tchez were literally crammed with bales of cotton for
the Liverpool market. These are carried to the water-side in carts, each
drawn by two mules, horses being here little used. During Mr. Fearon's
residence at this town, he twice visited the State legislature, which
was composed of men who appeared any thing but legislators. Their place
of meeting was in a superior kind of hay-loft; and the imitation of the
forms of the British parliament were perfectly ludicrous.

Between Natchez, and the mouth of the Ohio, there is not one spot which
could be recommended as a place for an Englishman to settle in.
Throughout the whole of this space, the white population are the victims
of demoralizing habits. The native Indians present, of course, nothing
but a picture of mere savage life; and the negro slaves suffer even more
misery than commonly falls to the lot of their oppressed and degraded
condition. What a foul stain is it upon the American republic,
professing, as they do, the principles of liberty and of equal rights,
that, out of twenty states, there should be eleven in which slavery is
an avowed part of the political constitution; and that, in those called
free, New England excepted, the condition of blacks who are indentured,
for terms of years, should practically amount to slavery!

Beyond the state of Louisiana, the Mississippi divides the Missouri
territory from the territory of Mississippi; and, north of that, from
the states of Tenessee and Kentucky. About the 37th degree of north
latitude, and on the western bank of the river, is a town called _New
Madrid_. This place, from the advantages of its situation, about
forty-five miles from the mouth of the Ohio, may at some future time
become of considerable importance. The _Ohio_, at the place of its
junction with the Mississippi, is about a mile in width, and is
navigable, for vessels of considerable burden, to a distance of more
than a thousand miles.

Beyond the Ohio commences the _Illinois territory_. Here the general
face of the country is flat; but, in some parts, the land is high and
craggy. It abounds in deer, wolves, bears, squirrels, racoons, and
foxes; in wild turkeys and quails; geese and ducks, partially; and
hawks, buzzards, and pigeons in tolerable abundance; and the rivers
contain several species of fish. In the prairies there are rattlesnakes.
The woods supply grapes, pecan nuts, (similar to our walnut,) and
hickory nuts. Hops, raspberries, and strawber