New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-02
LETTERs FROM THE RIO GRANDE.



From our Special Correspondent
BAGDAD, MEXICO, July II, 1856.
The weather ia now very beautiful and pleasant,
with summer clouds aeeting by and short dashes
of rain.
The gale Of last week, according to old resi-
dents was the heaviest and longest in their recol-
lection It began on Tuesday night and ended on
Saturday night Q4th,) and ragged with scarcely
any ihtermission the whole time.
There were four vessels at anchor outside the
bar, or g in the roads," as they say here; bark,
brig, and two schooners. On Thursday all ex-
cept the bark dragged their anchors and threat
ened to go to destruction the bar. The people
of Bagdad and Clarksville got into every availa-
BILE place to see, and watched the vessels in the
intensest suspense the greater part of the day.
On, on, the vessels came, slowly, but with ap-
parent certainty to destruction. The schooner
Luz, from New Orleans, being unloaded, saved
herself by taking up anchor and putting up sail
and making mad rush for the channel. She hit
it and was soon safely mcored at the Bagdad
wharves. The schooner Sea Bird from New
Orleans having lost her jib, and anchors, and her
| boat, luckily went parallel with her part OF the
bar, but threatened to go to ruin on the beach
| north of the Rio Grande She raised sail thavng
no iib) and after long and gallant struggle,
| showing the excellent seamanship of those on
/ board, got her head to and got out TO sea-
| There were brayoes and clapping OF hands on
| shore at this feat of the feet and gallant sea
Bird, which was only three days and half on It's
last trip from New Orleans and had half the cargo
still on board. The brig Il did not get her name, ,
did,not fare so well. She dragged very slowly,
having both anchors out, and during the night she
went ashore some four miles above here. She lies
there now g with her back broke" as the marine
gentlemen say, and will, probably, be total loss
lalA
Of coal The schooner Ada beached and went to
pieces in the same vicinity.
The small craft at the wharves of Bagdad and
Clarksyille (both these towns fronting upon the
river half mile or more from the sea- were
roughly tousled; blown from their moorlngs, cap
sized, etc. The little steamer Daisy rolled over
and deposited her boiler and machinery in the
bottom Of the river, and now lies on
the Texas side in sight of where / am writing,
sereney warming her keel in the afternoon sun.
There is big black thing 5obbi9g Up and down
right in the middle of the Boca," ike Mlssls-
spp sawyer. 1t is the after Keel ana rudder q q
) capsized schooner. Her masts, when she cap
sized, would not let her turn clear over; SO she
stranded in front of the viDe-clad cottage OF Mr.
Blank, in Clarksvile. The crazy waters whirled
and insisted upon borrowing sand from the Amerl'
can side to heighten and extend the beach on the
J. Mexican side. Mr. Blank found that his house anc
I, family were likely to be swallowe up and fancy
ing that the stranded schooner was the cause, cu
Z: away her masts; upon which she turned keel ~
9 and drifted off to her present position But th
It did not mend matters. The river still borrow
sand from the front Of Mr.. Blanks premises, ant
e Mr. Blank has gone to buIk.heading. The Bag
g ladders generally would be glad to see Mr. Blani
and his house Though not his family WASHED
L away together. How Mr. Blank raised himself $
F: much in the esteem Of the pious Bagdadders,
cannot tell. Probably the 9TH OF last Januar
4 had something to do with it.
a. l spoke of the said schooner being in the middl
of the Boca.n Boca means mouth, and by a
p Mexicans is the general name used for Bagdac
lt EIarl- Iie md Mace
Id hitch name to- in this vicinity. Boca del III
Grande-Mouth Of the Great River"
y The topography of this country IS truly lnteTes
le ing; for one has to get on the top of somethin
Of high to take his observations or see the country
all There is a snow white beach of sand, backe
as by range of little and closely-connected sant
er hills, covered with scrubby growth oil grass al
, weeds; these sand-hils seldom rising more tina
IN twelve or fifteen feet above the level Of the SCI
Behind this range of sand-hills there is vast ley
waste of dry sand or mud-not prairie, not
marsh-but something calling to mind the Atrlca
eo Sahara. Here and there, as the fatgqed ey
an wanders, it may rest upon streak or Splotch
10 silver. These are the lagoons; very like lakes uni
you find that with all their great eXpanse, they al
eu not knee.deep in the middle. The eye Wande
on, till the bare gray earth and the blue sky NEE
nix and then the eye finds itself of further use al
closes its winkers for good rest This is a skett
as of the country as it was before the gale.
But during the gale, and now, no SAINT
oF wastes were are to be seen 1t
OF one vast expanse of water; the course
the Rio Grande is hardly to be ma
ms out for all the shanties and ranches its bant
Going up into the lookout of a morning-nea1
every other house here has a lookout and fla
sta1:-you almost have to take your Bearings
ad fore you can tell which is the sea side and viii
. the land side.
'in Bagdad was, as a matter of course, inundat
Mr. during the late gale, so that boats were used
the streets 1t is still inundated by the great
cad COON in its rear discharging its "superfus''
water through the streets to the sea, and will p
nto hably continue 50 for week to come. The wa
BILE rippies along clear as crystal-makes one thir
DR.. won't take another, III bet my bottom dollar
we'd that! It's odd to be surrounded with so much s
off water and yet be short of saltfor that article
scarce in this region now, and commands q N
OF price.
ard The gale didn't blow away the Carks,yille {
age Brownsville stage line but it inundated the ro
SO that the stages stuck in the mud and had
sed quit running. The food also washed two u
OF breaks in the Brazos and Whites Rancho Railre
rue learn that the gale scarcely felt at II
the pico and that it did not extend any great dista
ject out to sea,
The Sea Bird got back this morning all right
1me L.