60 MOVERS TO TEXAS. [CHAP. XXIV- 



CHAP. XXIV. 



Claiborne, Alabama. Movers to Texas. State Debts and 

 Liabilities. Lending Money to half -settled States. Rumours 

 of War with England. Macon, Alabama. Sale of Slaves. 

 Drunkenness in Alabama. Laws against Duelling. Jealousy 

 of Wealth. Emigration to the West. Democratic Equality 

 of Whites. Skeleton of Fossil Whale or Zeuglodon. 

 Voyage to Mobile. 



THE morning after our arrival at Claiborne, we 

 found at the inn a family of &quot;movers&quot; on their way 

 to Texas, sitting in the verandah enjoying the warm 

 sunshine after a shower of rain. At this season, 

 January 29th, the thermometer stood at 80 Fahren 

 heit in the shade, and the air was as balmy as on an 

 English summer day. The green sward was covered 

 with an elegant flower, the Houstonia serpyllifolia, 

 different from the H. cerulea, so common in the New 

 England meadows. Before the house stood a row of 

 Pride-of-India trees (Melia azedarach), laden with 

 bunches of yellow berries. I had been often told 

 by the negroes that the American robin (Turdus 

 migratorius) &quot;got drunk&quot; on this fruit, and we had 

 now an opportunity of witnessing its narcotic pro 

 perties ; for we saw some children playing with one 

 of these birds before the house, having caught it 

 after it had been eating freely of the berries. My 

 wife, seeing that the robin was in no small danger of 



