CHAP. XXXI.] COUNTRY-HOUSES. 



great emporium of the whole trade of the Mississippi. There 

 are, however, so few bluffs on the great river, so few places 

 where the channel will remain constant for ages to the same 

 spot, that I can not doubt that this city must, in time, become 

 large and prosperous. 



It augurs favorably of the future prospects of civilization in 

 America, that here, as elsewhere, we found the society most 

 agreeable in places which have been the longest settled. If the 

 political opinions and notions of honor cherished by the majority 

 of the citizens of Natchez, had had their due weight in the legisla 

 tion of the state, the fair fame of Mississippi, and her credit, would 

 have stood as high as that of any other southern state. Many 

 of the country-houses in the neighborhood are elegant, and some 

 of the gardens belonging to them laid out in the English, others 

 in the French style. In the latter are seen terraces, with statues 

 and cut evergreens, straight walks with borders of flowers, ter 

 minated by views into the wild forest, the charms of both being 

 heightened by contrast. Some of the hedges are made of that 

 beautiful North American plant, the Gardenia, miscalled in 

 England the Cape jessamine, others of the Cherokee rose, with 

 its bright and shining leaves. It had already put forth some of 

 its white flowers, which a month later would be in full blow. 

 The woods here, when all the trees are in full foliage, and the 

 tall magnolias in blossom, must be truly beautiful. But so 

 intense is the heat, and such the danger of ague and the torment 

 of musquitos, that, at that season, they who can afford to move, 

 fly to some higher or more northern retreat. 



On the steep slope of the bluffs at Natchez, below the vertical 

 face of shelly loam, the Judas-tree, or red-bud (Cercis. canademis), 

 was now in full flower, displaying a blaze of pink blossoms before 

 it has put forth any leaves. I saw four landslips on these bluffs 

 which have occurred within the last tea years, for the springs 

 which burst from the sand ancterra^ne. the clayey loam. They 

 are instructive, as showing How the bluffs give way as the Mis 

 sissippi gradually extends. \ta course eastward. There is one 

 hollow of ancient date, caused by a similar undermining, called 

 the Devil s Punch-bowl, a picturesque, crater-shaped basin, of 



G* 



