 | XXXVII. The South-west |  |
37. XXXVII.
Topography—Natchez—Washington—Seltzertown—Greenville
—Port Gibson—Raymond—Clinton—Southern villages—Vicksburg—Yeomen
of Mississippi—Jackson—Vernon—Satartia—Benton—Amsterdam—Brandon
and other towns—Monticello—Manchester—Rankin—Grand
Gulf—Rodney—Warrenton—Woodville
—Pinckneyville—White Apple village.
In my last letter I alluded to the geological features
of Mississippi, the peculiarities of its soil and
rivers, or streams, and the characteristics of its
scenery. In this I will give you a brief topographical
description of the state, embracing its principal
towns and villages. Were I confined to the details
of the tourist, in my sketches, you might follow me
step by step over hill and dale, through forest and
“bottom,” to the several places which may form the
subject of the first part of this letter. But a short
view of them, only, comes within my limits as a
letter-writer. For the more minute information I
possess upon this subject I am indebted to a gentleman,[14]
whose scientific and historical researches
have greatly contributed to the slender stock of information
upon this state—its resources, statistics,
and general peculiarities.
Although I have said a great deal of Natchez,
under this head something may be communicated
upon that city. Natchez is one hundred and fifty-five
miles from New-Orleans by land, and two hundred
and ninety-two by water. It contains a population
of about three thousand, the majority of
whom are coloured. The influx of strangers—
young merchants from the north, who have within
the last four years, bought out nearly all the old
standing merchants—numerous mechanics, and foreign
emigrants—is rapidly increasing the number,
and in five years, if the rail-road already surveyed
from this city to the capital, a distance of one hundred
and nine miles, is brought into operation, it
will probably contain twice the present number of
souls. Under the Spanish government vessels came
up to Natchez; and in 1803 there was, as appears
by a publication of Col. Andrew Marschalk, of Mississippi,
a brisk trade kept up between this and
foreign and American ports which suddenly ceased,
after a few years' continuance, on account of the obstacles
interposed by the Spaniards. In 1833, this
trade was revived by some enterprizing gentlemen
of Natchez, and cotton is now shipped directly to
the northern states and Europe, from this port, instead
of being conveyed by steamboats to New-Orleans
and there reshipped. There are two oil
mills in this city worked by steam. The oil is
manufactured from cotton-seed, which heretofore
was used as manure. This oil is said to be superior
to sperm oil, and the finest paint oil. Similar
manufactories are established in New-Orleans, and
I think, also, in Mobile. The material of which
probability in a very few years supersede the other
oils almost entirely. The “cake” is in consistency
very much like that of flax-seed. It is used, in
equal parts with coal, for fuel, and burns with a
clear flame, and a fire so made is equally warm as
one entirely of coal.
A Bethel church is to be erected this year under
the hill, the erection of which on this noted spot,
will be the boldest and most important step Christianity
has taken in the valley of the Mississippi.
There are four occasionally officiating Methodist
ministers here, one of the Presbyterian, and one
of the Episcopalian denominations. There are
eighteen physicians and surgeons, and sixteen lawyers,
the majority of whom are young men. There
is a weekly paper, with extensive circulation, and
three others are about to be established. There
are five schools or seminaries of learning—three
private, and two public—a flourishing academy for
males, and a boarding-school for young ladies, under
the care of very able teachers. There are also a
hospital and poor-house, and a highly useful orphan
asylum. There are no circulating libraries in the
city, nor I believe in the state. There are three
banks one of which—the Planter's bank—has
branches in seven different towns in the state.
Steamboats were first known at Natchez in 1811-12.
Washington, six miles north-east from Natchez,
with a charming country between, through which
winds one of the worst carriage-roads in the west,
not even excepting the delightful rail-roads from
one mile square, containing about four hundred inhabitants,
of all sizes and colours. It contains a
fine brick hospital and poor-house in one building,
two brick churches, one of the Baptist, and the
other of the Methodist denomination. The first has
recently settled a preacher, the other has long had
a stationed minister, who regularly officiates in the
desk. There is a Presbyterian clergyman residing
in the place, whose church is five miles distant in
the country, in a fine grove on one of the highest
elevations in the state. The inhabitants of the village
are principally Methodists, a majority of which
sect will be found in nearly every village in the
south-west.
Jefferson College, the oldest and best endowed
collegiate institution in the state, is pleasantly situated
at the head of a green on the borders of the village.
It is now flourishing; but has for several years
been labouring under pecuniary embarrassments,
which are now, by a generous provision of Congress,
entirely removed, and with a fund of nearly two
hundred thousand dollars, it bids fair to become a
useful and distinguished institution. There is also
a female seminary in a retired part of this village,
which was handsomely endowed by Miss Elizabeth
Greenfield, of Philadelphia, a member of the society
of Friends, from whom it is denominated the Elizabeth
Academy. It is one of the first female institutions
in this state, and under the patronage of the
Methodist society.
Washington is one of the oldest towns in the state,
administration, and once contained many
more inhabitants than any other place except Natchez,
in the territory. It was nearly depopulated by
the yellow fever in 1825, from the effects of which
it has never recovered. The public offices, with
the exception of the Register's and Receiver's offices,
are removed to Jackson. The town possesses no
resources, and is now only remarkable for its quiet
beauty, the sabbath-like repose of its streets, and its
pure water, and healthy location, upon the plane of
an elevated table land, rising abruptly from the St.
Catharine's, which winds pleasantly along by one
side of the village with many romantic haunts for the
student and “walks” for the villagers, upon its banks.
There is a post office in the village, through which a
triweekly mail passes to and from Natchez. The
route of the rail-road will be through this place,
when it will again lift its head among the thriving
villages of the Great Valley.
Seltzertown, containing a tavern and a blacksmith's
shop (which always form the nucleus of an
American village) is six miles from Washington and
twelve from Natchez. It is remarkable only for the
extensive scenery around it, and the remarkable Indian
fortifications or temples in its vicinity. These
will form the subject of another letter.
Greenville, on the road from Natchez, passing
through the two former places, is twenty-one miles
from that city. It is delightfully situated in a little
green vale, through which winds a small stream.
The plain is crossed by the rail-road, which here becomes
huses, overgrown with grass and half buried in venerable
shade trees. From the prison with its dungeons
fallen in, and its walls lifting themselves sullenly
above the ruins by which they are enclosed, to
the tavern with its sunken galleries, and the cobbler's
shop with its doorless threshold, all were in ruins, a
picture of rural desolation exhibiting the beau ideal
of the “deserted village.” Greenville was formerly
a place of some importance, but other towns have
grown up in more eligible spots, for which this has
been deserted by its inhabitants. One does not
meet with a lovelier prospect in this state, than that
presented to the eye on descending from the hill
south and west of the valley, into the quiet little vale
beneath, just before the going down of the sun. The
air of peace and quiet which reigns around the traveller,
will perhaps remind him of the valley whose
description has so delighted him while lingering over
the elegant pages of Rasselas.
Forty two miles from Natchez is Port Gibson,
one of the most flourishing and beautiful towns in
the south. It is only second to Natchez in the
beauty of its location, the regularity of its streets, the
neatness of its dwellings, and the number and excellence
of its public buildings. It is but seven
miles by land from the Mississippi, with which it
communicates by a stream, called Bayou Pierre,
navigable for keel and flat boats, and, in high floods,
for steamboats, quite to the village. It is very
healthy, and has seldom been visited by epidemics.
It contains about one thousand souls. The citizens
profligacy; but they are now more distinguished
for their intelligence and morality as a community.
There is no town in the south which possesses so
high a standard of morals as Port Gibson. This
reformation is the result of the evangelical labours
of the Presbyterian clergyman of that place; who,
with untiring industry and uncommon energy, combined
with sterling piety, in a very few years performed
the work and produced the effect of an age.
There are a Presbyterian and a Methodist church
in the town, with their respective clergymen. It
contains also a branch bank, court-house, gaol, post-office,
and one of the finest hotels in the state. A
weekly paper, called the “Correspondent,” and
very ably edited, is published here. The society
of the village and neighbourhood is not surpassed
by any in the state. There are some very pretty
country seats in the vicinity, the abodes of planters
of intelligence and wealth; and the country around
is thickly wooded, with fine plantations interspersed;
and the general features of the scenery, though
tame, are beautiful. The road from Natchez to
Port Gibson is through a rich planting country,
pleasantly undulating, with alternate forest and field
scenery on either hand. But beyond Port Gibson
the country assumes a more rugged aspect, and is
less beautiful. The road, for the first few miles,
winds among woods and cotton fields; but, after
crossing Bayou Pierre, at a ford, called “Grindstone
Ford,” where the first rock is seen, in coming north
from the Mexican Gulf, the forest is for many miles
experienced as the iron heels of my horse first rung
upon the broad rocky pavement, when ascending the
bank of this stream from the water. No one but a
northerner, the bases and crests of whose native
hills are of granite, and who has passed two years
or more in the stoneless soil of this region, can duly
appreciate such emotions from such a cause.
For forty seven miles from Port Gibson, the road
winds through a “rolling” country, two thirds of
which is enveloped in the gloom of the primeval
forests, and then enters the little village of Raymond,
situated in an open space among the lofty
forest trees which enclose it on all sides. Raymond
has been planted and matured to a handsome
village, with a fine court-house, several hotels, and
neat private dwellings, within five years. The society,
like that of most new towns in this state, is
composed of young men, merchants, lawyers, and
physicians, the majority of whom are bachelors. The
village is built around a pleasant square, in the centre
of which is the court-house, one of the finest public
buildings in this part of the state. It contains about
four hundred inhabitants, not one fifth of whom are
females.
Beyond Raymond the country is less hilly,
spreading more into table lands, which in many
places are marshy. A ride of eight miles through
a rudely cultivated country, in whose deep forests
the persecuted deer finds a home, often bounding
across the path of the traveller, will terminate at
Clinton, formerly Mount Salus, one of the prettiest
upon a cluster of precipitous hills, contains
some good buildings, and is a place of much business,
which a rail-road, now in projection to the
Mississippi, will have a tendency greatly to increase.
There is a Methodist church in the village, and a
small society of Presbyterians. The most flourishing
female seminary in the state is located in the
immediate vicinity, under the superintendence of a
lady, formerly well known in the literary world of
New-York, as the authoress of one or two works,
and a contributor to the columns of the “Mirror”
when in its infancy. There is also a college in this
place, but it is not of long standing or very flourishing.
The system adopted in this country, of
combining-an academy with a college, though the
state of education may require some such method,
will always be a clog to the advancement of the latter.
There is a Spanish proverb, “manacle a giant
to a dwarf and he must stoop,” which may have yet
a more extensive application, and the truth of which
this system is daily demonstrating. Here are a
land office and a printing office, which issues a
weekly paper. There are many enterprising professional
men and merchants in the village from
almost every state in the Union, but they are generally
bachelors, and congregate at the hotels, so that
for the number of inhabitants the proportion of families
and dwellings is very small. When a number
of high-spirited young men thus assemble in a little
village, a code of honour, woven of the finest texture
and of the most sensitive materials, will naturally
feeling. It will be constantly appealed to, and its
adjudications sacredly observed. To the decisions
of such a tribunal, may be traced the numerous affaires
d'honneur which have occurred in the south
during the last twenty years, most of which originated
in villages composed principally of young
gentlemen. There is something striking to the eye
of a northerner, on entering one of these south-western
villages. He will find every third build
ing occupied by a lawyer or a doctor, around whose
open doors will be congregated knots of young men,
en deshabille, smoking and conversing, sometimes
with animation, but more commonly with an air of indifference.
He will pass by the stores and see them
sitting upon the counters or lounging about the doors.
In the streets and bar-rooms of the hotels, they will
cluster around him, fashionably dressed, with sword
canes dangling from their fingers. Wherever he
turns his eyes he sees nothing but young fellows.
Whole classes from medical and law schools, or
whole counting-houses from New-York or Boston,
seem to have been transported en masse into the little
village through which he is passing. An old man,
or a gray hair, scarcely relieves his vision. He will
be reminded, as he gazes about him upon the youthful
faces, of the fabled village, whose inhabitants
had drunk at the fountain of rejuvenescence. Women
he will find to resemble angels, more than he
had believed; for “few and far between,” are their
forms seen gliding through the streets, blockaded
by young gentlemen, and “few” are the bright eyes
If he stays during the evening, he may pass it in
the noisy bar-room, the billiard-room, or at a wine-party.
If he remains a “season,” he may attend
several public balls in the hotel, where he will meet
with beautiful females, for whom the whole country,
with its villages and plantations for twenty miles
round, has been put under contribution. One of the
most fashionable assemblies I have attended in the
south-west, I was present at, one or two winters
since, in the village of Clinton.
This village contains about four hundred inhabitants,
and is thirty-five miles from Vicksburg, its
port, on the Mississippi. Vicksburg is about two
miles below the Walnut hills, one of the bluffs of
the Mississippi, and five hundred from the Balize.
It contains nearly two thousand inhabitants. Thirty
thousand bales of cotton, about one eighth of the
whole quantity shipped by the state at large, are
annually shipped from this place. In this respect
it is inferior only to Natchez and Grand Gulf, the
first of which ships fifty thousand. There is a
weekly paper published here, of a very respectable
character, and well edited, and another is in contemplation.
There are also a bank, with two or three
churches, and a handsome brick court-house, erected
on an eminence from which there is an extensive
view of the Mississippi, with its majestic steamers,
and humbler flat boats, “keels” and “arks,” and of
the vast forests of the Louisiana shore, which every
where, when viewed from the Mississippi side of
the river, exhibits the appearance of an ocean whose
with the tops of trees in full foliage, like the golden
isles of sea weed floating in the southern seas.
There is no town in the south-west more flourishing
than Vicksburg. It is surrounded by rich
plantations, and contains many public-spirited individuals;
whose co-operation in public enterprises
is opening new avenues of wealth for the citizens,
and laying a broad and secure foundation for the
future importance of the town. It is already a
powerful rival of Natchez: but the two places are
so distant from each other, that their interests will
always revolve in different circles. The situation
of this town, on the shelving declivity of a cluster
of precipitous hills, which rise abruptly from the
river, is highly romantic. The houses are scattered
in picturesque groups on natural terraces along
the river, the balcony or portico of one often overhanging
the roof of another. Merchandise destined
for Clinton is landed here, and hauled over a hilly
country to that place, a distance of thirty-five miles.
Cotton is often conveyed to Vicksburg, and other
shipping places, from a distance of one hundred
miles in the interior. The cotton teams, containing
usually ten bales, are drawn by six or eight yoke
of oxen, which accomplish about twenty miles a
day in good weather. The teamsters camp every
night, in an enclosure formed by their waggons and
cattle, with a bright fire burning; and occasionally
their bivouacs present striking groups for the pencil.
The majority of these teamsters are slaves;
but there are many small farmers who drive their
waggon. These small farmers form a peculiar class,
and include the majority of the inhabitants in the east
part of this state. With the awkwardness of the
Yankee countryman, they are destitute of his morals,
education, and reverence for religion. With
the rude and bold qualities of the chivalrous Kentuckian,
they are destitute of his intelligence, and
the humour which tempers and renders amusing his
very vices. They are in general uneducated,
and their apparel consists of a coarse linsey-woolsey,
of a dingy yellow or blue, with broad-brimmed
hats; though they usually follow their teams barefooted
and bare-headed, with their long locks hanging
over their eyes and shoulders, giving them a
wild appearance. Accost them as they pass you,
one after another, in long lines, cracking their whips,
which they use instead of the goad—perhaps the
turn-out of a whole district, from the old, gray-headed
hunter, to the youngest boy that can wield
the whip, often fifteen and twenty feet in length,
including the staff—and their replies will generally
be sullen or insulting. There is in them a total
absence of that courtesy which the country people
of New-England manifest for strangers. They will
seldom allow carriages to pass them, unless attended
by gentlemen, who often have to do battle for
the high-way. Ladies, in carriages or on horseback,
if unattended by gentlemen, are most usually
insulted by them. They have a decided aversion
to a broad-cloth coat, and this antipathy is transferred
to the wearer. There is a species of warfare
ports, mutually evinced by the jokes and tricks
played upon them by the latter when they come
into market; and their retaliation, when their hour
of advantage comes, by an encounter in the back
woods, which they claim as their domain. At home
they live in log-houses on partially cleared lands,
labour hard in their fields, sometimes owning a few
slaves, but more generally with but one or none.—
They are good hunters, and expert with the rifle,
which is an important article of furniture in their
houses. Whiskey is their favourite beverage, which
they present to the stranger with one hand, while
they give him a chair with the other. They are
uneducated, and destitute of the regular administration
of the gospel. As there is no common
school system of education adopted in this state,
their children grow up as rude and ignorant as themselves;
some of whom, looking as wild as young
Orsons, I have caught in the cotton market at Natchez,
and questioned upon the simple principles of
religion and education which every child is supposed
to know, and have found them wholly uninformed.
This class of men is valuable to the state,
and legislative policy, at least, should recommend
such measures as would secure religious instruction
to the adults, and the advantages of a common education
to the children, who, in thirty years, will form
a large proportion of the native inhabitants of Mississippi.
About three miles from Clinton, on the main road
to the capital, is situated “New Forest,” a cotton
enterprising young gentlemen from Hallowell, in
Maine. They are the sons of one of the most eminent
and estimable medical gentlemen in New-England;
whose pre-eminent success in the management
of an appaling and desolating epidemic,
a few years since, acquired for him a proud and
distinguished name, both at home and abroad.—
New Forest is spread out upon the elevated ridges
which separate the waters of the Chitalusa, or Big
Black, and Pearl rivers; and pleasantly situated
in one of the richest and healthiest counties, on a
line with the projected rail-road, and in the immediate
neighbourhood of the capital of the state—it
will soon become one of the most valuable and
beautiful “homesteads” to be seen in the south.
Besides the proprietors of this estate, there are
several other young gentlemen from Maine, residing
in Mississippi, who, with the characteristic energy
and perseverance of northerners, are steadily advancing
to wealth and distinction.
Jackson, the capital of the state, is in latitude
32° 17′, and in longitude 13° 07′ west of Washington.
It is one hundred and eight miles north-east
of Natchez, and forty-five miles east of Vicksburg,
on the Mississippi. It lies on the right bank of
Pearl river; which, after a southerly course, and
dividing the state into two nearly equal parts, empties
into Lake Borgne, in the Gulf of Mexico. This
river is navigable two hundred miles from its mouth,
and steamboats have been as far as Jackson. But
the torrent is rapid, and the obstructions to navigation
and thriving villages on its banks, and a rich country
of plantations spreads away on either side. The
great rail-road from New-Orleans to Nashville will
run near and parallel with this river for a great distance,
and will monopolize, for the former market,
all that branch of the cotton trade which is now
attached to the ports on the Mississippi above mentioned.
Jackson was but recently selected as the
seat of government of this state. Its site was chosen
for its central position alone, without any reference
to its resources, or any other aids to future
importance, than it might derive from being the
state capital. It is built upon a level area, half a
mile square, cut out from the depth of the forest
which surrounds it. It is a quarter of a mile from
the Pearl, which is concealed by the forests; a
steep, winding path through which leads to the water
side, where the turbid current darts by, a miniature
resemblance of the great river rolling to the
west of it. There are a branch bank in this place,
and a plain, two-storied brick edifice, occupied by
the legislature and courts of justice. Three newspapers
are published here, which, like all others in
this state, are of a warmly political character. A
handome state house is now in the progress of erection,
and many private and public buildings are going
up in various parts of the town. There is a
steam saw-mill near the village, for water privileges
are unknown in this region of impetuous streams;
and several other avenues of wealth and public benefit
are opening by the enterprising citizens.—
and supreme court, Jackson is a very uninteresting
village; but during the sessions of these
bodies, there is no town in the state which, for the
time, presents so lively and stirring a scene.
Vernon is a pleasant village situated on a rapid
and navigable stream, which often winds through
wild and romantic scenery. Steamboats ascend
to this place during part of the year. It is rapidly
improving and filling with many young men, some
of whom, possessing both talent and industry, are
natives of this state. It is worthy of remark that
those communities composed principally of young
Mississippians, are distinguished by much less dissipation
and adherence to the code of honour formerly
alluded to, than such as are formed of young
men principally from the northern and Atlantic
southern states. The young Mississippian is not
the irascible, hot-headed, and quarrelsome being he
has been represented, although naturally warmhearted
and full of generous feelings, and governed
by a high sense of honour. He is seldom a beau
or a buck in the city-acceptation of those terms,
but dresses plainly—as often in pantaloons of Kentucky
jean, a broad brimmed white hat, brogans
and a blanket coat, as in any other style of vesture.
Nevertheless he knows how to be well-dressed, and
the public assemblies of the south-west boast more
richly attired young gentlemen than are often found
in the assembly-rooms of the Atlantic cities. He
is educated to become a farmer—an occupation
which requires and originates plainness of manners
riding over his own, or his father's estate,
wrapped in his blanket coat, to a morning lounge in
Broadway enveloped in a fashionable cloak. He
would rather walk booted and spurred upon the
“turf,” the “exchange” of southern planters, than
move, shod in delicate slippers, over the noiseless
carpet of the drawing-room. His short handled
riding-whip serves him better than the slender rattan—his
blanketed saddle is his cabriolet—the road
between his plantation and a cotton market, his
“drive”—and the noble forests on his domain—the
home of the stag and deer—he finds when he
moves through their deep glades, with his rifle in
his hand, better suited to his tastes than the “mall,”
or Hyde Park, and he will be ready to bet a bale
of cotton that the sport which they afford him is at
least an equivalent to shooting cock-sparrows from
a thorn bush on a moor.
Satartia is on the left side of the river Yazoo,
fourteen miles from Vernon and thirty-five by land
from Vicksburg. The village is pleasantly situated
near the water, contains ten or fifteen stores,
a tavern, and several dwelling houses, with a post-office.
From ten to twelve thousand bales of cotton
are annually shipped here. It promises to be
one of the largest shipping ports in north Mississippi.
Benton, on the Yazoo, twenty-two miles to the
north of Vernon, is a growing place, and issues a
weekly newspaper. The rich country around is
rapidly settling, and in the course of twenty years
Amsterdam, within steamboat navigation, on a deep
creek, sixteen miles from Vicksburg, is a thriving
town. Columbia, on the east bank of the Pearl, is
accessible by steamboats, and Columbus, on the
Tombeckbee, some hundred miles above Mobile, is
a flourishing town. There is here a printing press
which issues a weekly paper. Steamboats occasionally
ascend to this place from Mobile. There
are besides, east of the Pearl river, Brandon, so
called in honour of the ex-governor; Winchester,
Westville, Pearlington, and Shieldsborough—the
latter in the southern extremity of the state on Lake
Borgne, within forty miles of New-Orleans—most
of which are thriving villages. One of the most
flourishing towns on the Pearl is Monticello, about
ninety miles east of Natchez.
Manchester, on the Yazoo, has been but recently
settled. It is very flourishing, contains many stores
and dwellings, and ships from twelve to fifteen
thousand bales of cotton annually. It is seventy-six
miles from the mouth of the Yazoo, on the Mississippi.
Twenty-five miles from this village is Rankin,
within three miles of steamboat navigation, and
rapidly rising into importance. There are many
other villages in this new region yet in embryo, but
which must grow with the country into wealth and
distinction.
Grand Gulf, about forty-five miles above Natchez,
on the Mississippi, situated on a natural terrace,
receding to a wooded crescent of hills on the north
and east, and just above a dangerous eddy which
commercial importance in the state. It was settled
five years ago, and the present year about forty-five
thousand bales of cotton were shipped from
this port. It contains about nine hundred inhabitants.
A rail-road is projected to Port Gibson eight
miles back from the river, and to the interior, which
will benefit both places. Within sight of the village,
and a short distance above it, is the only cliff
of rocks in this region. Mississippians and Louisianians
should do pilgrimage there. In the vicinity
of this town Aaron Burr surrendered to General
Mead, and the detachment ordered out to arrest
him.
Rodney is a pleasant town twenty miles above
Natchez, on the river. It is a place of commercial
importance, and ships annually many thousand bales
of cotton. Its inhabitants are enterprising and intelligent.
Warrenton, nine miles below Vicksburg, is the
only other village between Natchez and the latter
place.
The most important settlement south of Natchez
is Woodville, a beautiful village, built around
a square, in the centre of which is a handsome
court-house. Various streets diverge from this public
square, and are soon lost in the forests, which
enclose the village. There are some eminent lawyers
who reside here, and the neighbourhood is one
of the wealthiest and most polished in the state.
Governor Poindexter resided till recently at a neat
country seat a short ride from Woodville, striking
president of the board of medical censors of
this state, and formerly a surgeon in the revolutionary
army, and the late Governor Brandon, reside
also in the neighbourhood, but still more distant in
the country. One of the most eminent lawyers of
this place is a native of Portland, who has also distinguished
himself as an occasional contributor to
the annuals. One of the first lawyers in Vickburg,
if not in the state, is a native of Maine, and a graduate
of Bowdoin. He is this year a candidate for
congress; though with that juvenility, which characterises
southern athletæ in every intellectual
arena, he scarcely yet numbers thirty summers.
There are three churches in Woodville; a Methodist,
Episcopalian, and Baptist. A weekly paper
is published here, conducted with talent and editorial
skill. The court-house, which is a substantial
and handsome structure of brick, contains a superior
clock. A market-house and a gaol are also
numbered among the public buildings. There is a
branch of the Planters' bank here, and an academy
for boys and another for girls, established within a
mile of the village, are excellent schools. Woodville
is about eighteen miles from the Mississippi.
Its port is Fort Adams, formerly mentioned. A rail-road
is in contemplation, between Woodville and
St. Francisville, La. twenty-nine miles distant, on
the river, which will render the communication easy
and rapid to New-Orleans. This village contains
about eight hundred inhabitants, and is one of the
healthiest in Mississippi. During a period of
accurate and elaborate researches I am indebted for
much of my information upon the topography of this
state—out of one hundred and forty-four men, of
whom he kept an account for that length of time,
only three died, and two of these were killed.
Fayette, a very neat and pleasant village, containing
a handsome court-house and church, is twenty-five
miles east of Natchez. It is the most rural
and New-England like village, except Port Gibson,
in the state. Meadville, to the south, is a small
retired place, containing a post-office.
Kingston, on the road from Natchez to Woodville,
originally settled by a colony from New-Jersey,
is a small village, containing a church, post-office,
two or three stores, and several dwelling-houses.
This and Pinckneyville, a few miles south
of Woodville, the latter merely a short street, lined
by a few dwelling-houses and stores, are the only
places south of Natchez, besides those already
mentioned, of any importance. The site of White
Apple village, the capital of the Natchez tribe, and
the residence of “Great Sun,” chief of the chiefs
of that interesting nation, is pointed out to the traveller,
on the river road to Woodville from Natchez.
A few mounds, with the usual remains of spear and
arrow heads, beads, and broken pottery only exist,
to mark the spot. Fragments of gold lace and Spanish
weapons have been found in the neighbourhood,
with many other traces of the march of the
Spanish army through this country.
I will conclude my long letter with an allusion
About eighteen miles to the east of Woodville are
the “Elysian Fields!” “Shade of Achilles,” you
exclaim, “are the Elysü Campi of thy ghostly wanderings
discovered in a Mississippian forest?” Nevertheless
they are here, and the great problem is
solved. Some have placed these regions in the sun,
some in the moon, and others in the middle region
of the air; and others again in the centre of the
earth, in the vicinity of Tartarus, and probably in
the neighbourhood of the “incognita terra” of Capt.
Symmes. By many, and this was the vulgar opinion,
they were supposed to lie among the Canary
isles: but, march of mind! more modern and wiser
heads have discovered their position nearly on
the confines of Luisiana and Mississippi. Here
the traveller will behold beautiful birds with gorgeous
plumage—for splendidly enamelled birds enrich,
with their brilliant dyes, the forests of the
south—and his ear will drink in the sweetest melody
from the feathered myriads—such as would
have tempted even “pius æneas” to linger on his
way: but this, alas! is all that his imagination will
recognize of Elysium. Trojan chiefs he will find
metamorphosed into Mandingo negroes, who, in
lieu of managing “war-horses,” and handling arms,
are guiding, with loud clamour, the philosophic
mule, or wielding the useful hoe. Nymphs gathering
flowers, “themselves the fairer,” he will find
changed into Congo sylphs, whose zoneless waists
plainly demonstrate the possibility of the quadrature,
who with skilful fingers gather the milk-white
of an ordinary kind, and a post-office, surrounded
by cotton fields and woods, make up the sum of
this celestial abode for departed heroes.
| XXXVII. The South-west | |