such buildings
are very common, and generally pass under the euphemistic name of
"pigeon-houses."

On the 11th of February--a fine frosty day--we came to Red River,
branching on our left in the direction of Texas, with which country it
forms an important means of communication. This river, even where it
pours its waters into the Mississippi, is not more than from 300 to 500
feet wide, and yet is navigable by steamers for about 1,200 miles. My
Baptist friend had recently been on a visit to Elder Wright, a planter
and a slave-holder on that river. This Wright was a New-England man,
had graduated at Yale College, and boasted that he was "a Northern man
with Southern feelings." He was called Elder Wright because he was a
preacher,--the Baptists here calling all preachers "elders." Now, this
Elder Wright told my friend that a few years ago there was great fear
in his district of the slaves rising up against their masters. To this
they were supposed to be instigated by the presence and influence of
some strangers. Under this apprehension, a secret committee was formed
to seize and try every suspected stranger, and, if he could not clear
himself to their satisfaction, to "hang him up quietly." Of this secret
and murderous committee Elder Wright--an _alumnus_ of Yale College, a
professor of religion, and a preacher of the gospel--was chosen
chairman; and the statement I have just made came in the way described
from his own lips! It is notorious that in the South they think nothing
of taking away a man's life, if he be even suspected of sympathy with
the slave; and a country so thinly inhabited affords abundant
opportunities of doing it as "quietly" as can be desired. America is
indeed a land of "liberty!"

At night we came to Natchez, a town beautifully situated on the top of
a hill, about 300 feet above the level of the river, and for this
reason called "Natchez-on-the-Hill." Its population is about 5,000; and
it is the largest town in the State of Mississippi. Its distance from
New Orleans is 300 miles. Darkness had set in when we approached it;
yet the numerous lights on shore, rising row above row to a great
elevation, gave it a lively and interesting appearance. But, alas!
Natchez also is a great slave market; and I can never think of it
without remembering the sufferings of poor Mary Brown. Let me narrate
her painful story. It may waken in some breast a feeling of sympathy
for the American slave.

Mary Brown, a colour