xcvi LIFE OF WILSON. 



having overcome every obstacle, alone, and wittout being acquainted with the 

 country; and what surprised the boatmen more, witliout tohishey. On an 

 average I met from forty to sixty boatmen every day, returning from this place 

 and New Orleans. The Chickasaws are a friendly, inoffensive people, and the 

 Choctaws, though more reserved, are equally harmless. Both of them treated 

 me with civility, though I several times had occasion to pass through their 

 camps, where many of them were drunk. The paroquet which I carried with 

 me was a continual fund of amusement to all ages of these people ; and as 

 they crowded around to look at it, gave me an opportunity of studying their 

 physiognomies, without breach of good manners. 



'• In thus hastily running over the particulars of this journey, I am obliged 

 to omit much that would amuse and interest you; but my present situation, 

 a noisy tavern, crowded in every corner, even in the room where I write, with 

 the sons of riot and dissipation, prevents me from enlarging on particulars. 

 I could also have wished to give you some account of this place, and of the 

 celebrated Mississippi, of which you have heard so much. On these subjects, 

 however, I can at present only offer you the following slight sketch, taken the 

 morning after my arrival here. 



" The best view of this place and surrounding scenery, is from the old Span- 

 ish fort on the south side of the town, about a quarter of a mile distant. 

 From this high point, looking up the river, Natchez lies on your right, a 

 mingled group of green trees, and white and red houses, occupying an uneven 

 plain, much washed into ravines, rising as it recedes from the bluff or high 

 precipitous bank of the river. There is, however, neither steeple, cupola, nor 

 distinguished object to add interest to its appearance. The country beyond it 

 to the right is thrown up into the same irregular knolls ; and at the distance 

 of a mile, in the same direction, you have a peep of some cultivated farms, 

 bounded by the general forest. On your left you look down, at a depth of 

 two or three hundred feet, on the river, winding majestically to the south ; the 

 intermediate space exhibiting wild perpendicular precipices of brown earth. 

 This part of the river and shore is the general rendezvous of all the arks or 

 Kentucky boats, several hundreds of which are at present lying moored there, 

 loaded with the produce of the thousand shores of this noble river. The busy 

 multitudes below present a perpetually varying picture of industry; and the 

 noise and uproar, softened by the distance, with the continual crowing of the 

 poultry with which many of these arks are filled, produce cheerful and exhila- 

 rating ideas. The majestic Mississippi, swelled by his ten thousand tributary 

 streams, of a pale brown color, half a mile wide, and spotted with trunks of 

 trees, that show the different threads of the current and its numerous eddies, 

 bears his depth of water past in silent grandeur. Seven gun-boats, anchored 

 at equal distances along the stream, with their ensigns displayed, add to the 

 effect. A few scattered houses are seen on the low opposite shore, where a 

 narrow strip of cleared land exposes the high gigantic trunks of some dead- 

 ened timber that bound the woods. The whole country beyond the Missis- 

 sippi, from south round to west, and north, presents to the eye one universal 

 level ocean of forest, bounded only by the horizon. So perfect is this vast 

 level, that not a leaf seems to rise above the plain, as if shorn by the hands 



