91 
Above this town of great name, the Wolf river discharges 
itself into the Mississippi. The state of Mississippi has its 
boundary here, and the state of Tennessee commences. It is 
reported, that Miss Wright, of whom notice has been taken be¬ 
fore, has settled herself near Memphis, bought several negroes, 
and located a plantation. During her travels in the northern 
states, she expressed so great a disgust towards slavery, that she 
could not be persuaded to cross the Potomac, to go into Virginia. 
And now, she has even purchased negroes! It is said, however, 
that she has acted thus from a philanthropical designs, to follow a 
proposed plan of setting the negroes free, and giving them their 
liberty by degrees. I have already given my sentiments at Bos¬ 
ton, concerning Miss Wright. All that I have since heard re¬ 
specting her, confirms the unfavourable judgment which I then 
communicated. A respectable person, who had become ac¬ 
quainted with her in Philadelphia, said, that she stretched her¬ 
self on a sofa, spoke little, and gave herself little or no trou¬ 
ble about any one, now and then breaking out in detached sen¬ 
tences, such as this, for example; I believe that bears are of more 
value than men. 51 At Memphis, she will, I have no doubt, en¬ 
joy many opportunities of confirming herself in practical expe¬ 
rience of the truth of this maxim. In the evening, we were 
amused again with the great numbers of fire flies, which filled 
the woods. 
On the 3rd of April, we were embarrassed by our fire wood 
giving out. The banks were overflowed, and there was no regu¬ 
lar landing place to be obtained. At the place called the new 
cut-off, we had a very powerful current against us, which we 
overcame with great trouble and waste of time. The wood was 
so far gone, that old barrels were broke up, and a mast and seve¬ 
ral boards were obliged to be sawed for a supply. This new 
cut had formed itself in February 182.2, and saves the vessels a 
circuit of thirteen miles. It may be observed on the chart, what 
a large bend the Mississippi makes here. By degrees it washed 
the small isthmus of land, which intervened between the bends, 
and formed itself a new bed directly through. This neck of land, 
through which this new cut passes, is hardly half a mile wide. It 
is but a short time since the steam-boats first ventured to take 
this short route: for the remains of the trees washed away are 
still visible, and this admonishes the navigator to be on his guard. 
After we had passed this strait, which is distant eight hundred 
and sixty-nine miles from New Orleans, we stopped on the right 
bank, to provide ourselves with wood. We embraced this op¬ 
portunity to go ashore for a walk, and into the woods. A young 
man of our vessel, killed a very handsome snake in the forest. 
It was one and a half foot long, whitish, with coal-black, edged 
