the squatters, erected on the banks under their trunks,
appear, in contrast with their size, more like dog-kennels than the
habitations of men. The lianes, or creeping plants, now become
plentiful, and embrace almost every tree, rising often to the height of
fifty or sixty feet, and encircling them with the apparent force of the
boa-constrictor. Most of them are poisonous; indeed, it is from these
creeping parasites that the Indians, both in North and South America,
obtain the most deadly venom. Strange that these plants, in their
appearances and their habits so similar to the serpent tribe, should be
endowed with the same peculiar attributes, and thus become their
parallels in the vegetable kingdom--each carrying sudden death in their
respective juices. I hate the Mississippi, and as I look down upon its
wild and filthy waters, boiling and eddying, and reflect how uncertain
is travelling in this region of high-pressure, and disregard of social
rights, I cannot help feeling a disgust at the idea of perishing in such
a vile sewer, to be buried in mud, and perhaps to be rooted out again by
some pig-nosed alligator.

Right glad was I when we turned into the stream of the Ohio, and I found
myself on its purer waters. The Ohio is a splendid river, running
westward from the chain of Alleghany mountains into the Mississippi,
dividing the States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio on its northern bank
from Kentucky, and Virginia on its south; the northern being free, and
the southern slave States. We stopped at the month of the Cumberland
river, where we took in passengers. Among others were a slave-dealer
and a runaway negro whom he had captured. He was secured by a heavy
chain, and followed his master, who, as soon as he arrived on the upper
deck, made him fast with a large padlock to one of the stancheons.

Here he remained looking wistfully at the northern shore, where every
one was free, but occasionally glancing his eye on the southern, which
had condemned him to toil for others, I had never seen a slave-dealer,
and scrutinised this one severely. His most remarkable feature was his
eye; it was large but not projecting, clear as crystal, and eternally in
motion. I could not help imagining, as he turned it right and left from
one to the other of the passengers, that he was calculating what price
he could obtain for them in the market. The negro had run away about
seven months before, and not having a pass, he had bee