-past ten I was snugly stowed away, bag and baggage, on
board the Carolton; and by eleven we were following the eternal current
amidst a deluge of rain, and a gale of wind blowing from N.W., with a
cold which, falling suddenly upon one's fibre, unstrung by three or four
warm days, was positively paralyzing. I occupied a stateroom by favour;
but, a couple of panes of glass being out of the window, I suffered for
my exclusiveness.

_Sunday, 15th._--Snow falling, the first I have seen in the South; our
boat constantly stopping to load cotton, so that we, at the close of the
day, have made only some twenty miles: the night came on clear, and
tolerably mild. By eight o'clock P.M. we had received from our several
halts one thousand bales of the staple, all of which were stowed away
upon our deck, galleries, &c. till daylight could no longer be expected
to visit us--even the doors were blocked up, as in the Alabama. Thank
Heaven! our present imprisonment is for a shorter period, our worthy
captain assuring us that by daylight on Tuesday we shall be alongside
the Levee.

At one of our landing-places we found a couple of outcast-looking
white-men bivouacking beneath a tree before a half-burned log, with a
couple of tin saucepans standing near: one of the precious pair was
extended on the damp soil, bare-headed, with a blanket rolled about him;
the other sat, Indian-like, wrapped in a similar robe. For the three
hours we were delayed, whilst loading three hundred bales of cotton, I
do not think either of them moved; they were as miserable specimens of
humanity as might be met with. I could not help contrasting these
members of the privileged class with a gang of stout slaves who were
employing their Sunday's leisure in assisting to load the boat, for
which service they each received about two shillings sterling: I need
hardly say the contrast was decidedly in favour of the negroes.

_Monday, 16th._--Day fine, and not so cold: passed Bayou Sarah, as high
up as which the tide flows, rising about six inches once in twenty-four
hours.

Opposite Prophet's Island saw a large square ark, moored to the bank,
surmounted by a pole from which a white flag was fluttering. I was in
great hopes this was the Mississippi theatre, which I knew from report
to be somewhere in this latitude on its annual voyage to New Orleans;
but it turned out to be the store of a Yankee pedlar on a trading
voyage.

This floating theatre, about which I make c