172 MEW MADRID. [CHAP. XXXIIL 



bank of the river, a log cabin, where they said General Jackson 

 began his career ; one of his claims to popularity with the demo 

 cratic party consisting in his having risen from a very humble 

 origin. The advantages of a more liberal education, which a 

 rival might have possessed who had begun life in easier circum 

 stances, would not have countervailed, in the present stage of 

 progress of the Union, the prestige which attaches to the idea of 

 a man s having made his way by his own merits. 



JMarcli 25. From Memphis we sailed in a smaller steamer 

 for 170 miles, first between the states of Tennessee and Arkan 

 sas, and then between Tennessee and Missouri, and arrived very 

 late at night at New Madrid, a small village on the western 

 bank of the river, where I intended to stay and make geological 

 observations on the region shaken by the great earthquake of 

 181 112. So many of our American friends had tried to dissuade 

 us from sojourning in so rude a place, that we were prepared for 

 the worst. In the wharf-boat, at least, I expected to find a bed 

 for the first night, and proposed to seek accommodation elsewhere 

 the next day ; but, to my dismay, the keeper of this floating 

 tavern told me, when I landed, that he had just come there, had 

 nothing as yet &quot; fixed,&quot; and could not receive us. I also learnt 

 that the only inn in New Madrid had been given up for want 

 of custom. Leaving, therefore, my wife sitting by the stove in 

 the wharf-boat, and taking a negro as my guide, I began to pace 

 the dark and silent streets. First I applied in vain for admit 

 tance at the old tavern, then to a storekeeper in the neighbor 

 hood, who informed me that a German baker, near the river, 

 sometim.es took in lodgers. I next roused this man and his wife 

 from their slumbers ; their only spare room was occupied, but 

 they asked their lodger if he would give it up to us. No sum 

 of money would have bribed him to comply, as I was satisfied 

 when I knew him better, but his good nature led him at once to 

 assent cheerfully. We were soon shown into the apartment, a 

 kind of scullery, with a mattress on the floor, on which we slept, 

 and did not make our appearance next morning till half-past 

 eight o clock. We then apologized, fearing we had kept them 

 waiting for breakfast. They said, good humoredly, they had 



