The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 15, 1861.

N°. 21,540.

P ÜBLICATION S.

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Now ready, in 2 vols., with Portraits, 215., bound,
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A LADY'S TRAVELS IN EGYPT, TURKEY, AND ASIA MINOR.
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GYPTIAN SEPULCHRES and SYRIAN
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THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, No. CCXXXI.
Was published on SATURDAY LAST.

CQNTENTS.
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11. Literary Remains of Albert Durer.
111. Carthage.
IV. Novels of Fernan Caballero.
V. Wation's Life of Porson.
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THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, No. CCXIX.,
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CONTENTS.
T. De Quincey and his Works.
11. Montaiembert's Monks of the West,
111. Translators of Virgil.
IV. Maine on Ancient Law.
V. Scottish Character.
VI. Russia on the Amour.
VII. Cavour.
VIII. Democracy on its Trial.
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CHAPTERS IV'. and V. on the modern Treatment of
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Lotion.

NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI, JUNE 14.
(Continued from the Times of July 12.)
As we jog along in au easy rolling carriage
drawn by a pair of stout horses, a number of white
people meet us coming from the Catholic chapel of
the parish, where they had been attending a ser-
vice for the repose of the soul of a lady much be-
loved in the neighbourhood. The black people are
supposed to have very happy souls, or to be as ute
terly lost as Mr. Shandy's homuncule was under
certain circumstances, for I have failed to find that
any such services are ever considered necessary in
their case, although they may have been very good
—or where it would be most desirable—very bad
Cathoips. My good young friend, clever, amiable,
accomplished, who had a dark cloud of sorrow
weighing down his young life that softened him to
almost feminine tenderness, saw none of these
things. He talked of foreign travel in days gone
by—of Paris and poetry, of England and London
hotels, of the great Careine, and of poor Alexis
Soyer, of pictures, of politics—de 021112 C seibill. The
storm gathered overhead, and the rain fell in tor-
rents—the Mississippi flowed lifelessly by—not a
boat on its broad surface. The road passed by
plantation a r and poorer than I have yet seen
belongin mall planters, with only some 10 or
12 slaves, all told. The houses were poor and
ragged. At last we reached Governor Manning's
place, and drove to the overseer's—a large heavy-
eyed old man, who asked us into his house from
out of the rain till the boat was ready—and the
river did not look inviting—full of drift trees,
swirls, and mighty eddies. In the plain room
in which we sat there was a volume of " Spur-
geon's Sermons" and of Baxter's works. " This
rain will do good to the corn," said the overseer.
" The niggers had had sceerce nothin' to do
leetly, as they 'eve clearied out the fields, pretty
well." We drove down to a poor shed on the levee '
called the Ferry-house, attended by one stout young
slave who was to row me over. Two flat-bottomed
skiffs lay on the bank. The negro groped under
the shed and pulled out a piece of wood like a large
spatula, some four feet long, and a small round pole
a little longer, " What are those ? quoth I, " Dem's
oars, Massa," was my sable ferryman's brisk reply.
" I'm very sure they are not ; if they were spliced
they might make an oar between them." " Golly, I
and dat's the trute, Massa." " There, go and get oars,
will you ?" While he was hunting about we entered
the shed for shelter from the rain. We found " a
solitary woman sitting" smoking a pipe by the ashes
on the heeith, blear-eyed, low-browed, and morose
—young as she was. She never said a word nor
moved as we came in, sat and smoked, and looked
through her gummy eyes at chickens about the size
of sparrows, and at a cat not larger than a rat which
ran about on the dirty floor. A little girl some four
years of age, not overdressed—indeed, half-naked,
" not to put too fine a point upon it," crawled out from
under the bed, where she had hid on our approach.
A s she seemed incapable of appreciating the uses of a
small piece of silver presented to her—having no pre-
cise ideas on coinage or toffy—her parent took the
obolus in charge with unmistakeable decision ; but
still she would not stiff a step to aid our Charon,
who now insisted on the " key ov de oar-house."
The little thing sidled off and hunted it cut from
the top of the bedstead, and I was not sorry to quit
the company of the silent woman in black. Charon
pushed his skiff into the water—there was a good
deal of rain in it—in shape a snuffer-dish some 10
feet long and a foot deep. I got in and the
conscious waters immediately began vigorously
spurting through the cotton wadding wherewith
the craft was caulked. Had we gone out into the
stream we should have had a swim for it, and they
do say that the Mississippi is the most dangerous
river for that healthful exercise in the known world.
" Why! deuce take yon" (I said, at least that, in my
wrath), " don't you see the boat is leaky ?" " See it
now for true, Massa. Nobody able to tell dat till
Massa get in tho'." Another skiff proved to be
stanch. I bade good bye to my friend, and sat down
in my boat, which was soon forced up along the
stream close to the bank, in order to get a good start
across to the other side. The view, from my lonely
position, was curious, but not at all picturesque. The
landscape had disappeared at once. The world was
bounded on both sides by a high bank, and was con-
stituted by a broad river—just as if one were sail-
ing down an open sewer of enormous length and
breadth. Above the bank rose, however, the tops
of tall trees and the chimneys of sugar-houses. A
row of a quarter of an hour brought us to the levee
on the other side. I ascended the bank, and directly
in front of me, across the road, appeared a carriage
gateway and wickets of wood painted white in a
line of park palings of the same material, which ex-
tended up and 'down the road as far as the eye could
follow, and guarded widespread fields of maize and
sugar-cane. An avenue of trees with branches close
set, drooping and overarching a walk paved with
red brick led to the house, the porch of which was
just visible at the extremity of the lawn, with clus-
tering flowers, rose, jessamine, and creepers cling-
ing to the pillars supporting the verandah. The
proprietor, who had espied my approach issued
forth with a section of sable attendants in his
rear, and gave me a hearty welcome. The house was
larger and better than the residences even of the
richest planters, though it was in need of some little
repair, and had been built perhaps 50 years ago,
but it had belonged to a wealthy family who lived
in the good old Irish fashion, and who built well,
ate well, drank well, and—finally, paid very well.
The view from the Belvedere was one of the most
striking of its kind in the world. If an English
agriculturist, could see 6,000 acres of the finest
land in one field, unbroken by hedge or boundary,
and covered with the most magnificent crops of
tasselling Indian corn and sprouting sugar-cane, as
level as a billiard-table, he would surely doubt his
senses, But here is literally such a sight. Six
theusand acres, better tilled than the finest patch
in all the Lothians, green as Meath pastures, which
can be cultivated for a hundred years to come with-
out requiring manure, of depth practically un-
limited, and yielding an average profit on what is
sold off it of at least £2O an acre at the old prices
and usual yield of sugar. Rising up in the midst
of the verdure are the white lines of the negro cot-
tages and the plantation offices and sugar-houses,
which look like large public edifices in the distance.
And who is the lord of all this fair domain ? The
proprietor of Houmas and Orange-grove is a man,
a self-made one, who has attained his apogee on the
bright side of half a century, after 25 years of suc-
cessful business.
When my eyes " uncurtained the early morning"
I might have imagined myself in the magic garden
ofc
Cherry aairSlstaorithsoe
binircdesss,awnhticahndwemre the
only and l?
roerethe
only happy coloured people I saw in my Southern
tour, notwithstanding the assurances of the many
ingenious and candid gentlemen who attempted to
prove to me that the palm of terrestrial felicity
must be awarded to their negroes. As I stepped
REVIEWS OF THE WORK. through my window upon the verandah a sharp
"Curtis on Manhood.—Thus is a truly valuable work, and
chirp called my attention to a mocking-bird perched
should be in the hands of young and old."—" Sunday Times,
3d P arch, 1850. "
upon a rose bush beneath, whom my presence
rt
"The author has conferred a great boon by publishing this
seemed to annoy tohisducihn aadengrereeepinthgat I retreated
little work, in which is described the source of those diseases
which produce decline in youth or more frequently premature behind my curtain, whence I observed her flight to
old age."—" Daily Telegraph," March 27, 1856.
" This work, which for twenty years has stood the test of rose trailed
professional criticism and empiri3al hostility, treats in aplain a nest cunningly
around a neighbouring column of the house, where
and sympathising manner on the various disqualifications
and impediments arising from nervous excitement and de • she imparted a breakfast of spiders and grasshop-
bility ; and to invalids suffering from youthful errors and
excesses it will be found valuable and useful."—Record. pers to her gaping and clamorous offspring. While
London : Published by J. Allen, 20, Warwick Lane, Pater- I wasat
of tdemr iar i
vthanetmotherly grace of this melodious
Hours et
brought coffee, and announced
Qou
noster-row ; Mann. au, Cornhill. 0
sultation--19 to 3 aucl 6 t h
o ;
,tludays, 19 till g fl ie

that the horses were ready and t I might have
a three hours' ride before treakfair At Houmas
les fours se suivent et se resvniblent, and an epitome
of the first will serve as a type for all, with the ex-
ception of such variationt# the kitchen and cellar
produce as the ingenuity and exhaustless hospitality
of my host were never tired of framing.
If I regretted the absence of our English agricul-
turist when I beheld the 6,000 acres of cane and
1,600 of maize unfolded from the Belvedere the day
previous, I longed for his presence still more when
I saw those evidences of lux iriant fertility attained
without the aid of phosphates or guano. The rich
Mississippi bottoms need no manure, a rotation of
maize with cane affords tbcm the necessary recu-
perative action. The caae of last year's plant
is left in stubble, and renews its growth this
spring under the title of ratoons. When the
maize is in tassel, cow-peas are dropped between
the rows, and when the lordly stalk, of which I
measured many 12 and even 15 feet in height—
' bearing three and sometimes four ears—is topped
to admit the ripening sun, the pea vine twins

itself around the trunk, with a profusion of leaf
and tendril that supplies the planter with the most
desirable fodder for his mules in "rolling time,"
which is their season of trial. Besides this, the
corn blades are culled and cured. These are the best
meals of the Southern racehorse, and constitute
nutritious hay without dust. The cow-pea is said to
strengthen the system of the earth for the digestion
of a new crop of sugar-cane. A sufficient quantity
of the cane of last season is reserved from the milk
and laid in pits, where the ends of the stalks are
carefully closed with earth until spring. After the'
ground has been ploughed into ridges these canes
are laid in the endless tumuli, and not long after
their interment a fresh sprout springs at each
joint of these intermediate flutes.

friend the doctor whom I had met at Houmas, who
had crossed the river to see patients suffering from
an attack of Eucre, took us round to a little club,
where I was introduced to a number of gentlemen,
who expressed great pleasure at seeing me, shook
hands violently and walked away; and finally we
melted off into a cloud of mosquitoes by the river
bank, in a box prepared for them, which was called
a bedroom. These rooms were built in wood on
the stage close to the river. "W by can't I have
one of those rooms ?" asked I pointing to a larger
mosquito box. " It's engaged by ladies." " How do
you know ?—"Parctque elles ont envoyes leur
butin." It was delicious to meet the French plunder
for baggage —an old phrase so nicely rendered in
the mouth of the Mississippi boatman. Having
passed a night of exrreme discomfiture with the
winged demons of the box, I was aroused towards
dawn by the booming of the steam drum of the
boat, dipped my head in water among drowned
mosquitoes, and went forth upon the landing. The
policeman had just arrived. His eagle eye lighted
on a large flat, on the stern of which was inscribed,
" Pork, corn, butter, beef," &e. Several spry citi-
zens were also on the platform. After salutations
and compliments, policeman speaks,—" When did
she come in ?" (meaning flat). First Citizen—" In
the night, I guess." Second Citizen—" There's a lot
of whisky aboord, too." Policeman (with pleased
surprise)—" You never mean it.?" First Citizen—

" Yes, Sir; 120 gallons." Policeman (inspired by a
bright aspiration of patriotism)—" It's a west coun-
try boat; why don't the citizens seize it ? And
whisky rising from 17c. to 35c. a gallon." Citizens
murmur approval, and I feel the whisk of of the
cargo is not safe. " Yes, Sir," says CThree,
" they seize all our property at Cairey (Cairo), and
I'm for making an example of this cargo." Further
reasons for the seizure of the article were adduced,
and it is probable they were as strong as the whisky,
which has no doubt been drunk long ago on the
very purest principles. In course of conversation
with the committee of taste which had assembled
it was revealed to me that there was a strict watch
kept over those boats which are freighted with
whisky forbidden to the slaves, and with princi-
ples, when they come from the west country, equally
objectionable. " Did you hear, Sir, of the chap over
at Duncan Reamer's as was caught the other day?"
"No, Sir, what was it ?" " Well, Sir, he was a man
that came here and went over among the niggers
at Reamer's to buy their chickens from them.
He was took up, and they found he'd a lot
of money about him." " Well, of course,
he had money to buy the chickens." " Yes, sir, but
it looked suspicious. He was a West country fellow,
tew, and he might have moant tamperin' with 'em.
Lucky for him he was not taken in the arternoon."
" Why so ?" " Because if the citizens had been
drunk they'd have hung him on the spot." The
Acadia was now alongside, and in the early morn-
ing Donaldsonville receded rapidly into trees and
clouds. To bed, and to make amends for misquito
visits. On awaking, find that lam in the same
place I started from ; at least, the river looks just
the same. It is difficult to believe that we have been
going 11 miles an hour against the turbid river,
which is of the same appearance as it was below—
the same banks, bends, driftwood, and trees.

As we ride through the waggon roads, of which
there are not less than 30 miles in this Confedera-
tion of four plantations, held together by the purse
and the life of our host, the unwavering exactitude
of the rows of cane, which ran without deviation rat
right angles with the river down to the cane-brake,
two miles off, proves that the negro would be a for-
midable rival in a ploughing match. The cane has
been "laid by"—that is, it requires no more labour
—and will soon " lap," or close up, though the rows
are seven feet apart. It feathers like a palm top
a stalk which was cut measured six feet, although
from the ridges it was but waist high. On dissect-
ing it near the root we find five nascent joints not
a quarter of an inch apart. In a few weeks more
these will shoot up like a spyglass pulled out to its
focus.

Corn, chickens, and eggs are from time imme-
morial the perquisities of the negro, who has the
monopoly of the two last-named articles in all well-
ordered Louisiana plantations. Indeed, the white
man cannot compete with them in raising poultry,
and our host was evidently delighted when one of
his negroes, who had brought a dozen Muscovy
ducks to the manaion, refused to sell them to him
except for cash. " But, Louis, won't you trust me ?
Am I not good for three dols, ?" " Good enough,
massa ; but dis nigger want de money to buy flour
and coffee for him young family. Folks at Donald-
sonville will trust massa—won't trust nigger."
The money was paid, and, as the negro left us, his
master observed, with a sly, humorous twinkle,
" That fellow sold 40 dols. worth of corn last year,
and all of them feed their chickens with my corn,
and sell their own."
There are three overseers at Houmas, one of whom
superintends the whole plantation, and likewise looks
after another estate of B,COO acres, some 12 miles
down the river, which our host added to his posses-
sion two years since, at a cost of £150,000. In any
part of the world, and in any calling, Mr. 5
(I do not kno w if he would like to see his name in
print) would be considered an able man. Mr. S.
attends to most of the practice requiring immediate
attention. We visited one of these hospitals, and
found half-a-dozen patients ill of fever, rheumatism,
and indigestion, and apparently well cared for by
a couple of stout nurses. The truckle bedsteads
were garnished with mosquito bars, and I was told
that the hospital is a favourite resort, which its in-
mates leave with reluctance. The pharmaceutical
department was largely supplied with a variety of
medicines, quinine and preparations of sulphites of
iron. " Poor drugs," said Mr. s—, "are a poor

economy."
What is termed hacienda in Cuba, rancho in
Mexico, and " plantation " elsewhere, is styled
" habitation " by the Creoles of Louisiana, whose
ancestors began more than a century ago to reclaim
its jungles.
At last "venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempts."
I had seen as much as might be of the best phase of
the great institution—less than I could desire of a
most exemplary, kind-hearted, clear-headed, honest
man. In the calm of a glorious summer evening,
arrayed in all the splendour of scenery that belongs
to dramas in Cloudland, where mountains of snow,
peopled by " gorgons and hydras and chimaeras
dire," rise from seas of fire that bear black barques
freighted with thunder before the breeze of battle,
we crossed the Father of Waters, waving an adieu
to the good friend who stood on the shore, and
turning ever back to the home we had left behind
us. It was dark when the boat reached Donaldson-
ville on the opposite "coast." I should not be sur-
prised to hear that the founder of this remarkable
Theretransferred i
is
a simplicity o Baton
aßouge,nd economy was
in Norththe plan
ar
i-
city, which once contained the archives of the State
place not unfavourable
onwtm.heeon the west of Bayou La
ntoito:
motives which induced the
eto that view, but the
Donaldson to found his
Fourche from Mis-
issippi must be a secret to all time. Much must the
worthy Scot have been perplexed by his neighbours,
a long-reaching colony of Spanish Creoles, who toil
not spin nothing but fishing-nets, and who live
better
dressed, minus the barbaric pearl and gold of the
andthan Solomon, and are probably as well
Hebrew potentate. Take the odd little, retiring,
modest houses which grow in the hollows of Scar-
borough, add to them the least imposing mansions
in the natural town of Folkestone, cast them broad-
sown over the surface of the Essex marshes, plant a
few trees in front of them, then open a few " Cafe
billards" of the camp sort along the main street,
and you have done a very good Donaldsonville. A
policeman welcomes us on landing and does the
honours of the market, which has a beggarly ac-
count of empty benches, a Texan bull done into beef
ani a coffee-shop. The policeman is a tall, lean,
west
country
tell.
el l
Ilema wa
n ; his
one of
is simple, and he
has it to
nan
Rice,
s com-
nany—a travelling Astley.
He came to Donaldson-
ville, saw, and was conquered by one of the Spanida
beauties, married her, became tavern keeper,
failed, learned French, and was now constable of the
parish. There was, however, a weight on his
mind. He had studied the matter profoundly, but
he was not near the bottom. How did the friends,
relatives, and tribe of his wife live ? No one could
say. They reared chickens, and they caught fish ;
when there was a pressure on the planters, they
turned out to work for Gs. 6d. a-day, but those
were rare occasions. The policeman had become
quite gray with excogitating the matter, and he
had "nary notion of how they did it." Donaldson-
ville has done one fine thing. It has furnished two
companies of soldiers—all Irishmen—to the wars,
and a third is in the course of formation. Not
much hedging, ditching, or hard work these times
for Paddy ! The blacksmith, a huge tower of
muscle, claims exemption on the ground that " the
divil a bit of him comes from Oireland ; he nivir
bird av it, barrin' from the buks he rid," and is
doing his best to remain behind, but popular
opinion is against him. As the steamer would not
be up till towards dawn, or later, it was a relief to
saunter through Donaldsonville to see society,
which consisted of several gentlemen and various
Jews playing games unknown to Hoyle, in oaken
bar rooms flanked by billiard tables. My good

Beyond the levees there were occasionally large
clearings and plantations of corn and cane, of which
the former predominated. The houses of the planters
were not so large or so good as those on the lower
banks. Large timber rafts, navigated by a couple
of men, who stood in the shade of a few upright
boards, were encountered at long intervals. The
river was otherwise dead. White egrets and blue
herons rose from the marshes where the banks had
been bored through by crayfish, or crevasses had
been formed by the waters. The fields were not
much more lively, but at every landing the whites
who came down were in some sort of uniform, and
a few negroes were in attendance to take in or de-
liver goods. There were two blacks on board in
irons—captured runaways—and very miserable
they looked at the thought of being restored to the
bosom of the patriarchal family from which they
had, no doubt, so prodigally eloped. I fear the
fatted calf-skin would not be applied to their backs.
The river is about half a mile wide here and is up-
wards of 100 ft. deep. The planters' houses in groves
of pecan and mangolias, with verandah and'delve-
dere, became more frequent as the steamer ap-
proached Baton Rouge, already visible in the
distance over a high bank or bluff on the right-hand
side.
Before noon the:steamer hauled alongside a sta-
tionary hulk, which once "walked the waters"
by the aid of machinery, but which was now used
as a floating hotel, depot, and storehouse-315ft.
long, and fully 30ft. on the upper deck above the
level of the river. Here were my quarters till the
boat for Natchez should arrive. The proprietor
was somewhat excited on my arrival because one of
his servants was away. " Where have you been,
you —?" " Away to by de newspaper, Massa."
" For who, you -- ?" "Me buy 'em for no one,
Massa ;me sell 'urn agin, Massa. " See, now, you
--, if ever you goes aboard to meddle with news-
papers I'm but I'll kill you, mind that !" Baton
Rouge is the capital of the State of Louisiana, and
the State House is a quaint and very new example
of bad taste. The Deaf and Dumb Asylum near it
is in a much better style. It was my intention to
visit the State Prison and Penitentiary, but the day
was too hot and the distance too great, and so I dined
at the oddest little Creole restaurant, with the fun-
niest old hostess and the strangest company in the
world. On returning to the boat hotel Mr. Conrad,
one of the citizens of the place, and Mr. W, Avery,
a judge of the Court, were good enough to call to
invite' me to visit them, but I was obliged to decline.
The old gentlemen were both members of the Home
Guard and drilled assiduously every evening. Of
the 1,300 voters at Baton Rouge more than 750 are
already off to th,.; wars, and another company is being
formed to follow them. Mr. Conrad has three sons
in the field already. The waiter who served out
drinks in the bar wore a uniform, and his musket
lay in the corner among the brandy bottles. At
night espatriotic meeting 6f citizen soldiery took
place in the bow, in which song and whisky had
much to do, so that deep sleep was difficult ; but
at 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning the Mary T.
came alongside, and soon afterwards bore me on to
Natchez through scenery which became wilder and
less cultivated as she got upwards. Of the 1,500
steamers on the river not a tithe are now in employ-
ment, and the owners are in a bad way. It was
late at night when the steamer arrived at Natchez,
and next morning early I took shelter in another
engineless steamer which was thought to be au
hotel by its owners. Old negress on board, how-
ever, said, " There was nothing for breakfast ; go to
Curry's on shore." Walk up hill to Curry's--a
barroom, a waiter, and flies. " Can I have any
breakfast ?" " No, Sir-ree ; it's over half an hour
ago." " Nothing to eat all ?" "No, sir." " Can I
can get something anywhere else ?" " I guess not."
It had been my belief that a man with money in his
pocket could not starve in any country soi-disant
civilized. Exceptions prove rules, but they are
disagreeable things. I chewed the cud of fancy
faute de mieux, and became the centre of attraction
to citizens, from whose conversation I learned that
this was " Jeff. Davis's fast-day." Observed one,
"It quite puts me in mind of Sunday ; all tho stores
closed." Said another, " We'll soon have Sunday
every day, then, for I 'spect it won't be worth while
for most shops to keep open any longer." Natchez,
a place of much trade and cotton export in the sea-
son, is now as dull—let us say as Harwich without
a regatta. But it is ultra. Secessionist, nil obstante.
My hunger was assuaged by a friend who drove me
up to his comfortable mansion through a country
not unlike the wooded parts of Sussex, abounding
in fine trees, and in the only lawns and park-like
fields I have yet seen in America. In the evening
after dinner my host drove me over to visit a small
encampment under a wealthy planter, who has