In the first name of New Madrid. instance the society were delighted with the situation, in a beautiful rich plain; but experience soon taught them that it did not run two miles back, that the front was limited to a mile, and that the vicinity of the swamp would render it periodically unhealthy. Add to this, that an inundation occurred, which swept off the greatest part of the new town, carried off the government-house, and laid a foundation for a belief that the entire plain will, in process of time, be consumed by the river. In the last ten years the plain has lost one hundred yards along its front, and in ten years more, there is no moral probability that the town will be in existence; the bank on which it stands being a fine mould of fifty feet deep, can make no resistance to the body of water which beats against it. It every hour gives way, and though the inhabitants recede, and build their houses nearer the swamp, they find the river gain on them, and that they must one day perish in some untimely flood, or abandon the establishment of the town according to their original intention. It would appear to me, that as soon as the river subsides, the banks, against which it now beats with such unremitting impetuosity, that it must change its bed, and water the immense regions of North Mexico. I must give you an unfavorable account of the inhabitants. A stupid insensibility makes the foundation of their character. Averse to labor, indifferent to any motive of honor, occupied by mean associations without solicitude for the future, and incapable of foresight and reflection, they pass their lives without thinking, and are growing old without getting out of their infancy, all the faults of which they studiously attain. Gaming and drinking at times rouze them from this supine state into a depravation of manners, and furious spirit of outrage, which debase still more the distorted features of their mind. They are composed of the dregs of Kentucky, France, and Spain, and subsist by hunting and trading with the Indians, who exchange with them rich furs for whisky, blankets, ammunition, and arms. Gardens succeed well: there are several about the town, and some peach-orchards of great promise. Agriculture is entirely neglected. I could not get a loaf of bread in the town, nor any kind of provisions whatever, though I offered any price. The Roman church is yet sustained and service performed, though the revenue allotted it by the Government of Spain is withheld by the United States. LETTER XXXVII. Little Prairie-Chickassaw Bluffs-A_hur ricane. Mouth of the Ozark, or Orkansas River, THE, Mississippi affords so little subject for anecdote or interesting description, that I have made a run of three hundred and fifty miles since I last wrote to you, in search of materials for your information. On leaving New Madrid, the first settlement I perceived was that of Little Prairie: it consists of from twenty to thirty houses, built on an elevated plain, whose extent is limited by a swampy boundary. It is a wretched sickly place, and would be evacuated, were the inhabitants not encouraged to remain by the trade with the Indians, which they find profitable, though attended by periodical, or rather perpetual attacks of sickness. The next and only settlement after the prairie, is the third Chickassaw Bluffs, making a distance of nearly one hundred miles without a habitation. The Chickassaw Bluffs are one hundred and fifty-one miles from the mouth of the Ohio I should have found it a very lonesome stretch, had I not been incessantly employed in preserving the boat from danger: from rocks, sawyers, and snags; and from the eddies, gulphs, bayaus, points, and bends in the river. The attention is also kept awake by the necessity of looking out for islands, in order to choose the proper channel, and to pull for it in time, or before the boat falls into the race of a wrong one. |