without any covering of earth. As the marsh underneath is of various degrees of solidity, the whole road assumes a kind of undulating appearance. I found some of the logs a little apart from one another; and was therefore constantly afraid, that the animal that carried me would break his leg; but he was a Western horse, and by the manner in which he picked his way, showed that he knew the danger as well or better than I did. Any one crossing these logs in a wheeled carriage, must find the jolting truly formidable.

Vincennes is a small straggling place, situated on the bank of the Wabash, and is one of the oldest towns in the United States. It was founded by the French, the same year that William Penn founded Philadelphia; and was, for a long time, partly a French, and partly an Indian village. It once supplied all the neighbouring country for a very great distance around, with goods and merchandize; but is now declining, partly from having lost its superiority as a depôt for goods, and partly from the unhealthiness of its situation. I have scarcely been to a single spot on the western side of the Ohio, where, during the autumn of 1822, the people had not suffered from sickness.

The Wabash is a beautiful river, which, after a meandering course of about 600 miles, enters the Ohio in a stream about 400 yards wide, 140 miles from the confluence of that river with the Mississippi. It may be considered as the largest tri

butary stream that joins the Ohio from the west. Its own principal tributaries are White River, Little Wabash, Embarrass, Big and Little Eel Rivers, Tree Creek, Ponce Passau, or Wildcat, Tippecanoe, and Massissiniway.

The Wabash flows through a rich and level country, which is well adapted to cultivation, and in which cotton has of late been raised successfully.

On the Wabash are the towns of Harmony, Vincennes, and Terre-haute, besides several others, which, having only been lately erected, contain as yet few inhabitants.

This river forms, for a considerable distance, the boundary between Indiana and Illinois. During the spring of the year, it is easily navigated by flat boats, as far as 450 miles from its junction with the Ohio; and craft drawing only two or three feet water, may ascend it as far as Vincennes at almost any season.

It is not till the traveller has crossed the Wabash, and advanced a considerable distance into the State of Illinois, that he can see any of the large "Prairies," of which there are many fertile ones on the west bank of the river. These Prairies, as their name denotes, are large open tracts of natural meadow, covered with luxuriant and rank grass, and destitute of trees or even shrubs. There are no hills in them, though some have a gently undulating surface.

I intended to have remained a few days at Vin

cennes, but the following circumstance drove me away the next morning.

A Missouri planter, attended by two slaves, a man and woman, was travelling to St. Louis, in a small wheeled carriage called a "Dearborn,” and had stopped at Vincennes to rest his horses. Now the day before I arrived, both his slaves had run away. Trying to travel all night when nearly barefooted, the man had both his feet so severely frost bitten, that he could not proceed. Consequently he was overtaken by some people sent after him by his master, and was brought back to Vincennes the very evening after my arrival. When I got up early the next morning, I saw the poor old slave, who had passed the night in the kitchen, with a heavy chain padlocked round both his legs. A man from North Carolina, who had ridden in company with me from White River, where he had been delayed, came into the room at the same time I did; and, although a slave holder himself, was touched with compassion at seeing the miserable state of this old negro. Having procured the key, he took off one of the padlocks, and desired the unhappy being to come towards the fire, in order to warm his frost-bitten legs and feet, which were much swollen, and were no doubt very painful. The poor slave was so lame he could hardly move, but managed to come and sit down by the hearth. The Carolinian then said to him, "You have committed a great crime, as you must

be well aware-how came you to do it?" The negro replied, "Master, I am an old man, upwards of sixty years of age, and I have been all my life in bondage. Several white men told me, that as this was a free State, if I could run away I should be free; and you know master! what a temptation that was. I thought if I could spend my few remaining days in freedom, I should die happy." But, replied the Carolinian, "You were a fool to run away; you know you are much better off as a slave, than if you were free." "Ah! master," said the poor old negro, "No one knows where the shoe pinches, but he who wears it.”

Just at this time, in came the master of the slave, and after swearing a terrible oath that he would punish him, desired him to go and get ready the carriage. The poor old man answered that he was in too great pain even to stand upright. Upon this the brute, saying, "I will make you move, you old rascal," sent out for a "cowhide." Now the sort of whip called by this name is the most formidable one I ever saw. It is made of twisted strips of dried cow's skin; and from its weight, its elasticity, and the spiral form in which the thongs are twisted, must, when applied to the bare back, inflict the most intolerable torture.

The wife of the tavern keeper coming in, and I hearing that the negro was going to be flogged, merely said, "I would rather it had not been on the Sabbath." For my part, I thought it signified

very little upon what day of the week, such an atrocious act of wickedness was committed; so after trying in vain to obtain a relaxation of the punishment, I called for my horse, determined not to hear the cries of the suffering old man. Yet even when I had ridden far from the town, my imagination still pictured to me the horrors that were then being performed; and I should have thought myself deficient in human kindness, if I had not cursed from the bottom of my heart, every government, that, by tolerating slavery, could sanction a scene like this.