37 
on an eminence on the left bank of the river. Three miles be¬ 
low, we stopped about sunset, on the right bank for wood. The 
name of the place is Wiggins’s Landing. It consists of two log- 
houses standing upon a height, among old tall thin oak trees, 
which was settled by a Mr. Wiggins, with his wife and children, 
a short time before. The houses had a very picturesque appear¬ 
ance, and I was sorry that I could not take a sketch of them. Mr. 
W. proposed to cut down the wood for the purpose of raising cotton 
there. It was a pity to do so with this handsome grove, hand¬ 
some, although injured in its appearance by the Spanish moss 
which hangs from the trees. Monsieur Chateaubriand compares 
the trees enveloped in this moss to apparitions; in the opinion 
of Brackenridge, they resemble ships under full sail, with which 
the air plays in a calm at sea. I, who never beheld ghosts, 
nor possessed Mons. Chateaubriand’s powers of imagination, 
though I had seen sails tossing in the wind, compared these trees 
in my prosaic mood, to tenter-hooks, on which beggars dry their 
ragged apparel before some great holy-day. 
We were in hopes, that we should have made more progress 
during the night, but the captain had become so prudent, and 
almost anxious, from the sight of the two sunken steam-boats, 
that he determined to spend the night at Wiggins’s Landing. For- 
merly, near Claiborne, there was a stockade, called Fort Clai¬ 
borne, where an affair took place with the Indians in the last 
war. This place is named in honour of the deceased Mr. Clai¬ 
borne, governor of the former Mississippi Territory, of which 
the present state of Alabama formed a part, who died about eight 
years ago, governor of the state of Louisiana, in New Orleans. 
He had taken possession of Louisiana, in the name of the United 
States, which the then existing French Government had sold to 
them. Mr. Claiborne was a particular favourite and countryman 
of President Jefferson. He had by his voice decided the presi¬ 
dential election in favour of Jefferson, against his antagonist, 
Aaron Burr, for which Jefferson was gratefully mindful during 
his whole life. 
On the 8th of January, we left our anchoring ground between 
six and seven o’clock. The shores, which at first were pretty 
high, became by degrees lower, they remained, however, woody, 
mostly of oak wood in appearance, hung with long moss. Under 
the trees, grew very thick, and uncommonly handsome cane, 
above twenty feet high. At the rise of the river, these shores, 
often covered with water, are on this account little inhabited. 
Taking it for granted that the population of Alabama increases 
in numbers, and the higher land becomes healthier from ex¬ 
tirpation of the forest, without doubt dykes will be made 
on these 'lower banks, to guard the land from inundation, and 
