take
place every spring. The land, adjacent to the town, yields abundant
crops of rice, Indian corn, and vegetables.

There is a regular communication, by means of steam-boats and other
vessels, between New Orleans and the towns on the banks of the
Mississippi, the Ohio, and other rivers, in the distant parts of North
America.

The scenery of the Mississippi, to the distance of one hundred and fifty
miles and upwards, from New Orleans, is very uninteresting. The country
is a dead flat; so that the banks of the river, and most of the adjacent
grounds, are annually overflowed. In the vicinity of Natchez it becomes
more varied and pleasing.

_Natchez_ is a town in the state of Mississippi, near the banks of the
river, and about four hundred miles from its mouth. It contains about
thirty dwellings, most of which are whiskey-shops, gambling, and other
houses, where an excess of profligacy prevails, which is not usual in
the United States.

Mr. Fearon visited Natchez in the year 1817; and in the port there were
twenty-five flats, seven keels, and one steam-vessel. The flats are
square covered vessels, of considerable capacity, used for carrying
freight from Pittsburgh, on the Ohio, and other places below that town,
down to New Orleans. Their construction is temporary and of slight
materials; for they are broken up at New Orleans, as not sufficiently
strong to be freighted up the river. The keel is a substantial,
well-built boat, of considerable length; and, in form, somewhat
resembles the floating-bath at Blackfriars' Bridge.

Observing a great many coloured people in these boats, Mr. Fearon
concluded that they were emigrants, who had proceeded thus far on their
route towards a settlement. The fact, however, proved to be, that
fourteen of the flats were freighted with human beings intended for
sale. They had been collected in the United States, by slave-dealers,
and shipped, up the Mississippi, to Kentucky for a market.

There are, at Natchez, numerous stores, and three-fourths of the goods
at every store are articles of British manufacture. Shopkeeping is here
profitable, and mechanics are highly paid. Lotteries are very prevalent
at Natchez. When Mr. Fearon was here, there was a lottery for _building
a Presbyterian church_; and the scheme was preceded by a long address,
on the advantages of religion, and the necessity of all citizens
supporting Christianity, by purchasing tickets in this lottery!

The streets of Na