THE LOST PORTFOLIO. 565. 



quaintances at Natchez, allow me to offer a statement of our adventures 

 on the Mississippi. 



After leaving the eddy at Natchez, we passed a long file of exquisite- 

 ly beautiful Bluffs. At the end of twenty hours we reached Bayou Sara, 

 where we found two brigs at anchor, several steamers, and a number of 

 flat-boats, the place being of considerable mercantile importance. Here 

 the Columbus left us to shift for ourselves, her commander being anxious 

 to get to Baton Rouge by a certain hour, in order to secure a good cargo 

 of cotton. We now proceeded along the great stream, sometimes float- 

 ing and sometimes rowing. The shores gradually became lower and 

 flatter, orange-trees began to make their appearance around the dwel- 

 lings of the wealthy planters, and the verdure along the banks assum- 

 ed a brighter tint. The thermometer stood at 68° in the shade at noon ; 

 butterflies fluttered among the flowers, of which many were in full blow ; 

 and we expected to have seen alHgators half-awake floating on the num- 

 berless logs that accompanied us in our slow progress. The eddies were 

 covered with ducks of various kinds, more especially with the beautiful 

 species that breeds by preference on the great sycamores that every now 

 and then present themselves along our southern waters. Baton Rouge is a 

 very handsome place, but at present I have not time to describe it. Levees 

 now began to stretch along the river, and wherever there was a sharp point 

 on the shore, negroes were there amusing themselves by raising shrimps, 

 and now and then a cat-fish, with scooping-nets. 



The river increased in breadth and depth, and the sawyers and plant- 

 ers, logs so called, diminished in number the nearer we drew towards the 

 famed city. At every bend we found the plantations increased, and now 

 the whole country on both sides became so level and destitute of trees 

 along the water's edge, that we could see over the points before us, and 

 observe the great stream stretching along for miles. Within the levees 

 the land is much lower than the surface of the river when the water is 

 high ; but at this time we could see over the levee from the deck of our 

 boat only the upper windows of the planters' houses, or the tops of the trees 

 about them, and the melancholy looking cypresses covered with Spanish 

 moss forming the back ground. Persons rode along the levees at full speed ; 

 pelicans, gulls, vultures, and carrion crows sailed over the stream, and at 

 times there came from the shore a breeze laden with the deUcious perfume 

 of the orange-trees, which were covered with blossoms and golden fruits. 

 Having passed Bayou Lafourche, our boat was brought-to on account 



