residence at this town, he twice visited the State legislature, which was composed of men who appeared any thing but legislators. Their place of meeting was in a superior kind of hay-loft; and the imitation of the forms of the British parliament were perfectly ludicrous.
Between Natchez, and the mouth of the Ohio, there is not one spot which could be recommended as a place for an Englishman to settle in. Throughout the whole of this space, the white population are the victims of demoralizing habits. The native Indians present, of course, nothing but a picture of mere savage life; and the negro slaves suffer even more misery than commonly falls to the lot of their oppressed and degraded condition. What a foul stain is it upon the American republic, professing, as they do, the principles of liberty and of equal rights, that, out of twenty states, there should be eleven in which slavery is an avowed part of the political constitution; and that, in those called free, New England excepted, the condition of blacks who are indentured, for terms of years, should practically amount to slavery!
Beyond the state of Louisiana, the Mississippi divides the Missouri territory from the territory of Mississippi; and, north of that, from the states of Tenessee and Kentucky. About the 37th degree of north latitude, and on the western bank of the river, is a town called New Madrid. This place, from the advantages of its situation, about forty-five miles from the mouth of the Ohio, may at some future time become of considerable importance. The Ohio, at the place of its junction with the Mississippi, is about a mile in width, and is navigable, for vessels of considerable burden, to a distance of more than a thousand miles.
Beyond the Ohio commences the Illinois territory. Here the general face of the country is flat; but, in some parts, the land is high and craggy. It abounds in deer, wolves, bears, squirrels, racoons, and foxes; in wild turkeys and quails; geese and ducks, partially; and hawks, buzzards, and pigeons in tolerable abundance; and the rivers contain several species of fish. In the prairies there are rattlesnakes. The woods supply grapes, pecan nuts, (similar to our walnut,) and hickory nuts. Hops, raspberries, and strawberries, here grow wild. Limestone abounds; and salt, copper, and coal have all been found in this district.