Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1846-09-23

"REMINISCENCES OF THE WEST - Con-
TRAsT.-Under this head MAUNsEL WHITE
has contributed paper to the September
number of DeBow's New Orleans Com.
mercial Review, "a most valuable and use-
full work,) from which we make the follow
ing extract
The writer, then youth in the employ
Of Wilson IL Eastin, assisted in loading
thirteen fiatboats with tobacco, pork, flour,
and peltries, and in company with one of
the owners, Mr.. Jacob Eastin, his wife and
child, set out about the first Of June that
year, 1901, for New Orleans. A journal
of all the incidents Of the voyage, and
they were not few, was kept by him.
The company did not land in New Or
| leans till about the first of August, having
been out sixty days. The loss of this
journal is much regretted, because it was
regularly kept from that time until 1922,
and contained many incidents which would
! not be without interest now. Few, with
out having been eye witnesses, can really
j form any notion of the extraordinary chan
ges which have taken place since the Pc
Rod of which we speak, and of the un-
matched progress of this whole region OF
the Ohio and Mississippi.
The population Of New Orleans was
rated at that time about six thousand, In
Guiding blacks and colored. There was
not TO be seen on the banks Of the Ohio,
from the foot of the rapids to the mouth,
: hut a small settlement called Red Banks,
I another called Yellow Banks, Fort Massac,
and cabin below the rock and cave
From the mouth of the Mississippi to Bay
: on Sara, New Madrid and Pointe Chicot,
{ on the right; Brownsburg, Natchez and
! Fort Adams, on the left, were all OF human
v babitation that we're seen, until you arrlv-
L. ed at Pointe Coupee and the coast. All
Q the rest was dreary waste, over which
= the bear and the crocodile held their sway,
u unless interrupted by the occasional So
/ iourn of an Indian tribe. View it now IN
II 1916, and record the wondrous change
! which is as enchantment itself.
Placing ourself in imagination upon the
: highest peak of the Rocky Mountains,
Il and sweeping over the immense territory
d which stretches down to the Gulf of Mex
= leo. we shall naturally ask what can the
! future hold in prospect for this vast, genial
S. and fruitful valley, which in forty years
Or has astounded us by its advance, studdlng
vi itself every where with cities, towns, and
r. villages, plantations and farms. Fen thou
IT. sand vessels are plying, even now, the
M mighty waters of this region, almost to
n their sources. New Orleans town with
ne 5000 inhabitants no longer, but great en-
ia porium, and the third commercial mart IN
" the world!
IN, Tell us not that any thing short.oi tht
no inscrutable DEGREES of God can arrest th'
ST. propress of such country and such ci
ty. We laugh at those who would forever
cd, frighten us with the bugbear OF torelgl
OF war. There are no possible dangers tina
m we have not the nerve and the physlca
power to meet, and resist. voice iron
the seaboard will penetrate the mountains
nts and millions of free and stout hearts b
VIII gathered together in invinci6le front DC
I'M fore the enemy can have gained trophy
S"- In a righteous conflict what is there to ,
IN feared? In few short months we shoul
float upon our Western waters 9n arm.
'ive ment of iron steamers that would swee
hen the Gulf, and liberate our commerce IN !
IN passage to the great seas LIBERTY
low WITH Us! Let it remain. A iree' 'iri'
B. ous, and enlightened people can never
tiers crushed by any possible combinations
zen ,beir enemies. May God forbid that v
etic should live so long as to have fears Tor o.
ulLl- country!
nv