Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1835-10-26


infected with the fever of emigration, and are look
ing 10 the new countries of the Southwest.
LETTERS FROM ARKANSAS.
SIR You have been pleased to assure me that
Il passing sketch two of Arkansas, its men and
manners, would be admitted into Your Magazine
Ii the hasty and imperfect fragments, which shall
from time tc time send you, written in moments
stolen from severe professional avocations, should
merit place in the New England Magazine, |
shall be eratihcd by atlording your readers some
information concerning country, OF which al
most as little is known as Of the interior of Mexi-
CO. II, as is equally probable, they should be
deemed too undressing to find place there, shall
be sufficiently rewarded if you yourself derive any
pleasure from pcrusing them.
My knowledge OF Arkansas, and of tho people
of the west, has been derived from personal obscr
walton and actual residence among them. know
their pcculiaritics we'll am lik, one of them
an adopted son OF the West and love my broth-
rem and their character To New England,
however, mine ancient home--to Boston, my moth
or city, | look back with love and affection and
could be the means of making more fully Known
to your readers the character and virtues OF the
inhabitants of the West, should hold myselfa for
tunatc man.
1t will be my object, in the few letters which
shall indite AT odd season, and scattered moments,
To give YOU IN the first place general sketch OF
Arkansas. What order may afterwards pursue
is cntirc Y uncertain. think, however, that |
shall not weary OF my task until | have given you Il
description of some of the principal cu,iosle, IN
Guiding courts of Justice and distinguished men in
Arkansas.
The Territory of Arkansas, As every one knows,
is bounded on the east by the Mississippi river,
on the west by the Indian Territory, ON the north
lao, Il NV },,1
River and part of Louisiana Its with the portion
OF the Territory lying the river Arkansas that
am most conyerSant and it is therefore natural
that this river should first engage our attention. it
rises in the Rocky Mountains, about three hundred
miles north of Santa Fe | have crossed it and
been on it in many places, but never within five
hundred miles of its head. In the mountains, how
ever, is, like all other mountain streams, clear
and rapid river, and so continues until It's color Is
changed in lis passage through tho prairie
crossed it in October, 1881, at considerable dis
tancc above the mouth of The Semaron, where it
was a shallow and clear stream, with low prairie
on one side and sand hills the other-about
eighth Of a mile wide Farther down it receives
the rec, and salt of the Scmaron, and below
Fort Gibson the waters OF the the Canadian, which
come from uuder the Rocky Mountains In the
Cherokee territory it receives the waters of the
Grand River, or 4Ncosho, Illinois, and Saksau,
and at Fort Smit, of the Potton Above Fort
Smith the river is generally about quarter of
mile wide; and, in fact, its width is not much IN
creased from that point 10 its mouth. Above that
place the river is shallow aad not often navigable
by steamboats,. Below Fort Smith the river con-
tnles of about the same size and dc 1lll-passing,
in succession, through the counties OF Crawford,
Johnson and Pope, to Pulaski. Within. the boun
darv OF the Territory, that is to say, below Fort
Smith, the Arkansas is muddy, red, and bfack-
sh strran,-thoueh much more 50 at ono time than
another, according TO the stages of water, or the
places where the rises come from. At low water
ii is the worst river the west, except Red River,
for snags and difficult navigation. To person
passing down the river, the country presents gem
orally uniform appearance" owing to the low bot
TOMS which extend in a continuous belt on each
side of the river from Fort Smith to the mouth, cx-
ccpt in places where point or bluff juts out upon
the river, Immediately succeeded by the monoto
nous bottom.
The bottoms, they called, being entirely
allnvial, are generally from one to three miles in
width each side OF the iiver-of fine black
and rich soil, producing excellent corn, and the
best cotton in North America. The stranger who
enters one of these bottom, for the first time, in
spring or summer, is astonshed and delighted
Imagine New Eng landcr familiar with the clear
silver andcd, pebby brooks and rivers of that
COlntrN--lnc lcVtl, NcTudnl. ana llcaNN SWafucu
meadows through which they run, and the forests
of pine, oak, maple, and bircll-mauinc him en-
tering solid mass Of grccnncss, a heavy and I'M
stirred body Of vcrdurc. He enters BY some mar
row path into the depth of the bottom. The first
idea that strikes him is. that he would have no con-
ccption of such depth and soliditv of green
ness There i, not hand brcadIh of barrcnncss
about him. The immense trees, standing close
together, arc completely covered and laden with
leaves to their very tops-and their trunks, twned
round and garanded with vines, appear like pillars
of embodied grccnncss The underground Of small
trees and bushes is matted with vines and green
briars and the ground is covered with grass and
weeds, or perhaps with the never failing green
ness of the cane. Such is the character of great
proportion ofthc Arkansas bottom. The cotton
wood a tree similar to the poplar but of gigantic
size and immense height, is the most common tree
! in these bottoms. There is, besides, an abundance
of ash, black, Spanish, and yellow oak-al grow
inp luxuriany-thc branching mulberry, the tall
and graceful persimmon, and the humble but beau
tful papaw, with mItitudcs of others unknnwn in
your country. The dogwood. with its fine close
grain. and its multitude of white blossoms the
Ihackbcrrv similar to the beech, the honey and
black locust, and that splendid evergreen, the
hoHy, appearing like huge lockwood tree bios
SONS of many kinds shine among the grccnnesS
like ocms while the rivor-bank, the tall syca-
more stands hoarv with age and its silver trunk out
lasting many mems lives. In some places are I'M
nervous forests of cane twenty feet high, as thick
as they can be stuck. In others, are low swampy
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